Vagrants: Book 2 Circles of Light series (52 page)

She was trying to
decide whether she should close her wings and plummet, rock like,
back to shatter herself on the earth, or to fly higher to reach –
what? Twisting her head up again, she thought she saw faint shadows
pass between her and the stars. She sifted rapidly through her
inherited memories and considered the possibility that she had
already flown too far, that the lessening of the air was affecting
her vision and her mind.

Having been so close to
insanity for so many, many cycles, this clarity of thought was a
comfort to the silver Dragon. The faint music she had thought she
heard was suddenly inside her head, but it was not a music such as
she had ever heard. It was voices, countless voices calling her,
praising her, filling her with the visions of what she must
do.

She screamed
triumphantly, twisting faster: one more push higher before she
obeyed and spiralled back to the world beneath her. Gremara’s voice
sounded thin and faint to herself but she knew the others heard her
triumph and joy. Her prismed eyes glittered, each facet reflecting
the endless stars, then she turned back towards the earth and
extended her wings to their fullest extent, grasping the nearly too
thin air.

She forced herself to
fly slowly down, as slowly as she had risen, when what she most
wanted to do was to swoop and dive, play in the air as all Dragon
hatchlings loved to do. The moon was sinking again when Gremara at
last returned to her high ledge in Talvo Circle. Her whole body
shivered with exhaustion but her eyes still shone and her heart was
still full of the love and determination all those voices had sung
into her.

All those Dragon
voices, from Beyond.

Chapter
Thirty-Four

The small body
infuriated Rhaki. He walked round and round the bare room in his
tower, tripping, stumbling and cursing. As soon as he had completed
the transfer of his mind to the Delver’s body, he had probed
outwards, checking for other mind signatures.

He recognised several
Great Dragons but dismissed them as being of no threat to him. He
felt a Gaharnian mind, recognising Senior Kemti before Kemti
slammed his mental shields into place. Three others he felt: two
puzzled him but he could not waste time investigating them now. The
other was Hargon’s son, Bartos. The boy was close to the tower and
Rhaki ordered him to remain where he was: he did not want even such
as insignificant creature to witness his clumsy attempts to use
this body.

Rhaki felt a sense of
urgency tugging him away from his tower. He was unsure whether to
heed it or to stay where he was. This uncertainty he felt irritated
him further and he put such indecision down to this confounded new
form he found himself in. At last he knew he must hesitate no
longer and made his way to the door and thus to the outer stair
leading to the ground.

The boy leaned against
the tower, his eyes a red glow in the shadows. Rhaki’s hand clamped
onto the boy’s shoulder and he jerked him forward.

‘I need your support
boy.’ Rhaki’s voice emerged from the unfamiliar body and Bartos
straightened obediently. ‘That mound over there, help me reach
it.’

Bartos stared with
interest around the small hollow within the low hillside while
Rhaki lit the lamp he had left there. The fact that he had had to
lift the boy to reach the lamp on its high shelf fuelled his
simmering rage still further. But he controlled it, for
now.

‘Where are we going?
You promised I could have the girl.’ Bartos whined as he followed
Rhaki deeper into the hill.

Rhaki whirled, knocking
the boy to the floor.

‘You will have much
more than your puny sister if you obey without question,’ Rhaki
hissed, turning away and hurrying on through the
passage.

Bartos climbed back to
his feet, wiping the blood from his face with his shirt sleeve.
Rhaki’s lamp was already some distance ahead and Bartos had no wish
to stay here in the dark. Rhaki had opened the chest he’d left in
the circle cave when Bartos reached him. He watched as the small
man with the Lord Rhaki’s voice placed certain objects within the
mosaic circle inlaid on the cave floor.

‘Come.’ Rhaki stepped
into the centre of the circle, beckoning impatiently to
Bartos.

Bartos joined him. ‘But
where - ’ he began, then clamped his lips shut, flinching as Rhaki
turned to him.

