In Which I Come Nose-to-Nose with a Dragon
I braced myself, ready for the massive burst of flame that would roast me to a crisp. But instead of steam and smoke, I found a man dressed in livery. I wanted to tell him that I was there to rescue him and all the others, but my tongue lay dry and motionless in my mouth.
“Come in, young sir. Lord Rupert is expecting you,” the man said.
Had another knight arrived before us? It really would be just my luck to come all this way only to have someone else take on the monster before I could. Or was this Lord Rupert being held captive? Or maybe he didn’t even exist. Maybe this was all some sort of trap. I wanted to confer with Hero and Tate, but if I went back down the road to where they were waiting, I would only draw attention to them.
The man stepped back and gestured for me to follow. I walked slowly through the gateway and into a garden complete with neat paths, banks of flowers, and a fountain in the center shaped like a dragon. The last owners had all but sent the beast an invitation.
We passed through the garden and came to a huge pair of golden doors engraved with the sun, moon, and stars. My guide opened the doors, and we walked into a massive hall, wide enough for a dozen horsemen to ride abreast. The ceiling soared above us.
I kept waiting for the attack, for the fl to begin vibrating under an enormous weight, or for a roar to shake the tapestries that lined the walls. But all I heard was the echo of our footsteps. The waiting was its own cruel torture.
Then the liveried man stopped beside a set of intricately carved doors. Somehow, I knew that the dragon was on the other side of those doors. What I didn’t understand was why this balding man was so willingly bringing me to it. Maybe the beast had his family held captive.
The servant opened the doors and stepped back.
With a heart rate that would have been well suited to escaping a wildfire, I walked into a space like nothing I had ever seen before. It was a round room, larger than the Great Hall at Castle Mortico. The walls were covered in shelves filled with enormous leatherbound books and dozens of brass instruments. A glass dome took the place of a ceiling. In the center of the room stood a large table, and beside it, the dragon.
The beast was bigger than I had imagined. His hide was ruby red. His wings were folded against his back, but I could picture how wide they must be if they were able to lift the creature off the ground. The dragon was looking away from us, but if what I had heard of dragons was true, he could most certainly smell us.
“My lord, the young gentleman has arrived,” my escort announced.
“Oh, good,” said a deep, rumbling voice, and then the massive head began to turn.
I knew that I should draw Guardian, but my arms refused to move. It was as if my limbs had been forged out of iron.
The dragon’s head swung slowly around to face us, and I found myself staring into dark eyes that looked back at me through enormous spectacles balanced on the end of its snout.
“Welcome, young sir. I am so glad that you arrived in time,” the dragon said in his deep voice. “I had despaired that Hopkins and I would be viewing alone this year.”
I just stood staring at the beast.
“What is your name, if I may ask?” the dragon continued in what I could only call a pleasant tone.
My voice sounded hollow as I said the words, “Hobart of Finnagen.”
“Ah, Finnagen, a lovely village,” the dragon said. “I visited there some three hundred years ago. Though I suppose all of the fine people I met there have passed.” His face became rather thoughtful, but then he shook his great head. “Listen to me, reminiscing, when we have not even been properly introduced. I am, of course, Lord Rupert of Flamegon, and this is my assistant, Hopkins.”
Hopkins bowed slightly to me. Lord Rupert held out a great claw. I had no idea what to do. My understanding of manners did not extend to this situation. But I did at least know that it was not wise to insult a dragon, so I walked forward. Hoping he wouldn’t notice how badly my hands were sweating, I took hold of one talon. Lord Rupert lifted my feet off the fl and then set me down again, and I supposed that we had officially shaken hands. I knew that I was shaken.
I stepped back, still trying to decide what to think of this enormous creature, when Lord Rupert suddenly jumped, clasped his front claws to his jaw, and screamed. It was the same high-pitched sound we had heard from outside the castle.
Hopkins snatched up a broom and came running forward. He lifted it high, and I quickly drew Guardian. But he didn’t swing the broom at me. Instead, Hopkins brought it down to the fl with a crash, lifted it again, and continued running and swinging. As he dodged around the large table, I could see that he was chasing a spider about the size of my thumb. The spider ran up a wall, out of Hopkins’ reach, and then scrambled over to the seam where the glass-domed roof began.
“We will catch him next time, my lord,” Hopkins said, slightly out of breath.
Rupert nodded and then glanced over at me with obvious embarrassment. “I do not care for spiders,” he said.
“Neither does my horse,” I heard myself saying.
