Soul Bonds Book 1 Circles of Light series (3 page)

‘Where did you get these things?’

‘I went to some caves above ground. These hides were hanging on a vine nearby, so I brought them for you.’

‘Did anyone see you?’

‘Of course not. We can move very quietly if we so wish.’ Krea sounded a little put out at being questioned rather than thanked.

‘I do thank you Krea,’ Tika said quickly. ‘I’m sure I can make something, a tunic or a cape with these two blankets, and the trousers should be fine if I roll up the legs and tie something round my middle.’ She picked up the frilly underbeneaths. ‘I’m not sure what I can do with these.’ Krea rumbled. ‘But I’ll think of something Krea. Thank you so much.’

Mollified, Krea stretched again.

Farn had woken and was investigating the pile of material. ‘Are we leaving soon?’ he asked. ‘Or would you like me to get you some food first?’ Tika felt Krea clamp down on laughter as she too struggled to keep serious.

‘Perhaps a hopper each before we go. Never eat too much immediately before a long flight Farn.’

Farn headed for the now more visible tapisi.

‘How many did he catch last evening?’ Krea enquired.

‘Five, and, er, he scorched one for me.’

Krea chuckled. ‘And he didn’t choke himself?’

‘No he didn’t.’

‘It isn’t really difficult to make fire,’ Krea confided, ‘but it can cause distressing effects the first few times!’

Farn was not very long at all before returning with three hoppers. When they’d eaten, Tika spread out one blanket, piled the other things into the middle and then knotted the corners. Krea and Farn watched with interest as she slung the sack over her shoulder, leaving her hands free to hold on to Krea during their flight.

The days passed and still they flew deeper into this seemingly endless mountain range. Krea decreed when and where they would rest. Tika had lost count of days but she noticed the moon was nearly full again when Krea announced that Farn was to carry her.

The first take off was nerve-wracking to Tika as Farn wobbled precariously until he adjusted his flight to accommodate her extra weight. He and Krea took turns carrying her for a few days until Krea judged him able to carry the two legs all the time.

When they landed Krea took Farn on hunting forays while Tika tried to fashion a cloak for herself with one of the blankets. She used a huge thorn from a cloud bush to fasten the cloak at her throat. The tapisi appeared more like real trees the further they travelled and cloud bushes grew around the bottom of the trunks. After they’d eaten in the evenings, Krea told the two many things, of Dragon ways, of old times, of her youth, and of her clan.

‘Is a clan sister a real sister?’ Tika asked one evening.

‘It is one hatched of the same line – Kija is my clan sister but she was hatched long before I was. As a clan sister she locked eyes with me on the day of my hatching. I was one of ten eggs, and my mother invited four of her clan to bond each with one or two of her eggs. She could not have raised all ten alone.’

Of such things Krea spoke, many of which Farn seemed to have rudimentary knowledge of, in the memories he had received at his hatching. Krea spoke of patterns, of bloodlines among the Clans and of distant Treasuries who were connected together in the vast web that was the Dragon world.

As they prepared once more for another day’s travel, Krea remarked that they were close to the Gathering Place. ‘Three more days and we will be within the Treasury.’

‘Where is it Krea?’ asked Farn. ‘Can we see the Place yet?’

‘When we are in the sky, I will show you where.’

Once aloft, Krea indicated directly ahead to the just risen sun. ‘You see the line of tallest peaks there? The one that seems to have lost its topmost part? That is our destination children – the Gathering Place of the Broken Mountain Treasury.’

It happened with no warning at all. One moment they were flying at a steady wingbeat and the next, flames surrounded them.

Tika heard Krea scream to Farn to ‘Go down!’ He obeyed her instantly, sliding through the suddenly smoky air until he touched the ground. He stood full upright, his wings extended, the talon at each wingtip holding him utterly steady. Tika remained clinging on his back and they both stared upwards in horror.

Two rust scaled Dragons were attacking Krea. They were fractionally smaller than the honey coloured Dragon but still they were two against one.

Farn and Tika both received a piercingly clear command from a twisting and turning Krea: ‘Hide yourselves! Find a rocky place, a cave, not among the tapisi! Hide yourselves my fosterlings! Keep safe and go to the Gathering! Hide!’

Farn lifted from the grass and flew fast and low into the tapisi then he doubled back and hovered at the edge of the woodland. His prismed eyes blazed as he sought a cave or a niche in the rock face a distance beyond. Tika’s gaze was still on the Dragons above them. Flame bursts roiled as the two rust Dragons dived again and again at Krea.

