The Traders had settled on the edge of a grassy plateau encircled by the lower slopes of the Drakelow Mountains. Their tents and stalls, decorated with brightly coloured flags, were pitched close to the dragons’ stony caverns in the mountainside. The flags snapped in the spring breeze and the Traders’ shaggy little horses happily munched the grass behind the tents.
Tia saw her friends, Kizzy and Florian. She ran up and hugged them.
‘My DragonMother’s given me some silver coins to buy a new book and a pen.’
The three of them went to Kizzy and Florian’s tent where their mother welcomed Tia with a big hug.
‘And how is my favourite DragonChild?’ she asked with a big smile.
‘I’m fine thank you, Zora. I hope you’re well too and that trading is good?’
Zora pressed a sweet drink and a piece of honey cake into Tia’s hands. ‘Trading is not as good as it used to be,’ she said sitting down on a bench covered in bright rugs. ‘The High Witches have made the country wretched and poor. Now they’re quarrelling among themselves and things are getting even worse.’
Zora shook her head angrily. ‘Malindra, the High Witch of Drangur, makes things hardest for us. You know that she took the DragonQueen’s emerald and uses its power to talk to animals?’
Tia nodded. Drangur was the nearest of the six towns to the Drakelow Mountains, and Malindra’s ways were well known.
‘She combines it with her magic and forces the animals to do as she wants,’ Zora went on. ‘She sends dogs and wolves to worry our horses so they take fright easily and then she says they’re not worth paying a good price for.’
‘We won’t sell our horses there now,’ Florian blurted out. ‘She treats them badly.’
‘She sends rats to chew the goods on our stalls,’ Kizzy said. ‘They make our leather and cloth look shabby. People think we’re trying to cheat them into buying poor goods.’
‘Don’t you explain to them?’ Tia asked.
‘They don’t want to listen. They’re afraid of Malindra’s spies,’ Zora said.
‘Animal spies,’ Kizzy added. ‘They follow you on quiet little feet. You never know if the dog or cat you see in the street is a pet or one of her spies.’
‘The birds are the worst. They can look down on you from anywhere and you never even know it,’ Florian said.
‘Those High Witches have a lot to answer for,’ Zora said. ‘But take heart – they are falling out because they can’t get the jewels to work properly. They can keep the dragons away from the lands of the six towns, and force the people of Tulay to do what they want, but they have to work hard at it. They don’t enjoy their power.’ Zora laughed.
‘Do you think the High Witches will ever be defeated?’ Tia asked.
‘Only if the jewels are restored to the DragonQueen,’ Zora said. ‘Enough of these sad tales. What have you come to the Traders for, Tia?’
‘To see my friends,’ Tia said, hugging plump Zora. ‘And to buy a book for writing in, and a pen.’
‘Come with me, we have just the thing!’
Zora’s husband, Hanzi, rummaged among the hats and jewellery and jackets and belts and books heaped in piles on his stall. He pulled out a beautiful leaf-green, leather-bound book.
‘Oh, it’s lovely!’ Tia took the book and turned it over and over.
‘And here’s a pen to go with it,’ said Hanzi, holding out a black pen with a pale grey point that shimmered in the sunshine. ‘The point is made of silver and will write for as long as you need it to.’
Tia paid him then turned to Zora. ‘I’d better go now. Thank you for the honey cake and drink.’
Kizzy caught her hand. ‘You’ll come to the bonfire tonight to hear the stories and songs, won’t you?’ she asked.
‘Of course, I wouldn’t miss it for anything!’ Tia said. The Traders were famous for their stories. She waved goodbye and ran home to Freya’s cavern.