

Edgar and the Dragon 3

By Joseph Davis

Copyright 2019 Joseph Davis

Cover Illustration by Therése Larsson

Scripture verses taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright ©

1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

# I.

"You know, I'm not even asleep yet," Edgar commented as the dragon came slithering in through his bedroom window. He put his book down on the nightstand and watched with some amusement as his scaly friend slid nimbly through the window, across the floor and over to his bedside. She closed the window behind her with the tip of her tail.

"Who ever said that I had to come while you were asleep?" the dragon hissed.

"Well, I don't know," Edgar said. "Isn't it more... magical that way or something? Anyway, I like it when you wake me up. It feels more adventurous somehow."

"Well, it's your own fault for staying up so late," the dragon said. "What do you expect me to do? Fly back and forth outside your window until I see that you've turned out the light?"

"Now that's an idea!" Edgar said. "Would you like to go out again so we can start this whole thing over from the beginning?"

"No," hissed the dragon.

"Oh yes, we're probably in a hurry, aren't we," Edgar said, throwing off his covers and climbing out of bed. "So what is it this time? The Fairy Queen? More shadow dragons? The sea monsters?"

"Well..." The dragon turned away, suddenly engrossed in Edgar's collection of stone arrowheads.

"Come on, out with it," Edgar said, changing into some day clothes. "What great and terrible danger does the Dragon King want me to come and rescue the citizens of Draconia from this time?"

"Well, terrible may not be quite the right word," the dragon said, still not meeting Edgar's gaze. "And danger may also be a bit inaccurate."

"Oh, I see," Edgar said, finding his warm jersey on the floor and putting it on. "So is this like the princess's thirteenth birthday party, then? Is the prince skipping over ninety-two years and turning one hundred, and does the Dragon King need me to come and eat star cheese and make speeches while the Fairy Queen kidnaps him?"

"Well, not exactly," said the dragon. "But I suppose this is kind of similar in a way..."

"Oh?" said Edgar.

Finally, the dragon turned and met his gaze. Her gleaming yellow eyes looked tired and slightly worried. "Look," she said, "it's the Dragon King who's summoning you, not me. I'm just the messenger. So if you don't like what I have to say, you've got to take it up with him, not me. All right?"

Edgar laughed. "What could you possibly have to say that I wouldn't like, old friend? You know me better than that! I mean, sure, sometimes I give you a little bit of attitude, but it's all in good fun. You know that deep down inside, I love it when you come to get me so we can have adventures in your world. Whether it's a feast with the dragons or a battle with the sea monsters, I know it will be something special – something I would never get to experience here. Just tell me what it is."

"I don't want to upset you," the dragon said carefully.

"Nothing you say could upset me," Edgar assured her. He picked up his backpack. "Just tell me what it is so that I know what to pack."

The dragon sighed. "The wingball tournament," she said finally.

Edgar dropped the backpack. A memory flashed through his mind. In his mind's eye, he was running across a field with ridiculous false wings strapped to his back, bouncing a ball through the wrong hoop as his teammates cringed. He laughed nervously. "So the Dragon King wants me to come and watch the wingball tournament?" he said hopefully.

The dragon looked away again.

"Edgar! Are you all right in there? Who are you talking to?" Edgar froze. The voice belonged to his mother, and she was right outside the door.

"It's all right, Mom," he started to say, but she was already opening the door.

# II.

"What on earth!" Edgar's mother said, gaping in shock through the open door.

"Mom!" Edgar said, leaping in front of her. He waved his arms, trying to catch her eye and keep her from noticing the five meter long silver dragon curled up on his bedroom floor.

She refused to be distracted. "Edgar," she said slowly, staring past him at the bedroom floor.

"I can explain, Mom," he said. His mind raced, looking for an explanation. "It's a dream," he said, "just a dream! You know that dragons aren't real!"

"Dragons?" his mother said, giving him a strange look. "What do dragons have to do with you getting dressed and packing your bag in the middle of the night?"

"Huh?" Edgar turned. The dragon was nowhere to be seen. His mother had been staring at his open backpack that lay in the middle of the floor.

"You're not... running away from home, are you?" Edgar's mother walked past him and picked up the backpack. "You've packed your clothes," she said, "and your scout knife... and so many tennis balls... Are you all right, dear?"

Where is the dragon? Edgar wondered. But then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a flash of silver sticking out from under his bed – the tip of her tail.

"Edgar, tell me what's going on," his mother was saying.

Edgar hurried around to the other side of the room so that his mother would have to look away from the bed to look at him. "I'm fine, Mom," he said. "I'm not running away from home, I'm just... Sleepwalking! Yes, that's right, I'm sleepwalking! Like I said, this is all just a dream!"

His mother's eyes narrowed. "Well, you did say something about dragons," she said after a long moment. "And that does sound a bit like a dream. And if you really were running away, you probably wouldn't pack quite so many tennis balls... Yes, you must be sleepwalking. Okay, then, let's get you back to bed and you can go back to doing some regular sleeping. Do you need me to help you change back into your pajamas?"

"No, I'm fine, Mom," Edgar said quickly. "After all, I managed to get changed in my sleep once already. I'll be fine."

Edgar's mother gave him a long look. "All right, then," she said. "Just call me if you need me." She turned around, but then she caught sight of something on the floor by his bed and stooped down to take a closer look.

Edgar froze.

"Edgar," his Mom said, standing up again and tossing a pair of socks into his laundry basket. "The next time you're awake, we're going to have another talk about you leaving your clothes all over the floor."

Edgar breathed a sigh of relief. "All right, Mom," he said. "Next time I'm awake."

His Mom turned and left the room, closing the door behind her. Edgar quietly counted to thirty.

"All right," he whispered, "you can come out now. But let's be as quiet as we can."

The dragon slithered out from under his bed. "She seems nice," she whispered.

"Yes, she's the nicest Mom I have," Edgar agreed. He finished packing quickly and quietly and climbed onto the dragon's back. "All right," he said, "let's get going."

"What, you're not going to argue or drag your feet about this?" the dragon said. "I know that you don't like wingball."

"Well, you should have told that to the Dragon King," Edgar muttered. "But I can argue and drag my feet once we're too far away for my Mom to hear."

"All right," the dragon said. With that, she slithered out through the window and up onto the roof.

It was a cool night, and the moon was full. Edgar was glad that he had changed into his warm jersey. "Last chance to say no," the dragon said, unfurling her great, bat-like wings.

"Can I really say no?" Edgar asked.

"Sure, why not?" the dragon said. "You have your own free will – you can say whatever you'd like. I mean, I'm still going to bring you to the Dragon Kingdom to compete in the wingball tournament, because that's what my king has ordered me to do – but you can say whatever you'd like."

"What do you mean, tournament?" said Edgar. "And compete?"

"The Great Tournament," the dragon said. "The tournament that comes every ten years, to decide if Draconia can keep being the capital city of the Dragon Kingdom and whether the Dragon King can keep being king. He has especially chosen you to be on the team."

Edgar began to feel a bit faint. Is the future of Draconia and the Dragon King really riding on my wingball skills? he thought. But okay, let's not panic about this – I'm probably just going to be an extra player, someone who sits on the sidelines and doesn't see a lot of action.

"Sorry," said the dragon, "to say that you're on the team is not entirely accurate."

Edgar breathed a sigh of relief.

"No," the dragon continued, "creating would really be a better word than on. You're supposed to create the team."

"Create the team?" Edgar choked.

"Yes," said the dragon. "Recruit them and train them – that's your job as team captain."

"Team captain?" said Edgar. But his words were lost in the rush of wind and the beating of wings as the dragon leaped off of the roof.

# III.

The throne room of the Dragon King was exactly as Edgar had remembered it – except without the throne.

"Edgar!" said the Dragon King, rising from his pile of straw as Edgar walked in through the double doors, escorted by two royal guards.

"Your Majesty," Edgar said, bowing. "I see you've, um... rearranged the furniture."

The Dragon King laughed, a deep, hearty chuckle. "Oh Edgar," he said. "You always have been such a joker. My throne has been moved to the Great Arena –Alarusthrastoganuthromianaga must have told you about the tournament. The throne is the prize. But in two weeks you'll win it back for me."

"Two weeks!" cried Edgar. He shook his head. "Speaking of jokes, Your Majesty... I was told that you wanted me to be the captain of the team. But surely you never meant that I..." He hesitated.

The Dragon King gave him an expectant look with his gleaming yellow eyes. "Yes?"

"Well, it's just... Your Majesty, did you watch the wingball match at your daughter's birthday party?"

"Oh yes," said the Dragon King. "A match worthy of the history books. The way that Gurunarahirudarakar scored those five and a half points in the sixth plud of round four... Have you ever seen such a performance?"

"Never, Your Majesty," said Edgar, who had missed most of the match to keep an eye on the Dragon Princess. A sudden flash of inspiration struck, and he brightened. "Why not make him team captain, Your Majesty?" he suggested.

The King laughed. "Edgar, Edgar, Edgar," he said. "How could I do that when he already is team captain?"

Edgar had time to breathe half a sigh of relief before the Dragon King added, "...for Pyranium?"

Edgar almost choked on the remaining half of his sigh of relief. "So he's captaining the other team?"

"One of the other teams," said the Dragon King. "There are thirty-two teams in the tournament. And if I am going to keep my throne, we need to beat all of them. Which is why I called for you."

"Me?" Edgar spluttered. He thought back to his three minutes of wingball experience and the ball he had put through the wrong hoop at the wrong time. He thought about the looks on his teammates' faces. One of them had said that he would bring dishonor on the Dragon Kingdom if he were to continue playing. And now I'm going to, he realized sadly. "Your Majesty," he said. "You haven't... grown tired of being king, have you? Maybe you're sick of all the stresses and pressures of ruling the Dragon Kingdom, looking for an excuse to pass the responsibility on to someone else...?"

The Dragon King reared up onto his hind legs and roared. "Tired of being king? Show some moderation in your joking, Edgar! I have ruled Draconia for fifty years – five tournaments have come and gone, and I have never lost. And I am not planning on starting now!"

"So," Edgar said when he had finished shaking, for the Dragon King's rage was a terrifying sight. "You mean to say that I have two weeks to put together a wingball team and train all the players, and then I am going to have to beat thirty-two other teams without losing once?"

The Dragon King nodded.

"And why did you pick me for this?"

"Because you're the best," said the Dragon King.

"Did you see me play, Your Majesty?"

The Dragon King chuckled. "Yes, that was quite funny how you put the ball through the south-west yellow hoop right at the end of the fourth plud, even though team B had scored the previous three points with a red-hoop goal – but that was your first try. I would never expect you to be the best at anything on your first try."

"Exactly, Your Majesty," said Edgar. "Which is why..."

"On your second try though," the Dragon King interrupted. "Well, Edgar, you've saved the Dragon Kingdom from so many disasters in the past – I know that if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything. The competition is extra tough this year. The Gray Mountains have got Balanuragarahiniolo the Speedy on their team, and to be honest, we don't have any players in Draconia as good as him. And I really, really, really don't want to lose. But I know that you'll figure this out – I have full confidence in you."

I wish I had full confidence in me, Edgar thought.

"Anyway," the Dragon King said, "I don't want to keep you. You'll probably want to start training your team. You have chosen a team, haven't you?"

Edgar opened his mouth to answer, but at that moment, the great double doors of the throne room flew open, and Homer the Magician (or possibly his identical twin brother Virgil), came rushing into the room, panic written all over his face.

# IV.

"Your Majesty," the magician gasped, rushing to the Dragon King and bowing low. The white-bearded old man was shaking and panting, as if he had run through the palace as fast as he could to get there. He looked much paler than usual, and in his arms he held a blue cloak embroidered with silver stars, just like the one that he wore.

"The laundry room is downstairs, Virgil," the Dragon King said, eyeing the cloak.

"Homer, your Majesty," the magician panted. "My brother Virgil is still gone."

"Gone?" said the King.

"In the Land of the Gnomes," Homer explained. "Remember, he was looking for the Whispering Crystal..."

"Wait," Edgar cut in, "wasn't he looking for that when I came here for the Princess's thirteenth birthday party? That was..." He tried to calculate how long ago it was, but because time worked differently in this world, it was really impossible for him to figure it out.

"Five months, two weeks and three days ago," Homer said. The magician had begun to catch his breath. "And I have not heard anything from him since."

Edgar saw the worry written in the lines of his old friend's face, and he patted him comfortingly on the shoulder. "Well, if I know your brother," he said, "he's probably gotten sidetracked studying all the magical curiosities of the Kingdom of the Gnomes. Maybe he's stumbled across a grove of magical flowers or discovered a new species of whistling fish, or maybe he's found some rare manuscripts in the Gnome King's royal library, and he just hasn't found the time to write..."

Homer shook his head sadly. "I received a messenger bird from the King of the Gnomes today," he said. "The bird said that the King of the Gnomes has not seen my brother for weeks – and she was carrying this!" He held out the blue cloak.

"That's Virgil's cloak!" Edgar realized, shocked.

"Yes," said Homer. "According to the messenger bird, the King of the Gnomes found it hanging from a tree outside the Forbidden Cave. As you see, it has been torn in a few places."

Edgar took a closer look. "But there's no blood," he pointed out. "That's a good sign." As he spoke, he thought about the weight of the cloak and wondered silently how big the gnomes' messenger birds were. Which made him think of his friend Ted the roc bird. I wonder if he's any good at wingball, he thought. He did take my place at the princess's birthday party... Edgar shook his head. He needed to focus on the situation at hand – this was far more important than the wingball tournament.

Or so he thought. "Homer," the Dragon King said with a sigh, "I appreciate that you're concerned for your brother, but Edgar and I were discussing a very important matter before you burst in – couldn't this wait until after the tournament?"

Edgar stared at the king in disbelief.

"Your Majesty," said Homer, and Edgar saw tears welling up in his eyes, "this concerns my brother's life."

"Well, yes," the King said uncomfortably. "But as Edgar said, there's no blood on the cloak and Virgil probably just got caught up in some new discovery, and... maybe he just took his cloak off to go for a swim and forgot to put it back on..."

"They say the water in the Forbidden Cave turns those who touch it into fish," Homer said sadly. "Your Majesty, my brother has always served you faithfully. When the Shadow Dragons had taken over Draconia through my sin and folly, it was he who helped Edgar to put a stop to it."

The Dragon King shifted on his pile of straw. "Well... That's true. I suppose I could send a couple of royal guards to look into it. But Edgar and I really do have important things to discuss. Why don't you go to your study and see if you can use your magic to figure out what happened? When Edgar and I are done, I will send my two bravest royal guards to search for your brother."

"Thank you, Your Majesty," Homer said with a bow. But as he left the throne room, Edgar could see that he was far from satisfied.

"Your Majesty," Edgar had said when the magician had gone. "Please, send me to search for Virgil."

"You have a tournament to prepare for," the King pointed out.

"Yes, I know, but... I owe him so much..."

"Don't worry, Edgar," said the Dragon King, "my royal guards will take care of the situation."

"But Your Majesty... You said yourself that I'm the best at what I do, and this is what I do. I'm sure that your royal guards are very good at standing here around your throne... or your pile of straw... and protecting you from all kinds of dangers except for Shadow Dragons... No offense," he said hastily to the two royal guards who stood silently by the Dragon King's side.

"None taken," one of them answered cheerfully. The other lay curled up on the marble floor, fast asleep.

"But anyway," Edgar continued, "when it comes to rescuing lost magicians from the Forbidden Cave, I'm the man for the job."

The Dragon King sighed. "All right," he said, "if you insist."

Edgar brightened. "Thank you, Your Majesty," he said, bowing. "And if you would like recommendations for a new captain for the wingball team, I'm sure that..."

"New captain?" the Dragon King said with a laugh. "No, no, Edgar – I will not settle for less than the best. Not in magician-finding, and not in wingball. You have one week to find the lost magician and return to Draconia. After that, you have one week left to train the wingball team. Anyway, you still haven't told me – who have you chosen for your team?"

# V.

"So, any ideas?" Edgar asked. He cast a glance over his shoulder at the city of Draconia, which was getting smaller and smaller behind them as they flew North toward the Kingdom of the Gnomes.

His friend the dragon beat her wings thoughtfully. "So Gurunarahirudarakar is captaining the team for Pyranium," she said, "and the Gray Mountains have got Balanuragarahiniolo the speedy on their team."

"Yes," said Edgar. "Are there any other great players we could recruit?"

The dragon considered. "Well, Kokoraluniaganorathus is probably playing topfielder for Reptonia, and the last I heard, Jaliurathanogorianama was still injured after that run-in with the flying bears... No, I think all the great players are unavailable. But maybe you could become great. Speaking of which, shouldn't you be practicing with your wings?"

Edgar glanced down at the false wings of wood and leather that he had wrapped tightly around his chest to avoid creating too much wind resistance. The Dragon King had insisted that he wear them on his quest to rescue Virgil, to "break them in." Edgar found it more than a little bit embarrassing. "What do you mean, practicing?" he said.

"You know, stretching them out and flying a bit. If you're going to play wingball, you're going to need to fly. A little bit of practice would make my load lighter, at least."

"I'm not sure that's such a good idea," Edgar said nervously. "I don't think these false wings were really made for flying – and even if they were, I don't think they were made correctly. They're terribly difficult to control."

The dragon snorted. "Scaredy human," she said.

"Anyway, what about you?" Edgar said to change the subject. "Are you any good at wingball?"

"Any good at wingball?" she said with a laugh. "Why, I was the best! How do you think the Dragon King won all those tournaments all those years? Even as a hatchling I showed a rare knack for the game, and believe it or not, I have never lost a match in my life. It was my skill at wingball that made the king choose me to be his messenger to your world."

"That's fantastic!" Edgar cried as a mountain of worry slid off of his shoulders. "With your help, we should have no trouble winning! I just need to keep myself out of the way, and you can score all the goals or pluds or points or whatever they're called."

"My help?" said the dragon. "Oh no, Edgar, you misunderstand. I don't play wingball!"

Edgar gaped. "But- but- you just said..."

"Yes, but that was before," the dragon said. "I haven't played wingball since the last tournament, ten years ago. After the final match –which we won with thirty-seven and a half points – I swore never to play for the Dragon King again. You see, it was after that match that I found out..."

The dragon was interrupted as something large and heavy struck her from below, sending her tumbling through the air. Edgar was jolted off of her back and fell, screaming.

Wait a minute, he thought as he screamed. I'm wearing false wings! Now would be the perfect opportunity to use them! He spread his wings, but unfortunately, they proved to be false indeed. The air caught his left wing and sent him spiraling so fast it made him dizzy – but he was still falling.

I've always liked the ground, he mused as it rushed up to greet him. Then, suddenly remembering the little black bag of magical items Homer had given him, he shouted "The Lord is my shepherd; I have everything I need!", thrust his hand into the bag and pulled out the first thing he found.

#

# VI.

The object that Edgar had pulled out of the little black bag was a long gray feather. If only I had a whole pair of wings to fly with, he thought, looking at the feather. Other than my false wings, I mean. But wait, isn't this the talisman that can make me fly? he suddenly realized. Now what was that Bible verse that I need to activate it? Those who trust in the Lord will...

"Those who trust in the Lord will renew..." he said aloud, "renew their... renew their... Now what was it they would renew?"

At that moment, he struck the ground and everything went black.

"Edgar!" said a familiar voice. A pair of arms wrapped around him from behind, embracing him tightly.

Is Lucretia already here? Edgar wondered weakly. And why does Heaven smell so much like roc bird?

"Are you all right, Edgar?" the voice said. "Open your eyes and grab hold of some feathers! Ted's about to..."

At that moment, the ground beneath Edgar tilted crazily. By sheer reflex, he grabbed at whatever he could get ahold of and managed to wrap his fingers around something that felt like giant feathers. They were giant feathers, he realized as he opened his eyes. He was on the back of a giant black roc bird with his friend Lucretia. They were flying close to the ground, but climbing swiftly. Above them, his friend the dragon was swooping down to meet them. She did not look happy, but there was no sign of whatever had hit her. Unless...

"Ted!" she thundered as the roc bird flew up beside her. "That was completely and utterly reckless! You knocked Edgar off of my back!"

"And caught him," the roc bird pointed out with a laugh. "Anyway, it's your own fault for not paying attention. This is the first time I've ever managed to sneak up on you. You're not getting old, are you Alarusthrastoganuthromianaga?"

"Older and wiser," the dragon said with a sniff, "which is more than I can say about you."

"What are you doing here anyway?" Edgar asked, sitting up. He put the gray feather back in his little black bag and got a better grip on the roc bird's feathers. "Shouldn't you be out in the Unicorn Forest, or looking for your father Chief Harold of the Forest People or something?"

"The search for my father will have to wait," Lucretia said sadly. "Unfortunately, I have urgent business in the Kingdom of the Gnomes."

"The Kingdom of the Gnomes?" said Edgar. "But that's where we're headed!"

"So then the dragons have also heard the news?" Lucretia said.

"You mean the news about Virgil the Magician?" Edgar asked.

"Virgil?" said Lucretia, confused. "What do you mean? Has something happened to him?"

"He's gone missing," Edgar explained.

"Oh no!" said Lucretia.

