Dragon Keepers #3: The Dragon in the Library (17 page)

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big to fit through the doorway, but she squeezed in as far as her shoulders. "Hello, Professor!" she said to the mirror. "Come out of there and see my beautiful new wings!"

The professor greeted her with a jovial laugh. "Emerald, you are a constant marvel!"

"You always said I was precocious," Emmy said.

"Let me see!" said Jesse, consulting his wristwatch. "Triangulation should be achieved, Professor, in about...two minutes."

"When she gets here, Jess," Daisy said to Jesse, "beware the patented Ten-Yard Stare."

"Are you kidding me?" Jesse scoffed. "She doesn't stand a chance with me. Haven't I proven that I'm Top Dog?"

"I guess," said Daisy, mustering her hope.

Exactly a minute and a half later, Sadie Huffington stalked up the stairs and slammed into the tower room.

"Ah!" she said as her yellow-green eyes came to light upon Jesse. "We meet again, my little pet."

Jesse's arms flopped to his sides. "Hi," he said faintly.

Daisy's hopes faded as she watched Jesse's eyes turn all glassy.

"Because you've been so good, I've brought you

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a treat," she said to Jesse, as if they were the only two people in the room.

Daisy smelled it before she saw it. The next moment, Sadie Huffington brought out from behind her a big, fat, steaming double cheeseburger. Daisy didn't even like cheeseburgers, but this one smelled delectable. And hamburgers were practically
the
reason Jesse had wanted to live in America. Next to bush-burgers, they were, hands down, his favorite food on the face of the earth.

"Don't eat it, Jesse Tiger!" Emmy warned.

From the mirror, the professor called out, "Danger, Jesse. Danger. It's a bewitched hamburger that you see before you."

That hamburger held Jesse's attention like nothing Daisy had ever seen. He licked his lips and his throat worked, as if he were already swallowing his first bite.

"Sit," Sadie Huffington commanded, holding the hamburger just over his head.

Jesse sat on the floor, eyes on the hamburger, which was running with savory juices.

"Beg," she said, a sly smile twisting her face.

Jesse got up on his knees with his hands dangling beneath his chin.

"Good dog!" Ms. Huffington crooned. She

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pinched off a piece of the hamburger and tossed it to him. Jesse caught it in his mouth and chewed it up.

The next moment, Daisy cried out. In place of her cousin, a small, scruffy brown mutt eagerly awaited his next taste of the bewitched hamburger, his little whip of a tail slapping the floor.

"No!" Daisy yelled. She didn't want a dog for a cousin.

"Heel!" Sadie Huffington said, snapping her fingers and stomping her boot heel.

Jesse's little claws scrabbling on the stone floor, he got up and went to her obediently. She tossed him another morsel. He caught it and chewed it up and licked his whiskery chops.

"Sit!" she commanded.

Jesse sat at her feet and looked up at her, anticipating the next luscious morsel of bewitched hamburger. But the hamburger, which Ms. Huffington now held ever so casually in one hand, inches from his shiny black nose, was too tempting for the poor little fellow. With a furtive movement, Jesse took a tiny nip of it. Quick as a rattlesnake striking a mouse, Sadie Huffington smacked his muzzle. Jesse yelped.

"Dumb mutt. No more treats," Ms. Huffington said to Jesse. Then she looked up, as if noticing

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Emmy, Daisy, and the professor for the first time.

"Ah! How convenient for me to have you all in one place...to dispense of all at once. Into the mirror you'll go, and then I'll smash it to smithereens. All except for the dragon, of course. The dragon is mine."

"You only wish!" Emmy said with a snort.

Ms. Huffington's yellow eyes narrowed. "You, my hatchling, are far too full of yourself. But I'll fix that." She cracked a cruel smile.

"What will you do?" Emmy asked. "Turn me into a dog?"

Daisy was frantically trying to catch Jesse's eye. With all her powers of concentration, she directed the patented Ten-Yard Stare at the little pup's big brown eyes. But it was no use. He wouldn't meet her gaze. His attention appeared to be elsewhere. She turned around. He was looking at Emmy and Emmy was looking at him, giving him her own very special version of the Stare.

