Ambition and Alavidha (25 page)

* * * * *

“Are we really
going to meet a cold-drake?” whispered Daniel in Thalia’s ear as
they, Vya and Josei padding at their heels so close as to be in
danger of tripping them up, made their way to where Maru the Lai
waited.

Thalia looked
at Daniel in shocked disbelief.

“Cold–drake?”

Daniel looked
embarrassed and said in self defence, “well, that’s what they are
called in the stories back home. It slipped out. I’m sorry.”

“And so you
should be,” she admonished. “Cold-drake indeed! Maru is a Lai and
don’t you forget it.”

“I’ll
remember,” Daniel promised, his excitement rising. Would this Maru
be as wonderful as he hoped or would he be the fierce and
threatening creature like in the stories of his childhood? He
couldn’t believe his luck. Many people, well it was enough to say
that there was considerable debate about their very existence. Few
disputed that they had once co-inhabited the planet but most
believed that their species had died out. Perhaps, he thought, with
a flash of inspiration (and close to the truth had he known it),
that this was what the Lai wanted people to think. It had taken six
hundred years of human habitation on their planet before the Lai
had come out of their planetary hideaway to help humans, Lind and
eventually the Larg to save the planet from the Dglai.

“Address him as
Maru,” Thalia was instructing as they threaded their way through
the trees. She was racking her brains to remember the protocols for
meeting Lai which she had been taught during her cadet training.
“Remember to bow too.”

“Maru, remember
to bow,” Daniel was muttering over and over again as they emerged
from the trees that surrounded the lake.

* * * * *

Maru the Lai
was waiting for them. Daniel stopped in his tracks and stared,
suppressing a whistle with difficulty.

Gracious! He
was stupendous! A hide almost golden than shone and those eyes!
They were twice the size of his hand and how they gleamed with
life, as if all the stars of the universe were contained therein
(Daniel was mis-remembering a poem he had learned as a child).

Maru was
nothing like the cold-drake tales in the fable-stories. He was far,
far more, smaller than Daniel had expected (cold-drakes were always
gigantic, some as big as medium sized houses) and he was definitely
not breathing flame (they always did in the stories).

Maru’s eyes
flittered with inner amusement mixed with wise intelligent as the
four approached.

Thalia, Josei
and Vya bowed when they were about a lindlengh away. Daniel’s bow
was late and he covered his confusion and embarrassment by making
it extra low and long, a full royal one.

“Kellen Ross,”
said Maru, his deep filled to the brim and over with amusement, “I
suggest you come up for air before you pass out.”

Daniel brought
his upper body up with a snap, so fast that he staggered and felt
quite dizzy for a heartbeat or so.

Maru
laughed.

“Am I not as
you expected Kellen Ross?” he asked.

“Er, yes, no,”
stuttered Daniel, “least I mean, no, but,” his wits started to come
back, “you are very handsome.”

There, that was
better. Now Maru wouldn’t think him a complete fool.

“Vadeln
Thalia,” Maru greeted her, turning his large head in her direction.
“I am pleased to make your acquaintance at last. My father knew one
of your ancestors well.”

“He did? Who?”
The words were out before Thalia could stop them.
Lai’s teeth,
but that was rude of me.
“My pardon Maru,” she bowed again, “I
should not ask.”

Maru looked
surprised, “and why not? It is natural for intelligence to be
curious. A trait we all share. Do you wish to know who it was?”

“I wouldn’t
mind,” she said, with a pleased smile, “was it long ago?”

“A very long
time ago for you humans but not so much for us Lai. I did not know
your, what is it you call them, ah yes, your forefather, that’s it,
or foremother perhaps I should say. She was very famous in her day.
Her name was Tana and her Lind was named Tavei.”

“I’ve read
about her,” said Thalia, “she and Tavei became Susa of the Vada
sometime after the Battle of Fountains Head. I didn’t even know I
was related to her!”

“Yes, you are
one of her descendants.”

