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It was with a sigh of relief that Nix saw they were almost down to March Island. This was nothing like riding a dragon ship. The cage shook and creaked then lurched down in spasms as if it were fighting against gravity and losing!
As the island became clearer Nix couldn’t help but stare. He had heard talk of March Island his whole life but he had never imagined it was this big. The houses and land seemed to go on forever. He had never seen so many people in one place before and he began to wonder just how they were supposed to find one person among this many!
Other matters took his attention though as the cage began its final descent in to land near the edge of the island. The area was stacked with crates and boxes and people hurried back and forth carrying them looking less than happy in their work.
‘It must be some sort of transfer station for all the goods that travel up and down the islands,’ Melise said, also looking down through the bars on which they were perched. The crate came to a shuddering halt at the edge of the island and two dirty, poorly dressed boys hurried forward and threw open the cage doors.
‘What’s this one doing back so soon?’ The taller of the two asked. He turned to the smaller one and glared at him. ‘Did you set it right Tomy?’
‘I’m sure I did,’ the boy said, looking worried and a little scared. ‘I loaded it and swung it over to the North route.’
‘Well, they’ve sent it back,’ the larger boy said then turned back to the cage and saw the two stowaways perched on the crates inside.
‘Here, this isn’t for people to travel on!’ he shouted. ‘Use the passenger platforms.’ The boy made to grab at Melise but she ducked under his arm and stepped out of the cage.
‘Tomy, call the guards,’ the boy yelled as he bent to pick up a large stout stick that lay on the cobbled yard.
‘We’re looking for my brother,’ Melise said, straightening her crumpled clothes.
Nix had thought her clothes to be normal and not worthy of any particular note, but next to the rags that the dock boys wore they marked her as a wealthy person.
‘I’ll keep them here, Tomy while you fetch the guards. Tampering with deliveries is a serious offence.’
‘We don’t have time for this,’ Melise muttered as they both watched the younger boy run off. ‘We should make a break for it.’
‘Just give me a minute,’ Nix said, looking around the dock and seeing a dozen birds hovering in search of a feed. After a sharp whistle and a few quick, silent thoughts, he grabbed Melise and pulled her aside, backing away from the boy with the stick.
‘Now what?’ Melise asked as they backed almost to the edge of the island.
‘Just wait,’ Nix told her. ‘And get ready to run.’
Birds began to swoop in from every direction. And every one of them headed straight for their young guard. He ducked and dodged as each new wave of attack came, swiping at the quick birds.
‘Now,’ Nix said, and pulled Melise past the boy. They hurried on through the yard, hearing the yells of the boy continue.
‘Are they hurting him?’ Melise asked, turning her head back to stare as she was dragged off.
‘No, I only suggested that he had pockets full of food,’ Nix replied as they slowed their walk to a normal pace so as not to attract any further attention.
‘You did what?’ Melise asked, staring at him with an odd expression.
Nix didn’t reply. They didn’t have time for long explanations. He had an idea where they should be heading, but first they had to get out of the dock area.
The dock area gave way to dirty streets and old stone houses that were in a bad state of repair. Children played out in the street, wearing little more than rags.
‘Where are we going?’ Melise asked, looking a little annoyed as the streets continued the same around each corner.
‘I saw a market place over this way as we came down,’ Nix said, knowing his sense of direction was taking them the right way.
‘A market place?’ Melise queried. ‘You want to go shopping?’
‘Just trust me,’ Nix said with a sigh. He would have preferred to be on his own but he seemed stuck with Melise.
As the signs of a market place came into view Nix knew he had been right to head for it. Aunt Lily would love this place. Everywhere he looked there were groups of women. Some browsing the wares, others gossiping in groups and blocking the streets.
‘Aunt Lily liked nothing more than a good gossip,’ Nix said as he steered them into the throng of people. ‘And when the servants all get together they talk about anything and everything.’
‘Who? Couldn’t we just go around the market?’ Melise asked, looking a little uncomfortable at the press of people and wrinkling her nose at the smells that accompanied such a crowd.
‘There was a great deal of status to be had in those gatherings if you had gossip or information that nobody else had heard before,’ Nix continued talking as if Melise hadn’t spoken. He wove his way towards a group of older women, pulling Melise after him. One of them was gesturing with her hands and pointing to the sky with a sharp jabbing finger. As they got closer, snatches of their conversation reached Nix.
‘I tell you it ‘was’ a dragon,’ the old woman insisted.
‘You’ve been taking too much wine, that’s all,’ another replied with a shake of her head.
‘Maybe it was a dragon ship?’ a younger one suggested.
‘I know the difference between a ship and a real dragon,’ the old woman said in a sour voice and pouted. ‘My great-grandma described them to me when I was just a young girl. She saw them. One of her long ago relatives was even chased by one.’
