The Dragon in the Volcano (18 page)

Emmy opened her mouth and aimed a fresh flame at Sadra’s feet. The witch went screaming
and yelping and hopping over the drawbridge and out of sight.

Emmy closed her mouth and stanched the flame.

“Jesse Tiger!” she called out a trifle hoarsely.

“Yes, my magnificent fire-breathing Emmy?” Jesse replied.

“Go and see if you can find the black coat,” she told him.

“Balthazaar is going to be one happy dragon,” Daisy said.

Emmy unfurled her great purple-green wings and lifted off the rampart.

“Where are you going?” Jesse and Daisy called out to her.

“I’m going to finish what I started,” she said with a fierce look in her emerald eyes. “First I’m going to break the Fire Banking Spell and free the fire fairies down at the bottom of the grotto. Then I’m going to deep-six that dastardly duo.”

“What did you do with St. George and Sadra?” Daisy asked as soon as Emmy returned to the castle, leading the jubilant band of liberated fire fairies up from the grotto below.

“First of all, I flew them back to the Earthly
Realm. Next of all, I imprisoned them in the biggest, stinkiest conch shell I could find,” Emmy said with grim satisfaction. “And last of all, I dropped that conch shell down to the bottom of the Mariana Trench.”

“What’s that?” Daisy asked.

“It’s in the Pacific Ocean,” Jesse said with a grin. “It’s the deepest and darkest of the deep dark undersea canyons. Perfect.”

“That’s what
I
thought,” said Emmy.

These were the last words Emmy would speak for the whole trip back to the Ruby City.

To show their gratitude to Emmy for rescuing their captive fellows, the fire fairies gathered up the ashes of Jasper and placed them in a box carved from jasper stone. It was shaped like a child’s chair, with a trapdoor seat, beneath which the ashes lay.

“What is it?” Jesse asked Fiero.

“It’s Jasper’s Eternal Throne. It will be placed in the Hall of the Eternal Flame, where all the other dragons of this realm rest. We are all Grand Beacons in the Hall of the Eternal Flame.”

Emmy carried the throne on the trip back to the Ruby City and never let it out of her sight.

The odd thing, Jesse found, was that their dragon didn’t weep. Perhaps if she had, he and Daisy would have been able to comfort her. They
were used to Emmy crying. They knew how to dry her tears, how to croon to her, and, after the storm of tears abated, she always felt better. But this was different. Daisy’s lifeless arm and Jasper’s lost life had plunged Emmy into deep gloom, removing her to a place where not even her Keepers could reach her.

Daisy was another matter entirely. Jesse had made the mistake of offering to carry the backpack, which was heavier than usual because the dragon skin coat was squashed into it.

Daisy turned beet red. “Let’s just get something straight right now, Jesse Tiger! Number one: it’s my left arm that’s useless, and I happen to be right-handed. Number two: I am far from helpless. Number three: I can still take my turn carrying the backpack. I can do lots of things, just like before. I don’t want your pity and I don’t want to be coddled or treated like an invalid. If this is the way it’s going to be from now on, I can get used to it. And if I can, you can!
I’ll be fine!
” she added for good measure as she shrugged the hefty backpack onto her shoulders.

They returned along the same route they had come, by foot and then by crystal boat across the sea. As is so often the case, the journey back seemed to go much faster than the journey out. It
was, however, a very
different
journey. For one thing, Emmy was with them, and for another, there were ten times as many fire fairies. But it was, in spite of their victory, a far less joyous group. For all that they had triumphed over the Forces of Darkness, they had done so at great cost. They had lost Jasper and Mica and Malachite and half her rumble, and then there was the matter of Daisy’s arm.

At one point, Jesse finally got up the courage to ask the question that had been burning a hole in his tongue. “What are we going to tell Aunt Maggie and Uncle Joe when we get back to Goldmine City?”

“About what?” Daisy asked.

“You know … about your, uh, dead arm,” Jesse said.

Daisy sighed. “That. I’ll think of something, don’t worry. Don’t I always come up with the perfect cover story?”

True
, Jesse thought. Daisy was very inventive when it came to cover stories. Still, losing a homework assignment was one thing, losing the use of an entire arm was quite another.

