War of Dragons (38 page)

John glanced over at Sofia, who was laughing mischievously and noticed that Daphne was blushing. He decided that he was rather glad he couldn't participate in this conversation.

The other dragons were approaching overhead and John and Natan rose up to join them. The group flew low to avoid the cooler air and John hoped that the good weather would hold. Flying in cold wet weather wouldn't bother the dragons, but might prove fatal to some of their passengers. But it was a fine evening and they had an hour of light left, which John planned to use. He sent Reuben and Natan ahead of the group as the sun lowered in the sky in order to look for a place to stop that had some water. Reuben came back first and directed them to follow him to a stream that he had found.

Nice spot,
John commented as they landed.
This will do for the night.

"What do we do now?" Natan asked after transforming. "Is there a plan?"

John nodded. "Rest. Get a good night's sleep, drink plenty of water and try not to get too cold, but don't build a fire. What more do you want?"

Natan groaned. "That's it? We have no blankets, no tents, and just these light flying jackets. Can't we risk a fire?"

John’s eyes blazed angrily. "No, you fool, of course not. Damn it, Natan, I was hoping you'd help me with this."

Natan shook his head. "It's nearly night and there are no Blue Dragons anywhere near here. There will be no chance of them spotting a fire."

"Spotting a fire? They can
smell
a fire. Tomorrow, when we leave to go back for the other girls, we will be leaving these girls on their own. That burnt smell will linger on and they'll be found."

"We could always fly on with these girls," Natan replied. "Come back for the others afterwards."

John shook his head. "The others are much nearer to the Blue Dragon populations and more likely to be found. They should be moved first."

"But, John, we could just move these girls a bit, just away from where we had the fires and then—"

"Enough!" John snapped. "No fire and we don't change the plan. It's risky enough as it is. I'm not going to discuss it with you or anyone."

John turned and stormed off, his patience finally exhausted. He walked to the stream and bent down to have a drink. When he finished he found Daphne crouching beside him.

"Hi, Daphne. What are you doing here?"

She shrugged. "I thought I'd stay with you. You did bring me here."

John wasn't sure what to say. "Umm, alright, but don't you have friends you want to be with?"

She shook her head. "All my friends were taken in the main group. I don't know that many girls here."

John frowned. "Alright, but I have some things to do. I have a responsibility for everyone here, not just one person."

She smiled. "But what do you need to do? You've already told everyone the plan, haven't you?"

John nodded. "Of course, but they may have questions; want to know what to do…."

Daphne looked up at him with her big, dark eyes. "Look around, John; they don't seem to need any help. It's not a complicated plan really, is it?"

John looked around and saw that all of the dragons had transformed and were either lying, sitting or leaning against trees, talking quietly amongst themselves or with the girls.

"How old are you anyway?" Daphne asked. "You don't look older than me."

John turned back to her. "Sixteen, almost seventeen," he replied. "Why do you ask?"

Daphne looked about, before looking back at him. "Well, the others all look quite a bit older than that, so they shouldn't need to ask you for anything. You look exhausted, just like them, but they're all resting, while you're worrying and running around. Shouldn't you be resting as well?"

John took a deep breath and closed his eyes as he exhaled. She was right; he was exhausted, and he knew he would have a lot of flying tomorrow. Many things could go wrong tomorrow and although he had refused to discuss anything with Natan, he wasn't completely sure his was the right plan. They could be seen taking off from this spot and return later to find all of the girls gone, or slaughtered, or—

"Come with me, John," Daphne told him, interrupting his thoughts and taking him by the hand. "We should find a place to rest. Somewhere not so muddy."

John got up and followed her, allowing her to lead him away from the river. All around them there were people sat around looking up at them, whispering to each other as they passed.

"You're a bit of a celebrity," Daphne told him. "Everyone is talking about you."

John nodded. "The one who led them out into the forest to freeze to death. The one who won't let them have a fire."

Daphne laughed. "There are almost two thousand people here; if they really disagreed with you they'd just build fires. You couldn't stop them."

"Great," John replied. "So it's going to happen then."

