by Chris Ward
‘Where’d it come from? Did you see what it did? If Shenlong doesn’t take the girl, we’re done for.’
‘Yeah, I saw. This thing’s going as fast as it can go, though. See if you can speed it up a bit. Use the stuff if you have to.’
‘He’ll know if I do.’
‘Well, maybe he’ll be able to help us.’
Cuttlefur turned to the pupils tied up in the bottom of the dinghy. They weren’t supposed to know about their magic, but one of them had used it, and his inner senses searched for the tingles of heat as the Dark Man had taught him.
There. That boy. The rather plain one everyone called Snout. Cuttlefur could see why—with that bit of an upturned nose and an appetite like a pig.
The Dark Man commanded the ghouls, but the Dark Man was currently hundreds of miles away. Perhaps the pig boy would make a decent snack for this new threat.
He wasn’t subtle. Whatever lies the teachers had told the pupils about the nonexistence of reanimation magic, it was up to them to answer this one. He glared at the group of boys trussed up with Snout and commanded their rope to reanimate.
They gasped as it became a shifting, twisting snake, and Cuttlefur commanded it to unwrap itself, allow Snout to go free, then tie up the others again. When Snout was standing aside in the bottom of the dinghy, looking as awkward as a kid who had pooped himself in class, Cuttlefur deanimated the rope.
‘Walk the plank, fool,’ he snapped at Snout, who stared at him blankly. ‘Oh, you need some help?’
Cuttlefur called on the air to push and pull, and Snout jerked toward the side of the dinghy with a look of horror. Cuttlefur glanced back at the rising prow of the ghoul sliding through the water toward them, an orange glow just under the surface. They couldn’t stay ahead of it for long.
‘Over you go.’
‘Godfrey!’
‘Huh?’ Cuttlefur turned back. Snout was looking at Barnacle, who crouched in the front of the boat as though to balance the weight.
‘Godfrey! I know that’s you. I heard your voice. We’re mates, don’t you remember? I never let you down, Godfrey.’
‘Shut up!’ Barnacle shouted, though the tone of his voice was different, as if he’d let a guise unwittingly slip. Several other pupils turned to him, murmurs of suspicion on their lips.
‘Don’t let him hurt me, Godfrey!’
Cuttlefur scowled. ‘Enough of this.’ And Snout pitched forward into the water. Barnacle/Godfrey started to stand up, but Cuttlefur glared at him. ‘Stay right there,’ he said.
Barnacle looked about to say something, but he instead closed his eyes. Cuttlefur wondered what the fat fool was doing, until he felt it: a wave of cold like a sudden chill wind.
Godfrey was summoning.
‘What are you doing?’
Godfrey looked up as though he hadn’t realised Cuttlefur could know, the sign of an inexperienced user.
Dragon Rock was coming up on their left, and Cuttlefur glanced at the nearest bay, scanning for the speedboat they had hidden the day before, one that would whisk them up the coast to where the Dark Man’s people would pick them up.
Seemed he would have to complete the last leg of the journey alone.
Looking down at the outboard motor, Cuttlefur drew on the water to work like a turbine around the engine, speeding it up. Then he fixed the direction for the edge of world. As a final act of destruction, he cast a wall of protection around the boat so no more magic could escape.
Then, with a smile, he jumped over the side.
The little boat sped on, taking Godfrey and the rest of the pupils with it, straight for the edge of the world. He closed his eyes, feeling Godfrey trying to use his magic to turn the boat around. But it was too late. He was trapped.
‘Enjoy the view from the edge,’ Cuttlefur muttered darkly, then he began swimming as fast as he could for Dragon Rock.
44
Battle Charge
‘Fallenwood!’ Wilhelm screamed. ‘Fallenwood! Where are you?’
Benjamin joined in, but no sound came from the undergrowth.
‘I left them right here,’ Wilhelm said. ‘If they could make us a boat or something, perhaps we might have a chance.’
Benjamin laid a hand onto Wilhelm’s shoulder. ‘We have to go,’ he said. ‘Come on. We’ll think of something.’
Wilhelm shook his head. ‘You saw it, didn’t you? There’s no way we can stop something like that.’
