Dragonlinks (32 page)

‘Several dozen links were removed thus, but they caused such chaos and mayhem that the famous mage Gri-Lagric sealed the remains of the mailshirt in a lead casket and formed the order of the White Lancers. Each of their leaders wore a link on a thong around his neck,
and by the glow of the links they managed to hunt down twenty of the scattered dragonlinks.'

‘I have read a little about Gri-Lagric,' said Jelindel. ‘He bled green when he died by the knife of an assassin. Perhaps he came from the sky but went about disguised as one of us. Perhaps Thull was another of the sky people as well … but if they are so powerful, why do they not descend from the sky at the head of legions of green-blooded warriors riding chariot birds and wielding swords of lightning?'

‘I do not know. However, there have been green-blooded warriors searching here for years in secret, I'm sure of that. You see, if the rightful heir to the mailshirt is a celestial king then he could take it by force from the warrior who finds it, tossing him a mere bag of gold if he were feeling generous. My feeling is that the complete mailshirt is worth more than a thousand bags of gold.'

‘Why?'

‘Why, oh yes, why? Nobody from this world knows that question's answer.'

Jelindel struggled with a thought before she spoke it. ‘If this chainmail has been around for a thousand years … well, I think it odd that the sky people have taken so long to locate it.'

Kelricka smiled. ‘Very clever. My own idea is that time moves at different speeds in some paraworlds.' She pursed her lips in thought. ‘The life span of an insect might be several days of our time, yet for the insect it would seem a hundred years. These green-blooded beings might outlive us as we outlive insects. A year of their time could be a hundred of ours.'

‘What an unusual idea,' Jelindel said wonderingly.
‘Yet now that I think of it, I have met some … beings who said that time in their paraworld runs slower than in our world.'

Kelricka sighed contentedly and slid further into the scented water. ‘Once the old church discovered the links' potency, they declared them holy relics. The current owners, vain men all, were easily tracked down by their mighty deeds. It has been documented in certain texts that mention of the links was punishable by death.'

‘Praise the unknown gods that such chronicles were not lost during the Great Cultural Purge last century.' The thought churned Jelindel's stomach. ‘So many learned people – entire cities – sacked and laid waste.'

‘The Forbidden Library was also razed. Fortunately its administrator at that time had had a premonition. She relocated many priceless tomes. Even so, much knowledge was lost.' Kelricka rang a bell chime. ‘It's getting cold.' She paused in indecision. Then her mind made up, she said, ‘Let your quest take you to the seaport of Centravian, Jelindel. Ask me no more on this matter. I have just broken a vow.'

Jelindel returned to the palace with her new clothing after promising Kelricka to be at the aqueduct dock in the mid-afternoon. She had insisted on bidding farewell to the priestess.

Beneath Jelindel's sheepskin coat the mailshirt was again glowing with the nearness of the other link. As she sat reading in the court mage's library, the physician arrived in search of her. Protective enchantments were required for the next day's coronation, so the two of them went to the Princess Royal's chambers and applied their work to the garments and regalia for the ceremony.

After an hour the physician was past the edge of his skills and quite exhausted. He left Jelindel to finish the work while he went to fetch them some lunch.

All the while the lepon was stretched out on a wide stone windowsill, watching Jelindel speak delicate traceries of pink fire into the royal crown.

‘Where is the link, Charapax Brinkle?' Jelindel asked without turning her head.

The lepon growled deeply and tensed its muscles.

‘That would be a stunningly stupid idea, Charapax. I have powers that you could not dream of, and a sealed note resides in a safe place explaining everything. If I should not return from this chamber that note will become very, very public.'

Jelindel turned to face the lepon now, and saw its throat seeming to shimmer as if crawling with burnished copper ants. It slipped fluidly from the window and sat facing her.

‘What do you want?'

The sound was like Zimak speaking into an empty tankard to make a deeper voice.

‘So then, shapeshifting is considered to be a weapon,' said Jelindel. ‘Where did you get the link?'

‘I clean turds from the palace beastarium. One day watch great sabre-toothed wolf die, very old. I like, feed him for years, I tell him my sorrows and hopes. He change to man as I watch. Naked man, but wear little ring. He hold up ring and say, “Live better as beast, my friend. Take this.” He die. I wear ring, learn shapeshift. Learn ten shapes. Princess like lepon best, make lepon favourite.'

‘So the sabre-toothed wolf
was
you?' Jelindel asked.

‘That me. You seemed like ally. I need your help to protect mistress. How did you know about me?'

‘The scent of the paralysis oil on the lindrak's cord which entangled you betrayed it as one specific to humans only. I know the scent well from my time in the D'loom marketplace, for it is used by physicians to stop the struggles of patients who need teeth extracted. Thus a sabre-toothed wolf that toppled under its influence had to be a human with a sabre-toothed wolf's form. That could only happen with a human changeling.'

‘You clever, very clever.'

‘I must have the link, you know. It is a dragonlink, something very dangerous.'

‘If you want expose me, you do it already. Why not?' ‘I want the dragonlink. I have no interest in you.'

He growled, but it was a spiritless imitation of menace.

‘Without link I am carrier of turd pails. Nothing man. As royal lepon I have caresses from Princess. I have more of Princess than even fancy boy lovers. Fancy boy lovers die. Princess sets pet lepon on them in morning. Very nasty for them. Very tasty for me. Taste like pork. Princess always loyal friend to lepon, she tells all secrets to lepon.'

‘Why not give me the dragonlink and remain a lepon,' Jelindel suggested.

The thought had obviously not crossed the shapeshifter's mind. He sat pondering for a time, then got up and padded over to her.

