The Search for the Red Dragon - James A. Owen [103]
At Charles’s best estimate, there were between one and two hundred. The majority of them were Lost Boys, and so there were many happy embraces and reunions with Laura Glue and Aven.
The rest of the children, perhaps thirty of them, were from various islands in the Archipelago of Dreams.
Bert, John, and Charles decided that while Asterius was harmless enough, there was still a very real possibility that the stories of Circe were also true, and none of them wanted to meet the enchantress—especially with hundreds of children in tow.
“She also tended to turn her visitors into swine,” added Charles, “so I’m for leaving here, posthaste.”
“Agreed,” said John. He gestured out over the water. “It’s low tide still, and the next islands are close, in the same district as this one. So I think we can actually walk across.”
Charles clapped his hands. “That’s right! These are the Wandering Isles, where they greet travelers like royalty! What are we waiting for? Let’s go!”
Charles and the two-shadowed Jack took off at a trot across the shallow water, splashing other children along the way. Soon all the children were running and splashing their way across the narrows to the eighth group of islands.
“I think if we had any illusions about this being a stealth operation,” Jack said to Bert, “they’ve pretty much been shattered now.”
The Wandering Isles were very similar to Aiaia, and the heritage of the inhabitants was obvious from the architecture of the Grecian houses and temples that dotted the nearby hills.
The shore was open and well cultivated, and there was evidence of fishermen having been there recently. A large number of chickens bustled about pecking at insects and scorpions.
“That’s a sign of civilization,” said Charles. “A society with well-contented chickens is a well-contented society.”
“You’re a very odd man,” said Bert.
“I get that more often than you’d think,” replied Charles.
“What next?” Aven said to John. “Does the History say where else we need to go, or what we need to do?”
John shook his head and showed her the book. “The pages after the ones about Aiaia have been ripped out. We’re on our own, I’m afraid.”
A peal of thunder rumbled through the air, and several of the children squealed in response.
For the first time since the companions had come to the Underneath, storm clouds began to gather overhead. Black, foreboding, they were an ill omen, and Bert pulled his collar tighter and shuddered as he watched the clouds rolling in.
“This is no ordinary storm,” he said to Jack. “Aven and I have witnessed its like before. This is a Time Storm.”
He pointed skyward, just to the east. “Up above us is the Keep of Time, and as it crumbles, more and more portals into the past are being loosed,” he explained. “They are colliding here, intersecting, with no boundaries and no control. And I believe the center of every crisis we have encountered is here, in this very spot.”
As Bert spoke, the air above them began to shimmer, as if they were viewing a mirage. Suddenly an airplane burst into view, engine screaming.
It was a large silver twin-prop plane, of a make that John didn’t recognize. It roared past, just skimming over the surface of the water, and close enough they could see the face of the woman piloting it and that of her navigator sitting behind her.
A stencilled name on the fusilage identified the plane as a LOCKHEED ELECTRA, but that was all they managed to make out before the pilot pulled up, gained altitude, and vanished to the east over the towers of Aiaia.
“That’s not good, if that was who it appeared to be,” Bert said darkly, “although it’s nice to know she wasn’t actually lost in the Pacific.”
“Who was that?” asked John.
“It doesn’t matter,” said Bert. “What does matter is that the plane came from somewhere in the future—around 1937 or so. Time is starting to fracture.”
“Look,” Charles said, pointing to the east. “Here comes another one.”
They looked, but it wasn’t another plane that was dropping rapidly out of the sky toward the beach.
It was the Indigo Dragon.
The decks