The Dragons of Sara Sara (16 page)

The grassy plains had long since given way to stony shingle, and low foothills flowed out like waves from the base of the range. The Great North Road was still a little way to the west of the oasis. The storm of the previous day had blown them far to the east of normally travelled areas. Antonin made a mental note to revisit that strange city when he had time. The pass through the mountains was now plainly visible but still a long way off from where they rode.

The rest of the party were now far behind, preferring to ride steadily over the rough ground. The Great North Road was the ultimate destination, and the only way to gain the mountain heights and the pass. It was as well to travel the road for other reasons too. The locals did not take kindly to strangers roaming through what they rightly saw as their domain.

Antonin threw caution to the wind when he looked back and saw Catharina riding hard on his heels. He laughed aloud in pure pleasure and admiration for his friend, “That girl can surely ride!” He thought. Laughing still, he leaned forward to whisper in his horses ear. The horse seemed to sprout wings as it flew over the slate, it's feet barley touching the ground. Catharina started to fall behind.

The horses could have run till they dropped but the riders knew their horses. A horse in this country could be the difference between life and death. A dead horse was a curse on the rider who had caused it and would more often than not result in the riders death unless they knew the country very well.

Antonin saw he was coming up on a line of wells, their mud brick structures only three or four brick above the surface of the plain. A stand of green palm and date trees surrounded the wells. It was a cool shady place of rest where many travellers stopped on their journey. It was only a short distance from the Great North Road.

Antonin rode in under the trees and slid to a stop in a shower of stones and sand. Seconds later Catharina clattered to a stop nearby. The horses puffed and blew, fleck of foam on their hides. They were good horses and used to hard running. It took only minutes for them to settle. Both riders wiped their horses down with strips of cloth they carried behind the saddle. Laughing together they drew water from the nearest well and poured it into the drinking trough for the horses. The horses stood drinking while Catharina and Antonin took turns gulping from the bucket. With a final flourish Catharina threw the last of the water in the bucket at Antonin. The shock of the cold water on his hot skin drew a surprised gasp. He grabbed Catharina and they wrestled and twisted trying to gain advantage and force the other to the ground. Suddenly Catharina fell, Antonin unbalanced and landed half atop her. His face only a fraction from hers. He could feel her breath on his cheeks. She lay very still, her rising and falling breasts reminding him that she was indeed a woman. Her breathing almost stopped as she read his eyes. He had her wrists pinned either side of her head but she was making no move to fight free. He felt himself to be drowning in the bottomless pools of her dark eyes. For an endless moment he lay there transfixed – then he sprang to his feet like a startled cat. He tried to steady his breathing as he roughly dusted himself down with overly dramatic gestures. What was Catharina doing to him? She was his friend. Antonin couldn't untangle his thoughts.

“Will you not help me to my feet?” He heard from behind him. Such a soft voice. He had not heard her speak like this before. He turned and instinctively held out his hand. Catharina took it and came lightly to her feet. She did not let go though, and drew herself in so close that he was forced to look down into her upturned face, her expression unreadable to him. He hadn't ever noticed that she was half a head shorter than he was. With a low chuckle and a faint smile on her lips Catharina dropped his hand and stepped back.

“We should look out for the others,” she said. “They can't be far away now.”

A clearing of throats came from just beyond the line of palms.

“We are not far away at all.” Smiled Mei'An as she stepped her horse, followed by the others into the cool shade of the grove.

“We will water our horses, feed them and ourselves and rest here during the heat of the day. HaHu is through the pass you see to the North. We will try to be in the city by sundown.”

There was some shifting of feet from Antonin, but Catharina stood calmly with a half smile on her lips as the party entered the area around the wells.

No one had missed the exchange between Catharina and Antonin, and there was some exchange of banter between the girls, their finger talk unknown to the others.

