impacts. Flesh filled the sky, knocked dragons aside. A wing spiralled down, folding in on itself and colliding with another Kaan below it. The dragon lost his bearings and, temporarily blinded, ploughed into the plains.
Sha-Kaan opened his mouth and felt the flame ducts swell. He swept through the line of Garonin soldiers. His jaws beheaded one, his claws dropped and tore up four more, breaking them and casting them aside. Around him his Kaan exulted. Sha-Kaan tasted blood in his mouth and sniffed more revenge.
He focused on the rear of the vydosphere. Huge before him, a billowing metal shell, vibrating as it built to another combustion. He let the fuel from his flame ducts enter his mouth. Through his nostrils, he inhaled the air of his land.
‘Breathe.’
Twenty mouths disgorged super-heated flame. The dragon flight split around the body of the vydosphere, pouring flame across its surface. Funnels collapsed. Antennae shrivelled and melted. The skin darkened, blistered and bubbled. Sha-Kaan breathed again, coming over the spine of the machine. His flame ate into the vydosphere. Rivets popped and plates buckled. The whole skin heaved.
Sha-Kaan crested the apex of the vydosphere. In their harnesses, the hanfeer were burning, screaming impotent rage. One had fallen sideways. The other still tried to move forward.
‘Clear, my Kaan. We are done.’
The vydosphere gouted smoke and steam through torn plating. Huge areas of the skin were sucked inwards. Sha-Kaan did not look round to see the explosion. He used the wave of force to drive him over the ground at even greater speed and into the forward lines of Garonin already engaged in fighting the dragons clouding the air above them.
Sha-Kaan dropped until his claws were brushing the ground. He opened them and scooped enemies into each before angling his wings and beating away high into the sky. Safe in the heavens once more, he snaked his head down to his claw and brought one of the writhing, struggling figures to his eye. He set his wings to a lazy glide.
‘All will go the same way,’ he said. ‘Take your machines and leave our lands.’
‘We will take what we must,’ said the Garonin. ‘You will not stop us.’
‘Wrong,’ growled Sha-Kaan. ‘Beshara will not fall to you.’
‘Even you are vulnerable and we know how to hurt you.’
‘You will not find them.’
The Garonin laughed. ‘You are mistaken, Great Kaan. We already have.’
Sha-Kaan closed his left claws and let the blood flow over them. His other claws he opened, letting his victim drop.
‘Puny foe.’
But there was anxiety in his mind. He needed to know they were lying. He flew to the upper skies and sought the mind of his Dragonene while the battle raged on below him.
Jonas was awake when Sol looked in to see him that morning. Or rather he was vaguely conscious. Sol hurried to his bedside and knelt by him, smoothing the hair from his face and putting a hand on his sweating brow. Jonas’s eyes were moving rapidly below fluttering eyelashes. The rest of his body was utterly still.
‘Diera!’ he called. ‘Jonas is speaking with Sha-Kaan. He’ll need you. Hirad, go and get dressed and washed. Wait in our bedroom.’
‘But I want-’
‘Hirad, please. Be a good boy.’
Diera appeared in the bedroom doorway and held out her hand. ‘Come on, Hirad. Let’s find a game. I’ll be back, Sol.’
Sol nodded and turned back to Jonas.
‘Jonas, can you hear me? I’m here right by you.’
‘Fire…’ mumbled Jonas, a line of dribble coming from the corner of his mouth. ‘Burned scales. White fire. Ahh!’
The gasp was accompanied by an opening of his eyes. He stared about him for a moment before settling on Sol. His face cleared a little and a hand moved to grip his father’s arm.
‘Are you seeing or relaying?’ asked Sol.
‘Seeing,’ whispered Jonas. His bottom lip trembled. ‘The enemy are there. Garonin. The dragons are fighting. I think they are losing.’
‘Jonas, it’s important. I have to know if we can escape to Beshara. Can I speak to Sha-Kaan? Will you channel for me?’
Jonas frowned and his teeth grabbed at his upper lip. ‘Father.’
‘I know I’m asking you to endure pain. Believe me, I wouldn’t ask unless I thought we had no other choice. I need answers and I don’t think you can ask the questions, even if I’m here. I need to hear Sha-Kaan. Jonas?’
Jonas’s eyes had closed but his mouth had curved up into a smile.
‘The Great Kaan says you had better be careful with me or…’
Sol laughed. ‘Or he’ll crush me like a twig, I know.’
The room filled with a new presence. A smell of oil and wood and the weight of great age and power. Jonas’s mouth hung open. He breathed deeply but otherwise was completely still.
‘Sol. It is good to feel you though the times are our darkest yet.’
‘As ever, your presence honours me.’
‘We can dispense with that. Your family gives so much that the Kaan value. You have questions. I have questions. Jonas is strong but he still cannot support this for long. He is young yet.’
‘Then ask, Great Kaan.’
‘Jonas relates that you are attacked. Is it the Garonin?’
‘They destroy everything in their path and leave an expanding disaster behind them. We have hurt them but I do not think we can stop them. I have to know. Can we escape to Beshara? Can you protect us?’
There was a heavy silence. Sol could feel Sha-Kaan’s concern in the air. He could all but taste the tension.
‘No. They would combine forces and we could not repel them. The damage they have caused is extensive but I believe we can turn them if they do not reinforce. But not if we lose Balaia. Not if I lose Jonas.’
‘You will not lose him. Not while I still draw breath,’ said Sol. ‘But we are on the verge of losing Balaia already. Only Julatsa and Xetesk still stand and both are weak.’
‘You have questions. You need another way to fight.’
‘Yes. Sha-Kaan, I was taken by the Garonin. They wanted to negotiate a peaceful end to our existence. They took me to a place beyond anything I have known and yet it was familiar. Something they said made me wonder. They said they saw all that passed through the place. I got the impression it was outside everything else, every other dimension but perhaps a route to each one. Something like that. And I travelled from there by force of will to appear back here. This is vague, I know, but you are a dimensional traveller. Do you know of this place?’
‘It is impossible,’ breathed Sha-Kaan, and for the first time in their long association Sol heard awe and fear in the great dragon’s voice.
Sol’s heart sank. ‘What is?’
‘I know of where you speak,’ said Sha-Kaan, his voice rumbling but quiet, his tone reverential. ‘In your language we would describe it as the top of the world. It is not a place any should be able to travel to by choice.’
‘But it is a place we can fight them, I’m certain of that.’
‘That may be so but there are two things you should know. If indeed you were there and the Garonin can travel there at will, they are more powerful than even I imagined. And for them to have taken you there speaks even more highly of their abilities as travellers and more dangerously of their capacity to rape any dimension they discover. Because from all the lore I know, only the soul free of the body may travel there, and even then only to pass through on the journey to ultimate rest.’
Sol felt another door close on their chances. Diera laid a hand on his shoulder. He covered it with one of his own and squeezed.
‘Diera,’ said Sha-Kaan. ‘Your son bears up well.’
‘He looks weak,’ she said. ‘But it is good to hear you.’
