We Fight Dragons (Volume 3, Chapter 2) "Nothing to see here"
One evening in early Spring, Mum and Dad invited the other Knights and Maidens of Blacken Green to their house for dinner. The guest list also included Mrs Dawson who had pretended to be a Maiden for over a decade with the help of her husband. Jam speculated that since she was invited for dinner, then the adults were leaning towards his idea of supporting all the Dawsons to come to the Corded Sun.
While the dinner party happened Jam, Oli, Zach and Tobes made home-made pizzas together at the Oli’s house. They would have liked to have listened in on the parent’s dinner, but had to settle for speculating about what was happening.
At the dinner party, as the guests arrived any mobile phones were put in the guest bedroom at the back of the house. The party was a discrete occasion for everyone to get together to share what plans they had made for their homes, pets, and jobs to continue after they all took a sudden unannounced absence. It was a careful balancing act between being adequately prepared, while at the same time being discrete and not giving away their intentions.
Freya Wood started the discussion. ‘My sister, Saga, was invited to stay with us for a fortnight starting on the week of the Corded Sun. Of course, she doesn’t know that we will be away, but when she turns up she will find a note explaining that there is an illness in David’s family and that we will be back as soon as we can. She will probably be upset, but we will make it up to her when we get back.’ It was this type of secret arrangement that all the adults had made to cover their absences and keep their plans secret from the Torquar. Saga had no idea that her sister was a Maiden, which was useful when they needed help from outside of town. She act brusquely towards Dad, and even to be rude to Jam. Mum explained that this was Saga’s way of handling her sisterly resentment. Whenever she’d visited in the past, Jam was always relieved when she was gone.
‘Also,’ Freya continued, ‘Mel’s parents will be dropping her here tomorrow before we leave.’
Mrs Dawson tentatively raised a hand and pointed out, ‘From what I am told she is the youngest Maiden ever found. No Maiden as young as her has ever have been to anything like this. Will she be safe?’
‘What do you mean?’ Freya enquired.
‘Well… if I have to say it… being around so many boys.’
‘Our boys are all Knights so she will be fine. I just hope that she doesn’t start bossing them all around, because they are pre-disposed to protecting her, and we won’t know exactly what that looks like until we see it. There is no way I’d put her in danger.’ Freya didn’t point out that the only boy who was not a Knight was Mrs Dawson’s own son Tobias, because Freya also trusted him.
The rest of the evening continued with similar explanations. The transportation to the Corded Sun was up to Mr Dawson, who told everyone that it was better that he not go into details about it, and just to trust him that it was arranged so long as they got everyone out of town safely.
The next day, Mels’ parents dropped her at the Wood’s house just after lunch. Mels looked happy to be coming on the trip but was reserved in her enthusiasm, which compelled Jam to wrap his arms around her and squeeze her playfully in excitement.
‘Ow! Not so hard,’ she said gingerly.
Jam noticed that she had changed since the last time he’d seen her. It wasn’t just that her hair was back to its normal dark brown colour. Even beneath several layers of her clothing he could feel that her chest was ‘full-er’ and it took him a moment to realise that what he was feeling pushed up against his chest were her growing breasts.
‘Ji-argh, sorry! Um.’ Jam let her go and stepped back, embarrassed.
‘It’s okay, Jam. Sometimes I’m just a bit sore.’
Jam looked at his shoes, and kicked the ground. In that instant more had changed than in the entire time they had known each other, and for him it had happened very suddenly.
‘Hey, it’s okay,’ Mels reassured him. ‘I’m still looking forward to camping.’
‘Camping?’
Mels flashed at look in her parent’s direction, where they were all talking about parent-things.
‘Yeah! Camping! Right. Um… have you got everything?’
Mels hefted her backback, which looked heavy. Jam instinctively reached out to carry it for her.
‘Thanks,’ said Mels. ‘I think I overpacked.’
Jam hoisted the backpack onto his shoulders. If worst came to worst, he could always use his power to carry both of their packs at the same time. ‘Not a problem. Hey, have you had afternoon tea? I made some Gooseberry jam a few days ago?’
‘Gooseberry? Not strawberry?’
Jam shrugged. ‘I like the sourness.’
‘What the heck. I’ve never had Gooseberry jam. I want to give it a try.’
For some reason the old memory of kissing Emma at the train station popped into Jam’s mind completely uninvited. The memory of that moment was often hard to shake off, but today it vanished like smoke on the breeze.
Later in the afternoon Jam left Mels and Mum talking, and went off to his Shirate lesson. Dad had impressed on him that as their departure drew closer that it was important to keep up the appearance that everything was normal.
On the way to the town hall he saw the cat lady in her front garden, watering the lawn.
‘Jamie Wood,’ she called out at him. ‘There are a lot of strangers in town today.’
There was no obvious question, but Jam sensed the danger of an implied question. He pretended to not know what she was talking about. ‘I’m sorry maam, what do you mean?’
‘I saw someone get dropped off at your house. Your friend. She’s been here before.’
‘Oh, you mean Mels. She, um.. her dad… needs to go into hospital. So she’s staying with us.’
‘Oh dear,’ said the cat lady, appearing genuinely sympathetic. ‘The poor little thing.’
‘What? No! Mels is fine. It is her dad who is going to hospital'.’
Jam didn’t know if he was explaining his lie correctly, however, to both his relief and surprise the cat lady turned away without a word and walked back into her house. For a moment he felt kind of bad for lying to her, but then the way she dismissed him squashed any guilt he had.
