The Dragon in the Volcano (11 page)

Daisy dug her nails into Jesse’s arm.

Malachite, seeing that Emmy was in a weakened state, came at her, talons bristling. At the last moment, Emmy braced herself against the wall, and repelled Malachite with a mighty thrust of her hind legs, sending the dragon crashing into a crystal swag, which exploded and rained down like sleet.

Malachite bounced off the floor, snorted, and shook the crystals from her scales. Smoke shot out of her nostrils in two long gray streams.

“Uh-oh! Emmy’s done it now,” Opal said. “She’s made Malachite mad.”

“Look out, Emmy!” Jesse shouted.

Puffing like a locomotive, Malachite came on, chugging and growling. Emmy edged toward the doorway.

Opening her mouth wide, Malachite shot out
a column of flame like the mighty jet from an acetylene torch and drove Emmy, limbs flailing, from the building.

The room was silent, engulfed in smoke. A scorched trail ran across the floor and disappeared out the door. The air smelled charred. Black smoke curled from Malachite’s nostrils and lips and ears. She shook her horned head and let out a mighty roar of triumph that rattled the crystal swags. The balconies erupted in thunderous cheers.

Jesse and Opal and Galena fled outside. Daisy remained behind to see what happened next.

The cheering died away quickly. Malachite, her breath whistling in her chest, looked around as if daring the next challenger. Over in the corner, Jasper shook his head bleakly and sighed.

Daisy spoke up. “Trouncing is a nasty custom,” she said. Then, facing off with the smoky-green dragon, she added, “And if Jasper chooses you above Emmy, as far as I’m concerned, you two deserve each other!”

Emmy lay on the street whimpering, her scales seared black where Malachite had blasted her.

Jesse and Daisy didn’t know what to do. It wasn’t the wounds to her flesh that worried them so much as the damage to her spirit. Not since she
was a tiny dragon coiled up in the sock drawer had they seen her in such a state of despair. Their party clothes had vanished, replaced by their jeans and T-shirts, which seemed appropriate. The Fire Ball was over. There would be no more dancing or bubbly tonight.

“We never should have let her stay here,” Jesse said as they followed Opal and Galena, who bore Emmy’s body between them, back to the cottage.

“It’s not that simple,” Daisy said. “She’s older now, Jess. We can’t just boss her around. She has a mind of her own.”

“Yeah, and look where it got her!” Jesse said. “We should have done a better job of protecting her from herself. Isn’t that what our parents do for us?”

“Only if we let them,” Daisy said with a grim smile.

When they got back to the cottage, they tucked Emmy into her crate. At first, she was too shocked to do anything but lie there. But after a while, she began to weep. She tossed about, flinging lava socks everywhere. Tears dripped from her eyes, rolled down her nose, and fell on her chest wounds with a sound like cold rain hitting a hot sidewalk. Daisy ran to the backpack to get a bandanna and the small first aid kit they kept in the side pouch.

“There’s no need to blot the tears,” Galena said softly when she saw what Daisy was up to. “Dragon tears heal wounds.”

“Oh!” said Daisy, staring at Jesse.

Jesse’s eyes were round with wonder. It was good to know that Emmy had the power to heal herself, since there probably wasn’t enough first aid cream in the whole tube to cover even one of the angry red scratches striping her chest and her shoulders, not to mention the burns.

“If she cries enough—and who could blame her?—she’ll be fine by the morning. The tears will work their healing magic. It’s her heart that will be slower to mend,” said Opal.

Opal and Galena, seeing Emmy settled in, took their leave.

“We’re going to look in on Jasper,” they said. “Poor fellow.”

“Jasper!” Daisy said, flaring up. “That two-timing galoot doesn’t deserve your sympathy.”

“
Everyone
deserves sympathy,” Opal said, “even Jasper.”

“Do you think it’s easy being the mote of Malachite?” Galena said.

The very mention of Malachite sent Emmy into renewed fits of grief and shame.

“Please don’t feel bad,” Daisy said gently, stroking Emmy.

“You’re a
beautiful
green,” Jesse said. “Not insipid at all.”

