Chapter 30
SKALD DREKKI
Skaldi landed with a soft thud on the snow-cleared ledge of his home. Night had fallen as he’d journeyed home. A lamp blazed on the entryway, for the benefit of the Others who served him and to ensure they didn’t accidentally fall from the open ledge onto the glacier far, far below.
He had much to think about. He needed quiet.
He suddenly appreciated the solitude his new position gave him.
He didn’t understand the bond he felt with the Other.
Since he’d met him on the glacier, saved his life and seen into his mind, he’d been distracted and, more than anything, burdened with questions he could get no answers to, for there was no one to ask – except the Other himself, and Skaldi couldn’t fathom how he could ask a man to explain what was going on.
Neither could he ask his family, although, briefly, he considered his mother.
She was wise. Perhaps she also knew about the Others.
A pang of sorrow for his family went through him.
They’d know what had happened. They’d know he’d never see them again unless something happened that meant he must inform them about the unexpected development.
Now, there was himself and no other who held the key to drekkikind’s past, present and future. The history of his kind, as it had been passed down to him through Naer-Vera, was disjointed and brief, almost as if certain events had been left out.
He wondered how his predecessors had coped with this sort of gap in their knowledge, until he realised they’d probably never had the freedoms he enjoyed and so didn’t feel the need to question what Naer-Vera had shown him.
Their predecessor would have trained former Speakers, and they’d probably not have thought to question their role.
Skaldi wondered why he’d felt the desire and why he’d felt the need to interfere in the lives of the Others as well.
A shuffling noise distracted him. He glanced to the left and saw one of the Others disappearing back into the darkness. He heaved a sigh. Perhaps he should start paying more attention to those who lived in proximity to him. Maybe the answers could be found there, after all.
Gently, Skaldi sought out their minds with his own, Please come out. I’d like to talk with you.
He heard the sharp intake of breath and smiled grimly to himself. He’d never thought to speak to the Others. There’d never been any need to in the past. He hadn’t been sure it would work.
For now, he concentrated on the Other in front of him. It was the female Other who’d pulled the body from the water on the day of the rockfall and who’d taken responsibility for the hatchling he’d rescued. Skaldi looked at her more closely.
He couldn’t tell her age but could see she was of a slim build, very much like the one with his Other. Her eyes were a striking aquamarine. Skaldi idly wondered if eye colour meant as much among her kind as it did among his. He’d already noticed his Other shared his eye colour.
She stepped forward boldly, and Skaldi began by asking something he’d never thought to ask before. What’s your name?
He could see her thoughts swirl with indecision and conflict. And yet, somehow, among all her awe he’d chosen to speak to her, she recovered her voice.
‘Should I think my answers, or speak them?’ Her voice was light and carried with it a slight accent his Other didn’t have. Still, Skaldi was amused. This woman had incredible fortitude given the circumstances. He felt somehow he’d been right to speak to her.
You can do whatever you feel most comfortable doing, he thought back.
She smiled briefly. ‘Then I’ll speak if that’s acceptable. And my name is Emma. Is there a problem, Speaker?’
He thought how best to answer. No problems, just unanswered questions about your kind. Would you be willing to help me?
Her thoughts again swirled in confusion and bewilderment. At the same time, a sense of calm emanated from her. A sense of rightness.
‘I’ll answer any and all of your questions. Please ask away.’ Skaldi hadn’t meant to look into her mind as she spoke to him, but the wave of emotions and recollections rolling from her was so intense he couldn’t help himself.
He saw ice-grey seas and a small child looking upwards.
He saw a man who turned and smiled. A dwelling and a blazing fire in the hearth.
Crops growing and herb beasts grazing. He felt a deep satisfaction.
It amazed and silenced him. Here was a woman who’d experienced much of life among her people.
He wondered briefly how she’d come to live amongst drekkikind.
Surely, her life had been too full to leave it all behind, and yet she appeared to have abandoned all of it.
Naer-Vera had shown him the Others were the children of a select group who’d come to live in the cave when the shield had been erected. But if this Emma’s memories were correct, he had been lied to.
