Perilous Shadows: Book 6 Circles of Light (57 page)

‘Why are there Dragons
in the picture?’ Dog asked, when Subaken stopped speaking. ‘I’ve
always known that the Lords in my Realm can change into Dragon
shape, but Dragons like Farn and Brin have never been seen or heard
of there. Shea said she’d never heard tales of Dragons in Kelshan
either.’

‘We knew of Dragons
only from the great painting in Steadfast,’ agreed
Dromi.

‘But the people of
Sapphrea know of Dragons because in the north at least, they can
see them. And the people of Malesh revere them as one of the Elder
Races.’ Tika added slowly.

‘We knew nothing of
Dragons until we came to this world.’ Rhaki made his contribution.
‘And we had no idea of their intelligence or of their ability to
use power or mind speech until my sister discovered it, scarcely
two hundred years ago.’

‘I have never heard of
Elder Races,’ Subaken frowned.

Tika formed a mental
picture of the gijan Elder, Rainbow, and Subaken
blinked.

‘Your father said that
your people can change their forms. Do you change to
Dragons?’

‘No. Any other
creature, but never the Dragon shape. That was a gift Mother Dark
gave only to her First child, Lerran.’

Tika’s stomach gave an
unfortunately loud growl. ‘May we come here again? And I’m ready
for some food right now I’m afraid.’

The slight air of
tension which had arisen, dissipated as people smiled in agreement.
As they left the courtyard, and Subaken’s power extinguished the
light, Tika waited, with her friends. They were making their way
back through the corridors when another thought occurred to
Tika.

‘What does Mother Dark
look like? Does anyone know?’

Subaken didn’t falter
but Tika felt – something – from Shadow’s daughter.

‘No. No one
knows.’

Chapter
Thirty-One

Tika was restless that
night, and when most of her companions were asleep, she crept out
into the courtyard garden. Dog propped herself on an
elbow.

‘She going off with
Farn?’ she whispered to Sket.

‘I expect so. Too much
buzzing through her head I reckon,’ he replied.

They settled back
again, to wait for their Lady’s return.

Farn followed Tika to
the open space in the very centre of the garden.

‘Shall we fly, my
Tika?’

She looked up at a sky
studded with stars without number, and the light of a half moon to
the south. She climbed between his wings and he lifted
effortlessly. They flew in a comfortable silence, seeing Kija and
Storm asleep in Kija’s hidden glade, but flying on to the beach
where Farn had brought both Tika and Subaken. The sand looked
silver in the moonlight and each small wave was capped with silver
too.

Farn landed and paced
along the strand with his soul bond. He couldn’t imagine anything
more blissful than having his Tika all to himself, miles from
anyone else. But he was not blind to her worries.

‘I know there is much
too much for you to think of, but what is that keeps you awake
tonight?’

Tika sighed and sat on
the sand, which still felt a little warm from the day’s sun. Farn
curved himself protectively around her, his chin on the top of her
head.

‘Mother Dark. She seems
to grow bigger in my thoughts every day. And Lord Dabray. Farn, I
so need to understand, yet I just don’t know which thread to follow
first.’

As Farn understood
practically nothing of the situation, he wisely remained silent.
Tika dug in the pocket inside her shirt and removed the two Dragon
scales and the tiny shells. The shells she replaced, but after
smoothing a patch of sand by her knee, she carefully laid the
scales flat. Farn lowered his head to study them as closely as Tika
did. Seela’s purple scale looked almost black in the dim light, but
Dabray’s scale glittered and shone. Tika stared. She lifted Seela’s
scale, brushing the sand from it, and tucked it back inside her
shirt. Then she bent back over Dabray’s scale.

Her pendant dropped
free of her collar, dislodged as she delved in the inner pocket. It
swung out over Dabray’s opalescent scale and light flashed between
the two objects. Tika jerked backwards and Farn pushed himself up
in alarm.

‘What happened? What
was that? Are we all right?’

