by Chris Ward
Jim Green led Wilhelm to a path that led up the side of the rocky cliff. From where they had landed, the boat and its circling dragon were both out of sight, and as they started up a line of natural steps eroded into the rock, Wilhelm could understand why it was called Dragon Rock: everything was black, with no sign of vegetation anywhere, looking for all the world to have been scorched by a dragon’s fire.
‘This is the closest landmass to the edge,’ Jim Green said as they climbed, seemingly unable to slip out of tour guide mode. ‘We used to offer tours out here because of how good the views were, but the sea currents can be a bit unpredictable. We had a boat go over once, and we called time on it after that.’
‘You had a boat go over?’
Jim Green nodded.
‘Over the edge?’
‘Yes.’
‘What happened to it?’
‘It fell.’
‘Where?’
‘No idea. We hardly went to look, did we?’
Wilhelm stared. ‘Were there people on it?’
‘We managed to escape on a dinghy. There are rocks near the edge—jagged teeth sticking up out of the sea. It doesn’t just fall off, you know. The water. Some does, but only that which sloshes over the teeth. It’s more like a sink overflow, otherwise there would be none left. Plus, there’s the tides. The red sun and all that.’ Jim Green sighed again. ‘The teeth, though. Gotta watch out for them. Lethal. The boat got caught on them, and while we managed to escape, it eventually broke up and fell.’
They crested the clifftop, where black volcanic rock was slippery under their feet. Wilhelm followed Jim Green as he skipped nimbly over outcrops and bowls until the ocean beyond the island opened up below.
‘Oh, wow. I’ve never been this close.’
So close Wilhelm felt like he could reach out and touch it, the edge of the world looked like the line of a single, immense waterfall. Blue-grey water suddenly became white and frothy as it poured over into … nothing. Rising up along the edge were great clouds of mist and steam, and in the air beyond it, clouds toiled and rolled, creating an impenetrable white wall masking whatever might lie beyond.
‘There!’
Jim Green pointed. So close to the edge of the world they had to be able to feel it over their shoulders, the rest of the pupils clung to jagged rocks poking up out of the water, with the remains of a dinghy floating in the shallows between them.
‘They must have gotten smashed up on the reef,’ Jim Green said. ‘We have to find a way to get to them.’
Floating in the water at the base of the cliff, something shiny caught Wilhelm’s eye. ‘There’s a boat,’ he said. ‘Is that one of yours?’
‘Where?’
‘Down there.’
Jim Green stared at him. ‘It’s one from the guesthouse,’ he said. ‘I don’t know how it got down there. Unless … someone was hiding it.’
Wilhelm crept closer to the edge and peered down while someone clambered over the rocks at the foot of the cliff, making their way toward the boat. At first, he didn’t recognise the brown-haired boy until, thanks to slipping on a rock, the boy happened to look up.
The old hair colour had washed out, but even from this distance, the sour face was unmistakable.
‘Cuttlefur,’ he said. ‘I knew it.’
‘Miranda!’
‘Benjamin! What are you doing here?’
He tried to grin, but the dragon’s jaws had closed over the battered upper deck and pulled, knocking him down. As he sat up, he said, ‘Rescue mission. Wilhelm was with me, too, but we got separated.’
‘Wilhelm?’
‘It was all his idea. No time to explain right now.’
‘The dragon!’
The boat shuddered again, knocking Benjamin against the side rails. As he rubbed where his back had struck the metal, he said, ‘Yeah, I noticed it.’
‘Cuttlefur trapped me.’
‘Miranda, your magic—’
‘It’s gone! I’ve been trying to get it back, but I can’t!’
Benjamin closed his eyes, and as before, nothing was there. Nothing to suggest she had ever had magic to control, or ever would.
Along the rails wrapped around her wrists, though, he felt a terrible, chilling cold. He probed at them, but his own magic shrank back as though a frightened child were peering into a dark, dark room.
‘Dark reanimate,’ he said. ‘Cuttlefur … I think he’s working for the Dark Man. He’s controlling the dragon, too.’
