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mountainside and jumped on Old Bub’s back, driving the poor creature at a gallop through the deep woods and up the sleet-slickened path that led to High Peak. But by the time he arrived, St. George had already slain Leandra and partaken of her blood.
    Obsidian returned many times to search the slopes of High Peak for the egg Leandra had carried, as did St. George, but neither was ever able to find it. Nor could Obsidian find the eggthat Peg had deposited in the stream or the one he had left in the eagle’s aerie. All three eggs seemed to have vanished.
    He never recovered from the loss of his family, but he did resign himself to life as a human being, awaiting the time when the magic stronger than any other would return him to his dragon form. In the meantime, he made the best of his life as a man. He took on the surname Andersson. When Peg grew up, he married her and settled down on the homestead. In the years to come, he would continue to battle with St. George over the treasures that lay hidden in the earth. Eventually, he succeeded in dynamiting one of the mine tunnels and burying the villain alive beneath tons of gold-laced rubble.
    The law came after Lukas Burton Andersson, and he fled Goldmine City. He left Peg with a tiny six-week-old baby named Jesse Leander Andersson. Jesse grew up without a father but surrounded by loving uncles, and he would be the first of many generations of Jesses. Andersson kept track of Jesse from whatever part of the world he found himself in. Graced—or possibly cursed—with a dragon’s centuries-long life span, he watched the many descendants of Jesse, and he waited until the time was right to summon his half-blood children into service, in the role they were destined to play, of Dragon Keepers.

You already know what happened to one of Leandra’s eggs.…
    Jesse and Daisy found it. And when it hatched, they became Emmy’s Keepers. Read Dragon Keepers Book 5:
The Dragon in the Sea
to discover what happens to Leandra’s second egg!
    Excerpt copyright © 2012 by Kate Klimo. Published by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
    Jesse waited until Daisy was finished, then asked, “You want to take a walk on the beach? Polly said we should meet the new neighbors, the Driftwoods, Bill and Mitzi and their kids, Coral and Reef.”
    Daisy’s blue eyes lit up. “Sure,” she said. “I’ll get the backpack.”
    They stopped off in the Fishbowl to get the backpack, then ran through the garden and down the worn wooden stairs that zigzagged along the cliff to the beach. The farther down the cliff they went, the louder the
arf-arf-arf
ing of the seals grew.
    On the beach, they paused to watch the waves hurl themselves wrathfully over the rocks. Even in August, this was a challenging swimming beach, but in late November, it was downright inhospitable. Slimy tendrils of kelp lay everywhere, like the tentacles of a sea monster. An enormous rock nearly as big as a beached aircraft carrier slanted toward the sea, alive with seals sunning themselves. The seals lay packed in cheek to jowl, barking nonstop for no apparent reason.
    “Why doesn’t somebody throw them a fish and shut them up?” Jesse asked.
    Daisy grinned. It was one of the jokes Daisy’s father, Uncle Joe, never got tired ofcracking. In the shadow of the seal rock, they found a large tide pool. Never able to resist a good tide pool, they knelt and dipped their hands in the clear water.
    Jesse yanked his hand out. It was freezing!
    Daisy was already shucking off her sneakers and socks, rolling up her jeans, and wading in. Jesse watched as she picked through the tide pool and found a few seashells. There were also some choice pieces of sea glass.
    “For the Museum of Magic?” she said, holding up a pale green piece of sea glass for Jesse to see.
    “It reminds me of the gems on the beach in the Fiery Realm,” said Jesse, thinking wistfully that Emmy would be toasty warm in the Fiery Realm