The Administrator looked at Chappie. “You’re that talking dog? The original? I thought you were just a descendant.”
“Rube,” said Chappie, not unkindly. “There’s only ever been one dog like me. I’m not sure the world’s ready for another. I could have stayed with Allen Chance, Questor to Queen Felicity of the Forest Land; but after his wife, Tiffany, started pumping out kids like a steam hammer, they didn’t have time for me anymore. So I made my way here and joined up with these two. They’re always fun.”
Hawk smiled down at the dog. “That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said about us.”
“Don’t get used to it,” growled the dog.
The Administrator considered the dog thoughtfully. “All right,” he said finally. “How?”
The dog shrugged. “I was raised by the High Warlock, in his Tower With No Doors. You hang around a crazy magician long enough, you soak up a load of crazy magic. I don’t just talk, you know! I am wise and wonderful and death on four legs! And I can eat anything.”
“And you do,” said Fisher.
“I may not be quite as fast as I used to be,” said Chappie. “Unlike the Rainbow divers over there, I have aged. Gradually. Though on me it looks good. Distinguished.”
“How long are you going to be gone?” said Roland the Headless Axeman. Possibly in self-defence.
“As long as it takes,” said Hawk. “We have a long way to go, and a lot to do when we get there.”
“You’re going back to the Forest Land?” said the Administrator. “Why? And why now?”
“Unfinished business,” said Fisher.
“Right,” growled Chappie.
Hawk looked steadily at Roland and the Administrator. “Guard the Academy while we’re gone. Protect the students. As far as the staff are concerned . . . tell them we’re on a sabbatical. And we’ll be back when we can.”
“Or at least somebody very like us will be back,” said Fisher.
They turned away to start their long journey, and then stopped as the Administrator cried out after them. They looked back. The Administrator tried to smile. His eyes were full of tears.
“I just wanted to say . . . Thank you, Prince Rupert, Princess Julia. For all you did, and for all you suffered, on our behalf. Thank you.”
“I’ll go along with that,” said Roland. “Thank you, for everything.”
“You’re welcome,” said Hawk.
“But don’t believe everything you hear in the songs and stories,” said Fisher.
• • •
And so Hawk and Fisher and Chappie the dog walked out of the Dutchy of Lancre, striding across the miles of featureless plain, leaving their new lives behind them. Heading back into their past, if only partway. They knew they had to return—the Demon Prince’s threat to their grandchildren had seen to that—but they had already decided they were going back as Hawk and Fisher, not Rupert and Julia. The sudden reappearance of two such legendary figures would have raised far too many questions, and complicated an already dangerous situation. And besides, they’d heard most of the myths and legends that had grown up around their time in the Demon War, and they couldn’t help feeling they’d be such a disappointment in the flesh.
They headed straight for the DragonsBack mountain ridges, which formed the boundary between Lancre and the Forest Land. Eventually they left the bleak plain behind them and hit the steep grey mountain slopes with youthful strength and vigour. They were enjoying being their true selves again. Hawk and Fisher chatted easily as they strode briskly up the steep slopes, jumping crevices and hauling themselves up and over rocky outcroppings, occasionally pausing to point out to each other pleasant sights and landmarks they remembered from more than seventy years ago, when they descended the DragonsBack the first time.
All too soon it became hard going, with a cold, blustering wind plucking at their clothes like a sick child, and occasionally beating at their heads and shoulders like a school bully. They clung grimly to boulders and hugged the side of the mountain with all their strength. Chappie was secretly glad of the stops and starts. He didn’t have their youthful energy, though he was damned if he’d admit it. The jagged grey slopes of the DragonsBack were utterly devoid of life—no birds or beasts, no flowers, not even a scrap of moss or lichen anywhere. Hawk and Fisher were barely halfway up the mountain when they stopped to look back. The plain stretched away for miles and miles, and even the Millennium Oak itself seemed a small and distant thing now. Chappie threw himself down at their feet, breathing hard.