“What’s more,” Daisy added, “there are plenty more dragons just as nice as Jasper.”

“Well,” said Jesse, remembering the four-to-one ratio, “one or two, probably, at least.”

“There will never be anyone but Jasper for me!” Emmy wailed.

The cousins took turns watching over Emmy until she fell into a shuddering slumber. They dabbed the surplus tears on the shoulder wounds the tears had missed. Then they dragged themselves to their beds and fell into an exhausted sleep.

In the morning, Jesse woke up with Daisy shaking him.

“Where’s the canteen?” she asked.

Jesse blinked and looked around. “It’s in the backpack, where I left it yesterday morning,” he said in a hoarse voice.

“No, it’s not,” said Daisy. She closed her eyes. “I’m trying to remember whether it was in the backpack when I went to get the bandanna and first aid kit.”

“Well, it’s not there now,” Jesse said, after he
checked for himself. “Who could have taken it?”

“Someone who wanted us to die a horrible death,” Daisy suggested.

“Maybe not. Maybe Emmy took it to keep it safe,” Jesse said.

They both went next door to Emmy’s room. The crate was empty and socks were scattered everywhere. They searched the cottage. There was no sign of Emmy or the canteen. They stumbled out onto the front porch and looked around in the everlasting dimness. Just then, Spark, Flicker, and Fiero came flitting up the path.

“Good day, Keepers! You missed all the excitement!” Fiero said, bouncing up and down like a red rubber ball.

“After you left the Fire Ball last night, Jasper and Malachite butted horns,” Spark said.

“Jasper told Malachite she was no longer the fiery mote of his heart,” Flicker said tremulously.

“You mean they’re splitsville?” Jesse said.

Fiero said, “Afterward, we followed Jasper when he stormed off. He was headed here. But on the way, the Grand Beacons’ guard caught him and marched him off to the hole.”

“To the hole?” Jesse and Daisy echoed.

“The Grand Beacons have accused him of
high
treason
!” Spark said, his little yellow flame coming to a sharp point.

“They say he is the leader of a group out to overthrow the Beacons and the Aura,” Flicker said.

“Personally,” Fiero said, “I don’t think the big galoot has it in him. Jasper’s
nice
, a boon to the entire realm. Not a rebel.”

“So we came here right away to tell Emmy the news,” said Flicker. “You two were fast asleep, so we went with her to the hole. She spoke with Jasper and, after that, she stormed off.”

“All in all, there’s been a great deal of storming off going on,” Fiero said.

“We tried to tag along, but she shook us off her tail and told us to beat it,” Spark said.

“Oh, she was on fire with rage,” Fiero said.

“Out for revenge, she was,” said Spark.

“We have to find out where she went,” Flicker said. “She might need our help.”

“But meanwhile, we’re going to have to stick with you two,” Fiero said. “Without Emmy’s protection, we might get fairy-napped!”

“Well, we’re in no shape to help anyone,” Daisy said. “Someone stole our canteen of Fiery Elixir.”

“Oh, that!” said Fiero, going round and rosy as a
ripe apple. “You don’t need that stuff now. You’ve been here long enough. You’re runching on air and living in lava. You’re one of us as long as you want to stay here. Lady Flamina just said that to get you going.”

“Oh, believe me, we’d love to get going if we could,” Daisy said. “But not without our dragon.”

“Let’s go see if we can pay Jasper a visit in the clink,” said Jesse.

“The clink?” said Daisy.

“Yeah, you know, from the gangster movies,” said Jesse. Uncle Joe watched a lot of old black-and-white gangster movies, and sometimes Jesse sat in. “The pokey. The prison. The slammer. The big house. The can. The hoosegow?”

“Follow us,” said Fiero, chuckling, “and we’ll show you the way to the rusty hoosegow.”

The fire fairies seemed incapable of being anything but cheery regardless of the situation, which Daisy found a comfort. As they were making their way to the Great Hall, she noticed that she had no headache. Considering the disturbing news, she felt remarkably good. Tingling all over, in fact. She looked over at Jesse. He looked good, too. His hair was shining and his cheeks were glowing. She noticed that her skin felt hot, but in a good way. She lifted her arm and pulled up the sleeve.

