Dragon's Green

by Scarlett Thomas

  ‘Who are the Diberi?’

  ‘A group of very powerful dark magi, scholars and alchemists. They are extremely dangerous. They are against everything we stand for here. Well, except magic, of course, which they want for the power it gives them. Some people even believe they were responsible for the Great Split, although it’s hard to imagine how they could have been. No mortals would have had the power to make something like that happen.’

  ‘What did happen?’

  ‘The Earth – the original Earth – split into two different worlds. No one knows exactly when. But the cracks had been forming for a very long time. Science versus magic. Technology versus the old religions. Money versus kindness. When one world contains two such strong world-views, eventually the strain gets too much and it splits into two separate dimensions. That’s what happened. One world – yours – curled into a ball, like a galactic woodlouse. Ours remained flat. Well, flattish. Some people think this happened mere hundreds of years ago. Some believe it was thousands of years ago. But in any case, as a result we now have what we call the mainland – us – and the island – you. And you call them the Realworld and the Otherworld. One is a world of cold fact and reality; the other is a world of magic and adventure.’

  ‘I want to stay in this world,’ said Effie.

  ‘Wait until you see more of it,’ said Cosmo. ‘I like it, but it does have flaws.’

  ‘But you can do magic here. Proper magic.’

  Cosmo chuckled. ‘You can do proper magic in your world, too. Granted, it is a bit different, and the inclination of magical energy is to be pulled towards our world. But I hear that many people in the Realworld still communicate with animals, for example. Sportspeople use magic all the time, I have heard. Writers and other bards use a very ancient magic. And I also understand that you have a certain type of Master healer who cures very sick people only with words. If that isn’t magic, I don’t know what is.’ He finished his lemonade. ‘Now you must go and rest before tea.’

  ‘But . . .’

  ‘Please, child.’

  ‘But when you said the Diberi…’

  ‘We’ll discuss all that later. Go and rest.’

  27

  Back in her room, Effie lay on her bed, trying to put together everything she’d learned so far. She would have to go back and rescue her grandfather’s books, that was clear. But she hated the idea of leaving this beautiful, magical place. Luckily, time moved faster here than in the Realworld, which meant she wouldn’t have lost too much time when she did get back.

  When the bell rang for tea, Effie went downstairs and discovered a large conservatory full of very green, feathery plants and stone statues, with its doors thrown open to a walled garden. Out on the lawn were several wooden trestle tables with lavish cake stands and delicate-looking teapots, china plates, teacups and saucers.

  Clothilde was sitting there in the sun, her eyes sparkling with kindness and intelligence. Rollo looked more serious, and appeared to be saying something of great importance that Clothilde didn’t seem to be listening to. Then there was another person Effie had not yet met. He was a long-legged man with pointed black shoes that looked both very old and very new, perhaps due to the number of times they had been polished. He had a tiny, tidy red beard, which perched primly at the bottom of his face as if it were just politely ignoring the mess of strawberry-blond hair going on above. He had tortoiseshell glasses, which were quite normal-looking, and a bright cerise suit, which was not.

  ‘Ah, Effie,’ said Clothilde. ‘Come and join us. This is Pelham Longfellow.’

  The man in the cerise suit stood up and bowed.

  ‘A pleasure,’ he said, shaking Effie’s hand solemnly. ‘I have heard so much about you. And you have had quite an adventure to get here, I understand. It seems you came to us through a book.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Effie. ‘Dragon’s Green. It was . . .’

  ‘But you no longer have the codicil?’

  ‘No. Well, I never actually— ’

  ‘That’s a pity. Your grandfather’s original wishes were that you should inherit all of his magical estate, of course, most of which it seems you have been given already, although the books seem temporarily to have fallen into the hands of the Diberi. We must do something about that. But I wonder what on earth he meant by adding a codicil. I deeply regret,’ Pelham Longfellow went on, pushing his glasses up his nose, ‘that I hadn’t known he was so injured. He can’t even have had enough lifeforce left to call for me, poor Griffin. I can’t fathom what happened in those last few days, nor what he meant to give you. Unless . . .’

