Two days later they passed a low-lying island shaped like a half circle. When Clarence saw the island, he told the captain to turn southwest. They spotted land shortly before noon the next day. Annie and Liam stayed near Clarence after that, studying the shoreline from the railing. They were sailing past a rocky promontory when the shore suddenly curved back, revealing a pretty little cove. Annie glanced at the rocks again. From this angle, they resembled the skull of a small creature. “Over there!” she cried, pointing. “That looks like a chipmunk’s skull! This must be Skull Cove!”
“A chipmunk!” Clarence said with disgust. “I thought the skull would look human.”
“You mean you’ve never been here?” asked Liam.
Clarence shook his head. “I’ve never been in the cove. I did sail past once. We didn’t come close enough to see the skull, but a friend pointed the cove out to me.”
“You surprise me, Clarence,” said Liam. “I didn’t know you had any friends.”
“Very funny,” Clarence said, looking sour. “I don’t know about you, but I’m going ashore as soon as I can talk some of these sailors into taking me. Anyone else want to go?”
“We all do,” said Audun. “I’ll get Millie. She was feeling a little better this morning.”
Annie waited impatiently while the captain brought his ship into the cove and set anchor. While they waited, Millie came on deck, looking pale and still shaky. Audun helped his wife climb into the longboat, holding her hand as the rest of their party joined them. Four sailors were going to row them to shore, then wait aboard the Sallie Mae until Liam summoned them back.
The water was calmer in the cove because the curve of the land protected it from the more powerful waves of the ocean. Even so, the trip to shore in the longboat seemed to take forever. The shoreline was serene with frond-topped trees on either end of a sandy beach. Annie half expected to see a cottage or hut on the beach itself, but there wasn’t any sign that anyone had ever been there. When she and her party finally set foot on the shore, she wasn’t sure what to do.
“Don’t tell me that there is no witch doctor!” said Annie. “We can’t have come all this way for nothing!”
“He probably makes his home farther inland,” said Liam. “Look at the debris on the beach. It goes all the way up to those trees. Anything built on the beach would be flooded every high tide. We need to look for a path. If the witch doctor lives near here, there’s probably a path leading from the beach to his home. Let’s spread out and see if we can find it.”
“I think I’ll sit right here,” said Millie, settling onto the sand. “I don’t have the strength to go slogging through the jungle right now.”
“Will you be all right by yourself?” asked her husband.
Millie nodded. “The warm sand feels good. Wake me if I fall asleep.”
“Clarence can go with me,” said Liam.
“You don’t trust me yet, brother?” asked Clarence. “I brought you here just as I promised.”
“With a small detour on the way,” Liam replied.
The two brothers were still arguing as they strolled down the beach together. “I guess that means I’m with you,” Annie told Audun.
“Don’t worry, we’ll find the doctor,” Audun said as they started walking in the opposite direction. “Although we’d find him a lot faster if I change. Ice dragons have a real knack for tracking. I tracked Millie from the Icy North to Greater Greensward by following her scent in the air. As long as the doctor’s scent isn’t too old, there shouldn’t be any problem. Do you mind if I change?”
Annie glanced back at Liam and Clarence, who had reached the edge of the trees and were studying the ground. Neither one was looking their way. “Go right ahead,” she told Audun.
It took him only a moment to change. As soon as he did, he started sniffing the air.
“What do you smell now?” asked Annie.
“There’s salt air, of course, and a dead fish up the beach,” Audun began. “I smell seaweed, flowers, lots of vegetation, the musky scent of different kinds of animals and … Now, that’s interesting! I smell a lot of men, not just one. We’ll follow my nose and sniff out where they went.”
Sand sifted into Annie’s shoes as they crossed the beach. She stopped at the tree line to empty them out while Audun waited, his nose quivering. “They went this way,” he said when she was ready.
Audun led the way with his head held high one moment, then nearly touching the ground the next as he sniffed the air, the trees, the undergrowth, and the ground itself. The dragon was so big that sometimes he didn’t fit between the trees, so they had to backtrack and find a different way forward. Although they didn’t seem to be following a path, Audun left one wherever he walked, crushing the plants, rubbing against the trees, and knocking vines to the ground with his swinging tail. Annie liked the opening he created. Without a path back to the beach, she would have been completely lost.
Something overhead called out, drawing Annie’s eyes toward the top of the trees. Furry animals with long tails and humanlike faces sat on the branches, staring down at her. When one at the back of their group shrieked, they all started swinging from branch to branch, heading deeper into the jungle.
Intent on the scent he was following, Audun didn’t seem to notice the commotion. Nor did he notice the big spotted cat that appeared out of the jungle and ran away when it saw the dragon. Annie wondered if the smaller animals had been shrieking because of the cat.
“The scent is getting stronger,” Audun finally said. “The men must have stopped just ahead. I smell ashes, too. Someone had a fire near here.”
