I feel a sense of revulsion.Do somethingfor the man who stole Atlas away from me? Who let him die in my arms?I’m gripped by a sudden, furious desire to dash the machine against his head.
‘I don’t think so,’ I snarl. ‘You killed . . .’
I breathe in sharply. I can’t bring myself to say his name out loud.
Ralph’s smile disappears. ‘That was an accident.’
I shake my head, my eyes filling with tears. ‘You pulled the trigger. You shot him.’
‘He was going to get away.’ Ralph lights a cigarette and the tent slowly fills with smoke. ‘Just listen, will you? The Bulgarian Bolgoriths have seen the benefit of collaborating with a few high-achieving humans. Myself. And perhaps you, if you’re willing.’
I laugh in pure surprise.
‘There is no alliance,’ he says. ‘When the time is right, the Bolgoriths will turn on the Prime Minister.’
My stomach drops. I suddenly remember how in Bletchley Dr Seymour begged Deputy Prime Minister Ravensloe to oppose the so-called collaboration, how she begged the government not to put Britannia under foreign rule.
‘How do you know this?’ I ask.
‘Goranov,’ Ralph says. He drags on the cigarette. ‘We’re a pair.’
‘A . . . pair?’
‘You haven’t heard of such a thing?’ Ralph says. ‘Ah. Of course you haven’t. You’re too young. Too . . .’ His eyes linger on my face. ‘Inexperienced. Bulgarian dragons and humans have been known to pair up. It’s a rare practice, but it happens more often during war. Each has something the other wants,and the pairing allows for an interspecies exchange, one that surpasses any social or cultural codes.’
‘What could Goranov possibly want from you?’ I glower.
Ralph smiles. ‘Never you mind. The point is, I want to check the sincerity of the pairing on his side.’
‘Are you telling me you had some sort of wedding ceremony with a dragon?’
‘They’ll wipe us out if we don’t cooperate, you know.’ Ralph bites a hangnail. ‘Or herd us like cattle to be butchered at will. Or keep us as bargaining chips as they expand their regime across the globe.’
The smoke is burning my nose. ‘Their regime?’
‘The Bulgarian dragons have turned Bulgaria into a fully-functioning dragon kingdom, without a trace of humanity left. Their genius is on a par with that of the Roman Empire.’
‘And does your . . . pairing mean that you want to help them take over?’
‘Like I said,’ he replies, ‘they’ll keep some of us. Involve us, train us, let us be part of thenew world.’
I’ve never been to Bulgaria and they never taught us at school what it became after the Bulgarian dragons wiped out the human population. I find myself morbidly curious to find out.
‘And Wyvernmire has no idea?’
Ralph laughs quietly. ‘Of course not. She still believes in her so-called alliance. But if she can’t regain control of the country, of those who no longer want to be governed by her, then the Bulgarian dragons won’t see a need for her. That’s why the rebels must be stopped. She’s the only thing standingbetween us and a full-blown massacre.’
I don’t know which scenario is worse. Ralph’s, in which the Bulgarian dragons colonise and maybe eat the whole of Britannia, or Wyvernmire’s, in which she helps them occupy the countryandgain political immunity in the eyes of Europe. I look from Ralph to the loquisonus machine. I don’t want to help him, but he might be my only way out of Wyvernmire’s camp.
He flicks his cigarette into the chamber pot. ‘Goranov will arrive tomorrow. I want you to listen to what he’s saying. See if you hear anything about me.’
If I didn’t hate him so much, I might almost feel sorry for Ralph.
‘Are you really so desperate,’ I say coldly, ‘that you would believe anything that comes out of the mouths of one of those . . . monsters? If you’ve gone and made some sort of promise to a Bolgorith, then what does it matter if Goranov is lying? If you try to get out of it, he’ll just kill you.’
‘He needs me,’ Ralph says stonily.
I laugh as I pull the loquisonus machine towards me. ‘Yeah, right.’
