Dragon Keepers #3: The Dragon in the Library (13 page)

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"Catacombs are cool. They're basically underground graveyards. I've been to catacombs in Rome and Mexico. They've got cubby holes in the walls crammed with old bones and mummified remains."

"That's all we'd need!" Daisy said sarcastically. "Let's just get on with storming the castle, okay?"

"Okay," said Jesse. "I was only trying to have a little fun."

"We're not here for fun," said Daisy, a deep frown creasing her brow. "We're here on Dragon Keeper business."

"Dragon Keepers can have fun," Jesse said under his breath.
What's with Daisy?
Except for the time she was coming down with chicken pox, he had never seen her act so grumpy. It made him grumpy just to be around her. He continued down the winding stairs, his sneakers soundless on the smooth stone steps, until he came to the bottom. The narrow hallway ahead extended a few yards and then ended at a stone wall, with passageways branching off to the right and left.

"Looks like we've run into a
T
intersection here." Jesse stopped and turned to Daisy and Emmy. "Right or left?" he asked.

"Impossible." Daisy went alongside him and held her glowing stone over the notebook. "See for yourself," she said. "There's no
T
here."

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Jesse said, "Well, I'm looking at a
T
in this passageway. Are you sure you copied the plans down right? You were in a rush."

Daisy scowled. "Of course I copied them down right!"

"Well, I'm only saying...," Jesse said, moving the stone of light first one way, then the other.

"And
I'm
only saying," said Daisy, narrowing her eyes, "that I copied down exactly what was in Balthazaar's notebook, and the underground passage went in a straight line to the castle. No
T."

Jesse folded his arms across his chest.
What's her problem?
It's not like she was cutting wings. "Fine!" he told her. "But that doesn't help us figure out which way to go, now, does it?"

"Why are you looking at
me
? Why do I always have to be the one to make the decisions?" she said.

"Maybe because
you're
the one who gets all grumpy unless it's you making the decisions," Jesse said. "Listen to yourself! You are being
so
grumpy right now. Isn't she being a grump, Emmy?"

Emmy turned her head away to avoid taking sides.

"A grump?" Daisy said. "At least I'm not a worrywart like some people I could name!"

"Grump."

"Worrywart."

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"Bossy."

"Wimp."

"Meanie."

"Wuss."

Emmy stepped between them. "No name-calling. Remember, sticks and stones can break your bones, but worms can never hurt you."

Jesse was so steamed, he didn't even bother to correct her.

Emmy added softly, "Keepers, we are in this stinky secret passageway and we need to find out which way to go to get into the castle. So please stop being rude to each other and think. Remember what Balthazaar said. We need to use our brains. Both lobes. Or, in my case, all five."

Daisy threw up her hands in disgust. "You're so smart, why don't
you
decide,
Dragon Brain
?"

Jesse stared at Daisy in astonishment. It was one thing to be rude to him. But there was no excuse for being rude to Emmy. It didn't, however, seem to bother Emmy in the least.

"Okay!" she said graciously. "Let's see: Jesse's toe is pointed right, so I say we go right."

"Thank you, Emmy," Jesse said with exaggerated politeness as he led the way down the passageway to the right. Something came into view up ahead. At first he thought a woman was standing in

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their path, but then he saw it was a pillar with a woman's head carved into it. It was so creepy! The details in her face were strikingly lifelike--and somehow familiar, as he moved closer. The expression on her face was unnerving. Her eyes and mouth were wide open in a terrified scream. Farther down the pillar, two hands emerged from the stone. The longer he stared, the more he thought the face looked exactly like the nosy woman's who lived across the street.

"Hey, Daze, doesn't she look like Mrs. Nosy-Britches?" Jesse asked.

Daisy flicked it a glance as she passed by. "Not really," she said.

Jesse walked on, but froze on the balls of his feet when a blood-chilling scream echoed along the passageway at his back.

"Help, police! It's a dragon! A real, live dragon, I tell you! After it!"

