They reached the hill and clambered up over the rocks, pushing past bushes.

Winter looked different today in the new clothes, taller, stronger: like a dragonrider. Her black hair was plaited tightly against her head. Joe realised there was a practical reason for the style all the dragonriders wore – so your hair didn’t blow in your face and blind you while flying. Winter’s movements seemed more confident and practised today, reminding Joe that she’d done all this before. But her face was closed in concentration, giving nothing away.

Finally, the four of them stood on the rocky outcrop on the highest point of the island – even the palace lay below them now. Away to the north, grey-blue sea glittered in a wide sweep to the horizon.

‘Right, let’s go,’ Milla said. She held her arms up and called, ‘Iggie? Down!’ and gestured for him to land. 146

Iggie circled, lower and lower, and then with a rushing of air and a beating of blue wings, he landed and roared his greeting.

Milla embraced him, running her hands over his neck. ‘Yes, he’s ready. Let’s go, Winter, before he gets cold.’

Milla climbed on first, her backpack bulging. Thom helped her to sling the heavy water flasks round Iggie’s neck in a kind of leather pannier, and then Winter clambered up and sat in front of Milla. They looked like sisters today in their matching blue clothes and black plaits.

Joe grinned and shouted, ‘Safe flight! See you at the half­way island!’ They’d pored over Thom’s maps and realised there was only one place they could rest, half a day’s flight away. If they navigated wrong and missed it, what would happen? he wondered. The dragons would fly till they could fly no more. He pushed the fear of a watery death from his mind. Thom knew the way; he did this all the time. But not with a passenger – that was extra weight that Ruby wasn’t used to.

The red dragon’s landing jolted him from his worries.

‘Stop dreaming and get on the dragon,’ Thom shouted, climbing up on her back.

And then it was all happening.

Ruby’s green eyes. Her vastness, filling his vision. Her red scales beneath Joe’s fingers. Thom behind him, his strong arm round his waist – ‘Just till we’re in the air, mate’ – and the feeling of Ruby’s strength. Her wings opening. The mas­sive reach of them in the corner of Joe’s eye. The flapping, the lurch and the jump – surely they weren’t going to make 147it? – the sea, the rocks, the rocks – and, oh! They were flying. The sea was falling away below them; the air was rushing past his face. The sun rising, dazzle-bright. They flew south, with Arcosi to the west, looking like Joe’d never seen it before, a jumble of rooftops, trees and towers.

The world was transformed into air and wind. The horizon vanished in a veil of cloud. The speed of it made Joe’s heart race. He wanted this; oh, how he wanted this! One day, with his dragon, would he do this? The wind pulled tears from his eyes and the world blurred into brightness.