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HARRY POTTER AND THE JADE DRAGON
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Chapter XI
The Jousting Tournament
The dragons quenched
their thirst beside the lake
Where bathed the sun, whilst I upon the brake
Fastened my reins; a golden bough I sought
To brush the sun, and tarred there in sport.
~ the Book of Songs,
Spring and Autumn period
A few days
after that eventful night, Harry noticed Shan looking rather upset.
"A wild Bronzeback has been found dead, some distance
from the Caverns," she told him.
"I went to have a look at it; it was the old male."
Harry was surprised.
"The second Bronzeback must have killed it," he said.
Shan looked even more upset.
"I don't think so," she said. "It wasn't physically
wounded at all. It was just lying there, as if
it had died in its sleep. Chen-Kang couldn't figure out what killed
it."
"Old age," suggested Harry.
Shan looked distracted. She took a few seconds to register
what Harry had said, then shook
her head.
"Well, it was sick, anyway," Harry reminded her.
She looked rather impatient.
"No one just finds a dead dragon lying out in the open,
Harry," she said. "Even if it's sick, or
dying, it'll go to a place where no one can find it, and die there."
She gave a small sigh, then picked her bag up and went off, still looking upset.
Harry stood staring after her. Robert, who had been standing by listening, looked at him.
"She blames herself for the dragon's death," Robert
explained, in his quiet voice. "She thinks
that something or someone must have killed it, after it flew off,
that night. She thinks that if
she hadn't gone there that night, it wouldn't have come out of
the cave, and would still be alive."
He looked after Shan, as if thinking about something, then
went to catch up with her. Harry
watched him leave, feeling rather surprised. So Robert knew about
Shan's night-flying activities.
It seemed that there wasn't anything that Shan didn't tell Robert.
However, that wasn't the end of the matter. A few days later, another dragon was found dead.
"It was a Fireball, this time," Shan told Harry.
"A wild one. No wounds again. Chen-Kang is
getting worried; he's getting sentries to keep watch over the
tame dragons."
The news of the dead dragons had travelled around the school.
Even Fatty and Pixie were
looking concerned.
"Chen-Kang thinks someone killed those dragons,"
said Fatty. "There are no marks on them.
It's possible that someone killed them using magic."
Ron didn't seem too concerned that dragons were dying.
"What's all the fuss about?" he said to Pixie.
Pixie, for once, didn't giggle.
"To the Chinese, dragons are sacred, Ron," she told
him, rather impatiently. "It's a terrible
crime to kill a dragon."
Early the next morning, another wild Fireball was found dead.
"That is not good," said Chee Chong, later that morning
in the Green Dragon common room.
He was busily cleaning Chester's little bamboo cage. "The
Jousting Tournament is tomorrow.
We hope that no one will harm our tame dragons before that."
Hermione was watching Chester, who was crawling up Chee Chong's back.
"I never knew crickets were popular pets, in China," she said.
Fatty was sitting nearby, rewriting an essay. He seemed to
have caught some of Chee Chong's
accident-prone-ness, because someone had obviously knocked a bottle
of ink onto his original
essay.
"Crickets aren't usually kept as pets," he told Hermione, "They're usually reared for cricket-fights."
Ron looked intrigued. "Cricket-fights?"
Fatty nodded.
"Put two of these crickets together, and they're sure
to start fighting. If you want, we can have a
demonstration. I've got a friend who has a female cricket. I can
ask her to bring it over, if you want."
Chee Chong looked indignant.
"Chester does not want to fight," he said, "He will get hurt."
"Nonsense," said Fatty. "It'll do him good. Maybe he'll stop singing at night."
Harry and Ron were keen, so Fatty sent one of his postal dragons
off with a message, asking his
friend to bring her cricket over. She came over presently, a hefty-looking
girl also from White
Tiger, carrying her cricket in a similar bamboo cage.
"Everyone, this is my friend Mui-Sing," said Fatty,
"also from Hong Kong. We've had a number
of joint ventures together."
Mui-Sing's cricket was called Mu-Lan. She looked almost identical
to Chester, except that she
was slightly bigger.
"That is not fair," protested Chee Chong. "She is bigger than Chester."
"Nonsense, only a bit, and besides, she's a female,"
said Fatty, a gleam in his eye. He looked at
Mui-Sing. "I wager five gold pieces that Mu-Lan will not
be able to fight Chester."
