Chapter 15

A Stray, Astray

‘So, you’re a shaman, then?’ Quantum asked. He was sitting on her shoulder with his tail wrapped around her plait for balance as she rode Meera south along the road out of town. It was pleasant riding. There was a well-trodden dirt track to follow, lined with trees and running parallel to a broad river.

The night before, after finding some grazing for Meera in her small back garden, Neema had given her guests a place to sleep in front of the fire. This morning, after Neema had loaded Aliya’s bag with more food, she set off on Azak’s trail again. Fortunately for the little dragon, this trail took her in the same direction as his home.

‘I’m not a shaman,’ Aliya told him. ‘I just have weird dreams. A shaman is…I don’t know. More than that. It’s a whole life, and it’s not my life.’

Meera jerked to a sudden halt. A goat was standing in the middle of the track. It was not chewing anything—which was unusual, as goats were always chewing something—but just staring directly at her. It went ‘Mhaaa!’ in a very aggressive manner. Meera whickered at it and stamped her hoof, but it didn’t move an inch. The goat was only a tenth of her size, but Meera was hesitant to push forward. The goat was quite intimidating, as goats went: it had thick, curling horns wrapped around its head and a very belligerent expression.

A voice spoke from behind Aliya. ‘Give me your money if you value your life! Oh, and some food, too.’

Meera snorted and danced in a circle, and Aliya was left looking down at a boy standing in the road, holding a drawn bow with an arrow trained on her heart. He looked a few years younger than Aliya, with short dark hair standing up all over his head. He was well-dressed, but stick-thin and rather dirty. His expression was hesitant. She stared at him for a moment in shocked silence, and the arrow tip wavered. It was hard work to hold a bow fully drawn.

‘What’s money?’ Aliya asked him.

‘What’s…what?’

From his perch on her shoulder, Quantum began to explain, ‘Money is a system that has replaced bartering in some towns and cities.’ As soon as he started speaking the boy yelped and jumped backwards, tripping and releasing his arrow harmlessly into the trees.

‘Is the banditry business not going well, then?’ asked Aliya. It was hard to be intimidated by him, especially since he had forgotten to fit another arrow to his bow.

‘I’m not a bandit!’

‘Oh no?’ Quantum asked. ‘What are you then? A robber? A thief? A highwayman?’

‘No, I’m a, a…well, maybe…A highwayman sounds okay. I only steal from rich people, and I will use all my riches to do good deeds.’

‘So, do we look like rich people to you?’ Quantum asked.

The boy shuffled his feet. ‘Well, I thought I should get in a bit of practice, and you looked easy. Besides, I’m really hungry.’

‘Well, we can’t have that,’ said Aliya, swinging down from Meera’s back. She motioned the boy to sit beside her at the edge of the path as she took some bread and cheese out of her bag.

With a muffled, ‘Thanks,’ he grabbed it and began wolfing it down.

The goat wandered over and nosed after the cheese, but Aliya pushed it away. ‘Cheese for humans, Goat—you can eat grass.’

‘Manchurian isn’t a goat—he’s an attack ram,’ the boy said. ‘I named him after a famous warrior, because Churie can take on anyone. Can’t you, boy?’

Aliya sighed. The boy seemed very young. ‘I’m sure he’s a wonderful ram, but he doesn’t need cheese. I think Churie can look after himself.’

‘Oh, he can,’ his proud owner replied. ‘He knocked down three people outside our house when he thought they were threatening me. Except it turned out they were trying to deliver a new table my dad had ordered, and he was furious and said that we had to sell Churie. So we ran away together to right the wrongs of the world.’

‘You ran away because of a goat?’ Quantum asked with horrified amazement.

‘He’s loyal to me, so I’m loyal to him,’ the boy said, making Aliya smile.

She said, ‘Anyway, I’m Aliya, and this is Quantum.’

‘My name is Invalianca Tomosi Tavian,’ he declared. ‘I’m named after a famous warrior, too. But you can just call me Vali for short.’

‘Well, it’s nice to meet you, Vali,’ Aliya said, ‘but don’t you think it’s time you headed home, now? You’ve rescued Churie; he’ll be fine out here in the woods, and you can go and let your mother feed you up.’

‘My mother died when I was a baby and my father will be glad I’m gone,’ Vali said. ‘Besides, I’ve left home—I can’t just go back. I’m fourteen: I’m a man, and if my father can’t see that then I will prove it to him.’

He seemed younger, this scrawny youth with his fancy clothes and big ideas, sitting on the ground and licking crumbs from his fingers. He was not cut out to be a highwayman; he was not even cut out to survive out here on his own. How long would it take him to change his stubborn mind and go home? Or would he foolishly try to rob the wrong person and never make it home at all?

A wave of homesickness juddered through her. Vali reminded her of her little brother, and she was lonely enough for the slightest resemblance to cause a pang.

‘Tell you what,’ she said, ‘how would you like to be my guard? I’m on a quest and you can help protect me.’

Vali’s eyes lit up. ‘A real quest? Where are you going? Will you pay me?’

‘I’ll feed you,’ Aliya offered, and he immediately said, ‘Deal!’

Aliya knew she had done the right thing for the boy. But he would slow them down… Was she putting her family and friends at greater risk by taking the time to help a stranger?

‘Meera won’t be able to carry both of us,’ Aliya told him as she re-packed her bag, ‘so we’ll take turns riding. You do know how to ride, don’t you?’

‘Of course,’ Vali said. ‘Just, um, your horse is very large. And don’t you have a saddle?’

Aliya schooled herself not to laugh in his face. Poor city boy, to think fifteen hands was a tall horse—he must have learnt to ride on a pony. And with a saddle!

‘Don’t worry,’ she told him, ‘Meera will be nice to you if I tell her to.’

