by Shoo Rayner
The creature screamed. Unable to control its flight, the white dragon tumbled out of the sky, but not before it lashed out, grabbing Tân by the tail, dragging him down, falling, falling through the air.
The canopy over a sweet stall broke their fall. They crashed onto the counter, snarling and growling, lashing their tails, slashing with their claws, scattering sweets in a cloud of gummy bears, flying saucers and smarties.
‘Tân!’ Harri ran towards them.
‘Draca!’ Ryan’s dad was running as fast as he could too.
Police sirens pierced the frenzied row.
‘Tân!’ Harri ordered, ‘Come here now!’
Tân held his head low, wings outstretched, ready to pounce in an instant. Waves rippled down his ribbed body as a low growl emanated from his belly.
‘Tân! Now!’ The rest of the world faded away. All Harri’s concentration was focussed on Tân. Tân had to know that Harri was his master. ‘I said now!’ Harri hissed.
Tân dropped his wings a fraction, a sign to the white dragon that this battle was over. But the war had only just begun!
Tân inched backwards carefully, warily, keeping his eyes firmly on the white dragon, in case it should still try and attack. When he was a safe distance away, he let Harri pick him up and hold him firmly in his arms.
Tân let out a sigh of relief. He flicked his tongue out and licked Harri’s face.
‘Well done!’ Harri whispered.
Chapter Twenty-three
‘We’d like you to come along with us, young man,’ said the police inspector.
Harri was surrounded.
The Police Dog Handling Unit had been giving a display in the park. A policeman wearing padded armour was approaching the white dragon warily. He carried a stick with a loop on the end. He placed it over Draca’s head and pulled it tight. Then he led the struggling creature to his van where he manhandled it into a cage.
‘Never had to deal with one of them before, sir!’ the policemen told the inspector.
‘That’s my dragon!’ Ryan’s dad protested.
‘Then we’d like you to join us at the police station too, if you don’t mind, sir?’ said the inspector, with a weak but professional smile. ‘The general public have been placed in grave danger today and they will want to know who is responsible.’
The dragon catcher was approaching Harri with his stick. Harri felt Tân’s muscles tense, ready to protect himself.
‘Quiet now, Tân,’ Harri reassured his pet, clipping the lead to his collar. ‘There’s no need for that.’ Harri nodded at the dragon catcher’s stick. ‘I’ll put him in a cage, but don’t put them in together — they’ll fight.’
Warily, the policeman led Harri to another van. Harri placed Tân inside. He felt terrible as the policeman slammed the cage door shut. Tân looked confused. His big, brown eyes pleaded for an explanation as the policeman closed the back door, trapping Tân inside.
‘Can I come with him?’ Harri asked.
The inspector had never had to deal with dragons before and he hadn’t had any training for situations quite like this. He nodded.
‘I think you have a lot of explaining to do, young man.’ He turned to the other policemen. ‘Get those … those things back to the station and keep them in cages while we work out what we are going to do with them,’ he ordered.
‘Go and tell my mum and Imelda what’s happened,’ Harri told Ryan, as he and Ryan’s dad were put into the back of a police car. ‘They’ll know what to do.’
Almost invisible in the crowd, Imelda had seen the whole thing. All her worst fears had come to pass. What could she do? She was helpless. Everything was now in the hands of the law.
Chapter Twenty-four
‘You are both being charged under the Dangerous Wild Animals Act of 1976. Do you understand?’
Harri and Ryan’s dad stood in front of the sergeant’s desk, heads bowed, as the station sergeant formally charged them both. ‘Do you understand?’
It had all been explained to Harri. He’d been at the police station for hours. Because of his age, they’d had to wait for his mum to arrive with a solicitor. She and Imelda had sat in the interview room, while Harri explained everything to the inspector.
‘Magic? You mean like witchcraft?’ the Inspector asked Imelda, incredulously, when he’d heard the whole story.
