The Opal Quest by Gill Vickery, Mike Love

Chapter One

The Mines of KulaFoss
    Tia and Finn had been walking from Drangur for three days.
    â€˜Those valleys and mountains don’t look any closer to me,’ Tia grumbled, staring at the horizon where the hills rolled away in a blue haze. She was very tired after walking through endless grassland.
    â€˜They are, really,’ her DragonBrother said. ‘We should reach Kulafoss by nightfall.’
    â€˜We’d get there a lot quicker if I could ride you,’ Tia said.
    As she knew he would, Finn stopped in his tracks and glared at her.
    â€˜I’m a dragon, not a horse,’ he said. ‘I’ll carry you in an emergency and that’s all.’
    Tia patted his soft hide. ‘I know.’ He’d rescued her when she’d fallen from the top of Drangur castleand flown her to safety. It hadn’t been easy; he was only a small dragon, though strong.
    Tia knew she shouldn’t tease him. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I just need to rest a bit.’
    They sat on the grass and Tia flopped against him. ‘Tell me about Kulafoss.’
    Finn had been there when he was very young, before all the dragons had fled to Drakelow to hide from the High Witches. ‘At the end of a valley is a cliff and a
huge
waterfall plunges down it – it’s the biggest in the whole island. The water comes from snow-melt off the Eldkeiler Mountains.’ Finn sounded wistful: the mountains had been his home until the witches drove the dragons away.
    â€˜Where’s the castle?’ Tia asked.
    â€˜It’s carved out of the rock half-way up the cliff-face. The waterfall is right next to it. The castle’s ugly but
very
impressive.’
    Tia jumped to her feet. ‘Let’s go – the quicker we start, the quicker we can see it.’
    Finn puffed out a few smoke rings. ‘I’ve been saying that for ages,’ he objected.
    â€˜Come on then!’ Tia strode ahead as if she’d never complained of being tired. Finn followed, smoke streaming from his nostrils.

    By the time they arrived at the open end of the valley it was night. Moonlight shone on the river flowing down it, and on the grassy slopes scattered with rocks and scree. There were trees growing further down the valley, though it was hard to see them properly; it was very dark in there.
    â€˜Shall we stop here until it’s light?’ Tia asked.
    Finn agreed but as they made their way towards the valley entrance Tia began to feel uneasy.
    â€˜I think the spell to keep dragons away will cover the whole valley. You ought to change yourself so the spell can’t see you,’ she told her DragonBrother.
    Instantly his hide rippled with shadows that matched the darkness they had walked into. ‘It’ll be hard work to camouflage myself all night. Let’s go above the valley and sleep there. If you think it’s outside the spell boundary,’ he added.
    â€˜That would make sense, wouldn’t it?’ she said. She didn’t tell Finn that she could see, from the corner of her eye, a faint shimmer like a gossamer thread running round the rim of the valley. When she looked at it straight on, it disappeared. She didn’twant to tell Finn because she feared he might tease her and say she could only ‘see’ the spell because she was a witch-brat: that was what the other dragonets had called her, and she was afraid it might be true.
    They settled in a dry hollow a short distance from the edge of the valley and Tia leaned against Finn’s warm hide.
    She was dozing off when he sat up suddenly, and she slithered down with a bump as he pointed to the other side of the valley. ‘What’s that?’
    Tia peered into the darkness and saw a line of wavery yellow lights.
    Dragons had sharper eyes than humans and Finn soon saw what the lights were. ‘They’re lanterns – people are coming this way.’
    As they got closer Tia could make out a group