The Shadow Dragons - James A. Owen [27]
“As to the three who were chosen, the Geographica, together with the bracelet given to Cervantes, was passed from one to the other, the better to keep it secret and safe. When one of the three died, another would have been in preparation to take his place. And as Geoffrey of Monmouth did before them, the Caretakers, often writers as much as geographers or scholars, shared a fictitious version of their adventures with the world. I know that Miguel did as much with regards to my stories, if not with his own adventures.
“Spenser went on to write The Faerie Queen, and that feckless thief, Brahe, passed on the Geographica to Johannes Kepler.”
“Few men of science have been chosen to become Caretakers,” said John, “but it makes sense that Brahe passed it to Kepler. Scientist to scientist, as it were.”
“In those bygone days,” said Quixote, “science was about explaining things, and thus was as much an art as anything else. But in later years science became about proving things—when all that was ever really required of science or art was to simply believe.”
“Spenser and a later Caretaker—Wordsworth, I believe—both wrote of Arthur’s sons, Artigel and Eligure,” said Charles. “It’s one of the better volumes in the Histories.”
“You mentioned a Prophecy,” Jack interjected, “and you said it relates to us. How is that? What is the Prophecy?”
Quixote sighed heavily and began again. “As you know, the Imaginarium Geographica was passed on year to year to new Caretakers. It was in the care of one of the most recent of their number, a Frenchman called Jules Verne, in the first years of the twentieth century, when mysteriously, the bracelet of the Lady of the Lake was stolen. For a brief time, the Geographica itself was also lost.
“Soon after, stories of a dark, evil presence that lingered on the edges of the Archipelago, not quite living, yet not dead, began to reappear. An evil waiting for its opportunity to seize power. An evil referred to in veiled whispers only as ‘the Winter King.’ For years the stories had persisted, almost fading away into myth and fable, but now the stories began anew. And this time, the whispers went, the Winter King was not waiting and watching—he was at work. He was building a ship called the Black Dragon, which he intended to use to cross the Frontier and conquer all of the Archipelago of Dreams.
“It was only then that the Frenchman, Verne, realized that the Winter King was no new villain, but an old threat, who had before plunged the worlds into war. And he recalled a Prophecy, made centuries earlier, that should such an evil once again appear, he would be defeated only by three scholars from your world. And from that day forward, Verne devoted all his time and resources to finding and preparing the three for the battle that was to come.”
“What?” declared Jack. “Do you mean us? We’re the three?”
“We were the Caretakers when the Winter King was defeated,” said John, “so it’s possible.”
“But we already defeated him,” Jack exclaimed, “so what does that mean?”
The Caretakers looked to one another in resignation. They all knew it could mean only one of two things: Either the Prophecy Quixote spoke of was wrong, and they hadn’t needed him to defeat the Winter King at all; or he was right, and a final conflict with their greatest enemy was still to come. The old man in the white place had also referred to a prophecy—and that was too unlikely to be a simple coincidence.
“We must take him with us,” Jack suddenly said. “Don Quixote, come with us, please.”
At first John was surprised by the urgent tone in Jack’s voice, but a moment later he realized what his friend’s motive was.
The Keep was still crumbling. And the next tremor would destroy Quixote’s room.
The knight needed no further prompting. He, Rose, and Archimedes gathered a few items in a small knapsack, while the Caretakers conversed near the door, which Jack had propped open.
“His story does make sense,” Jack whispered. “Cervantes was a Caretaker, after all. And we all know Caretakers have fictionalized