Authors: Kevin Outlaw
Tidal climbed several rungs of the ladder. ‘Be quiet,’ he whispered. ‘There may be guards.’
‘There’s nobody up there,’ Glass said.
‘I’ll go on ahead and take a look.’ He carefully climbed to the top of the ladder.
‘There’s nobody up there,’ Glass repeated.
‘How do you know?’ Sky asked.
‘Sometimes I just know.’
Tidal laced his fingers around the metal grille and pushed it open. Above was a small room full of barrels. There were thin shards of light coming through a barred window high up in one wall, and they were occasionally interrupted by the variously shaped silhouettes of passers–by. There were rats everywhere, clambering over the barrels and each other; so many rats that the floor itself seemed to be alive.
‘Yuck,’ Tidal said, pulling himself up into the room, little realising that most of the rats had just said exactly the same thing about him. ‘It’s okay,’ he called down to Sky and Glass. ‘Lots of rats, but no guards. Be careful coming up. It’s slippy.’
He shooed the rats away, and they vanished into holes in the walls, tumbling over each other in their hurry to escape. The last pink tail had just disappeared from view when Glass climbed into the room. She was soaked through, covered in mud and dirt, and her pretty hair was matted with grime. It was the first time Tidal had seen her in the light since the goblin attack, and she barely looked like the same little girl.
‘What is this place?’ she asked, helping Sky up behind her.
‘Some kind of store room,’ Tidal said. ‘I think we’re just below street level. See the people walking by outside?’ He pointed up at the window as another shadow temporarily blotted out the light.
‘Under the ground,’ Glass said, shivering uncontrollably.
Tidal started trying to prise open one of the barrels. ‘I think this might be like that beer the Landmark garrison drink.’
‘And unless you want to end up as useless as they are, you’ll leave it alone,’ Sky said. ‘That stuff is bad for you. It makes you go stupid. It makes people act differently.’
Tidal glanced at her, and he could see from her expression that she was serious. He gave up trying to open the barrel and gave her a smile. ‘You’re right. We should get on.’
There was only one door out of the room, leading into a wide stone corridor that receded into yawning darkness both left and right. Dirty moisture trickled down the walls and pooled in the cracks of the rough cut flagstones. The smell of sour earth and never–ending misery was overpowering.
‘We must be in the dungeons,’ Sky said. ‘It’s so sad down here.’
‘People crying,’ Glass said, quietly.
Tidal watched her cautiously. He had known her since she was born, had watched her growing up, but he still couldn’t shake his increasing sense of unease. He hated to admit it, but she frightened him.
‘It’s in the air, in the walls,’ Glass went on.
‘What’s in the air?’
‘Every tear that’s been shed here. It’s all remembered. Trapped in the bottomless pits.’ She paused, tilting her head to one side. ‘And I can hear the dragon too. His breathing vibrates through the stone around us.’
‘I don’t hear anything,’ Tidal said.
‘Trust me, he’s close.’
‘Do we go left or right?’ Tidal said.
Glass closed her eyes. After a moment she said, ‘Right. There are guards to the left. Four of them. All armed with swords, spears, and shields. They don’t like the dragon being here. They just want things to be normal.’
Tidal secretly glanced at Sky, relieved to see she looked just as uneasy as he felt. ‘Let’s head right,’ he said.
Glass shivered, blinked a few times, and then grinned at them both. ‘Come on, let’s go and see Cumulo. It’s going to be exciting meeting a nice dragon.’
They headed down the tunnel, careful not to cause any noisy splashes that would attract unwanted attention.
Down here the only light came from torches hanging in metal brackets on the walls. It was just enough illumination for the children to see where they were going, but not enough to see everything the blackness sought to conceal. There could have been danger lurking at every twist in the corridor.
They passed many sealed doors, many metal gates and barred ways. Sometimes they could see people slumped in the gloom, muttering and coughing. Sometimes they couldn’t see anything at all, and that seemed even worse.
‘Some of these people have been here for years,’ Glass said. ‘They don’t even remember the sun.’
‘Be quiet,’ Tidal hissed.
After another fifty metres the tunnel suddenly ended in the largest metal gate they had yet seen.
Cumulo was curled on the other side of the bars with his head resting on his front claws. His big, sad eyes were unblinking. ‘I’ve been waiting for you,’ he said.
Tidal smiled sheepishly, trying to disguise how scared he was. The last dragon he had seen had tried to eat him, and he wasn’t entirely sure this one wouldn’t try the same thing.
