Dragonfire (16 page)

It was, nevertheless, several hours before they were able to start. After a brief discussion, they decided that the only way to investigate what was going on in the loch was to merge with the fish. Although Dougal MacLeod looked understandably doubtful at the prospect he had no intention of missing out on such an adventure and, with the others, threw himself
wholeheartedly
into the preparations.

Rothlan’s men hurriedly took boats out onto the loch to net some fish and it was not long before Hector arrived to tell them that enough had been caught for their purpose.

From the beginning, Lady Ellan and Clara were told quite forcefully that there was no way that they’d be allowed to participate in the venture. The MacArthur put it bluntly. “Ye’re no’ coming,” he stated flatly. “It’s far too dangerous and besides, Archie and Neil will soon be waking up and they’ll need you to look after them.” And that, it would seem, was that!

The sun was still high in the sky as they all moved down to the shore. Above them, the eagles wheeled and swooped, revelling in their new feathers, for the MacArthur had lifted the spell that had bound them for so many years. Jarishan, too, had been freed from its enchantment as, after lunch, Lady Ellan had presented the set of firestones to Lord Rothlan.

Their influence, thought Clara, was already pervading the castle and bringing to it an indefinable sense of ease and contentment. A warm breeze whispered along the side of the loch as she walked by the shore and listened to the murmur of the waves. Such a peaceful place, she thought. If only there were no water goblins to spoil it all. She watched Amgarad sweep down from the sky and perch on Rothlan’s shoulder. Amgarad,
she could see, was not at all happy at what was going on in the loch and would, she knew, be devastated if anything were to happen to his master. She heaved a huge sigh and walked towards the jetty where the little group had gathered to merge with the fish. The MacArthur pointed out the fat trout that awaited them.

“You’ll see that they have a small gold ring piercing the sides of their mouths,” he said. “That way we’ll be able to recognise one another in the water.”

Hector, Hamish and Jaikie went first and with a wave to the others, disappeared. The MacArthur looked squarely at Sir James, the Ranger and MacLeod. “Er … you’re all quite sure about this, are you?” His gaze encompassed the three of them. “I’m not forcing you to go, you know that, don’t you?”

“We wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Sir James assured him, stepping forward. He paused and turned to wave to Clara and Ellan before grasping one of the trout in both hands and merging with it swiftly. MacLeod and the Ranger who had followed him into the water, did the same. The Ranger had already hugged Clara and told her to look after her brother but, watching him disappear into the loch brought hot tears to her eyes and she turned away to hide them.

The MacArthur turned to Ellan and hugged her. Holding her at arm’s length he spoke to her gravely. “It’s a risky venture, my dear, and if I don’t come back, my responsibilities will fall on your shoulders. God bless you, my dear, and you too, Clara! We are in your debt!”

Rothlan was strangely formal as he apologized to Lady Ellan for his treatment of her. He ended, however, by grasping her hands and saying tightly, “If by any chance, I don’t return … I … I would like you to think well of me … and Amgarad.”

Her eyes glazed with tears as she looked at the unhappy bird perched on his shoulder and she nodded wordlessly. He then bowed low to both her and Clara and waded into the water after the MacArthur. Amgarad, now finally forced to leave his
master’s shoulder, squawked dolefully as he soared into the air and flew over the loch, shrieking his misery, leaving Ellan and Clara facing the empty stretch of water.

“I think we should put some boats out and have the eagles patrol the loch. What if someone has to demerge and swim for it?”

“That’s a good idea,” approved Clara. “It’ll give us something to do instead of waiting and worrying.”

“I’ll call Amgarad!” nodded Ellan. “And we can take one of the boats out ourselves. I’d rather be close by if there’s going to be any trouble under the water.”

Ellan rowed out into the middle of the loch and for a while, they were content to drift. Clara peered over the side from time to time but the water was still murky from the storm and she couldn’t see anything much.

“I’ve always wondered what it must be like, being a fish,” she murmured.

Sir James could have told her. Strange but not unpleasant, would probably have been his verdict. At that moment, he was slipping through the water after the others, concentrating hard on not letting his attention stray as it had when he’d lost Jaikie and Hamish over Arthur’s Seat! The water was murky and they had to swim close together to keep one another in sight. Sir James knew that they were heading for a specific place, as that afternoon, while the fish were being netted, Rothlan had brought out old maps of the loch and they’d pored long over them.

“There’s a current that flows round here,” Hector had pointed to the eastern end of the loch, “and I’m tempted to think that anything dropped from this end would be pushed against this headland here.”

“And if it misses it?” queried Rothlan.

“Aye, there now,” muttered Hector. “There’s a queer thing. Anything that missed the headland would end up around here,” he circled an area at the far end of the loch with his finger.

“What’s so strange about that?” Sir James had asked, looking over his shoulder.

