Drogoya: Book 3 Circles of Light series (21 page)

Finn sipped from her
newly filled bowl. ‘I take your point Lyeto. But I must insist that
you remain within these caves tonight, and you will report to me
again tomorrow. I will then tell you my decision of this matter of
your – excursions.’

Lyeto bowed, realising
he was dismissed from the Offering’s presence. His hand was on the
door latch when she spoke again.

‘Lyeto, you did well
with the stitching of that child’s wounds today.’

He flashed a quick
smile of gratitude over his shoulder then hesitated, the door half
open.

‘Offering, did you hear
singing while we worked on the boy?’

Finn Rah frowned.
‘Singing? Light, no!’

Chapter
Thirteen

Babach was an
immediately popular figure around the Stronghold. He had that
facility to remember which names fitted which faces, so that when
he spoke to anyone, servant or Guard, he always used the correct
name. His serene smile was returned by all he encountered. Mornings
found him pottering with Lorak and Daro in the growing areas. For
the midday meal he often sat among different groups of Guards. The
afternoons were spent with either Kadi or Fenj, often both
together. At the evening meal, he sat with Kera, Mim and Chakar at
the table tacitly reserved for the highest members of the
Stronghold.

Babach had not spoken
privately with Mim since the first day of his recovery, but he had
thought deeply on the things told to him by the young Dragon Lord.
He longed for the great library in the Menedula and the lesser
library, now lost, in the Oblaka. He was sure that he had once read
of a Dragon Lord, but wrack his memory though he might, he could
not recall any of the details.

Chakar knew nothing
when he asked her, but admitted that she had read very little
outside of her chosen fields of study. Imshish shook his head when
he was consulted.

‘Segra Circle hoards
many ancient texts, as does Parima. I had never heard of any Dragon
Lords until Gremara called to Mim.’

Kera remembered Kemti’s
discovery in a book of children’s tales, references to the Delvers
and she proposed he enquire in Gaharn.

‘The last scroll told
of Emla’s recovery of the Asataria,’ she said. ‘Why do you not
travel the circle to Gaharn? The Asataria has an extensive archive
and Emla also has a library of some size.’

‘Perhaps I could write
a request for someone to spare the time to look for me,’ said
Babach. ‘I feel I must stay here for now.’

Kera gave him a
quizzical look but Babach merely smiled and she asked no
questions.

Baryet had decided to
move in with his wife. It would be rather a tight squeeze for two
Plavats in Mim’s small chamber, but Baryet announced that it was
the correct thing to do. One evening he had stilted into the hall
to tell them of his intention.

‘I know you will be
bereft of my presence here, but I feel it is the proper thing to do
in this sensitive situation.’

Mim buried his face
against Ashta’s shoulder, refusing to look round or to reply.
Baryet’s neck feathers crested.

‘I knew you would be
distressed,’ he said with satisfaction.

Mim’s shoulders shook
and Chakar glared at him.

‘We will miss you then
Baryet,’ she said. ‘But, as you say, it is for the best I am
sure.’

‘There are six eggs
now, my Chakar,’ the Plavat said in a whisper heard by
everyone.

‘Perhaps that might be
sufficient?’ Chakar suggested weakly, aware of the irritation
rising in the hall around her.

‘Oh no.’ Baryet’s tone
was shocked. ‘As many as possible. There is plenty of food here for
many children.’

A yellow rimmed eye
settled upon Lula. Lula went into a frenzy of spitting and back
arching and neither Lorak or Fenj could calm her.

‘Plenty of food,’
Baryet repeated, stilting from the hall.

‘We will have to keep
the gate closed,’ someone called from a group of Guards.

Chakar looked at Mim’s
back. ‘I do wish you did not find Baryet quite so amusing,’ she
said crossly.

Mim turned, wiping
tears of laughter from his scaled cheeks.

‘I apologise Observer
Chakar.’ He resumed his seat at the table. ‘That might be a good
idea though – keep the gate closed with a Guard to open it for the
Dragons?’