‘Hello,’ Glass said, walking up to the bars. Sky grabbed her arm protectively, obviously sharing Tidal’s concern about Cumulo’s sharp teeth; but Glass pulled away. ‘He won’t hurt me,’ she said. ‘This is Nimbus’s friend. Our friend.’
‘You must be Glass,’ Cumulo said. ‘It’s a pleasure to meet you.’
‘Thank you,’ Glass said.
A large brown rat that was scuttling along the edge of the wall stopped for a moment, twitching its nose inquisitively.
There was a clatter from the guard room and muffled voices were raised in argument.
‘They’re playing cards,’ Cumulo muttered. ‘They’re always playing cards.’
Glass’s forehead creased in the slightest of frowns. ‘Just think, they can leave this place any time they like, and they choose not to. They must be even lonelier than the prisoners.’
Cumulo wriggled slightly. ‘Maybe lonelier, but not as uncomfortable. How do you intend to get me out?’
Tidal grabbed one of the prison bars and shook it. It didn’t move. He stopped, looked at Sky. Sky shrugged.
Tidal shook the bar again. It still didn’t move.
‘Is that the best plan you have?’ Cumulo said. ‘If it is, you’ll excuse me if I don’t get too excited.’
‘We hadn’t really thought beyond getting here,’ Tidal said. ‘We were relying on Cloud, but...’ His words trailed away. He couldn’t bring himself to talk about what had happened to Cloud, certainly not in front of Glass. It was too upsetting.
‘Cloud would have known what to do,’ Sky said.
Cumulo nodded sadly. He didn’t need to ask the children what had happened to Cloud; their expressions made it all too obvious that there had been a terrible tragedy.
‘Maybe we could steal the key from the guards,’ Tidal said, examining the gate’s keyhole.
‘What if we get caught?’ Sky said.
‘I could get it,’ Glass said. ‘I’m small. I could sneak in while they were playing cards.’
‘It’s too risky,’ Sky said.
‘Besides, there are hundreds of locks down here, and hundreds of keys for them,’ Cumulo said. ‘You’d never find the right one.’
‘Could you push out the wall?’ Tidal asked.
‘I could, but we’d have guards attacking us before the dust finished settling. You could get hurt, or I could hurt someone else.’
Tidal leaned against the wall and folded his arms. The corner of his mouth twisted into a sneer. ‘Are you serious? These people have locked you down here and you’re worried you might hurt them?’
A curl of smoke came out of Cumulo’s nostril. ‘There are many people I could hurt if I so wished, but if I did, how would I be able to consider myself any better than Sorrow?’
‘But these people deserve your anger.’
‘I have been locked here because people are scared of me. If I resort to violence, I am exactly what they say I am.’
‘But...’
‘There is a lot of anger in you. No good can come from it.’
Boy and dragon exchanged a look that said more than words ever could. There was a distinctive change in the atmosphere, like a crackle of electricity. Sky picked up on the sudden tension and quickly jumped into the conversation. ‘We need to sneak you out without drawing any attention,’ she said.
‘And how do you suggest we do that?’ Tidal said. ‘It’s a dragon, not a mouse.’
Glass watched the rat running along the bottom of the wall. ‘A mouse,’ she said, thoughtfully. ‘I like mice.’
The rat stopped, looked at her. Its nose twitched. ‘What’s wrong with rats?’ it was thinking.
‘Some rescue party we turned out to be,’ Tidal said, bitterly.
‘You did your best,’ Cumulo said. ‘There is little more anybody can ask of you.’
‘But our best wasn’t good enough.’
‘These things happen for a reason. Don’t be too angry with yourself.’
‘A rat,’ Glass whispered. ‘If Cumulo was a rat I could put him right in my pocket.’
Sky put an arm around Glass’s shoulder. ‘It’s okay. We’ll think of something.’
Tidal watched them silently, chewing on his bottom lip. This was stupid. They had come all this way, escaped from Sorrow, lost Cloud forever, ran through stinking sewers, and after all that... He shook his head. He was so useless.
This was all his fault.
He was the leader. He should have had a plan.
He should have talked about it with Cloud while they were still in the cart. Why hadn’t he thought to go through the details of the rescue then? That’s what a hero would have done. A hero would never be put in this situation. A hero would never look stupid in front of these girls.
He closed his eyes. Sky was going to think he was a stupid kid. Just a stupid, good–for–nothing, kid.
He should be a better hero than Nimbus ever dreamed of being.
So why wasn’t he?
