by Andy Holland
"They're going to allow us to enter," he told them. "They've asked us to leave all of our things here. Don't worry, they'll be quite safe here."
"What about us?" Jenna murmured to Crystal.
Crystal ignored her, putting her bag down next to John's and moving to stand next to him. He took Daisy's hand and led her after the two Worm Dragons who had started walking further into the tunnel. The tunnel sloped downwards quite steeply, and Crystal was a little worried that she might slip. She wondered how her cousin was managing with her ridiculous choice of footwear. Daisy gave a quiet yelp as she slid into John, who paused to steady her before continuing. He seemed to be doing well on the terrain, but then she heard his laboured breathing and realised that he was probably struggling even more than she was.
Fortunately, the descent did not last long, and the tunnel joined a much wider passageway where a number of Worm Dragons were waiting for them. Like the first two, their hair was very short, and Crystal still couldn’t work out what colour it was. Their skin was quite pale, and all of them had grey eyes. It was as if they had entered a world without colour. One of the Worm Dragons was much older than the rest and judging by the muscular young men who surrounded him, he was probably someone important. The bodyguards regarded Crystal and her friends very suspiciously, but the old man looked friendly and welcoming.
"Greetings, young John," the elderly Worm Dragon said warmly. "We did not expect to see you back here. And not with company."
John nodded before moving forward with his hand outstretched. "It is good to see you, my friend. I'm sorry that I have not visited sooner. It has been a challenging year."
The Worm Dragon shook his hand, still smiling, but Crystal could now detect an edge to his tone. "If you say so. We know nothing of the world outside of this Valley. And we are happy with that. Why have you brought these Red Dragons here?"
"Crystal is a Golden Dragon…," Jenna volunteered, her words fading as the Worm Dragon silenced her with an icy glare.
"These are the only Red Dragons that know of your existence," John replied. "They travelled with me south to my home and visited the Golden Dragon parliament. My government questioned me in front of them, specifically mentioning you and that's how they learnt about you. It was unavoidable. But they are my friends who I would trust with my life, and I assure you that they would never give you away. I thought you would want to meet them so that you would know that for yourself, rather than having to rely on my word. They were also very keen to meet you."
The Worm Dragon frowned, staring at them all for a long, uncomfortable moment. Then he nodded. "Perhaps that is better. You could have hidden this from us, but you have chosen to be open with us, and we appreciate that."
"And the world above you is changing," John told him. "One day that may affect you. It would not hurt to make some more friends now, in case you need them in the future."
"The world outside is largely irrelevant to us," the old man replied. "I can't see how any changes outside could affect us."
"Your food and water comes from above, doesn't it?" Daisy asked. "As do most of the resources you use. You may not venture above the ground that frequently but you still go up, do you not?"
As usual, Daisy seemed better informed than Crystal was. They had both had the same tuition from John, but somehow more information had stuck with Daisy. Crystal had never really considered how the Worm Dragons survived, but now that she thought about it she realised that they would have to go above ground to get food.
The old man turned to Daisy, and his frown immediately disappeared. The elegant princess always seemed to have that effect on people. "Very true, my dear. We do so infrequently and reluctantly, but we do have to do so. But we have managed to remain isolated for so long that it seems inconceivable that that could ever change."
"We have had to accept many things that were considered unthinkable a year ago," Daisy replied. "As you probably knew, our race is both ignorant and intolerant of other races, but we've learnt to make friends with races we hadn't even heard of before. If that is possible, then anything is."
Daisy's honesty took him by surprise, and he was dumbfounded at first. "I'm not sure what to say to that. We've had limited contact with your race, but I'm afraid what we have seen has been very negative. Meeting you has challenged my preconceived ideas."
"Then bringing them here was worthwhile," John added. "But I admit that I had another reason for coming. A less happy one, related to the incident that brought me here last time."
The elderly Worm Dragon's cheerful expression vanished, to be replaced by one that was both sad and sympathetic. "I see. I take it that your health has declined. Our doctors were optimistic, but I wondered if we had just delayed the inevitable. You have come to see if we can help, I take it."
"Please," Daisy begged. "John was only hurt because he was acting to save us. Surely you can do something more for him."
The old man smiled sadly at Daisy. "That isn't for me to answer. Come, my men will show you where you can wait. I will send for our doctors. John, we shall talk further after that. You will have to tell me all about these changes you have spoken about."
"Of course," John replied. "But if you prefer the twins can tell you about them. They are members of the ruling family in the Red Dragon's Western Principality, and it would be good for you to get to know them. Princess Daisy has been my student for the last year and has been very keen to learn about her neighbours, and I'm sure her brother Arthur is just as keen."
"Of course," Arthur added earnestly. "We would be delighted to tell you all about what has happened. It has been an amazing year."
The old man smiled and nodded. "So you are twins, I should have seen that. Thank you, I will take you up on that offer. Come, I will show you some of our home. I believe that you will be impressed by how comfortably we live, even if our humble home is insignificant compared to the great cities our ancestors used to live in. The rest of you may go with John to see the doctor."