Benjamin’s first instinct was to agree, but he refused. He had seen the dragon, too, though admitting defeat was like saying goodbye to Miranda. He wouldn’t do it until he’d tried everything to rescue her.
‘Come on,’ he said. ‘This isn’t over yet.’
Her luck wouldn’t hold for long. As Shenlong prepared for another pass, his huge wings beating at the sky as if trying to tear through it, he looked angrier than ever that she had found a way to defy him. Only the narrowness of the staircase had kept his jaws from tearing her apart.
The anchor. The old boat had a manual anchor crank set into the port side of the boat, not far from the stern. Stretching out to a point where she was sure her shoulder would pop out of its socket, Miranda could just reach to kick out the lever, releasing it.
Shenlong, briefly distracted by the giant ghoul submarine, hadn’t heard the chain reeling out, so now, whenever he tried to lift the boat out of the water, it jerked him back down, incensing him even more. Eventually it would slip loose of whatever rock or ledge it had caught on, but at least it had bought her some time.
The air above her had gone quiet, and Miranda peeked out from the railing. No sign of Shenlong. To the right floated the dinghy in the distance, a black speck moving to the right of Dragon Rock. She could no longer make out the people inside, but it was now angling away from the island and toward the edge of the world.
What would happen if they went over the edge?
She growled in frustration, butting her shoulder against the railing, wishing there was some way she could free herself and help them.
Benjamin was breathing too hard to speak, so he flapped a hand toward the beach, at the paper dragons swimming languidly around in the water.
‘You’re not serious?’ Wilhelm said.
‘Yes,’ Benjamin gasped. ‘Come on.’
They ran down to the shore. Benjamin wrapped an arm around Wilhelm’s shoulders and told him to concentrate. Together they closed their eyes, and Benjamin pulled on the surrounding ground, feeling the life collect inside him. Then he projected it outwards into the water.
When he opened his eyes, two of the largest paper dragons were lying in the shallows in front of them, their colourful heads bobbing up and down in anticipation.
‘They remind me of dogs,’ Wilhelm said.
‘And they’re going to be our horses,’ Benjamin answered. ‘Come on.’
He didn’t wait. He waded out into the water, right up to the nearest of the dragons, one far larger than that which had almost eaten Fat Adam for breakfast.
‘Can you take me out there?’ he asked. ‘Can you take me out to the island?’
The huge head continued to bob.
‘Don’t eat me.’
Bob, bob.
‘Okay, I’m getting on now.’
Bob.
He swung a leg up over its neck and climbed up, leaning forward so that his chest pressed against the back of its head. Then he patted it on the side.
‘Ready to go—!’
The paper dragon ducked into the water and swam in a fast circle, its long tail beating back and forth. Benjamin grabbed hold of its soft, papier-mâché skin, then turned to look back at Wilhelm.
‘Hang on!’ he shouted. ‘I get the feeling that the river wasn’t the only ride we’re going to endure today.’
A squeal of delight was Wilhelm’s reply, his paper dragon taking a scenic route round a few outcrops that made a rough racing course. Benjamin grimaced as his own headed for the thin gap between the headlands, wishing the dragons weren
’t so playful.
‘Do you have a name?’ Benjamin whispered, patting the creature on the back of the neck.
Tianlong, replied a voice that he took a moment to place as in his head. Celestial dragon.
Benjamin nodded. ‘Jeremiah would be happy to know how much you’ve grown,’ he said. ‘My name is Benjamin. I’m an, um, friend of Jeremiah’s.’
I hope he’s well.
Benjamin smiled. ‘I think he is. He misses you.’
Good.
Benjamin smiled at the dragon’s attempt at humour. Then, perhaps in case he’d missed the creature’s natural playfulness, Tianlong did a sudden twisting roll, dunking Benjamin into the water. As he came up coughing, he felt a shiver from beneath as though Tianlong were laughing.
They approached the rock pile blocking the channel out of the bay between the two headlands, and Benjamin took a deep breath, closing his eyes, trying to think of a way to get the rocks to move. Perhaps if he animated one rock to move another … but rocks were the hardest thing to reanimate, or so Grand Lord Bastien said. Of all things in existence, rocks were the only ones that were truly dead.
