The Search for the Red Dragon (4 page)

Laura Glue planted both her feet and flung out her arms. “Jamie!” she shouted. “Jamie, please don’t go!”

And abruptly, the man stopped in his tracks.

Slowly he turned around and looked at them. Then, just as slowly, he walked back toward the four companions, his cane tapping gently on the cobblestones and the dog trailing obediently behind.

Several feet away, he stopped and considered them one by one, before finally looking down at Laura Glue.

“It’s been a very, very long time since anyone has called me Jamie,” he said slowly, “and it’s not something I allow many people
to do. So you must tell me, if you can, who you are and why you call me by that name.”

The little girl’s eyes began to well up. “Don’t you remember me? The last time we met, you gave me a kiss.” She showed him the thimble, and he knelt down in front of her.

“My dear, I am an old man, and in all my years, many, many children have seen that play, and they know that a thimble is a kiss, and a kiss a thimble. And please forgive my aged memory, but I can’t have been the one who gave this to you, because I haven’t done that sort of thing since long before you were born.”

“But, but,” she stammered, confused, “you
must
be Jamie. Otherwise it wouldn’t have worked.”

“What wouldn’t have worked, my dear?”

“This,” said Laura Glue, pulling the Compass Rose out of her tunic. In the presence of four Caretakers, it shone as brightly as a beacon.

The expression on Jamie’s face changed rapidly from surprise, to disbelief, to, strangely, gratitude. “Put that away,” he said gently. “And let me see your kiss again.”

Laura Glue tucked the parchment flower back in a pocket and handed him the thimble.

“Hurm,” he rumbled as he examined the kiss, “I see it now. I’m sorry I didn’t recognize it before. I wasn’t expecting anyone like you in Kensington Gardens. Not again, anyway.”

He put his arm around the girl and drew her close. “Do you know, this kiss is one of the only items ever removed from the treasure trove of the great dragon Samaranth?”

“For really and truly?” said Laura Glue.

“Yes,” Barrie replied, winking at John as he spoke. “It was
acquired in an adventure of great peril, and my best friend and I barely escaped with our lives.”

“Whatever else has gone on,” John whispered to Charles, “it’s obvious why he was chosen as a Caretaker.”

“Yes,” said Charles, nodding.

Laura Glue clapped her hands. “I know that story! I know it! That was before you got old again, and became his enemy.”

A pained expression flashed over Jamie’s face before he smiled and kissed Laura Glue on the forehead. “It was the best of my failures, my dear girl. Now, who’s for some Leprechaun crackers in front of a fire? The sun has set, and it’s obvious the fairies are going to be about in Kensington Gardens tonight.”

“…someone is
always
listening…and someone always comes.”

True to his word,
back at Jamie’s home he had an ample supply of Leprechaun crackers, as well as an assortment of other biscuits, teas, jams, jellies, and chocolate.

“I find it useful to be prepared,” Jamie said as he settled into an overstuffed chair with a cup of tea, “for even the most unexpected of visitors. Particularly the youthful ones.”

“Thif if wuderful,” mumbled Laura Glue through a mouthful of crackers and chocolate. “Fank hu.”

“You’re quite welcome, my dear,” he said as he placed a saucer of cream and crackers on the floor for the great Saint Bernard, who was lounging comfortably before the fire.

“Aramis likes treats as well, but that’s more often than not just an excuse to indulge in a nibble myself. And now,” Jamie continued, turning to the three men, “can you tell me what’s brought three gentlemen and a child of the Archipelago to Kensington Gardens, just to have tea with an old playwright?”

When they had finished eating to everyone’s satisfaction, Laura Glue repeated the message she had been sent to deliver, and, her mission accomplished, promptly busied herself with grooming the dog while the Caretakers talked. It took more than an hour
for John, Jack, and Charles to recount the events that had brought them together years earlier as the new Caretakers, during which time Laura Glue fell fast asleep on the cushions in one of the town house’s deep bay windows. They continued with a brief accounting of the war with the Winter King, concluding with the afternoon’s events and the sudden appearance of the girl with wings.

When they had finished, Jamie stared into the fire, considering, for several minutes.

“I was terribly sorry about Stellan,” he finally said. “I read about his death in the papers, of course. But it never crossed my mind that it had been the work of the Winter King. In the next couple of years, as the war wound down, I suspected that Bert and Jules had taken some sort of action with regard to the Archipelago, but I tried to put it out of my mind. When I left, I vowed to be done with it—and for better or worse, I’ve kept that vow. Until tonight, that is.”

“You were Arthur Conan Doyle’s replacement, weren’t you?” Charles asked.

“In a manner of speaking,” said Jamie. “There have always been three Caretakers, more or less, although once called to the task, those who previously served as Caretakers never seem to be completely removed from the responsibilities it entails, as you may have noticed,” he said, smiling broadly.

