Dragon Amber

by C. J. Busby

  The passage was well built and long. It disappeared into shadow in both directions with no apparent turns. On the walls, faded murals of dragons and other fabulous beasts were interspersed with scenes from the history of the Akkadian Empire, and portraits of some of the ninety-eight Sargons that had preceded the present one.

  “This isn’t an obscure corner,” said the Druid, looking at the images with a frown. “This is the central passage. We must be not very far from –”

  “The guard room,” finished Nasir. “Just so.”

  As he spoke, there was a tramp of feet, and from each end of the corridor twenty or more imperial guards appeared, shields up, spears at the ready.

  Nasir shrugged. “I’m sorry, my friend,” he said. “The Ensi paid in gold …”

  Rahul looked round wildly. “You – you sold us?” he squeaked in outrage. “You sold our friend? You sold the honour of the Thieves … to Ra-Kaleel?”

  He launched himself at Nasir, but the commander stepped backwards and twisted out of reach, wagging his finger at the red-faced Rahul. “The honour of the Thieves, Rahul?” he said. “Our honour is money – we thieve for the one who pays the most. Remember?”

  “But we do not betray our friends!” said Ishmel angrily, his foot shooting out to kick Nasir on the shin. Nasir stumbled, and then the guards at either end of the corridor gave a shout, and suddenly Ishmel, Rahul and the Druid found themselves fighting back to back against an assault from both directions, while Nasir slipped quietly behind the line of guards and out of the labyrinth.

  It wasn’t a long fight. Despite the Druid taking out a fair few assailants with some well-directed immobility spells and Rahul’s surprising agility for a man of his bulk, they were heavily outnumbered. Soon all three were disarmed, bound and gagged.

  “Orders, sir?” said one of the guards, who had just finished securing the Druid’s wrists. “Where do we take them?”

  The captain, surveying the carnage around him, frowned. “To the fires of the afterlife for all I care. But I believe the Chief Ensi wants the tall one. Take him to the central chamber. You can leave the other two tied up for the dragons.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Jem, Dora and Inanna were deep in the Akkadian labyrinth. If it wasn’t for Dora’s werelight they would have had no chance of navigating the dark winding tunnels. Even with it, they were beginning to lose heart. Jem was convinced they’d been down the same side tunnel twice now, and there seemed no way to tell if they were closer to the palace or further away from it. The tunnels all looked the same – square-cut marble walls and a flat, even stone floor stretching on ahead of them into the darkness.

  After about half an hour of feeling their way along, trying to guess which fork to take when the tunnel divided, trying to remember how many left turns and how many right turns they’d taken, Jem halted by yet another side passage and threw himself to the ground with a groan.

  “This is hopeless! We’ll never find our way to the dragon’s heart or wherever we’re supposed to be going! We need some kind of map – without one it’s just guesswork!”

  Inanna sat down next to him and leant her head on his shoulder. “My feet hurt,” she said. “I’m fed up of just walking and walking. Maybe we should give up on your amber stone. Maybe you could just take me to your world, Jem?”

  She gazed up at him with pleading brown eyes, and Jem wondered whether to put his arm around her, give her an encouraging hug. But then he looked at Dora and saw her expression. He hurriedly shifted Inanna away from his shoulder.

  “We can’t take you back without finding the Druid first,” he said firmly. “We need to get through these tunnels. Come on, Inanna – you’ve known the temple labyrinth all your life … Isn’t there anything we could use to guide us?”

  Inanna pulled her knees up to her chest and looked sulky. “It’s quite different down here from in the temple. For one thing, the tunnels are much deeper. And the signs make no sense.”

  “What signs?” said Dora. “We haven’t seen any signs.”

  “On the walls. Wherever there’s a divide or turning,” said Inanna. “Small carvings – didn’t you notice them?”

  She pointed to a smoother part of the wall, just near the side passage, and Dora held up her werelight and peered at it.

  “Jem!” she said. “It’s a spell sign! It’s one of the ones that were on Simon and Catrin’s box – the box with the other bit of amber.”

