The Last Dragon Chronicles: The Fire Ascending (22 page)

the Fain, What is
 
The Book of Agawin
?

We do not know
, they said, unhelpfully.

And David was not about to explain. “One day, all of this will be clear to you.”

“So, you’ll make a spell?” Guinevereasked. She stroked Gawain’s head. “With

his claw?”

“One to catch a sibyl with, hopefully,”

said Rosa.

But none of this rested easy with me. The dragon inside me just wanted to fight.

And suddenly, I got my chance.

At that moment we were set on the alert

by a screaming yowl from deep within the wood. Everyone leaped to their feet. The unicorn reared, baying with fear. Rosa ran to attend it. Gawain, likewise, flapped away and landed on the branch of a tree, out of reach. “Gretel, keep him company,” David said. The flower dragon zipped

away and took up position on the branch above the wearling.

Another yowl ripped through the trees.

“That’s Thoran,” said Guinevere, biting her lip.

By now, Galen had probed the wood and found the direction the cry was coming from. “He’s hurt,” I said. I started to run.

“AGAWIN, WAIT!” David shouted.

But not for the first time in my life, I took off against the advice of another, propelled by anger – and perhaps a dash of vanity. For if I picked out the small grains of honesty in my heart, I would have to concede that the arrival of David

had made me feel less important.

So I ran like a wild boy, crashing

through the trees, beating aside any loose obstruction, listening only to the throb of my blood and the powerful urge of Galen’s auma.

Before long, I came upon Thoran. Hewas a little way ahead of me, lying on hisback between the roots of a tree. A largethorn was embedded deep in his foot. Thewarm scent of his blood swept into mynostrils.

The Fain said,
 
Poison has entered his

heart
.

I stepped forward, hot and dizzy fromthe run. The air around me moved like

thick, slow water. I thought I saw the shadow of wings go past. Then, out of nothing,
 
she
 
was there. Bent over, attending to the bear.

Gwilanna.

“Quickly, boy,” she said, without looking up. She pointed to a gnarled old tree behind her. Growing round its base was a large grey fungus. “Pick off a cap and bring it here.”

“You tricked me,” I hissed.

She immediately snapped back, “Do as I say or the bear will die!”

Thoran whimpered and threw his head to one side. He was genuinely hurt, but I hesitated still.

Spitting curses, the sibyl fumbled in herrobe. She opened her hand and showed methe tornaq. “Yes, I took it. What did youexpect? I’ve been stuck in that cave sincethe day I arrived here. Can you blame mefor wanting to experience time?”

“Thief,” I snarled.

“You can have it back, boy. The charm refuses to work for me. The dragon-bird doesn’t like my auma. Now bring me the fungus. It’s the only cure.”

I looked at Thoran, sick and groaning. Through the trees, I could hear David calling. Any moment now I would have his support. I dashed to the fungus and popped the cap off the nearest stalk.

“Give it to me, quickly.” Gwilanna fished for it with her outstretched hand.

I put the cap into it.

And my fate was sealed.

“Thank you,” she said, gripping metightly.

I saw the movement in her other hand

and knew right away she’d tricked me

again. I felt the pull of the universe on the first shake of the tornaq. On the third, David burst into view. Before my vision blurred and the charm did its work, I saw him go through a remarkable change, from man to dragon in the space of a breath. A tongue of flame burst from his roaring mouth. Perhaps he intended to kill us both, to sacrifice me in the knowledge of stopping her. But the sibyl had timed her plan to perfection. All that vaporised as Gwilanna and I disappeared through time was her laughter, ringing out around the woods…

Part Four

The Claw of Gawain

With a jolt, my eyes blinked open again. I

was   still   holding  hands   with   the treacherous sibyl, but the woodland and Thoran were no longer there. Instead, we were in an icy wilderness that stretched away from us in all directions, its surface as vast as the pale sky above. In the distance I could just see an island of rock, but nothing that looked familiar to me.

The sibyl detached herself from my grip, throwing me away from her as if I was dirt. I clamped my upper arms and shuddered. Needles of cold were pricking my skin. The sun was low and yellow in the sky. It looked on weakly, offering no comfort.

Gwilanna took a breath and stretched

her arms. The robe she was wearing dissolved away, replaced by clothing made from furs. “Bulky,” she muttered, “but I suppose it will do.” She looked at me scornfully. “You’d better imagineer the same for yourself or call on your dragon auma, boy. It won’t take long for your body to freeze. Fingers and toes are the first to suffer. The cold gets in and eats them away like maggots in an apple. The eyes aren’t pretty when they harden, either. They set and shatter like the shell of an egg.”

“W-where are we?” I said. My teeth were rattling like a bag of loose bones.

“Well, that depends where you are in the timeline.” She broke up the fungus I’d picked in the wood and ate it just as if

nothing had happened. “Some would call it ‘Arctic’ or ‘Land of the Ice Bear’.

Personally, I like ‘Icelands of the North’. That has a ring to it, don’t you think?”

“Ice bears?” I said, remembering that David had used the term when he’d first

met Thoran.

The sibyl flapped a hand. “Oh, there ismuch for you to learn, boy. The stupid icebears are just one part of it. I havetravelled far since you brought me thetornaq. And all in the blink of a dragon’seye. It’s been very… illuminating.”

“Why have you brought me here?”

“To show you your future – well, not

your
 
future. Yours is very much in doubt, I’m afraid. Look around you, what do you see?”

“Ice,” I said plainly.