‘Not witchcraft. Not like you’re thinking, all Halloween and broomsticks,’ Imelda said, shaking her head. ‘It’s Magic, see? The Old Magic — Earth Magic. Most people have forgotten all about it.’
The inspector didn’t know what to do. He thought he’d witnessed everything possible during his career in the police, but this was something entirely new.
Harri was obviously a bright-eyed, honest boy, not the sort to get in trouble with the law. But people could have been hurt at the re-enactment battle and someone had to be held responsible. You can’t let dragons breathe fire all over people! There are laws against that sort of thing!
‘You will be arrested,’ he explained. ‘You will have to appear before the magistrates tomorrow morning. They can decide what happens next.’
‘What about Tân?’ Harri asked.
‘That’s up to the magistrates too,’ said the inspector. ‘Your dragon will have to stay here until then.’
‘He gets very hungry,’ Harri said. ‘He likes worms best … and pepperoni pizza.’
‘Don’t worry.’ The inspector smiled. ‘We’ll look after him.’
Chapter Twenty-five
Mr MacDonald, their solicitor, blew his cheeks. ‘Well, this is a strange case! I’ve not had to deal with anything like it before.’ He’d come to the shop to escort them to the magistrate’s court.
‘The media and the TV are going to love this story,’ he warned them, ‘so be prepared for a bit of a scrum. Don’t say a word. Don’t answer any questions — not to anyone. We are going to have to play our cards very close to our chest.’
He was right. The re-enactment battle had been filmed by hundreds of people. Videos of people screaming and running away from the swooping dragons were online and had gone viral. Millions of people had watched them all around the world.
Satellite vans were parked on both sides of the street. Reporters talked to their cameras in a host of different languages as Harri, his mum, Imelda and Mr MacDonald tried to squeeze through the doors of the magistrate’s court.
‘Harri! Tell us how you feel about having your dragon locked up?’
‘Harri! Where did you get your dragon?’
‘Harri! Did you mean to threaten the lives of so many people yesterday?’
‘Harri! Have you got a girlfriend?’
The questions echoed all around him. Reporters thrust microphones at him, barging each other out of the way, all of them eager to get a snippet of news for this, their latest and greatest story.
‘No comment!’ Mr MacDonald kept shouting in a firm, authoritative voice, as he shielded Harri and guided him into the comparative peace of the magistrate’s court.
His case was called quite quickly.
The room was lined in pale wood. Three magistrates sat above them all. Mum and Imelda sat at the back, while reporters and onlookers strained to get a good look at the boy — the boy with the dragon!
The court clerk asked him to confirm his name and address.
‘You are charged under the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976,’ the clerk announced. ‘In that you did recklessly allow a wild animal, namely a dragon…’ A murmur went round the court. It was true!
The clerk coughed loudly and continued,
‘…namely a dragon — to roam free and unleashed and that you did put people’s lives in danger. How do you plead?’
Harri wished the floor would open up and swallow him. He never meant to hurt anyone, neither had Tân. It was all Ryan’s dad’s fault!
He heard a voice making a speech. It was his voice! He’d spoken before he knew what he was going to say.
‘Dragons have a
right to live at St Gertrude’s Tower. There’s a royal charter that says so!’
Harri felt his cheeks burning red with embarrassment and defiance. A gasp spread around the courtroom.
Mr MacDonald stood up and coughed loudly. ‘Err-hum! I beg the court to excuse my client. This is a very stressful occasion for him. He does not wish to plead at this moment.’
The magistrates discussed the case with the crown solicitor, whose job it was to persuade them to find Tân and Harri guilty.
I haven’t done anything wrong! Harri thought. He was close to tears. This was all some terrible mistake. Maybe he would wake up soon and it would all turn out to be a bad dream?
‘This case will resume in two weeks time,’ the chief magistrate announced. He looked over the top of his glasses and studied Harri. ‘We feel it is unlikely that you will go on the run, young man, so you are free to go home on bail. In the meantime, for the protection of the public, the dragons, Tân and Draca, must be kept under lock and key at the police dog pound, while their fate is decided.’
