The Dragon in the Volcano (15 page)

“Let’s see,” said Jesse. “Emsper sounds kind of awkward. Jemmy? How about Jemmy?”

“Jemmy it is, now and forever!” said Emmy.

Daisy growled. “You two are talking tripe again.” But she smiled all the same.

That night, after preparing a rustic runching courtesy of the air fountain, the dragons—Emmy, Mica, Zircon, Galena, Opal, and Citrine—arranged themselves inside the nest in a circle around the fire fairies: Fiero, Flicker, Spark, Cinder, Ember, Tinder, and Kindle. Jesse and Daisy nestled next to Emmy. It was then and there that Emmy and the Keepers delivered the complete report on their spying mission.

They confirmed to the group what Fiero, Flicker, and Spark had already let everyone know: that the Onyx Castle belonged to St. George and that he was the one who had been kidnapping and enslaving the fire fairies. He and Sadra were holding the fire fairies under a Fire Banking Spell, using them to set off explosions and loosen the gems from the grotto walls, then forcing them to
load the loose gems into the gondola hoppers.

“So, Emmy, what’s this about asbestos?” Jesse said.

At Jesse’s words, the fire fairies and even the dragons shrank back and trembled.

Galena put their fears into words. “Folk of the Fiery Realm, dragons and fairies alike, are greatly weakened by this substance you named—asbestos,” she said.

“So St. George imprisoned the fire fairies in a web of that nasty stuff?” Jesse said.

“That he did, Jesse Tiger,” Emmy said.

“Villain!” said Flicker.

“Fiend!” said Opal.

“Stinker,” said Emmy.

“Never mind all the name-calling,” Daisy said. “Can you break the asbest—I mean, Fire Banking Spell, Emmy?”

“I might be able to,” said Emmy carefully, “but it won’t do much good if St. George and Sadra go and zap the fire fairies with tiny deadly plastic alligators and dolphins.”

“I wonder what kind of evil stuff was in those pistols,” Daisy said.

“The most evil of all substances in the Fiery Realm. More evil by far than asbestos,” Fiero said.
“Water.”

“I don’t believe it!” said Galena, her pale-purple eyes going wide with shock.

“Monstrous!” said Opal, fanning herself with a black frond.

Meanwhile, all the fire fairies were flickering
and banging into each other like lightning bugs trapped in a small jar.

Daisy was astounded, until she remembered the lethal pools of water in the jungle. “So a squirt of plain old water was all it took to destroy that fire fairy?”

“As we have already told you, in the Earthly Realm, water will wet you,” Fiero said. “But here, it extinguishes utterly. And now that you have adjusted to life here with us, it will have the same effect on you.”

“You mean it would extinguish
us
utterly?” Daisy asked.

“Snuff you right out,” said Spark.

“Which is why we need to come up with a plan,” said Jesse.

Daisy blew her bangs off her forehead. “I wish somebody would tell me why St. George and Sadra are always so greedy!” she said. “Why can’t they just go and rob a bunch of banks and leave well enough alone?”

“Who is Well Enough?” Emmy wanted to know.

“Us!” said Daisy.

Galena explained, “It’s not a matter so much of greed for riches. It is greed for power. Gemstones are very powerful. Each stone holds within its sparkling facets a wondrous power. Whoever
owns the gem possesses the power of the gem.”

“What kind of power?” Daisy asked as she removed the notebook from the backpack and uncapped the pen.

“It depends upon the gem,” said Opal. “Jade imparts wisdom; jasper—the gem, not the dragon—imparts relaxation; jadeite heals; and aquamarine aids in prophecy.”

Galena joined in. “Garnet fosters inspiration and loyalty, emerald clairvoyance and insight, agate courage and strength, sapphire memory and performance in battle, bloodstone courage, ruby stability and help in opening portals.”

“Which is why,” Jesse said, “the Sorcerer’s Sphere, which is a ruby, gets us into the Scriptorium!”

“Exactly!” Daisy said, looking up from her notebook, where she had been scrawling notes.

