Sun and sky. Momentarily dazzled, he tried in an instant to spot a way out, or somewhere that might lead to a way out. Whichever way he looked, there was a walclass="underline" tall, wide enough to walk on. Between him and it were, to his left, a short stone building, surrounded by crude wooden ones, and to his right, a patchwork of vegetable plots.
Dead centre, a gate, which he’d missed the first time.
He started to run.
The gate was open. There was no one even near it. The two bent backs over the rows of cabbages were turned against him. He was closing on them fast, head down like he was heading for the boundary, then past them without either of them looking up.
He glanced behind him, to see what lead he had. The guard, knife in hand, face screwed up in rage, was just emerging from the door.
Plenty. He’d make it with time to spare. He’d worry what lay beyond the wall when he was outside it. It couldn’t be worse than what he was running from.
No shouts. No alarm bells. He didn’t care why not. The view through the gate was widening: a lake, a mountainside, and open sky.
A shadow flickered over him. By the time he looked up, it was ahead, over the wall, turning back, a roar of wind under leathery, translucent wings. Dalip was almost at the gate when the scene beyond vanished, and the gap was taken up with a lunging, grinning reptilian head and a lithe, coiling serpentine body. Wings unfurled, it blocked his way, even if he was going to chance the razor-sharp teeth and two powerful sets of claws. The black scales only served to highlight the red of the open jaws.
It flapped its wings. The gale it created almost blew him over. He skidded to a halt. It hissed, and snapped at him, prevented from closing on him by its sheer size.
This was his gaoler, not the men. How could he possibly escape if this monster was loose?
Something heavy met the back of his skull. He was almost too surprised to fall. An arm came around his neck and a knife blade was pressed to his ear.
‘That was stupid, lion man. Very, very stupid.’
‘It’s a dragon. It’s really a dragon.’ Dalip didn’t struggle. There was now no point to struggling, or escaping, or any act of defiance. The geomancer had a dragon.
‘Wyvern, she calls it. I’ve seen it eat a man in two bites.’
It hissed at him again, its forked tongue rippling. Dalip could feel its hot, moist breath, smell its last meal rank on the wind.
‘I didn’t know. I didn’t understand.’
‘If I cut you, if I slice through your ear so that you bleed, I don’t think even she could hold it back. The scent, you see, it drives it wild. You’d be dead meat before you’d run another yard.’ The guard tightened his grip and the keen edge of the knife kissed Dalip’s skin.
Dalip swallowed against the man’s arm. The wyvern pulled its head back through the gate and stretched its wings. In two beats, it was perched on the wall, peering down at them, head cocked to one side to see them better.
‘What’s it going to be, lion man? In the belly of the beast, or back inside with me?’
The wyvern’s claws scrabbled for purchase, and it flapped to keep its balance. To Dalip, it looked like its wings were blotting out the sky.
‘Back inside. Take me back.’
‘On your feet then, and I’ll stick you if there’s any nonsense. Come on, little lion man, back to the pit where you belong.’
Dalip managed to get upright, and started the long walk back to his cell. Despite the knife at his back, he did his best to look around him. The central tall tower, with its conical roof. The more substantial gatehouse to the right. The two mountains, one behind him and one ahead, looming over the circular wall. An arched bridge leading from the main tower’s first floor to the shorter nearby cluster of buildings where he’d fled from, and was being led back to.
It was all a little ramshackle, like everything had been new once, a couple of hundred years ago, and now it was fading, slowly being returned to the ground from which it had been raised. But it was still formidable. And guarded by a dragon.
They’d reached the door. With an extra push between his shoulder blades to send him sprawling, it was slammed shut behind him, and bolted top and bottom.
‘Pick the table up.’ A toe jabbed his ribs. ‘Be quick about it.’
He did it, and he set the stools around it, and waited for the next instruction.
‘Why are you here?’ asked the guard.
Dalip remained mute.
‘That’s better. Next choice is whether you want to live for a short time or a long time.’ The guard sheathed his knife, and squinted at Dalip. ‘I’m guessing a long time, right? You don’t look like a kid who wants to die any time soon.’
‘I still don’t understand why you’re doing this to me.’
‘Because she’s seen it in the stones, in the leaves and the feathers, lion man. She’s seen you. And she’s right, isn’t she? There’s plenty of fight in you.’
‘I’ve never fought anyone, ever.’
‘Then you’ve wasted your time. You were born for this.’
‘I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know how to fight.’
‘You need a teacher. I’ll find you someone.’
‘No,’ said Dalip without thinking. He didn’t want this stinking, pig-faced lackey or anyone connected with him.
‘Suit yourself.’
‘Stanislav. The other man you took. I want him.’
They stared at each other, and eventually the guard broke first. ‘All right. He doesn’t seem the sort, but why not?’
15
They were walking through the forest below Crows’ tumbling tower.
‘Can you find your way back?’ he asked her, and she turned around to see the way they’d come.
‘I reckon.’ The ground sloped up, either side of them, and if she gained a ridge-top, she thought she’d be able to see the ragged battlements easily.
‘Then we haven’t gone far enough.’
‘You’re not trying to get rid of me, are you?’
‘You’re very suspicious, Mary. Not everybody is trying to hurt you.’ He held his hands up above his head and embraced the sky. ‘This is not even magic. You find your way around with street signs and familiar buildings, yes?’
‘And?’
‘Where are your street signs? Where are your parks, your big shops, your busy junctions? They are nowhere, and even though we have barely gone any distance at all, you are already lost.’
‘All the trees look the same,’ she complained. ‘That’s not really fair.’
‘Being able to hide from the wolfman will not help you if you do not know where you are, or where you are going. So I will show you a few simple tricks.’
‘Magic tricks?’
‘That depends on whether you think the sun rising in the morning is magic, or the folds of the land are magic, or the way the wind blows is magic.’ He raised his eyebrows at her.
Mary looked up at him. ‘I’m guessing they are.’
‘Then you would be half-right. They are not magic, but they may bring magic with them.’
He said nothing else until they suddenly stepped out of the forest and on to the shore of the lake she’d seen from the castle. Close to, it was more of an inland sea, and even though they had been walking for what seemed like ages, judging both time and distance without a watch or familiar landmarks was hard.
Crows walked down to the shingle beach, where little waves lapped the stones. ‘Can you find your way back now?’ He held up his finger as her mouth opened. ‘Do not tell me yes or no. Tell me how, and take your time. Think.’
She took a deep breath and turned around. Now the tower had vanished completely, along with everything else she’d walked by on the way. Trees; nothing but trees, taller than she was, blocking the view. Yet this morning, she’d looked out from Crows’ front door over the whole vista.