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Suddenly Jenna's voice came excitedly through the mist. "The dragon says she's being lifted up. She's being carried by the cloud."
As Jenna spoke, Septimus felt the whole boat relax. The shuddering with every beat of the dragon's wing disappeared, and the terrifying creakings and groanings that had accompanied the dragon's frantic attempts to stay airborne quieted. The only sound they could hear was the faint whoosh of air as the Dragon Boat was carried along.
"It's not Simon, is it, Sep?" Nicko whispered, somewhat overawed by the cloud.
"Noit's ... well, I don't know what it is. It's weird," Septimus replied.
"Umwonder where we're going?" said Nicko, spooked by the strange atmosphere of the cloud. It reminded him of something or someone, but he could not think whator who.
Septimus was a little apprehensive too. His feeling of relief had been replaced by a sense of unease. He did not like the control of the Dragon Boat being taken out of his hands. He moved the tiller from side to sideit swung loosely, uselessly, and had no effect on the boat now.
Again Jenna's voice drifted through the mist. "Stop messing about!" she yelled.
"What?" Septimus yelled back.
"The dragon says stop messing about with the tiller; we're going to land," came Jenna's answering shout.
"Where?" Septimus and Nicko both shouted.
"On the river, silly. Where else?" yelled Jenna.
Septimus felt the boat dip and tip forward. He held the tiller tightly, unsure of what else to doand suddenly he could smell the river. They were coming in to land and he could see nothing. Suppose they hit a boat? Or came in too steeply and sank? If only the cloud would go away and let him see where they were going. As if reading his mind, the mist rolled up into a small white cloud and shot off, back across the Marshes where it had come from.
Septimus paid no attention to where the cloud had gone; his gaze was fixed on the dark green water of the river, which was rapidly coming up to meet them. They were going too fast. Far too fast.
"Slow down!" he yelled at the dragon.
At the last moment, just before they hit the water, the dragon stretched out her wings as best she could, reared her head up and dropped her tail. She hit the water with a crash, bounced up and down and aquaplaned at full speed past a group of elderly fishermen who were known for their tall fishing tales. That night at the Old Trout Tavern they were not completely surprised when no one believed their latest story. By the end of the evening even they did not believe it.
The Dragon Boat finally slowed about half a mile up the river, just before a bend. She settled into the water, raised her good wing and spread it to catch the wind, but her broken wing trailed uselessly alongside and began to turn her in a circle, until Nicko stuck an oar over the other side for balance.
Septimus sat down wearily by the tiller and Jenna came to join him.
"That was great, Sep."
"Thanks, Jen."
"That cloud..." said Jenna. "Did it stop us from crashing?"
Septimus nodded.
"It was weird," said Nicko. "It smelled funny. Reminded me of something."
"Aunt Zelda's cottage," said Jenna happily.
"What? Where?"
"Nothe cloud. It smelled of boiled cabbage."
At Keeper's Cottage Wolf Boy had woken from a deep sleep, and for the first time since he had held Sleuth, his hands did not hurt. He struggled to sit up, trying to remember where he was. Slowly it all came back to him; he remembered 412 saying good-bye and he remembered the cottage, but he most definitely did not remember the enormous glass flask that was blocking the front doorway. Wolf Boy had never seen anything like it. Beside the flask was a huge cork stopper, and beside the cork stopper stood Aunt Zelda, anxiously peering around the flask out at the deepening evening sky. The flask was about the same size as Aunt Zelda and about the same shape too.
Aunt Zelda noticed that Wolf Boy had woken up; she went and sat down beside him with a sigh.
Wolf Boy gazed at her, bleary-eyed. "412 okay?" he mumbled.
"We can but hope," said Aunt Zelda, keeping an eye on the flask. "Ah ... here it comes!" As she spoke, a few tendrils of white mist wafted through the open door and into the flask. Soon the tendrils had become a long stream, pouring through the door and tumbling into the flask. Aunt Zelda jumped up and ran over to the massive flask, watching the mist stream into it and whirl around at high speed.