Farn at last saw what he needed, a narrow shadowed crack in the rocks opposite. ‘Hold tight,’ he ordered Tika, and shot forward at a tremendous speed. He twisted suddenly so he was flying almost sideways on to the ground, then they were in a slit of a cave and tumbled together on the floor. Untangling themselves, they looked out at the continuing horror.

Krea screamed in their minds: ‘Guard yourselves! Close your thoughts! Pray for my safety beyond!’

The smoke cleared briefly letting Farn and Tika see Krea, and they saw the honey coloured Dragon falling. Falling out of the sky, great wounds gaping along her belly and flank. The rust scaled pair spiralled down after Krea, blasting fire into her body as she crashed to the ground.

Tika felt Farn’s grief boiling towards rage and she forced him back to the furthest recess of their hiding place. She grasped his head, forced his eyes to lock with hers. ‘Quiet! Don’t make Krea’s death pointless! She has died to save us! Hush, blank your mind and stay still!’ He moaned once then clung to Tika, both of their minds blanketed to the outside world – one of the first things Krea had taught them.

Vocal screaming cries came to them, then an eerie silence. Tika knew somehow the two attackers were still out there, searching for Farn and herself. She held tight to Farn, willing him to stillness and silence. Then a crackling roar accompanied by a dense resinous-smelling smoke told Tika that the tapisi had been fired in the hope of flushing out the two of them.

She waited. And waited. Farn seemed to be asleep as she cautiously sent her mind out, searching for any life pattern nearby. Nothing. She realised she was stiff with cramp from holding Farn for so long and tried to ease the protesting muscles.

Farn stirred and she murmured him back to unconsciousness. Let him sleep, the smoke was clearing enough to show a darkening sky. Dawn would come soon enough for whatever she and Farn would have to face.

Chapter Three

At the Gathering Place of the Broken Mountain Treasury, many Dragons had already arrived and settled into the numerous caves encircling the Place. In one such cave, no more favoured than any other, rested Fenj. He was the most aged of this Treasury, deeply respected – and deeply tired.

For more Cold Seasons than he liked to recall, he had begged the Golden Lady Emla to release him from this weary body. She had sympathised with his longing to be reunited with his beloved mate, Skay, but refused to permit him to die. She told him he must wait an event. An event the importance of which he alone would instantly recognise. There were ominous movements in the world, even among the Treasuries, Emla told Fenj. He found the idea of trouble in the Treasuries very difficult to believe in, but quite likely among many of the other tribes of the world.

A shadow darkened the clear sky before him and Kadi landed. She was a dark blue Dragon, nearly as aged as Fenj and gifted with the power of long speaking.

‘Fenj, I heard Krea call. She seemed maybe two or three days easy flight west of here. It was a great cry I heard – not really a call. I have been unable to long speak her since that call.’ Kadi allowed Fenj free access to her memory and feeling of what had occurred.

‘Whom should we send to seek her?’ he asked thoughtfully.

‘I myself will go,’ Kadi replied. ‘Krea is of my clan. Her mother is my daughter.’

Fenj pondered a moment longer, the gleaming black body appearing relaxed and at ease while his mind raced through identities, possibilities, likely results.

‘It would be proper for you to seek out Krea. Long speak me at regular intervals so that I may know what you discover.’ He inclined his long beautiful face towards Kadi, who bent forward until their brows touched lightly. ‘Go safely old friend.’ And then Kadi was lifting, rising above the Gathering Place and speeding to the west.

Tika had eased free of Farn who still slept, and crept to the slender crack in the rock face. It was hard to believe that yesterday, somehow, Farn had flown through such a narrow place. She peered cautiously out, looking first back the way they’d travelled, then towards their destination.

It was a still smouldering desolation below. The tapisi were burnt to mere stumps and the grass burnt from the thin soil down to the edge of the narrow trickle of a stream. As she looked to her left, the sun rose above the cluster of peaks that Krea had pointed out as being their goal. She also saw the large Dragon body, black and charred, lying where she had fallen.

Then Tika felt tears burning down her face and she clamped her hands over her mouth to keep the wailing grief trapped inside lest she rouse Farn. But he was suddenly beside her, looking where she looked, great tears rolling down his narrow face.

‘What do we do Tika?’ Farn sounded so forlorn Tika realised with a jolt he was but two moons hatched. He had grown so fast and, with the help of the memories, he seemed to know so many things, it was easy to forget just what a baby he really was still. He sniffed. ‘I think I will have to go quite far to find food and I think we should stay together.’

Tika tried to stem her tears and urge her brain to think clearly. ‘There is water here Farn. Must you have food now, or can you manage without for a while? Is there anything in your memories about what we should do with Krea’s – body?’

