The Last Dragon Chronicles: Fire World: Fire World (46 page)

had asked Lefarr to stay. He described the missing  detail   from  the
 
Tapestry of Isenfier
. Mathew, he said, was the man seen standing in the corner – with Penny.

Harlan turned away, angry that this had

been kept from him. “Penny?” he hissed. “She’s part of the battle?”

“Yes,” David said.

Harlan closed ranks again. “Have you found the tapestry?”

“No, not yet.”

“Have you completed the drawing?”

“No, not quite.”

“When it’s done, promise me you’ll show me it, David.”

“Yes,” David said. “Yes, I promise.”

And Harlan gritted his teeth and walked

away.

And so Mathew, along with the Merrimanfamily, and Bernard Brotherton, and thebeautiful Rosa, stayed with the ark as itjourneyed round Co:pern:ica, shedding itsanimals. Mathew, to his credit (and

Rosa’s   further   admiration),   did  notquestion David’s decision but simplyaccepted that his future, for now, was tiedup with this journey. He helped out wherehe could – even cooked sometimes – and

played games with Penny (who clearly adored him) and chatted with Eliza while she continued to explore her creative gifts, and aided Bernard in his quest to harvest the sticky-sweet foodstuff his bees were producing,   and   spoke   of  universal mysteries as he walked the decks with Harlan, and even monitored the stationary Aunt Gwyneth now and then.

And   sometimes,   when   a   chance presented itself, he would find himself in a room of books, working on the scheme that David had suggested. All this time, under Rosa’s instruction, the firebirds had

been faithfully distributing the books and had now reached the stage of bringing some back when they returned from a drop. Sometimes notes would accompany them.

Thank you, this story has enriched mylife
 
.

Do you have anything on weather?

Is it possible to come aboard andbrowse
?

One afternoon, Rosa was cataloguing anumber of returns when Mathew suddenlyburst out laughing.

“What?” she said. He was across the

room, reading a note.

“You’ve received a proposal. Someone

wants to marry you.”

“What? Don’t be silly.”

“Honestly, it’s real.” He came a little

closer and showed it to her. In a striking hand it said, ‘
 
To the pretty book girl. Will you marry me?
 
’ “You’ve been spotted in someone’s eyeglass,” he said.

She cocked her head and thrust the note

into his chest. “Very funny.”

“What?” he laughed. “You don’t think
 
I
 
wrote it?”

She looped her hair behind her ears and went back to her work.

For a moment there was silence. Then

the floor echoed several times to his footsteps and he went to stand by a window, looking out. “If I had written it, what would be your answer?”

She put down her book. “Matthew… ”

“I’m serious. When I go back to Alavon, you could come with me.”

“And break Penny’s heart?” she said, to

keep it light.

“I’d look after you,” he said. “I could build us a home.”

She swallowed hard and nodded. She knew this. She did. Sometimes when she

looked out on the land, she thought of it.

“It wouldn’t be the same.”

“As the ark?” he said. “We could have

books there.”

She raised her head and looked at him,her eyes were glazed with tears. “I know,”she said, “but we couldn’t have David.”

He accepted this with the quiet graceshe expected of him. And had they notbeen   separated   by   an   awkwardarrangement of chairs and books and thecorner of a table, she might even have runto him with a hug of consolation. As ithappened, he did become suddenly very

animated. He backed away from the

window and set off for the door.

“What’s the matter?” Rosa said.

“There’s a stranger coming up the bridge.”

He was gone before she could reach the window. And that space was quickly filled by a firebird, anyway. “Runcey!” she gasped. (In times of excitement, this was always his name.)

The emerald green bird sat up brightly.

Rrrh!
 
he said to her. ‘Strømberg is here.’

6

Thorren Strømberg joined the ark whenthe last of the animals (two goofy lookingcreatures with huge tails and enormoussilly feet), had just walked (or ratherbounced) onto the parched yellow soil at alandmass   called   Ozralia.   Mathewchallenged him on the bridge. Throughouttheir journey, no one had attempted toboard   the   ark   or   even   formallycommunicate with it. Yet here came thistall, wild-haired man striding up thewalkway as if he owned the whole thing.

“Mathew, it’s all right, let him on.” David patted the young man’s shoulder ashe stepped past to greet their visitor.

Strømberg   opened   his   arms   and

welcomed David with a hug befitting a bear. He looked up at the enormous vessel and said, “Now I see what your dreams were truly made of.” And together they strolled aboard.

Whether it was due to his counselling skills   or   his   general   charismatic demeanour, Strømberg quickly became a unifying presence. David took him first to see Aunt Gwyneth. The dead Aunt, still attended by the guarding firebirds, was, as expected, unchanged. David told the full story of their conflict, including her attempt to attack the Is and her ambiguous parting message. Strømberg took it in but made no comment. He approved of what had been done, he said, and would make arrangements for the disposal of the body. The casket could now be closed.

After a short tour of the boat, chairswere arranged on a shaded lower deckand everyone gathered to hear what newsthe counsellor had. Harlan was keen to

know what the people of Co:pern:ica were making of the ark.

“They see it as a miracle,” Strømberg said.

“What’s a miracle?” asked Penny.

“An old word for a spectacular phenomenon,” said Bernard. A bee was crawling on his nearly bald head. That was the kind of phenomenon Penny liked.

Mathew put a glass of water on the deck. He had made his peace very quickly with Strømberg and was stoically showing no emotion towards Rosa. “Is there panic in the community? Disorder? Chaos?”

“Far from it,” the counsellor replied.