Hector had looked at them frowningly. “It’s just that it’s no’ a part of the loch that folk visit ower often. The shore is desolate and overgrown and the pools are poor fishing …”

“If you ask me,” Dougal had murmured, “I’d say that that would be a good place to look.”

There was silence as the others had eyed one another speculatively. Rothlan nodded his head slowly. “I agree with Mr MacLeod,” he’d said. “It’s deep and it’s secret. We’ll try there first.”

Arthur, however, who hadn’t had the benefit of studying Lord Rothlan’s charts before he set off, had spent many fruitless hours swimming slowly round the brown silt-filled waters, looking for water goblins. Their smell had been unmistakeable and had filled the boathouse. He was sure they were around somewhere.

He swam close to the bottom of the loch as that was where he guessed he would find them. Delving in the silt in Loch Ness had been their favourite occupation and, knowing their narrow, finicky ways, he reckoned that not a lot would have changed. In the event, he smelled them before he saw them and creeping slowly and stealthily along the loch’s muddy bottom, managed to remain unobserved. Sidling behind a growth of slimy weed, he peered through its fronds and choked back a gasp of astonishment. Never, not even in Loch Ness, had he seen so many hundreds of water goblins.

In front of him, the bottom of the loch sheered steeply downwards to form a long, deep trench. Water goblins were everywhere, removing bucketful upon bucketful of silt. The water was thick with it. Arthur wished that he could move nearer but, as that was impossible, he wriggled himself gently into the mud so that at least he could find out what was going on.

It was then that he saw the serpent. Its body was as thick as a tree trunk and seemed miles long. He watched awestruck as it moved lazily through the water on the other side of the trench, its great gaping jaws revealing rows of sharp, curved teeth.

I wonder if Rothlan knows that he has one of those in his loch, was his immediate thought as he waited for the water goblins to notice the creature and swim for their lives. This, as it happened, proved a non-event as the only notice they took of the monstrous creature was to redouble their already frantic efforts to shift the silt from the bottom of the trench. It was then that he realized that the serpent was their master.

Arthur moved his head a fraction to avoid a rock that was digging into his chin and watched as a shoal of fish swam overhead. Now Arthur didn’t know a lot about trout but he knew that they didn’t swim in shoals. Neither, as far as he was aware, did they wear gold nose-rings.

The fish, as well they might, scattered at the sight of the serpent and the water goblins. It was Sir James who, with a racing heart, dived hastily for the cover of the nearest patch of greenery, unaware that he was quivering with fear in a clump of weeds just beside Arthur’s left eye. His fear was excusable as he was, at that moment, feeling more than slightly vulnerable. As far as he was concerned, the sight of the teeth on the serpent totally overshadowed the discovery of the water goblins!

Arthur, however, afraid that the fish might draw attention to his hiding place, opened his eye wide and glowered at it furiously in an attempt to scare it. In this he succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. Indeed, he almost gave Sir James a heart attack. Sir James, however, once recovered from the shock, breathed a sigh of relief, for he hadn’t forgotten his first sight of Arthur’s wonderful eyes. Help, it would seem, was at hand! Fired with new hope, he promptly did a nifty bit of back-paddling.

“Arthur!” he hissed in the dragon’s ear.

Arthur froze! He couldn’t believe it. Unable to move his chin
for the piece of rock, he opened his eyes and looked at the fish again.

“I’m Sir James,” hissed the fish. “We’re here with the MacArthur. We’re looking for Prince Kalman and a crown. A Turkish crown.”

Arthur waited until the serpent had swum past before he hissed back. “Is it stuck about with rubies?”

“How the … how should I know?” hissed back Sir James.

Arthur looked down his long nose. “Because I’ve just noticed that my chin is stuck between something that’s absolutely plastered with rubies!”

Sir James swam carefully forward among the weeds and, sure enough, jutting up from among their roots were the prongs of a crown. It was black with age but Arthur had been right about one thing; it was studded all over with rubies and his scaly chin seemed to be stuck firmly between two of its prongs.

Never in his life had Sir James felt so helpless. He longed to have the use of his arms so that he could prise the crown free of the mud; for it wouldn’t, he felt, take much of an effort to jerk it loose. He glanced round but as the rest of the trout had wisely disappeared at the sight of the massive serpent, he realized that he and Arthur were on their own.

“Arthur, listen carefully. I can’t do a thing! As you see, I’ve no hands at the moment! It’s all up to you now! Try lifting your head slowly so that you can free the crown from the weeds. Then we’ll see if we can get away!”

They waited until the serpent had swum past them to the other end of the trench before Arthur started to pull his head back. The crown moved and lifted free but it took some of the weeds with it.

“Stop there, Arthur,” Sir James hissed. “I’ll try and get rid of the weeds!”

