"Journeys end in lovers' meetings."
—Wm. Shakespeare
He seemed to fill the passageway, bringing with him a sort of aura of light, I flung my arms around his neck and hugged him convulsively.
"Ky-Lin! You found us! Is Toby all right? Where's the Eg? Where are we? Where's the Blue Mountain?" I was stopped by a convulsive fit of coughing and a pain in my chest, the worst yet.
He leaned forward and touched me with his little horn, and instantly the pain abated somewhat.
"Dear girl, you are soaking! Here, climb up on my back and I'll carry you outside. Master Claude with an injured ankle?" He bent forward and touched that, too. "Better? I cannot carry you both, but make your way outside and I will arrange for transport. Come, Miss Sophy . . ."
"But where is—"
"Just do as you are told. Answers as we go."
Off we trotted towards the widening oval of light, with it coming the first intimation of ice, cold and snow, but Ky-Lin radiated heat and I snuggled down against his warm hide as he bore me down the passage and out into the open.
Once outside I opened my eyes to their widest and breathed in the sharp air as deep as I could, although it hurt my chest to do so. We were at the foot of the mountains among the broken rubble of the outermost rim of the glacier, among what I believe Ky-Lin had referred to once as a "moraine."
And there, a basket at his feet, all bundled in scarves and a cloak, was Toby!
He helped me off Ky-Lin's back, exclaimed at my damp clothing and wrapped me in his cloak. I hugged him happily and started off with all my questions, which had so far remained unanswered.
"Let the lad tell his own story," said Ky-Lin as he turned back to help the others. "It'll be quicker!"
Ky-Lin was gone about ten minutes, but during that time it seemed that Toby never drew breath. Apparently the avalanche that had nearly cost us our lives was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to him. "Awesome," he called it.
They had initially outraced the front of the avalanche on their slab of ice, but as it caught up with them Ky-Lin had taken Toby and the Eg on his back, managed to steer them closer to the side, then given an almighty leap that landed them safe on a ledge away from the rolling, boiling mass of snow. Once everything grew quiet again they had made their way down to the valley, and a small Chinese village some three miles from where we now sat. They had made this their headquarters, coming back every day to try to find us. They had even already explored the passage we had emerged from, but had decided that the torrent of water would have been too difficult for us to cross, after going back to the spot where we had disappeared and satisfying themselves that we couldn't escape that way either.
They had examined every exit they could find, mostly farther west, but Ky-Lin had insisted they came back to this one that morning. "I reckon he had this sort of sixth sense, being a sort of magical creature."
I guessed the Ring might have had something to do with it, but didn't say so.
I gazed around; the sun was already setting towards the west, and I couldn't help my shivers. Our goal, the Blue Mountain, couldn't be so far away. I switched my gaze to the south, and there it was! It should have been tinged by the setting sun, but it wasn't. It held a cold blue light of its own. I suppose it had once been conical, the cone of some extinct volcano, but the top had caved in years ago—wasn't there something about that in the long-ago journal of Summer?
I sprang to my feet, or tried to, yielding to a bout of coughing.
"That's it! Where is the Eg?"
"Here." He pointed to the bundle at his feet. "Heavier than ever."
"We must go there. Now!" I coughed again. "We must have wasted so much time wandering around those wretched caves. I must take it now! Help me to pick it up and carry it—"
He rose to his feet. "Be reasonable, Sophy! You're in no fit state to carry anything. You can't just run off like that, anyway. The mountain is miles away!"
"I must! Don't you understand? This is what we all came here for—"
"You're just not well enough! And it'll be dark soon. We'll never find our way for starters . . ."
"Well, Ky-Lin will just have to carry me, or something . . ." I sat down again and burst into tears. "How can we be so near and yet so far?"
"Now then, what's all this about?" Ky-Lin was back, with Beau. I explained as best I could, and to my surprise he fell in with the idea without any objections. "If you are set on it, I will help you all I can. I have left the others at the entrance to the cave, where they will be sheltered from the cold, and will send back litters for them both. We shall go down to the village, where you will get something to eat and a change of clothing. It will take a half-hour for me to get you to the village, and then you must rest. We'll set out for the mountain about three hours before midnight, then you will have fulfilled your quest. You're sure it must be tonight?"