As Skaldi cleared his head of her wave of memories, he realised he was unsure where to start. The silence between them stretched, yet the accepting smile remained on Emma’s face. Skaldi wished he could feel so at peace.
My name is Skald Drekki, Skaldi. Please don’t call me Speaker.
‘Of course, Skaldi. I’m happy to call you by that name,’ she responded quickly.
‘I know you’re new to your position and that it happened in unusual circumstances.
You might not realise, but you don’t have to ask permission to speak to me, and you don’t even have to ask me questions.
You can use your skills to see anything you want in my mind.
You may find it quicker. I know your ancestors made use of their skills. ’
He was taken aback by her forthrightness.
She was right. It would be quicker. However, after his time with his Other and his frustrations at having the thoughts and emotions of other beings force their way into his mind, he wanted to respect her kind’s privacy.
If he entered her mind, it would feel like an intrusion, and he had a terrible feeling his people had already intruded enough on her kind.
So, he thought, How long have you been here? How much do you know about our kind’s past?
He detected a calm acceptance in her mind. Instead of making sense of the cacophony of thoughts that formed in her mind in response to his questions, he waited for her to answer.
‘I know almost all of your past. I know of your arrival here. I know of the First Speaker. I know of why I live among you. I witnessed much of the events between our two kinds. I can tell you much, but I think it would be better for you to see it. Look into my memories. Take from them what you will. They are my honest recollections.’
As the night sky turned and the sun began to rise, the Other allowed him into her memories. He absorbed them with horror. He had been lied to. For rotations he’d been told to avoid the Others, that they were incapable of anything other than terrible cruelty. All of it lies.
Vaguely, he became aware of the Others extinguishing the lamps and of their astonishment to find him speaking with Emma, although his attention never strayed from her.
By the time they were finished, he felt drained and angry.
There was so much he didn’t know. How could he be the Speaker when he knew so little about where drekkikind had come from?
Where Emma’s kind lived? Although he asked her why he felt such a connection to the Other on the glacier, she could not tell him.
And yet, she agreed that if there was a link being forged, it must be for a reason.
His thoughts became a blur. He had so much to think about. He thanked Emma and went back to his cavern to sleep.
When he slept, his dreams were cloudy and obscure, filled with the memories Emma had given him.
The knowledge of what his kind had done to the Others was unsettling – so much so he wasn’t quite ready to look at it too closely.
They’d acted rashly and made no effort to understand the Others, merely branding them as dangerous and undesirable.
Their actions were in contradiction to everything he’d come to know.
He wondered where the truth lay between the version of events bestowed upon him by Naer-Vera and those from Emma’s.
He was jolted awake from his disturbed sleep by the shuddering of his home, and an anguished cry.
He gripped the stone floor of his chamber with his claws, startled from his comfortable stone hollow bed by the combined events.
Suddenly, he realised the cry had come inside his mind.
It could only be from one of the two people he’d freely shared his mind with, and he could sense Emma slept soundly in her bed.
He shouldn’t have left the Other on the glacier.
He flew now, anger powering his mighty wings. When he looked into the Other’s mind, he felt only panic and terror, saw ice and rock.
An avalanche. Caused by a huge ground tremor. And the Other, trapped beneath the avalanche.
How was he to find him?
The glacier was huge. The man’s chaotic thoughts offered a suggestion as to where his Other was travelling, but not where he was when the avalanche tumbled from the giant peak. He didn’t have the time to search for him. The man would only have so much air.
The only consolation that calmed him was he could sense the Other lived. If not, his thoughts wouldn’t be discoverable.
Skaldi berated himself. He should have stayed to ensure the Other’s safety.
He should have tried to communicate with him.
Maybe together they could have discovered their peoples’ shared past. The more he thought about what Emma told him the more he was certain the man was vital to the future of both their kinds.
Or, so Skaldi had made the connections. He had to ensure the man’s survival.
He flew towards where he’d last seen his Other.