The Dragon's Eye Read online

  “I’m all right,” I said.

  After I had finished the soup, we went into the garden. I looked at the rabbits. I thought about Weasel and Jamal and Scorcher. Then I saw a strange carriage, sitting by the side of the house.

  “I’ve got to go and see Dr. Drake,” I said.

  “I think he’s got company,” said Beatrice.

  “I have to go and see him, though,” I said.

  When I got to Dr. Drake’s study, I had a strong sense of déjà vu. There was a lot of angry shouting coming from inside, and I heard the name Ignatius Crook more than once. It must be Mr. Tibbs, I thought. So instead of knocking, I waited outside, where I could hear what was going on. This is what I heard:

  “And what about the reports coming from Cornwall about a huge, fiery monster crawling about the farms at night and stealing sheep? Or the stories of travellers scared on the road by an enormous winged serpent flying up and down the east coast of Scotland? The newspapers haven’t printed any of these stories yet, but we are having a hard time putting them all down as the ramblings of deluded cranks. It won’t be very long before someone puts two and two together and gets ‘dragon’!”

  That was Mr. Tibbs.

  “And I repeat that this has nothing to do with the Secret and Ancient Society. Although it is an extremely worrying development.”

  That was Dr. Drake.

  “Coupled with your having a live and very dangerous dragon right in the heart of London, I would have said that it is rather more than a worrying development!” yelled Mr. Tibbs.

  “As I said, from your descriptions, it certainly seems that someone has been up to no good. Has anyone spoken to Ignatius Crook?”

  “Of course. It was Ignatius Crook who was kind enough to inform the Minister that your ill-starred experiments in so-called dragon science seemed to have taken a turn for the worse. He was entertaining a lady dragonologist and was taking her to see your shop when he discovered what you were up to.”

  “You’re saying that he came round to see me at six o’clock in the morning,” said Dr. Drake. “That hardly seems a very sociable hour to be paying visits. And surely the Minister does not distrust my version of events entirely. Otherwise he would not have sent his son to my summer school, don’t you think?”

  “I am not entirely privy to the Minister’s thoughts, Doctor,” said Mr. Tibbs. “But I believe you to be an ambitious man. The Minister and I have had to spend a great deal of time hushing up dragon incidents that involved you in the past. Of course, you always claimed that you were only doing what was necessary in order to protect both humans and dragons. Can you really assure me that you are not seeking those dragonological treasures that Ebenezer Crook and the late Lord Chiddingfold determined should be returned to the safekeeping of the Society of Dragons? You are one of the few men who could discover where they are. You would find their powers extremely useful. Of that I have no doubt.”

  “And are you sure that it is not Ignatius Crook who is searching for them?” said Dr. Drake. “As far as I can see, he considers them to be family heirlooms. He was very upset when his father refused to tell him where they were. He feels he has been robbed.”

  “We all know that Ignatius has made mistakes in the past, but he has sworn to the Minister that his only interest in dragons is theoretical.”

  “And who is the woman he was with?”

  “Her name is Alexandra Gorynytchka. She is a Russian, I believe, and a leading member of the Russian Dragonological Society. She is here on a research trip.”

  “I think I have met Miss Gorynytchka. What is she researching?”

  “I am not sure — dragon diseases or something. In any case, it is beside the point. The Minister wants to know when you are going to release the two dragons you are supposedly looking after. You are sure you are not training them for something? Surely it is time they both went back into the wild. We have heard reports that you are unable to keep Jamal in his compound. I hope that we shall not have to cover up further reports of fiery devastation in the Sussex countryside?”

  “I can assure you that I am taking every step to keep Jamal confined,” said Dr. Drake. “We check up on him every day, and I shall take him home to North Africa myself the very minute he is able to fly properly.”

  I was engrossed in this conversation, but suddenly I heard another noise behind me. Someone was coming up the stairs. I quickly knocked on Dr. Drake’s door. The voices within went quiet, and the door swung open.

  “Why, Daniel,” said Dr. Drake, “I am glad to see you looking so well. Mr. Tibbs is just leaving.”