Catharina went faintly red and stamped her foot at Edina and Elsa. The two girls laughed out loud and turned to finish attending to their horses. Antonin and the two other boys would have given anything to know what had been said. They knew it would be pointless to ask. The Mare Altan were secretive at the best of times and when it came to “girl talk” then the boys didn't stand a chance.

Luan and Mei'An settled on a blanket with some biscuits and water and gave the impression that they had seen nothing. Soon all were resting quietly in the shade. The heat of the noon day sun didn't penetrate into the cool shadows of the oasis. The only movement in the still air was a few flies buzzing around the horses. They must wait with the patience of stone for horses to pass this way, thought Antonin. The horses flicked their tails and shivered their flanks most likely thinking the same thing. Some small grey birds swooped through the lower branches of the trees, but apart from that all was still.

The sun seemed about half way down to the horizon when Luan stirred himself. He had spent the entire time softly honing the blade of his fighting sword. With a flourish that came of long years of familiarity the sword flashed as it disappeared back into its scabbard strapped onto his back. He stood and hooked his two handed battle sword to his shoulder belt. This belt ran over his shoulder and was part of the broad waist belt front and back. The huge battle sword was too long to hang from a waist belt, even for someone as tall as Luan.

Mei'An still reclined on an elbow on her blanket. Eyes half closed, nodding slightly from time to time. She was in deep conversation with other Wind Readers. Luan had of course told her of the strange empty wagon he had seen below the old city, and the Wind Readers puzzled over the mystery of it. That it was a rediscovered means of travel was in no doubt, but was it the fabled “Portal”. No one was sure.

It was time to move. They must make the city just on dusk and find their way to The Inn Of the Blind Man. Luan coughed into his hand and Mei'An blinked and looked around. No one was mounted but it was obvious that all were waiting on her.

“Forgive me. I was busy seeking answers.” Was all that Mei'An offered. She folded her blanket and within moments was ready and mounted.

Luan grunted. Very expressive for him.

“We go now to The Inn of the Blind Man.” Said Luan and swung into his saddle. “Perhaps our answers await us there.”

With a glance at Antonin and Catharina he added “..And we should all ride together along the Great North Road at a steady pace.”

From one of the girls came the comment “Unless one of us decides to go chasing hoppers again.” Catharina glared in their direction. A hopper was a small rodent like animal that lived on the wide plains. They were often kept as pets. Entirely harmless and considered soft and cuddly.

Catharina was not upset. She would get her chance, especially as she had noticed how the eyes of one of them seemed always drawn to Luan. Then she would see who laughed the loudest. There was no malice in any of the banter. In the small communities of their village such banter was common, and the source of much entertainment. Rees and Gaul seemed oblivious to the undercurrents. Edina all but ignored them, and only the knowledge that Rees had trained with the master of the Asha Altan encouraged Elsa to talk to either of them much. There was no reason other than simple lack of common ground. The two boys thought of the two girls as simply companions in adventure. Indeed they hardly knew each other, having had little to do with each other even in the village. The party rode out onto the hard black surface of the Great North Road. This most ancient road that cut a swath across the whole world it was said.

Some even claimed to have seen it continuing on past the far reaches of the Great Sandy Blight away in the north. The surface seemed to be made of some sort of solidified oil, congealed with small pebbles. It's surface was crazed with great age, but it was still largely intact and made for excellent travelling. The horses hooves rang out as they clattered along the hard surface. Horses had to be taken steadily along the Great Road. Sustained travel on its hard surface caused damage to the horses legs.
No one was able to duplicate the road material now. The few who tried over the years became notorious for burning down their barns or blacksmith shops. Taking the raw ooze from pools that bubbled in marshy places was easy enough. Some of it even seemed almost solid enough already. Any attempt to boil off excess moisture to solidify it though caused the escaping gases to ignite and generate a fire that could not be put out.

The only use for the black liquid was for lamps, and those were only used out of doors. The acrid black smoke it gave off spoiled cooking and stained anything it came in contact with.

