‘I can’t be a translator any more,’ I say.
‘Please don’t contaminate my air with your nonsense,’ she replies.
Chumana’s spiked tail curls around me, its heat a balm on my skin. I watch the waves roll like they did when they tossed me against the rocks.
‘Atlas betrayed me, Chumana,’ I whisper.
A low growl comes from her throat as her head swingsdown to my level. The white rings around her eyes are made of tiny tufts of fur and the scales along her jaw are tinged with blood. We watch the sea in silence until voices sound. I peer down on to the beach. Marquis, Serena and Gideon are clambering off Daria’s back.
‘Why did she save you?’ I ask as they begin climbing up towards us. ‘Do you know her?’
‘Chummie!’ Marquis calls. ‘Nice to see you again.’
‘You will not call me that a second time,’ Chumana snaps as he reaches us.
Marquis’s grins widens until he notices my tearstained faced. ‘What’s wrong? Where’s Atlas?’
‘He’s . . .’ How do I even say it? ‘Atlas has been in contact with Hollingsworth since before we got to Canna,’ I whisper, my heart sinking as I remember the events of last night. ‘She’s here, in Canna House. She gave him a mission to lead me to realise what she didn’t tell me back in London – that the way to win the war is to ask the wyverns to echolocate a kill call, which is so strong thanks to their bond.’
‘What?’ Serena says as Chumana snarls.
Marquis’s jaw tightens. ‘So Atlas was right? And he knew it the whole time?’
I nod, blinking tears from my eyes.
‘But why didn’t Hollingsworth tell you from the start?’ Serena says.
‘Because she knew I’d refuse to ask it of the wyverns,’ I say. ‘Chumana told me what the Koinamens is to dragons, why it can never be exploited, but Hollingsworth thought that with time, and with Atlas, I would agree.’
‘This cannot be true!’ Chumana explodes. ‘Rita Hollingsworth has defended the Koinamens since she first discovered its existence.’
‘She says it’s the only way,’ I reply. ‘She thinks she can protect the wyverns, can make sure that the world doesn’t find out what role they played, so that echolocation will stay hidden.’
‘Impossible,’ Daria breathes. ‘Every nation will want to know how the British defeated Bulgaria’s dragons.’
I stare up at the dragon I met on the beach on the Isle of Skye. She’s smaller than Chumana, slighter in stature, but even fiercer, somehow, with an angular face and sharp, glinting scales.
‘Who are you?’ I ask her. ‘Why are you here?’
‘I told you the first time we met,’ she purrs. ‘I came to Britannia looking for a friend.’
‘And did you find them?’
Daria looks at Chumana with bright eyes.
‘Oh.’
I stare between the two dragons.
‘We know each other from my time in Bulgaria,’ Chumana growls.
‘I see.’
Chumana only lived in Bulgaria briefly, when she was sent there by the British government to help the Bulgarian Bolgoriths massacre their countryhumans. It’s the reason she was about to kill herself back in the library at the University of London on the day I appeared to set her free. So is Daria guilty of the same horrors?
‘When Chumana returned to Britannia, circumstance prevented me from going with her,’ Daria says. ‘I haven’t seen her in fifty-nine years. But when I was conscripted to your country at the beginning of this war, I knew it was the perfect excuse to find her.’
I look at Chumana. ‘But isn’t she the enemy?’
