The Palace Library (16 page)

Harry’s
scream of pain and Edwin’s shout must have been heard.  The cave began to
fill with a shuffling noise as other dragons began to stir in their sleep.

There
was no way Edwin could tend to Harry now.  They must get out of
there.  He turned the boat as quickly as possible and rowed furiously,
collecting the other two sailors on the way.  Outside, the fresh air was
like a tonic but now the rowers had to fight against the waves. 

When
they were half way towards The Saint George, the volcano started spewing.

“Those
be angry dragons,” said Edwin.  Then loudly, “Pull hard!”  As if the
oarsmen needed more encouragement.

Grace
was watching the volcano from the poop deck of the flagship with the
Captain.  She was wrapped in her own heavy furs, with another borrowed
cloak that was far too large spread all around her on the floor.  Her
teeth were still chattering from her swim and she wondered if she would ever be
warm again.  Darkness had fallen only minutes earlier as the clouds were
gathering and the wind began to strengthen.  It was blowing from the south
and whipping up the waves.  If they had not been so worried, what they saw
might have been a marvellous spectacle.  Sparks flew from the volcano, and
then great fountains of light glowed and spat like Roman candles.  It was
a magnificent, spontaneous fireworks display.  

This
was a display with a difference.  Dragons flew in and out of the
sparks.  They circled the mountain blowing great streams of flames from
their mouths.  They dived down into the very centre of the volcano before
more flew out, with others coming from the side.  This was a not a nest of
angry bees, nor even a nest of angry hornets.  These were angry dragons
stirred and waking from their sleep, gathering their strength.

Down
below, Eleanor was tending to an injured Sophie.  Guy of Caen and Eloise
were in the hold, clapped in irons, prisoners and traitors.

For
now, the worry was Harry.  Peering down onto the roughening sea, Grace and
the Captain could see the gig making its way as fast as possible back towards
the boat, but no one could know if Harry was alive or dead.  No one could
know if their mission had been successful.  The only certainty was that
something had disturbed the dragons.  As the boat grew closer and larger
in their vision, they could see the two rowers, the two brave sailors who had
volunteered.  They could only see one short person.  Was it Harry or
Edwin?  Four had gone into the dragons’ lair.  Three seemed to be
returning.  Who was missing?

As
the gig made its final approach, pulley and ropes were set up with a makeshift
stretcher lowered towards the water, swaying uneasily in the wind.  The
two sailors held the gig as steady as they could.  Then Grace saw Harry
was there, but crumpled in a heap.  Edwin placed him on the stretcher
before climbing up the side himself, followed quickly by the oarsmen as soon as
they heard the Captain shout, “Abandon the gig!”  Without the steadying
power of the oars and with the waves whipping around it, the precarious gig
with its wooden dragon, capsized and sank swiftly to the seabed.  Grace
did not see it.  She was rushing to find Harry, forgetting all about the
cold.

The
Captain was giving a torrent of orders: “Weigh anchor!  Set the
sails!  Light the braziers!”

No
Captain in his right mind would light a brazier aboard a wooden ship.  But
these were no ordinary circumstances and they had been set as far back as
possible to allow their ash to fall into the sea.  They were full of
Dragons’ Bane and smoke quickly began to bellow from the two containers. 
The risk of burning from the braziers was less than the risk of burning from
the dragons.  As the ship set sail heading east, back towards England, the
southerly wind blew the smoke towards the dragons. They were now heading from
the island towards the boat, streaks of flame and smoke in the sky.  Harry
was still unconscious and breathing unevenly.  Edwin and Grace met at the
Captain’s cabin where Harry had been placed on a cot.  They looked at each
other nervously.  Eleanor had begun to tend to him.  Edwin looked
strangely at the other cot.  The great deerhound Sophie was lying on top
of it, her mouth bandaged, seeping with blood.  There was no time to ask
questions.  He reached into Harry’s jacket pocket and pulled out the uncut
diamond.  It was the size of a hen’s egg.  As he did so, he said to
Eleanor.  “Harry’s been poisoned by the dragon.  Draw the humours out
of him!  My place is defending the ship!”