‘It is a foggy memory – it is not something a young Dragon should need to know. It will become clearer as I grow older. There IS something we should do, but I can’t tell what.’ His mind heaved with shock and distress again and Tika hummed and murmured to him soothingly. After a while, he added, ‘I feel hungry but I do not have to have food for two or three days I think. As long as I drink water, I will manage well enough. What about you?’

‘I was often not fed in the town. I can go without food for quite a long time I believe, but, like you, I must have water.’

‘Are they gone?’ Farn’s voice trembled. ‘Can we go down to the water do you think?’

‘Open your mind Farn, listen as far as you can. If we do it together it makes us stronger.’

Farn let out a gusty breath. ‘I hear nothing except a far distant mutter. Nothing nearby, not even a single hopper.’

‘I heard nothing either. Come on, I’m sure it is safe to go down. They believe we perished in the tapisi fire.’

After they’d drunk at the stream and Tika had splashed water over her tear-hot face, they turned reluctantly upstream. Towards Krea’s body.

‘I think we have to stay near her, I can’t tell for how long. But we have to pray for her safety beyond.’

‘That is what Krea said – the last thing. Do you know what it means Farn?’

‘No Tika, but I do know it is important.’ And Farn wept again.

They approached Krea’s ruined body and Tika was relieved to see that the Dragon’s face was hidden from sight, pressed into the ground with a shattered wing concealing it.

Farn slumped to the ground in misery while Tika began to clear a narrow space all around the body. She had no idea why she felt it was necessary to move the charred tapis branches and singed turf away from Krea, she just did. Finally bare rock encircled Krea and Tika sat leaning against Farn. ‘Do we just hope Krea is safe or is there a Dragon god we should pray to Farn?’

He stirred. ‘There is only the Golden Lady Emla, and she would surely help Krea on her journey Beyond.’

Somehow, that day drew to its close. Farn again flew Tika to the narrow cave above and they settled quietly at the opening. Tika suddenly stiffened. ‘Farn! What is that? From the peaks of the Broken Mountain? Is it one of them returning for us? Oh Farn!’

His eyes flared and whirred into deepening splinters of blue. ‘It is a Dragon, but not one of yesterday’s attackers. We should stay hidden Tika, and close our minds in case this one also means us harm.’ They crouched together at the rear of their hiding place and waited.

A great shriek made them clutch desperately at each other. Then searing through their minds, came an eerily beautiful song, repeating a falling cadence which tore at their very hearts.

Holding Tika between his body and his wing, Farn moved as though summoned to the cave opening. From deep inside him the same chanting song came surging forth, and a fraction behind, Tika’s voice soared to join the other two. On and on went the music until at last, as the full moon shone brilliantly down on Krea’s body, the song whispered to silence.

Tika and Farn stood looking down at a great midnight blue Dragon. She stood, her wings spread anchoring herself fully erect beside Krea’s dead bulk.

Kadi, for it was she, raised her eyes to the two figures high on the rockface.

‘Come down children. Tell me what foulness befell you at this place.’

Kadi took most of the information from Tika, Farn was far too deeply shocked and grieved by the murder of Krea by Dragon Kin. He soon sank into a deep sleep and Tika looked at him in concern.

‘Do not worry Tika. I have caused him to sleep thus. Later I will help heal this wound in him. But continue this telling.’

Tika told all, from her accidental arrival in Kija’s nesting cave to the moment she and Farn had tried to hide from this blue Dragon, Kadi.

‘Can you open your mind to mine child? It will help me to fully see what you have spoken of.’

‘Krea was teaching us – she said I was better at mind speaking clearly than Farn. But of course, I cannot fly or make fire,’ she added with a small sad smile as she stroked Farn’s wing. She felt Kadi in her mind as the softest touch and relaxed, letting the Dragon find what she would.

‘So. It would seem Kija fed memories through you to Farn when you locked with him at his hatching. Some of those memories are also now with you, but this very action has woken something within your mind. You have abilities I have never encountered in Dragon patterns. We will have much to learn from each other in the days to come.’

‘Can you tell me what we should have done for Krea? Both of us felt there was something but we didn’t know what it was.’

Kadi’s eyes had a tiny golden flame in them as she gazed at Krea’s body. ‘You cleared the circle around her, which was correct. You sat with her, which was correct. Neither of you knew enough to sing her Life Song until I came to begin it for you.’

Tika felt an enormous sorrow filling this Dragon who seemed as comfortable to be with as Krea had become. The gleaming faceted eyes turned to Tika. ‘Krea’s mother was my first born. . .’