  Jem jumped to his feet and bent over next to Dora. She was right. Carved faintly into the wall, so faintly that they’d not noticed till now, was a triangle with lines and squiggles inside. He frowned at Inanna. “You should have told us about these before!”

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “But they just didn’t make any sense to me. The signs in the temple labyrinth tell you where to go – these are just strange shapes and lines.”

  “They’re spells,” said Dora. “This one’s for a fiery wind. They’re associated with the amber somehow. Maybe if we follow it we’ll finally start going in the right direction.”

  The fire symbols led them rapidly to a series of passages that were taller and wider, lined with well-cut pale stones. The floor sloped and they appeared to be descending deeper underground, but to Jem’s surprise the air was getting warmer, not colder. There were strange noises now, too – faint sounds from far away echoing down the passages. After one particularly loud one, Dora stopped.

  “Did that … did that sound to you like –?” she shivered.

  “Yes,” said Jem grimly. “A dragon’s cry. A long way away, though.”

  Inanna clutched Jem tightly on the arm. “Really?” she breathed. “Really dragons? In the passages?”

  He nodded. “There’s a smell of them, too,” he said. “They’ve got a lair somewhere near. When I hatched those baby dragons in the castle last year, the stables stank just like this. But if we stay quiet, and keep out of their way, we should be all right.”

  They crept down the next few passages, keeping an anxious ear out, but the dragons didn’t seem to be getting any closer. Finally they reached the end of a long passage and came to a dead halt in front of a flat wall. Carved in the middle of the wall was the fire spell, alongside two other symbols, each a kind of triangle with other signs carved inside them.

  “It’s the opening spell that was on Simon and Catrin’s box,” said Dora.

  “Well, say the spell then!” said Jem eagerly.

  “It’s a very powerful spell,” said Dora. “We have no idea what we’re opening. Anything could happen!”

  Jem gave her an encouraging clap on the back. “It’ll be fine,” he said confidently. “Honestly, Dora, you’re always so cautious. If the signs call for an opening spell, then we need to conjure an opening spell. And you’d better get on with it, before the dragons find us!”

  Dora gave him a hard stare, then raised her arms and said the words of the spell.

  A sheet of flame leapt up in front of them, and then seemed to melt into the wall, which turned white and started to crackle with frost. The next second a tornado whipped around them, pulling at their clothes and hair and almost knocking them off their feet. As it died down, a crack appeared in the stone in front of them, and then a door flew open, revealing a large cavern lit with a dim orange glow. As they stepped inside there was an ear-splitting roar. Flames billowed out of the shadows, and then a dark shape emerged, hurtling across the cavern straight towards them. It was an enormous red dragon, fire and smoke spewing from its massive jaws.

  Dora, Jem and Inanna threw themselves backwards, and as the dragon reached the doorway, they scuttled sideways and flattened themselves against the outer wall. They were just out of sight of the dragon’s questing nose pushing through the doorway next to them, but there was no way of getting back down the corridor without passing within reach of its gleaming pointed teeth. Dora tried very hard not to make a sound, but Inanna kept giving faint whimpers of fear and Dora was finding it hard to control her breathing. Only Jem
seemed relatively calm. He was studying the end of the dragon’s nose with interest.

  “Dora?” he whispered. “It’s a red dragon. Like the one at home. I think I can make friends with it.”

  “Make friends?” she mouthed back. “Have you finally lost your wits, Jem? How exactly are you going to make friends with a dragon?”

  “I’ve got some cob nuts in my pocket,” he said, bending close to her ear. “Those baby dragons I hatched – they all loved cob nuts. If I offered this one some, we might be able to get her to let us in. Dragons are quite sweet when you’re not threatening them!”

  It was true, thought Dora – the baby dragons had loved cob nuts. And Jem did have a way with animals. But on the other hand, he’d reared those dragons from hatchlings. This was a fully grown dragon – and so far, it hadn’t been very friendly.

  Dora hesitated, then nodded. “All right – try. But be really careful, Jem. Don’t go in there unless you’re certain!”

