Drogoya: Book 3 Circles of Light series (2 page)

‘Now we must search
over there to find the circle. Then your men must guard it Navan,
but it will not be as unpleasant for them as this duty has
been.’

Tika was astonished by
the turmoil in her emotions when she first saw Elyssa. It was
similar to the instant bonding she had experienced with Farn, but
not quite the same. She somehow felt that Elyssa was a mirror
image, the other half that made her a whole person. She wept when
she saw Elyssa, and Elyssa had come straight to her, holding her
until the tears ceased. From that moment they were inseparable and
Farn had accepted Elyssa as immediately and fully as had
Tika.

Tika scarcely paid any
attention to why Emla had arrived in Sapphrea, although the air
mage Maressa intrigued her. Farn appreciated Maressa’s compliments
on the beautiful colour of his scales and his eyes. When Tika told
the two Vagrantians of the battle with Rhaki’s creatures, the
Cansharsi, and they saw the long scar snaking down Farn’s neck,
tears flowed down both faces. Tika cried too at the remembering and
Farn proudly folded all three in his wings to offer comfort. Kija
had been outraged at hearing Farn’s account of his bravery and had
taken Tika severely to task for encouraging such boastfulness in
her son.

When Emla told them of
the bodies found in the circle inside the Asataria, Tika and Elyssa
sensed a great tearing apart of something inexplicable, and both
became agitated and distressed. Maressa was the only one who seemed
able to calm them and had offered to stay behind when Kemti
expressed doubts about making the two travel to Return.

Tika found it strange
to be in Seboth of Far’s manor. She was amazed to find that Seboth
did not spend most of his time in his great hall with his armsmen,
drinking and shouting. On the contrary, Seboth had apartments above
his hall where his womenfolk moved freely and without fear of
reprimand. She was struck speechless to find that Seboth’s wife,
Lallia, could both read and write.

‘Most of us can, my
dear,’ Lallia confided. ‘Seboth doesn’t mind in the least, as long
as we do not let too many outsiders know.’ She laughed at Tika’s
expression. ‘Seboth loves people to think he is a little bit
stupid, a little bit slow, but indeed he is neither. Lord Hargon
spoke of the old legends and Seboth made light of it. In truth, he
has many of the oldest texts still existing in his library here. He
has sought them out all over the land, and buys them wherever he
finds one for sale. He does not regard the legends as Lord Hargon
does. Seboth sees them as a history, a true history of this land,
not tales to frighten children.'

Maressa gently laid a
now sleeping baby on a pile of pillows and stretched.

‘I too would learn the
history of this land Lady Lallia.’

Seboth’s wife studied
the air mage thoughtfully, then glanced at Elyssa. ‘I think you
have not yet told exactly who you are. You say you came from the
north with Lady Emla, but that is not your home I
think?’

Elyssa’s eyes locked
with Maressa’s and Maressa gave a tiny shrug, turning her attention
back to the baby. Elyssa drew a breath.

‘You are correct Lady
Lallia. Maressa and I come from a place we call Vagrantia, many
leagues across the Wilderness, far east of Gaharn.’

Lallia frowned in
thought and repeated the name: ‘Vagrantia.’

Elyssa waited while
Lallia’s mind juggled with the word. The frown vanished.

‘Vagrantia!’ she
exclaimed, excitement in her voice. ‘Vagrants. You are one of the
Vagrants?’

Elyssa smiled. ‘A
descendant of one of the Vagrants, yes. Our ancestors wandered all
over this land until they found safe haven inside five craters left
from long dead volcanoes. I suppose it was a sort of stubbornness
that made those survivors call the place Vagrantia. Taking the word
that most people used to curse us and making it a name to be proud
of – as we are.’

‘Vagrants.’ Lallia
breathed the word. ‘May I tell Seboth? I swear I will not if you so
desire him not to know, but he would be enchanted.’

Elyssa laughed aloud.
‘I hope he will not decide to chase us away.’

‘Farn would not permit
that,’ Tika said quietly.

Maressa chuckled. ‘I
have yet to see one of these Great Dragons annoyed.’

