Drogoya: Book 3 Circles of Light series (53 page)

‘The High Speaker
brought us. Is Fenj still here Jeela?’

‘Of course he is. He’s
been looking at Lorak’s plants all day long.’ The small ivory
Dragon twisted in mid air and flew in front of Lorak. ‘Is something
wrong Lorak? I thought you agreed to Fenj’s plan?’ Her mind tone
was a touch peevish. ‘He still won’t tell me exactly what it
is.’

‘And we’re here to tell
him he’ll have to change it,’ Lorak replied. He stopped as he
reached the eastern wall of Talvo’s crater.

Fenj reclined against
the rock only a few paces in front of them, Lula already buzzing
happily from the crook of his arm. His eyes whirred the shadows on
snow colour and he sighed. Jeela settled beside him, clearly
puzzled. Pajar could only stare at the enormous black Dragon before
him. This was his first meeting with one of the Dragon Kindred and
he was stunned by Fenj’s size and grace. Lashek nudged him sharply
and he jumped.

‘Oh yes.’ He approached
closer and bowed. ‘I am Pajar, First Councillor to High Speaker
Thryssa. She ordered me to come to you and to insist that you
refrain from your plan. She bade me tell you that your death would
be too great a burden of sorrow and guilt upon the Vagrantian
people. And her words reflect the feelings of us all.’

Fenj pushed himself up
to a sitting position and his prismed eyes blazed. ‘You have not
the strength to defeat this being alone. Unless his concentration
is deflected, you will all be lost. My action will give you the
time your mages need – quickly, before they are tired from holding
against him too long.’

‘No.’ Pajar stood his
ground, suddenly finding himself absolutely calm despite this huge
Dragon’s wrath. ‘There will surely be another way.’

‘It is fire this
creature fears and I can provide fire. Several of your mages
together could perhaps raise the illusion of fire which would take
the thing but an instant to see through. I can provide real
fire.’

‘I’ll help,’ Jeela said
eagerly.

‘No!’

Fenj, Pachela and Lorak
snapped the single word in unison.

Jeela drew herself up,
her eyes sparking mutinously. ‘I am Gremara’s successor. In her
absence I speak for Talvo. If I decide that I will use fire to help
defeat this thing, I shall do so.’

‘You will not, little
one.’ Fenj spoke gently. ‘Because you are Gremara’s successor, you
must survive. You will keep well away from what must be
done.’

Darkness had fallen
whilst they spoke and Pachela sent her thoughts carefully back to
the Corvida. She frowned and glanced at Lashek.

‘What is it?’ he
asked.

‘There is no
communication as yet – all is calm. But it has become the norm for
Zloy to speak to the High Council as soon as darkness falls. And he
gave this night as his ultimatum, did he not?’

Lashek sent a cautious
mind probe to Thryssa and then nodded. He glanced around their
group. ‘I wonder what might be delaying him, or is it just a
trick?’

Lorak had set about
making a small fire as soon as they’d reached Fenj and belatedly
Pajar swung a pack off his shoulder.

‘There isn’t a lot, but
I had little time to collect much food.’

He had a loaf, cheese,
dried fruit and nuts and they shared the meagre meal among
them.

‘I suggest you all
sleep,’ Fenj said. ‘You will thus be refreshed for whatever
tomorrow might bring.’

Lashek chuckled. ‘A
good try Fenj, but do not think that I won’t notice should you try
to move one scale more than a handspan.’

A low rumble sounded
from deep in Fenj’s chest but Lorak, comfortably settled against
the Dragon’s shoulder, patted him soothingly. ‘Drop of restorative
old friend? Warm your bones.’

Fenj peered down
benignly. ‘Splendid fellow.’

Both Lashek and Pachela
slept lightly, frequently checking back to Parima Circle, but
although they both sensed tension in the people gathered in
Thryssa’s study, there was no hint of Zloy’s presence
there.

Dawn was edging over
the high rim of Talvo Circle when Fenj got to his feet so fast that
Lula tumbled onto Lorak’s head. Jeela too had woken and was
instantly spinning up into the sky, calling as she rose.