Some of the fire fairies had flitted ahead to let the Grand Beacons know what had transpired in the Outer Reaches. By the time they arrived at Emmy’s cottage, there was a large crowd of dragons and fire fairies waiting for them.

Emmy’s shoulders sagged at the sight of the welcoming committee. Clearly, all she wanted to do was climb into her crate and cradle Jasper’s Eternal Throne to her breast. But being a hero comes with a certain obligation to celebrate and be celebrated. The Grand Beacons sent an honor guard to escort Jesse and Daisy and Emmy to the Great Hall of the Grand Beacons. Emmy and her Keepers had no choice but to go.

“Can I conjure you up a celebratory tiara or something?” Daisy asked Emmy.

Emmy shook her head and hugged the casket to her chest all the more tightly.

Daisy cast a look at Jesse. At the start of their trip back to the Ruby City, they had shucked off the rain gear and the suits of mail. They were once more clad in their Goldmine City clothes, their jeans and T-shirts and winter coats. “What about you, Jess?” she asked. “Can I whomp you up some fancy duds for the occasion? It ought to be red carpet all the way.”

Jesse held up his hands. “Hey, I’m good.”

“Don’t you want to look glamorous?” Daisy asked.

“I’d rather be a bowwow than a wow-wow, I guess,” he said listlessly.

“What’s the matter with you people?” Daisy
said as she conjured herself up a deep-green velvet dress with matching shoes. The dress had long sleeves and a lace collar and cuffs.

“How do I look?” she asked Jesse.

Beautiful
, Jesse thought,
except for the arm swinging uselessly at your side
. “You look great,” he told her.

A parade of dragons and fire fairies followed the honor guards, the Keepers, and Emmy along the diamond path, beneath the city gates, and down the main boulevard leading to the Great Hall. The giant crystal sleighs chimed at them in greeting as they jostled past, the flame fairy passengers crackling and cheering. Dragons on the street stopped and bowed their horned heads in solemn recognition. The pink quartz gates of the Great Hall stood wide open, and the towering guards lined up and saluted them as they passed down the long red hallway, with Spark, Fiero, and Flicker darting along behind them.

Just before they entered the throne room, Daisy turned to Emmy and said, “Leave this to us. We’ll do all the talking.”

Emmy shrugged, as if talking had been the last thing on her mind.

Lady Flamina leaned forward attentively, while
Lord Feldspar sagged, his head bowed, tears dripping down.

Daisy whispered to Emmy, “Is Lord Feldspar crying?”

Emmy nodded. “Malachite
was
his daughter.”

“I wonder if he suspected she was a traitor,” Jesse whispered.

“Shhh,” said Daisy, for the Grand Beacons were preparing to speak.

“The great tidings have preceded you,” said Lady Flamina, burning mild and blue with an orange peak on the crown of her head. “You have rescued the kidnapped fire fairies and saved the realm from the depredations of the Forces of Darkness.”

“I shall mourn the loss of my daughter evermore,” Lord Feldspar grumbled. “I blame myself. I was too hard on her. I expected too much, and because of this, I placed the realm in great jeopardy.” He shook his mighty head and looked down at the Keepers. “Tell us how it went in the Outer Reaches.”

Jesse wasn’t about to stand there and describe to Lord Feldspar how he had disappeared his daughter with a water balloon, so he said, “If it’s all the same to you guys, we’d just as soon ‘desist with
the dithering details’ and be on our way. It’s Monday night. Teachers’ Conference Day is over, and we have to get home. We have school tomorrow.”

“And we’re taking our dragon with us,” Daisy emphasized for good measure.

When neither Beacon responded, Daisy added, “I mean, after what she did to defend your realm, we figure the least you can do is grant her leave.”

Instead of striking them with lightning bolts of raging fury, both Lady Flamina and Lord Feldspar remained saddened and subdued.

“We agree with you wholeheartedly. It is the very least we can do,” Lord Feldspar said. “In fact, in recognition of your service to the Ruby Throne, Emerald, we should like to bestow upon you the title of Ambassador to the Fiery Realm.”

Emmy, still clutching Jasper’s casket to her breast, said, “What’s
that
mean?”

“It means,” said Lady Flamina, her flame flickering bright gold with pleasure, “that you may move unimpeded between the two realms from this time forth.”

