‘What?’ I spat out a mouthful of her wind-tossed white hair from between my lips, my heart giving a sickly lurch. My entire plan had been based on being invisible!
‘Humans do get silly about dragons,’ Fedolia said regretfully. ‘Of course we know he won’t eat any of them, because he’s a philosopher and a gentleman. But unless you want them shooting a whole storm of arrows before he can explain anything –’
‘No.’ I tightened my legs around Jasper’s scales. They wouldn’t be hardened for decades yet. A plain human arrow could go right through them! ‘This is my plan,’ I said. ‘I’ll take the risk. But …’ I swallowed hard.
This is for Drachenheim. Remember?
Still, my voice came out sounding pathetically small. ‘Don’t leave without me, will you? No matter what happens while we’re there?’
‘Sofia.’ Jasper’s neck curved until he was looking back at me with one glinting, golden eye. ‘I told you: dragons always protect their territory!’
‘I beg your pardon?’ A half-laugh burst out from my tight chest, despite my panic. ‘You think your friends count as your territory?’ Snorting, I shook my head at him, feeling my heart rate finally resettle as philosophy saved me yet again. ‘Obviously, we have a lot to discuss as soon as this is finished!’
But first, I had to embark on my brand-new life of crime.
As Jasper thumped down on to the village square, I slid off his back before I could think twice about it. Then I stopped, blinking rapidly. He had completely disappeared from my vision. It looked as if my hands were flattened against empty air.
Suddenly, every window on every tiny stone cottage around the grassy square felt like a wide-open eye staring directly at me.
‘Sorry,’ Fedolia’s voice carolled through the empty air. ‘You aren’t touching me any more, so you aren’t covered by my spell.’
I frowned, my memory twanging with dissonance. ‘I’m touching Jasper, though. And that first day in Villenne, when we met, didn’t you cast it over all of us without needing to –’
‘D’you think you know more about kobold magic than I do?’ Fedolia’s cool fingers tapped impatiently against mine. For just a moment, I glimpsed her lying flat on her stomach on Jasper’s back, waving her other hand at me in a shooing gesture. ‘Just go!’ she told me as she blinked back out of view. ‘And for goodness sake, stop looking so suspicious!’
‘How can I not look suspicious?’ I hissed at the space where she had been. ‘I just appeared in the middle of their village from out of nowhere!’
‘If you stand around dithering, they’ll all catch sight of you on their way home for lunch.’
Argh! My breath panted in and out in short spurts as I unpeeled my fingers from the security of Jasper’s invisible scales.
‘Go on.’ His voice rumbled encouragingly through the air. ‘If I could pass as an ordinary human in Villenne, you can certainly do it now!’
There had been nothing ordinary about the way that Jasper had looked or acted in human form. But a curtain twitched in the corner of my vision, and it spurred me into motion before I could explain exactly how wrong he was about everything.
Later, I promised myself, and stalked across the grass towards the closest cottage, doing my best not to look suspicious.
Of course I belonged here in this tiny village in the middle of nowhere, where no one had ever seen me before. Of course there was nothing to suspect as I crossed their quiet square in a bright blue university robe. I looked perfectly calm and casual and –
A door clicked open, and I took off like a startled mouse, yanking up my skirts and robe and racing between the closest two cottages to flatten myself against a cold side wall.
‘Hello?’ a woman’s voice called out. ‘Is anybody there?’
There was a long pause. My heartbeat rattled against my chest. I pressed my lips frantically together.
‘Huh. Must’ve imagined it.’
The door closed. I slumped with relief, putting one hand to my chest as I struggled to catch my breath. I was so not suited to a criminal life!
Dear Katrin. Closing my eyes, I began to compose a new letter in my mind. You’ll be glad to know I’m a failure at crime as well as politics and courtly etiquette …
A door slammed open just inside the cottage I was leaning against.
I spun around.
I couldn’t see anyone. But a moment later, a cheerful, tuneless whistle sounded through the closest window. As I waited, paralysed with horror, it came closer and closer … and then moved away again. The door inside the cottage opened and shut.
