The Last Dragon Chronicles: Dark Fire (22 page)

behind the child. Though her breath was briefly taken by the sight of Tam, she made no attempt to tidy her appearance. “That’s the Scuffenbury horse,” she said, looking puzzled. “How did you learn about that?”

Alexa, as always, gave no answer. Shebent forward and stroked the horse’s nose,then marched across to Tam and took his

left hand. “You touch it,” she said.

“Oh, I’m clumsy,” said Tam. “I might

knock it over.”

“No you won’t,” said Alexa and drew

him towards it.

On a nod from David, Tam touched hisfinger to the horse’s back. To Lucy’samazement, a spark ignited in the region ofits heart and radiated slowly outward,

turning the bland grey clay the crystalline white of Arctic ice. “How did you do
 
that
 
?” she gasped.

Alexa clapped in glee. “I’m going to show Mummy.” She scooted away with her prize.

David signalled to Lucy to get her attention. “Tam’s going to take you to the real horse, Lucy. I want you to pack, right now.”

She looked at Tam. “Don’t be dumb.

Mum needs me.”

“Scuffenbury might be where she needs you the most.”

Surprisingly,   the   notion   gathered further support from Arthur. “It seems appropriate,” he put in, “that Alexa should create a replica white horse at a time

when the Scuffenbury dragon might rise. She appears to be picking up on something.   Considering   Elizabeth’s current condition it falls to me as Lucy’s guardian to make a decision: I give my blessing for the journey.”

“
Arthur?!
” The girl dropped her hands onto her hips.

“Go,” he said, with an audible gulp. “Find whatever powers might help your mother.” A film of moisture sliding across his eyes made them appear more eerie than ever.

“My car’s outside,” Tam said quietly. “I’ll…well, I’ll be waiting, OK?” For the second time in a matter of days, he went past Lucy making only eye contact.

The girl skewed a hand across her

forehead. “This is crazy,” she said. “I can’t   leave
 
now
.” She switched her

stressed gaze back to David.

“Your mum will have all the protection I can give her,” he said. “Tam will look after you. He’ll make the arrangements.”

Lucy twirled a nest of red hair in her hand. “Can I take Gwendolen?”

“Yes, of course.”

“What will you tell Mum when she

wakes?”

David thought about it for a moment. “That you’re obeying your birthright.”

That was enough to make Lucy squeezeherself into a private huddle. David madea move to comfort her, but she shook ahand in his face and stumbled away. Halfway up the stairs, he heard her burst

into tears.

When all was quiet again Arthur said, “That wasn’t easy for me, David. I assumeyou wanted my support for this venture. I’m placing a lot of trust in you.”

David drifted back into the kitchen.

“Tell me something,” he said, running a thumb inside Bonnington’s ear. “Do the others know you can see through his eyes?”

Looking grim, in the manner of an exposed schoolboy, Arthur shook his head.

“Then let it be our secret,” David said. He tilted up Bonnington’s chin. “I’m going to take my old room back. That’s as far away from Liz as I’ll be from now on.”

“And what about her son?” Arthur

asked, finding it hard to keep a twist of acrimony out of his voice. “How far will you be from him? What if the dragons you serve think he poses a threat? Should I take his safety on trust as well?” Without waiting for an answer he walked away, carrying Bonnington with him.

David sighed and settled at the kitchen table. His  hand passed over his waistcoat pocket and he played idly with the watch chain   a   moment,   but   left   the communications device where it was.

With a jarring note of dragontongue hecalled to Groyne.

The shape-shifter appeared on the tablebeside him.

“I want all the house dragons on full

alert – except Grace; she needs to rest.

Tell them to report anything unusual, nomatter how trivial, to me.”

Hrrr
, went Groyne, and dematerialised

again.

David picked up a modelling stick and twisted it through his restless fingers.
 
Heck of an afternoon
, he thought.
 
Heck of a life
 
.

But unbeknown to him, that life was about to get worse. For as Groyne reappeared in the Dragons’ Den and began to give the special dragons their orders, he glanced at the blanketed Grace and noticed she had gone into her solid state. Should he report it? No. Dragons often rested in semi-stasis. Besides, Grace was recuperating, wasn’t she?

Later, however, like Golly with the

hammer, Groyne would come to blame himself for much of what followed. For if

the shape-shifting dragon had investigated closely, he would have seen there was something very wrong about Grace. She was standing on the workbench, partly in shadow. What Groyne had failed to see was on her  unlit side, under the blanket. She was being touched bythe isoscele of another dragon. Grace was solid for a reason, but it wasn’t for rest.

Her auma was being drained through the tail of Gwillan.

Part Two

Scuffenbury Hill

The road to Scuffenbury

“OK,” said Tam. “Tell me what I have to

do to make this work?”

Lucy threw him a moody glance.

“We’ve been driving for an hour andyou haven’t said a word.”

“Wrong. I said ‘thank you’ for this.” She raised up a bottle of carbonatedwater, put the neck to her lips and took along swig.

“I don’t think you’ll find ‘uh’ in thedictionary,”   he   corrected   her. “Technically, it’s not an expression ofgratitude, it’s a grunt.”

“You’re the journalist,” she said.

“Oh, is that what it is? You still don’ttrust me because I tried to run a feature on

David once?”

“I’m cold,” she said, refusing to answer. She pulled her jumper sleeves over her palms. “Can’t we have the heating up?”

Tam turned the dial a little, flipping the vent settings so that warm air was blowing around her feet. To compensate, he opened the driver’s side window.

“What’s the point of doing that?” she railed.

