The relationship between ten-year-old reptile enthusiast, Aleth, and her scheming guardian, Hannadrasp, becomes dangerous when Hannadrasp tricks Aleth into stirring up a Dragon. Unaware of Hannadrasp’s secret purpose, Aleth tries to atone for the destruction her mistake has loosed upon the town of Mirrogarden.

…

On the eve of her tenth birthday, Aleth is lizard-hunting with her friend Werner when a ball of red flame appears for a few moments over the woods of Mirrogarden Town.

Aleth’s guardian Hannadrasp (representative of the King’s Justice to Mirrogarden) convinces the honorable men of the town (including Werner’s father, Dr. Vegter) that it is not their place to interfere in the business of the heavens. Since the fire doesn’t seem to have spread, the town goes to bed instead of investigating, which is what Aleth wants to do.

Hannadrasp tells Aleth about the obsolete custom of the “eleventh year quest,” claiming that it will help her to gain the distinction she needs to be presented at court when she is older. On the morning of her birthday Aleth discusses this idea with Werner and with Old Krish, the elder of the lizard colony in her garden. Werner, who has begun acting as if he is too old to be Aleth’s best friend anymore, declines to be involved. After he leaves, Old Krish tells Aleth of a rumor that the King of Reptiles has come to Mirrogarden. She decides to quest for this King, as much to prove something to Werner as to satisfy her own interest in reptiles. She foolishly flees down the Reptile Trail, supposed to be off-limits to humans.

After she leaves, Dr. Vegter happens to see Hannadrasp talking secretly to Old Krish. This is strange because Hannadrasp has always claimed to be unable to speak to animals. Eventually he leaves the Town and and walks an hour to talk about his suspicions with Mr. Ping, a reclusive friend and fellow Honorable Man of Mirrogarden.

Meanwhile, Aleth stumbles upon a secret “fire meadow” hidden in the woods. This meadow is filled with rare red flowers, berries, trees, and grasses, almost appearing to be ablaze. There she meets the King of Reptiles: a scarlet Dragon, the most beautiful and largest reptile Aleth has ever met. As a reptile enthusiast she’s thrilled, but as a ten-year-old girl she’s frightened, especially when the Dragon wants to know why the town hasn’t brought him an honorary meal yet and threatens to eat her.

The conversation doesn’t go well, and Aleth flees back to town. But the Dragon gets there before her, burning all the crops in order to roast alive whatever animals are in the fields.

Hannadrasp takes charge of the situation, insisting that only Justice can help them. The Dragon’s heart, she reveals, is a cluster of living gems, contained in a heartsack hanging from the Dragon’s chest. In it is stored all the virtue of everything that the Dragon has ever stolen. If the person who angered the Dragon can slice off that heartsack and bring it back, they can plant the cluster of gems in the ground and all will be restored. The Mayor reveals that Aleth is the one who stirred up the Dragon, and Hannadrasp heartlessly insists that her charge carry out the impossible task.

Aleth walks bravely enough back into the Reptile Trail, but once out of sight of the town, collapses in despair. Werner, remorseful for the part he played in the disaster, first looks for his father, whom he cannot find, and finally borrows his father’s medical bag, hoping that they can use some of the instruments to retrieve the Dragon’s heart. The two lay plans till sunset, and then make their way back to the meadow where they find the Dragon singing his Setting Song to the Sun. Aleth realizes that however wicked the Dragon may be, she does not want the beautiful King of Reptiles to die.

Werner and Aleth pretend to be Reptile Physicians, and Werner seizes an opportunity to slice off the heartsack with one of Dr. Vegter’s knives. In turn, Aleth saves the Dragon’s life by putting a small gem from the heartsack into the Dragon’s mouth as he lays bleeding to death. He shrinks terribly and loses his wings, but is ultimately transformed into a Salamandral - an immortal Fire Lizard. He surrenders as Aleth’s captive, on his honor to be released only when she determines that all damage has been corrected.

They wash and sleep in the meadow that night, and in the morning bear the Dragon’s heart and the Salamandral back to the town. The honorable men are ready to discuss planting the heart, but Hannadrasp, who seems surprised to see Aleth still alive and even more surprised to hear about the Salamandral, insists that Justice demands she, Hannadrasp, be the one to dispose of the heartsack. Then, instead of planting the heart, she takes it into Aleth’s house, locking Aleth and everyone else out.

Aleth, the Pings, and the Vegters retire to the Vegter house to discuss possible plans of action. Their discussion is interrupted by the arrival of a bedraggled messenger from a Town to the south on his way to petition the King for assistance. His town and many others, he reveals, were also damaged by the Dragon on his way to seek the fire meadow. Hearing that the Dragon is no more, he rejoices.