How did professional thieves survive this kind of terror? I drew a deep breath, my whole body trembling, and then dashed out to the grass behind the cottage before panic could stop my non-criminal heart entirely.
There was no time to be fussy. I lunged at the first woollen shawl I saw on the clothes line and yanked hard.
It didn’t move. Something was holding it …
Aha. I fumbled with the odd-looking wooden clamp that trapped it against the line. There! I slung the shawl triumphantly across my shoulder. Next to its spot on the line hung a set of big, male undergarments – ugh! – and then a pair of long, striped, knitted tights, which I quickly added to my collection. Then a thick, red, woollen petticoat, a long scarf, an oversized woollen shirt and –
‘Oi!’ A window slammed open behind me, and a woman’s voice bellowed, ‘You! Stop right there! What are you doing with my laundry?’
I bolted before she even finished her question, tripping and stumbling over my skirts and my long student robe while I clutched my stack of ill-gotten goods in my arms.
The front door slammed open as I rounded the corner of the cottage, still a good ten feet from the village green. Don’t pause to look!
But I couldn’t help myself.
The woman glowering out at me from the doorway was huge! I’d never seen such muscular arms, not even on my guards. If only Jurgen and Konrad were here now! They might have been treacherous, sneaky telltales, but I would have given anything to have them with me at that moment.
There was no one to protect me as I lurched desperately towards the village green, crying out with frustration as my feet caught on the hem of my skirt yet again and that red-faced, strong-armed woman marched towards me, rolling up her sleeves in preparation.
Hot breath scorched my skin at the edge of the grass. ‘Quickly! Up on my back!’
Jasper might have been whispering by dragon standards, but the force of his hiss blew back my hair and sent my pursuer lurching backwards in shock.
‘What in the world –?’ She stopped and stared wildly around the empty-looking square, obviously searching for the source of that massive whisper.
I lunged forward until I hit Jasper’s invisible side, and then I shoved my pile of clothing as high as I could.
‘Got ’em!’ invisible Fedolia called cheerfully as she yanked them from my grasp.
‘What is going on?’ the woman demanded as my stolen pile disappeared from view. ‘Who are you anyway?’
‘I’m sorry!’ I said miserably, scrabbling for a foothold. It was hard to climb when I couldn’t see the scales in front of me!
Jasper gave a muted roar of pain as I accidentally stepped on his wing.
I cringed. ‘Sorry, sorry!’ I repeated to both of them. ‘I am really sorry. For everything!’
Until last night, I had never willingly apologised in my life. But right now all of my usual resistance fell away, as front doors slammed open around the square and villagers flooded out to watch me climb into apparently empty air.
‘But my clothes!’ At least the woman wasn’t chasing me any more. She just gaped at me, shaking her head in disbelief. ‘How? What –?’
There! I finally found a good toehold on Jasper’s side. I scrambled up as quickly as I could – and a cool hand fastened around my arm. Fedolia! I let out a sob of sheer relief. Finally.
Jasper and Fedolia both snapped into my view – an
d the woman let out a shout of rage as I disappeared.
‘Thief!’ she shouted. ‘Sneaky, magical thief!’ She charged forward, her face purpling.
Jasper bunched his legs beneath him in preparation to launch.
I yanked my purse from my skirts in desperation as I climbed into place behind Fedolia.
‘Here!’ I shouted, tossing it back towards the woman just before she could reach us. ‘Take this – you can have it! And I really am sorr-eeee!’ My voice cracked into a scream as Jasper leaped into the air.
I slid helplessly down his back, losing my grip entirely.
Villagers shouted from below as I snapped back into their view. I threw myself forward, wrapping my arms and legs around Jasper’s back …
And Fedolia shrieked with laughter as we sailed high above the village green, leaving the scene of my crime behind.
Ripples of aftershock flooded my body. My teeth chattered wildly as I pressed my face against Jasper’s hot scales. ‘I can’t believe I did that. I can’t believe I –’
‘Wooo!’ Fedolia twirled my stolen shawl triumphantly. ‘Talvikki was right – you do have guts after all! I can’t believe it either!’