Mui-Sing's eyes flashed.
"Accepted!" she said.
Everyone, including all the other Green Dragon students in
the room, crowded around to watch.
The two bamboo cages were placed on a table, facing each other,
and the respective owners,
at a signal from Fatty, slid the doors open.
Chester came crawling out, his antennae waving excitedly. He
hopped over to Mu-Lan, who
was now sitting just outside her cage, and enthusiastically tried
to make friends with her.
"Come on, Chester!" said Fatty, his eyes gleaming, "Go get her!"
Mu-Lan looked at Chester in a rather horrified manner, then retreated a few steps.
"Fight him, Mu-Lan!" cried Mui-Sing, slamming her
large fist down on the table, and making
the two contestants bounce up in the air. "Finish him off!"
Chester was still making friendly overtures to Mu-Lan, who
was still retreating in dismay.
Finally, she turned and leapt off the table.
"Mu-Lan! Come back and fight him!" shouted Mui-Sing.
"You are going to make me lose
five gold pieces!"
Mu-Lan, however, was hopping rapidly to the other end of the
room, with Chester in hot
pursuit, the students in the room quickly stepping out of the
way, and laughing.
"You have given her the wrong name," said Chee Chong, watching Mu-Lan's desperate flight.
Fatty chortled, and looked smugly at Mui-Sing.
"Pay up, Ah-Mui," he said cheerfully.
Mui-Sing went over to the other end of the room, snatched Mu-Lan
up, and put her back into
her cage. Then, scowling, she threw five gold coins at Fatty,
and left in a huff.
Fatty cheerfully pocketed the coins, and watched as Chee Chong
returned Chester, who was
looking rather lovelorn, back to his cage.
"That cricket is a good investment after all," he
said, jingling his coins. "I can almost forgive his
singing, now."
Shan and Robert didn't attend any of the exchange programme
classes that day. They appeared
at dinnertime, Shan looking rather tired, Robert his usual placid
self.
"We've been practicing for tomorrow's tournament,"
Shan told the Hogwarts students. "Green
Dragon is unlucky this year. Two of our Bronzebacks - there are
five which belong to us - cannot
be flown: one has a clutch, and the other is unwell. We have to
let one of our team-mates fly
WindStar. Chen-Kang and I had to go look for a wild Bronzeback
this morning, and we've been
spending the entire day getting to know him."
"You're going to fly a wild Bronzeback?" squeaked Pixie, looking horrified.
Shan shrugged.
"We've already flown him, today," she said. "There's
no choice. We can't take part in the
tournament with only three dragons."
"Where is it being housed?" asked Fatty.
"They've hewn a new cave for it, near the tame Bronzebacks,"
replied Shan. "Chen-Kang has
placed sentries nearby. He's not taking any chances, with the
tournament tomorrow."
The day of the tournament dawned bright and clear. Harry and
the others had been looking
forward to it with interest, because they hadn't seen any of the
students Jousting before. The
Jousting practice area was two hours' walk away, and those practicing
normally flew their
dragons there. Harry regretted not bringing his Firebolt along;
then he could easily have flown
there with Shan and Robert, during one of their practices.
There were no lessons that day, and once breakfast was over,
the entire school set out for the
tournament site. Chee Chong brought Chester along, saying that
he was lonely and that the
tournament would cheer him up. Since the match with Mu-Lan, Chester
had stopped chirping
at night. He would merely sit in his little cage, looking rather
depressed and lovelorn. Chee
Chong had suggested that Mu-Lan be brought over to visit him,
but Fatty and the others, who
were secretly rather pleased that the dormitory was now quieter
at night, promptly squashed
the idea.
"So, what happens during the tournament?" Harry asked
Fatty, as they made their way toward
the coast.
"Each House fields four dragons," said Fatty. "Each
dragon has two riders, a guide and a
spellthrower. The guide controls the dragon - the dragons are
not allowed to fight each other,
they're penalised if they do; the spellthrower will try to unseat
his opponent. Only two dragons
can make it to the final round."
"Will the spellthrowers be using Internal Magic?" asked Hermione, hopefully.
