This was where it got really frightening.
I said, “But this is truly the best place. Romanov said. I think it’s a wood—”
“Oh, no,” Dora said again. “It’s much too near where Toby’s father lives. I can’t take you there.”
“But you have to, Mum!” Toby cried out. “I went to them—I told them in the wood that I’d go back and call them out. They’re waiting for me. I promised them!”
Dora said, “And I promised I would do at least this one thing for the group. They’ll be very displeased if I don’t.” And she kept driving.
“Oh, please!” Toby said. I had never known him so upset. Tears were bursting out of his eyes and rolling down his shirt. I remembered, with a quiver of fright in my stomach, that Dora had always been at least half dotty, and Toby knew she was.
“Where do you think you’re driving us, then?” Nick said belligerently to Dora. He was in the front seat, and he more or less turned and shouted in Dora’s face.
“Stonehenge,” Dora said. “It’ll be quite all right then. They promised me.”
I almost relaxed at that. Stonehenge was one of the other four places Romanov had told me. But Nick said suspiciously, “Who told you to take us to Stonehenge? Toby’s dad?”
“And Mrs. Blantyre,” Dora said placidly. “And the sweet young man they get their orders from. I think he said he was the Merlin, but I’m not sure. He said that this was the least I could do. I was quite worried yesterday when I couldn’t find any of you, because I didn’t want to let them down, did I?”
“Mum!” Toby shouted. “I made a promise, too! Stop the car!” He stood up and gave Dora’s shoulder a shake, but the car swerved so violently that he sat down again quickly.
Nick tried cunning then. He said, “Dora, how about we stop the car and keep Toby’s promise first? Then we can go on to Stonehenge and keep yours.”
Dora shook her head. “No, dear. Please don’t try any Oriental blandishments on me. I do know when someone’s trying to get round me.” And we bucketed on, with waves of mist rolling across us and away in front of us.
Nick and Toby both shot me desperate looks. Nick leaned over and tried to put on the handbrake—he says this is the only control that’s the same as an Earth car—but he couldn’t do it, even heaving with both hands. “What have you done to this?” he asked Dora.
“Nothing,” she said, “but Mrs. Blantyre did promise me she would make sure we got there. She’s clever, isn’t she? Now, do be good. It’s so hard to see in all this fog.”
Grundo leaned over the side to see if it was possible to jump out, but we were going far too fast. He sat down and looked at me. “It may be all right,” I said. “Stonehenge was another of Romanov’s places.”
“Stonehenge is the place,” Dora said happily. “The King is going to abdicate there today.” As she said this, the roof of the car rolled back over us and we found that none of the doors would open. We roared onward in a warm box surrounded in fog, and there seemed no way of stopping Dora that wouldn’t crash the car. All my flower files were useless, useless, because the hurt lady had never known about cars, and I had never known much myself either.
I know the others tried things. Grundo tried an illusion of people in the road ahead, but he was upset, so they came out behind the car. Shadowy people chased us through the fog for miles. My idea was to give Dora cramp and a crick in her neck, but either this Mrs. Blantyre of hers had thought of that or Dora just ignored what I did to her. Toby tried an illusion of the controls bursting into flame, but Dora knew it was him.
“Toby,” she said reproachfully, “don’t play tricks while I’m driving. It’s not safe.”
Toby sighed, and the fire vanished. And Nick …
NICK
Yes, well, I called that dragon.
I didn’t do it just because I was scared spitless—although I w
as. The sight of the silly, dreamy smile on Dora’s face while she refused to stop driving was one of the scariest things that had happened so far. But as soon as she mentioned the Merlin, I knew it was serious for a lot more reasons than just my own safety. I thought through the way Joel had talked, and how urgent Romanov had been, and what Roddy had told me, and I thought I’d better do what I could, and do it before we got out of range.
I shut my eyes and concentrated, the way Maxwell Hyde had tried to teach me. I’d never done it right before. I suppose I’d lacked the incentive. It surprised the hell out of me when I found I was sort of floating beside the hillside, where the turf rolled back to show the dragon’s vast white head. We were swamped in mist, both of us. His big green eye was open and turning this way and that to watch the waves of cloud rushing across him, but the eye turned and looked at me when I got there, even though I was really sitting in a car speeding away from him.
“YOU AGAIN,” he said. Just like Romanov. “HAVE YOU COME TO CALL ME OUT THIS TIME?”
“Yes,” I said. “It’s time. I summon you.”
“YOU LEFT IT A BIT LATE,” he said, “IN MY OPINION. VERY WELL. IT WILL TAKE ME AWHILE TO WORK LOOSE. AND REMEMBER WHAT I SAID. I DON’T LIKE BEING CALLED. PEOPLE ARE GOING TO GET HURT. YOU ARE GOING TO GET HURT. NOW GO AWAY.”
I went away, fast. I flipped back into the car, shaking all over, and found we were on a stretch of road that was not in fog any longer. Dora was fair batting along it. She had her foot right down most of the rest of the way. It was frightening.
RODDY