I nodded. "I've got this sort of urgent feeling . . ."
He nodded. "Let's get going then." He looked at Toby and Beau. "Can you two make it? If you fall behind, Toby knows the way . . ." I translated quickly to Toby, and he nodded.
"We'll go at our own pace."
Then Ky-Lin and I were off. I was still shivering but, as he promised, within a half-hour I was snug in a village house, supping a bowl of chicken-noodle soup. Strangely enough, even after so many days practically starving, I didn't really feel hungry, but I drank three bowls of fragrantly scented pale tea, and felt much better.
The villager's wife gave me hot water to wash in all over, plus clean my hair, and then she took away my tatty, torn clothing and provided me with typical village wear of padded blue jacket, trousers of the same material, felt slippers and a cap with ear flaps. I should have felt warmer, but I still shivered, so she tut-tutted and led me to a small pallet. Making me lie down, she covered me with a coarse blanket, bringing the brazier which heated the house nearer. Putting her finger to her lips she mimed sleep and carried the lamp—a wick floating in a stone jar of oil—farther from my eyes.
I must have dozed off, because the next thing I knew was the arrival of the others, about an hour later. Toby and Beau must have been fed and rested at one of the other houses, because they turned up a few minutes later, yawning and stretching, but otherwise looking ready for anything. I wished I did.
Within minutes Danny and Claude were guzzling large bowls of chicken and rice, and slurping their tea, belching politely afterwards, which I suppose I should have done also.
Ky-Lin breezed in and asked if I was ready, asking me to tell Danny and Claude that washing water, dry clothes and beds would be ready for them shortly.
"Why, where are you going?" asked Danny.
"To return the Eg, before the time runs out. I have a sort of feeling it's got to be done tonight."
Claude frowned, and glanced at Danny. "But I thought you said—" to receive a sharp dig in the ribs.
"Never mind, never mind," said Danny hurriedly. "We'll talk about it later . . ."
Claude rose to his feet. "Are you sure you're all right? You look a bit pale to me."
"So would you if you had nearly drowned! Now, don't try to stop me, because I have to be there before midnight." But they still looked uncomfortable.
A couple of crude litters stood outside; basically they were just hammocks suspended from bamboo poles, with lanterns slung at either end. Toby looked dubious, ready to argue, but I told him, from Ky-Lin, that he had done enough running about already, the Eg needed safe transport, and anyway he would have to help me once we got to the mountain.
Beau joined me in my litter, but before long I think we both felt it would have been better to walk, apart from the fact that it was too far. The combination of both jogging unevenly at the same time as swaying from side to side made me feel slightly sick, together with the dancing of the lanterns. In spite of that I dozed off again, but Beau excused himself to run alongside for a while.
I seem to remember disembodied dreams with no sense to them: a huge clock ticking away the minutes at an astonishing rate; a calendar whose pages flipped back and forth at the bidding of a wind I couldn't feel; rocks falling all around me and bouncing at my feet soundlessly; a gargoyle spouting water detached itself from a wall and marched towards me, leering; trees burst into bloom in the snow and died in the sun.
"Hey there, wake up!" said Ky-Lin, touching my face with his antennae. "This is as far as they will go."
I climbed stiffly out of the litter, the nasty taste of the dreams still in my mouth, coughing a little with the effort. Bright moonlight, piercing cold, and in front of me a dark mass rising smoothly from the plain, crowned with a gap like a broken tooth.
The Blue Mountain.
"How do I get up there?" I was shivering again. It looked very forbidding, dark and threatening, and I couldn't see any way up. And I had to carry the Eg, and presumably the lantern as well. "And—and what do I do when I g-get there?"
"You just leave the dragons their egg," said Ky-Lin gently. "Summer told us there was a cavern up there, remember? Just get up there and come straight back." He nodded at Toby and Beau. "They'll go with you."