Jesse swung around and looked at Daisy and Emmy.

Daisy was clutching her elbows and her teeth were chattering in her head. "W-w-why are we stopping?
Again?"

"Didn't you...?" Jesse started to say.

"Didn't I
what
?" Daisy asked snappishly.

Her nose was running and her lips were nearly

146

blue, but it was obvious to Jesse that she hadn't heard the scream. Nor had Emmy. Both of them stared at him expectantly, impatient for him to move on. Only Jesse had heard the scream. He turned around and faced front.
Or had he?
He stuck a pinky first in one ear and then the other and whirled it around vigorously. "I'm really starting to
hate
it down here."

"And I suppose you think I love it?" he heard Daisy mutter testily under her breath. He didn't like her tone, but he didn't want to start again, so he said nothing more.

They rounded another bend and all three of them stopped and sagged in dismay against the stone wall.

"You're kidding!" said Daisy.

"Give me a break," Jesse said.

They held their glowing stones up high to see better. Before them lay a vast chamber, filled with what looked like an acre of short walls forming different shapes--slight curves and hard
L's
and
U
's and
S
's and looping curlicues--set at odd angles, forming passageways.

"I know what this is," Jesse said slowly. "It's a maze." Even in activity books, with a pencil in his fist, Jesse didn't like mazes.

Daisy blew the hair out of her eyes. "I suppose

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you're going to tell me that this isn't in the plans, either?"

Jesse shook his head slowly. "Nope," he said. "Okay, Emmy, which way now?"

Emmy looked around the maze. "Let's see...I like...
that
way...over by that wall, there," she said, waving a talon in the direction of a short curved wall that was covered with a colorful mural.

Jesse nodded and led them all past the curved wall. After seeing (and hearing) the scary screaming woman (who may or may not have been Mrs. Nosy-Britches), Jesse didn't want to look too closely at anything else in that place. Nevertheless, he felt his eyes being pulled toward the mural.

It showed a scene that looked familiar. He realized with a start that it was a painting of the small village in Tanzania where his parents were. Here was the hut where his parents lived, and there was the long, low tin roof of the clinic. And there was the bush in the background. He turned away quickly and shook his head.
That can't be
. The others filed right past the mural without even looking. Couldn't they see what he saw?

He grabbed Daisy's arm. "Look!" he said, pointing to the mural.

She turned her head. "So?" she said. "It's a painting of dogs playing poker. What about it?"

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"It's a picture of my parents' village in Africa," Jesse insisted.

"Poker game," Daisy said.

"Africa," Jesse said.

"Poker game."

"Africa."

"Keepers!" Emmy broke in. "It's a blank wall. You're both seeing things that aren't there. Beware."

Uh-oh. We are in big trouble now
, Jesse thought. He led them onward into a small circle of pillars, each one--like the one he had seen earlier--having a lifelike face carved into it. The first one Jesse came to was a woman with curly hair poking out from beneath the bill of a baseball cap. When he saw the curl in the bill and the team logo on the front of the cap, he gaped. It was his mother's lucky Boston Red Sox cap, the one she always wore--with her lab coat and scrubs and her bright red high-top sneakers--whenever she went to work in the clinic. As he watched, the eyes of the statue widened, and then the face smiled. Jesse pointed at her and stuttered, "M-m-m-m--"

The statue's mouth opened and spoke: "Oh, Jesse, baby! Daddy and I have missed you so much. You need to come back to us. Aunt Maggie called, Jess, and do you know what she said? She said you and Daisy have been fighting and you need some

149

time apart. She says you've been a rude and sullen kid lately--a real junkyard dog. Nobody's blaming you, Jess. You're just homesick. I hate to say I told you so, but didn't I tell you this would happen, sooner or later?"

"N-n-n...w-w-w--" Jesse still couldn't get a single word out. All he could think was
How did my mother get down here?