For some minutes the mist flowed in, filling the flask to the top. When the last tendril of mist had returned to the flask, Aunt Zelda drew a small bottle from one of her many patchwork pockets. Standing on tiptoe, she reached up and dripped one drop of a brilliant white liquid into the mouth of the flask. The mist swirled into a frantic whirlpool and swirled itself into a small, white, marshmallow-like blob.
"Good."Aunt Zelda sighed. "It's Cloud Concentrate again." She picked up the huge cork stopper with both hands and shoved it into the mouth of the flask. Then, with the ball of Cloud Concentrate rolling around like a solitary marble, she pushed the giant flask across the floor, opened a large door concealed behind bookshelves at the end of the room and maneuvered the flask into a cupboard.
Aunt Zelda closed the cupboard door with a quiet click and went outside. Slowly she walked to the end of the island and looked out across the expanse of the Marshes, searching for any trace of the Dragon Boat. She saw nothingthere was no clue, no sign of what had happened to her. Aunt Zelda shook her head and hoped for the best, for that was all she could do, and retraced her steps to the Cottage. Now she was ready to deal with Simon Heap. Ready to send him on his Darke way and get that wretched boy Merrin out of his clutches before it was too late.
But as Aunt Zelda stepped onto the path she tripped over a solitary brown boot. She picked up the boot, saw straw from the thatch stuck in its eyeletsand she knew that, for Merrin, it was already too late.
Chapter 33 Return
In the early hours of tbe next morning, while the weary Dragon Master dozed at the tiller, the Dragon Boat sailed around Raven's Rock and negotiated the tight left turn where the Moat branched off from the river. The Dragon Boat progressed purposefully along the Moat, watched only by some incurious gulls and Una Brakket.
The housekeeper, who was not sleeping well these days, had just woken from a bad dream that, as usual, had had something to do with Marcia Overstrandalthough she could not quite remember what. She was sitting at the window feeling relieved that she had woken up, but when Una saw the Dragon Boat sail by, her spirits sank. She must still be dreaming, she thought. She peered out to see if Marcia was on the boat and sure enough, there was that irritating boy who was her Apprentice, so Marcia could not be far away. The housekeeper sighed and wished her dream would end, preferably with Marcia Overstrand disappearing forever. She sat and watched the Dragon Boat sail around the bend that led to the boatyard and waited for Marcia to appear.
The boatyard was deserted as the Dragon Boat drew up to the pontoon. Nicko jumped from the prow with a thick azure-blue rope in his hand, planning to secure her to a large post as she came to a halt. But the Dragon Boat appeared to have other ideas.
"Whoa!" yelled Nicko, running to keep pace with the boat's progress along the pontoon. "Stop her, Sep. She's overrunning!"
Septimus was wide awake now. "She won't stop, Nik! Jen, tell her to stop."
There was a splash as Nicko was forced to let go of the rope to avoid being dragged into the water. Septimus started to panic. How do you stop a boat, especially one that appeared to have a mind of her own?
Jenna called back to Septimus, "She says she's not there yet, Sep."
"Not where?" Septimus yelled as the Dragon Boat carried on toward a deserted cutting at the far end of the boatyard, a dead end that was known as the Cut.
"Not where she will be safe!" Jenna replied. "Hang on, Sep. She's going in here!" The Dragon Boat made a wide arc out into the Moat and then turned so that she was facing straight into the Cut.
Nicko caught up and ran alongside them. Now, ahead of the Dragon Boat was the dead end of the Cutthe unyielding Castle Walland Nicko knew that the Dragon Boat was traveling too fast to stop. They were going to hit the wall.
Helplessly he yelled, "Stop! Stop her, Sep!" But Septimus could do nothing; the Dragon Boat was ignoring the Dragon Master. At the prow, Jenna saw the great mass of wall rear up before them, threw herself onto the deck and waited for the inevitable crash.
