Drogoya: Book 3 Circles of Light series (9 page)

‘Then I come too.’
Kwanzi insisted. ‘I am a healer Thryssa, at least I can offer first
treatment.’

‘I would join you too,’
Lashek pleaded.

Thryssa reached across
to catch the earth mage’s hand. ‘No Lashek. You are the next most
senior Speaker. You take my place if needs be. And you will give
strength to Jilla here.’ Thryssa turned to look up at Nolli and
Ryla. ‘Jilla is a gifted air mage. And she has been to your City
and within the Asataria. She will easily find Emla’s force and will
watch what befalls. You can see what she sees quite simply by
linking your minds to either her or to Lashek.’

Nolli and Ryla nodded,
Ryla’s transparent skin flushed with excitement.

‘Have you any questions
regarding my part in this? If not, perhaps you have a room where
Elyssa and I may get some rest. It is tiring work we will be doing,
hard though that may appear to any who watch us.’

Jilla smiled. ‘Use my
room. I will show you the way.’

‘It would be best if
you rested too Lady Emla,’ said Lashek gently. ‘And I do not know
if anyone has discussed with you our abilities with the power?
Although long unused in this kind of context, I can assure you we
will help as we can.’

Ryla studied Lashek
with growing interest although Emla frowned a little.

‘Why don’t you go to
your room Emla – a most sensible suggestion. Speaker Lashek can
help us eat up all these very delicious pastries.’

Emla regarded the
ancient Discipline Senior with suspicion but got to her feet anyway
as Jilla came down the stairs.

‘I trust Thryssa and
Elyssa will be comfortable? Come then Shan, we must find some
suitable leathers and a rest might be a good idea.’

Following Emla to the
staircase, Shan grinned over her shoulder at Bagri.

‘Captain Soran will
have spare leathers for you, I am sure.’

Bagri rose with
alacrity and hurried to find Soran, leaving Jilla and Lashek to an
inquisition by two very determined old ladies.

Eventually Hani took
pity on Lashek and Jilla, firmly ordering Shar to escort the
Vagrantians out for a breath of evening air. They escaped to the
sound of Nolli and Ryla arguing fiercely with the pale green
Dragon.

‘Stars above,’ Lashek
groaned. ‘I am sure we must have missed our supper. Do they never
run out of questions?’

Jilla laughed
heartlessly. ‘I haven’t noticed that they do.’

‘It is just that they
want to know everything,’ Shar tried to explain.

Lashek stopped halfway
down the wide flight of steps outside the huge main
doors.

‘Of course they do, and
quite rightly so,’ he apologised. ‘But I will fade away without
regular meals do you see?’

Shar’s eyes whirred in
alarm at the prospect of Lady Emla’s guest fading away. Jilla gave
Lashek a glare of annoyance and then tried to explain what the
earth mage meant. Shar refused to allow Lashek to wander the
gardens. Instead, she insisted he and Jilla return at once to the
house through a side entrance and search for food to keep Lashek
healthy. She sat outside the door to make sure the two Vagrantians
could not slip back out, and Jilla muttered beneath her
breath.

‘Really Lashek, that
dear Dragon is truly worried now that you will vanish. She is only
half a cycle old, it is quite unpleasant of you to upset her
so.’

‘I am sorry.’ Lashek
sounded genuinely contrite. ‘But I am also hungry.’

‘When are you not?’
Jilla snapped, pushing him into the small dining
chamber.

A maid appeared almost
as soon as Jilla tugged the bell rope, and then rushed away to
fetch food for them. Soran’s head poked round the door when Jilla
had finished her meal and Lashek was, she judged, approximately
halfway through his. Jilla smiled at Soran. She had found him
pleasant company since she arrived here. He had not a scrap of
magic about him and Jilla found that fact very restful. She poured
him a mug of tea and waved him to a chair.

‘Have you picked the
men for tonight?’ she enquired.

He nodded. ‘Some men
have gone into the City with word from Lady Emla to the Discipline
Seniors and Seniors who are in their own homes. She says they will
use power against the few of their colleagues who have chosen to
side with Fayet. The townsfolk have been warned to keep within
doors until instructed differently. The Seniors who are healers are
ordered to be ready at Lady Emla’s summons.’

