The Dragon in the Volcano (9 page)

It was a good thing the fire salamanders had a smooth gait, because Emmy and Jasper took turns chasing each other, bobbing and weaving and leading the fire salamanders on a merry, never-ending series of loop-de-loops. The jungle echoed with the sound of Jasper’s jolly growl and Emmy’s laughter, carefree and happy. Daisy would have given anything to share Emmy’s joy, but all she could think was
What will happen when Jasper’s fiery mote comes back?

Jesse brought Speedy closer to Clipper. “If she and the big galoot are splitsville,” he called out to Daisy, “it will be easier to get her to come home.”

“How can you say that?” Daisy said. “Her heart will be broken! You remember what it’s like when she cries.”

Jesse nodded glumly. “There isn’t a handkerchief huge enough to dry that many tears,” he said.

Just then, Emmy circled back to them and cut short their talk. “Are you guys having fun yet?” she asked.

Jesse and Daisy plastered bright smiles across their faces and nodded like bobble-headed dolls.

“Great!” Jesse said.

“The time of our lives!” Daisy said.

Usually, Emmy could tell, even from the sound of their voices, when they were faking, but she was in such a hurry to get back to Jasper’s side that she didn’t even notice.

“We’re losing her,” Jesse said miserably. “Can’t you feel it?”

“Please don’t say that! It sounds like you’re giving up,” Daisy said. But the truth was, she felt it, too, and she could barely stand it. They were losing their dragon!

“We’re almost there! Hang on!” Emmy called back to them.

They swooped into a deep valley, through which a gleaming purple stream meandered like a sparkling chain of amethyst. Down and down they rushed until they stopped on the banks of the
stream. The fire fairies tumbled off Emmy’s tail. Following suit, Jesse and Daisy dismounted from their fire salamanders, who scuttled off to graze on the fuzzy purple plants growing everywhere. Nearby, the stream boiled over amethyst boulders and cascaded into a bubbling lavender-colored basin.

“Watch this!” Emmy said. She ran up the embankment, dived into the rapids, bumped along on her tail, and spilled helter-skelter over the cliff into the pool. “Try it!” she said when her head bobbed up.

The fire fairies were already tumbling down the falls after Emmy, shouting and flaming and screaming with delight.

“Come on!” Jesse said to Daisy. “It looks like fun.”

Daisy shook her head. “The big galoo—er, Jasper and I will sit here on the bank and have a little chitchat, won’t we?”

Jasper rumbled in agreement. Jesse scrambled up the bank to the top of the falls and leaped into the boiling stream. Daisy watched as he disappeared over the edge. She breathed a sigh of relief when his head popped up in the pool. This time, the smile on his face was genuine.

“That was great!” he said breathlessly. “Better
than any amusement park ride I’ve ever been on. Who knew shooting lava rapids could be such a blast?”

“Clear the way!” Emmy called out from above. “I don’t want to land on you and squish you flat, Jesse Tiger. Bombs away!”

Jesse kicked clear just as Emmy rode the falls over the brink and tumbled, head over heels, into the pool. Then Jesse and Emmy and the fire fairies took turn after turn, riding the fire falls with tireless enthusiasm. Daisy sat and watched them, waiting for the right words to start a conversation with Jasper.

At length, Jasper said, “Emmy’s a brilliant boon.”

“She seems very fond of you,” Daisy said carefully.

Emmy was waving to Jasper from the top of the lava falls.

“Come out and runch!” Jasper called up to her.

“Just one more ride!” she called back.

Jasper sighed, as if greatly put upon. “I fear she is far too taken with me,” he said. “But it will pass.”

“How can you be so sure?” Daisy said.

Jasper avoided meeting Daisy’s eyes.

“Look at her,” Jasper said, “playing with the young ones. In some ways she’s worldly, but in
other ways, she is still a small child. She’s not ready for the rigors of motehood.”

Daisy saw her opportunity. “But your real fiery mote is?”

Jasper nodded and sighed as if that relationship offered very little joy.

“When were you planning to tell Emmy about you and … her?”

“She’ll find out about Malachite soon enough,” he said. “She-dragons compete constantly for my favors. The trouncings are frequent and furious, I’m afraid.”