Nudging them with his nose, however, didn’t do the slightest bit of good and once more they rested as the serpent glided slowly past.

It was at this moment that Sir James made a serious error of judgment. The size and weight of the serpent and its lazy movements in the water had unconsciously fostered the idea that it was a relatively slow-moving creature.

“The crown’s stuck to your chin, Arthur. Why don’t you just take off for the surface of the loch and fly into the air!”

Now, although Arthur had a much better understanding of the serpent’s abilities than Sir James did, he could think of no alternative. In the past he’d heard vague stories of the Sultan of Turkey’s crown and knew only too well the importance of keeping it out of Kalman’s hands. Indeed, he had a shrewd suspicion that Kalman
was
the monstrous serpent that so assiduously patrolled the trench.

They waited until the serpent had reached the furthest end of its beat before Arthur rocketed upwards.

He almost made it to the surface, but not quite.

The serpent swung round in a tight turn that would have put an Edinburgh taxi driver to shame and moved like lightning. Indeed, Sir James had never seen anything move with such speed in his life. The muscles of the great creature powered it through the loch. It streaked upwards after the dragon in a swirl of water that knocked Sir James sideways and its great jaws clamped on one of Arthur’s legs as he broke the surface, wings flapping wildly.

From their rowing boat, Lady Ellan and Clara turned as they heard the sudden splash as Arthur reared out of the waters of the loch. He was roaring with fury and pain as he tried frantically to rise into the air. His wings flapped, but to no avail, and it was then that they saw the massive head of the serpent, clamped to one of his legs. Still Arthur struggled to rise but the weight of the serpent was dragging him inexorably down into the water.

It was then that Amgarad and his eagles decided to take a hand in the matter. Arthur saw them coming and, thinking them his enemies, knew that he was lost. He redoubled his efforts to get clear of the water but the serpent held on grimly. The eagles continued their swoop towards the water and much to Arthur’s surprise dug their claws not into him, but into the serpent. Flapping their great wings and pecking holes in the beast with their sharp beaks, they added their efforts to his and, gripping the slimy creature as best they could, desperately started to drag the serpent out of the loch.

Clara and Ellan grasped one another’s hands as, slowly but surely, the serpent was lifted, still struggling furiously, from the water. The end, however, came suddenly as, realizing that it was doomed, the serpent released Arthur’s leg from its vice-like grip and arching in agony gave a spasmodic jerk that threw off the eagles. Its lashing tail, however, struck Arthur’s head, loosening the crown from his jaw and Clara and Ellan could only watch in horror as, with a tremendous splash, both the serpent and the crown fell back into the waters of the loch.

Knocked almost unconscious by the vicious blow from the serpent’s tail, Arthur, too, tumbled from the sky and, as the eagles
swooped and dived helplessly overhead, crashed, with a terrific splash, back into the loch. Ellan rowed swiftly towards him as he surfaced and lay, flapping feebly in the water, blood pouring from the terrible gash on his head and from his injured leg.

As she leant over the side of the boat to reach the injured dragon, Amgarad swept across the water to land on Clara’s shoulder. She grimaced as she felt his claws penetrate her jacket but Amgarad was careful not to scratch her and anyway, she reflected, her jacket was so filthy that a few extra tears and scratches were not going to matter. Secretly, too, she was proud that he had come to her at all, as he was Lord Rothlan’s bird.

A shout from the shore made them turn their heads. Clara saw her father waving and the others clambering out of the shallow waters onto the shores of the loch.

“Tell them that Arthur is injured and needs help, Amgarad,” Ellan gasped as she desperately tried to hold the dragon’s head above the water. “I can’t hold him for much longer.”

Rothlan’s men on the shore, however, had witnessed the struggle of the giant creatures and knowing that their help would be needed, had launched their boats and were already half-way between them and the shore. As Amgarad flew off, Clara reached over the side of the boat to help Ellan. Blood was everywhere and Arthur seemed to be slipping in and out of consciousness as his immense weight threatened to drag both them and their boat into the depths of the loch. Clara hung on desperately, blessing the power of her firestone that seemed to be giving her superhuman strength.

The boats, actually, arrived just in time. The men in them were quick to assess the situation and dived into the water clutching the ends of fishing nets that unrolled behind them as they dived underneath the dragon. They looped the nets under Arthur and fastened them to the boats on either side so that they could be drawn taut, thus lifting his body to the surface of the water. Clara and Ellan watched as they made the nets fast and only then rowed to the shore where Rothlan and the
MacArthur waited anxiously. Once Arthur’s weight was spread across the net, it was possible to row him to the shallow, sandy shore of the loch but it was an operation that took time and had to match the pace of the swimmers who swam alongside him, keeping his head above the surface.

