Firestorm (8 page)

Chapter Seven

‘Disarm the boy and bring him,’ Kasau ordered.

‘Yes, Kasau.’

The order was given in soft tones, but the way the hunters manhandled Elian towards the stand of trees was anything but gentle. His sword was taken from its scabbard before he even remembered it
was at his side and his backpack was pulled from his shoulders. The men then alternately shoved and dragged him, as he struggled to force his limbs into action. There was no question of attempting
to escape. He could no more run than he could follow Aurora by skipping across the surface of the water.

By the time they reached the edge of the small wooded area, Elian’s circulation had returned and he could walk unaided. Feeling had returned to his hands and feet, and his skin in both
areas felt as though it was burning; a delicious agony of pain and pleasure, as blood flooded through the outer layers of his flesh. He was led into the very centre of the stand of trees where the
men had set up camp. The guards threw him to the ground next to the fire pit. Winded by the impact, it took a moment before he could roll over and push himself up into a sitting position.

Kasau wasted no time in organising his men. Elian’s two guards did not leave his side, but the rest of the party gathered around at their leader’s signal.

‘We don’t have long until nightfall,’ he observed. ‘We need traps set before dark sets in. My guess is that she’ll approach from the east at dawn, when her powers
are at their peak. We will therefore concentrate our efforts on the eastern edge.’

‘What powers does she have, Kasau?’

‘Do you want an honest answer?’

The man nodded. ‘I’ve never come this close to a dawn dragon before.’

‘The truth is I don’t know anything for certain,’ Kasau admitted. ‘And what little I’ve heard was rumour and speculation. Does anyone here know about dawn
dragons?’ His question met with silence. ‘You, boy – do you know what powers your dragon possesses?’

Elian met Kasau’s gaze with a sullen, defiant stare. No more than a few heartbeats passed before the hunter shook his head.

‘I thought not. You only met her for the first time yesterday. Why should you know? I doubt she’ll use fire, even if she can project it. She’ll not risk hurting her rider.
Aside from that I can think of little she could do against a standard set of dragon traps. We’ll prepare as best we can. Husam – you and Tembo take three men and set traps on the
western edge in case she’s a wily one. If we have time later, we’ll set more to the north and south.’

He turned to Elian’s guards. ‘You two remain with the boy. Don’t let him out of your sight. If he escapes, I’ll personally gut you where you stand.’

There was a moment of tense silence. Kasau stared at the two guards almost as if trying to hypnotise them. Suddenly he broke eye contact and turned away. In silence he led the majority of the
men off to the eastern quarter of the wood. Elian shuddered. The leader of the dragonhunters was the creepiest man he had ever seen. His mismatched eyes were strange, but it was more than that.
There was an aura of coldness about him that made him almost inhuman.

It was a while before Elian dared to move. After Kasau’s warning the guards looked poised to stamp on him, or worse, if he so much as twitched. With his fur-lined garments over his normal
clothing, it was not long before he began to overheat in the warmth of the late afternoon. Initially he was determined not to ask for anything. However, as he began to sweat, so his headache
returned. His skull throbbed and pounded until he was forced to ask for water and to take off his outer layer of clothing.

After careful consideration and a quiet, whispered conference, the guards decided to allow his requests. The water tasted brackish and stale. It quenched his immediate thirst, but he was too
dehydrated for the drink to grant a quick fix to his headache. It would take time for his body to absorb the water. The best cure was sleep, but it was hard to contemplate sleep when these men were
preparing to kill his dragon.

‘Don’t come back for me, Ra. They’re setting traps for you. Don’t come back. You must stay away
. . .’

It was not much, but it was the best he could do. He repeated the warnings over and over again in his mind, concentrating through the thumping pain of his headache with dogged determination. It
was hard to say exactly how long he kept it up, but the light under the trees was fading fast when Kasau appeared, as if from nowhere.

‘Give it up, boy. She’ll not hear you,’ he said, his calm, soft voice making Elian jump guiltily.

‘How did you know what I was doing?’

‘It was written all over your face,’ the dragon-hunter said with a shrug. ‘Your mind speaking won’t work over long distances. You might as well shout out loud for all the
good it will do.’