‘What is it? What’s
happening?’ Pajar was still groggy with sleep.

‘Gremara,’ Pachela
breathed. ‘Gremara returns.’

The sky over Talvo was
a delicate blue, deepening as the sun crawled higher above the
crater, when Fenj raised himself upright and his deep voice
trumpeted in greeting. Lorak stood beside the old Dragon while the
three Vagrantians stared as two Dragons spiralled down to the
ground. As they landed, Gremara sank flat to the earth and even
Lashek and Pajar recognised how exhausted she was. The silver
scales were dulled, her eyes half closed.

‘Gremara, are you hurt?
Ill?’ Fenj’s tone revealed great concern and distress.

‘No my dear. Just plain
tired. I must sleep – I cannot talk to you now. Forgive
me.’

The prismed eyes closed
fully and Gremara slept.

The being known as
Zloy, was not happy. He had taken the body of Prilla, First
Councillor of Fira Circle and he disliked it intensely. He had
rummaged briefly through Prilla’s mind and destroyed it in disgust.
Cho Petak had assured him that there were intelligent beings here.
What nonsense! And what ridiculous bodies! If this was the highest
life form then he preferred the company of the amoeba like
creatures he had once encountered on a far distant world. He was
particularly appalled by all the hair. The females let their hair
grow. Prilla’s – now unfortunately his – reached to the back of his
thighs. He kept getting mouthfuls of the stuff every time he turned
round too quickly.

Speaker Kallema’s mind
was fractionally more intelligent than Prilla’s but she had fought
against the acquiescence he laid in her thoughts and so he had to
destroy her. Zloy now sat in the Speaker’s residence. A primitive
hut in his opinion but it would serve. He was alone, and flames
flickered in his eyes as he watched the clouds rest steadily above
Parima and Segra Circles. Tonight he had planned to finally
confront the Vagrantian High Speaker but he had been
distracted.

He thought he’d heard a
summoning from Cho Petak. It had been faint and distant, but he was
sure he had heard it twice. It was unclear who Cho was summoning:
Zloy knew Rashpil was on this side of the world while Cho Petak was
on the other. Had Cho realised four of them at least had chosen to
avoid an immediate reunion with him? Or guessed why? The thought of
Cho’s appearance here, or even a strong, direct mind contact gave
Zloy pause.

He had spent many
centuries in the Void and there had been little to do in all that
time but think. He had never been as close to Cho Petak as say,
D’Lah or Grek. Since Cho had seen fit to let them and their
multitude of fellow prisoners languish in the Void for so long,
Zloy personally was in no hurry to rush to do Cho’s bidding now. In
fact, Zloy was quite taken with these craters.

He planned to remove
the human animals from the other three craters, and probably, most
from this one. Some would be kept to work on his experiments. Zloy
had a great fondness for igneous rock and there could surely be no
better place on this world than here in this clump of old
volcanoes.

A knock on the door
made him turn his head. Hair flew across his face and he clawed it
out of the way as his eyes changed from red flame to Prilla’s
green. He opened the door to find a slim young man standing there,
head bowed submissively.

‘Well?’ Zloy
snapped.

‘The water levels still
rise Councillor. It is beginning to rise here, within
Fira.’

‘It will be dealt
with.’ Zloy closed the door on the young man and went to look out
of the window again.

He should be
frightening the lamentably feeble wits out of the High Council
shortly, but he hesitated. He would need to use a considerable
amount of energy to do so and such a large energy fluctuation would
most surely attract the attention of Cho Petak. He swore in a
strange, guttural language, then snapped his fingers angrily.
Flames reappeared in his eyes as he focused on the clouds above the
other Circles. He watched as the heavy rain eased in moments to a
fine drizzle and then ceased altogether.

