**
Logan hadn’t expected to see Alyxa for days, maybe even weeks, so when she turned up the next afternoon he pretended not to be surprised.
‘You’re not training the blue today?’ he asked casually, sensing something was troubling his friend.
‘No.’ Alyxa’s reply was short and accompanied by a scowl. ‘Father gave him to one of the other charmers as punishment.’
‘Sorry about that,’ Logan muttered, not really sure that any of it was his fault. He tried to change the subject. ‘You’ve never mentioned that dragons talk.’
‘They don’t talk much sense.’ Alyxa shrugged as if it wasn’t really important. ‘Besides, blues stop talking once they are charmed, and greens and yellows never talk at all.’
Zared came into the room and the conversation about dragons came to an abrupt halt. Alyxa and Logan had been friends for years and she knew to avoid the subject as well.
‘Did you see the roses Logan made?’ Zared asked, indicating the already badly wilting white blooms. They looked terrible.
Alyxa was trying to form a polite comment when a rush of wings outside the window drew their attention. Both Logan and Zared showed no real interest in why a huge green dragon had landed in their front yard, but Alyxa hurried over to the door to greet the rider. The dragon was munching happily on Zared’s prized flowers.
‘What is he selling?’ Logan asked, not even going near the door. ‘Whatever it is, we don’t want any.’
‘He’s not selling anything,’ Alyxa said in a sober voice. She stepped to one side so they could see who was at the door. A tall, thin man, dressed in the dark blue and black of royal servant’s colours, stood silently on the doorstep holding a small scroll, which was tied with a silver ribbon.
‘I have a message for the great wizard, Zared the Mighty,’ the messenger said formally, staring straight ahead and holding out the scroll.
Logan walked over and took the scroll. He half expected it to be telling Zared about what had happened at the dragon farm and how it was all Logan’s fault. He handed the scroll to the wizard, who untied it, letting the ribbon flutter to the ground.
‘King Aemon requests the presence of Wizard Zared at the castle — immediately.’ Zared read the message aloud. He looked neither pleased nor upset by the summons and he rolled the scroll back up. ‘Tell the king I will leave at once. I will arrive by horse and cart in several hours.’
‘Begging your pardon, wizard... sir...’ the messenger replied a little nervously. ‘I was told not to leave without you.’
‘I do not fly!’ Zared snapped, rounding on the messenger with a furious glare. ‘And unless you want to spend the rest of your life as a toadstool I suggest you leave now.’
The messenger stepped backwards, clearly unsettled by the wizard’s threat, but also terrified at what might happen if he returned to the castle without Zared.
‘I have one other stop to make. Perhaps I could follow you when I have been to see the dragon farmer’s daughter?’ the messenger suggested hopefully, trying to find a way out of the situation that was not going to get him in trouble.
‘What do you need to see the dragon farmer’s daughter about?’ Alyxa asked curiously, not revealing who she was. ‘She’s not important.’
‘I’m not told why I’m sent on errands for the king,’ the messenger replied with a shrug. ‘But I did see the blue dragons returning at high noon. All but one of them was nearly wild. Only Prince Myles’s dragon held its charm while they were out searching in the mountains.’
‘Really?’ A small smile of pleasure slipped past Alyxa’s pretence of indifference. ‘And he didn’t want me to charm it in the first place.’
A look of understanding flicked across the messenger’s face and he drew out a second scroll from a fold in his cloak. He held it out to Alyxa. She opened it, read it and threw it on the table.
‘He didn’t want me near his dragon and now he is demanding I charm every blue dragon at the castle.’ Alyxa scowled. ‘Maybe I don’t want to!’
‘I can’t return without you both.’ The messenger was pale now and he looked about to beg them to go with him. ‘The king will dismiss me if I go back alone. I have a family—’
‘All right,’ Alyxa held her hand up to stop him, ‘I’ll come and charm his dragons.’
The messenger relaxed a little, and then looked at the wizard, obviously hoping for the same reply.
‘My wagon will get me there before sunset,’ Zared declared firmly, and the look in his eyes clearly said that that was an end to the discussion. ‘You may follow if you wish.’
‘Agreed,’ the messenger nodded vigorously. ‘I shall convey the charmer to the castle and return to escort you.’
The messenger hurried Alyxa from the cottage so quickly that she barely had time to wave a goodbye. ‘I’ll see you up at the castle, Zared.’
For a brief moment Logan was pleased he hadn’t been summoned as well. He had no desire to see either Prince Myles or the king any time soon. Then he looked at Zared. The wizard’s long white hair was slightly dishevelled and a slight haze had settled on his pale blue eyes.
There was no way Logan could let the wizard travel alone to the castle. By the time he was halfway there he could have forgotten where he was going. With a dragon tagging along it would not take long for reality to slip away from the old man.
‘I don’t want to stay here on my own,’ Logan lied smoothly. He didn’t want the old wizard to be embarrassed at needing someone to come along with him. ‘Would you mind if I tag along?’
Zared considered Logan’s request with a serious expression for a few seconds, then pressed his lips together and nodded briefly.
‘You’d better put together some basic supplies. A king never calls on a wizard for a small reason or just for a chat. They all want something from me.’
Logan raised an eyebrow in surprise, unable to avoid staring at the old man. He had lived with the wizard for as long as he could remember and the king had never once summoned the wizard before now. As Zared left the room, he didn’t appear to notice Logan’s surprise.