“She and Tavei
earned the Silver Star,” Thalia was remembering her history
lessons, “she rescued a princess from the southern continent, it
was a great story and, yes, she married some southern noble.”

She looked at
Daniel, “why, I might even be related to you!”

“Most of the
nobility is related to one another in some form or other,” Daniel
agreed, “though after all this time it will be a pretty distant
one. What noble did she marry?”

Maru answered
the question, “it was a Philip Ross.”

“Crikey, then
we
must
be related!” cried Thalia.

The
ramifications didn’t bear thinking about but Daniel did his best.
“You must be a cousin of some sort.”

“To the
hundredth degree,” answered Thalia, “but it is pretty amazing when
you think about it.”

“Yes, that is
they.” Maru turned to Josei who he greeted with a few well chosen
words, being careful to compliment him and his air of well-being
and his glossy coat. He flicked a wing at Vya. Thalia realised that
the two had met before at the same time remembering her cadet
lessons on Lai body language. A flick of a wing represented the
meeting of old friends.

Maru invited
them to sit and once he and they were settled, Daniel watching with
fascinated eyes at how Maru covered his torso with his wings as he
sat. he began to talk, “I was wondering if you were all wondering
why it is you who have been chosen for the task ahead of you.”

“Thalia and I
have both wondered,” said Daniel. Maru appeared to be waiting for
an answer, “we don’t understand why it is just us, there must be
others more suited to the job and we are but four.”

“I suppose you
could say that you were there, right place, right bell and that you
all fitted the requirements,” was Maru’s enigmatic answer, “the
object you search for, you understand, it is very important.”

“We do,” he
answered.

“We have come
to the conclusion that it will be taken to one of two places,” Maru
informed them, “one of them is to your country Daniel. That is why
you are one of the searchers. Your local knowledge will be
invaluable if the thief goes to the southern continent.”

“And the
alternative destination?” queried Daniel.

“Into the Great
Eastern Sea,” Maru answered, “and if that happens then your duty of
search will be at an end and you can go home.”

“But what if
the thief takes a little journey into the Great Eastern Sea?
Perhaps to one of the nearby islands and uses that as a jumping off
point to take it to Murdoch?” he asked.

Maru had an
answer for that too.

“That is why we
must be prepared. If the thief takes boat to an island there will
come a point when he goes one way or another. It is at this time
that Vya and Josei will let us know. If the power core goes south
to Murdoch you follow it. If it goes further out into the sea it is
that you will not concern yourselves any more. We Lai will deal
with it.”

“Why can’t you
just deal with it anyway?” asked Daniel.

Maru pondered
this.

“It is not the
time for us to go to Murdoch or travel beyond our home and the
rtathlians,” he said at last, “I can not explain why you
understand.”

Daniel didn’t
but didn’t think he should say so.

“I think I
understand, a little,” he said.

Thalia was
biting her lip, excited at the idea of a trip, however short, into
the Great Eastern Sea. She had never left the mainland of her
birth, hadn’t even taken a holiday in one of the resorts situated
on the Island Chain between Argyll and Murdoch.

“He, the thief
that is, might take the overland route,” mused Daniel.

“Unlikely,”
said Thalia, “he will know that the theft will be discovered
eventually and will think that when that happens every Lind on the
continent will be sent out to try and find the power core. He would
not imagine that just a few would be sent. That’s our advantage. A
couple of vadeln-pairs will not frighten him off. So what if Maru
is wrong, if he takes the overland route after all?”

“You will
follow,” Maru instructed, “now I must go. I am sorry to be so rude
as to leave you so soon but I must. My mate and I, we have eggs to
tend and she is waiting for me.”

“We quite
understand,” said Thalia, scrambling to her feet.

Maru rose to
his hind-legs. Thalia and the other three stepped back. All but
Daniel knew what was coming.

“We’ll need to
give him some space,” instructed Josei, backing away from Maru, paw
by paw.

Now Daniel saw
a wondrous thing.

