Wayward Wings, page 27
{I’m getting better at this flying, don’t you think?}
Heort’s fingertips frantically searched for a hold on her smooth scales. Her sharp talons prevented her from holding him tighter, so all she could do was offer her other claw for him to grab hold of, which he did with a grip stronger than she’d thought him capable of.
{I thought you wanted the view. You’ll need to open your eyes to appreciate it.}
How wonderful it would be if she could fly all the way to Basinwade. It would be so much faster and more pleasurable. For her, she conceded, less so for Heort. But if the sight of an approaching dragon would have caused consternation in Wexede Crossing, where at least they had the assurance of a Magistrate, it would be a poorer idea still for a town populated only with neath.
{Set me down, Caizhiu. I’m begging you.}
She found a narrow clearing at the edge of the woods. After dropping her friend as close to the ground as she could without crashing, she gave one final beat and landed with a greater thud than she’d intended. Even the travellers on the throughway would have felt the reverberations. Her flight was improving, but her landings needed practice. All the same, she swished her tail with pride, cutting down several saplings and causing Heort to chronochi out of the way.
{Please, never do that to me again.} He shook the trembles from his legs and approached her when she, somewhat reluctantly, donned her human appearance.
{Apologies, my friend. I wanted to leave a terrorising impression.} She took his snout in her hand, stroked her thumb over his cheek, and checked she hadn’t accidentally cut him.
{That you did. On me, if no one else.} He flicked his tail. {What are we going to do now that the trezzohl let Ozcahar escape? How did he do that? How did he kill Tyrzinein?}
{I have an idea where he is.} Caizhiu scowled. She had called the trezzohl fools, but she was no better. She had thought it her imagination, but now it seemed her nose had been correct. Ozcahar had been in Basinwade, and in her arrogance, she had walked straight past him.
For the second time, they traversed the dusty road to the coastal town. With every step, Caizhiu’s anger at her own incompetence grew. It was time she stopped underestimating Ozcahar and treated him like the adversary he was proving to be.
40
Chase Through a Crowded Town
Their eyes met across the Oval Market. Had Ozcahar left town, she might have taken longer to find him, but he must have assumed he could hide among his kind. He had donned local garb and hidden his face under a wide-brimmed hat, but even across the distance his sandy beard and blue eyes stood out, and though he was probably not aware of it, his scent was unmistakable. Recognition was mutual and instantaneous. Caizhiu smiled and gave him a slight nod. Beneath his sunburn, the rosiness left his cheeks. The wares he was holding dropped from his hands and he darted towards the edge of the square.
In the open, Caizhiu could have easily caught up with him. A few chronochi’ed steps would have done it. But higgledy-piggledy stalls and mats filled the space between them, never mind the milling public. Heort could move among them unobtrusively, but her bulk would not allow it. Even running at normal speed would crack the pavers and rattle the tiles off the surrounding roofs.
Carriages and cargo cycles rushed backwards and forwards on the streets around the square. Ozcahar ducked between them and vanished from view. He was determined to make this as difficult as possible, but neither running nor hiding would save him. Amused that he had not realised this, Caizhiu shook her head and strode across the market. The annoying humans seemed unaware of her haste. With reckless disregard for their safety, they jumped in front of her with offers of food, clothing, and furniture. Her scowl did not seem to deter them with their supplicant smiles, confident that she would have a need of their products. Perhaps she would have been wiser to shout out. A cry of ‘stop thief’ usually got humans riled up, and Ozcahar might have found it harder to make his way through the stalls. Then again, she could not be sure what he’d do if they cornered him. He had escaped the commonry – if he could kill a trezzohl, what might he do to humans?
