Lily and the Prisoner of Magic (14 page)

‘Something’s happening,’ Henrietta growled. ‘I felt it. The ship
shook
! I don’t like it. Lily, you need to get up, and we’ll go and see.’

But Lily shook her head slowly. ‘No. We don’t need to. I know what it is.’

‘An iceberg?’ Henrietta darted to the end of the bed, trying to look out of the porthole. ‘I knew all that boasting about these ships being unsinkable was nonsense.’

Lily smiled. ‘It’s him.’

‘
H
e’s here?’ Rose stared at Lily, her eyes wide and glowing with excitement. She was wearing a pretty ruffled nightgown, and her long silver hair trailed down her back in a plait. For a moment, Lily thought she looked no older than Georgie.

‘He’s twisted in between the funnels. It was the only place he could fit. He wants to see you – he says you called him by his name, and so he’s come. I think he wants to fly us back home!’

‘Let me get dressed. I’ll write a note to the steward, explaining we were called away – they’ll enjoy trying to work out what that means, I’m sure.’

Gus prowled to the end of the bed, his whiskers twitching slightly. ‘Do I understand that we are going –
flying
?’ he asked faintly.

‘It isn’t as bad as you might think,’ Henrietta told him airily. ‘Of course, cats are sensitive,’ she added, in a sweet growl.

‘I suppose this dragon is very large,’ Gus said gloomily, leaping down from the bed and stalking past Henrietta as if she didn’t exist. She watched him affrontedly, and Lily sighed. Henrietta hated it when people ignored her. It was going to be difficult if she and Gus couldn’t get on. Lily had been surprised when Rose called the white cat Gus, as it didn’t seem a grand enough name for such a gentleman of a cat. But Rose had explained that it was short for Gustavus, which was much more suitable, Lily thought. Rose had also told her that Gus was older than she was – he had been Mr Fountain’s cat before he adopted her, and he was at least seventy.

They hurried up to the main deck, keeping to the shadows and looking out for members of the crew. It would be easier not to have to explain why they were out at four o’clock in the morning.

‘Hello!’ Lily whispered excitedly, pattering along the deck and waving to the dragon, who was stretching his long neck down to look for them. ‘I’m back, I’ve brought her!’

The dragon’s eyes seemed to glow in the dim light from the bulbs strung along the deck, and he half opened his wings, flapping them a little as though he wanted to fly, a victory flight out over the sea. ‘Miss Fell?’ he whispered, and his whisper made the boards of the deck shake under Lily’s feet. ‘I am Argent. You called to me.’

Rose half curtseyed to him, very gracefully, Lily thought. But then she had been used to being around princesses, and had probably had a lot of practice.

‘Mrs Sands, actually,’ she said to the dragon. ‘I got married.’

The dragon snorted. ‘You are still a Fell, whatever you call yourself. Dear Lily and Georgiana have a hint of the bloodline, enough to draw me out of my enchanted sleep, but you! A direct descendant, even if not bred at the Hall.’ His head weaved around her as though he was drinking her in. ‘It gives me strength even to look at you.’ He flexed his massive claws, scraping them along the metal roof with an eerie shriek. ‘Why are you on this – this smoky metal lump? Are you coming back to London? I will fly you – you can’t crawl over the sea like this.’

‘Must we really?’ Gus muttered. ‘I don’t mind the smoke…’

‘You have a familiar?’ the dragon asked curiously, leaning further down, so that he was nose to nose with Gus. The white cat sat frozen on the deck, his whiskers sticking out dead straight and his eyes slits, as the dragon’s hot breath swirled around him.

‘She does,’ he hissed defiantly, his ears almost flat against his skull.

‘Good.’ The dragon extended one fearsomely-taloned foot, clearly inviting Gus to climb into it. ‘A Fell child should not be lonely. May I ask your name, dear cat?’

‘Gustavus.’ Gus glanced unhappily at Rose, and then stalked forward, climbing onto the dragon’s foot as though he suspected it might be the last thing he ever did.

The dragon lifted Gus delicately to his back, placing the cat high up between his wings with a ceremonial flourish. ‘Sit there, where you can see. Are you quite comfortable?’

