The Search for the Red Dragon - James A. Owen [19]
“All day?” said John. “It only took us a few hours to get to London.”
“That’s what it seemed like to you, maybe,” Charles shot back.
“She’d come from the Archipelago seeking me,” said Jamie. “Her grandfather sent her, apparently.”
They quickly told Bert what had taken place during the day, including Laura Glue’s mysterious message, and his features grew very dark. “That’s troubling news indeed,” Bert mused. “I’m as clueless as Jamie about the message—although it was clearly meant for a Caretaker to interpret, and obviously something greater than we know is going on in the Archipelago.”
“The children,” came a small voice. “Someone’s taking all the children.”
It was Laura Glue.
Bert knelt down in front of her. “What do you mean, darling girl? Is that why your grandfather sent you here?”
She nodded, and a single tear fell down her cheek. “Grandfather knew. He knew. He saw them coming in the big boats and knew what was going to happen, so he made me put on Uncle Daedalus’s wings, gave me the flower, and sent me to find Jamie. He said he would know what to do.”
“Who was coming, Laura Glue?” asked John. “Who was your grandfather protecting you from?”
“The men with the clocks in their bellies,” replied Laura Glue, beginning to sob openly.
“Shh, shh, there, there,” Bert told her gently. “It will be all right, my girl. But tell me, these men—how did you know they had clocks in their bellies?”
“Cuz you could hear it,” she said. “When they was coming to get us, you could hear the sound—tick-tock, tick-tock—over and over and over. And they makes noises when they moves, like a principle.”
“Like a car, you mean?” asked Charles.
“I don’t know what that is,” said Laura Glue. “But Grandfather called them the clock men, so…”
“Clockwork men,” said Bert. “This grows worse and worse. They’ve been outlawed in the Archipelago for nearly a decade.”
“You mentioned that you were already headed to see me because of a crisis in the Archipelago,” said John. “That’s not mere coincidence, is it?”
“No, I’m afraid it isn’t,” Bert said somberly. “A great catastrophe has befallen the Archipelago.”
“Is Aven all right?” Jack asked quickly, recalling his recent dreams. “Has she—uh, the queen—been hurt?”
“You’re three steps ahead of me, young Jack,” answered Bert. “She’s fine, mostly—but she’s smack in the center of the crisis. Crises. One of the crises, anyway.”
“Just how many, um, crises are we dealing with, Bert?” Charles asked.
“All in one and one in all, it seems,” said Bert, “and what the child has just told me only confirms my worst fears—that the crisis that began it all, and happened slowly enough that no one knew it was happening until it was over, may not be over after all.”
“What crisis, Bert?” asked John.
“Someone has stolen all the Dragonships,” said Bert. “They’re all gone, and no one knows where.”
“Gone?” exclaimed John. “How can someone have simply taken them? After all, they have wills of their own—I don’t think a Dragonship would go anywhere it didn’t want to go. Not easily, anyway.”
“That’s part of the mystery,” said Bert with a sigh. “There are no signs of struggle, or damage, or even cut anchor lines. The ships have simply disappeared. We think the Green Dragon went first, then the Violet…but there’s no way to really be sure. It didn’t take much longer to confirm the others—the Orange, Yellow, and Blue dragons—were also gone. Even the White Dragon is missing.”
“And the Black Dragon?” queried Charles. “What of it?”
“Ordo Maas dismantled that beast long ago,” Bert said with a shudder. “And good riddance, I say.”
“Why was the Indigo Dragon spared?” asked Jack.
“She’d been completely rebuilt as an airship,” Bert replied. “I think she was either just overlooked, or she no longer suited the thief’s purposes.”
“You haven’t said how Aven is involved,” noted Jack.
“That’s how we began to discover the missing children,” said Bert. “The prince—Aven’s son—was aboard the Yellow Dragon when it disappeared. In fact, every place a Dragonship has vanished, many of the local children have