"Yes, I'm afraid so. The dragon and I are on our way to go and find him. The Dragon King said we have one week to search for him, and then we have to start training for the Wingball tournament. Or rather, I have to start training for the wingball tournament. The dragon says she doesn't play anymore, but I have one week to get a team together and train them to win the Great Tournament, and you know what a lousy wingball player I am... Ted," he called. "Are you any good at wingball? Do you want to be on my team?"

"Edgar!" said Lucretia. "How can you think about wingball at a time like this! We have more important things to think about – like rescuing Virgil."

The Dragon King didn't seem to think that was more important than wingball, Edgar thought sullenly.

"Ted and I will help you to find him," Lucretia continued. "Our mission in the Forbidden Cave will have to wait."

"The Forbidden Cave?" said Edgar. "That's exactly where we were going to look! But what's your mission? And what's this news you were talking about?"

Lucretia's eyes grew wide. "Do you really think Virgil is in the Forbidden Cave?" she said. "But then we have no time to lose. Ted, fly as fast as you can!" she called.

"What's going on in the Forbidden Cave?" Edgar asked.

Lucretia sighed. "Well, even if we fly as fast as we can, this is not going to be a short trip, so perhaps I'd better start from the beginning..."

# VII.

It had all started a few thousand years ago, with the statue of Norinarialaforinagor the Wise.

"Wait a minute," Edgar interrupted. "You don't mean the same Norinariwhatever who created the four amethysts – the Great Dragon Wizard?" He thought back to all the trouble the magical gemstones had caused on his last visit. Had Homer ever found a safe way to dispose of the three amethysts in the crown? He had forgotten to ask.

"Yes," said Lucretia. "The same Norinarialaforinagor the Wise who created the four amethysts – the one who made himself king of the dragons and used his powers to control the minds of all the kings and queens in the world and –"

"I'll bet he didn't have to win a wingball tournament to keep his crown," Edgar commented sullenly, adjusting one of his false wings that had gotten out of joint again. He wrapped both wings more tightly around his chest to keep them out of the wind.

"Edgar, would you please stop talking about wingball?" Lucretia said. "Focus! We have more important things to think about!"

"I can't help it if my head is full of wingball," Edgar complained. "Yours would be too, if the Dragon King had told you that you had to recruit a team and that you absolutely had to win and..."

"If your head is full of wingball," said Lucretia, "then please empty it and fill it with something more useful. Like the Bible verses that activate those." She nodded toward the little black bag on his belt. "You do remember the verse that opens the bag this time?"

"Of course," Edgar said sheepishly, thinking back to his failure to get at the magical items during his last visit. "The Lord is my shepherd, I have everything that I need. See? You don't need to worry – if we need the magical items, I'll be able to get them out as quick as lightning." But maybe not to use them as quick as lightning, he realized, remembering the terrifying plunge as he had failed to remember the verse that activated the feather. Now what was that verse again? Those who trust in the Lord will renew their...

"So," Lucretia said, interrupting his train of thought, "shall I finish my story?"

"Oh yes, sorry," said Edgar. "You were telling me about the statue of Norinothinosomething-or-other..."

"Or the Great Dragon Wizard, if you prefer," said Lucretia. "So, as you know, he had hidden the fourth amethyst somewhere safe..."

"Not safe enough to keep the Fairy Queen and the Shadow King from finding it," Edgar pointed out.

"Will you please let me tell the story?" said Lucretia. And she continued.

The Great Dragon Wizard, who had gone insane with power, had hidden the fourth amethyst somewhere relatively safe. Then the three amethysts were stolen while he was sleeping, and so he lost his power to control minds. Shortly after this, someone got him with a Brussels sprout, turning him to stone (as typically happens to a dragon who touches the deadly vegetable). The old king of the dragons took the throne again, and he placed the statue of the Great Dragon Wizard in the main square of Draconia to serve as a warning to future wizards who tried to take over the kingdom.

A pair of travelers, a gnome wizard named Humphrey and a unicorn princess named Starlight, saw the statue while visiting Draconia, and they were horrified. For there are many spells that can restore a Brussel-sprouted stone dragon back into a living dragon—Humphrey knew several himself. The two friends spoke to the Dragon King and begged him to hide the statue in a secret place, but he refused to see the danger in the situation. So one night, Humphrey used his magic to shrink the statue down to the size of a lizard, and he and Starlight carried it away and hid it in the most secret place they could find, a place guarded by monsters and magic, where no one would ever find it and wake the most powerful, dangerous wizard the world had ever seen from his stony slumber. When the Great Dragon Wizard was safely hidden away, Humphrey cast a spell so that if anyone ever entered the hidden chamber where the tiny statue lay, a purple star would appear in the sky to warn the gnomes and the unicorns of the coming danger.

"Interesting," Edgar said when she had finished. "But I don't see what this has to do with you and Ted flying off to the Forbidden Cave."

"Really?" said Lucretia. "And where do you suppose the safest, most secret place that Humphrey the Gnome Wizard could find for the statue was?"

"Oh." Edgar suppressed a shudder. "But if the Forbidden Cave is full of monsters and magical traps, then we have to get to Virgil as soon as possible! What if he's stumbled into the lair of some monster or sprung a trap that he can't get out of?"

"It could be worse than that," Lucretia said grimly. "Last night, the unicorn chieftain saw a purple star appear in the sky over the land of the gnomes. Someone has entered the chamber of the Great Dragon Wizard."

# VIII.

Ted and the dragon flew as fast as they could all that day, but as the sun set in the West they were still over Shadow Wood, a long journey from the Kingdom of the Gnomes.

"Shall we stop and rest for the night?" Ted panted as they flew. His wingstrokes had grown heavier and slower during the last hour, and he had been strangely quiet. He must be exhausted, Edgar thought. Personally, he was also feeling quite tired, and he had just been sitting all day – well, except for the time he had fallen. Well, my body has been sitting, he thought. My mind has been preparing for the wingball tournament—and for rescuing Virgil and maybe fighting the Great Dragon Wizard. But mostly the wingball tournament. The stress of the tournament was weighing on him heavily. Now he had less than two weeks to prepare, and he still did not know who to recruit for his team, other than Ted. If only I could convince her to play wingball again, he said with a glance at the dragon.

"Are you ready to give up so soon?" the dragon said, giving Ted a smirk. "So who's old and tired now?"

"You haven't been... carrying these two humans all day," the roc bird puffed. "They don't... weigh nothing."

"Really?" said Lucretia, obviously insulted. "Didn't you tell me that you can carry an elephant for seven days without resting?"

"One elephant, yes," the roc bird panted, "but there are two of you!"

"It would be good to stop and get some sleep," Edgar said. "We're not going to reach the Kingdom of the Gnomes tonight, and we're going to need all our strength when we get there. No sense missing a night of sleep."

Strength! he thought. That's it! Those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength! Now how did the rest of that verse go? They will... they will soar on...

"Do you really want to stop here, in Shadow Wood?" Lucretia said incredulously. "But what about the trolls?"

"Trolls?" Edgar said with a laugh. "Lucretia, I always thought you were a sensible girl. Haven't the unicorns taught you anything? There's no such thing as trolls! That's just stories."

"The unicorns never go to Shadow Wood," Lucretia said. "And they're not afraid of anything! Well, except for Shadow Wood."

"Unicorns can be a bit superstitious," the dragon said. "In the Dragon Kingdom, it is commonly accepted that trolls do not exist. I say Shadow Wood is as good a place to spend the night as any."

"What do you say, Ted?" Edgar asked. "Do you believe in trolls?"

The roc bird did not answer for a long moment. "I am only a very young roc bird," he finally panted. "I don't know much about trolls – but I do know that I need to rest."

"Well then it's settled," said Edgar. "Three to one. Let's find a good spot to land, make a campfire and spend the night in the forest."

"We may not need to make a campfire," the dragon pointed out. "Look – do you see that old castle in the clearing up ahead? I see a light in one of the windows. Maybe the owner will let us stay for the night."

It took about thirty seconds of flying before the others saw the castle, tiny in the distance. Sure enough, there was a very small point of light at the top of one of the towers. The four companions made their way toward the castle.

"I hope that whoever lives there will accept a tennis ball as payment," Edgar said. "And that they're good at wingball and want to join my team."

"I just hope that whoever lives there isn't a troll," Lucretia said.

Fortunately, whoever lived in the castle was not a troll. Unfortunately, they didn't seem to be anyone else, either. When Edgar and his three companions landed in the overgrown courtyard outside the castle, they found that the place seemed to be completely abandoned. No one came out to greet them, and no one answered when they knocked on the great double doors and shouted. Edgar got on the dragon's back and flew up to the lit window, but there was no one there, either – it was just an empty chamber at the top of the tower, with a large square crystal glowing with yellow light in the middle of the room.

They flew back down and tried the double doors, which opened with a tremendous creak. They were unlocked!

"It would be rude to just barge in uninvited," Lucretia pointed out.

"There doesn't seem to be anyone here to invite us," Edgar countered, peering into the darkness beyond the door. "The Lord is my shepherd," he said, "I have everything I need." The little black pouch on his belt opened, and he reached his hand in and dug out a very small crystal ball. "I am the light of the world," he said. "Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

Well at least I remembered that one, he thought, relieved, as the little crystal ball began to glow with pale blue light. Now if only I had a magical talisman that would make me win the wingball tournament...

"Come on," he said to his friends, stepping in through the doorway. "Let's find somewhere to sleep."

"I can wait outside," Ted offered, eyeing the dark doorway which was just about large enough for him to poke his head in. "Someone has to keep an eye out for trolls," he added with a chuckle.

"That's not funny," Lucretia said as she followed Edgar into the abandoned castle.

# IX.

The old castle had not been used for many years – that much was clear from all the cobwebs and all the dust that danced through the air in the pale blue light of the crystal as Edgar and his friends explored the dark, abandoned rooms.

"What are we looking for?" Lucretia asked as Edgar brushed the cobwebs off another door and opened it. As he did, a powerful, pungent smell wafted over them.

"Ugh!" Edgar said, holding his nose. "We certainly weren't looking for this stink!"

"What is that awful smell?" Lucretia said, making a face.

"Awful?" the dragon said, slithering past them into the room and sniffing deeply. "Why, that's the smell of Shadow Wood cheese – aged at least fifty years, by the smell of it. Wonderful stuff! Ah, yes, here it is." She slithered over to a large barrel and started prying at the lid.

"No!" Edgar and Lucretia shouted at the same time.

The dragon stopped and stared at them.

"Please," Edgar begged, "don't open that barrel!"

"You know, trolls eat cheese," Lucretia pointed out.

"Well, that's good for us," Edgar said after thinking for a moment, "because that means there can't be any trolls here."

"Oh?" said Lucretia, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, if there were, they would have eaten the cheese," Edgar explained. "But since it's untouched, that means no trolls. Anyway, let's get away from this stench and find somewhere to sleep." He turned and led Lucretia further down the hallway. "Dragon?" he said after a moment. "You're not thinking of staying and opening that cheese, are you?"

"No, of course not," she said sheepishly, slithering after them. "Why would you think that?"

They soon found a place to sleep – a corridor with abandoned bedrooms fit for kings. Ancient, dead kings anyway. Once they had each chosen a room, Edgar settled into his giant feather bed that smelled of dust and mold, closed his eyes and went to sleep.

Then he opened them again as he was awakened by a great crashing noise further down the hallway.

"Dragon!" he called. "Is that you?"

"I'm here," the dragon whispered in his ear, and he jumped. "And I'm glad to see you're finally awake."

"Yes," said Lucretia, who was standing in the darkness at the foot of his bed. "That crashing has been going on for quite some time now."

"Could it be Ted?" Edgar suggested nervously. "Maybe he wanted to get in out of the cold..."

"He's too big to fit through the door," Lucretia pointed out.

As she said this, the bedroom door opened with a creak, and orange torchlight flooded into the room.

"Oh no," said the dragon. "Not you again!"

# X.

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" asked the torch-bearer, an old woman in a silver robe. As she spoke, she stepped into the room and closed the door behind her.

"It's me," said the dragon. "Alarusthrastoganuthromianaga."

"Sorry," said the old woman. "To me, all you dragons look the same. And I never have been able to manage the names. But anyway, we have no time to waste! It's only a matter of time before the trolls find us!"

"Trolls?" said Edgar. He heard another crash from the hallway outside, and he jumped out of bed and grabbed his backpack.

"I told you there were trolls," said Lucretia.

"And they're on their way," said the old woman. "So we'd better get out of here, and fast."

The dragon snorted. "And why should we trust you?" she asked. "Melinda the cheater?"

The old woman stared. "I do know you!" she said. "But come, that's old news, and we can settle that later. Now we need to run."

Edgar searched his backpack for a weapon, found nothing, and remembered the magic pouch hanging from his belt. "Wait!" he said as the old woman opened the door and ran out.

She quickly reappeared, slamming the door and barring it behind her. "Trolls in the hallway," she said. "We've got to go out the window!" With that said, she ran across the room and threw herself out the window.

Edgar stared. After a moment, he saw the old woman floating up through the air, her dress billowing like a silvery jellyfish in the moonlight. She had dropped her torch.

"She's a witch," the dragon explained, seeing Edgar staring. "But come on – she may be a liar and cheat, but I think she's right when she says we need to get out of here." The dragon slithered over toward the window, then took a look back at them. "I can't carry both of you," she said anxiously.

"Bring Lucretia down first," Edgar insisted. "Then come back for me."

"Edgar," Lucretia protested. At that moment, the door shuddered as something heavy struck it with a great boom.

"No time to argue!" Edgar said. "I have the bag of magic talismans, remember! Go quickly so the dragon will have time to come back for me!"

The door shuddered again as Lucretia climbed onto the dragon's back and they slithered out the window together.

"The Lord is my shepherd," Edgar said, "I have everything that I need."

The little black bag opened, and Edgar dug through it, looking for a suitable weapon. He pulled out a gray pebble that could grow into a stone wall. "Yes," he thought, "this should be able to block off the door." He cleared his throat. "The Lord is my refuge and my..." he began, but he could not remember the rest of the verse. "The Lord is my refuge and my..."

At that moment, a dark fist like a small boulder burst through the door, sending splinters of wood flying. As the fist withdrew, Edgar saw glowing red eyes through the hole in the door. "The Lord is my refuge and my..."

The troll stuck its claws through the opening and began pulling the door apart. Teeth like white stalactites flashed in the moonlight.

I can't remember the verse, Edgar realized, panicking. All this time I've been thinking about wingball, and I should have been practicing my memory verses. Now I need them, and I don't have them!

The door exploded in a cascade of splinters, and the troll lurched into the room, stooping to fit through the doorframe.

All right, wingball, Edgar thought, snatching his false wings and strapping them on over his backpack. I've spent all my time thinking about you – now let's see if you can save me.

With that thought, he threw himself out the window, spreading his false wings in the night air. The troll roared, barely missing him with a swipe of its great claws as he sailed out the window and plummeted like a stone.

# XI.

Priorities, Edgar thought as he plummeted. Why didn't I take my Bible with me from my world? It really would have come in handy. Or why didn't I borrow the Bible from the Sunday School in Draconia so that I could memorize the verses along the way? Or why didn't I...

At that moment, he stopped thinking and smacked into the ground – or rather, into Ted's feathery back. He scrambled to get ahold of some feathers.

"Too slow again, old girl," the roc bird crowed, swooping down toward the ground where the dragon was just lifting off again after dropping off Lucretia. "And Edgar – that's twice in one day that I've caught you."

"It's night now," Edgar pointed out.

"Yes," said the roc bird as he landed, "but not yet midnight. So that's twice in one day."

"We can't stay here," Melinda the witch said anxiously, floating down to the ground. "Come. Help me get what I came for, and then let's get out of here before the trolls find their way out of the castle."

"Whatever it is you came for," said the dragon, "we don't want to help you get it."

"I came for the Light of Arinor," the witch said, pointing up to the lit tower where Edgar had seen the square, glowing crystal before. "And you owe me your lives. If the trolls had gotten to you –"

"We would have gotten away anyway," said the dragon. "We owe you nothing."

Edgar was shocked that his friend the dragon could be so rude. "Dragon," he said, "she did come and warn us about the trolls. Which is more than some people did," he added darkly. "Ted, were you asleep when they came in, or what? You said you were going to keep an eye out for trolls!"

"I did!" Ted insisted. "I was wide awake the whole time! No trolls got past me!"

"Large, stony creatures with long arms, claws, long, sharp teeth and red, glowing eyes?" Lucretia said.

"Oh," Ted said, a bit sheepishly. "Were those trolls? Well, in my defense, they didn't look very large to me. And they said that they were hunting a witch, and since none of you are witches, I thought... But how did you get past me?" he said, turning to Melinda.

"I have a few special talents," she said quickly. "But yes, listen to the boy – I warned you about the trolls. And I have power – power to fulfill your wishes if you just help me to get the Light of Arinor."

Power to fulfill my wishes? Edgar thought excitedly. I wonder if she could help me to win the wingball tournament.

"Whatever you're up to, we want no part in it," the dragon insisted.

"Could you make me good at wingball?" Edgar blurted out.

The old woman gave him a sly smile. "Why of course," she said. "Wingball is my specialty. Why? Let me guess – you have to compete in the Great Wingball Tournament, but you don't feel ready? Oh yes, I can help you. I can make you good, and better than good – I can make you win!"

"No!" said the dragon. "Not again! Edgar does not need your help!"

"At least she's offering me her help," Edgar said, giving the dragon a look. "Which is more than I can say about some people, Miss 'I'm the best at wingball but I won't even play on your team.'"

"Sorry to interrupt," Lucretia said. "But I think the trolls are on their way."

"Help me," the witch said, hovering up toward the lit tower, "and I promise you – you will not lose the wingball tournament."

"Don't follow her," the dragon said as Lucretia jumped onto her back. "She's a cheater, and she's not to be trusted! Remember what it says in the Bible, what you taught us in Sunday School – better to be poor than dishonest."

Well, the Bible does say that, Edgar thought, but the Dragon King says that I have to win the tournament, and so far I haven't really found any way to do that. And she did help us already, so she can't be that bad...

At that moment, a horde of dark, stony creatures came pouring out of the open door of the castle with a great roar.

# XII.

"Fly!" shouted Edgar as the trolls came pouring out of the old castle. Ted took off with so much force that the nearest trolls were blown over by the wind from his wings, and he set off after the dragon, who was already flying off into the night with Lucretia on her back.

"Um..." Edgar said, glancing back at the witch who hovered expectantly by the lit tower. She promised that she could make sure that I won the wingball tournament, he thought. She promised! If I had her guarantee that I could win, then I could stop stressing about it, stop thinking about wingball so much, go through my Bible verses, focus on rescuing Virgil... Wouldn't that be best for everyone? But the dragon said she is a cheat, and the Bible does say that it is better to be poor than dishonest... Though I don't think the Dragon King would rather be poor than dishonest – he wants to stay king!

"Ted," Edgar said aloud, "do you think you could quickly just fly me back to that tower?"

"You're the boss," said Ted, wheeling around and swooping down toward the tower. Edgar managed to leap off of his back and into the window.

The witch Melinda floated gracefully in after him and landed lightly on her feet. "I knew that you would see things my way, Edgar," she said. "Now if you just grab the Light of Arinor and hand it to me..."

"Why can't you grab it yourself?" Edgar asked suspiciously. He cast a glance at the large square crystal that glowed with yellow light in the center of the floor. It was about the size of a basketball. A square basketball.

"Arinor cast a spell on it," said the witch. "Any witch who lifts it off the floor will be instantly burnt to a crisp. He had a thing against witches, and he didn't really want me to have it."

"Why not?" said Edgar.

"Oh, you know how wizards are," said the witch. "But anyway, I'm not going to do anything bad with the crystal, I promise. The first thing I'm going to do with it is clear the trolls out of this forest. And that's a good cause, isn't it? And anyway, I need the crystal if I'm going to make sure you don't lose the wingball tournament."

Well, getting rid of trolls doesn't sound so bad, Edgar thought. "Can you really make sure that I win?" he said.

"I can guarantee that you don't lose a single match," said the witch. "That is my promise to you. Now hurry – the crystal!"

If this thing burns witches to a crisp, I wonder what it does to boys, Edgar thought, looking at the crystal. He hesitated. Okay, I've got to do this quickly, he thought, before the dragon comes back around and tries to stop me.

He strode over to the crystal, reached out his hands and touched it – and was not burned to a crisp. Well, that was a good start at least.

"Good, good!" said Melinda, rubbing her hands gleefully. "Now hand it to me – the curse should be powerless now that it's off the floor."

"And the wingball tournament?" Edgar said. "How are you going to help me win?"

"Oh yes, how silly of me to forget that," said the witch, digging in a pocket of her silver dress. She pulled out something shiny and tossed it to Edgar, who shifted the crystal to his left hand and caught the object in his right hand. It was a little silver whistle. "Blow on this whistle when you are with your team," said Melinda, "and it will be impossible for you to lose the tournament. I promise you."

Edgar thrust the whistle into his pocket and handed the crystal to the witch, who laughed gleefully and jumped out the window before he could say another word.

So this means that I still have to gather a team, Edgar realized as he headed toward the window. But that should be much easier, now that I can guarantee that we can win. And at least I already have one teammate.

He called out to Ted, and the roc bird swooped down to the window just in time to catch Edgar as he jumped. Together they flew off after their friends.

I just hope that this works, Edgar thought, feeling the whistle in his pocket.

