‘Good.’ He coughed again, closing his eyes in pain. ‘Conor, don’t let Essa go. If you don’t tell her how you feel, you will regret it for the rest of your life – trust me, I know.’ He coughed again and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. When he saw the blood on his fingers he said, ‘Oh dear, could you find Dahy for me?’
Brendan took the archer’s head. I turned, there were several soldiers watching dumbfounded. ‘Get Dahy,’ I ordered and they scattered in several directions.
Brendan was weeping openly. Spideog smiled and said to him, ‘If the yews allow it, I want you to have my bow.’
Brendan tried to speak but nothing came out.
Dahy crashed to his knees next to us. He took Spideog’s hand and said, ‘Hey, old man.’
‘Who are you calling old?’ Spideog smiled, his eyes still closed.
Dahy looked up and barked, ‘Someone get a healer.’
Dahy’s old comrade in arms shook his head. The meaning was obvious – a healer would do no good. Then he opened his eyes and said, ‘She lives, Dahy.’
‘Who lives, old friend?’ Dahy asked.
Pain and coughing racked Spideog’s body, blood poured freely from the side of his mouth. I didn’t think he would open his eyes again but then he reached up and grabbed Dahy on the side of the arm. ‘Macha… Macha lives.’ Then his hand dropped and he breathed his last.
The folds of his tunic had obscured the knife in Spideog’s chest. As Brendan laid him down the material fell away and the green knife handle came into view. Dahy pulled it from the torso and examined it closely. ‘Where did this come from?’
A sinking feeling like a punch in the stomach almost made me retch. I walked over to the dead Brownie that had thrown the knife. I knelt down and rolled his body over – it was Demne, the eldest son of the Brownie King. It was Frank.
By the time I looked up Essa, Araf and Tuan were in the courtyard. My head was spinning. Overwhelmingly conflicting emotions mixed with confusion made me almost catatonic. I had just won a battle but had been partly responsible for the death of Master Spideog. But then – here were my friends brought back from the dead.
The sound of flapping and screaming in the sky snapped me back to full attention. High, high above us flew a dragon; below him hung a writhing, screaming man. When Red was directly above our heads he opened his talons and let the man go. The screaming ended when the freefalling body hit the side of the headquarters roof. The snapping of his neck was plain to hear. He bounced and landed on the ground face down, not far away from Essa. The Princess used her foot to flip him over. It was Turlow. Essa stared at him with a clenched jaw as her eyes watered up.
‘I wanted to do that,’ she said.
Chapter Forty-One
I looked back up and saw Dragon Red flying away and remembered. I remembered what the last months had all been about. I started shouting, ‘NO, RED, RED COME BACK.’
I looked to Brendan. ‘Where is he going?’
I didn’t wait for an answer, I was getting frantic. ‘RE-E-E-ED!’ Then I spun on Araf. ‘You were riding a green dragon – where is the green dragon? Where?’
Araf grabbed me by the shoulders, he was uncharacteristically smiling. I looked to Brendan and Tuan; despite the recent tragedies, they were smiling too.
‘I need dragon’s blood!’
‘Calm down, Conor,’ Araf said. ‘The green dragon is here.’
I spun around, searching the courtyard for any sign of a dragon. They were all still smiling like idiots. I was just about to slap them when Tuan placed his hands together into a two-handed fist, then crouched down like a man about to drop to his knees in prayer. When he began to straighten up he didn’t just stop at his own height. His clothes tore away as palm-sized green scales loudly clinked into place on his chest and back. He continued to grow as his face extended and spines grew out of his receding hair. As he reached full size he blocked the sun and extended his wings, sending a cloud of dust and leaves swirling around the courtyard, forcing us to shield our eyes.
‘ight='7%'›No,’ I said incredulously.
‘Oh yes,’ Brendan said, patting me on the back.
I stepped up to Dragon Tuan and he lowered his head. I looked into his eyes, thinking that I would recognise my old travelling companion but his eyes were green and yellow with slits for pupils.
‘Is that you in there, Councillor Tuan?’
He threw his head violently back and blew a massive plume of fire into the air. Brendan grabbed me by the arm and pulled me back. ‘Don’t make him laugh, he’s having trouble controlling the fire-breathing stuff.’
Tuan folded back his wings and lowered his body to the ground. Brendan took a running start and hopped on his back like a cowboy in a movie. Then he held out his hand and said, ‘You comin’?’
‘Where?’
‘To Castle Duir. Tuan wants to donate some blood.’
I took a running start. I was so excited that I almost sailed straight over the back of Tuan.
Then Nieve ran into the courtyard and shouted, ‘Brendan, you are alive.’
‘I am indeed, gorgeous,’ the cop replied from dragonback. ‘I’m off to Castle Duir to save your brother. Come with us.’
Honest to the gods she hopped up and down like a schoolgirl at a boy-band concert and ran two steps towards us before she stopped and dropped her head.
‘I cannot. I must tend the wounded.’
Brendan turned to me and said, ‘Can you give me a minute?’
I nodded and he slid off Tuan’s back and gave my aunt a right proper, back-dipping, snog.
Dahy approached me holding the knife. He looked shell-shocked. ‘Where did you get this?’ he asked quietly. It was almost as if he was afraid to hear the answer.
‘It was thrown out of the window from the house of the Oracle, on Mount Cas. Araf was there, he can tell you all about it.’ He nodded thoughtfully and backed off as Brendan dramatically remounted.
Tuan extended his school-bus-sized wings and began to flap. The muscles in his back tightened and rocked me up and down as I searched for something to hold on to. I grabbed Brendan around the waist. He didn’t seem to mind.
Detective Fallon turned to me wearing a huge ear-to-ear grin. ‘Have you ever been on the rollercoaster at that amusement park in Elysburg, Pennsylvania?’
‘Yeah,’ I screamed back as the wind roared around us. ‘It was very scary.’
‘Well, hold on, O’Neil, ’cause this is a whole lot worse.’
As I held on for dear life, Brendan filled me in on what had happened.
‘That damn paralysing pin that the late Turlow stuck in Araf, Tuan and me was apparently placed high enough on our necks so that we couldn’t speak but our eyes and ears still worked. #82 managed to do that Pooka transforming thing with the unparalysed part of his head. The top of his head changed into like a dozen different animals. Every time he grew feathers or fur or even scales, he managed to push out the pin just a little bit further, until it popped out completely. He saved us.’ Tuan, who had been listening, shook his head up and down.
‘Nice one, Councillor,’ I shouted.
‘We were just outside the back door of The Digs,’ continued Brendan, ‘when the fireball hit. We dived into the swampy bit behind the house to protect ourselves from the heat and by the time we popped out again, you were already being carried off into the wild blue yonder. Tuan used hawk eyes and said he saw you fall into the ocean. How’d you survive that one?’
‘Mermaids,’ I shouted over the sound of the swirling wind and laughed out loud at the ridiculousness of