The Welcome Gate was behind her. Ozcahar could circle back through the side streets, but even if he evaded her, he’d struggle to get through the throng. He could try the Westerly Gate, but it was a long way from the square and there was nowhere to make a quick escape from in that direction. His only way out was via the harbour. If he had any intelligence, he had to be heading to the Fish Gate. Caizhiu finally managed to cross through the stream of traffic and took one of the smaller alleyways off the square. The main street was teeming with traders and traffic. She could move much faster in the relative quiet of the backstreets. Running was still impossible, but she could get around the stalls quicker and there were no auto carriages to get in her way. As she heightened her senses to avoid the dead ends, the town felt like an assault: a jumble of wheels rolling on stone, people shouting, footsteps, and heartbeats. She hurried around the traders and shop entrances to meet up with the main street. People looked around in confusion at the rattling windows.
When Caizhiu reached the junction, one of the town auto carriages, a train of doorless carts, pulled up in front of her. A fissure shot across the paver beneath her foot as she halted. She searched the street for her target. A few metres to her right, Ozcahar moved through the crowd towards her. He saw her, stopped, and bumped into the people behind him as he threw himself backwards to fight against the stream of people. Cursing and muttering, they closed around him like a mudslide.
She made more progress than Ozcahar. People pushed him to the centre of the street that was blocked by the train of auto carriages. He glanced over his shoulder, and, seeing how near she was, his eyes widened. Before she could seize him, he jumped into the town carriage. The hat was knocked off his head as he ran between the two benches, stumbling over the passengers’ feet. He exited the cart on the other side and slipped into the crowd. Trapped on the wrong side, Caizhiu slammed her hand against the carriage. She had no choice but to follow him as the space between the carriages was too narrow for her. She grabbed the doorframe, ignored the protestations from the seated passengers, and hauled herself onto the carriage step. Objections of the passengers turned to screams as the vehicle lurched over, the rear axle groaning, spokes snapping, and the wheel buckling under her weight. A woman seated on the opposite side of the bench lost her grip and fell towards Caizhiu. The dragon landed on her back with half of the carriage on top of her. Feet trampled her face as she used her arm to shield the woman from the panicked passengers trying to clamber out of the carriage. Caizhiu used her legs to semi upright the vehicle, propelling two people into the crowd. She got to her feet and placed the woman on hers. Shrieking obscenities, the woman hit Caizhiu with her feathered hat.
The driver, pale with shock, climbed from the first carriage and fought through the onlookers. He scratched his head, dislodging the hat from his sweat-soaked hair, and tapped his finger on her chest. “What were you thinking getting on, you flabby trollson?”
Caizhiu looked over his head to see if she could espy her quarry, ignoring the passengers who joined in with the verbal abuse. She felt Heort’s amused mockery. From the moment she’d spotted Ozcahar, she had given Heort no thought. He had to be nearby, but she couldn’t see him amid the river of people. Before she could ask him where her quarry had gone, she saw the man cross the road and run into one of the side streets. She turned to the alleyway she’d come from to head him off when a town guard confronted her.
“What happened here?” the man asked and pointed at the bent wheel with its dislodged and split spokes.
“Your town carriages are of poor construction.”
Glancing at the crowd and the devastation that littered the street, the town guard held his hand up at the driver in a pacifying manner. But the man kept shouting about compensation and his reputation. He tried to push Caizhiu, but only shoved himself backwards. “There was nothing amiss with that carriage!”
{I hope you are not counting on me to halt your quarry.} Heort couldn’t have gone far for his soul song to reach her, and Caizhiu responded with misgivings. The last thing she needed was for her friend to get himself hurt.
{Just let me know where he is.}
Beneath his officious appearance, she could smell the town guard’s fear. Not nervousness, but deep dread. The aroma was so intense that Caizhiu checked herself in a shop window. She looked perfectly human.
{He’s running to the square with the pretty tower.}
As she had suspected, Ozcahar was heading towards the harbour. No doubt he intended to blag his way onto, or steal, one of the little fishing vessels. Maybe he’d get to a larger cargo ship. She hoped she wouldn’t need to retrieve him from the sea.