# XIII.

"You helped her," the dragon said when Edgar and Ted caught up to her.

Edgar shifted uncomfortably on the roc bird's back. "Well, it is good to help people..." he said sheepishly.

"Edgar," the dragon said sharply, "that witch is not to be trusted."

"She did warn us about the trolls..." Edgar pointed out.

"Only to serve her own evil purposes," said the dragon. "Did she get the Light of Arinor?"

"Well, ummm..." Edgar looked for a way to change the subject. "Lucretia," he said. "Didn't you say something about a purple star that showed that someone had entered the..."

"Sorry," Lucretia interrupted. "I'm not going to help you avoid the question."

Edgar gave her a dirty look. "All right," he said angrily. "I did it! I helped her to get the Light of Arinor, and she flew off with it. She said she would use it to stop the trolls, which seemed like a good cause. And she promised to help me win the wingball tournament – which is more than I can say about you two! What sort of lousy friends are you, anyway? I'm in the predicament of my life, and you don't even care! The Dragon King will be furious if I don't win the wingball tournament, and instead of helping me, the two of you keep saying, 'no, I won't play even though I'm the best', and 'stop talking about wingball and focus on what's important'! Well, wingball is important! If I don't win the tournament, the Dragon King loses his throne!"

Neither Lucretia nor the dragon answered, and as they flew on, the silence became increasingly awkward. A Bible verse popped into Edgar's head uninvited: "Be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to get angry." His anger began to cool, replaced by shame.

"Edgar," the dragon said finally. "A true friend speaks the truth, even when it is difficult to hear. I think it is time that I explained to you why I do not play wingball anymore."

"Yes, please do," Edgar said in a tone that sounded angrier than he meant it to.

And so the dragon told him.

From a young age, she had been a wingball prodigy, never losing a single match. As soon as she was old enough to participate in the Great Tournament, the Dragon King had chosen her for his team. It was a hard tournament that year, with many great players, but she had managed to lead the Draconian team to victory by a huge margin. She went on to win the king three more tournaments, allowing him to keep his throne for a total of forty years of his fifty-year reign. This was quite an accomplishment – very few Dragon Kings had reigned for so many years – and the king rewarded her richly, even appointing her to the prestigious post of royal messenger.

However, each time the dragon won the tournament, the games got closer and closer. Perhaps the other teams were training harder. Perhaps she was getting older and slower. Whatever the reason, she won the final match of her first tournament with a margin of 105 and a half points. Ten years later, in the final match of her second tournament, she won with a margin of 75 points. In her third tournament, it was 31 and a half points. In the fourth tournament, her team almost lost their first match, narrowly winning by three points in overtime, and then going on to win the finals with a margin of five and a half points. She was very conscious of the fact that the other teams were closing on them – and so was the king.

An uninvited guest had shown up at the celebratory feast after the fourth tournament – an old woman in a silver dress who introduced herself as Melinda the Witch. She commented on how close the final match had been, made remarks about how the dragon, who was team captain, had seen younger days – and then she had made her proposal. She gave the dragon a magic whistle that could guarantee that she would win the next tournament – if the Dragon King gave her access to the forbidden books in the royal library of the Dragon Kingdom.

The Dragon King had agreed easily, despite the protests of his team captain. He saw no danger in giving away the secret knowledge of the dragons to a witch, and he did not see the wickedness in using magic to cheat. All he saw was his own fear of losing his power and popularity.

"As it says in the Bible you gave us," the dragon concluded. "The fear of Man is a snare. So is the fear of Dragon. One cannot live to do what is popular – one must do what is right."

Edgar realized that he was playing nervously with the silver whistle in his pocket, and he stopped. "So what did you do with the magic whistle?" he asked.

"I threw it away," said the dragon, "as any sensible dragon would do. And I told the Dragon King that if victory was more important to him than honesty, then I would never play wingball for him again."

"He must have been furious!" Edgar said, horrified.

"Yes," said the dragon, "he was. The whole team was, and all of Draconia was deeply disappointed. It was hard to show my face in public for the rest of that year. But one thing made it all worth it."

"And what was that?" asked Edgar.

"I got to do what was right."

Edgar realized that he was fingering the whistle in his pocket again. I could throw it away right now, he realized. Just pull it out of my pocket and drop it in the forest below us. He looked down at the dark treetops a hundred meters below them. No one would ever find it down there, he thought.

"I'm sorry that I called you lousy friends," he said aloud. "You're not – you're two of the best friends I have. And you were right, dragon – sometimes a true friend has to say what's true, not what's easy to hear, and that's what you've been doing for me."

Edgar took a deep breath, quietly pulled the silver whistle out of his pocket – and then quickly put it back in his pocket before anyone saw it. The four companions flew on in silence.

# XIV.

Edgar, Lucretia, the dragon and Ted managed to get a few hours of sleep on a fairly secluded hilltop once they had reached the edge of Shadow Wood – but the sun rose all too soon, and then they were on their way to the Kingdom of the Gnomes.

It would have been a difficult journey on foot, Edgar reflected as he looked down at the jagged cliffs and treacherous mountain paths leading to Lithusia, the gnomes' capital city. However, flying on the back of a dragon and a roc bird, it took no time at all.

By lunch time they were standing in the courtyard of the King and Queen of the Gnomes, who had seen them from a distance and moved their thrones outside to be able to receive a company that included a full-grown roc bird.

"Your news is grim news indeed," said the King of the Gnomes, an ancient little fellow with a red robe and a white beard that reached all the way down to his feet. Lucretia had just finished telling him about the purple star and the unicorns' fears that someone had entered the chamber of the Great Dragon Wizard.

"One of our wise men commented on the purple star and said that it meant ill news," said the Queen, a little old woman in a yellow robe, with silver hair as long as her husband's beard. "But he is old and senile, and our other advisors laughed at his fears. It seems that the unicorns have remembered a danger that we gnomes have forgotten."

"Many years have passed since Humphrey the Wizard and Princess Starlight hid the Great Dragon Wizard's statue in the Forbidden Cave," said Lucretia. "But the unicorns do not easily forget."

"Sadly, we must answer your ill tidings with ill tidings of our own," said the King. "I see a dragon among you, and so I fear that you have also come to inquire about the fate of Virgil, court magician to the Dragon King."

Edgar felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. "He's not..." he started to say.

"We do not know," said the King of the Gnomes. "My news is that we have no news – we have not heard anything more from him since we discovered his robe outside of the Forbidden Cave and sent it to Draconia with a messenger bird. But three brave gnomes who dared to enter the cave to look for him have also gone missing."

"We will find them and return them to you," Edgar said with a bow.

"We have come to do as they did," Lucretia explained.

"Well, not exactly as they did," Edgar said hastily. "We're not planning on disappearing, Your Majesties – but we are here to rescue Virgil, and we'll gladly rescue them as well, if we can – if you will allow us to enter the Forbidden Cave."

"Oh, can we allow such a thing?" the Queen of the Gnomes cried. "The Forbidden Cave is named so for a reason. It is a place full of deadly enchantments, monstrosities, traps and dark powers."

"We've come with power of our own," Edgar said, patting the little black bag on his belt. As long as I can remember the Bible verses that activate them, he thought.

The dragon spoke up. "Your Majesties," she said, dipping her head in a dragon's version of a bow. "This is the same Edgar who has defeated the Shadow King twice."

"Such a young boy," the Queen of the Gnomes said in amazement. "If you are the Edgar whose deeds are sung across our whole world, then you are a greater hero than many a warrior thrice your age. But can we really send such a young boy and girl – mere children – into such incredible danger?"

"We must, my dear wife," the King of the Gnomes said. "If Edgar has defeated the Shadow King, then perhaps he is our best hope for rescuing our lost friends – and stopping the great evil that we can only pray has not been awakened."

The Queen looked pained, and Edgar saw her wipe a tear from her eye. "You are right, my dear husband – we must allow them to enter the cave and look. But if the Great Dragon Wizard has been awakened – then the danger that awaits them in that cave makes the Shadow King look like a harmless lizard in comparison."

# XV.

At first glance, Edgar thought the King of the Gnomes was joking. "Really?" he said as his gaze followed the Gnome King's pointing finger to the unimpressive, not especially large hole in the forest floor. They had walked for hours through the dense forest, as the Gnome King had insisted that they would never find the way from the air, and Edgar was feeling a bit cross. "Really?" he said again. "Do you mean to tell me that that little hole is the Forbidden Cave?"

The King of the Gnomes nodded soberly. "This is the entrance that Humphrey the Wizard and Princess Starlight dug," he said.

"I don't think a unicorn could fit through that hole," Edgar said. "I hope neither of you are claustrophobic," he added, turning to Lucretia and the dragon. They had left Ted at the palace, since his huge body could not fit between the densely packed trees of the ancient forest.

"The entrance was meant to be difficult to find," the Gnome King said. "The Forbidden Cave is much larger underground – it has to be, to make room for all the monsters and magical traps and things. It is not too late to turn back, you know."

"We can't turn back now!" Lucretia said. "Virgil needs us! And if the Great Dragon Wizard has been awakened..." She did not seem to find a good ending for her sentence.

"Your friend's cloak was found hanging from that tree," the Gnome King commented, pointing to a gnarled, leafless old tree by the entrance to the cave. "We can only hope that it is a good sign."

"How could that be a good sign?" Edgar asked.

"Most of the monsters in the cave eat people clothes and all," the old gnome answered.

Edgar suppressed a shudder. "Well, we don't have much time to waste," he said, turning toward the cave entrance. "The Lord is my shepherd," he said. "I have everything I need." The black pouch on his belt opened, and he pulled out the little light crystal. "I am the light of the world," he said. "Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

The little round crystal flickered to life, reminding Edgar suddenly of the Light of Arinor which he had helped Melinda to claim. What was the witch planning on doing with it, he wondered. Hopefully she was just going to get rid of the trolls like she said. He climbed down into the hole, followed by his friends.

"Be careful down there," the Gnome King called after them as they began making their way down a dark tunnel. "A dangerous witch has recently been seen in these parts – we sent a squadron of trolls to hunt her down, but so far we have not heard anything from them."

"We'll be careful," Edgar promised, trying to ignore the awful feeling growing in the pit of his stomach. He realized that he was playing nervously with the silver whistle in his pocket, and he stopped. Focus, he thought. This cave is full of traps and monsters, and we need to be ready.

The little black pouch on his belt was still open, and he walked with his hand hovering near it, ready to grab whatever he might need to deal with any monsters that jumped out at them.

"At least finding our way won't be any problem," Lucretia said as they walked. Her voice echoed strangely – the tunnel had grown wider and seemed to have changed from dirt to stone. She sounded nervous. "I mean there's only one tunnel," she explained.

But just a few moments later they came to a fork in the road. "So," Edgar said, glancing back and forth at the two gaping black passages before them. "Right or left?"

"We could split up and take both," the dragon suggested.

"I vote against splitting up," Lucretia said. "It would be safer to stay together – and besides, we only have one light."

"I vote for going left," said a deep, gravelly voice from the right-hand passage in front of them.

"Quiet, you fool!" boomed an even deeper voice. "Anyway, from their point of view, we're on the right!"

"They know we're here now," said a third voice. "Let's just jump out and get them now!"

Three pairs of red, glowing eyes appeared in the darkness of the right-hand passage, accompanied by a sudden scrambling sound like many pairs of enormous insect legs scrabbling across a stone floor.

"Ummm, let's go left," Edgar suggested, running for dear life down the left-hand passage. His friends ran after him as the scrambling sound behind them grew louder.

# XVI.

"Oh, good!" bellowed one of the voices, which was now uncomfortably close behind them. "They're running straight into the trap!"

"Quiet, you fool!" thundered another voice. "They'll hear you and turn around!"

Could any trap be worse than the three monsters behind us? Edgar wondered. But he skidded to a halt and turned to face the creatures, digging his hand into the little black bag to find an appropriate magical answer. Unfortunately, Lucretia and the dragon, who were right behind him, ran into him, bowling him over and sending magical items flying out of the bag.

The light crystal flew out of Edgar's hand, casting a flickering glow over the hideous giant insects that were closing in on them. The creatures were as large as cars, and Edgar saw toothy jaws, armored bodies and disturbingly long legs before the crystal went out, leaving them in almost total darkness. The glowing red eyes came to a halt and began looking this way and that.

"Where did they go?" said one of the creatures. "That cursed light – it's ruined my night vision!"

"They must have continued down the tunnel!" said another one. "Come on – the light went that way!"

Edgar held his breath and did his best to lie very still as the three monsters ran past them down the hall. He stifled a scream as one of the creatures passed directly over them – but its legs were so long that it did not touch them.

A moment later, he heard a great crash and then a confused and angry roar from further down the tunnel. "We've run into the trap!" one of the monsters complained in the pitch darkness. "Now we're stuck!"

"Well, let's see if they're in here too," one of the other monsters said. "At least we can have something to eat while we're in here."

"I think we can move again," Lucretia whispered. "It sounds like they're stuck." The three friends rose slowly to their feet. "Edgar, can you turn your light back on?"

"I dropped it," Edgar admitted sadly. "I dropped all the talismans – we have to find them!" He began groping around on the cave floor, and from the sound of it, Lucretia and the dragon were doing the same.

"Found one!" the dragon said. She found Edgar's hand in the dark and pressed a small, spiky object into it.

Oh yes, the pinecone. Now what was the Bible verse that activated that one? Edgar placed it in the bag.

The three friends kept searching as the monsters complained loudly about their predicament further down the tunnel. Lucretia found a small glass cube and a steel arrowhead, and then the dragon found a tiny rag doll. After what felt like an eternity of searching the dragon finally found the light crystal. When Edgar activated it, the remaining talismans were easy to find.

"Hey, there's that light again!" one of the giant insects thundered. Whatever trap they were caught in was hidden around the bend, and Edgar did not feel like poking his head around to take a look. "Hello, little edible people things!" the monster called. "I don't suppose you could come let us out of this trap?"

"Do you promise not to eat us?" Lucretia called.

The three monsters conferred with each other. "Do you have three big bloody pieces of meat to give us, like that old bearded fellow?"

Virgil, Edgar thought. "Old bearded fellow?" he said. "When did he come this way? What happened to him?"

"Oh, it must have been a few weeks ago," said one of the monsters. "We let him pass, since he was so nice and gave us such delicious pieces of meat to eat – that and the meat made us so sleepy."

"Did he take this passage?" Lucretia asked.

One of the monsters laughed, and it was a horrible sound. "A clever old fellow like him? Why would he run into the trap? You don't get as old as him by making those kinds of foolish mistakes. Anyway, do you have any meat for us?"

"No," said Edgar.

The three monsters muttered amongst themselves again. "Well, we can still promise not to eat you if you let us out of the trap," one of them finally said. "If you don't mind us lying."

"We'll consider it," Edgar called over his shoulder, leading his friends back toward the entrance tunnel. "Maybe on the way back."

They made their way back to the fork in the tunnel, and this time they chose the right-hand passage.

"At least we know that Virgil made it past the monsters," Lucretia said as they walked.

"Three of them," Edgar said. "Who knows how many of those things are down here – or if there are any worse things?" He immediately regretted saying it. "But it sounds like he was ready for all the dangers of the Forbidden Cave," he went on. "I'm sure he's fine – after all, he is a magician."

"Another fork in the road," the dragon announced. A few seconds later, Edgar and Lucretia also saw it. This time, the tunnel branched off into three passages.

"So, how do we avoid blundering into a trap?" Edgar mused. He caught sight of a broken bit of stalagmite and got an idea. He stooped and picked up a handful of stone shards, then approached the tunnel to the left and threw one. The pebble clattered on the stone floor of the tunnel, and then there was silence.

"What's that supposed to do?" Lucretia asked.

"Spring any hidden traps?" Edgar said with a shrug. He threw another piece of stalagmite down the middle passage. The pebble clattered on stone – and was drowned out by a terrifying roar from the darkness beyond.

Edgar dug his hand into the little black pouch and found a tiny metal shield. Now what was the Bible verse that activated this one?

As Edgar's mind raced, the roaring grew louder, and he heard something large approaching them.

# XVII.

The Great Dragon Wizard, Edgar thought as the light of his crystal played across a great stony face that came rushing toward them with open jaws and teeth like stalactites. Except no dragon is that big, he realized, and dragons don't have three eyes.

"Run!" he shouted, choosing the left-hand passage and fleeing for his life. At least my pebble test didn't wake any monsters in this tunnel, he thought as he ran. Lucretia and the dragon were close behind them, and the giant stony monster was close behind them, shaking the earth as it thundered after them.

Edgar squeezed the little metal shield in his hand. I can't remember the verse, he realized. Why, oh why did I spend all my time thinking about wingball instead of practicing my Bible verses? In his desperation, he prayed: God, if you help me to remember my Bible verse, I promise to never ever think about wingball again. Amen.

As soon as he had thought the word "amen", his mind drifted to the pair of artificial wingball wings that he had left at the Gnome King's palace. Curses! he thought, but then a Bible verse came to him.

It wasn't the one that activated the shield, but it would do. Edgar dug in his pouch after a small, squarish piece of stone. "God is our refuge and strength," he shouted as he turned and threw the stone. "An ever-present help in trouble!"

The stone hit the ground and suddenly expanded, transforming within seconds into a full-sized stone wall blocking off the tunnel behind them. What if it doesn't hold? Edgar wondered in alarm.

The earth shook as the stony monster ran straight into the wall with a tremendous, booming crash, and a stalactite fell from the ceiling, narrowly missing Edgar. But when the dust had cleared, the wall remained, and the monster's echoing, frustrated roar could be heard, somewhat muffled, on the other side.

"It worked!" Edgar crowed. "It stopped the monster!"

"Yes," Lucretia said, approaching the wall and tapping on it. "And that's very good news. But I have a bit of bad news as well."

"Oh?" said Edgar. "What's that?"

"Well," said Lucretia, "the monster can't break through, but neither can we – you've just trapped us in the Forbidden Cave."

It took a moment for her words to sink in. "But, the monster," Edgar protested weakly. "It would have... I stopped it, and..."

"I'm afraid I have some even worse news," said the dragon from further on down the tunnel.

"Oh?" said Edgar. "What could be worse than being trapped here in the Forbidden Cave?"

"Well," said the dragon, "I seem to be stuck."

"Yes," said Edgar. "All three of us are stuck down here."

"No," said the dragon. "I mean I'm caught in some kind of a web."

Edgar approached with his glowing crystal and found that the dragon was indeed caught in something like a giant, thick cobweb that blocked off the entire tunnel. She hung slightly off the ground, and the whole web quivered as she struggled to get free. It seemed that she only succeeded in getting herself more stuck.

"Oh, that's no problem," Edgar said, pulling a little metal sword hilt from his pouch. "I'll slice you free as soon as I get the blade out. Ummmm..." He stood with the empty hilt in his hand, staring at it for a long moment.

"Well?" said the dragon.

"Aren't you going to say the verse that activates it?" said Lucretia.

"Yes, of course," said Edgar. He cleared his throat. "It was something about a two-edged sword. I'll remember it in a moment."

Lucretia sighed. "You haven't studied your Bible verses, have you?" she said.

"Well..."

"Give me that," the girl said, plucking the sword hilt out of his hand. "The Word of God is living and active," she said. "Sharper than any two-edged sword."

A blade of blue flame sprung to life from the metal sword-hilt, and Lucretia got to work slicing away the giant web with it. The magical blue flame cut through the sticky ropes of the web like a hot knife through butter.

"I would have remembered if you had just given me a minute," Edgar said sheepishly.

"You don't always have a minute," Lucretia said, slicing the dragon free. "The Word of God should be in your mouth and in your heart, ready to guide you."

"Thank you," said the dragon, scrambling to her feet. "That was very unpleasant. Do you think you can clear the tunnel so we can get through? There's no going back now."

Edgar felt his cheeks starting to flush with anger. "Hey!" he said. "It's not my fault – I saved our lives from that giant rock thing! And I would have been able to cut my way through the webs too, if I had just had another second to think – I've been under a lot of pressure lately."

"Life is pressure," Lucretia said, continuing to hack away at the web. "If you only read the Bible when it feels like it suits you – well, then you'll just end up thinking about wingball all the time instead."

Edgar opened his mouth to say something nasty. He really did not enjoy being told off, and he did not like the fact that Lucretia was using his magic sword to save the day without permission.

The giant spider who had made the web didn't like the fact that she was using it either. Just as Edgar was about to speak, he saw the creature drop down from the ceiling behind Lucretia. In desperation, he drew the arrowhead from his pouch, raised it – and couldn't for the life of him remember the Bible verse that was supposed to activate it.

Thankfully, the dragon also saw the spider, and she pounced on it with a roar, bringing it down to the cave floor. The monstrous arachnid was as large as the dragon, and for a long, horrible moment they wrestled on the cave floor while Lucretia stood with the flaming sword raised, looking for an opportunity to strike.

The pillow! Edgar thought. He pulled the tiny cushion from his pouch, and this time he remembered the verse. "I will lie down and sleep in peace," he shouted, throwing the pillow at the spider. "For you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety."

Edgar's aim was true, and the tiny cushion struck the spider's fat body. The creature went limp, and the dragon scrambled out from under it.

"Thank you," the dragon said.