‘How do you know?’ Elian asked.

‘I’ve been doing this a long time. I know dragons. The mind link appears common to all types of dragon, but it normally only works over a relatively short range – a few hundred
paces at most. Under exceptional circumstances I’ve seen it work over longer distances, but that was unusual.’

‘But you told the others that you’ve never seen a dawn dragon before.’

Kasau’s eyes went distant. ‘That’s true, boy. I haven’t. Dawn dragons are rare – extremely rare. I wasn’t even sure any existed until yesterday. To take such
a beast will mark the pinnacle of my career.’

‘Why are you doing this?’ Elian asked. ‘If you know dragons, then you know they’re friendly and intelligent. Aurora is good and noble. She hasn’t hurt anyone. And
you know the Overlords don’t allow the hunting of dragons, except for rogues. Even night dragons are protected. I don’t know what the punishment is for killing a dragon, but I expect
it’s unpleasant.’

‘Death, boy. The penalty is death. As for why we’re doing it – the answer should be obvious. Gold. What else?’

‘You’d risk your life to kill an intelligent creature for a few gold pieces? That’s sick!’ Elian exclaimed, unable to contain his horror.

‘No, I wouldn’t do it for a few gold pieces, boy. But that golden dragon of yours is worth more than a few gold pieces. Magicians will pay more gold than you could possibly imagine
for a single piece of horn from a dawn dragon. Every part of her is saleable: the scales, the bones, the eyes, the talons, the teeth – everything. The beast is worth a fortune greater than
any of the Overlords will ever possess. Tell me that’s not worth the risk.’

Elian didn’t answer. He could believe what Kasau said about Aurora’s worth, but there was an edge in the man’s voice. The dragonhunter was hiding something. He talked of the
gold, but there was no passion in his voice as he did so. Whatever his motive for wanting to kill Aurora, it was not the money. Elian was sure of it.

Was he a man who killed for the sake of killing? Did he get some perverse pleasure from killing a creature that nature had made larger, stronger and faster than himself? Or was it something
else? Whatever his motive, Elian could see that Kasau would not be turned by anything a young dragon-rider said.

The dragonhunter did not seem concerned by Elian’s silence.

‘I’m going to tie you up now, boy,’ he said. ‘I’ll not risk my men making a foolish error that might allow you to slip away. We’ll be lighting the fire
shortly, so you won’t freeze. Now put your hands behind your back.’

Elian stared defiantly into the man’s strange eyes and did not move.

‘We can do this the easy way, or the hard way,’ Kasau said, his soft voice impassive as he met Elian’s stare with a cold, heartless expression. ‘It’s your choice. I
care not.’

The dragonhunter pulled a length of cord from a pocket and wound one end around each hand to form a garrotte. Elian maintained his stare for another few heartbeats before relenting with a sigh.
He placed his hands meekly behind his back.

‘Ah, you do have some intelligence then. That’s good. I like to see that in a boy.’

With swift efficiency, Kasau tied Elian’s hands together. Despite Elian’s best efforts to work some slack into the cord as the dragonhunter bound him, subsequent testing proved the
knots to be well tied. Kasau then bound Elian’s ankles together, and pushed him to the ground. A third piece of cord was used to join the two sets of knots together. He left about a handspan
of cord running between the wrist and ankle knots, allowing Elian some flexibility to alter his position, but not much.

By the time Kasau had finished, Elian realised that although he could manoeuvre his body to lie on one side or the other, he could not roll through a full three hundred and sixty degrees. He was
helpless. Within moments the shame and frustration of his situation built within him until tears began to well. He had been a dragonrider for a day and already he had failed Aurora so badly that
she might die.

‘Give it up, boy,’ Kasau ordered. ‘There’s nothing you can do. Get some rest. It’ll be over soon enough. When we have your dragon, you’ll be
released.’

Elian did not believe Kasau for a heartbeat. The dragonhunters could not let him go. Once they had killed Ra, they would have no choice but to kill him as well. He had to escape. It was easy
enough said, but how?

Darkness fell swiftly under the leafy canopy. Dusk had barely settled before the blanket of night smothered the campsite. The guards lit the fire and sat idly chatting about how they would spend
their fortunes, whilst Elian secretly worked to free his hands and feet.

