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"Are you indeed?" hissed the serpent "Well, if I know your fiery kind you’ll need ht before you can rise into the air So until the ain, you’ll have to stay with me But don’t worry I’m here purely out of curiosity, sheer insatiable curiosity I wanted to find out whyever since sunset, in a way they haven’t itched for more than a hundred years I expect you know the rule: One fabulous creature attracts another, correct?"

"Yes, and a thorough nuisance it is," replied Firedrake, but Ben felt the dragon’s ain

"A nuisance?" The sea serpent’s slender body rocked to and fro "That rule is what saved you and your two friends fro when the moon went dark" She lowered her pointed muzzle until her face was level with Firedrake’s "So where have you co? I haven’t seen anyone like you since the day your silver relations were disturbed as they bathed in the sea and vanished frohtened up "You know that story?" he asked

The serpent se body in the waves "Of course In fact, I was there at the tirowl eed from his chest "Then you were the seaher ar to eat us up!"

But the serpent merely looked down at Firedrake with an amused smile "Me? Nonsense!" she hissed "I only chase ships The er, with arolden scales"

Firedrake looked at the creature incredulously

The serpent nodded "His eyes were red like the dying reed" The ht," she said as the sea rocked her great body, "that night your relations came down from the mountains to the sea, as they always did when the moon was round and full in the sky My sister and I swam close to the coast, so close that we could see the faces of the people sitting outside their huts waiting for the dragons We subed our bodies in the water so as not to alars fear what they don’t know, especially when it’s bigger than they are Moreover," said the creature, s eons," continued the serpent, "plunged into the foaht" She looked at Firedrake "The people on the shore ss always carry with theons banish their sorrow That’s why they believe you bring good luck But that night, yes, that night," hissed the serpent softly, "another dragon careat muzzle as he surfaced in the sea Dead fish floated on the waves The silver dragons spread their ings in fear, but then, all of a sudden, the light of the moon was hidden by flocks of black birds No cloud, however dark and heavy, can rob the moon of its power, but the birds did Their dark feathers quenched the s, they couldn’t fly They all would have been lost had my sister and I not been there to attack the monster"

The sea serpent fell silent for a moment

"You killed him?" asked Firedrake

"We tried to," replied the serpent "We wound our coils around his arolden scales were cold as ice and burned us Before long, we had to let hio, but our attack ons enough strength to escape The hurief and terror, stood on the shore watching theo as they flew up the river Indus and disappeared into the darkness The ed beneath the waves, and no matter how hard my sister and I searched the deepest depths of the sea we could find no trace of it The black birds fleay, cawing But the silver dragons never returned, although for long afterward people stood waiting on the seashore on nights when the moon was full"

When the sea serpent had finished her story, no one said a word

At last, Firedrake looked up at the black sky "Did you never hear of theain?" he asked

The serpent swayed back and forth "Oh, there are many stories The mermen and mermaids im up the Indus from time to time tell tales of a valley far, far away in the on sometimes falls on the valley floor They believe that brownies have helped the dragons hide And looking at your co at Sorrel, "I’d say the story is not improbable"