‘Back outer toe, feel carefully,' he said, holding up a back paw.

There was a fearsome claw, a rough pad of skin, and something hard and circular with fur glued to it. The link came away after some careful manipulation, and a glow
spilled out from the inner surface. Jelindel dropped it into her pouch.

‘Good fortune be with you,' Jelindel said as the lepon turned and sat facing her again.

‘Princess tell me secrets,' he said. ‘Princess has fancy for your blond guard. On night of crowning she has mind to bed him, then … I have live breakfast in morning. Lovers tell no tales.'

‘Indeed,' Jelindel said slowly, unsure if what she was feeling was fear, anger or jealousy.

‘She has made tryst with him for night after crowning. You save him, yes? You friend of him.'

‘“Friend” is putting it a little strongly, but thank you.' Jelindel stood up, her legs unsteady.

‘Mage Auditor, I have many more secrets, terrible secrets but I love my princess. For all what she does terrible things, I forgive her.'

‘Say no more, lepon. If I should learn too much I might become dangerous.'

The physician returned with a servant carrying their lunch on a tray, and they finished their work as they ate. Jelindel tossed a chicken drumstick to the lepon, who snapped it out of the air.

‘It trusts you,' said the physician in amazement.

‘It recognises me as another of the Princess's guards. It's an understanding between equals. The Princess is still his mistress.'

‘Maybe so, but you still have a way with animals, Mage Auditor,' declared the physician.

‘I ought to, after travelling with two for over a year,' Jelindel replied with a wry smile.

A
fter lunch Jelindel went straight to the library of the palace Adept with a pack over her shoulder. She questioned her motives for what she was about to do. Finally she reasoned that her actions were strictly altruistic. She owed Kelricka something for breaking a holy vow. Besides, in these war torn days, ancient texts were safer in temples than in palaces that were prone to insurgency and attack from neighbouring states. Her earlier conversation with Kelricka reminded her that history was all too full of cultures being obliterated by conquering armies.

She carefully selected fifteen of the best books, slipped another two about word configuration and use under her sheepskin coat, then tidied the remaining books and arranged them according to size and the colour of the covers.

Even someone familiar with the library would have
had trouble working out that anything at all was missing, let alone which titles.

That afternoon Jelindel went to the city gates and climbed the steps to the aqueduct dock. Three priestesses and their guards were climbing aboard a narrow boat with buffers all along its edges. The current flowed past swiftly, and the polemen stood ready to cast off.

Kelricka was still on the narrow stone quay as Jelindel came panting up the stone stairs.

‘Could you take these south to the Great Temple for me?' Jelindel asked. ‘They are … donations for the Forbidden Library.'

‘Thank you, yes. But –'

‘Don't ask, whatever you do, just don't ask. Now go, Holy Kelricka.'

‘Is there anything I can do in return?'

‘Perhaps. Look … when I have found the other dragon -links I would like to apply to become a neophyte at the Great Temple.'

Kelricka beamed at the words and raised her hands to embrace Jelindel – then forced them down to her sides again. Jelindel was meant to be a youth, after all.

‘There are tests, and strictures on entry, but I shall do all that I can and more when you arrive.'

They parted without any embrace, just curt bows. A priestess seen embracing a youth in public would simply never do. Kelricka stepped into the boat and the polemen cast off. The current in the aqueduct carried the padded boat away swiftly and smoothly. Kelricka turned and waved several times until the aqueduct curved around a terraced field and was lost from sight.

‘How far does the aqueduct take the boats?' Jelindel
asked one of the waiting polemen as he helped to untie the next boat in its rack.

‘The very border of the Kingdom of Serpentire, lad, and the headwaters of the Serpentire River – that's the town o' Headport. They should arrive by midnight.'

‘Midnight! So quickly? Are you sure?'

‘I does the trip twice a month. The water flows swiftly, and all we has ter do is keep the bow from the walls. At Headport wheel frames are strapped ter the boats and oxen haul the boats back up here loaded with various goods.'

‘There are barges on the Serpentire River, I hear.'

‘Aye, a much slower current takes 'em down ter the very eastern sea o' Laka. Horses an' rowers brings 'em back up.'

Jelindel inclined her head and crossed his palm with several coppers. ‘You've been most helpful,' she said.

The morning of the coronation dawned clear and bright, but clouds began gathering even as the sun cleared the nearby peaks. Zimak was dressed in the finest clothes that Jelindel had ever seen him wearing, but Daretor had refused all offers from the palace tailors.

The actual coronation was held in an ancient stone circle on a terrace high above the city itself. After the ceremony, the new Queen was driven into the city in an open carriage guarded by the elite Palace Lancers.

At Jelindel's suggestion Zimak and Daretor climbed to the aqueduct dock for a better view of the queen as she passed below, and Jelindel even lent Zimak her farsight to watch the parade all the better.

‘The boy is besotted with her,' Daretor observed as he stood back holding Zimak's tankard.

Jelindel nodded as Zimak called out, ‘There she is! She even has the lepon sitting beside her in the carriage. Aye, what style!'

Jelindel touched Daretor's hand, then sprinkled a pinch of greyish powder into Zimak's tankard.

‘You know what you are doing, I presume?' asked Daretor.

‘Just saving his life.'

By now all the onlookers atop the aqueduct quay were cheering themselves hoarse and flinging petals down on the procession as bells rang out from every tower and trumpets blared.

‘I sold our horses this morning and packed the most part of our bags for delivery to this quay,' she shouted in Daretor's ear.

‘So we are leaving now, but you sold our horses?'

‘Look behind you.'

A small charter boat stood ready, straining at the aqueduct's current.