Firestorm (21 page)

Later, sitting around the fire with full stomachs as dusk faded into night, they discussed the meaning of the Oracle’s riddles.

‘Well I’d say the first verse sets the scene and gives us a sort of summary of our task,’ Kira offered. ‘Listen:

‘I might be wrong, but it just seems to say that we’re supposed to “slay the final death” of the Oracle. What do you think? It would be good to hear the dragons’
thoughts on it too.’

Nolita shivered at the suggestion and sat with her arms crossed, rocking gently and hugging herself. Heartbeats passed silently, but no one had anything to add.

‘Ra suggests that “Love’s life-force giving,” could be to do with us accepting the Oracle’s task. You know, that it’s our life purpose,’ Elian offered
eventually.

‘That makes sense,’ Pell replied. ‘Of course the next two lines are easy,’ he continued quickly.

‘Our task is to find the four Orbs and give them to the Oracle. This will somehow stop it from dying.’

‘Genius,’ Kira muttered, rolling her eyes.

‘Kira! Don’t start again. Remember the Oracle said if we don’t work together we’ll fail,’ Elian warned. ‘So there are four orbs – does anyone have any
clues as to what the orbs are like? What are we looking for?’

‘Well there are four following verses and each seems to talk about a different orb,’ Kira offered. ‘Each orb looks like it’s linked to one of the four breeds of dragon in
the order day, night, dusk and dawn.’

This time it was Pell who rolled his eyes in an exaggerated imitation of Kira.

Elian ignored him. ‘Agreed,’ he said. ‘Let’s try to make sense of the first.
Delve ’neath the surface, life’s transport hides.
Does anyone understand
that? It doesn’t mean much to me.’

‘Delve ’neath the surface
sounds like it might be talking about caves, or mines,’ Pell suggested.
‘Delving
makes me think of digging deep underground. And
life’s transport
could be a dragon, or dragons. We are dragonriders, after all. Our transport for the rest of our lives will be dragons. I was taught that dragons hatch in caves and
live underground for some time before setting off into the world on their journeys.’

Kira pursed her lips and her eyebrows drew together in a frown as she considered his interpretation. ‘So you think there might be a dragon somewhere in a deep cave who’s guarding the
first orb?’ she asked.

‘I don’t know. I’m just trying to guess at some possible meanings. Do you have a better idea?’ he asked, leaning back on one arm whilst casually spearing another piece of
meat with his knife. His eyes held an unspoken challenge as he waited for her response.

‘No, I don’t, but something about it being a dragon in a cave doesn’t ring true,’ she said eventually.

‘Of course not,’ Pell scoffed. ‘It was
my
suggestion. Admit it, Kira, you don’t
want
me to be right.’

‘Offal!’ she snapped. ‘Even if that was true, I’m not fool enough to push aside the right answer just because I don’t like it.’

Elian sighed loudly. ‘For goodness’ sake, will you two cut it out! Nolita, do you have any ideas?’

The blond girl shook her head quickly. She remained staring into the flames and rocking back and forth, her knuckles white where they gripped her sides.

‘All right, if no one’s got any more ideas on those lines,’ Pell said, seizing the initiative, ‘let’s go on:
Healing, restoring – bright river tides.
Any ideas on this? I reckon the first two words probably describe the effect of the orb on the Oracle, but
bright river tides?
What’s that all about?’

No one had anything to offer.

‘What about the next line then?’ Pell started, but whatever he was going to say next went unsaid as a wail of anguish broke from Nolita’s lips.

‘Nooooooo!’

‘What’s the matter, Nolita? What’s the matter?’ Elian asked urgently.

Kira leaned to place a comforting hand on the girl’s shoulder, but Nolita shrugged it away. ‘Don’t touch me!’ she snarled. ‘Stay away from me. This can’t be
happening. It can’t be true.’