Edwin
ran up on the poop deck after collecting some tools.  From the gig, he had
seen the Captain holding the Sword of State, glowing green.  Why the
Captain had it on the poop deck, he did not know.  Nor did he know why
there was blood on the blade.  But he needed to fit the diamond to the
hilt to complete its power.  As Edwin sat cross-legged with his tools and
the Sword on the deck, the first of the dragons swooped low across the stern of
the boat.  As it did so, it breathed in the fumes of the smoke and pitched
into the sea, instantly asleep.  The other dragons held back, seeing what
had happened.  But they rose high into the sky, and then they circled ever
lower and lower, gathering speed, led by the oldest, largest, angriest
dragon.  They sped up so much their wings changed the wind.  They
were whipping up a whirlwind, a mini hurricane with The Saint George in the eye
of the storm.

As
the dragons came close to the remaining sail, Edwin finished his work and
lifted the Sword above his head.  The blade grew brighter than ever and
then the diamond caught the reflections of the flames spewing from the dragons’
mouths.  The whole ship was bathed in a deep green light.

Edwin
looked up and shouted.  “Ascalon is
reforged
! 
Your ancestors were banished from England in exchange for mercy.  Remember
that!  Be banished again, from England and all the islands of England
forever. Take with you your hoards of stolen treasure or the wrath of Ascalon,
Albion, St George and King Harry will be upon you and you and your kind will be
vanquished forever.”

The
dragons circled around and around, faster and faster still, so that the air was
drawn out of the sails and the ship lost its way. Then the flames reflected
from the diamond seemed to be drawn into the Sword’s blade itself.  The
end of the Sword became like an electric storm in reverse, throwing green bolts
of light up into the sky.  Suddenly, as if a decision had been made, the
dragons left and like a javelin of light, sped back to the island, before
circling round the top of the volcano.  One by one, they pitched down into
the centre of the mountain before there was a roar and a great eruption of lava
and ash into the sky.  Then suddenly, the mountain collapsed in behind
them and the effect was as if the lights were switched off.  There was a
silence and all that hung over the land was a cloud of dust.  The Saint
George rocked out of control before the southerly wind filled the sails again.

Grace
was the first to break the silence.  “What just happened?  I don’t
understand.”

Edwin
replied, “I reminded the dragons of the mercy they were given by St George in
exchange for their banishment from England, but when they came here, they still
kept their stolen treasure.  It seems that the memory of that bargain,
combined with their greed for the treasure has outweighed their anger. 
They’ve gone back underground to live at the edge of hell with their
hoard.  We can go back to live at liberty.

“But
right now, we must look after Harry, and you must tell me what’s been happening
since I left.”

Edwin
and Grace ran down to the Captain’s cabin where Harry and Sophie lay
injured.  Eleanor looked up with tears in her eyes.  “Sophie will
mend well, but I don’t know what’s wrong with Harry.  He won’t wake up.”

She
had cut the sleeve from the tweed jacket he had been wearing.  Harry’s arm
had swollen up so that it was larger than Edwin’s huge forearms.  A long
scratch oozed green pus.  The dragon’s claw now lay limp and lifeless on
the floor where it had fallen after Eleanor had drawn it from his arm.

“I
need help,” said Eleanor looking at Edwin, tears flooding down her
cheeks.  “I wish Anwen were here to help us.  She’d know what to do.”

Edwin
looked at Harry after placing the Sword on the third cot, the one that Eloise
had used, so he could watch it carefully.  “The dragon’s venom has been
drawn into Harry’s blood,” he said.  “It must be drawn out.  Anwen
uses poultices.  Then it will heal.”

“If
the dragon’s poisoned him and it’s in his blood,” said Eleanor thoughtfully,
“perhaps the Dragons’ Bane is making him sleep.”

“He
collapsed just after the scratch and fell into this deep sleep then,” replied
Edwin.  “He’d smoked enough of that filthy pipe too.”