A distorted smile
twisted Rhaki’s face. ‘Gaharn boy. That’s where we are going. To
Gaharn.’

In the days following
the strange change to Tika’s eyes, tension had risen in Hargon’s
compound. Far from being horrified though, the visiting Lords of
Tagria, Far and Andla had only been intrigued. With Tika’s consent,
Kija and Kemti had both investigated the girl’s mind carefully.
Both concluded that there was a change in the glowing network of
power inside her head. Both also agreed that it did not appear
harmful, in fact the reverse.

Hargon was the cause of
the feeling of strain in the atmosphere. He alone appeared
suspicious of Tika’s changed eyes, and he was also still searching
for any sign of his younger son Bartos. Tika and Kemti explained to
the other Lords that Bartos was with Rhaki and both of them were
gone from Sapphrea. Seboth accepted their explanation at once,
while Raben and Zalom did so after further discussion with Gan. In
their view, Gan was a superior Armschief – he freely admitted that
although he was of the People, he had minimal use of the
power.

Hargon made no mention
of his daughter Mena since Bartos’s disappearance, for which Tika
was grateful. Kija had told her that Kadi had vanished, with the
child, the same night that Bartos had gone. Kija and Brin were both
worried and angered that Kadi had shielded herself so they were
unable to find a trace of the pair. Brin flew in search of them, to
no avail.

To everyone’s
astonishment except Farn’s, the Lords took a tremendous liking to
the silver blue Dragon. In spite of Tika’s reservations, they
insisted on taking him out, first to the courtyard and then into
the main market place of the town itself. Tika’s reservations were
banished when she saw how the people gathered to see Farn, to touch
his satin smooth scales. The koninas were not so sanguine and had
nervous fits when confronted too unexpectedly with a Great Dragon,
albeit a baby one. Kija was disgusted with the feting of her son
but Brin was full of admiration at Farn’s popularity.

Tika felt that they
were wasting precious time just waiting here in Return but she was
persuaded by Kemti and Gan that they could only await further news
from the north before charging off in any direction. This afternoon
she was sitting in the inner courtyard with Lord Seboth, his
Armschief Olam, Sket and Drak, answering yet more questions about
the Domain of Asat. Farn was draped on the roof of the stable
block, soaking up the warm sunshine.

A Merig drifted over
the drowsing Farn and perched on the edge of the well at the side
of the yard. He ruffled his tattered plumage, hopped off the well
and strutted towards Tika. She sat up, stifling a grin at the
expressions on the faces of Seboth and Olam as the Merig spoke in
their minds.

‘Greetings Lady Tika.’
Beady dark eyes blinked once then the Merig drew himself up
straight.

‘A message from the
Lady Emla in Gaharn. There is another circle north of Tagria. She
and others will appear there two days from today. She wishes that
you meet her there with an escort, in case her appearance proves
unwelcome or frightening to the local people.’

‘Tagria? Go and find
Raben,’ Seboth exclaimed to his Armschief.

The Merig clattered his
horny beak in an irritated manner.

‘I thank you for the
message Merig,’ Tika said hastily. ‘There is no message we need to
ask you to take at present.’

‘I will be near by
should you need me.’ The Merig flapped himself heavily over Farn’s
back again and vanished from sight.

Raben arrived with
Zalom of Andla and there was much discussion as to where this new
circle might be sited.

Raben said: ‘We will
need to leave at once to reach the area in time.’

Tika nodded. ‘Drak,
will you go and drag Kemti away from the old women he has been so
busy talking with. Sket, without Kadi, there are only Kija and Brin
to carry us.’

‘I would prefer to stay
with you,’ Sket interrupted firmly.

Tika grinned at him. ‘I
thought Kija would carry you and Gan, and Brin would take Kemti and
Nomis. Riff and Drak seem to like koninas so they can ride with the
Lords.’

Farn descended from the
stable roof, sapphire eyes whirring.

