Read Online Battle of the Sun by Jeanette Winterson - Free Book Online

river still ran its course. It was the same river. Perhaps his mind was like that river.
    ‘Yes so, Jack Snap,’ said the Dragon. ‘You are like that river.’
    Jack said, ‘The Magus can read my mind too.’
    The Dragon said, ‘The Magus is able to read your mind only when you are troubled in mind. When you are asking yourself a question, or when you are afraid, or when you are in doubt, then he can read you. When you are certain, and if your mind is bold, he cannot. There, I have told you a useful secret.’
    ‘There’s an old man locked in the cellar,’ said Jack, blurting things out as usual. ‘He’s a King, and he said I had to find you and bid you to prepare him a Bath.’
    ‘And if I do that,’ said the Dragon, ‘why, what will you do for me, Jack Snap?’
    Jack stood a long time. He said nothing.
    ‘And your mother is here . . .’ said the Dragon softly, ‘is she not, and your dog?’
    ‘Does the Magus know that?’ said Jack, suddenly anxious in his mind.
    ‘He does now,’ said the Dragon, ‘for your foolishness has told him so.’
    Jack went red. ‘You are the same as him!’
    ‘Not so, Jack Snap, but something of so.’
    Jack turned and tried to stumble away. He felt stupid and angry and scared. Was the Dragon really the Magus and the Magus really the Dragon? Why did the Dragon talk in riddles all the time?
    The Dragon called him back. ‘Jack Snap! I am the only one who can help you.’
    ‘I can’t trust you,’ said Jack, ‘if you are him or of him!’
    ‘I did not ask you to trust me,’ replied the Dragon, ‘and if you knew anything about dragons, you would not trust me. Your trust is not interesting. You want something from me and I want something from you. That is interesting.’
    ‘What do you want from me?’ asked Jack.
    ‘I want the Cinnabar Egg that he keeps in his bedchamber.’
    ‘I don’t even know where he sleeps!’ said Jack.
    ‘He does not sleep,’ said the Dragon, ‘but you will find the Egg and bring it to me. It looks rather like that coconut you have in your pocket.’
    Jack started guiltily. The Dragon knew everything. The Dragon suddenly plucked a coconut from a great palm that grew beside him, split the nut, and gave it to Jack to drink.
    ‘Drink to our bargain,’ said the Dragon, ‘for that is how the race of men seals a bargain.’
    Jack drank, expecting to fall down dead, but the coconut milk was delicious.
    ‘And if I find the Egg . . . and if I bring it to you?’
    ‘Only in the sulphur waters can the Sunken King be set free.’

A s Jack turned to go, the Dragon shot out a long scaly foot, and nearly frightened Jack to death.
    ‘Why so nervous, Jack? Take these, for they will be of some use to thee. Guard them well, with dragon-care.’
    And the Dragon gave Jack seven sunflower seeds. Jack dropped them into his pocket with the coconut. Then he left the way he had come, climbing the strange tree with its mossy branches that led from the Dragon’s lair back up to the house.
    The hallway was as dark as ever. The door to the library was open. Jack crept across the floor and saw the Magus sitting at the stone table poring over a book. He was as still as stone himself, more like a statue than a human being.
    Realising that he had a chance, Jack ran back to the cellar to tell the Sunken King what had happened with the Dragon.
    As he entered the cellar he was talking already. ‘I have met with the Dragon! I must find the Cinnabar Egg, and then he will prepare the Bath.’
    But the Sunken King gave no acknowledgement of Jack’s presence. He remained in his glass tank, but he was fearfully changed. It was as though the waters had begun to claim him, and the outlines of his body wavered and vanished, vanished and wavered.
    Jack went right up to the thick glass and pressed his hands against it to attract the King’s attention. Curiously, for the room was cold, the glass was warm.
    The King raised his head, slowly, slowly, as though he were raising