Shadow (22 page)

‘You're right.' Eric stroked the creature's hard leathery head. ‘I'll name you after a friend of mine. Nice to meet you, Case.'

The drake shut its eyes, seemed to groan and, to Eric's confusion, twice head-butted the floor.

Eric laughed, thinking that the real Case would get a kick out of the beast's reaction, if only he were here to see it.

3

Aziel slept deeply, for Stranger's spell ensured that no noise woke her. Watching her contemplatively, Far Gaze sat on the platform beneath a dark glittering ribbon of winding magic, sniffing in strands of it and murmuring. He'd wrapped a white sheet about himself.

When Loup's scale vision ended he rose from his bed ashen-faced. ‘I couldn't find her,' he told Eric with a sigh. ‘And I've used up the last little specks of black scale. She may well be gone now, lad.'

‘Siel? But what the hell happened?' said Eric.

‘He took her. Shadow did.'

‘How do you know, Loup? We've got an empty bed and a dream I had. That's enough for you to work out exactly what happened to her?'

Loup gave him a dark look but didn't answer. He filled a dish with water for the drake downstairs.

‘What do drakes eat?' Stranger asked.

‘Anything and everything,' said Loup, handing her the water dish.

Far Gaze rose from the platform. A ring of dark magic broke from the thick stream and circled his head like a spinning halo. It followed him across the room till he inhaled it with a deep sniff, little curls of it puffing through his lips when he spoke. ‘The drake will fend for itself, we need not feed it. Keep anything you don't want in its belly away from it. Shiny things most of all. Seffen used to feed their war drakes diamonds, ages ago. Intended to give them blood lust. Diarrhoea was more likely. But the drakes gladly ate them.'

‘What's the odd beast doing here then, eh?' said Loup.

‘I'm not the one to ask,' said Far Gaze, his eyes on Stranger.

‘Nor am I,' she said. ‘I've never seen that creature before in my life.'

‘Never seen a drake? I'll credit that. Rarer things, perhaps? Pilgrim, we must speak with you. Stranger, go downstairs until I call you. Go! Do not listen in. I will know if you try to.'

Water dish in hand, she went without a word. Far Gaze sat by the top of the steps, watching her go.

‘Is there a reason you have to talk to her that way?' Eric asked him.

Far Gaze laughed. ‘What chivalry. Never clashed with her, have you, Pilgrim? Watch your talk around her. Every word she hears, the dragons may hear also.'

‘My name's not Pilgrim.'

‘You have two names. Eric. And Shadow. Which should I call you?'

Eric scoffed, but he looked down at the bare floor where his shadow should have lain slanted behind him. Far Gaze watched him keenly. ‘The Arch Mage does not realise how close his Project is to succeeding,' he said. ‘If Vous can do this, he is close indeed to becoming a Great Spirit.'

Eric said, ‘Hold on a minute. One of the Arch Mage's war mages helped me out. It killed a Tormentor for us. It “saved” me from you in the woods, when you were in wolf-form, thinking you meant to attack me. Remember?'

‘Vividly. The stink of your fear was strong.'

‘The war mage wasn't “helping” us on the Arch Mage's orders,' said Eric. ‘Was it? Maybe it was nuts, but even if so, the castle lost control of it. So how the hell is he going to control a god? And if he can't, why would he want to create something more powerful than
him,
which he can't control?'

Far Gaze's eyes gleamed. ‘Indeed. And you can be assured this has gradually dawned on him, though maybe far too late. What do you think the so-called Arch Mage will try to do now? Eric? Loup?'

‘You tell us,' said Loup.

‘He will ruin Vous, while he still can,' said Far Gaze. ‘
If
he still can. Remove him from the throne, replace him with someone else. Maybe with himself. But it is probably too late for that. The great change draws close, if it has not happened already.'

Eric said, ‘I was told the Arch Mage spent hundreds of years trying to make all this happen. Now he wants to prevent it?'

‘It would seem so. And I tire of hearing his silly self-granted title. His name is Avridis and he is hardly the greatest mage who ever lived. The most destructive of our era, certainly. The father of all modern war magic. But not revered, not by us.' Far Gaze went to the platform and sniffed a big strand of the winding dark ribbon as though it were pipe smoke to focus his thoughts. His eyes glowed violet.