  Mr. Tibbs looked as red-faced as I remembered from the first meeting.

  “Well, I daresay I have said my piece for now,” he said. “Just be careful, Drake. I don’t want to hear about any more burning barns or missing sheep!”

  And with that, he took his hat and left, nodding to Emery, who had come up the stairs and was now standing at the door with a sheaf of papers.

  Emery placed the papers on Dr. Drake’s desk.

  “Thank you, Emery,” said Dr. Drake, turning to me. “Now, Daniel, you have had quite a shock with Scorcher. The fault is mine, for I have never come across a case such as this with such a young dragon. Hypnosis can be a dangerous thing unless it is caught early enough. Nevertheless, I am going to administer a fail-safe cure, which you may not like but which will certainly do you good. I want you to forget all about dragons for a while and concentrate on working out the answers to these pages of mathematical sums. When I am satisfied, we shall talk again.”

  I took the sheaf of papers back to my new room. There were quite literally hundreds of mathematical sums. I didn’t like the look of them at all. Suddenly, life at Dr. Drake’s was beginning to feel very like boarding school, except that all of the other children were having the most fantastic time learning about dragons, while I was doing sums.

  Beatrice came to see me.

  “Are you all right?” she said.

  “No,” I said. “I’ve got to do about a million sums.”

  “Dr. Drake says that’s the best way to cure someone who has been hypnotised by a dragon,” she said.

  I told her what I had overheard Mr. Tibbs tell Dr. Drake.

  Beatrice was quiet for a moment.

  “Don’t worry,” she said. “I am sure that Dr. Drake has everything under control. When you are better, I will tell you what I have learned in class. After all, Billy needs to learn that girls are —”

  “More or less about the same speed as boys?” I said.

  “Quicker!” said Beatrice with a laugh.

  And she left me to my pages and pages of sums.

  Even though I desperately hated being made to do so many pages of sums, I was equally desperate for the cure to be a success, and I went at them as hard as I could. I think I must have got through about fifteen pencils and ten erasers. Every evening Dr. Drake would come up to check my work. By the end of three days, I had could probably have recited my times tables all the way up to about fifty or sixty, and my head was so swimming with numbers that I even started doing sums in my sleep.

  Finally I finished a page that ended like this:

  3.14159 × 3963.205 × 3963.205

  2 × 3.1459 × 3963.205

  299792458 × 7926.41

  1.09714 × 3

  1357911 × 3.14159

  123456 ÷ 17

  727218 ÷ 81

  299792458 ÷ 14

  It took me less than twenty minutes, and Dr. Drake finally pronounced himself satisfied that the cure had worked and that I could rejoin the other children. That night after dinner, I took Beatrice aside.

  “Dr. Drake says that I’m cured,” I said. “But I must be careful not to see Scorcher for a while.”

  “Thank goodness,” said Beatrice. “Billy is not being helpful, to say the least. Darcy is amazing. But Billy seems to think that the classes are all for him, and whenever he knows something that we don’t — which obviously he does, because he’s studied d
ragons for longer — he says it’s too difficult for girls and won’t explain it.”

  “What have you been studying?” I asked.

  “We’ve been learning about the history of the S.A.S.D.,” said Beatrice.

  “Can you tell me about it?” I asked.

  “Well,” said Beatrice, “it all started in about 1281, when King Edward I ordered the extermination of all the dragons in the kingdom. Unfortunately, quite a few knights joined in and things began to look pretty bad for the dragons. There were some people, however, who tried to help them, including a lady dragonologist named Beatrice Croke.”

  “You must have been named after her!” I said.

  “Perhaps,” said Beatrice. “She narrowly avoided being burned as a witch and escaped to Scotland. Before then, most intelligent dragons had been happy sleeping in their lairs. But now they started to seek each other out, and the Society of Dragons was formed. It was only through a great deal of cunning that Beatrice Croke managed to convince them not to burn down London, York, and several other large cities. She helped them to hide the treasures of some of the dead dragons and formed the Secret Society of Dragonologists with her son Daniel. We call it the Secret and Ancient Society because, as far as we know, it is the oldest dragonological society in the world.”