“Let’s
use more Dragons’ Bane in the poultice to draw the poison out.  Then
perhaps he’ll be better, but I need help.  I need help from Eloise.”

“Where
is she?” asked Edwin.

The
girls looked at him.  Of course he did not know.  He could not know.

“She’s
in the hold, secured with the other traitor, Guy of Caen,” said Grace bitterly.

“He’s
alive then?” asked Edwin, more and more confused.

“Yes!”
said Eleanor, “but let’s worry about Harry first.  Eloise was good with
the wounded after the storm.  And she saved my life.  I need her help
now to prepare the poultices.”

Edwin
looked at her carefully.  “I’ll get the Captain to release her, and once
Harry is better, you can tell me this sorry tale.  If Harry doesn’t
survive, I shall drop Eloise overboard myself with that Guy of Caen!”

So
throughout the night, Eloise and Eleanor tended to Harry, whilst the others
watched and waited.  Each poultice slowly seemed to pull green pus out of
the wound, until finally the swelling subsided and Harry’s feverish state
relaxed into a normal sleep.  Sophie’s dressings were changed and the cuts
in her mouth treated with special herbs from Anwen’s dwindling supply. 
Edwin stood guard with the Sword of State, which he washed and oiled carefully,
but never let out of his sight. 

Finally
just before dawn, Harry opened his eyes and looked around at the familiar
faces.  He saw Edwin holding the Sword of State and he saw the diamond,
the oily stone, in the hilt.  He smiled.  Then he licked his lips and
said, “Did a dragon pooh in my mouth?  It tastes disgusting.  And I’m
never ever going to smoke again!”

Grace
and Eleanor hugged him tightly.  But Harry didn’t complain, even though he
winced at the pressure on his sore arm.  Sophie wagged her tail so that it
thumped on the other cot.  Eloise was pleased, but stood shamefully in
silence at the side of the room.  Edwin just said, “Welcome back,
Harry.  Good man.”

Harry
was exhausted and soon fell back into a deep sleep, but it was natural sleep,
not a coma induced by dragons’ venom.  It would take until late morning
before he woke again and Edwin and Harry were told the full story.

“After
you rowed around the headland,” Eleanor said to Harry and Edwin, “we went to
speak to Eloise about my dream.  It seems that Guy of Caen, who came
aboard this ship with the trust of the King, didn’t go overboard in the storm,
but somehow survived and went into hiding in the hold.  He was badly
injured, but Eloise helped nurture him back to health. Then, he stole the
Sword.”

“That’s
why she went missing so much,” said Harry.

“Yes,”
continued Eleanor. “He came up from the hold and killed two sailors guarding
the door to your cabin.”  Then she explained the rest.

“Of
course,” said Harry when she had finished.  “The Prophecy warned us,
To
drown the Sword not once but twice will be the traitors’ game.
  It
must have been Eloise or Guy who were responsible before.”

“I’m
sure they were both on that boat,” answered the Captain, who had been listening
quietly now.  “A confidante of the King and the Queen’s maid could have
combined their resources and could have engineered access to the original Sword
of State.”

The
Captain looked at them all.  “You’ve saved the day.  All of
you.  I’d be within my rights to judge Guy of Caen myself, for he’s
murdered two of my sailors, but the Queen’s maid and this French traitor will
be judged when you return to Clarendon.”

Edwin
muttered something about throwing both the traitors overboard right now, but
Harry said quietly, “I think the Captain is right, Edwin.  They must face
the King’s own justice.”

“I have a gift for you, Harry,”
said Edwin. 

It
was the middle of the night and the children and Edwin were sitting around
Master John’s table in the kennels at Clarendon Palace, where they had arrived
little more than half an hour before. 

They
were all saddle sore from their journey on horseback up from Christchurch where
they landed.  They had said fond farewells to the Captain and his crew,
before following the River Avon back up to Sarum and thence to Clarendon
Palace.

One
of the King’s guards had accompanied them, alerted to meet them with signals,
as they progressed along the south coast.  Eloise and Guy of Caen had been
taken separately to the dungeons in disgrace.