  ‘What?’ said Effie.

  ‘Back on the island – sorry, in the Realworld – there is something being kept for you, for when you come of age. I wonder if . . .’

  ‘If what?’

  Pelham Longfellow frowned. ‘Yes,’ he said quietly, partly to himself and partly to Rollo. ‘Perhaps he wanted the child to have it now, if she was to be coming here and taking her place in the family early.’

  ‘What is it?’ asked Effie.

  ‘A great boon. I can’t say more without the codicil. You already have several boons anyway, I believe. The Spectacles of Knowledge, for example. The Ring of the True Hero.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘The calling card you got when you finished Dragon’s Green is a boon, too, a very special and rare one. Make sure you keep it safe. It’s your way of getting back here whenever you want.’

  Effie’s heart skipped slightly. ‘How does it work?’

  ‘Oh, you simply take it out when you want to come here. You should be transported easily enough – it opens a portal wherever you are. Just make sure no one sees you do it, or you’ll create trouble with the Guild. And make sure you leave yourself enough time and energy to get out again.’ Pelham Longfellow scratched his head. ‘I’ll show you how to get back to the Realworld after tea. I really must advise you never to enter the Otherworld by any means other than the calling card. You must only come here to Dragon’s Green to help with the library and so forth. Don’t try to go off adventuring on the plains. Or if you do, and it goes horribly wrong, don’t come crying to me.’

  ‘OK,’ said Effie.

  ‘Unless it’s an emergency,’ he added. ‘I will always help a Truelove.’

  While this conversation was going on, Clothilde and Rollo had been arranging cakes on a plate. There were miniature Victoria sponges held together with dark red jam and cream, chocolate cakes covered completely in chocolate icing, and tiny lemon cakes with cream in the middle and a thick layer of lemon icing on the top.

  ‘And of course,’ said another voice, ‘you must destroy the book.’

  ‘Uncle,’ said Clothilde. ‘How nice of you to join us for tea.’

  ‘Cosmo,’ said Pelham Longfellow, offering his hand. ‘Blessings.’

  ‘Blessings to you, young Pelham. How goes the new life abroad?’

  ‘I dislike the air most of all,’ said Longfellow. ‘The food is odd, although a convenient enough way to obtain energy, I suppose. People are bewildered when you do magic, and then you have to do more magic so they don’t call the police – or worse, the Guild – and then it becomes very hard to keep the lifeforce ticking over, so to speak, but I get by.’

  Clothilde passed Effie a small plate on which she had placed one of each type of cake, and a beautiful cup and saucer for her tea.

  ‘Pelham has taken a job on the island,’ she explained. ‘In your world.’

  Effie didn’t like hearing the Realworld described as hers. She wanted to live here so very much. She wanted this to be called her world. And she wished everyone would stop translating things all the time. Already, in her mind, she thought of the Realworld as the island – just like a proper Otherworlder, or mainlander, would do.

  ‘Most Otherworlders can’t travel between the worlds,’ said Cosmo. ‘We have no way of converting lifeforce into your kind of energy. Pelham has the capacity, it seems. So he’s now a travelling solicitor. He deals
with estates that cross between one world and the next, and does a bit of investigation work on the side, I believe . . .’

  ‘Mainly I deal with boons that have been smuggled onto the island,’ Pelham said. ‘Ownership claims and wills and so forth. The odd murder case, when someone has decided that they cannot live without their neighbour’s Sword of Clear Water, for example. The Guild only really tolerates me because I promised to try to get all the boons back here and help close the portals. It’s all been rather chaotic since the worldquake.’

  ‘But he doesn’t try very hard with those bits,’ said Clothilde.

  ‘Well, I suppose that’s true,’ said Pelham. ‘Although, to be honest, if we could close off this world it would stop the Diberi from trying to get their hands on the Great Library.’

  ‘They’d find some way in anyway,’ said Clothilde.

  ‘Why do they want the Great Library?’ said Effie.

