Longfang (11 page)

Fang had never thought of trying to shield another dragon in such a way before. He had done so physically, but never mentally. However, it made perfect sense. Without delay he slid in close
behind Firestorm whilst employing his most intense physical and mental camouflage. He gave a quick explanation to the day dragon and then in a carefully coordinated manoeuvre, they turned. It was
surprisingly difficult to do accurately, but as they changed direction Fang eased progressively around Fire, working hard to keep himself between the day dragon and the following night dragons.

They held the new course until the nearest mountainside suddenly reared out of the falling snow in front of them. The turn to avoid crashing into the mountainside was tighter, but no less
coordinated. They went left until they were flying parallel to the slope and hugging the side of the mountain with Fang still maintaining the shield. As far as Fang could tell, the dragons behind
had not changed course to follow them.

Minutes passed and a valley leading into the mountain range opened up to their right. They turned again, dipping into the valley and slowing. From the moment they entered the valley the wind
drove the snow at them with increased fury. Visibility dropped still further, increasing the chance of crashing into an unseen mountainside.

‘This is madness, Fang!’
Kira told him.
‘Fire can’t possibly see where he’s going in this. We need to find somewhere to land and hide out. Preferably
somewhere that will offer us good shelter.’

‘I agree,’
Fang replied.
‘The night dragons are passing the valley entrance behind us and they are showing no sign of following. I believe we have lost them for now.
It would be sensible to sit out the remainder of this storm somewhere safe and discuss our options. I will keep up the shield for a minute or two longer and then take the lead. My sense of sight is
far keener than Firestorm’s. Do not fear. I will lead us safely to shelter.’

Longfang was as good as his word. He took the lead and found a cave large enough to shelter both riders and dragons in little more than ten minutes. Once out of the snow, Firestorm heated some
rocks with his fiery breath and the two girls recovered quickly, brewing hot drinks and cooking food to help speed the warming process. The cave was not very deep, so Fang positioned himself in the
entrance and remained camouflaged, hiding the presence of the others.

Kira said nothing as Nolita heated a separate small pan of water with which to wash her hands and face. The proximity of Firestorm within the limited space of the cave made the blonde girl
tauten. Kira knew that distraction was the most effective way to help her relax.

‘Well, the boys are probably at the Oracle’s cave by now,’ she said, doing her best to sound positive. ‘We’d better start concentrating on the next orb. I’ve
been thinking about the dusk orb verse:

What do you think? Any ideas?’

Nolita’s eyes were distant and she wrung her hands as if still rubbing soap into them. She did not answer for so long that Kira began to think she had not heard the question.

‘I have one thought, but it’s nonsense,’ she said eventually.

‘Nonsense? Ha! I doubt it’s any worse than mine,’ Kira replied. ‘Go ahead. Try me.’

‘It’s the line “Afterlife image, unreal yet real”,’ Nolita said slowly. ‘I can’t get the idea out of my head that an afterlife image is a ghost. I
don’t believe in ghosts, but no matter how hard I try to twist the meaning around, I can’t come up with anything else that fits the description.’

‘That’s exactly what I was thinking,’ Kira said thoughtfully. ‘Unreal . . . yet real. Does that mean ghosts are real? I don’t know. Someone seeing the Oracle for
the first time might consider it a ghost. It looks unreal, yet it’s definitely real. If we accept the Oracle is real, then why not another form of spirit creature?’

‘A spirit creature sounds better than a ghost to me,’ Nolita admitted. ‘Yes. A spirit creature that lives in the shadows. That makes sense. But where would you find such a
creature?’

‘In the place where the shadows dwell,’ Kira replied. ‘The verse says “Lives in the shadows” and the griffins told us to look for “the place where the shadows
dwell”. I’ve never heard of anywhere that sounds like that. Have you?’

‘No,’ said Nolita, shaking her head. ‘So where do we start looking? Look – we’re in a cave. We’re sitting in the shadows. Does this make the cave a place
where shadows dwell? Clearly not, or the orb could be in any one of a thousand places. There must be somewhere special. Somewhere that is identifiable as the place where shadows live – a
place where a spirit creature lives.’

They both fell silent. Where would they find such a place? It could be just about anywhere in Areth. It was Longfang who interrupted Kira’s thoughts to offer a solution.

‘What about the Grand Library of Harkesis?’
he suggested.

‘The Grand Library of Harkesis?’ she said aloud for Nolita’s benefit. ‘I’ve never heard of it. Do you know of a spirit creature living there, Fang?’

‘No,’
he sighed.
‘The Grand Library of Harkesis is the largest collection of information in Areth. If the answer to the Oracle’s riddle has been written down,
you will find it there.’

‘That makes sense,’ Kira said thoughtfully. ‘But there will be so much to read and we don’t have much time. How will we find what we want to know?’

‘Ask one of the librarians to help you,’
Fang suggested.
‘Many are scholars in their own right and will know where to look.’

‘All right, Harkesis it is,’ she announced, meeting Nolita’s eyes and giving her an encouraging smile. ‘So where exactly
is
Harkesis?’

Chapter Ten

Jack was having trouble taking it in. He was flying on a dragon’s back. It was a surreal experience.

His previous encounters with the dragons had always felt dreamlike. After his first sighting, he had wondered if the stress of combat was getting to him. Then there had been the fight when the
dragons had destroyed three enemy aircraft. No one else had witnessed them tear those aeroplanes to pieces. His superiors had thought him delusional and sent him home on leave after his report on
the incident, but they had been forced to change their tune after his last experience.