“Bounding along like a pair of bloody mountain goats!” he said loudly. “It’s not natural! Or safe. One missed hand- or foothold, and you’d bounce all the way back down to the plain again. And somebody had better have brought a packed lunch, or at the very least some trail food! I am getting quite dangerously peckish . . .”
“Hush, Chappie,” said Hawk, stepping out onto a precarious flat ledge so he could take a good look around him.
“Hush, hell!” growled the dog. “Muscles like mine need refuelling on a regular basis.”
“Our food supply is strictly limited,” said Fisher. “So you’ll just have to develop some self-control, won’t you?”
“Self-control? I’m a dog! If I get hungry enough, I will eat you!” He slumped down flat, resting his great head on his outstretched paws. “I notice we’ve stopped heading for the summit. That we have in fact been going sideways for some time now. You’re looking for something, aren’t you? What is it? A trail? Some secret shortcut through the mountain range, and out the other side?”
“Something like that,” said Fisher. Her gaze moved slowly, carefully, across the great grey sweep of mountainside, with its jagged ridges and great falls and dozens of gaping dark cave mouths. “We are looking for one particular cave, one we haven’t been back to in many years . . .”
Chappie raised his great head and looked around him nervously. “DragonsBack mountains . . . Not a name to inspire confidence, or peace of mind. I really don’t like this place. Some say this is where all the old dragons came to die, when they realised their kind was finally going out of the world. They each just picked a cave, curled up, and let go of life. You won’t see me doing that . . . I’ll go kicking and screaming all the way when my time comes. Some say it’s the strength of all these dead dragons that holds these mountains up. Helps them endure. And that the dragons’ ghosts are still here, haunting the DragonsBack, and that’s why no one ever wants to climb them.”
Hawk looked at him amusedly. “You’re not scared of ghosts, are you?”
“Of course I’m scared! You can’t bite a ghost! Besides, our lives have been far too full of people, and some things not even people, coming back to life after they were supposed to be safely dead!” Chappie brightened suddenly. “Though if there are dragons here, they wouldn’t be much more than bones by now. I don’t know any dog who’s chewed on an actual dragon bone . . .”
He scrambled up onto his feet again, as he realised neither of them was listening to him. They were both staring at a particularly large and especially dark cave mouth, farther along the mountain ridge. Chappie sniffed at the air gusting his way, and scowled suddenly.
“Okay, I am picking up traces of a scent I really don’t like.”
“That’s the one,” said Hawk, pointing at the cave mouth.
“Yes,” said Fisher. “It is.”
“It would be,” said Chappie. “No good will come of this. You mark my words.”
But he still followed them along the precarious side of the mountain as they headed straight for the mouth of the cave.
• • •
The surface beneath their feet grew increasingly treacherous, with loose rocks that just gave away when stepped on and fields of shifting scree, tiny rocks that moved like water and did their best to carry Hawk and Fisher out and over the edge, while the cold wind blasted and beat at them unmercifully. But Hawk and Fisher picked their way carefully across the slope with calm, thoughtful skill, while Chappie br
ought up the rear, leaping and scrambling and cursing them both under his breath. He was never in any real danger, but he had no intention of being taken for granted. Finally, they all ended up before the great cave mouth, a massive hole set well back into the mountainside. They stood and stared into the darkness, and the darkness stared back at them. The entranceway on its own was big enough to drive a carriage through and not even come close to touching the sides.
“Do you think there are bats?” said Chappie. “Don’t like bats.”
“No bats,” said Hawk. “Not where we’re going.”
Fisher produced a salamander ball from her backpack and shook it hard. A fierce golden light blazed between her fingers as she held the ball up, pushing back the dark, so they could all see a great cavern leading back into the depths of the mountain. Hawk and Fisher stood very still.
“It’s going to be dark in there,” said Hawk. “I mean, really dark.”
“We’ll manage,” said Fisher. “We did last time.”
“I wish we could have afforded more than just the one salamander ball,” said Hawk.
“They’re expensive,” said Fisher. “But then, you only get two to a salamander.”