He turned away and sat
at Kallema’s desk, anger simmering through him. He leaned back and
breathed deeply, forcing himself to a calmer frame of mind. Rashpil
and M’Raz. He must try to find their exact location – he had no
desire to have them encroach on what he already considered his
territory. And Grek. Was Grek here too? Zloy thought Grek foolish
in his old devotion to Cho. He knew that Grek and D’Lah had been on
this world nearly as long as Cho himself. In their position, Zloy
would have organised a comfortable niche in which to settle. It
would take a very big enticement to tempt him to leave it and join
with any bizarre plans Cho Petak might have.

Although Zloy had been
here such a brief time, he felt possessive of these craters and
welcomed no encroachment. He moved in the chair and swore again.
This cursed hair tugged at his scalp. He leaned forward and pulled
handfuls of the stuff from under him. His anger rising again, he
caught the whole mass of blonde hair in one hand and reached for
his knife. He winced, sawing through the hair at the nape of his
neck until the great bundle he held came free. He stared at it with
distaste and threw it from him. When he turned to glance out of the
window again, he felt the coolness round his neck and smiled with
satisfaction. How the females endured such torment was a mystery,
but perhaps they were more stoical than he’d given them credit
for.

It was annoying to
delay his crushing of the so-called High Council, but he did not
want to attract further attention from Cho Petak – if indeed he had
been the target of the summoning. Today at least, he would quietly
seek out those others – Rashpil, M’Raz, D’Lah and Grek. Once he
could establish their whereabouts, he could continue his game with
these Vagrantians. While the night darkened, Zloy lay back and sent
his mind drifting to the north west.

In the high Speaker’s
study at the top of the Corvida, Kwanzi poured fresh
tea.

‘He’s playing with us,’
Orsim growled from his armchair.

‘I’m not so sure.’
Thryssa stretched her legs towards the fire.

‘The rain has stopped,’
Orsim argued. ‘He is poised to strike.’

‘Or perhaps he’s busy
elsewhere?’ suggested Shema. ‘Talvo?’

Thryssa looked
momentarily alarmed then shook her head. ‘No. Somehow we would know
should he attack any Circle individually.’

‘At least we know the
great Dragon was prevented from attacking Fira,’ one of the group
of mages remarked.

Heads nodded in
agreement. The senior mage Lori, raised a hand.

‘I think we could risk
contacting Pajar or Lashek if we do it through a shielded mind
link. We have to know if the great Dragon continues to insist on
carrying out an attack or if they have devised another
plan.’

Kwanzi agreed at once.
‘They must wonder what’s happening here. Jeela at least will have
been able to tell them that the rain has ceased.’

Orsim got to his feet.
‘I have to ask you Thryssa, but how long have you known how to
transfer without using the circles? And could you not have moved
our people out of the danger here by that method?’

Thryssa smiled. ‘I was
told by my predecessor and had practically forgotten it.’ She
stared hard at Speaker Orsim. ‘Where would you suggest I move them
to? I could manage maybe three or four such transferences, taking
perhaps twenty at a time. Then I would need to rest at least for a
full day, probably longer.’ Her tone sharpened. ‘Who would choose
those to go, and in what order? We know nothing of what lies
outside our walls – could we survive out there? Would Zloy sit back
and allow small groups to be evacuated thus?’

‘You could tell some of
us how to work the transference,’ Orsim insisted.

Thryssa’s eyes
narrowed. ‘Could I really Orsim? My first vows when I trained as
successor to the High Speaker, swore me to secrecy of many things –
including this. I have broken that vow once and will not do so
again. Orsim, one mistake and stars know where one could end up –
in another realm of which we have no conception, or taken apart to
our very atoms.’

‘You broke your vows
once you say.’ Orsim refused to let the matter drop. ‘To whom have
you dared teach this supposedly secret art? We have a right to know
this.’

Thryssa stood up,
facing the Speaker of Kedara Circle. Her voice was icy.

‘You have absolutely no
right to know such things Speaker. You have never been considered
as a prospective High Speaker as you, and all here know. I
designated a successor some time ago, but there is no compulsion
upon me to name that person until I deem fit.’

Senior mages and
Councillors nodded in confirmation of Thryssa’s words, even Orsim’s
own First Councillor, Dashka, and in the face of such unanimous
agreement Orsim shrugged, resuming his seat.