"Fetch the backpack, that's a good Jesse-dog," Emmy told him in the gentlest of voices.

Daisy made it easier for Jesse by letting the backpack slip off her shoulders and drop to the floor. Jesse trotted over and picked up the backpack strap in his teeth.

"Bring the backpack to me," Emmy said.

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Jesse dragged the bag over to Emmy and stood away from it, wagging his proud little whip of a tail. During this time, Ms. Huffington appeared to be frozen, either from magic or simply shock, Daisy couldn't tell.

"Very good!" Emmy said. "Now open the backpack."

Just as Emmy the sheepdog had done for Jesse the boy at the library party, Jesse the dog now used his paws and his doggie teeth to pull the tab of the zipper on the backpack.

"Very good. Now, can you find Sadie Huffington's gift?" Emmy asked. "Find the gift, Jesse!"

Jesse stuck his muzzle in the top of the backpack and snuffled around. Meanwhile, Ms. Huffington stirred to life.

"A gift?" she asked. "For me?" All of a sudden, she looked very pleased and very greedy.

"It would be rude of us to come to your castle without bringing a hostess gift," Emmy told her.

Jesse held the silver compact in his jaws, his tail wagging proudly.

"What a good little dog you are!" Emmy said. "Bring the gift to the nice lady, now." Then, from between her clenched teeth, Emmy said to Daisy,
"Nobody calls my Jesse-dog dumb and gets away with it."

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Jesse took the compact to Sadie Huffington, who snatched it from his jaws. Jesse yelped and ran back to stand beside Emmy.

"My Toilet Glass!" Sadie exclaimed with delight. "Wherever has it been all this time!"

"That would be telling, wouldn't it?" said Emmy, suddenly sounding very grown-up and very sly.

They watched as Sadie Huffington opened the silver compact and held the mirror up to her face. She sighed with pleasure.

That was when Emmy's irises began to spin like a set of brilliant green pinwheels. Her nostrils gave off three peppery pink puffs of smoke, which rose to the ceiling and filled the room with a purplish vapor.
"Switch witch!"
she whispered.

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Chapter 11 CHAPTER ELEVEN THE RESCUE

The very next instant, the compact clattered to the floor next to the heap of Balthazaar's coat, which no longer appeared to have Sadie Huffington inside it.

At the exact same moment, Jesse turned back into a boy. Daisy didn't know whether to pat her

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cousin on the head or throw her arms around him and hug him, she was so glad to see him in boy form once again. So she did both, saying, "Welcome back to the human race, Jess." Then Daisy turned to Emmy and asked, "Where did Huffington go?"

"Into the Toilet Glass. I flushed her," Emmy said with an impish grin.

"I feel a little sick," Jesse said, clutching his stomach.

"Don't fret, my lad. The effects of the bewitched hamburger will wear off in no time," said Professor Andersson, stepping out of the mirror as casually as the rest of us exit from a bus.

Daisy was quite taken aback to see him in person. She had always thought of him as being a towering figure, but he was actually a wee elfin slip of a man, no taller than Jesse.

"Thumping good dragon magic, Emerald!" said the professor.

Emmy smiled modestly. "Slight variation on triangulation. Mirror spell combined with switching spell. Easy as cake."

Easy as pie
, Daisy nearly said. But it seemed petty to correct the dragon who had just pulled off such excellent magic.

Daisy knelt by the coat and picked up the Toilet Glass. She looked in the mirror. There was

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Sadie Huffington, looking every bit the witch, making terrible angry faces at her. Daisy shut the compact with a shiver.

"Can she get out?" Jesse asked uneasily.

"No way," said Emmy. "She's stuck like goo."

Jesse grinned happily, and so did Daisy. "Goo" seemed like the perfect word for Sadie Huffington's fix. "Check the pockets of the coat for Emmy's collar," he said.

