But Emmy stood her ground, even when a giant white net swooped down and swept her up into it. The cousins lunged forward to grab the net, but the pillars held them back. They watched as the net rose swiftly above their heads and the stone panel ground to a close.

For a few moments, they stood and looked at the ceiling, as if they expected it to open again and 155.

return their dragon to them. When it didn't, Jesse said: "What just happened?"

"Somebody just stole our dragon," Daisy said.

"No, I mean before before that," Jesse said. "What happened?" that," Jesse said. "What happened?"

"Hey, you two!" a familiar voice called. Daisy heard it, too, and they both looked around for its source. They found Uncle Joe's face in the nearest pillar. "Yeah, I'm talking to you two!"

Daisy's heart skipped. Her father looked angrier than she had ever seen him.

"All right, you two clowns! Turn around and march right out of here, double-time! Get your tails back home and consider yourselves grounded, both of you, for the rest of your natural-born lives!"

"Yikes!" Daisy cowered behind Jesse and whispered, "Poppy's hopping mad."

"Don't even try to hide from me," her father said. "This is private property you're trespa.s.sing on, and what did I tell you about that? This is not your castle to storm."

"I'm sorry, Poppy!" Daisy crept out from behind Jesse and approached the statue.

"No!" Jesse said, pulling her away. "Don't listen to him."

"That's Poppy, Jess!"

"No, it isn't!" He flung aside his glowing stone 156.

and seized hold of her elbows, fixing her with a fierce stare. "Think about it for a minute, Daze. How could Uncle Joe be down here?"

Daisy hesitated and shook her head. She didn't seem to have a good answer.

"How could my mother be down here?" Jesse pressed on.

Daisy blinked and recovered her senses. "You're right, Jess. That's ridiculous. She's a gazillion miles away in Africa."

Jesse went on. "And the professor--"

"He can't be down here. We both know he's up in the tower," Daisy said.

Jesse nodded. "All this stuff we've been seeing and hearing, Daze, none of it is real. It's all some kind of a trick. This place," he said, hugging himself as the temperature plummeted even lower, "is under a spell."

Daisy nodded slowly. "Then all this fighting..."

"Is just a bunch of bad magic. Sadie Huffington put a spell on this place. And that hole in the cliff face we saw when we first got here? That was was a doggie door. That's how she lures dogs down here and scoops them up in her net. It's a dog trap." a doggie door. That's how she lures dogs down here and scoops them up in her net. It's a dog trap."

Daisy looked around warily. "And now it's a dragon and people trap, too."

The pillars were moving even closer together, a 157.

crowd of stone faces bearing down on them, all of them talking at once: Mrs. Nosy-Britches screaming for the police; Jesse's mother coaxing him home; Uncle Joe bawling them out; the professor whispering evil things; Aunt Maggie lecturing them about getting along; Ms. Mindy scolding them for letting Emmy get caught; and even Mr. Stenson, the nicest guy in the world, reproaching them for getting dog s...o...b..r all over one of his "all-time fave books."

It wasn't until Daisy clapped her hands over her ears and started humming loudly, frost forming on her eyebrows, that Jesse knew exactly what to do.

He spun Daisy around and reached into the zipper pouch of the backpack, locating exactly what he knew they needed.

He spoke above the din: "This is what Miss Alodie meant when she talked about a cold spell cold spell . She sure enough didn't mean the weather," he said as he fitted one set of magic earm.u.f.fs around Daisy's head and the other around his. . She sure enough didn't mean the weather," he said as he fitted one set of magic earm.u.f.fs around Daisy's head and the other around his.

158.

CHAPTER NINE

STORM THE CASTLE.

Silence. Jesse heaved a huge sigh of relief.

Daisy's eyes lit up with surprise. "Hey! I can't hear them anymore, can you?" she asked.

Jesse shook his head and smiled. "But I can hear you, loud and clear. Can you hear me?"

159.

"Yep," Daisy said. She held her elbows and shivered. "Boy, that was one mean cold spell, wasn't it, Jess?"

Jesse nodded. "I think it's on its way out, though."

Sure enough, as if someone had switched on a furnace, the air in the chamber began to warm up. It even stopped smelling quite as bad.

Daisy took a step closer to Jesse. "I'm sorry I said all those rotten things, Jess," she said in a low voice.

