Jigsaw, Page 3

  Chapter Three

  This courtyard was much quieter than the dancing place. hIn the middle was a large fountain where three cherubs poured water over a leaping dolphin to cascade into a shallow spreading pool. Seats were scattered under shady bushes and a few children played a game of marbles in the dust, watched indulgently by a group of older women who were gossiping avidly. Rachel found their words hard to follow. They seemed to be speaking English but with some sort of heavy accent that she didn’t recognise. Rachel stood in the shade and watched for a while but found that the sight of the fountain was making her increasingly thirsty. She wished she dared to eat or drink something, and had just decided that perhaps a sip of water would be safe, when a sudden shower of rain began to fall. With a squawk the women gathered up their children and ran in through one of the large curved openings to the inner castle.

  Rachel found herself swept along with them as they hurried through a wide entrance way, their feet echoing on the cold flagstones. They continued up a shallow flight of steps into a huge hall. Above her head Rachel could see large wooden rafters soaring high. There were carved stone faces of animals and grotesque monsters set on the walls between hanging tapestries. The dancers poured in through another entrance and continued their dance as the musicians settled themselves on a raised dais at one end of the hall. Rachel started to look for Toby, pushing her way through the crowd. She saw a few of the boys who had been kicking the ball around.

  ‘Have you seen my cousin?’ she asked politely. ‘Toby, my cousin Toby. He was playing ball with you.’

  The boys looked at her blankly then one of them jerked his thumb in the direction of a winding set of stairs in the far corner of the room.

  ‘Thanks.’

  Rachel pushed through the crowd, narrowly avoiding being dragged in by the dancers as she made her way to the stairs. She paused at the bottom and looked up. The stairs wound up into the darkness and Rachel felt most reluctant to go up them.

  ‘If this was a story there would be a wizard or a witch up there,’ she thought. Then she cheered up as she decided there might be a princess in the tower. ‘Although none of these people look at all like princes or princesses,’ she muttered.

  The crowd was raggedly dressed and most people were barefoot, although a few among them wore soft leather boots and finer clothes than the rest. Taking a deep breath, Rachel began to climb the stairs. They seemed to go on forever. After a while the noise of the crowd faded and she could hear her heart beating in her chest as she climbed. The light was dim, but fortunately not completely dark, as she climbed past doorways and small landings that stretched away on either side. Rachel paused at each of these but there was no sound and she felt uneasy about going any further down them on her own.

  ‘Right. Once more landing, then if there’s no sign of Toby I’m going back down,’ she decided.

  On the next landing a door opened out to a narrow corridor with a blaze of light coming from the end of it. There was a humming noise, rising and falling rhythmically. Despite herself, Rachel found her curiosity was stronger than her fear. She walked cautiously down the corridor and tried all the handles of the doors she passed. They were all locked. As she reached the end of the corridor it tuned sharply and Rachel found herself in an airy circular room.

  ‘This must be at the top of one of the towers,’ she breathed. A series of arched windows around the room appeared to look straight out onto clouds and the whole room was warm and bathed in a golden glow. A rustling sound by her feet made Rachel look down. To her surprise a tiny dragon, not much bigger than a kitten, laid its head on her foot and looked imploringly up at her. The dragon was covered in scales gleaming in iridescent colours of silver blue and green. A small green spike stuck out of the top of its head like a tuft of hair while a row of smaller spikes ran down its back and onto a long curling tail. Two large pointed ears gave the dragon a somewhat clownish look and its eyes were a sparkling purple, fringed with dark lashes. Enormous feet had claws like a cat that would have looked dangerous if the dragon had been much bigger.

  ‘Oh, how sweet. Aren’t you a lovely little dragon, then,’ Rachel cooed, scratching the dragon behind the ears. The dragon gave a blissful sigh and promptly rolled onto its back, offering its tummy for tickling. Rachel rubbed it all over and it wriggled in delight.

  ‘It’s a bit like a puppy.’

  She picked the dragon up and it curled into a ball and closed its eyes. Rachel stood there feeling the warm weight of the dragon as it nestled against her.

