The Last Dragon Chronicles: The Fire Ascending (17 page)

“Wolf! Like a wolf!”

Is this a form they favour?
 
I asked the

Fain.

The Ix will take any form that gives anadvantage, particularly if it kills with

ease
.

Galen had obviously registered that. Ifelt his auma raking the tree line. For acreature with only one natural predator Iwas surprised how cautious dragonswere. I swept his focus over the bird. Icould see little of it, just the moonlightglinting in its roving eye. “I don’t believeyou, raven. How could a wolf put a bindon your leg?”

I had seen wolves. A small pack usedto drift around Yolen’s cave, passing onlike wisps of smoke if we faced them. Their agility was legendary. I’d seenwater struggle to navigate rocks that alone male wolf could flow over with ease.

But lively as their paws undoubtedlywere, they could never have tied a bird to

a tree.

The raven had a simple explanation forit. “Magicks!”

Under my skin, the dragon reared. Theheat  in  my  shoulders   was   almostunbearable. Galen was desperate to showhis power, as if the mere sight of hiscavernous wings would see away anysymptom of malice. For the first time, Ifelt his utter frustration. Here he was, agiant of goodness, trapped in a form thatcould barely express it. I had to act.

“If I set you free, will you fly with usand keep a watch for this wolf?”

“Will kill Crakus. Ix will kill.”

“Crakus is your name?”

Caaarrrk!
 
it went loudly.

“Agawin,    what’s    happening?”

Guinevere was struggling to calm Gawain.

The wearling was treading about in herhands, flapping his wings in the manner ofbirds that sense changes in the weather –or danger in the air.

I said to Crakus, “If you prefer, I couldleave you here for the buzzards to find –or set my wearling upon you right now. Asyou can see, he has your scent.”

Thoran grunted and tipped his snoutupward.

I saw the raven shrink in fear.

“I have no quarrel with you, bird – but if I let you go, you
 
will
 
be in my debt. Pledge your help and I will calm the wearling’s longing. Think carefully on this. Even I can sense your blood flowing faster. I’m sure you know the effect that has on a
 
dragon’s
 
pulse, especially one

still learning to hunt.”

The Fain said,
 
The bird will easily outfly him
 
.

But did Crakus want to gamble on that? I sensed his cowardice as sharply as the cool night air on my neck. Promising allegiance to us was the bravest thing it would ever do. And a pair of eyes in the sky could be useful.

Before it could make its decision, however, a new and more potent threat emerged. I turned my head so suddenly to the east that Thoran huffed and backed off

a little. I raised my hand to still him, at the same time using Galen’s sensors to pick up a thudding vibration in the soil: a sound I hadn’t heard since my walk by the long Horste river with Yolen: hoof beats.

“Guinevere. Into the trees!”

She turned her head to follow my gaze. “Why? What’s the matter?”

“Horses. I can hear them. I think he can,too.” I nodded at Gawain. He flipped hiswings   and   rose  to  the   height  of Guinevere’s  chin.   She  grabbed  himquickly and drew him back down. “Tworiders. Maybe more. Get Gawain undercover. And whatever you do, try to keephim quiet.” I ushered her past me,explaining in broken sentences to Thoranthat horses were approaching. I pointedout the direction from which they would

c ome .
 
Horses
 
.
  
Danger
 
.
  
Hide
.   His discontented rumble suggested he would rather stand up and fight. But he obeyed my urgings and melted into the trees with

Guinevere. As for Crakus, I had no knifewith which to cut his tie and no time to

spend unpicking a knot. But I gave him my word that I would come back and free him

if he stayed in the shadows and made no

sound.

I was right about the number of riders. Iwas barely concealed at the edge of thewood when two figures on horsebackscrambled over a nearby ridge. Even with Galen enhancing my vision I couldn’t seetheir faces, but I could see their mounts. One was clearly a unicorn. The horserider, a man who sat slim and tall in thesaddle, spoke. “Slow down,” he said tothe unicorn rider – a woman with waves

of hair like Hilde. He reined his mount

round and stared at different points of the

horizon, lastly at the trees. “Can you feel

that?”

The woman trotted the unicorn up. Itshorn was complete, its white maneflowing. Its elegant body was silvered bythe moonlight. “Is it her?”

I felt my chest muscles tighten. Her? Were they looking for Guinevere?

“No, I’m picking up dragon auma.”

“In the trees? Is that a habitat theylike?”

The man leaned forward and gave thehorse’s ear a tug. “Depends how youngthey are. Let your auma commingle withthe ground.”

She looked down, as if she wasconcerned about the drop. “Why?”

“Just do it. You’ll understand.”

But before she could speak, I knewwhat she would find. The ground waswarm, like it had been at Taan when Galen was alive. The fires of Gaia were

ascending for Gawain. There was no way we could hide from it. I readied Galen for

a possible attack.

“Remember the ark, just before we left Co:pern:ica?” The man was staring at Guinevere’s position, as if he could source her heat trail, like I could.

“The fire on the water? Is this the

same?”

The man nodded, more to himself thanto her. “They’re connected, over the entirenexus. Gadzooks must have used it as a

kind of fire star so we’d be transported to the right place – and right time – on

Earth.”

“Smart dragon,” she said.

And somehow I knew without knowing she was talking about the writing dragon on the tapestry.

Agawin
 
. At long last, the Fain had spoken.

