Drogoya: Book 3 Circles of Light series (24 page)

Jeela’s eyes whirred,
darkening to amber as she protested Gremara’s comment.

‘Again, I thank you for
bringing the egg for me to see with my own eyes. You will discover
its meaning for yourself: I may not reveal it to you.’ She leaned
forward, her brow pressing first Thryssa’s then Pachela’s in the
lightest of touches.

‘Know that you both
have a part to play in what will come. May the stars guard your
hearts.’

They watched the silver
Dragon rise, spiralling higher, and higher, until she was the
merest speck far above Talvo Circle.

Jeela sighed. ‘She can
fly higher than any other Dragon – nearly to the stars themselves I
am sure. She will not permit me to try though. I will guide you
back to your tunnel, and you did promise you would tell me all
about everyone in the Stronghold, High Speaker!’

Re entering Parima
Circle, it was but a short walk to the farmhouse where they had
stayed the previous night. Twilight was thickening to darkness as
they reached the black stone building, its windows spilling
welcoming lights onto the path. Again they were treated as honoured
guests and well fed before being left in the small bedroom they had
shared last night.

Pachela blew out the
candle on the tiny dresser between their beds.

‘I can scarcely believe
today really happened High Speaker,’ she murmured, pulling the
covers over her shoulders.

Thryssa yawned. ‘I
promise you it did child. Now sleep, we leave at first
light.’

‘Good night High
Speaker.’

Thryssa was almost
asleep when she heard Pachela turn over and sniff. Could the child
have taken a cold?

‘Are you all right
Pachela?’ she asked softly.

‘Yes thank you High
Speaker. I just thought I could smell mint.’

Thryssa had a day of
paperwork with Pajar when she got back to the Corvida and then next
day the Segran and Kedaran Speakers and first councillors were
arriving for an official meeting. Orsim of Kedara arrived first,
with his councillor Dashka, and listened to a general account of
the Stronghold and Gaharn from Thryssa. He had been intrigued
rather than annoyed that one of his councillors, Maressa, had gone
off to Sapphrea, the lands that had once been Valsheba.

‘I would never have
thought Maressa would take it into her head to go adventuring so
far,’ he said, smiling at Thryssa.

The High Speaker
shrugged. ‘Elyssa announced that she felt she had to stay at the
Stronghold. Our young women are all becoming adventurous it seems.
Your own daughter is quite captivated by the Wise One of the
Delvers and a Lady Ryla of the Asatarians. Jilla was adamant that
she remain in Gaharn with Bagri. And I must tell you Orsim.’ She
drew him towards the window, leaving Pajar talking to
Dashka.

‘I understand from
Pajar that you helped him through a brief bout of panic soon after
I left here?’

Orsim shook his head.
‘I just happened to be here. He would have managed without me. He
is very young for first councillor but he has the makings of a very
good one.’

‘Well, I thank you
anyway.’

Lashek came bustling in
with his first councillor Shema, and Thryssa took her place at the
head of the table. She immediately raised the subject of Kallema’s
activities in Fira Circle.

‘As you probably heard,
I visited Gremara four days ago. She explicitly warns us of serious
trouble from Fira. But before I left here I asked Kwanzi to
investigate the three Firan children whose eyes silvered. You were
here of course when I ordered an escort to remove them from Fira,
where we found they had been forcibly held, against their wishes,
and against all our codes of conduct.’

She looked at the
attentive faces turned towards her.

‘I have Kwanzi’s report
here. All three Firans resisted investigation by his team. The
combined efforts of the healers could not render them unconscious.
After four days, Kwanzi stopped the testing. He reports that they
are now working to find some way of reading these children’s minds,
which they will then use on them. The children showed no distress
or discomfort at any of the tests. The boy, Kralo, found them
amusing apparently.’

She laid the paper she
had been referring to back on the table.

‘I interviewed them
myself earlier and felt a great wrongness about all three which is
why I asked Kwanzi to arrange for the investigative procedures to
be made.’

‘Has Kallema had them
blocked, or shielded, in some way?’ asked Orsim.

‘Would it be possible,
or likely, that three such young students could know anything of
importance about Fira’s assembly or Kallema’s intentions?’
Councillor Shema sounded sceptical.

‘Have you considered
that the whole episode could have been arranged? We all know that
Thryssa would never stand for a child being incarcerated, let alone
three of them.’ Lashek’s left hand rested in the middle of his
chest, over the egg pendant, Thryssa realised.

Pajar nodded. ‘So now
Kallema has three possible spies or worse, comfortably within our
midst perhaps?’

Chapter
Fifteen

The distance to the
caves of the sea Dragons, referred to by Cloud as being “not far”,
took Tika’s party nearly three days to travel. Tika, Gan and
Maressa walked most of the way as their route followed the beach
rather than the rough ground behind the cliffs. There was much
debate about why the water crept slowly up towards them and then
crept slowly away again: debate from which Ren Salar remained
stubbornly aloof. He agreed with any theory suggested to him until
eventually they stopped asking his opinion.

Gan and Sket had
commented between themselves, of the gradual change in Tika. For
the first time since she had run away from Return, she could relax
a little. No messages could reach her here, by way of a circle or
by a Merig, and while she occasionally wondered how her friends
fared back in the world, she revelled in a sense of freedom. Always
at the back of her mind was the thought of the strange creatures
who had attacked them on their arrival at the coast. She also
wondered why her eyes had changed so strangely, but thoughts of
Elyssa’s acceptance of the fact for herself, and of Ren’s
considering it a normal part of life, kept any concerns to a minor
form.