  Jem gave her a thumb’s up. He reached into his pocket and came out with a handful of slightly grimy nuts which he rubbed a little cleaner on his jerkin. Then he peeled himself from the wall and started to move towards the dragon, making soothing noises as he did so. Dora held her breath.

  As Jem approached, the dragon snorted and moved backwards a little. Jem balanced a cob nut on the flat of his hand and held it out, continuing to make soothing noises as he moved forward. The dragon withdrew its nose from the doorway, and Jem walked slowly into the chamber beyond, still holding out the cob nut and making little clicks with his tongue.

  Dora looked across at Inanna, and the two of them moved away from the wall and peered into the doorway to see what was happening.

  The dragon was sitting back on its haunches, watching Jem with one fierce green eye, its head cocked slightly. Jem continued to croon at it, holding up the cob nut.

  “Nice cob nut, lovely cob nut, your favourite – yum yum, crunchy, delicious, can’t you smell them …?”

  The dragon snorted again, and then slowly lowered its head to the same level as Jem’s. It gazed at him with a rather baleful expression. Jem’s voice started to get a hint of desperation.

  “Come on now, there’s a good beast – have a lovely yummy cob nut from Uncle Jem, why don’t you?”

  He held out the nut again.

  There was a tense pause and Dora wanted to shout at Jem to run – but her voice wouldn’t work. The dragon started to open its mouth and Dora shut her eyes. She couldn’t bear to watch. But a moment later she heard Inanna gasp and clap her hands, and she opened her eyes to see the dragon delicately curling its tongue round the cob nut on Jem’s palm. It placed the nut in its mouth and crunched it experimentally. As it did so, Jem reached up and scratched the dragon on the nose just between its two nostrils. The dragon shivered with pleasure and put out its tongue to lick Jem’s face.

  “Jem! You did it! You are so brave!” squealed Inanna, and she danced into the chamber clapping her hands.

  Jem looked up, wiped the dragon slime from his face with the back of his sleeve, and grinned.

  “It’s a sweetie,” he said. “Just an old softie. Aren’t you, my lovely?” He scratched the dragon’s nose again and offered it another couple of cob nuts.

  Dora walked carefully into the chamber. Her legs were only just starting to feel like they belonged to her again.

  “Well done,” she said, rather shakily, and Jem, after a swift look at her white face, patted her comfortingly on the shoulder.

  “I knew I could do it. You needn’t have worried,” he said, and gave her plaits a friendly tug. “Come on. Let’s find this fire amber then.”

  The huge chamber was mostly in shadow, but in the centre was what appeared to be some kind of large egg on a low pillar. Tendrils were snaking away from it into deep channels in the floor, and it was lit up with an eerie yellow-orange glow.

  As the children moved towards it, the dragon followed, nudging Jem with her nose every now and again for a scratch. But just before they reached the pillar, three figures emerged from the shadows on the other side.

  In the centre stood a tall man in white robes, with a square black beard and a heavy gold chain of office.

  “Ra-Kaleel!” Inanna gasped.

  But it was the two figures either side of him that made Jem and Dora turn cold. Two thin, dark-suited men with bright black eyes. Mr Smith and Mr Jones.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Mr Jones reached out one hand and intoned a few words. Dora, Jem and Inanna froze, expressions of shock still on their faces. He cocked his head and regarded them with a quizzical expression.

  “Weren’t those two –?”

  “Yes,” said Mr Smith. “They were there when we found the other piece of amber. The meddlesome young witch immobilised us, as I recall.”

  The corner of Mr Jones’s mouth twitched briefly. “Then it’s a case of biter bit, I do believe, Mr Smith.”

  He turned his attention to the odd tracery of green tendrils snaking in towards the object on the pillar in front of them. The tracery became more dense as it reached the centre, where it merged with an oval container of the same shiny, scaly material that the tendrils were made of.

  He raised one eyebrow at Ra-Kaleel.

  “Dragon hide,” said the Chief Ensi in a rather tremulous voice. “The dragon hide contains the amber and draws power from it. Dragons are highly magical creatures, after all. The power is conducted from here along these channels you see in the floor – and then used to extract and contain magic from the prisoners in the cells beneath us.”