"They can, if they want to," said Fatty. "But
most people at our level aren't very good at Internal
Magic. You normally have to go to an Internal Magic school if
you want to learn it properly. No,
most of the contestants use wands, but any of those who do use
Internal Magic, like Robert, gain
a lot more points."
They had been going steadily downhill, and the sea of swirling
cloud could now be seen in the
distance.
"Is this the only sport you have?" asked Harry, wondering
what they would make of Quidditch
when they came to Hogwarts.
"Oh, there are other tournaments during the year,"
said Fatty. "There's a Dragon Boat race, and
duelling contests with swords and staffs; but the Jousting is
the most fun to watch."
They were walking along the coast now, and the Hogwarts students
looked at the sea of swirling
cloud curiously. The clouds were in constant motion, and were
breaking against the shore like
normal sea waves.
"Wonder what it feels like," said Ron, as the waves
crashed onto the shore, producing a sound
just like normal surf. He leaned over the edge, and put his hand
into one of the rock pools.
"It feels just like water!" he said, sounding astonished.
He took his hand out, and looked at it.
"But my hand's completely dry!"
Harry and Hermione stuck their hands in as well. The clouds did indeed feel just like water.
They stood there for a while, sticking their hands in, and
waiting for the next wave to crash on
the shore, to recede, leaving the ground perfectly dry. Then Fatty
and the rest finally said they
must go, or they'd be late.
"What's the tournament site like?" asked Hermione,
as they turned and followed the path inland
toward what looked like a rocky plateau.
"It's just there," said Pixie, pointing. "You'll see soon enough."
The tournament site turned out to be a huge crater, just next
to the coast, hemmed in by walls
of rock that were nearly vertical, into which stone seats had
been carved. It was like an enormous
natural amphitheatre. A maze of corridors had been hewn into the
interior of the walls, and Fatty
led them down several flights of stone stairs until they reached
a level where the seats had been
carved out.
"We'll sit slightly higher up, away from the others,"
said Fatty, taking several pairs of omnioculars
from a large basket, "because all of us will be rooting for
our respective Houses, and I know you'll
want to cheer for Shan and Robert."
The amphitheatre was so large that the school only filled one
corner of it. They found themselves
sitting above a sea of green-robed students. Looking to his left,
and downward, Harry could see
the White Tiger students, followed by a sea of black-robed students
farther down. The Yellow
Dragons and Crimson Phoenix were almost opposite them, round the
curve of the amphitheatre.
The omnioculars Fatty had handed to them looked quite old,
and did not provide replay. Harry
saw that some of the dragons had arrived. Looking through his
omnioculars, he saw that they were
all Bronzebacks. Their riders would fly a few rounds, to warm
up, and then land them at the summit
of a sheer, vertical cliff at one end of the amphitheatre, which
Fatty said was called the Lookout
Point. Harry could tell, by the colour of the robes of the riders,
which House each dragon belonged to.
"Look," Chee Chong suddenly said, "There's Shan!"
Shan and Robert's dragon was easily recognisable. It was a
much darker brown than the others,
and its flying style was a lot wilder and more aggressive. They
watched as Shan flew a few rounds,
and then landed it near the other dragons, whereupon it reared
its head and pawed the ground,
impatiently.
"That is one wild dragon," remarked Chee Chong, watching
in fascination, Chester perched
mournfully on top of his head.
Hermione looked rather worried. "Can she control it?"
"Hard to say," said Fatty. "When the two of
them fly WindStar, there's usually not much fight.
Shan and WindStar seem to be able to read each other's minds.
There's no use even placing
bets on them winning, because no one wants to bet any differently,
except maybe the Yellow
Dragons."
Several rows of seats nearby were reserved for the staff. Harry
recognised Lady Han-Yin,
absently fingering her crystal ball, and a bit farther down, the
hulking figure of Yang-Kang.
He was wearing his usual glowering expression, most likely imagining
the gory things he
would do to Liu Pei when he found him. Next to him was Madam Tang,
who was droning
on and on about something, probably predicting the outcome of
the tournament. Harry
doubted if Yang-Kang was really listening.
Lady Wen-Li, who was seated next to Lady Han-Yin, now stood
up. She raised her wand,
and five large birdcages suddenly appeared to their right, suspended
in the air in front of the
cliff where the dragons were. Each cage was the colour of one
of the school Houses.
"What are those for?" asked Ron, looking puzzled.
Pixie dimpled at him.