Throughout the evening he felt the ground around him for a stone with a sharp edge, or anything that he might use to cut through the cord. Pretending to seek a more comfortable position was not
difficult, for in reality he never achieved one. He moved frequently, shuffling his body a little at a time to extend his search, but he found nothing. Hiding his straining muscles from the guards
with careful body positioning, he flexed against the cord until the pain became unbearable. He tried so hard he felt sure he was in danger of breaking his wrists, but the cords remained as tight as
ever.

Eventually, late into the night, exhaustion caught up with him and he slipped into a troubled sleep. Waking with a start, the first thing Elian noticed was that his hands and feet were totally
numb, as was the whole of his right arm from having slept on it for some hours.

‘Be strong, Elian. We’ll be together soon.’

It was Ra! She was nearby.

‘No, Ra! You mustn’t! They’ve set traps for you. They’ll kill you. Please stay away,’
he thought, focusing hard to project his words loud and clear.

Even as he completed the thought, he noticed Kasau silently waking those men still under blankets.

‘She’s back,’ he whispered as he shook them. ‘Get to your positions.’

If he had not been so frantic with worry, Elian would probably have admired the men for their response. They melted into the trees in the pre-dawn half-light without a sound. Having roused his
men, Kasau made a final check on Elian’s bonds.

‘It won’t be long now,’ he said, his soft voice tight with suppressed excitement.

‘I hope you rot in hell!’ Elian responded, spitting at the man’s back as he turned to follow his men towards the eastern edge of the woods.

Kasau did not look back. Within a few heartbeats he was gone, leaving Elian all alone next to the smouldering fire pit. ‘Why haven’t the dragon-hunters left a guard?’ he
wondered aloud. ‘Because I’ve already served my purpose,’ he breathed. ‘Ra’s back and I haven’t managed to get loose. They’re right. Why should I suddenly
be able to get away now?’

‘Because you have help,’ whispered a voice right next to his ear.

Elian nearly jumped out of his skin. ‘Who—?’

‘Shh!’

It was a girl! Who was she, and why was she helping him? He felt the cord tying his wrists to his ankles part with a jerk and he stretched out his legs, luxuriating in the relative freedom. She
cut the cords binding his wrists next, followed swiftly by those around his ankles. Within a matter of heartbeats he was free, but he could not move.

‘Come on! Quickly! We’ve got to get out of here!’ she urged.

‘I can’t. My feet are numb, and my legs are cramping. I don’t think I can walk,’ he replied, deeply shamed by his weakness.

‘Here, take my arm,’ she offered. ‘I’ll try to support you, but we have to move now. Aurora won’t be able to buy us much time.’

‘How do you know Aurora’s name? Who are you?’

‘I’m Kira; and my dragon, Longfang, told me. No more questions. There’ll be time for that later. Come. We must go.’

She was a dragonrider! Elian grabbed his fur-lined gear, which was in a convenient pile within arm’s reach. He shoved the hat on his head, fumbled the jacket on, stuffed the gloves
clumsily into the jacket pockets, tucked the trousers under his right arm and slung his pack over his shoulder. There was no sign of his sword anywhere, but while having a weapon might have brought
comfort, he knew nothing of fighting with a blade. If the hunters found him holding a sword they would be more likely to kill him. He was better off without it, he decided.

The blood was returning to his hands and feet, and the pain it brought with it was excruciating. Kira dragged him to his feet, pulling his left arm around her shoulders and tucking her right arm
around his waist. Without her support he would have collapsed in an instant.

In the shadowy half-light, Elian could see she was almost as tall as he was; slim, but with surprising strength for one with such a slight build.

‘Come on! Come on!’ she whispered through gritted teeth, as she all but carried him off into the trees. From what he could tell they were moving just north of westwards.

Elian did his best to comply. Behind them Ra roared a challenge from some distance to the east of the woods. With the racket she was making, it would be hard for the dragonhunters to ignore
her.

‘Whatever you do, don’t look back,’ Kira warned.

‘What about the traps?’

‘Let me worry about those. I know where they are. Fang is waiting for us just beyond the western edge of the trees.’