"Well done for remembering," Lucretia said. "Now here is your sword." She pressed the flaming sword into Edgar's hand. "The word of God is living and active," she said, "sharper than any two-edged sword."

Edgar repeated the words sheepishly. Then he repeated them over and over silently as he cut through the rest of the spider web. "The word of God is living and active," he thought, "sharper than any two-edged sword – I have to remember!"

Once Edgar had cut his way through the last of the web, the three friends were able to continue down the tunnel. After many twists and turns, they finally found themselves in a large, eight-sided room. A single stone pedestal, about as high as Edgar's chest, rose from the center of the floor.

"Oh no!" Lucretia cried, looking around. "The octagonal chamber! We've just entered the chamber of the Great Dragon King!"

"But that's no problem," Edgar said quickly. "After all, we're not here to wake him up, right? We wouldn't even know how to do it if we wanted to. And look – there he is, still sleeping on his pedestal as a little stone figurine."

He approached the pedestal in the middle of the room and took a good look at the tiny stone statue. Then he stepped back with a gasp. For the little stone statue on the pedestal was not a dragon at all – it was Virgil the Magician.

# XVIII.

"Well," Edgar said, staring at the little statuette. "On the bright side, we've found Virgil."

"Edgar," said Lucretia. "This is no time for jokes – the Great Dragon Wizard is missing from the chamber! Do you know what this means?"

"It doesn't necessarily mean anything," Edgar said, thinking quickly. "Look." He took hold of the tiny wizard and stuffed him into the little black pouch. "I can take Virgil out of the cave, no problem – but I can't transform him back into a full-sized magician. We'll have to get back to Homer so that he can do it. Whoever took the statue of the Great Dragon Wizard may have the same problem. Any common thief could have taken the statue – just because someone took the statue doesn't mean that the Great Dragon Wizard has come back."

"Any common thief?" said Lucretia skeptically. "So you mean to tell me that a common thief got past all those monsters and traps?"

"We did", Edgar pointed out.

"And a common thief turned Virgil into stone and shrunk him?" Lucretia continued.

"Well..." Edgar thought about it. "Whoever turned Virgil to stone is not necessarily the same person who stole the statue," he pointed out. "But I see what you mean – the situation does look a bit grim. But once we get Virgil back to Draconia and Homer has turned him back, he can tell us about what happened and we can make a plan to..."

"Stop the most powerful wizard the world has ever seen?" Lucretia said.

"Or find whoever stole the statue and get it returned to the cave, before he gets brought back to life," Edgar said.

"And how are we going to do either of those things, when we can't even get out of the cave?" Lucretia asked.

"Look, I didn't mean to trap us in here," Edgar said defensively. "And anyway, there must be another way out."

"Like that hole in the ceiling?" the dragon suggested.

Edgar looked up in astonishment and found that there was indeed a very narrow tunnel leading from the ceiling of the chamber. "It looks awfully dark," he said doubtfully. "No sunlight or anything, and it seems like an odd place to put a tunnel up to the surface. I mean, this place was created by Humphrey the Gnome and Princess Starlight the unicorn, and neither gnomes nor unicorns can fly."

With a flap of silver wings, the dragon leaped up to the darkness of the ceiling. Grabbing hold of a stalactite to anchor herself, she poked her snout around into the hole. "I smell fresh air," she said. "And magic. Something very powerful cut this tunnel, and recently."

"Well then, things are looking up already," Edgar said quickly, trying not to think about what may have cut the hole in the ceiling. The hole was just large enough for a dragon to crawl through, he couldn't help but notice.

The dragon was able to ferry Edgar and Lucretia up into the hole one at a time, leaving them on a diagonal bend just barely horizontal enough for them to sit down on without falling back down into the chamber below. From there it was a difficult climb. The dragon could manage it easily enough, but not with Edgar or Lucretia on her back, and the two humans struggled to find footholds and handholds on the steep walls of the tunnel. At some points they climbed up holding onto the dragon's tail. At other points the tunnel was narrow enough that they could push against both sides with their hands and feet and wait there while the dragon climbed higher. Finally they got to a point where the tunnel leveled off and became horizontal for them to half climb and half walk. Then, as they turned around a bend, they saw a distant light.

"That's the surface," the dragon said.

Edgar hesitated. "Dragon," he said. "You said that this tunnel was made recently. How recently? Could whatever made it be waiting for us right outside?"

"It's hard to say, really," said the dragon. She took a deep whiff of air. "I smell the scent of fading magic – it could be a few hours old, or it could be weeks old, depending on how strong the magic was." She took another whiff. "Hmmm, that's strange," she said.

"What is?" Edgar asked.

"I smell something else," said the dragon. "An unpleasant smell. It smells almost like... no, but that would be silly. It smells like it is near the surface. Maybe if I get a little bit closer..."

They walked on until they came to an opening and saw sunlight and green forest. The dragon took another deep whiff. "Yes, now I am sure," she said. "There's a rather unpleasant smell mixed in with the magic, something like pea soup or..."

"Really, an unpleasant smell?" said a sweet, feminine voice from the mouth of the tunnel. "Honestly, the tact of some dragons..."

"Fairies," the dragon said grimly as the pale figure of Moriana the Fairy Queen appeared at the end of the tunnel, fluttering daintily between two fairy warriors armed with magical spears.

# XIX.

"I should have known that you were behind this," Edgar growled, digging a hand into the little black pouch. "I'm warning you, Moriana, if you don't change Virgil back right now, I'll..."

"Oh, my dear Edgar," the Fairy Queen said, "whatever are you talking about? Has something happened to poor Virgil?"

"Don't play dumb!" Lucretia said. "We know you've turned people to stone before!"

"Is that you, my lovely young friend?" Moriana said, peering at Lucretia. "It's so hard to see you there in the dark. Come, fine statuary really should be placed in the light." The Fairy Queen laughed, a light, tinkling sound. "No, but seriously, please come out into the open – we have much to talk about. I have some questions to ask you."

"It's a trick," Lucretia whispered. "I know it."

"I know," whispered Edgar, "but I have a few tricks of my own." He found the tiny pillow in the pouch and cupped his hands around it. "And I have a few questions of my own. This could be our chance to recover the Great Dragon Wizard's statue."

"Are you coming?" the Fairy Queen asked, hovering backwards with her guards to clear the exit. "Please, no need to be afraid of little old me."

Edgar and his friends exited the tunnel and stepped warily out into the light of the forest. Moriana and her two guards were not alone. Eight more guards and six black-robed fairy enchanters stood or fluttered in a wide circle around them. Edgar palmed the little pillow and drew his hand out of the pouch.

"It's good to see so many enchanters here," he said, looking around. "That means that you should easily be able to reverse the spell that you placed on our friend Virgil."

"Oh, has someone cast a spell on the poor dear?" Moriana asked with exaggerated sympathy. "You mentioned something about being turned to stone. Well, I can assure you, it was not me. In fact, if your friend is around here somewhere, I can ask my enchanters to turn him back as a sign of good faith – if you promise to answer my questions."

Edgar considered. With six fairy enchanters, he and his friends were currently at a huge disadvantage. If there was even a chance that Moriana would turn Virgil back, even as part of a trick, having a magician with them would be a great help. Besides, Edgar thought, what harm could there be in showing her the statue? If she's the one who turned him to stone and she wanted to do anything more to him, she would have had plenty of chances to do it already, before we arrived.

He reached into the little black pouch with his left hand and hesitantly drew forth the little statuette. He kept the magical pillow hidden in his right, ready to throw.

The Fairy Queen hovered closer and studied the stone figurine, her eyes wide with shock. "Turned to stone and shrunk," she breathed. "Now that is advanced magic. I wonder if..." She turned to one of her enchanters, an old fairy with a gold border on his black robe. He shook his head. "I will see what my enchanters can do," said Moriana, reaching out a dainty hand for the figurine.

Edgar reluctantly handed it to her, and she handed it to her chief enchanter. The others gathered around him, and they began muttering amongst themselves.

"Now then," the Fairy Queen said. "Perhaps you might be ready to answer my questions."

"I have some questions of my own," said Edgar. "If you answer them, then I'll answer yours."

Moriana pursed her lips thoughtfully. "Shall we take turns?" she suggested. "Question number one: what are you doing here?"

"Rescuing Virgil," Edgar said. That was true at least, even if it was only half of the truth.

The Fairy Queen cast a glance at the tiny stone statue that he enchanters had flocked around. "Good job," she said dryly. "I think the more interesting answer for me would be rescuing him from what."

"It's our turn now," said Edgar, glancing at Lucretia and the dragon. "So, what are you doing here?"

"Oh, my dear Edgar," the Fairy Queen said, shaking her head. "Always so suspicious. I am here on fairy business. I assure you it is nothing of concern or interest to any humans or dragons."

"If you want us to answer your questions," Lucretia said, "you have to answer ours."

The Fairy Queen sighed. "All right then – I suppose there's no harm in me telling you. My fairies and I are looking for the Light of Arinor – an artifact of power that was created long ago by the fairy enchanter Arinor."

Edgar shifted his feet uncomfortably and looked away. He could feel his cheeks turning red.

The Fairy Queen continued: "My enchanters sensed that the Light of Arinor was recently taken from the cursed castle. We flew straight there to investigate and found that it was indeed missing. As they searched for clues, my enchanters sensed an enormous amount of magical activity here in the land of the gnomes. We flew here to see if it was connected to the disappearance of the Light of Arinor, and then we heard you coming out of the tunnel. Now it's my turn. What do you know about the magic further down that tunnel?"

At least she didn't ask if we know anything about the Light of Arinor, Edgar thought. But should I really tell her about the Forbidden Cave?

As he was weighing the advantages and disadvantages, the dragon spoke up. "This is the Forbidden Cave," she said, "the resting place of the Great Dragon Wizard. And his statue has just gone missing."

The Fairy Queen gaped. Her eyes grew wide with shock and her face flushed even paler than usual. Then, with a twitch of her butterfly wings, she fainted and fell to the ground in a clumsy little heap.

# XX.

The fairy enchanters were able to wake their queen, but not Virgil. "I'm sorry," the chief enchanter said, shaking his head sadly. "Whatever spell was cast on this magician, it is beyond our power to remove it." He turned to his newly awakened Queen. "We need to get him to our laboratory," he said.

"We have no time," the Fairy Queen said. "If both the Light of Arinor and the Great Dragon Wizard's statue are missing, we have to recover them before... before..." She turned to the dragon. "You dragons had another magician in Draconia, didn't you? One who looked just like this one?"

"His twin brother Homer," said Lucretia.

"Is he still there?"

"The last we saw him, he was," said Lucretia.

"Good," said the Fairy Queen. "Perhaps it's not too late. Come! Let us fly to Draconia!" She took off with a fluttering of wings, and her fairy companions followed her. At the height of the treetops, she stopped and turned to look at the three friends expectantly. "Well?" she said. "Aren't you coming?"

"Why should we escort you to Draconia?" the dragon asked.

The Fairy Queen sighed. "Oh, my dear Alarusthrastoganuthromianaga," she said. "Can't you see that we need to put aside our petty differences? The Great Dragon Wizard's statue and the Light of Arinor missing at the same time... This is a threat to us all!"

Lucretia gave Edgar a look. "She needs to know," she whispered.

Edgar pretended he didn't hear and climbed up on the dragon's back. "The Fairy Queen is right," he said. "Even if I never thought I'd be saying that. We need to work together. Come on, let's fly to Draconia together! We have no time to lose!"

"Ummm, my ride is at the palace of the Gnome King," Lucretia pointed out.

"Oh yes," Edgar said, "ummm..."

"I can only carry one," said the dragon. "I think I'll need to walk."

The Fairy Queen sighed. "We have no time for that," she said. "Guards! The net!" One of her soldiers drew a large net of silvery rope from his backpack. It took some convincing to get Lucretia to sit on it, but once she was in place, the guards took hold of the corners of the net and flew up over the treetops with her. Edgar followed on his dragon.

It was a short flight to the palace of the Gnome King. The king and queen were not at all pleased to see the Fairy Queen, and they were even less pleased to hear that the Great Dragon Wizard's statue had gone missing. Edgar and his friends had neither time nor words to try to deal with the old gnome monarchs' fears, but they promised that they would do what they could and flew onward toward Draconia. Lucretia was relieved to be able to travel on Ted's back once again instead of in the fairies' net.

As they flew, Edgar found himself fingering the whistle in his pocket again. If I blow on this, Melinda can guarantee that I won't lose the tournament, he thought. Somehow, the wingball tournament no longer seemed so important. He drew the whistle from his pocket, prepared himself for the second time to throw it down into the forest below – and then put it back into his pocket for a reason he could not understand.

I should tell her about Melinda and the Light of Arinor, he thought, eyeing the Fairy Queen who fluttered determinedly ahead of him. He had never seen fairies fly as fast as she and her guards and enchanters flew now. But do I really want to admit that it's my fault?

"Can you catch up with the Fairy Queen?" he said to the dragon. "I need to talk to her."

The dragon flapped her wings with renewed vigor and they pulled alongside Moriana.

"So nice of you to join me," the Fairy Queen said sweetly. "Have I told you how dashing you look in those wings?"

Edgar had put his wingball wings back on, since they were too bulky to fit in his backpack. "Listen," he said. "We need to talk about the Light of Arinor."

"Oh?" the Fairy Queen said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes," said Edgar. "If we're going to be helping each other, it's important that we're completely honest with each other. So..." He opened his mouth to make his confession, but the words escaped him. "Tell me about the Light of Arinor," he said at last. "What makes it so dangerous?"

The Fairy Queen was silent for a long moment. "All right," she said finally. "There's no sense keeping it a secret – your magician is just going to tell you anyway once we get to Draconia." And she told him.

# XXI.

Arinor the Cunning, according to Fairy legend, was the heroic enchanter who had saved the world from the ravages of Norinarialaforinagor the Wise, the Great Dragon Wizard. He was a powerful young enchanter, the most powerful ever to graduate from the fairy academy of enchantment. For his final project, he had transformed all his professors into frogs and made them compete in a great hopping contest, to the delight of all his fellow students. His magical powers were immense by almost any standard, but quite modest in comparison to those of the Great Dragon Wizard, who was hard at work trying to solve the problem of the invading Sea monster empire. However, Arinor was far more cunning – hence the name Arinor the Cunning.

After graduation, Arinor sought out the Great Dragon Wizard, posing as a simple gemcutter, and offered his services. His thought was to capture the Great Dragon Wizard's power by offering already-enchanted gemstones for the dragon to work with, gemstones that would steal all his mighty spells and make them serve Arinor.

Unfortunately, the Great Dragon Wizard's spells were too powerful for Arinor's magic traps. The dragon did not even notice the fairy's humble enchantments, and his magic ripped right through them without even slowing down. No matter how Arinor set the traps, every crystal that the Great Dragon Wizard filled with magic ended up serving the Great Dragon Wizard just as intended.

It was around this time that the Norinarialaforinagor created the four amethysts. All four stones were cut by Arinor. As always, his magic traps failed to tame the Great Dragon Wizard's enchantment, but this time something was very different. Arinor realized that the four amethysts were unlike any other magical item that had ever been created. They had the power to destroy the world. This realization made him give up his petty quest for personal power and choose to do the noble thing – trick and betray the Great Dragon Wizard and eliminate him before he could do too much harm.

So while Norinarialaforinagor controlled minds and made himself ruler of the entire world, Arinor studied him, his personality and his magic intently. While pretending to carry on his work for the Great Dragon Wizard, he secretly used all his power to create a magical crystal of his own – one designed for the sole purpose of controlling and stopping the Great Dragon Wizard. It did not work perfectly, since the dragon was so immensely powerful, but it gave Arinor the extra edge he needed to plant a subtle thought in the Great Dragon Wizard's mind. This was the thought: the fourth amethyst is too powerful. What if someone were to steal it? With its power, they would be even mightier than the Great Dragon Wizard.

With that thought in his mind, the Great Dragon Wizard, who had begun to go a bit mad from the power of the amethysts, took the fourth amethyst and hid it away, somewhere no one would ever find it. While he was gone, Arinor used his magic to break into the Great Dragon Wizard's vault and steal the other three amethysts, which he hid in another secret location. Then, when Norinarialaforinagor came home to his palace and went to sleep, exhausted from his journey, Arinor used his own magical crystal to pierce through the Great Dragon Wizard's magical defenses so that he could turn him to stone with a Brussels sprout. He then used the crystal to cast many spells on the petrified Dragon Wizard to make it impossible to turn him back into a living dragon.

After this, the rightful king of the dragons had Norinarialaforinagor's statue put on display in the public square until some unicorn or someone shrunk the statue down and stole it, but whatever had happened to the Great Dragon Wizard after that was unknown to the fairies. What they did know was that the Arinor the cunning placed his magical gem in the cursed castle for safekeeping, with a spell that made it so that no one in the world except for a hero with a pure heart could remove the gem.

* * *

"Am I a hero with a pure heart?" Edgar wondered aloud when Moriana had finished telling her story. "Or am I no one in the world – because I come from another world?"

The Fairy Queen gave him a sharp look. "Whatever are you talking about?" she asked.

Edgar braced himself. He prayed a silent prayer, and a verse from some Sunday School lesson long ago came to him: "Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy."

"It was me," Edgar said finally.

"I beg your pardon?" the Fairy Queen said.

"Melinda the Witch wanted it, and..."

The Fairy Queen laughed. "Oh, my dear Edgar," she said. "Melinda the Witch isn't real. She's just a myth, older than the legend of Arinor, a story that fairies tell their children to scare them into... You're not joking, are you?" She looked down at the ground with a grimace. "Well, it really wouldn't do for me to faint at this height – the mess on the ground afterward would not be quite ladylike. But tell me what you know. The whole truth."

Edgar thought about the Bible verse again, took a deep breath and told her: "I helped Melinda get the Light of Arinor. She said that she was going to use it to stop the trolls, and that seemed like a good cause, and she promised..."

"Yes?" the Fairy Queen said, peering intently at Edgar.

He tried to tell her about the promised help with the wingball tournament and the magic silver whistle, but the words just would not come.

"Did she make a promise to you?" Moriana asked. "Did she give you any kind of object in return?"

Edgar opened his mouth to say yes, and somehow the word "No" came out of his mouth instead.

But the dragon knows about the promise, at least, he thought, looking down at his mount. Surely she'll say something.

But the dragon was silent.

"I see," the Fairy Queen said slowly, still peering at Edgar intently. "Very well. We will talk more about this matter once we have reached Draconia and my enchanters have access to the magician's laboratory."

"Anyway," said Edgar, "you still haven't told me what makes the Light of Arinor so dangerous."

"Oh, didn't I?" said the Fairy Queen. "Well, I did tell you that it was the artifact that was used to turn the Great Dragon Wizard to stone, didn't I?"

"Well, yes."

"It's also the artifact that has the power to turn him back." With that said, the Fairy Queen fluttered over to her enchanters to consult with them.

# XXII.

It was an uneasy journey back to Draconia. Edgar and his friends very quickly ran out of topics to discuss with the Fairy Queen and her enchanters and guards, and after that point they flew in two groups, or rather, three – first a group of fairy soldiers scouting out possible threats ahead of them, then Edgar and his friends, and finally the Fairy Queen with her enchanters and the rest of her soldiers bringing up the rear. Edgar could not help but observe that his little group was both outnumbered and surrounded as they escorted their old enemies to Draconia. Were they really escorts, he wondered, or were they prisoners? What would happen if they refused to fly any further? He tried to put the thought out of his mind. With the Great Dragon Wizard's statue missing and the Light of Arinor in the hands of an ancient and evil witch, he needed all the allies he could get – even the Fairy Queen, if she was willing to cooperate.

I should be practicing my Bible verses, Edgar realized as they flew on in silence. He glanced at Lucretia, who sat on Ted's back about thirty meters ahead of him. She had remembered the verse that activated the sword – would she be able to help him with the other verses? But then again, she had been so cross with him about him thinking about wingball all the time and forgetting his verses, and perhaps rightly so. Would she make fun of him if he asked for help? The thought of it was embarrassing. Admitting that he was wrong and she was right would make him look like a fool.

Suddenly, he remembered a verse from a long ago Sunday school lesson: "Those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted."

With a sigh, he asked the dragon to fly up beside Ted. "So, um, Lucretia", he said when they had gotten close enough for conversation. "I don't suppose you'd be willing to ummm..."

"Yes?" Lucretia said, looking at him expectantly.

Edgar cleared his throat. "Well, um, you see..." Those who humble themselves will be exalted, he thought to himself. "I've done a few very stupid things recently," he said.

"You mean like helping the witch get the Light of Arinor, and just thinking about the wingball tournament this whole time instead of studying your Bible verses?"

"Well, um, yes," Edgar said. "But anyway, you helped me to remember the verse that activates the sword: The Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword. And I was wondering... Well, do you remember how this one goes? Those who hope in the Lord will renew..."

"Their strength," Lucretia said gently. "They will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not grow faint."

"They will soar on wings like eagles," Edgar repeated. "They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not grow faint. Thank you."

"You're the one who taught me that verse," Lucretia pointed out. "In the Sunday School in Draconia."

"Yes," Edgar said. "But as you said, I haven't been practicing. I've just been thinking about the tournament the whole time and... I'm sorry. I should have been ready for this mission, with all the right Bible verses. Not just for myself, but also for the three of you, and for Virgil, and... can you forgive me?"