  ‘Oh, that’s a long story, child,’ said Cosmo. ‘We’ll tell you everything when you come back. But suffice to say that the rarer a book is, the more the Diberi want it, and the library we have here holds the very rarest books in the whole universe. It is our job to guard them. As I said earlier, the Trueloves have always been Keepers of the Great Library.’

  Cosmo stood up and reached for a large yellow teapot. Everyone was quiet for a few seconds, and Effie listened again to the strange and beautiful silence that moved softly around the garden and into the forest beyond.

  ‘So, we hear that Griffin left some sort of codicil,’ said Cosmo, ‘but it was destroyed. That’s a pity. With all the Diberi in her world, the child probably needs . . .’

  ‘The original will forbids us from telling her what the boon is, of course,’ Pelham said.

  ‘Of course. But if the codicil has indeed been destroyed, then . . .’

  Pelham sniffed the air. ‘The original has,’ he said. ‘But I can smell a copy.’

  Cosmo laughed. ‘From here? You really are a talent. You were wasted on the mainland.’

  Pelham smiled wryly. ‘I always thought so.’

  ‘So the child needs to find this copy of the codicil,’ said Cosmo, looking at Effie. ‘Can we help her somehow?’

  Pelham shook his head. ‘I don’t imagine so,’ he said. ‘Now. I need a lot more cake before I have to go back. I fear my London supper club is not open tonight.’

  Clothilde took Pelham’s plate and added three more cakes to it. Effie noticed that her hand shook ever so slightly as she poured him another cup of tea. Their eyes did not meet once, but their hands did lightly brush one another as Clothilde passed Pelham the cup and saucer. After that, Clothilde blushed and went off to refill the large teapot.

  ‘Right,’ said Pelham suddenly, once he’d finished his last cake and drained his final cup of tea. Get ready to say your goodbyes. We need to be off very soon.’

  Effie still didn’t want to leave. There were so many things she wanted to ask. And she felt as if, after she had asked all the questions she wanted to, she could just lie on the lawn and look at this endless blue sky for ever and be perfectly content. The air smelled of flowers, and hummed gently with the sound of bumblebees collecting nectar. Over on the far side of the lawn was a croquet set, ready for people to begin playing. And from her bedroom window earlier on, Effie had seen a completely clear blue swimming pool. What she would give for a swim now, a game of croquet (not that she knew how to play, but she felt sure she’d learn quickly), and then . . .

  ‘Effie?’ said Clothilde. ‘Did you hear Cosmo?’

  ‘Oh dear,’ said Effie. ‘No. I think I was daydreaming.’

  ‘You must destroy the book,’ said Cosmo.

  ‘Which book?’ she said.

  ‘Dragon’s Green,’ said Rollo.

  ‘But why?’ For some reason Effie couldn’t explain, she suddenly wanted to cry. The idea of going back to her world and having to destroy the book that got her here . . . It was horrible. She loved books, and her grandfather had taught her always to show them the greatest respect. She could not imagine ever destroying something as precious as a book.

  ‘It’s to make sure that you remain the book’s Last Reader,’ Clothilde explained. ‘You might have wondered how your grandfather knew you were going to be the last person ever to read Dragon’s Green. Well, he knew because he trusted that you would get through the book and arrive here, and we would explain what you have to do. Destroying the book after you read it makes sure you were its Last Reader, and then you definitely receive any boons, honours or prizes that it has inside it.’

  ‘In this case, a very rare calling card,’ said Pelham.

  ‘But I’ve already got the calling card,’ said Effie, a little confused.

  ‘That’s because time is very wise,’ said Cosmo. ‘It knows that in the future you have, as it were, already destroyed the book. It’s best not to think about these time issues too much. Of course, if you didn’t destroy the book and someone else were to read it, then they would get the calling card instead – well, if they could finish the book, that is. But in any case, all knowledge of your visit here would vanish from your memory.’

  ‘I still think . . .’ said Rollo, frowning.

  ‘Shhh,’ said Clothilde. ‘It worked. It doesn’t matter.’

  Rollo didn’t look very happy. ‘But if it’s not all right for the Diberi to destroy books, but all right for us . . .’ he began.

