War of Dragons (23 page)

I'm surprised you managed to follow that order. Weren't you tempted to tell her anyway? Or to just give up and leave?

John took a long time before answering this question.
Maybe,
he replied quietly
.

Perhaps I'm being a little unfair,
Dinah added.
Either way, I couldn't have blamed you. I’m not sure how well I would have handled going to school in the Red Dragon kingdom at your age and having the whole class against you from the start.

Well, not the whole class,
John added.
The Princess was always nice to me.

Oh yes,
Dinah said.
I'm glad that you had at least one friend. I'm surprised it would have been a Princess though. I'd have thought she'd have been even harder to talk to than the other children.

Oh no,
John objected.
Daisy was never hard to talk to. You couldn't find a more pleasant person. She's always been really sweet.
He hesitated for a moment.
She's actually more than just a friend….

Wow!
Dinah said in surprise.
Your girlfriend is a Red Dragon princess! How did she take it when she realised what you are?

She was unbelievably relaxed about it. In fact, much so than I believed possible,
John admitted.
It doesn't seem to have changed how she feels about me at all. I was really worried about that. She's very special to me and I couldn't bear the thought of losing her.

Wow, John,
Dinah repeated.
That's really amazing. But what about her family? I always thought that the Reds were pretty much just like the Blues. Would they accept who you are?

John shook his head sadly.
No, I don't think there's any chance of that. Her mother doesn't like me much anyway and that was when she thought that I was a Red Dragon, so I don't see it getting any better. And you know what our laws say. I have to win over the family.

Yes, I do,
Dinah replied sympathetically.
I'm sorry, John. What will you do?

John sighed, breathing out little flames from his nostrils.
I don't know. I don't know whether there is anything that I can do. Doesn't seem that important at the moment though, not with this war on.

But it is important to you, isn't it?
Dinah asked.
I can see that.

Yes,
John admitted.
But we have to focus on this problem first. Otherwise her family might not survive the war anyway.

Well, at least she'll be safe,
Dinah pointed out.
She can stay with us until the war is over. And you never know, if we succeed, her family might be grateful enough to allow you to marry her.

Maybe,
John agreed.
And if we fail, they'll be dead so won't be able to object
—

John!
Dinah said in shock.
What a terrible thing to say!

I know,
John replied.
Sorry,
I don't mean it. Well, I mean, I don't wish it to happen. It may happen, which would be terrible and would destroy Daisy and although it would change my situation, I really don't want it to happen. It's just hard not to think about it. What would happen if we fail? There is so much at stake.

I know, John,
Dinah replied.
You're doing what you can. Anyway, let's not think about failure or what might not happen with your princess. Tell me more about the Red Dragon Kingdom….

John continued to tell Dinah about the Reds, which helped pass the time on their long flight. Eventually they neared their destination and joined the back of a group that was also flying back into the camp. As luck would have it, they landed just as another batch of prisoners were being laid out and joined the queue. John trembled with excitement; they might just get out of here without any delays.

Hey, you there!
a Blue Dragon called to John, dashing his hopes.
You at the back of the queue. Come and help over here.

John groaned inside as he left Dinah in the queue, wondering how he would get out of this one.

Help me with this, will you?
The Blue Dragon asked him. He was trying to pull out a giant stake supporting one of the larger tents, but the stake kept slipping through his claws.
I'm not strong enough as a human, but haven't the control as a dragon. Can you have a go?

John bent down and carefully gripped it in his jaws before slowly lifting his head and easing the stake from the ground. He dropped the stake in front of the other dragon.

Ah, that's fantastic. Stay and help with the others, will you? You seem to have the knack. I'll transform and collect them up and show you which ones to pull up.

The Blue Dragon didn't wait for John to reply before transforming into a young man not much older than him; a young man with a friendly, relaxed demeanour and a chatty nature, despite John's inability to converse with him.

"Come on, this way. Just pull out these stakes and you'll be done."

John was relieved that he couldn't reply and wasn't expected to; his new companion happy to do all the talking. "Thanks for this. It's harder than I thought taking down these tents. They should get us all working in pairs, don't you think? Glad I missed the last move. It was a real mess I heard. Were you involved?"

John shook his head.

"You were lucky, so I hear. They hadn't planned it at all well. They were meant to be moving to a completely different site, but it was raining hard and the site flooded. Apparently some idiot left a bunch of prisoners lying in a ditch and forgot about them and ten of them drowned! They couldn't scream of course as they're all gagged and wrapped up. They tell us it’s to stop them escaping, but that's not it of course, is it? Oh no. They don't want the likes of us seeing them all in case we get tempted to borrow one for a little bit, or to try and sneak into the camp for a little fun. You know that last escapee, the one before? Well I heard that she was helped by one of the guards. Only a rumour of course—they never worked out who it was. Come on, pull it up, that's the way. Anyway, they don't want us seeing them. Why else would they cover them up? They wouldn't care if the girls saw us. What could they do, eh? Most of them don't even know how to transform, as they've never learnt, and those who might be able to work it out don't know how to fly. ‘Course, if they did transform, it would kill them. I don't just mean the neck rings, no, although if they did it with one of them on they would lose their head straight away. Yes, that’s right, pull up that one. Perfect. You’ve really got the hang of this. No, I mean what they give them to eat. Every meal they have has tiny bits of that horrible weed put in their food. You know the one—what's the name? Oh, yeah, you can't talk, can you? You know, the one which stops you transforming back. Soon as night comes and it would be all over for them. Right, leave that tent; I'm just doing these ones. Those guys are doing the rest and they were catching me up before you turned up. On to this one. You don't mind, do you? Just one more tent and then we're done. I must admit, I do feel sorry for these girls. I mean, most of 'em are just kids when they get here. By the time they're my age they're pregnant with their second one. I've never seen one of course, but I hear they're not that different from our girls. All types of funny colours of course and some strange ways of speaking, but other than that basically the same. Hey you won't repeat any of this, will you? Good. People get a bit funny about these girls. Whoa, slow down a bit; you're keen! Struggling to keep up here, I am. Anyway, I think that's the real reason why they don't want us to see them. Don't want us to feel sorry for them. Easier to hate 'em if you can't see them. Ah, that's the last one. Thanks a lot. Hey, what's all the fuss about?"