“Before Jules Verne, I believe it was three Americans who answered the Call. Then Jules, then Bert, who was to become the new Caretaker Principia. Harry Houdini and Doyle were recruited at the same time by Jules,” he said. “But they both had the same problem—neither of them wished to keep the secrets of the Archipelago. Houdini, in fact, wished to
expose them to the world, and did his best to do so.”

“Whoo.” Charles whistled. “That can’t have gone over well with Bert.”

“Bert was the least of their worries,” said Jamie. “At one point, it had gotten so bad that Samaranth
himself
had come to England looking for both Houdini and Doyle—and it wasn’t just to take back the
Geographica
. He’d heard about that business with the photographs and the fairies—which had been brought over on the
Green Dragon
, incidentally—and he planned to end their tenure definitively.”

A shudder passed through John as he recalled watching Samaranth do that very thing in the final battle with the Winter King. When Samaranth was holding him in a claw high above the waterfall at the Edge of the World, and after every chance for redemption was given, the evil man
still
struck out at the great dragon, who subsequently dropped him. John couldn’t imagine what it must have taken for Samaranth to go
looking
for vengeance.

“It’s never been confirmed for me by Jules or Bert,” Jamie continued, “and Arthur certainly wouldn’t speak of it, but some mishap between Doyle and Houdini is what resulted in the Winter King’s knowledge of the
Geographica
.”

“You’ve got to be joking,” exclaimed Charles. “How irresponsible can one be?”

“Up until that time, there were objects other than the
Geographica
that had been entrusted to the Caretakers,” said Jamie. “And whatever those items were, the Winter King took them and used them to facilitate the construction of a new Dragonship.”

“The
Black Dragon
,” Jack said with a shudder. “I know it better than I’d have liked to.”

“And that was the reason Doyle and Houdini were removed as Caretakers?”

“Mostly. One reason among many, I’m afraid. Bert was the Caretaker Principia at the time, so the responsibility was his. He took the brunt of it but managed to keep Samaranth from killing Houdini and Doyle. Jules returned briefly as the Caretaker Principia before Bert resumed the post. This was just prior to finding Stellan Sigurdsson, and then, after a succession of briefly tenured, well-intentioned replacements, I was finally enlisted as the new third Caretaker.”

“And then you quit,” declared Jack.

“I prefer to say I ‘resigned,’” Jamie said mildly. “And I do hope that you’ll take a more civil tone, Jack.”

“Resigned, quit—whatever you call it, you abandoned your duties,” Jack shot back.

“Duties I never asked for!” Jamie protested. “I didn’t want any of that! I wasn’t prepared! Arthur wanted it, and had it—and then they took it from him and made me take his place. And it terrified me to have that kind of responsibility suddenly thrust upon me. Do you have any idea what that was like?”

“I have every idea of what that was like,” said John coolly. “That’s precisely what happened to me after you gave it up. But because of what had happened with you, Professor Sigurdsson never told me what I was being trained for, or even mentioned the
Geographica
, until events were in motion. I only got to speak to him that much by stepping into the past, through a door in the Keep of Time—because by then, he’d already been murdered.”

“Are you saying that’s my fault?” said Jamie. “My fault he died? Bad form, John.”

“Maybe,” answered John. “Maybe things would have progressed differently if the professor and Bert felt they could be more open and honest with the new Caretaker. And maybe he wouldn’t have died protecting the
Geographica
—because it would already have been passed to me.”

“But wouldn’t the Winter King have simply pursued
you
then, John?” Charles asked reasonably. “Instead of the professor?”

“There’s no way to know what ‘might’ have happened,” said Jack. “All we know is what did happen. And we know that when the time came to stand up like a man, Sir James Barrie turned and ran.”

Jamie’s face reddened, and his fist trembled as he rose from his seat.

“Take back that remark, sir. Or I shall be obliged on my honor as a gentleman to call you out.”

Jack also stood and stepped close. “I’m right here. Say what you have to say. If you want to take a swing at me, feel free to do so.”

“Now, now,” Charles said placatingly as he rose and smoothly edged between the two men. “This isn’t resolving anything. And you two are not going to help Aven by engaging in fisticuffs.”

The mention of that name stunned both men into dropping their fists and retaking their seats.

“Aven,” Jamie said, his voice low. “What does any of this have to do with Aven? Is she all right?”

“I can’t say for certain,” said Charles, looking askance at Jack. “There are a number of pieces I’m trying to put together, and I don’t think any of them are before us by happenstance.”

Beginning with Charles’s account, and with frequent interruptions from John and Jack, they told Jamie about Aven’s role in their great adventure—and about her closeness to both Jack and the young man they called Bug, who eventually became the new High King, Artus.

