‘She could have helped us!’ Serena says. ‘Protected us!’ She flings an accusatory glare in my direction. ‘Do you have anounceof self-control?’
‘She told me Atlas was dead!’
Children stare down at us from the surrounding trees. I see Gideon, cowering on a high branch, and Jasper, pale-faced and mutinous.
Atlas is staring at me with a mix of curiosity and confusion.
‘What did you mean about the Massacre of Bulgaria?’he asks.
I turn away, feeling my body flood with shame. I’m not about to admit how I crassly brought up Chumana’s mistakes, when she was the one who first told me I could be forgiven for mine. But I don’t have to reply, because Jasper has climbed down and is walking towards us, Philippa clinging to his hand.
‘You brought a Bulgarian dragon to our camp?’ he shouts, looking from Atlas to Marquis to me. ‘Out, the lot of you. Now.’
I shoulder the loquisonus machine as the others gather their belongings. I don’t know what I’m going to do with it, but I can’t leave it here. The camp is basking in an orange sunrise, the air suddenly alive with the sounds of birds and dragons. Philippa stands mournfully beside Marquis, pressing loaves of bread and a gourd of water into his hands. She cries as Jasper escorts us out of the camp and he whispers comfortingly to her.
‘Why don’t you find us some strawberries?’ he says as we walk uphill in stony silence. ‘The plants have white flowers, see?’
He points to a patch of small red berries, glowing like jewels in the morning dew.
‘Here,’ Marquis says, handing me a black armband. ‘Hollingsworth’s orders are to keep them on at all times.’
More orders.
‘Why?’ I say, taking the armband and glancing awkwardly at the swallow meant to represent me.
‘To identify our bodies in case of dragonfire,’ he replies, avoiding my gaze. ‘They’re made of dragonhide. Flameproof.’
‘Wow,’ I say dryly. ‘How generous of her.’
We come to a stop on the edge of a cliff and Jasper points out to the sea. ‘Over there is Sanday,’ he says. His finger traces the curve of Canna’s shore and then the length of land that juts out across the water directly ahead of us, a stretch of green that lies between us and Rùm.
‘At low tide, you can walk from here to there across the sands.’ Jasper glances at Philippa, whose mouth is full of strawberries. ‘I shouldn’t be telling you this, but Ruth’s girls might be able to help you with those wyverns you’re looking for.’
‘Ruth’s girls?’ I say.
Jasper hands me a pair of binoculars and I direct them towards Sanday. The first thing I spot is a group of pigs, grazing in a pen. Then I see a girl, wearing white furs. My fingers fiddle with the focus thumbwheel. She has blonde hair, chopped lopsidedly above her shoulders. She’s looking directly at me with her own pair of binoculars. Slowly, she lifts her hand high and raises her middle finger.
‘Ruth used to be with us, back before the groups started fighting.’
‘There are more of you?’ I ask.
‘Three clans, these days,’ Jasper replies as he shoves his hands into his pockets and stares out at Sanday. ‘Ruth attacked a boy from the other group. I don’t blame her. He never told anyone what he got sent to Wean Island for, but it wasn’t hard to guess. When it came to girls, he liked to take . . . liberties.’
‘Let me guess,’ Serena says. ‘Ruth told him where to go?’
‘She killed him,’ Jasper says. ‘In self-defence, but still . . . we had to banish her. For breaking our most important law. Enough of us die by dragon as it is, without us killing each other.’
I hand the binoculars back to him.
‘What we didn’t expect was for the majority of the girls to go with her.’
‘Really?’ Marquis snorts.
‘When was this?’ I ask.
‘Years ago,’ Jasper says. ‘But now, Ruth can’t set foot on Canna and we don’t go to Sanday. Couldn’t, even if we wanted to. Their defences are impressive.’
‘No surprise there,’ Atlas says darkly.