"For the scoring," she said, and then giggled when Ron continued to look bewildered.
"The height at which the cages are floating indicates
your points," explained Fatty. "You
gain points when you win a round, and lose points when you get
a penalty. The indicators
are shaped like birdcages because during the final round, a flock
of sea-swifts will be
released into the site. The guide will try to fly his dragon near
the swifts, and the spellthrower
tries to catch them with a special net. The minute each swift
touches the net, it will vanish
and reappear inside the respective House cage. To win the tournament,
you either have to
catch the most birds, or catch the Queen Swift. It's something
like the Snitch in your Quidditch."
Harry was imagining himself racing around on his Firebolt, trying to catch swifts with a net.
"Queen Swift?" said Hermione, removing Chester from
her shoulder, where he had managed
to crawl, and placing him back on Chee Chong's shoulder.
"A flock of sea-swifts always migrates here around this
time of the year," said Fatty. "They
always roost on one of the ledges in the Caverns. We capture them
when they're sleeping,
and then keep them for the tournament. Each flock always has one
Queen Swift. She's slightly
larger than the rest, and flies a lot faster. You can recognise
her because her plumage is
different from the others."
"But won't the swifts just fly away?" asked Harry.
Fatty shook his head.
"Lady Wen-Li will place an invisible barrier around the
site," he said. "The swifts won't be able
to escape."
"Look!" exclaimed Hermione.
Lady Wen-Li had waved her wand again, and to the Hogwarts students'
astonishment, they
saw that part of the sea of cloud had detached itself from the
main mass and was now drifting
over the edge of the crater, pouring down the sides of the amphitheatre
into the valley below.
"This is weird," said Ron, as for a few seconds,
nothing could be seen above them except for
swirling cloud.
"What is it for?" Harry asked, as they watched the clouds settle at the bottom of the crater.
"She's charmed them to catch the students when they fall,"
said Fatty, grinning. "You don't
expect them to fall to the crater floor when they've been unseated,
do you?"
Harry was imagining students falling from the sky and bouncing
up and down on the clouds
like a trampoline, when Pixie gave a small squeal of excitement
and tugged at Ron's arm.
"They're starting!"
Someone's voice could be heard, loud and clear, giving the
commentary in Chinese.
Unfortunately, Harry had forgotten to bring the Translator, so
he had to rely on Fatty
and the others.
A pair of dragons had now flown into the centre, and hovered
there, facing each other,
till the signal was given. They then flew at each other, each
striking viciously at its opponent,
their guides trying to restrain them.
Looking through his omnioculars, Harry could see that one dragon
belonged to Crimson
Phoenix, while the second was from Yellow Dragon. The first student
on each dragon was
controlling the dragon, while the second was throwing spells at
their opponent. The Yellow
Dragon spellthrower was a lot more skilful than the one from Crimson
Phoenix. He was
Shielding himself and his dragon, so that the spells hurled at
them by the Crimson Phoenix
spellthrower merely bounced off, and was attacking the other aggressively.
Fatty was providing a running commentary in English, for their benefit.
"He's trying to petrify the dragon's wings - no, they've
managed to Shield; now he's thrown
a stunning spell at the guide - oh, their Shield isn't strong
enough, the spell broke through
the guide looks dazed."
The dragons had now raced to the other end of the amphitheatre.
Harry noticed that both
spellthrowers were only raising partial Shields, leaving a large
part of the dragon unprotected.
The Shields looked quite dim, unlike the strong, bright one he
had seen Yang-Kang erect after
he'd emerged from the bell.
"Why don't they just Shield the entire dragon?" he
asked, as the Yellow Dragon Bronzeback
suddenly lunged viciously at the other dragon, striking it on
the head.
"Penalty!" shouted Pixie, grabbing Ron's arm in excitement.
"No one here is capable of raising a Shield large enough
for a whole dragon," said Fatty, his
eyes still glued to his omnioculars. "It's already difficult
enough for most of us to Shield our
own bodies alone. Oh - unseated!"
As Pixie jumped up and down, screaming in dismay, Harry saw
the Crimson Phoenix
spellthrower falling from the dragon, down to the sea of cloud.
He disappeared beneath
the surface for a while, then came bobbing up. The Crimson Phoenix
Bronzeback came
flying down to rescue him, hovering just above the surface of
the cloud while the guide let
a rope down and pulled him back up.
