The Runaway Dragon (19 page)

You can tell me. What else did she promise?

Laddy turned his black-and-gold eyes on her.
She promised me princesses to eat.

But
I’m
a princess!

There was an awkward silence before Laddy said,
I know. She said they’re what dragons are
supposed
to eat.

Meg laughed.
She doesn’t know, does she?

What doesn’t she know?

It’s the same way I like custard best, but Cam prefers ginger cookies
, Meg explained.

What are you talking about?

I’m talking about how you like sausages best.

Sausages are wonderful
, Laddy agreed.

Well, there you have it
, Meg said.
That girl doesn’t know everything, even if she acts like she does.

No. She doesn’t know we’re friends, does she?

She never would have sent me to see you if she had.

Laddy was silent for a moment.
So you’re sorry? About everything?

Very
, Meg said.

That’s good
, Laddy told her contentedly.

When Nort and Crobbs started their climb up the elm tree, they chose the side away from the house in case anyone should look out and see them. The elm tree had nice, rough bark. That and their small size made it fairly easy to climb up the tree.

Nort climbed higher and higher, getting better at it as he went. He nearly lost his footing when he came across a line of ants traveling swiftly across the elm’s trunk, but he quickly got over his surprise and moved past the ant highway without any mishap.

In fact, Nort soon found out that the bark was crawling with insects, all of them far too large for comfort. He saw a ladybug, four tan moths, two striped beetles, several gnats, and a fuzzy spider, not to mention more ants, before he caught up with Crobbs, who was perched like a bizarre little bird on top of an enormous branch just where it jutted out from the tree. “We need to go higher,” Crobbs said.

Nort looked down at the circle of grass below them. Off to the sides, their view was blocked by leaves. “Sure.”

They passed two more branches before they stopped to rest. “Higher,” Crobbs said.

The third time they stopped, a squirrel came racing madly up the tree past them. Strangely enough, the squirrel was normal-sized. A second later, that squirrel was followed by a giant squirrel, a gray-furred monster twice as long as Nort was tall. The two squirrels were gone before Nort and Crobbs even had time to react.

“Who do you think that was?” Crobbs said at last.

“Frist, maybe. The lieutenant was more of a gray color. That one was reddish-brown.”

“Do you think he’ll get away?”

“Maybe he’ll find a crack to hide in,” Nort said dubiously. He couldn’t help but be a little grateful that the giant squirrel hadn’t noticed him and Crobbs.

Behind the giants’ house, Dilly, Cam, and Spinach made their way from one bush to another, trying to get to the vegetable garden without being seen by inquisitive eyes. When they finally reached it, Cam stood looking up at the cornstalks for so long that Dilly and Spinach had to poke him to get him moving again.

“We need to find something that’s close to the ground and easy to carry,” Dilly said.

“Exactly,” Cam said. “Let’s not bother digging for root vegetables, either.” He pulled a small folding knife from his pocket. “Fortunately, we’ve got this.”

Spinach giggled. “You don’t want to drag an entire ear of corn back to the elm tree?”

“If Dilly will climb up there and bring one down, I’ll carry it all by myself with one hand,” Cam said with mock solemnity.

“That’s not funny,” Dilly said, shuddering at the thought of herself at the top of a giant cornstalk.

They explored the garden for likely dinner prospects, tromping up and down the rows. When the three of them came around a bend next to the bush beans, they dropped right into a mud puddle. By the time they had struggled out, yelling, their legs and arms and faces were covered with muck. “Ptheh,” Spinach said, spitting dirt out of her mouth. The outside loops of braid around her waist had turned from yellow to brown.

A few rows later, they came to a puddle of clear water and cleaned themselves off as best they could. Then it was time to gather some food. “I wish I still had my pack,” Dilly said, eyeing the plants and vegetables speculatively.

In the end, they bypassed the carrots, the corn, and the turnips, settling on beans and chunks of squash and cabbage that Cam hacked off with his knife.

“Don’t make the hole so square!” Dilly told him.

“Why not?”

“We want them to think it was birds or bugs, not us!”

So Cam roughed up the edges of the hole where he’d cut out the squash meat. He looked over at Spinach. The ravenous girl had apparently changed her mind about vegetables once she’d discovered a newly fallen cherry
tomato. Spinach held her prize in both hands, taking great bites of it and dripping juice onto her already muddy clothes. She caught Cam’s eyes, smiling redly. “It’s good!” she said. Spinach ripped off a piece of her tomato, holding it out to Cam.

Cam shook his head. “I’m busy.”

“You’re silly,” Spinach proclaimed. “Both of you should be carrying food back in your stomachs, not just in your hands.”

Dilly stopped what she was doing. “Good idea. Why carry food we can eat now?” So the three of them feasted on squash and tomato. Spinach’s face when she tried the first bite of squash was a study, but the girl must not have found it so bad, since she ate every bit.

“Have you eaten very many kinds of vegetables before?” Dilly asked.

“No,” Spinach said with her mouth full of squash.

“That explains it,” Dilly told Cam.

Soon they were pleasantly full, and they went to work packing up food to take back to the others. They used large leaves to wrap their plunder, tearing some of the leaves into long strips for tying their packets together and hanging them over their shoulders.

They were nearly ready to go when Cam saw a snail crawling slowly along. Not that it was scary, but it
was
nearly knee-high in this place. “I hate snails,” Cam said.

“Why?” Spinach asked. “Is it because they’re squishy?”

She drew in her breath to ask another question, but Cam was already explaining. “They chew up the garden plants. They leave awful ragged holes in everything.”

Dilly and Spinach burst out laughing.

