by Chris Ward
Which meant they had to be working for someone else.
The Dark Man.
Miranda started to get up, determined to at least slap Barnacle before Shenlong ate her, but a hand closed over her wrist. As the boat lurched, throwing them all off balance, she looked up to see Snout staring at her.
‘That’s Godfrey,’ he hissed. ‘I don’t know how it is, but it is.’
‘What?’
‘I think he’s working for the Dark Man.’
Miranda rolled her eyes. ‘You think? Why didn’t you tell anyone?’
‘I did. I told the teachers. They went to have a word with him, but they never came back.’
‘And you said nothing to anyone else?’
‘Who was I supposed to tell?’
Miranda held her breath until her anger subsided. ‘I don’t know … someone!’
Before Snout could answer, Shenlong roared and dived at the boat. His huge jaws closed over the gunwale of the upper deck, and he dragged the boat back and forth. A couple of pupils fell over the side. As they screamed and flailed in the water, others took off their shirts to create makeshift ropes to pull them back.
Barnacle had been thrown into the bowl of the lower deck, and Miranda dived at him, only for his arms to encircle her, holding her tight. A chill ran through her body as his magic trapped her.
‘Well, what happened to you?’ he whispered.
She snarled and kicked out hard, catching his ankle. He howled, his magic hold releasing. She darted away as the boat shook again, and she turned to the upper stairs, only to see Cuttlefur blocking her way.
‘Hold still,’ he said.
Chilling magic reached out, and the stairs’ railings became as flexible as snakes, wrapping around her wrists. She tried to pull away, but the magic abruptly died and the railings went cold, changing into hard, immovable metal handcuffs. As Shenlong roared and shook the boat again, Miranda screamed as they bumped against her wrists.
‘Tell him to get off the boat,’ Barnacle shouted. ‘He’ll tear it apart.’
Cuttlefur headed up the stairs. Miranda felt another chill of magic, then the dragon roared and flew up again into the sky.
‘We need to leave here,’ Cuttlefur said, coming back down. ‘He’ll take the whole boat. The Master wants her alive, but Shenlong will eat her if he gets half a chance. Get the rest of them into the dinghy.’
With pupils in various stages of hysteria, Cuttlefur and Barnacle pulled an inflatable boat from a compartment in the stern and, with a rope, secured it to the gunwale railing. Then Barnacle pulled a cord, and it inflated alongside.
‘If you don’t want to end up as dragon food, get in the boat,’ Barnacle shouted.
Pupils immediately hurried to clamber over the side. As Snout passed her, Miranda hissed at him. ‘Snout! You know what you can do, don’t you?’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘Yes, you do. Wilhelm told you, remember! Call one! Call a ghoul to fight it! Hurry!’
‘Ms. Ito told me to forget about all that rubbish,’ Snout said. ‘There’s no such thing as magic—’
The boat lurched again as Shenlong made another attack, this time, using his huge hind legs, and the metal railings screeched as they buckled under the weight. The boat rose out of the water, only for a blast of air as cold as an Arctic wind to cut through Miranda’s clothes right to her bones.
‘Get back!’ Cuttlefur shouted from the upper deck. ‘We’re not ready!’
As the last of the pupils jumped into the dinghy, Miranda looked up at the dragon through a rent in the deck above, studying Shenlong closely for the first time. Luckily, he hadn’t decided to incinerate them with fire, and now she understood why.
Shenlong wasn’t a true dragon at all. He had been created and shaped from hundreds of thousands of brown paper bags all bound together by reanimation magic, like a giant model kit. He wasn’t even black, but more of a wet-earth brown, like peat or compost. He really was the king of the Paper Dragons, and Miranda knew what would destroy him far quicker than water.
Fire.
As she struggled against her bonds, soaked to the skin by sloshing waves, she only wished she knew where to find some fire in the middle of a churning sea.
42
Water Ride
‘Benjamin, we have to help them!’
Only one glass worked in the broken pair of binoculars Wilhelm had plucked from the water, but it was enough. With the binoculars, they could just make out the little boat toiling in the water not far from the island close to the edge of the world.