“Oh, yes, your companions!” Lord Rupert said. “Here you have been so kind to come in advance in order to present them, and I become distracted by a stray arachnid. Please, tell me about your friends. Are they experienced astronomers?”
“Not that they’ve ever mentioned,” I said slowly. “Not to worry,” Lord Rupert said. “The Flamegon Comet is a wondrous sight for both novice and scholar alike. But we should hurry. I would love to share a meal together before it grows dark enough for our viewing. Would you like Hopkins to go down to retrieve your companions?”
“No, I should go myself,” I said. “Of course.”
I walked out of the castle and down the road to either invite my friends to dinner or suggest that we flee. I still wasn’t sure which would be the wiser choice. I had barely made it around the first bend, when Hero suddenly appeared and threw her arms around me.
“We were so worried,” she told me. “Is it dead? Were there any other survivors?”
“I didn’t kill the dragon.”
Tate put a hand on my shoulder. “Well, that’s all right. You went in and faced one. How many people can say that?”
“This isn’t your typical dragon,” I said carefully.
Both of them looked at me with confused expressions.
“It’s small?” Hero asked.
“No, he’s enormous.”
“It has no fangs or claws?” Tate said.
“No, he has both in good supply.”
“What, then?” Hero’s voice was growing insistent.
“He’s—” I paused, trying to come up with the right word. “He’s a gentleman.”
Tate and Hero stared at me in disbelief. So I told them everything that had happened since I left them. Hero was concerned that it might be a trap. Tate was eager to catch a glimpse of Lord Rupert of Flamegon and pointed out that I still needed to kill the beast if I wanted to get into knight school.
“We can be witnesses,” Tate told her.
Hero was still reluctant, and we had to blindfold Albert, but we all went back to the castle together. Hopkins met us at the gate and escorted the three horses into the stable before leading us back to the observatory.
Once again, Lord Rupert could not have been more gracious.
“Lady Hero, it is my great honor to make your acquaintance,” he said in the midst of a deep bow. “Master Tate, I welcome you to Castle Flamegon. It is a pleasure to have you join us for the viewing tonight.”
Soon Hero, Tate, and I were all seated at a large dining table in the castle’s Great Hall. Like the other rooms we would encounter on the first floor, it was built to dragon proportions. Lord Rupert did not require a chair but oversaw the meal from the head of the table.
“I discovered the comet four hundred and twenty-eight years ago, when I was little more than a hatchling,” Lord Rupert told us after our main course of vegetable stew had been cleared away. (Lord Rupert was a vegetarian.) “It was the year before my cousin Harold decided to scorch the sides of the castle for effect. He thought that a castle called Flamegon should look singed. He never did have much of an eye for aesthetics.”
Lord Rupert’s dark eyes grew deep and heavy. “Harold is gone now. They all are.” He looked over at us, seeming almost pained by the sight. “Ah, when we are young, we think we are immortal, but the years will pass, and you will bury those you love. Whether your life is destined to last fifty years or five hundred, I promise you that it will pass too quickly.”
Hopkins stepped into the doorway and nodded to his lord.
“But now is not the time for the thoughts of a lonely old soul. It is time for the event that brings us all together. Come, come. We do not want to miss it, for the comet will not pass this way again for another one hundred and seven years.”
We followed Lord Rupert’s swinging tail back across the hall toward the observatory. Even I could tell that each step pained him.
“What’s your plan?” Tate asked me in a hushed tone. “I don’t know.” The thought of drawing a sword on this ancient creature seemed—wrong.
We gathered under Lord Rupert’s glass dome and watched his comet streak across the sky. Hero gasped at the sight of it, and Tate stood slack jawed. It really was that astounding. When the spectacle had passed and our mugs of hot chocolate were empty, Hopkins showed us to our rooms.
On the second floor of Castle Flamegon—which was thankfully built for human guests—I stretched out on the feather mattress and stared up at the underside of my canopied bed. As I had traveled up the mountain, all I could think about was how could I kill this dragon? Now all I could think was how could I kill this dragon?
Lord Rupert was not a beast who terrorized the surrounding countryside, stealing treasures and eating maidens. He was a kind old gentleman scholar. How could I possibly take the life of this gentle giant?
The answer pressed down on my chest like a boulder. I couldn’t. And there was no time left to find a fouler creature. It was already April. May Day would come. I would have no great deed to speak for me and no chance of being allowed to take the entrance exam.
My dreams of becoming a knight had died the moment I decided to spare Lord Rupert’s life.