If he had only found the Wing Warrior armour... If Nimbus hadn’t lied to him.
Vaguely he became aware of Sky and Glass talking.
‘What are you looking at?’ Sky was saying.
‘A rat.’
‘Rats are dirty. Come away from there.’
‘I was just thinking how much easier it would be if Cumulo was the size of that rat.’
‘Well, yes. It would make things easier. If Cumulo was that small he would be able to squeeze right through the bars and...’
Silence.
Tidal opened his eyes.
The prison cell was empty. Where Cumulo had been, there was now a large space. Glass and Sky were staring at the space blankly.
‘Hey,’ Tidal said. ‘What happened to the dragon?’
Sky pointed. Her mouth flapped open and shut, but no words came out.
‘What?’
More pointing.
‘What?’
‘Cumulo,’ Sky said.
Tidal’s gaze followed the direction of Sky’s pointing finger. ‘I don’t...’
As he looked more closely into the darkness of the prison cell, he could see it wasn’t quite as empty as it first appeared. There was a small animal sitting in the corner, almost completely hidden in the gloom. As he watched, it scurried over and looked at him with tiny black eyes. Its nose twitched.
‘Look at that,’ Tidal said. ‘A rat with wings.’
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Glass put the shrunken Cumulo in her pocket, giggling when he stuck his head out and puffed tiny clouds of smoke at her.
‘You can shrink dragons?’ Tidal said.
‘I guess so,’ Glass said, stroking Cumulo’s snout.
‘But how?’
‘I don’t know. I was looking at a rat over there, thinking it would be good if Cumulo was that small too, and then he was that small. It just sort of happened.’
‘Great.’ Tidal threw his hands up in the air and rolled his eyes. ‘That’s just great. We’ve freed the dragon, but now he’s so small Sorrow will just be able to step on him.’
Sky touched Tidal’s hand, but he moved away.
‘No,’ he snapped.
‘No?’
‘Don’t touch me. This is stupid. We’ve got a rat–sized dragon. Tell me what good that is?’
‘Calm down,’ Sky said. ‘I’m sure Glass will be able to reverse the magic later. You can reverse the magic, can’t you, Glass?’
Glass said nothing.
‘Great,’ Tidal said. ‘See? I told you she would be a danger. I told you she couldn’t control her powers, and that could only mean trouble for all of us. I told you that, but did you listen? Did anybody listen? No. Not you, not Cloud. No–one.’
Glass sniffed back a sob. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘But sorry isn’t going to help us, is it? Sorry doesn’t save our village from getting stomped by Sorrow.’
‘At least Cumulo is out of the prison.’
‘Out of the prison and in your pocket. Brilliant.’
Glass wiped her nose on her sleeve. ‘I didn’t mean to do it. I was only trying to help.’
‘Well, do us a favour, don’t do us any more favours. Okay?’
Sky stepped between them. ‘Stop bullying her,’ she said, sternly. ‘She didn’t mean any harm, and I’m sure we can figure out a way to get Cumulo back to normal. For now, let’s just work on getting out of here without being arrested ourselves.’
‘Fine,’ Tidal snapped. ‘But keep the little witch away from me. She can’t be trusted.’
He strode off down the corridor, quickly disappearing from view in the dark.
‘He doesn’t mean it,’ Sky said. ‘He’s just tired and scared, like all of us.’
‘He’s right though, isn’t he?’
‘Tidal is never right. Not about anything.’
‘I don’t know what’s happening to me. I’m scared. I can feel stuff going on inside, and it’s like I’m being pulled in all different directions. I can do all these things, but I don’t know how. Sometimes I feel like me, and sometimes I feel all strange, and it’s like I’m someone else in my body.’
‘That doesn’t make sense.’
‘I know, but that’s how I feel. I don’t like it. I just want to go back to how I was before.’
‘Don’t be afraid. I’m here, and I’m going to make sure you’re okay.’
‘But I’ve shrunk Cumulo, and I don’t know how to change him back. I’ve ruined everything. I should never have come here.’
‘My mum...’ Sky paused, trying to remember her mother’s face. She couldn’t. It was too far back in the past. She took a second to control the tremor she felt in her voice, and then went on. ‘My mum used to tell me, if a problem seems too big, it’s probably because you’re looking at too much of it. One step at a time, she used to say. You solved the problem of how to get Cumulo out of the prison. That was something we couldn’t have done without you. Next we’ll figure out how to get out of here, and then we’ll worry about changing Cumulo back. One step at a time, like Mum said.’