“Is that you, Annie?” Liam shouted from somewhere nearby.
“We’re right here!” Annie called back.
“I’d better change,” Audun whispered to her. “Clarence still doesn’t know that Millie and I are dragons.”
“Your secret might be impossible to keep for very long,” Annie said while he turned back into a human.
“I know, but I’m going to try,” replied Audun as he straightened the clothes on his human body.
They didn’t have much farther to go before they stepped out of the jungle into a clearing and saw Liam and Clarence. Millie was there as well, peering into one of the four grass huts that stood in a circle around a central fire. “There you are!” she said when she saw them. “Liam and Clarence found a short path that led straight here. They came across an enormous snake as big around as a man, so they got worried and went back to get me. What took you so long? We’ve been here awhile.”
“We got sidetracked,” said Annie, not wanting to mention that they’d been following a dragon’s nose. “Is the doctor here? Have you seen him?”
Liam shook his head. “We’ve looked in all the huts, but no one is here and the ashes in the fire pit are cold. The smaller huts are set up for sleeping. They’re probably for his patients. It looks as if the big hut is the one Ting-Tang uses. That’s where we found something interesting.”
Annie and Audun followed Liam to the biggest hut and looked inside. The space was cluttered with vials, bottles, and jars covering three low tables. Larger jars were stacked against the walls and a big pot of something gray bubbled on a table of its own. When Annie spotted broken vials on the floor and a jar lying on its side, leaking yellow goo, she knew that something was wrong. “What do you suppose happened here?” she asked.
“It looks as if there was a scuffle,” said Liam.
“Someone fought with the doctor and took him away,” Audun suggested. “See those marks on the doorframe? I think someone was holding on to the door while someone else tried to drag him outside. Maybe those men I smelled on the way here kidnapped the doctor.”
“You smelled some men?” asked Liam.
Annie glanced outside to make sure that Clarence couldn’t hear them. “We followed their scent here. Audun has a very good sense of smell when he’s a dragon.”
“I see,” said Liam. “Then maybe you’d like to track whoever took the doctor and see if you can find him. We need to start for home as soon as possible.”
“I can do that,” Audun replied. “Please tell Millie that I’ll be right back. I’ll see what I can find from the air. I shouldn’t be gone long.”
“I’ll go talk to Millie,” said Liam, and left the hut with Audun.
Alone in the grass hut, Annie decided that she might as well look around. Generally, she didn’t like to snoop in other people’s homes, but this felt different somehow. It wasn’t so much a home as a work space, with the ingredients of the doctor’s trade evident in the jars and bottles and the strange things hanging from the posts that supported the roof. Long thin strips dangled from the ceiling on one side of the hut. When Annie took a closer look, she discovered that they were snake skins of varying lengths and colors. Dried herbs and grasses hung in another part of the hut alongside dried flowers that gave off the most intoxicating scent. Annie found jars filled with dried insects, including beetles as big as her fist and iridescent blue butterflies that were almost as big. Crushed red leaves filled another jar, and sticky golden sap glistened in a clay pot.
When Annie came across a folded sleeping mat made of woven grasses, she decided that it might be someone’s home after all. She was leaving the hut when she heard Liam shout and followed his voice to one of the smaller grass structures. When she stepped inside, Liam was wrestling his brother to the floor.
“What happened?” she asked, stepping out of the way as Clarence flailed about, nearly kicking her.
“I left him alone for a few minutes and he got into trouble,” Liam said as he wrapped a piece of rope around Clarence’s wrists, tying them together. “I found him rifling one of the huts, stealing Ting-Tang’s belongings.”
“The place is abandoned!” said Clarence. “Anyone could come along and take these things. Why shouldn’t it be someone who could actually use them?”
“What did you take?” Annie asked as she watched Liam tie his brother’s ankles.
“I don’t know—some weird stuff wrapped in leaves and a wooden mask.”
“First of all,” said Liam, “these buildings weren’t abandoned. The man was probably kidnapped. And second, these things still belong to him. It amazes me how you remind everyone that you’re a prince when you think it will help you, but act like a common thief when the mood strikes.”
“It was only a few souvenirs!” said Clarence.
“You don’t take souvenirs from someone’s home!” Annie told him.
“Where is everyone?” shouted a voice.
“Audun’s back!” Annie cried.
“Where did he go?” asked Clarence.
“To look for the doctor, of course!” Annie told him.
“Clarence can stay here. Annie, come with me,” Liam said, taking her by the hand.
Clarence grunted and tried to roll over, but it wasn’t easy with his hands and feet bound. “You’re not going to leave me like this, are you? What if I need a drink of water? Or what if that giant snake comes back?”
“I tied you up to keep you out of trouble. We can’t very well ask the doctor for help if you’re stealing from him! Don’t worry, we won’t be gone long,” Liam told him from the doorway. “I’ll shut the door. That should keep the snakes out.”