Chap. 245 In The Strait

Chap. 245 In the Strait

K'ndar wasn't sure if he liked the time zone cure. He felt jittery, as if he'd taken some stimulant. Part of his mind was over alert, and his body was not.

But he had to admit, it worked. He was wide awake in the daylight at Western.

Raventh had landed on the bulwark. It was right at the edge of the precipitous cliff edge. Across from them, about a kilometer and half, was the southern half of Western. Far below them was the Strait, a straight as a die crevasse that separated the two halves of the continent. The sea rampaged through it, the waters white capped and turbulent.

He thought of what Rahman had told him, that dolphins-the wise ones-refused to transit it. And he remembered seeing enormous tree trunks, denuded of limbs, being tossed like straws in the furious rush of water.

Something was missing, though.

Much lighter wind than last time Raventh said.

By the egg, he was right. There was a steady breeze, nothing like the near gale force winds that had stymied them on their first visit.

Siskin chirruped, watching the sea birds that were hovering in the wind over the seaway.

"Think you can catch one of those?" he asked the fire lizard.

Siskin's eyes rolled an uncertain orange. Then he shook his head.

"I think you're wise not to try," K'ndar said, scritching the lizards head.

Raventh, alongside of K'ndar, was looking over the edge.

Want to fly in the gorge? Raventh asked.

Surprised, and yet intrigued, K'ndar said, Do you think we should?

Maybe we can see from closer to the surface what the dolphins say is on the seabed. I know it's been on your mind.

Hasn't it! Since Rahman mentioned it, it's all I've been thinking of. Maybe we can finally understand what this bulwark is for.

Let's try. If it gets bad I'll go between in an instant.

Okay.

He was growing accustomed to Raventh's increasing initiative.

It's like you're a scientist, too.

I am you. You're a scientist. I like to learn things.

He checked his harness, nervously. Winds could turn deadly in a nanosecond.

Beware of downdrafts.

I will.

Raventh launched and climbed high into the sky. For moments, he hovered, gauging the winds.

Then he swooped-and they were flying in the mighty channel, stone walls on either side over their head.

The brown dragon lowered, lowered til he was a few dragonlengths above the raging waters.

No closer, please, K'ndar said, his nerves fraying.

I'm okay. Really. The winds are easy. There is a cushion of air that rises off fast flowing water that makes it easier to fly than higher up. The seabirds use it to save energy. See? They hardly flap a wing.

As if hearing him, one of the birds plummeted just past his head with a woosh. It dove head first into the water. Another rose from the depths, a fish in its beak. Shaking its head, it launched from the water's grip and flew straight up.

He felt strange, allowing his dragon to take the reins. But Raventh had never been foolish or willing to take risks, not like B'rost's blue dragon Rath.

The waters and the sky were full of fishing seabirds. The walls were festooned with hunks of seaweed, forming nests for the birds. Wash from thousands of birds turned the basalt cliff sides a dingy white. Ahead, a cloud of them filled the sky, diving into the water below, soaring on the air cushion from the speed of the current below, carrying fish to their chicks.

Don't fly into them K'ndar said.

I won't. They see me, they will let me pass. And now I know why we dragons can push with our minds. To push them out of the way if necessary!

Amazing!!

He heard a familiar wheep. Siskin arrowed down from the sky and ranged up alongside Raventh's head, eye to eye with his dragon friend. Then, for several moments, he was flying directly in front of K'ndar, easily keeping up with the far larger dragon. K'ndar had the unusual view of seeing a flying fire lizard from the back end.

Siskin connected with Raventh's neck and chirped.

"Well done, Siskin!" K'ndar called, but didn't let go of the harness.

Shouldn't you be looking for the 'thing?" Raventh asked. I can't, this is a bit more complex than I expected.

Yes. Oh, but if it's too risky, let's get out of here!

I will if I get scared, but I'm not. It's actually fun, as long as I pay attention. It's not like flying in the Weyrlingbowl.

K'ndar laughed, Raventh's strong, steady wingbeats reassuring him.