* * *
Home was like a prison. The reporters hovered outside the shop, interviewing anyone who went in. The shop had never had so many customers before! Most of them were just being nosey, asking questions and buying souvenirs.
Harri was all over the internet and the TV and the newspapers. Groups of giggling girls came in the shop asking for his autograph!
Once a day, Harri was allowed to visit Tân and take him treats. But each time he went to the police station, it meant facing the cameras and more questions.
When Tân saw him, he would run up and down his cage, snuffing and snorting with pleasure to see his master again. But he would slump to the floor and plead with his big, sad eyes when it was time for Harri to go.
Draca paced restlessly in a cage across the pound, snarling at Harri as he was escorted back out to the street and the waiting reporters.
Harri couldn’t bear to watch the news. Some angry people said terrible things about Tân and Draca. They wanted them destroyed immediately — they said dragons were unnatural. Some people suspected that the dragons had escaped from a laboratory where they had been created by mad scientists!
After a few days, things quietened down a bit. Then the red ribbons began appearing on the lamp posts, followed by the stickers and the posters:
Free St Gertrude’s Dragons!
The mayor was on their side, leading his own campaign. This story was good for business and the tourist trade in St Gertrude’s.
Chapter Twenty-six
‘And so, the Crown recommends that, after proper scientific investigations, the beasts be destroyed immediately.’ The crown prosecutor was putting her case to the magistrates.
Members of the public had been queuing all night to watch from the public gallery. They wore ‘free the dragons’ T-shirts and badges. They shuffled their feet and murmured their disapproval. What horrible experiments would proper scientific investigations involve?
‘We don’t know how large these creatures will grow, nor do we know how dangerous they will become. They cannot be allowed to go free,’ the prosecutor concluded.
There was a disturbance at the back of the room. The mayor was having a loudly whispered conversation with one of the court officials. He was pointing at Harri.
Everybody followed the mayor’s gaze and stared at Harri as the official came towards him and held out some rolled up documents.
‘The mayor says you might need these,’ the official explained.
As Harri touched them, the same charge of electricity shot up his arm. He knew this was the document about Emrys and St Gertude. There was another document with it. The court held its breath. In the silence, the ancient parchment creaked and crackled as Harri carefully unrolled it.
Harri wasn’t sure but he thought it was written in Latin.
At the bottom of the parchment, a huge red wax seal hung from a ribbon. The image of a king on a throne was pressed into the sealing wax. He saw the word ‘Rex’ — probably the only word of Latin that Harri knew. Rex means King!
Harri couldn’t speak Latin, but he instinctively knew what this document was.He stood up and held it above his head. He took a deep breath and spoke slowly and clearly.
‘This is the royal charter allowing dragons to live at St Gertrude’s Tower!’
The courtroom erupted in a confusion of loud and excited conversations.
The chief magistrate banged his gavel on the table and called all the officials to the bench for a discussion. The crown solicitor frowned as she read the document once, twice and then a third time before nodding her head and going back to her seat.
You could hear a pin drop as the magistrates whispered together, deciding what to do. They called the mayor. The mayor smiled and nodded enthusiastically as they asked him questions. Finally, the chief magistrate made some notes on a pad and faced the court.
‘This is an unusual case,’ he began. ‘Without doubt, the royal charter is authentic and it means that the dragons had every right to be at the re-enactment of the battle of St Gertrude’s. The park was originally part of St Gertrude’s Tower. We have no choice but to release the dragons from police custody.’
Cheers erupted from the gallery.
Harri couldn’t cheer yet. Mr MacDonald put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
The Magistrate continued with his verdict, ‘However, the dragons represent a clear danger to the public. They will be placed in the charge of the town council and must be kept in St Gertrude’s Tower at all times. If they are ever found outside the town walls, they will be destroyed immediately.’
