“I’m trying to see the stars and work out how to use this all together now.”
Harry looked at the sky. He couldn’t see anything from the star chart there at all. It was quite unlike the effect indoors where the star book threw its light strongly on the ceiling. It was daylight and as far as Harry was concerned, they couldn’t see a thing, which was probably just as well since they had both forgotten about avoiding showing off their magic books in front of the crew.
“I can’t see anything at all,” said Harry.
“I can,” replied Grace, “but only just. Look - there’s Sirius, the Dog Star. It’s one of the brightest. We’ll have to try again when it’s dark.” She stood up and they went to find the others.
During the time they had been clearing up the chart room, the rest of the ship had been busy. Things had been tied down properly and there was a sail on the remaining mast. Once again there was a man at the tiller, and the Captain was instructing the crew to set sail. Everyone was exhausted but the ship was seaworthy and could sail. Once again the movement of the ship became gracious, rather than sick-making.
The Captain gathered up the children and Edwin, and took them to the chart room. He would have asked Eloise as well, but she could not be seen.
“We’re lucky to be alive. Thank you for all your help, but I must tell you our mission is at an end. Without a compass, we can do little other than navigate home. Since the wind blew us west, we’ll turn back to find England, but that in itself will be difficult enough.”
“We’ve come too far to fail now,” said Edwin. “We must go on.”
“It’s not that I don’t have the will to go on,” said the Captain. “It’s just that we can’t navigate without a compass, especially to a place no one has heard of!” He was angry now, from exhaustion and from his own inability to achieve anything other than survival.
“It’s time to show him, Grace. He needs to know and then we can work together again,” said Harry.
Eleanor was looking at them both, but she guessed she knew it was time to trust the Captain with the knowledge of their books and nodded. Sophie made it clear she agreed too with a wag of her tail.
So Grace and Harry opened up their books and the Captain marvelled at them. He looked at the watch with the compass and said he had never seen such things before. “Where did they come from?” he asked.
The children looked at each other and Harry just said, “They were gifts.”
“Well,” said the Captain, “We must use them wisely.” He put his thumb on the chart that showed Cornwall. I know of these rocky islands. All sailors avoid them. There’s nothing useful there. The ground around is too shallow. There are just wrecks of those who’ve gone too close. But if we must go there, we must.”
“That’s better,” grumbled Edwin. “Something positive.”
“But how can we use the knowledge?” asked Grace.
“The Sailing Master would have been more use to us, but we can only mourn him,” answered the Captain. “But here is a guess from watching the skies at night for 30 years. The stars move all the time, but at the same time every day the same stars appear in the same place. Your magic clock shows two different times. What if one of them gives the time and the star chart gives the map of the sky at that time at the place of our destination. It would be powerful magic indeed. The problem will be how to use that knowledge.”
“I think you’re right,” said Grace, suddenly excited, “And I know how to do it. We need to take the book outside and try to make the stars on the book match up with the stars in the sky and sail in the right direction. If the time on the watch matches with the real time, and the stars match we’ll be in the right place. But it’ll need to be dark. And we can use the compass to go in the right direction.”
The Captain nodded, thinking it through. “That might work, but I still worry about the rocks and how we avoid them. And we must pray for a clear night so that we can see the real stars.”
He looked round. “We must warn the crew of this magic. It’ll frighten them otherwise. In the meantime, we use your compass and sail back east.”
Eloise slipped back into the room. She looked anxious. Eleanor asked where she had been but she just shook her head, pointed out of the door and shrugged her shoulders in a meaningless way.
Night fell just after five o’clock. The waves were calm and their prayers seemed to be answered. The sky was crystal clear and the stars twinkled. The moon was bright too, so the chart, the books and the watch could be laid out again on the makeshift compass box and seen clearly. Then Grace opened the star book. Suddenly it was like looking at the sky with double vision. Grace and the Captain smiled at each other. The Captain shouted orders for a new course. The great tiller swung over. Almost imperceptibly, the real stars and the projected stars started to move together. As the stars and the watch moved on, they held their course on the same compass setting, getting closer and closer to Hell’s Bay.