I completely forgot that was the purpose of this little jaunt.

He looked down at the sea below him. White caps told of how fast the water was going. The water was dark and cold looking. He shivered.

It was a good idea, Raventh, but I'm not going to be able to see into the water. It's too deep, too dark. And I have no idea where it might be. This strait goes for a hundred kilometers, easy.

This wasn't going to work. There had to be a way to see the 'thing'.

Something went 'ping! in his memory, something technical. But the memory wouldn't reveal itself.

I see something.

Something?

In the rocks, see, in the large boulders and rocks, at the base of the cliff on my left. The rocks have fallen from the top. See, there is something up ahead. Just past those trees in the rocks.

I am really out of it today, Raventh. I might be wide awake, but only that you mention it do I see trees in the rocks. But I don't see what you see.

Raventh pushed it to him.

He could see the water flowing past a trio of wrecked trees, so fast, so violently. It had pushed some of the trees hard into the fallen rocks.

It is too far for me to see it, yet. But..it looks...different than the rocks.

Siskin chipped and released his hold on Raventh's neck. He floated in the air, in between K'ndar's chest and Raventh's neck.

Then he arrowed up and flew ahead of Raventh.

Where is he going?

To see the thing.

Within a few moments, they were over the rocks Raventh had noted.

I can't hover here for long, I don't trust this wind not to change.

His wings beating hard to maintain station, Raventh tried to stay above the tspot, but had problems. Siskin laughed. The blue fire lizard floated like thistledown, hardly moving a wing.

I'm going to land on the cliff above it. I have a bad feeling about it. There are bones.

Dolphins? Rahman did say young dolphins died trying to swim this strait.

The dragon allowed the wind to carry him vertically. The top of the cliff was littered with boulders. One or two were large enough to allow him to land.

K'ndar dug out his binocular. Why am I always forgetting these fabulous things? Because I grew up without them?

Siskin arrived, sounding unhappy.

K'ndar, leaning over Raventh's shoulder, focused on the bones. Raventh dropped his head to just below the edge of the cliff to scan the rocks below.

They were not dolphin bones. At least, he didn't think they were, he had no idea how a dolphin's skeleton might look, but they wouldn't look Pernese.

There were only a few. No skull. Large bones. And smaller ones. A rounded arch of bone.

Not a mosar, not a deep diver. He knew what a deep diver skeleton looked like.

There was something else. A bundle of something that was not flesh, not bone. Something with texture, not smooth like wet rock. He could see only part of it, as it was firmly packed into the gaps in the boulders. Even from here he could see the water tearing at a portion of the bundle.

Horror filled him. Clothing. A few bones sticking out of the pathetic mass of fabric.

And a backpack.

He swallowed hard to keep his stomach where it should be.

That was a dragon.

Yes. And a rider.

Siskin chittered.

He asks if you want him to go down there.

He stroked the fire lizard.

"Brave Siskin. Only if you want to. I don't want you to get hurt."

Siskin chipped, his eyes rolling blue green.

Raventh laughed despite his dismay.

He said, I am Siskin!!

K'ndar laughed, too. Somehow it made him feel better.

I wonder where he learned THAT?

Siskin, more able to handle the lessened winds, dropped down to the spot and landed on one of the boulders.

He sent images back.

K'ndar felt his lightheartedness fall away.

The bones. There were only a few dragon bones. A wing bone, a cervical vertebrae, part of the telltale ribcage. This dragon had either smashed into the cliff, or had been thrown with great violence into the water, or the boulders.

There were shards of bone here and there in the crevices between the boulders.

The clothing was so tangled with tree limbs and seaweed it was hard to see what was what. But a leg bone protruded from the mass.

The backpack was higher up from the bones, snagged and held tightly by a shard of rock.

Siskin blinked, then resumed sending.

His blood ran cold. A fragment of the backpack's cover had what looked like writing.

Tell Sis to stop. See that panel. There's a letter on it, I think. Have him focus on it.

One single letter.

G