‘Excellent!’ the dragon exclaimed, inspecting its claws one by one. ‘Before we leave, I will snatch a hasty meal in the Shifting Sands. It is not far, as the dragon flies, and no doubt Sand Beasts still thrive there. Ah, I well remember how they crunch between the teeth. Delightful!’
Lief exchanged glances with Jasmine and Steven. He cleared his throat.
‘I fear you cannot come with us to find the Sister of the North,’ he said. ‘It is deep in the territory of the emerald, in a place called Shadowgate.’
The dragon seemed to frown. ‘Indeed?’ it said. ‘We are very near the emerald border here, as it happens. But surely it will still take you quite a time to reach this Shadowgate?’
‘Yes, it will,’ Lief admitted ruefully.
The dragon was still looking at its claws. ‘Certainly, before I slept, I promised not to stray from my own territory,’ it murmured. ‘But surely Dragonfriend did not mean this to prevent me from aiding the king who awoke me.’
It looked up, straight into Lief’s eyes. ‘Especially if the king should ask me to aid him,’ it added.
Lief’s heart gave a great thump. ‘You would carry us to Shadowgate?’ he asked. ‘But what of the emerald dragon?’
‘What of it?’ The lapis-lazuli dragon yawned. ‘It may be dead, for all we know. Its territory was infested with the Enemy’s creatures. Any one of them would have destroyed it, if they found it sleeping.’
It sounded quite pleased at the thought.
‘So,’ it went on, its eyes sparkling. ‘Good fortune brought us together, king. And you should never turn your back on your luck. Do you ask me to break my vow, and take you to Shadowgate?’
Lief took a deep breath. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I do.’
15 – The Pass
And so, for the second time, Lief, Barda and Jasmine flew with a dragon. But this time was very different from the first.
It was not just that this time they were flying with a dragon who sang merrily as it flew. Or that this dragon seemed to glide through the air like a shooting star, with barely a beat of its wings.
It was not just that this dragon knew exactly where it was going because, unlike the dragon of the ruby, it prided itself on having learned about maps from the man it called Dragonfriend.
It was because, this time, they were not beginning a journey, but hurtling towards a journey’s end. Mingled with their thoughts about what might be ahead were their thoughts of what had passed—thoughts they did not wish to share.
Barda was cursing himself for allowing the Masked Ones to overpower him, when he caught up with them on the road to Purley. As a result of that failure, he had been useless to his companions just when they needed him most.
He scowled as he remembered waking in the caravan, with no idea where he was or what was happening. Kree had just arrived, and was screeching angrily at Steven’s horse. Filli was chattering in his ear. His companions were nowhere to be seen. He had gone in search of them, but by the time he reached the waterfall, all the excitement was over.
Steven had filled his place admirably, of course. Without Steven, the quest would have ended in disaster.
But now, thought Barda, Steven is back in the caravan with Zerry and I am flying to Shadowgate. All is as it should be. I will not fail again.
Jasmine was thinking of the horses yoked to Laughing Jack’s wagon. She was bitterly regretting that she had not been able to release them.
She had tried. If she had had more time, she could have done it. But Lief had called and she had run to him, leaving the horses to their fate.
Should she tell her companions the terrible thing that she had discovered as she followed Lief past the wagon after their fruitless effort to find the Belt?
No, she thought, hugging Filli and Kree closer, drawing comfort from their warmth. I must keep it to myself. Why grieve Lief and Barda to no purpose? Nothing can be done about it now.
Lief was fighting waking nightmares.
Again and again he relived the moment when the mask of Bede’s adulthood settled over his face. Again and again he saw the Happy Vale noticeboard, its sad main message surrounded by the notes that Laughing Jack had left for Fern.
Again and again he saw the dread black shape rising above Otto’s wagon, the green gleam that was its face, the smooth white fingers oozing back into its robes. Again and again he saw the Shadow Lord’s brand burning on Fern’s tortured face, and heard those last, whispered words.
Beware the Masked One…
He shook his head. Why could he not clear his mind of these things? They were in the past, and could not harm him now.
Bess was dead. Fern was dead. Laughing Jack had fled. And whoever had conjured up the deadly phantom was in the camp of the Masked Ones, far away. Further away every moment, as the lapis-lazuli dragon sped through the dawn, following the line of the mountains towards their goal.
But instead of fading, the visions were growing brighter. The feeling of something left undone, something not understood, was strengthening. The whispered warning was hissing more loudly in his ears.
Beware the Masked One…
And now another sound was mingling with the memory of Fern’s dying breath. A faint, ringing tune—
four notes, repeated again and again, like a bird call, or the chiming of bells.
The Happy Vale clock, no doubt, Lief thought. The chime that comes before the striking of the hour.
His skin prickled, and he shut the sweet notes out of his mind. But always they returned, calling him.
The sky was still dark when the dragon landed, in a dreary place of rock and dead, twisted trees.
The mountains rose all around them, black and brutal, capped with snow. Thick grey clouds smothered the rising sun. A chill wind moaned through the cliffs, bringing with it the howls of distant beasts.
Lief, Barda and Jasmine slid to the ground, and stood shivering in the gloom.
‘This is the place,’ said the dragon. ‘Or very near it.’
It glanced over its shoulder, and its skin twitched. Its eyes were no longer sparkling, but dull as stones.
‘There is a small village through there,’ it muttered, jerking its head towards a gap between two cliffs. ‘I saw it from the air. It has a wall of sticks around it. I saw humans creeping about within, like sick mice in a cage. And beyond it, I saw… other things.’
It shuddered.
Bess’s voice seemed to whisper in Lief’s mind.
There are beasts, deep in the mountains. Monsters beyond imagining. Things that crawl in the shadows. Things that growl deep below the rock… Shadowgate lies among them.
Lief drew his sword. He heard Barda do the same. He heard Jasmine murmur to Kree, and the clatter of wings as Kree took to the air.
The raw patches on his face stung in the icy wind. The four notes of music rang in his ears. Louder now. And again came the whisper…
Beware the Masked One…
He felt like screaming to drown out the sounds.
Will I never be free of this? he thought desperately. Did that cursed mask change me forever?
The dragon shifted its feet. ‘What will you do?’ it asked. Grimly, Lief noted that it had not said ‘we’.
‘We will go to the village,’ he said. ‘It is the village of Shadowgate. You can guide us from there.’
Silently Barda and Jasmine came up beside him. Together they moved towards the gap. The dragon shuffled behind them, its tail rasping on the rock, its claws scrabbling.
The gap was long and straight, and broader than it had looked from a distance. The cliffs that towered on either side of it were pitted with holes and caves. The wind howled through it like a lost soul. And they could hear other sounds—growls, scratchings and chitterings, from deep within the rock.