Page 41 of His Greatest Treasure

“No! No, you won’t have to go again. Father will let you stay. When he meets you, he’ll love you and want you to stay. Everyone will. They have to! I’m not letting you go out there where it’s dangerous.”

I hadn’t realised that I’d been so loud but my voice rang out and reverberated round the tiny den. Blaze put a hand to my cheek and murmured, “Hush, my darling. I’m not leaving.”

“You’re not?”

“No.”

“Not ever?”

“I don’t need to leave while I’m safe here,” he said, and something about it sat wrong with me. I didn’t like that. I wanted him to promise to stay forever.

“I’ll protect you,” I said. It was a promise, and even though I had no idea how I would keep it, I meant it. I would do anything to protect Blaze.

My insides stopped feeling like they were tearing in half as I made that promise and Blaze pressed his lips against mine. He kissed me sweetly, slowly, and I tried to pour my certainty into that kiss. I’d look after him. I would.

It would be the greatest pleasure of my life to protect Blaze from every evil he wanted me to protect him from. I’d fight anyone, anything, any time. As long as he was safe, I would be satisfied.

Chapter 17

Alfie

Iwas just thinking that I might get to sneak out again that night and maybe I could spend all night tucked up with Blaze under a blanket in that chair, when a siren blared throughout the castle.

Whatever sickness I’d caught, it got worse at the sound of that siren. Something about it made my body twist and shiver, and I was swamped by the fear of what it meant.

Some instinct inside me seemed to carry me towards the grand hall. It was a huge room in the heart of the castle, filled with marble and gold gilt. It looked really pretty in candlelight, but it was ruined a bit now by the deep marks on the floor that we’d had to have repaired. Nobody would tell me how those marks had got there but they weredeep gouges, almost like a supernatural power had sliced into our castle and torn at its very heart.

I didn’t like to look at them.

I scanned the room and my eyes caught on the large portrait of Lord Somerville which hung at the far end of the hall, in pride of place. He looked powerful and austere, and his silver-white eyes gazed back at me with disapproval.

I tore my eyes away and focused on the people around me. All of the clan seemed to be arriving at the same place. I don’t know why we all gathered in the grand hall but it seemed they’d all had the same instinct I did.

Maybe there was something in the sound of that siren that made them twist up and squirm the way I did and they were coming to find Glenwise.

I spotted Great Aunt Evangeline walking in through the large double doors. Normally, she walked very upright and proud. She was the oldest dragon I knew, and probably one of the oldest in existence in any clan in the world. I didn’t know how old, exactly, because I thought it was rude to ask someone their age. Even if I hadn’t thought that, I’d never have dared to ask Great Aunt Evangeline. She looked so regal and refinedthat I felt scruffy and small beside her, even though I was taller than she was now.

Although, as I watched her enter the grand hall, I saw that she was paler than usual. Whatever colour her hair had once been, it was pure white now. Her pale skin made her look like a ghost, insubstantial and frail.

Before I could go over to ask if she needed anything, Uncle George appeared. If I didn’t know better, I’d say that he’d been running but I’d never seen him run before and I couldn’t picture it.

As soon as he appeared, he swooped over to Great Aunt Evangeline and offered her his arm. She took it, though she did it slowly, as though she didn’t really need it but she was deigning to give him the great honour of escorting her inside.

I could see their bond. Uncle George had a bond with most of us but his were weak and pale. He kept to himself and the only people he seemed to interact with at all were his son, Glenwise, and the woman on his arm.

His bond with Glenwise was strange. More iron-grey than silver. It was clear that he was incredibly proud of his son but he didn’t really understand him.

His bond with Great Aunt Evangeline, though, was almost like my own bond with my mother. I didn’t know what had happened to Uncle George’s mother but she wasn’t around any longer. I never liked to ask that, either.

All I knew was that he expressed his fondness for the woman through pride and dignity and small acts of service.

He stood with her now, slightly apart from the rest. I could barely tell whether she was leaning on him or not but I’d bet she was. She didn’t stand up for long these days without struggling not to curl up, not that she’d ever let anyone see that.

I deliberately didn’t look at her bonds because they made my head ache. There were so many of them that they looked like a firework sparking constantly in every direction. I suppose she was so old that she’d met a lot of people. A lot of them were small and thin, only a few were rich and solid. I let my eyes slide away from her and the mess of bonds.

All around me, the clan’s bonds shone bright. Brighter than usual.

Every dragon there had a link to Glimmer, though he was nowhere to be seen. He must be outside, patrolling or some such.

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