The First Dragon(58)
“That’s part of the difficulty,” said Edmund. “The way the Zanzibar Gate—the pyramid structure we came through—works is by programming a date or period into it, which we can refine with an illumination of whom or what we’re seeking. But we don’t know anything about the Architect, and if time is separate from history, that’s even worse—because history is what gives us the markers by which we set the dates.”
“It seems to me,” Enoch said, “now that you have explained how your mechanism works, that the answer to your question is very simple.”
“Simple?” Uncas all but hollered at him. “We’ve had the best scowlers and the best minds of all of history tryin’ t’ figure out how t’ make this work for years now. How can it be simple?”
“Decorum, my squire,” Quixote admonished him. “Always decorum, even at the end of all things.”
“Exactly,” said Enoch.
Suddenly the diverse pieces of the puzzle came together in Rose’s head, as she realized what the Maker was trying to tell them.
“The beginning,” she said, excitement rising in her face. “All this time we’ve been trying to figure out exactly when the Architect built the keep, and everyone we’ve met has told us the answer!”
Edmund frowned, still unsure of where she was leading them. “Except all anyone was ever told is that it was built long before their time,” he said. “That it has always existed. Even the Caretakers have said as much—that it was there because it had always been there since . . .” His eyes went wide with the realization.
“. . . since the beginning,” he finished. “Can it be?” he asked Rose. “Can it really be that simple?”
“Nothing is ever simple,” Fred said, looking at his father, “but sometimes, things are easier than we make them out to be.”
“I’m afraid they’ve lost me completely,” Quixote said, looking down at Uncas. “Are you following any of this?”
“I am,” Laura Glue said brightly. “We’ve always worried about how to go back further and further, to find the right place in time when the keep was built, when what we should have been doing was trying to go back before it was built!”
Madoc threw his head back and laughed. “That’s brilliant,” he said, wiping tears from his eyes. “I am overcome.”
Edmund jumped to his feet and pounded a fist into his hand. “It’s too perfect not to try,” he said, almost breathless with anticipation. “All we have to do is turn all the settings to zero and go through the gate. It should allow us to return, right here, at the moment of the keep’s creation.”
“I agree,” said Rose. “We’ve been so worried about who built the keep that we’ve forgotten that it’s just as important when it was built. And if we go to when, we’ll finally find out who the Architect is!”
“That’s what you’ve all been debating?” Archie said as he glided down and landed on Edmund’s shoulder. “I could have told you that much.” He looked at Madoc and made a clucking noise. “Did you learn nothing from my philosophy lectures?”
“This is all very exciting for you, isn’t it?” Enoch said to the badgers.
“You have no idea,” said Fred.
♦ ♦ ♦
The companions bid the Archons farewell and prepared the Indigo Dragon for one final trip through the gate.
“Here,” Enoch said as they climbed aboard. “The visitor, Telemachus, said that when you realized where you needed to go, I should give you this.” He reached out and put the silver watch into Madoc’s hand. “He told me that you had no watch of your own, and so this is yours.”
“You don’t want to keep it?”
Enoch smiled. “I’m a Maker, remember?” he said, stepping away from the airship. “I’ll make more.”
“All right,” Edmund said, rubbing his hands together. “There is nothing guiding us but the settings on the gate, and I’ve set them all for zero. Everyone cross your fingers.”
Fred engaged the internal motor of the airship and urged the goats forward at the same time. Within moments they were going toward the gate, which glowed as Madoc came near, and in a moment more, they were through.
♦ ♦ ♦
At Tamerlane House, the word quickly spread that Poe had some grand revelations to share, and no one wanted to miss out, so the great hall was quickly filled with all the residents and visitors it could hold. Caretakers Emeriti took most of the seats around the table, while the Mystorians filled in the standing room next to the walls. For his part, the detective Aristophanes brought in a couch from one of the other rooms for himself and the Messenger Beatrice, and, surprisingly, a chair for the shipbuilder Argus. Only the half-clockwork men called Jason’s sons, known as Hugh the Iron and William the Pig, remained outside to guard Shakespeare’s Bridge. Hawthorne and Irving went out one last time just to check on them before the meeting commenced, but otherwise, everyone at Tamerlane House was present.