“Holy moly! Look, Jesse!” Daisy held out her arm.

The nearly invisible, pale-blond hairs on her arm looked like miniature candles with tiny flames on the tips. Jesse pushed up his sleeve and held his arm out next to hers. His arm hairs looked much the same way.

“Whoa!” he said.

Daisy said, “We’re on fire, Jesse!”

“Well, fire or no fire, we still have to get back home before the weekend’s over,” Jesse said.

Daisy nodded. Only their second day here and already Goldmine City seemed like a place from another life. They arrived at the Great Hall of the Grand Beacons, where they rattled the pink quartz gate until the towering fire fairy guard with the golden staff marched down the stairs.

“We need to pay Jasper a visit in the hoosegow,” Jesse said.

The guard looked perplexed. “The hoosegow?” he asked.

“Yeah,” said Daisy, leaning on the gate, “the pokey, the slammer, the big house, the can, the pen, the prison! See where I’m going with this, buster?”

“Ah, the
hole
, you mean!” said the guard. “Well, you can’t, by order of the Grand Beacons.” He
swung around and marched back up the stairs.

Jesse hollered after him, “In that case, we want to see the Beacons!”

The guard hesitated, spun around, and came marching back. “Very well. The court is in session, and all are welcome to an audience with Their Beneficent Beaconships.”

The cousins and the fire fairies trooped down the long hallway that reminded Daisy of the gullet of a long-necked monster. In the great chamber, they found Lady Flamina and Lord Feldspar enthroned, as before. With Jasper not there to speak on their behalf, Daisy decided to get right down to cases and skip the dithering details, as Lady Flamina herself might say.

“We understand Jasper is being held prisoner here,” Daisy said.

“We’d like to speak with him,” Jesse said.

Lady Flamina flared up bright orange. “Jasper is a traitor being held in the hole. He is allowed no visitors until his trial.”

“Well, apparently you let our dragon, Emerald of Leandra, visit him late last night,” Jesse said.

“Afterward, she stormed off someplace,” Daisy added. “We’re hoping Jasper can tell us where she went.”

“We realize this might be beyond your feeble powers of perception,” said Jesse, “but we just want our dragon.”

“Your upstart dragon must have connived her way past the night guards,” Lord Feldspar grumbled.

“Had we known the upstart was on the premises, we would have detained her,” said Lady Flamina. “She has been named a co-conspirator in the plot to overthrow the Grand Beacons.”

“That’s just ridiculous!” said Jesse.

Daisy’s blood boiled. “Who says our dragon’s a traitor?”

“A most reliable source,” Lady Flamina said, simmering back down to a cool, calm blue.

“Who?” Jesse pressed.

“Yeah,” Daisy said. “Jasper—and Emmy—are entitled to know the name of their accuser. That’s the law in
our
realm, at least.”

“Their accuser is my daughter!” Lord Feldspar thundered.

“The one who patrols the Outer Reaches and keeps us secure,” Lady Flamina said.

It dawned on Daisy who the accuser was. “If you’re talking about Malachite, then I wouldn’t believe a word she said.”

“Malachite? Trustworthy?” Jesse piped up. “I wouldn’t trust her to babysit my parakeet long enough for me to clean the cage.”

The Grand Beacons conferred in low voices. When they pulled apart, Lady Flamina delivered their decision in her coolest, bluest tones: “Very well, the Grand Beaconship of the Fiery Realm has revised its thinking. We will grant you visitation rights, briefly.”

“Thanks!” the cousins said together.

“I wonder why the Beaconship changed their minds so quickly,” Daisy said as a guard escorted them from the throne room.

“If you want,” Fiero whispered, “we can lick back and spy for you.”

“Please don’t do that,” said Jesse. “There’s no use you winding up in the hoosegow, too.”

The guard stopped when they came to a large black hole in the floor. “The prisoner is down there,” he said, pointing.

Jesse leaned over and peered into the shaft. A rusty spiral staircase wound its way down into pitch darkness.

“Go on down,” the guard said. “Jasper is the only prisoner down there. You can’t miss him.”