They shared a smile. They could stand the dark when they were together.
“What is that smell?” said Chappie. “I’m getting sulphur, and metals and mushrooms, and something so potent it’s raising all the hairs on my back. Which I am here to tell you is a very uncomfortable experience. I’ve never smelled anything like this . . . I don’t like it.”
“You could stay here till we come out, if you like,” said Hawk. “But trust me on this: there is something in there you’re really going to want to see.”
“But, Chappie,” said Fisher, “when we get where we’re going and find what we’re looking for . . . whatever you do, don’t run.”
“You are not making me feel any better,” said Chappie.
Hawk and Fisher strode into the cavern mouth, with Chappie padding nervously along after them. Fisher held the salamander ball high, spreading the light as far as it would go. Hawk’s hand hung down by his axe, but he didn’t touch it. He had his pride. He made a point of leading the way into the dark. It was a hundred years since he’d first entered the Darkwood, but all the Wild Magics and all the Rainbow’s blessing hadn’t been enough to remove its touch. He was scared of the dark, and always would be. He just didn’t let it stop him. He picked his way carefully forward, across the rubble-strewn cave floor, as the first cavern opened up into a much larger cavern, just as he remembered.
The great open space grew larger all the time, rising up and spreading out into a massive cathedral of stone, with golden veins running through the walls. They shone brightly in the salamander light. Soon enough there were wide mats of phosphorescent fungi, clinging to the walls and ceiling, glowing every colour you could think of. They could all see quite clearly now, and didn’t need the salamander ball, but Fisher wouldn’t put it away. She wasn’t the trusting type. They pressed on, into the immense high-ceilinged cavern, heading deep into the heart of the mountain. Huge stalactites hung down from the ceiling, like so many jagged teeth in a stone mouth, while moss-smeared stalagmites thrust up from the cavern floor, many of them taller than Hawk and Fisher. Chappie made a point of pissing on several, just on general principles. Hawk and Fisher stared about them in open awe and wonder at this huge natural amphitheatre that no other human being had ever seen. It appeared even bigger than they remembered. Their every footstep seemed to echo forever.
Chappie didn’t like any of it. This was an old place. He could tell. Older than any of the human Kingdoms. And he was becoming increasingly sure that they weren’t alone in the cavern, and that Hawk and Fisher knew that. Had always known it. That . . . was why they were here.
They finally rounded a sudden corner and found their way blocked by a huge dark green wall that rose up to fill the side tunnel from floor to ceiling. Hawk and Fisher stopped and smiled at each other. Chappie eased carefully up to the green wall, gave it a good sniff, and then retreated rapidly with his tail tucked between his legs.
“That’s it! That’s what I’ve been smelling all along! It’s alive . . . and it’s big, I mean really big, so big I can’t even get my head around how big it is!”
“Will you calm down?” said Hawk. “It’s not that big. There’s nothing here to be scared of.” He knelt down beside Chappie and hugged him round the neck till the dog stopped shaking. “Do you really think I would walk you into danger, in the dark, for no good reason? This is a friend, Chappie.”
“An old friend,” said Fisher.
“Well,” said Chappie, “if you say so.”
Hawk let go of the old dog, rubbed the animal’s head briskly and pulled at his ears, and then stepped forward and addressed the great green wall in a loud and carrying voice.
“Dragon! Time to wake up!”
His voice rose up and up through the great cavern, riding on the echoes, seeming to strengthen all the time, rather than fade away. And the great green wall shifted, slowly. Hawk and Fisher clasped hands, both of them grinning broadly. Chappie hid behind them. Hawk laughed aloud as the wall slowly turned and uncurled, and a great green-scaled face appeared in the side tunnel mouth. The blunt bony head moved forward on an extended neck, emerald green scales gleaming in the light, and huge golden eyes opened unhurriedly. Hawk and Fisher and Chappie backed quickly away as the dragon came out of its den. It was thirty feet and more in length, with sweeping membranous wings that wrapped around the creature like a ribbed green cloak, clasped together at the chest by wickedly clawed hands. A long spiked tail swept back and forth in the background gloom. The dragon smiled on them all, showing dozens of very sharp teeth.
