to peel off the aluminum foil. A spiderweb crack had formed on the top. As Lucinda and her brother stared, it bulged in the center, and then a piece of the shell popped loose and fell to the towel. She could just hear the cracking of the shell over everyone’s murmuring voices. She wondered if the heat was necessary to make the egg brittle enough for the baby to break it.
Another piece fell off, then another, and a moment later the whole top of the egg cracked loose and swung outward as though hinged. A head snaked out that was no bigger than a small dog’s, a tiny version of Meseret with a blunter snout, but with colors that were brighter than hers, horizontal stripes of black and gold. The infant dragon pulled itself awkwardly out of the wreckage of the eggshell and walked a few staggering steps on its wing-pinions before stopping to rest, its throat pulsing in and out, its striped tail coiled around it. The golden eyes looked blearily around, then seemed to focus on Lucinda. For a moment, she could almost feel its simple, wordless thought: ?
No, I’m not your mother, she tried her best to tell the newborn. You’ll meet her soon.
Someone put a hand on Lucinda’s shoulder. It was Gideon, his hair standing up again so that he looked like a scarecrow that had been out in the wind too long. He had his other hand on Tyler and an expression on his face so strange that it gave Lucinda shivers. “I have not treated the two of you as well as I should have,” he said. Everyone in the kitchen fell silent. Gideon cleared his throat and continued. “But this… the young dragon we thought we’d never see… it makes me realize… ”
As Gideon fell silent again, someone made a noise like a grunt of pain. Lucinda saw Colin Needle standing half in shadow, half in sunlight from one of the big windows, watching. He had his arms wrapped tightly around himself and even from across the kitchen Lucinda could almost feel his envy and unhappiness.
Tyler suddenly stood up and said, “Uncle Gideon, I… I almost forgot to tell you. I found something in the library. And I wonder if it’s anything you recognize.” He held out his hand.
Lucinda, as surprised as anyone else, stared at Tyler’s fingers as they opened to reveal a bit of sparkle. Gideon said, “What? What is it? In the library, you say?”
“Yes. Near the portrait of Octavio.”
Gideon took the shining thing from Tyler’s hand and stared at it intently. Everyone in the kitchens craned their necks to see. Gideon held up the golden locket on its s voice little more than a hoarse whisper. “Was it hidden somewhere?”
Tyler hesitated, looking like he wanted to get something just right. “No, not hidden. It was right out in the open. Like somebody
… wanted it to be found.”
It seemed that all his years had caught up with Gideon at once. His lip trembled and his eyes were wet with tears. “It’s… it’s hers!” he said. “The necklace I gave her. Grace, oh, my beautiful Grace.” He lifted the necklace with trembling hands and kissed it. “It’s a sign-she sent it to me through the Fault Line somehow. It means she’s still alive and she wants me to know it.” Tyler was squirming uncomfortably, but Gideon didn’t notice. “Bless you, boy. Oh, thank God, you’ve brought me the greatest treasure of all-my Grace is alive.” Gideon Goldring crouched down and took Tyler and Lucinda by the hand. Lucinda couldn’t even look at him. She was ashamed of all the lies they were telling him. After a moment she pulled away, and Tyler did too, but Gideon was oblivious.
“I fell in love with her when she was just a girl,” the old man said, his voice hoarse. “But I didn’t realize it. Only when she had grown up could I finally understand the feelings I had. But her grandfather-old Octavio-fought against us for so long. He didn’t want his hired hand marrying his granddaughter.” Gideon laughed. “That’s all I was to him! Just the young man he’d hired to help him grow crystals. It took years for him to accept me… accept us. And then, just when it finally seemed we would be happy, I lost her.
“I still don’t know what happened. I had left the farm for the evening and so had Octavio, who had gone off in his own car. The fool was too old to drive-we’d told him that a dozen times but he was too stubborn to listen. So we’d left Grace alone. When I came back late I found my grandfather-in-law’s car half off the driveway into the undergrowth, and Octavio himself lying beside it, dead of a heart attack. Grace was gone-I couldn’t find her anywhere. I don’t know whether she’d found her grandfather and just wandered off in a daze or it was just a terrible coincidence.
“Then Simos found her tracks in the dust of the silo-tracks that disappeared at the Fault Line. Worst of all, the Continuascope was just lying there, as if she had dropped it before she stepped into the Fault. Without it, she was lost with no hope of finding her way back
…”
Gideon fell silent again for a long moment, but she could hear his breath hitching. Lucinda, like others in the room, found herself shifting uncomfortably. The poor man!
“But now, thanks to you,” Gideon said suddenly, “I know for certain that she is still alive-that she’s trying to communicate with me!” He stood up, throwing his arms wide. “And we have a baby dragon! Tyler and Lucinda, bringing you two to Ordinary Farm just might be the best thing I have done in years!” He reached out and captured them again, pulling them into an uncomfortable, bony hug. The ancient bathrobe smelled like talcum powder and sweat. “Bless you both! Please come back to us soon-next summer for certain-and perhaps you could even visit us at the holidays.”
Ragnar seemed to take pity on the two of them being squeezed until Lucinda thought she would pass out. “They will miss their train, Gideon,” he reminded their host.
The old man loosened his grip. Behind him, Mrs. Needle was smiling, that smile of hers that never reached her eyes. “Oh yes,” the dark-haired woman said. “Do take care of yourselves until we see you two again. It is such a very dangerous world out there.”
That doesn’t sound like a warning, Lucinda thought. It sounds like a promise.
Mrs. Needle was making sure she and her brother knew they had an enemy, one who would not give up the farm without a fight.
“Oh, we’ll definitely remember to stay safe,” Lucinda said, then looked right into the frigid gray eyes and smiled back at Mrs. Needle. It was tentative at first, but after a moment it became much easier. And Lucinda’s smile didn’t reach as far as her own eyes, either.
Chapter 31
T yler persuaded Ragnar to take the old truck on a detour to Cresta Sol farm before they went to the station. As they drew up outside, with Ragnar fretting about them missing their train as nervously as their mother had all those weeks ago, Carmen, Steve, and Alma spilled through the white iron gate and ran up the road toward them. Tyler and Lucinda got out of the truck.
“We came to say good-bye,” Tyler told them.
Nobody was smiling. Carmen’s long hair was blowing in her eyes.
“You have to promise us,” Tyler said. “ Us this time, not just Ragnar and Mr. Walkwell. You have to promise to keep the secrets. Otherwise… ”
“We know,” said Alma.
“We talked about it,” said Carmen.
“Yeah, we understand,” said Steve. “Because otherwise everything will change. For everyone.”
“We swear we won’t tell anyone,” said Alma, her little face solemn. “Not ever. No matter what.”
“Don’t forget to write, Lucinda,” Carmen said. “And you guys come back soon. So we have someone we can talk to about it!”
None of the children could think of much else to say-their hearts were too full. They all hugged, then Tyler and Lucinda climbed back into the truck.
“Did that all really happen?” Lucinda asked. “All of it?”
“You keep saying that.” Tyler was looking out the train compartment window at the fields and houses going past and trying to think. There was still so much about the summer he didn’t understand. “Of course it happened.”
