‘Dieter, look after Silke …’
‘It was your mother who saved us all.’ Frieda’s lips twisted into something that only resembled a smile. ‘She always did have a gift with words. The stories that she used to tell you two children when she put you to bed every night! Half the camp used to put off their final chores just to listen in. Silly stories, really … but I always listened, too. I couldn’t help it.’
My eyes were watering again, but this time, I didn’t wipe the tears away. I let them slide down my cheeks, and I lifted my chin, refusing to hide them.
These tears belonged to my mother. She deserved every one of them.
‘She tried her best to persuade the fairies of our innocence,’ Hanno said. ‘If anyone could have managed it, it would have been her. But when she finally realised it was useless, she tried other tactics … and then, in passing, she happened to use the word “bargain”.’ He shook his head wonderingly. ‘How they all went still when they heard it!’
‘It was the first time I felt any hope,’ Frieda said. ‘It was the first time they’d paid attention.’
‘So she asked what bargain she could offer them to let our company go,’ Hanno told us. ‘And they conferred together for a moment.’
‘They said she would have to be the one to pay it,’ said Frieda. ‘She and her husband, too, to punish him for what they called his impudence in trying to refuse them in the first place.’
My fingernails bit into my palms. ‘What bargain?’
‘One hundred years of service,’ Hanno said.
‘One hundred?’ I stared at him. ‘But –’
‘Perhaps fairies have longer lives than us.’ He sighed. ‘Or perhaps they knew exactly what they were asking. Your parents certainly knew they could never survive to the end of their commitment. But your safety was worth the sacrifice to them.’
‘Our safety?’ I wasn’t crying any more. Rage filled me too hot and full for tears as I threw down the quilt that I’d been sharing. ‘What about their safety? They were your friends! Why didn’t any of you argue?’ I lunged to my feet to glare down at them. ‘Why didn’t anyone say no?’ I demanded. ‘Why didn’t you all come together and fight?’
‘Because there was no point!’ Frieda snapped, glaring back at me. ‘Haven’t you been listening to any of this?’
Next to me, Aventurine’s lips pulled back from her long teeth. I could actually feel her vibrating with aggression beside me. To a dragon, that decision would be unforgiv-able – but this time, her fury couldn’t hold a candle to my own.
‘Of course there was a point!’ I shouted. ‘I don’t care if you thought you couldn’t win! The point was that you don’t let your friends go without a fight! The point was –’
‘No,’ Hanno said firmly. ‘They were already gone by then.’
‘But –’
‘Wait.’ Sofia’s voice sounded strange and strained. When I looked down at her …
Was that pity I saw in the grumpy princess’s face?
Surely not.
‘I think … I think I might know what happened, Silke. From what I’ve read … if I’m right in what I’ve guessed …’
‘It happened the instant that your parents said “yes”,’ Hanno told me. ‘The torches all went out a moment later, but first …’
‘We all saw it.’ Frieda wrapped her arms around her waist, looking haunted. ‘It happened right before our eyes.’
‘Our friends were gone in less than a heartbeat,’ said Hanno. ‘In their place …’
The fire crackled. I stared down at him, my mouth open and my mind racing.
No. No, no, no, no …
‘Two more golden lights in the darkness,’ Frieda finished. ‘You see? There was no one to go back for.’
No one to go back for.
I barely felt myself collapse back into the rickety wooden chair.
I didn’t feel the heat from the fire or the chill from the air.
All I could feel was the roiling of my stomach and the throbbing in my head as I finally, finally realised the truth.
Hanno and Frieda and all the rest of the adults I’d always blamed had never had a chance to save my parents.
But I had, today. I had!
Two golden lights buzzing frantically around me all day long …
They hadn’t been singling me out to show their rulers. They’d been trying to tell me who they were. In the end, when they’d flung themselves in front of my face just when their rulers were about to attack …
How could I not have guessed? They’d been trying to protect me.
