Drogoya: Book 3 Circles of Light series (34 page)

Kwanzi came in
unsteadily, his arm half supporting both himself and the woman
healer at his side. They reached Thryssa and stared down at what
remained of Mokray. The woman, Lori, pointed at the girl’s hands
and Thryssa swallowed hard. Mokray’s fingers were curled into claws
and were bloodied to the second knuckles.

‘It was Neri who was
working with you, was it not? Is he all right?’ Thryssa
asked.

The woman healer
straightened her back with a groan. ‘He is drained but will be
himself after a good rest, as will we.’

‘How did you destroy
it?’ Thryssa looked suddenly alarmed. ‘It is destroyed I
trust?’

Lori smiled. ‘Some of
us had heard rumours of these things from the Void making an
unwelcome appearance on this world and had talked of ways of
defeating them.’ She shrugged. ‘We unmade its mind. But the three
of us were fully stretched. Six would have dealt with it quicker
and suffered less than we. None of us will be able to call any
power for several days.’

Kwanzi rubbed a hand
wearily over his face. ‘All three bodies must be burnt to ashes at
once.’

‘Why?’ Pachela asked in
surprise. ‘They are dead, they are of no danger now. Are
they?’

Lori started to turn
away, moving like an ancient crone. ‘Their bodies could be
reanimated for a while. They must offer no haven for any other such
creatures.’

Pachela put her hands
over her mouth, grey silvered eyes round with shock. Thryssa put
her arm across the young woman’s shoulders and moved them both
towards the door.

‘Take these bodies to
the roof, burn them, and stay with them until the winds take the
ashes,’ she ordered the guard leader.

Another guard hurried
in as she was speaking. He saluted.

‘Speaker Lashek and
Speaker Orsim have been brought in High Speaker.’

Thryssa’s arm tightened
about Pachela at the words.

‘They seemed to have
some sort of fit so their escort told us, about a league from here.
They are not conscious but have been taken to infirmary
three.’

Kwanzi and Lori had
turned back to hear the guard’s words. Kwanzi met his wife’s
stare.

‘Lashek wears a
pendant,’ Thryssa murmured. ‘I will go at once.’

Somehow, Kwanzi and
Lori summoned a reserve of strength and followed Thryssa and
Pachela down three floors to the infirmaries where the Speakers had
been taken. Senior healers were already working over the two men
when Thryssa arrived. Gripping her pendant in her left hand, she
reached between two healers for Lashek’s hand. She lifted it and
placed it over his pendant, pressing the limp fingers around the
oval shape. A healer moved aside, raising his brows at the High
Speaker in mute question.

‘Can you find any
damage, any reason for this collapse?’ Thryssa kept her voice
low.

The healer shook his
head. ‘There is evidence of great shock – the sort we would expect
to see following a major injury and serious loss of blood. But
there is no sign of any physical injury.’

Another healer murmured
something and the one who had spoken to Thryssa turned back to
their patient. Thryssa moved to Orsim and heard the same
conclusions. She studied Orsim’s face, relaxed and unguarded as she
had rarely seen it. Slowly, she raised the silver chain over her
head and held the jade backed egg in her hand. She put it gently in
the curve of Orsim’s neck then stood back, aware of the healers’
curious stares.

‘Let that not be moved
from where I have placed it,’ she commanded them and moved once
more to Lashek’s bed.

The healer who had
spoken to her previously bent towards her.

‘The shocked reaction
to his sensory web is dissipating quite quickly High Speaker.
Quicker than I would have thought possible.’

Thryssa drew a stool to
Lashek’s bedside and sat watching him. Colour had returned to his
pallid face and suddenly his lips twitched into a wide smile,
although his eyes remained closed. Thryssa had no idea how long she
sat, healers coming and going around her. She was aware only of
Lashek. His eyelids fluttered, and opened. He looked straight into
the High Speaker’s hazel eyes, the smile still creasing his plump
face and the scent of mint suffused the infirmary.

Chapter
Twenty-One

Tika decided that it
might seem more polite if she made her way to the Elder’s cave
rather than expecting him to fly to the beach. She knew from Farn
that the young sea Dragons such as Storm, supplied fish for the
Elders, who spent most of their days basking on the ledges. Tika
had not met the third Elder. She had seen a massive body lying
outside a cave near to Salt’s but its colouring was so like the
weather streaked rocks, that she saw only a blurred shape with no
definitive form to it.

The party spent the
hottest part of each day within the lower caves, dozing or
chatting, until the heat abated enough for them to venture forth to
the ruins of the ancient city of Segra. A short while after their
midday meal was finished today therefore, Tika announced that she
was visiting the Elder Salt. She shook her head when Gan would have
escorted her.

‘He has asked to speak
with me Gan. I presume he means alone.’

Gan settled back
against a small boulder.

‘I will wait for you
here then, should the others have gone off to dig in the sand some
more.’

Ren looked up from a
sketch he was making on a large piece of paper and
scowled.

‘It is serious
research, not just digging about in the sand.’

Gan nodded and closed
his eyes. Sket caught Tika’s eye questioningly. She
grinned.

‘You can wait here with
Gan if you wish – just think of all that water you would have to
look at from so high up.’

Sket grinned back and
continued cleaning and checking his weapons. Tika walked round to
the beach side of the cliffs and began to climb towards the cave in
which she, Gan, Navan and Riff slept. She studied the cliff face
and picked a route upwards to Salt’s cave. Halfway to her goal, the
path became far more tricky and took all her concentration. When
she hauled herself onto the ledge she sat for a moment, legs
dangling, and sucked her sore fingertips. It was going to be even
more unpleasant climbing down, she realised, and sincerely hoped
that Salt would allow Farn to land here and carry her back to the
beach.

