The Bird and The Dragon

It took some kicking before the man opened his unnaturally blue eyes. They were almost luminescent when the stranger’s gaze jumped from Jonathan to Bladewater and back again.

“Did it start? Is it moving?” the man asked, his pronunciation sharp, but understandable.

“Calm down, nothing is moving. We came to rescue the boy,” Bladewater said.

“Welcome to this ruin-covered ball of ash,” Jonathan could not avoid saying.

The black-haired man hugged his feet and stared at Jonathan menacingly. “You are one of them. Did you come for the dragon or her child? Or did it send you to stay? There is no more room, do you understand!”

“I have no idea what you are talking about,” Jonathan said slowly. The dragon could only be Agiisha’s dragon body which was said to dwell in the orbit.

“How did you come here?” Bladewater asked, but the dark-haired man was not listening. He stood shakily and took Jonathan’s hand.

“You must take them away! The infra crashed when the city fell but she did not believe us. No matter what we say, or what the machines tell her. She only wants to build, but there is nothing to build. I am so tired.” The man’s shouting died as quickly as it had started, and he pressed his brow to Jonathan’s shoulder and cried.

“183-Anteron, is it your name? Come and eat, you must rest.” Bladewater caressed the man’s back, her eyes gleaming fervently, her fingers touching the shirt’s smooth fabric unwilling to let it go.

“No, also that machine is sick. I am Todor. Andersin Todor.”

No more signs of survivors were found on the island. Jiir and Todor agreed to follow their rescuers to the boat. Some crewmembers considered the man fallen from the orbit with religious suspicion. A few muttered about the end of the world and the ash demons, but the navigator’s strict words and the fire in her mismatched eyes quieted them.

Todor was silent or spoke gibberish. When they reached Odysseia he drank a small plate of soup and fell asleep. Jiir ended up in the common room to get the ugly cut on his scalp tended to before reporting to the captain. Afterwards, Bladewater wanted a few more words with Jiir and Jonathan stayed with them.

“Excuse me mister, but are you Jonathan Byrd?” Jiir asked.

“That’s me. Do I know you?”

“We met years ago, when my brother…do you still have the ring?”

“What ring are we talking about?” Jonathan asked.

“I used to be called Stephanem Veringe. We tried to use an ainudu ring and…it did something to Aldermei.” Years had transformed the thin boy into a sharp-chinned young man but the name connected the face in Jonathan’s mind.

“I wouldn’t forget it.”

”I took him to old Mariula’s Memorial Home But they sold him away.”

“That’s what they do. I followed him from there, but it was not your brother anymore,” Jonathan whispered. Jiir nodded and looked outside. “I still have the ring. Your brother’s memories are in there.” Jonathan could almost feel the old panic in his stomach.

“We can discuss this again when we land,” Bladewater concluded abruptly. “Step…Jiir must rest. Jiir, I’ll provide you a place to live and work in an airship, if that is your wish.”

“Thank you, navigator. Flying is all that matters to me now.” Jiir said touching his bandaged head. The cut would leave an angry scar, reaching from the top of the left eye to the back of his head. An officer opened the flight deck door and called Bladewater in.

“Come to my cabin,” Jonathan said. Jiir followed him obediently. Jonathan held no position in any airship’s hierarchy, but for Jiir he was the Bird.

The man sat on his narrow bed and Jiir folded down the only chair. The young man seemed restless and expectant. Jonathan took a worn tobacco pouch from his pocket. It had never held tobacco, only the ring. The man gave the jewel to the boy to observe.

“What happened on that day?” Jiir asked.

Jonathan kicked his shoes off and gathered his feet to the bed. He had thought about the matter repeatedly in the sleepless nights. He had drowned both the memories and the conclusions into alcohol, into women, into the same darkness he tried to throw all the distressing items of his life, but it had always failed.

He never mentioned the incident to anyone in the north. Mentioning the ring and Jenet would have required going through it again and the consequences would have taken the form of strategej Astrida. Jonathan had become good at avoiding all the strategej.

“The ring is a matrix. It held a memory of an ainadu,” Jonathan said wishing for a strong drink, but they were all locked in the captain’s locker. “Your brother was of the ainadu blood, the contact with his blood activated the matrix in the ring.”

Jiir didn’t seem to understand. “How do you know this?”

“The Bird was Viper’s pet demon.”