He said, ‘Simply put, a Great Spirit is an enormous power embodied, with a personality to govern it. The dragon-youth can be described in the same way, for they are of similar stature. The Arch has for centuries been drawing more and more power about Vous, binding it to him. With rituals, artefacts, by making people swear to him, and other means. But as he has lost control of Vous, Vous has lost control of himself. He opened the Entry Point and called you through, maybe by complete accident. The other gods might one day destroy him as they did Inferno. The destruction all this could cause is unthinkable. But even then, it is not the gravest danger facing us.

‘I have smelled much in the air on my travels. Too much to rightly make sense of – the mongrel understood things with his wolf's brain that I do not, when he wasn't busy filling my belly with rotting meat. The war is done. Finished. We have lost. Free Cities who were allies last week now skirmish among themselves. Many people have abandoned their cities, fleeing to Tanton for the final stand. Faifen is gone, Tsith is gone. Elvury belongs to no one, but no one will claim it. Tanton and High Cliffs may hold out for a time, but they are alone. Yinfel has already Aligned without one blade drawn.'

‘That'd be right,' Loup muttered.

‘There is more yet,' said Far Gaze. ‘Indeed the entire war may look like a skirmish before long. To begin with, foreign airs are here. Some of it is harmless enough if left alone. Some is deadly. It is well we are in this place above the ground, for the poisonous airs move lower. There were people made sick by it, whose skin had turned hard.

‘But after talking with Loup, it's clear our more imminent danger is Shadow. And he may also be our one hope. What do you know of him?'

‘Nothing,' Eric said angrily. ‘You ask that like I'm holding some private knowledge back. So does Loup. Do you think I wouldn't have told you by now? All I know is, some kid over by the wall said Shadow would save us all…' The words drained from him when he remembered what else the kid had said:
He rides a drake. A red drake …

Far Gaze's glowing eyes peered deeply into him. ‘Part of Vous longs to be undone, to be sent to a natural death where he will be at peace. You, Pilgrim, have become that weapon against him, which he himself made. A destroyer of gods, perhaps. Shadow is you. You are Shadow.'

‘I don't even know what Shadow
is.
How can it be me?'

‘Why you were chosen, only Vous can answer. You are entitled, if you wish, to feel honoured. In a way, you
have
been honoured. Invited to be part of great events. Though your being chosen might have been pure luck.'

Eric thought back to walking past the door on his way to work, and the sight of an eye at the keyhole. Whose was it? he wondered. The thought that it was Vous's eye made him shiver. ‘You say the other gods destroyed Inferno. Why don't they destroy Vous now?'

Far Gaze spread his hands. ‘It may be because he is in the castle still, where the other gods cannot seem to go. It may be they have decided
not
to destroy him, at least until he proves himself a danger. It may be that they will do no such thing! It
may
be that they need Vous to ascend and join them. They may need his help.'

‘Help … with what?'

‘That is where Stranger may assist us. Stranger! Come back. Tell the half-giant to come too, he is welcome to hear this. Tell us about the dragons.'

Stranger came up the steps with Gorb and Bald following. ‘Your pet drake is sick,' she told Eric. ‘He keeps trying to throw up.'

‘Why do you say he's
my
drake?' said Eric defensively.

‘Forget the drake,' said Far Gaze. ‘Tell us about his bigger cousins.'

Strange hesitated then went to sit on the platform. She breathed deeply of the dark winding ribbon of magic overhead. ‘What should I tell?'

‘To show us you are not loyal to the beast who so callously used you,' said Far Gaze with narrowed eyes, ‘tell us everything.'

She glared at him but said nothing.

‘I am not going to be patient with you much longer,' said Far Gaze. ‘The beast may come back to recover its prize. You had better prove you're worth fighting over. For there is an easier way to ensure it doesn't get what it wants.'

‘If you want a dragon wrathful with you, take that easy way,' she said hotly.

He smiled. ‘Are you
quite
sure he would be wrathful?'

Tears brimmed in her eyes. She gave Far Gaze a look that reminded Eric of Siel lining up a target with her bow.