They didn’t need any help to see the dragon as it rose and fell in great swoops, first its teeth and then its claws taking hold of the little boat. And while they couldn’t make out any people, they didn’t need to know who was on the vessel.
The rest of the pupils.
Benjamin stared helplessly. They were miles away from the coast. It would take hours to get down the mountain and back to the bay. But even if they did, how would they ever get out to the boat? It was useless. All they could do was watch.
‘Think of something!’ Wilhelm shouted. ‘Can’t you use your magic?’
‘To do what?’
‘Like, fly or something?’
‘We can’t just fly! I don’t have that kind of magic. I can only push and pull things.’
‘Well, can you give us a push if we can find a boat?’
‘Where from?’
Wilhelm grabbed Benjamin’s hand and spun him around. ‘There’s our ride,’ he said, grinning, lifting a finger to point back down from the crater rim to the lake below.
Benjamin gasped. ‘You can’t be serious….’
A battered wooden table floated across the lake, its three remaining legs poking up like periscopes. One corner was under water as it turned in a slow circle, drifting toward the waterfall at the edge of the crater.
‘Come on,’ Wilhelm said. ‘That tributary goes right down to the bay, doesn’t it? It’s worth a try.’
Benjamin’s heart pounded at the very thought of it. ‘Yes, I think it does,’ he said, his throat dry.
Wilhelm was already running down the slope, skipping over the uneven ground as agile as a mountain goat. ‘You can control it with your magic, right?’ he shouted back as Benjamin gave chase. Benjamin wasn’t sure if he even could; the trip into the source had left him empty and exhausted, and though he could feel his magic slowly returning, it would take time to recover.
Benjamin reached the water’s edge just as Wilhelm waded back to the shore, with the old table dragging through the water behind him. Not only was one leg missing, but there was also a massive crack down the middle that could split it into two at any time.
Too late. Wilhelm was climbing on, gripping one of the legs, his lower body still in the water. ‘You coming?’ He grinned at Benjamin as he pushed it back away from shore.
Benjamin took a deep breath. Was death the quickest way out of Endinfinium? If so, he might be about to find out.
‘Let’s go,’ he said, his voice sounding strangely high-pitched as he climbed on beside Wilhelm.
Together they kicked off the bottom, pushing the old table toward the mouth of the river. Within a couple of minutes, the current caught it, and they found it drifting of its own accord, slowly picking up speed.
‘Right,’ Wilhelm said, as the roar of the waterfall over the crater rim grew louder and louder, ‘let’s get this sorted out. I think we might be about to die, and if we are, I want to die as brothers. You got that?’
‘Brothers?’
‘Okay, not actual brothers, but you’re my best mate. Here, there, everywhere. If we’re going to die, I want you to know that. I’m sorry for being a dick, even if you sometimes deserved it. We’re in this together.’
Benjamin let go of the table leg and draped his arm around Wilhelm’s shoulders. ‘I’m so sorry,’ he said, struggling to keep the tears out of his eyes. ‘I got blinded. I just wanted to go home so b
ad. I was such a rubbish mate, wasn’t I?’
‘Mates are allowed to make mistakes,’ Wilhelm said. ‘We’ve both made them, which makes us even. Now we have to save Miranda so we can say sorry to her.’
‘It’s a deal,’ Benjamin said. ‘Once we sort out that Cuttlefur twit first.’
Wilhelm grimaced. ‘I knew he was trouble. I just knew it.’
‘And I just wish I’d believed you.’
‘Mates?’
Benjamin grinned. ‘Forever.’
‘Hopefully that’s longer than the next couple of minutes. Here we go!’
In front of them, the waterfall roared, and Benjamin gritted his teeth, holding on as the old table began to buck and twist, bumping over rocks beneath them. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to see them go over, but right as the lip of the falls approached, the table twisted around, facing them forward, and for a moment, all that was below them was empty sky.
‘Hold my hand, Benjamin.’
‘I can’t, I’m trying not to slip off!’
‘Just take it!’