‘There’s no such thing as a real dragon,’ scoffed the younger one. ‘That’s just stories.’
‘You’ll see,’ the old woman said with a warning waggle of her finger. ‘They’ll come and then you’ll change your mind.’
‘So which way did it come from?’ One of them asked, looking a little concerned now and scanning the sky as if expecting a dozen dragons to appear.
‘Out from the east,’ the old woman said as she drew herself up with importance and pointed across the market. ‘It was breathing fire and it flew off that way.’
Nix, pretending to look at some apples at a nearby store, glanced up to see which way the woman was pointing.
The women moved off to spread their news and Nix guided Melise through the markets and out the other side.
‘We still only know what general direction to go,’ Melise said, pausing at the top of a hill and staring down at the jumble of houses and buildings that lay ahead of them.
‘And every small village will have someone who saw something,’ Nix assured her as he started off down the hill at a fast pace. ‘We just have to hurry before the story changes.’
‘What do you mean?’ Melise asked as she hurried after him.
‘As the tale passes from one person to the next it will grow and change. Soon we won’t even recognise it and we’ll have no chance of finding Drew.’
‘How do you know all of this?’ Melise caught up with him and looked at him with interest.
‘I’ve been to markets with Aunt Lily on almost every island there is. Ever since I was big enough to carry the produce back,’ Nix replied with a shrug. He turned, looking for his next source of information. They paused by the door of a busy Inn for a short while and heard a story of three dragons who destroyed a farm not far from there, then further down in the valley they heard it had been a child’s kite let loose on the wind, dragging the child with it.
‘I see what you mean about it changing,’ Melise said as they turned down a street that led them out of the town and into the countryside.
‘As long as we keep going in the general direction we’ll find him,’ Nix said.
A wagon rolled towards them and Nix waved the driver down. The weather-worn farmer leaned down and held a hand up to his ear.
‘What do you want son?’ he shouted. ‘You’ll have to yell.’
‘Did you see a dragon this morning?’ Nix shouted back, getting the attention of several people working in a field nearby.
‘Flagon?’ the farmer queried. ‘Aren’t you a bit young to be drinking?’
‘A dragon,’ Nix yelled back a little louder.
‘Dragon!’ the farmer yelled back. He nodded his head. ‘I saw one this morning. It near killed a young boy. Chased him half way across the island I heard.’
‘Where was this?’ Melise shouted, looking concerned at the story even though it might be exaggerated.
‘Out at the apple farm down that way,’ the farmer replied, pointing back the way he had come. ‘I wouldn’t go there though. They say it’ll come back and burn down the entire village.’
‘Thanks!’ Nix yelled to the farmer and they hurried down the road. It wasn’t hard to work out where the apple farm was. Not only was it easy to spot by the trees that covered dozens of fields, but everyone seemed to be heading that way.
There was quite a crowd gathered outside what was a normal farmhouse. Nix and Melise pushed their way to the front of the crowd.
‘Can we go in and see him?’ Nix asked a man standing at the door.
The man shook his head. ‘He’s had enough visitors already. He’s resting.’
Nix drew back a little, wondering how they were supposed to get in and see if it really was Drew.
‘I hear the dragon burned down half an orchard and singed all the hair off the boy,’ a young woman whispered to another.
Melise stepped forward and stopped right in front of the man at the door. ‘I must go in.’
The man shook his head, but Melise did not move. Instead she unwrapped her bandaged hands and showed the burns to the man. ‘We saw the dragon too.’
Everyone began to crowd close as the man looked at the burns then nodded and opened the door for them.
‘Did you see that?’ a voice said as the door began to close. ‘That girl’s hands were almost burnt off by the dragon.’
‘That’ll give them something to talk about for a while,’ Melise said, trying to wrap her hands again. Nix realised that they must have been hurting her all day but she hadn’t complained once, even when she was hanging onto the cage down from Charm Island.
They were ushered into a small kitchen and Nix saw several people crowded by a small sofa that had been dragged in near the fire. As the people turned to see who had entered the room, Nix saw who was on the sofa. Drew half lay on the couch, with his head propped on several cushions.
Melise drew in a sharp breath of shock and Nix bit his lip to stop himself doing the same.
Some of the stories hadn’t been made up after all. It looked as if Drew had indeed been chased half way across the island and been burnt by a dragon’s flame. His face, although wiped clean, showed signs of bruises and scrapes and his arm was bound in a sling. His clothes were torn and dirty and one shoe was missing. He was resting with his eyes closed but as Melise rushed towards him he opened them.
‘Drew! Are you okay?’ she asked as she reached her brother.
Several people, seeing her hands, tried to pull her away and tend to them but she ignored them.