So the big galoot is stuck-up, too!
Daisy thought, anger prickling her scalp.

“It’s not what you think,” said Jasper, reading her expression. “It’s just that there are four she-dragons for every he-dragon in the realm. I am used to them trouncing each other to win my favors.”

“I see,” said Daisy, not sure how to feel. She wondered if Emmy would see and whether it would make losing Jasper any easier when the time came. Daisy doubted it. And what if Emmy got trounced? It didn’t sound like being trounced was any fun at all. It might even be dangerous.

After everyone had ridden the lava falls until they were dizzy and spent, they sprawled on the bank and had a picnic runch.

Daisy noticed Emmy wasn’t runching. “Aren’t you hungry?” she asked.

“I’ll just make do with pure air,” Emmy said merrily. She was busy collecting the amethyst pebbles that lined the streambed.

“What are you making?” Jesse asked. He had inhaled his oxygen BLT. Riding the lava stream had made him ravenous.

“A little something … for the dance tonight!” she said with a wink at Jasper.

“We had better start back,” Jasper said, “if we don’t want to be late for the Fire Ball.”

The dragons helped Jesse and Daisy back onto their fire salamanders, the fairies flitted onto Emmy’s tail, and together they set off for the Ruby City. Overhead, the sky had deepened to the color of ripe eggplant. The jungle writhed and twisted around them, darker and more sinister than it had seemed earlier. Jesse heard menacing hissing and thumping in the undergrowth, followed by an ear-piercing shriek. Speedy wallowed and whipped his head around. Two giant beasts reared up behind them. They looked like lions, only five times bigger and raging red, ringed with manes of fire.

The lions put up their backs and spat at Speedy. Speedy screamed and lashed his tail as
the fire lions pounced. Emmy smacked Speedy’s haunch to get him going, but Speedy had frozen with fear. Then Jesse saw why. The lions had flamed him. His long red and white tail was now a smoldering stump.

“These things spit fire!” Daisy said, her eyes wide.

“Loogies of fire!” Jesse said ominously.

“Jesse Tiger, kick Speedy and make him giddyup and get away from the fire loogies!” Emmy cried.

Jesse booted Speedy’s flanks with all his might and felt the beast come to life beneath him, felt the heat of the lions’ fiery breath lessen. Jesse looked back and saw Jasper drawing the lions away from the salamanders. He roared and a gout of flame shot out of his mouth.

Jesse stared, slack-jawed. He knew that some dragons breathed fire, but actually witnessing the phenomenon was something else altogether. Dragon and lions exchanged rounds, Jasper a fierce flamethrower to their meager little flares. Eventually, Jasper’s flame drove the fire lions back into the jungle.

“Speedy lost his tail!” Jesse said when they were safely away from the fire lions and back on their way again.

Emmy said, “Don’t fret. Speedy’s tail will grow back.”

“I don’t get it,” Jesse said. “This is the Fiery Realm. Everything’s on fire. How can flame hurt anyone here?”

“It isn’t the flame. It’s the acid in the flame,” Emmy said. “It burns hotter than fire and disintegrates flesh.”

“Except for salamanders’ tails,” Daisy said.

“Fire salamanders’ tails are the exception,” Emmy said. “That’s why they make such trusty mounts.”

“All the same,” said Daisy, “I prefer Old Bub.”

Back at the cottage, Emmy and Daisy went to Emmy’s room to get ready for the Fire Ball. Alone in the bedroom, Jesse went over to the wall where Emmy had shown them the pictures on the Fire Screen. He waved his arm.

Miss Alodie instantly appeared, holding a teacup, hunkered down on Uncle Joe’s easy chair in the living room before the fireplace. In a high, sweet voice, she was singing,
“Fire’s burning! Fire’s burning! Draw nearer! Draw nearer!”

Jesse joined in:
“In the gloaming! In the gloaming! Come sing and be merry!”

As he sang and watched the screen, Jesse felt a pang of homesickness. Behind Miss Alodie, the shelves rose up, weighted down with the familiar
jumble of books and Uncle Joe’s rocks. Jesse saw the reflection of the fire sparkling in Miss Alodie’s blue eyes.
It would be nice to be there with her
, he thought,
safe and sound
.