  ‘It’s just once,’ said Clothilde. ‘It was an emergency.’

  ‘That’s what the Diberi probably think, too,’ said Rollo crossly.

  This was the point where normal people in a different kind of world would probably have an enormous argument, but instead Rollo took a deep breath and smiled at his sister.

  ‘I respect your point of view,’ he said. ‘Blessings to you.’

  ‘I respect yours, too,’ said Clothilde. ‘Blessings returned.’

  ‘So, child,’ said Cosmo. ‘Do you understand?’

  Effie did not in fact understand much of what had just been said. But she could not miss the main point.

  ‘I must destroy the book,’ said Effie.

  ‘As soon as you return. You can’t hesitate, or stop to do something else. It doesn’t matter how you do it, as long as the book cannot be read by anyone else after you.’

  ‘OK,’ said Effie.

  ‘And then you’ll visit us again soon?’ said Clothilde, squeezing Effie’s hand.

  ‘Of course,’ said Effie. ‘I just wish I didn’t have to leave.’

  ‘As well as destroying the book as soon as possible, you need to restore your energy,’ said Rollo, ‘which you cannot yet do here. At the moment, just being here will be draining your life-force – your M-currency, or whatever they call it out there. You need to have enough to return as well. You may need to find someone from your world to help you work it all out. It’s such a shame Griffin isn’t there to help you.’

  ‘You might try and look up a fellow called Professor Quinn,’ said Pelham Longfellow. ‘Fine chap. Perhaps he can help you get the books back somehow? I might beep him when I return. I’d help you myself, only I have to be in London this evening for some urgent business. Now, everyone, I think it’s time I escorted young Miss Truelove to the portal. Especially as darkness will soon be upon us.’

  This didn’t seem to be the sort of place that ever got dark.

  ‘And,’ said Longfellow, mysteriously, ‘we’ll need to try to get a post office to appear.’

  Suddenly everyone was standing up and saying goodbye, and Pelham Longfellow was shaking everyone’s hand, and Clothilde was kissing Effie on both cheeks and Rollo was patting her on the arm and Cosmo was patting her on the head and murmuring something that could have been ‘There, there, child’, but could also have been a gentle spell to keep her safe as she travelled.

  And then they were off down the long driveway. Pelham Longfellow set quite a formidable pace, with his extremely long legs, and Effie almost had to jog to keep up with him.


  28

  Outside the gates of Truelove House, the landscape looked different yet again. The first time Effie had seen Truelove House had been when she was inside the book Dragon’s Green and looking at something she couldn’t yet access that lay beyond the end of the story. At that time there had been the Princess School and the peasant village and all the other places from inside the book. And after she’d finished the book, there had been the empty landscape and the cold, metallic mist, and then the calm summertime atmosphere of Truelove House.

  Now, when the guards closed the wrought iron gates behind them, Effie found that she and Pelham were on a wide, dusty avenue with around five other large houses, each with its own gate and guards. Pelham set off down the road at the same great pace and Effie jogged to keep up with him. It was still hot and calm, and the lovely silence still lay there underneath birdsong and the continuous sound of summer insects.

  ‘Who lives in these houses?’ she asked.

  ‘The Keepers of Dragon’s Green,’ said Longfellow. ‘Every single household does something incredibly important and utterly secret.’

  ‘Like what?’

  ‘Well, like guarding the Great Library.’

  ‘But what do the other Keepers do?’

  ‘If I told you, it wouldn’t be a secret,’ said Longfellow. ‘In any case, I don’t know. It’s all part of the security of the place. The villagers have a choir, a cricket team, an annual flower show, tennis tournament, country fête and many other things, but no one ever talks about what they do. They all contribute to the high-level secrecy around the place, but beyond that . . . Aha.’

  They had reached a small street on the edge of a large village green, with three square detached brick houses all in a row. One was covered in ivy, another in blue clematis and another in yellow roses. Then (rather bizarrely, Effie thought) there was a bus stop. She hadn’t imagined that in the Otherworld there’d be much call for buses. But now she thought about it, surely even magical people needed to get around somehow?