The Scales
We are the lowest of the low and the highest of the high. We have abandoned our fellow men and they in turn have abandoned us.
We don’t even look like them.
Our lives are short and filled with pain.
We end our days as living statues.
We are loveless and unloved, except by the charges we care for.
And what charges they are. I would have nothing else.
21
Unnatural Allies
Even the best plans failed in the end. Kemir had learned that a long time ago. There was always something unexpected to put a talon in. You had to react and adapt, that’s what Sollos used to say, but then Sollos was always the one with the plans. Kemir, he’d never bothered. React and adapt was his way. So it didn’t bother him much that he had no idea what he was going to do when he got to Furymouth. He wondered how he might get Kataros to come with him so he could sell her to the Taiytakei, but his heart wasn’t in it. No point thinking about it, really. Not until they were getting to Plag’s Bay and she was thinking of leaving. React and adapt.
The Order of the Finger. Couldn’t have planned for that. Couldn’t have planned for drifting down the upper reaches of the vast Gliding Dragon Gorge, watching the massive cliffs on the southern side slowly recede into the distance. Couldn’t have planned for lazing in the sun, feeling warm for the first time since he’d crossed the sea riding on Snow’s back. Couldn’t have planned for watching the north side of the valley fragment and fall apart into a grand spectacle of canyons and chasms and cliffs and columns in layered shades of orange and red. Couldn’t have planned for what any of that would feel like. Like shedding his skin. Maybe like dying and being reborn, remembering everything, able to start again.
Couldn’t have planned for Snow, lurking at the edges of his dreams, always watching, never far away, never quite letting him go. Couldn’t have planned for the little boat that signalled for help and then turned out to be filled with men and knives hidden beneath an old sail. Or for the other little boats that surged out of those canyons, out of the place that the dragon-riders called the Maze. The barge fell without a fight, most of the sailors too dazed and surprised to even reach for a weapon. Couldn’t do much about it even if he’d wanted. Had his knife and his bow and he’d been in enough scraps, but a fat lot of use that was with a broken arm. They were outsiders too, so he wasn’t afraid of them. Just sat back and let it happen.
He was the only one. The rest of the boat filled with wailing and begging. Everyone had heard of the Order of the Finger. Vicious pirates. Got their name from what they did if they found you wearing a ring.
They came through and shouted and waved their knives and helped themselves to whatever took their fancy. Kemir sat quietly. This sort of banditry was best over with quickly. They’d take your money and anything that looked worth something and then they’d be on their way, quick as they could. Wouldn’t want to risk being caught out in the open if a dragon-rider happened to pass overhead. Kemir had travelled the realms for long enough to know how this went. He had a purse with a little money in it to let them take. The stuff that mattered, the gold and the dust from the eyrie, that was much better hidden. The bow
… Well, losing the bow and his knife would be more than a shame but there wasn’t much he could do about it. They’d take them or they wouldn’t. As they reached him, he kept sitting quiet and still and offered up his purse. It got snatched out of his hand, but the man didn’t move on.
Instead he bared his teeth and hissed, ‘Dragon-knight.’
Kemir blinked. He even looked to either side before he realised the man was staring at him. ‘What?’
‘Dragon-knight,’ said the man a second time.
‘Where?’ Everyone was looking at him. The river pirates with an angry hunger, everyone else with a strange mix of fear and loathing. Seemed like they all hated dragon-riders, even more than they hated being robbed by pirates. ‘Me? I’m not some arsehole dra-’
A kick in the face cut him off. He managed to half parry it, half roll with it and so keep his teeth, but he wound up flat on the floor and then the pirates were on him, punching and kicking and holding him down.
‘Shall we kill him?’ bellowed a voice. ‘‘What do you say, lads? Shall we gut him here?’ They had his hands behind his back now, tying them. His arm screamed, half healed and raw. He felt someone at his feet and lashed out. Connected with something, which was satisfying.
‘I’m not-’ A boot stood on the side of his face, crushing him into the deck, almost breaking his neck.
‘Now now,’ said the voice that belonged to the boot. ‘Let’s not be doing these folk a disservice. We’ll take him away and have some sport away from these good people. But what say you, ladies and gentlemen of the river? When we’ve stripped him bare, shall we let our dragon-rider go or shall we slit his throat? Speak up now!’
‘Kill him,’ shouted a voice from the front of the boat.
He tried to move again, but they had him good. There was a man sitting on his legs, holding them down, and another tying his feet. His hands were already tied; there was a third man on his back, and someone standing on his head.
‘So, ladies and gentlemen of the river. Bloodthirsty lot, eh? Very well, a throat-slitting it shall be. Now tell me and then we shall be gone: does our dragon-rider friend travel alone?’
No, no, no! Kemir renewed his struggles. Futile, but he had to at least try, didn’t he.
‘I see not,’ said the man standing on his head. ‘Is it her?’
Kemir couldn’t see where the man was pointing, but he heard Kataros whimper. Then she screamed. There was a slap, a thud. Kemir tried one last time, twisting with all his strength. Maybe the men on his back were distracted, but this time he managed to throw them off and wriggle free. His hands and feet were still tied, but he brought his knees to his chest and kicked with all his might, knocking one of them clean off the boat and into the river. He rolled onto his front to try and get back to his feet. A boot sent him sprawling, and then something slammed into his head and flattened him. For a moment he couldn’t see, couldn’t quite remember where he was.
The armour. He was still wearing bits of the armour. The stupid dragon-scale armour…
‘Fetch a good price, a dragon-rider,’ snarled a new voice, and then another boot met his face and all the light went out of the world.
*
Kemir was staring up at the sky. The air was warm. He was in a boat, rocking from side to side. People were laughing. He could hear the river, water, oars. He couldn’t move, though. Couldn’t even move his eyes. Just had to stare at the sky, so bright and blue…
He was moving. Couldn’t see, but he was moving. Snow. Snow was carrying him. He was on her back. Just couldn’t see…
Screaming…
Cold…
He opened his eyes again. Lucid this time. He was somewhere in the dark. Very dark. Night, perhaps, except too dark even for that. Underground? He blinked. He could do that now. Couldn’t move much else but he could move his eyes. He was lying down and he was in a cave. He could see the outline of an exit straight in front of him, a lighter dark against the blackness.
He’d been stripped. The air in the cave was warm but cooling. They hadn’t cut him, at least. His face and his back throbbed from the kicks he’d taken. His arm pulsed like the heartbeat of the world, a steady rhythm of agony. He tried not to think about that. Moved his head and scanned the cave instead. He was alone, for now. Outside he could hear voices. Laughter.
There was a smell too. A sweet smell. Dust.
He heard a whimper, then a rising shrill pleading. Kataros. He tried to move, but the river men knew their business. He was tied to a pole, hands, knees, ankles and neck. He couldn’t even stand up.
The whimpers turned to screams, and then after a while back to whimpers, the laughter rising and falling
