Firestorm (12 page)

Elian could feel Ra’s intense concentration. Adrenaline surged in his stomach. She was reaching out with her mind. Whatever she was doing was not easy. They were charging at high speed
towards the easternmost hunters. The spears would start flying any heartbeat. What was she thinking of? A straight charge would be little less than suicide.

When the gateway opened, Elian sensed it, rather than saw it. His fleeting impression was of a great rent in the fabric of reality – a ghostly grey hole of swirling nothingness. One
heartbeat they were barely off the ground and fast approaching a line of enemies armed with deadly spears, the next his body and mind were wrenched in gut-twisting, brain-spinning manner. For a
moment he experienced a strange feeling of weightlessness, as if he were immersed in water. The sensation was fleeting, but left him reeling with dizzy disorientation. A second contorting wrench
was followed by a blast of freezing air, as they emerged high into a night sky.

‘Where in hell are we?’ Kira yelled above the sudden roar of the biting wind.

The question echoed the turmoil in Elian’s mind, for he knew the instant the air rammed into his nostrils that they were no longer in Racafi. Aside from the massive temperature drop, the
scent of it was totally different. Wherever they were it was now the dead of night, and they were high in the air – at least a couple of thousand spans up, judging by what little he could
see.

It was impossible. It made no sense. How had they got here? What had Aurora done?

Chapter Eleven

Kasau saw the portal open in the air just in front of the dragons and a cry rose in his throat. Taking three swift strides, he hurled his spear with all his strength. The yell
he released burned his throat as it burst from him like the roar of an angry lion. The moment the weapon left his fingers he knew he had thrown it in vain. His eyes followed its trajectory as it
sailed through the air in a deadly arc, but the dragons vanished before the spear reached them. The portal closed the instant the second dragon passed through and his spear sliced through empty
air. Several other spears crisscrossed harmlessly through the same space. They were gone.

Kasau sank to his knees. The rest of the circle of hunters closed in on the spot where the two dragons had disappeared and began to mill about in confusion. Kasau could not believe it. Twice he
had set traps for the dawn dragon. Both times she had slipped through his grasp. No other dragon he had tracked had ever eluded him like this. The beast had made a fool of him. He had
underestimated her abilities and she had exploited his overconfidence.

‘We will meet again,’ he muttered to himself. ‘But next time will be the last. I’ll not let you get the better of me again.’

‘Where are we, Ra? What is this place and how did we get here?’ Elian asked the questions aloud to allow Kira the chance to follow at least one side of his
conversation.

‘We’ve travelled to another world, Elian. This is the most special of a dawn dragon’s abilities. No other dragon can come here except with one of us. At dawn and dusk the
boundaries between worlds weaken. At dawn, my powers are at their maximum. There is a very small window either side of that short period when I am strong enough to open a gateway and break through
the barrier.’

‘Another
world?
What other world?’

‘The inhabitants call it Earth. We are currently flying over a country the people here call France. The people are similar in appearance to you, but this world is not like ours. They
have no dragons. They are aware of us due to a number of encounters over the centuries, but here, we are creatures of legend. They refuse to accept that we exist.’

‘Earth? France?
You’ve been here before?’ he asked, unable to mask his shock.

‘
Yes, but I always keep my visits as short as I can. The people here are invariably hostile towards dragons and they have developed weapons unlike any we have in our world. Last time I
was here I encountered a group of men carrying things they called “muskets”. They looked rather like strange sticks made of metal, but they spat fire and tiny balls of metal at
tremendous speed that stung my scales, leaving spots that itched for days afterwards.’

‘When was this, Ra? Are we likely to meet them?’

‘
I doubt it – at least not the same crowd. I believe the people here live no longer than you do, and that encounter was over one hundred season rotations ago in the time of this
world. I’ve not needed to use the gateways again until today.’

A distant sound drew Elian’s attention. Irregular crumps and thumps sounded close, yet had to be coming from the ground. What could cause such a noise?

Looking down Elian noticed strange flashes of light and occasional dashed lines streaking across the countryside with impossible speed. Then flashes lit the sky nearby, red and orange fire
blossoming with loud reports. The explosions were both startling and frightening, tying a twisting knot of fear in Elian’s stomach.

Kira suddenly tapped Elian on the shoulder. Her face in the dark looked as scared as he felt. ‘Fang says there are thousands of men fighting below us. Tens of thousands even. He
doesn’t know how, but they’re killing each other despite being hundreds of paces apart. The entire countryside below us has been torn apart by war. Where in Areth are we?’

‘That’s just it – we’re not in Areth any more. Ra says we’ve travelled to another world, Kira. She says men here have invented strange weapons that spit death over
great distances.’

‘I don’t like it,’ she said. ‘Tell Ra to take us back. I’d rather take my chances with the hunters than get caught up in the mess down there.’

‘Agreed. Ra, can you take us back?’

‘
Yes
,’ she replied,
‘but not yet – we must wait until dawn.’

‘Dawn! But that must be hours away. We’ll freeze to death. My hands and face are already numb.’

‘
I know, but I can only open a gateway at dawn. Time here does not run with the same cadence as it does in our world. Longfang and I have been discussing which side of the lines of
fighting we should land.’

‘What have you decided?’ Elian asked, his teeth chattering.

‘We haven’t. He wants to land to the west. I want to let the wind carry us to the east.’

Another noise, not sharp and explosive like the other sounds they had heard, but continuous and droning, drew Elian’s attention.

‘What’s that?’ he asked aloud, not really expecting an answer. Whatever it was, impossible though it seemed, it was getting closer.

There was a pause.