‘What can’t be true, Nolita?’ Elian persisted gently. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘It’s Fire— the voice of the beast in my head,’ she sobbed, almost naming her dragon for the first time in her distress. ‘It says it knows what the next two lines
mean. It says they relate to me. It’s a lie! It has to be!’ With that she staggered to her feet, stumbled away from the fire and ran off into the darkness weeping bitterly.

‘Let her go,’ Elian said, restraining Pell as he moved to follow her. ‘She won’t run far, and Firestorm can always find her for us when we need to leave. Ra, could you
ask Firestorm what he told her, please?’

‘Of course, Elian.’
There was a pause.
‘Ah, it’s no wonder that Nolita is upset,’
she said a moment later. ‘Enter the sun’s steps; shed no
more tears. Attain ye the orb; vanquish the fears.
Firestorm tells me there’s a special chamber at the enclave of the day dragons called the Sun’s Steps. He feels the lines are a
personal message to Nolita. If so, then the task of attaining the day orb is to be hers, but in order to attain the orb she’ll have to stop crying and overcome her fears.’

Elian related Firestorm’s words to the others.

‘This Sun’s Steps cavern wouldn’t happen to be the home of a dragon by any chance?’ Pell asked, glancing across at Kira with a distinctly smug expression.

‘I don’t know,’ Elian replied, ‘but there’s only one sure way to find out.’

Chapter Eighteen

‘I’m not coming,’ Pell stated.

Elian and Kira looked first at Pell, and then at one another. For a moment Elian thought he must have misheard what Pell had said, but as his memory played back the words he realised he had
heard correctly.

‘Why on Areth not?’ he asked. ‘We’re supposed to work together, aren’t we?’

‘Work together, yes, but that doesn’t mean we have to travel together. Me and Shadow wouldn’t be welcome at the day dragon enclave. There’s always been trouble between
day and night dragons. If we came, who knows what might happen? We’re not going to risk it. We’d be foolish to try. And despite what you might think, Kira, I’m no fool.’

‘Frightened, are we?’ Kira asked, her voice carrying a taunting edge that made Elian throw his hands in the air with frustration.

‘I told you, Kira, I’m not afraid of anything,’ Pell retorted angrily. ‘It’s not about fear. It’s about common sense. Go to the chamber. Get the orb with
Nolita. I’ll start looking for the night orb. Nolita’s going to need your help to complete her part of the quest. I’m going find the
brave ones
at the enclave of the night
dragons and see what they can tell me about the night orb.’

‘Are you sure that’s what the lines in the third verse mean?’ Elian asked, his voice laced with doubt. ‘No offence, but I would have thought the
brave ones
were
the day dragons.’

‘Ha! And I suppose you’ll hold up Nolita as proof of this?’ Pell scoffed.

A deafening roar from one of the nearby dragons made all three riders jump.

‘What’s going on? What’s wrong?’
Elian asked Ra in a flash.

‘Firestorm is letting Pell know that he disapproves of anyone slurring his rider. He stands ready to defend her.’

‘Well tell him to back down. Pell doesn’t understand Nolita. He’s tactless, but I don’t think he’s out to start a fight,’
Elian projected.
‘It’s not good to speak badly of a dragonrider when her dragon’s around, Pell,’ he continued aloud. ‘Firestorm might not be as big as Shadow, but I wouldn’t like
to see what he could do if he became really angry.’

A flash of doubt passed across Pell’s face, but he was quick to regain his composure after a rapid mental exchange with his dragon.

‘Shadow’s not afraid of Firestorm,’ he said. ‘Nor am I. We’ll leave in the morning. I expect to return to the Oracle with the night orb within the
fortnight.’

‘What about the first line of that verse, Pell?’ Kira asked. ‘The lines seem full of hidden meanings, but I don’t like the sound of
death brings me life.
Whatever
the rest of the third verse means, I’ve got a bad feeling about that phrase. I think it would be safer to look for one orb at a time. A quest like this sounds great – full of excitement
and adventure. The thing is, in lots of the quest stories I’ve heard, people die. It doesn’t matter what we think of one another. We’ve all got different strengths and weaknesses.
If we work together, we’ll stand a better chance of getting through this thing alive.’

