01 Wing Warrior (6 page)

‘I do not know.’

‘Did they... die?’

‘I do not know.’

‘Whoever they were, they were bigger than I am. This armour will never fit me.’

Cumulo chuckled, in his deep, echoing way. ‘Size isn’t always about how tall you are. I think it will fit you better than you realise, when the time is right.’

‘And how will I know when that is?’

‘I think you will know well enough.’

Nimbus shook his head doubtfully. ‘Maybe what you’re saying is right, maybe it isn’t. Either way, the first thing we have to worry about is getting you out of here.’

‘Why?’

‘Because it’s dark and cold.’

Cumulo swung his great head left and right, his unblinking gaze seeing everything perfectly. ‘My eyes are very good. I am not sure I understand dark.’

‘Well, take my word for it. It’s dark in here, and I don’t think it’s a nice place for a dragon to live.’

‘Why not?’

‘No room to stretch your wings, for a start. No maidens to eat, villagers to terrorise.’

‘Terrorise?’

‘I’m joking. You do need a better place to live though. Somewhere where you can...’ He gestured with flapping arms. ‘You know? Get up in the sky, feel the wind on your face.’

‘I guess I’ve never really thought too much about what a nice home for a dragon would be. But then, I never knew I was a dragon, which is probably part of it.’

‘Well, now you know, and it’s time for a change of scenery. Can you breathe fire?’

‘I’ve never tried. There has never really been any great cause to. Not in here.’

‘Exactly. We’ll find you a nice place where you can blow fire without roasting yourself to death. Somewhere with some open space. It’ll be great, a real adventure.’

Cumulo’s breath plumed in a billow of white steam. ‘I don’t think I’m allowed to leave here,’ he said. ‘I seem to be remembering something from before.’

‘Before when?’

‘Just before.’

Nimbus sat with his back to the wall and the lantern between his feet. There was only a small amount of oil left, and the flame was spluttering weakly. It would not be long until he was plunged completely into the terrible underground darkness of this place.

‘What do you remember?’ he asked.

‘Wise men in conversation, talking about a great evil. They said the dragon must stay hidden.’

‘Do you think they were talking about you?’

‘Yes.’

‘Then we find you another hiding place.’

‘But...’

‘Don’t you want to see outside? Don’t you want to know about the things beyond this cave?’

‘Yes, but something tells me terrible things will happen if other people learn of my existence.’

Nimbus grinned. ‘Well, I can keep a secret if you can.’

Cumulo’s scales reflected a deep, ruby red. It was not as if they changed colour, it was more as though they had always been that colour, but the angle of the light had made them appear different. ‘Sometimes I feel as if I keep many secrets,’ he said, ‘some of which I even keep from myself, locked away in my mind.’

‘More memories?’

‘Sometimes it’s like the memories are not my own, and somebody gave them to me for a reason I don’t know about.’

‘What makes you think that?’

‘Because I knew who you were. And I knew of humans long before I ever saw one.’ The dragon grinned a toothy grin in the dark. ‘And I knew I wasn’t supposed to eat you.’

‘I’m glad of that, at least.’

‘But don’t you see? I have lived here all my years. I can’t possibly know of humans, or Wing Warriors. Yet I have these memories. They are like visions seen through the eyes of someone else, and I do not know what they mean.’

‘Well.’ Nimbus stood. ‘Maybe one day you’ll find someone who can help you understand, but I’m sure you won’t find them in here, so let’s try to figure out a way to get you out. I can’t think you got in through the same narrow tunnel as me, so there must be another way. Any ideas?’

‘I think they may have brought me in as an egg. I would have been smaller then.’

Nimbus put his ear to the wall. He could hear the trickle of water on the other side. ‘So you even hatched down here?’

‘Yes. I don’t think they ever intended for me to come back out again. Maybe I’m dangerous.’

Nimbus saw the sadness in the dragon’s eyes. ‘Maybe they were just trying to protect you. Nobody has seen a dragon for hundreds of years.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because...’ Nimbus stopped. Swallowed. Cumulo watched him steadily. ‘Because there are no dragons. At least, none that anybody knows about. You’re the only one.’