Tika gave a gurgle of
laughter. ‘Yes dear one. I think we’re all right.’

She struggled up and,
holding the pendant out of the way with her hand, she peered at the
scale again. It seemed unchanged, and the pendant remained cold and
lifeless.

‘Why did it do that?’
Farn asked anxiously.

‘But which did what? Or
was it both of them?’ Tika wondered.

She pulled the chain
over her head and let the pendant hang at its end, well clear of
the scale.

‘Farn, watch closely
and see if you think it is only one or both.’

‘Oh I really don’t
think that’s a good idea,’ Farn began, when Tika swung the pendant
over the scale.

There was another
needle of white light darting between the two and Tika moved the
pendant away.

‘Both,’ she said with
satisfaction.

Farn’s eyes whirred
rapidly – he was not impressed with either of those startling
flashes of light.

‘Is that good?’ he
asked doubtfully.

‘I think it means the
pendant recognises Dabray. I’ll check though.’

She fished out Seela’s
scale and swung the pendant over it. Farn flinched but there was no
reaction at all from either scale or pendant.

‘So what does it mean,
that the pendant knows Dabray?’

‘Subaken said that
Mother Dark gave the gift of Dragon shape only to her first child,
or children, and they are the Dark Ones. But they are very
different Dragons to you, are they not?’

Farn huffed and Tika
stared up into his face. ‘Well? What does that mean
Farn?’

He huffed again and
rattled his wings against his back. ‘They frighten me. Only a bit,
but they do.’

Tika wrapped her arms
around his head. ‘Oh Farn, why didn’t you say so before? Are you
really frightened of Shivan?’

‘Well no, perhaps not
Shivan, but Lord Cyrek.’

Tika felt a shudder run
through Farn’s body and held on to him. ‘Lord Cyrek?’ she
prompted.

‘We didn’t like him
from the first but that was when he was in man shape. When he’s in
Dragon shape he is very, very dangerous and scary.’

‘Tell me.’

Farn showed her Kija’s
first meeting with Cyrek, at Lady Emla’s House. Tika saw Kija
advance on Cyrek, aggression pulsing from her. She saw Cyrek
shimmer into Dragon form, revert to human and then approach Kija.
Tika gasped aloud when she saw Kija flat on the ground, neck
extended, great tears rolling down her golden face.

‘Why didn’t you show me
this before? And how do you know of it? You were lost in the Dark
then.’

‘Brin showed me. He
doesn’t like Cyrek at all, but he said if mother can be forced to
submit like that, it means Cyrek is far too strong for him to
fight. My Tika, mother doesn’t know that I know.’

Tika released her hold
on Farn and sat on the sand again. ‘I’ll say nothing, but Cyrek
will surely pay for Kija’s humiliation.’

Farn’s agitation didn’t
diminish as he sensed the fury within Tika. He watched, feeling how
she tamped the anger into a tiny parcel and pushed it into a corner
of her mind. She drew in a long deep breath and Farn saw the ice
melt from her eyes, and allowed himself to relax again. He, more
than anyone, even those Dark Lords, understood just how much Tika’s
power had increased since she’d entered the Dark in Kelshan. And he
also understood how she feared what losing control over her temper
might mean to anyone in her vicinity.

She had picked up
Dabray’s scale, wiping away the few grains of sand that clung to
its pearly surface. Carefully Tika put it back in her pocket with
Seela’s scale and the two minute Chyliax shells. She hung the
pendant around her neck again and cupped it in her hands. She
tilted it to catch the best of the moonlight and increased the
focus of her vision. The tiny shape deep in the pendant’s heart
moved slightly and, for the first time, Tika saw tiny eyes staring
directly out at her from the Dragon’s face.

She held her breath,
but it had turned away and then grew still. She continued to stare
at it, trying to fathom why it should have reacted to Dabray’s
scale as it had.

‘Could the pendant have
come from the Dark, my Tika?’