A disturbance at the
door proved to be Lord Seboth and his Armschief – who was also,
they had learnt, Seboth’s brother. Seboth waved a scroll case and
joined the group of women by the hearth.

‘Raben’s man brought
this – it is named for Maressa.’ He pointed to a tag on the
seal.

Maressa took it with
some surprise. ‘It is from the High Speaker of Vagrantia,’ she told
them, reading the upper seal. She flattened the roll of paper and
read silently. ‘I have to go to the circle tomorrow Lord Seboth.
Two will arrive from the Stronghold at mid morning.’

Seboth settled on a
large pillow and poked a stubby finger into the baby’s
midriff.

‘Leave that child alone
Seboth, he has only just decided to sleep at last,’ Lallia told him
sharply. She arched her brows at him. ‘Have you connected the name
of Vagrantia with anything yet?’

Seboth sat up
straighter. ‘I have, but it seems a rather wild connection,’ he
admitted, looking at his wife then at the three
visitors.

Elyssa repeated to the
Lord of Far and his brother what she had told Lallia and watched
their rising excitement.

‘All these cycles you
have been hidden safely away,’ he exclaimed. ‘I suspected as much.’
He gave them a shrewd look. ‘And do you now intend to lay claim to
your old lands? They were once called Valsheba, but the local
leader of those left after the catastrophe was named Sappher and
the lands were thus called Sapphrea in honour of his slaughter of
the greatest number of your people.’

Maressa paled. ‘I had
not known that. We have had no contact beyond Vagrantia’s walls for
near two thousand cycles Lord Seboth.’

‘So you know nothing of
the Ganger Wars, or the appearance of the tall ones in Gaharn?’
Olam asked with interest.

Maressa shook her head.
‘Nothing of the world at all since the catastrophe. But we have had
to learn rather a lot, rather quickly in the past days,’ she added
ruefully.

‘And who are the two
who will travel your magic circle tomorrow?’ Olam
questioned.

Maressa glanced at the
paper in her lap. ‘Lashek. He is the Speaker for Segra Circle. He
is an earth mage as I am an air mage.’

‘One of your leaders?’
Seboth sounded surprised.

‘He is also filled with
more curiosity than anyone else I know,’ Maressa smiled. ‘I have no
doubt he has wheedled and cajoled the High Speaker until she
permitted him to travel out of sheer exasperation!’

Elyssa nodded. She had
always found Lashek the kindest of men, and remembered especially
how gentle he had been when her eyes first became
silvered.

‘Who else?’ she now
asked.

Maressa frowned.
‘Someone called Ren.’ She looked at Seboth, Olam and Lallia and
sighed. ‘We have just learnt that there is another land, on the
other side of this world, called Drogoya. Ren is from that
land.’

It took the rest of the
afternoon to explain everything to Seboth, Lallia and Olam, during
which time the baby was despatched to the nursery and the group
transferred from the pleasant sitting room to the library. Seboth
got up and down, finding various texts, while Elyssa deplored the
non existent system of ordering his shelves.

After an argument, Olam
left to take Seboth’s place in the great hall to preside over the
evening meal while the others ate in the library so as to continue
their discoveries. Olam returned surprisingly quickly.

‘I said I had the belly
ache,’ he grinned, and snatched the meat pastry from his brother’s
hand.

‘Farn is back with
Brin,’ Tika announced. ‘I must go down to them.’

‘We all will come,’
Seboth said generously.

For the first time,
Lallia showed the timidity Tika had thought was the norm for
Sapphrean females. ‘May I come with you Seboth? It is almost dark
and perhaps you could say that our guests needed a female
escort?’

‘Of course you can
come,’ Tika pre-empted Seboth smartly.

Making their way down
Seboth’s private stairway, Tika realised just how different Seboth
was in his attitude, both to the way he treated females and in his
eagerness to learn, and his openness of mind. If she had been
raised in his household, perhaps she would not have run away. But
then she would never have found Kija and Farn.

She looked down at
Seboth, a few steps below her, and sent a tiny thread of power
towards his mind. He faltered on the stair, putting a hand to the
wall to steady himself. Tika grinned to herself. Unaware he might
be, but old Valsheban blood still ran in his veins and the power
was close to the surface. A little instruction and he would be able
to reach it.

