Dragon Gold (3 page)

CHAPTER FIVE

All the grown-ups were so upset about Sarah being missing that it was really hard for Ben to get away to the witch's house. In the end, he sneaked out while the grown-ups were waiting for the police to come. He ran the whole way, clutching a can of tuna and a tube of condensed milk that he had found in the cupboard.

The cat was not pleased with his efforts. ‘Did I fail to make myself clear?' it asked, lashing its tail. ‘Cream? Pilchards?'

‘It's all I could find,' Ben explained, panting. ‘Please, you've got to help me. I said the spell just like you told me, but instead of the gold, a dragon came and it took Sarah, James's little sister, and we've got to get her back. Please!'

‘A dragon?' the cat hissed, arching its back. ‘You must've said the spell wrong.'

‘No, no, I didn't. I said it just the way you told me.'

‘Say it again.'

Ben slowly stumbled through the spell. ‘With these magic words, I begin my spell. Hear me, first star, hear me well. Send me dragon gold, from the –'

‘You forgot the apostrophe “s”,' the cat hissed. ‘It was meant to be “dragon's gold”, not “dragon gold”. No wonder you conjured up a dragon!'

‘But how do I fix it? What can I do?' Ben begged, who was really feeling very sick and anxious about Sarah.

‘I wash my paws of the whole matter,' the cat said, turning its back.

Ben gripped his wand. ‘Please?'

The only answer was a low growl and a lash of its tail.

‘But I have to get Sarah back,' Ben said.

‘Good luck,' the cat said over its shoulder. ‘You have your magic wand. Use it.'

Unhappily, Ben went home. James was having a sleep-over while his mum and dad, Ben's mum and dad and the police kept on searching for Sarah. Usually when Ben and Tim had a babysitter they were allowed to sit up late and watch a video, but tonight they pretended to be really tired so they could go to bed early. As soon as the babysitter turned off the lights and went to watch TV, Ben slid down from his bunk-bed and went to sit beside James.

‘I reckon what we do is go find the dragon, fight it, kill it, and get Sarah back,' he whispered.

‘Me too!' Tim cried.

‘Sshh, Tim!'

‘The dragon will just burn us to a crisp,' James said gloomily.

‘Well, then, we'll go when it's asleep. We'll get Sarah without waking it up.'

‘I bet dragons have really good hearing,' James said.

‘We'll have to wait until it's late.

Midnight. That's a magical time.' James perked up. ‘I've never been up at midnight before. I tried on New Year's Eve but I fell asleep before the fireworks. Can we have a midnight feast, do you reckon?'

Ben nodded. ‘Sure. Dragon slayers wouldn't go out hungry, would they?'

‘Might as well do something fun before we all get fried,' James said.

CHAPTER SIX

Ben set his alarm for 11.30 pm, even though he was sure he wouldn't sleep a bit.

He did, though, and when his alarm went off it woke him with a big fright. Ben whacked the clock so hard it fell off the shelf. He lay there stiff and silent, listening, but nobody stirred. The house sighed and creaked in its sleep as it always did, being a very old house. When Ben was sure his mum and dad were still asleep, he very cautiously pushed back his doona and climbed out of his bunk-bed. He slipped down the ladder and shook James awake. James cried out and Ben shushed him.

‘Don't wake Tim else he'll want to come too,' he whispered urgently.

From the shadows of the bottom bunk came the plaintive cry, ‘Me too?'

‘No, Tim Tam, you go back to sleep now.'

‘Me go too?'

‘No, Timmy, it's too dangerous. Go back to sleep.'

‘No!' Tim wailed. ‘Me too!'

‘OK, OK,' Ben said. ‘Just be quiet else you'll wake Mum and Dad.'

‘Me too,' Tim said happily and clambered out of bed.

Before they went to sleep they had laid out everything they thought they might need. Ben put his red and black striped wizard's cloak on over his pyjamas, pulled on some socks and boots, put on his wizard's hat and thrust his magic wand through a scarf he tied round his waist. James put on a knight's plastic helmet and breastplate, and picked up the best of the plastic swords and a shield with a golden lion on it. The knight's outfit was Tim's favourite dress-up, and he protested loudly and at length. In the end he was only kept quiet by being given the pirate's outfit to wear – a black tricorne hat with a white feather, an eyepatch, a plastic hook and a curved sword. Ben had never heard of pirates battling against dragons but Tim did not care. He loved his pirate outfit.

‘How are we going to get there?' James whispered as they rolled up blankets and stuffed them into their beds to make it look as if they were still there, huddled under their doonas.

‘Flying carpet, I guess,' Ben said. ‘I'll enchant our rug with my magic wand.'

Their rug was a grey square of carpet with a plan of a city laid out with parks and buildings and streets for the boys to drive their cars along. They dragged it downstairs and out onto the lawn, and then Ben raided the kitchen cupboards for their midnight feast. Sitting on the rug, they ate stale arrowroot biscuits, sultanas, and Vegemite on crackers, which was all Ben could find by the light of the open fridge. It wasn't much of a midnight feast, but it was fun eating out in the light of the moon when all the rest of the world was sleeping.

When they had finished, Ben took a deep breath and pointed his wand up at the moon. ‘With these magic words, I begin my spell. Hear me, full moon, hear me well. Make our magic carpet fly, way up into the sky, to find the dragon gold, from the days of old. The spell has been cast, let the magic last.'

With a jerk, the rug suddenly lifted off the lawn and soared up into the sky.

James and Ben let out a screech of surprise and clung very tightly to the edge, but Tim laughed and pointed at the moon, saying, ‘Up dere! Me go up dere!' He had always wanted to go to the moon.

Higher and higher the boys flew. Below them the city lights sparkled like handfuls of diamonds dumped on black velvet. They dared not let go of the edge of the rug to point, but they shouted at each other and laughed.

The moon got bigger and bigger, and the lights below dwindled away into pinpricks. They could see all sorts of shadows and pits on the moon's round face, like ancient acne scars. Suddenly there was a blaze of searing light. The boys had to shield their eyes. Then everything went dark.