The bonfire lit the night sky, flames roaring upwards as though they were reaching for the stars.
All two hundred dragons had settled around the plateau; some crouching on the ground and some looking down from their caverns. There were big dragons, nearly five centuries old, and small ones not much older than Tia. Even the Queen and King’s little dragonets were allowed to lie between their parents’ feet and listen.
The Traders picked up their instruments and Hanzi started to beat a drum, the sound booming round the plateau. The dragons’ eyes glittered in the firelight like rubies.
‘Listen!’ Hanzi said, ‘and I’ll tell you tales and sing you songs of dragon deeds and dragon lore.’
The dragons roared in pleasure as Hanzi began his stories, and when he sang the old ballads they rumbled along in their deep voices.
At last Hanzi stopped for a drink to soothe his throat. ‘Are there any requests?’ Zora called out.
‘Tell us about Thor’s battle with the High Witches and how they stole the Queen’s jewels,’ a voice called. It was Torkil. He sat opposite Tia and he was looking straight at her with a sly smile on his face.
‘Tell us! Tell us!’ the other dragonets chanted, flapping their wings and stamping their feet.
So Hanzi told the story of how the six sisters, the High Witches of Holmurholt, took gifts to the DragonQueen in the garden of the Eldkeiler Keep where the Queen guarded her precious eggs.
‘The DragonQueen had surrounded her clutch with the necklace bearing the jewels of power,’ Hanzi said. ‘The sisters stood in a circle round the eggs, one next to each jewel. As they bowed and put their gifts on the ground, each one of them seized a jewel.’ Hanzi stooped swiftly and mimed snatching a jewel in both hands.
‘They chanted a spell that spirited them away – and the necklace with them!’
The dragons roared. Torkil glared at Tia and she heard him say to the dragonet next to him, ‘If she knew what we know!’ The other dragonet sniggered.
‘She’s nothing but a witch-brat!’ Torkil clicked.
Tia couldn’t say anything; she wasn’t supposed to understand the private language of the dragons, but she had learned it by listening carefully.
Hanzi carried on with his story. ‘Knowing that the High Witches would use the jewels of power against them, the DragonQueen gathered up her eggs and flew to the safety of this ancient Keep deep in the Drakelow Mountains. The DragonKing and his brothers, Thor and Andgrim, searched all Tulay for the sisters. Thor found them in their home at Holmurholt, but the High Witches raised a wicked spell and Thor was blown far away over the Southern Seas. He has never returned.’
The dragons rumbled and roared again.
‘Worse was to come,’ Hanzi said. ‘The witches used the jewels of power to cast a spell covering the lands of the six towns. It is so terrible and so strong that the dragons can never return until the spell is broken.’
Hanzi raised his arms and began the Chant of Warning that all the dragons knew by heart. One by one they joined in too.
If the jewels of power see a dragon walking warily
On the lost lands of the six towns
The spell will toss them away, tumbling
Like a leaf in a storm.
If the jewels of power see a dragon soaring secretly
Over the lost lands of the six towns
The spell will blast them away, blowing
Like a feather in the wind.
If the jewels of power see a dragon creeping cautiously
Beneath the lost lands of the six towns
The spell will crush them cruelly
Like an eggshell beneath a foot.
By the time Hanzi reached the end all the dragons were chanting loudly: even the littlest dragonet knew the spell-warning by heart. As Tia chanted, she remembered the dreadful force that made Andgrim drop her when he tumbled through the air. She was still very scared of being up high but she was careful not to let any of the dragons know.
‘I don’t know what she’s chanting for,’ Torkil clicked to his friend. ‘Her mother’s one of the High Witches who stole the jewels and cast the spell.’
It couldn’t be true!
‘Don’t be stupid, Torkil.’ Finn pushed his way in between the red dragonet and his friend.
‘You’re the stupid one, freak!’ Torkil snarled, and the dragonets laughed as Finn turned bright pink with embarrassment.
‘I was there when my DragonFather brought her in,’ Torkil hissed. ‘I hid behind a rock and I heard it all. Her mother’s the youngest of the witch sisters, the one called Ondine.’
Tia couldn’t bear to hear any more. She ran to her secret place, her mind whirring with what Torkil had said. Could it be true? Was her own mother one of the High Witches? Tia wouldn’t believe it, she wouldn’t! But Torkil had sounded so sure.
Tia stayed in her cave for a long time, thinking about Torkil’s cruel words. She had to know the truth. She had to ask her DragonMother. Freya would never lie to her.
Freya and Finn were in the cavern, waiting for Tia.
‘Where have you been?’ Freya asked. ‘I was worried when I saw you run away from the storytelling.’
‘It was Torkil,’ Tia said. ‘He said that my mother, my human mother, is one of the High Witches. Is that true? Did my mother steal the DragonQueen’s jewels?’
‘How do you know that?’ Finn asked.
‘I understand your language,’ Tia said impatiently. She turned to Freya and demanded, ‘Is it true, DragonMother?’
Freya butted Tia gently with her nose. ‘Yes, but …’
Before she could say more Tia choked back a sob and rushed out of the cavern.
Behind her she heard Freya say to Finn, ‘Go after her, quickly – make sure she’s all right and bring her back.’
Tia ran to her secret cave, slumped against a rock and hugged her knees. She sat for a long time, confused and hurt. More than anything she wanted to go back to her beloved DragonMother and snuggle up to her warm, spicy-smelling hide. But how could she when her human mother had betrayed the dragons? Tia felt sick with shame.
She took out her locket and opened it. How could her mother look so kind when she was a High Witch and a thief?
Tia angrily tried to prise the picture out with her nails but it was too firmly fixed. She couldn’t bring herself to scratch it away. After a moment’s thought, she tore a scrap out of her rune book and slotted it over the picture. Now she could still see her father but not her treacherous mother. She snapped the locket shut and slipped it under her shirt.
She wrapped a blanket round her shoulders and built a fire. Spring had come to Tulay but the nights were still very cold. Tia didn’t care. She’d stay in her secret cave all night. She couldn’t go back to Freya and Finn, not yet.
Then she thought, What if I never go back? What if I run away? But where could she go?
‘I could go to the lands of the six towns,’ she said out loud. ‘The spell won’t affect me, I’m not a dragon.’
And then Tia had another idea. An idea that would prove to Freya – and Torkil and his friends – that Tia was a true DragonChild even though her human mother was a High Witch.
Tia jumped up in excitement and began to push her things into a bag. She would take her clothes, a blanket, her weapons, some food and the money she had left. She would sleep until a few hours before dawn and then creep away while the dragons slept. By the time Freya realised she was gone for good, she would be safely in Drangur, and no dragon would be able to find her.