“Rupert,” said the dragon, in a deep, booming voice that filled the cavern and rattled everyone’s bones. “And Julia. My dear, dear friends. I always knew I’d meet you again.” He looked past them, at Chappie. “And you’ve brought me a waking-up snack! How thoughtful!”
Chappie was immediately out from behind Hawk and Fisher, glaring up at the dragon and showing his teeth. “I am not a snack! I am their companion! Hawk, tell this oversized gecko that I am not a snack!”
“He’s not a snack,” Hawk said solemnly. “He’s with us, Dragon. Please don’t eat him. No matter how irritating he gets. And these days I am called Hawk, and this is Fisher.”
The dragon nodded slowly. “Names,” he said. “Dragons don’t need names. We know who we are. How long have I slept? How much time has passed since we faced the Demon Prince in his place of power?”
“A hundred years,” said Hawk.
The dragon looked at him, and then at Fisher. “You’ve aged well, for humans.”
“You look tremendous!” said Fisher, still grinning.
“Just shows you the benefits of a good long nap,” said the dragon.
Fisher laughed aloud and ran forward to throw her arms around the dragon’s neck and hug him tightly, pressing her face against his smooth green scales.
“Oh, Dragon! I’ve missed you so much . . .”
“Hold everything, go previous,” Chappie said sternly. “Let me get this straight. This is the actual dragon who fought beside you in the Demon War? The one in all the myths and legends? The one who did all those amazing things? All right, none of them can agree on exactly what they might have been, but . . . wow. Just wow! An honour to meet you, sir Dragon. Please don’t eat me. I’d be very bad for you.”
“An honour to meet you, sir Dog,” said the dragon. “You must be special too, to be in the company of Hawk and Fisher.”
“So,” said Chappie, looking at Hawk and Fisher, “if this dragon’s still around, does that mean there are other dragons here? Sleeping in the caves of the DragonsBack ridge? Just waiting to be awakened?”
“I’m not sure,” said the dragon.
“What?” said Hawk.
“You never said there were other dragons, when we brought you here!” said Fisher.
Chappie looked accusingly at Hawk and Fisher. “He . . . is supposed to be dead! You said so, way back when! It’s one of the few things all the songs and stories agree on!”
“Never trust a minstrel,” said Hawk. “No, he never died. Came bloody close, but the Rainbow brought him back from the edge. We just said he died so no one would disturb him while he slept and healed. He knew it would take years, maybe even decades, to get all his strength back. And you are looking good, Dragon. How do you feel?”
“Young,” said the dragon. “I feel young again!”
“We’re heading back to the Forest Land,” said Fisher. “We’d really like it if you could come with us.”
“Of course,” said the dragon. He paused for a moment. “It’s the Demon Prince, isn’t it? He’s back. That’s why you have awakened me.”
Fisher stopped hugging his neck and stood back, staring steadily into the glowing golden eyes. “Are you really healed, Dragon? I won’t take you out of here if you’re not ready.”
The dragon put his huge face right in front of Fisher’s. “Julia, I’m ready. What is it you need from me?”
“We need you to fly us across the Forest Land,” said Hawk. “We’ve a lot of ground to cover, and not much time to do it in. First we have to find our children, Jack and Gillian. And then their children, Mercy and Nathanial. The Demon Prince threatened them.”
“Children and grandchildren,” said the dragon. “I have been asleep a long time.”
“Fly?” said Chappie ominously. “No one said anything about flying! I’m not getting on that thing. He doesn’t even have safety straps!”
“I could always carry you in my mouth,” said the dragon.
“Right,” said Chappie. “I am leaving now. Try to keep up.”
“You’ll love flying on his back!” said Hawk. “I’ve done it lots of times. It’s a life-changing experience.”
Once In a Blue Moon Page 20