John turned around to see what the source of the noise was. Many dragons were landing and taking off and in the midst of them there was a lot of shouting and running around going on, but the source of the commotion wasn't clear. A Blue Dragon transformed into a middle-aged man with very dark blue hair and pale skin and walked towards them on the way to the mess tent.

"Hey, what's all the fuss about?" his companion repeated to him. "Has something happened?"

"You could say that," the older man scoffed. "Someone tried to run off with one of the prisoners. They were headed to the coast when they were caught."

"Really? What were they doing?"

The older man shrugged. "No idea. They didn't ask him. Probably wanted to have their own little slave."

"So what happened to the man? Is he going to be punished?"

"Punished? What are you talking about? There isn't anything left to punish. They tore him to pieces in mid-air!"

"What, seriously? They killed him! That sounds over the top."

"Really? Imagine what would happen if he had got away and they had realised that a prisoner was missing. We'd have to move the whole camp again."

"I suppose so; but killing him? Surely that wasn't necessary."

"We're going to war, boy. This isn't the time to be even asking these questions." The man walked on towards the mess tent.

"Wow. Didn't expect that to happen. Hey, if you want to take a break before flying on, you can join me if you like…."

John shook his head and gestured towards the queue of Blue Dragons queuing up to take the prisoners, which was moving at a good pace.

"No, oh well, till next time. Thanks for your help..."

John rushed back to join the queue. His mind was spinning. It had to be Dinah. How on earth had she let herself get caught? She should have been able to outfly these Blues with ease. His heart sank and he was glad that he was a dragon; as a human, the despair he felt would have been written all over his face. He had hardly known her, but he still felt terrible about her death. He shook himself, resolved to focus on his mission. It was a cold thought, but he realised that it could have been worse; they could have captured her and then found out who she was before killing her. That would have been the end of the mission as well and the end of any chance for the Reds. This would also make it much, much harder for him. They would be watching each dragon much more carefully.

No one spoke to him in the queue—something he was grateful for. Each dragon was looking down at the ground morosely, presumably dwelling on the execution of the miscreant. John reached the front of the queue and waited for a minute till they brought out the next group of prisoners, which they laid out in a line in front of him. He took the nearest two bundles from the floor and held them close to his chest before taking off, gliding slowly through the camp. He could feel them struggling in his grasp and heard one of them sobbing quietly; a faint, hopeless sound. John consoled himself with the thought of what her expression would be like when he pulled off her blindfold and she realised that she was no longer a prisoner.

First he had to make it back to the Brown Dragons’ territory. He flew back towards the gap in the canopy and felt a tingle of excitement as he left the camp behind him. He resisted the urge to break for freedom straight away and headed in the direction of the rest of the fleet of dragons carrying their prisoners, flapping his wings in synchronisation with the Blue Dragons around him. He glanced around at those flying with him; he was near the front of this group so slowing down and letting them pass was unlikely to work. However, taking the opposite approach might work. He observed that the way that they flew was a little inefficient and by making a very subtle change in how he flapped his wings he could speed up, even without needing to move his wings any faster. At first no one noticed as he moved to the front of the group, his wings still flapping in time with the rest of them. He didn't care too much about being noticed; he just wanted to get away from the group, but if he could get past the first few without comment then so much the better. There were only eleven dragons ahead of him and he passed the first two unnoticed. Nine more to go. Three were flying in parallel just ahead of him, none of them speaking to each other. He rose a little higher to pass them and flapped a little harder to overtake them, yet still no one noticed. Just six left. He sped up a little more, flying quickly towards the next group and at a speed that would almost certainly draw their attention, yet again he passed by without comment. It wasn't till he passed the two Blue Dragons at the front that anyone commented.

Hey, you!
one of them barked angrily at him.
What do you think you're doing? Slow down and fall back in line.

John couldn't drop back now; this was his best opportunity.
You speed up!
he retorted.
I can't wait all day. I'm hungry and this is taking too long!

He flew as fast as he could as a Blue Dragon, trying to leave them behind. He could faintly hear some more objections, but he was leaving them behind him. He made sure that he stayed on the right route for the second camp. He couldn't deviate while they were watching him or they would have no choice but to pursue him, but there were no dragons in sight up ahead so as soon as he was out of sight he could veer off and head back to the border. The pace he had set was tiring, especially carrying the two girls, and he wasn't sure how long he could maintain it, but he was desperate to get away from the group. He glanced back; they were a long way behind him but were still in sight. They were fairly high though and if he dropped a little it would be hard for them to see him against the forest. He descended till he was just flying above the trees and glanced back again. This time the group of Blue Dragons were only just in sight, so he decided to take a chance. If he flew much further he might catch up with another group, so whatever he did would involve some risk. He turned to the west, continuing at the furious pace he had set and hoping that none of the group noticed what he was doing. He continued at this pace as long as he could before glancing back to see if he could see the group. There was nothing in sight behind him—he had escaped the group!