I had had my parents back for nearly a full day of my life without realising it …
And I had flown away from them without a second glance.
I knocked the wooden chair out from under me and lunged barefoot across the snowy, squelching mud of the riverbank.
Voices rose behind me, blurring together in agitated protest, but I ignored every single one of them as I ran as fast as I could back towards the broken palace and my parents.
I couldn’t leave them behind again.
CHAPTER 23
It was Dieter who stopped me, his tall, skinny figure suddenly looming out of the darkness ahead.
I slammed into his chest before I could stop myself. Then I tried to twist away from him, but he grabbed my arms.
‘Silke!’ His fingers tightened as I struggled in his grip. ‘What do you think you’re doing?’
‘Let me go!’ I ground the words through my teeth as I threw my weight forward. There weren’t any clever, persuasive arguments left in me.
I had to run.
My brother staggered, but it wasn’t enough. His breath ruffled against my hair as he let out an infuriatingly weary sigh. ‘I don’t know what mad lark you’re off on now, but if you think you can just leave your dragon friend and the princess here for us to deal with –’
‘They’re not the ones I left behind!’ I bared my teeth at him, feeling feral. ‘Our parents are in that palace, Dieter! Right now! I left them there!’
His mouth dropped open. ‘What?’
For the first time, his hands loosened. I jerked free …
But someone else had already caught up to us.
‘Well?’ Aventurine was grinning her fiercest and most dangerous grin. Smoke trickled out of her big nostrils as she loped up beside us on all four feet, leaving massive claw prints in the snow and mud behind her. ‘If you’re going into battle, you’re not leaving me behind. You still don’t have any real teeth of your own, you know. And you can’t breathe fire without me.’
I looked up at my scaly, ferocious best friend, ready to fly back into danger for me with no questions asked, and a wave of emotion hit me so hard that I started to shake. I had to wrap my arms around my chest to hold it all in and stay standing.
‘Thank you,’ I whispered. ‘Thank you so much. But –’
‘Wait!’ Sofia was panting as she ran towards us, Frieda’s quilt wrapped around her like a cloak. ‘You can’t just go running back there without a plan! Come on, Silke. Think. You’re supposed to be good at that!’
Was I? I blinked hard, trying to clear my head. But all I could think of were those two golden lights buzzing around me all day long, trying so desperately to communicate with me … and that high, keening noise of pain that they had made as they’d been ripped away in the end. I hadn’t even tried to keep them with me.
I had to press my lips together to hold back a moan of grief and fear.
‘Is she telling the truth?’ Dieter’s voice sounded young and lost as he turned to the princess. ‘About our parents? In the palace?’
‘Yes, yes.’ Sofia waved impatiently at him. ‘We don’t have time to explain all that again. You would have heard all the details already if you hadn’t walked off in a huff. You really ought to listen to your sister, you know! Even my sister thinks she’s clever.’
For once, I couldn’t even bring myself to enjoy my brother’s shock.
‘The
point is,’ Sofia continued sternly, ‘we barely made it out of the palace in the first place. If we just go running back into it now, we’ll be caught within seconds. So what exactly are we going to do to save your parents and my sister and father?’
For once, her hectoring tone didn’t grate on me. Instead, it cut through the thick fog of panic and grief in my mind, helping me to see clearly again.
Right. I took a deep breath, anchoring myself. My feet were half sunk in the cold, squelchy mud. Nearby, I could hear the quiet voices of other members of the camp moving busily around their tents, along with the familiar swish-swish of the river flowing past.
I knew this riverbank. I knew this city. And now I knew the palace, too.
I had spent all of my life preparing for this moment without ever realising it.
I’d been waiting to save my parents all along.
‘You’re right,’ I told her. ‘We can’t go in through any of the front doors.’
‘Good start.’ Sofia nodded in condescending approval. ‘So?’
‘This is a waste of time,’ Aventurine growled. ‘If you two think we can’t deal with the fairies on our own, all we have to do is go and get my family to help. We’ll come roaring in from the mountains and –’
‘No!’ Sofia and I both said at once.