  “Ingenious,” said Mr Smith, his eyes following the snaking ropes of dragon hide away from the centre of the chamber. “Channelling unruly magic for the good of the empire.”

  “Exactly,” said Ra-Kaleel eagerly. “Exactly. And if you take the dragon amber, the whole magical grid will collapse. Our chariots, our spycopters, our light and power, our weapons – we can’t survive without them! It will be chaos!”

  Mr Smith grinned. “You are mistaking us,” he said, and leant closer to Ra-Kaleel, “for people who give a damn. Now, how do we open this container?”

  The Chief Ensi blanched. “Only obsidian …” he said faintly.

  “What?” said Mr Jones, his eyes narrowing.

  “Only obsidian, cuts through the skin… as the poem has it. We need obsidian blades.”

  “And you didn’t tell us this before we came down here?” murmured Mr Smith, raising his eyes to the ceiling.

  “Tut, tut,” said Mr Jones.

  The two men fixed him with their dark stares and the Chief Ensi’s legs folded beneath him. He slumped to the floor, gibbering with fear. Dora, even immobilised, could feel the cold power that came from the two black-suited figures – an ancient malevolence that had nothing human in it.

  Luckily for the Chief Ensi, there was a commotion at the other end of the chamber that drew Smith and Jones’s attention away from him. Four members of the imperial guard were making their way out of the shadows, and between them was a rather battered and bloody figure, gagged, with his arms bound. The sight of him made Dora want to shout for joy and at the same time groan in despair. It was the Druid.

  “Excellent,” said Mr Jones in his rasping voice, as he surveyed the newcomers. “A reunion of old friends.”

  The Druid’s brown eyes met Mr Jones’s black ones steadily, but his expression was bleak. Switching his gaze to the dragon-hide container, he caught sight of Dora and Jem, standing like statues on the other side of the pillar, and his eyes brightened. He raised his bound hands in an attempt at a wave and nodded appreciatively at the dragon, who was nuzzling Jem’s immobilised neck.

  Mr Jones followed his gaze.

  “The boy – he’s got a knife,” he rasped. “It seems they came better prepared than we did.”

  He gestured to Mr Smith, and the two of them circled round the pillar and made for Jem. Mr Smith had one hand on Jem’s shoulder and Mr Jones was pulling at the knife tucked into Jem’
s belt when the dragon decided to intervene. She wasn’t at all happy about these dark creatures mauling her new friend. Snorting imperiously, she gave Mr Jones a whack with one great, clawed foot, and then bit Mr Smith’s arm.

  Mr Jones went flying and Mr Smith gave a great yowl of pain and anger. The dragon launched herself after them both, but before she did, she blew some steamy breath over Jem and then did the same for Dora and Inanna. Instantly they found the immobility spell had been lifted, and they could move.

  Jem lost no time. He leapt towards the dragon-hide egg and slashed into it with his blade. The obsidian cut through the skin cleanly and the two halves fell away. Lying on the pillar was a round amber stone, with a heavy golden clasp. The amber burned with a fierce orange-yellow light and, deep inside it, twisting tongues of white fire seemed to move ceaselessly, their light reflecting off the gold chain lying pooled around the jewel.

  Dora thought that she had never seen anything so beautiful, not even the piece of amber Cat had claimed in that other world where they’d last met Smith and Jones. But she couldn’t stop to admire it – the two crow men were already on their feet and the guards had run to help them. The dragon was in retreat from their swords and a maelstrom of spells.

  “Take the jewel but don’t touch it – it will be hot!” she shouted at Inanna, and rapidly threw an unbinding spell at the Druid.

  Inanna hesitated, then wrapped the edge of her cloak around her hand and reached out for the gold chain. As she removed the jewel from its place, the glow of the amber started to fade, and the tendrils of dragon hide snaking away from the pillar darkened and started to shrivel.

  “No-o-o-o…!” wailed Ra-Kaleel from the floor, clutching at the length of dragon hide nearest him. “You’ve ripped out the heart of the empire! You’ve destroyed us all! Our chariots, our city, our armies! You’ve broken the power of Ur-Akkad!”