by Karen Frost
Chapter Ten
The Beasts' Council
"Godrick, jump in the bag! We must leave at once," Mary Jane cried.
The plump rat, sensing danger, ran up her leg and hopped into the pouch carrying the heartstone. His pink nose and round black eyes reemerged seconds later to peer out cautiously. Mary Jane repositioned the pouch so that it lay against her back rather than her side and began climbing up to Hissarlik's shoulder as quickly as she could, growling as the dress she wore gathered and bunched in all the wrong places to obstruct her legs. Hissarlik watched her silently from the corner of his burning red eyes. The hairs on Mary Jane's arms rose as magic began to fill the air around her. It reminded her exactly of the static that charged the air before a lightening storm. Risking a glance, she looked to the woods around Morlach and saw that the stone soldiers were beginning to move their limbs.
"Fly!" She commanded Hissarlik.
The dragon beat his great wings and sprang into the air. As they cleared the battlements and began to circle away, Mary Jane saw Mirrin sweep into the courtyard wearing her heavy red cape fringed by white fur. The sorceress looked up and her face twisted with fury as she saw her prisoner escaping on the dragon's back. Mary Jane saw her mouth move, though they were too far away for her to hear the words, and saw her throw her hands in the direction of the fugitives. Mary Jane guessed that Mirrin had tried a spell, but they were too far away now for it to work. As Hissarlik carried them higher and higher, Mirrin and Morlach became small dots in the background before finally they were swallowed up by the landscape. Mary Jane was free.
"Hoo!" Godrick cheered from his place in the pouch on Mary Jane's back. "We nicked away just in time. I wish I could have seen her face when she realized you had the heartstone."
"We're not safe yet," Mary Jane warned somberly. "She might still be able to catch us."
"Oh, not now she can't. We've got away good and proper. Let her try," the rat said boldly.
Mary Jane did not answer. They flew higher until even the mountain Morlach was built upon looked like only a small hill surrounded by counless others. Hissarlik flew steadily, his skeleton wings beating evenly yet powerfully. Tears streamed from Mary Jane's eyes, caused by the same bitter cold that whipped against her bare arms. The tears froze against her cheeks.
Mary Jane called, "Fly lower, Hissarlik! It's too cold this high in the air."
The dragon obediently dropped lower until they just barely skimmed above the treetops. They flew so quickly that Mary Jane could not see the individual features of the land, only a blur of color: the green of grass and leaves, the blue of lakes and streams, the gray of rock and boulder. Her red hair streamed behind her and the air beat against her eardrums and snatched at her clothes. She sat up on the dragon's back and tried to think about what to do. More than anything, she wanted to find the tree in the forest that would take her home and then, like a small child, hide in her bed at 321 Baker's Row until Mirrin and all that she had experienced in Devorian was nothing more than a half-remembered dream, but she knew that she had to find Jack and Maude. She felt in her heart that they were still alive, but she had no idea how to find them.
"I don't know what to do," she muttered aloud, feeling frustrated and helpless.
She felt sharp nails dig into her clothing and scratch against her skin as Godrick crawled out of the pouch and onto her shoulder. He had to hold on tight as the wind battered against him, his whiskers shivering. She felt his tail wrap around the back of her neck for balance.
"Well, Miss," he shouted to be heard, "might I suggest as a first step you tell this bag o' bones somewhere to go before he takes us somewhere we don't want to be?"
"But I don't know where to go!" Mary Jane exclaimed.
"I will fly south to the Saar desert," Hissarlik rumbled in his deep voice, "and sun myself among the dunes once more. I will take you wherever you desire, but may we never meet again, for once you no longer hold my heartstone you are my enemy."
Mary Jane shuddered at the darkness behind his words. Riding the dragon was like riding a runaway horse: she was only safe for as long as she could hold on. Though he helped her now, he was no friend, and she would be wise to remember it. She longed for the gentle kindness of Mr. Brumby, or even the stern but predictable Mrs. Peters. She wondered whether she would ever see Mrs. Peters again.
"Where can we go, Godrick?" Mary Jane asked. "I have to find Maude and Jack!"
"I don't rightly know," Godrick said slowly, "but I wager if there's a chance of finding your friends, Tarah's the place to start. For all the animals don't like it, it's still the place to go to get information."
"But Tarah is exactly where Mirrin is going!" Mary Jane protested.
"Aye, that's true," he conceded, "but it's still your best chance."
Mary Jane frowned, but nodded. She rapped on the bones of Hissarlik's neck to get his attention, then yelled, "Take us to Tarah."
The dragon loosed a piercing scream and banked hard to the left. The heartstone, which Mary Jane had unconsciously taken from the pouch and held clutched in her right hand, felt as though it were cutting through her skin and into the flesh as she tried to grab both Hissarlik's neck and the gem. She longed to drop the stone, but dared not. Hissarlik roared, "Tarah—the old place of my enemies. I will take you there, and then you will give me back my heartstone."
"Yes," Mary Jane agreed.
She would be relieved to get rid of the gem; the greed and envy that seeped out from it took her breath away and made her feel sick to her stomach. She asked, to distract herself, "Are we far from Tarah?"
"Yes, very far," Hissarlik replied. "We will fly well into the night, guided by the stars."
Mary Jane looked to the sky, where the first stars had only just started appearing as bright spots of light, and hoped that they would arrive in Tarah before Mirrin.