"No, I mean, that's not what they were whispering about. You're only sixteen yet you've led all these adults and rescued all of us."

"Going on seventeen," John added.

Daphne smiled and sat down, pulling him down with her. "Going on seventeen." She gazed up at his face, still smiling, and reached up to run her fingers through his hair. "Your hair is so nice. I've never seen anyone with hair like it."

"Look, Daphne, you know, I do have a girlfriend—"

Daphne put a finger to his mouth and shushed him. "Don't worry, I just want someone to keep me warm. You can do that, can't you? It gets cold out here; you don't want to freeze, do you?"

John shook his head and Daphne lifted his arm and wiggled into his embrace.

"It's not that cold yet—" he began.

"Hush," she replied. "Tell me about your girlfriend. Does she have a name?"

John relaxed a little. "Daisy," he replied.

"That's a nice name," Daphne replied. "And where is Daisy? How did you meet her?"

"She's back in my home country," John replied, "although she's not from there."

"Oh, where's she from?" Daphne asked.

"She's from your country," John replied. "She's a Red Dragon."

Daphne sat up and turned to look at him. "Seriously? You're not making this up?"

John shook his head.

She gave him a funny look. "No, you're not making it up, are you. You'd have picked something more believable. I have the feeling that you wouldn't be a very good liar. So how did you meet her? In my country or yours?"

"Yours," John replied. "I was at school in Furnace. At King Cornelius School."

Daphne gasped and slapped his arm. "You were not!"

John nodded, smiling. "I was there on a scholarship. They didn't know what I was of course. We can change into any dragon that we wish, so it's easy to pretend to be a Red Dragon."

"No, they wouldn't have known. King Cornelius! That's incredible. Only the rich and powerful send their children there. Hey, is that where you met your girlfriend?"

John nodded. "She started school with me. I was meant to be watching this girl, Crystal, who although she didn't know it, was one of us, you know, a Golden Dragon. She was adopted, well, it's a long story."

"Go on, so how did you meet Daisy? Was it very romantic?"

John shrugged. "I don't know about that. We just became friends. I think she was a bit lonely, and so was I. She had a twin brother, who she was very close to, but then he found a girlfriend, Jenna, who was Crystal's cousin and Daisy was a bit left out."

"Wait a minute," Daphne said. "She had a twin?"

"Yes," John replied, "Arthur. He came here with her. You'll probably meet them both."

"
Princess
Daisy!" Daphne exclaimed. "You're going out with the Princess?"

John blushed. "I tend to call her Daisy."

Daphne snuggled back into him. "You should have said. I'm from the west, you see. I was visiting my cousins in the East when I was captured. Wow, Princess Daisy, eh? Just wait till I tell my friends that I slept in the arms of Princess Daisy's boyfriend."

"Don't you dare!" John warned her.

"I'm just teasing you," Daphne said, laughing. "You're very serious. Sofia was right."

John shook his head. "You seemed different earlier. More shy. You blushed at Sofia's crude remarks."

"I was terrified," Daphne replied, suddenly more serious. "I thought I was going to be left behind. I was nearly in tears when I saw everyone being picked instead of me. None of them wanted to take a Red Dragon."

John shrugged. "We knew that might be a problem. We seemed to have got away with it so far." He stifled a yawn, which she noticed.

"Sleep, John," she told him. "I won't keep you awake any longer." She kissed his cheek. "And I promise that's the last time I do that."

Chapter 21 - Strange encounters

Despite sleeping in tents again and the excitement about returning home, Crystal and the others all slept well and were fully refreshed when they were woken by Mark in the morning.

"Sit down over here, all of you, and I'll explain what's going to happen today." Mark gestured to a grassy area near the tents where three of the other Golden Dragons were waiting; Levi, who carried Crystal, Ezra, who was carrying Jenna's belongings, and Delilah, who was taking turns with Mark to carry Daisy.

"We're heading into Blue territory, aren't we?" Jenna asked as she sat down. "How will you keep us from being attacked?"