Lucretia flashed Edgar a smile that was the most wonderful sight he had seen in a long time. "Oh, of course I forgive you, Edgar," she said. "I'm sorry if I've been a little bit harsh with you. I've just been so scared about failing this mission..."

"No need to be sorry," Edgar said. "I deserved your harshness. And no need to be scared. Remember, those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. We will find a way." As Edgar spoke the words, he suddenly felt more hopeful, like new strength had come into his soul. "We've faced bad odds before," he pointed out. "And we've succeeded."

"Yes we have," Lucretia agreed. "Remember that time we were prisoners in the Fairy Queen's palace, and the Shadow King got out of the bottle and went into the fourth amethyst? I thought we were done for – but we made it. You know, if I have to face difficult odds, I could not choose a better friend to face them with."

Edgar smiled. He who humbles himself will be exalted, he thought.

He and Lucretia continued studying their Bible verses together as they flew onward. By the time they reached Draconia a few hours later, Edgar could activate every single one of the magical items in his little black pouch.

Unfortunately, Homer had not given him any magical items for dealing with skeptical magicians.

Their first stop when they arrived at the dragons' mountain city was Homer's tower near the palace, as the Fairy Queen insisted that they had no time to lose, and Edgar was eager to get Virgil turned back from stone to flesh.

The magician was not at all pleased to see the fairy queen and her enchanters as they all landed on his large balcony overlooking the city. "What is she doing here?" he demanded, stalking over to Edgar in a rage.

"Well," Edgar said nervously, "we've escorted her here to..."

"Escorted her here?" the magician said. "Do you not remember that this is the very same Fairy Queen who used the three amethysts to control the Dragon Princess' mind, the same fairy queen who released the Shadow King and... Why would you bring her here? Did we not have enough trouble in this Kingdom already?"

"Come now, my good magician," the Fairy Queen said, fluttering over to him. "My colleagues and I have come to discuss a project of common interest with you."

"Common interest?" Homer sneered. "What could possibly..."

The Fairy Queen made a gesture with her right hand, and one of her enchanters stepped forward and handed Homer Virgil's statuette.

Homer stared at the statuette. "What, how?"

"We found him that way in the Forbidden Cave," Lucretia explained. "The fairy enchanters said the spell on him was too strong for them to break."

"If you help us and give us access to your laboratory," the fairies' chief enchanter said, "then we should be able to break the spell."

"I... see," Homer said slowly. He looked around at the fairy enchanters. "Oh, very well," he sighed. "But you may not touch anything without my permission. Come, let us work on our project of common interest and free my brother."

The Fairy Queen laughed. "Oh Homer," she said. "Do you really think that freeing your brother is a project of interest to us? No, we only need his power to help us deal with the real project of common interest."

"Which is?" Homer said, eyeing her suspiciously.

"Norinarialaforinagor the Wise," said Moriana. "His statue was in the Forbidden Cave, and now it's missing. And the Light of Arinor, an ancient fairy artifact with the power to wake him, is currently in the hands of Melinda the Witch."

"I see," Homer said, growing very pale. "Well, thankfully I know exactly what to do in situations like this."

"Really?" Edgar said hopefully. "What do we do?"

"Faint with terror," said the magician. And then he did just that.

# XXIII.

Edgar hardly had time to react to Homer's fainting before the royal messenger arrived. "In the name of His Majesty, the King of Dragons," the large silver dragon said, landing on the balcony of the magician's tower, "the human Edgar and his companions are hereby summoned to – my, what a mess of fairies," he said, noticing all the fairy soldiers and enchanters. "I can fetch the city watch at once."

"No," Edgar said quickly. "They are allies, friends – we need their help now that – well, I can explain it all to the Dragon King, but later. Right now we have two magicians to try to wake up, and one of them has been turned to stone."

"That does seem to be a matter of some importance," the dragon messenger admitted. "But His Majesty the king cannot wait – he must speak to you immediately."

"Oh, it's no problem, Edgar," Moriana said sweetly. "My enchanters and I can take care of poor Homer, and with his help and the help of the items in his laboratory, I'm sure that we can find some way to turn poor Virgil back." She made a gesture, and six of her guards took hold of the fainted magician and lifted him, flying carefully into the tower with him.

"Well," Edgar said, "I know we need to work together now, but this is Homer's property and he has said that you are forbidden to touch anything in his laboratory without him."

"Oh, we'll wake him up first thing," the Fairy Queen assured him. "Edgar," she said with a sigh, studying the expression on his face, "you're going to have to trust us now. The threat facing our world is too great for us to hesitate or fight amongst ourselves. Time is of the essence, and the Dragon King must be informed immediately – go and speak to him, and I will see to it that Homer is taken care of."

"His Majesty cannot wait," the dragon messenger said again. "Come!" He turned and leaped off the balcony, spreading his silver wings and flying toward the palace.

Edgar hesitated. "All right," he finally said with a sigh. He hopped onto his dragon's back. "Come on, let's go," he said. Lucretia climbed onto Ted's back, and together they flew off toward the palace.

"Now I don't mean to question you," the dragon said as they flew. "I know that you are the great hero, the master of these kinds of situation and the one to whom we dragons turn in our hour of need – but was that really a wise decision?"

"I hope so," Edgar said. If they really wanted to hurt our magicians, they would have already done something bad to Virgil, he reminded himself.

It was a short flight to the palace, and Edgar, Lucretia and the dragon ran through the corridors to the throne room at full speed. Ted, who was too large to fit through the corridors, said that he could go back and check on how the fairies and the magicians were getting along.

The great double doors of the throne room were wide open when Edgar and his friends came rushing in, and the king hardly had time to sit up where he lounged in his pile of straw before Edgar began to speak: "Your Majesty, the kingdom and the world are in great danger."

"Yes, I know," said the Dragon King. "It was foolish of me to let you out of Draconia for so long – but we still have a few days left to prepare."

Edgar tried to make sense of the King's words. "Your Majesty, are you talking about the wingball tournament?" During the current crisis, wingball and everything related to the sport seemed so absurdly unimportant.

"Of course I'm talking about the Wingball tournament," the king said. "You haven't forgotten that I need your help to save my kingdom, have you? If we lose this tournament..."

"Then someone else will be king for a few years," Edgar's friend the dragon cut in. "We have more urgent business."

The Dragon King's eyes flashed with anger, and he drew himself up on his hind legs in a sudden display of wrath which Edgar would have thought looked quite silly if the one doing it did not have razor sharp claws and teeth. "You forget yourself, Alarusthra!" he roared. The two guards standing on either side of the king gasped in horror at hearing him use the short form of her name – an unspeakable offense among dragons and an expression of absolute contempt. "Get out of my sight, before I have you thrown in the dungeon", the king growled.

"With pleasure," said the dragon, turning and leaving the throne room with her scaly head held high.

This really does not seem to be a good time to talk to the Dragon King, Edgar thought, watching the fuming reptile pace around his throne. But he needs to be informed.

He cleared his throat. "Your majesty," he said carefully, "while we were away, we discovered a great threat to the Dragon Kingdom and the whole world..."

"A threat which can wait," the Dragon King said firmly. "The tournament is in just a few days."

"But your Majesty," Lucretia protested. "The Great Dragon Wizard, Norinarialaforinagor the Wise, may have been woken up!"

The Dragon King froze. "The Great Dragon Wizard?" he said. Then he shook his scaly head. "No, he has been gone for centuries. And what do you mean may have been woken up? Either he has or he hasn't. What proof do you have?"

Edgar quickly related their adventure in the Forbidden Cave. He spoke of the star, the missing statue, Virgil who had been turned to stone – he even admitted to giving the Light of Arinor to Melinda the Witch. "The fairies are with Homer now," he concluded, "working on reviving Virgil so that they can try to come up with a solution together."

"That does sound serious," the Dragon King muttered, pacing around his throne again. "Fairies in Draconia, unannounced and uninvited? But how much damage could they really do in a few days? I can deal with them after the tournament."

"But Your Majesty, the Great Dragon Wizard," Edgar protested.

"May not even be awake," the Dragon King pointed out. "You said yourself that you haven't actually seen him – just a pedestal in a cave where he was supposedly supposed to be. But according to whom? Gnomes? Unicorns? Fairies? No, we can't let fairy tales distract us from the tournament. You said that you recovered Virgil?"

"Yes," said Edgar, "but..."

"Good," said the King. "We have magicians for a reason. Let them look into this and see if there is any truth to these rumors – you focus on the wingball tournament. That at least is something real. You have to win – that's an order! Now, tell me about your team. Have you recruited any new members?"

"One, Your Majesty, but—"

"Then get out of my sight and go put your team together," the king roared. "I don't want to see your face again until you have a full team, the best team in the kingdom. Guards!"

This is absurd, Edgar thought as the two royal guards escorted him and Lucretia out of the throne room. How can the king think about wingball at a time like this?

"So, are you going to do it?" Lucretia asked as they walked down the broad corridor toward the main entrance of the palace. "Just ignore the whole Great Dragon Wizard situation and put your wingball team together?"

"What else can I do?" Edgar said hopelessly. "I don't know where to find Melinda and get the Light of Arinor, and I don't know where the Great Dragon Wizard's statue is. Maybe the Dragon King is right – the magicians need to figure out the next step. I may as well put together a wingball team while we're waiting. Not that we have any chance of winning..."

"We need Alarusthrastoganuthromianaga," Lucretia said with a sigh.

"But she said she refuses to play wingball for the King ever again," Edgar said.

"Could you please stop talking about wingball!" Lucretia said. "We need her to help us come up with a plan. Where could she have gone? I've never seen the Dragon King so angry – it was shocking how he used the short form of her name."

As they left the palace, Ted the roc bird swooped down to meet them. "I flew by Homer's tower," he said, "and everything seemed to be all right. Homer was awake again, and he and the Fairy Queen and her five enchanters were gathered around Virgil's statue working their magic – I'm sure they'll be able to turn him back."

"That's the first bit of good news we've had in a while," Edgar said, but for some reason the news gave him a bad feeling. Five fairy enchanters, he thought. Ted said five – but weren't there six of them? He must have miscounted, he thought with a shrug.

"So, Ted," he said aloud. "Any ideas who else we should recruit for our wingball team?"

# XXIV.

As it turned out, Ted was fantastic on defense. His huge wings enabled him to cover half of the wingball goal's wooden hoops at once. Since he stayed on the ground, covering the lower goals, and since none of Edgar's teammates could actually fly to reach the higher goals (except for Hurinorolagiforinor, who was a bit old and confused and sometimes forgot what he was supposed to do with the ball once he got up there), this kept anyone from scoring a goal during the entire first half of the practice.

"All right then," Edgar said as Ted blocked yet another shot from the woodsman Cornelius, who had come to Draconia to see the tournament and happily agreed to be a part of the Dragon King's team when Edgar asked him. At the moment he looked less than happy, running around with his face red with exertion and his artificial wings flapping behind him as he struggled in vain to get past the roc bird's defense. "All right, I said," Edgar repeated, more loudly. "Let's switch. Ted, Hobb, you and I are on offense. Cornelius, Old Timer, Nobb, you're on defense."

"What fence?" Hurinorolagiforinor asked – or at least, that's what Edgar thought he said. The ancient gray dragon seemed to have lost his false teeth again.

"Let me help you there, Old Timer," Edgar said, finding the old dragon's false teeth at the base of the goal and wiping foul-smelling dragon spit off on the grass.

Hurinorolagiforinor – whom Edgar called "Old Timer" because he couldn't pronounce his real name – waited patiently while Edgar wiped his dentures off and then stuck them back into his mouth.

He's a war hero, Edgar reminded himself as he wrinkled his nose at the putrid smell of the dragon's mouth. He was the general of the Draconian army for the Dragon King's father – he is a senior citizen, a respected member of the community – and the only dragon willing to be on the Dragon King's team. Edgar had just about lost all hope of getting a team together after all the refusals he had gotten from dragons he asked to play on his team. When he had asked one of them, a strong young dragon who had played Wingball at the princess's birthday party, why everyone refused to play, he answered that no dragon dared to be on the team that lost the tournament for the king.

No dragon except for Hurinorolagiforinor. Edgar did not know if it was the ancient dragon's unswerving loyalty to the king – whom he had known as an egg – or if he was just so old and confused that he thought they were actually going to win. But for whatever reason, when the old general overheard Edgar asking young dragons at the public fountains if they would be on his team, he had stepped forward and volunteered. After that, Edgar had run into Cornelius and his two new companions, the goblin brothers Hob and Nob, rounding off the team to six players. Six terrible players.

Once Edgar had fixed the old general's teeth and gotten him to understand that they were still playing wingball and not digging trenches against the sea monsters, Edgar got his team in position. He started with the ball, bouncing it on his artificial wings as he ran toward the goal. Nobb, who was quick and agile but only came up to Edgar's waist, came running to intercept him, and Edgar passed the ball to Hobb. The two brothers were nearly identical, with their green skin, pointed ears, red eyes and matching clothes made of animal skins, but Edgar had learned that the one with the wart on his nose was Hobb and therefore, that's the one he passed the ball to.

As usual, Hobb made a spectacular mess of things, struggling to bounce the ball on his artificial wings and running off in the wrong direction with it. Old Timer, in one of his moments of clarity, swooped down on the young goblin, snatched the ball away from him, bounced it gracefully on his wings all the way to the goal – and bounced it expertly through the wrong hoop, losing five points for his team.

Edgar did not have the heart to tell him.

As the ancient dragon came strutting proudly back to his teammates with the ball in his mouth, Edgar heard the unmistakable tinkling sound of fairy laughter. He turned to see six of the Fairy Queen's soldiers alighting gracefully on the edge of the field.

"Shouldn't you be guarding your queen?" Edgar asked.

"Why?" a particularly short fairy with three black stripes on the shoulders of his uniform asked. "Should she feel threatened here?"

"Well... No," Edgar said, "but... well, you see, we're in the middle of an important practice, and it's not really open to the public, so..."

"Oh yes, wingball," the fairy said. "Isn't three on three a bit few for a game?"

"Well, yes..." said Edgar. "But you see, it's just a practice, and... Look, I'm sure you have important work to do somewhere else, so if you could just leave us in peace..."

"Not really," the fairy guard said. "Her Majesty is busy with her enchanters and your magicians, and she said that we soldiers were just in the way, so she gave my men and me the afternoon off. We don't really know how we're going to pass the time here in Draconia – but some of us played a little bit of wingball in college, so if you'd like a team to practice against..."

"The young gnome has a point!" the old general said. "Three is not enough for wingball. Let's spar with these young whippersnappers and show them what Draconian wingball is all about!"

"Well, um, all right," Edgar said, hoping the fairy would not take offense to being called a gnome. If anything, he only seemed to find it amusing. "We can play one plud against each other," he said. "If you all know the rules."

"Thank you," the fairy said with a smile, nodding to his comrades who immediately got set up in a perfect golden crab formation.

Edgar swallowed. "I guess that means that we're on offense," he said. "All right team – double bluebear formation!"

After some discussion and a bit of shoving between Hobb and Nobb, Edgar's teammates managed to form up in something a bit like a parody of a single bluebear formation.

Edgar bounced the ball on his artificial wings a few times, ran in toward the goal, passed to Cornelius as three fairies blocked his way – and a fourth fairy plucked the ball out of the air on the way, bouncing it gracefully on his gossamer wings as he deftly flew past both Ted and Old Timer and put the ball counterclockwise through a yellow-striped red hoop, earning twelve points for his team.

"Wow," Edgar said. "That was..."

"A bit clumsy, I know, said the fairy captain. But we're just getting warmed up. I believe we're on offense now."

The next seven pluds went even worse than the first, or even better, depending on which team one was rooting for. Unfortunately, Edgar was rooting for his own team. By the third plud of the second round, they were behind seventy-eight and a half points to zero.

"Don't worry," Old Timer chuckled as they huddled up for a quick strategy break. "We've got those sea monsters right where we want them. They may think they have the victory now, but once we uncover the trenches..."

"Are you ready to play yet?" one of the fairies called. They all seemed to be having a good laugh together as they stood in their forward troll formation.

"I guess it's true what they say about old dragons and wingball," one of the fairies jeered.

"Oh?" said Edgar's friend the dragon, suddenly swooping down out of the sky and landing between the two teams. "What do they say, fairy?"

The fairies did not answer.

"Alarusthrastoganuthromianaga!" Old Timer called, recognizing her. "My dear young hatchling – this battlefield is no place for a girl your age!"

"You forget, O Hurinorolagiforinor", the dragon said gently. "I have already played in some tournaments on this field. And today I would be honored to play by your side."

"I thought you didn't play wingball anymore," Edgar protested as the dragon joined their huddle.

"Not for the Dragon King," she replied. "But today I can play a few pluds against some disrespectful fairies. So, I take it we are on offense. Shall we try the Dark Sea Serpent formation?"

# XXV.

Edgar sat on the sidelines, watching. He was amazed to see how quickly his friend the dragon got Ted, Cornelius, Old Timer, Hobb and Nobb arranged in Dark Sea Serpent formation. But it was even more amazing to watch her once play had started.

The dragon had let Old Timer start with the ball and got open while the rest of the team tried to block the fairies. Unfortunately, Old Timer forgot who he was supposed to pass to and bounced the ball to Hobb, who managed to fumble it spectacularly. One of the fairies picked up the ball and passed it to the fairy captain, who zoomed in on a black-striped blue goal...

And bounced the ball off of the dragon's wing. She had placed herself in front of the goal lightning quick, and with a flick of her wing, the ball was hers. She corkscrewed through the air, dodging fairies as she made her way around the goal counterclockwise, soaring high and swooping low. Two of the fairies crashed into each other and fell to the ground as they chased her – and the whole time, she never lost control of the ball for a second. It was almost as if she had it on a string! With a final flick of her wing, the ball sailed through a gold-striped red hoop, earning twelve points for the team.

The fairies were not happy, to say the least. Edgar heard them bickering as they huddled up and talked strategy in preparation for the next plud. The captain seemed to blame a poor fairy named Roland for the whole mess, as Roland was the one who he had crashed into while chasing the dragon. "We have to win this!" he shouted at his team. "This is for the honor of the Fairy Kingdom – we can't lose to an old geezer, a couple of idiotic goblins, a lumberjack and that, that... girl! Come on, we're better than this! Reverse golden crab formation, and no messing it up this time, Roland!"

The fairies snapped into formation in the blink of an eye – but their speed was to no avail. Edgar watched in amazement as his team blocked shot after shot and scored point after point. It wasn't just that his friend the dragon could fly circles around the fairies, intercept their passes as if she could read their minds and score goals as if the ball was a bird flying home to its nest – she even got her rag-tag team to shine. She arranged the players in the best possible positions, using their unique strengths and getting them to cover each other's weaknesses. She seemed to pay Old Timer special attention, giving him very short and simple instructions and reminding him respectfully at just the right moment. By the time the match was over and her team had won four hundred and seventy-three to seventy-eight and a half – the fairies had not managed to score a single point since she took the field – over half the goals had actually been scored by Old Timer.

"You have won, sir," the dragon said, bowing to the senior dragon as the fairies stormed off to the sidelines to shout at each other.

"It was inevitable, my dear Alarusthrastoganuthromianaga", Old Timer said soberly. He nodded toward the fairy captain. "An army with an arrogant general is doomed to fail. It is just as you hatchlings say in that newfangled – what do you call it? Sunday School! Yes, that's right: Whoever exalts himself will be humbled."

"And whoever humbles himself will be exalted," Edgar added, stepping into the conversation. "My dear friend," he said to the dragon. "That was amazing! Now I understand how you won all those tournaments – how could any team lose when you are on it? Please, I beg you – humbly – play on my wingball team!"

"I'm sorry," the dragon said, looking away. "But I can never play wingball for the Dragon King again. He is one who has exalted himself, and who has shown that he is willing to cheat to do it. I cannot play for someone who is willing to win with the help of trickery or magic."

"But, but..." Edgar said. His hand slipped into his pocket and felt the magic whistle, but then he immediately withdrew his hand and forgot about it. "What about them?" he said angrily, pointing to the fairies. "I'm sure they would love the chance to play and embarrass some dragons! Shall I ask them to be on my team instead?"

"Take it easy, young soldier," Old Timer said, patting him on the back with a gray wing. "Anger has caused many battles, won few and lost many."

Edgar took a deep breath. Be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to get angry, he told himself. As he thought the words, he felt his anger begin to fade.

"Those fairies would only embarrass their own team in the tournament," his friend the dragon said. "They are quite good for fairies, but they are not ready to play against the likes of Gurunarahirudarakar or Balanuragarahiniolo the Speedy."

Quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to get angry, Edgar reminded himself. "So what am I supposed to do?" he asked helplessly. "I can't win this!"

"A wise general picks his battles," Old Timer said. "There are some battles, young human, that one cannot win."

"The world does not end if the dragons get a new king," the dragon pointed out. "But on the other hand, it might just end if the Great Dragon Wizard wakes up."

"There's not much I can do about that at the moment," Edgar pointed out glumly. "All I can do is get my team ready to lose the tournament. All alone."

"Not alone," the dragon said. "I can help you to train them."

Edgar brightened. "Really, would you?" he said. "But that's wonderful! Oh, thank you, thank you!" He threw his arms around the dragon's neck and hugged her.