‘Longfang has better night-vision than I. He thinks it might be a strange form of dragon that we’ve never encountered before. We both tried calling out, but the dragon
hasn’t responded. He bears two dragonriders, but has no consciousness that we can reach. From what I sense of the thoughts of the dragonriders, they are preoccupied with getting
home.’

‘A dragon!’ Elian was startled. ‘But you said that they didn’t have any dragons here.’

‘It appears my information was incorrect.’

‘Has he seen us?’

‘I don’t believe so, but it’s hard to tell. I’m calling the dragon “he” for convenience, for I can sense no gender. If he is a dragon, then he’s a
most odd-looking fellow. His riders seem to be embedded in his back.’

As the dragon approached, so the explosions came closer as well.

‘Is the dragon making those flashes? Is this another one of your dragon secrets?’ Elian asked.

‘
I have no idea what’s causing them, Elian. The dragonriders are doing their best to ignore the flash fires, but they both fear them. The impression I get is that the fire
originates from the ground, though that seems unlikely.’

Elian wasn’t so sure. Having seen the speed at which the lines of fire had sped through the night below them, he was not ready to discount anything at this point. Maybe this dragon was
somehow involved in the fighting. Dragons in Areth didn’t engage in the conflicts of men, but that did not mean the same would hold true here.

‘Can we follow him, Ra? But let’s stay out of sight. Maybe if we land near him, we’ll get a chance to find out what’s going on.’

‘Very well. I shall keep Fang between the strange dragon and us. I doubt that they will penetrate his camouflage. It looks as if they have begun to descend, so we should be able to
stalk him with ease.’

How long they glided along behind the droning dragon, Elian could not have said. By the time the strange-looking creature landed in a wide field, Elian was frozen nearly as badly as he had been
on his first day.

On the way down he noted that the dragon they were following, aside from making the strange droning sound, was a very strange shape. It had two sets of main wings, one above the other, which
seemed to be solid and unmoving. Its wingspan was about two-thirds that of Aurora’s and it had a third, smaller set of wings near its tail. The creature was also unnaturally short, measuring
less than half of Aurora’s length. It looked ungainly, rather like a bee – whose body size compared to its wingspan had always defied reason.

Its legs appeared thin and spindly with strange joints. They looked almost like the legs of a giant insect, but shorter, and not at all similar to the strong legs of a dragon. Perhaps it
wasn’t a dragon at all, but some sort of outsized insect. If so, then how had the men flying on its back tamed it?

The creature landed between two lines of fiercely burning torches. As it ran across the grass Elian noticed yet another strange thing. Its legs were not moving! Was it sliding? In what little
light there was from the path of lights, he could just make out that the creature’s feet were round like the wheels of a wagon, but much smaller.

‘Is the dragon actually a flying wagon?’ he wondered aloud. ‘That would be amazing! It makes sense too. If the people here are clever enough to make weapons that spit death
over large distances, why not a flying wagon?’ Elian wanted to take a closer look.

There were some very large buildings at the edge of the field, far larger than any he had ever seen in Racafi – some large enough to house several dragons at once. It stood to reason that
the men would reside there. Elian directed Aurora to land a good distance away, concealed in the darkness. His teeth were chattering and his body was shaking wildly as Ra settled on the ground.
When he turned, Kira was similarly suffering.

‘I’m s-s-sorry, Kira,’ he shivered. ‘We c-can’t risk a f-fire here. Get F-fang to curl up. Y-you can shelter in the h-hollow he makes. He can c-c-cover you with a
w-wing. If you snuggle down with your b-b-b-blankets, you should warm up quickly.’

‘W-what about you?’ she stammered, her mouth struggling to form the words.

‘I-I-I’d like to get a c-closer look at that d-d-dragon. Then I’ll d-do the same with R-ra.’

‘Don’t!’ she said quickly. ‘W-we don’t want to g-get caught here. Why d-don’t you s-sleep next t-t-to me? We’d w-warm up quicker if we h-huddled
together,’ she suggested. ‘H-hunters do it all the time.’

Elian nodded. The idea of getting a close look at the flying wagon was very appealing, but he knew she was right. It would be risky. Also, he felt so cold that snuggling together sounded like a
far better idea. ‘All right. If you’re sure,’ he said.

He slid from Ra’s back. The temperature at ground level was far cooler than night-time in Racafi, but it wasn’t freezing. He held out his hands and helped Kira to dismount gently. No
sooner had her feet touched the ground than she shook off his hands.

‘Just d-d-don’t get the wrong idea,’ she said abruptly and staggered away towards Fang.

‘Not a ch-chance,’ he replied, trying to force his frozen lips into a smile.

Elian knew Kira valued her independence, but it was interesting to see she was not above putting it aside when experience or common sense dictated. If she did not want to show weakness –
that was fine by him.

‘No offence, Ra, but I’m going to sleep with Kira and Fang tonight,’
Elian thought, struggling to concentrate.

‘I understand,’
she replied.
‘Sharing warmth is a good way of bonding. You want her to be your friend. This is a good way forwards. Sleep well, Elian.’

‘What if someone finds us in the night?’

‘Don’t worry, Elian. I’ll wake you if need be.’

‘But if we need to talk with them
. . .’ he started.
‘Will they understand Racafian?’

‘No, they won’t. There are many languages in this world. None would make any sense to you, but don’t worry. I can help. If we have need of communication, you can speak and
I’ll do the translating. Just speak as you normally do. I will do my best to see that you hear the native’s speech in Racafian and I will try to control your words so that the native
hears your words in his native tongue.’

‘You can do that? Fantastic!’
Elian tried to imagine how such a process could work.

‘In theory, yes. I must admit that I’ve never actually tried it, but I’ve met dragons who have. They said it was not difficult, but you must understand that the translations
might not be entirely accurate, and it will take me a moment or two to establish the link.’