There was a screeching sound high overhead. Looking up, I saw a huge winged beast circling the Lake. From my previous trip here, I knew it was a dragon. My insides clenched with fear. Then I noticed a second dragon. A third. A fourth. Jaw dropping, I realized the sky was full of them, dozens, maybe hundreds. If they caught sight of me…
I started to scrabble weakly for safety, then paused and glanced at the Little People. They knew the dragons were there, but they weren't bothered by the giant flying reptiles. They might have dragged me out of the Lake to feed me to the dragons, but I didn't think so. And even if they had, in my feeble state I could do nothing about it. I couldn't flee or fight, and there was nowhere to hide. So I just lay where I was and waited for events to run their course.
For several minutes the dragons circled and the Little People stood motionless. I was still filled with a great chill, but I wasn't shivering quite as much as when I first came out of the Lake. I was gathering what small amounts of energy I could call on, to try and walk over to the Little People and quiz them about what was going on, when somebody spoke behind me.
'Sorry I'm late.'
I looked over my shoulder, expecting Mr Tiny, but it was his daughter, (my half-sister!) Evanna, striding towards me.
She looked no different from how I remembered her, though there was a sparkle in her green and brown eyes which had been absent when last we met.
'Whuh!' I croaked, the only sound I was able to make.
'Easy,' Evanna said, reaching me and bending to squeeze my shoulder warmly. 'Don't try to speak. It will take a few hours for the effects of the Lake to wear off. I'll build a fire and cook some broth for you. That's why I wasn't here when you were fished out – I was looking for firewood.' She pointed to a mound of logs and branches.
I wanted to besiege her with questions, but there was no point taxing my throat when it wasn't ready to work. So I said nothing as she picked me up and carried me to the pile of wood like a baby, then set me down and turned her attention to the kindling.
When the fire was burning nicely, Evanna took a flat circular object out from beneath the ropes she was wearing. I recognized it immediately – a collapsible pot, the same sort that Mr Crepsley had once used. She pressed it in the middle, causing it to pop outwards and assume its natural shape, then filled it with water (not from the Lake, but from a bucket) and some grass and herbs, and hung it from a stick over the flames.
The broth was weak and tasteless, but its warmth was like the fire of the gods to me. I drank deeply, one bowl, another, a third. Evanna smiled as I slurped, then sipped slowly from a bowl of her own. The dragons screeched at regular intervals overhead, the sun burnt brightly, and the scent of the smoke was magical. I felt strangely relaxed, as if this was a lazy summer Sunday afternoon.
I was halfway through my fourth bowl before my stomach growled at me to say, 'Enough!' Sighing happily, I laid the bowl down and sat, smiling lightly, thinking only of the good feelings inside. But I couldn't sit silently for ever, so eventually I raised my gaze, looked at Evanna and tested my vocal chords. 'Urch,' I creaked – I'd meant to say 'Thanks.'
'It's been a long time since you spoke,' Evanna said. 'Start simply. Try the alphabet. I will hunt for more wood, to sustain the fire. We won't be staying here much longer, but we may as well have warmth while we are. Practise while I am gone, and we can maybe talk when I return.'
I did as the witch advised. At first I struggled to produce sounds anything like they should be, but I stuck with it and gradually my As started to sound like As, my Bs like Bs, and so on. When I'd run through the alphabet several times without making a mistake, I moved on to words, simple stuff to begin with – cat, dog, Mum, Dad, sky, me. I tried names after that, longer words, and finally sentences. It hurt to speak, and I slurred some words, but when Evanna eventually came back, clutching an armful of pitiful twigs, I was able to greet her in a gravelly but semi- normal voice. 'Thanks for the broth.'
'You're welcome.' She threw some of the twigs on to the fire, then sat beside me. 'How do you feel?'
'Rough as rust.'
'Do you remember your name?'
I squinted at her oddly. 'Why shouldn't I?'
'The Lake twists the minds of people,' she said. 'It can destroy memories. Many of the souls forget who they are. They go mad and lose track of their pasts. You were in there a long time. I feared the worst.'
'I came close,' I admitted, hunching up closer to the fire, recalling my attempts to go mad and escape the weight of my memories. 'It was horrible. Easier to be crazy in there than sane.'
'So what is it?' Evanna asked. When I blinked dumbly, she laughed. 'Your name?'
'Oh.' I smiled. 'Darren. Darren Shan. I'm a half-vampire. I remember it all, the War of the Scars, Mr Crepsley, Steve.' My features darkened. 'I remember my death, and what Mr Tiny said just before it.'
'Quite the one for surprises, isn't he – our father?'
She looked at me sideways to see what I'd say about that, but I couldn't think of anything – how do you respond to the news that Des Tiny is your dad, and a centuries-old witch is your half-sister? To avoid the subject, I studied the land around me. 'This place looks different,' I said. 'It was green when I came with Harkat, lots of grass and fresh earth.'
'This is further into the future,' Evanna explained. 'Before, you travelled a mere two hundred or so years ahead of the present. This time you have come hundreds of thousands of years, maybe more. I'm not entirely certain. This is the first time our father has ever allowed me to come here.'
'Hundreds of…' My head spun.
'This is the age of dragons,' Evanna said. 'The age after mankind.'
My breath caught in my throat, and I had to clear it twice before I could respond. 'You mean humanity has died out?'
'Died out or moved on to other worlds or spheres.' Evanna shrugged. 'I cannot say for sure. I know only that the world belongs to dragons now. They control it as humans once did, and dinosaurs before them.'
'And the War of the Scars?' I asked nervously. 'Who won that?'
Evanna was silent a moment. Then she said, 'We have much to speak about. Let's not rush.' She pointed at the dragons high above us. 'Call one of them down.'
'What?' I frowned.
'Call them, the way you used to call Madam Octa. You can control dragons like you controlled your pet spider.'
'How?' I asked, bewildered.
'I will show you. But first – call.' She smiled. 'They will not harm us. You have my word.'
I wasn't too sure about that, but how cool would it be to control a dragon! Looking up, I studied the creatures in the sky, then fixed on one slightly smaller than the others. (I didn't want to bring a large one down, in case Evanna was wrong and it attacked.) I tracked it with my eyes for a few seconds, then stretched out a hand towards it and whispered, 'Come to me. Come down. Come, my beauty.'
The dragon executed a backwards somersault, then dropped swiftly. I thought it was going to blast us into a thousand pieces. I panicked and tried to run. Evanna hauled me back into place. 'Calmly,' she said. 'You cannot control it if you break contact, and now that it knows we are here, it would be dangerous to let it have its own way.'
I didn't want to play this game, but it was too late to back out now. With my heart beating fiercely, I fixed on the swooping dragon and spoke to it again. 'Easy. Pull up. I don't want to hurt you – and I don't want you to hurt us! Just hover above us a bit and…'
The dragon pulled out of its fall and came to a halt several metres overhead. It flapped its leathery wings powerfully. I could hear nothing over the sound, and the force of the air knocked me backwards. As I struggled to right myself, the dragon came to land close beside me. It tucked its wings in, thrust its head down as though it meant to gobble me up, then stopped and just stared.
The beast was much like those I'd seen before. Its wings were a light green colour, it was about six metres long, scaled like a snake, with a bulging chest and thin tail. The scales on its stomach were a dull red and gold colour, while those on top were green with red flecks. It had two long forelegs near the front of its body, and two small hindlegs about a quarter of the way from the rear. Lots of sharp claws. A head like an alligator, long and