Lula was snuggled
between Fenj’s upper arm and his chest, her blue eyes still blazing
with fury.

‘No one will harm you
Lula.’ Mim spoke to the tiny Kephi’s mind.

She blinked but made no
reply. Dessi slipped onto the bench between Kera and
Nesh.

‘Did I miss something?’
she enquired. Mim chuckled.

‘Do not set him off
again,’ Chakar ordered.

Ashta’s eyes whirred.
‘It was a visit from Baryet,’ she told the Delver girl.

‘Aah.’ Dessi nodded
solemnly. ‘You need say no more.’

Mim leaned his elbows
on the table. ‘Why are there these two Orders in Drogoya?’ He
looked from Chakar to Babach. ‘If you follow one, is it permitted
to follow the other as well, or are they exclusive?’

Babach’s hand moved to
tug at his now vanished beard, then dropped to rest lightly on his
egg pendant.

‘The Order of Sedka was
the first time a detailed pattern for living was encoded. It worked
quite well for a very long time. The Order of his daughter Myata
complemented Sedka’s. The difference between them eventually was
that Sedka decreed while Myata suggested. If Myata’s suggestions
were not taken up, then she wasted no time on argument or
recriminations. She taught that each one had to choose for him or
her self, the manner of their living. Sedka’s Order became
insistent, inflexible. Increasingly, when people were discovered
not to be following Sedka’s rules to the letter, they found
themselves publicly rebuked, and worse.’

‘And then the Sacrifice
before Cho Petak introduced the idea of taxes and fines, which
quickly grew to become imprisonment and death,’ Chakar added.
‘There was little difference in the beginning, when Sedka and Myata
still lived. Only later did Sedka’s followers organise into an
Order, with Sacrifice and Offerings and so forth. Myata’s followers
had a communal system, not a hierarchy, where the lowliest or
youngest had as much right to speak their views as any other within
the community.’

Babach nodded
agreement. ‘My mother told me that is why the Oblaka complex was a
collection of separate little houses gathered around the first
house. Anybody could build their cottage close by, whereas in the
Menedula, rooms are allocated strictly by rank within the Order and
so on.’

‘You have told us of a
place called Sedka’s Meadow, where he lived with his wife Dalena
and their daughter Myata. Did Dalena go to the Oblaka when her
daughter moved there?’ asked Dessi.

‘There is no mention of
Dalena once Myata left the Meadow.’ Babach frowned. ‘No report was
ever discovered as to whether Dalena lived on alone there, with
Sedka travelling the lands of Drogoya and Myata far to the
west.’

‘Sedka died relatively
young, attacked by the great desert cats in the southern hot lands.
Shortly afterwards, the Order became much more formal and rigid,’
said Chakar.

Daro raised silver eyes
to the two Observers. ‘Is Sedka a common name now in Drogoya?’ he
asked curiously. ‘Has it a meaning?’

‘Perhaps strangely, it
is never given as a name,’ Babach replied. ‘We do not think it was
Sedka’s birth name, but we have no evidence for or against that
idea. Sedka is an ordinary word in the old tongue, meaning a
plantation. Clearly, he planned for Drogoya to become an orderly
plantation and thus took that word as his name.’

‘And Dalena?’ Daro
asked.

‘That is quite often
used to name girls in the country areas, less so in the cities or
towns. It means a valley or a glen,’ Chakar replied
promptly.

Babach started suddenly
then smiled at those gathered round the table.

‘I wonder if I might
have some paper and writing materials? I will send my questions to
Vagrantia and Gaharn, and hopefully, some unfortunate student will
find references to Dragon Lords in their archives.’

Kera supplied Babach’s
requirements and the conversation turned to the completion of the
second growing area beneath the hall.

The days passed and
Babach’s strength continued to improve although his loss of weight
made him appear older and more frail. He received messages from
Vagrantia and Gaharn, informing him that several hapless students
had been set to searching through antique texts.