“What?” Cam looked from one girl to the other.

“So do we.”

Spinach poked Dilly. “Yesterday you were a toy. Today you’re a garden pest.”

The three of them gathered up the food and started back around the house for the elm tree. Then Cam said, “Did you hear that?” just as two crows burst into the air above the garden, cawing and fighting.

Meg had a little trouble convincing Laddy that Malison was a bad person.
She made everyone in the village into slaves!
Meg explained for the third time. The first time, Laddy had asked,
What’s a slave?

Now he said again,
But I have my mother’s gold back, and that’s all I want.

Meg decided to get tough.
You don’t really have it back. The gold is Malison’s.

It is not.

She’s just letting you touch it.

That’s not true!
Laddy said,
stung.

It’s like you’re her guard dog. Only you’re her guard dragon.

I happen to live here
, Laddy said.
With my gold.

Meg went on relentlessly,
And what do you think would happen if you tried to take your treasure somewhere else?

She—I don’t know. She might not be very happy about it
, Laddy admitted.

When she told me about you, she didn’t say, ‘Oh, there’s a neighborly dragon watching his gold, and so he’s keeping an eye on my treasures while he’s at it.’ She called you her pet.

Laddy was silent.

She has a bunch of other pets, you know.

Laddy surprised her by saying,
Wasn’t I
your
pet?

Maybe a little. When you were more of a baby and needed my help. But now—look at you. You belong to yourself.
Meg paused, realizing something else.
You should probably name yourself, too. You don’t need me for that.

But you’ll help me?

Of course. I told you I would.

And Malison really is evil?

I wish she weren’t, but yes. She is.
Meg was reluctant to tell Laddy her biggest fear, but it might help him understand.
She says she’s going to conquer Greeve and kill my parents.

She can’t do that!
Laddy told her, shocked.
Your father scratched my head once.
He gave an angry little roar. Fire flashed across the treasure chamber, luckily missing Meg, who threw herself sideways.

So
, Laddy said when he had caught his breath and Meg had sat up,
what do you want me to do? Besides not eat you, I mean?

ORT AND CROBBS CLIMBED TO AN ASTONISHING
height before they stopped again. Nort was glad he wasn’t Dilly at this moment, but looking down was still a nerve-racking endeavor. “This should work,” he said.

“Out there, you mean.” Crobbs gestured along the branch they were sitting on. The elm’s trunk had made a good path upward, but they would have to get closer to the ends of the branches to be able to see anything useful past the thick bunches of leaves.

“We could split up,” Nort said. “I’ll go over on the other side.”

“Stay away from giant squirrels,” Crobbs said. Nort couldn’t tell if the other boy was joking or not, so he just nodded and crept around the trunk toward the next branch up. Keeping an eye out for squirrels, Nort made his way along the branch, which was gratifyingly thick at
first, but eventually started to skinny and fork. Then Nort straddled the smaller branch he had chosen and scooted himself forward awkwardly. At last he got so far that the thinner branches swayed and dipped beneath him. Nort backed up a bit and stood, anchoring himself between two whiplike branches as he surveyed the giants’ house and land.

Except for a few leaves in his way, leaves as big as Nort, he could see pretty well. The house was off to his left, a little lower than the treetop he was in. Straight ahead he could see a stone well behind the house. It had a little triangular roof like a hat. He could just glimpse the edge of the vegetable garden. The rest of it was hidden behind the house. The sight made him wonder how Dilly and the others were doing. Beyond the well and down a hill, Nort could see the top of another house. More giants. He didn’t know what he had expected to see—a stairway topped by a stone arch marked with the word “Belowlands”? He turned to go back to where Crobbs would be waiting for him.

Nort heard the sound before he felt the impact, a whirring of wind followed by a heavy weight hitting his branch. He fell forward, grabbing the bark, and looked wildly over his shoulder into the eyes of a great black beast. He was just recognizing it as a giant crow when the creature pecked at him with a curious beak, stabbing at his leg. “Go away!” Nort yelled. The crow poked him more carefully the second time, apparently startled by
the noise Nort made. Then it began snatching at Nort, trying to pull him loose.

Frantic, Nort scrambled forward toward the tree trunk. The crow grabbed the back of his shirt with its beak, and this time Nort lost his balance. He fell down, down, down. He banged against a branch and put out his hands to grab whatever he could, but he was caught out of midair by huge claws and jerked upward. Nort dangled painfully from the crow’s claws as the bird’s wings loomed over him, flapping hugely to keep them both aloft.

Nort didn’t mean to look down, but he did, and his stomach lurched. The crow was flying over the giants’ house, and now over the vegetable garden. Soon they would be past the back wall and the next house, on and on, going who knows where?

Then something went wrong as a dark blur came out of the air and tried to grab Nort away from the crow. Nort tilted his head. Another crow. They were fighting over him!

The first crow dove and swerved, but the other came after it in an instant. Nort and his crow swooped and looped, but the second crow didn’t give up. Cawing their anger, the two great birds flew up and over and around the giants’ house.

After a particularly brilliant sally by the second crow, Nort’s lost its grip just the tiniest bit. Without thinking, Nort wiggled free—and fell, shooting headfirst down
through air, losing his stomach and his breath, then landing roughly and suddenly in some kind of plant.

He slowly opened his eyes. One of the crows was coming at him again, but the other cut it off, and away the two of them flew, still quarreling. Nort saw that he was still very high up, with green on every side. Next to him was a large green object crowned with what looked like yellow hair. Nort had lived on a farm when he was younger, and he finally recognized what had happened. He had landed on top of one of the corn plants.