The Search for the Red Dragon - James A. Owen [74]
As the lights appeared, the companions could see that it wasn’t a desert at all, but an oasis filled with magic. There were pools of water reflecting the glittering homes above, and bridges connecting the towers that moments before had seemed only a mirage, a trick of the light.
It was everything a magic city was supposed to be. And it could only have been created by children, for there was no board or brick of it that would have been imagined by an adult—and when adults saw it, it was not with grown-up eyes, but with the eyes of the children they had once been.
“Well of course you can see it!” Laura Glue said indignantly in response to the exclamations of the others. “I told you it was here!
“We call it Haven.”
At the edges of the city, set within broad stone walls, was a series of grates that were nearly covered over with warning and keep out! signs. Laura Glue ignored them all and marched straight to a grate with a sign that read speake the passwords or be kilt.
Charles leaned toward the grate. “Alakazam!” he said loudly, to no effect.
“Nice try,” offered John.
“Do you know the passwords?” Jack asked Laura Glue.
“Of course I do!” she exclaimed. “You all just got me discombobulated, is all.”
The girl tapped her forehead for a moment and pursed her lips. Then she leaned in close to the grate and began to call out the secret words—and was answered in turn by the voice of a gatekeeper somewhere within.
“Apple core!”
“Baltimore!”
“Who’s your friend?”
“Me!”
There was a gasp and a giggle, then the sound of a creaking, rusty mechanism being turned. Slowly the grate swung inward, and a light appeared in the tunnel below. A puckish face appeared, framed by an explosion of ribboned, light brown pigtails that stuck out in every direction.
“Laura Glue?” the girl with the lamp said, hesitant. “Is that be you, Laura my Glue?”
“Sadie!” Laura Glue exclaimed joyfully, running forward. “Sadie Pepperpot, it is be me! I be coming home, neh?”
“Neh,” replied the girl, giving the evil eye to the rest of the group. “What you bring with you? You bring Longbeards to the city?”
Laura Glue shook her head. “Not Longbeards. Caretakers, like Jamie. We got to take them in, now!”
Still skeptical, the girl turned and trotted off down the tunnel. Laura Glue followed, and Aven went right behind her. The companions brought up the rear, and in a few moments the tunnel gave way to an opening of brick, which came up underneath a large stone fountain of Pegasus.
The fountain was in the center of a courtyard, and there, amidst a dozen children running about, a regal, thin-framed man with curly brown hair and a hawkish nose stood and spread his arms in greeting.
Laura Glue let out a shriek of joy and ran to the man, leaping into his arms.
“Uncle Daedalus!” she cried out. “I did it! I flew! I flew all the way to the Summer Country, and then I flew all the way back!
“And I brung the Caretakers,” she added, “even though they’re not Jamie.”
“You did wonderfully, my little Laura Glue,” said the man, hugging her tightly, then lowering her to the ground. “Why don’t you see if there’s room for a few guests at dinner, neh?”
Still cheshiring from ear to ear, Laura Glue ran off and joined another group of children. Additional shrieks indicated that her greetings were continuing. The man she called Daedalus shook hands with the companions as Bert introduced all of them one by one. When Daedalus got to Aven, he smiled and then kissed her on the forehead.
“My word,” said Charles. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen her blush before.”
“You have been missed,” Daedalus said to her. “It brings me joy to see you again, even though the circumstances be grim.”
Before he could elaborate, Laura Glue came rushing back, trailing a group of children