“So she’s become queen of Paralon then, eh?” Jamie said with a wan smile. “This Artus must be quite a fellow to have wooed her away from the sea. I imagine Nemo had quite a bit to say about
that
.”

At the mention of the former captain of the
Yellow Dragon
, Jack shifted uncomfortably in his chair, and John quickly leaned in. “Where Aven enters into this is the reason we’ve come together. It seems we’ve all been dreaming of the Archipelago—about strange creatures and events—and Jack summoned us together to discuss their import.”

“Dreams are curious things,” said Jamie, “but Jack did well to take heed of his. There is always meaning behind them, and it cannot be coincidence that you’ve had the same dreams. Laura Glue’s appearance confirms this.”

“Agreed,” Charles said. “Laura Glue’s claim that the Archipelago is in trouble and Jack’s feeling that Aven may be in peril could be one and the same occurrence.”

“And what of the message?” asked John. “What does it mean?”

“‘The Crusade has begun,’” said Jamie. “It really doesn’t say much at all, does it? I must confess I have no idea what it means. But…” He paused, then stood and moved to the fire, stoking the embers.

“There’s an old myth in the Archipelago,” he went on softly,
shaking his head. “A legend, really…I recall it mentioned a Crusade, but those events happened seven centuries ago. We always thought it was only a
story
….”

“I don’t think this is going to be as easily resolved as anyone hoped,” Jack said.

“Just so,” agreed Jamie, sitting down again. “I think the best thing to do is find out what’s happening in the Archipelago. Have you contacted them yet?”

“Ah, how exactly do we go about doing that?” asked John. “It’s never really come up before.”

“You don’t say?” said Jamie with an expression both amused and incredulous. “You brought the means with you.”

He moved to the sleeping child and delicately removed the still-glowing parchment flower from her tunic. The others huddled around him as he pointed out what the symbols on the Compass Rose meant.

“Everyone thinks the seal of the High King is
A
for Arthur, the first king of Paralon,” said Jamie, “but it’s really the Greek letter
A
for
alpha
—‘the beginning.’”

“And that, there,” said Charles, pointing at a symbol that resembled an inverted
u
with a tail. “The mark of the Cartographer. What is it?”

“
Mu
,” said John. “The equivalent to our
m
, although I have no idea what it means in relation to the Cartographer. Jamie?”

“Don’t look at me. I’ve wondered about that myself,” Jamie replied. “The Cartographer is a strange creature who keeps his own counsel.

“Now, this third symbol is how the child located you—ah, us,” he continued. “
Pi
. It is the symbol of the Caretaker Principia. As
I understand it, only one of the Caretakers, as its intended recipients, should be able to erase this mark and replace it with another. That should do the trick.”

“Doesn’t that still leave us with a problem?” wondered Charles. “The way Laura Glue explained how the Compass Rose works, it glows as you come into proximity of the person being sought. How will that help us?”

“It works that way if you want it to,” Jamie explained, “but Bert explained it to me once. In principle, it functions like these ‘radios’ everyone is using nowadays. It can be tuned to receive, as it was used in locating us—or it can be adjusted to broadcast, as it will do once we’ve added a new symbol. Then we’ll just have to wait and see if someone comes.”

“But what if no one is listening?” asked Jack. “What if no one comes?”

“Then your job becomes a lot easier, doesn’t it?” Jamie retorted. “But don’t worry—someone is
always
listening…

“…and someone always comes.”

“So,” said Jamie. “Who wants to do it?”

“I should,” John replied gravely. “I’m the Caretaker Principia. It’s my responsibility.”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Charles said, grabbing the Rose. He ran his thumb back and forth over the symbol, and in a trice, it had been completely erased. “Sometimes you shouldn’t stand on ceremony. You should just do what needs doing and move on.”

“Um, yes,” said John. “Well done, Charles. So,” he continued, turning again to Jamie, “whom should we summon?”

“In a crisis? The only man I’d want at my side would be Nemo,”
Jamie stated. “His mark is Persian, but I’ve seen it used, and I’m certain it will work…What? What is it?”

At the mention—again—of Nemo’s name, all three of the companions started visibly, then seemed unwilling to meet Jamie’s eyes.

“Regarding Nemo,” John began.

“No,” said Jack. “It’s for me to say.”

He folded his arms and drew a sharp breath. “Nemo won’t be coming,” he said at length. “Nemo is dead. He was killed in battle.”

Jamie couldn’t conceal his dismay. “But…but that can’t be! Nemo is unbeatable in a conflict, whether on land or at sea! Not only is he one of the best strategists who ever lived, but he’s charmed. He’s the seventh son of the seventh son of Sinbad himself. No,” he concluded, shaking his head. “You must be mistaken.”