The boat shuddered again as Shenlong made another attack, and this time, the stern rose up out of the water.
‘The anchor!’ Miranda screamed. ‘He’s pulled it free!’
The boat began to rise up out of the water, and Benjamin grabbed on to a railing as they lurched sideways.
‘Let go of it!’ Miranda shouted at the dragon, kicking out at the side of the boat in the only way she could express her anger. ‘Let go of this boat right now!’
Shenlong paid no attention. Satisfied the anchor had broken, he swung his body around to grip the bow of the boat in his massive hind claws, and a huge draft nearly pulled Benjamin’s hands free as the boat turned up on end. The few remaining objects not already shaken loose began a rapid migration into the water below. Miranda, trapped by her wrists, screamed as her body swung back and forth. Benjamin tried to concentrate enough to pull on his magic, but when one slip of his hand could send him plummeting into the water, he couldn’t draw more than a little bit at a time. The rails went soft and warm under his fingers, but reanimating a metal pole wouldn’t stop a dragon the size of a small ferry.
‘Fire!’ Miranda screamed. ‘It’s made out of paper! You have to burn it!’
Benjamin looked around. Everywhere was just water, and wood, and a little bit of metal. What could he possibly cause to burn?
Now, they were moving through the air with the black mass of Dragon Rock approaching on their right. But Shenlong was heading farther east, right to the edge of the world.
‘Do something, Benjamin!’ Miranda screamed.
‘I’m thinking, I’m thinking!’
‘Stop thinking!’
‘It’s easy for you to say! You don’t have to worry about it!’
Miranda glared, and for a moment her lips curled up in the briefest of smiles. ‘If you let me die, I’m going to come back and haunt you forever!’ she shouted. ‘I’m going to come back as a cleaner and follow you and Wilhelm around like a bad smell! You got that? Do something!’
A clank of metal made Benjamin turn. Of course.
The engines.
He hooked his feet over the rail and began to haul himself up the side of the boat as though it were a jungle gym in a school playground. There were plenty of ropes and metal rails to hold on to, but in a few seconds, his arms and shoulders were aching.
A little farther….
The thing he wanted was just up ahead: a metal screw cap on the side of the boat. The fuel tank. If enough was still inside, he could use his magic to ignite it.
Benjamin closed his eyes, concentrating on the liquid sloshing around inside the tank. Not much left, but there was some. It would have to be enough.
He hooked his arms around the nearest rail so he wouldn’t need to worry about falling off, then he began to work the air to push the remaining fuel up out of the tank. It emerged from the fuel chute like a snake, then formed into a silver bubble the size of a beach ball. There was so, so little left.
‘Benjamin! The edge of the world!’
Shenlong had flown over Dragon Rock and was now approaching the last horizon, where whitewater tumbled down into mist as clouds swirled up around him.
‘Where’s he going?’
‘I don’t know, and I don’t want to find out!’
Benjamin closed his eyes. Three, two, one….
‘Now!’
He put all the heat he could muster into igniting the ball of fuel, and for a moment, it glowed slightly orange … then died. With this failure, h
is hand started to ache. He closed his eyes once more, gritted his teeth, and tried again. Nothing. The fuel simply didn’t want to burn.
‘It’s organic!’ he shouted. ‘It won’t catch fire!’
‘You have to make a real fire!’ Miranda screamed.
As Shenlong roared in triumph, Benjamin hung his head. Down in the water below were a couple dozen small figures hanging on to the jagged rocks of the last reef before the edge of the world. Those were his classmates down there, and he could no more help them than he could help anyone else.
He had failed at everything—Source Mountain, saving Miranda, even protecting Wilhelm. He had no plan, no idea, and nothing left to give. It was over. Miranda would die, he would die, and all of his classmates would die, too.
And there was nothing he could do.
He closed his eyes a third time, trying not to let his anger overcome him, when he felt a slight warmth he hadn’t noticed before. It didn’t appear to come from outside of him; rather, it came more from deep in his chest. As he let the anger fill him, it began to grow stronger.
My heart.
The fire has to come from my heart.