The Yellow Dragons were all shouting in triumph, while the other Houses looked grumpy.
"We always cheer for whoever is fighting against Yellow
Dragon, whether they are flom
our House or not," said Chee Chong.
Another pair of dragons had now flown in, one from White Tiger,
the other from Black
Tortoise. Harry watched the duelling with interest. The Black
Tortoise guide wasn't handling
his dragon very well. It kept rearing its head, and wanting to
fly off elsewhere. The spellthrower
was quite skilful, though, quickly raising Shields wherever spells
were being hurled. He was
conjuring up small, white balls of light, and throwing them, nonstop,
at the other spellthrower,
who instinctively twisted around in his seat, to fend them off.
The White Tiger dragon suddenly
lurched, and its spellthrower lost his balance, and fell off.
"No!!" yelled Fatty, watching as his spellthrower
hit the clouds with a splash, while Chee Chong
lifted Chester, who was sitting glumly in his hand, and said,
"look, Chester, we've won!"
The Hogwarts students watched, fascinated, as the next few
pairs of dragons came out. The
spellthrowers seemed to have all sorts of tricks up their sleeves.
Some would let off a barrage
of small objects - Fatty said they could conjure any object, so
long as it would not cause hurt
to the other person - at the other side; one actually managed
to body-bind one of the dragon's
wings, so that it almost fell to the sea of cloud before its spellthrower
managed to free it. Another
obscured its opponent with pink clouds, so that they couldn't
see, and then flew around and
attacked them from the other side.
Finally, Shan and Robert came out. The Green Dragons all started screaming in excitement.
Fatty gave a small sigh and said, "Well, this will be a short round."
"Oh, they're fighting Crimson Phoenix!" squeaked Pixie.
Fatty was right; Shan had hardly brought the wild Bronzeback
near the Crimson Phoenix dragon
when Robert, who had created a large Shield so that the entire
half of his dragon facing the
opponent was protected, merely lifted a hand and pointed it at
the other spellthrower, who was
hurling spells non-stop at them with his wand. Robert's Shield
was glowing bright and strong,
and the spells all simply bounced off. The Crimson Phoenix spellthrower
flew into the air, curved
in an arc above his dragon, and then dove down toward the sea
of cloud.
The Green Dragons were all cheering, while Pixie was watching gloomily.
"It's not fair," she said, sulkily.
"He's pretty good, isn't he?" said Ron, watching
as the wild Bronzeback flew back to the Lookout
Point.
"He's not bad," admitted Fatty. "But Yellow
Dragon has a spellthrower who's fairly good. If they
both make it to the final round, it'll be interesting to watch."
And that was what happened. Shan and Robert made it to the
final easily enough, although the
next few spellthrowers were much better than the first, and it
took Robert a longer time to unseat
them. Harry had a feeling Robert wasn't taking the tournament
very seriously, either; he sometimes
seemed to be merely playing with the other spellthrower.
The wild Bronzeback, unused to the sport, was also getting
restless, and Shan had her hands full,
controlling it. The Yellow Dragon Jousters, whom they would meet
in the final round, were very
aggressive players. They didn't seem to mind playing dirty, although
it lost them points.
"They don't care," said Fatty, as they walked around
during the Intermission, to stretch their legs.
"They think that they can catch the Queen Swift, which will
make up for all the points lost."
They were looking at the birdcages. Only the green and yellow
ones were left now, because the
other Houses were out of the final. The green cage was suspended
higher than the yellow one,
partly because Yellow Dragon had incurred so many penalties.
"Every time one swift is added to it, it'll rise slightly,"
Pixie said, and then added with satisfaction,
"At least Yellow Dragon's losing."
At last, the Intermission was over. The students all wandered back to their seats, looking excited.
Lady Wen-Li stood up, and pointed her wand at the sky. A faint
golden haze appeared,
surrounding the entire amphitheatre.
"That is to keep the swifts inside," said Chee Chong, "Now they cannot fry away."
Shan and Robert flew their dragon into the middle of the amphitheatre,
as did the Yellow
Dragon contestants. Harry saw that Robert was holding a slim,
long-handled golden net,
and so was the Yellow Dragon spellthrower.
"The other spellthrower is Li Ning," said Fatty, "biggest bully in the school."