Obviously Toby had picked up the sense at least of what Ky-Lin had been saying, for he held up the sack in which he was carrying the Eg. "I have this safe, and we'll take a lantern and go slow. Any idea where we start off?"
"Around the other side," Ky-Lin explained to me. "I'll carry you as far as I can, but I'm not allowed to go any further; our people do not deal with dragons—it has always been so. Each of us pretends the other doesn't exist. It is easier that way."
Around the other side the moon illuminated a steep and rocky climb leading to a sort of path that snaked around the mountain. Ky-Lin carried me as far as the beginning of the path and promised he would wait as we set off, Beau in front in case of hidden obstacles, then Toby with the Eg and the lantern, and me bringing up the rear, stopping now and again to catch my breath.
I had thought that the climb would be difficult, but in fact it was surprisingly easy; the path was more or less smooth and the gradient not particularly steep. I suppose it took us about a half-hour to reach the end of the track and the mouth of a dark passage. I shivered again: surely I didn't have to go into the unknown darkness of a cave so soon after our escape!
Toby started forward but I grabbed his arm. "Do we have to go in there?"
He turned and gave me a grin. "Sure, it's the way in, isn't it? This was the way Summer went in, and I bet she was scared, too."
"But the whole place was supposed to have blown up: how do we know the passage isn't blocked?"
"Only by going in and finding out. And if it is blocked, then we give the dragons a shout and tell them where we've left the Eg."
I was sure he was joking. "What if there aren't any dragons left?"
"I don't believe it really matters if there are or not. All your uncle wanted you to do was bring the Eg back to the Blue Mountain wasn't it? Well, here you are, and you've carried out his wishes. If the passage is blocked and there are no dragons, we'll just tuck the Eg up snugly and it can hatch itself. Come on: five minutes and the job's done and we can all go home again!"
"I'll go first," said Beau to me. "I don't sense any danger. What does the Ring say?"
Just a steady throb: nothing life-threatening. A warning, but not a definite danger. "Right," I said. " `Lead on, MacDuff!' "
After a few yards we turned a sharp corner and at once there was a different quality to the light. A sort of phosphorescence seemed to be seeping from the walls; it was like the luminosity you get from decaying plant life, but without the stench. But there was a smell ahead: a sort of cindery, sulphurous stink that made me pinch my nostrils. We turned a couple more corners and then stepped out into what resembled an arena.
It had once been a large cavern, but now the roof was gone, leaving the jagged edges looking like the overhanging eaves of a decayed mansion. The high moon showed that where we stood the ground was smooth, but on the other side of a central chasm was a jumble of rocks and stones, like a giant's playground.
But there was no sign of any dragons . . .
It was warm in there, but not a healthy heat; it was like the embers of a fire not quite out. We moved forward until we stood on the rim of the chasm, from where the heat was coming. Gazing carefully down, we could see, far, far below, what looked like the ruby heart of sullen coals, with a spark travelling now and again from end to end. Obviously if this had once been the heart of a volcano, then there was still life down there.
There was a sudden puff of heat-laden air from below, with the rotten-egg smell of steam-trains and we retreated rapidly, gasping and choking.
"Let's get out of here," said Toby in a low voice. "You're coughing badly."
"But—but where do we put the Eg?"
"Don't know. Perhaps we can find a place where it won't roll about."
"Why are you whispering?"
"I'm not . . . Dunno. Anyway, you are too."
I shrugged. "Let sleeping dragons lie is my motto."
"There's a sort of egg-shaped dip over here," called out Beau. "Look as though it would be a good fit, too."
On my instructions Toby carried the Eg over to where Beau was sitting, and sure enough there was a depression in the ground that looked as if it were made on purpose. Taking the Eg out of the sack, he made a kind of bed for it with the same and then laid it down like putting it in a nest.
I gazed down at it. It was even bigger than I remembered, and must weigh at least fifteen pounds. I wondered how much larger it would be before it hatched, and when that would be. . . . In the moonlight it still held its own sparkly radiance. I patted it gently.
