Astounded, he watched as Lief moved forward, one hand on the amethyst, one hand outstretched.
The dragon’s eyes seemed to widen as Lief drew closer. Slowly its neck bent, until its head was resting on the sand.
And as Lief’s outstretched hand touched the cold, grey ridge of bone above its eyes, the eyes closed, and the dragon gave a great, shuddering sigh.
‘You have almost been the death of me, king,’ it murmured. ‘Often, in my suffering, I have cursed you in my mind, I confess it. But you have come at last. Now I can only hope that you are not too late.’
Hours passed before the dragon spoke again. Lief remained by its side, his hand upon its brow.
Slowly, as the amethyst worked its magic, the dull grey of the dragon’s scales changed to mauve, then to purple. Slowly the spines beside its jaws stiffened, and its snarling jaws relaxed. Every now and then it struggled, as if trying to free itself. But still only its head and part of its neck were visible above the sand.
At last its eyes opened. Lief saw that they were no longer dull, but gleaming like pale violets.
‘You are better,’ he said.
The dragon snorted faintly. ‘I am better than I was,’ it said. ‘But that is not saying a great deal. Now I know what it is to be as weak as prey. It is not enjoyable.’
‘No, it is not,’ Lief agreed.
He hesitated, then decided to take a risk.
‘What happened to you?’ he asked abruptly. ‘How did you come to be so near death when we found you?’
‘HOW?’ thundered the dragon, lifting its head. Lief and Barda shrank back. The dragon coughed, and lowered its head to the sand again.
‘I felt you in my land,’ it said. ‘I felt the amethyst call me, from far away. It was just as Dragonfriend had said it would be. My oath to him swam into my dreams, and I awoke in my hiding place beneath the sand.’
The scales on his head and neck seemed to quiver.
‘But the dune had grown since first I buried myself within it,’ it went on. ‘The sand was heavy and I was weak with hunger. I began to struggle upward—then, suddenly, you were gone and I was left stranded, without the strength to free myself.’
Its eyes burned reproachfully.
‘Just after we crossed your border, we were swept out to sea, through no fault of our own,’ Lief said.
‘It was the Shadow Lord’s doing,’ Barda put in fiercely, as the dragon gave a low growl. ‘We nearly died ourselves, as a result of it, dragon. And it is as well you know it!’
The dragon barely glanced at him. ‘Dragonfriend said that I would wake at your coming,’ it said to Lief. ‘He did not say I might die in the attempt.’
‘Dragonfriend—Doran—believed, I think, that if the Belt of Deltora was worn constantly by Adin’s heir once more, this would mean that the Shadow Lord had been destroyed,’ Lief said reluctantly. ‘But, sadly, this is not so. Deltora is free, and the seven Ak-Baba no longer patrol our skies. But the Shadow Lord is still powerful. Even in exile, he tries to destroy us.’
‘Ah!’ The dragon nodded its great head. ‘Yes. And—I seem to remember that I thought this would be so. I seem to remember telling Dragonfriend that the Enemy would never give in.’
Its mouth twitched. ‘But, of course, Dragonfriend would not listen. Dragonfriend was fiery and impatient. He was intent upon his plan, and did not want to hear objections.’
‘He wanted to save you,’ Lief said quietly, then recoiled as the beast’s eyes flashed.
‘Do not think you have to make excuses for Dragonfriend to me, young king!’ the dragon hissed. ‘Dragonfriend was the best of his kind! He had the heart of a dragon, and he was my true friend. But only fools refuse to see the faults in those they love.’
Lief swallowed, and nodded, feeling young and clumsy.
Slowly the spark of anger faded from the dragon’s eyes.
‘Dragonfriend is dead, no doubt,’ it said, after a moment. ‘If he was alive, he would have come with you, to find me. And the weight of sand I feel upon me tells me that many years have passed since we said our farewells.’
‘Yes,’ Lief said awkwardly. ‘I am sorry.’
‘Ah.’ The dragon grew very still. ‘And are his bones shut up in some grim place of honour in a human city? Or do they lie beneath a mossy stone in a wild place, as he always hoped they would?’
Lief hesitated. He saw Barda open his mouth to speak, and shot him a warning look.
The dragon was weak, and grieving. Now was not the time to add to its burdens. He did not want it to know that Doran had not been honoured, but had been thought mad by all his people at the last. He did not want it to know that its friend had died in a frantic, doomed search for proof of the Four Sisters—and died, horribly, no doubt, at the Shadow Lord’s hands.
The upstart has the fate he deserves…
Lief’s stomach churned at the memory of that cold voice hissing from the dying crystal on the forge in Del.
‘We do not know where Doran lies,’ he said at last. ‘He never returned from—from his last adventure.’
The dragon nodded without surprise. ‘Then, in a way, his wish was granted,’ it said.
It tilted its head and looked at the sky. ‘It is strange to think of a world without Dragonfriend in it. Strange and lonely, for after the last of my tribe was gone, he was the only friend of my heart.’
Sighing, it lowered its head on the sand once more. ‘But I will see him, very soon, and hear his laughter, where my ancestors fly above the wind,’ it murmured. ‘He will be with them, I am sure, for he always said that dragons were more his kin than those of his own kind.’
‘But—but what do you mean?’ Lief exclaimed.
The dragon looked at him with what seemed to be surprise. ‘I am dying,’ it said simply. ‘Do you not understand? You came too late, king of Deltora. Even the amethyst cannot help me now, it seems. I thought perhaps… but it is no good. My time of struggle was too long. I cannot find the strength to free myself, and so my place of refuge will become my tomb.’
‘Do not say that!’ Lief cried.
‘Why?’ the dragon asked. ‘It is the truth.’
‘But you have been imprisoned only for a single night, dragon!’ said Barda, in the tone he might use to encourage exhausted troops. ‘Surely you are not so feeble!’
The dragon’s eyes slid in his direction for the briefest of moments, then moved back to Lief. ‘Your friend’s ordeal in the sea has addled his brains,’ it said. ‘Does he—?’
Abruptly it broke off. It lifted its head, and its forked tongue flickered in and out, tasting the air.
‘Arm yourself, king!’ it muttered. ‘We are invaded.’
12 – Surprises
Lief and Barda crawled up the side of the dune and peered cautiously over the top. They were staring straight into the sun, but they could see, shimmering in the distance, a long, wavering shape.
The shape was approaching fast—very fast. Its centre was dark, but at each end, bright colours flapped like wings.
Then Lief’s dazzled eyes suddenly made sense of what they were seeing. The shape separated into five separate shapes—five figures, hand in hand.
The figures at each end wore long, flowing robes—one scarlet, one blue. Of the others, one was tall and dark, another a small blur of blue-grey, and the one in the middle…
Lief stared in disbelief. His heart gave a great thud. The next moment, he was scrambling to his feet, shouting, waving both arms wildly above his head.
Barda was roaring and waving beside him, but Lief was hardly aware of it. Dizzy with joy, he had eyes only for the black-haired girl in the centre of the shimmering line, and ears only for her thin, distant cries floating to him over the sand.