"With some difficulty," Mark replied. "The fastest way for us to fly is to get high in the sky much higher than you would ever fly, where the air is thinner and colder and there are strong currents that we can use. As dragons the thin, cold air doesn't bother us, but it's not suitable for passengers and even if you didn't freeze to death you'd probably die from not being able to breathe."

"So we won't be doing that then," Seth observed. "What will we be doing?"

"If we wanted to play it safe we would normally go as Blue Dragons—not that we venture into their territory often, but it's how we would normally go. Unfortunately, being at war changes everything. Every dragon has its place and if you're in the wrong place, then you're probably either a coward trying to get out of the fighting, in which case they'll kill you or a Golden Dragon in disguise—in which case they'll kill you. So that's out as well."

"Are you going to tell us what we are going to do?" Jenna asked. "Or just list everything that we're not going to do?"

Mark frowned at her. "We're going to risk our lives to take you home and help you defend your country. Perhaps a little patience wouldn't hurt."

"Ignore her," Crystal told him. "She's not good at roughing it. Or showing gratitude."

Jenna pulled a sour face but let Mark continue.

"So if we can't fly high but can't fly as Blue Dragons, then we have to fly low and fast, which means flying as Golden Dragons. I know it goes against everything you've learnt regarding combat, but it’s the best way of avoiding being spotted. Just stay calm and quiet and we'll get you to the Circle of Death before you know it."

"Excuse me?" Jenna said sharply. "Circle of Death? Did you say the Circle of Death? What is that and why would we want to go there?"

"It doesn't sound like a good destination," Seth agreed. "Could you tell us why it's called that?"

"It's the Blue Dragon name for the place, I think," Mark replied. "They're terrified of the place and have some strange superstitions about it, which as far as I've heard, have no basis in reality. It means that despite the name, it's actually very safe because no Blue Dragon will venture near there. It's a large area, so we can avoid contact with the Blues for quite a lot of the journey by flying across it."

"Do we at least know why it has that name?" Jenna asked. "Have any of you been there?"

"Not personally," Mark replied. "I suspect that there isn't anything to it though. Other Golden Dragons I know have flown near it and seen nothing."

"So near, but not through it like we're going to do?" Jenna asked. "If Blue Dragons are terrified of the place, don't you at least want to know why?"

Mark shrugged. "I don't know that it's not dangerous, but I know everywhere around it is. There isn't anywhere else safe to stop."

"I'm sure you know what you're doing," Daisy said, smiling reassuringly at Mark. "If you think this is best then I'm sure you're right. Thank you for doing this."

Mark nodded and got up to leave them.

Seth turned to Daisy. "Fantastic. We're flying through Blue territory with our destination a place called the Circle of Death, which no one really seems to know anything about—other than the Blue Dragons are terrified of the place. But if John's brother thinks it's alright, well then it must be."

Daisy raised her eyes to the sky and stood up. "I'm going to have something to eat. Arthur, are you coming?"

Arthur stood up to join her. "Come on, Seth, no one has a better plan anyway. Either way we're flying into danger. We should be more worried about the Blues." He reached out his hand and pulled Seth to his feet and they walked with Daisy to have breakfast with the others. Jenna didn't move.

"You alright?" Crystal asked Jenna.

Jenna shrugged and looked away. "I'm a bit scared to tell you the truth. I didn't handle it well last time we met the Blues. Even little Daisy did that better than I did."

Crystal laughed. "To be fair, I think Daisy handled it better than most people would have done. I'm not sure calling her little Daisy is really appropriate any more."

Jenna laughed. "I suppose not. I've never been able to reconcile the idea of her being a dragon and how she is normally." Her face darkened. "But that's not all I'm worried about. Our parents. They all live nearer the border than Furnace. They might have already been attacked. They might be... might be...."

"Don't say it!" Crystal said quickly. "Don't even think it. Your mother and mine both live in Furnace and your father is always visiting. The only one we should be worried about is my father."

"What do you think they'll say when we get back?" Jenna asked. "Only John was meant to go on this trip. They'll probably want to kill us."

Crystal paled. "No, I think they'll probably cry when they see us. I feel bad enough as it is about running away, but I know my mother will make it even worse."