‘I need some time alone with my brother,’ Melise said as she turned to those hovering nearby. Her voice, although not loud, carried with it the tone that was accustomed to ordering people about and expecting to be obeyed.
‘Call us if he needs anything,’ a woman said as they all backed away and left the room.
‘What happened?’ Nix asked as he came closer. He couldn’t feel the energy pulsing from the stone. He hoped it was being shielded by the golden bag he knew Drew had taken it in.
‘SunSeeker wasn’t happy with me. He dropped me and then chased me,’ Drew said, shifting his arm to a more comfortable position.
‘The spell on the ships has weakened. He has become a dragon again,’ Melise said with a sigh.
‘So I noticed,’ Drew said with a hint of sarcasm as he glanced down at his injured arm and torn clothes.
‘Did he get the stone?’ Nix asked. If the dragon had taken the stone they were all in trouble. He had no idea if the dragons could renew the charms in the stone but he didn’t want to find out.
‘No,’ Drew said, turning to glare at Nix. ‘He dropped me from the sky and I landed in a tree. Then he tried to make me hand it over. When I didn’t he chased me across the orchard.’
‘So you have it?’ Melise asked.
‘No. It is gone. I told you I would find a way to get rid of it,’ Drew said with a slight smirk. ‘Once SunSeeker realised I didn’t have it he left.’
‘It’s gone,’ Nix said in a voice that was so quiet he only just heard it himself. He swallowed a sudden lump in his throat. Had Drew destroyed the stone? All those memories, gone forever. He cleared his throat and spoke again. ‘Gone where?’
‘I threw it from the ship before SunSeeker turned into a dragon again,’ Drew said with a shrug. He pulled an empty golden leather bag from his pocket. Nix recognised it as the one he had seen in the stone room the first time he had seen the star stone. ‘Nobody will find it now.’
Nix had to stop himself from rushing at Drew and shaking him for his stupidity. Melise didn’t seem to have the same concerns. She took her brother by the shoulder and shoved him back into the cushions.
‘You idiot,’ she yelled. ‘Don’t you see it was our only chance at defeating them?’
‘Without the stone nobody will be corrupted by its power,’ Drew said, wincing a little as he sat up and stuffed the bag back into his pocket.
‘You believe that?’ Melise asked, looking surprised at her brother’s continued insistence that he was right. ‘And are you going to go out there and tell all those people that you had a way to stop the dragons attacking their lands and you threw it away?’
‘They’ll go back to their mountain and leave us alone,’ Drew said, shaking his head at her suggestion.
‘Let’s hope so, shall we,’ Nix said without much conviction. He had no desire to fight dragons, but he didn’t want to be ruled by them either. He wondered about the promise he had made to MoonDancer. Perhaps he was keeping it if the stone was lost.
‘We should get you home,’ Melise said, looking out the window at the crowd of curious faces looking in. ‘But without a dragon ship that won’t be easy.’
Nix leaned out the door and signalled to one of the men in the hallway. ‘Can you take us to the docks?’
The man looked confused, but nodded and spoke to a child who hurried off out the door.
‘Perhaps I can change one of the platforms to go up to Charm Island instead?’ Nix told Melise. The idea didn’t appeal at all but he couldn’t see any other way to get Drew home. He tried to tell himself that the stone was gone forever and that maybe Drew was right. Without the stone the dragons wouldn’t have as much hold over the people.
A wagon rumbled up to the door, dispersing the crowd, and several men came in to help Drew onto it. Nix and Melise followed and climbed onto the back as soon as Drew was settled against a bale of hay.
‘Where are you heading?’ one of the farmers asked, looking curious. ‘Aren’t you from March Island?’
‘We come from Chosen Isle,’ Melise said and Nix cringed. No doubt their destination would be known by everyone before they even reached the docks. He had hoped to sneak in and find a way to take them home without being noticed.
The wagon rumbled off down the lane with half a dozen young children running after it for a while, then they dropped back and they were on their own with just two farmers sitting at the front of the wagon.
‘What’s that out west?’ one farmer said with a puzzled voice.
Nix turned and leaned over a bale of hay to see what he was talking about and a golden glint in the sky made his mouth go dry. He had no doubt at all that it was a dragon, but was it a dragon ship or a dragon freed from its life of service?
His reply came a second later as a burst of flame glowed in the sky and a roar echoed across the entire island.
‘I don’t think SunSeeker has finished looking for the stone,’ Nix said as Drew struggled to turn and see what was happening.
The dragon dipped down towards the land on the horizon, flaming everything in his path and leaving a trail of destruction that was visible from where they were.
‘I think we should find the stone – and fast,’ Melise said, turning to her brother.
Drew looked shocked that his theory had been proven wrong. He just nodded without speaking and gulped as he watched the town up ahead burning as SunSeeker made sweep after sweep across it.