It was just after 9 pm when the lookout at the top of the mast shouted. “Daybreak. The Sun rises!”
“Relieve that man,” shouted the Captain. “It cannot be daybreak.” Then he turned to the gathering on the poop deck. “He’s been confused by your magic,” he said to the children. And he laughed with a worried look on his face.
But Harry stopped him. “No. He isn’t confused. Remember my book said: Look for a false dawn at night. This must be it. He must be seeing the glow from the volcano. That’s what it meant. We’re nearly there.”
“Then we’ll rest here tonight and recover ourselves,” said the Captain. “I for one wish to approach the edge of Hell after the real daybreak, when we can see the rocks and face the dangers in the light.”
18. Volcano’s Edge
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The children all woke to the sound of drums. The deck was absolutely level and the children leapt up to go and see what was happening. The children wrapped their coats and cloaks around them quickly, and went out onto the deck. The beautiful crisp clear evening had led to heavy frosts. On the forward mast, the sail hung loosely, but was stiff with frost. The sea around about was flat with barely a ripple. Although it was freezing, without wind on their faces, no one felt that cold.
The crew was short of men after losing so many to the storm. But in spite of that, the Captain had enough men to row with 15 oars on each side.
“Look,” said Harry, pointing to the front. There, a single plume of smoke rose high into the sky, untouched by wind until it was as tall as a skyscraper. Even then the smoke just drifted gently to the west. “There’s our dragons’ lair. Well done Grace for getting us here.”
Behind them, Edwin had manned the drums. He was too short to row, although plenty strong enough. Instead, he had been put in charge of the rhythm of the boat. But when the children spotted him, all they could see was his hair peeking over the top of the huge drums, even though he stood on a platform. The girls giggled uncontrollably at the sight, but Harry just about contained himself and said: “What do you think of your furnace, Edwin?”
There was a slight change in the rhythm of the drums, but all Edwin managed to say was “Humph!” before the beat became normal again.
The Captain came towards them. “It will take almost all of the morning to reach the island, and then I’ll need your help. You’ll need to sit on the bowsprit and look into the water for rocks. There will be a man with a line and a lead - a long rope we use to measure the depth - but you must shout out if you see rocks. The water will be clear enough, I hope.”
“What’s the bowsprit,” asked Grace, sensibly enough, since none of them knew.
“It’s where our own dragon is fitted, the figurehead at the bow you sat on before the storm. Now, go and have your breakfast so you’re ready.”
The change in the weather was good for everyone and the children had slept all night. Now they were refreshed for the next stage of the adventure. They gathered in the chart room for breakfast, where Harry and Grace noticed,
slightly guiltily, that the Captain’s clothes had been cleared away. Eloise indicated she would get their food for them and went off to the stores, while the children chatted and talked more about the Prophecy.
Harry quoted from the Prophecy:
“Hell’s Bay will sound with clashing tones.”
“I think that bit’s easy now,” said Eleanor. “Edwin is going to forge a new Sword and have you seen all his hammers and tools? I bet he makes a lot of noise. Or maybe it’s the drums.”
“What worries me is how we’re going to get the diamond the Queen talked about that the dragons are hoarding. The Prophecy doesn’t even mention a diamond but just talks about an oily stone. It’s a bit different,” added Harry, “and it seems we can’t kill the dragons. Do they sleep at all? Can we tip-toe into their cave?”
None of them had answers to that yet.
“Read the bit about Dragons’ Bane,” said Eleanor. “I’ve been thinking about how we might use it. If we can find it.”
“By Dragons’ Bane, the children three
Will dull and lull the putrid lair,
To pluck from him the oily stone
By breathing out the vapoured air.”
They were silent. Then Grace said, “Ask your book, Harry.”
So Harry opened up an empty page and asked the question, “How do we get into the dragons’ lair?”