Cumulo nodded, and his tongue flicked out through his teeth. ‘I thought as much. What happened to them all?’

Nimbus put his ear back to the wall. ‘Nobody knows. One day there were dragons, the next day they were gone. Some people say there was a dragon war, and all the dragons were killed, but a lot of people don’t believe they ever really existed.’

‘Guess they were wrong.’

‘Guess so. I think there’s another cave on the other side of this wall. How strong are you?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Do you think you could break through?’

‘I don’t know.’ Cumulo pushed on the wall with one claw. When the rubble had finished falling, and the dust had finally cleared, he turned to Nimbus. ‘Yes, I can,’ he said.

Where the wall had been, there was now a huge hole. A cool breeze came through the opening, carrying with it an unsettling drip–drip–dripping sound.

Nimbus held out the lantern to illuminate the empty space beyond. He had been right, there was another cave.

The walls here were crusted with valuable–looking stones that winked and glimmered. The ceiling was an angry jumble of pointed stalactite rocks that dripped water in the same way a snake’s fang drips venom. There was no ground, only an expanse of oily, stinking water that rippled with each drop of moisture from above.

‘What is this?’ Nimbus asked. ‘An underground lake?’

‘No. There is a breeze up ahead. This is a river, leading to the outside world.’

‘But the waters are still.’

Cumulo sniffed the air, and stared intently at the river. There was no way to gauge how deep it was, or what things might lurk below the surface. ‘I fear there is something foul in there, something old and evil. A creature of the ancient times.’

Nimbus caught a glimpse of something slimy and shimmering in the river. A glimpse was all he needed to know he didn’t want to see any more. ‘We shouldn’t go this way,’ he said.

‘I agree. I do not trust the look of these waters, or the way they smell. We will find an alternative route.’

There was a plop as something in the cave was dislodged and rolled into the water, sinking without trace. The surface of the river instantly came alive, as though many fishes had started to move, flipping and splashing their fins to cause mini whirlpools, waves, and ever–expanding ripples.

‘We may have woken something,’ Cumulo said. ‘I would hold on if I were you.’

Before Nimbus could react, the river thundered into life, exploding with a fury that blasted him off his feet. White spray and the echoing rush of speeding water filled the air, and the bats screeched, dropping from the ceiling in a storm of clammy wings.

Then, as suddenly as it had started, the torrent of water stopped. Everything was silent again.

‘What happened?’ Nimbus asked, rubbing the water out of his eyes.

Cumulo was still watching the river. It appeared to be flowing normally now. ‘I think,’ he said, ‘a very long time ago, something much older than I am came here to hide, and to wait.’

‘What sort of thing?’

‘I’m not entirely sure. It followed this stream from the sea, swimming against the current all the way, until it found the dark cool waters beneath the mountain. Then it curled itself up and went to sleep.’ The dragon lowered his head, sniffing the river tentatively. ‘It’s awake now.’

Nimbus held the lantern out over the water. ‘But it’s so wide, and so fast. What kind of creature could block up a river like this?’

‘The kind of creature it’s not a good idea to wake up, I should imagine.’

An unusual object glimmered below the surface of the bubbling water.

‘What do you think that is?’ Nimbus asked.

‘I don’t know, have a look.’

Nimbus raised an eyebrow. ‘Are you serious?’

‘Whatever was here is gone now. It’s quite safe.’

Cautiously, Nimbus reached into the freezing water. When he eventually removed his hand, he was holding a tooth the size of his fist.

‘That’s a big tooth,’ Cumulo said.

‘My dad’s going to kill me,’ Nimbus said.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Tidal lived in a little wooden hut just outside the village of Landmark, near the sandy shore where the Forbidden River joined the sea. His hut had only one room, in which there was a small mattress for him to sleep on, a chair and a table where he could eat, and a stove where he could cook. It was a very simple house, even by Landmark’s standards, but that was because Tidal was not particularly complicated.