“Hah,” Jiir said dryly. “It was more than a memory.”

“Correct, a memory from someone more powerful than your brother.”

“Jenet. It was Jenet of Ardara,” Jiir’s pronunciation was terrible.

Jonathan nodded. “Ardara was on the planet where the ainadu came from. Jenet’s memories were too intense for your brother.”

“You said Alder’s memories are in this ring?”

“Yes,” Jonathan didn’t want to talk about the jeweler’s basement.

“Alder was my brother. Does it mean that I am also from that bloodline? An ainadu?” Jiir was closing to a conclusion.

“Not necessarily. It is complicated.”

“But I could test it with this ring? I could take the memories. Alder would not be locked in this anymore.”

Jonathan closed his eyes and sighed softly. Jiir would test it or otherwise pursue the idea until it led him to similar troubles as had happened with his grandfather the skycaptain Veringe.

“We can test it.” Jonathan took out his coat and fetched a notebook from its pocket. “I’ll need a few drops of your blood.”

Jiir stared at Jonathan holding the ring in his fist. “First, tell me what you are going to do.”

“A test matrix. A simple diagram that will change its color if your blood carries traces of resonance. It tells if you are an ainadu.”

“Show me the Bird. With your demon blood.”

Jiir was serious. Jonathan wanted to deny it, but the youngster was reasonable and careful. Should he have been so careful five years ago none of the mess with Jenet would have happened.

Jonathan took a small knife and opened the skin of his ring finger. His matrixes were in his bones, including the one guiding and closing the tap, as Jonathan’s father had unceremoniously called the vein used to fill the matrixes.

Blood dribbled out and Jonathan wetted his pen in the thick liquid. Five strokes with the blood-mixed graphite formed a matrix. The lines started to change their color from the bottom, turning burned black and gradually getting redder shades until the top of the graph was bright red, brighter than blood’s natural color.

Jiir looked his eyes wide open. He gave his hand to Jonathan without saying a word to repeat the process with his blood. The new matrix started to change its color, but this time the darkness was only a thin line at the bottom and the shade lightened quickly to reds and oranges and ended in so pale a yellow it almost disappeared to the paper. Jiir was an ainadu, but his blood was weak.

“What does it tell?” Jiir asked.

“That your family tree has at least one ainadu. Better to keep it secret.”

“I will. But can I take Alder out from the ring?”

“Maybe.”

Jiir stared at Jonathan defiantly and pressed the ring against the small cut Jonathan had made. Nothing happened.

“It is locked. Press the stone and turn it clockwise,” Jonathan advised. Jiir inhaled deeply and followed his orders. The matrix activated and the darkness flowed momentarily between Jiir and the ring. The stone lost its shine and Jiir took a hard grip on his chair, closing his eyes. The bloody ring dropped to the floor.

Jonathan picked up the emptied jewel and observed the boy. His expression flowed between joy and sadness when the memories unfolded in his head. Half an hour later the ring was cleaned and back in Jonathan’s pocket when Jiir opened his eyes.

“Who are you?” Jonathan asked.

“Jiir Gattesund. I used to be Stephanem Veringe.”

“What did you find?” Relief was heard in Jonathan’s voice.

“Memories, whispers of Aldermei. But there were also shadows, nightmares belonging to someone else.”

“Echoes of Jenet. That man was probably a first-class monster while alive.” Jonathan replied using the northern language, but Jiir frowned.

“I don’t understand.”

“Just echoes, they will fade,” Jonathan repeated using the southern language.

Jiir was tired, but more relaxed than earlier. “Alder was the only relative I had.”

“Are you going to find him?”

“I said was. The thing walking in his body is not my little brother. Alder is dead. Has been dead for years. I’ll just carry on.”

“Don’t mention your bloodline to anyone or mess with the matrixes.”

“I have learned that lesson, Mister Bird. I don’t want people like you to hunt me. I don’t want dragons. I have chosen the sky.” Jonathan’s expression didn’t reveal he was considering what to do with Jiir, but the boy continued. “That man, Todor spoke and shouted a lot. Just feverish gibberish, I understood nothing of his accent.”

“A good choice,” Jonathan agreed. “Do what navigator Thomms says and keep out of the trouble.”

“Who she truly is?”

“She is a wise woman, and higher than you in Odysseia’s hierarchy.”

“So be it. And you are still the Bird? Her Bird nowadays?”