“There are many more gems,” Opal said, “and they can all be found here in the Great Grotto. I could go on all night naming the gemstones and their powers.”

Daisy looked eager to hear more, but Jesse said, “That’s okay. I think we get the idea.”

“With all these gems in their possession, they’ll be more powerful than ever. They’ll be able to do anything they want, anywhere they want to do it.
We really need to do something about this!” Daisy said.

They sat around for a bit, brows wrinkled in concentration, but the fact was that they were all a little too tired to do very much in the way of constructive thinking. The fire fairies were already fast asleep, their arms wrapped around each other in a blue flickering heap in the center of the nest.

Emmy tilted her head back and cracked a wide yawn. Emmy’s yawn set off a chain reaction in the other dragons.

If you have ever seen a dragon yawning, you know that it is a sight only a Keeper could contemplate with comfort, for it involves a great many teeth, a deep dark throat, and a long forked tongue. Jesse and Daisy felt very much at ease here in this nest, surrounded by yawning dragons. They were just as exhausted, and so they crawled into their warm slumber pouches.

“We’ll sleep on it,” Daisy said drowsily. “And come up with a plan bright and early in the morning.”

“Well, early, at least, if not exactly bright,” Jesse put in.

If any of them had any doubt as to how much was at stake, Emmy took care of that at the exact moment when everyone was just beginning to drop
off to sleep. Her words fell into the soft, reddish darkness like gold coins tossed into a well. “Whatever happens tomorrow, we cannot let St. George take the gemstones through the membrane to the Earthly Realm,” she said.

“Of course not,” said Zircon sleepily. “The gemstones belong in the Fiery Realm, on
our
side of the membrane.”

“It’s not just a question of
belonging
,” said Emmy. “If the gemstones are transported through the membrane into the Earthly Realm, it will cause an imbalance in the way of things.”

“Then what will happen?” Galena asked warily.

“I’m not sure,” said Emmy, “but the effect will be cataclysmic … and it will spread to all of the realms: Earthly, Fiery, Airy, and Watery.”

The silence was now downright tense.

Zircon was the next to break it. “Emmy?”

Emmy replied, “What is it, Zircon?”

“I don’t understand. You’re just a dragon—a dragon with beautiful purple-and-green wings, granted, but all the same … How is it you have come by such vital knowledge of the realms?”

Emmy heaved a sigh. “Beats me,” she said. “All I know is that I know what I know. I don’t always know
how
I know it. But I know that what I know is as true as truth can be.”

“That’s good enough for me,” said Citrine behind a mammoth yawn.

“Thanks, Citrine,” said Emmy.

When everyone had been quiet—and most likely asleep—for some time, Jesse reached out and squeezed Daisy’s hand. “Tomorrow is Teachers’ Conference Day,” he whispered.

After a brief silence, Daisy whispered back: “We’re on the eve of doing battle with the Forces of Darkness, and all you can think about is Teachers’ Conference Day?”

“I can’t help it. I
need
to think about stuff like that,” Jesse said. “It keeps me from being too nervous. It helps me to know that somewhere, in some realm or other, somebody is leading a normal life … because we sure aren’t.”

“Yeah, well, we’re the ones who wanted to go on magical adventures,” Daisy reminded him.

“And now you have to pay the plumber,” Emmy said.

“Pay the
piper
, you mean,” Jesse said with a sleepy grin.

“No, Jesse Tiger, I mean plumber. I have been lying here thinking and thinking. When I was flying over the Onyx Castle, I saw pipes coming down from the castle into the cliff side. At first, I thought they were for poop and pee, but now I think the
pipes lead through the membrane to the Earthly Realm.”

“And that’s why St. George conjured the castle over that exact spot!” Daisy said in an excited whisper. “They’re going to bring the gemstones into the castle and flush them down the pipes into the Earthly Realm!”

“So if we take over the castle,” said Jesse, “we can keep them from flushing the gemstones and save all the realms from devastating cataclysm!”

“Okay. Now that we’ve figured all that out, can we please get some sleep?” Daisy asked.