"He's big, all right," said Ron, looking through
his omnioculars, "He looks three times the
size of Robert!"
"They're starting," said Hermione, looking tense, "here come the swifts!"
A flock of about a hundred little birds had entered the amphitheatre
from a door below the
Lookout Point. They swooped around, and tried to fly out of the
tournament site, but the
glowing barrier held them in.
"They're really fast," said Harry, twisting his head
around to watch the birds as they swooped
and dived. He had an insatiable urge to jump on his Firebolt and
see whether he could catch
some of them.
The final round had started. They watched as the dragons swooped
around, after the swifts.
The wild Bronzeback looked as fresh as ever, and was racing after
the swifts at an amazing
speed. Shan was leaning forward, speaking to it, while Robert
was holding the net out.
Whenever it hit one of the swifts, the swift would immediately
vanish and re-appear in the
Green Dragon birdcage.
"Where's the Queen Swift?" asked Hermione, shading her eyes and peering up at the birds.
"They'll release her later," said Fatty. "The
contestants are not supposed to try unseating each
other until she appears. Right now they're just supposed to catch
as many birds as they can."
The Yellow Dragon Bronzeback seemed rather tired, but its guide
was urging it mercilessly on.
Li Ning was proving very adept at catching swifts. Robert was
at a disadvantage, because he
was so much smaller, and his arms were a lot shorter.
"They're catching up," moaned Pixie, as the yellow
birdcage rose higher and higher. Now that
the other Houses were out of the game, they were all rooting for
Green Dragon, and were
shouting and yelling for all they were worth.
"There she is!" shouted Fatty, thumping Chee Chong
in excitement, so that Chester bounced
off his shoulder and onto the floor. The Queen Swift had come
out from below the Lookout
Point. She was a bright electric blue, and her plumage shimmered
in the sunlight. She was
larger than the other swifts, but she flew a lot faster, almost
nothing but a blue streak, racing
around the amphitheatre.
The two dragons were both heading after the Queen. The spellthrowers
had handed their nets
to the guides, and were concentrating on unseating each other.
Li Ning threw a bolt of light at
Robert, but Robert had already raised a Shield. The bolt hit it,
and didn't quite penetrate, but
was strong enough to dissolve the Shield. Robert quickly raised
another Shield, then began
pelting Li Ning with water bombs.
Harry glanced at the birdcages. They were almost level; whoever caught the Queen would win.
The dragons swooped around, after the fleeing blue streak.
They were going so fast that it
was almost impossible to follow them with the omnioculars. Shan
reached her net out and
took a swipe at the Queen, but at the same time the Yellow Dragon
Bronzeback lunged at
the wild one, knocking it sideways.
The Yellow Dragons all cheered, but the other students were
shouting angrily. Li Ning
suddenly hurled a bolt of light at Shan, and knocked the net out
of her hand.
"UNFAIR!" shouted Pixie, jumping up and down.
Robert, still pelting Li Ning, now with rubber balls, pointed
a finger at the falling net, and it
shot back up to Shan.
The Queen Swift was now flying near the perimeter of the site,
and darted past the Green
Dragons, almost brushing the tops of their heads. Everyone ducked
as the two dragons came
hurtling past them.
Li Ning let off a cloud of black smoke, which enveloped the
wild Bronzeback. It emerged
almost immediately, but the brief delay had given the Yellow Dragons
a slight edge, and they
were now racing after the Queen. Robert threw a bright bolt of
light at them, and it tore through
Li Ning's Shield and hit the dragon's wing.
The dragon gave a roar of anger, and swerved. The Queen Swift shot away.
Robert was now pelting Li Ning with bright bolts of light, aiming at his waist.
"Is Robert trying to hit below the belt?" said Ron, his eyes still glued to his omnioculars.
"The spellthrowers are now strapped down," said Fatty,
also peering through his omnioculars.
"It makes them harder to unseat. Oh - he got through!"
Li Ning was also hurling bolts of light at Robert, but Robert's
Shield was too strong, and they
bounced off. Robert's bolts of light easily pierced Li Ning's
Shield, and were obliterating his
saddle straps. The dragons swerved around in the air, neck to
neck, still racing after the Queen.
Shan and the other guide were half-standing up, taking wild swipes
at her with their nets.