Daisy found it tucked in one of the big pockets. "Whew!" she said, holding up the collar and kissing the locket. "My mother would have
killed
me if I'd lost this." Daisy reached up and fastened the collar around Emmy's neck.

"Balthazaar is going to jump for joy when he gets his skin back," said Jesse.

"Exactly," said Daisy.

"That's a sight I'd like to see," said the professor with a chuckle.

Then Emmy said sadly, "But what about me?" Her eyes traveled from Keeper to Keeper. "There will be no joyful jumping for me--not until I find my mother."

"Emmy," Daisy chided gently, "we can't just leave this place. We have to help all these poor bewitched dogs and dog-men get back to their normal lives."

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"Don't concern yourselves with them," the professor said with a blithe wave of his hand. "I will take care of everything here. You three run along and do what needs doing. I'll see you back on the Web." The professor strode to the door.

"Wait," Daisy said, holding out the Toilet Glass to him. "Can you take this, please?"

"Oh, dear me, no. That's for your collection. I'd say you've won the witch's head, fair and square," he said, and he disappeared with a jaunty wave.

Giving the Toilet Glass a last wary look, Daisy put it in the backpack.

Jesse shrugged. "Hey, maybe it will come in handy," he said, "like for scaring away rabid rats." Then he looked at his wristwatch. "It's almost dinnertime."

"Keepers!" Emmy said, her eyes growing stormy. "You promised--after we freed the professor, we would look for my mother."

Daisy looked at Jesse. "She's right, Jess."

"I know...but Uncle Joe will be expecting us for dinner," he said uneasily. "I keep remembering how mad he was down in the maze. I'd hate to make him that mad for real."

"We'll stop by Miss Alodie's and call Poppy," Daisy said, "and tell him she invited us over to her place for dinner."

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"And then she'll feel like she has to feed us. Something really
weird
, no doubt," Jesse said. "Hey!" he said with a sudden look of relief. "I think I might be getting hungry again! Is there anything in the backpack?"

Daisy shook her head. "I'm afraid our picnic lunch got a little smashed. We'll grab a bite to eat at Miss Alodie's and then go track down Emmy's mother," said Daisy. "Plan, Emmy?"

Emmy heaved a sigh of satisfaction. "Thank you, Keepers. Now, come out of this tower and climb on board Air Emerald." She backed out the door and onto the ramparts.

"Emmy," Jesse said sternly. "No flying. We're
walking
home. Riding, I mean. We left our bikes outside, and besides, we can't just go flying around in broad daylight. Someone will see us and report a UFO or launch an antimissile attack on us or who knows what? And, in case you haven't guessed, I've had enough excitement for one day."

Emmy shook her head fondly. "Jesse Tiger, can't you guess? Dragon magic will whisk your bikes back home and make us all invincible."

"Invisible
, don't you mean?" Jesse said. "Whoa. First I'm a dog and then I'm invisible. Cool!"

Jesse got down on the floor and rolled up

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the dragon coat, but it was too bulky to fit into the backpack, so he held it under his arm.

Then Jesse and Daisy joined Emmy on the ramparts and climbed onto her back. With a great flap of her wings, they were aloft.

Jesse started to make a joke about being
dog
tired, but the joke died on his lips as they rose higher into the air. To have flown in the Scriptorium was one thing. To fly above a place he had known all his life was something else altogether. It was as if the entire town had all become a vast and intricate toy set, spread out on a quilt in his bedroom. Jesse shouted to Emmy, "Can we take the scenic route, please?"

Emmy nodded and banked to the left. In seconds, the town was behind them. They skimmed over barns and silos, sheds and chicken coops. Jesse wanted to lean over, reach down, and pick up each shiny tractor and truck, brush his palm across the ripening tops of the cornstalks, stroke the miniature black-and-white cows with a pinky. And all the while, he felt a wide-open singing feeling inside of him. For the first time, he didn't feel afraid. It was as if his whole life, he had been a little bit scared about
something
, even when he didn't quite know what that something was. And right now, he wasn't