“Thank you!” said Daisy, sagging with relief against Jesse’s shoulder.

“What is more,” Lady Flamina went on, “you may maintain title to your cottage on the shores of the Lake of Fire, and anytime you wish, you may return
to visit. Each and every time, you will be greeted with the warmest of Welcoming Flames.”

“Okeydokey, Princess Smoky,” Emmy said.

The cousins shot startled looks at Emmy. Either she was beginning to perk up or she had lost her dragon marbles.

Undaunted by her new nickname, Lady Flamina continued. “As for the Keepers …”

Jesse and Daisy smiled wanly.

Lord Feldspar said, “We have a small token of our gratitude for the hand you played in this exploit and,” he added sadly, his eyes on Daisy, “the arm whose use you seem to have … lost.”

Daisy’s ears, through her fair blond hair, turned hot pink.

“We are sorry indeed for your loss,” said Lady Flamina to Daisy.

“I’ll. Be. Fine!” Daisy said with icy precision.

An honor guard marched into the throne room. He approached Daisy first. When he stepped away, Daisy was wearing an amethyst pin in the shape of a star. Then he pinned Jesse with a dark blue ribbon that had a small silver heart dangling from it. For a moment, he was sorry he wasn’t wearing the gaudy Las Vegas suit to go along with it.

“The Purple Star and the Silver Heart of the Grand Order of the Beacons,” Lord Feldspar said
grandly. “You are hereby honorary members of the Aura.”

“Wowee-zowie,” said Jesse.

Daisy dipped in a one-armed curtsey and smiled regally.

The Grand Beacons turned to Emmy. “And now, perhaps saddest of all is the fact that our own Jasper, the fiery mote of your heart, has merged with the Eternal Flame. We grant you the right to carry his Eternal Throne with you to the Earthly Realm … without bringing about dire consequences to the order of things.”

“That’s good,” muttered Emmy to the cousins, “because I was going to bring him home with me anyway. And by the way, I’d like to go home now.”

Home
. Jesse lit upon the word with a sense of deep satisfaction.
Emmy is coming home
.

Then Lady Flamina and Lord Feldspar walked Jesse and Daisy and Emmy down the hall, through the streets, past the gates, and over to the banks of the Fiery Lake. They stopped more or less where Jesse and Daisy had stood when they first saw Emmy, so happy and carefree, running toward them down the beach with Jasper.

“This is where we say farewell,” said Lord Feldspar. A large crowd of Fire Fairies and dragons had gathered on the shore.

“All you need to do to get home to the Earthly Realm is dive into the Lake of Fire and swim. Then scale the wall and go back through the membrane through which you entered,” Lady Flamina said.

“Simple as that sounds,” Daisy said, “I haven’t learned to swim or scale one-armed yet, so I think we’ll
fly
to the membrane.”

“An exception to the rules is noted, and your request is hereby approved,” said Lord Feldspar.

The cousins took a moment to say goodbye to Opal and Galena, to Zircon and Citrine, to Cinder, Ember, Tinder, and Kindle, and last of all, to their special new friends, Spark, Fiero, and Flicker.

“Think of us the next time you look into a fire,” said Flicker.

“Who knows?” said Fiero, an impish gleam in her eyes. “You might even see me licking through.”

“You always do all the licking,” said Spark, flaring up.

“Yeah,” said Flicker. “No fair!”

And before long, the three fire fairies were arguing, noisy as a pack of firecrackers going off on the Fourth of July. Jesse and Daisy left them to it and climbed onto Emmy’s back.

“Hold Jasper for me, will you?” said Emmy, handing the throne back to Jesse. It was heavy, but Jesse didn’t want to ask Daisy for help, given that
she had only one good arm. Then Emmy popped open her wings, and the vast assembly of fire dragons and fairies ranged along the lake cheered at the magnificent sight of the purple-and-green dragon wings. Emmy took flight and soared out over the Lake of Fire. She flew one circle around the group below, giving them a chance to admire her wings and to wave their final farewells. Then she flew straight toward the crack in the cliff. Jesse was just beginning to worry about how Emmy was going to land on the narrow ledge when the crack in the rock opened up.

“Hang on tight,” said Emmy as the magma closed around them.

Jesse and Daisy clung to Emmy as she began the upward swim through the thick, warm ooze.