“It was the tradition of the Order of Dragonhunters to bring their sons into the battle when they reached the age of fifteen. When a boy reached fifteen, he was ready to become a knight. But I have need of you now.”
What about what I need? Simon thought to himself. What if I don’t want to do this?
“I’ve no one to turn to,” Aldric added. “My fellow knights have all passed on. Even my brother Ormand has been killed.”
“Your brother?”
“The bravest of us all. He was older than me. Cleverer. Trustworthy. Good-natured – everyone loved him. I made strategy and he held the knights together. They were from families that long ago pledged to defend the Dragonhunters. I don’t know if they would have followed me alone, had they lived. But they are all gone now. And I have work left to do.”
“You want me to fight dragons with you?” asked Simon, bewildered.
“I don’t have any choice. You have to come with me, there’s nowhere safe for you to go. Don’t worry, boy, I’ll be with you all the time now. The challenge is real, but we’re up to it. And there’s good news. There’s only one Dragonman left to find.”
That was the good news? Simon couldn’t believe this. It was the craziest thing he’d ever heard. And since when could he count on his father for anything? If this was his father.
Simon did his best not to upset the man, father or not. “I think,” he said, coughing from the awful pipe smoke, “you’d better take me back to school now.”
Aldric looked displeased. “That place is not safe for you. You couldn’t stay there if you wanted to. The Pyrothrax is looking for you. It has spies all over the world. It knows that I am the last knight, and if they get rid of me, and you, there will be no one left to stop it. We can identify the creature – do you think it would allow that? It owes a great debt in blood to the St George family. It would love to find you and get its revenge. That lighthouse keeper is getting older – you think he could protect you? Don’t you see? The wretched thing knows where you are. All these years I’ve kept you secret, but now it knows you exist.”
Simon’s mind flashed back to the strange man in the trench coat crossing the street, the man who seemed to have a tail. But that was just a shadow, surely. Or was the man in white one of the dragon’s agents? This simply can’t he happening, he thought.
Aldric interrupted his musings. “I’m sorry all of this is rushed, but I’m on to something. I think I know where the dragon is. I was closing in on him weeks ago, until my brother called me away to help with a serpent he’d found in the heartland. That was when I realised you were in danger. We’ve got to get back on the hunt. You are the only one in the world I have left. Your mother passed away years ago and there is no more family; you are the last of the bloodline.”
Simon was shocked. He had decided he wouldn’t like his mother, whoever she was, but he always imagined she was alive, out there in the world, sipping fancy wine on a big yacht and never giving her son a thought. It shattered something in him to know that he would never meet her.
“We have very little time,” continued Aldric. “If the Pyrothrax knows we’re on his trail, he’ll move on and we’ll miss our chance.”
Simon was now convinced the man was off his rocker. But then Aldric added something: “I don’t expect you to swallow this story without any proof. I’m going to show you what I’m talking about.”
Simon’s head hurt from so much information. It must have shown on his face. “In the morning,” Aldric said. “In the morning I will show you proof that the creature is real and things will be much clearer.”
Smoke burned in Simon’s eyes and he thought he was going to faint.
“Now get some sleep,” he heard his father say, but he was already slipping into dreamland, worn out. He wanted to hear the rest of the story, but his brain had shut off. It had had enough.
The real shock was that morning would prove to be even more amazing.
Come morning, he would indeed be joining the family business …
Simon felt a large tongue licking his face. He was being eaten.
In shock, he opened his eyes and rolled on the floor. He scrambled to his feet, ready for battle. But the creature he was looking at was not a dragon. It was a horse.
Aldric must have moved Simon into the hold of the little ship while the boy was sleeping. He had put him down to sleep in the hay. Not very comfortable, thought Simon. Not very nice.
Nevertheless, he had slept without waking once, even with the tilting and swaying of the ship. He must have been totally drained.
He backed away from the horse and looked around. The hold had a tidy and sizable space for the animal, and along the wall there were some chickens in pens.
“Good, you’re awake,” said a voice from above. Simon looked up at the hatch that led to the galley. His father threw down a bunch of apples. “You can feed the horse.”
Simon looked up at him, but all he could see was his shape, lit by the bright sunlight flooding into the hold. Simon picked up the apples. He’d been awake two seconds and already he was doing chores.
“Give her some oats. You’ll find them in the wood bins on the port wall,” Aldric added, disappearing somewhere up above deck.
Simon threw some oats into the horse’s stall and held an apple out for it to eat. The horse chomped the apple eagerly. Simon was hungry himself. He took one of the other apples, sinking his teeth in for a big bite.
“DON’T EAT VALSEPHANY’S APPLES,” came a warning from upstairs. “SHE’S EARNED EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEM.”
Guiltily, Simon swallowed. But he was still hungry and it made him a little angry.
“Does anybody care I’m hungry enough to eat Valsephany?” he said loudly.
His father came back down with a look of fierce annoyance on his face. “Eat Valsephany?” he repeated. “Eat Valsephany?”
“It’s an expression,” said Simon mildly. “You know. In America, we say, ‘hungry enough to eat a horse’.”
Aldric plucked the apple away from Simon and went to his horse. It gave a thankful neighing and fed from his hand.
“Valsephany is the greatest animal a man could ever have,” Aldric said. “Very few steeds on this Earth could withstand what she has withstood. Not many would be able to look a dragon in the eye and hold its course. Most horses would bolt away. Or their legs would buckle and they’d fall to the ground in fear. It has taken ages to prepare Valsephany for battle. She’s priceless.”
The horse seemed to understand, raising its head with a whinny of pride. Simon made a mental note. Never joke about the horse.
“I didn’t know she meant so much to you,” said Simon.
“We’ve grown up together,” said Aldric, putting his face against Valsephany’s. “We were trained for battle together by your grandfather, Veritus St George. Fascinating creatures. Did you know that thousands of years ago, horses were wee, small little fellows, the size of terriers? Now look at them. You see? Everything evolves.”
He