‘We should rest,’ said Losara. ‘We will make faster progress in daylight.’
‘No time for resting,’ said Bel. ‘They have almost a day’s lead on us. Light, now!’
I do not know what you hope to achieve by exposing me , Losara sent to Fazel. You should not irk the only one who can set you free.
There’s no way to hold you to such promises, master , came the reply. And I do not, in the face of them, forget where my true loyalty lies.
‘Light, Gellan!’ bellowed Bel, slashing at an overhanging branch.
‘As you wish,’ said Losara, and held out his hands. Hiza, Jaya, Bel and M’Meska all fell suddenly limp, unconscious on their feet. He caught them in his power and steadied them, letting them crumple gently to the ground.
‘See what you drive me to?’ he said to Fazel. He let his power pool around him, clearing the ground of roots and debris, even uprooting a tree to fling it away over the treetops. He smoothed over the soil the eruption had left, the end result being the sort of clearing where they might have chosen to camp. Then he arranged the group as if they had gone to sleep there.
‘A sleep spell?’ asked Fazel. ‘Don’t you think they’ll find it odd that none of them remembers lying down? That the last thing they recall is Bel yelling at you?’
‘You cannot possibly have forgotten the title I hold,’ said Losara with a touch of derision. ‘Do you not think me capable of putting the same dream into their heads?’
He spread the fingers on the hand with four, and shadow threads spun forth – one for each of the sleepers. As the threads connected with their slumbering minds, he closed his eyes and channelled the same vision to them all.
‘There,’ he said, and the threads fell away. ‘When they awake, they will remember Gellan lighting their way long into the night and, after making some excellent progress, even my tenacious counterpart decides he can not go on any longer. So they find a half-decent place to lie down for the couple of hours before dawn …and here is where they’ll rise.’
‘I see,’ said Fazel.
‘As for you,’ said Losara, ‘never do anything to expose me again. How was it that you managed to think sideways around the directive to keep my identity secret?’
‘I did not think sideways,’ said Fazel levelly. ‘Nor did I steer Bel to any request he would not have come to by himself. I was simply answering his question. After all, you ordered me to act as if he still has a hold over me. Besides, it is not as if the compulsion to obey him is completely removed. You overpower it, but it is still there, and when it does not directly conflict with your orders, it seeps through.’
Losara realised that perhaps he was being unreasonable, and sighed.
‘Watch over them while I am gone,’ he said. ‘If they wake, tell them that Gellan is scouting ahead.’
With that he dissolved and sped away amongst the trees, trying to sense anything of the shadow. He could not, of course – the very reason he had sent the Mireforms on this mission stopped him from being able to locate them with magic. Instead he relied on sight alone, zigzagging back and forth through the trees, searching for any sign. What form did they travel in, to slip through the woods without leaving a trail? He paused, gathering himself together where he heard bushes rustling …but it was only a deer. On he went, until the trees cleared, and he looked up a charred mountainside to the cavernous mouth of the dragon’s lair. Had they already reached it? Carefully, he stole towards the opening and slipped inside. Tiny he made himself, fearful of the dragon’s fire, but forcing himself onwards nonetheless. Shebazaruka was still here, asleep on her mound as he had seen her before, and quickly he retreated. If the Mireforms had not reached her yet, where were they? Back into the trees he went, back and forth, and back to the cavern, and then amongst the trees again …until the sky began to lighten, and he knew he had already tarried too long.
He returned to the camp, frustrated. Bel and Jaya were already awake and speaking with Fazel, and M’Meska was sitting up yawning enormously. He came back together behind a tree, settled the illusion spell over himself, and stepped into view.
‘Ah,’ said Bel, ‘there you are. Find anything?’
‘Nothing,’ said Losara truthfully.
‘Strange,’ said Jaya. ‘I feel better rested than I have in days, from only a couple of hours sleep.’
‘Maybe you’re excited.’ Bel smiled, seeming in a strangely good mood. ‘After all, we are on the trail of murderous monsters on the way to a dragon’s lair.’
‘Sound pretty exciting,’ agreed M’Meska. ‘What for breakfast?’
‘We’ll eat on the run,’ said Bel, and nudged Hiza with his foot. Hiza protested so quickly it was hard to believe he had actually been asleep. ‘Come on Hiza, get up – time to move again.’
In the woods looking onto the dragon’s lair, a squat and leafless tree stump opened beady white eyes.
‘How much longer?’ it said.
‘Quiet, Ectid,’ replied a tree-shaped Eldew. ‘You know the plan. We wait for one of them to leave, however long it takes. Mighty we may be, but dragons are not to be underestimated.’
‘Look there,’ whispered another tree next to him. ‘It takes no time at all.’
From the mouth of the cavern a dragon emerged. It took off, somewhat shakily.
‘It’s going!’ said Ectid eagerly. ‘It’s gone! Only one in the cave!’
‘Very well,’ said Eldew. ‘Let us go visiting.’
The Dragon’s Lair
Bel stood at the forest’s edge, considering his next move. Ahead the midday sun shone unhindered upon a rise of ruined earth, streaked with the ash of long-dead trees. Further up, in the side of a cliff, the cave mouth breathed foreboding. It seemed unreal that they were finally here …and still Bel had no real plan, beyond reliance on his skills, quick thinking, and a hope that patterns would appear. Surely they would. Just the thought of felling such a foe made little zings shoot through him, turning his body alive with anticipation. He almost wanted to break from the group, tear off up the hill and charge into the lair …but he brought himself under control. As much as he liked to believe he could single-handedly best a dragon, Jaya would never forgive him if he got himself burned to a cinder.
‘So,’ said Gellan quietly, ‘what is your plan?’
It wasn’t the first time the mage had asked, and now that they were actually here Bel found the question even more irritating. How was he supposed to know what to do?
‘The plan,’ he said, ‘is that fate made me a warrior then led me here. I assume, therefore, there may be some fighting. That’s the plan.’ He turned to Fazel, who crouched by his side. ‘What do you sense?’
The mage stared blankly up the hill, then shook his skull.
‘Nothing,’ he said. ‘But that does not mean there is nothing.’
‘Maybe,’ said Jaya, ‘I should go and have a look.’
Bel shot her a startled look. ‘What?’
‘Surely you’ve not forgotten my occupation, dear,’ she said. ‘If someone is going to enter a cave undetected, and make off with a pretty piece of jewellery, it’s going to be me.’
‘No,’ said Bel. ‘Not that I doubt your abilities,’ he added quickly, ‘but that cave holds worse than fat merchants sleeping.’
‘Well, you’re not going in there by yourself either,’ she said, as if reading his thoughts.
Bel found he was indeed still considering entering the cave alone. If he were to fight a dragon, he needed to focus on obeying his instincts, and that meant not having anyone else to concern him. Yet what was the point of surrounding himself with companions if he did not intend to make use of them? Gellan and Fazel at least should go with him, and M’Meska’s bow might come in handy. That would mean leaving Hiza and Jaya here, which would make them vulnerable if Mireforms were still in the area.