He opened his eyes. ‘This isn’t over!’ he shouted at Shenlong, pushing himself up and clambering higher. The dragon’s huge claws were just above him, yet he carried on climbing until he felt strange paper scales under his feet. Shenlong shifted as though touched by a bug or a mouse, but Benjamin looped his hands around the great dragon’s ankle and held tight.
‘Leave me and my friends alone!’ he screamed, then gave himself over entirely to the rush of heat rising up from inside.
At first, it was just like putting his hand into hot water, then it seemed to sear him from the inside out. A yellow mist filled his mind, and he finally blacked out as the surrounding air filled with the roar of fire.
46
Rescue Mission
‘Jim, you’re a Channeler. You realise that, don’t you?’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘You can channel the magic. You can control things.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous. I can’t do anything.’
Wilhelm slapped a hand against his thigh. ‘They only told you that to protect you. You can! I can feel it!’
‘You’re crazy.’
‘Look, that kid down there, he’s super dangerous. He doesn’t know we’re here, though, and if you can just distract him, I’ll sort him out the old-fashioned way.’
‘What do you mean?’
Wilhelm grinned. ‘Playground style.’
‘What do you want me to do?’
‘Just glare at that kid and imagine him getting slapped down or something.’
‘That’s all? How’s that supposed to help?’
‘I don’t know! Just try it!’
As they clambered down the rocks to the shingle shore where Cuttlefur made for his boat, Wilhelm realised he was probably committing himself to enough cleans to last for all eternity, by giving a wizard who didn’t know he was a wizard a sudden crash course in powers he had no idea he had. What might happen if Jim Green concentrated too much, he was nervous to find out, but if there was someone to test out one’s powers on without fear of reprisal, it was Cuttlefur.
‘Okay, we haven’t got much time. Do it.’
‘Do what?’
‘Slap him down!’
Jim Green looked terrified. Wilhelm gave him a shove from behind, pointing him at Cuttlefur. ‘Okay, I’m trying!’
‘I don’t see you trying very hard! Try harder! Slap!’
Farther along the shore, Cuttlefur cried out and crashed to the ground.
‘Nice!’
‘What did I do?’
‘I don’t know, but it worked! Quick, do it again, and I’ll grab him!’
As he reached the top of the shingle beach, Wilhelm started into a run. Dragon Rock had really gotten the ‘end of the world’ theme going on well—the air itself was chilly and thick with spray from the ocean pouring away to nothing just a stone’s throw from the shore, while clouds of mist dipped and rose like shower curtains. One moment, Cuttlefur was there; the next, he was gone. And then he was back again, climbing up from a hollow in the beach, making for the speedboat waiting in the shallows.
‘It’s payback time,’ Wilhelm muttered as he closed within a few feet. Cuttlefur waded out into the water, eyes fixed on the dinghy broken up on the rocks offshore and the cluster of frightened pupils hanging on at the world’s edge as a giant snappy ghoul tried to eat them.
‘Face slam, punk!’ Wilhelm shouted, and he leapt onto Cuttlefur’s back. He caught the other boy flush, knocking him into the water, and the resounding clunk as Cuttlefur’s forehead struck the wooden edge of the speedboat sounded like the ringing of a victory bell.
As Jim Green came up behind him, Wilhelm hauled Cuttlefur up out of the water. The other boy’s eyes were closed, and his mouth hung open.
‘Is he dead?’
Wilhelm slapped Cuttlefur’s cheek, and the other boy groaned. ‘Nope, unfortunately not. Just stunned. Get him in the boat. We’ll pick up the others, then swing back to help Benjamin and Miranda.’
‘Will they all fit?’
‘You tell me. It’s your boat.’
Jim Green climbed up into the boat and pulled open a box in the stern, revealing a coil of rope. ‘We can use this to tow what’s left of that dinghy,’ he said.
‘Now we’re talking. Quite a team, aren’t we?’
They pulled Cuttlefur into the boat and sat him up near the back, where he groaned and reached up to rub his head.
‘Tie him up. Then imagine the ropes are snakes, and if he moves, they’ll bite him.’
