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average human adult. Then there were the large yellow eyes that glowed from under the wide-brimmed hat. Not to mention the bulges of his nose and tail, which made it look as though he suffered from terrible growths.
    â€˜This normally works, does it?’ asked Holly doubtfully.
    â€˜Well, tell me,’ muttered Dirk, ‘do I look like the sort of person you want to strike up a conversation with?’
    â€˜No,’ said Holly honestly.
    â€˜Then it works,’ said Dirk. ‘Come on.’ He looked over the edge of the building and, sure that no one was looking, grabbed Holly round her waist and jumped down, landing heavily on the concrete ground without the use of his wings to ease the impact.
    He put her down and they walked quickly to the tunnel entrance, moving with the shadows and avoiding eye contact with passing strangers. Dirk led them down a large spiral staircase that encircled the lift.
    At the bottom they headed down the long tunnelunder the river. The lift opened behind them and a young couple got out.
    Dirk slowed his pace. ‘Let them overtake,’ he muttered.
    As the couple passed they glanced back at them and it occurred to Holly how strange they must look. She tried to act normally but it was difficult with the strange figure in the overcoat towering above her.
    Dirk kept a slow pace and it wasn’t long before the couple had disappeared round the corner. He stopped. ‘Through this door,’ he said.
    â€˜What door?’ asked Holly.
    Dirk pulled an old rusty key from his jacket pocket and pushed it into a hole in the wall, where it looked like a couple of tiles had fallen away. He turned the key and pushed the wall with his shoulder, revealing a door. ‘In,’ he said.
    Holly looked into the darkness then entered. Dirk followed. He pulled the door shut, plunging them into darkness. He turned on a torch and handed it to her.
    â€˜Follow me,’ he said, discarding the hat and coat and disappearing down the dark corridor.

Chapter Thirteen

    The corridor was narrow and winding. Holly could hear their footsteps echoing and the continual swish of the river above them. She kept her eyes fixed on the small circle of light created by the torch, trying not to look into the darkness, where her imagination was able to summon up all manner of scary beasts. She didn’t want Dirk to know that she was scared, so she made up a tune to the rhythm of her footsteps and whistled it to calm her down.
    â€˜Stop that,’ said Dirk.
    â€˜Stop what?’ asked Holly.
    â€˜Whistling. No whistling.’
    Holly hummed the tune instead.
    â€˜Or humming,’ snapped Dirk.
    Holly stopped humming. For a moment she made no noise at all and then in a clear voice she sang the tune: ‘La de da da da da daah.’
    â€˜Look, no music at all, OK,’ said Dirk, turning round. His face was deadly serious.
    â€˜Don’t you like music?’ she asked.
    â€˜No, I don’t.’
    â€˜Don’t dragons have songs?’
    â€˜Oh yes, we have songs all right,’ Dirk said grimly. ‘But for dragons music isn’t for fun. It’s the deadliest weapon of all.’
    â€˜Oh,’ said Holly. ‘Remind me never to go to a dragon disco.’
    â€˜Very funny,’ said Dirk stonily. ‘Come on, there are some stairs, coming up.’
    They continued walking until they came to the top of a flight of stairs, which they followed downwards. At the bottom was a small stone room. Holly followed Dirk in.
    â€˜Hold on to me,’ he said. ‘And don’t be scared.’
    She started to say that she wasn’t scared but got as far as ‘I’m not sc–’ before she was cut short by a strange growling, muttering noise, syncopated by clicks and barks. Before she could ask what it wasshe realised that the noise was coming from Dirk. He was talking, but not in a language that she had ever heard before. This, she supposed, was