Chapter 5
WHERE DID HE GET IT?
‘Prime Minister,’ the first man says. ‘It is an honour to see you again.’
‘You have the girl,’ Ralph says, his gaze flitting from me to his aunt. ‘How?’
Wyvernmire’s eyes narrow. ‘She was arrested in London. See that you don’t lose her this time, Ralph.’
Two red spots appear on Ralph’s cheeks at Wyvernmire’s reference to how I escaped him in the glasshouse last year.
Marquis knocked him unconscious before Atlas insisted we drag him to safety when Chumana set the glasshouse alight.
Being the Prime Minister’s nephew never got Ralph the special treatment he craved.
Neither did shooting Atlas dead. A wave of grief knocks the breath from me.
The two men step aside as Wyvernmire takes a seat at the table.
I glance around the tent, trying to ignore the staring eyes of the wyvern heads.
One has long white fur – the last remnants of an extinct species dismembered and passed down in the Wyvernmire family.
The furnishings are worn; a lumpy armchair and a small cooking stove.
A faded, flowery curtain, perhaps stolen from a nearby house, sections off a private living space.
I see the edge of a camp bed poking out, the bedspread turned down.
Wyvernmire pulls the loquisonus machine towards her and glances up at me. ‘You know what this is, of course?’
I give her a curt nod.
‘A gift,’ she says, ‘from my dear friend Andronikos Svetoslav, the last descendant of Tsar Theodore Svetoslav of the fourteenth century.’
The man next to Ralph looks up and smiles, flashing yellow teeth. I suddenly picture him in a tuxedo and hear the vibrant singing of violins.
‘You were at the Bletchley Ball,’ I say to him. ‘The last Bulgarian prince. Why are you supporting a woman who has allied with the dragons that killed your own people?’
Andronikos takes a step towards me. ‘In massacring my country, the Bulgarian dragons originally sought to liberate themselves from Ottoman rule.’ His voice is woody and seductive.
‘Then the probing of linguistic experts into their secret, telepathic language added fuel to the fire. The misfortune was that they didn’t differentiate between their foreign human oppressors and their fellow native Bulgarians. ’
‘So after liberating their occupied country, the Bulgarian dragons are now occupying mine?’ I say.
‘Since your Prime Minister extended her generous invitation to me, I have conversed with many Bulgarian dragons. It is my belief that they would have spared the true Bulgarian people, had they been able to separate them from the Turkish oppressors.’
I roll my eyes and Andronikos smiles.
‘One day, Bulgaria will thrive with human life again. And when it does, the British and Bulgarian humans will be armed with a protection we didn’t have before.
’ He nods towards the loquisonus machine.
‘It is one of the originals from Bulgaria, smuggled out with me when I fled. It has seen a few improvements since then and is fully functional—’
‘But what do you need it for?’ I interrupt, looking to Wyvernmire.
She inhales through her nose as she studies me.
‘You will be glad to know, Vivien, that I am not as impulsive as you think. When you destroyed the last loquisonus machine at Bletchley Park I immediately sought another. A mere precaution, of course, in the event our new Bulgarian friends stray out of line.’
I blink.
The Bulgarian humans created the first loquisonus machine almost a century ago and were massacred by their dragons for it.
Dr Seymour, a rebel spy who taught me how to use the machine in Bletchley Park’s glasshouse, was able to make two, more advanced replicas, which Atlas and I destroyed.
Anyone else with the knowledge of how to build another is dead.
‘Andronikos knows how to use this one, but he cannot translate the calls. I was pondering a solution to that problem when it walked straight up to me in an airfield in Croydon.’ The Prime Minister’s serene smile stretches so wide I see her teeth.
I shake my head. ‘Echolocation is impossible to translate. The Bulgarian humans failed and so did we, when we attempted it in the glasshouse.’
‘That’s not what you said back when you informed me you had cracked the dragon code,’ Wyvernmire tells me coldly.
Wyvernmire doesn’t know that the dragons’ telepathic language, the Koinamens, is dependent on a bond.
That it’s impossible to accurately translate into a written or spoken language.
I can only understand the simpler calls between dragons, and my human brain is still unable to comprehend the deeper meaning behind each one, transmitted between dragons through emotions and mental images.
‘I was wrong,’ I reply. ‘It’s too complex for the human mind and even if we could translate it, it would endanger dragons everywhere.
Humans would use it to control them.’ I raise an eyebrow at her.