‘Why not?’ Aventurine shot a puff of smoke from her nose, looking as fed up as I’d ever seen her. ‘The fairies are scared of dragons! Didn’t you hear them?’
‘But they have my sister and father,’ Sofia said. ‘They’ll use them as hostages if they see any dragons coming.’
‘And they have my parents,’ I added, ‘along with all of the other humans they’ve trapped and turned into their sentinels over the years. That’s why so many people disappeared forever after they stepped into Elfenwald – they’re the ones the fairies would send out to face the dragons first, before they ever risked themselves.’ I shook my head, my right fingers tapping a rapid beat against my left elbow as my thoughts shot through dozens of different possibilities and discarded them all. ‘Besides, Marina and Horst and loads of other people are still in that palace. We don’t want any of them getting hurt. Sofia is right. We can’t just fly straight in, roaring and breathing fire to attack. We have to be clever about this.’
Aventurine let out a huff of aggravation. ‘What’s the point of a battle spent talking about things?’
‘It’s what I’m good at,’ I told her. ‘Just like my mother.’ Next to me, Dieter let out a stifled sound through his closed lips. I lifted my chin and looked past him at Aventurine. ‘Besides, you’re not just good at fighting, remember? I think it’s time for you to turn human again.’
‘With fairies around?’ the princess demanded. ‘What are you talking about? Her fire is the only thing that can cut through their magic!’
‘But she has magic of her own when she’s a human,’ I told her. ‘Chocolate magic. I think it’s finally time to use it.’
With a whirl of light and colour, Aventurine’s big crimson-and-silver body collapsed in on itself. A moment later, my best friend stood facing me, small and fierce and golden-eyed in her ugly turquoise-and-orange dress, with her arms crossed in front of her and her short black hair sticking out around her face.
‘It’s useless, though,’ she told me. ‘You’ll never talk them into drinking my chocolate. Not tonight.’
‘They don’t need to,’ I told her. ‘Wait and see.’ I turned to the princess, my hands falling to my sides. ‘Do you want to stay safe here? I’m sure someone would lend you a tent if –’
‘Hmmph.’ Sofia snorted and tucked her quilt more carefully around herself. ‘Don’t even think about leaving me behind. That’s my palace you broke!’
I rolled my eyes at her, but I couldn’t help giving her a genuine smile for the very first time in our acquaintance. ‘Fine. Your Highness can come along on our fabulous adventure party, then.’
‘I should think so.’ She gave a tiny smile back to me.
Bracing myself, I turned back to Dieter, who’d stayed silent and stunned throughout our conversation. His shoulders were hunched, his face looked hollow and wounded … and for once, I really didn’t want to argue with him.
It was so late. It was so dark. And the memory of my mother’s final words was still ringing in my ears: ‘Dieter, look after Silke.’
A pang of longing sliced through my chest as I looked up at him.
I wanted back the brother that I had had once, long ago. The one who’d held me safe when we’d first lost our parents, as our wagons had hurtled away through the darkness. The one who’d argued so desperately with the grown-ups as we’d begged them to turn back.
… The one who’d promised me, crying and stroking my hair, that he would be strong and keep me safe no matter what; that we would always be each other’s family.
There had been so many years of arguments since then – ever since we’d reached this city and I’d found my own, separate dreams, carrying me away from him. Dieter would never understand them or me; I would never get that old big brother back.
But I couldn’t bear to leave him with a hateful argument again.
So I forced myself to smile as I looked into his wounded face. ‘Don’t worry,’ I said gently. ‘I’ll bring them back safe. I promise.’ Somehow.
‘No.’
‘No?’ I closed my eyes as a wave of exhaustion overwhelmed me. ‘I know you don’t think I’m good at anything, but –’
‘No,’ Dieter repeated. ‘You’re not leaving me behind. Not again!’ As my eyes shot open, he swallowed visibly, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down his long, skinny throat. ‘I thought I had to let you go last time. But I can’t keep on doing it. I can’t keep on watching my family walk away from me, again and again. I can’t survive it!’
