The Search for the Red Dragon - James A. Owen [87]
“It’s not a second light casting it,” noted Bert, “or else all the children would have two shadows.”
He was right. The other Lost Boys were playing in the same area, but only Jack had twin shadows.
Aven summoned him over, and he ran to the companions, panting.
“That was quick,” said Charles.
“I was tagged out anyway,” said Jack. “Do you want to play with me, Poppy?”
At the mention of her old Nether Land name, Aven blushed. “No thank you, Jack. When did you get the extra shadow?”
Jack looked at her and blinked, then looked behind him, turning around like a dog trying to catch its tail. “Oh, that?” he said, as if she’d asked him why he had two ears or a nose. “It began to follow me after I spoke into the Well.”
“What do you think it wants?” asked John.
“Easy-peasy,” said Jack. “It wants me to follow it.”
“Follow it?” Daedalus said, surprised. “Why didn’t you mention it sooner, Jack?”
“Because,” Jack said, rolling his eyes in exasperation, “I wasn’t out yet.”
The companions retired back to Daedalus’s workshop, bringing Jack with them. Of all the Lost Boys, only Laura Glue chose to come as well, rather than go to sleep.
“I don’t need to sleep too often, ’cept after long flights,” she said. “And my grandfather always said, ‘He can sleep when he’s dead.’ I’m not sure what that means, but if it’s all the same, I’d rather stay with you.”
“Of course, dear girl,” Charles said, taking her hand. “We wouldn’t feel safe without our good-luck charm.”
Jack’s extra shadow continued to dart about at odd moments, as if it wasn’t quite comfortable being attached to someone with a shadow already in residence. It didn’t react when Bert or John tried to touch it, but it swiveled around completely when Daedalus tried to touch it as well.
“Hmm,” the inventor sniffed. “I don’t know if I should be insulted or not, that I repulse a shadow.”
“Where does it want you to go?” John asked when they’d gotten settled into the chairs at the workshop.
“West,” said Jack. “I’m pretty sure it’s west. It’s very curious,” he added, stroking his arms in wonder. “It’s a bit like the chill you might get when a ghost enters a room, except it isn’t cold—it’s warm. Very warm.”
“What do you think?” Bert asked Daedalus, who had busied himself checking his cauldrons. “Is it a good omen or bad?”
“I don’t think it’s an omen at all,” the inventor replied. “I think it’s another message. And it’s one that should not be ignored. To sever one’s shadow is not a task for the faint of heart. If it is gone too long from the body, one could weaken, even die. So for someone to send it, here, now, to Jack—they must want to guide you somewhere very, very badly.”
“What lies west of Haven?” John asked.
Daedalus turned, face lit by the vapors from his cauldron fires. “The rest of the Underneath. The path of Ulysses, and Dante, and Jason. And maybe…just maybe, the answers you are seeking, Caveo Principia.”
The inventor handed John the book he’d read from earlier, there in the workshop.
“This is a History written by one of your predecessors,” said Daedalus. “One of the oldest. It was written by Homer’s son-in-law, the poet Stasinus, thousands of years ago, and it contains what you will need to know about traversing the districts of the Underneath.
“The primary name of these lands is Autunno, which refers to everything found here, but each of the individual islands has its own obstacles and oppositions to overcome.
“The tidal forces here can be immense, as you saw crossing from Croatoan Island,” Daedalus went on. “The inhabited outer lands of the first district are not themselves a true archipelago of islands, but the high ground that exists during the tide. When it’s out, we can go anywhere we like—but when it comes in, as you’ve seen, it becomes impassable.”
“Impossible?” asked John.
“Impassable,” repeated Daedalus. “Others who have traveled here saw the tides as a river. Some called it the Styx, others, the river Lethe. Names have come and gone, but the tides remain.”
“We say Atlas is shrugging,” said Laura Glue.
“I wouldn’t blame him a bit if he did,