‘Emla could have mind
spoken them, surely?’ Jilla frowned.

‘She fears that those
within the Asataria could overhear her should they have set a watch
for such things.’ Soran shrugged. ‘I know not how such matters
work, but if my Lady orders word taken personally to the City, so
shall it be.’

An air of expectancy
pervaded the Lady’s great House as the night deepened. Students had
been told that something was to happen and they were to be ready
should they be called. The household staff were still busy: they
remembered the House filled with wounded Guards brought from the
mountains but a scant time before.

Emla and Shan came down
to the hall, both wearing hardened leather jerkins over their
shirts. Swords hung from their belts and dagger hilts protruded
above. Suddenly Ryla seemed lost for words, as if she only now
realised that this was no game. Kwanzi appeared with the High
Speaker and Elyssa, and Soran came in from the main doors. Soran
saluted.

‘Thirty two Guards are
outside Lady. I have posted extra Guards around the
Pavilion.’

Emla nodded. She opened
her mouth to say something to the two old ladies, then shut it
again. Stooping, she gave each a quick hug and a kiss on each
withered cheek, then spun away, marching towards the door, Shan at
her heels. Bagri waited outside and walked with Kwanzi and Shan
behind Thryssa and Elyssa. The Vagrantian women had the image of
Kera’s room starkly clear in their minds, even to the layer of dust
Emla remembered from her last visit.

The second group halted
with Bagri and Elyssa outside the Pavilion, while the first group
went in. Emla touched Thryssa’s arm lightly.

‘You do not have to do
this Thryssa. While I am more grateful than I can say for your help
and support, you do not have to do this.’

Thryssa smiled.
‘Friends are there to help each other, are they not? In truth, I am
interested in this situation.’ She grimaced. ‘I fear I face a
similar problem when I return to Vagrantia.’

Emla stared at the High
Speaker, unable to decipher her cryptic remark. She shrugged, took
her place with Soran at the head of the double line of Guards and
followed Thryssa and Kwanzi onto the circle.

Chapter
Six

Berri, the acting Wise
One of the Delvers during Nolli’s absence, came from the Domain to
add her lesser strength to Dessi’s. Four of their most accomplished
healers were to help Dessi focus her power on Observer Babach’s
worst injuries. The burns he had suffered were, in many parts of
his torso, deep enough to bury a fist inside. His body and mind
were severely shocked, his pulse weak and erratic.

Fenj and Kija were
horrified at the sight of such wounds and they willingly offered
their strength to the healing process just begun. Mim and Ashta had
gone again, to the hidden cave in the Domain, on Gremara’s
instruction. Once more, so she told the Dragon Lord, he would know
which egg to take back to help Babach’s mending. Now Mim leaned
against Ashta, his gold scaled arm draped across her shoulder. He
had no part to play in this, other than to watch.

Chakar knelt at
Babach’s head, aware of the tremendous surge of magical force
rising around her. She watched the tiny Delver girl Dessi lean
forward, her hands held flat above a blackened hole high in
Babach’s chest. Chakar felt the child falter and she held her
breath. Then she felt Kija’s mellow voice murmuring to Dessi in a
soothing hum of sound.

Dessi steadied, drew a
deep breath and allowed her mind to sink within the man’s ruined
chest, as once she had watched Tika healing Farn. Chakar watched in
disbelief when slowly the gaping hole turned from black, to red, to
pink, and began to close. Chakar was only aware of the long passing
of time because her legs and back started to cramp as they had when
she had worked so long over Kadi. But dreadful as she had thought
Kadi’s wounds, they were as a child’s grazed knee compared to what
Dessi was trying to mend.

The Delver shuddered,
moving her hands and revealing a patch of new flesh that looked
sore, but was at least whole. Berri pushed a flask of water at the
child, urging her to drink. Then Dessi knelt straight again and
moved her hands to the next great pit in Babach’s body. The day
passed unnoticed by all those watching in the great hall of the
Stronghold, until finally, Dessi toppled bonelessly to one side.
But Mim was there, waiting it seemed for the moment Dessi reached
the end of her strength.