For as long as he could remember, he had loved the water, and he could sail a boat almost before he could walk. His mother had always said he was as much a child of water as he was of flesh and blood, and there was no denying there was a grace and flow to his movements that whispered of the ocean. He even had his own fishing boat, and on most days when the weather was good he could be found bobbing up and down just off shore, with a line in the water and a net full of fish, exactly as the people of the village had found him on the morning of his parents’ boating accident.

Even now, there were villagers who commented on how strange it was for him to love the ocean so much, considering what had happened. But Tidal knew how dangerous the sea could be, and he did not blame it for taking his parents away. The ocean was wild and unruly; it was a friend to no–one. He couldn’t hate something for being true to its nature.

Besides, just as surely as the ocean had made him an orphan, it had also saved him from growing up in the orphanage at Crystal Shine. By displaying his capabilities as a fisherman, even though he was only twelve years old at the time, Tidal had proven to the mayor of Landmark that he could look after himself. If he could put food on his table, and he was happy, then there was no need for him to leave the house he had grown up in.

Some people asked if he would be upset living so close to the place where his parents had died, but to those people he always said the same thing: ‘My parents are gone. But the sea is always here.’

At the moment, he was sitting on the pier outside of his hut, with his feet dangling over the murky waters of the Everlasting Ocean. He was fixing his best fishing net, which had been snipped through by some overenthusiastic lobsters during the night; and as he worked, he would occasionally look out at the distant horizon where two fishing boats were being bounced around. Tidal would have been out there himself, but he had to get this net repaired.

Everything was quiet – peaceful – except for the occasional creak of the wooden pier as water slapped around its supports. Seagulls circled in a perfectly blue sky, weaving and ducking, plummeting into the foam of the sea before rising up again. Their silent dance was enchanting.

Out on the boats, strong men with broad chests and hairy beards threw their nets and reeled in hundreds of madly flapping fish. The bright sun painted everything golden.

Tidal sighed contentedly, but suddenly a memory of the time he had spent in the cave beneath Sentinel Mountain fluttered like a black crow through his happy thoughts, and he felt a chill despite the brilliance of the sunshine.

He couldn’t help but shiver as he thought about his journey with Nimbus into those foul tunnels, and he was gripped by a peculiar sense of unease as he recalled the events of that night.

He and Nimbus had been exploring for what seemed like an age, and they were both tired and frightened, although of course Nimbus was more tired and frightened than Tidal was. They were even thinking about turning back, especially as Tidal was soaked through from falling in the river; but then they found a narrow tunnel which was just too tempting.

‘What do you think?’ Nimbus had said.

‘I think you should go in,’ Tidal had said.

‘Really?’

‘I’d go myself, but it’s too narrow. Go on. I’ll wait for you.’

‘But... I’ll have to take the lantern.’

‘Go on, go on.’

‘I’m not sure...’

‘Nim, get in there. We can’t go back to the girls without checking it out.’

‘Can’t we?’

Tidal had given him a shove. ‘Hurry up, before we run out of lantern oil.’

Nimbus had not looked particularly happy about the idea, but he had squirmed his way through the tunnel anyway, and was quickly swallowed up by the darkness beyond.

Almost immediately Tidal began to have second thoughts.

It was pitch black, and scarier than he would ever admit to the others. The cave did not seem anywhere near as quiet as it should have been. It was almost as if the brooding dark was breathing. Horrible scuttling noises came from all around, and the whole time Tidal had the unnerving feeling he was being watched by something that didn’t want him to be there.

He was more than happy when Nimbus finally wriggled back through the tunnel with the lantern.

‘What did you find?’ Tidal had asked.

Nimbus looked over his shoulder, and paused before he spoke. ‘Nothing. Just more caverns. You could really get lost down here if you weren’t careful.’

Tidal caught a glimpse of Nimbus’s eyes in the faltering light, and for just a moment he thought he saw the flicker of a lie in his friend’s expression. ‘There was nothing down there at all?’ he pressed.

‘Not that I found. But this place is huge. I think we should leave before the lantern goes out. I’d hate to be scrabbling around here in the dark.’

Tidal had to agree, and they left the underground caverns, swearing to each other never again to return. However, while Tidal had every intention of sticking to his word, he couldn’t shake the feeling that Nimbus had other ideas.