by Kate Forsyth
‘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.
CHAPTER SEVEN
The rug came down to the ground with a thump, and the boys were all flung off. Ben rolled over something hard and knobbly, like pebbles and rocks, and banged up against a wall. Cautiously he opened his eyes.
It was pitch-black, and stinking hot. Slowly a smoky-red light flared up, along with a low rumbling roaring sound. Ben looked about him anxiously. They were in a huge cave, so enormous he could not see the far walls. Above him was a great vault of shadows. Gradually the red light and the rumbling sound faded away again. It was hard not to feel scared as the darkness fell down like a hot, heavy blanket. He sat really still, then slowly the light came back again, the air smelling smokier than ever, stinging his eyes.
He gasped in surprise. He was sitting on a simply gigantic mound of treasure. Gold cups and crowns, jewelled sceptres, sparkling bracelets, necklaces of rubies and emeralds and opals and sapphires, shining golden plates and jugs, and trillions and zillions of coins and jewels rolled away in golden hills and mountains as far as the eye could see.
Ben scrambled to his feet, leaning his hand against the wall to balance himself. It was burning hot to touch. He snatched his hand away, almost overbalancing as the treasure slid from under his feet. Then the light faded again and he could see nothing but fizzling darkness, no matter how wide-open he stretched his eyes. So, tentatively, Ben groped out and touched the hot wall. It throbbed under his hand. Ben felt very uneasy. The roaring sounds, which rose and fell so steadily, suddenly sounded a lot like snoring.
‘Don’t be silly,’ Ben said to himself.
The smoky-red light brightened the cave again. Ben was able to see the wall, which curved away from him on either side. Towering over him, it was the same golden colour as the treasure, and made of hundreds of huge overlapping scales, like a snake’s skin. Ben’s heart beat hard and fast. He took a shaky step away, craning his neck to get a better look. The wall was topped with huge spikes that grew smaller as they curved down and round into a long snaky neck. At the end of the neck was a huge dragon’s head, with slitted eyes, gaping nostrils and three horns.
Ben screeched and jumped away.
He had been leaning up against the dragon’s back!
As big as a jumbo jet, the dragon was as comfortably asleep as if it lay on pillows instead of hard, knobbly treasure. Every time it snored, flames flickered out from between its spear-like teeth, and tendrils of smoke curled up from the black pits of its nostrils. A grey cloud of smoke hung over its head like a fuzzy halo.
Ben looked across at James and Tim, who were staring at the dragon like hypnotised mice.
‘Sshh! Don’t wake it up,’ Ben whispered. ‘Let’s find Sarah and get out of here.’
‘I hope the dragon hasn’t eaten her,’ James whispered back.
‘Me too,’ Tim and Ben said together.
The dragon stirred and sighed, sending out a big gust of flame. The shadowy stretches of the cavern were lit up with that eye-smarting red light. To his amazement, Ben saw an old wooden ship lying wrecked on a great hill of treasure on the far side of the dragon.
‘A pirate ship,’ he whispered in delight.
The ship looked as if it was sailing away on waves glittering with the last rays of the setting sun. Except its mast was broken, its boards were rotten, and the shining ocean was made of gold and jewels.
Then the dragon breathed in and the darkness fell again, hiding the pirate ship once more. The boys all froze, too scared to move. They waited until the dragon snored out its gust of flames and they could see again before slowly scrabbling towards the ship. Coins and jewels tumbled away at every step, ringing out like dropped bells.
Then Ben saw the bones, gleaming palely through the haze of smoke. His heart shrank and grew cold.
CHAPTER EIGHT
A long table set with golden plates and goblets and candelabras stood near the dragon’s snaky tail. Skeletons sat all round it, grinning into the darkness.
Ben had never seen a real skeleton before. He stared at them, feeling rather peculiar in the tummy. He had not realised how scary they were. He glanced at James, who looked as sick as he felt.