No.
‘What?’ He realised Tianlong was talking to him again. ‘We have to get through the channel entrance.’
There’s a way. Benjamin sensed Tianlong’s playfulness again, as if the dragon was smiling. How do you think we got out to meet him? Didn’t you know? All of the dragons are female. Except one.
‘But Jim Green said—’
‘You humans are so easy to fool. We can change our colour at will. We light to look beautiful when we meet him.’
‘Who?’
His name is Shenlong. He is the father of all paper dragons.
‘How?’ He glanced across at Wilhelm, whose dragon had come up alongside. ‘She said there’s a way through the channel.’
‘She?’
‘Isn’t yours talking to you, too?’
‘You’re the Summoner, remember? I can’t hear anything.’
Benjamin nodded. ‘I can hear her thoughts.’
Tell your friend to hold on.
‘Hold—’
Tianlong ducked and dived, drowning out Benjamin’s second word. Benjamin hung on for his life as the dragon powered down through the water, into the depths below the shadows of the headlands. Benjamin opened his eyes but he could see only vague shapes and forms, so he closed them again as the chilly water buffeted his face.
It’s not far. I forgot you humans can’t breathe under water. How unfortunate that must be.
Benjamin wondered whether Tianlong’s humour extended to his discomfort. He clamped his mouth shut, hoping Wilhelm would do the same. The water had gone full dark and freezing, and he sensed they were passing beneath the headlands. Then, when he was sure he would have to gasp for air and fill his lungs with water, he felt the pressure lessen and the chill ease.
In a sudden rush, they burst through the surface, and Benjamin gasped in a desperate lungful of air. He glanced back at the choppy surface of the open sea, but saw no sign of Wilhelm or his dragon. He was about to ask Tianlong, when the other dragon exploded out of the sea right in front of them, leaping up into the air with Wilhelm hanging on to its neck. Wilhelm’s look made Benjamin laugh. From his pale cheeks, it was clear he’d taken one thrill ride too many.
Shenlong lives at Dragon Rock, Tianlong told him. We will find your friends there.
The two dragons moved swiftly through the water, although now Benjamin sensed Tianlong’s playfulness was gone, replaced by a gradually building apprehensiveness. Beneath his fingers, the papier-mâché of her body had begun to soften and flake away, and he wondered how long she had before the rougher waters pulled her apart.
We can rest at the rock, she said, as though reading his innermost thoughts. We can rest there until we are able to make the journey back again.
‘Where are they?’ Wilhelm shouted across to Benjamin. ‘We’re too low in the water to see far.’
‘They were near the rock, weren’t they?’ Benjamin said. ‘Tianlong, how far is it?’
Another couple of miles. But something’s wrong, Benjamin. I can feel it. Something is wrong with Shenlong.
‘What?’
I don’t know.
A bank of clouds had begun to move in from over the edge of the world, and Benjamin grimaced as he peered down into the dark waters, sensing what else might live down there, knowing that if Tianlong fell apart, he’d be stuck in the middle of the ocean. His magic could buoy him for a while, but it would eventually run out and he would either drown or drift over the world’s edge.
Beneath him Tianlong shuddered.
‘Are you all right?’
Shenlong. But that’s not him.
A huge, dark shadow rose up off the surface of the sea. Massive wings beat at the air, and the Great Dragon roared loud enough to make Benjamin’s ears sting. As they rose up on a swell, the small boat they had seen from Source Mountain came into view, bobbing in the water, its bow skewed to one side as though caught in the middle of a tug of war.
What’s happened to him?
‘What do you mean?’
Shenlong … I can feel him, but he’s changed.
‘He’s the Great Dragon, right? He looks pretty great to me.’
You don’t understand. Shenlong can’t fly. We’re all water dragons. And he would never hurt anyone.
Benjamin closed his eyes. Though his body ached with the chill of the water, an even darker chill came from all around him.
Dark reanimate.
‘He’s under someone’s control.’
He didn’t have to wonder whose. Only one source of power was great enough to create and control a dragon, and that had come from the Dark Man.
