Rise of the Shadow Dragons Page 9

  ‘So they’re alive!’ Joe felt a warm rush of relief pass through him. ‘I mean, they could be. They’re not dead.’ He remembered that spark against his finger. He’d known it, deep down, but this was proof.

  ‘Wait there’s more: For hatching to occur, optimal conditions must prevail, that is, the presence of heat and moisture.’

  ‘What’s optim … and prevail?’ That all sounded complicated.

  ‘Let me finish! I’m just getting to the important part,’ Winter said. ‘For the rarer shadow dragon, to survive the long dormant years the egg is thick and hard. It hatches at the time of volcanic hot water flows. It may only succeed in the presence of the hatching agent silverblue, common to the region of Sartola. However, if no silverblue is pres­ent, the eggshells cannot thin and break, and the shadow dragons will die within.’

  ‘Winter!’ Joe said urgently. ‘That’s them! That means ours – with the thick eggshells. They might die!’

  ‘They mustn’t die! They can’t!’

  ‘It’s happening, don’t you see?’ He thought fast. ‘It’s like it’s all coming together – us finding the tunnels and the eggs, the water running hot in the caves last night. It’s connected! It’s got to be.’

  ‘Joe, are you dreaming? If there’s a volcano heating up, it won’t matter about the eggs. We’ll all be dead.’

  ‘So why does it say the eggs need silverblue to hatch? And what is it? We have to find some. It’s important.’

  ‘I don’t know.’ She sounded tired and full of despair. ‘I’ve read so much I can’t see straight. And it’s nearly light. We have to go now before we get caught.’

  ‘T-t-there is someone who will know. I mean, there might be.’ Joe paused, getting used to the idea. ‘Yes. We have to. I know who we can ask,’ he said. ‘Come on, there’s no time to lose.’

  They hurriedly replaced the books, with one final glance to check they’d left no sign of their presence. They left the palace through the same door and crept back into the gardens, where the night was fading to ashy dawn.

  Joe kept returning to the horrible idea that his dragon might die before it could hatch.

  To save its life, he was going to have to come back from the dead …

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Joe and Winter were more careful now, sneaking first through the tunnels and then out into the empty city as it grew light. Joe led Winter, knowing exactly where to find the person he needed: his cousin Milla.

  Milla ran the island’s healing centre, bought with her in­heritance from their grandmother. With her team of healers, she continued the work done by Vigo’s mother, the duchess who’d been killed in the revolution. It was a huge airy build­ing right in the centre of Arcosi. It had a large square garden for dragons to land in, and sandy spaces for them to bask. Milla believed that the dragons speeded healing and that being with the city’s people nurtured the dragons in return. Most days you could see people walking slowly or sitting quietly there, one hand on a dragon’s scaly flank.

  ‘She’s usually here,’ Joe whispered to Winter, trying to see between the railings that fenced the square.

  To his relief, he saw his cousin sitting on a bench with her friend Thom Windlass, both drinking coffee, while their dragons – Iggie and Ruby – basked in the cool yellow sun­shine. Milla was yawning. Thom sprawled next to her, long legs stretched out in front of him.

  Joe had always liked Thom. He looked like Joe’s image of a pirate: tall, with a broad handsome face, a neat trimmed beard and long brown hair tied back in a ponytail. He was the son of a fisherman, and he was now in charge of mapping the whole area around Arcosi. He and his dragon, Rubina, Ruby for short, would be gone for days, even weeks, survey­ing the whole region, and then instructing the cartographers back on Arcosi how to update the ancient maps.

  How would they react when they saw him? Would Milla be relieved, or furious? For a moment Joe was paralysed.

  Then he thought of the eggs. They had shadow dragons inside. Perhaps even now they were almost ready, preparing to hatch? If they couldn’t find some silverblue, these rare creatures would die before they even had a chance to live.

  He pushed the gate open and hurried through, his words spilling out like a waterfall. ‘Milla, I’m so sorry, for every­thing. For the ceremony, for disappearing. I fell, down in the tunnels. I hurt my head. This is Winter, who rescued me. And I found some eggs and we think they’re shadow dragons and they’re going to hatch: the water’s gone hot. But we have to find silverblue, or else they’ll die. And what about the volcano – is it dangerous?’ He ran out of breath and stood there gaping like a landed fish.

