Part 5 (1/2)

They stood for a while, noses pressed to the 64.gla.s.s, hoping the funny little guy would reappear. Emmy wouldn't quit barking, so eventually the cousins gave up.

”What was it, do you think?” Daisy whispered to Jesse, her eyes round with wonder.

Emmy barked once.

”I don't know, but I think Emmy does,” Jesse said. ”Let's get her home quick and find out.” When Jesse unfastened Emmy's leash from the Chicken Box, she practically yanked his arm out of the socket dragging him down the library stairs. It was all Jesse could do to get on his bike and fit his feet on the pedals as Emmy pulled Jesse homeward, with Daisy pumping like mad to keep up with them.

The moment they shut the garage door, Emmy unmasked into a dragon. The first breathless words out of her mouth were ”That was a shelf elf!” ”That was a shelf elf!”

”Really?” asked Daisy.

”What's a shelf elf?” asked Jesse. ”And can it help us find the professor?”

Emmy squeezed her eyes shut in thought, then opened them. ”Beats me.” She hung her head in shame. ”Some dragon I am. I have no idea what a shelf elf is or whether he can help us find the professor.”

”Well, whatever he is, I think you pretty much 65.scared him away with all that barking,” Daisy said.

Emmy sank down onto her haunches and looked even more miserable. ”I ruin everything in the end, don't I?” she said.

Daisy said, ”You were excited, that's all.”

”Believe me,” Jesse put in. ”If I were a dog, I would have barked my head head off. That thing was off. That thing was amazing.” amazing.”

”He was,” Daisy agreed. ”And the party is tonight, so maybe we'll get a chance to see him again. And And find the book that will help us get into the tower and rescue the professor.” find the book that will help us get into the tower and rescue the professor.”

”But we can't just sit around until then. We need to do do something!” Jesse said. something!” Jesse said.

”If I don't do something to cool myself down,” Daisy said, ”my brain's going to boil over and I'm not going to be much use to anyone, including the professor. Let's go take a dunk in the brook.”

”And then we can go to the barn and visit the Museum of Magic collection,” Jesse said. ”Remember, Miss Alodie said that's where we should go when in doubt, which we are.”

After putting their bathing suits on under their shorts and throwing together a late picnic lunch, the cousins and Emmy left for the Dell. As they had done so many times before, they walked to the rear of the backyard, crawled through the tunnel in the 66.laurel bushes, and poked their heads out into the Dell. That was their name for the abandoned dairy barn and the pasturelands surrounding it, which were divided by a brook. Normally, Emmy would have transformed into a dragon the instant she emerged from the laurels, but today she had made a grudging promise to remain masked.

”Just in case Sadie Huffington has any spies lurking,” Jesse said.

They walked along the brook until it widened into a crystalline pool beneath the branches of their favorite weeping willow, its delicate green fronds trailing in the water.

”Hey, Willow!” Jesse called up to it.

”Mind if we borrow a piece of your shade?” Daisy asked.

”We'll just be a few minutes,” said Jesse. ”Then we have things to do.”

The weeping willow fluttered some of its long green fingers toward them, lightly brus.h.i.+ng the cousins' faces. Since there wasn't even a whisper of a breeze that day, Jesse knew that this was the dryad spirit inside the tree welcoming them into his shade. Earlier in the summer, St. George had imprisoned the hobgoblin queen beneath the ground in this willow's root-ball. Neither willow nor hobgoblin had been very happy with the arrangement.

67.With his root-ball no longer weighed down by a goblin, the willow seemed positively perky now...for a weeping willow, at least.

Jesse and Daisy spread their towels out in its dappled shade and stripped down to their bathing suits.

Daisy was the first to wade in. Even in the deepest parts, the brook wasn't very deep. The water came up only to Daisy's chest, but Jesse knew it was as cold as the Arctic Ocean. She pinched her nose and ducked right under. It took Jesse a little longer to get wet. He liked to get used to the frigid water one toe at a time. But Emmy bombed ahead of him and then bounded out for a good long shake of her sopping wet coat...all over Jesse.

All three of them stayed in the freezing cold water until Daisy's lips began to turn blue, then they crawled out onto the bank to dry out and eat their lunch.

They had finished eating and Jesse and Daisy were packing up when they heard Emmy barking. She was standing on the other side of the brook, tail rigid, head raised, barking fit to bust.

The cousins gathered their things together and waded across the nearest shallow spot in the brook. Emmy turned and ran across the pasture toward 68.the barn. By the time Jesse slid the big barn door closed behind them, Emmy was already unmasked and hunkered down over the makes.h.i.+ft table--old planks laid across sawhorses--that held their collection.

If you didn't know any better, you would think it was just a bunch of old junk: a farmer's ancient three-legged milking stool, some rusty old horseshoes, antique hinges, animal skulls, pressed flowers, pinecones, and a crusty old metal ball about the size of a peach. The cousins called it the Sorcerer's Sphere.

Ever since the day she had hatched, the sphere had held a powerful fascination for Emmy. She reached down and plucked it up in her talons. ”I like this!” she said, as if she were discovering it for the first time.

”We know you like it, Em.” Jesse yawned widely and glanced at his wrist.w.a.tch. ”You've always always liked it.” liked it.”

”Pack this,” Emmy said, tossing Jesse the sphere.

Jesse barely managed to catch it two-handed. ”For the party?” he asked.

”For the party,” Emmy said.

Turning the rusty ball around in his hand, Jesse 69.said slowly, ”I don't know, Em. We've never taken this away from the Dell.”

”Do what she says,” Daisy said. ”If this is what Emmy thinks we need, then this is what we're taking. Thanks for the tip, Em.”

”Finally!” Emmy said. ”Someone who really understands me.”

Jesse was hurt. ”I understand you, too, Em. I was just making sure this was the right thing to do.”

”Trust the ladies,” Emmy said, ”and pack the sphere, Jesse Tiger.”

Jesse put the sphere in the backpack. ”I'm packing the sphere, ladies. Are you happy?”

”For a grumpy dragon,” Emmy said, ”I'm practically dancing with joy.”

”And does the grumpy dragon promise to make nicey-nice with the other dogs at the party?” Jesse said.

”The grumpy dragon promises,” said Emmy. ”I will even let them sniff my b.u.t.t.”

When Uncle Joe dropped them off in front of the library, there were kids on the front walk holding cages and pet carriers, saying good night to their parents. Jesse had never seen any of the kids before. The kids he knew, Daisy's friends from school, 70.either weren't coming or were still at sleepover camp. But that was okay. Since he had moved twenty-six times in his life, he was used to strangers.

Sitting in the front seat of his old truck, Uncle Joe eyed the vast amounts of stuff they had brought with them. ”You guys need any help carrying?” he asked.

”No, thanks, Poppy,” Daisy told him. ”We're good.”

Daisy grabbed the covered dish while Jesse took charge of Emmy's leash, and they each carried a sleeping bag under one arm. Jesse wriggled into the backpack, which contained, among other things, their toothbrushes, a washcloth, the Sorcerer's Sphere, and Daisy's wildflower notebook, just in case they needed to write anything down.

Daisy gave her father a peck on the cheek. ”See you tomorrow. Say good night to Mom for us.”

Uncle Joe reached over and mussed Jesse's brown mop of hair, which was Uncle Joe's way of hugging. ”Aunt Maggie's going to ask if you packed a comb,” he said.

”Of course he did,” Daisy spoke for Jesse. ”And maybe he'll even use it.”