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

When Winter returned to Blacken Green, it was time for Jam, Oli, Zach, and Tobes to start the new school year. Year 9. This year Jam and Oli were going to sit at the same table, while Zach and Tobes were both assigned to different tables.

Oli spent a lot of class time drawing abstract shapes in his 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 watching how Oli drew he learned that if he took more time with his drawings, then the results were usually better.

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 watching Torquar, and the pact that kept them safe only if they stayed in Blacken Green, Dad had been forced to do all of his work at home. He’d started a new business making stone bench-tops to order, mostly for people in the city, and he had made it clear to until he got the new business started he would be earning less money. Ultimately Dad had no choice. Stepping outside of town was now a death-sentence for Dad, Mum, Mr Dawson, and Jam himself.

Last Summer the Woods and the other families they knew to be Knights and Maidens had received invitations to an event called the ‘Corded Sun’ in the coming Spring. It was a generational gathering of their lineage that was not to be missed. Despite the danger of leaving town that was posed by the Torquar, both Mum and Dad had been discreetly making preparations to attend.

Jam did his best to convince his parents that Tobes and rest of the Dawsons also had to come to the Corded Sun. Mrs Dawson had pretended to be a Maiden for decades and knew what to do, and Tobes knew practically everything about being a Knight and in Jam’s mind he should have been one, so it felt wrong that they would be excluded. Jam had proposed that they should all maintain their 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.

Jam asked Dad how worried they should be about the Torquar. Dad said that it was unlikely for the Torquar to have someone watching the town because they were experts in surveillance technology, and they had probably tapped into the official highway cameras, and the payment networks, and would be quickly alerted if any of them left town or spent any money outside. Because of this, Mum and Dad were hoarding untraceable hard currency, both the larger gold ‘Crowns’ and smaller ‘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 they stressed to him the need to keep their plans secret. There was a risk that they could would not be able to get away without the Torquar catching them, but they 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 the 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 now emaciated Knight was 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 ‘out’. Taking the rat 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 after several days 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 look 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 both his longing for family and revenge he headed home, and with each step he took, he made plans.

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