"I will not play for the Dragon King," the dragon said. "But I will help my dear friend Edgar. And besides, who could pass up a chance to work side-by-side with Hurinorolagiforinor the Strong?"

Edgar tried to think of some way to fully express his thanks, but at that moment they were interrupted by a distant voice shouting "Edgar! Edgar!"

Edgar turned to see a blue-robed magician come running out onto the field. "Homer!" he called, running to meet the magician. "How is the work going? Do you have a way to stop the Great Dragon Wizard?"

"Virgil," the magician corrected him breathlessly. "Homer is with the fairies."

"You're all right!" Edgar cried, throwing his arms around the magician. "They woke you up!"

"All right for the moment," the magician said. "But soon, none of us will be all right – unless we act quickly. Melinda the Witch has the Great Dragon Wizard's statue – it was she who turned me to stone."

Edgar's jaw dropped. "But she also has..."

"The Light of Arinor, I know. We just have to hope that she hasn't used it yet, that she isn't foolish enough to wake him up. Come! We have a plan, something that just might have the slightest chance of possibly succeeding – but we need your help, and quickly! Every moment counts!"

"Well, it looks like I have to get going," Edgar said to his team as he climbed up onto his friend the dragon's back. "Good practice today – well done. Ted, do you think you could give Virgil a lift?"

Virgil climbed up onto the roc bird's back, and together they flew off toward the magician's tower.

# XXVI.

Homer, the Fairy Queen and her enchanters were hard at work when Edgar and Virgil entered the basement laboratory – scurrying back and forth, mixing potions, muttering charms over crystals, arguing with each other about exactly how some contraption made of silver wires should be calibrated. They were in such a flurry of activity that Edgar almost did not notice that two of the fairy enchanters were missing.

"Hey, weren't there six of you before?" he said, stopping a black-robed enchanter that was scuttling past with a bottle of bubbling green goo.

An expression of panic came over the old fairy's face, and he cleared his throat loudly. "Well, the thing about enchanters is..." he began, "you see, sometimes we just sort of have to, uh..."

"Edgar, you're here!" Homer interrupted, looking up from the contraption of wires. "Excellent! Do you have your bag of talismans with you?"

"Well, yes," Edgar said, "but... Do you know where the other two fairy enchanters have gone off to?"

Homer looked around him and frowned thoughtfully. "All four of them seem to be here," he said.

"But there were six of them!" Edgar insisted.

The Fairy Queen looked up from her dish full of blue crystals. "Oh, Edgar," she said, "can't you just relax? We have more important things to focus on... But if you must know, Quentin and Corbin have flown back to our borrowed apartments to work on another project,"

"Another project?" Edgar said skeptically. "When the Great Dragon Wizard could be awakened at any moment?"

"It's a personal matter," the Fairy Queen said. "Anyway, you're just in time for us to complete the spell."

"What spell?" said Edgar.

Homer cleared his throat. "Perhaps I had better start at the beginning," he said. "You see, as the fairies and I investigated the old magical defenses that have been laid out around Draconia, we found that there is already a magical shield calibrated to try to stop the Great Dragon Wizard, and interestingly enough, even one to stop Melinda the Witch. Now, Draconian history never was my best subject at Magicians' Academy, but I can only surmise that the Dragon Kingdom has had dealings with her at some time in the distant past, and that they did not go well for the dragons."

Edgar thought about what his good friend the dragon had told him about the tournament in which Melinda offered to help the Dragon King cheat. "But Melinda has been in Draconia in the last ten years," he pointed out.

"Yes," said the magician. "I'm not surprised. The shields wouldn't stop Melinda or the Great Dragon Wizard from entering the kingdom – that would be quite impossible. But they – oh, it really is such an ingenious bit of work – I would love to meet the magician who did it. You see, the shields are calibrated to deal with their magic, but not to meet it head on – just to twist it in an ever so slight curve to turn it in on itself, using a kind of modified Hieronymus will-lock spliced onto Malagan's old hospitality and permission formula – if you see what I mean."

"Well, ummm..." Edgar said.

"Perhaps I'd better explain this," the Fairy Queen said. "Basically, if Melinda or the Great Dragon Wizard show up in Draconia, they won't be able to use their magic."

"Well, that's not quite accurate," Homer cut in. "With some effort, they'll be able to use a little bit of their magic. In Melinda's case, maybe enough to light a candle, and in the Great Dragon Wizard's case, maybe enough to, I don't know – blow up the palace or something. But the more they focus on drawing in more magic for stronger spells, the more their own magic will work against them, until their peak power reaches a point of diminishing returns which will make them... Well, it's quite limiting. Unless someone invites them to use their magic. That would, of course, negate the entire effect of the shield, allowing them to instantly draw in enough magic to get up to full power and annihilate us all. But who would be foolish enough to do that?"

"Well, that's... good," Edgar said. "So, once the Great Dragon Wizard has blown up the palace, what do we do?"

"Oh no," the magician said with a chuckle. "We can't have him blowing up the palace. You've got to slay him long before that happens."

"Oh, well, that's all right then," Edgar said doubtfully. "Now when you say I've got to slay him..."

"Yes, a traditional attack with a semi-physical weapon, such as your magic sword, should be just the thing," Homer said. "He may not see it coming, and in that case, you should quickly be able to slay him before he can cause too much destruction."

"And if he does see it coming?" Edgar asked.

The magician stared at him, wide-eyed. "Oh no, that wouldn't be good at all," he said. "You absolutely can't let that happen. That's why you've got to be the one to do it, you see – you're the kind of hero who's clever enough to work out that kind of detail. I assume you know how to manage that best. My part is to focus on the lure."

"The lure?" said Edgar.

"Yes," said Homer, pointing to the wire contraption. "We are calibrating this lure to mimic the pulse of an extremely powerful magic source. Since both Melinda and the Great Dragon Wizard are known to be power hungry, once we activate this, they should come straight to Draconia to absorb the magic. And then you slay the Great Dragon Wizard."

"Yes," said Edgar. "But what about Melinda? My Mom worked hard to teach me how to be a gentleman, and slaying ladies is not very... gentlemanly."

"Just leave that part to me," the Fairy Queen said. "My enchanters and I have prepared a special... surprise for Melinda."

"Now when have you had the time to do that?" Homer asked. "You fairies certainly do work quickly! Anyway, Edgar, could you please give me your sword?"

"The Lord is my shepherd," Edgar said. "I have everything that I need." The little black pouch at his belt opened, and he pulled out the sword hilt and handed it to Homer.

"All right," the magician said, taking the sword hilt off to a work bench, "I'm just going to calibrate this against all the most likely personal shields the Great Dragon Wizard might have. Virgil, do you think you could give Edgar a ward against augmented perception? If the fairies help, you should be able to make it strong enough for the Great Dragon Wizard while he's in the limiting field."

Edgar thought a moment about what the word "perception" meant. "Are you going to make me invisible to the Great Dragon Wizard?" he asked hopefully.

Homer laughed, looking up from his work with the sword handle. "Oh, Edgar," he said, "you really are a joker, you know that? How could Virgil possibly do that? No, he's just going to make it so that the Great Dragon Wizard doesn't immediately sense your presence and your intent to slay him as soon as he enters the city. Then it's up to you to use your normal sneaking and slaying abilities. But that should be no problem for you."

"Oh yes, no problem at all," Edgar said weakly.

"Homer," Virgil cut in, "I think it's only fair that we tell the boy the odds."

"You have to excuse my brother," Homer said. "He can be a bit of a pessimist at times."

"Not a pessimist," Virgil said. "I just went for the advanced thaumaturgical statistics course at Magicians' Academy – the one you skipped to take augmented horticulture to try to impress that – what was her name..."

"Well, that's neither here nor there," Homer interrupted. "Anyway, there's no need to worry. Magically, our plan has at least a twenty percent chance of success."

"Oh," Edgar said weakly, "twenty percent – you don't say."

"Well, I would call those wonderful odds against the Great Dragon Wizard," Homer said defensively. "After all, he is the greatest wizard who ever lived."

"My brother is being a bit optimistic as usual," Virgil said grimly. "But anyway, I may as well give you this ward against augmented perception. Come. Alvin, Mordred, could you help me with this?"

Two of the fairy enchanters fluttered over to Edgar, and they began muttering and waving their hands over him.

"So," Edgar said when they were finished, "when can the sneaking and slaying begin?"

Virgil frowned thoughtfully. "Well, if we work around the clock, the lure should be ready in about... Eight days' time."

"Right in the middle of the tournament," Edgar muttered. "I should have guessed."

Once Homer had finished with his sword and given it back to him, Edgar excused himself and went up to the balcony, where his friend the dragon was waiting for him.

"Shall we go get some dinner?" she suggested as they flew off toward the setting sun.

"Soon," said Edgar. "First, I'd like to pay a quick visit to the fairies' borrowed apartments."

# XXVII.

Since the Dragon King loved to throw lavish parties and invite guests from far and wide, Draconia had plenty of spacious, well-furnished apartments for royal guests. The more important or well-loved the king's guest was, the closer to the palace the apartment. As Edgar was considered a great hero and had saved the Dragon Kingdom time and again, he generally stayed in a chamber inside the palace itself. A guest whom the Dragon King did not particularly like, but to whom he had to show some grudging respect – such as the King of the Gnomes – would usually be placed in an apartment about halfway between the palace and the city gate, around the public fountains.

The Fairy Queen and her entourage had been given an apartment by the garbage dump about a kilometer outside the back gate of the city. They had a whole tower to themselves, if it could be called a tower. Where the garbage dump ended and the tower began was actually a bit hard to tell, as the tower was apparently a few thousand years old and had not been repaired or otherwise maintained within the last thousand or so. As Edgar understood the situation, the royal messenger had escorted the Fairy Queen, her enchanters and her soldiers to the tower with many apologies and the excuse that everything in the city was booked for the wingball tournament.

Unfortunately, the tower's isolated location outside the city made spying difficult. "Fly in low," Edgar said to his friend the dragon as they left the back gate. "As low as you can. And drop me off a few hundred meters from the tower. I'm going to need to be stealthy."

The dragon snorted. "So you think I would blow your cover if I followed along?" she said.

"Well... To be fair, you are dragon-sized, and your scales do tend to gleam a bit in the sunlight," Edgar pointed out. "And anyway, the fairies might be on the lookout for dragons. But a human boy my size... Anyway, I have to practice my sneaking, and this seems like as good an opportunity as any."

"All right, all right," the dragon said. She flew in low, just a few meters above the garbage-covered ground. Finding a fairly firm bit of trash heap, she dropped Edgar off on it and soared back the way she had come.

All right, time to sneak, Edgar thought, poking his head out from behind the rotten remains of a broken table and peering at the fairies' tower. Unfortunately, this side of the tower had all kinds of windows and balconies toward the top. I'm going to have to camouflage myself if I don't want them to see me, Edgar realized. He looked around for a tolerable bit of garbage and settled on a discarded, moth-eaten bit of faded red curtain. This he threw over himself like a cloak before beginning his long, slow crawl through the garbage. He dare not move too quickly or make a sound, for fear that a sudden movement or noise might attract attention from fairy soldiers keeping watch through the windows.

But what if those two fairy enchanters have that augmented perception? Edgar thought in a sudden panic. But no, that's right – that's not supposed to work on me now after that spell that Virgil and the other fairy enchanters cast on me.

A sudden flash of purple from one of the windows caught Edgar's attention. That definitely needs to be investigated, he thought, creeping closer.

After about half an hour of painstaking crawling under the foul-smelling curtain, Edgar finally reached the base of his tower. It worked, he thought with an inward chuckle. Maybe Homer was right – I may be just the kind of hero who is clever enough to make this all work. If my slaying is anywhere near as good as my sneaking... Now where is that door? He managed to crawl two full circles around the tower without finding it.

Oh no, he suddenly realized. This is one of those buildings!

Because all healthy dragons could fly, some of their buildings were not actually accessible from the ground.

All right, no problem, Edgar thought, tying the curtain around his neck and searching for good handholds among the rough-hewn stones of the tower's outer wall. It wasn't actually that difficult a climb, he found, with all the cracks between stones where the mortar has long since eroded away. At least, it wasn't that difficult until he got halfway up and nearly fell to his death as the stone he had grabbed onto crumbled to bits and left him swinging his hand wildly in search of a handhold. He found one and stood pressed against the tower, shaking. Below him, a large fragment of the broken stone hit the ground with a thump.

I just have to hope the fairies didn't hear that, he thought and continued to climb.

As he approached the window where he had seen the purple flash, he heard voices. Two fairies were arguing loudly about magic.

"No, we have to calibrate it properly first," one of the voices was saying.

"But it would be so much easier if we apply the elixir first," said the other voice. "Couldn't we just try it with a small portion?"

"No, Corbin – if we mess up even a little portion, that could compromise the whole structure once we get it all back in one piece! Honestly, have you even read Valmadeer's Manual of Crystalline Mechanics?"

"Skimmed it at least," the other fairy muttered. "Honestly, I didn't find it that engaging."

Edgar inched his way closer to the window. Maybe I could approach them from above, he thought. Just climb up onto that ledge and stick my head down over the edge – that would be some first-class sneaking. He made his way up and over to the ledge as the fairies continued arguing. Wow, this is a bit scary, he realized, leaning down and peeking through the window with his feet anchored in a gap in the stone side of the tower. But upside-down spying is high level sneaking, and that's the kind of thing I need to practice if I'm going to sneak up on the Great Dragon Wizard.

Through the window, Edgar saw two black-robed fairy enchanters fluttering in circles around a table that was completely covered in piles of shiny purple dust. As they fluttered, they waved their hands and muttered incantations. Now what could they be up to? Edgar wondered. Moriana said that she had prepared a surprise for Melinda – could this have something to do with that?

"You, there, human!" A voice above him called. "What are you doing?"

Edgar looked up in panic and saw two fairy guards fluttering down from a higher window. Blast it! he thought. But okay, I can salvage this situation – shall I be aggressive or just play natural? "Tower maintenance," he said. "Just testing the stones in this old tower, seeing which ones need to be replaced before the tournament..."

"Haha, you're a real joker, Edgar," sneered one of the fairies, and Edgar realized it was the captain. The two guards fluttered down to the ledge with spears pointed at Edgar.

All right then, time to get aggressive, Edgar thought. He drew himself up to his full height – a bit of a precarious proposition while standing on the ledge – and confronted the two fairies. "I'm investigating what sort of mischief two of Moriana's enchanters are up to when they're supposed to be helping to stop the Great Dragon Wizard. Tell me – what's all that shiny purple dust? What's the meaning of all this private enchantment within the city limits of Draconia? Do you have a permit for it?"

The two fairies exchanged a look. "Technically, we're outside of the city limits," one of them pointed out. "And the dust – that's just ordinary fairy dust. They're casting a spell to... help Quentin's cousin, who's sick. It's a family matter, and quite important, so..."

"Are you wearing an old curtain as a cape?" the other fairy suddenly asked.

"This is the style in Draconia these days," Edgar said defensively, and both fairies laughed uproariously.

So much for being aggressive, Edgar thought. But the two guards were at least decent enough to help him get back down to the ground.

I guess I'm going to have to work on my sneaking technique, Edgar thought, humiliated, as he trudged through the garbage dump back toward the back gate of the city.

His friend the dragon was waiting for him by the gate. "You smell awful," she commented. "And are you wearing a curtain?"

"Don't you think it suits me?" Edgar said. "Anyway, let's go eat dinner."

"What about the fairies?" the dragon asked. "What were they up to?"

"Hard to say, really," Edgar said, taking off the curtain and leading his friend back into the city. "The two enchanters were there all right, casting some kind of spell with purple fairy dust. They said it was to help a sick cousin or something, but..."

"So you spoke to them?" said the dragon. "I thought you were just going to sneak up on them and sort of listen."

"Yes, well, it's a bit complicated," said Edgar. "But you see..."

"Wait a minute," the dragon interrupted. "Did you say purple fairy dust?"

"Yes," said Edgar. "Why?"

The dragon stopped in her tracks. "Edgar," she said, "fairy dust is always pink, yellow, blue or silver. There's no such thing as purple fairy dust."

# XXVIII.

For the next several days, Edgar was so busy training with his wingball team that he hardly had time to think about anything else. But he made time to practice his two Bible verses: "The Lord is my shepherd; I have everything I need", and "The Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword." He repeated these words every morning when he woke up, at every meal time, and every time he went to sleep.

As the days went by and the practices went on, Edgar found himself more and more hopeful about his team's chances. His friend the dragon was an excellent coach, and under her supervision, Hobb and Nobb managed to work together and make quick passes without fumbling the ball, Ted learned to read the opposing team's intentions and get his wings in front of the right goals at just the right time, Old Timer became quick and effective in scoring points, and best of all, Edgar and Cornelius finally managed to get their artificial wings to work well enough to fly.

"Well done, Old Timer!" Edgar said as the ancient dragon got another goal past him despite his best efforts, scoring twelve points. With a flick of his artificial wings, he spiraled nimbly down to the ground to have a last pep talk with his team. They gathered around him, and he cleared his throat.

"Team," he said, "as you know, the first match of the tournament starts in one hour, and we're playing first. Just a few days ago, I would have thought that we had no chance, but now... It has been incredible to see how much you have all improved over such a short space of time. Old-Timer, I have come to see why you were renowned for your lightning-quick counterattacks on the battlefield. Nobb, the timing and accuracy of your passes is stunning. Hobb, your control over the ball is unmatched. Ted, your defense is incredible. Cornelius, you and I have learned to fly like... like..."

"Dragons?" the dragon suggested.

"Well, yes," said Edgar. "And dragon... None of this would have been possible without your coaching. Many thanks, from the bottom of my heart. You are a true friend for helping me in my hour of need. So, team, in one hour the Dragon King will be watching us, counting on us to start a five-game winning streak that will allow him to keep his crown. But no matter what happens, in my eyes, you have already won. I am honored to be able to play alongside you."

"Spoken like a true general," Old Timer said, clapping Edgar on the back with an ancient, leathery wing. "It is an honor serving with you, sir."

Cornelius and the goblins piled onto Ted's back, and Edgar's team headed off to the great arena, but his friend the dragon stayed behind. "I am sorry that I cannot play with your team," she said. "They have really done their best and grown into great wingball players. But I have sworn an oath. I can never play for the Dragon King again – not unless he has a change of heart."

"I understand," said Edgar. He climbed up onto his friend's back – as there was no sense tiring himself out before the match, and together they flew off toward the great arena.

The city of Draconia was packed for the tournament. Dragons and foreign guests from all the kingdoms of the world had come to see the great spectacle. As they flew over the city, Edgar saw gnomes and unicorns, fairies and goblins and elves – even a few sea monsters – all making their way toward the colossal stadium that had quickly been erected just outside the city walls. The stadium already seemed to be packed, with cheering crowds of all species clapping, waving banners, singing songs and shouting chants in support of their favorite teams.

The field in the center of the stadium was massive, and in the very center was an enormous wingball goal. At its base stood the prize, the golden throne of the Dragon Kingdom, gleaming in the sunlight. Around the edges of the field, thirty-two wingball teams stood in clusters, stretching and listening to pep talks. Behind each wingball team stood a wooden tower with a pair of dragons – potential kings and queens. Edgar and the dragon flew over to his team.

The Dragon King, who was looking quite grim, lifted his head as they passed. "I'm counting on you, Edgar!" he shouted as they passed.

"Thanks!" Edgar shouted back, as he didn't quite know what to say.

Edgar and his friend the dragon landed by his team. "Thanks for the lift," Edgar said as he climbed off. "I hope you can find a good seat with all this crowd," he said, studying the packed bleachers.

"Oh, I'm staying here with you," the dragon said. "I'm with you to the very end." She found a spot by the base of the king's tower and curled up on the grass.

Edgar got to work leading his team through some stretches. It seemed to be a better way to pass the time than just sitting and worrying for an hour. Unfortunately, he didn't know any good stretches for dragons or roc birds – but Ted and Old Timer seemed to have some ideas, which was good.

As they stretched, Edgar began to feel the weight of the tens of thousands of pairs of eyes on him and his rag-tag team. He became suddenly, painfully conscious of the fact that they were the only team on the entire field not composed entirely of dragons.

Thankfully, after about ten minutes or so, a bunch of festivities began in the middle of the field – aerial parades, magical fireworks, speeches – lots of things to draw the attention of the crowd. And when it was over, an important-looking dragon carrying the silver flag of Draconia came to lead Edgar and his team out into the middle of the field. The crowd cheered wildly as they headed out to play – or so Edgar thought at first. After a moment, he realized that a lot of the noise was actually laughter, and he tried to ignore it.

"All right," Edgar said to his team, "this is it. You remember the drill – if we start on offence, dark sea serpent formation. If we start on defense, goblin tunnel formation. Old Timer – I'll remind you when the time comes."

As Edgar and his team waited in the middle of the field, another dragon carrying the red flag of Pyranium led a team of dragons out to meet them. This time, the crowd cheered wildly – there was no mistaking it. Though Edgar still managed to hear the Dragon King booing loudly over the din.

The two flag-bearers played a quick game of stone and claw, and the Draconian flag-bearer won.

Well, that's a good start, at least, Edgar thought. "We're on offence," he said to his team. "Dark sea serpent formation. Old Timer, hover around over there with your nose toward the ball, and be ready to take a pass. Great!"

