The Runaway Dragon (24 page)

Spinach’s crying subsided. “Why?” she asked, sniffling. “I don’t even know, and it’s my hair.”

“Because it’s
helpful
hair,” Dilly said. “It’s hair that’s meant to reach from a high point like your tower”—she held one hand high—“to a low point.” She put the other hand low.

“To the ground,” Cam said, enlightened.

“Hair?” Nort said. “We’re probably miles up in the sky, in a magic sky land. There’s no way hair could take us clear to the ground.”

“Magic sky, magic hair,” Dilly said tartly.

“It’s
helpful
hair,” Spinach told Nort, her lower lip stuck out defiantly.

“Very helpful,” Cam said thoughtfully. “And we really will have to cut it off.”

Spinach opened her mouth to cry again, but Cam said hurriedly, “Only so we can get you down, too.”

“It will grow back,” Dilly reminded Spinach. “It grew back after Loris cut it.”

“That’s true.” Spinach seemed a little calmer now. “It grows back very fast.”

Nobody could argue with that. They felt like they were sitting in the middle of a hayfield, there between the elm tree and the stone wall.

“It
can’t
be long enough,” Nort repeated.

“If we dangle her down the well—” Crobbs began, but Cam shot him a look, and he stopped.

“We could go and camp by the sky-well tonight to sort of encourage your hair, and then we’ll give it a try tomorrow morning after it’s grown even longer,” Cam said. “I’ll go first.”

Dilly noticed that everyone was nicer to the hair once they had decided it wasn’t out to choke them, that it maybe even meant to help them. The other four worked to untangle Spinach’s hair and laid it out in a long, long
line, till they got so far they had to double back. And double back again. And again. “I’m afraid to braid it,” Dilly said. “Then when it grows, the whole thing’s a mess.”

“Just for the trip to the sky-well,” Cam suggested, so that’s what they did. In the end, they each looped great coils of braid over their shoulders and suspended more hair between them. When everyone was in place, they embarked on the trek through the grass to the well-that-wasn’t-a-well.

“Hair,” Crobbs was heard to mutter incredulously every so often, and even Dilly was tempted to agree with him. Besides which, she thought, everyone was still a little jumpy about Nort’s most recent adventure. Fortunately, they were able to get to their new campsite, a thick bush that grew near the well, without any further trouble. Cam, Dilly, and Crobbs set off on another journey to the garden to find food, while Nort and Spinach stayed beneath the bush with the very helpful hair, neither admitting to the other that they were watching the sky for crows.

After the villagers went back to their homes, Laddy was the only permanent resident of Malison’s fortress. Well, Laddy and Malison. Now Laddy was worried.
I know the treasure is all mine, but everyone else knows, too. Those guards know. And that Bandit Queen
, he told Meg as they sat together on the floor of the empty throne room.

Meg leaned against Laddy’s warm side, figuring out something she really didn’t want to figure out. For days, she’d been wanting to find Laddy and bring him home with her—but she had to admit to herself that going back to Hookhorn Farm wasn’t what he needed. With an inner wrench, Meg made herself do the right thing.

What I think
, Meg told Laddy,
is that there are other caves in these mountains.

I guess so.

You could scout around and find a much better dragon lair, one nobody knows about.

Not even you?
Laddy sounded surprised.

Meg resisted the impulse to tell him what to do.
You can show me if you want, but you don’t have to.

Laddy looked around his current home.
This isn’t so bad.

But it’s not truly yours. It’s still Malison’s place. You need to find a place that’s just yours—so no one will know where it is except the mountain goats.

Mountain goats?

I’ve heard they taste almost as good as sausages
, Meg informed him.

But not as good as princesses
, Laddy said slyly.

Very funny. Go on now. Find a lair.

I will
, Laddy said,
a really good one!
He was already starting to sound like a proud homeowner.

Soon afterward, Laddy went off on his househunting expedition. He was gone for hours, and Meg
tried to keep busy. A fire-breathing dragon isn’t likely to run into anything he can’t handle, she told herself.