They woke up to another dark morning. After a bracing runching on air, there was the matter of equipment to attend to. Traditional armor and mail were of little use. This was a battle that called for only one thing: defensive rain gear. The castle was onyx, and so, to better blend in, they conjured in black. Every single member of their party made for themselves a complete set of slick black rain gear: coats and hats and boots and gloves and gaiters. To protect their faces, they wore black waterproof masks.

Jesse looked around at the black-clad dragons and fire fairies and thought that if the situation hadn’t been so scary, it would have been ridiculous.
When they were finished, Emmy was the only one still standing around in her own green scales.

“Emmy,” said Jesse impatiently. “Where’s your gear?”

“Sorry, J.T., but black doesn’t do a thing for me,” she said. “Besides, haven’t you heard? Green is the new black.”

“Then wear
green
rain gear,” Daisy said. “But please,
please
gear up like the rest of us.”

Emmy screwed up her face in a way that reminded Daisy of when she was a baby dragon refusing to eat human baby food. “I don’t like rainwear,” Emmy said. “It’ll make me look stupid and lumpy. Plus I’ll get all sweaty and gross.”

“Zircon’s wearing a raincoat, and he doesn’t look stupid and lumpy or sweaty or gross,” Jesse said, although Zircon did look a little bit of all those things.

“And sweating is better than getting melted by a squirting plastic alligator or dolphin,” Daisy added.

“I’ll take my chances,” said Emmy with a toss of her head.

Jesse opened his mouth to press their argument, but a warning look from Daisy told him to shut it.

“Suit yourself,” Jesse said with a shrug.

“You mean
not
suit myself!” Emmy told him sweetly.

“Whatever,”
Jesse growled.

On their way along the grotto ridge toward the Onyx Castle, the party passed through a patch of rich red bloodstone.

“Bloodstone gives courage,” Galena reminded them.

“In that case, why don’t we all choose a piece of bloodstone?” Opal suggested.

Jesse found himself a couple of bloodstones that were shaped like dice.

“See, Jess? Mine is shaped like an egg,” Daisy said, showing him the one she had selected. Then she said to their dragon, “Where is your bloodstone, Emmy?”

“My heart is a bloodstone,” Emmy said. She was preoccupied with the Onyx Castle, which loomed across the grotto from them. “Look, Keepers!” she said as she pointed to the set of railroad tracks that wound up to the castle.

“You were right, Emmy,” said Daisy. “They’re hauling the gems up to the castle.”

“Right as grain,” said Emmy.

“Rain,” said Jesse.

“That, too,” said Emmy with a canny nod.

Fortified with their bloodstones, the group forged ahead. From down below on the grotto floor, Jesse heard a series of small explosions: the band of captive fire fairies using their flames to blast loose the gemstones from the walls. The sound accompanied the group as they made their way around to the other side of the ridge.

The great gleaming black castle rose up before them. They stopped behind a row of onyx rubble and scanned the ramparts and the entryway. Jesse had expected to see Malachite and her rumble standing guard, but, just like yesterday, the ramparts were empty and the castle looked vacant and without defenses. What was more, the solid gold portcullis stood wide open and the drawbridge was down.

“It’s like they were expecting company,” Daisy whispered to Jesse through her waterproof mask.

“I don’t like it,” Jesse said. Beneath the rain gear, he felt the little flames on his arms and legs flaring up like a thousand warning signals.

Emmy apparently felt no such foreboding. She led them marching boldly across the drawbridge. No sooner had the last fire fairy passed beneath the gate than it came down with a crash, like the jaws of a giant trap snapping shut on them. At the same time, an earsplitting alarm went off. They staggered
and jostled through the entryway, hands clamped over their ears. Water from unseen sprinkler heads bombarded them, pattering off their heavy-weather gear.

Daisy peered through the spray in search of Emmy. There she was, holding a giant purple umbrella, smiling. The alarm rose in pitch, and now sprinklers from the ground kicked up, too, hitting them from every angle.

“Emmy! Look out!” Daisy cried. What good would her umbrella do her now?