Maru stretched
out his wings to their fullest extent. He began to run, his
haunches bunched and he launched himself up into the air, his wings
flapping and straining as he sought to gain altitude. He skimmed
over the lake, veering south, in the direction, Daniel realised
that would hide his silhouette from those who might be watching
from the domta. When he thought Maru would crash into the trees on
the southerly shore, he flapped his wings with more vigour, flew up
over the trees and out of sight.

“Whew,” Daniel
cried, “that was pretty awesome!”

“So what do we
do now?” asked Thalia who thought Maru pretty awesome too.

“We start
asking questions at the domta, with the Gtrathlin’s permission,”
decided Daniel, “try to get some information. Someone must remember
something about the theft even if they don’t know that it was the
theft. Little snippets of information, gleaned from various sources
may tell us the answer or at least give us some clues as to who,
what, when and more importantly, where to go and look next.”

“But we don’t
even know exactly when it was stolen.”

“Start with the
recent and work back,” Daniel suggested. “There was a trade caravan
here recently, wasn’t there? And one before that. We’ll begin with
the more recent one. And we must split up. Me with Vya and you with
Josei.”

“Might be
better if we swopped,” said Thalia. “I can hear what Josei’s
hearing and he can contact me immediately if you hear something
interesting, then me and Vya can come quick. What questions do I
ask?”

“You’re trying
to find out if anything out of the ordinary occurred when the
caravan was here. Any people acting out of character. Strangers who
were with the caravan for the first time and things like that. Ask
and keep asking. We don’t know yet what might be important. Me, I’m
going to the Holad, I noticed a burnt out cabin when we were
passing. Doesn’t look as if it went on fire all that long ago,
matter of a couple of months at the most I should think or even
less. I’ll start there.”

“The power core
may well have been taken longer ago that that,” Thalia reminded
him, “especially with it being replaced with another similar
box.”

“True,”
admitted Daniel, “but my gut feeling is that our thief was in that
caravan, probably posing as an honest trader. Bet you I’m
right.”

Thalia bestowed
on him her most withering look.

* * * * *

“Alavidha,” the
Gtrathlin said to Daniel two days later, when, after extracting all
the information they thought it possible to extract, the four
prepared to leave.

Daniel bowed
and tried to repeat the word, without too much success. He swung
himself on to Vya’s back.

Thalia, who had
already said her goodbyes, was mounted and waiting. She
frowned.

: Did I hear
that right? :
she telepathed to Josei
: Did the Gtrathlin
say Alavadha? :

: Of course
she did :
he answered
: what other word would she use?
:

: I don’t know,
it didn’t sound quite right, that’s all :

: Perhaps
your ears are clogged :
he suggested.

: They are not!
:

Thalia had a
niggling feeling that she had just missed something important.

: At least
we’ve got some leads :

: That man the
Gtrathlin said was here last rhedhrehl? :

: Precisely.
Kathya too. She seemed to think there was something not ‘right’
about him though she couldn’t tell us why :

: You think he
was a spy of some king? Doing a reconnoitre? :

: That is the
logical assumption :

: I can’t fault
your logic Josei. Tell Vya. Ask her what she thinks :

There was a
moment as the two Lind communicated mind to mind.

: She agrees
:
Josei ‘said’ at last
: she also thinks that our best
chance of success is to follow the caravan route. That is the way
the thief will have gone. The only way. Also, she agrees with
Daniel about the people in the caravan :

: So Daniel is
right? That the theft was performed by a boy and probably the boy
who was employed by the jewellery trader? :

: It was their
first time here. Last year the jewellery trader was an older man
and a man who had been coming here for many seasons. The boy was
seen exploring the domta too :

: My wits
must be vuzzed :
exclaimed Thalia then
: of course, the
persona of a jewellery merchant would be an ideal cover :

: Vya agrees
:

: Let’s go hunt
out trader and boy then. Tally ho! :

: What’s a
tally ho? :

: I’ve read
about it in the history books. It is an ancient hunting cry from
back on Earth, the planet we came from. People used to hunt
creatures called foxes over the countryside, using dogs :