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“Coming?” he asked and pushed his boat over to the hatchway.
“We’ll drown, that’s what,” Sorrel muttered, staring with disgust at the filthy water.
But she helped the boy launch the boat into the canal.
7. Waiting for Dark
No one saw Firedrake as he made his escape along the canal. Twice, boats came toward him, but they were chugging through the water so noisily that Firedrake could hear them a long way off and was able to dive in good time — deep down to the bottom of the canal, where garbage got stuck in the mud. As soon as the dark shadows of the boats had passed over him and disappeared, the dragon came up again and let himself glide on. Gulls circled over his head, screeching, until he shooed them away with a soft growl. At last, he saw a bridge beyond some tall willow trees. Their branches hung low, floating on the water.
Broad and massive, the bridge spanned the river. Traffic noises drifted down from it, but the shadow it cast was as dark as the mud on the bottom of the canal and offered the dragon shelter from prying eyes. Firedrake raised his head from the water and looked around. There was no one in sight on either the water or the bank. The dragon crawled up on land, shook the dirty water off his scales, and settled among the blackberry bushes growing in the shade of the bridge.
He licked his scales clean and waited.
Before long he was half-deafened by the noise overhead, but even worse was his anxiety for Sorrel and the boy. Sighing, Firedrake laid his head on his paws and looked at the water, which reflected the gray clouds overhead. He felt lonely. It was an unfamiliar feeling. Firedrake had not been alone often and never in such a strange, gray place. Suppose Sorrel didn’t come? The dragon raised his head and looked back along the canal.
Where could they be?
It was odd. Firedrake let his head drop to his paws again. He was missing the boy, too. Were there many human beings like Ben? Firedrake thought of the two men who had grabbed the boy, and the tip of his tail twitched with anger.
Then he saw the boat.
It came drifting down the canal toward him like a nutshell. The dragon quickly stretched his long neck out of the shadow of the bridge and breathed a shower of blue sparks on the water.
When Sorrel saw him she hopped about in such excitement that the boat swayed perilously, but Ben paddled it safely to the bank. Sorrel jumped out onto the slope and ran to Firedrake.
“Hey!” she cried. “Hey, there you are!” Flinging her arms around his neck, she nipped his nose affectionately. Then she dropped to the grass beside the dragon with a sigh. “You’ve no idea how awful I feel!” she groaned. “All that rocking about! My tummy’s churning as if I’d eaten a death cap mushroom.”
Ben tied the boat to a tree and shyly came closer. “Thank you,” he said to the dragon. “Thank you very much for chasing those men away.”
Firedrake bent his neck and gently nuzzled the boy. “What are you going to do now?” he asked. “You can’t go back there, can you?”
“No.” Ben sat down on his backpack, sighing. “That factory won’t be left standing much longer. They’re going to blow it up.”
“Oh, you’ll find somewhere else to hide!” Sorrel looked around, snuffling, and picked a few leaves from the bramble bushes. “I know! Why not move in with Rat’s cousin? He’s got plenty of room.”
“Rat’s cousin!” cried Firedrake. “With all the excitement, I’d entirely forgotten about him. What did he say? Does he know where we must look?”
“Well, sort of!” Sorrel stuffed the leaves into her mouth and picked herself another handful. “But we’d have found that out for ourselves, anyway. One thing’s for sure, we have a long journey ahead of us. Are you certain you don’t want to change your mind?”
But Firedrake only shook his head. “I’m not turning back, Sorrel. Exactly what did the rat say?”
“He gave us a map,” said Ben. “The map shows it all. Where to fly, what to watch out for, everything. It’s great!”
Excited, the dragon turned to Sorrel. “A map? What kind of a map?”
“Well, just a map.” Sorrel took it out of her backpack. “There you are.” She spread it out in front of the dragon.
“What does all that mean?” Firedrake looked at the tangle of lines and marks, baffled. “Can you read it?”
“Of course,” said Sorrel, looking important. “My granddad was always drawing things like that, to help him find his way back to his mushroom stores.”
The dragon nodded. “Good.” He put his head to one side and looked up at the sky. “Which way do I fly first? Straight east?”
“Um, east? Wait a minute.” Sorrel scratched behind her ears and bent over the map. Her furry finger traced Gilbert’s golden line. “No, I think we go south. First south, then east, he said. Yes, that’s exactly what he said.” She nodded. “I’m certain he did.”
“Sorrel,” said Firedrake, “are you quite sure you understand what these scribbles mean?”
“Of course I do!” Sorrel looked offended. “Oh, bother these human clothes!” Crossly, she pulled Ben’s sweatshirt over her head and slipped out of the trousers. “I can’t think properly with this stuff on.”