Robert suddenly hurled a large ball of light at Li Ning's Shield,
and it shimmered and dissolved.
He then pointed at Li Ning, and Li Ning's body flew up in the
air; but his hands were grasping
his saddle, which was firmly attached to the Bronzeback. His body
went up, then fell back down
again, missing the dragon's body. He hung from the dragon's side,
clinging to the saddle for dear
life, his legs dangling in mid-air.
His partner turned around to pull him back up, and their Bronzeback
fell behind. Shan urged the
wild Bronzeback forward, and it seemed to shoot through the air,
after the Queen. A loud moan
erupted from the Yellow Dragon students, but this was drowned
out by the cheering from the others.
"She's almost got it!" yelled Pixie, jumping up and
down, and screaming in excitement as the wild
Bronzeback zoomed past them, its nose almost touching the Queen.
Shan was standing up, clinging
to her riding straps with one hand, the other with net extended.
At this moment, something unexpected happened. A beam of brilliant
white light suddenly shot out
from somewhere above Harry and the others, straight at the wild
Bronzeback. It narrowly missed,
and hit the glowing barrier above the amphitheatre. The barrier
glowed brightly for a split second,
then dissolved and faded away.
The Bronzeback gave a scream of anger and swerved, almost hitting
the cliff below the Lookout
Point. In a twinkling, all the swifts, including the Queen, flew
up out of the amphitheatre, and were
gone.
Everyone on the ground was silent for a moment, watching in
disbelief. Another bright beam of
light shot out at the circling Bronzeback. It missed again, and
smashed into the birdcages. They
cracked, and the swifts inside all flew out.
Shan was now rapidly guiding the Bronzeback away from Harry's
end of the amphitheatre,
fleeing from the source of the beam of light. Robert raised a
bright Shield around the entire
Bronzeback. A wave of angry murmurs was running through the students
now, and they were
all on their feet, looking up at the summit above Harry and the
others.
Another beam of light shot out from that direction, straight
at the fleeing dragon. It sliced
through Robert's Shield, and smashed straight into the Bronzeback.
The Bronzeback screamed in agony, and then it was falling.
Down, down it plunged, diving
head first into the sea of cloud, Shan and Robert still clinging
to its back.
Harry and the others were on their feet too, watching in shock.
Lady Wen-Li stood up. She
looked pale, and very angry. Half the teachers sitting with her
had got up as well, and were
swarming angrily up to the summit to look for the attacker. The
other participants, who had
been watching from the Lookout Point, mounted their dragons and
were also flying over.
Lady Wen-Li and the rest of the teachers and students were
making their way to the bottom
of the amphitheatre, Harry and the others following.
"Oh, they have drowned!" wept Pixie, almost hysterical.
"Don't be idiotic, Pix," said Ron, hurrying down
in front of her. "The clouds can't even make
you wet. How on earth can anyone drown in them?"
To Harry's relief, as he reached the edge of the clouds, he
saw Shan and Robert's heads
come up in the distance, bobbing up and down.
One of the other Green Dragon riders flew her Bronzeback over
to them, and pulled them
out. As they came back to land, Harry saw that the Bronzeback
was WindStar.
"What happened to the wild Bronzeback?" asked Hermione, looking rather worried.
They wanted to make their way to the front, where Shan was,
but all the other students had
pushed forward, and they couldn't get through.
Lady Wen-Li raised her wand and pointed it at the sea of cloud.
The clouds rose up in the
air and began drifting up the sides of the amphitheatre, back
to the coast again. The floor of
the crater was now visible, and the wild Bronzeback could be seen.
It was lying motionless
some distance from them, its head thrown to one side.
Some of the teachers were making their way toward it. The Green
Dragons were now
crowding around Shan and Robert, so Harry just sat to one side
with the others, waiting
for things to calm down.
Presently, the teachers came back, and those who had gone to
the summit to look for the
attacker also gathered there. Fatty pushed his way through the
crowd to find out what was
happening. He came back a while later, looking sober.
"Dragon's dead," he said. "No wounds on it.
Not even a broken bone, because the clouds
broke its fall. They couldn't find the attacker either. He or
she must have Disapparated.
Must be the person who's been killing all the dragons. Tournament's
cancelled, as well.
Lady Wen-Li is furious - she's forbidding anyone to go anywhere
near the Caverns from
now on."