Caizhiu looked down the street. The hindrance caused by the collapsed carriage held up the flow of people. Bi-wheeled velocipedes wobbled and cast their riders into the crowd, causing a chorus of insults. Auto carriages tooted their nasal horns, but she could see gaps forming in the stream as people moved into side streets to avoid the hold-up. She bent down to the town guard, sensing his desire to step back, though the crowd behind him prevented it. She wasn’t about to make the same mistake she had with Wylthren and wrapped her hand around his, holding his pistol in place to prevent him drawing it.
“I don’t have time to deal with this,” she whispered with a glance at the driver and the wrecked carriage. “And I don’t have time to deal with you. Stand aside or I’ll move you aside. I understand that someone in your position would find that embarrassing.”
The guard shuddered, and he opened and closed his mouth with the effort to think of something to say.
Caizhiu took the opportunity to walk around him. “I’m grateful for your assistance.”
She reached the Fish Gate and turned towards the Stand square. Her eyes darted over the stalls. About halfway down, Ozcahar walked among them, rebuffing a man trying to sell him a hat. He turned towards her, or rather the Fish Gate behind her, and stood frozen, as if he couldn’t believe she had beaten him to it. Then he bolted for the Stand tower. Caizhiu shook her head. What did the idiot think he was doing? She had him as good as cornered. He might as well save his breath.
He quarrelled with the officious little man in the uniform and darted past him. Other visitors stopped to tut at the spectacle and the swelling crowd got in Caizhiu’s way. When she approached the Stand, the man walked over to her to tell her it was closed. After one of her scowls, he backed away, moving others in the crowd with him. At last, she could get to her prey. Ozcahar zigzagged through the crowd and ducked into the Stand. Caizhiu tensed. Now he had truly trapped himself. Would it be better to wait outside or follow him into the structure? She walked slower. She didn’t want to have to catch him if he jumped from the tower, but she was preparing to.
From inside the Stand she could hear Ozcahar’s heart hammer in his chest. His aroma wafted through the iron and the wooden slats, and Caizhiu swallowed the saliva it provoked. She should have hunted after her flight from the commonry.
“We are well met, Ozcahar,” she said gently. “I’m pleased, though somewhat surprised, to find you living still.”
He hadn’t got far up the steps. They were steep and there were a lot of them. By his laboured breathing, she guessed he’d given up climbing.
“Go away,” he gasped., “Leave me be. Please.”
Caizhiu tried to see him through the gaps between the slats, but she couldn’t. Not wanting to underestimate her prey, she sniffed the air. She remembered their first encounter as she cagily rounded the corner of the tower entrance. He had shot her before, and he might get luckier this time. The Stand had a stormy scent, but she couldn’t detect the smell of pistol powder. In response to her appearance, there was a movement on the steps. As he ascended the spiral, she could only make out his form through the ornamental gaps in the iron cylinder. Placing her hands on either side of the doorway from the iron cylinder to the stairs, she leant in and tried on her friendliest smile.
“It’s not in my nature to leave you be once I have been tasked to capture you. But I don’t relish the thought of chasing you further. There is nowhere for you to go. Come down.” She extended a hand to him. “My word stands. I won’t harm you.”
“This…” Ozcahar climbed up further. “This wasn’t my idea.”
41
The Stand
Pain jolted through her legs. The skin on her arms rippled and her scales gleamed in the flecks of sunlight that danced around the tower. It was as if a hand had wrapped itself around her, burning her skin, freezing her blood, and squeezing the breath out of her. Caizhiu forced her rolling eyes to look down. It was her tail that constricted her. She couldn’t stop it, couldn’t move her muscles or release them. Her gasping faded to a quiver of her jaws. The world dimmed.
The pain ceased as suddenly as it had come. A spasm of her own leg muscles threw Caizhiu against the wall. Blisters scarred the palms and soles of her claws. Her wings jittered. After a few coughs, she greedily sucked air into her lungs. Then she noticed the sound of iron over iron. The world was turning, swirling; the iron cylinder enclosed her. Layers twisted round, blocking the exit of the Stand as well as the way onto the stairs. The bright shapes of humans, flowers, and fish swirled before her eyes. The ceiling landed on her head. It was a light blow that caused her to flinch at its suddenness.