Stranger turned to Eric. ‘I don't know quite where to begin.'

4

‘The dragons used to own this world. They had run of Levaal for a very long time. Everyone knows that much. The greater ones each had a region as his or her own. They fought at times, but not as often as we do. There were gods back then, but only three: Mountain, Tempest and Inferno. The old gods. But we are not concerned with them.

‘Of the dragons, there are eight Major personalities remaining. They are the original and only brood of the great Dragon, their Parent, overseer, guardian of Levaal, the Link. And protector of
your
world, Eric.'

‘
My
world?'

She smiled at him, sadly it seemed. ‘I told Case on the castle lawns that Levaal means
link which protects.
This world is the Link between your world and the world you would eventually come to if you went past World's End, down the far half of the Great Dividing Road, to Southern Levaal's
far
side, and on through the
far
Entry Point. There is another world on that side, Eric, though whether it is like yours or not, none say. And you would find, guarding that Entry Point, another Dragon-god, like the one that sleeps somewhere near
our
Entry Point.

‘Yes, there are two Dragon-gods,' said Stranger, noticing a look exchanged between Loup and Far Gaze. ‘They guard their respective worlds like hounds asleep at the front door. The worlds on either end of the Link are not compatible, or so it appears. The realities, it seems, do not mix. One will consume the other, if they begin to overlap. Yet both realities are drawn to each other. Levaal is – for want of better a word – their battleground.' She smiled. ‘And we put so much stock in our human squabbles and feuds! If either of the great Dragon-gods were slain, or sufficiently weakened, one reality would displace the other. It may be your world's reality, Eric, which loses. Or your world's reality may triumph and spread itself to a new place.'

‘Levaal's reality is not my world's reality,' said Eric.

‘But in some ways they are similar. No? Or you and I could not live here. Dyan would not tell me what is in Southern Levaal, nor what is found through the far Entry Point beyond it. Would you go through a door there too, Eric, if you found one?'

‘Nope.'

Stranger played with a winding dark thread which fluttered over to her from the platform. ‘The strain between the opposing worlds, the conflict, the “war” if you wish, has gone on as long as either world has existed. The point the two straining forces meet is World's End. Where until recently the Wall stood.'

She paused to suck thin curling wisps of magic air. Loup watched her closely as though expecting an outbreak of spell-casting. A little glimmer played in her eyes, violet like Far Gaze's eyes had been earlier, though hers were not as bright.

She went on. ‘The Wall was made when humans were brought to live here. Dyan thinks the Wall was put up so that the second great Dragon would not know human beings dwelled in this half of Levaal; so it would not know that all the dragons had been replaced by something new. But these are Dyan's words; if you are distrustful of me, you are surely distrustful of him. And everything I tell you is suspect.'

‘Leave that decision to me. Speak on,' said Far Gaze. His back was turned to her and his eyes were closed. Loup too did not look at her directly as she spoke. ‘How were the dragon-youth imprisoned?'

‘Dyan knows, but he never told me, and he spoke as though the subject brought him bad memories. I know the Major personalities fought their Parent. They lost. Eight were spared – there were once twelve. Of the slain not even ghosts are left and the dragons never speak of them.

‘The eight survivors surrendered and agreed to their imprisonment. This realm was cleared of all dragons except the little drakes, who remained to serve the world's new owners. Us.'

‘Why did this happen?'

‘Because humans came to
your
world, Eric,' she said. ‘I don't know the tale of their arrival in Otherworld. But did not dragons used to live there?'

‘Dragons … no. Dinosaurs, yes.'

‘A strange word. Great magical beasts, were they not?'

‘I don't know if they had magic or not. We found enormous bones buried in the ground, from ancient times. But that's all.'

‘So it is true. Dyan says dragons called your world home. And when your world was cleared of dragons, so too was this one. When humans took their first steps across your world, so too were they brought here. The Dragon-god shunted aside Its own young to make room for us. But the dragon-youth, and the Minor personalities who are still imprisoned with them, have never stopped wanting freedom. They move to claim it. Whether that means they intend a clash with their Parent, or whether they have ways to avoid such a clash, I do not know.