When he got home from Shirate, Jam learned that the cat lady had called the house and spoken to Mum, who had quickly worked out that the woman was fishing for information. Mum excused herself out of the phone call by saying that it was all a private family matter.
‘Freya, do you think she will create trouble for us getting away undetected?’ Mels asked.
‘Well, she has eyes like a hawk. But I bet they don’t work so well after the sun’s gone down. It doesn’t matter, we are leaving tonight regardless.’
After dinner, in which Mels was included in the end-of-the-day, Dad went to the garage and drained diesel from the van into a jerry can. While this happened everyone else got the backpacks and camping gear assembled by the back door.
‘Dad, you still haven’t explained how we are going to get out of here without being seen?’
Dad chuckled. ‘Ha! I’ve been waiting for you to ask. I think you’re going to be surprised. Put on your dark coat, and your hiking boots, and I will show you.’
Ten minutes later Dad and Jam left under the cover of darkness via the back door. They went out the garden gate, and made their way up the hill with the Dragon-stone. They took electric torches, but kept them turned off. After about twenty minutes of huffing and puffing they arrived at the top of the hill. The town was lit up below them, lights glittering.
‘What are you going to do?’ asked Jam.
‘Me? Nothing. You’re going to do it. Go and sit in front of the Dragon-stone.’ Jam was confused, but he followed the plan as Dad explained, ‘What is going to happen next is that you’re going to hold my amulet, and unless I am badly mistaken, the rest should just happen on its own.’
‘But last time that happened…’ Jam didn’t need to finish the sentence. The last time had caused a major electrical storm. ‘I think I get the idea.’
After Jam was settled and comfortable, Dad took off his amulet and put it into Jam’s hands and said, ‘Just relax. Try and remember what happened the first time you used it.’
‘But, I can’t rem…’ The amulet acted on Jam like an anaesthetic, and he felt like his head was falling into a deep sleep, and his body felt like it was fighting a heavy cold. He had no idea how much time had passed when…
He heard a distant crack of lightning, and then his Dad was shaking him awake. ‘Jam! Jam! Snap out of it! Are you alright?’
Jam’s head felt mushy, like he was waking up after too short a sleep. He could make out a bitter burning smell, all his clothes were damp, and his ears were ringing but he had no idea why. Dad helped him to his feet and gave him a water bottle which he was grateful for because his mouth was dry.
That was when realised that he couldn’t see the town. It had been plunged into darkness. ‘It’s just like before. The power grid is down. So, that was the plan?’
‘Sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. Part of the reason was for secrecy, but mostly I was hoping that we’d find an alternative.’
‘But why did you need me? Can’t you do that as well?’
Dad shook his head and rubbed the stubble on his chin. ‘No. And I can’t find any story or legend of any Knight who could.’
‘So… it’s something only I can do?’
‘Very likely.’
‘But why?’
‘Sorry, son, I wish I had more answers. No one I’ve asked knows. Maybe someone from a different family will know. You can ask them when we get to the Corded Sun.’
‘So it’s not just people from Blacken Green who will be there? I didn’t think so. I mean, I guess there is at least the person who sent us the invitation.’
‘That’s right. I don’t know who will be able to make it, but there should be other families coming as well. Anyway, we can go over that later. Let’s get back to Freya and Mels, and be on our way.’
When everyone was back at the house, Mum, Dad and Mels made sure that their phones were turned on and plugged into power chargers in the back shed, but silenced. Then they strapped on their backpacks and left quietly via the garden gate.
Dad also carried the jerry can with diesel, and although it was heavy Jam could see that his father was not using his power to carry it. Perhaps the Torquar could detect when a Knight used their power?
Mels had been feeling better since Freya had given her tea made from herbs that grew in the garden, and she could carry her own backpack which Jam was thankful for, because he didn’t want to have to carry it for her without using his own power.
They followed the line of the creek northwards, around and under the motorway, in almost the opposite direction of Mum’s orchard. After several hours of trekking over dark fields they were approaching the lights of the next township when they met up with the other families they knew. Jam and Mels were excited to join the others, but everyone was nervously quiet. Zach moaned that Tracey wasn’t able to come with them, shooting sidewise glances at Tobes, who pretended to ignore the implication that he was coming even though he wasn’t a Knight.
Under the direction of Mr Dawson, who was the Police officer for Blacken Green, they stealthily approached the next town. He directed them to the cover of a brambles patch near the main road, where he left them and returned ten minutes later driving a commonly sighted model of touring minibus.
‘Where do you get this old thing from?’ Dad asked.
‘It’s been in the Police impound since the owner went to the Royal Prison. He won’t miss it. Before I clocked off yesterday, I put in a transfer request to have it moved to long-term storage. Hopefully, by the time they work out whether it was transferred or stolen, we’ll have it returned.’
That explained why every father had carried a jerry can of diesel with them. They should be able to put a lot of distance between themselves and Blacken Green before having to risk refuelling.
For the rest of the night, and all the next day, they drove north. When they did have to buy more diesel, they did it by walking in to the petrol station with a single empty jerry, and paying for the fuel with Silvers. It made travel slower, but a lot safer in staying hidden from the Torquar.
Eventually, the main roads and green landscape gave way to side-roads and alpine-forest, and then to dirt roads winding through boreal forest. Patches of snow dotted the hilltops around them.
They were a long way from civilisation.
.