The Shadow Dragons Read online

  THE SHADOW

  DRAGONS

  ALSO BY JAMES A. OWEN

  The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica

  Book One: Here, There Be Dragons

  Book Two: The Search for the Red Dragon

  Book Three: The Indigo King

  Lost Treasures of the Pirates of the Caribbean

  (with Jeremy Owen)

  THE CHRONICLES OF THE

  IMAGINARIUM GEOGRAPHICA

  THE SHADOW

  DRAGONS

  Written and illustrated by

  James A. Owen

  SIMON & SCHUSTER BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS

  An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020

  www.SimonandSchuster.com

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales

  or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2009 by James A. Owen

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

  SIMON& SCHUSTER BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERSis a

  trademark of

  Simon & Schuster, Inc.

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  Book design by Christopher Grassi and James A. Owen

  The text for this book is set in Adobe Jenson Pro.

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Owen, James A.

  The shadow dragons / written and illustrated by James A. Owen. p. cm.—

  (The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica ; bk. 4)

  Summary: The Winter King’s Shadow, having gained control of the doors from the Keep

  of Time and of an army of Dragon Shadows, plans to use the turmoil of World War II

  to take over both worlds, but all Caretakers, past and present, come together to

  stop him using some unlikely weapons.

  ISBN 978-1-4169-5879-6 (hardcover)

  [1. Time travel—Fiction. 2. Characters in literature—Fiction. 3. World War,

  1939–1945—Fiction. 4. Fantasy.] I. Title.

  PZ7.097124Shc 2009 [Fic]—dc22 2008050303

  ISBN 978-1-4391-6055-8 (eBook)

  For James Chapple and Jeremy Owen

  Contents

  List of Illustrations

  Acknowledgments

  Prologue

  Part One: Inklings and Mysteries

  Chapter One: Ransom

  Chapter Two: The Inn of the Flying Dragon

  Chapter Three: Pursuit of the Un-Men

  Chapter Four: The Pieces of Time

  Part Two: Abandoned Houses

  Chapter Five: The Spanish Prisoner

  Chapter Six: The Last Map

  Chapter Seven: The Grotto

  Chapter Eight: The Nameless Isles

  Part Three: The League of Poets

  Chapter Nine: The House of Tamerlane

  Chapter Ten: The Cuckoo

  Chapter Eleven: The Master

  Chapter Twelve: The Adversary

  Part Four: The Town That Wasn’t There

  Chapter Thirteen: The Legendarium

  Chapter Fourteen: Abaton

  Chapter Fifteen: The Construct

  Chapter Sixteen: The Broken Sword

  Part Five: Beyond the Edge of the World

  Chapter Seventeen: Strategies of War

  Chapter Eighteen: The Descent

  Chapter Nineteen: The Ruined City

  Chapter Twenty: The Bargain

  Part Six: Reign of Shadows

  Chapter Twenty-one: The Return

  Chapter Twenty-two: Pax Terra

  Chapter Twenty-three: Justice and Mercy

  Chapter Twenty-four: The Notion Club

  Epilogue

  Author’s Note

  List of Illustrations

  … a man was standing as if he were waiting…

  The lamps were … moving with the light of active flame.

  Their legs were those of birds, and ended … with wicked-looking talons. …

  … they saw the miniature image of an old friend.

  “All set…. What is our destination?”

  … on the edge of the uppermost shelf was a small glass bottle…

  Attending to the various globes were three women …

  “I expect you must be the Caretakers,” the cat said…

  The walls were covered with paintings … large enough to step through. …

  There were many … the companions knew by name and reputation …

  “The place you’re seeking … isn’t there.”

  Three … glided close, then landed smoothly on the deck.

  There were other familiar faces as well…

  The gatekeeper was a blind man … covered in tattoos…

  It was the Keep … remade as a patchwork lighthouse…

  … an apparition … her gown floating in the water…

  The old knight … moved the Scarlet Dragon… over the edge…

  Resting amid some coral … was an oval-shaped frame …

  Standing among the ruins was a man, dressed in rags …

  In one hand he held a hammer. The other was not a hand at all… one hand he held a hammer. The other was not a hand at all… hand at all…

  “Show them what it looks like when a hope is fulfilled …”

  A tearing sound ripped across the hilltop…

  … Hallward was just completing the varnish on a painting…

  “Greetings, Caretakers and company,” said the stout, bearded man…

  Acknowledgments

  Writing The Shadow Dragons was an interesting challenge. It’s a “middle book,” and so brought with it both the expectations generated by the first three, as well as those anticipated by the stories to come. It was the most complex book to work on, and the easiest to understand—because the characters involved are now old friends. And so are the ones in the book itself.