‘I’m wondering the
same. Cyrek handled it and he thought it was merely a pretty
bauble. Dromi said much the same, so it’s clear neither of them
know of such things. But there were so many of them hidden in that
cave in the Domain of Asat.’

Tika dropped the
pendant back under her shirt and got to her feet.

‘We should go back
Farn, it’s very late.’

As she climbed between
his wings, he sent another thought. ‘Perhaps the pendants are
Mother Dark’s own. Things she made, before she had her
children.’

Tika laughed as he rose
into the night. ‘Perhaps. But that just gives me more to think of
than solving anything for me, my dearest.’

When the blue gowned
women had served breakfast, Tika wandered out of the house to stand
near the main double doors of Darallax’s house. She watched the
people moving through the narrow streets between the grey white
rows. They all wore simple tunics or gowns, occasionally she saw
trousers worn by both men and women. All were barefooted. Navan
leaned on the wall beside her.

‘Odd, how quiet it is.
Do you remember how deafening it was in Harbour City?’

Tika laughed. ‘It made
my head spin, and the crowds!’

‘Are they using mind
speech?’

‘I think so, yes. And
do you know Navan, I’m not sure which I prefer. The quiet here is
nearly as uncomfortable as the noise in Malesh.’

Navan nodded. ‘I know
what you mean.’ He pushed away from the wall and stretched his back
until his spine popped.

‘I’m going to look at
those maps again. You coming?’

‘In a
moment.’

Tika stayed where she
was, watching people on the other side of the river in the matching
half of the town. She heard someone approaching and sighed
inwardly, but summoned a smile when Konrik joined her.

‘A messenger came last
night, from the Dark Realm.’ He handed her a folded paper, sealed
with black wax bearing the Dragon insignia. ‘We are warned that
Dark watchers sensed the mind signature of the one named
Cyrek.’

‘Where?’ Tika asked
sharply.

‘In Kelshan
City.’

Tika turned the paper
between her fingers, not yet opening it. She met Konrik’s pale
green eyes. ‘Where is Khosa?’

Konrik leaned more
heavily on his staff. ‘She is resting.’

Tika felt the stirrings
of alarm. ‘Why does she need to rest?’

Konrik slid his free
hand under her elbow and gently urged her to walk with him across
the grass.

‘Did you know she was
born human?’

‘Yes. She came here
with her parents and sister in one of those Ships.’

Konrik nodded. ‘Somehow
her father discovered a way to change body shapes, and he convinced
her and her sister to take other forms. Then they were to go into
the world as his – representatives.’

‘Spies,’ Tika
corrected.

Konrik’s shoulder
bumped hers as he shrugged. ‘Whatever. You have been told of the
conditions laid on those who change their shape?’

Tika frowned, unsure of
his meaning.

‘If we change to the
shape of a predator – a wolf, a dog, a cat – it is permissible to
hunt prey, and to kill.’

‘But not to eat that
kill.’ Tika closed her eyes briefly, seeing picture after picture
of Khosa returning to camp, a mouse clamped in her jaws.

Konrik squeezed her arm
against his side. ‘Just so. She asked us if we could reverse her
state. We cannot. She has been changed far, far too long. But she
insisted we try, so we did, but if we had continued she would have
died. We went further than any of my people truly thought was safe
for her. We thought we had lost her in fact, yesterday evening. My
master and I used much of our power to hold her and finally
stabilise her. It was – not pleasant.’

Tika stopped. ‘May I
see her?’

She was struck again by
how small the Shadow people were. Konrik was barely two finger
widths taller than her. He raised his hand and used his thumb to
wipe the tears from beneath her eyes.

‘She has little
strength as yet, but we believe she will live.’

Tika nodded, and Konrik
led her back to the house. He took her through a section she’d not
yet seen and then up two flights of stairs. It was very quiet and
the few people she saw wore tunics of cream or white. Finally
Konrik stopped before a door. He gave her a quick glance, then
opened the door for her.