“I feel more comfortable with a cool

air flow.”

“Yeah, well, I get hay fever. Hello?”

“And I get headaches – and I’m driving,” he countered.

She sighed, crossed her arms and slumped to one side.

He touched a button and narrowed the

air gap at his window. “Haven’t changed much, have you?”

“This is so boring,” Lucy said, not about to enter a discussion that might have any possibility of including the word ‘teenager’. Instead, she stared at the never-ending landscape of rural England. The green rolling downs. The empty grey sky. It had been the same view for the last twenty minutes. There wasn’t even a sheep. And barely another vehicle had passed them.

“It’s a military zone,” Tam said, beeping the sat nav. “Some of it’s restricted. The British military use these downs for training exercises. Favourite place for UFO spotters as well.”

Lucy capped her water and put it away. “Oh, that’s
 
really
 
comforting, thanks. So if I don’t get squashed by a tank or blastedby a missile there’s always the chance I’llbe abducted by aliens?”

“As opposed to being abducted by a Scot in a Range Rover? What are thechances, eh?”

She clamped her teeth together andgrimaced.

“Come on, talk to me,” he said. “Weneed to trust  each other, Lucy. If I’m goingto take care of you, it would help me toknow just what you’re thinking.”

“Thought you could read my mind?”she sniffed, staring ahead at the unfoldingroad, a snide reference to the time when Gwendolen  had   ‘spiked’   him  with

information about the Pennykettle family, to wake him from a mind-blanking spell that Zanna had cast.

“Memories,” he said. “I’ve got nothing more than memories. I have a journalist’s intuition, but I’m not telepathic.”

“Hmph,” she went, and drew in her lips. “How did you do that thing with the horse?”

“Ah,” he said. “Well, that’s down to

David.”

“Your ‘pal’.”

“My…well, I don’t know what he is, really. After he came to my rescue on Farlowe, I just seemed to qualify as part of the… ”

“Clan?”

“Team.”

“There’s a difference?”

“I’d say so.
 
I
 
don’t have dragon auma running through my veins.”

“You’ve   got
 
something
,” she said, remembering Zanna’s description of the way he’d dispatched the raven on North Walk. “If you want me to trust you,
 
you’d
 
better talk.”

The Range Rover flashed past a blueparking sign. Tam signalled and pulledover into a lay-by. He yanked on the brakebut left the engine running. “OK, you’vehad some experience with polar bears,haven’t you?”

“I’ve talked to them,” she said,somewhat smugly.

He turned his dark brown eyes on her.

“You’re not a bear,” she said, with a

condescending cluck. All the same, his gaze made her shudder.

“Not the way David is – or can be,” he said. “But ever since I met him, I have been able to call upon the auma of two of them.” He turned up his palms.

Lucy shrivelled back slightly as their faces appeared like watery reflections under his skin.

“This is Avrel, the Teller of Ways,” he said, flexing his left hand until the image rippled. “And this is Kailar, a fighting bear, on the right. He’s the one who doesn’t like ravens.”

Lucy wrinkled her nose and gulped. “Next time I have a Halloween party,remind me to invite you.”

He went back to the wheel, let the

clutch in and drove on. They had travelled half a mile before he asked, “Are you shocked?”

She shook her head.

He looked over, making her catch hisgaze. Eventually, she spoke again. “Ifyou’ve got a Teller’s  auma inside you, thatmeans you’ve got the legends of the Arcticin your head.”

“Pretty much. Why? Do you want tohear a story?”

“Tell  me  about  the  last  twelve

dragons,” she said.

“I can do better than that.” Keeping a careful eye on the road, he reached over to the back seat, pulled a bag forward and dropped it in her lap. “There’s a copy of the latest
 
Endeavour
 
in there. You’ll find

a full translation of the writings Anders Bergstrom discovered on the Hella glacier in 1913.”

Lucy rested her fingers on the bag as ifshe’d just found the Holy Grail. “I heard Mum and Arthur discussing this. Shedidn’t want to tell me. It’s bad, isn’t it?”

“It’s history,” said Tam. “Your history. Open it.”

Doing her best to remain poised, Lucyundid the buckles and drew out the

magazine. On the cover was a stunning close-up of a dragon’s eye. “I’ve seen this before,” she said.

“The cover image?”

“Yes.”

“I   doubt   it.   The   artwork  was

commissioned entirely in-house.”

Lucy moved her head from side to side. “Next time you come to our kitchen, lookon the wall above the  worktop. Alexadrew this. The same triangular-shapedeye, with three extensions like a comet’stail at the back. Even the scales are the

same shade of green, all arranged like overlapping roof slates. I’m telling you, Alexa
 
drew
 
this.”

Tam shrugged. “Well, she is David’skid. Go on, take a look. The whole editionis dedicated to the Hella findings. Thereare lots of maps and expedition pieces,plus digital reproductions of all of Bergstrom’s original photographs. The bityou’ll want is the centre spread.”

Lucy flipped to it. In a scripted fontagainst a backdrop of stone, to give the

impression   that   you   were   reading something off a cave wall, were two spreads of patchy writing.

“There are two translations,” Tam informed her, pulling in to give a clanking farm vehicle room to roll past. “The one you’re looking at is based on the exact photographic evidence with no further interpretation from Steiner. It’s been laid out to match the way the original marks were burned into the stone. It’s quite difficult to make sense of because it’s not

laid down in anything we’d recognise as a structured system. Steiner is confident it’s the work of one dragon, because the shapes and strengths of the inflections are consistent. He’s written a pretty dense article about how he thinks it  should be