Dragonseer by Chris Behrsin

Author:Chris Behrsin [Behrsin, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-04-14T22:00:00+00:00

PART V

Cipao

“I've always believed that man should live with an indomitable spirit and a willingness to charge.”

Cipao Wells in the Tow Observer

CHAPTER 18

The atmosphere at Fortress Gerhaun had changed from lethargy to almost panic. Sukina and I picked up pace towards Gerhaun's treasure room, accompanied by three guards. Hummingbirds whizzed past us in the other direction. From the rooms off the corridors, emanated attentive voices and the furious clicking of typewriter keys. The whole base was acting as if preparing for an attack, and I couldn't help but wonder why a sleepy village so far away from the fortress would cause so much concern.

We all know that the only option now is for you to leave us, Sukina said in my mind. And we're making urgent preparations.

I wished then that I also had the direct connection with Gerhaun that Sukina had. Why did she always want to meet me instead of just speaking directly to me in the collective unconscious like she did with Sukina? It felt as if I was passing some kind of initiation. Perhaps when I learned to consistently calm my mind as Sukina had demonstrated, then that channel to Gerhaun would finally open up.

But Sukina didn't answer my concerns as we were already at Gerhaun's massive double doors, towering up before us. Wiggea stepped forwards to open one of the doors and gestured us inside.

Gerhaun wasn't the only one waiting in her treasure room. Asinal Winda, the chief engineer was also there and Faso. They had set up a screen, on one side of Gerhaun's throne room. Ratter was placed on a trestle stool in front of that, with a wide beam of light emanating from his open mouth. But it wasn't that which drew my attention away from Gerhaun's resplendence so much as the images that the beam cast on the screen.

My stomach churned as I realised what these images showed. Sepia photographs of Papo's vineyard — everything he had worked for — ransacked. Charred, smoking dry vines stretching for miles. My cottage now rubble and a huge hole knocked out of one of the corners of my parents' two storey cottage. Velos' stable now four pillars lying flat on the ground with his secicao trough upturned and in flames. The barn that held Papo's wine also on fire.

More photos displayed Faso's workshop, pieces of warped brass and wood sprawled across the charred ground. More images of the Five Hamlets' streets, red paint splashed haphazardly on the pretty doors of the rustic houses. No one was on the streets, not even a cat or a dog.

“I… I…” These were the only words I could muster, shocked to see that Cini would do such a thing. There was no reason that my parents should suffer like this, let alone an entire village, just because one of their villagers got into a minor scuffle at Fraw.

Faso walked over to Ratter and tapped the automaton's back to cut off the beam. He looked back at the screen his body hunched up like a crippled dog.

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