The tiny gothic script wrote in the centre of the page:
“Think like a beekeeper.” That certainly made them all stop and think.
“I had a bee sting last year,” said Eleanor. “Do you remember? We stumbled across their nest in the garden and it swelled up on my arm. It really hurt and then itched for days.”
“Well, I think dragons might sting just a little bit more,” answered Harry, shuddering.
“Well yes,” said Eleanor. “But don’t you remember? Mummy and Daddy had the nest moved. The man came in his silly clothes. That big white hat with the net.”
Grace always felt a bit forlorn when Harry and Eleanor talked about their parents, but she tried not to show it. “Where are you going with this?”
Eleanor was excited. “I think I understand it. He had a machine that produced smoke and all the bees got sleepy so he could go near them. But he didn’t have to kill the bees. He smoked them out. It’s what we have to do with the dragons: we must dull and lull the putrid lair… by breathing out the vapoured air. We have to burn Dragons’ Bane to make smoke, don’t you see?”
“I think so,” said Harry, concerned enough at the thought of even going near sleepy bees, let alone dragons. “But won’t it send us to sleep too?”
“I don’t think it will. We’ve already smelt Dragons’ Bane in the carriage. We hated the smell, but it didn’t make us sleep, did it? In fact, it woke us up.”
“You’re right,” said Harry. “Now we need to work out how to make it all work. Where’s Eloise anyway? I’m hungry. She can’t have spent this long just getting breakfast.”
Eleanor got up to look, but suddenly Eloise came bustling in and they devoured all the food quickly, ready for the day ahead.
On the deck, the islands were much closer. The children were sent ahead to sit on the figurehead and slowly the ship edged closer and closer to their destination. Once or twice, the children shouted for rocks and they suddenly swerved as the tiller was moved across. The man with the line swung it over his head so that it splashed into the water far ahead of them. The lead weight made it sink down to the bottom. As the boat moved over it, he could measure the depth before doing the whole thing again. In doing this, the poor sailor became thoroughly soaked and must have been freezing, but he never complained. The seabed came closer and closer to the bottom of the boat. Edwin slowed the drums and they anchored, waiting briefly whilst the gig, a shallow rowing boat, was put into the water to explore further. Harry wished that he had his binoculars, but it was too bad. He could picture them hanging on the hook on the back of his door in his bedroom at Great Uncle Jasper’s house.
Then Edwin was calling. They gathered together to go down into the boat to explore.
“Is it safe?” asked Grace. Edwin looked at her sharply. “Of course it isn’t safe. There be dragons here, but dragons sleep during the day. Unless you go into their lair and stir them up like bees, they won’t know we’re here until it’s dark. By then, we’ll hide aboard the boat and stay silent until dawn so they don’t notice us.”
“My tools are packed in the boat. We must go and find the volcanic flow for my furnace. Then I’ll forge anew the Sword of State with the shattered parts of Ascalon!” Edwin glowed with the pride thinking of the work he was going to have to do. “Come on!”
As they edged into the bay, Harry talked to Edwin about what they had worked out and he nodded, listening carefully. “I can forge the Sword,” said Edwin, “but you must find me that diamond for the handle.”
Harry asked, “But we don’t understand. The Queen and you are both talking about diamonds, but the Prophecy talks about an oily stone. Surely they are different?”
“Diamonds are rare things, Harry,” replied Edwin. “Diamonds were made when the earth was formed and the heat was greater than even the volcano’s lava we’ll find today. I’ve only seen a handful of these small stones in my life. They are precious, but once I went to the King’s jeweller to fetch a diamond for the dagger your sister wears and I picked up a pretty pebble. It was much larger than the shiny diamonds in the workshop, but still only the size of my thumb. It never glittered like a diamond, but it had a gleam, an oily glimmer that caught my eye. I asked the jeweller what it was and he replied, ‘That, Master Edwin, is the largest diamond I’ve ever had in this workshop and I must cut it. Put it down now, for it’s worth more than both our lives.’ That is your oily stone. I watched that master of his craft cut that diamond into what you and I understand, but before his magic was worked upon it, it just looked like an oily stone. A pretty pebble, mind you, but an oily stone. That’s what you’ll be looking for. And if the king of the dragons is hoarding it, it will be neither small nor easy to get hold of.”