Ignoring his distress, Jesse's mother went on. "I know you've done your best to make this crazy arrangement work, and you've done a great job so far. But it couldn't last, don't you see? Daisy is a growing girl. She needs some girlfriend time. So does Emmy. Emmy's reached the age when a he-Keeper is really inappropriate. She needs a she-Keeper now, not you. But
I
need you, Jess, so come home. Now!" Two arms poked out from the stone and reached for him as if she wanted to draw him into the stone with her and back to Tanzania.

Jesse turned to Daisy. "Is it true?" he asked.

"Is
what
true?" Daisy looked at him strangely.

"Please explain why we have stopped again," said Emmy.

"My mother," he said, pointing to the statue.

"What?" Daisy asked in utter bafflement.

"My mother just told me you're sick and tired of me visiting and you need girlfriend time!" he said,

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his voice tightening. "She said Emmy needs a she-Keeper and now I can't be her Keeper anymore."

"How could your mother be down here? And how could she know about Emmy?" she said irritably. "Jesse Tiger, what in the Sam Hill are you talking about?" The tips of Daisy's pointy elfin ears were an angry red.

"My mother is here," Jesse insisted.

Daisy stamped her foot impatiently. "We don't have
time
for this, Jess," she said. "Look around you! Can't you see what's going on!"

While they had been arguing, the pillars had gradually moved closer together. Now not even Daisy could fit her body through the spaces in between them. "We're trapped!" she said.

But Jesse was determined to get Daisy to see what he saw. He gestured toward the pillar. "Why don't you ask her yourself."

"Fine!" Daisy barged past him and squared off with the statue. Jesse was wacky. Not only was this not her aunt Judith, Jesse's mother. It wasn't even a woman! It was clearly a man...with a spiky beard and a dapper bow tie. Daisy's eyes widened and her voice dropped to a whisper. "Professor Andersson? Is that you?"

She reached up and touched the face. It came to life beneath her hand.

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"Thank you, child. It is, indeed, I," said the stone lips of the professor.

"Really?" she said to him.

"Would I lie?" he said.

"We're stuck in this circle," she said. "Professor, please, tell us, how do we get out of this maze!"

"I'm afraid that's not possible, my girl," said the professor.

"Why not?" Daisy asked.

"This plan of yours has roundly backfired. I appreciate the effort you have made to free me, but once again, you have placed your dragon in the path of gravest peril. And you have no one to blame but yourself."

"Oh!" was all Daisy could say. Her lower lip was trembling so badly, she couldn't speak.

The professor went on. "I suspect that Jesse, if given half a chance, would have come up with a far more prudent plan. But you never give him a chance, do you? That's because you have a fatal flaw: you are incapable of listening to others. Because you are incapable of real sharing. Real sharing requires heart, and that, dear girl, you are sadly lacking. Jesse has heart to spare, and that is why he is the real Keeper, and you, I fear, are merely an interloper."

"Stop it!" she burst out.

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"Stop what?" Emmy asked in a small voice. "Jesse, Daisy, get ahold of yourselves, please?"

Tears stung Daisy's eyes. "Can't you see the professor?" she asked Emmy.

Emmy shook her head sadly. "No," she said. "I see nothing. I see a stone pillar and nothing more."

"It's not stone. It's the professor. And he says I'm heartless and a bad Keeper. Is it true, Emmy?" she asked.

"No. You have a very warm heart and are a very, very, very good Keeper," Emmy said. "Plus you have been very patient with my being such a snapdragon. So I will try to be patient with you and Jesse while you forget to use your brains."

"Why do you like Jesse more than me?" Daisy pressed on. "Is it because he's the one who found you? Is it because he's the one who named you?"

"No, Daisy Flower," Emmy said. "I chose you both because I like you both...the best."

Jesse shouted at Emmy. "No, you don't! You want a she-Keeper! I'm
inappropriate
now that you have wings!"

"Jesse, Daisy, listen to me," Emmy said. "Stop this!"

"Why don't you just admit it!" Jesse shouted. "You like Daisy more than me!"

Daisy shouted over him. "Come on! We all