Clara stood clutching her father’s hand as she watched the men manoeuver their boats so that the net deposited Arthur at the water’s edge. Tears welled in her eyes and spilled down her cheeks as she glanced at Ellan who stood as white as a sheet beside Arthur. Both had had a close-up view of his dreadful injuries and Clara knew instinctively that he had been badly hurt. She had grown very fond of him and the knowledge that he might well die from the terrible wound was almost too much to bear. Indeed, the great dragon looked dead already, lying as he did, still and unmoving, half in and half out of the water. She watched dully as Lord Rothlan, kneeling by his head, placed his hands on the horrendous gash that gouged his forehead and murmured the words of a spell.

The result was nothing short of fantastic. Even as Rothlan straightened and turned to Lady Ellan, Arthur showed signs of life. His body stirred slightly and his claws dug into the sandy foreshore. And as Ellan ran forward, he opened his eyes and struggled feebly.

“Stay still, Arthur,” Lord Rothlan warned. “Let me attend to your leg before you do anything else.” Again Rothlan murmured the words of a spell and the ragged gashes of the serpent’s teeth magically disappeared.

Ellan couldn’t hide her delight and gratitude. “Lord Rothlan!” she cried, holding her hands out to him. “How can I thank you? You have given us back our most precious possession! Arthur is dear to us all!”

“Aye,” the MacArthur added, “the hill wouldn’t be the same without Arthur. We just can’t thank you enough!”

Everyone crowded round to look at Arthur and, as he got unsteadily to his feet, a burst of clapping and cheering rang
out. Clara couldn’t believe her eyes. Arthur’s head now showed no sign of his dreadful injuries and already he was regaining his strength. She clapped delightedly as he managed to heave himself out of the water and gamely struggled up the grassy bank with Lord Rothlan and Lady Ellan hovering protectively on either side of him.

“Sir James!” Arthur said, stopping suddenly and looking around. “Where is he?”

It was only then that everyone realized that in the excitement of Arthur’s fight with the serpent, no one had noticed that Sir James had not returned.

“He hasn’t come back yet. Why?” asked Rothlan sharply.

“The trench … it was full of water goblins. They … they must have seen him when I headed for the surface!”

There was a sudden silence as everyone turned to look anxiously over the empty loch.

“He’ll be all right. Don’t worry,” Rothlan said. “I took the precaution of putting a spell on our trout before we left. The water goblins won’t be able to hurt him. And,” he said, suddenly stern, “while I remember, I might just as well hex that nasty little lot out of Jarishan for ever!”

He straightened his arm and called some strange-sounding words across the loch. Nothing seemed to happen and, seeing Clara’s doubtful look, he raised his eyebrows in amusement. “I am, actually, a very good magician,” he assured her, and laughed as she blushed in confusion.

“I didn’t mean to be rude,” she stammered.

She was saved from further embarrassment by the sound of running feet as Neil and Archie came running down to the shore. They stopped dead as they saw Lord Rothlan in the group around Arthur.

“Neil!” Clara cried in relief, running to hug him, “Neil, it’s all right. We’re all friends now! Oh, I’m so glad that you’ve woken up at last.”

Full of concern, Archie ran straight to Arthur. “Arthur! Are
you all right? What’s been happening?”

The MacArthur stepped forward and laid a hand on his shoulder. “A lot happened when you were asleep, lad. Lord Rothlan is our enemy no longer and indeed, has just saved Arthur’s life. I’ll leave Arthur to tell you of his amazing adventure but Rothlan says he needs to rest now. Actually he’s just told me that his stables will house Arthur quite comfortably so you can help Hector get him up to the castle.”

It was then that Sir James emerged from the shallow water and waded onto the shingle, dripping wet and totally weary.

“Are you all right, James?” MacLeod ran towards him and grasped him by the arm. “We were worried about you!”

“At one stage I was worried about myself,” Sir James admitted. “After Arthur took off, I rather lost my bearings. Since then, I think I must have been swimming round in circles! I’m totally exhausted!” He gave a heartfelt sigh of relief as he walked up to the dragon.

“Thank goodness you’re okay, Arthur. I heard the tremendous commotion that was going on at the top of the water but, quite frankly, there wasn’t a lot I could do to help. I can’t tell you how relieved I was when the serpent fell back into the water! Did you get away with the crown?”

There was a dreadful silence at his words as, apart from Clara and Ellan, no one else knew that the crown had been found.

Arthur shook his head sadly. “In the struggle, the serpent’s tail hit me in the face,” he explained, “and knocked the crown off my chin. It … it fell back into the loch.”

Everyone turned and looked searchingly over the loch. Its bland surface, now placid and unruffled, told them nothing, and Arthur’s voice when he spoke was barely more than a whisper. “I think … I’m afraid Prince Kalman might have it!”