"Good-bye Eg, and good luck. May your hatchling be something very special. . . ." It ought to be, I added to myself, after all these years! "I've carried out my part of the bargain: now it's up to you." I stepped back. "Right. Time to go."
Beau nudged my knee. "Hadn't you better say something polite to the dragons?"
"What dragons? There aren't any."
"Are you sure?"
"Of course!" I had forgotten about whispering and gestured all round the cavern. "Nothing but a jumble of old stones and a few embers. How can I talk to things that aren't there? I'd just feel silly."
"I still think you should try. Just tell them how you came to undertake this journey and that the Eg has now been restored to them."
Toby looked at me with surprise as I gazed out over the chasm to the jumble of rocks which was the only place where dragons could possibly hide, and gave a potted version of why we had come and what we had brought. I finished on a bout of coughing, but decided on one last attempt to find out whether I was talking to thin air or something solid.
I looked back at the stones. Was it my imagination, or had they rearranged themselves a little? I was suddenly afraid. "Listen here, dragons," I said. "Of course I don't necessarily believe there are any of you out there, but if there are, it would be polite to show yourselves and perhaps say thank-you. . . ."
Nothing.
I turned to go, but at that very moment there was a strange kind of hissing noise, like the noise a gas lamp makes when it is turned on too high, and a hot choking blast of air; not air from the chasm, this smelled quite different, more like an overdone roast. At the same time Toby's lantern dimmed right down, so we could hardly see a thing, only being able to distinguish the entrance to the passage with difficulty by its darker outline, as the moon was also temporarily hidden by cloud.
As we gained the beginning of the passage I glanced back one last time, to print the memory firmly on my mind. The moon was now westering and a beam touched the rocks and struck off one—no, two—points of red. And surely there were two more? But those were green—
Another blast of burnt-fat air nudged us down the passage and once again the lantern burned low. We reached the entrance to the path outside and I took deep breaths of the fresh air, or tried to, as my lungs felt stuffed up.
"Come on, Sophy, let's get you—" but Toby never finished his sentence because there was a sudden clap like thunder directly above us. I glanced up and was sure I saw the silhouette of a dragon above us. Not that I had ever seen one before, but it looked just like the ones in my children's books; huge sweeping wings, four taloned feet, a twisted tail and a coruscating flight. It could be nothing else.
"Look Toby, Beau: a dragon!"
"Where, where?" They gazed around, but it must have been in the wrong direction, because they shook their heads.
"Up there! Above us . . ." But even as I spoke the dark shape drifted away out of sight. "It was there," I insisted. "I saw it!"
"Yes, yes I'm sure it was," said Toby soothingly. "Come on, Sophy, you are not at all well. You look a bit feverish to me."
Indeed I now felt dreadful. I had been artificially buoyed up by the incentive of getting the Eg to its destination, and now we had succeeded and no further effort was needed all I wanted to do was lie down and sleep, for a week if necessary. My chest hurt, I had the shivers again but my head felt as if it was on fire. I followed them down the path, my hand on Toby's left shoulder, because my feet had suddenly developed a tendency to wander off in the wrong direction.
Finally I made it to where Ky-Lin was waiting; he took one look at me then touched me briefly with his horn, as usual alleviating the pains a little. I don't recall any of the journey back to the village in the litter, though when we dismounted I looked back at the Blue Mountain and quite clearly saw two shapes like outsize bats wheeling above the moutain.
"Look, Beau! Dragons . . ."
He gazed up into the sky. "Yes," he said. "Dragons . . . Come and lie down Sophy: you'll feel better in the morning."
I thought I was so tired I could have fallen asleep on one of Toby's mother's clotheslines, but it wasn't as easy as that. I was hot, I was cold, tossed and turned, couldn't get comfortable, and at one point got up to see if the dragons were still there.
Ky-Lin apeared at my elbow. "Back to bed Sophy, and I'll give you something to help you sleep . . ."
As I lay down again he breathed over me gently: a scent of spring, a breath of autumn, stimulating and soothing at the same time. I closed my eyes and slipped into dreamless sleep.