At twilight, Laddy came back to tell Meg that he had found a marvelous lair.
I sniffed the way I sniffed for treasure, but this time I sniffed for lairs
, he explained, which Meg took to mean he had used his dragon magic.
It has rocks, and long tunnels, and a nice high ceiling deep inside!
he told her excitedly.

Meg still felt funny about all this, but she congratulated Laddy just the same.

Soon Laddy was hauling gold and jewels through the darkening skies, flying silently from the far side of the fortress into the mountain wilds. Meg decided he looked like an owl with a strange, gleaming mouse in its claws. Back and forth he went for most of the night, until finally he had taken everything to his new home except the giant’s frobble, which he gave to Meg with some reluctance early in the morning.

His real reason for waking Meg up well before sunrise was that he had decided he
did
want to show her his new lair. Very pleased, a yawning Meg borrowed Lex’s carpet without asking. She and Laddy flew over the nearest mountain, then swooped in and out of a series of narrow gorges to reach the cave.

Laddy’s lair was much prettier than Malison’s treasure chamber had been. It was easy for Meg to praise the cool, dark tunnels, the stalactites and stalagmites, and the underground stream with its gleaming marble bed.
Laddy was so proud he nearly melted a pile of gold helmets as he rushed around pointing out all of the best features of his new home to Meg. They were both smiling when they flew back to the fortress. Meg kept smiling as she and Laddy said their goodbyes.
I’ll come see you soon
, Laddy told her.

I can’t wait
, Meg said.

Once he was out of sight, she sniffled a little. But only a little.

There was one more goodbye before Meg and Lex went to meet the giant with Bain. Alya had invited them to a farewell breakfast in the fishing village, which turned out to be named Herring. Ugly, but apt, Meg thought. As they walked down the road, she noticed happily that the flowers in everyone’s window boxes were being watered again. A few were even blooming.

Alya’s house was painted green, with a blue door. Lex sniffed as they knocked. “Whatever that is, it smells delicious.”

Inside, the house was tidy and friendly, the only incongruous note an array of swords proudly displayed on the wall along with some embroidered scenes in frames.

Embroidery. Ugh. “Did you embroider those?” Meg made herself ask.

“No,” the former Bandit Queen said. “But the swords are mine.”

“What do you do now?” Lex said as they sat down to eat.

“She’s a baker,” Bain told them. “At first everything she made came out like rocks.”

“Not anymore.” Alya slashed a look at her brother.

“Not anymore,” Bain said. “And one of the fishermen’s been coming around giving her gifts of haddock and mussels.”

“So I make soup out of them,” Alya said. She changed the subject. “Go on, Bain, tell them what you do.”

“I hunt,” he said. “It’s what I know.”

“That and chief guarding,” Meg murmured. Bain studiously ignored her.

Alya’s baking didn’t taste anything like rocks. Meg had two slices of peach crumble, and Lex had three.

“What was it like to be a statue?” Meg asked Alya. “Could you hear anything? Feel anything?”

Alya grimaced. “Oh yes. That horrible voice yelling for strawberries, for maps, for prisoners.” She glanced at her brother. “And my own brother answering, ‘Yes, mistress. Whatever you say, mistress.’ ” She said this last bit in a deep, lovesick voice, and Bain had the grace to flush.

“That’s all I ever heard him say,” Meg agreed.

“So you didn’t get to hear him talk about Malison’s beauty?” Alya asked.

“Alya!” Bain nearly turned purple.

His sister grinned. “I guess not.”

HE FIVE HUMANS BENEATH THE BUSH WERE
slumbering so soundly that they didn’t even wake up when Lorgley Comprost came out of his house the next morning and climbed into the doorway to the Belowlands.
Anyone
would sleep well if they were not only exhausted, but were pillowed on a mattress of enchanted hair.

Before they had gone to bed, Dilly, Cam, Nort, and Crobbs had arranged the hair carefully into a wide pillow, leaving room for it to grow over to one side, next to Spinach’s head.

Now only Cam stirred, and by the time he tore himself out of sleep and stumbled over to look, first having to climb the stones to the top of the well, Lorgley’s stairway had already faded from sight. Cam could see nothing but blue sky down the well. He told himself he must have
imagined hearing something and went back to where the others were still snoring. “Just a little longer,” Cam said before he yawned and dropped off again.