Her chain had slipped free from her student robe in our take-off, and a massive blue pendant – a fist-sized chunk of blue topaz? – bounced against her chest as if it were dancing too, as the world tilted dizzyingly below us.
‘Auggggh,’ I moaned, and squeezed my eyes shut against the view.
‘What was that thing you tossed down at the end?’ Jasper called back. His wings beat strongly around us as his body levelled out. ‘A rock? Or –’
‘Just my purse.’ Groaning, I pulled my weary, aching body into a sitting position, taking deep, slow breaths of cold air to settle my stomach. ‘There wasn’t much inside it, though,’ I added regretfully.
My guards were the ones who always handled my payments, but I’d glanced inside it this morning just in case. So, for once, I had some idea of the amount.
‘There were only seven or eight gold pieces in there,’ I admitted. ‘That’s why I knew there’d be no point in trying to buy enough clothing to keep me warm.’
‘Seven or eight gold pieces?’ Fedolia repeated incredulously. ‘Sofi!’ Tipping back her head, she gave a wild cackle of pure delight. ‘You are the worst thief ever. No one in their right mind would pay a single gold piece for this entire pile!’
‘What?’ I stared at her, my mouth dropping open. ‘But –’
‘Thirteen krügen,’ she said. ‘That’s what I’d pay for all of these. At most!’ Still chortling, she held up my precious, stolen clothes like a pile of dirty rags on their way to the fire. ‘All the same …’ Her smile turned rueful as I snatched them away from her and cuddled them protectively to my chest. ‘We might just make it all the way up north after all,’ she finished, tucking her big blue pendant back under her robes, ‘now that you’re not so likely to freeze along the way.’
‘We’d better make it all the way up there.’ I wrapped the shawl tightly around my shoulders as even more tremors rippled through me.
I hated looking stupid … and I’d just been proved an idiot at practical matters once again.
The moment I got Katrin safely home, I was going to climb inside my bedcovers with a delicious pot of hot chocolate and a pile of books and never leave my room again … because clearly, I couldn’t manage life in the outside world at all.
CHAPTER 19
My stolen clothes were worth every coin I’d paid for them. As Jasper’s wings swept us further and further north, the air filled with gusts of whirling snow. Sheets of ice spread across the landscape below, and I huddled inside all my layers at once, like an animal growing thick winter fur.
I would have shared my hoard with Fedolia, but she laughed derisively when I made the reluctant offer.
‘I’m a beautiful kobold, not a human! D’you think I need all that nonsense to stay warm?’
She certainly didn’t seem bothered as she leaped up on her tiptoes on Jasper’s back and gathered up wet, cold handfuls of the swirling snow that fell around us as we flew. Patting it around her cheeks and face, she laughed and wriggled with delight. I looked away, shivering, and clung closer to Jasper’s hot scales, where the snow melted on impact.
I would never understand that kobold.
And I was taken entirely off guard a moment later when she dropped down suddenly and grabbed hold of my leg with a wet, cold hand, snapping invisibility around all of us without warning.
‘Wha–?’ I began, my voice muffled by my scarf.
Her other hand slammed over my mouth, sharp blue fingernails digging through the wool into my cheek. Snow melted through to nip my skin with cold as I stared at her.
I couldn’t hear anything but the slow swish-swish of Jasper’s wings beating steadily through the air and the soft hiss of snow falling around us. But Fedolia’s long, pointed, white ears swivelled sideways as I watched, following some sound I couldn’t catch. Lifting her hand from my leg, she worried frantically at the silver chain around her neck, fingers rubbing back and forth against it as if it were a good-luck charm.
With her hand gripping my face, I couldn’t even crane over Jasper’s side to see what was happening below. There could be ice giants moving around just beneath us, waiting to freeze us the moment they saw through her spell! Or –
‘Phew.’ Fedolia sagged against me, letting go of my cheeks and giving her necklace a final, reassuring pat. ‘That was close.’
‘What was close?’ Yanking off my scarf, I breathed in as deeply as I could. ‘What just happened?’
Fedolia’s face tightened. ‘You don’t need to know.’