  ‘Joe?’ Milla whispered, then clapped one hand over her mouth, shocked.

  Thom looked equally stunned. ‘Joe? Oh my stars,’ he said. Milla stood slowly, shakily. Then she collapsed back down. ‘No! We thought … we thought you were dead!’ The colour drained from her face.

  ‘I’m so sorry!’ He rushed to her, arms outstretched, and then Milla was hugging him so hard it squeezed all the air from his chest. ‘Thank you – for what you did. Your hands … The burns … Are they …?’ he mumbled incoherently into her hair.

  ‘My hands?’ Milla’s voice was tight with tears. ‘They’re fine now.’

  Iggie bent over them, breathing hot gusts down Joe’s neck and making strange high-pitched squeaks that Joe had never heard before.

  His cousin pulled back finally, but kept tight hold of Joe’s hand and stared at him searchingly from head to toe, appar­ently satisfied he was well and whole.

  ‘Joe, Joe, Joe. I can’t believe it. Oh! Wait.’ She spun on her heel and stared at Iggie. For one intense moment, they looked at each other in silence.

  Something was passing between them; Joe could almost see it in the air, like a heat haze. Iggie blinked his green eyes, once, twice. Then he stepped away and launched himself into the air, stirring up dust and dried leaves in his wake.

  ‘I’ve sent him for Josi and Nestan. They need to see you – now. Oh, Joe, I can’t believe you didn’t tell them …’ she reproached him softly. ‘Have you any idea …?’ She saw his expression and broke off.

  He looked down, his face flaming with embarrassment. ‘I thought they were better off without me. I shamed them. Shamed everyone.’

  ‘Joe, you listen to me: you made a mistake. Everyone does that. That’s nothing compared to how much they love you. All this time …’ Her voice broke, but she struggled on. ‘All this time, we’ve all been blaming ourselves, your parents worst of all. That we didn’t prepare you right. That we didn’t teach you about disappointment. Or how to manage that temper.’

  ‘Why?’ Joe was bewildered. ‘It was my fault, no one else’s.’

  ‘And that Noah!’ Milla swore. ‘Amina told me, after­wards, how he teased you.’ She shook her head, so her black curls escaped their blue band.

  ‘Milla, please – did you hear what I said about these eggs? It’s urgent.’ Everything else faded in comparison with them, burning brightly in his mind.

  ‘But Joe, your parents! You’ve can’t just walk in and expect us to f—’

  ‘I know! I don’t expect anything. But please, please will you help us find some silverblue?’

  Thom had been listening, hanging back to give them space. Now he came up and greeted Joe with a hearty slap on the back. ‘Hey, Joe. Good to see you’re still with us,’ he said. ‘I know silverblue. What do you need?’

  Milla finally released Joe’s other hand, accepting that her cousin wasn’t about to disappear along with the morning mist. ‘Go on, then. Tell us everything.’

  So Joe and Winter joined Milla and Thom on their bench, and he began the story again, more slowly. He told them all about the new eggs, with Winter chipping in to add clarity.

  Thom said afterwards, ‘The water, the sudden heat – it all matches what I’ve seen, flying east these past months. There is a volcano, Mount Bara, out at sea, several hours from here. There’s smoke and steam, underwater jets bubbli
ng up in the ocean.’

  ‘Isn’t it dangerous?’ Winter asked.

  ‘Maybe. I don’t know,’ Thom said. ‘I didn’t think so – it hasn’t erupted for a very long time – but I’ve been meaning to go back, to speak to the people living near there. Just to make sure.’

  ‘Joe, we’ve got so much to talk about, I don’t even know where to start.’ Milla sighed, shaking her head. ‘Are you sure this can’t wait?’

  ‘I’m sure! We found the eggs. We did the research. We need to act now.’ How could he convince her? ‘It’s import­ant. As important as Iggie’s egg was to you.’

  ‘But everyone thinks you’re dead. We had a ceremony and everything.’

  Joe felt sick. He pictured his parents at his graveside. ‘What will happen, if I come back?’ he made himself ask. ‘Will they punish me?’

  ‘I think you’ve been punished enough, don’t you? And Lanys has answered for Ravenna’s lack of control. But we need to see these eggs – will they need a Hatching Day soon?’

