By the time Tia and Finn reached the other edge of the forest it was nightfall and they decided to make camp until morning. They built a small fire in front of a low cave. While Tia ate, Finn, who only ate once a week, relaxed by the fire, blowing smoke rings.
‘How did you make yourself like the bushes and trees so the trappers couldn’t see you?’ Tia asked.
‘I don’t know – it just happened,’ Finn said.
‘Can you do it on purpose?’
‘I’m not sure. I could try.’ Finn screwed up his eyes and concentrated. All of a sudden his skin turned to the same colour and pattern as the shadowy rock behind him.
‘That’s wonderful!’ Tia said. ‘I can still see you, but the trappers didn’t seem to see you at all.’
Tia yawned.
‘Don’t go to sleep!’ Finn said. ‘You still haven’t told me where you’re going – I mean, where we’re going.’
‘I’m going to get the jewels back from the High Witches,’ Tia said.
Finn started to laugh. Tia glared at him. He stopped laughing.
‘But you’re only a girl,’ he said, horrified.
‘Dragons can’t get into the lands of the six towns but humans can – and I’m human.’
‘But you’re so little! You can’t fight the High Witches, they’re too powerful.’
‘I won’t have to fight them because they won’t notice me,’ Tia said. ‘Tomorrow I’m going to Drangur, to get the emerald.’
‘You don’t even know where it is! How can you steal it?’ Finn demanded.
‘I can get work in Drangur and find out. Then I can plan how to get it back.’
Smoke rings flew fast from Finn’s mouth. He was thinking hard. ‘Even if you do manage to steal it, what will you do with it?’
‘Nothing. I’m going to steal the jewels, and when I’ve got them all I’m going to take them back to the DragonQueen. Then even Torkil will see I’m a real DragonChild and not a witch-brat.’
‘What about your mother – your human mother? Are you going to steal the jewel she’s got as well?’
‘Of course I am!’ Tia glared at her DragonBrother. ‘I don’t care about her – Freya’s my real mother, my DragonMother, and I’m her DragonDaughter.’
‘But Ondine –’
‘I don’t want to talk about her any more,’ Tia said fiercely.
‘All right.’ Finn blew a few more smoke rings then said, ‘I can’t go with you to Drangur or the lands round about it because of the spell.’
‘I know,’ Tia said. ‘But you can help me get there faster than if I was walking.’
‘You’re not going to ride me!’ Finn said in horror, his skin rippling with alarming shades of orange and yellow and green.
‘Maybe you can carry me,’ Tia teased.
Finn snorted. ‘I’ll carry your back-pack but you can walk! I’m a dragon, not a horse.’
Tia laughed. ‘So you’re still going to help me then?’
‘I suppose so. DragonMother told me to find you and bring you back. She didn’t say it had to be right away.’
‘That’s settled then,’ Tia said and yawned again. ‘Time to sleep. I need to be wide awake tomorrow.’
They put out the fire, squeezed into the cave and settled down for the night. ‘Good night, Finn,’ Tia said as she snuggled against him for warmth.
Finn sighed. ‘Good night, DragonSister,’ he said.
The road to Drangur wound by the edge of the forest. On the other side of the road gentle grassy slopes led to a huge rolling plain. Far away, in the centre of the plain, was a town, surrounded by a thick wall. Rising from the middle of the town was a castle perched on a jagged column of rock.
‘That must be Drangur,’ Tia said. She had never seen a town or a castle before and she was excited as well as scared. ‘I can see people working in the fields.’
The only humans she could remember seeing before were the Traders, and she was curious about other people.
Finn was curious too and peered between the trees to get a better view.
‘Stop,’ Tia said. ‘Someone might see you!’
‘No they won’t, they’re too far away. But if you’re worried I’ll disguise myself.’ In an instant Finn made himself the colour of grass dotted all over with white and yellow and blue wild flowers, and crept out onto the verge at the side of the road.
‘Don’t go any further!’ Tia shrieked. ‘You don’t know where the spell starts.’
‘DragonMother told me that people farm right up to the edges of the spell boundary,’ Finn said. ‘There’s no farmland here.’
It was true – the early green corn and the meadows with sheep and cows were far away in fields edged with low stone walls.
‘I bet those walls are the boundary,’ Finn said.
At that moment they heard the quick drumming of hooves, and a boy on a brown pony came round a curve in the road. He reined in his pony and stared at Tia in surprise. ‘Who are you, Trader?’ he said.
Tia realised the boy thought she was a Trader because she was wearing brightly coloured Trader clothes. She decided to use a Trader name.
‘I’m Nadya,’ she told him, ‘and I’m going to Drangur.’ She stared as curiously at the boy as he stared at her. He looked strange in his dull grey clothes, and his hair was blond, not red-gold like hers, nor black and curly like most Traders.
‘Why are on your own?’ he asked.
‘I got parted from my parents in a fog when we were coming back from the Drakelow Mountains. They were going to trade in Drangur so I’m going there too, to find them.’
Tia was amazed to find herself inventing such a story. She’d had no idea she could do it. ‘If my parents aren’t there I’m going to look for work until they arrive.’
‘You were in the Drakelow Mountains?’ the boy said, his eyes wide and bright. ‘Did you see any dragons?’
Finn sniggered and the pony jumped nervously.
‘What was that noise?’ the boy said looking straight at where Finn lay on the grass.
Tia was amazed he couldn’t see Finn. She could easily see the shape of her DragonBrother, even though his colour matched the ground, but it seemed as though he was completely invisible to the boy.
‘I didn’t hear anything,’ Tia lied. ‘I’ve seen lots of dragons – we trade with them all the time. Haven’t you ever seen one?’
The boy shook his head. ‘No, because of the great spell the High Witches cast to keep them away. I’d like to see a dragon someday.’
‘They’re not as special as you’d think,’ Tia said. ‘The young ones can be very stupid. Tell me, the great spell, where does it start?’
‘Where the forest ends. As soon as you step out of the forest and on to the grass, the spell boundary begins.’
‘Thank you,’ Tia said and the boy trotted away.
Tia hurried to Finn. ‘Don’t change colour!’ she said. ‘Just come with me quickly.’
Back at the cave they talked about what the boy had said.
‘He must be wrong,’ Finn said. ‘The spell says, “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.” I walked on the grass verge and nothing happened.’
Tia frowned and silently marched up and down in front of the cave, thinking.
‘That’s it!’ she said at last. Her eyes shone with excitement. ‘The warning says, “If the jewels of power see a dragon …” The jewels couldn’t see you because you’re camouflaged, just like that boy couldn’t see you!’
‘But you can see me,’ said Finn.
‘Maybe that’s because I know you so well?’ Tia guessed. ‘It looks like you’re invisible to everyone else, even to the spell.’
‘I still can’t come to Drangur with you – it’s too hard to camouflage myself for very long,’ Finn said. ‘I’m sorry. But I will practise!’
Tia left him practising looking like a fallen log and set out on the road to Drangur – alone.