‘I can’t.’
‘Yes, you can.’
‘Okay, now what?’
‘Kick!’
‘No!’
‘Yes!’
‘Oh … my … ahhhh!’
The old table tipped forward, dropping into a roaring maelstrom of whitewater. Both boys were screaming, but Benjamin could barely hear Wilhelm over the din. He waited for the impact with the ground, but it never came. Instead, they hit a slope, paused for a couple of seconds, then burst out into fast-moving rapids.
Wilhelm screamed with delight, and Benjamin wished he shared the wild excitement in Wilhelm’s voice. The water churned and frothed as it threw them at a rock wall on the first corner of the spiral, only to drag them around into the next straight like an overweight bobsleigh car fighting not to fly off the track. For a couple of seconds, they crested the outer lip, rock scraping along the table’s bottom, then the water threw them forward and down the next slope.
This one was even sharper than the last. As they hit it, Wilhelm screamed to lean left, and Benjamin, on that side, threw himself sideways into the churning water to stop them from overbalancing. As they came out of the turn and bumped past an old car floating end-down in the water, the only thing louder than the wild river was Wilhelm’s hysterical laughter.
‘I knew it!’ he shrieked. ‘The ride to end all rides!’
At the next turn, Benjamin lost the lunch he didn’t remember eating, but the water washed his clothes clean. His stomach felt upside down, his head inside out. Then, at long last, after what felt like days, but was probably only a few seconds, they spun around the widest corner yet onto a straight cascade of frothing white water bulging with random objects emptying into a wide river channel to begin its languid flow south.
‘Sharp left!’ Wilhelm shouted. ‘Man the oars!’
Benjamin had no idea what oars Wilhelm referred to, but suddenly the smaller boy dived sideways. Benjamin had no choice but to roll with him, upside down in the water, hanging on to a single table leg. For a moment his mouth filled with water, then he broke the surface to find Wilhelm bobbing next to him.
‘Easier to steer this way up,’ Wilhelm gasped, wiping a wet piece of newspaper off of his face. ‘Quick, kick left.’
The tributary that led to the Bay of Paper Dragons began as a soggy marshland on the flats alongside the main river with its own outlet as the land sloped away to the east. The main river channel, angling into a valley heading south, quickly narrowed, the water picking up speed. Benjamin kicked out as hard as he could, but the current was too strong.
‘Kick harder, Benjamin,’ Wilhelm gasped. ‘It’s a long walk if we overshoot that tributary.’
Exhausted, Benjamin tried again to kick, but he had no strength left.
‘I can’t.’
‘Use your magic, then.’
Benjamin frowned, closed his eyes, and pulled, concentrating as Grand Lord Bastien had taught him, trying to draw power out of the objects around him. He felt a slight ache in the back of his hand from the old scar, but none of the sharp sensations of his skin breaking. He gritted his teeth, trying to jerk on the magic, a sensation like a balloon expanding in his hands.
Wilhelm let out a scream as the table cut a sharp left through the water as though dragged by a shark. Water barreled up and over them, then the riverbed was under their feet, and hard sand scratched at their arms and legs. The table rolled over a grassy hillock, only to plummet down a short slope and splash into a marshy puddle of water. Grass whipped at their legs before they picked up speed toward the tributary channel. As they climbed, gasping, up onto the underside of the table again, Wilhelm glared at Benjamin.
‘What happened there?’
‘I used my magic. I only touched it, though. It just went crazy.’
Wilhelm held up a hand. ‘I was holding your shoulder. I guess Weavers don’t have to be asked. Useful for future reference.’
‘Put your hand back on my shoulder,’ Benjamin said. ‘Let’s see if we can speed up this journey a little.’
‘Got it.’
Wilhelm grabbed hold of Benjamin’s sleeve, and Benjamin ignored the growing ache in his hand as he pulled on the magic, and they bounced across water like a skimming stone leaping back and forth from the top of ripples. Not quite the thrill of the descent from Source Mountain, but it had a certain peaceful charm. With the ability to steer around objects floating in their way, Benjamin preferred it much more.