“Wrong,”   she   said.   “This   is Guinevere’s legacy to Gaia. And this is Gawain, right here.” She crouched down and put a hand to the surface.

By now, with the Fain’s help, I, too, had imagineered furs for myself. A brief dialogue with them had also warned me that aggression would be very ill-advised. The sibyl knew the territory. We did not. And in the tornaq, she currently had the only means out of here. Their advice was to let her speak at will. Do as she suggested: listen and learn. She might yet say something that would be her undoing. Then we might strike. I stubbed my boot against the ice but felt nothing. “What do you mean? Where is Gawain in this?”

“Well, I’m pleased you asked me that.” She   moved   her   hands   again   and imagineered a seat of pure ice. A beautiful construct, the like of which I had never seen before. It had a high back rest and finely sculpted legs. She set herself upon it in a manner which suggested that she and she alone was the ruler of this

wilderness. “Interesting material to work with,” she said, meaning the ice. “Oh, do rest yourself, Agawin.” She imagineered a three-legged   stool   for   me.   “It’s   a wonderful   story.   Well   worth   your attention. Really quite touching in places.”

I cast a glance at the stool and slowly sat down. The ice crunched as it took my weight. Far to one side I heard the whole field creak.

We are floating
 
, said the Fain.
 
The

Great Sea is below us.

I moved my foot through a gentle arc,scraping loose crystals into a ridge.
 
Canwe use the ice as a weapon?

Your power to imagineer is not asquick as hers. It would be dangerous.

The snap of her fingers called myattention.

“That’s better,” she said with a testy

frown. “Anyone would think you didn’t

want
 
to know about the legend.”

“I want to know what happened to Grella,” I said. I glared into her wrinkled face.

This made her grimace and fidget in herseat. “What is it with you and yourawkward questions? This is not the way I

planned it. Not the way at all. You’re supposed to sit and be humble and be awed in my presence.”

“Forgive me,” I said. “Evil always makes me impatient for a fight.”

“Save your energy,” she spat, leaning forward. “I won’t disappoint you in that ambition. Your greatest challenge is still to come.” She thumped back, clawing at the arms of the chair. “You remind me so

much of him.”

“Him?”

“Yes, him. David Rain.”

“Rain?” I said, genuinely confused.

“Oh, for goodness’ sake! Further down the timeline, in the Earth’s progression, humans usually choose two names to address themselves by. He, David, adds

the name ‘Rain’.”

“And why am I like him?”

“Because you constantly get in my way!”

The ferocity of this statement blew a thin cloud of mist in my direction. As I wiped my face dry, I had an idea.
 
Can we cloak ourselves? Blow the ice into a

storm and escape within it, hidden?

Our calculations indicate the ice field is immense. There is nowhere to run
 
.
 
She

would track you with ease.

“Then David thwarts you – in the

future?” I asked.

“Thwarts me? No one thwarts
 
me
, boy. He’s just an irritating dog that won’t give up its bite. David Rain will never defeat me.”

“But you have clearly not defeated

him
.”

Her eyes grew as dark as the hollowsof her face. “You forget, I have the tornaqnow. Thanks to you, I hold a distinctadvantage. I can visit any place I choosein the timeline and soon, because of what Ihave learned, I will be able to change it atwill. Time is like water, it finds its ownlevels. One little stir can cause endless

fluctuations. This meeting, for instance, was never meant to happen. As a result of it, related events are becoming unstable. Some connections are starting to fade. Can’t you feel the unhappy ripples in the universe? How big a ripple would it take, do you think, to eliminate David Rain for
 
good
?”

For the first time since my initialshudder, the cold of the Icelands seepedinto my bones. There was so much venomin her eyes. So much desire for power. Imoved the dialogue sideways a little. “Heis kin to Gawain. That must make him a

challenging foe.”

“Kin,” she snorted, kicking one foot. “Of all the undeserving twists of fate that should have been confined to the back end

of history that was the one that should have brought up the rear.”

“It was… an error?” I said, trying to understand. I frowned and felt the frost

cracking  on  my  eyebrows.  Not  an unpleasant sensation, just strange.

“It was a mockery,” she said. “Useless Ix assassin.”

Assassin? This was not a word I knew.

Killer
,   said  the  Fain.
 
There is a

division of the Ix known as ‘Ix:risor’. They kill without feeling. In the future, they must have been sent after David.

“So David is… was…killed by the Ix?”

I prompted.

“Should   have   been,”   she   said,squirming her reedy frame against the seat. “Swatted. Wiped off the nexus for good.” She struck the arm of the chair with her

fist. A small piece, the size of a rock, broke off. It slithered towards me, stopping near my feet. “Instead he lived again and took what
 
I
 
should have had – what I
 
will
 
have, when the moment is

right.”

“And what was that?”

“The auma of Gawain, you fool.”

And there was her ambition, as Rosa had warned me: she planned to be illumined to the last dragon on Earth. Glancing at the ice chunk, I said, “Tell me how David came to be so… fortunate. I

want to know all of it. Right from the beginning. Did Guinevere reach the island with Gawain?”

“That was the easy part,” she said, puffing air. “The dragon needed no persuasion to settle there. He commanded the island and the regions all around. He grew and became a creature of legend. That was his attraction – and his

downfall.”

“He was killed – by hunters?”

“Hunters,” she snorted. “What are men

against the power of twelve dragons? He was pursued, it is true – mainly by farmers tired of losing their sheep to his gut. A large bounty was put on his head. Anyone who tried to grow rich from it is now just a pile of ash, blowing in the wind.”