The flagbearer brought Edgar the ball, and the two flags dropped at the same time. The crowd cheered wildly, and the game had begun.

Edgar bounced the ball forward, feinted to one side as two dragons zoomed in on him, passed it to Hobb and took to the air. Hobb bounced the ball on his artificial wings, managed to get it to Nobb just before another dragon knocked him over with a sweep of his wing, and then the ball was back to Edgar, and...

A speedy dragon stole the ball with a lightning-quick flick of his wing, and before Edgar could blink it had been thrown counterclockwise through a blue-striped red hoop. Twelve points.

"Well done," he said to his team as they huddled before the next plud.

"But they got seven points!" Hobb complained.

"Twelve," Nobb corrected.

"Yes, they did," Edgar agreed. "But we worked well as a team, and we kept control of the ball for a few passes. Next time we just have to get it to Old Timer and we can make up the difference. But now let's play some hard defense. Goblin tunnel formation. Old Timer, I want you hovering right over the top of the goal. If anyone comes near you, just knock the ball down."

"Understood," said the ancient dragon.

They got into their formation, the flags dropped and play started.

The Pyranian team went for a midranged goal. Ted saw it coming and was there with his great wings blocking all conceivable angles – but then, in a sudden flash of passing and aerial acrobatics, the Pyranian team chose an inconceivable angle. Ted did a somersault in the air and landed on his head as he tried to block the ball, and the Pyranian team scored seven points.

"All right," Edgar said as they huddled up again, "we shut them out of the highest scoring goals. That's progress. Now if we just score high consistently and keep them low, we can catch up. Let's go – irritated bluebear formation. Old Timer, I want you right... there. Perfect!"

The flags dropped, play started, an especially speedy Pyranian player took the ball off Edgar before he could get it to Old Timer, and the Pyranian team scored twelve points.

As they gathered to huddle again, Edgar found himself at a loss as to what to say. "Sleepy dwarf formation," he said, pointed Old Timer to his place, and got ready for play to start.

Within four seconds, the Pyranian team had another nine points.

And that's the way things went for the next five pluds. Edgar felt gloomier and gloomier as the match continued and his team did not score a single point. He dare not look up to the wooden tower where the Dragon King sat watching.

"Time out!" hissed a voice from the sidelines after the Pyranian team scored yet another twelve-pointer. "Call for a time out!" It was Edgar's friend the dragon.

He followed her instructions and stormed over to the sideline to talk to her. "This is not going well at all!" he complained. "Those Pyranians are making mincemeat of us."

"More like a delicious goblin paté," Hobb said, licking his lips and looking at his brother.

Oh yes, they're cannibals, Edgar remembered, suppressing a shudder.

"You need to play tighter," the dragon said. "Don't let your formations get so wide. And get some extra pass protection so you can get the ball to Hurinorolagiforinor. The Pyranians are afraid of him."

"Afraid of Old Timer?" Edgar said.

"Edgar," said the dragon, "this is the general who routed the sea monsters fifty-seven times at the battle of Thermalia. He is every dragon's hero. They have been doing their best to keep you from getting the ball to him, and it's been working. But just get it to him and see what happens to their resolve."

"All right," Edgar said doubtfully. "I'll try, but..."

"What is the meaning of all this?" The Dragon King demanded, swooping down from his tower. "Why are you allowing this fiasco?"

"I'm sorry, Your Majesty," Edgar said, bowing deeply, "but I..."

"I wasn't talking to you," the dragon king snapped. "Alarusthrastoganuthromianaga, have you no sense of patriotism? How can you let the great city of Draconia be humiliated like this?"

"Thank you for using the long form of my name, Your Majesty," the dragon said, bowing. "I am honored. And I would be happy to play on your wingball team – if you apologize for the last tournament, and promise never to cheat again."

The Dragon King's face flushed pale with rage. "You dare to accuse me of cheating here, in the middle of the Great Tournament!" he roared. "If I am such a cheater, why am I losing seventy-three and a half to nil?"

"Seventy-one and a half to nil," Hobb corrected. "Or wait, no – I miscounted, you're right."

With a roar of exasperation, the Dragon King flew back up to his tower.

"Try a prancing unicorn formation," Edgar's friend the dragon suggested. "With closed hooves – just get the ball to Old Timer as quickly as possible."

At that moment, the flag-bearer came to bring them back into the game. Edgar quickly got his team into formation and waited for the flags to fall.

# XXIX.

The prancing unicorn formation with closed hooves did the trick – with Hobb and Nobb as decoys and Ted and Cornelius shutting out the two Pyranians trying to run interference between Edgar and Old Timer, Edgar was able to bounce the ball straight up to the ancient dragon. The only problem with the formation was that now Old Timer had virtually no coverage and hardly anyone to pass to – he was a sitting duck – or rather – a flying, really old dragon – for three young, speedy Pyranian players.

Edgar leaped up into the air, spiraling up to try to give the ancient dragon just a tiny bit of coverage as the three Pyranian players closed in. But they were too close and too fast – Edgar was still struggling to gain elevation just below the midrange goals as two Pyranians came at Old Timer's wings and another place himself squarely between the ancient dragon and the uppermost goal. They're going to crash, Edgar realized, horrified. And then it happened.

The ancient, grizzled dragon plowed right into the younger, faster player – and brushed him aside as if he were a feather. The other two Pyranians veered off at the last moment, and Old Timer put the ball through the hoop, earning seven points for his team. He could have earned twelve points if he had come in from the opposite angle, but Edgar was too thrilled to worry about that.

"You did it, Old Timer!" he cried as they huddled up again. "Well done!"

His teammates were equally thrilled, and they cheered and patted the ancient dragon on the back, but Edgar couldn't help but wonder how Old Timer had managed it. Had he used some quick combat trick learned from years of battle to throw the younger dragon off balance and get by? Or had the Pyranian been too afraid to meet his charge head-on? If so, afraid of what? Afraid of being mauled by the hero of Thermalia, or afraid of injuring a senior citizen who was every dragon's hero? Whatever the reason, the strategy had worked – but would it keep working?

Edgar could not think of any alternatives, so they ran prancing pony formation with closed hooves again.

Once again he got the ball off to Old Timer without too much trouble – but this time the Pyranium team was ready. All six of the young dragons zoomed in on Old Timer, nimbly cutting through the Draconian team's ineffectual interference and surrounding him.

Edgar suppressed the urge to shout a warning as the ancient dragon swooped toward a midrange goal – the shout would probably just distract him.

But to his amazement, the six Pyranian dragons working together could not seem to block Old Timer. Once they had surrounded him, their speed and resolve vanished as each dragon seemed to hang back, waiting for someone else to do the actual blocking. Old Timer cut right through their ranks and scored a five-and-a-half point goal.

We're actually doing it, Edgar realized. We could win the whole tournament this way!

Unfortunately, the Pyranian team was on offense for the next plud, but they only managed to score a five-and-a-half pointer through Ted and Old Timer's defense.

As soon as Edgar's team was on offense again, he ran the same prancing unicorn formation with closed hooves, ready to score some more points.

This time the Pyranian team took another approach. They had arranged themselves in a very awkward-looking formation that Edgar did not recognize. He could not for the life of him figure out the purpose of it – until he tried to pass the ball to Old Timer and found four Pyranians already there, ready to intercept it. Their strange-looking formation had easily broken through the prancing unicorn's closed hooves. A Pyranian player took the ball, passed it to a team mate as Ted bore down on him, received it again as Old Timer tried to steal it from the other player, and scored a seven-point goal.

Well, that's the end of our winning streak, Edgar thought glumly. He ran the prancing unicorn formation again on the next plud, with the same result.

"Time out!" his friend the dragon called from the sidelines, and Edgar used his second and last time out.

"You have to switch things up," the dragon said as the team gathered around her at the base of the Dragon King's tower.

"Do you have another formation to suggest?" Edgar asked.

"No," said the dragon, "prancing unicorn with the closed hooves should work just fine. You've forced them into giant centipede formation, which makes them extremely vulnerable to low and midranged attacks from the sides."

"Which means..." Edgar said.

"They're all trying their hardest to stop you from getting the ball to Hurinorolagiforinor," the Dragon said.

"And they're succeeding," Edgar point out. "They're scoring a goal off us every time."

"Yes," said the dragon, "because you're still trying to pass it to Hurinorolagiforinor. Pass it to Nobb instead."

Edgar thought about it, and he saw the logic in it. Theoretically, Nobb would be wide open, and all things being equal, the goblin would very easily be able to score a goal or get the ball to a team mate who could score a goal. Unfortunately, all things were not equal. The Pyranian players were faster, stronger, more experienced, better flyers, and all around better wingball players. Would a half-second opening for Nobb really make that much of a difference?

As he considered this, a shadow fell over him and he cringed as the Dragon King descended from his wooden tower.

"Your Majesty," he stammered, "we are doing our best! We really..."

"I know," the Dragon King said, swooping past him and landing face to face with Edgar's friend the dragon.

"Have you come to order me to play, Your Majesty?" the dragon asked.

"No," said the Dragon King. "As I have been watching Hurinorolagiforinor play, a thought has struck me – what loyalty this honored senior citizen has shown me, what unswerving, self-sacrificing devotion to be willing to put his considerable honor on the line in such a hopeless contest."

"I respect his decision to play," said the dragon, "but I also respect my own decision. You know where I stand, Your Majesty."

"Yes, I know," said the Dragon King. "I do not say these things as a rebuke. I say them because Hurinorolagiforinor has made me realize that I must show the same devotion to my people, including him – and you." He took a deep breath. "You were right," he said. "It was wrong of me to even be open to the possibility of using magic in the last tournament. Please forgive me. My stubborn pride has been a mark on the honor of the noble city of Draconia."

The dragon seemed almost as speechless as Edgar felt, and she stood gaping as Edgar realized he was also doing.

Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, he thought. And whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

"Your Majesty," the dragon said, bowing low and blinking a gleaming tear out of her eye. "I am honored, I am deeply moved, I..."

"It is time for play to begin," the flag-bearer said, breaking into their little gathering.

"Sorry," Edgar said, "looks like I have work to do."

"No, Edgar," said the dragon. "You have earned a break. I'll take this plud, if you don't mind."

Edgar could find no reason to protest. As his team headed back out onto the field with his friend the dragon leading them, he found a seat in the grass at the base of the wooden tower and settled down to watch.

It was first now that Edgar realized what a wonderful spectator sport wingball was. The flash of wings and the aerial gymnastics as his friend the dragon took the ball off a Pyranian player were amazing to watch. And watching the Pyranian players trip over each other as she ducked behind Ted's outstretched wings and got the ball to Old Timer was pure entertainment.

Old Timer put the ball counterclockwise through a gold-striped silver hoop, scoring twelve points for the team.

Edgar leaped to his feet, cheering. His applause was swallowed by the thunderous cheers of the watching crowds. Suddenly, Draconia's team was no longer an object of ridicule.

The next few pluds all went approximately the same way. Edgar's friend the dragon started steadily evening the score as she and Old Timer scored goal after goal. As the score leveled out in the late game, some of the wingball's more complicated rules came into effect, with teams forced to play with fewer players, other teams on the field at the same time – Edgar was glad that he didn't have to serve as captain in all the confusion. But his friend the dragon seemed to know exactly what to do in every situation. She and Old Timer kept making consistent goals until the Draconian team finally pulled ahead. The score was now eighty-seven and a half to eighty-five, and the crowd cheered uproariously.

The Pyranian team called for a time out, their first for the match. Edgar watched as they huddled close to each other, putting their heads close together and whispering secretively. He wished he could hear what they were saying. One of the dragons lifted his head and pointed, and another shook his head vigorously. They seemed to argue for a minute before the protesting dragon finally hung his head and stalked off to the sidelines. Another dragon flew in to take his place.

That's convenient for them, that they have back-up players, Edgar thought. He watched as a second Pyranium player switched out. Those new fellows are certainly big, he realized as the relief players took the field. The two dragons were enormous, with rippling muscles all over their silver bodies.

The Pyranium team got into position, a strange-looking formation that Edgar had never seen before. The flags dropped, Edgar's friend the dragon got the ball to Old Timer and he zoomed in on an unprotected goal...

Where's the defense? Edgar wondered. They're not even trying! Or... why are they all covering her? The greater part of the Pyranian team was running interference around Edgar's friend the dragon as if she still had the ball or as if they expected Old Timer to pass the ball back to her. But why would he do that? He was already bouncing the ball right into the goal...

At the very same moment that Old Timer scored his twelve-point goal, the two musclebound relief players came charging into Edgar's friend the dragon from both sides. She realized the danger of the situation and tried to dive out of the way, but too late. Edgar watched in horror as his friend's wing bent backwards with a sickening snap and she plummeted to the ground with a roar.

Flag-bearing judges stormed the field, roaring their protests. Edgar tried to run to his friend's side, but he was stopped by a judge.

"Only players, judges and medical staff on the field right now," he said. "But don't worry – the medical staff are on their way, and we're going to deduct five points from the Pyranium team's score for this flagrant disregard of the rules."

"Five points?" Edgar said, watching his friend writhe on the ground in pain as some dragons with pink medical stripes came zooming down to treat her. "They broke her wing! And now they're going to win," he realized. "It doesn't matter how many points you take off their score – they cheated, and they've won."

"I'm sorry," said the judge, "there's nothing we can do about this. We have to be fair and..."

"Fair?" Edgar said. "Fair?" He felt a wave of burning hot anger rising up like lava inside him. In the middle of the storm of fury, something like a still, small voice whispered inside him: slow to anger... But he pushed the voice aside and bathed in molten rage.

The next thing he knew, he had pulled Melinda the witch's silver whistle from his pocket and raised it to his lips. Something inside him told him to stop, to think... But he pushed that something aside and blew the whistle.

A long, high note sounded, piercing through the roar of the crowd.

# XXX.

The note from the whistle faded out, and a great silence fell over the crowd. Oh no, thought Edgar, I think I've made a terrible mistake.

"So," Melinda the witch said, appearing at his side. "I see that you've made the right decision."

Edgar turned to face the old woman. She wore the same silver dress as before, and she hovered about a foot above the ground with the Light of Arinor in one hand and a tiny statuette of a dragon in the other hand. At least she hasn't woken him up yet, he thought. And now that she's in Draconia, she should only be able to use about enough magic to light a candle. Unless someone invites her to use more magic, and who would be foolish enough to...

Edgar suddenly realized that the crowd had been eerily silent for a little bit too long. He looked up, half-expecting to see them all turned to stone, but to his relief, they were all lashing their tails, jumping and chattering away to each other excitedly. On the field, the medical staff were carrying his friend the dragon to the sidelines on a stretcher, and the players stood in two separate groups guarded by judges as a few other judges seemed to be arguing heatedly with each other in the middle of the field. In other words, things were carrying on as normal – just without any sound.

"A silence spell," Melinda said, seeing his confusion. "For the moment, none of them can hear us – or see me. And we can't hear them."

That sounds like more than lighting a candle, Edgar thought. But how...

"You look so shocked, Edgar," said the witch. "You don't think I should be able to use magic inside Draconia, do you? No, someone must have told you about the ancient shield the dragon magicians set up against me after the Third Goblin war. Well, I know about the shield, too – I learned all about it from the forbidden books that the Dragon King let me take from the royal library ten years ago, when I gave him the same whistle that I gave you. In those books, I found the shield's weakness."

"Nobody's invited you to use your magic in Draconia," Edgar said weakly. But even as he said it, he knew he was wrong.

"Oh, Edgar," the witch said, shaking her head in mock sorrow. "My poor dear. You blew your invitation for me to use my magic just now."

She's still just one witch, Edgar thought. She hasn't woken the Great Dragon Wizard yet, and even if she were to do it, the shield against his magic might still work. If I can just keep her talking, distract her long enough to... To do what? He cast a glance at the little black bag of talismans that he had left on the grass at the base of the Dragon King's wooden tower, just a few yards away.

"You say you gave the same kind of whistle to the Dragon King?" he said, inching closer to the bag. "Why would he want your help?"

"Not the same kind of whistle," Melinda said. "The same whistle – there's only one. Do you know, the Dragon King actually gave it back to me. He came and found me a few weeks later, and he said that his players were the best, and he didn't need my help to win the next tournament. I suppose the persuasion spell I put on the whistle wasn't calibrated properly for a dragon as proud as him. But you, on the other hand..."

"I couldn't tell anyone about the whistle," Edgar said, still making his way slowly toward the black bag. "And I couldn't throw it away, either." As he spoke, he tried to keep eye contact with the witch, to keep her from seeing that he was going for the bag.

"All part of the spell," the witch said. "But anyway, now it's time for me to keep my promise to you."

"Really?" Edgar said skeptically, taking another small step sideways toward the bag. It was almost close enough that he could grab it... "Do you really mean to say that you've come here to help me win the tournament?"

The witch laughed. "Oh no, Edgar," she said. "I never promised that you would win. I promised that you wouldn't lose. No one will ever lose this tournament again – and no one will ever win it. No dragons will ever do anything again, except what I want them to do. With the power of the Great Dragon Wizard..."

"Why would he help you, even if you were to wake him up?" Edgar said. The bag was now within reach of his artificial wings. If he just flicked the tip of his wing just right, he should be able to toss the bag into his hand, catch it, open it, take out the pillow and put the witch to sleep. But it would all have to happen quickly, and he absolutely could not afford to miss.

"You don't think that I could control the Great Dragon Wizard?" said the witch.

"You couldn't even control the Dragon King," Edgar pointed out. "After all, he gave the whistle back to you." He flexed his artificial wings slightly and felt the tip of the left wing catch on the edge of the little bag.

"True," the witch said. "But I have hade centuries to calibrate my persuasion spell for the Great Dragon Wizard, and now, thanks to you, I have the Light of Arinor."

"Even Arinor could not really control the Great Dragon Wizard," Edgar pointed out.

"No," said the witch. "But Arinor never had the chance to try it within Draconia's magical limiting shield calibrated specifically to keep the Great Dragon Wizard from using his full power. Yes, I know all about that shield, too. Without it, my plan would never work. But now the dragons' magicians have played right into my hands. In just a moment, all the power of the Great Dragon Wizard will be mine!"

"The Lord is my shepherd," Edgar cried, flicking his artificial wing. "I have everything that I need!"

Time almost seemed to slow down as the little black pouch came sailing through the air, just out of reach. Edgar leaped and caught it. He hit the ground rolling and reaching into the bag to find the pillow, got one hand on it...

And found that his hand was stuck. In fact, he was completely stuck in half-roll, unable to move a muscle.

"Tsk, tsk," said the witch. "Well, that was a good try, Edgar, I'll give you that. But you're going to have to be quicker than that next time if you want to stop a witch of my power. Except there won't be a next time, since I'm going to have you turned to stone in a minute. And you'll never meet a witch of my power again, since I'm the most powerful witch who has ever lived and I'm about to become ten times more powerful. Anyway, I have work to do."

With that, the witch hovered over to the middle of the field. Edgar saw her go, upside-down out of the corner of his eye – and then it was suddenly as if the sound was turned on again, and Edgar heard the roar of the crowds.

"Denizens of the Dragon Kingdom and all the other kingdoms of the world," the witch thundered, hovering up over the wingball goal. Her voice seemed to be magically amplified so that it drowned out the roar of the crowd. "I, Melinda the witch, hereby announce that the tournament is cancelled and that all your kingdoms now belong to me. From this day onward, all of you, from the most insignificant goblin to the former king and queen of the dragons, shall worship me and do my bidding."

"Never!" the Dragon King roared from up in his seat in the tower. "Guards, seize that witch!"

Twenty dragons came soaring toward Melinda – and then they fell back, as if they had bounced off the side of a giant invisible bubble around her. "Foolish dragons," the witch said. "Your power is no match for me! And it is even less a match for the power that I am about to wield. Behold my first act as queen of all nations! Norinarialaforinagor, awake and serve me!"

The witch raised her hands above her head, pressing the stone figurine against the large, square crystal. There was a flash of yellow light, and then Edgar watched in horror as the tiny statuette began to grow.

# XXXI.

"Oh no," was all Edgar could think to say as he watched the statue grow and come to life. The yellow glow faded, and the next moment a mighty golden dragon was flapping its wings in the air beside Melinda the witch. Edgar had never seen a golden dragon before. It would have been a truly intriguing sight if it hadn't meant that Melinda the witch was about to take over the world and everyone he knew and loved was probably going to be turned to stone. At the sight of the Great Dragon Wizard, cries of dismay and terror went up among the crowd, and from his upside-down vantage point, Edgar watched spectators of all species taking wing or scrambling to flee for their lives.

"Why have you awakened me from my slumber?" the Great Dragon Wizard demanded.

"To serve me," the witch said, holding the Light of Arinor in both hands and pointing it at the golden dragon. A ray of yellow light shot out of the crystal and became a yellow halo around the Great Dragon Wizard's head. "You will serve me," Melinda said. "You will serve the wielder of the Light of Arinor."

She's trying to sound firm and confident, Edgar thought, but her voice is shaking with fear. She doesn't really know if her spell will work. What if it doesn't?

The golden dragon stared at the witch, and the witch stared back.

Suddenly, Edgar was thrown to the ground as he completed his somersault.

