forest crackled with an unnatural wind. They stopped at a hole, a fiery spot, devoid of vegetation and underbrush. A thin, leathery blanket stood before them, and as they watched it began to dry up and wither, curling into nothing.
“It shed its wings,” said Aldric.
Human-like tracks in the soft ground left the area and led towards town.
“She’s injured,” Aldric observed from horseback. “It will take all her strength to seal those wounds. We’ll find her in town.”
Simon’s heart was beating hard. No serpent had ever been fought here. No dragon had known where the home of the Saint George descendants lay. This creature had to be recovered. And killed.
They galloped into town, where a street of suspects greeted them. It would take a moment for Simon’s eyes to adjust and see through the disguising magic – and in that time, the serpent could look like anyone. A limping man caught his attention, but Aldric focused on a girl in a wheelchair, pushing herself away as fast as she could.
Simon watched her glide through a small crowd of people leaving breakfast at the Old Soldier Café, and the girl did indeed seem in a hurry. He saw her blood hit the pavement, the red droplets turning to green and then burning away …
Then his vision rippled, as if looking through a mirage, and he saw not a girl but a wounded, scaly creature limping for cover.
The Ashlover Serpent.
It turned the corner and Aldric and Simon hurried to catch up.
As they rode down Main Street, the Ashlover slipped into the novelty shop and gave a howl and a screech, its mouth exploding with fire. Glass shattered out. The fire screamed.
“No!” Again Simon couldn’t breathe – this time out of fear for Emily’s family.
Green-yellow Serpentine flames lapped out of the windows. It was a bad fire. The wooden structure was old and it would burn easily.
“Wait! It could be a diversion to get us off track,” said Aldric.
“No,” argued Simon, “the thing’s in there …” And he rode towards the fire as fast as he could, dismounting at the door in a rush.
Through the flames, he could see the wounded creature lying in a circle of green and yellow fire. It was just an attempt to slow the hunters down. Short of air and nearly unconscious, the dragon was weakening.
Aldric pushed past Simon, walking right through the flames. As the serpent kicked at him with its great clawed feet, Aldric wrestled it down and slammed his hand upon its heart. It took many tries, the serpent slithering out of the knight’s grasp over and over again, but at last the creature stopped shaking and Simon knew his father was reciting the words of the deathspell.
Aldric stumbled back.
The colourful tendrils of the dragon, like wispy tentacles, pulled in and closed around its body, and caught fire …”and the beast burned away into red ash that blew over Aldric and into Simon’s eyes.
The Ashlover Dragon was dead.
“Is anyone in there?” Simon yelled into the store.
“If they were, they’re dead,” said Aldric, but up the street Simon could see Emily’s father rushing from the post office. He’d missed the danger.
“It’s an arsonist,” Simon yelled to him, climbing on to his horse. “There’s smoke – I think our house might have been hit too!” Simon turned and rode with Aldric out of town, ignoring the bewildered passers-by.
Emily is safe at school, Simon thought with relief.
But his own house was burning.
By the time he and Aldric returned, Alaythia had drawn a massive black storm cloud to the house and the resulting rainfall had, for the most part, ended the fire. But the castle was blackened and much of its interior had been gutted.
What Simon considered home was now an ugly memento of a dragon’s evil.
CHAPTER SIX How a Dragon Tracks its Prey
How did it know?”
Sitting at the biggest of the Old Soldier Café’s tables, Alaythia twirled a tea bag in her mug and repeated the question. “How did the dragon find us? There’s nobody to give that information away. We haven’t told anyone and we’d know if we were followed – we’re always incredibly careful.”
Aldric said nothing, tapping the table nervously.
“All my comics,” said Simon, “my games, everything’s torched. It was so hot it even melted all my metal soldier figures. I’ve had those since I was a little kid.”
“None of those things matter,” said Aldric quietly.
“They matter to me,” Simon said firmly.
“That’s not what I meant,” said Aldric sympathetically. “That isn’t our home any more. It can’t be. If one dragon can find us, then many can.”
Simon took his remarks like a lashing. It hadn’t occurred to him how bad the situation was.
“Maybe not,” said Alaythia, seeing how Simon felt. “If we can figure out how it found us, maybe we can take steps to make ourselves safe again – to undo the problem.”
Aldric eyed her during an uncomfortable pause. “There is a way,” he said, avoiding her eyes. “It’s not done very often. There are dangers to it. All kinds of dangers.”
“What are you getting at?” Alaythia asked.
“The skull,” answered Aldric. “If it survived the blast, even just shards of it could provide answers to these questions. If you as a magician were to take hold of the bones of this dragon, its dying spirit could enter you and it’s possible you might glimpse the serpent’s thoughts before the spirit faded completely. But I don’t think there was anything left of the beast.”
They needed to find out. Simon welcomed the chance to get to Emily’s shop and he was curious to see her father’s reaction to him. While at the café, Alaythia had grown calm enough to cast a spell on the street so that all those who had seen Simon and Aldric in battle gear would forget what they’d seen.
“You can do that?” Simon had asked.
“Don’t be too optimistic, OK? It’s magic, but it’s not magic. The memories will be gone, but the suspicion will remain,” Alaythia said as they were leaving. “You may get people giving you funny looks or asking questions for a long time.”
“It’s not as if they think we’re an average, ordinary family as it is,” Simon muttered.
A few minutes later, they were standing in the cinders before the novelty shop. Simon had seen the horror of fire before, but never in his home town. He hadn’t realised until now the dragons could reach so deeply into