‘Dieter …’ For once, I didn’t know what to say.
But he did.
‘So I’m coming with you,’ he told me, ‘and we’ll all get them back. Together.’
Half an hour later, the four of us emerged from a maze of alleys and side streets into the first district. The street lamps were lit, but the curving, cobblestoned street that lay ahead of us was empty except for a few ragged men sleeping on doorsteps.
‘What are we doing here?’ Dieter hissed behind me as we hovered at the edge of the final alleyway. In front of us, a line of closed shops hulked against the darkness. ‘I thought we were going to the palace.’
‘We are,’ I whispered back. ‘Trust me. Sofia? I’ll need the guards inside to see you first, so they don’t do anything foolish.’
‘Like stabbing us, you mean?’ Aventurine asked drily from my left.
‘What?’ said Dieter.
‘Oh, fine.’ Sofia let out an irritable sigh and stepped in front of me, finally pulling off Frieda’s quilt. Tossing it to me, she strode forward. ‘I’ve already walked through all the smelliest alleys in this city tonight. I might as well –’
‘Wait!’ I lunged forward and grabbed the thick sleeve of her dressing gown, yanking her back into the alleyway.
‘What –?’
Aventurine clapped one hand over Sofia’s mouth.
Together, ignoring the princess’s muffled protests, we pulled her into the shadows, close against the alley wall.
… Just as three golden lights floated into view above the cobblestoned street.
Dieter, still standing exposed in the centre of the alleyway, sucked in a much-too-sharp breath.
The golden lights hovered for one long moment at the alley’s entrance. Then one separated from the rest to float through the darkness, aiming directly at my brother.
He stood as stiff as a statue as my hands clenched around Sofia’s sleeves. He didn’t even seem to breathe as the light lazily circled around him, slowly inspecting him from his waist upwards. There was no hum of delight this time; this light was only looking for information … or for us.
But there was no reason for it to recognise my older brother. I told myself
that again and again as I watched, holding my breath.
I couldn’t move to save him. I couldn’t …
It gave up a moment later and abandoned him, floating back out of the alleyway on to the main street. The three lights circled each other then flew on, disappearing from view.
I met Dieter’s gaze through the shadows.
He didn’t say a word. But he gave me a small, tight nod.
We waited in silence for two long minutes before I finally dared to move.
One sliding, silent step … another …
‘They’re gone.’ I let out my breath as I looked down the street.
The street lamps still cast a golden glow over the snow-slick cobblestones. The shops were still dark. The homeless men on the doorsteps still slept.
But now we knew that the fairies had taken over more than just the palace.
CHAPTER 24
None of us spoke as we slipped across the road. The fairy sentinels could be back at any moment – and no matter how they’d been forced into this position, they were well under the fairies’ magical control now. Even my parents hadn’t managed to resist the royals’ call for long.
I couldn’t let them find us. But I couldn’t keep the air from rattling in and out of my mouth in harsh, panicky breaths as I picked my way across the snow-and-muck-covered cobblestones in the too-tight boots that Dieter had found for me in our stall’s collection.
The door of the bookshop, of course, was locked.
Argh. I groaned inwardly as I pushed down on the handle. It didn’t budge even when I rattled it with all my might. The broad glass window showed nothing but pitch-darkness inside the shop.
So much for being quiet!
It took three terrifyingly loud, hammering sets of knocks before I even glimpsed faint candlelight in the building’s second floor. Then the window above us finally opened, and an older woman glowered down.
‘Who on earth would make such an unholy racket at this time of ni– Your Highness!’ She gasped as Sofia stepped out into the light from the street lamps. ‘I – what –?’
‘Quickly!’ I hissed, almost dancing with impatience. ‘Open the door!’
The Girl with the Dragon Heart Page 16