  Navah Wolfe and David Gale have continued to be among the most valuable supporters of my work. I believed (and still do) when I started my relationship with Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers that I had found in David the ideal editor. He has found a perfect balance of push and pull, of encouragement and prodding, which allows me to do what I do to the best of my limits. And Navah has become an invaluable first reader. Without a doubt her queries about characters and situations has made this a tighter book—and in one specific case, allowed me to revise one character to better reflect who he was supposed to be (and in the process made the book better by far). After David and Navah are done, Dorothy Gribbin and Valerie Shea are the editing gatekeepers, who make us all look smart. I am grateful to them all for all the hard work.

  Julie and Ellen at the Gotham Group, and my attorney Craig Emanuel, continue to keep the contracts pulled together and make sure that everything I need to keep doing this for a living flows smoothly and well. And Cyndee Larson at National Bank of Arizona has gone the extra mile time and again to make sure the lights are on so that I can keep doing the work I need to do. Without their support I woul
d be hoeing a much tougher row.

  It’s also been gratifying to know that I’ve had the support of all the executives at Simon & Schuster. Rubin Pfeffer and Rick Richter have moved on, but I remain hugely appreciative for their kindness and faith in my work. And Carolyn Reidy, Justin Chanda, and Jon Anderson have all made it easy to work with this house, and I am looking forward to working with them for a long time to come.

  My art directors, Laurent and Lizzy, continue to make the books shine; and over at foreign rights sales, Cecilia and Shannon have made sure that the books are shining in around two dozen other languages. My publicists, Paul and Andrea, have arranged stellar signing tours and taken very good care of me.

  Friends old and new inspire me to my best work: Jim Pascoe, Daanon DeCock, Joe LeFavi, Jason Lust, Brian Henson, and Lisa Henson make me proud of my profession. And my friend Rachel Nabors (subcultureofone.com) gave me one of the best character designs (the Yoricks) I’ve ever had the pleasure of drawing.

  My family, in particular my wife Cindy and children Sophie and Nathaniel, are the reasons that I love what I do. Watching Nathaniel and Sophie come into their own as creative individuals gives me the steam I need to keep my wheels turning, and hopefully tell the kind of stories that will inspire them throughout their lives.

  My Coppervale team continues to be my base. Lon, Mary, and Jason are supportive in the best of ways; and I would not be able to keep the schedule I do without Jeremy, who is my protector and advocate in more ways than I can count.

  And not least, I want to thank a friend who remains with us in spirit, and (in his brother’s words) who often seemed more committed to my goals than I was: James Chapple. He was not a writer or an artist, but was a very good man who saw virtues in me I could not see for myself, and was and is one of my great friends and inspirations.

  Prologue

  It might be said that a mystery is simply a secret to which no one knows the answer. The answers to some mysteries may have been known, once, and then were lost as the centuries passed. But there are other secrets that are so ancient that the truth of them is impossible to discover, and they must forever remain mysteries.

  No one living or dead knew the identity of the Architect of the Keep of Time.

  Before Atlantis, before Ur, before any stone of any city was erected upon the Earth in the Summer Country or in the Archipelago of Dreams, the keep had stood.

  The Earth was a wilder place in those early days, before the rise of man. Magic and myth mingled freely with history as all manner of creatures tried to make sense of the world around them. Some were more advanced than others, and they took it upon themselves to shape, and to organize, and to look after the welfare of the races that were developing on this young world.

  Theirs was the first city, built when there was no division between the worlds, and no need for one. Their sense of wonder was unlimited, for they had no understanding at all of fear. All they knew was discovery, and challenge, and how to overcome. And so they continued to build and to explore and to expand their knowledge.

  These creatures soon took note of the keep and realized that it was an anchor against the tides of time that otherwise might have ripped the world asunder. Why it was built, and who had built it, they did not know. But they chose to guard it, and they knew they could learn from it and use it to create a better world.

  One among them, the eldest, discovered how to harness the flow of time by fashioning doors and fitting them into the openings that appeared throughout the ever-growing tower. This discovery came none too soon, for a new element had come into the world that threatened the destruction of all that was.

  In the guise of a seeker of knowledge from the future, evil had come to their world—and slowly but surely, it was becoming stronger. In time, it would be too strong to resist.

  A great council was held among the guardians of the keep to determine how they might avoid the cataclysm that seemed so inevitable, and again, it was the eldest among them who discovered the solution— but it would not be a solution without sacrifice.

  Their beloved city would not survive. It would fall. And they themselves would have to accept a new calling—promotions to a new rank that would be permanent, because they would never again be able to lower their guard if the world itself was to survive.