By now I had shifted position a little, trying to see the man’s attire. He was not thickly-clad as Voss might have been, and clearly not a natural horseman; he seemed uneasy in the saddle and he was also not wearing riding boots. I could see no sword hanging off his hip. No bow. No quiver of arrows at his back. If he was a warrior, he was unlike any I’d seen before. The woman, likewise, appeared to be unarmed. All the same, I could not take

chances.
 
Are they hunters?
 
I asked. Was there a bounty on the wearling’s head already?

The Fain paused before replying.
 
They are visitors here.

Visitors? Explain.

They do not have an auma trailconsistent with this world.

What?
 
I almost spoke the word aloud. Ithought I saw Guinevere cover Gawain’smouth to stop him hurring. A few trees tomy left, the bracken crackled.

This makes no sense to us. The woman

is a kind of sibyl—

The plague of my young life. I tightened

my fists.

—
but the man, in part, is kin to—

“Greetings,” said a voice.

My heart all but stopped. The idiot birdhad spoken. The sibyl had heard it, buthad   she   understood?   “Raven,”   shewhispered in a strange, almost self-congratulatory way, as if she had neverseen a raven before. I heard Crakus

shuffle along his branch.

Despite the bird’s call, the man remained calm. “They’re common on this world.”

“She’s got memories of them. A place

called North Walk.”

“Yes,” he said. “A party of ravens attacked Zanna there once. You’re phasing into her auma already. How are you feeling?”

“Strange.” She threw her hair across her shoulders. “Like I’ve just jumped into

my own reflection. One minit I’m putting books in order and the next I’m leaping through a wall of fire and sweeping across the universe on the back of a unicorn, learning  to  be   a   different  woman. Everything I see or smell or taste here gives me another connection to Zanna. It’s like looking at the daisy fields around the librarium and instantly knowing every one of them by name. It’s very confusing. Am I Rosa or am I her?”

“You’re Rosa,” he replied. “With shades of Zanna. But the longer you stay on this part of the nexus, the more like Zanna you’ll become. Try not to think about it.”

“Easy for you to say. How do you

adjust so fast?”

“It’s different for a construct. We don’t

have the same… emotional fluctuations.”

“Hmph,” she went.

“That was very Zanna.” She scowled like thunder.

“And that definitely is.”

“Greetings,”   Crakus   said   again, scratching his branch.

The horseman flicked his gaze at the bird. I was certain he’d understood the

squawk, but as yet he making no move to reply.

Rosa reached forward and played with the unicorn’s silky mane. “I’m frightened of what Zanna means to you. The… love she brings. The powers she has. I’m scared I won’t be able to live up to her.”

“You don’t have to,” he said. “You just

be what you are.”

The sibyl raised her head proudly. Just

for a moment I was able to catch a

glimpse of her profile. She was not as fair-skinned and appealing as Grella, but even the darkness could not conceal the

striking, feral lines of her face.

“Is she prettier than me?”

The man turned his horse, unsure of how to answer. “Physically, you’re almost identical.”

“Almost?”

“Rosa, it doesn’t matter.” There was a pause. He said, “We need to get on.”

But she had not done with him yet. “You’ve got a daughter, haven’t you? Zanna’s child.”

This must have been true, for it made

him swallow. “We’re way too early in the

timeline to meet her.”

The sibyl laid her fingers across herbare arm. A slight blue glow came off herskin. “Then why do I feel her aura sostrongly?”

He shrugged and said, “Alexa is…special. She’s recorded as a primarybeing in the Is, so—”

“No,” she interrupted him. “Forget allthat ‘Is’ stuff. I mean she’s very near.”

“That’s not possible.”

“Well, I’m telling you, I
feel
 
her.”

For a third time, Crakus called out.

Relieved to have a reason to end their

conversation, the man slid off his horse. “I think you’re picking up a forward memory. We’ll talk about this later. Wait

here a moment. I’m going to see what’s bothering this raven.” He patted the horse and approached us on foot. I half-expected Galen to burst from my body and throw his spirit self into the attack. But the dragon, like the Fain, seemed somewhat awed by this gangly man with the loping stride. The whole wood fell silent as he

saw that Crakus was tied to his branch.

Quickly, he drew a knife.

I was clear in my mind that he simplyintended to cut the bird free. But Thoran

saw it as a provocation. He crashed through the trees and roared towards the man, flashing his paws and barking out of the pit of his throat. The unicorn reared, almost throwing the sibyl off. The raven squawked in high-pitched fear, as though

it
 
was the one about to be swatted.

Meanwhile, my heart galloped forwardwith Thoran. I had never seen an

overweight lump of fur move as fast as he did that night. But the visitor was faster still. He dropped, rolled sideways and was on his feet again before Thoran knew where his foe had gone. Had the man been swift he could have leaped forward and plunged the blade into the bear’s thick neck. But he rolled the knife to improve his grip and just waited for Thoran to scent him and turn. Indignant at being outmanoeuvred, the bear gave a yawning howl of a threat, delivered from a tilted, open jaw.

To my amazement, the man roared back. “Stay where you are. I’ve no wish to hurt

you.”

The Fain read the roar and immediately said,
 
A bear’s voice comes naturally to him
.

To add to my bewilderment Rosa said, “Change. Quickly. Show him what youare.”

“I can’t,” he said, dancing in an arc to keep Thoran turning. “We’re too early in the timeline. He doesn’t know about ice

bears.   He’ll   be   confused,   possibly

traumatised. I can’t risk that.”

“Oh, and you’d rather be dead?” She threw   out  her  hands. A  huge  net materialised in the air and fell with a