But his arrival brings up an important point to the Honorable Men: other towns are also in need of the restorative powers of the Dragon’s heart. The men decide that they cannot allow Hannadrasp either to plant the entire heart in their own town, nor to keep it for herself.

The next morning the men assemble before Aleth’s door to speak to Hannadrasp. Before they can knock, however, the door opens and thousands of reptiles pour out, hissing at everyone and biting anyone who tries to shoo them away. Hannadrasp proceeds to the Green in the middle of the reptile mob and rings the bell to assemble the town.

As representative of the King’s Justice, she insists that every citizen must eat one gem of the heartsack. Whatever he has done wrong, she says, the virtue of the Dragon’s heart will punish it.

The people weep and clamor for their crops back, but Hannadrasp is adamant. Only Justice can save the town, she says. The food will take care of itself later.

Dr. Vegter does not think that Hannadrasp believes what she is saying, and very wisely suggests that Hannadrasp eat the first gem. She agrees to eat the second, if Aleth will eat the first. After all, she says, Aleth is the one who truly needs to be punished for bringing all this evil upon them. The people, enraged and frightened, agree with her. Aleth, weeping, tells them all she is sorry for her foolish behavior in stirring up the Dragon. Dr. Vegter insists that she not eat, but reptiles surround her and carry her to Hannadrasp. Dr. Vegter is bitten by several poisonous snakes in the scuffle.

When Aleth swallows a gem, she falls to the ground as if dead. Werner is distraught but he is kept from any foolish actions by Mr. Ping, who is waiting for an opportunity to do something helpful. Hannadrasp is exultant and claims that Justice has decreed the death of the one who brought evil into their midst. She unwisely goes on to declare that all Aleth’s land and property are hers now, and Dr. Vegter, dying, tells Ping that he believes Hannadrasp set everything up in order to seize Aleth’s posessions. Werner stays with his father while a few other men arm themselves.

Suddenly Aleth stands up. She has grown taller than Hannadrasp and more beautiful a lady than anyone ever saw. Treading without harm over the reptile mob, she touches Dr. Vegter and heals him. Everything she touches, if it has been broken, bruised, wounded, diseased, burned, ravaged or destroyed, is restored. The armed men capture Hannadrasp as, trampling on the reptiles, the townspeople carry Aleth all over Mirrogarden to heal the land, water, houses, and creatures. At every touch some virtue goes out of her. At the end of the day Aleth is merely a ten-year-old girl again but Mirrogarden is well.

At midnight, Hannadrasp confers secretly with Old Krish, who had shrewdly directed the reptile mob from the safet of Aleth’s garden, and so was not captured, killed, or driven off in the meantime. Hannadrasp promises him that if he brings her part of the Dragon’s heart, she will make him the next Reptile King once she eats it and becomes invincible. The old lizard slips into the Mayor’s house and steals as much of the Dragon’s heart as he can carry.

The next morning the men come to load Hannadrasp into a cart, wrists and ankles loosely bound, to carry her to the King for judgment. Perversely waiting till the last moment, Hannadrasp swallows the gem from the Dragon’s heart, crying out that she will be the greatest lady in the land. However, what actually happens is that she begins to shrink. She shrinks away until she is a tiny wrinkled person the size of a man’s finger - the size of the Salamandral, who becomes her jailer.

The Vegters and Aleth, leaving trustworthy men in charge of their crops, travel all over the land planting bits of the Dragon’s heart wherever devestation has occured. Over half the heart remains as winter approaches, and they travel to the King’s court where Aleth becomes the youngest outlander ever to be presented at court. She gives the Dragon’s heart to the King, who promises to make it available whenever his lands are in need. Aleth sets the Salamandral free on the Winter’s Soltice. He takes Hannadrasp with him as a maidservant, because she is no longer able to deal successfully with her own kind. Aleth and the Vegters travel back to Mirrogarden in the spring, where all is prosperous for many years afterward, and Dr. Vegter takes Hannadrasp’s place in Mirrogarden until Aleth is old enough, when she becomes a more renowned and wise lady than her guardian could ever have made her.

I’m nearly finished writing this. Finding myself getting stuck at the crisis, which is where I usually lose all the threads of the story and give up on it, I decided to write this synopsis to make sure I finish this time. Does the book sound interesting to anyone? I think it will come in at about 20,000 words. That length and the age of the main characters suggest a middle-grade novel. But I’m afraid it’s not “high-concept” enough.

It was partly inspired by the following poem.

The Little Salamander
by Walter De La Mare

When I go free
I think ‘twill be
A night of stars and snow,
And the wild fires of frost shall light
My footsteps as I go;
Nobody - nobody will be there
With groping touch or sight
To see me in my bush of hair
Go dancing through the night.