‘None of them are Sarah,’ Ben said comfortingly.
‘You sure?’
Ben nodded. ‘They’re the pirates, I bet. I wonder how they ended up here.’
‘Maybe the dragon ate them all?’
‘They wouldn’t be skeletons then, they’d just be a pile of bones.’
‘Yuk,’ James said.
The red light sank away into darkness again, unnerving them all. No-one wanted to be near the skeletons in the dark. They scrambled away hurriedly, sending treasure tumbling down, rattling and banging.
‘Sshh!’ Ben shushed.
The dragon breathed out a great gust of flames and Ben glanced at it nervously. Then he grabbed James’s arm and pointed. Something rather odd stood in the curve of the dragon’s body, protected by its sharp hind claws. It was a little white bed with a pink patchwork quilt.
‘Do you think . . . ?’ he whispered.
They began to slip and slide across the mounds of treasure, keeping as quiet as they could. The flying carpet floated along behind them, undulating slightly in every gust of the dragon’s fiery breath.
Tim scrambled after it, laughing and pointing, and sending gold plates and cups clattering down.
‘Be quiet, Timmy, please!’ Ben begged.
Tim opened his blue eyes very wide and nodded, trying to tiptoe. More treasure crashed and rolled away under his feet.
The bed was piled high with pink flowered cushions and pillows. Fast asleep in the midst of all this pink was Sarah, a real diamond tiara on her head. Her arms and fingers were crammed with rings and bracelets, and necklaces hung about her throat. It was a wonder she could sleep so deeply.
For some reason the sight of her made Ben and James feel quite cross. They woke her up none too gently. She sat up, all her necklaces and bracelets clinking. ‘What are you doing here?’ she asked sleepily.
‘We’ve come to rescue you!’ James said angrily.
‘What from?’ she said, stretching and yawning.
‘From the dragon!’ Ben said.
‘Oh, I don’t need rescuing,’ Sarah said. ‘There’s no need to be scared of the dragon. He’s a great big pussycat. Look at all the presents he’s given me.’ Sarah waved her jewelled hands around, showing them an array of golden-haired dolls, and a number of pink and white silk dresses hanging in a gilded white wardrobe. Beside the bed was a silver table with a plate of little pink iced cakes and a crystal jug of strawberry milk on it. Sarah loved strawberry milk.
‘He thinks I’m a real princess,’ Sarah went on. ‘He wants to adopt me and keep me here. He’s lonely, poor darling.’
‘He can’t adopt you, you’ve already got a family,’ James cried indignantly.
‘Oh, I know,’ Sarah said. ‘But it’s been rather fun pretending I really am a princess, at least until I convince him to take me home. If I hadn’t, he might have eaten me, you know. I’m sure he wouldn’t have been so nice to me if I had told him I was just an ordinary girl, and not a princess at all.’
‘You mean you are not a princess?’ a huge, deep, gruff voice suddenly boomed out, fiery light blooming all around them. ‘You have been deceiving me?’
CHAPTER NINE
The boys all flung themselves down on the floor, but Sarah just smiled up at the dragon and said, ‘Well, all little girls are princesses, aren’t they?’
The dragon hissed. Sparks shot past them. Everyone’s hair blew back, and the pink eiderdown fluttered madly. Ben took a deep breath and pulled out his magic wand. ‘Leave us alone, else I’ll . . . I’ll turn you into a cane toad!’
The dragon laughed and waved one claw. The wand in Ben’s hand burst into flame. Ben shrieked and dropped it. To his dismay it fell away in a shower of ashes. He looked back up at the dragon and waited to be fried.
The dragon did not flame him, though. It said, quite nicely, ‘Silly little boy. I’ve eaten the most powerful wizards that ever existed. If you weren’t so skinny, I’d probably eat you too.’
For the first time ever, Ben was glad he was skinny.
‘Why have you disturbed my sleep?’ the dragon roared.