  “So we were named after them,” I exclaimed.

  “It seems like it. Anyway, over the years the S.A.S.D. collected twelve special treasures. Although they were made at different times in different countries, each one of them gives the wielder certain powers over dragons. And they were the treasures that Ebenezer Crook returned to the dragons before he died.”

  “Since Ignatius is Ebenezer’s son, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he was searching for them!” I said.

  “Yes,” said Beatrice. “Dr. Drake’s suggestion may have been right.”

  Beatrice fetched her record book so that I could copy down the list of treasures. This is what I copied:

  THE DRAGONOLOGICAL TREASURES OF THE S.A.S.D.

  NOTE: Most are ineffective without the accompanying charm.

  1. THE TALISMAN OF MASTER MERLIN An extremely powerful Welsh artefact that has the power to call upon the aid of a mighty dragon — if you know the right words.

  2. SPLATTERFAX From ancient Russia, this amulet is said to bring down a hail of rocks on its unfortunate victims; legend says that it was brought to England in 1066 by the Norwegian King Harald Hardrada but was lost at the Battle of Stamford Bridge before he could use it.

  3. SAINT PETROC’S CHALICE An ancient Cornish cup that bears around its rim the ingredients of a sure cure for sick dragons, which must be mixed in the cup itself.

  4. ABRAMELIN’S DRAGON ATTRACTOR From England, this is an iron ornament in the shape of a hexagon, fitted with a gemstone that can be used to locate particular kinds of dragons.

  5. THE DRAGON’S CLAW Said to come from China, the claw has various properties and is a powerful ingredient in many different kinds of dragon spells.

  6. THE SPEAR OF SAINT GEORGE More like an African assegai than a traditional spear, this is one of the few weapons hard and sharp enough to kill a dragon.

  7. A BOX OF DRAGON DUST Dragon dust is a very rare substance, normally available only in minute quantities. Some of this dust, collected in Austria, dates back to the 1280s; the rest was collected much later.

  8. LIBER DRACONIS A book written in Dragonish by Gildas Magnus and said to have been copied from an original kept in the Reales Alcazares in Seville, Spain. Only a true Dragon Master is allowed to know what it contains.

  9. SAINT GILBERT’S HORN From Scotland, this horn has the power to summon any nearby dragon. Combined with dragon dust, a powerful taming effect may be obtained that lasts for a number of weeks.

  10. THE DRAGON SCEPTRE Said to have come from ancient Peru sometime before Columbus discovered America, the sceptre can be used only once to summon an army of dragons, after which it will break into pieces.

  11. A VIAL OF DRAGON’S BLOOD Like dragon dust, dragon’s blood is very rare, and it is forbidden to collect it these days. It is also very dangerous. However, in extremely small doses it can assist in understanding Dragonish. This vial contains blood collected in India.

  12. THE DRAGON’S EYE GEM Lost for many years, this gem has the power of confirming the status of a true Dragon Master. As such, it must be returned to the Society of Dragons upon the death of each previous Dragon Master, and kept until such time as they elect a new one.

  “What does it mean by the ‘accompanying charm’?” I asked when I had finished copying the list.

  “It means you have to use some special words,” said Beatrice.

  “What, like magic?” I said.

  “Yes, but don’t worry. We haven’t done any magic. Dr. Drake says it’s not something you should meddle with unless you know a lot about it. He says that lots of dragon charms use supposedly magic words, but that a proper dragon scientist should pay more attention to the ingredients and the way the charm works.”

  “Oh,” I said.

  “Did you know that dragons have their own language?”

  “No,” I said.

  “It’s called Dragonish. Only intelligent dragons speak it. One of the charms is in Dragonish. Dr. Drake taught it to us. But you need dragon dust in order for it to work properly.”

  “What is dragon dust, exactly?” I asked.