He turned to Harri. ‘As for you, young man, we feel that you are not responsible for the mayhem caused at the re-enactment of the battle of St Gertrude’s. That blame lies elsewhere and will be dealt with later. Obviously you can’t keep your dragon as a pet anymore, so you will have to surrender ownership of your dragon to the town council. You are free to go.’
Cameras and microphones were thrust into his face. The questions came fast and furious as they left the court.
‘What’s it like to lose your pet, Harri?’
‘Where exactly did you get your dragon from, Harri?’
‘How did you know about the royal charter?’
‘How do you feel, Harri?’
Harri didn’t know how he felt. He’d seen Ryan in the courthouse, waiting for his dad to go in and hear the verdict in his case. Would they let him off so easily?
Would he ever see Tân again? What would he do without him? These questions rang loud in Harri’s head. Was life even worth living without Tân? He and Tân had grown close over the short time they had been together. No one would ever truly understand … there is a special, magical, secret bond between a dragon and its master.
Chapter Twenty-seven
The TV satellite vans were out in force again, the day the new St Gertrude’s Tower Dragon Experience opened.
Ryan’s dad slumped on the sofa and watched the whole thing on the TV.
‘Why don’t you go into town and join in?’ his wife suggested. She was worried about him. He’d not been the same since she’d got back from China — he was so moody and grumpy. He spent all his time watching TV. ‘It looks like everyone’s having a brilliant time up there?’ She smiled, hopefully.
Her husband curled his lip and grunted quietly. The court had made him pay a huge fine for causing all the trouble at the battle of St Gertrude’s. He didn’t mind that — they could afford it. But he couldn’t get over the fact that Harri had beaten him again, and he’d had his dragon taken away. The law may have spoken, but he wanted justice!
No one would ever truly understand how he felt … there is a special, magical, secret bond between a dragon and its master.
‘Look!’ Ryan’s mum pointed at the screen. ‘There’s Ryan and Harri and Mr Davies, their teacher!’
Mr Davies and the Red Dragons were marching along with their hairy, bearded pals, the White Dragon Sax
ons. The Carnival Queen and her attendants were dressed up again as St Gertrude and her merry friends, and Harri was going to be guest of honour, cutting the ribbon to officially open the new Dragon Experience.
There were dragons everywhere — on T-shirts, on tea towels, mugs, caps, flags and posters. You could buy dragon cakes, dragon pasties and dragon pizzas, and a special dragon ale was on sale in all the pubs. Dragon pennants zig-zagged across the street.
The mayor made a speech and told everyone about his new History of Dragons book. Signed copies were selling like hot cakes in Merlin’s Lair.
The band played and finally, the TV cameras got to see the dragons.
Harri spent the day showing Tân off to one camera crew after another, answering the same questions over and over. ‘But tell us, Harri,’ they kept asking, ‘where did you really find him? You don’t expect us to believe that magic egg story, do you?’
He told them the truth, again and again, but no one believed him.
When it was all over and everyone had got their stories and told their tales, Harri snuggled down in the straw with Tân. He was exhausted. He could feel Tân’s heart pounding against his soft, scaly skin. Harri talked gentle words of encouragement to Tân and Tân talked back in his strange language of snuffs and squeaks and rumbles.
The dragons were on separate floors in Castle Gertrude to ‘double the experience!’ Tân was kept in a dungeon kind of dragon’s lair with old-fashioned prison bars caging him in. This was going to be his life from now on — gawped at by strangers six days a week, with Mondays off.
Harri was allowed to see Tân for half an hour every day at closing time, to feed him and keep him clean — no one else wanted to go into a dragon’s lair and do the job alone.
It was better than nothing. It was better than losing Tân forever or having him put down, but they were never going to wander free again — running across the hills above the town, chasing rabbits, looking for worms and learning new tricks. Would Tân ever be allowed to fly again?