‘We had to come and get Sarah back,’ Ben said.
‘Her mum is so upset. And it’s all my fault. Because I said the spell wrong. We never meant for you to come and take her.’
‘I suppose you wanted to steal my treasure?’ the dragon said angrily. With each great gusting breath, flames spurted from its mouth so that shadows leapt and gibbered all round the huge cave. Tim pressed closer to Ben.
‘Well, yes,’ Ben said. ‘But only because I wanted to have enough money to buy a big house with a big garden so I can have a dog. I wasn’t going to take much.’
‘That’s what they all say,’ the dragon complained.
Ben stared at it suspiciously.
‘Stealing my treasure is all anyone ever wants. No-one ever comes to visit me. I’m a perfectly respectable dragon. I really only eat humans occasionally. Contrary to what you imagine, humans are not very tasty. Give me a nice fat elephant any day. Why, you little puny things are just a crunch and a swallow, and then you’re gone. Hardly worth the effort.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Ben said, not sure what else to say.
‘It’s not your fault,’ the dragon said quite kindly. ‘You can’t help being so scrawny. At least you can talk. I get so bored here, guarding my treasure, day after day, century after century. There’s not much to amuse a dragon these days, you know. No dragon slayers to fight with or maidens to steal, no villages to burn. If I get out for a bit of a joy-flight, people just think I’m some kind of new jet fighter and hardly pay me any attention at all.’
‘I can see how boring that would be,’ Ben said politely.
‘Absolutely dreary,’ the dragon said. ‘It has been so pleasant having Princess Sarah here to stay. I really do not think I can allow you to take her.’
‘Except that she’s not really a princess,’ Ben said. ‘She’s just a little girl. And her mum and dad really miss her.’
‘I’d miss her too if she wasn’t around, I suppose,’ James said. ‘She’s not so bad, for a little sister.’
‘Thanks a lot,’ said Sarah, putting her nose in the air. ‘I wish I could say the same about you.’
‘You would all be welcome to stay,’ the dragon said eagerly. ‘I’m sure I would find the four of you quite entertaining, for a while at least. A wizard, a knight, a pirate and a princess should make for some interesting and bloody battles.
’
‘Thank you, but we really can’t stay,’ Ben said nervously. ‘It’s a school day tomorrow.’
The dragon sighed. The gust of hot smoky air made them all cough and wipe their eyes. ‘Don’t worry about me,’ it said unhappily. ‘I’ll just stay here, all by myself, with no-one to talk to. I’ll be fine.’ It lifted one claw and wiped its eyes.
‘Oh, you poor thing,’ Sarah said, reaching up her hand to pat the dragon’s snout. ‘I wish I could stay a little while longer but my mum and dad must be so worried. They won’t know that you’re really a nice dragon, who doesn’t like eating little girls.’
The dragon looked miserable. ‘Well, go on then,’ it said. ‘Go home. Don’t give me a thought. I guess I’ll just have to pretend the pirates are still alive.’
It waved its claw. All the skeletons sitting round the table got up and began to dance a lively hornpipe, jaws clacking. Round and round the skeletons danced, kicking out their white shinbones, snapping their bony fingers, grinning horribly.
Then the dragon waved its claw again, and the skeletons all collapsed back into their chairs.
‘Boring,’ the dragon said. ‘Really, I don’t know why I ever brought them here. All they did was eat and drink and squabble over my treasure. And I got so tired of conjuring roast beef and beer. In the end I simply had to sizzle them where they sat, just to get some peace. What I wouldn’t give for someone intelligent to talk to!’
Ben suddenly had an idea. ‘Hey, can you conjure up any food? Any food at all?’
‘Of course,’ the dragon said. ‘Why, are you hungry? What would you like? A baked swan?’
‘How about some chips and lollies?’ James asked eagerly. He’d been rather disappointed with Ben’s midnight feast.
‘How about pilchards and cream?’ Ben asked.