Fidell leaned forwards with a curious aark.

‘And is this your shadow dragon?’ Amina asked. ‘Joe told us about them. He’s gorgeous!’ She put a hand out to greet Fidell, smiling warmly. ‘Hello. I’ve never met anyone quite like you before.’

Maric reached up to touch noses with Fidell.

Amina and Winter grinned at each other afterwards. 231

Joe let out a sigh of relief, silently thanking Amina for knowing what to do.

‘And here’s Ren,’ he said proudly, one hand on her back.

‘A shadow dragon, you say? Where did you find her then?’ Conor said, bringing Ariel over to greet Ren.

Joe met his curious gaze, feeling something thaw and ease between them. He started telling him the story of how they’d found the eggs and their trip to mine the silverblue.

Soon everyone was crowding round to meet Ren and introducing all the dragons to each other.

‘Ahem,’ Yannic coughed loudly. ‘I don’t mean to break up your cosy dragon appreciation society, folks. But don’t let’s forget, there’s a battle to fight out there. And we’ve got two days. So far, we’ve only got one sword, a few kids and some overgrown lizards on our side.’

Tiago shot a vicious look at him.

Joe was about to snap at Yannic for underestimating them when an idea struck him, fully formed. ‘That’s it! That’s how we’ll do it.’

Everyone was looking at him as if he was speaking another language, their faces tinted by candlelight and shadows.

‘That’s how you see us, right, Yannic?’ Joe paced up and down, with Ren following his every move. ‘And you’re one of them. I mean, you’re not, but you were.’

‘Slow down, Joe!’ Amina said. ‘What do you mean?’

‘They don’t see us as any threat,’ he explained. ‘We’re just kids, to them. And Yannic’s one of them. So that’ll be our disguise.’

‘Go on,’ Yannic said. ‘Wonderboy might have something.’232

‘The Brotherhood won’t see us when we go out into the city. They’ll see children. With Yannic, they’ll see one of their own. That’s how we spread the word. We use the tunnels; we go and speak to everyone hiding at home, and we plan our fight. We are going to take Arcosi back. And we are going to start now.’

233

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

They sat in a circle, letting the dragons doze or roam the cavern around them. Joe tried to work through his plan, but his fears and his grief kept getting in the way. They had less than two days to stop the Brotherhood before they killed his sister.

‘Right,’ he began, looking at the circle of anxious faces. ‘So what should we do first?’

Everyone answered at once:

‘I need to tell my family I’m safe!’

‘Take the dragons off the island.’

‘Hide!’

‘Fight the Brotherhood.’

Yannic looked at them and sighed. ‘Oh my stars, give me strength! Do I have a job on my hands, or what?’