“You’re sure he’ll be here?” Meg said. She and Lex and Bain were waiting in the meadow at the edge of the enchanted forest, right where they had last spoken to the giant.

“He promised,” Lex said. “He’s probably finishing his breakfast.”

“What do you think he’ll do?” Bain seemed awfully tense. “I mean, I don’t usually come back to the scene of a crime like this.”

“You have the frobble. That will help,” Meg said, trying to be encouraging.

Lex glanced up. “Look.”

They could see Lorgley’s feet first, then his long legs, marching down the sky stairs that hadn’t been there a moment before and that weren’t there again as soon as Lorgley touched the ground.

“Giants have magic?” Meg asked.

“Family spell,” Lex explained, and Meg wondered how he knew. But Lex was busy riding the magic carpet up to talk to Lorgley, so she didn’t have time to ask. The wizard and the giant conferred. Meg and Bain couldn’t hear Lex’s voice from the ground, while Lorgley’s voice was an unintelligible rumble.

As the giant crouched to greet them, Meg waved. Lorgley waved back, his huge mouth quirking into a smile. The giant didn’t smile at Bain, though. He took a closer look and said. “YES. THIS IS THE THIEF.”

Bain bowed, holding up the frobble, which was sort of a blob-shaped gold vase. It was so small by giant standards that Meg suspected humans must have made it. Now Lorgley put out his huge hand, and Bain climbed over the giant’s fingertips to lay the frobble across it. He climbed back down rather hastily.

Meg couldn’t keep from interrupting. “But what does it
do?”
she shouted.

“WATCH.” The giant touched the blobby vase in the center of his palm. The frobble shimmered, and suddenly a small pond lay in Lorgley’s hand. Lilies grew on either side, while golden frogs leaped across it. A fish with emerald eyes lifted its head out of the water. The reeds beside the little pond played a melody that made Meg want to climb onto the giant’s hand and listen forever.

Lorgley touched one of the reeds with the tip of a great finger, and the frobble changed back into an ugly vase, sitting solidly in his hand. “MY LITTLE DAUGHTER LIKES IT,” he explained.

“Do
you
like it?” Bain asked Meg softly.

“Of course,” she whispered. “It was beautiful. You didn’t know it did that?”

“I had heard. I couldn’t figure out how to make it happen, though. Nothing I tried worked.”

“WELL, THIEF? WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY FOR YOURSELF?”

“I’m very sorry,” Bain yelled. “It’s just that I wanted a wonderful gift for my ladylove.”

Meg stiffened. So there
was
a bandit girl.

Lorgley smiled slowly. “IT
IS
WONDERFUL.”

This was all very nice, but where were the hostages? In his hat? In his pocket? “Sir,” Meg called, “Where are our friends?”

Now it was Lorgley’s turn to look ashamed. “I’M AFRAID THEY ESCAPED.”

“You lost them?” Meg hollered. “What are we supposed to do?”

“I DON’T KNOW. IF THEY COME BACK, I WILL BRING THEM DOWN TO YOU. I THOUGHT THEY WERE HIDING IN THE FLOWERBEDS, BUT WE SEARCHED AND COULD NOT FIND THEM.”

“That’s not fair!” Meg exclaimed. “We brought you the frobble
and
the thief!”

“NO,” Lorgley said, “IT ISN’T FAIR. WHICH IS WHY I WILL LET YOU KEEP THE THIEF.”

Bain looked hopeful.

“Meg,” Lex said. “We’ll find them. He really doesn’t know what to do about it.”

“I suppose not.” It wasn’t as if they were keeping Bain
in exchange for the others. She and Lex would find Dilly and Cam and their two companions, and everyone would be together again. Bain could go home—to his “ladylove,” she thought with an inner sniff. The rest of them could go back to her parents’ castle where they belonged. After all, Laddy was fine now. Once Meg had found the rest of her friends, everything would be just perfect and her quest would be over, a job well done. So Meg told herself crankily as she got ready to say goodbye to Lorgley Comprost.