And she did tell Meera to be nice. Multiple times.

‘You need to move with the horse—no, don’t lean forward. Keep your back straight. Good, that’s better.’ Aliya trotted to catch up. ‘Now, pull gently on the reins to stop.’

Meera turned her head to look back at her awkward rider in confusion, and Aliya sighed. ‘Don’t squeeze with your knees at the same time: that’s telling her you want to go faster.’

Vali looked horrified. ‘I don’t want to go faster! But if I don’t squeeze with my knees, I’ll fall off.’

Meera rolled her eyes, and Aliya barely resisted doing the same. This was only their second day travelling together and she was already having to exercise her patience. At least Meera had taken a liking to Quantum: the lizard had found a comfortable perch with his head right between her ears and his tail dangling down alongside her mane, where he appeared to have fallen asleep.

‘Isn’t it time to make camp now, anyway?’ Vali asked.

The sun, glinting off the river to their right, was almost at the horizon. She sighed. Azak’s trail stretched out before her. It was already a month old, and there was no reason to think she was narrowing the distance between them. How many people were dying every night in their sleep? Was her family safe, cut off from even the meagre protection their shaman could offer? She wanted to travel faster, but…

‘Yes, I suppose we’d better stop for the night,’ she agreed, trying not to wince as Vali slid inelegantly down from Meera’s back. They pushed through the undergrowth to the bank of the river and found a good spot to camp. Leaving Vali to start a fire, she went downstream to find a quiet spot to bathe.

Even though she didn’t want to think about the possibility of unseen water spirits, she couldn’t help quietly muttering, ‘Hello, River,’ as she stepped in. The water was chilly, and she quickly splashed out into the current until she was up to her armpits, and began scrubbing the clear water over her skin. Suddenly, a watery face, with a fountain of hair waving around like seaweed and wearing a big smile, popped out of the river right in front of her. Aliya said Eeep!’ and fell over backwards, then scrambled to regain her footing, spitting out a mouthful of water as she did so.

‘You must be Aliya,’ announced the river-girl gleefully. ‘Ripple told me about you last time it rained. It’s so nice of you to come and visit. How are you doing on your quest?’

‘Shhh,’ whispered Aliya, glancing around to see if Vali or anyone else could see her talking to the river. ‘Actually, can other people see or hear you?’

‘Not many, no,’ said the sprite. ‘Except bears, for some reason. I’ve never understood that. But they only ever talk about fish.’

The girl chattered just as much as Ripple had—but her water was a lot colder, and Aliya didn’t want to look like she was talking to herself, so she said, ‘Um, that’s nice, but I really must be going.’

The water spirit looked disappointed, but Aliya hurried back to the bank and used her shirt to dry off, pretending to feel normal. Was it always going to be like this from now on—she spoke to one water elemental, and now nature spirits would keep popping up wherever she went? They had all been very helpful, of course, but she didn’t want this oddity dogging her steps for the rest of her life.

She trudged back to the campsite, gathering fallen sticks on the way, and found Vali arranging a circle of stones to prevent their fire from spreading. Aliya plucked a handful of long grass and used it to clean Meera’s coat.

Vali lit the fire, and Quantum went to sit on one of the stones placed around it. ‘Careful,’ Aliya said, as the rising flames came close to the dangling tip of his tail.

‘Dragons are cold-blooded creatures,’ Quantum told her. ‘I like to soak up as much heat as possible.’

‘Mhaaa,’ agreed Churie as he trotted over to join him by the fire.

Quantum edged away, saying, ‘Does your goat never wash?’

‘He’s not a goat, he’s a—’

‘An attack ram, yes,’ sighed Quantum. ‘He just looks like a goat and smells like a goat. He has long white goat hair, and a little goatee beard—’ he flicked said beard with the end of his tail ‘—not to mention, the temper of a goat.’ He leapt out of the way of an angry head-butt.

Trying to prevent an argument brewing, Aliya said, ‘Although, to be fair, I have never seen a goat with horns that curl like that.’

‘True,’ said Quantum, springing up onto the animal’s back and tapping one of the ridged brown horns with his front foot. ‘What is the point of having horns that bend so far they end up facing backwards? How do you ram anyone with these?’

‘Well, it’s better than being a dragon with no wings!’ Vali shouted.

Quantum froze and then leapt down from the confused goat’s back.

Aliya rolled her eyes and muttered, ‘Why am I surrounded by children and animals?’

‘I resent that,’ Quantum squawked. ‘That is the worst kind of insult.’

‘I was referring to you as a child, not as an animal,’ Aliya told him.

‘Oh,’ he said. ‘Well, that’s still insulting, but fair, I suppose. I was being rather childish. I apologize for making fun of Churie. I know what it’s like to be made fun of; many of the other young dragons would make jokes at my expense, so I learnt to be the joker rather than the laughingstock.’

They both turned to look at Vali, and the boy murmured, ‘I’m sorry too. It’s just, everyone makes fun of me for caring about Churie. I know it’s silly, but…’

Aliya watched him pensively. His presence still felt like a liability. He was here out of childish rebellion, while she had an urgent journey to complete.

‘It’s never silly to care about something,’ Aliya said. ‘And if we’re going to travel together, we need to show a bit more care for each other, too.’

Vali shuffled his feet. ‘I shouldn’t have said that about your wings,’ he apologised. ‘I didn’t realise it was such a sore point. I think you’re brave to have travelled so far on your own.’

‘It felt like necessity, rather than bravery,’ Quantum sighed. ‘Imagine having to walk while everyone else flew; trying to ignore the sidelong pitying glances; your parents talking in whispers about you when they thought you were asleep. I had to leave to prove that I wasn’t broken—and I’m glad I did. Around here, I’m even more of an oddity, but I no longer feel wrong for being different.’