We Fight Dragons (Volume 3, Chapter 1) "Plans"

When Winter returned to Blacken Green, it was time for Jam, Oli, Zach, Tobes to start a new school year. Year 9. This year Jam and Oli were sat together on the same table, while Zach and Tobes were assigned to separate tables.

Oli spent a lot of class time drawing abstract shapes in a notepad. Jam thought that some of them looked like nonsense, but they were well drawn and interesting, and he had to admit that Oli’s major-workbooks all looked amazing. They inspired Jam to try and draw better, and by following Oli’s example he learned that if he took more time with his drawings, then the results were more pleasing.

After the break of the long school holidays Emma no longer acknowledged Jam's existence. What had happened between them last year apparently had not happened at all. The story that the boys heard via Tracey was that Emma now had a boyfriend in the city, and was making no secret that she was agitating her parents to move her to a city school.

Because of the threat of the Torquar and the tentative truce that held so long as the Knights stayed in Blacken Green, Dad had been forced to work from home. He’d started a new business making stone bench-tops to order, mostly for people in the city. Dad was clear that at least while he got the new business started he would be earning less money. Ultimately he had no choice. Stepping outside of town was now a death-sentence for him, Mum, and Mr Dawson.

Last Summer the Woods and several other families they knew to be ‘people of the sun’ had all received invitations to an event called the ‘Corded Sun’ in the coming Spring. As far as Jam found out it was a generational gathering of their lineage that was not to be missed. Despite the danger of travel posed by the Torquar, both Mum and Dad had been discreetly making preparations to attend.

Jam argued to his parents that Tobes and rest of the Dawsons had to come with them to the Corded Sun. Mrs Dawson had pretended to be a Maiden for decades, and Tobes knew everything about being a Knight and in Jam’s mind he should have been one, so it felt wrong that Tobes and his mother would be excluded. Jam had proposed that they should all keep up the secret until after this special event. He knew that Mum and Dad were discussing the idea with the parents of Oli and Zach, and he urged his friends to lobby their own parents as well.

As part of preparations, Dad explained that it was unlikely for the Torquar to have left someone watching the town. They were experts in surveillance technology, and they probably had the ability to tap into the official highway cameras, and the banking systems, and would be quickly alerted if any of them left town or spent any money outside. Subsequently, Mum and Dad had begun hoarding untraceable hard currency coins, specifically gold ‘Crowns’ and smaller denominations like ‘Silvers‘, in case they had to buy things during the trip. Oli’s father, Mr Smith, was also collecting some kind of digital currency. Jam didn’t know what that meant, except that it was apparently like hard currency because it could not be used to track them.

When spring arrived Jam got the family hiking packs, tents, kitchenware, and clothes out of their storage in the ceiling, and aired it all in the garage.

Each evening Jam listened as Mum and Dad discussed ways to evade the Torquar, and stressed to him the need to keep their plans secret. They were afraid that they could get away without the Torquar watching them, but both of them were certain that they had to try.

Deep within the earth in a cave unknown to the mortal world, where the air was hot and fetid, in the barely visibly light of a distant magma tube a man groaned as he instinctively struggled against the chains that bound him to the stoney floor.

The man was a captured Knight, and this was the lair of the Dragon called Nambodius. As for the man himself, he could barely recall his own name. He could not even remember how long he had been down here. His mind was now a fragile thing, but it still held out hope of escape.

The Dragon rarely used its lair. It had grown bored of torturing the Knight because its captive’s failing mind was now beyond comprehending the horror of its situation.

The last time the Dragon had visited the lair it had left vermin-meat for the Knight to feed on. Despite being desperately hungry the Knight pretended unconsciousness until the Dragon had departed. He continued to pretend for even longer, until he was sure that the Dragon was not secretly watching him.

Using the guts of the dead vermin to slick his limbs and shackles, the emaciated Knight was just barely able to squirm out of the chains that held him.

Not knowing where he was, the only thing he was certain of was that ‘up’ was the way ‘out’. Taking any meat that was still safe to eat, the Knight worked his outwards and upwards, not directly, and sometimes he circled back down to throw off any pursuit, until at last could make out the faintest light and he feel a cool clean breeze.

The Knight knew that the Dragon would never stop searching for him, so even this close to freedom, he was a patient as an ancient tree, listening to the sounds from the surface. He had learned to tell what the movements of the Dragon sounded like, and although he had to wait over a week to be certain, eventually he heard the Dragon move off to hunt for him elsewhere.

Emerging into the fresh air, despite being barely able to hold himself upright, for the first time since he had been captured, he felt hopeful.

He also felt vengeful.

Like all Knights he was careful, and surrounded himself with family. There was no way that the Dragon should have captured him so easily.

Someone had betrayed him.

He vowed that he would find out who the traitor was, and then they would share the agony of what he had endured.

Fuelled by his longing for family and revenge he headed home, and with each step he took, he made plans.

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