The green dragon waddled slowly out to the street and began its long thunderous run along the street to reach take-off speed. It might be able to land in a tight spot but take-offs were another matter entirely. Blue dragons could take off without a run-up, which was one of the reasons they were so highly sought after in the city.
Logan went into the workroom and stared at the shelves of potions and powders, then at the dozens of spell books scattered around the room. Just what did Zared expect him to take along? He put several of the most commonly used powders on the table as Zared came to help. The old man checked the jars on the table, nodded and added a dozen more.
‘That should do for most things,’ Zared muttered thoughtfully.
‘We need something to put them all in,’ Logan said, wondering how they were going to stop the glass and stone jars from smashing against each other.
‘I have just the thing.’ Zared opened an ornately carved wooden chest in the corner of the room. It was a chest that had intrigued Logan for years. The old wizard had never opened it before. Logan caught a glimpse of richly coloured cloth and something shiny before Zared dropped the heavy lid shut. He held up a shimmering silver cloak, with heavy cuffs and a large hood. He paused for a few seconds, staring at the cloak, and then slipped it over his shoulders.
Instantly the old man was transformed into a formidable-looking wizard — except for the slightly hazy, distant look in his eyes.
‘How does that help carry the jars?’ Logan asked, noting how shabby his own clothes looked next to the wizard’s cloak.
The old wizard grinned and held open the cloak. The cloak’s lining was completely covered in small pockets — just the right size for potions and powders. They filled some of the pockets, but Logan noticed that there was nowhere inside the cloak to store a spell book. He assumed that by the time wizards owned a cloak like this one they didn’t need bo
oks any more.
They had hitched the old horse up to the rickety wagon and in a few short minutes Logan was urging the ancient nag out onto the road. It was a bumpy ride through the village, as the huge feet of hundreds of dragons taking off over the years had dented the road. Several times Logan had to divert the cart to the side of the road to make way for dragons on a take-off run.
Once they had rumbled out of the village, the road wasn’t as bumpy, but it was reduced to no more than a rutted track. Hardly anyone travelled by road in Shanoria, the kingdom of dragons.
They were barely halfway to the castle, travelling over the rolling hills, when the huge green dragon found them. The messenger flew close enough so they could see who he was, then backed off and flew a dozen dragon lengths behind them. The dragon could probably have walked faster, and it was having trouble keeping in the air at such a slow pace.
Logan was impressed to see that Zared remained completely coherent all the way to the castle. Maybe he hadn’t needed to come after all.
The castle lay at the edge of the city, surrounded by immense walls of white stone. The castle, too, was built of white polished stone, which glared harshly in the late afternoon sun and almost blinded anyone who tried to look directly at it. It stood out starkly against the green hills in the distance, looking completely out of place.
A lone figure sat on the grass next to the heavy drawbridge. As most traffic was entering and leaving the castle on dragon back, the entrance across the moat wasn’t even guarded. As they got closer Logan saw it was Alyxa, sitting making a chain of flowers. She looked up as the cart rumbled to a stop beside her.
‘Oh, Logan, I didn’t know you were coming. I thought I’d stay and keep the wizard company and go back with him,’ Alyxa said, casting a sideways look at Logan, showing she too had been worried that the wizard would sink into one of his odd memory lapses. She looked at the silver robe Zared was wearing and nodded approvingly. ‘Nice cloak.’
‘I felt like a drive,’ Logan replied, knowing he wasn’t fooling her, and moved over to make room for her on the bare wooden board which served as a seat. ‘You might as well join us. Have you finished with the blues already?’
‘They didn’t take long,’ Alyxa said with a shrug as she tossed the chain of flowers into the murky waters of the moat and climbed up next to Logan. ‘That prince kept hanging around, though, so I thought I’d wait for you out here.’
‘Looks like our escort has told them we’re here,’ Zared said, pointing to a group of guards who were bustling toward them, with the messenger leading the way.
The travellers were hurried through the courtyard, where they dismounted and were led through to the keep. People stood back and watched with serious expressions, as if they all knew why the wizard was here. One or two guards went to stop Logan and Alyxa following, but they refused to be halted and kept pace with the old man.
The messenger led them up a large spiral staircase to the Grand Hall, then stepped aside with a flourishing bow. Alyxa and Logan peered around the wizard as a silence fell in the huge, high-ceilinged room.
At the far end of the hall were two thrones. One was large, covered in blue velvet and trimmed with silver; the second was smaller, and had only a few silver adornments. King Aemon sat majestically on the large throne and Prince Myles stood beside the smaller one. The thrones stood to one side of a large, unlit fireplace whose mantle was decorated with shields and banners. Most bore the image of a dragon in some form, and a large red banner with an immense golden dragon embroidered on it hung above the throne. Large woven tapestries adorned the rest of the walls, taking most of the glaring whiteness from the room.
Zared walked confidently through the hall, stopped a few feet before the king, and dipped into a graceful bow. He rose and waited patiently to be addressed.
‘Ah, wizard,’ the king said, standing and taking one step down from the dais the throne stood on. ‘My youngest son is missing. Can you find him?’
‘Perhaps he has just gone off to be alone for a while?’ Zared suggested. ‘Young boys often need time alone.’
‘Can you, or can you not, cast a spell to find a missing person?’ the king asked bluntly.
‘Of course I can,’ the wizard replied calmly. ‘Even a third-class wizard can cast a seeing spell. Don’t you have any idea where he went?’
‘He was taken by a red dragon,’ the king said angrily. ‘And when you find him, we will destroy them all!’