Gus looked tiny on the back of such a huge creature. He peered down at them, his eyes round with relieved surprise. ‘Oh, indeed…’ he muttered.

‘Miss Rose.’ The dragon stretched out his foot again, depositing the white-haired lady carefully behind her cat. Rose stroked Gus gently, and the cat hunched his shoulders, as if he didn’t much care for petting. But the panicked glitter went out of his eyes, and he edged backwards a little along the dragon’s spine so that he was nestled into her skirts.

Lily picked up Henrietta, who was looking slightly sulky at all this attention being paid to Gus, and she and Georgie climbed up behind.

‘Hold tight,’ the dragon cried joyfully, and he leaped out over the row of lifeboats, setting them swinging with the draught of his wings as he shot out over the black sea.

Lily heard a strangled sort of mew from Gus, and Henrietta hunkered down between her knees, growling softly.

As they swooped down towards the dark water, Argent opened his wings out fully and began the strong steady beat that Lily was used to. ‘Sorry,’ he called back over his shoulder, the words floating past Lily on the whistling wind. ‘No room to stretch out back there on that poky little boat.’

Lily gazed down at the waves rolling below them, their white crests shining in the faint moonlight. They seemed to be flying incredibly fast – much faster than they had on their flight from Fell Hall.

‘Argent…’ It seemed odd to call him by his name, almost rude, when he’d never told it to her, but he glanced around as he heard her calling. ‘We’re going so fast!’

‘I’m stronger now,’ he told her simply. ‘Carrying a Fell, you see. My magic is growing back stronger than ever; can’t you see it, dearest Lily? Watch my wings!’

Lily and the others peered sideways, clinging tightly to the spikes along his back. ‘Oh! It isn’t moonlight!’ Georgie gasped. ‘It’s you!’

‘If anyone sees us, they’ll think you’re riding on a shooting star,’ the dragon said rather smugly, flourishing his glowing wings so that a wash of light scattered off them like sparks falling to the water below.

‘Can you turn it off again?’ Lily asked anxiously. ‘No one at the theatre will be able to believe you’re made of papier-mâché if you glow. You’d cost a fortune in that smart luminescent paint, the size you are.’

‘I can…’ the dragon muttered. ‘If I must. Do you not like it?’ he added, rather plaintively.

‘It’s beautiful,’ Lily said quickly, patting his huge side. ‘So clever. Just very shiny. You’re right, you’ll be confusing sailors all over the place.’

‘We should be back in London before the night is out,’ he called back, his deep voice ringing triumphantly.

‘You can’t possibly!’ Rose exclaimed. ‘It’s five days’ journey, at least!’

‘Not for a dragon. We’ll race the sun,’ he roared, beating his wings faster and faster so that they settled into a shining blur.

‘Well, I hope he knows where he’s going,’ Henrietta muttered, huddling herself under Lily’s cloak. ‘Wake me when we get home.’

‘This is Daniel,’ Lily explained, wishing that he hadn’t dressed quite so fast. She had wanted him to make a good impression, and he looked wild-eyed, his hair sticking up in mad curls. ‘He owns the theatre, and he rescued us, when we first came to London and we had nowhere to stay.’

Daniel bowed clumsily and stared at Rose, quite tongue-tied. Lily realised that she probably featured in several of his books about magic, and he was starstruck.

‘Rose!’ The princess hurried eagerly down the passageway and dashed into the yard. She was carrying an armful of gauzy net and had obviously been sewing something for Maria, but she flung the costume into Lily’s arms and ran towards her old friend. ‘I didn’t think I’d ever see you again,’ she said tearfully, holding her at arm’s length and gazing at her. ‘You look so much the same. And darling Gus. I think I have, yes…’ She searched in the hanging pocket of her dress. ‘Do you still like violet comfits? One of the stagehands knew a little place where one could still get them, though they’re very old-fashioned now.’

Gus’s ears twitched, and he accepted the sweet delicately and then prowled round behind Rose to spit it out. He glanced up at Lily as though daring her to comment, but she quickly squashed it to a sugary powder with her boot and he nudged her gratefully.

‘Has anything else happened while we’ve been away?’ Lily asked Daniel, leaving the old friends talking. ‘Daniel, stop staring at her!’