‘You already know that, of course. It’s the reason there were loquisonus machines at Bletchley Park in the first place. ’
‘Indeed,’ Wyvernmire says. ‘And you told me yourself that I would need an understanding of echolocation to keep the Bulgarian dragons in check. You offered to be my translator, or don’t you remember?’
I remember how desperate I was to stop the Bulgarian invasion back at Bletchley Park.
I remember Atlas’s face when I told him translating for Wyvernmire could be the only way of stopping the Bolgoriths from gaining full control.
But that was before I knew what echolocation is to the dragons and before I smashed what I thought was the last loquisonus machine to exist.
‘If you want to stop the Bolgoriths plotting against you, ally with the rebels,’ I tell Wyvernmire. ‘It’s not too late. We can still turn this war around, seek the help of Ignacia and get rid of—’
‘The rebels will arrest the Prime Minister as soon as she attempts surrender,’ Ralph argues.
‘Their dragon numbers are growing, and there are rumours that they have procured aid from France. If they drive the Bulgarian dragons from the country and Prime Minister Wyvernmire is incapacitated, then their politics will drag our country down into the dust. And let us not forget that their spies have infiltrated every institution in Britannia.’
Our eyes meet and I feel my heart race. He couldn’t possibly know that Hollingsworth is the Academy’s biggest in-house spy.
‘You will translate the Bulgarian echolocation for me, Vivien Featherswallow,’ Wyvernmire says.
‘You will spy on the Bolgoriths, to ensure they are not attempting to overthrow me as you say, and you will listen to the conversations of both Ignacia’s dragons and the rebels, too.
If you do not, I won’t simply take Eigg. I will torch it.’
Eigg, the rebel headquarters where I left Ursa and Marquis and Sophie.
If Wyvernmire asks the Bulgarian dragons to attack now, when the rebels are still gathering forces, they won’t stand a chance defending it.
Perhaps the only reason she has left it untouched is that she planned to use it as leverage in case she ever found me.
I stare at her. An accurate translation of the Koinamens is impossible, but I’m going to have to pretend to try, at least until I can escape and find the wyverns.
Wyvernmire pushes the loquisonus machine across the table towards Andronikos, who begins packing it into a leather case with straps.
Ralph’s eyes linger on it as Andronikos hands it to me.
It hangs heavy on my shoulder, full of dangerous potential.
A Guardian walks into the tent. He leans across the table and whispers something to Wyvernmire, who turns towards me sharply.
‘Rebel uniforms have been spotted not far from this camp, but heading in the opposite direction. What do they want with Canna, if it is not to spy on me?’
‘I – I don’t know,’ I stutter in surprise.
Surely the rebels Hollingsworth sent to find the wyverns will be further inland by now?
‘Take the loquisonus machine and go,’ she snaps. ‘Ralph will escort you to your tent.’
I nod at her brooch. ‘Why do you still wear it? It’s a symbol of the Peace Agreement, of your alliance with Britannia’s dragons.’
‘And now,’ Wyvernmire replies calmly, ‘it is the symbol of a superior alliance.’
Ralph gestures to me to step outside the tent. Sunlight bathes the beach, turning the sea turquoise. Guardians are gathered in groups, sharing food and cigarettes, and black and red dragons are poised on the sand and the surrounding cliffs. I’m under Bulgarian guard now. How will I ever escape?
‘This one,’ Ralph says, gesturing to a small tent.
I duck to enter, then spin around. ‘What are you doing? You’re not coming in with me.’
His eyes darken. ‘I need to talk to you.’
I gape at him as bile rises in my stomach. ‘I have nothing to say to you,’ I spit. ‘Murderer.’
I enter the tent. It’s just tall enough to stand and contains a camp bed and a chamber pot. A change of clothes has been laid out on the bed – a white shirt, a jumper, thick khaki trousers with plenty of pockets and a heavy wool coat. Ralph follows me inside.
‘Get out.’
He grabs my wrist, pulling me around to face him. I scream.
‘Shut up!’ he says, his hand covering my mouth.
I push him as hard as I can and the force of my rage causes me to fall back on to the camp bed. The loquisonus machine hits the ground with a thump and Ralph drops down beside it. He pulls it from the case and turns it over in his hands.
‘What are you doing?’ I say.
I scramble to my feet as he stands up, then places the loquisonus machine on the bed.
‘I’m going to help you escape.’
‘Sorry?’
Ralph glances towards the entrance to the tent, then back at me. ‘Where do you want to go? Eigg? Or back to London? I’ll get you there.’
I shake my head in disbelief. What kind of a trap is this?
He points at the loquisonus machine. ‘But first, I need you to do something for me.’