{Caizhiu!?}
She wanted to answer Heort, but another current of pain moved through her. Thankfully, her tail was no longer wound around her, and she only needed to fight her chest muscles into expanding. Her head felt heavy as each pulse of pain pounded her senses. When it released her, she crumpled, too disorientated to figure out where her various limbs were, concentrating only on gasping for breath.
{Caizhiu, please answer me!}
A clean burnt smell surrounded her, reminding her of a thunderstorm. It troubled her to find it emanated from her own body.
{A moment, please.}
{I’d give you all the moments you want, my friend. But I think you are about to have company.}
Caizhiu blinked her four eyes and lifted her snout off her metal mesh on the ground. She had to get back into her human shape.
“Stay still, Creature. Or it will be the end of you!”
The Six be cursed and she along with them; she did have company. Why did humans always insist on her motionlessness? How did they imagine she would speak to them, reassure them, when they only had their primitive verbals?
Compared to the shade in her prison, the square outside was bathed in sunlight. Three human silhouettes stood where the tower’s exit had been.
Caizhiu reached her soul song out for any Talented humans, but it did not surprise her when she found none. The human on her left looked familiar, and it took her a moment before she recognised the town guard who had confronted her at the crumpled carriage. The guard looked at the place on the stairs where Ozcahar huddled. He seemed to know exactly where he was.
“No move, Osk-Har.” The guard’s voice was a lot more forceful than it had been when Caizhiu had met him in the street. “We release you soon.”
Her quarry sat on the wooden staircase. His forehead touched his knees, and he had wrapped his arms around his head as if he expected to be beaten. Or for the environment to strike him… like it had her. He’d known! He’d led her into a trap.
Caizhiu didn’t recognise the man on the right, but he too wore the garb of a town guard. She briefly wondered if it was a trick of the light, but both guards seemed to have grown in bulk, and they smelled like auto carriages. Caizhiu snorted to get rid of the confusing scents and looked again. Each of the guards wore a merchant’s basket on their back. With their wooden panels and copper flex, they looked like wheelless auto carriages.
Her attention fell on the third person who walked up between them. The woman, tall, with broad hips, was familiar. Or rather, her costume was. The white dress covered her shoulders, flowed into a tight fit around her hips and then smoothly to the ground. It covered her arms to just above her elbows; similarly to the men’s uniforms, the sleeves were a loose fit. The golden adornments on the large belt around her middle drew Caizhiu’s attention, as did the bejewelled bracelets that jingled when the woman moved her arms. Caizhiu’s breathing settled to a steady rhythm. She wasn’t entirely sure what had happened, but she welcomed the sight of the Burgomaster. She would soon clear up this misunderstanding.
Human vision was akin to her own, so there was little point in pretending to be human; they already knew she wasn’t. That would make it easier on her uncooperative body. As far as transfiguration was concerned, all she needed to achieve was getting to a state to enable verbal speech. Slowly, so as to not alarm her captors, she shrank into herself and forced her jaws to shorten. Her muscles prickled and spasmed as she forced them to reform. Stubbornly, her skin refused to give up the scales. It reminded her of her reaction to the nixe’s tendrils. As a precaution, she left her tail on the floor.
“Don’t be alarmed, Burgomaster.” Ill-formed Uayathi words dropped off her tongue. Her lips felt swollen over her stumpy, square teeth. For the first time, she realised how exasperating it had to be for Heort to hear his voice, feel the painful distance between what the sound should be and what came out. “A mistake has been made, but I will not hold it against you or the people of Basinwade.”
The fright on the faces of the Silver Rose family was fresh in her mind and even Morailo, who knew her as well as any human ever had, had been terror-stricken when she’d emerged from her cocoon. She renewed her effort to force her appearance to reform, to look as human as possible upon her imminent release.
