The Search for the Red Dragon - James A. Owen [111]
The shadow laughed, and all John could think was that it sounded nothing at all like crickets.
The entrance to the cave was guarded by a dozen children, all dressed in dirty animal skins. Of the beasts he could identify, there was a fat boy in a bearskin, three girls dressed as foxes, two smaller boys dressed as possums, and one boy who had unsuccessfully clothed himself as a skunk and who stood a distance away from the rest.
As Jack approached, the children jumped to attention, raising crude, handmade stone and wooden weapons, but they relaxed immediately when they saw it was a child like themselves.
“Did you bring us anything to eat?” one of the foxes asked. “The King of Crickets keeps f’rgetting, and he hits us if we ask.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t,” said Jack.
“Drat and darn,” the girl said. “I’m tired of standing guard. I want to play a different game.”
“You’re playing a game?” Jack said.
“Yes,” one of the other girls said, nodding. “Do you want to play? I’m Boo Radish. Who be you?”
“I be—I mean, I’m Jack,” said Jack. “What kind of game?”
“There’s a monster inside,” said the skunk boy. “He looks like a normal Longbeard, but he’s a monster just the same, and we have to keep him here, in the cave.”
“So you’re the frogs, then?” asked Jack.
The second fox clapped her hands. “You do know the game! Why didn’t you say you were a Lost Boy?”
The fat bear puffed out his chest. “If we guard the monster, we get to be Lost Boys too.”
“I only just found out I was one,” said Jack. “Can I go in?”
The beast-children moved aside deferentially, and Jack and his two shadows stepped to the mouth of the cave. Not far inside was a frame to which the “monster” the children guarded had been tied.
“I think I have something that belongs to you,” said Jack.
“Thank you for bringing it back,” answered Peter. “Did Jamie send you, then?”
“In a manner of speaking,” said Jack. “I’m one of his replacements. I came with Laura Glue.”
“That’s my girl!” the old man said. “So, Caretaker…would you like to play a game?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Unraveled
The bronze giants were nearly upon them, and the children had begun to panic. The adults were doing their best to maintain order, but it was impossible—there were too many children, and there was no way to organize any kind of defense against so massive an enemy. All the while, Daedalus and the Piper’s shadow merely watched the chaos taking place around them.
Only John kept his wits about him.
“There are no coincidences,” he shouted to Bert over the din. “Even with the Time Storm, we had to have come here for a reason! There has to be a purpose to all of this!”
“What are you thinking, John?” asked Bert.
“This! Look at this!” John said, pointing to the illustration of Autunno in the Geographica. In the very center was an image of a chariot, drawn by two dragons.
“Medea’s chariot,” said Bert. “What of it?”
“Look at the names inscribed underneath!”
Bert looked, and his eyes widened in shock and surprise. One of the dragons was Samaranth, and the other was a green-gold beast called Azer.
They were chessmen that aspired to be continents…
“And look at the shape!” said John. “Look at the entirety of the Underneath! What does it look like to you?”
“Rings within rings,” Bert gasped, as what John was driving at dawned on him. “It’s a giant Ring of Power!”
“Will it work?”
“Where do you think the kings of the Archipelago got their authority?” said Bert. “It had to begin somewhere! Why not here, where the original legends of heroes began? It’s worth trying!”
But it was nearly too late. With thundering footsteps, the bronze giants began encircling the shore, towering above the companions and the children.
Quickly John grabbed Aven and Stephen and explained what he wanted them to do. Then he showed the prince of the Archipelago the Summoning for the dragons and told him to read it aloud.
The giant Clockworks were nearly upon them, trapping them all. There was no escape, either to the hills or to the ships. Unless they did something then and there, there would be no battle.