Lily and the Shining Dragons
Read Lily and the Shining Dragons Online
Authors: Holly Webb
Lily reached out, and wrapped both hands around the strange soft stone of the dragon’s body. Scales itched and glinted against her fingers, even though she couldn’t see them, and the carving glowed brighter still. She could feel magic thrumming eagerly through the stone, like a warm little heart beating. And the eagerness! Something so wanted to break free.
But it couldn’t, quite.
Lily’s head swam, and Henrietta snarled. ‘Lily, stop!’
Half-fainting, Lily’s hands slid away from the stone, and she shook herself wearily.
Almost
, something whispered gratefully.
Soon!
ORCHARD BOOKS
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First published in the UK in 2012 by Orchard Books
This ebook edition published in 2012
ISBN 978-1408316412
Text © Holly Webb 2012
All rights reserved.
The right of Holly Webb to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Orchard Books is a division of Hachette Children’s Books,
an Hachette UK company.
For Alice, who told me to hurry up and finish it
‘I
s it not a real saw?’ Lily asked doubtfully, staring at it as Daniel held it up. It looked real. Cleaner and shinier than most of the stagehands’ tools, but just as sharp. It glinted wickedly.
‘Oh, no, it’s quite real,’ Daniel assured her sunnily. ‘It has to be: Georgie will walk amongst the audience carrying it, so they can check.’
‘Then how…?’ Lily stared at him worriedly. ‘You’re not asking me to do a spell, are you?’ she asked, her voice edged with suspicion.
‘Are you mad?’ Daniel raised his eyebrows. ‘After the Queen’s Men turning up to investigate us last week? We nearly got arrested for forbidden magic, Lily; I’m not that stupid. We’re on dangerous ground as it is. No, this is strictly a trick. An illusion. In other words, completely fake.’ He grinned, exchanging a proud look with Sam, the head stagehand who had constructed the Vanishing Cabinet that made their act famous. ‘It’s genius, it really is. This Saturday night, that’s when we’ll unveil it. Always a good audience on Saturdays.’ Then he sighed, stroking a hand lovingly over the polished wood contraption in front of them. ‘But it’s only going to work with someone as small as you, Lily.’ He eyed her sister, Georgie, measuring her up. ‘You might just fit in, but you’re a good bit taller than she is. And all the girls in the ballet troupe are too big; there’s no chance they’ll be able to do it, even though they keep asking me if I don’t want amore experienced assistant, now that we’re all popular. No, I’m going to have to look for someone your age.’
Lily sniffed. ‘And then not feed her, I suppose.’
Daniel nodded. ‘Or not much, certainly,’ he said, quite seriously. ‘It would be most unfortunate if she were to stick.’ Then he blinked. ‘Oh. You were joking.’
‘You haven’t found anyone suitable yet?’ Lily asked anxiously. ‘We need to leave soon. Next week, I thought. As soon as you find girls to replace us. There was no one at the theatrical agency?’
‘They were useless,’ Daniel said with disgust. ‘I interviewed five girls, and without exception, when I showed them the cabinets, all they did was giggle, and say that they couldn’t possibly.’ He frowned at her worriedly. ‘I wish you would stay. Both of you. And not just for the sake of the act. Or if you must go, I still don’t see why you can’t fly to the continent. I hate the idea of you somewhere in England by yourselves, when you could be discovered and arrested at any moment.’
Lily sighed. ‘We were on our own before, and no harm came to us.’
Sam snorted, and Daniel threw up his hand crossly. ‘Because you ended up here! You just happened to hit on a theatre, somewhere half of us hate the Queen’s Men even more than you magicians do.’ He stared at them anxiously. ‘Tell me I can stop searching for new girls for the act. Just stay with us, where you’re safe.’
‘But we aren’t!’ Georgie shivered. ‘Mama’s already sent Marten after us. It’ll be Mama herself chasing us next, I know it.’
‘We can’t stay in one place much longer,’ Lily agreed. ‘And we need to be able to fight back against Mama.’ She swallowed. ‘When she does find us.’ She was almost certain that Mama would, one day soon. ‘Staying here doesn’t help us lift the spells Mama put on Georgie, Daniel.’ She shivered. ‘Now I’ve seen Queen Sophia, Mama’s plan seems even worse. I half understand her – I mean, I hate what the queen has done. It isn’t just that she’s imprisoned our father, she’s made me and Georgie and all the other magician children into something we’re not. She’s stopped us being ourselves, we’ve had to deny what’s most special about us, because of the Decree. But I don’t want to kill her. Mama means to use Georgie to kill the queen, Daniel. She wants the magic back. Magicians back in power, the way it was centuries ago, when our kind were flying around on dragons and all as rich as anything. She’s not going to stay quietly shut away at Merrythought House any longer. Mama’s mad, I think,’ she added in a small voice. ‘It’s driven her that way, being penned up on the island all this time. She really does mean to kill the queen, and somehow those spells are going to make Georgie do it for her. She won’t give up on her without a fight.’
‘Or you,’ a small, gruff voice added. ‘She has her plans for you now too, remember.’
Until they’d escaped, Lily and Georgie had lived shut away from the rest of the world, with only their mother and a few very well-paid servants. The girls had fled Merrythought after they realised that their mother had kept Georgie under a spell for years, while she trained her in strange magics, which they still didn’t understand. The dark spells Georgie had been learning were all still locked inside her, but they hadn’t been working as well as Mama wanted. She had been getting angrier and angrier with Georgie, who’d grown sadder, and quieter, as the spells stole her spirit away.
Then the girls had overheard their mother saying to Marten, her maid, that she had no use for Georgie any more. She was planning to get rid of her – as she had the others. The two sisters hadn’t known what this meant, but then they’d found a photograph album, with a sad little collection of pictures of their two older sisters – who never grew older than Georgie. Their magic had failed to satisfy Mama too. Georgie and Lily had no choice but to run away.
Lily picked Henrietta up, and held her close. There was something comforting about the black pug dog’s sleek fur, and the certain ticking of her heart, even when she was saying the most uncomforting things. Even the existence of Henrietta made Lily feel happier – she had created the dog herself, or summoned her, she wasn’t really sure which, from the portrait of her Great-Aunt Arabel that stood in the passage at home. It looked decidedly unbalanced now, without the small black dog Arabel had been holding. Arabel’s expression had changed too. It strongly suggested that if she could get out of the painting, and get her hands on her great-niece, she would be wringing her neck.
‘I know…’ she murmured. ‘I bet she’d rather use Georgie if she can, though. With me she’d have to start all over again.’