  Joe gulped. He hadn’t thought of that. He’d been so sure the purple egg was his. He imagined having to give it up, having to watch the dragon bond with someone else. He shook his head. ‘We don’t have time. We need to get the silverblue first. Please, Milla!’ He swallowed his pride and begged her. ‘We can’t let everyone sit around deciding what’s best. We can’t let the shadow dragons die, trapped in their shells. Please!’ He would risk everything, let them take his egg to a hatching ceremony. But he had to be sure they would live, before anything.

  Milla frowned. ‘And if we do succeed, what then? If we find the silverblue and we hold a ceremony, the dragon might not choose you.’

  ‘I’ll face that if I have to. I’ll give up this dragon, if I have to. I’ll do anything. But we have to find some silverblue quickly. We have to save these eggs.’ Joe realised that he meant it: the dragons’ lives were more important than his dreams.

  Milla nodded, as if that was the answer she’d been waiting for. ‘All right, we’ll keep your secret for now. I hear you – if these eggs are to hatch while the water runs warm, you’ll need to find some silverblue, fast,’ she said. ‘The volcano could stop rumbling any day.’

  ‘Or it could erupt,’ Thom said, earning a glare from Milla. ‘Sorry!’ he said, holding up his hands. ‘It is possible …’

  ‘Tell us about silverblue, Thom,’ Joe turned to him.

  ‘It’s a mineral, a kind of precious stone.’

  ‘Where can we get some?’ Winter said. ‘The book said it’s common across the region.’

  ‘Not any more.’ Thom’s handsome face clouded. ‘Those books you were reading must be old. It used to be found here, but it was mined too deeply. There’s none left on Arcosi.’

  Joe felt that like a slap. ‘None? What are we going to do?’ Panic crept into his voice.

  ‘There’s an archipelago south of here where I’ve seen it,’ Thom told them. ‘You’ll have to go there, near the Spice Islands.’

  ‘Then that’s what we’ll do,’ Joe said, his mouth suddenly dry.

  ‘We can’t leave the eggs!’ Winter said.

  ‘Do you want them to hatch?’

  ‘Of course,’ she said.

  Joe tried not to think of the alternative: his dragon, inside its egg, struggling vainly to get out. ‘I’ll do it. I’ll do anything.’

  ‘I’ll go for you,’ Thom offered.

  ‘It’s too dangerous!’ Milla sounded stern. ‘I can’t believe you’ve been going there alone; there are all kinds of wild beasts on the islands. No, if we need to find silverblue, then we all go together.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Joe said to his cousin.

  Winter looked torn at the idea of leaving the eggs. ‘How do we find a boat?’ she asked. ‘How long will it take?’

  ‘Don’t worry,’ Thom said, smiling. ‘We don’t need a boat. We’ve got two dragons.’

  ‘You’ll really help us?’ Winter had been hiding under her hair, as usual, but now she smiled at Thom, looking like another person entirely.

  Milla put a steadying hand on Thom’s arm. ‘We will. We can all go search for silverblue tomorrow. I’ll need the rest of today to prepare. But first things first – you’d better show us these eggs.’

  ‘Now?’ Joe asked, hardly daring to believe it.

  Just then, Milla looked up, tilting her face to the pale rays of the rising sun. ‘Actually, Winter can show us the eggs. Right now, you have something more important to do. Look!’

  Iggie was circling overhead, with someone clinging awkwardly to his back. Someone who wasn’t used to flying on dragonback.

  ‘Dad!’ Joe whispered. Then he shouted, ‘Dad!’

  Iggie landed in the open garden, flapping hard to keep his balance.

  Joe stumbled towards the blue dragon as his vision smeared and blurred.

  Nestan was slipping off Iggie’s back. Without his cane, he limped towards Joe with an incredulous look of joy and pain that scalded and soothed him all at once.

  ‘Dad. I’m so sorry, I’m—’ Joe’s words were silenced by that gaze, then he was caught up in Nestan’s strong arms. With horror and relief, he felt his father’s shoulders shaking with sobs. He’d never even seen him cry before. ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,’ he mumbled, feeling his own tears begin.