  “Apparently, when a mother dragon has babies, she breathes out a sort of calming vapour. It condenses on the walls of dragon lairs in a silvery sheen and it can be scraped off — if the dragon will let you.”

  “And what are the words of the charm?”

  Beatrice showed me the place in her record book where she had written down instructions for something that Dr. Drake had called Abramelin’s Taming Spell. Apparently it lasted three hours, but you needed three troy ounces of dragon dust, whatever troy ounces were, and you had to put them in a silver dish that had been washed three times in water that had reflected a full moon.

  “I suppose most water has reflected a full moon at some stage,” I said. The rest of the spell involved casting the dragon dust over a dragon you needed to tame, and saying the following strange words:

  Ivàhsi yüduin!

  Enimôr taym inspelz!

  Boyar ugôner gedit!

  “I wonder if taym means ‘tame,’” I said.

  “I don’t know,” said Beatrice. “Dr. Drake wouldn’t provide us with a translation.”

  The next day, I remembered that I had forgotten to ask Beatrice about the leather ball Emery had given us before I was hypnotised, but I didn’t have time to ask her anything before we sat down in the classroom, waiting for Dr. Drake.

  “First,” said Dr. Drake, “I would like to welcome back Daniel. He has been studying mathematics, which ought to be a field of study embraced by all dragonologists. You never know when the ability to perform a lightning-fast calculation might save your life.”

  He winked at me and continued, “We have studied some dragonology theory — charms and so forth — which luckily all require ingredients that you do not have and so I am not worried about you trying them out by mistake. Today, I shall just finish telling you about the Society of Dragons and then, after an early lunch, there will be time for a spot of fieldwork.

  “I will start off by pointing out that while there are various dragonological societies around the world, what I am telling you relates to the societies that were set up in the British Isles in the Middle Ages. As you know, the Society of Dragons was first formed in response to King Edward I’s command that dragons be exterminated. The society was a haphazard affair at first, but now there are always seven wise dragons that act as the chief members of the society. They meet every seven years in order to discuss any matters of interest to them. And while an experienced dragonologist like myself may know some of these important dragons and suspect that they are members, the actual composition of the Society of Dragons is a secret known only to the Dragon Master himself.
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  “Chief among the members of the Society of Dragons is an extremely wise, extremely ancient dragon called the Guardian. Her lair is the most secret of all, because it contains the remains of many hoards that were collected during the last great dragon slaying. Because dragons rightly distrust humans, the only person who has a right to make representations and suggestions to the members of the Society of Dragons on behalf of mankind is the Dragon Master of the Secret and Ancient Society of Dragonologists. This has resolved conflicts and helped both humans and dragons on many occasions. Because of the respect he is accorded among all dragons, the Dragon Master needs some sign of authority. That sign is the Dragon’s Eye gem. It supposedly belonged to the magician Merlin, whom many consider the founding father of Western dragonology. When exposed to dragon fire — but only to dragon fire — an image can be fixed within the gem so it is the only image the gem will reflect.

  “When the Society of Dragons elects a new Dragon Master — almost always respecting the wishes of the previous one — the Guardian uses her flame to burn his or her image into the Dragon’s Eye and presents it to the new Dragon Master. When there is no Dragon Master, then the Dragon’s Eye is returned to the Guardian. This situation has been rare, but there has been at least one period before now when there was no Dragon Master. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the gem, along with contact with the Society of Dragons, was very nearly thought to be lost. Now, are there any questions?”

  “If the Dragon’s Eye can only be awarded by the Society of Dragons, why would anyone but a Dragon Master search for it?” I asked.

  “Well,” said Dr. Drake with a twinkle in his eye, “there are two reasons. First, someone might feel that, as their family had been Dragon Masters for more than two hundred years, that they had a hereditary right to it. Second, possessing it would give considerable power over dragons that were not among the seven members of the Society. For a short time they would believe the person was the Dragon Master. This could lead to all sorts of complications. As far as I know, the fire of any adult European dragon would do to fix a reflection in the gem. It does not have to come from the Guardian.”