Everyone looked with wonder at the island they were approaching. There was a long beach. It was not golden sand, but a beach of grey ash, interrupted by lengthy almost imperceptibly slow streams of orange lava, which changed in colour and turned into dark brown rock where they hit the sea. At these points, the sea steamed like a kettle that had just boiled. There was no greenery at all at the water’s edge, but Eleanor shouted, “Look up! Look up at the hill!”
The hill was like an extraordinary stripy baggy jumper; the sort of jumper that might have been sent to one of the children by a great aunt and which they would have refused to wear except by force. Orange stripes of lava ran downwards. Each of these was edged with grey ash and brown rock where nothing grew. Then in between were great wide stripes of purple flowers, growing in a place where nothing should grow at all.
“It’s Dragons’ Bane,” said Eleanor. “We’ve found it. We’re on the right track, at last!”
A sailor jumped over the bow as they neared the beach. He turned and grinned. “It’s warm,” he said, “beautifully warm.” Harry noticed it was the sailor who had been so wet with the measuring line and was glad to think that he at least might be warmed up.
Then activity broke out everywhere. The Captain directed a team to go with Eleanor and Grace to gather up the flowers, as many as possible. Sophie followed gently with them, gingerly picking her way across the land making sure her sensitive paws did not become burned by the hot ash. Eloise followed carrying a large basket, which she placed on her head.
Another team helped Edwin unpack his tools and lug them towards the stream of lava so that he could begin to forge the Sword. The lava would be his furnace to melt and forge the pig iron that would be turned into a blade and handle for the new Sword of State. There was no need to gather firewood, which was good, for nothing grew on that island except the purple flowers. He nursed the plain metal box that held the sp
linters from Ascalon. When he opened it, here at the foot of the dragon’s volcano, he saw each them glowed more fiercely than he had ever seen before.
Once orders were given by the Captain, he and Harry boarded the gig again with the remaining sailors left to row it.
Their mission was the most dangerous. They must find the dragons’ lair.
19. Nightmare
There was no drum in the little gig to count the measure of the oars, but the Captain sat by the tiller and acted as his own coxswain. “One, two… one, two,” he muttered to set the pace, but these were the most experienced of the sailors and that was enough. It was a gentle pace and the boat was infinitely more manageable than the great flagship, The Saint George. Harry knelt in the bow. This time, he was not looking for rocks. There was a sailor with that duty lying next to him. He was looking for the dragons’ lair, eyes searching from side to side, carefully seeking out any signs. Once again, he was cross with himself for leaving the binoculars behind, and swore that he would always keep them in his coat pocket when he got back home. If he got back home.
The afternoon wore on and they reached the northernmost point of the channel between the two islands then turned back again. Nothing. No caves, no smoke, no dragons. Surely they were in the right place? They rounded the point on the last stretch back towards the beach.
Suddenly there was a fierce clash, metal upon metal. Harry stood up and listened.
Clang, clang, clang! Clang, clang, clang! Clang, clang, clang! Then it stopped.
“Is that a sword fight I hear?” muttered the Captain to himself. Then loudly to his sailors, “Keep steady.”
Then it started again.
Clang, clang, clang! Clang, clang, clang!
“It’s Edwin,” said Harry with a smile and relief in his words. “Hell’s Bay will sound with clashing tones, he quoted. It’s not a fight, but the Sword being made.”
Then he suddenly stared into the steep cliff, the one he had stared at so carefully on the way out. “Here! Turn towards the cliff.” There was a tiny gap just above the sea level. “It’s a cave.”
The Palace Library Page 9