The Shadow Dragons - James A. Owen [59]
Windows rose along two sides, above a second-floor landing and stairway, with massive tapestries hanging in between. Below were a walk-in fireplace and several shelves lined with busts and sculptures amid a number of chairs, which surrounded a long table much like the one in the dining room. As before, John noted that none of the Caretakers took the seat at the head of the table.
“There’s nothing outside that’s this tall,” John said wonderingly as he looked up at the dome. “Have we gone down somehow, below ground?”
“Oh, no,” said Bert. “The earth here is impossibly hard. Just putting in a basement was a trial and a tribulation. This room was built specifically to house the tapestries”—he pointed at the explosions of color that were draped on the walls—“but Marco Polo had underestimated their size when we acquired them from him, and we had a dilemma. So we installed a tesseract, and that’s made all the difference. Isn’t the dome lovely?”
“Nice, very nice,” said Charles. “Egyptian?”
“Hittite,” said Bert. “But you were close.”
Once drinks were poured and all of them had again settled down from the commotion Kipling had caused, Bert called for silence, and Chaucer stood to address them.
“It has been many years since one of our number has turned,” he began, “but we must press forward. Kipling’s betrayal changes nothing.”
“Perhaps he should be flogged,” put in Shakespeare.
“Changes nothing?” Hawthorne exclaimed. “He knows about the girl!”
“They already knew about Rose,” Twain corrected. “What they didn’t know was that there were other players in the game. They didn’t know that John, Jack, and Charles are to play a key role in the final defeat of the Winter King. And they didn’t know that Quixote would deliver the weapon of his downfall. So in my opinion, our mission has not changed—we must protect the girl. She is the endgame.”
“They may not have known all those things,” said Charles, “but we’ve given them something else: We’ve confirmed that we know who our adversary is. The Prophecy itself has confirmed it. In some form, we will be facing the Winter King.”
“And now that they know we know,” said Jack, “he will be making his move.”
“I concur,” said John. “The war in the Archipelago begins right now.”
“I think, given this turn of events,” Chaucer said, “we should bring in the Grail Child and her guardian. We need to have all the players on the board, and we all need to know what everyone else knows.”
Bert signaled to the ravens, and they flew out of the conservatory, returning a few minutes later with Rose, Quixote, and Archimedes in tow.
It took most of an hour to make introductions. Rose was unusually timid, but polite. Quixote was typically formal in his greetings, except when he got to Edmund Spenser. The two men gripped each other’s forearms and laughed. It was a reunion of true friends and colleagues.
“It has been far too long, you old Riddle Master,” said Spenser. “How are you?”
“Riddle Master?” answered Quixote. “Pish-tosh. Without your detective skills, the Sphinx would have defeated me.”
“Hello, Quixote,” said Cervantes.
“Miguel!” Quixote said, shaking his hand. “How goes the new book?”
“I’m almost finished,” Cervantes told him.
“Which new book is that?” John whispered to Bert.
“It doesn’t really matter,” Bert replied. “He always says he’s almost finished.”
When Quixote came to Tycho Brahe, the best they could manage were polite, if curt, nods at each other. Room was made for Quixote to sit next to Spenser, and Rose went to sit between Jack and Charles. A raven flew in and placed a glass of milk in front of her.
“Thank you, Warren,” she said.
“Welcome, miss,” said the bird, bowing its head.
They began by having Quixote relate the tale of the cave on Avalon, and what the Lady Guinevere had said to him regarding their enemies.
“She said a great weapon was being brought to bear against the forces of the light,” he said somberly, “and that we would need a weapon of equal power to combat it. I asked where such a weapon could be found, and in reply she said to seek