‘You’re mad.’
‘I’m a kid. I have a good imagination.’
‘Okay, I’ll try, but I think this is all crazy.’
‘We’re in a speedboat at the edge of the world, about to try to save a group of kids from a giant orange submarine that’s come back to life and looks like it really wants its first meal. Tell me something that isn’t crazy.’
‘You have a point.’
Wilhelm grinned. ‘Let’s go.’
Snout didn’t really need to swim. With the currents speeding him rapidly to his doom, he only had to keep his head above the water.
The sea near the edge was freezing. At his school back in England, he’d never liked swimming, and he now felt justified for all those times he’d pretended to forget his swimming costume to get out of the class. Watching the other pupils floundering in the reef only confirmed his belief that the sea was a terrible, evil thing that should be filled in and turned into something much more pleasant, like farmland or concrete.
Behind him, the dragon carried the boat through the sky. To his left rose Dragon Rock, dark and imposing, a jagged, volcanic outcrop that couldn’t have been less welcoming if it’d had a barbed wire fence around the outside. As he turned around in the current, he was afforded a panoramic view of the whole spectacle, as though a 3D disaster movie took place around him.
‘Help!’ someone screamed. It sounded like Fat Adam. Snout had liked Fat Adam; they’d had interesting conversations about dinner each evening, even though it never changed much. The huge ghoul that had come to fight the dragon had trapped the pupils on the reef by the edge of the world, which Snout presumed had been created from all of the junk that had failed to reanimate, brought down the Great Junk River.
Snout sighed. Nothing he could do, of course. Best to just give up and drown.
Then, in the sky high above, came a sudden burst of fire.
It had originated from the dragon’s claws, and it was slowly working its way up the dragon’s legs toward its body.
With a boom, the dragon ignited. It had been climbing into the sky over Dragon Rock, but now it veered east again, dropping toward the edge of the world.
The boat still hung by one claw. Snout gasped. Miranda was still on that boat. If the dragon didn’t stop, it would drop the boat into the abyss
beyond the reef, and Miranda would be lost forever.
Snout wished he could do something, but unfortunately, not everyone could be a hero. That was for other boys, not a dorky nobody like him.
With Jim Green at the wheel, the speedboat skimmed across the water’s surface to the trapped pupils. Wilhelm sat in the back, next to Cuttlefur, who was slowly waking up.
‘Snakes, Jim!’ he shouted, as Cuttlefur groaned. ‘Think of snakes!’
The ropes around Cuttlefur’s waist shimmered. To Wilhelm, they still looked like ropes, but when Cuttlefur opened his eyes and looked down, he gasped.
‘No! Don’t make them bite me!’
‘Shut your punk mouth,’ Wilhelm said. ‘There’s worse than snakes waiting for you in prison.’
‘What prison?’
‘The prison!’
Wilhelm couldn’t think of what else to do, so he scooped up some water from the bottom of the boat and splashed it into Cuttlefur’s face.
The boat slowed as it came up against the nearest pupils. ‘Get in!’ Wilhelm shouted, clambering over to help them into the boat. Patting Jim Green on the shoulder, he repeated, ‘Snakes! Keep thinking of snakes!’
Wilhelm climbed out. The water’s roar was almost deafening, and the air was so thick with spray, it was impossible to see more than a few paces in front of them.
‘How many pupils were there, Jim? Think!’
Jim gave a shake of his head. ‘There were … there were … twenty-one.’
‘Okay, minus Benjamin, Miranda, and snake-lover boy, that’s eighteen. Let’s get them in.’
He climbed over the boat’s edge and stumbled across the jagged rocks just beneath the surface as water rushed for oblivion and pulled at his knees. As shapes appeared out of the mist, he pushed them back in the direction of the speedboat. Some looked scared but unhurt, others had blood on their faces from where the rocks had cut them. Wilhelm counted them off on his fingers, unable to believe none had fallen over the edge.
‘Fifteen … sixteen—that way, Kate, be careful! Get in the boat and hold on. You’re safe now. Seventeen…. Who’s missing?’