Farn and Brin had
settled in an enclosed courtyard garden within Seboth’s manor and
were watching for Tika’s appearance. As she was about to go to
greet them she heard Lallia’s gasp behind her. Turning, she saw
that Lallia’s eyes were wide: no trace of fear, only amazed awe.
Tika reached for her hand, pulling Lallia with her. Farn’s head
lowered to Lallia’s level and his eyes whirred many shades of
blue.

‘Another girl,’ he
exclaimed happily.

Olam departed that
evening to reach the circle by the next day, taking extra koninas
for the new arrivals. Seboth tried to appear nonchalant but failed
dismally to hide his delight when it was suggested he go with
Maressa on Brin’s back to the circle outside Tagria. Farn would
carry his two girls.

They had not waited
long when the air trembled and two men stood upon the circle. One
was older, short of stature and portly of build. The other was a
slender, younger man with silver eyes and chestnut brown pupils.
Lashek embraced Elyssa and Maressa, hesitating barely a moment
before hugging Tika as well. He introduced his companion as Ren
Salar, an Offering from Drogoya.

The young man bowed
politely and eyed the Dragons with caution. His relief at being
offered a konina to ride back to Far was so plain that even Farn
and Brin were amused.

‘Have you flown on the
back of a Great Dragon before?’ Brin asked the stranger.

‘I have not,’ Ren
replied. ‘I have ridden upon a Plavat, a giant bird with unpleasant
manners, and I did not greatly enjoy that experience.’

‘I would take great
care of you, should you wish to fly with me,’ Brin said, his eyes
sparkling with mischief.

Ren saw Tika’s grin and
bowed again to the massive crimson Dragon.

‘Truly, I am greatly
honoured by your generous offer, but I do prefer to be nearer the
ground.’

Brin and Farn thought
this remark extraordinarily amusing, and repeated it to each other
all the way back to Far.

Chapter
Two

In the settlement of
Arak there was an air of bustling activity. Although a shelter had
been provided to give the severely injured midnight blue Dragon
Kadi some respite from the weather, Observer Chakar, Lorak and the
ancient black Dragon Fenj were increasingly concerned. Kadi needed
to be in a place secure from winds still bitterly cold. One of the
Delvers’ large growing areas was directly below where Kadi lay. The
Snow Dragons using fire, and Delvers using hammers and hands, had
enlarged the ventilation opening to a size enough to grant Kadi
entrance.

What worried Chakar and
Fenj most of all was the fact that Kadi remained silent although
some of her wounds were beginning to heal. Her mind was closed and
not even Fenj could reach her. Lorak had come up with the idea of
moving Kadi and worked hard on the fulfilment of that
plan.

Long lengths of rope
were woven into a huge net, then heavily padded with whatever
material the Delvers could lay hands on. Three Snow Dragons
practised the manoeuvring they would need to do, over and over,
until Fenj was satisfied. Now, in the early morning light, work
began to ease the great net beneath Kadi’s inert form. It took far
longer than Chakar and Lorak had envisaged and they agreed to halt
for a while to give everyone a much needed rest.

Mim and Ashta were to
be the guides for the Snow Dragons and Fenj, and now Mim checked
and rechecked the four harnesses. Lorak would ride Fenj, Chakar one
of the Snow Dragons and Delver healers would be on the remaining
Snow Dragons. Finally, Mim secured the last ropes to Fenj and
stepped back.

‘Stars guide our path
now, old one,’ he murmured.

Fenj bent his head to
Mim’s.

‘Indeed, let us trust
that they will Dragon Lord. But there is no choice. She will die if
we leave her here much longer. Gremara’s healing was weakened by
her battle with the Forsaken.’

Mim scratched his
talons along Fenj’s long jaw then ran lightly back to Ashta. The
four Dragons harnessed to the net, lifted slowly into the air until
they were perhaps three man heights above the ground and the ropes
tightened. There was a brief flutter of panic from one of the Snow
Dragons as she realised just how heavy a load Kadi was going to be
but, as quickly, she calmed. Mim watched, leaving Fenj to order the
beginning of the lift.