The shadows were lengthening as the silent party crested the final ridge and began to enter the pass of Kun Lun Shan Kou, the pass through the Dragon Spine mountains. They had been riding steadily since leaving the oasis in the early afternoon. A ground covering pace that didn't tire the horses too much, but kept the riders quiet as they kept their horses at the pace. The road was getting steeper and steeper, and the horses were starting to labour in trying to keep up the pace. Luan, in the lead, began to slow the pace. The road was steep but not undulating. It was generally cut right through the lower foothills and rose toward the pass as the country side level itself rose to the peaks of the range. The pass itself was cut through the peaks like a huge sword slash through the mountains. No one could guess at how it had been done but it was one of the wonders of the world. The party rode into the beginning of the pass, the walls on either side becoming higher and higher in near vertical expanses of rock. The air was thin and cool at this altitude, and Antonin was not the only one to turn in his saddle and gaze back out over the world that was the plain of their birth, stretching away into the haze of the horizon, small dots here and there that could be cities or villages or simply patches of vegetation. It was hard to tell at this distance, but the sight was spectacular, the distant horizon almost purple in the darkness that stole across the land from that far western horizon. As if sensing this thought, Catharina murmured “Our homes will be alight with lamps by now I'm thinking.” Elsa looked back for a moment and added with a grin as she patted her stomach “…And the evening meal will be warming in the pots.”

Luan and Mei'An in the lead still, halted and looked back at the young riders. Luan swept his arm about taking in the main part of the mountain pass ahead of them. They were now quite a way into the main pass, an awesome slash deep into the mountain. The rays of the setting sun glittered on the peaks still visible off to the east behind them, but the darkness of the late hour could not be kept from the towering walls above them. The sheer face of the walls on either side rose almost out of sight into a thin haze of cloud that Antonin thought must have been ten thousand feet above them. The of power in these mountains was almost tangible and unconsciously the riders had bunched together in the middle of the road. The sheer cliffs on either side seemed about to cascade back into the pass and bury the riders forever beneath tons of rock. Even the horses shivered their flanks in restlessness.

“You wish to dismount here and prepare an evening meal?” Asked Luan, his arm still raised palm upwards as if to give emphasis to the already known answer.

It was all the young people could do not to break into a mad gallop to escape the overwhelming feeling of the mountain pressing in on them.

As it was Antonin and Gaul kicked their horse into a canter and rode on, past Luan and Mei'An, ignoring them completely, and heading at a good pace – just short of a gallop – following the rays of the setting sun, still visible on the thin cloud some distance through the other end of the pass to the north.

It took another good hour just to get through that last huge slash and back out into weak sunlight. The last rays were glinting on the shale of the mountain slopes that now curved away west and south, far away to Sara Sara. It was no longer visible from this side of the Dragon Spine, as the spine curved away south and blocked the smoking ruin from view. The dark haze of its plume still smudged the sky though, and reminded all that it's presence could not be ignored.

A hazy dusk was settling on the cold plains below them. Away to the north west, still many hours ride away stood the grey lump of the city of Ha Hu. Even now twinkling yellow pinpoints of light could be seen in various parts of the indistinct mass that was the city. It would be well after dark before they reached its gates. The going was now all downhill to the plains on the north western side of the ranges, and Luan urged his horse into a fast spine jarring trot. He stood in the stirrups and picked up the pace until the horse was almost at a gallop. It was an easy stride now for the horse, now that the rider was off it's back. Rees, Antonin and Gaul followed suit almost in unison and within moments so had Mei'An, Catharina, Elsa and Edina.

Even though they were now eating up the miles, the sun was well down and only a pale fingernail paring of a moon hung in the sky. The road wound away before them, a dark ribbon in the not quite darkness of the early night. The stars were brilliant, and the sliver of moon reflected a weak light into the night. The city gates would surely be tight shut by now.