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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

AFTER Along sleep and a hot as stove, we packed so bottles of whisky his first priority), along with a few of the longer knives, and exited the underground kitchen I switched off the light before we left - a force of habit frohts on around the house

The tunnel was a couple of hundredand ended in the side of a riverbank The exit was blocked with loose stones and sandbags, but they were easy to remove We had to jump into the river and wade across to dry land, but the water was shallow On the far bank we got undercover quickly and hurried away through the tall stalks of grass We were anxious not to run into any Kulashka survivors

It was h we’d previously travelled at night, we rass We stopped late in the night to sleep, and set off early the next hted to leave the tall grass behind - ere covered in burs and insects and nicked all over fro we did was find a pool of water and wash ourselves clean After that we ate, rested a few hours, then headed south, reverting to our previous pattern of walking by night and sleeping by day

We expected to come upon the valley at every bend - Mr Tiny had said it was a short walk - but another night passed without any sight of it We orried that we’d taken the wrong path, and discussed backtracking, but early the next night the ground rose to a peak and we instinctively knew that our goal lay on the other side Harkat and I hurried up the rise, leaving Spits to catch up in his own tiress) It took us half an hour to reach the top Once there,that ere at the head of the valley - and we also saw the enorreen, with a slorified pond, as Mr Tiny had accurately called it - set in the centre Apart froons resting around the edge of the water!

We stood staring down into the valley at the dragons One looked like the creature which had attacked us on the raft Tere srey head, the other white The re tere ons, Spits approached, panting heavily "Well, lads," he wheezed, "is this the valley or ain’t it? If it is, let’s sing a wee sea shanty t’ celebrate our?"

We ju, and s on?" he yelped through ers "Are ye ons!"

He snapped out of his drunkenness "Let e of the overhang His breath caught in his throat when he saw the dragons He lay there for athenize two of ’eest is the one that attacked ye in the lake by rey head too, but not the others"

"Do you think they’re just - resting?" Harkat asked

Spits tugged on his straggly beard and grirass round the Lake has been traot that way if they’d only been here a while I think this is their den"

"Will they move on?" I asked

"No idea," Spits said "Mebbe they will - though I doubt it They’re safe fro before it reached ’e with animals and birds for ’eon flies - with all the fish they could wish fer"

"They’ve children too," Harkat noted "Ani their young"

"So how are we going to get to the Lake of Souls?" I asked

"Are ye sure thatis the Lake?" Spits asked "It looks awful small t’ be home to a load o’ dead souls"

"Mr Tiny said it would be small," I told him

"There could be another lake nearby," Spits said hopefully

"No," Harkat grunted "This is it We’ll just have to keep watch and - wait for them to leave - they have to hunt - for food We’ll o and - hope they don’t return too quickly Noants to creep forward and - take first watch?"

"I’ll go," I said, then snatched Spits’s bottle frorabbed his sack, where his other bottles were stowed

"Hey!" he protested

"No more whisky until this is over," I told hi it sober"

"You can’t boss rowled "This is serious business I’ you fly off the handle like you did in the teo on watch, and when you come off, but between those ti towards his long curved knife

"We’ll break the whisky bottles," I said simply, and his face hite

"I’d kill ye if ye did!" he croaked

"Aaarrr," I grinned, "but that wouldn’t bring yer whisky back!" Handing the bottle and sack to Harkat, I winked at Spits "Don’t worry - e’re through, you can drink all the whisky you want" Then I hurried forward to find a bush to hide behind and observe the dragons

We kept watch for al that we’d have to revise our plan At least three dragons re ones and a festers hunting with hions would return - soht, while other times he’d sweep back to his faoat clutched between his claws

"We’ll just have to - sneak in one night and hope - they don’t spot us," Harkat said as we debated our options We were in a rough cave we’d dug in the soil of the hill, to hide us froons have awful good eyesight," Spits said "I seen ’ehts as black as a shark’s soul"