Something in the flickering torch light caught my eye. It was a square of white paper perched up against the wall of my jail cell.
A letter.
There was a hungry rat nibbling the corner of the envelope. Before the rat could make a meal of it, I picked up the letter and quickly read what it had to say.
Beast that has scales and breathes fire = dragons!
Most people might think that dragons don’t exist – but most people also think that time travel’s impossible, and I know differently.
But I didn’t understand what the clue in the letter was telling me to do. How could I prepare for a fight with a dragon that I couldn’t win? And how on earth can you tame a dragon?
Alone in my jail cell, I didn’t have much else to do apart from think about what the clue in my letter meant.
- Maybe I had to let the dragon kill me?
- Maybe I had to tame the dragon with food?
- Can dragons speak English?
- Did Zoe know about this whole dragon fight thing?
- Why was Zoe letting the Knights of Revenge lock me up in a rat-infested cell?
I had been in the cell for hours and was nearly falling asleep next to the rats when I heard the clank of metal armour charging towards me.
“Will?” said a knight. I couldn’t see his face. It was covered by a helmet.
“Yeah?” I replied, standing up hopefully.
“We’ve come to take you away,” he said. “The Lady Zoe wishes to speak with you.”
He unlocked the heavy jail door and swung it open.
A knight stood on either side of me as we walked back through the dark, damp jail. The sounds of prisoners screaming rung in my ears as we walked. It was awful!
Without a word, I was marched up into the main castle, through the vast corridors and to the hall that I’d had breakfast in that morning.
Grand wooden doors to the hall swung open, and inside was a large throne. The walls of the great hall were lined with tapestries – they looked really bright, not as faded as they did in modern times. Zoe was sitting on the throne and there were two knights on either side of her.
I walked up to Zoe and one of the knights at my side forced me down onto my knees. “Bow before the Lady!” he ordered.
“OK, OK,” I said, bowing my head to Zoe.
A mischievous smile crept across Zoe’s face – she was enjoying this a bit too much!
“Leave us!” she commanded. The knights who had led me in and the ones who were standing by her side all bowed slightly before walking away, closing the hall doors and leaving us alone.
“What in the name of the Partek is going on?” I asked.
Zoe leapt off her throne and flung her arms around me. “Oh, Will, I’m so glad you’re here.”
“Of course I was going to come and find you, silly,” I said, pushing her off. “You belong in the 21st century – not here.”
“Will, we don’t have much time so I have to be quick,” she said with worry in her voice.
“Fire away,” I said, eager for her to tell me what was going on.
“Did you bring your amulet with you?” she asked with concern.
“This amulet?” I said, pulling out my amulet from under my T-shirt. She nodded at the sight of it. “Of course,” I smiled. “I never take it off.”
“Listen,” she said. “That night we explored the castle and Mrs Jones found us and sent us back to bed… As I was walking back into my dormitory the ghost of a knight blocked my path. It said it had come to capture me because I would lead the knights to the Talisman of Truth…”
“What is this Talisman everyone’s going on about…”
“Will, don’t interrupt,” she scolded.
“Sorry.”
“Before I knew it, they’d somehow brought me back here – don’t ask me how, it all happened too quickly. They’ve been treating me like some kind of princess. They think I’m special because I can lead them to the Talisman. They told me that the Talisman of Truth is the most powerful object ever created by mankind. It shows the wearer the truth – but not just anyone can wear it…”
“Who wears it? How are you meant to lead the knights to the Talisman?” I asked eagerly.
Shame blushed over Zoe’s face and guilt flooded her eyes. “I just did, Will,” she said quietly. “I led them to you.”
Before I knew it, the tapestries on the wall started to move and the Knights of Revenge revealed themselves – they’d been hiding behind the tapestries the whole time I’d been speaking to Zoe.
They charged towards me, their swords drawn and pointing.
“You promised you wouldn’t hurt him,” Zoe screamed as the knights rushed towards me.
“What’s going on?” I shouted, too confused to understand what was happening.
I felt the weight of a knight’s arm push me to the ground, and a metallic glove pulled at the amulet around my neck, ripping the cord that held it in place.
The knight who’d ripped off my amulet held it up triumphantly and declared, “At last, the Talisman of Truth!”
“What was it doing with a boy?” another knight asked, his voice gruff and low. “We’ve sworn to search for the Talisman until the end of time and we find it around the neck of a boy!”
“Bring him to Lord Avalon, and bring the girl too,” the first knight ordered.
I felt someone pull me to my feet and push me towards the door.
“Will, I’m sorry,” Zoe said, looking like she was going to cry.
“It’s OK,” I told her. I didn’t know who this Lord Avalon was, or what the Talisman of Truth was, but one thing I did know for certain was that I needed to get my amulet back!
