The First Dragon (Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica, The) Read Free Page A

eventually join us.”
    Jack hesitated. “I . . . haven’t yet decided,” he finally said. “I know I don’t want to become a tulpa like Charles did when he passed, but I’m not certain that I want to be a portrait, either.”
    “It’s not so bad—as long as you don’t go on vacation for longer than seven days,” Hawthorne said, referring to the one limitation of portrait-extended life: They could only live as long as they were never away from Tamerlane House for more than a week—a lesson the Caretakers learned all too well when both their mentor, Professor Sigurdsson, and their once-ally-turned-enemy Daniel Defoe perished after being gone for too long.
    “Time enough to decide that later,” said Jack. “Hopefully decades. Was there something you needed, Nate?”
    Hawthorne hooked his thumb over his shoulder. “There’s some kind of commotion down at one of the beaches. I’ve dispatched Jason’s sons to go down there just in case it’s trouble, and I’m going to go have a look myself. I just thought the, ah, Prime Caretaker . . .” He paused, looking at John. “I thought you ought to know.”
    John waved his hand. “You’re head of security,” he said. “I trust in that. Let me know what you find, though.”
    Hawthorne winked and disappeared.
    “Mebbe I should go too,” said Fred, “seein’ as I’m one of th’ actual Caretakers now.”
    “Actually, we could use your help here,” said Jack. “There are some cubbyholes in and around the bookshelves that are too small for us to reach, and, not to put too fine a point on it . . .”
    “I know, I know,” Fred said with mock annoyance. “You need a badger to bail out your backsides— again .”
    “I’ll never begrudge the help of a badger,” John said with honestappreciation, “especially considering that you’re the closest thing to a Dragon we have left.”
    “That may not be entirely correct,” said a breathless Hawthorne, who reentered the room in such a rush that he nearly skidded into a bookcase. “Come quickly, everyone! You must see what we’ve found on the South Beach.”
    ♦  ♦  ♦
    Hawthorne’s alert roused everyone at Tamerlane House, and so almost every Caretaker, Messenger, Mystorian, and creature arrived on the beach at the same time and saw the same impossible sight:
    There, half out of the water and leaning slightly where it rested on the sand, was the Black Dragon .

C hapter T WO
The Prodigal Dragon

    The initial surprise that was felt by all the residents of Tamerlane House at finding the long-missing Black Dragon on the South Beach was quickly eclipsed by their arguing about what it meant, and more, what was to be done next.
    Shakespeare, for his part, was thrilled by the arrival of the Black Dragon . But several of the Caretakers Emeriti, led by da Vinci, were convinced it was some sort of Echthroi trick—a Dragonship version of the Trojan Horse—and advocated burning it on the spot.
    The younger Caretakers, led by John and Jack, suggested it was merely synchronicity that a Dragonship had turned up at just that point in time that a Dragon was needed, and protested that burning it would destroy their only chance of powering Shakespeare’s Zanzibar Gate.
    The rest were basically skirting one side or the other without taking a definitive stance, all of which meant that there was nothing but chaotic bickering right up to the point that Harry Houdini fired the cannon and silenced them all.
    “Hell’s bells,” he said as he moved around the still-smoking cannon, which sat along one of the battlements. “I thought we kept thisloaded in case of an attack from the Echthroi, but it seems it’s just as useful in shutting up Caretakers.”

 . . . Houdini and John piloted the Black Dragon . . .

“Now, see here,” Hawthorne started.
    “You’re all forgetting,” Houdini went on, ignoring Hawthorne, “that the Archipelago isn’t on Chronos time anymore. So this ship didn’t just leave a