The Search for the Red Dragon - James A. Owen [85]
Aven lowered her head and swore softly as memories began to flood back to her. John and Charles exchanged knowing glances with Bert, and almost involuntarily they all looked at Jack, who was running gleefully through the apple orchard with the other children.
“It’s the first thing they learn here,” said Daedalus. “The children imagine that the King of Crickets is coming for them, and they all pack beeswax in their ears and hide among the trees and the rocks. Peter would designate a ‘safe’ base, and one by one, the children would make their way ‘home.’ The first one there would then take the wax from his ears and shout at the top of his lungs…”
“Olly Olly Oxen-Free,” John and Aven said together.
On hearing the words, all the children immediately stopped their games and crowed into the air.
“Hey!” Jack called out to John. “You win! Good show, John!”
“Peter saw being the Pan as a noble calling that would allow him to protect children,” Daedalus said, “so that what had happened to Hugh and William would not happen to other children.”
“That’s quite an undertaking for a child,” Bert pointed out, “and a very mature point of view.”
“It is,” Daedalus agreed, “but then, Peter is an exceptional being. In all these centuries, he was the first to come here of his own free will, and the only child ever to discover the Underneath of his own accord.”
“I didn’t know that,” said Aven, “but I’m not surprised.”
Daedalus grinned with the memory. “It was he whom I first made wings for, to help him fly,” he said with no small pride. “His lame leg, remember? He had the spirit for it, and had done such a great thing in coming here, that I felt compelled to help him move as freely as the other children.”
“And after that, you just kept making wings for the Lost Boys,” said Bert.
“Well,” said Daedalus, “you know how children are. Once they saw what one of them had, they all wanted them.”
“Hey!” said Jack, running up to the companions. “Do I get to have a pair of wings too?”
Daedalus knelt down to look him in the eye. “That depends,” the inventor said. “Are you Lost?”
In answer, Jack merely laughed and ran back to the other children.
John folded his arms and turned to Charles. “I think someone has the panpipes,” he said. “That explains everything that’s happened: Peter’s caution with Laura Glue; the warning in Bacon’s History; and especially, the missing children. If someone were using the panpipes against the children, they’d be unable to resist. And none of the adults would even know it was happening until it was too late.”
“Peter was the last to have them, and the only one now living who knew how to use them,” said Daedalus. “I can only assume he was taken when the children were, because we never found him—and he would not have gone willingly.”
“Could he have been entranced as well?” asked Charles. “Since the pipes affect children?”
“Not all children,” put in Charles. “Not if they had beeswax in their ears.”
John snapped his fingers. “That’s why the King of Crickets needed the Clockwork Men—to catch the children who couldn’t be compelled to follow the piping.”
“The children who couldn’t be compelled,” Bert said darkly. “And their leader.”
“Peter hasn’t been a child in years,” Daedalus said, looking askance at Aven. “He decided, finally, that it was time to grow up. And he’s never regretted that choice. He adores his daughter, called Alice Blue Bonnet, and even more so her daughter, Laura Glue.”
“Then he was taken by force,” stated Aven. “And his last act was to send Laura Glue for help.”
“Then we’ve got to help him,” said John, pounding a fist into his hand. “We must. And we have to start by finding the tunesmith who’s causing the trouble.”
“What are you thinking, John?” said