The Search for the Red Dragon - James A. Owen [76]
And even Pelvis Parsley’s usual sour expression could not hold back the shrieks of delight he uttered when the first incredible dishes began to appear on the tables.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Echo’s Well
Even if it had not been the most exceptional dinner they had ever attended, which it was, the companions would have stayed through to the end just to watch the children use their own imaginations to conjure up the Feast Beasts to clean up the leftovers. The creatures looked like large, furry rats, with great dark orbs for eyes and massive claws that were both threatening and delicate.
The Feast Beasts devoured all the leftover food, then gathered up all the dirty plates and utensils—and ate those as well before scampering away into one of the buildings.
Fred the Goat let out a huge belch and smacked his lips. “Mmm,” he said contentedly. “Tasted almost as good coming out as it did going in.”
John frowned in distaste, but Charles merely laughed, and Jack let out a belch of his own.
Sadie Pepperpot and Laura Glue implored Aven to go with them to see their garden, and the rest of the Lost Boys began playing a taglike game they called Monster and the Frogs while Bert and the three Caretakers retired to Daedalus’s workshop to discuss the recent events that had brought them together.
“Hello, Jacks. It’s good to see you.”
The workshop was what might have been created if Thomas Edison had been allowed to run loose in the British Museum with unlimited resources and a penchant for modernizing old artifacts. There were electrical generators and motors and steam engines wound in and around marble statues, stacks of parchment, and pieces of Roman chariots. Bronze Age armor lay in piles next to archaic telescopes and what appeared to be projection equipment, and in each corner of the expansive room was a brick oven over which hung bubbling cauldrons.
The inventor indicated that the companions should sit in several Greek chairs set near the center of the workshop, while he moved from cauldron to cauldron, inspecting the experiments that were evidently still in progress.
“Laura Glue told us you were Icarus’s brother,” said John. “Pardon my asking, but how is that possible?”
“The man you know as Daedalus had two sons,” the inventor replied. “Icarus and Iapyx. As Caretakers, you are evidently well educated enough to know what befell Icarus, and if any of you are fathers, you can imagine the impact that Icarus’s death had upon him.
“My father was one of the great inventors of history. He developed the art of carpentry, and with it invented the saw, ax, plumb line, drill, and even glue. Although,” he added ruefully, “the methods of using wax as a fixative turned out to be less successful than he’d hoped.”
“He was also a very talented artist, wasn’t he?” asked Jack. “Many sculpted wooden figures that have been found throughout Europe have been attributed to Daedalus—it’s even said that his works have a touch of the divine.”
Daedalus the Younger nodded. “It’s true, they did. And to some degree, he absorbed that from one of his teachers—a legendary builder named Deucalion.”
“Our shipbuilder friend,” Charles whispered to John.
“My father’s problem,” the inventor continued, “was pride. Daedalus was so proud of his achievements that he could not bear the idea of a rival—any rival.
“His own nephew had been placed under his charge to be taught the mechanical arts, and he promptly developed inventions of his own that humiliated my father.
“Daedalus was so envious of his nephew’s accomplishments that when an opportunity arose, he murdered my cousin. And for this crime, my father was tried and punished.”
“How was the boy killed?” asked Jack.
“Father pushed him from the top of a high tower,” said Daedalus. “And as punishment, he was imprisoned there forever, never again to leave.”
Imprisoned? In a tower? At this, John and Charles exchanged a startled glance, but Bert gave no indication that it was significant, and Jack was too involved in Daedalus’s story to notice.
“And your name?” said Jack.
“I’d been the Healer