The First Dragon(11)

“You did betray us to Dee,” said Hawthorne. “You were a double agent.”

“Triple agent,” said Warnie. “He betrayed Dee and joined you lot after all.”

“Thanks,” said Aristophanes.

“Don’t mention it,” said Warnie.

“But,” Hawthorne argued, “we still lost the Ruby Armor.”

“We would have lost it anyway,” Dickens interjected, “so that really isn’t Steve’s fault.”

“Who is Steve?” Argus asked Uncas.

“Th’ detective,” the badger replied. “It’s his preference.”

“If I had known,” Argus said slowly from the relaxed position where he was leaning against the Duesenberg, “that you people would be this entertaining, I would have agreed to come far more easily.”

“It’s him,” said a voice from the back of the group. “I only met him a couple of months ago, remember? And I know his face. This is Argus.”

The Caretakers parted to allow Bert to move to the front, where he peered more closely at the shipbuilder. “Do you remember me, Argus?”

“I remember,” Argus replied, “that when we last met, you and your companions saved my life. But also that you were much more accepting of who I was and what I claimed to be able to do. After all, you are the ones who sought me out, and not the other way around.”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Jack said, taking the role of host and rushing around the others to shake the shipbuilder’s hand. “We’ve had some security issues around here lately and need to be careful.”

“I understand,” Argus replied. “Thankfully, however, tolerance and patience can be bought.”

Warnie cleared his throat and looked pointedly at Jack and John, then tipped his head at Argus.

John sighed and frowned at the other Caretakers. “I suppose since we’ve already made one deal with the de—”

“Hey, now,” said Aristophanes.

“The detective, I was going to say,” John continued, scowling, “then I suppose we must take this fellow at his word that he is whom he says he is.”

“Not at all,” Argus replied before any of the Caretakers could comment further. He smiled down at Uncas. “Child of the Earth,” he said gently, “do you have a scrap of paper I might borrow?”

“Soitenly!” Uncas exclaimed. He popped open his Little Whatsit, deftly removed a small blank sheet from the pages at the back, and handed it to the shipbuilder.

Argus made no comment but simply began folding the paper over and over, his fingers moving too swiftly to follow, until he had fashioned a small paper dragon. Then he knelt and looked at the ground around him until he finally spied what he was looking for in a patch of grass.

Carefully he reached out and picked up the small black wasp by the body, and again, his fingers swiftly manipulated the folded paper.

When he had finished, he held out his creation. There in his outstretched hand was a miniature Dragonship, with wings and, somehow, the living body and head of the wasp.

The wings fluttered and caught air, and the tiny Wasp-Dragon took flight and disappeared into the trees.

Argus turned to the astonished Caretakers. “Any questions?”

No one moved, or spoke a word.

“Good,” Argus said. “Can we go see the real Dragonship now? We’re old friends, and I’d like to say hello.”





. . . not all the aspects of the Dragon had been shed . . .





Chapter FOUR


Arête



Verne led the group to the large south boathouse, where the Black Dragon had been housed—or rather, imprisoned—for many years, and was once more, but without the locks, chains, and magic wards that had made it a prison.

The ship sat in the berth, rocking gently with the swells of water that rose and fell from the bay outside.

“I never had quite the same knack for it that my master had,” Argus said as he examined the Black Dragon, perhaps rushing forward a little more eagerly than he’d wished to do in front of the Caretakers. “I could build the vessels, but he had the greater affinity for binding them with the beasts. And I just never cared as much as he about the Children of the Earth. No offense,” he added, looking down at Uncas.

“None taken,” said the badger. “If you ever smelled what one of us is like when we gets wet, you’d have given up on th’ idea of letting us on boats altogether.”

The Black Dragon seemed to rise up in the water at the shipbuilder’s touch, almost as if in recognition. This was an encouraging sign to the Caretakers, since, as a ship, only Burton had ever really been able to handle it. But that was also before they learned who the Dragon had actually been before it became merged with the ship.