Seeing Farn’s delight
in flying above the sparkling waves gave her great pleasure: he was
but a baby, and yet until now, he had missed so much of the fun and
freedom Dragon hatchlings usually enjoyed. Storm, one of the
younger sea Dragons, accompanied them and Tika smiled, watching
Farn chasing after him as he plunged beneath the water. So far,
Farn had allowed only his feet to dabble on the surface and his
wingtips to brush the waves, but had not been foolhardy enough to
follow Storm under the water.

The rest of the party
sometimes rode the koninas on their slow amble south but also spent
a large part of each day paddling along barefooted at the edge of
the water. With the firm exception of Ren Salar, Pallin and Sket,
who all regarded the vast expanse of sea with the greatest
suspicion.

Towards the middle of
the third day, Farn reported that a freshwater stream cascaded from
the cliff top a short distance along the beach, and the party
rested there. Storm flew on to the south and Brin floated down to
land near them. The great crimson Dragon found huge enjoyment in
just drifting up and down on the air currents along the line of
cliffs.

They began walking
again but came to a halt as they rounded a rocky promontory. The
sea waters had carved a small cove, half ringed by the grey cliffs.
The cliffs were pocked with dark shadowed caves, but in front of
many of the caves, the sea Dragons lay along their ledges. One of
them slid from the ledge and glided towards them. Tika recognised
her as Cloud and bowed politely as the Dragon settled on the
sand.

‘There are several
empty caves here, along this side. You are welcome to choose
whichever you wish.’

‘Thank you for your
hospitality. We will see which best suits our needs if we
may.’

‘We will wait while you
decide and then I will introduce you to our Elders.’ Cloud lifted
back towards one of the highest caves.

Ren moved up beside
Tika, staring up at the vacant caves with dislike.

‘I knew they would all
be far too high,’ he said with disgust.

Khosa poked her head
out of her carry sack on Ren’s chest.

‘Not too high,’ she
commented. ‘But far too wet.’

‘There is just enough
room for us to take the koninas back through these cliffs,’ Pallin
reported smugly. ‘And a couple of caves level with the
ground.’

Ren brightened. ‘Then I
shall assist Pallin to move the koninas to the far more sensible
caves out of sight of all that.’ He waved dismissively at the water
already rushing in to fill the cove.

Tika grinned. ‘We will
climb up to look in these, then we’ll see how our comfort compares
with yours.’

Ren snorted and turned
to help Pallin and Riff with the koninas. ‘There will be no
comparison dear lady.’

The rest of the group
stared up at the caves offered by Cloud. Navan moved forward onto
the rocks and began to pick a path up to the first one.

‘Well, we might as well
all go and look,’ said Maressa and followed Navan up the side of
the cliff.

It proved to be less
difficult than it had appeared. After peering into five caves, all
far deeper than expected, they decided on two next to each other.
Gan poked around at the rear of one cave and discovered it bore
down the further back he went. He returned to the main part of the
cave without reaching the end of the passage.

‘This one for sure
Tika,’ he told her. ‘I cannot see without a lamp, but I suspect
this one may well exit behind the cliffs.’

Tika nodded. ‘Let’s go
and fetch some of the packs and something to make a fire up
here.’

Olam had taken a liking
to the cave slightly above the one Gan had chosen and now joined
them on their climb down to find Pallin.

‘It must have been a
tight squeeze getting the animals through here,’ Maressa
remarked.

Olam grinned. ‘No
problem at all, if Pallin was determined to get them
through.’

It was as if a giant
had hit the cliff with a might hammer and caused an uneven crack to
split it apart. The narrow path turned left after only three paces,
then right again almost immediately, then left and finally right.
Gan looked to his right as he emerged from the gap and nodded with
satisfaction.

‘I am fairly sure that
the cave I have chosen ends down in one of these.’

‘Always useful to have
a back door,’ Olam agreed.

Pallin had the koninas
beside a wide faced but shallow cave. It looked large enough to
offer protection for the animals should the weather change. Riff
came out of another cave which opened about waist high, a few paces
further along. Pallin’s scowl had disappeared and he was very
nearly cheerful as he and Ren unloaded packs and
saddles.

‘Fresh water pool down
there,’ he told Olam. ‘And this grass is not bad, a great
improvement on what we’ve seen so far at any rate. If we are
stopping here a while, it will save on grain for the beasts.’ He
slapped his hand on a flank as he moved round one konina to begin
unloading the next.

Navan bent to pluck a
blade of grass. ‘The fresh water must be seeping through the ground
all around here, or just beneath.’ He bent down again. ‘Tubers
there, look.’ He straightened and climbed onto a boulder. ‘Quite an
area of better vegetation.’

Khosa stepped daintily
from the second cave and surveyed the scene. ‘There are squeakers
here,’ she announced. Turquoise eyes glittered. ‘Soon there will be
less.’

Gan had vanished into
the shallow cave and now came out frowning. His gaze landed on the
orange Kephi.

‘Khosa, is there a
space from either cave, that might lead to one above?’

‘Possibly. I may
investigate for you, after I have eaten a squeaker or
two.’

‘That would be most
kind of you,’ Gan agreed.

‘Where will the meeting
with the Elder Dragons be held do you suppose?’ asked
Maressa.

‘If it is on one of
those ledges, I am afraid I am indisposed,’ Ren told
her.

‘I thought you were an
Offering in Drogoya. Isn’t that a high and responsible rank?’ Tika
snapped at him.

‘There is nothing in
the rules as I recall them which states that I am expected to perch
at ridiculous heights. My presence would merely be an
embarrassment.’

‘Why?’

‘I would be sick.’
Ren’s reply was succinct.

Somewhat discomfited,
Tika turned to sort through the piles of saddles and retrieved her
own pack and rolled cloak.

‘We will take some of
our gear up to our cave and enquire about this meeting,’ she told
the Offering.

‘I will be delighted to
attend at ground level.’ He inclined his head.