‘We will be flying soon
then my Tika?’ he asked hopefully.

She hugged him. ‘Yes.
It is a relief to me too to be actually doing something at last. I
think perhaps you had better wait outside the town, with Kija and
Brin. We will join you soon.’

Farn considered this
suggestion then agreed. ‘We will wait for you,’ he repeated. ‘You
will not be long.’ He gazed at her sternly.

Tika laughed. ‘No, we
will not be long.’

Tika hurried back into
the building to collect her cloak, her pack, and Khosa, finding the
others of her party about the same tasks. Navan stuck his head
round the door.

‘I will be with you
with a small escort of Return armsmen.’

Tika looked across at
him. ‘Hargon?’

Navan shook his head.
‘He left for the south at dawn, saying he would be two days gone
perhaps. I will leave word for him of where we will be.’

Word spread quickly
that the various visitors were leaving for Tagria and people in the
streets had seen Farn lift from the Lord’s compound and fly west
towards the outlying fields. Many people flocked outside the town
walls and gasps of amazement arose as the massive shapes of golden
Kija and crimson Brin appeared over the woodland to settle beside
Farn on an open field.

The Dragons flew to the
side of the double column of armsmen, keeping their speed a little
less than the koninas. Kija spoke of her grave worry over Kadi’s
absence.

‘Something happened
when Kadi freed that child’s mind. And then the accident to the
older boy. I have never, ever, known Kadi do wilful
hurt.’

‘Nor I,’ Brin agreed.
He hesitated. ‘When she took away the shield, I felt that the child
was far stronger than Kadi. Stronger than you or I
Kija.’

‘How could that be
possible?’ Kemti objected. ‘She was heavily shielded and
untrained.’

‘I felt she was trained
far more thoroughly than any of you.’ Khosa’s cool comment silenced
them all until the riders below signalled a halt.

The next two days
followed the same routine. In the late morning of the third day
they saw the town of Tagria to their distant left. Built along both
sides of the river, the land was green for a league or so then
quickly turned into scrub land. The Dragons spiralled down to
settle a short distance from the Lords and their men. Raben of
Tagria dismounted and walked towards them.

‘This is directly north
of my town,’ he explained. ‘I have sent men on, to fetch more
armsmen. Even thinly spread, it will take a lot of searching to
find what you describe.’

‘We will search.’ Kija
told him.

Raben gulped, still
unused to the dramatically larger adult Dragons.

‘We often see more from
above than you do from so low,’ Brin explained
helpfully.

‘You do not need to
join our search,’ Kija told Farn.

Farn’s eyes flashed.
‘Of course I will search,’ he retorted.

Tika waited for Kija’s
reprimand, but none came. The armsmen set about making camp before
beginning the search for what most of them had little belief in.
Tika sat by an efficiently built cookfire, sipping scalding tea. By
nightfall, Raben ordered his men to mark where they had reached in
their search and to come back to camp for supper and some sleep. A
rota of sentries was organised, stretching for a league both west
and east of their camp.

Khosa had melted away
on one of her mysterious forays before dark but as the moon rose
she reappeared. She perched as close to the fire as was safe and
began a thorough washing of her person.

‘The circle is but a
few paces away,’ she said smugly.

Farn’s eyes blazed in
annoyance but Tika shushed him.

‘Show me exactly where
Khosa,’ she said.

The Kephi’s eyes
slitted as she glanced over her shoulder to where Tika sat at
Farn’s side.

‘Please,’ Tika added
through gritted teeth.

The Kephi stood up,
turned and, waving her orange tail like a royal flag, trotted into
the darkness, Tika at her heels. Lords and armsmen hastily
followed, a few prudently lighting torches from the
fire.

‘There.’ Khosa jumped
onto a boulder and from there to Gan’s shoulder.

Kemti scuffed at a low
growing coarse bush which responded by exuding a faint lemony
scent. He crouched, pulling the bush out of the ground and digging
his long fingers into the soil.