Soon, drained by dozens of little streams, the tributary lost its forward motion and began to stagnate, until they were steering through thick, swampy water filled with vegetation.
Finally, with Benjamin’s strength at its end, the table split in two with a large crack, and they stood in waist-deep water, surrounded by multi-coloured reeds and a few shrubs that looked half natural, half plastic.
Wilhelm gave the table a pat of thanks, then helped Benjamin out of the water and onto the bank. A path ran alongside, one Benjamin recognised from his trek to the mountain.
‘What do we do now?’ Wilhelm asked.
Benjamin leaned on his knees and took a deep breath, then he looked up at Wilhelm and smiled. ‘We run,’ he said.
43
Overboard
Godfrey, masquerading as Alan Barnacle, had found a rope in a life-rescue box, and the pupils now sat bound together at the bottom of the dinghy, with Cuttlefur sitting at a little outboard motor as it buzzed toward Dragon Rock. Behind them, Shenlong wheeled and dived at the boat they had just abandoned, knocking it sideways, then picking it up out of the water a short distance before letting it drop back down. It was playing with it, Snout realised, like a cat toying with a mouse. Sooner or later, it would tire of its game and eat it, sink it, or carry it off. But all the while, poor Miranda was stuck on the lower deck like a maiden put out for sacrifice.
Snout liked Miranda. Among the boys, he was sure all of them liked her, despite her personality having a certain … spikiness. Even if he hadn’t liked her, he still wouldn’t have wanted to see her end up as dragon food, and when she asked him to do something, he was a lot more inclined to do it than when he was asked by someone else.
Didn’t make any sense, though. Sure, one time, a creature had appeared after he had thought about it for too long, but that was a once-off. He’d not been able to make it happen again. Blind luck. Things weren’t quite the same here in Endinfinium as they were back home, but you still couldn’t command monsters like some devilish Dr. Doolittle. It just wasn’t possible. Might look like magic, but the teachers insisted it was all a special kind of science, despite what some others whispered about Benjamin Forrest. But since Miranda had asked, and he couldn’t exactly run to help her, it wouldn’t hurt to imagine something awesomely brilliant coming up out of the sea to fight that dragon. Some kind of sea monster, perhaps, like a kraken or a giant squid or a … or a…
A submarine?
The water’s sur
face was changing colour from a deep aquamarine blue to green and then finally to orange. Snout wanted to close his eyes, but he was too terrified. What if the creature he had unleashed ate their dinghy before he even got a chance to see it? The surface bulged, then exploded with spray as something huge and cylindrical burst out, massive tooth-filled jaws snapping at Shenlong’s feet. The pupils screamed both in terror and excitement as the dragon shrieked and wheeled up into the air, its wings going wide to steady it. Then, with its neck straining as it snarled in response, it dived in to attack.
Claws met teeth, and for a few seconds, the giant orange submarine monster was hauled up out of the water. Tentacles where its stern would have been spread wide, raking at the ocean’s surface, while fins the size of buses flapped in response to Shenlong’s wings.
The dragon, rattled by the attack, spun out of the submarine’s jaws, and the sea beast crashed back into the water, dived under, then blasted back out for another attack.
This time, Shenlong was waiting, and as the submarine beast opened its jaws, the great dragon ducked sideways. Teeth snapped closed over thin air, and the submarine beast crashed back into the water. Again it dived, but when it reappeared this time, it just nosed above the surface, watching the circling dragon. The pupils in the dinghy hollered at it, urging it to continue its attack, but the battle appeared to have reached a stalemate.
Then, like a missile emplacement swinging round to find a fresh target, the submarine beast turned to the dinghy racing away across the surface of the water.
Snout gulped. ‘Down, down,’ he whispered, ‘go back down. Please go back down.’
If it heard him, the submarine paid no attention, and a wake of whitewater spread out around its nose as it motored in pursuit.
‘Cuttlefur! Stop that thing!’
The formerly blue-haired boy turned to glare at Barnacle. ‘You think I had anything to do with that?’