He sat back in his chair and crossed hislong legs. “The ark is being seen as a giftfrom the Higher, a gesture of extremebenevolence. There’s a genuine sense ofexcitement in the air. People may havelost their homes and their routines – andsome of their ability to imagineer – buttheir minds are opening up to freshpossibilities.”

Eliza   leaned   forward   and   said, “Thorren, did anyone die in the flood?”

“I’ve heard of no reported cases,” hesaid. “That, of course, just adds to thewonder.”

“And the Aunts?” asked Harlan, pacing around with his hands in his pockets.

“Restructuring – for the better, I might add. Just before the librarium transformed, I circulated the rumour of wrongdoing

there and named Gwyneth and her followers as the perpetrators. The story was still growing when the waters came and the ark appeared. The timing could not have been better. People initially saw the boat as an angry response from the Higher. At that point they really did fear for their lives. Since then, as I’ve said, their perception has changed and the quiet revolution we’ve all been hoping for has begun to happen. A young Aunt named Agetha quickly came to prominence and introduced a number of altruistic changes. Thanks to her, confidence in the Aunt network is slowly being restored.”

“David,” said Harlan, coming to sit. “I think it’s time you told Thorren, and the others, about the tapestry.”

“Tapestry?” said Eliza.

David let his eyes come to rest on hismother, who realised immediately whatwas wanted of her. “Penny, let’s go for awalk,” she said.

“Now?” said the girl.

“I could do with some air.”

“We’re
 
in
 
the air!”

“
Now
, Penny.”

The girl stood up, pouting furiously. “You’re going to talk about… secret stuff, aren’t you?” She frowned harshly at her brother who said, “I’ll come and read to you later.”

But even that sweet promise couldn’t lighten Penny’s mood. Slamming a hand against the midriff of a bemused Mathew, she stomped away ahead of her mother.

David imagineered a low table and asked the others to gather round. He

unrolled a piece of paper and pinned it at both ends by imagineered weights. On it was a detailed drawing of the
 
Tapestry of Isenfier
. Rosa folded her arms and felt her mouth grow dry. All of a sudden, Ozralia felt awfully chilly.

“This is a reproduction,” David said, “drawn from memory, of a tapestry Rosa and I found on Floor 108 of the old

librarium. Generations of firebirds have protected the original. Ironically, I can’t show it to you because we can’t find it, but I think I can tell you what it means and who the people are. He pointed them out. Me, Rosa, Mathew—”

“Me?” said Lefarr. He sat up, looking shocked.

David nodded. “Yes, with a teenage Penny. The kneeling child is Angel.”

“What’s   she’s   holding?”   Bernard

asked.

“A small dragon,” David said.

“This is a battle scene,” Strømberg muttered, carefully running his gaze over it.

“It’s called Isenfier,” Harlan said, sounding grim. “And it’s happening – or rather not happening – somewhere in time, on another world.”

“On the opposite side of your rift, I imagine?” Strømberg raised his eyes towards David.

David nodded. “Aunt Gwyneth called it ‘Earth’.”

“Not happening?” Bernard repeated. “You mean there’s an inter:rupt in thecontinuum?”

Harlan said, “David, show Thorren the

claw.”

David pulled it from his pocket. “The dragon in the tapestry is holding this – or something  equally  as  powerful.   It’s writing an ancient symbol, capable of suspending the time point.”

“But how are
 
we
 
involved?” Mathew

said. “I mean, we’re here, not there.”

“Dad?” David said. “Do you want to explain?”

Harlan blew a short breath. “I’ll try. Time, as you know, is a strange concept. Though it may appear to us that it always advances in a linear fashion, we can’t really prove it. That feeling of moving forward may be nothing more than an intuitive notion. Some theorists even suggest that what we perceive as the past, the present and the future are gathered into

one eternal ‘now’.”

“Which   is   constantly-changing,”

Bernard chipped in.

“Quite,” said Harlan. “This means theremay be infinite possibilities to the courseof our lives, which supports the idea thatwe might exist in alternative realities, onthe
 
same
 
time point. Hence the battle ishappening or not happening.” (A confused Rosa shook her head and walked away.) Harlan went on, “It’s important tounderstand that the people represented onthe tapestry are not the David, Rosa and Mathew gathered here, even though they

may  look  like  them,  but  probable variations of them. The truly interesting character, of course, is the dragon.”

Mathew opened his hand. “I was about to ask, why isn’t there a variation of it

here, on the ark?”

Bernard said, “Perhaps the claw is the thing and the dragon is a kind of aid to understanding?”

“No,”  David  muttered.   “Gadzooks exists.”

Strømberg said at this point, “Harlan, given that everything you say is true, why would this dragon suspend this particular incident in time?”

“They’re in danger,” he said. “The people in the tapestry. They’re being threatened by a force you saw glimpses of in David’s dreams. The dragon has used its own kind of claw to stop the battle at a crucial moment and throw out a distress

signal  over  a  time  nexus. Agawin somehow had a vision of it and realised

that one day the right ‘David’ would see

the tapestry and—”

“Ride to the rescue?” Rosa said.

All the men turned their faces to her.

“How does that happen?” she said,looking worried. “How does my David gothere and save them?” She gesturedtowards the tapestry.

“I assume he writes with the claw,”said Harlan.

Or uses the bone
, David was thinking,remembering now what Angel had saidabout finding Gadzooks.

“I have a question.” Mathew satforward with his elbows on his knees,staring at the deck. “If it’s true – aboutalternative realities and stuff – then I have