Lashek and Elyssa
appeared through the circle one afternoon, Lashek still clutching
Lady Lallia’s recipe. He and Babach were drawn to each other at
once and spent many hours, heads close together by the hearth, a
dish of Lallia’s pastries between them. Lashek was fascinated by
the account of Babach’s healing. After he had seen images from
Chakar’s mind of the terrible wounds burnt through Babach’s torso,
he insisted Babach remove his robe there and then so that he could
see what had been achieved.

Kera had been talking
with Fenj and Kadi before the evening meal and her eye was caught
by the old Observer and the Speaker of Segra, chortling together.
She shook her head.

‘Have you any idea how
many pastries they eat each day? They will become too fat to
move.’

‘Nonsense,’ Fenj
rumbled. ‘Those pastries melt in the mouth and just vanish, so how
can they possibly make you grow fat? They are both splendid
fellows.’

Lorak grinned at Kera’s
expression. ‘Fond of my restorative too, they are,’ he informed
her.

Kera laughed. ‘I heard
you have been making much more of your – restorative. Something
about needing a bigger room to expand production?’

‘Aah.’ Lorak looked
shifty. ‘Well, no one weren’t using that particular chamber see,
and now Bikram shares my little place, I needed a bigger workroom,
d’you see?’

Kera gave him a look of
wide eyed innocence. ‘But of course I see Lorak dear. You must be
so dreadfully cramped in that tiny room.’

Lorak’s expression was
suspicious but he deemed it safer to drop the subject.

‘Plants are coming up
well already, Lady Kera, in that there first area.’

Kera accepted the
change of subject with a grin. ‘I know. I had a look at them
earlier. You have done extraordinarily well there
Lorak.’

Lorak blushed. ‘Well,
Bikram, he helped a lot. And so did the Delvers and the Guards of
course,’ he mumbled.

Fenj’s eyes whirred the
shadows on snow colour.

‘Splendid fellow,’ he
murmured fondly.

Thryssa and Kwanzi were
the next arrivals and were glad to meet Babach and Voron. They were
delighted also to see Kadi, not yet fit to hunt for herself but
flying more strongly each day.

Thryssa spent the first
evening of her return to the Stronghold telling of the rebellion of
Discipline Senior Fayet in the Asataria to everyone in the hall.
The Guards listened, avid for details of the fighting and then
going over it all amongst themselves. Then, more quietly, Thryssa
related the final events in the Asataria, her awareness of a being
which radiated malevolence. It had fled just as she was preparing
to use a great magic against it, but she had a deep foreboding as
to whether that was the last they might see of it. She also told
them the old story of Cheok and of her instinctive feeling that the
story was in fact a true one.

‘Obviously, I have no
proof, but I feel in my very bones that being in the Asataria was a
creature from the Void. No other solution strikes me so positively.
But whether it is alone or others have escaped too, I could not
guess.’

‘Others are freed,’
said Babach heavily. ‘I sense that is what has descended on poor
Drogoya. A few may have come to this land for who knows what
reasons, but many more would have been drawn to Cho Petak.’ He
sighed, looking across the table at Thryssa. ‘I did not miss the
fact that Petak was the name of the maggot in your tale, but I am
interested that you described him as “coming to” Nachalo rather
than arising there. I know of no comparable tale in my
land.’

‘Nor I,’ Chakar
agreed.

The silence threatened
to become gloom, and Mim decided to lighten the atmosphere. So he
related Baryet’s recent decision, announced so portentously in this
hall a few days past. His telling brought laughter and did indeed
lift spirits again.

‘I must return to
Vagrantia almost at once,’ said Thryssa when they rose to seek
their beds. ‘Jilla and Bagri remain in Gaharn with Emla. Imshish
must return with us.’ She rested her hand lightly on Elyssa’s
shoulder. ‘Elyssa says that she must be here at your Stronghold,
Dragon Lord. I accept her intuition in this – may she
stay?’

‘She is welcome,’ said
Mim instantly. ‘But before you leave, I would show you something,
High Speaker. It will take up much of the day tomorrow, but it is
of great import.’