Without thought, Tika went swiftly to Kadi, wrapping her arms as far round the Dragon as she could reach. ‘And is she “safely beyond” now? She asked us to pray her there, but we did not understand what she meant.’

‘Yes small two-legs. She is safe but close by. One more day we must sit with her, then we go to the Gathering. Go now. Sleep beside Farn. I must farspeak Fenj of the Treasury to tell him of these dreadful events. Then I shall seek food. I will listen back to you – if you have any need of me, call to me. I will come.’

Tika curled close to Farn and she too fell asleep, but not in as deep a sleep as the young Dragon. She was aware of the soft sighings of the wind, the sifting of the tapisi ashes blowing together and of Farn’s faint snores and whimpers. She knew when Kadi returned and it was only then that she too sank into the depths of a healing slumber.

As the next night fell, Kadi told Tika and a still very shaken Farn, that they would begin the last stage of the journey to the Gathering Place. ‘Flying at night is little different from day, particularly when the moon is full and the sky clear as now,’ she told them. ‘We will also be travelling fast so I will carry you Tika.’

Farn objected. He had clung to Tika since Krea’s death and he wanted to carry her to ensure her nearness. Kadi understood what was uppermost in his fears.

‘No other attack will come Farn. Fenj knows what happened here and he has already begun his flight to meet us. No Dragon would dare attack Fenj and we should be with him before this night is done. Keep close to my wing and you will have Tika within reach of you.’

They had fed well earlier, on meat Kadi brought. Farn had not even suggested he help to find food, staying near Tika and Krea’s body. Tika hugged Farn and then climbed onto Kadi’s back. The Dragons rose and circled the place where Krea had fallen. Kadi slowed and bade Tika and Farn to look down.

From the blackened corpse a pale golden mist drifted. Gradually, the outline of a great Dragon took form. The Dragon rose clear of the body and then lifted higher. The face turned towards the watchers.

‘Krea!’ Tika and Farn’s minds cried out in unison. The spectral Dragon drifted upwards until it seemed to disappear in the brilliance of the moonlight.

‘Now,’ said Kadi. ‘We fly hard.’

Farn was obviously tiring badly after many hours of fast non-stop flight. Tika was concerned enough to question Kadi about the possibility of their stopping to rest. Kadi replied that they had nearly reached the prearranged place where Fenj would await them. Farn could rest then until the following evening.

Very soon thereafter, Kadi began to slow the pace. She began to glide lower, scanning the tapisi-fringed lake below. A black form became clearer as their height decreased, resolving itself into a massive Dragon. ‘Be calm, it is Fenj.’

Tika was aware that Farn was just too exhausted to think of anything except forcing his wings to continue beating. She would have to deal with this meeting alone.

Farn crumpled as soon as his feet touched ground and Tika scrambled from Kadi’s back to rush to his aid. She urged him the few paces to the water’s edge, encouraged him to drink deep, and then settled him on the springy turf. While she was caring for Farn, Kadi had revealed all the recent events to Fenj.

‘Tika,’ Kadi called quietly, ‘there is food if Farn is able to eat?’

‘He’s asleep already,’ Tika replied. ‘Will he be safe here?’ She felt, but didn’t hear, a quick communication pass between Kadi and Fenj.

The huge black Dragon answered her: ‘He is safe small one. Join us here so he will not be disturbed. There is fruit here and scorched meat also.’

Tika walked slowly to where the two enormous creatures reclined. Fenj really was the biggest living being Tika had ever imagined, let alone seen. Kadi had seemed big, but she was in truth much slighter than this Fenj. Tika felt herself pulled towards him nonetheless, and found she was sitting with her back against Kadi’s side, facing Fenj. And then the questioning began. Kadi said little, leaving Tika to answer Fenj.

He was obviously disturbed by Krea’s death and he asked permission to view Tika’s memory of the attack. She relaxed against Kadi and opened her mind to Fenj.

A silence grew until Tika said, ‘I recognised those two Dragons, and if I did, I’m sure you know they seemed to be followers of Nula. She tried to attack Farn and me the first time we came out of the nesting cave. She told Kija to kill us both just after Farn hatched. Why does she want us dead? How could she let Krea be killed just for being with us?’

‘These things must be answered at the Gathering small one. I have told Kija of an attack – I told her you and her son had survived, not revealing to her that Krea gave her life for you. Kija told me Nula and her followers seem in high mood – again, I did not reveal why I asked after Nula. So you see child, the four of us here know of the attack which destroyed Krea, but - only we four and Kija, know that you still live.’