“There you are!” said Miss Alodie when the song was over. “I’ve been waiting for one of you to show up all afternoon.”

Startled, Jesse pointed to himself. “You can see me!” he said.

“Of course I can! I’m an old Pyromantic from way back. You can see all kinds of things in a fire if you settle down and take the time to look,” Miss Alodie said, “which most folks don’t.”

“I think we’re going to be staying here at least until Monday,” Jesse said.

“Like I said, stay as long as you need to, but I thought you should see this,” she said. She put down her teacup and held up something round and flat. Jesse squinted and leaned closer to the Fire Screen to see what it was. It was the Toilet Glass, from their Museum of Magic collection! The lid was open and the ancient silvery mirror flashed in the firelight.

“I went up to the barn when you didn’t come home,” Miss Alodie said. “And I found this thing lying on the floor—open.”

“Well, shut it!” Jesse said. “We’re holding the
Princess Sadra captive in that thing.”

“Not anymore we aren’t, kiddo,” said Miss Alodie, closing the compact with a loud snap. “She’s escaped.”

Jesse felt panic bubbling up in him. “Are you sure?”

“As sure as sure can be,” Miss Alodie said grimly. She leaned forward in her chair, her face deep scarlet as she neared the fire. “You Keepers be careful now, do you hear me? I’ll tell you what I think is going on—”

Just then, a shadow fell across the Fire Screen and blotted out the picture as well as the sound. Jesse knew what was happening. Someone from the Fiery Realm was licking in and interfering with reception. Jesse waited a few moments for whomever it was to clear off. But when they didn’t, he couldn’t help thinking that whoever was doing the licking was doing so on purpose, either to eavesdrop or to keep Miss Alodie from telling Jesse what he and Daisy needed to know. He waved his arm and made the Fire Screen disappear. Then he went next door to tell Daisy.

Daisy was doing elegant pirouettes across the floor. A beautiful gown swirled around her with skirts like moonlight on sea foam. Her hair was
caught up in a glittering clip. She looked like Clara in
The Nutcracker
.

Daisy leaped gracefully in the air and landed lightly before him. “Do you like my dress, Jess? It’s got fire opals woven into the hem. And look at my slippers!”

She pointed a toe. The slippers were pearly satin, with tiny topazes, emeralds, and moonstones forming a design of daisies. She performed another pirouette, then curtseyed deeply. Jesse couldn’t believe his eyes. Daisy had always wanted to dance, just like she wanted to figure skate, but as she herself often said, she had all the grace of a frog jumping off a flat rock. What had happened to her?

“I made the dress and slippers myself,” Daisy said.

Jesse was bewildered. “Since when can you sew?”

“Since now. In this place, I can make anything I want … with my own hands. I can whomp up a
gown and slippers. Oh, Jess! These slippers make me feel so light on my feet. I feel like I could dance the lead in
Swan Lake
! But I’ll settle for going to the Fire Ball.”

“Isn’t your Daisy-cousin beautiful?” Emmy asked. Emmy herself was all dolled up, in an elaborate headdress and veil made from the amethysts she had found in the stream.

“You both look great,” Jesse said. He was so bedazzled, in fact, that he nearly forgot why he had come in here in the first place. “But we need to talk.”

“
You
need to get ready for the ball.” Daisy folded her arms and stared critically at his blue jeans and T-shirt. “You weren’t planning on wearing
that
, were you?”

Jesse looked down at himself. “Sure, why not?”

“Because it’s not
finery
,” Emmy put in. “There’s a dress code. Opal and Galena say finery is called for.”

Jesse groaned.

“Don’t worry. I’ll whomp something up for you!” Daisy said brightly. “All of that neat stuff we saw in the shop windows in the Ruby City? It was just for show. People don’t shop in stores here. When they want something, they just pull it out of thin air. Like this!”

Jesse watched as Daisy weaved her fingers around him. He looked down at himself. Suddenly, he was wearing a shiny golden jacket with epaulets made of silvery fringe.