Benjamin, I need to go the island. I need to rest.
‘Benjamin, look!’
He turned to Wilhelm, who pointed at something floating in the water. It looked like a water barrel with a rope attached, only now, a man was clinging on for dear life.
‘Jim!’
The tour guide and part-time chef looked up at Benjamin through dazed eyes. ‘There was something of a mutiny,’ he muttered as Tianlong swam alongside and Benjamin helped Jim onto the dragon’s back. ‘Barnacle and that kid, Cuttlefur. I should have trusted you. That boy’s a real bad seed.’
‘I think he’s working for the Dark Man,’ Benjamin said.
Shenlong had turned for another attack on the boat, but at the sight of Tianlong peering up out of the water, he paused.
Husband! Benjamin felt the dragon cry. What’s happened to you?
A wave of cold struck Benjamin in the face, so strong, it nearly knocked him off the dragon’s back. He could sense Shenlong trying to answer, but his voice had been blocked by the magic controlling him. Behind, Jim Green screamed as Shenlong dived to the attack.
I have to dive, Tianlong said. I have to get to the island. Hold on.
They were near the boat. As the dragon lifted out of the water to begin her dive, Benjamin saw a flash of red hair on the lower deck of the skiff.
Miranda.
As Tianlong dived under the water, Benjamin leapt clear. Beside them, Wilhelm’s dragon had also dived, taking Wilhelm with her. Benjamin looked up as Shenlong bore down, then ducked his head and closed his eyes. If he was about to be crushed to death by a giant paper dragon, he didn’t want to see it.
45
Firestarter
‘We have to go back!’ Wilhelm shouted to the man who had appeared on the back of Benjamin’s dragon as if taking his friend’s place. ‘We have to go back to that boat!’
‘Well, if you can control them, be my guest,’ the man said, patting the dragon’s neck. ‘Not going to listen to me, are you, old girl?’
The dragon’s colourful head swung back and forth. Benjamin had claimed they were speaking to him, but all Wilhelm saw were two gigantic hand puppets swimming through the water, seeming no more alive than anything else out here. But they did seem intent
on heading for the lump of black rock sticking out of the water.
‘Where are they taking us?’
The man pointed. ‘Dragon Rock,’ he said. ‘It’s an uninhabited island so close to the edge of the world, it gets endlessly battered by storms, making it a particularly unpleasant place to reside. No one likes a view of just fog, do they?’
Wilhelm leaned over the side. They were in the shallows now, rocks passing beneath them, and pieces were beginning to fall off of his dragon, like shedding scales; small, colourful circles that dropped into the water and floated away. The great beast was starting to dissolve.
As his dragon followed the other up onto the shore, sliding through the shingle like a giant snake, Wilhelm jumped off. The other man was already waiting for him, reaching out a hand to help him up out of the shore break.
‘Jim Green,’ he said. ‘I was leading a tour that ran into a few difficulties. And you?’
‘Wilhelm Jacobs. I got left behind at the school for causing trouble. What on earth is going on?’
‘I don’t know what we can do from here,’ Jim said, ‘but the other kids escaped that boat in a dinghy. It went east, toward the edge. I don’t like to think what might have happened to them.’
Wilhelm turned back to the dragons, who had gone halfway up the shore to curl up on the dry shingle. Unmoving, they looked like two shabby carnival floats about to be shipped off to the dump.
‘Can they help us?’
Jim Green shook his head. ‘They have to dry out or they’ll fall apart. Hence the paper part of the Bay of Paper Dragons. I’m amazed they made it this far.’
‘That other one, what is it?’
‘The Great Dragon? Shenlong?’ Jim Green sighed. ‘A myth. Until today. How did you get out of the bay?’
‘An underwater tunnel.’ Wilhelm shivered. ‘Scariest thing that’s happened to me today. And if you knew the day I’ve had, you’d understand how scary that was.’
Jim Green smiled. ‘Those cheeky beasts. Barnacle and I wondered where the fry kept coming from. Jeremiah’s notes claimed they were all female, but there was plenty of seasonal evidence to the contrary. Come on, this way.’