All who had witnessed
this feat of healing seemed to exhale their long held breath in
gusty sighs that swept around the hall. Other healers came now to
assist the four who knelt still at Babach’s side. Imshish and Kera
came to help Chakar to her feet, but her legs screamed in agony and
Imshish simply carried her to a chair. Lorak appeared silently at
Chakar’s elbow and without a word, she held out her hand for his
flask.

‘Kija’s all right, but
the old fella, he be a bit shaky.’ Lorak frowned. Chakar had a firm
grip on his flask. ‘Well then, you keep that ’un. I’ve more in my
workroom.’

Chakar managed a wobbly
grin as Voron bent over her.

‘Try some,’ she
suggested.

Voron sniffed
cautiously and politely declined. ‘The Offering Finn Rah would no
doubt appreciate it better than I,’ he smiled.

‘I will hear all your
news later Voron.’ Chakar groaned, straightening her legs carefully
and bending them again. ‘For now I have Babach to tend and I cannot
concentrate on anything but that.’

‘No Observer.’ A quiet
voice spoke above her head.

She twisted and saw the
Vagrantian boy with the silver eyes smiling shyly at her. ‘There
are more than enough of us to care for Observer Babach now. You
must sleep and be fresh for your turn of nursing
tomorrow.’

Chakar’s mouth opened,
closed, and so did her eyes. Imshish caught her before she slid off
the chair.

‘What have you done to
her?’ Voron asked in panic.

But Imshish chuckled,
gathering up the small body in his arms again. ‘An extremely good
example of a sleep suggestion,’ he told Voron. ‘Or Lorak’s
restorative.’

Daro bowed and moved
across to Fenj where the massive black Dragon reclined against the
wall.

Imshish stood watching
Daro murmuring to Fenj and Lorak, then smiled at the still frowning
Voron.

‘Somehow the silvering
of Daro’s eyes has accelerated his abilities. I understand that he
seemed an average boy until this change in his eyes. Now, he could
equal Maressa in air magery I would guess – he has been working
with Dessi a great deal. But he seems able to do much more than
just work with air.’

Voron followed Imshish
towards the fire where the four Delver healers and Dessi already
lay on pallets in the deep sleep of total exhaustion. Voron thanked
Imshish for his kindness and settled beside Chakar. He saw the boy
they called the Dragon Lord sitting cross legged at Dessi’s side,
the pale green Dragon who seemed his constant companion was curled
against another Dragon.

Despite Voron’s
weariness, his panic and confusion, he had registered that Dragon
when he arrived here as being one of the most beautiful creatures
he had ever seen. Now he found himself staring at the gold scales
glittering in the lamp and firelight until his gaze was drawn to
the many faceted honey coloured eyes. Kija’s voice spoke in Voron’s
mind.

‘The stars must surely
have lent strength to Baryet’s wings, Voron of Drogoya, to bring
your old one here so swiftly. I think only Dessi or perhaps my
daughter Tika, could have effected such a healing.’

‘Is she your daughter?’
Voron asked, looking at Ashta.

Laughter rippled
through his mind.

‘No. This is Ashta,
Hani’s daughter. She is soul bonded to the Dragon Lord. Sleep now
Voron and I will tell you stories tomorrow such as you will find
hard to believe. But they are true nonetheless. Sleep Voron of
Drogoya. You are safe here.’

And so Voron slept
while Berri and other Delvers watched over Babach’s unconscious
form.

Berri had accompanied
Mim to the hidden cave in the Domain and watched when the Dragon
Lord moved directly to one niche. His taloned fingers closed around
an egg and a gold chain winked as it swung loose from his hand. Now
that egg, its back shelled in black obsidian and its front filled
with a bright yellow topaz, nestled at the crook of Babach’s neck
and shoulder, pulsing in unison with the Observer’s own
heartbeat.

Mim’s still smooth palm
closed round the pendant hanging from his neck. Gremara refused to
tell him of these strange eggs, but this was the second time they
had been used in a great healing. Observer Chakar had brought her
egg from the land of Drogoya, saying it had belonged, once upon a
time, to Myata, the founder of the Order of which Chakar was now
the head.