She heard a dry
rustling to her left and got to her feet, moving cautiously toward
the cave. The bright sunlight and the glittering dazzle off the
water made the cave seem even darker as she peered within. From the
darkness the slightly paler face of Salt loomed towards
her.

‘Welcome child. I will
lie outside then you may choose heat or shade in which to sit while
we talk.’

Tika pressed herself
against the rock as the huge body emerged from the cave to recline
along the ledge. As she sat against the cave’s entrance, head in
shadow and legs out on the ledge, she realised how dark her skin
had become. Her trousers were rolled to the knees and her legs and
bare feet looked a tawny brown against the rock.

‘You find your chosen
caves suitable?’ Salt asked politely.

‘Oh yes, perfectly,’
Tika answered. ‘Brin will be back in a day or two we hope,’ she
added, wondering if Salt really wanted to discuss such
details.

Salt rumbled quietly
and extended a wing over the side of the ledge to better soak up
the heat. His long grey face turned to regard the small figure
beside him.

‘Storm tells me there
has been much searching for a particular plant?’

Tika noticed that his
pale faceted eyes had dark green specks in them as she considered
her answer.

‘It is a herb, called
mint. It is used in many ways, some of them in
healings.’

‘Hmm. We know of
certain such plants, but we have to seek far to the north for such.
We use plants that grow in the sea more often.’

‘Those long ribbon
things you mean?’ Tika asked in surprise.

‘Not those generally,
but Ice can tell you more of such thing than I.’

Salt regarded her
steadily.

‘Why do you need this
mint plant – none of you are sick I think?’

Tika paused to think.
‘It has a strong smell. Some of us believe we have smelled it, but
look though we may, we cannot discover it.’

Silence fell. Salt
swung his head to gaze out over the endless waters.

‘Do you hear the
singing?’

Tika stared at Salt’s
profile. ‘No one has mentioned to me that they have heard any
singing.’

‘Hmm.’ The Elder turned
his gaze back to Tika. ‘You carry something special with
you.’

Tika’s hand went
automatically to the pendant under her shirt.

‘It calls to me,’
Salt’s voice whispered in her mind. ‘Might I see it?’

Tika pulled the gold
chain free of her shirt and let the pendant swing freely below her
hand. The red gold backing winked and shimmered in the bright sun
and the amber front seemed to drink in the light. Salt’s eyes
whirred rapidly and he lowered his face close to the
pendant.

‘Listen
child.’

Tika frowned then
gasped as Salt opened his mind to her. Countless voices mingled in
Salt’s mind, their singing rising and falling in joyful cadence.
Very slowly, Tika slipped the pendant under her shirt again but
held it away from her skin when she realised how hot it had become.
The singing faded and ceased. Salt sighed, a great gusting
sigh.

‘That is what I hear.
Only myself and Mist hear them. It began on the day that you
arrived at this shore.’

Tika realised that she
was trembling and also that Salt was aware of her agitation. The
Elder’s eyes darkened, fixing on Tika.

‘You have heard this
before.’ It was a statement not a question.

Green silvered eyes
sparkled with unshed tears.

‘When my Farn was near
death, I think I heard something like that, but not so clearly, nor
so close.’

Salt’s mind tone
softened. ‘Go now and speak with Mist.’ He glanced a little higher
along the cliff face to an empty ledge. ‘She awaits you now
child.’

Tika scrambled up the
short distance to the ledge that Salt had indicated. She stood at
the cave’s mouth and called in the mind speech:

‘Elder Mist? Elder Salt
told me that you wished to see me?’

Tika was unable to hide
her shock when the sea Dragon came into the sunlight. One side of
her face was still the long beautiful Dragon face that Tika had
come to expect. The other was twisted by a burning of some kind.
The left eye socket was empty, puckered grey hide grown across it.
There were no scales on the left side of her face and, as Mist came
fully onto the ledge, Tika saw great patches on her neck and
shoulder were also bare of scales. Tika could not restrain her
tears: Mist’s left wing was half gone, clearly this Dragon could no
longer fly. The single eye rested on her, pale greens and blues
iridescent in the prisms.

‘I appreciate your
feelings child, but I am long used to my
disfigurements.’

‘Yes, but to be unable
to fly!’ Tika blurted before she could stop herself.

Mist laughed softly. ‘I
can manage to reach the shore on occasions. More often, I go to the
cliff top, from whence I can get back here quite easily. I will
admit that it is a struggle up from the beach.’

Tika could not believe
that this huge creature of the skies could speak of her loss of
flight so lightly. But Mist again answered Tika’s
thought.

‘It was long ago child.
I am accustomed now to my restrictions.’

Tika brushed her sleeve
across her wet face. ‘Forgive me Mist. Your bravery makes anything
I have heard of or experienced fade to nothing.’ She drew a shaky
breath. ‘You wished to speak to me?’

‘Yes indeed.’ The
Dragon settled herself more comfortably along the ledge. ‘It will
not surprise you to know that I listened to your stories through
Cloud’s mind? All of this Flight allow me to see and hear things
through their minds since I am isolated here.’

Tika nodded in
understanding.

‘The hatchling you are
bonded to – his mind is fragile. No, no.’ Mist lowered her head to
touch her undamaged right cheek to Tika’s. ‘I do not say his mind
is weak – fragile is what I truly meant. I am surprised that his
mother has let him travel so far from her though.’

Tika was quick to
Kija’s defence. ‘She went to visit an Elder – not too distant from
us. Then she heard tell that her clan sister had been dreadfully
injured a long way to the north. She flew to offer her help, not
knowing that we would come across the barren lands to the coast.
Brin is boastful sometimes, but he cares for Farn and would let no
harm come to him. And I have some medicines which help if he
becomes too upset.'

Mist listened carefully
until Tika fell silent.