  The eldest was first to take the mantle of this new responsibility, then in turn, each of his companions, until all of them had done so. And then each of them chose a door.

  To protect the future, they realized that they must also protect the past—and so one by one, they entered the doors of the Keep of Time, until there was no point in the past that did not have, somewhere behind it, its guardian.

  The last of them remained behind, watching, waiting, until one among the new races could produce a king worthy of becoming a guardian himself. Only then could he rest, and lay down the seemingly eternal burden.

  The world did change; empires rose and fell. Only the keep remained as it was. The great mystery of the Architect’s identity might never see an answer; and the secrets of the keep that were known were closely held.

  But even so, only two things were sure: first, that to walk through a door was to cross over from the present to some point in the past; and second, that somewhere on the other side, there would be a Dragon.

  THE SHADOW

  DRAGONS

  PART ONE

  Inklings and Mysteries

  … a man was standing as if he were waiting …

  CHAPTER ONE

  Ransom

  “We are definitely lost,” John said with decisive authority. “I haven’t the faintest idea where we are.”

  “How can you be lost?” his friend Jack asked with a barely concealed grin. “You’re the Principal Caretaker of the Imaginarium Geographica. You’re probably the foremost authority on maps in the entire world. How is it you’ve managed to get us lost not two hours’ walk from Oxford?”

  “I wasn’t paying attention,” John said irritably. “I was enjoying the conversation and the company. After all, this is the first time in almost twenty years that the three of us have been able to come together as friends out in the open. I like secret societies as much as the next man, but actually having Charles participate as a formal member of the Inklings is going to be delightful.”

  “Agreed,” said Jack, clapping Charles on the back. “The ability to share things with Hugo has been a blessing, but I’ve been itching to discuss your work at length with Arthur Greeves and Owen Barfield.”

  “It was fortuitous that Greeves sent you a copy of my new book,” Charles agreed, “at the same time that you sent your own to the Oxford University Press. It was just the sort of coincidental happening that’s interesting enough to sound truthful.”

  “That’s because it is true,” Jack insisted, “and all the more significant for it. Although we’re going to have to work on our timing for these private walkabouts—I had to bow out of a walking tour with Barfield and Cecil Harwood to come out today.”

  “And I suppose you never get lost?” John said, raising a skeptical eyebrow.

  Jack made a dismissive motion with his hands. “Never,” he said primly. “We always bring a map, and I am, after all, the best map reader. Honestly, it’s a mystery to me why I wasn’t made the Caretaker Principia in your place.”

  John laughed. “I’ll gladly give you the job right now,” he said, pretending to remove his pack as Jack whistled and looked the other way, pretending to ignore him, “unless we can find someone better qualified, like a badger or a faun.”

  “I think you’re both looney,” said Charles, “and it’s starting to rain.”

  They all looked up at the overcast sky, and as one, had the same thought. It had been raining on the night they first met in London—the night their lives were irrevocably changed.

  It had been nearly two decades since the three men were brought together at the scene of a terrible crime. John’s mentor, a professor of ancient literature named Stellan Sigu
rdsson, had been killed by a man called the Winter King, who was searching for the book known as the Imaginarium Geographica. John was being trained to become the next Caretaker of the great book, and Jack and Charles, as much through circumstance as by design, became Caretakers as well. With the help of another Caretaker called Bert, who became their trusted mentor, they managed to keep the Winter King from using the book to conquer the Archipelago of Dreams, the great chain of islands for which the atlas was the only guide—but at great cost. Friends and allies were lost, hard lessons were learned; and even then, their nemesis returned again and again like a persistent nightmare at the edge of the waking world.

  At the end of their first conflict, a great Dragon called Samaranth had dropped the Winter King over the edge of an endless waterfall. But nine years after that adventure, the three companions returned to the Archipelago to search for the great Dragonships that had vanished—along with all the children— only to discover that his Shadow had survived and was as deadly as the real Winter King himself.

  Five years after that, they found themselves drawn into yet another crisis, when rogue Caretakers who had allied themselves with the Winter King tricked their friend Hugo Dyson into going through a door to the past—where he changed history itself.

  Only by traveling through the events of two millennia and discovering the identity of the Cartographer of Lost Places, who created the Geographica, were they at last able to set things right. But what they discovered was disturbing: The Cartographer, who was once Merlin, was in large part responsible for the Winter King— his twin, Mordred—becoming the twisted, evil man he was. And the Caretakers would not have succeeded at all without the help of a young girl, Mordred’s daughter Rose, also called the Grail Child, who returned with them to the present as Hugo’s niece.