‘Sorry! Ummm, not a great deal. More of the same, I suppose. Another attack of magic in the audience last night. They’re starting to mention it in the newspapers now; the Queen’s Men can’t suppress the stories any more. Will she be staying here?’ he added eagerly.

‘Oh! I haven’t asked. She’s ever so rich, apparently, she could rent apartments somewhere, if she wanted, or go to a hotel. But I should think she’d like to be here with the princess and the dragon. She can hardly take him to the Savoy, can she?’ Lily glanced sadly at the dragon – it wasn’t as if such a creature could really belong to anyone. But if he did, she had a feeling he was Rose’s now.

What happened to him anyway?
Peter held up his notebook with the scribbled question, and Daniel nodded.

‘He launched himself out of here like there was a fire, about three days ago. Not a word! Lucky it wasn’t the middle of a performance; I shouldn’t think he’d have cared if it was.’

‘She called him,’ Lily sighed. ‘She knew his name, you see. He’s called Argent, he’s a family legend. And his magic’s woken up even more now that he’s found her.’

The dragon, who had been purring happily to himself as the sun rose higher and warmed a little more of the yard, and him, snaked his tail closer to Lily, Daniel and Peter. He coiled the silvery mass around Lily’s legs, making her squeak, and drew her closer to him. ‘She may have strengthened me, little one, but you woke me first. I shall never forget that. And I shan’t forget our mission, either, to rescue your sister. Those spells are growing stronger inside her – I can feel the difference in her after only a few days apart.’

‘We saw our mother in New York,’ Lily muttered anxiously, her worry about Georgie fighting with happiness that the dragon still cared about her. ‘I think being close to Mama made Georgie worse. She said the spells hurt her.’

‘We should go and look at the prison.’ Rose and the princess were standing behind Lily, looking serious. ‘I don’t know if they’ve changed any of the spells we set up, but I may be able to tell if I’m close.’

‘We could pretend to be sightseers looking at the palace,’ Lily suggested.

‘I could go with you, if I were veiled, perhaps?’ Princess Jane suggested. ‘I know I look like Sophia, but with a thickly veiled bonnet, surely it would be safe enough? Then I could show you what I remember of the key spell.’

‘That would help,’ Rose agreed.

‘The sooner we do this, the better,’ the dragon told them, his massive tail swishing across the stage so that Henrietta had to scuttle out of its way. ‘Now that I’m back, I can feel that fallow magic I told you of before, Lily. It’s starting to be shaped… I can’t quite tell what’s doing it. Some huge magical working, that’s all I can sense. That, and I don’t like it.’

Lily stared at him. ‘It can’t be the plot against the queen, can it? Mama is still in New York!’

‘But all the others aren’t. Jonathan Dysart’s here, and those sly daughters of his.’ Henrietta scratched at Lily’s knees to be picked up. ‘We always thought they were part of it, after what they said to you. They’re setting it going. Everything points to it.’ She gazed thoughtfully at Georgie’s white, anxious face. ‘They’re getting the plot under way already.’

‘It doesn’t look like a magical door.’ Lily tried to hold her little red-bound copy of Mrs Satterthwaite’s
Guide to the Metropolis
in an obvious position. They hadn’t known quite what else to do to make themselves look like sightseers. Daniel had snorted when they asked him, and said just to stand in everybody’s way as much as possible, and try to make stupid comments about all the monuments.

‘It isn’t supposed to, idiot child,’ came an acid whisper from Rose’s large basket. It was supposed to look like a picnic lunch, and Gus had tried to suggest that perhaps there should be food in it just in case anyone checked. He had particularly recommended salmon sandwiches, or even fish paste, in a pinch, but Rose had told him there wasn’t time. ‘Hold it up a bit, I can’t see! This is so undignified.’

Henrietta sniggered and, for once, didn’t complain about wearing a lead.

‘Does it look the same as it did before?’ Lily asked Rose and the princess. She scuffed her boot gently over the paving slabs. Her father was under here somewhere. It was hard to imagine.

‘I wish we could get closer,’ Rose murmured. ‘It’s hard to tell. I can feel the spells – my spells. They call to me. But there may be other magic around them that I don’t recognise.’