Daisy looked at John quickly for confirmation, but if she was at all nervous about going off with the Worm Dragon, she hid it well. Four of the guards escorted the twins and the old man along the tunnel, leaving Crystal, John, Jenna and Seth with six young Worm Dragons, who up till now had stood back, remaining silent. One of them moved forward to approach John.
"Follow me," he commanded coldly, completely ignoring Crystal and the others. Without waiting for a response, he briskly turned about marched down the tunnel in the opposite direction to the one the twins had taken. John appeared to be unfazed by his unwelcoming manner, merely smiling encouragingly at Crystal, Jenna and Seth before following the guards. Jenna took her arm again, clearly still not happy about being here but with no choice but to follow.
"This tunnel runs in a straight line from one end of the valley to the other," John whispered as if he didn't want the Worm Dragons to hear him. "There's another tunnel that runs in parallel to this one, in case it gets blocked by the ceiling collapsing. All of their tunnels are designed like that but don’t worry, that doesn’t ever happen."
"Where do they all live?" Seth asked.
"There are three main residential areas," John replied. "The entrance we used is between the two largest ones. They’re very interesting places although a little disorientating. I only visited one, and it appeared to have five levels which I found quite difficult to navigate. Unfortunately, the doctor is just outside of the community so we won't get to see anything of interest."
Crystal wondered how much there could be to see down here anyway. She didn't like the idea of living underground, never seeing the sun and cramped into these narrow tunnels. This one wasn't too narrow, admittedly, but this was the main thoroughfare, and besides, it wasn't like being on a street or even better, soaring through the air.
They continued to follow the guards along the long straight passage, passing a number of side passages and closed doors before they stopped outside a set of pale blue double doors. The guard who had spok
en to them opened the doors and ushered them through. The doorway led into a large room, markedly different to the passage outside, with a marble floor and wooden panels on the walls. It was a pleasant room, lit by a several orange oil lamps that gave the place a warm feeling and it would have been easy to forget that they were deep underground. Opposite them was a large wooden desk with an empty chair behind it. There was a door behind the desk, but it was closed. There were several chairs lined up along the right wall, and the guard indicated for them to use them.
"This is where the doctor works," he told them gruffly. "You will wait for her here."
He left without another word and closed the doors behind him. John sat down in one of the chairs without hesitation, so Crystal sat down next to him. Jenna and Seth reluctantly joined them.
"Will Arthur and Daisy be alright?" Jenna asked nervously. "Are you sure we should have come? That guard didn't seem very happy to have us here."
"They will be fine," John replied. He looked around the room. "I remember this place. They treated me here last year. They kept me in a room through there." He pointed to the door behind the desk.
"How did they save you?" Seth asked. "You looked half dead."
"I couldn't tell you," John admitted. "I don't remember that much. During the day I stayed as a dragon as much as possible as it's the best way to heal, but I passed out a lot, and you can't stay a dragon while unconscious so I'd transform each time I blacked out. That was embarrassing, but I was too sick to care. Each time it happened, they'd wake me up again so I could transform. At night they'd bring me down here to treat me, but I have no recollection of what they did. They kept me alive, that I do know, but only just. They told me that on the last day, every time I passed out they had been unsure whether I would wake again. I guess I was lucky."
A door at the back of the room opened, and a grey-haired woman entered, followed by a bald man. Despite the woman's grey hair, she didn't look that old, maybe just ten years older than them.
Maybe this was their natural hair colour. She smiled at them as she approached.
"John," she said warmly, "I'm glad to see you looking so well. We weren't sure how you would fare after you left us, but you look very healthy."
John smiled back at her and rose to his feet. "Thanks to your care I survived. But I'm afraid that my health is fading. I've suffered from chest pains ever since I left here, but I thought little of them. Then I returned home before the summer, and our doctors examined me for an unrelated medical problem. After examining me, they told me that they are convinced that my condition is quite serious and will eventually kill me. I’m hoping that you’ll have a different opinion."
The lady turned to the bald man who nodded glumly. "We hoped that you would avoid this," he replied. "We've seen many cases of this, and we have seen dragons survive, but it is easier with smaller dragons. We thought that you, being a Golden Dragon, might fare better and that we had done enough to cure you. I’m sorry to see that we were wrong."
"You've seen a lot of dragons do what John did?" Jenna asked incredulously. "Deliberately transform at night?"
The female doctor looked quizzically at John. "And this is?"
"Sorry, allow me to introduce my friends. This is Jenna, Crystal and Seth. They were with me on our camping trip last year."
"Were they?" the doctor said meaningfully, frowning at them disapprovingly. "My name is a little longer than any of yours, and I won't ask you to try to pronounce it. You may simply call me Pam, and this is my colleague, Kal. Well, Jenna, our people have seen this before, but not me personally. Living underground it's easier to lose track of night and day, so it probably happens more frequently to us. It's still not something that happens that often but we knew how to treat it."
"Can you save him?" Crystal asked. "Is there anything you can do?"
Pam shook her head. "You have to treat the damage quickly," she replied. "Your doctors are right, it is almost always fatal once the chest pains begin. It's just a matter of time."
