The Shadow Dragons Read Online Free Page A

safeguards.” He snapped open his watch. “The first is the engraved inscription.”
    Jack and Charles moved closer to peer at the watch cover, which bore two words: Apprentice Caretaker, and the Greek letter omega.
    “Only the Caretakers themselves, their apprentices, and those like myself who have been recruited to the cause know that Bert chose that letter as the Caretaker’s mark,” said Ransom. “That’s the first safeguard.”
    “And the second?” asked Jack.
    Ransom glanced at him in surprise before grinning broadly and turning to resume walking down the path. “I’m surprised that you don’t know, considering you are one of the actual Caretakers,” he said with a trace of amused smugness, “but then again, the use of the watches and the safeguards didn’t really become critical until nearly 1938.”
    He looked over his other shoulder at John and tipped his chin. “But you know, don’t you?”
    John glanced around to make certain they were alone, then rolled his eyes heavenward. Of course they were alone. They were lost in the English woods following someone from another dimension. If there were anyone lurking about to hear them, it would have to be a stroke of remarkable luck and accidental timing.
    “Yes,” he said quietly, arching an eyebrow at Ransom. “Bert told me just a few months ago. ‘Believing is seeing.’”
    “Believe,” the philologist replied.
    “That’s it?” said Charles. “That’s a bit simple for a secret code.”
    “Simplicity is best in cooking, personal combat, and secret codes,” said Ransom. “And that statement and response are both more simple and infinitely more complex than you can possibly imagine.”
    “I can imagine a great deal,” Charles huffed.
    “Oh, I meant no offense,” Ransom said quickly. “That was just a turn of phrase. Of the three of you—”
    “Four of us,” said John, nodding his head deferentially toward Rose, who smiled.
    “Five,” came a voice from somewhere above them in the gloom. “Couldn’t count in Alexandria, can’t count now. Some scholar you turned out to be.”
    “Sorry,” Ransom said, peering up at the owl that circled overhead. “Uh, sorry,” he repeated to Rose, with slightly less enthusiasm.
    “As I was saying,” he continued, “of all of you here, Charles is the one most likely to be able to comprehend what we’re about to do. Because, strictly speaking, the place I’m taking you to isn’t in our dimension.”
    Without explaining further, Ransom removed a small leather case from inside his coat. It was thick, and about as tall and broad as two decks of playing cards placed side by side. He untied the binding, and inside the companions could see a sheaf of thick, handmade paper with scrawled notes and sketches.
    “These pages are for practice,” Ransom said as he removed a dozen loose cards from the back of the case, “but these are the real cat’s pajamas.”
    The cards were yellowed with age, and more akin to parchment than paper. Most of the sheets had intricate, nearly photographic drawings on them; only the last few were blank. All of them bore a remarkable pattern on the reverse side: an interweaving series of lines that formed an elaborate labyrinth, at the center of which was the symbol for eternity. Along the borders were symbols of a more familiar nature.
    “Elizabethan?” asked John. “These appear to be some kind of . . . I don’t know. Royal stationery?”
    Ransom smirked. “That’s a closer guess than you realize, John,” he said, nodding. “Queen Elizabeth commissioned them, but hers was certainly not the hand that made them.”
    “John Dee,” Charles intoned, drawing in a breath. “It had to have been Dee. We know he was an early Caretaker, but his books are missing from the official Histories, and Bert will not speak of him.”
    Ransom nodded again. “One of the dark secrets of the Caretakers,” he said somberly. “Burton was not the only one of your order to betray his