  ‘Jowan. You’re alive,’ his father managed to say, pulling back and wiping his eyes with one forearm. ‘How? I can’t believe it …’ Nestan patted Joe’s face and neck, as if trying to convince himself this was his son and no mirage. ‘My boy …’

  ‘Dad!’ he said. ‘I’m sorry for everything. What I did—’

  ‘That doesn’t matter now.’ His father’s eyes were bloodshot and tired, but they burned intensely. ‘Nothing else matters,’ he whispered, ‘now you’re back.’

  Over his father’s shoulder, Joe saw the iron gate fly open, and his mother ran through it, breathless, red-faced, tears streaming down her cheeks. ‘Joe!’ she bellowed. ‘Is it really my Joe?’

  ‘Oh, Mum,’ Joe’s voice sounded strangled and strange. He didn’t know if he was laughing or crying. He didn’t know what he was saying or doing. All he knew was that he needed this. He’d missed this: his family, together again, weeping and talking and laughing and breathing, warm and real and his.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Milla let Joe and his parents use her room in the heal­ing house, so that Joe’s return could be kept as quiet as possible, though Milla promised to get the good news to Tarya via their dragons. Thom slipped away briefly to ask his father to visit Sartola on his next fishing trip, so Isak – who had just left Arcosi – wouldn’t mourn his brother any longer. Then Winter took Milla and Thom down underground to see the eggs and show them the warm, acrid water.

  Meanwhile, Joe, Nestan and Josi spent the day talking, with frequent breaks to eat the food Josi fetched from home.

  ‘Oh, Joe, you really thought we could live without you?’ Josi said, her face tracked with tears.

  ‘I thought you were angry …’

  ‘We may sometimes be angry, but we will always forgive anything you do.’ Joe’s father’s voice sounded hoarse and choked with emotion.

  ‘I heard someone say—’ Joe stopped. ‘That … that it would be better if I were dead,’ he finished, with difficulty. ‘Someone almost died that day. So I believed it. I thought I should stay away. So I couldn’t make it worse.’

  ‘Well, that took courage. And surviving like you did …’ The rest of his mother’s words were lost in more sobbing.

  ‘I didn’t want to come back till I’d made you proud.’

  ‘We’ve always been so proud of you,’ Nestan hugged Joe to him.

  ‘I’m sorry you thought I was …’ Joe couldn’t finish.

  ‘There was just one sighting of you after the storm … it gave us hope for a while,’ his father said, speaking into Joe’s hair, as he held him close. ‘We thought they’d been mis­taken. But you did survive, you did!’

  It too
k a few hours to persuade them to let him out of their sight again. But by the time it grew dark, he had their blessing, and Joe felt lighter than he had in weeks. He left his parents with a warm farewell, promising to visit them as soon as he returned from finding the silverblue. Then he hurried through the tunnels and up again to join the others in Milla’s dragonhall, where she and Thom, with Winter, were getting ready for the trip.

  Milla had hung a sign on the huge double doors, ordering them not to be disturbed, and it seemed to win them some privacy as they packed and planned for the journey. ‘Those eggs, Joe! They’re beautiful.’

  ‘Shadow dragons? Do you agree?’

  ‘Yes, there’s no doubt. You were right.’

  Joe needed to hear that. He smiled at Milla and started helping to sort through their supplies.

  ‘And there’s something else,’ Milla said.

  Joe looked up: she sounded awkward, as if there were something she wasn’t sure how to say.

  ‘Ah, er, it’s too late for these eggs to be given a hatching ceremony,’ she said quickly. ‘They’ve already bonded with you and Winter.’

  Joe paused, hardly able to believe it. He remembered the spark under his fingertips, how strong the pull to his egg had always been. ‘I thought they had! I knew it! I always wanted the purple egg. Oh, Milla!’

  He looked over to Winter. She’d obviously heard this already, and her smile was dazzling – soon, she would no longer be Dragonless …

  ‘Wait,’ Joe said. ‘How do you know?’

  ‘I just do,’ Milla mumbled.

  ‘Oh, tell him!’ Thom said.

  ‘Tell me what?’ Joe looked at his cousin uneasily. He’d always trusted her. Why was she keeping something from him now?

  ‘I can see it, that’s all,’ she said quickly. ‘The bond between people and dragons – I see it like a glow.’

  ‘That’s amazing!’ Joe said. ‘What does it look like?’

  ‘The colour of the dragon, usually. So the link between me and Iggie is blue; Thom and Ruby have a red one.’