The First Dragon(50)

“The thing is,” Bert said, “the information in the Little Whatsits is almost always spot-on.”

“That,” said Twain, “is precisely why those books are so bloody annoying.”

“It is indeed much like the Little Whatsits,” Poe said, “in that inside its pages is an accounting of all the knowledge of the world that once was. A world that was smaller, and seemingly simpler, and never to be known again except in stories.”

“How did you find this book, Edgar?” Houdini asked.

“I didn’t find it,” Poe answered, “I wrote it.

“Now,” he said, stepping out into the hallway and beckoning the others to follow, “gather everyone together. Everyone. All the Caretakers, and Mystorians, and Messengers; all the helpers, and apprentices, and associates. Everyone at Tamerlane House should attend, because I’m going to do a reading—one I have waited to do since the beginning of the world.

“It is time,” the master of the house said, “for all the secrets of history to be revealed.”

♦ ♦ ♦

“What, pray tell,” Charles exclaimed, “did you do to the poor Indigo Dragon?” He walked around the airship, fondly caressing the battered hull and once-living masthead he knew so well. He and his colleagues John and Jack had shared some amazing adventures aboard this ship, and it pained him to see it made so . . .

“Short,” he said, bending over to examine it more closely. “And it’s got wheels. Sweet heaven, old girl—what have they done to you?”

“It was kind of necessary,” said Fred. “We needed something that could go anywhere, do anything. And the Indigo Dragon has been the greatest Dragonship there ever was.”

“Meh,” said Elly Mae.

“Mahhh!” said Coraline.

“Flying goats,” Charles said, shaking his head. “The more things change, the more they, well, change.”

“We need to get out of here,” Rose said anxiously. “The city is coming apart, and the deluge can’t be far away.”

“Not yet,” said Madoc. “Kipling is still—”

“Right here,” a weary Rudyard Kipling said as he stepped off the staircase and onto the broad plaza where the companions were. “Sorry to have kept you waiting.”

Rose ran to him, giving him a hug, and Edmund greeted him with a warm double handshake—but Charles realized immediately that something was wrong.

“Rudy, old boy,” he said, his face showing open concern. “What is it? What’s happened?”

Kipling sighed. “I’m not coming with you.”

That stopped all of them, even the goats. “Muh?” said Elly Mae.

“I’ve been . . . compromised,” said Kipling. “I can’t—shouldn’t—go with you.”

It was Madoc who realized what had happened. “Your shadow,” he said with a twinge of old sorrow in his voice. “It’s missing, Caretaker.”

Laura Glue and the badgers stared at him, dumbfounded. “What,” the Valkyrie said, “did you do?”

Kipling looked pained, but he managed to smile anyway. “I did something terrible that had to be done. At least,” he added, fishing in his pocket, “I hope it did.”

He withdrew a small envelope identical to the ones that Deucalion had given to Uncas and Fred. The companions rapidly exchanged anecdotes and arrived at the same conclusion.

“Telemachus has made his choice,” said Fred. “He’s decided to join the side of the, um, angels. So to speak.”

“Maybe not,” said Charles, “if he’s also giving instructions that cost Caretakers their shadows.”

Rose, for her part, was still pained by what Fred and her father had shared with her about the true identity of their possible adversary. She still remembered the lost little boy prince, Coal, far too vividly to easily accept that he had been one of Verne’s Messengers in disguise, was a possible apprentice to John Dee, and might be the Archimago destined to hand the entire world over to the Echthroi.

“We’ll find a way to help you,” she said, almost pleading. It felt terrible to contemplate leaving him there after finally seeing some hope—especially with what they all knew was going to happen. “Please, come with us.”

“It’s too risky,” Kipling said. “Ask Madoc. He knows.”

Reluctantly Madoc looked at his daughter and nodded. “If he is now shadowless, then he lost it by his own choice, by his own actions, as Jack once did,” he explained, “and that leaves him vulnerable, as you were. If an Echthros somehow manages to use him as a conduit, then they can follow us anywhere. John Dee already gained access to the City of Jade because of the shadow that you didn’t know had come with you. If we were to find the Architect, and an Echthros was with us . . .”