‘I agree,’ Elian said. ‘I don’t like the idea of splitting up. How would we know if you failed? We could end up wasting time trying to find you.’

‘That’s offal, and you know it!’ Pell responded, his stance defensive and set. ‘Whoever gets back to the Oracle first can leave a message for the others. If the Oracle
won’t relay it, then the Guardians will. I’m not going to the enclave of the day dragons and that’s final. I suggest you worry about how to help Nolita get brave enough to beat
her fears. From what I’ve seen, it won’t be easy.’

Nolita ran from the campfire and into the forest, but she had not gone more than fifty paces before new fears assaulted her. It was dark under the trees – very dark.
There were strange noises and smells that ignited her imagination with thoughts of stalking predators and unknown dangers lurking behind every tree. She stopped. Her heart hammered. When she turned
she could see the glow of the campfire, warm and friendly. To go much further would mean being blind and alone. It would be easy to get lost.

She sank down against the trunk of a tree and began to cry. Tears streamed down her face as deep sobs of misery shook her to the core. She so wanted to be brave like her brother Balard, who
would have made a fine dragonrider, or her sister, Sable, who seemed as fearless as Nolita was fearful. Why was she cursed with being different? It was so unfair.

The Oracle had conveyed its trust in her during the moment it had held her in its gaze. She had felt its faith course through her and for that short time she had felt as if she could face
anything. Now, however, that feeling had long gone and she felt small, alone and vulnerable again. The weight of the Oracle’s charge hung heavy on her heart. She felt neither worthy of its
trust, nor capable of seeing the quest through.

Three times now she had ridden on a dragon’s back. Despite her fears, and the turbulent conditions, no harm had come to her. Why was she still terrified?

Just thinking about flying brought to mind the sensation of touching the dragon’s scales. Suddenly she felt unclean again. The instinct to wash her hands was overwhelming. The stream was
the other side of the campsite, but if she moved carefully, she could reach it without alerting the others to her presence.

The beast would know, of course. She could feel its presence in her head. It seemed to be there constantly, lurking in the dark recesses of her mind. Would it tell the others? If they came after
her she would run. She desperately needed to be alone. It had been bad enough when she had been on the run from the beast. Now she had to cope with the added pressure of this strange quest.

The others seemed so perfectly suited to this sort of thing. Elian, with his obvious hunger for adventure and his love of flying, was in his element. Kira was tough and at home in the wild. She
was so fierce at times that Nolita was sure lions would run if they saw her coming. Then there was Pell: tall and strong, calm and self-confident. Why then was it her destiny to face the
Oracle’s first challenge? If this was the Creator’s will, He had a sick sense of humour.

‘Mother and Father would have a fit if they knew you were thinking such blasphemy, Nolita,’ she chided herself. ‘Come on. Pull yourself together.’

Dashing the tears from her cheeks, she climbed back to her feet and leaned against the tree to gather her composure. Steadier in mind and body, she skirted around the campsite and headed down
towards the stream.

It took a little while, but she moved so silently that the others were not aware of her. The beasts were all some distance away and were unlikely to bother her until the riders were ready to
leave in the morning.

Plunging her hands into the cold, clear water was bliss and she could feel her body relaxing as soon as she began the familiar ritual. Nolita set to scrubbing her hands vigorously, taking care
to avoid making any noise. As she washed, her thoughts drifted back to the moment when the Oracle held her in its gaze and she had felt brave enough to face any danger. Was it possible? Could the
Oracle have furnished her with a hidden measure of bravery? If so, how could she access it?

Dipping her hands back into the cold mountain stream, she suddenly noticed the silvery reflection of the great moon shimmering on the surface of the water. It had been there all along, but she
had been too preoccupied to notice. The sky was totally clear of cloud. The two minor moons and the stars burned with breathtaking brilliance. Awestruck, she reclined on the bank and gazed up into
the infinite depths of space, lost in wonder at the vast number of stars lighting the heavens.