Jack had been on an extraction mission, picking up a French secret service agent from behind enemy lines when he had encountered the creatures again. He had been reluctant to mention the dragons
in this second report, but the French spy was difficult to keep quiet on the subject. Only when Jack’s Squadron Commander warned him that the dragons were a Top Secret project did he calm
down. It had proved a good ruse to keep the man quiet.

Jack had seen only two dragons this time. And there was no sign of the girl. Her dragon had made itself invisible. Could she make herself invisible too? There was no telling what strange
abilities these people had.

They flew west until they were clear of the battle lines and then they flew in gentle circles, apparently waiting for the second dragon and rider to catch up. Jack wondered what they were doing
back in dangerous no-man’s land. Perhaps they had been killed, though Jack felt this unlikely. Bullets had not penetrated the scales of the dragons before. It seemed their scales were formed
of a material far tougher than anything the British Government had been able to develop.

Jack reached down and ran his fingers across one of the dragon’s scales. It felt surprisingly soft and warm. How could something so soft turn aside bullets? There were so many questions to
ask.

At last, the other dragon rose from the ground to join them and once again they flew westwards, away from the battle lines and deeper into friendly territory. Jack began to relax and enjoy the
sensation of flying on this enormous creature’s back. After so many flying hours spent inside the cramped cockpit of fighting machines, it was a delight to stretch his legs and enjoy the
ride.

The light was fading fast now that the sun had dipped below the horizon. However, as the dragons began to descend, Jack suddenly realised where they were heading. He knew he should not
interfere, but the riders had just saved his life. It did not feel right to let them fly into a trap.

Jack tapped the shoulder of the boy in front of him.

‘You’re going to the burnt wood, aren’t you?’ he said. ‘Don’t. People have been watching it since last year when all the local dogs went mad and your dragon
burned a path through the trees. My Squadron Commander asked me about it because he thought I might have more information.’

‘Last year? But . . . never mind. Thanks for the warning,’ the boy replied over his shoulder. His eyes went distant for a moment before re-focusing. ‘My dragon has confirmed
it. There are watchers. We’ll find somewhere else. Have you got any suggestions?’

Jack thought for a moment. There was a decent stand of woods not far from the airstrip his squadron were using. So long as they approached low and from the west, it was unlikely anyone would see
them coming. He knew he would probably get into trouble for this, but he didn’t care.

‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I know a place where you can land in secret. It would be best if you told the dragons to go invisible.’

‘Only Kira’s dragon has the ability to camouflage himself,’ the boy replied. ‘And Kira’s not with us. It’s getting dark. We’ll just have to be as
careful as we can.’

It took about fifteen minutes to reach the woods. Judging by their apparent speed the dragons flew faster than his old scout aircraft. Aurora and Shadow landed and the riders dismounted. The
dragons headed for the cover of the trees. As they followed the great creatures, Jack got his first proper look at the two boys. The one he had flown with looked no more than about fourteen. The
other was older, possibly sixteen or seventeen. They both seemed far too young to be involved in secret projects, so it was unlikely the dragons were a part of any secret government plan –
not that he had ever believed that story.

Jack turned to the younger boy and lifted his flying goggles from his eyes so that he could see him more clearly. ‘Thank you,’ he began. ‘You have an uncanny way of turning up
at just the right moment. I’m Jack – Jack Miller.’ He held out his hand. After the slightest of pauses, the boy grasped and shook it.

‘Elian,’ he responded. ‘And my companion is Pell. I’ve noticed that almost every time I’ve come through a gateway you seem to be nearby, and danger is never far
behind you. Aurora, my dragon, says our destinies are intertwined. I don’t know exactly what that means, but perhaps if we talk for a bit, we might work it out between us.’

‘You speak English,’ Jack noted. The girl rider he met before had spoken English as well. ‘Where do you come from? Your accent is strange. I can’t place it.’

‘Actually I don’t speak your language at all,’ Elian said. ‘My dragon is translating for us. Don’t ask me how she does it, because I have no idea. I say something
in my language and your mind hears it in your language. That’s as much as I can tell you. It’s the same in reverse for me. We don’t come from your world, so your language is alien
to us.’

Jack’s mind spun as he tried to imagine how such instant translation worked.

‘So when I’ve seen you disappear into those swirling grey cloud things, you were travelling to this other world?’

‘Going back to it,’ Elian answered. ‘My dragon is a dawn dragon. She has the power to open the gateways, but only at the moment of dawn. We travel through your world in order
to cover vast distances in our own.’

‘You don’t use the gateways very often then,’ Jack observed.

‘Well, we’ve used them a lot recently, but time doesn’t move at the same rate here as it does in our world.’

‘Time . . . doesn’t . . .’ Jack repeated slowly. His words petered out as he tried to imagine what the boy was talking about. Accepting that the dragons were coming from
another world was hard enough, but time not moving at the same rate? That was not only impossible, it was beyond comprehension!

‘How long has it been since we helped you collect your companion from that field?’ Elian asked.

‘The pick-up mission? Oh, ages! It seems like for ever ago now. That was back in February,’ Jack said quickly, his mind racing through a quick calculation. ‘About seven
months.’

‘I thought as much. For me it’s only been a few days since that happened. In fact it’s only been a couple of weeks since you first saw us take off from the field where your
flying machine was housed.’

‘But that was over a year ago!’ Jack exclaimed. ‘How can that be?’

‘I don’t know,’ Elian admitted. ‘My dragon tells me that the relationship between time in our two worlds is not linear. I’m not sure what that means, but time is
currently moving much faster here than it is in my world.’