“As long as she tolerates me.”

On the return flight, Jonathan tried to figure out why Miss Ohanu had paid a rescue mission to Serenia’s wreckage. The passengers Jiir could describe were not people Jonathan knew, but the captain’s description sounded familiar. Additional questions revealed a connection between the supposedly deceased Captain Maxim and Miss Ohanu. Maxim’s roots were in Haven and he had probably been a part of Miss Ohanu’s network.

Todor’s ramblings about the orbit worried Jonathan. Most of his monologue was incoherent talking about machines and people not present but some mentions were not to be spread. Bladewater did not seem to understand the political significance.

In Giza, Todor was moved to the Eastern Trade Union’s building and Jonathan was there, discussing with Bladewater over a late lunch. The woman was talking about the space, the orbital lift, and all the things Todor had said.

“The technology’s reliability is incredible. The orbit is still inhabited, after three hundred years,” the navigator said.

“Bladewater, I...” Jonathan tried to intervene.

”But why have they not contacted us even once?”

“I am trying to say that…”

“Of course they have! It is just kept a secret. The lift is unsure, there are no more spaceships left…”

“Bladewater listen!”

“Err… Bird. You were saying something?”

“This is a nice theory, but it is unsafe to say aloud.”

“What do you mean?”

Jonathan stopped to think. His worry about the navigator’s safety had made him speak but now he was unsure how to balance the necessary information and the northern secrets. “Todor was talking about a dragon in the orbit. It means ainadu, and you have seen what the north does to keep its secrets safe.”

“This is science! The relevant information benefits all the people. Watergate has one future, a change to return to space. Besides ‘a dragon’ must be a metaphor.”

“It is not,” Jonathan said seriously. “She is called Agiisha and she is a physical creature.”

Bladewater stared at Jonathan’s eyes and frowned. Her gaze was intense and the man felt himself and his argument being carefully evaluated.

“Bird, I know your bloodline, but you have left a gap in your story.”

“Maybe, but it is not relevant.”

He could see how Bladewater’s mind darted from detail to detail, how her brain dissected and reconnected all the information gathered over the years, closing into a conclusion. Bladewater was not present in the moment but locked in her internal bubble. Her fork lifted and she ate her food but probably without tasting it.

“It is about the orbital battle that almost destroyed Watergate?” the woman eventually said, jumping straight into the deep end. “The nocturna talk about the war against the dragons and call the ainadu the dragon slaves.”

Jonathan knew the navigator did not realize her words could be considered an insult. She was in her thinking mode, abandoning the social niceties. Jonathan said nothing, clearly she was going to continue.

”After the end of the world there certainly was technology left for receiving messages, but the histories say the frequencies were completely silent. No one was alive in the orbit. Not for centuries, only the lame machines until the ainadu arrived.”

“Until the dragon arrived,” Jonathan added.

“But no one has mentioned a new dragon. There are no shadows of the ancient powers gliding the skies, no ultimate war machines dominating the planet. This implies that the dragon is not the kind of enemy the nocturna claim.” Bladewater thought for a while. “Or…the dragon is as broken as all the old technology. Bird, tell me about this Agiisha. I’d like to meet her.”

“She is a threefold creature: she has two bodies, a human and a dragon, and a mind flowing between them,” Jonathan quoted an old teaching.

“Todor said the dragon is in the orbit. Maybe it stayed there since the war…I understand why you warned me, this kind of knowledge could ignite a new war.”

“And that is why we can’t give Todor to the Union.” The simplest solution would have been to kill the man from the orbit, but Bladewater would have never allowed it. It was not about the morals of the act; it was about the knowledge he possessed.

“You will not!” Bladewater said like reading Jonathan’s thoughts. A sly smile appeared on her lips as she continued. “He is from the orbit, you know. He might have all kinds of augmentations in his body, wonders of the lost tech that helped him to escape.”

“A likely explanation. Do you have an idea where he would escape to?”

“I have friends here in Khem. Not all the locals believe the world ended in the war. Bird, my pretty Bird, you will fly to carry a message and to make arrangements. I am sure Todor will escape tonight to meet a certain baron Kanden.”

“I’ll manage it. You keep DeLangre distracted.”

“I’ll take him through the charting report. It keeps him occupied.” The navigator smiled, and Jonathan smiled with her, in awe of the woman’s ability to adapt to the changing facts and situations.