"Almost always," Jenna repeated. "So there are cases where the dragon survives."
Kal shrugged. "Yes, there have been some survivors. But not when treatment has been delayed as long as this. If you'd returned to us when the chest pains started John might have had a chance."
"But what about the Circle?" Crystal asked, trying to cling to what hope still remained. "John said he felt better when he was there. Why would that be the case? Is it possible that there is a way of curing him that is hidden in the Circle?"
Pam's eyes widened, a look of amazement on her face. "You have been in the Circle of Death?"
"We all have," Jenna replied nonchalantly. "Delightful place. As long as you don't mind the huge murderous dragons."
"We do not go there," Kal replied, frowning. "It isn't safe."
"Yes, we know," Jenna replied. "The True Dragons…"
"No, not them," Kal interrupted harshly. "The Black Dragonstone." He spat the words out.
"The what?" Seth asked. "And how can anything be more dangerous than the True Dragons."
"The Black Dragonstone," Pam repeated, but in a much calmer tone than Kal had managed. She shook her head at him as if rebuking him. "It's at the centre of the Circle, in the Lost City. It was made by Worm Dragons over a thousand years ago, and it's probably still there."
"That can't be right," John said. "Dragonstones don't last that long, especially if no one is tending to them. And I thought Worm Dragons can't make Dragonstones. You don't produce feather scales, so it's not possible." Dragonstones were made using special scales that would grow on a dragon's chest every month or so. The scales were small and soft, and although Crystal hadn't seen one, they were supposed to be significantly lighter in colour than other scales. The scales would fall off naturally after a few weeks, and Red Dragons always donated them to their local Stonehouse, where the Dragonstones were kept, as giving a feather scale linked you to the stone and allowed you to draw power from it. Crystal hadn't realised that not all dragons produced these scales, although John had probably told her at some point.
"No, we do not," Pam agreed. "Just like Golden Dragons. But the Worm Dragons who lived in the Circle bought them from other dragon races and made the Black Dragonstone, or the Rainbow Stone as it was originally known. They envied the Dragonstones of the other races and wanted their own, so bought many scales and produced a stone that was made from the scales of every dragon race you could think of. They produced a huge, multi-coloured stone that was said to be a thing of incredible beauty."
"Beauty and danger," Kal added darkly. "They should have never made it."
"Perhaps," Pam replied, glaring at him again. "But that hardly matters now."
"But how would that work?" Seth asked, ignoring their disagreement. "You need to give one of your own scales for the Dragonstone to give you any benefit. Why would you want a stone made from other dragons' scales? It would be pointless."
"The Rainbow Stone was different to any other stone," Pam replied. "I’m not sure what our ancestors hoped to achieve at the start as they couldn’t have known what was going to happen, but they made something very special. Unlike your stones, once made, its power didn't fade over time, and they didn't need to keep adding more scales. And it had powers your stones didn't have, wonderful powers that allowed the cities' residents to live longer lives than would normally be possible. Long lives free from sickness and with the ability to recover from almost any injury. It was said that the Worm Dragons in the Circle lived for hundreds of years, all down to the Rainbow Stone."
"So what was the problem?" Jenna asked. "And why is it black?"
"The problem was that it wasn't as fantastic as everyone thought," Kal replied bitterly. "It didn't just lengthen their lives, it changed them in other ways."
"Ways that weren't so good," Pam added hurriedly before Kal could elaborate. "The stone drew people to it, and they became obsessed with it. The residents fought amongst themselves over possession of it, and it slowly turne
d them mad. Eventually, one of their leaders decided that unless something was done, the stone would destroy them, so he tried to destroy the stone himself. He tried to incinerate it with his own fire, but it just turned black, and within hours of attacking the Rainbow Stone, he fell sick and died. All of the other Worm Dragons in the city also started to sicken, and within a few days they were all dead."
"That's one story," Kal added darkly. "There are others. Ones that seem far more likely."
"Yes, there are," Pam agreed. "But none that dispute how dangerous the stone was. Especially to us. After the event, a group of Worm Dragons, some of our ancestors, visited to seek out the stone and there they found the dead littered throughout the city. They found a lone survivor, who although dying, was able to relate this story to them before he died. They returned with this account, but like those who had lived in the city, sickened and died within days of having returned. For Worm Dragons, the stone is death. Is this not what happened, Kal?"
Kal shrugged indifferently. "That was the story that was recorded, yes. It’s certainly death to us that much I do know."
"For Worm Dragons," Crystal repeated. "But what about other dragons? Could the stone cure John?"
Pam nodded. "It is known to still have healing powers for other dragons. Long ago, before even the Green Dragons lived in the area, dragons used to visit the stones from far away in the belief that it could cure them. They had heard of our fate, but desperate dragons would take desperate measures and hoped that what killed us would cure them. And they were right. It could heal anyone, regardless of the sickness, just by the patient spending time near the stone."
"So that's the answer then!" Seth exclaimed. "John, you just have to go and find this stone!"
"But will it work on me?" John asked, sounding less convinced. "I am a Golden Dragon, after all. We are not like any other dragon."