‘I’d like to know anyway,’ Jasper rumbled ahead of us.
‘You are not keeping this a secret.’ I crossed my arms over my chest and narrowed my eyes at the kobold, who was plucking a strand of red scarf wool from one of her long blue nails with intense concentration. ‘Out with it!’
She sighed heavily without looking up. ‘It has nothing to do with ice giants or your families.’
‘So?’
‘Fine!’ A streak of shocking bright blue appeared on her cheeks for the first time ever. Was the fearless, sharp-tongued kobold girl actually blushing? ‘It was my family,’ she muttered. ‘You see? Not your problem!’
‘Your family?’
I wriggled so quickly to the side that I nearly slid off – but I had practice, by now, at riding on dragon-back. So I kept my seat as I peered behind Jasper’s wings to the ground below.
It was empty. Only white snow and ice stretched as far as I could see.
‘You won’t see them now,’ Fedolia said impatiently. ‘We only passed them on their way back down to the mine.’
‘The mine?’ I repeated blankly. ‘I thought the kobolds up here were all spies for the ice giants.’
‘You –!’ Her mouth dropped open, shock mingling with outrage on her face. ‘What do you know about kobolds? Or any of this?’
Uh oh. Fedolia did like her secrets … so she probably wouldn’t be happy at all to know that Talvikki and I had talked about her.
I shrugged, trying my best to look casual. ‘I just … heard that that’s why the giants let the kobolds stay, to help protect their hidden hearts. And that’s why you couldn’t stay any more – because you were kinder-hearted than the rest of your family.’
‘There is nothing wrong with my family!’ She glared murderously at me.
‘Then why are we avoiding them?’ Jasper enquired. ‘Do you want to go down and find them now?’ He started to curve around in mid-air.
‘No!’ She grabbed hold of the chain around her neck and twisted it in her hands. ‘I can’t. You don’t understand, either of you!’
I scowled. I hated not understanding things! ‘Explain it then. Weren’t you thrown out because you were kind enough to help the goblins?’
‘I was thrown out,’ she snapped, ‘because I was stupid.’ Her eyes slitted dangerously. ‘Y
ou think every kobold wants to spy for the ice giants? It’s just a thing that has to be done along with every other chore, so we can keep our mines and our homes safe. There’s no use worrying over it! If I’d been clever enough to listen to my family and realise I really might be caught, no matter what I did to protect myself –’
‘Wait. Your whole family threw you out?’ A growl battered behind Jasper’s words as his neck curved so he could face her. ‘They didn’t even try to protect their hatchling?’ he demanded.
‘What else could they do?’ She flung out her arms, more agitated than I’d ever seen her. ‘They would have been frozen otherwise – or stepped on! If anyone even saw any of them talking to me ever again –’
‘But you weren’t frozen,’ I said, ‘or stepped on. Why would they be punished worse than you were?’
‘I don’t want to talk about it,’ Fedolia snarled.
Smoke snorted out of Jasper’s nostrils. ‘Family doesn’t abandon family, no matter what stupid things they do.’
Ouch. Those words made me shrink back in my seat, as I remembered my own sister’s final words to me … and the way I’d run away from her afterwards, without stopping to argue or apologise.
‘Sometimes they do,’ I mumbled.
But maybe they shouldn’t.
Jasper’s family certainly never would. Jasper wouldn’t even give up on me.
‘You don’t know anything about it,’ Fedolia repeated, more quietly this time. ‘But I’m taking care of my problems myself. So don’t worry about it!’
She pointedly closed her eyes and pretended to fall asleep.
I could have forced her to admit she wasn’t sleeping, but I was feeling raw myself as the hours passed and too many vulnerable memories swirled around me in the falling snow. I might have tried again later, but the moment that Jasper landed by a lake that evening, Fedolia blinked out of sight without a word.
I should have known that she still didn’t trust me, even now.
‘So much for getting any supper!’ I sighed and slid off Jasper’s back, landing on the snowy ground with a grunt of effort. ‘I suppose she couldn’t have caught any fish tonight anyway.’
The Princess Who Flew with Dragons Page 11