"Perfect," a familiar voice said as he leaped to his feet, pulling the pillow out of the little black bag. Edgar saw that it was Virgil the magician – or his brother Homer. The two stood panting at his side. They must have come running from behind him. "She's distracted now as she's trying to assert her will over the Great Dragon Wizard – her containment spell is broken."

"Yes," the other magician agreed. "Edgar, now is the time to act!"

"Oh yes," Edgar said, casting a glance at the witch and dragon having a staring contest thirty meters above the ground. "Time to act. So, you want me to..."

"Fly up there and slay the Great Dragon Wizard," said the magician who Edgar now was fairly certain was Virgil, based on his emphatic way of speaking. "Remember? Sneaking and slaying."

"Oh yes," Edgar said weakly. He studied the empty air all around the witch and the dragon, searching in vain for any kind of hiding place. "Sneaking and slaying," he said.

"Yes, quickly, while they're both distracted," said Homer.

"And once I've slain the Great Dragon Wizard," said Edgar, "then the two of you will take care of Melinda the witch?"

He felt a sinking feeling in his stomach as the two magicians shifted their feet uncomfortably. "Well," said Homer, "if we work together, we might be able to incapacitate her – if you can get the Light of Arinor away from her first. You know, the Fairy Queen really was supposed to take care of that part. She said she had some kind of plan. But she's been very secretive about it, and whatever it is, I think she and her enchanters are still working on it – they never even showed up for the tournament. But okay, we'll see what we can do – just get up there and do your thing, quickly."

"All right," said Edgar. "My thing. Just fly up there, slay the Great Dragon Wizard and get the Light of Arinor."

"Yes, and quickly," said Homer.

All right, here goes, Edgar thought. He put the pillow back into the pouch and pulled out the sword hilt. "The Word of God is living and active," he said, "sharper than any two-edged sword." The blade of blue flame crackled to life. Edgar took a deep breath, then leaped into the air, flapping his artificial wings.

Sneaking and slaying, he thought. Sneaking and slaying. He tried circling around to find an angle from which neither the dragon nor the witch would see his approach, but unfortunately, since they were looking at each other, their gazes actually had all sides covered. But maybe they wouldn't expect an attack from above... Edgar circled around, spiraling up into the air, far above their heads, and then he dove, the blue flame of his sword pointed right at the spot between the Great Dragon Wizard's beating wings.

"I will serve the wielder of the Light," the golden dragon thundered just as Edgar began his dive.

"Good!" the witch crowed triumphantly. "Now kill that boy."

The Great Dragon Wizard turned in mid-air and came swooping up to meet Edgar. Edgar tried to dodge to one side, but then he was suddenly jerked and thrown to the other side as the golden dragon's jaw closed on his artificial wing. The wing was ripped off, and the world spun crazily as Edgar went tumbling toward the ground. In desperation, he dug his hand into the little black pouch, searching for anything that might save his life – and he found the feather.

"Those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength," Edgar said. "They will rise up on wings like eagles."

His fall slowed to a gentle glide. The golden dragon came diving toward him and he tried to throw himself to the side – and found that it worked. He flew gracefully to one side, narrowly avoiding the Great Dragon Wizard's attack. Next he tried flying up, and he went soaring up toward the sky. He could fly in any direction he wanted, just by willing it!

"Don't just chase him, use your magic, you great fool!" the witch cried. "Oh wait, let me just take down the shield for you first." She raised the Light of Arinor and began to chant.

I've got to be quick, Edgar thought. And, since I'm not going to get much slaying or Light of Arinor snatching done up here... He dove again, the blue flame of his sword aimed straight at the Great Dragon Wizard's face – and then he suddenly changed direction and went for the large square jewel. It was a clever trick, and with the help of the feather and a little luck – or perhaps more than luck – he was just quick enough to make it work. The glowing crystal was knocked out of the witch's hand and fell to the grass below.

The two blue-robed magicians hurried toward the Light of Arinor, but the golden dragon was faster. He swooped down on the crystal, plucking it up in his claws, and flew back to the witch.

Melinda held out her hands expectantly, but Edgar could see them shaking.

"So," the Great Dragon Wizard said. "I serve the wielder of the Light of Arinor."

The next moment, Melinda the Witch was gone, and a tiny stone figurine of her fell to the grass below.

The Great Dragon Wizard spiraled high above the arena, the Light of Arinor clutched tightly in his claws. "Cowardly slaves, return to me," he bellowed.

There was a flash like lightning, and all at once, the fleeing crowds returned, pouring back into the stadium by land and by air and settling silently into place with their eyes on the golden dragon.

He's forgotten all about me, Edgar realized, swooping around behind the dragon's back. Why? Well, I'm probably not going to get another chance after this, so... Sneaking and slaying...

He threw himself through the air at the Great Dragon Wizard, the blue flame aimed at his scaly back.

A few meters from the golden dragon, Edgar bounced off something invisible and was thrown to the ground. The sword went out and its hilt went flying, and Edgar narrowly managed to slow his fall and land gently on the ground.

He hasn't forgotten about me, Edgar realized. It's just that I'm not a threat – I'm not even worth thinking about. Either the witch managed to get the shield down or the Light of Arinor is making him more powerful, but for whatever reason, I can't get close enough to touch him.

The crowds had now settled back into place, and the Great Dragon Wizard began to give a long, pompous, triumphant speech as the crowds alternatively listened with rapturous attention or cheered uproariously.

What do I do? Edgar thought. What can I do? He scanned the arena, looking in vain for the lost sword hilt, and caught sight of the two magicians a hundred yards away. He flew over to them.

"It didn't work," he said, landing.

"Well, no," said Homer. "But..."

"Do we have any kind of back-up plan?" said Edgar.

"Ummm, no," said Homer.

"Oh," said Edgar. "So, we just kind of wait for the Great Dragon Wizard to kill us?"

"Or make us into slaves," Virgil said glumly. "He does love to have slaves."

A movement in the corner of Edgar's eye caught his attention, and he turned to see a small swarm of little shapes come flying into the arena. The fairies!

Edgar heard the voice of the Fairy Queen, magically amplified. "O great and powerful Norinarialaforinagor," she said, "I come to serve you and to offer you a gift."

The Great Dragon Wizard interrupted his speech for a moment to laugh. "Fairies?" he said contemptuously. "What gift could you possibly have to offer me? Whatever I want, I can take. But explain yourself, fairy, before I take over your mind – this should be amusing."

Two black-robed fairy enchanters fluttered forward with an object under a black cloth.

"Oh Great and Wise Norinarialaforinagor" the Fairy Queen said, curtsying in the air. "I offer you the greatest gift of all."

The enchanters let the black cloth fall to the ground, revealing a glowing purple crystal the size of a melon.

"Oh," Homer said faintly. "Now I understand what they were doing with all that poking around and being secretive – I really should have expected this."

"You had other things to think about," his twin brother said, patting him on the shoulder.

"It's really quite impressive," Homer said. "They must have used Valmadeer's charm for crystalline reconstitution – really advanced magic for fairies."

"I'm afraid I don't understand," Edgar said. But actually, he was even more afraid that he did.

"Remember the shards of the Fourth Amethyst that you brought back from the Fairy Queen's palace?" Virgil said. "Well, I had them in a special place in my laboratory, and..."

"The fairies stole them, didn't they?" Edgar said. "And they ground them into purple dust and put them back together as a new crystal?"

"Yes," said Homer, "which really is quite impressive, especially considering how the crystal was tainted. I can't imagine what kind of containment spell they must be using to keep him from breaking out. If they haven't calibrated it absolutely perfectly, then as soon as they activate it..."

"Your gift pleases me," the Great Dragon Wizard thundered. "I accept the gift of the Fourth Amethyst."

The Fairy Queen laughed. "Oh, you dear, silly dragon," she said. "The gift isn't the Fourth Amethyst – the gift is serving me." As she said this, she placed her hand on the melon-sized purple crystal. A ray of violet light shot out of it, striking the golden dragon, who fell to the ground with a roar. Edgar watched the Great Dragon Wizard writhe in pain on the grass as the fairies flew closer, centering the ray of purple light on him again.

As he watched, the violet ray darkened to black. The fairy enchanters looked at each other in panic.

"I should have known it," Virgil said. "Fairies always have been impatient with their enchantments. Quick, shoddy, work – they calibrated it wrong!"

The black beam receded into the crystal, which turned inky black and fell to the grass below.

Edgar watched in horror as the Fourth Amethyst grew and changed form, sprouting inky black wings, a shadowy tail, four legs, a long neck and a dark, evil face. With a sinister laugh, the Shadow King took to the air. A few meters away, the Great Dragon King shook some flashes of black light off himself, picked up the fallen Light of Arinor, and also took wing. The two dragons, golden and inky black, spiraled up into the air together, circling each other.

# XXXII.

"Fascinating," the Great Dragon Wizard mused thunderously, studying the Shadow King as the two circled each other. "A curse that has developed a life of its own – you have fed off the life-force of many beings and become self-aware. You have incorporated my amethyst and absorbed its power. But every curse has a purpose. What is yours?"

"Corruption and destruction," said the Shadow King.

"Of what?"

"Everything!" roared the inky black dragon, lunging at the golden dragon with jaws open and claws outstretched.

Just before the Shadow King struck, the Great Dragon Wizard disappeared in a flash of silver light and reappeared in mid-air on the other side of the arena. "You forget yourself, curse!" he thundered. "I am the master of curses!" He made a sharp gesture, and something like a net of golden light appeared in his claws. He hurled it across the arena, at the Shadow King.

The inky black dragon did not even flinch. He merely hovered flapping in place, sneering contemptuously until the golden net surrounded him and the Great Dragon Wizard started pulling him in on something like a rope of golden light.

"Edgar, here!"

Edgar tore his gaze from the two struggling dragons and saw Cornelius running toward him with an object in his outstretched hand. It was the sword hilt.

"You dropped this," the woodsman said, pressing the magical weapon into his hand.

"Thanks." Edgar glanced at the weapon, and then at the magic feather he held in his other hand. But was it really worth trying again? It hadn't been exactly pleasant, running into the Great Dragon Wizard's shield and getting thrown to the ground. He turned to the two magicians, who stood gaping at the fighting dragons.

"So," he said, "any last advice before I fly up there and give this sneaking and slaying thing another try?"

"What?" Homer said distractedly, still watching the battle. "Oh, umm, yes – slay the Great Dragon Wizard first."

"Yes," Virgil agreed. "He is almost certainly the more dangerous of the two. If we are lucky, the Shadow King will be powerful enough that it will take a significant amount of the Great Dragon Wizard's power to focus on destroying him. If you strike at just the right moment, the shield may be weak enough for your sword to pierce it."

"Great," Edgar said. "So, what's the right moment?"

Homer and Virgil exchanged glances. "Well," said Virgil, "it seems that the Great Dragon Wizard is using a metaoptic essence net. Strangely, the Shadow King does not really seem to be resisting, but if he resists, the sudden conflux of their powers should produce a thaumaturgical parabola. If you strike at the very low point of the parabola, your sword may break through the shield."

"Oh, right," Edgar said. "So I'll just, ummm..."

"We'll give you a signal," said Homer. "Now get up there and get ready before it's too late!"

Edgar raised his feather. "Those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength," he said. "They will rise up on wings like eagles." With a little bit of focus and will, he glided gently off the ground and up around the back of the Great Dragon Wizard. He just had to hope that the Shadow King would be too busy to notice him.

"So," the inky black dragon said as the golden dragon reeled him in. "I assume that you are going to devour me and absorb my power. Is that your plan, O master of curses?" He did not sound terribly concerned.

"Yes," said the Great Dragon Wizard, pulling the living shadow closer. "Or rather, I will absorb the power you have stolen – from your victims and from my amethyst."

Edgar glanced down at the two magicians, but they shook their heads. Come on, Shadow King, he thought. Start resisting, so that I can start sneaking and slaying!

But the inky black dragon just hovered serenely in his golden net as the Great Dragon Wizard pulled him in. As the two drew almost close enough to touch, the Shadow Dragon laughed.

"Do you mock me, curse?" the Great Dragon Wizard thundered. "Do you not know who I am? I am the greatest power that this world has ever seen! Soon all the people of every kingdom will bow down to worship and serve me – but first, I will unmake you. And yet you laugh – why?"

"I will tell you in a moment," the Shadow King said with a fiendish smirk.

With a roar, the Great Dragon Wizard hauled on the rope one last time. Edgar glanced at the magicians, and again they shook their heads.

Edgar watched as the golden net burst and the Shadow King dissolved into black smoke that poured into the mouth of the Great Dragon Wizard.

With a loud gulp, the last of the smoke was gone, and the Great Dragon Wizard roared with triumph. "Did I not say it!" he crowed to the hypnotized audience. "I am the greatest power that this world has ever seen! Your greatest curse could not defeat me, nor can any of the spells of your magic users. Fairies, magicians – I know that this is your treachery! Now, come to me and receive your punishment!"

The Great Dragon Wizard gestured with his claws, and Edgar heard screams as the Fairy Queen and her enchanters were pulled through the air toward him. Below, Homer and Virgil came floating up, struggling and kicking as they came.

Well, they're resisting, at least, Edgar thought. It's now or never. He raised the sword, adjusted his angle of attack, and swooped in on the Great Dragon Wizard, shouting "The Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword!"

The blue flame crackled to life and Edgar doubled his speed, aiming the deadly point for the spot between the Great Dragon Wizard's wings.

"Oh, really, Edgar?" the Great Dragon Wizard said, turning to sneer at him at the last moment.

Edgar struck the invisible shield and was thrown tumbling through the air – but not before he met the golden dragon's gaze. His eyes are black, he realized as he fell. Completely and utterly black.

Yet again the sword went out and flew uselessly out of Edgar's hand. He let it go, holding tight to the feather and trying in vain to level out. Just before he struck the ground, an idea struck him and he shouted desperately through the wind of his fall: "Pride goes before a fall!"

A fraction of a second later, everything went black.

# XXXIII.

Wow, unconsciousness is really soft, Edgar thought, settling into the blackness. And it smells quite a bit like feathers.

"Edgar, are you all right?" The darkness around him trembled as he heard the voice of Ted the roc bird.

"Oh, yes," Edgar said, sitting up and getting his face out of the giant bird's black feathers. "Thanks for catching me."

The roc bird sat on the ground, with Edgar balanced on his left wing. Edgar saw Homer and Virgil running to meet him – but hadn't they just been flying up toward the Great Dragon Wizard?

Then Edgar looked up and saw that his desperate plan seemed to be working. The great golden dragon was flying in agonized circles over the arena, twitching and thrashing as his golden scales shifted to black, and then back to gold, and then black again. For a long moment they were black, and then he threw back his scaly head and shrieked.

The crowd, suddenly free of whatever spell had bound them, began roaring with panic and amazement.

"Edgar, that was incredible!" Virgil said breathlessly, running up to him. "How did you do it?"

"I'm not quite sure it's done," Edgar said doubtfully, watching the thrashing dragon shift from gold to black and then back to gold.

Virgil closed his eyes and held out one hand toward the dragon. "They're struggling," he said. "Somehow, the Shadow King's power is taking over the Great Dragon Wizard – but now the Shadow King is getting desperate, absorbing more and more of the Great Dragon Wizard as he struggles to hold on after your Bible verse. But how? How did he become active again when the Great Dragon Wizard had absorbed him? Did you do that somehow?"

"The Great Dragon Wizard did it himself," Edgar said. "It was his pride – his sin gave the Shadow King the opportunity to take over. I saw it in his eyes, and I used the best weapon I had against the Shadow King's evil – the Word of God."

At that moment, the Great Dragon Wizard turned jet-black and went plummeting toward the ground. He struck the wingball goal with a loud crash, breaking it into splinters, and lay writhing and roaring among the broken pieces.

"Now if you'll excuse me," Edgar said, sliding down off of Ted's wing, "I have a dragon to slay."

"I found your sword!" Hobb the goblin cried, running up to him with the magical sword hilt.

"Thanks," Edgar said, "but I won't be needing it. Those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength," he said. "They will soar on wings like eagles." With the magic of the feather, he flew over to the remains of the wingball goal.

"Edgar, my old enemy," the Great Dragon Wizard, who had now become the Shadow King, hissed as he approached. The shadowy black dragon managed to scramble to his feet. "Now I have taken the powers of the Great Dragon Wizard," he said. "Do you really think that you can defeat me? I am sin, the unquenchable darkness, the unstoppable corruption that will conquer every heart and lay waste to the world! It is inevitable – you cannot stop me."

"Maybe not," said Edgar. "But there is one who can." At that moment, the Shadow King pounced on him with claws outstretched. As the deadly blackness came bearing down on him, Edgar shouted, "He who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted!"

With a shriek, the Shadow King was transformed in mid-leap to a puff of black smoke, which floated silently away on the wind.

"You have saved my Kingdom, Edgar."

Edgar looked up to see the Dragon King come flying down to meet him.

"I do not know how to thank you," the dragon said. "Really, I should throw a royal banquet in your honor – the greatest this world has ever seen. But sadly, as I will no longer be king tomorrow, I cannot."

"I'm sorry," Edgar said, looking at his feet. "I really wanted to win this tournament for you, but with an injured player..."

"You have done more than win a tournament for me, Edgar," said the Dragon King. "You have saved my people and my world. That is infinitely more important than any tournament or any throne. It always was. I am sorry that I was such a fool and did not see it until now. I may not be able to reward you as you deserve, but you have my thanks, and... Vorinarialugaruhan! Have you come to accept my concession? I suppose I am ready to offer it."

Edgar looked up and saw a rather skinny silver dragon landing on the grass nearby.

"Quite the opposite, Your Majesty," the dragon said. "As Mayor of Pyranium, I concede the match to Draconia. I am ashamed of my team's cheating tactics, and I am grateful that your team has rescued us from the Great Dragon Wizard. The match is yours."

The mayor of Pyranium bowed low before the Dragon King. As if on cue, a crowd of dragons came flying from their wooden towers to bow before the Dragon King. "Volcaneum concedes, Your Majesty," said a large grayish dragon.

"As does Aurium," said a female dragon with more golden bracelets on her tail than Edgar had ever seen.

One by one, the mayors of the various dragon cities conceded to the Dragon King's team. By the time the last mayor had bowed and offered his concession, the Dragon King's yellow eyes were gleaming with tears. "How can this be?" he said to his subjects. "How can you allow me to rule you as king for another ten years, when I have not earned it?"

"Your team has saved us, Your Majesty," said the Mayor of Volcaneum. "It is our privilege to be ruled by a king who can muster up a force that can stop the Great Dragon Wizard."

"But, but, how can this be?" the Dragon King said, turning to Edgar.

"Well," said Edgar, "You know what they say. He who humbles himself will be exalted."

* * *

The Dragon King did indeed throw a splendid royal banquet in Edgar's honor. Guests from all over the world, who had gathered for the tournament, took part, and Edgar received lavish presents and delicious dishes from far and wide. It was quite possibly the greatest banquet that the world had ever seen. However, the best part was that Edgar got to sit next to his friend the dragon, whose wing was bound up in a great mass of bandages.

"I was so worried about you," Edgar said as they sat down together at the great banquet table. "I didn't see you after the whole thing with the Great Dragon Wizard and the Shadow King, and I thought that maybe..."

"I'm fine," the dragon said. "The medics just took me away to deal with my wing."

"Is it going to be..." Edgar almost didn't dare to finish his question.

"Oh, it should be just fine in a week or two," the dragon said. "We dragons heal quickly."

Sure enough, after a few days, she was able to fly again. Edgar stuck around in Draconia as she recovered, spending time with her, Lucretia, Cornelius and Ted. It was wonderful to be with his old friends again – but then the day came when the portal back to his world was open, and it was time for the dragon to bring him home.

"Are you sure you're strong enough to carry me all the way?" Edgar asked again as he and the dragon set off from the roof of the palace.

"It shouldn't be a problem," the dragon said. "I'm as strong as I've ever been – just don't ask me to carry all your presents from the party."

"Oh, those?" said Edgar. "I left those in the royal treasury – they would just disappear when we go through the portal anyway."

It was a pleasant flight back to the portal. Edgar loved soaring over the Dragon's beautiful world, gazing at the forests and fields, mountains and rivers below. The dragon had to stop a few times to rest, but by about midnight the next day, Edgar caught sight of his neighborhood and realized they had flown through the portal.

The dragon glided down onto the roof of Edgar's house and slithered in through his open bedroom window.

At that moment, Edgar heard a knock on his bedroom door. "Edgar?" said his mother from out in the hallway. "Are you all right? What's all that racket?"

"Oh, sorry Mom," Edgar said, climbing off the dragon and slipping into bed. "I just had to... take care of some things. But now I..."

At that moment, the door opened and his mother entered.

"Edgar!" she said, shocked. She stared, gaping, in the direction of his window.

Oh no, Edgar thought, wondering how long his mother might ground him for letting a dragon into the house – if she survived the shock.

He cast a quick glance at the dragon – but she was already gone.

"How many times have I told you," his mother said, striding across the room, "you can't just leave your window wide open all night – who knows what kind of bugs and things could fly in?" She closed the window and locked it.

"Sorry Mom," Edgar said. "I'll try to remember that next time I..." He couldn't find a way to finish the sentence, so he just yawned and settled down into bed.

His mother gave him a kiss on the forehead and left him to sleep peacefully for the rest of the night.

THE END