  ‘Toby would love this. I wonder where he is?’ She realised that she had completely forgotten to look for him. As she turned to put the dragon down, there was a change in the humming sound. A large grunt came from what Rachel had assumed to be a heap of cushions in one corner. It proved to be a very large dragon which gave another grunt before settling down to sleep again.

  ‘Oh help,’ thought Rachel. ‘That must be the mother. I’d better put the baby back or she’ll probably eat me.’

  Reaching down she gently deposited the baby dragon on the floor and backed out the door. She was halfway back to the stairs when she heard a slithering sound behind her and she discovered the baby dragon lolloping joyfully along following her.

  ‘Go back’ she hissed ‘Go away. Go back to your mother.’

  The dragon was encouraged by this. It ran up to Rachel and started to leap up around her legs giving small squeaks of pleasure that made tiny puffs of smoke appear from each nostril.

  Rachel cast an anxious glance down the corridor, but she could not see anything, and the mother dragon’s humming snores continued uninterrupted.

  ‘Go home,’ she said sternly, pointing back down the corridor. The dragon cowered on the ground and turned two pitiful great eyes on her. Rachel steeled herself to ignore it and walked firmly towards the stairs again. She could hear a small whimpering noise behind her but resolved not to look back.

  ‘That will only encourage it,’ she thought. ‘If I ignore it, it will go back to its mother.’

  Halfway back down the stairs she realised she was wrong. The dragon followed her faithfully and when she stopped and looked at it again it squeaked with happiness and tried to fly into the air. Its wings were tiny and even though the dragon made a tremendous effort, flapping mightily and puffing profusely, it was unable to leave the ground. Rachel laughed.

  ‘Oh you sweet little thing. Come on then. You might as well come with me.’

  Picking up the dragon she tucked into the front pocket of her sweatshirt, where it lay contentedly like a baby kangaroo in a pouch. It made a soft purring noise as Rachel descended the stairs.

  As she entered the great hall, Rachel decided she really must have a drink or she would die of thirst.

  ‘I’ll see if I can find Toby and we’ll find out how to go home again,’ she thought, although part of her was a little doubtful as to how they were going to achieve this. Skirting around the outside of the room Rachel searched for Toby, comforted by the warm purring of the little dragon. A cheering came from one corner and Rachel was fascinated to see two jugglers entertaining the crowd by tossing coloured balls into the air and catching them again in a dazzling display. They tossed the balls from under their legs behind their backs and to and from each other. One gave a call and seized a flaming torch from the wall of the castle. Lighting more torches, which appeared to be sticks wrapped round with fabric and smeared with tar, he tossed them to his partner. Soon the air was filled with streaming smoke and leaping flames as the jugglers tossed the torches up and down.

  Suddenly one of the torches slipped and fell to the floor. The crowd gasped and looked at the juggler who was standing pointing towards Rachel with a horrified look on his face. Rachel looked around bewildered then noticed the dragons head poking out from her pocket where it had been watching the juggler with the flaming torches. The rest of the people looked where the juggler was pointing and gave a gasp followed by an ominous muttering.

  ‘What is it?’
asked Rachel frantically. ‘Look, I didn’t want to bring it but it followed me,’ she stammered apologetically, trying to pull the dragon out of her pocket. This was by now impossible to do, as the dragon had decided it liked being in the pocket and was resisting being taken out. It dug its claws into Rachel’s sweatshirt and she quickly realised it was not going to move.

  ‘I’m sorry if I did the wrong thing. I’ll take it back, shall I?’ she asked hopefully, and began to back towards the stairs as the people in the crowd advanced towards her with threatening looks on their faces. The muttering had grown to a low growl and some of the men had decidedly nasty expressions on their faces.

  ‘Oh dear. I wish Toby was here. Heied know what to do. Toby, Toby,’ called Rachel as she quickened her pace. She had almost reached the foot of the stairs when a tremendous roar rang out above her.

  ‘It’s the mother dragon,’ she thought. The crowd began to panic and run through the doorways as fast as possible, while the whole castle itself started to shake as the dragon roared.