‘They’ll be waiting for us.’ Tiago wasn’t convinced. ‘We’re all going to die.’

It was Winter who persuaded them, finally. She stood up and cleared her throat, pushing her hair away from her face. ‘Look, I’m sorry I wasn’t more welcoming to you all, straightaway. I wanted to hide down here and keep Fidell safe.’ Her voice was shaky and Joe could see how hard this was for her. She went on, ‘But I’ve seen the Brotherhood in action. Joe’s right. We have to stop them. Isn’t it better to die trying to save our city and our dragons?’ 238

There was a long silence then. Coming from her – a girl who had been powerless to save her first dragon – the words had more impact.

‘It could work,’ Yannic said. ‘I know the barracks inside and out: they haven’t changed since they got rid of us. If we use the tunnels and get really close, then all you’ll have to do is break the locks open. But we make our move at night. It won’t work by daylight.’

‘That works.’ Joe repeated, ‘We’ll move at sunset tomorrow?’

Everyone nodded in agreement, all except Tiago.

Amina was jigging with excitement now. ‘Can I go into the city first? Please? We’ve been cooped up in the dragon­hall for the last couple of days, and I need to tell my family I’m alive. They’ll want to fight back, I know they will!’

Joe moved his gaze down to Maric. Would the little dragon stay with him, even though they’d only just met?

‘I’m coming too,’ Flavia told Amina.

‘I need to spend some time with Ren,’ Joe said to Conor, ‘so why don’t we both stay down here with the dragons – they all know one of us at least. We can double up.’

‘Right, kids. I’ll leave you to sing lullabies to your dragons, or feed them fresh mice, or whatever it is you do …’ Yannic stood and stretched, scratching his rounded belly through the dusty black fabric of his uniform. ‘Wish me luck? See you later. Now, where’s my map? Don’t fancy getting lost down here …’

‘Just a moment,’ Joe said, searching through his belong­ings for one of his parchment maps. Then he led Yannic 239outside the quickest way, using the cave entrance above the western beach.

When he returned, everyone looked urgently at Joe.

‘How far do we trust Yannic?’ Amina asked.

‘I won’t ever trust him,’ Tiago said. ‘But he might be useful.’

Joe looked at their suspicious faces. It was on the tip of his tongue to tell them Yannic’s secret, but he resisted, and lied instead. ‘We can trust his love of gold. And we have plenty of that.’ He explained about the secret hoard. ‘We might need to bribe him with it in the end, but for now, don’t breathe a word about it, right?’

‘What’s stopping him bringing the Brotherhood straight down here and killing the lot of us?’ Conor was more direct.