The Shadow Dragons (4) (Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica, The) - Softcover

Owen, James A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1416958800 ISBN 13: 9781416958802

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2011

Synopsis

The Caretakers of the Imaginarium Geographica are at war. The Imperial Cartological Society, led by Richard Burton, have collected all of the doors from the Keep of Time, and are building a new tower in our world at the request of an old enemy: The Winter King’s Shadow. He has a terrible weapon – The Spear of Destiny – that can be used to command the shadows of anyone it touches...including the protectors of the Archipelago, the dragons. With a ship called The Iron Dragon, the Shadow King regains passage to the Archipelago where he uses the power of the Spear and the portals of Time to enlist an unstoppable army of Dragon Shadows. And after the Archipelago falls, he intends to betray the Allies in our world – but not to align himself with the opposition. The Shadow King intends to use the turmoil of WWII to take over BOTH worlds.

All the legendary Caretakers, past and present, come together on a great island in the northermost part of the Archipelago to decide the ultimate fate of the Imaginarium Geographica, as a terrible battle ravages the lands around them. And their only hope lies with a small group of companions who are on the quest for the broken sword Caliburn: the Grail Child Rose Dyson; her mechanical companion, the owl Archie; a mouse with an attitude; a dead Professor of Ancient Literature; and the mythical knight, Don Quixote.

They must sail beyond the ends of the Archipelago in search of the sword, and the only being alive who can repair it: a scholar, who, once upon a time, was called Madoc.

About this title

About the Author:

James A. Owen is the author of the Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica series, the creator of the critically acclaimed Starchild graphic novel series, and the author of the Mythworld series of novels. He is also founder and executive director of Coppervale International, a comic book company that also publishes magazines and develops and produces television and film projects. He lives in Arizona. Visit him at HereThereBeDragons.net.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

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 Sigurdsson, 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.

That was five years ago, and other than a few flurries that necessitated the counsel of the Caretakers -- usually just John -- there had been no reason to return to the Archipelago. The rogue Caretakers, led by the adventurer Richard Burton, had remained hidden, and there was no sign of the Winter King's Shadow. There were still difficult problems to deal with: The Keep of Time, where the Cartographer resided, had been crumbling apart since their first trip to the Archipelago; and the king, Artus, had tried to replace the monarchy with a republic, to only limited success. But the years of the Great War were far behind them, and all was right enough with the worlds here and beyond to set aside duty and responsibilities for a few hours to better enjoy a pleasant spring walk in the English countryside.

"It's a shame that Hugo could not join us," Jack said. "We've had too few occasions as of late to catch up with him."

"Uncle Hugo wanted to be here," came a voice from somewhere above them, "but he had some obligations to attend to in Reading that could not be delegated elsewhere. He sent me along anyway, because he knew you needed to discuss the Problem."

Rose Dyson dropped down from the birch tree she'd been climbing and dusted herself off, then moved to stand next to Jack.

The "Problem" she referred to was evident to all three Caretakers. When she returned with them to the present from the sixth century, she was barely an adolescent. Tall, perhaps, but the auburn-haired Rose was still obviously a child -- and that was, as Hugo put it, the "Problem."

He had placed her in a boardinghouse near his teaching post in Reading, where she was enrolled in school as his niece. And over the course of five years, she had not visibly aged a day.

"It's a natural law without a demonstrable basis," Bert had told them once. "Denizens of the Archipelago age more slowly than we do in the Summer Country. Days and nights are the same as those here, but they're often out of sync."

This much they had witnessed for themselves on numerous occasions. Night in Oxford turned to day upon crossing the Frontier, and vice versa. And once, even the seasons had been reversed: Jack had traveled from Oxford in late summer, only to find the Archipelago in the grip of a terrible winter. So it wasn't just a matter of slight temporal differences -- there were rules of time at work between the worlds that no one had as yet been able to decipher.

"Is the fact that she was born there, and brought here, the reason she hasn't aged?" Jack proposed.

"Not necessarily," offered Charles. "She hadn't aged normally on Avalon, either. But given her peculiar lineage, there may be no precedent for the kind of person she'll become."

"I'm a conundrum," Rose said from a few feet up the path, where she was using a branch to lever up a large stone. "Or an enigma. I forget which."

John nodded in agreement. "That's for certain. I've been thinking of contacting Aven and Artus about continuing her schooling on Paralon. At least there she'll not be questioned, no matter her age."

"Plus, she's family," said Jack. "She and Arthur were cousins, so that would make her an aunt, or second cousin, or some such."

"Twenty generations removed," added Charles.

"All of which doesn't change the fact that you've managed to get yourselves lost," came an irritated voice from above. "Of course, I know exactly where we are."

John rolled his eyes. "Of course," he said drolly, looking sideways at the others. "Having him up there is like having a conscience that won't shut up and won't take suggestions."

Complicating matters further was the other teacher the companions had brought forward from the past as a companion for Rose -- the great owl Archimedes. That he was in fact a clockwork construct was the least of the problems he caused Hugo Dyson in Reading. He wasn't a predator; he wasn't dangerous; but he was irredeemably sarcastic and wickedly smart -- and more than one local had been surprised by an encounter with a talking owl that could insult them while spouting jokes about Plato's Cave.

Archimedes, called Archie for short, stayed in Hugo's rooms, mostly -- but it was inevitable that he and Rose would be seen together, and a talking owl combined with a girl who wasn't getting older was a recipe for disaster.

A month earlier they had transported the bird to the Kilns, the residence near Oxford that Jack shared with his brother Warnie and adopted mother Mrs. Moore. Warnie had already been initiated into some of the mysteries of the Caretakers, but it was a more delicate process with Mrs. Moore. However, once she recovered from the initial shock, and once she had accepted the need for secrecy, she and the owl became affable companions. Archie apparently got on very well with females.

Warnie was another matter entirely. The first hour they met, he had made a sudden move that startled the bird, and Archie bit his arm. It left a nasty welt, and thereafter Warnie persisted in referring to the bird as "Lucifer," which didn't endear him to the owl once Jack had explained the reference. The pairing made for a very lively household.

Moving Rose to the Kilns was a second option -- but again, they would be risking the same kind of exposure there as they had in Reading. And keeping all knowledge of the Geographica, the Archipelago, and the denizens within a secret was the prime rule of the Caretakers -- the very rule that caused Burton and others to rebel. There would be no ea...

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1416958800
• ISBN 13: 9781416958802
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 448
• Illustrator: Owen James A.