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Contents ( 50)
  1. CONTENTS
  2. PROLOGUE
  3. CHAPTER ONE
  4. CHAPTER TWO
  5. CHAPTER THREE
  6. CHAPTER FOUR
  7. CHAPTER FIVE
  8. CHAPTER SIX
  9. CHAPTER SEVEN
  10. CHAPTER EIGHT
  11. CHAPTER NINE
  12. CHAPTER TEN
  13. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  14. CHAPTER TWELVE
  15. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  16. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  17. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  18. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  19. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  20. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  21. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  22. CHAPTER TWENTY
  23. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  32. CHAPTER THIRTY
  33. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  42. CHAPTER FORTY
  43. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  44. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  45. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  46. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  47. EPILOGUE
  48. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  49. Also by Liz Flanagan:
  50. COPYRIGHT

‘Same,’ Joe whispered gratefully. And then he almost dropped his egg in shock. ‘Oh!’ He stared down at it. He waited, listening. ‘No, I must still be dreaming. For a moment, I thought I felt something move, inside.’ He spread his fingers over the egg, sensing hard, but it didn’t happen again. After a while, he carefully carried his egg over to the casket.

‘So,’ he asked, when Winter had done the same, ‘are you coming?’

‘Where?’

‘Back to the library.’ Joe felt utterly determined now. ‘We need to find out about the hot water and volcanoes and what these eggs need.’

‘Joe, you slept all day. It’s dark now. The library’s closed.’

‘So?’ he said, ‘I’m not quite as useless as I look: I can get us in. If we bring lamps, we can still read. It’ll be harder, but it will work.’

They retraced their steps from the day before, bringing the storm lantern along, taking extra care when they un­latched the secret iron door into the palace grounds.

There was a little light from the fingernail moon, and Joe’s breath shone white like dragonsmoke in the cold air. It was the first hard frost of the autumn.

A patrol was just returning to the barracks that lay to the 115east of the palace on a plateau like the palm of a hand. He heard the call and reply of the sentries.

They waited, keeping the storm lantern dark, and stole across the grass, avoiding the paths, circling round to the library in the northernmost turret.

This wasn’t just the palace to Joe. It was his sister’s home, and Tarya had let him explore every inch of it since he could walk. Now he crept underneath the library windows, in case there was a guard patrolling inside too.

There was a delivery entrance just beyond the rounded curve of the turret leading to the body of the main build­ing. He remembered Isak excitedly pacing just inside, one warm summer day last year, waiting for a shipment of new books to arrive. Joe reached up and tried the handle, just in case, but as he had expected, it was locked. He took out the dragon-handled knife and studied its slender point – slightly too large, but it might do.

His mother had taught him some useful skills from the days before the revolution. She always said he needed to be able to defend himself, needed to be able to escape. He used to think she was over-protective, but now he was grate­ful to her.

‘What are you doing? Don’t break it!’ Winter whispered, sounding scared.

‘Shh. I won’t!’ Joe tilted his head, holding his breath, feel­ing for the subtle mechanisms of the lock. The blade slipped, but he started again, patiently wiggling the metal point to push back each point of the lock inside. With a tiny click, it opened. 116

He breathed out, satisfied.

Carefully, carefully, he pressed the handle down, easing the door open without a sound. They crept inside, onto thick, dark carpet in a wood-panelled corridor. It was dark, but Joe opened the storm lantern a crack, casting a soft golden light on the polished wood. He headed confidently down the corridor, found the library door and opened it.