"Are Shan and Robert all right?" asked Hermione, looking anxious.
"Shan's more upset about the dragon than anything,"
said Fatty. "Robert just looks like
Robert."
The teachers were making their way back up, out of the amphitheatre.
After a while, the
students all stopped crowding around Shan and Robert as well,
and went off. Harry and
the others promptly went over to them.
As Fatty had said, Robert was looking as calm as ever, but
Shan was rather pale. She
stood up when she saw them, brushing dirt from her robes.
"Yes, yes, we're fine," she said, obviously not wanting
them to make a fuss. "Let's just
go back. WindStar's still around - we can hitch a ride."
There wasn't enough room on WindStar, as the other Green Dragon
riders were there,
so Fatty, Ron and Pixie decided to walk, while the rest mounted
the dragon and flew back.
Shan was quiet all the way back to the Caverns. When they arrived
there, Hermione,
feeling that Shan probably wanted to be left alone, said she was
going to the library - Harry
assumed she must have found some books in English there - and
Chee Chong decided to
bring Chester for a walk, so the remaining three walked back to
the Pagoda.
Robert was his usual silent self, and Shan didn't speak until
they had reached the top of the
spiral staircase. She then gave a small sigh, and turned to Harry.
"Sorry the tournament had to end this way, Harry,"
she said, looking sober. "It normally
doesn't, you know. There's always a big party after that."
"But - you more or less won, anyway," said Harry.
"You tied with Yellow Dragon on
points, and you almost caught the Queen."
She just sighed, and shook her head, then looked gloomily at Robert.
"First time we haven't won the trophy, in four years," she said, with a rueful smile.
"That means I don't have a birthday present for you, this year," remarked Robert.
She looked at him, then laughed softly.
"I've told you countless times, there's no need - and
you ought to keep the money for
a change, anyway."
She turned, and went off to the girls' dormitory to change her robes.
Robert stood there, looking after her, then noticed Harry looking curiously at him.
"My family's not well off," he explained to Harry,
"so I usually can't afford to get Shan
a present for her birthday. I normally let her keep the prize
money instead." He turned
back to look at Shan's disappearing figure, then gave a small
shrug. "Looks like I'll have
to find something else, this year."
"You could conjure something up for her," Harry suggested.
Robert was still looking after Shan.
"Maybe," he said. He took his glasses off and cleaned
them on his muddy robes, his
expression thoughtful.
"What she needs, I can't conjure up, and money can't buy,
anyway," he said absently,
as if talking to himself.
Harry looked at him, puzzled. "What would that be?"
Robert put his glasses on again.
"Self-worth," he said. And after that he lapsed back
into his usual silent self, and refused
to say another word.
Shan was so fond of dragons that Harry expected to see her
looking upset over the next
few days, because of the killing of the Bronzeback. However, on
the evening of the
following day, she appeared before dinner looking rather excited,
and took him to one
side.
"A wild Silverwing has moved into one of the end caves,"
she whispered, with a conspiratorial
air. "I'm going to try flying it later tonight. Want to come
along?"
Harry looked at her, surprised.
"Are you still going to the Caverns?" he said.
"What about Lady Wen-Li's orders? Wait a day
or two, Shan. They might catch the killer. The Silverwing'll probably
be around for a while."
"There's no guarantee of that!" she hissed, looking
impatient. "I'm not going to let this chance
slip. I've been waiting for this Silverwing for years!"
She tugged excitedly at Harry's sleeve.
"Come on, Harry!" she said, her eyes eager.
"Robert won't come - he's flown with me too
often. I tell you, there's nothing like flying a Silverwing! It
can Apparatethere's nowhere
that it can't bring us, tonight!"
Her enthusiasm was infectious, and Harry, looking at her, began
to feel excited as well.
Surely there was no harm in taking a short flight. The killer
must know that everyone was
looking for him, and was probably miles away by now. The prospect
of sneaking out of
the school in the middle of the night to fly a wild dragon that
could Apparate seemed very
inviting. So he agreed, and later that night when the rest had
fallen asleep, he took his
Invisibility Cloak, and met Shan outside the dormitory. They put
the Cloak on, so that
the green watch-dragon would not notice them leaving the Pagoda,
and made their way
through the grounds, and over to the Caverns.
-