enissimo had seen every wonder and horror that the Hidden had to offer, and of the latter he had fought most of them. Even so, as they climbed down past the dragon’s ear and below its cheek, the Ringmaster was uncharacteristically quiet. Mr Fox was also mute, though in his case Ned got the sense that faced with such an unprecedented terror, he simply gave way to training and moved like a well-oiled machine, no foot or hand out of place, his mind remaining firmly on the mission.
Focus, thought Ned. Stay calm. But it did no good. As his trembling hands gripped on to the stone, he couldn’t get away from the fact that the stone was in fact alive. So ancient was Tiamat that the dragon’s scales and hide had fossilised to rock. Finally down on the ground, it was hard to see clearly which part of the rock before them was the dragon and which was the cavern in which he lay.
Then right in front of them a great vast eye blinked open, as high and wide as a house. Ned stopped breathing. The eye was green and blue, with a single black vertical slit down the middle that eyed them as though they were ants.
“LIGHT?” asked the dragon.
“Please,” said the Ringmaster.
From far ahead of them, the dragon’s nostrils blew and two perfectly aimed plumes of fire shot out. They landed at a far wall hundreds of feet away and some oily liquid there erupted with flames. All of a sudden the cavern filled with hot, orange-yellow light and the temperature in the already stifling air soared.
Ned squinted from the sudden brightness, his eyes adjusting slowly, and as they did so he could see that the stone that was Tiamat’s skin was reflective, like polished black marble. It was like looking at the face of a shattered mirror, come alive with glistening reflections, and it was only when the dragon raised its head to look down on them properly that Ned could make out its shape and size. Tiamat was a great spiked behemoth with curving stalagmites rising from its head, neck and torso as tall as redwood trees and just as thick. Most of its body filled the cavern, though at the opening’s highest point there was room for it to move its head and neck. The dragon’s features were not so different to a dinosaur’s, much like the pictures of T-rex that Ned had pored over as a child, though far larger. Every angle from which it studied them caused Ned unrelenting fear. The Stag King’s words to Mr Fox rang out in Ned’s head again.
“YOU ARE BRAVE TO COME HERE, RINGLING,” boomed the dragon.
“Desperate times call for desperate deeds, old one,” said Benissimo, who had regained his composure and removed his top hat as a show of respect.
“SO MY CHILDREN’S CHILDREN TELL ME IN THEIR SLEEP.”
“Then you know of what goes on beyond your cave?”
“I DO NOT NEED THEIR SONGS TO TELL ME OF THE DARKENING KING. I FEEL HIM AS HE STIRS. IT IS THE ENGINEER THEY SING OF – IS THIS HE?”
“Yes, old one. I was told it was to him you wished to speak.”
Tiamat lowered his head with a great rushing of wind so that he could eye Ned more closely. Hot air and burning sulphur filled Ned’s nostrils and his cheeks reddened with heat. He’d been wrong to fear the Stag King, to be in awe of the creature. Tiamat was all-encompassing, his head large enough to blot out the cavern, his breath hot enough to peel away Ned’s skin. It didn’t matter that Ned had lost his power; nothing mattered in the face of Tiamat. In his gaze you were his to do with as he wanted.
“I am …” Ned mumbled.
“YOU ARE SMALL.”
Ned winced. He was quite sure the creature had said it the way someone might say “snack”. And, powers or not, he was truly small, truly insignificant under Tiamat’s gaze.
“Yes, I-I suppose I am.”
“THEN YOU MUST GROW STRONGER!” boomed the dragon. “OR YOU WILL FAIL.”
As Ned looked into the creature’s eyes, he sensed the cave and his companions slipping away from him as though he might be swallowed into the creature’s mouth without it even moving.
“Fail how, Tiamat? What is it we must do?” asked Benissimo, and the dragon’s gaze thankfully turned away from Ned and on to the Ringmaster.
“YOUR DEMON DID NOT TELL YOU?”
“Only that you knew of something, some ancient magic that we might use to fight the Darkening King.”
Tiamat reared up angrily, pointing his great mouth to the top of the cavern, before blowing – and blowing hard. A huge pillar of molten, spittled fire poured out of him and into openings in the roof of the cavern. Far above them they heard the mountain tremor like a volcano as the dragon’s fury was unleashed outside and into the cold Siberian air. Boulders began to tumble and break around them, till Ned thought the dragon might bring down the entire roof.
“TIAMAT WAS FIRST AND EVERYTHING BELONGED TO TIAMAT.” Then his voice grew quiet and his great eyes closed. “Until they tricked me.”
“Who, old one? Who tricked you?” asked Benissimo.
“THE ONE YOU CALL THE DARKENING KING CAME AFTER ME! HE WAS NOT ‘FIRST’. BEFORE BOOKS AND KINGS, BEFORE MANKIND, THE FEY WERE MY SERVANTS, TO DO MY BIDDING WHERE I WOULD NOT GO. BUT THE DARKENING KING WHISPERED TO THEM, TOLD THEM HOW THEY COULD GAIN THEIR FREEDOM AND IN DOING SO MAKE ME WEAK.” His great eyes opened again and were full of rage. “THE HEART STONE – MY HEART – THEY STOLE IT AS I SLEPT. IT IS THE SOURCE OF THEIR MAGIC AND IT IS MINE.”
“You wanted to tell the boy this? How they wronged you?”
“YES AND NO. I WANT REVENGE FOR THE WRONG THAT WAS DONE TO ME. JUST AS HE WHISPERED TO THEM, I NOW WHISPER TO YOU: FIND THE HEART STONE. IT IS OF A PARTICULAR MAGIC, ONE THAT EVEN HE DOES NOT FULLY UNDERSTAND.”
Tiamat swayed his great head left and right, like a snake being charmed.
“USE IT AT THE MOMENT THAT HE RISES AND YOU WILL DESTROY HIM.”
“Will you help us?” asked Ned.
“DO NOT ASK ME – ASK THE HEART STONE. NOW LEAVE ME – I AM WEARY.”
And the great dragon began to settle at the bottom of its cave, its head hitting the rocks with a thunderous crash. But there was one burning question that Ned needed to have answered.
“Before we go, could you please just tell me … why did you ask to see me?”
“MANY SONGS MY CHILDREN HAVE SUNG OF YOUR DEEDS. I WANTED TO SEE WHAT YOU ARE MADE OF.”
“Why do you care?”
“BECAUSE IT IS YOU WHO MUST USE THE HEART STONE.”
And with that, the great dragon closed both eyes completely and, with a signal from one of its mighty claws, indicated both that they should leave and where their exit lay.
Ned wanted to tell Tiamat that he was wrong, that the old Ned might have been the one to do it, but that this Ned had lost his powers. But he was far too frightened of the creature to disagree with him, or disappoint him, and besides, he could tell by the trembling snore that shook the cavern that the mighty and ancient Tiamat was now fast asleep.