‘Do you think,’ she said, ‘that our new friend might be persuaded to carry us on its back?’

‘Flying, do you mean?’ asked Elowen.

‘Oh, no.’ Lug started waving his hands again. ‘No way. I’m not going up in the sky. Not on that thing. You know I have vertigo!’

‘Yes, flying,’ said Liska. ‘We could rig up a harness with this rope. You could sit on its back and I could fly ahead, leading it. Elowen could call out the route to me so I knew where to go. We could get to Nammu in no time.’

‘That might be a problem,’ said Elowen. ‘From what I know of wyverns, they like hot, dry air. It might not be able to take us all the way to the north.’

‘But it could carry us for a bit, surely? Imagine how much distance we could put between ourselves and Thresher. And you could all rest your feet at the same time.’

This last argument seemed to quieten even Lug. They immediately started tying knots in the discarded rope, trying to fashion a rough harness. Then they carried it over to the wyvern and stood there helplessly, wondering how on earth they were going to get it on the thing without being eaten or burned alive.

When Elowen held the rope up in front of it, a low growling noise came from its throat. Turning its massive head to Lug, it nuzzled him with its nose and blew steamy, brimstone breath all over him.

‘I think it likes you, Lug.’ Liska was finding it hard not to start laughing.

‘Why don’t you try putting the harness on it?’ Elowen suggested.

‘Oh, yes,’ said Lug. ‘So I’m the one that gets fried to a frazzle.’

Still, he took the harness and held it up and this time the wyvern didn’t flinch. Wincing, Lug looped it over the creature’s head, then stroked its nose as Elowen and Fishbone slid the collar down to the base of its neck and fastened the rope underneath its legs. When it looked as though they weren’t going to be burned alive, they started loading their packs on its back.

‘Do you really think this will work?’ Lug asked as the wyvern nuzzled him some more.

‘I think your new friend will do anything for you,’ said Liska, sniggering. ‘Perhaps you should give it a name?’

‘Is it a boy or a girl do you think?’

‘Judging by the way she’s batting her eyelashes at you, she’s definitely female.’

‘We’re ready to climb on,’ Elowen called.

‘Go ahead,’ said Liska. ‘Lug is keeping her occupied.’

‘Big Mew’s scratching post!’ Fishbone leapt from the ground to the wyvern’s knee, and then on to its back. ‘No kittimew is ever riding on a sky lizard before!’