"I'm sorry, too," he replied. "But it doesn't matter. We need to get out of this maze and into the castle."

"We're Dragon Keepers?" Daisy asked, holding out her fist.

"Dragon Keepers united forever," Jesse said, b.u.mping her fist with his.

When they looked around, the circle of angry ranting pillars had vanished. And so had the maze. Before them lay a perfectly straight pa.s.sageway, lit by torches, at the end of which rose a set of stairs, hacked into the stone wall in a crude zigzag.

"Just like Balthazaar's map!" Daisy said, tossing aside her glowing stone and smacking the notebook in triumph.

"Do you think it was here all the time and we just didn't see it?" Jesse asked.

160.

"Do you think the earm.u.f.fs made the maze and all those crazy grown-ups go away?" Daisy asked.

"Maybe," said Jesse. "Or maybe it happened when we stopped fighting. Let's never do that again, okay, Daze?"

"Okay," Daisy said.

"So what are we waiting for?" Jesse said, sweeping an arm toward the stairs. "After you?"

"After you!" replied Daisy, dipping into a deep curtsey.

"Let's go together," Jesse suggested, and offered her his arm.

Daisy accepted it. "Let's go get our dragon back," she said.

"And the professor," Jesse added. the professor," Jesse added.

They marched down the pa.s.sageway and up the stone stairs. Where the stone stairs ended, a wooden ladder stood bolted into the wall leading to a hatch in the ceiling. The cousins paused at the foot of the ladder while Daisy consulted the notebook. "According to this, the ladder leads to a trapdoor located just behind the receiving platform in the throne room."

Jesse nodded. "I'll go first," he said. "Unless you'd rather...?"

"Please, be my guest," Daisy said.

Jesse climbed up the ladder, carefully raised 161.

the trapdoor, and poked his head out. He saw the elegant purple and gold brocade backs of what looked like two thrones, one large and the other slightly smaller. Turning his head the other way, he saw the crest of St. George the Dragon Slayer, red on a field of white, emblazoned on an enormous banner hanging from a long golden rod suspended from the very high ceiling.

He was just about to climb out the rest of the way when he heard the distinct scritch-scratch scritch-scratch of claws on stone. He turned his head slowly back toward the thrones. of claws on stone. He turned his head slowly back toward the thrones.

"Um, Daze?" Jesse whispered, moving nothing but his lips. "Do me a favor? Hand me a couple of Miss Alodie's Rock-'em, Sock-'em Dog Biscuits."

"Would you say this is a 'dire' circ.u.mstance?" Daisy called back to him. "Because remember what Miss Alodie said."

Along the wall, he saw a giant dog shadow coming nearer. "Pretty dire, yeah," Jesse said.

"Coming right up," said Daisy.

Jesse felt Daisy place three of the moon-shaped dog biscuits in the palm of his hand. One second later, a Doberman pinscher with a choke collar as thick as a towing chain poked its muzzle around the corner of the throne. One look at Jesse and it bared its teeth and let out a snarl.

162.

"Nice doggie," Jesse said in a trembling voice.

"Just remember," Daisy whispered frantically. "It's easy! So long as they know who's Top Dog!"

"Right," Jesse said slowly. It was hard to feel like Top Dog when your head was sticking up out of the floor like a pork chop on a platter. The dog lunged at him.

Jesse flung a biscuit at it. The dog caught the biscuit in midair--and then the most wonderful thing happened! The Doberman fell to the floor as if struck by lightning. It rolled over onto its back and stuck all four paws up into the air. Jesse waited a moment, and then risked crawling out of the hatch the rest of the way.

Very slowly, he walked over to the Doberman and stood over it. He gave it the best version of the patented Ten-Yard Stare that he could muster, but the dog didn't seem to need it. It made a pitiful mewing noise in the back of its throat, its tongue rolling out the side of its mouth. It seemed to want Jesse to scratch its belly. Jesse was pretty sure this was one guard dog that was now off duty.

"Hey, Daze! Come on up!" he whispered loudly.

By the time Daisy joined him, Jesse was on his hands and knees rubbing the dog's belly and cooing "good dog" to him.

Daisy stared down in utter amazement. "Wow, 163.

Jesse, you really are are Top Dog," she said. Top Dog," she said.

"Don't you feel kind of sorry for him?" Jesse asked, giving the dog one last good scratch and getting up to leave.

"I feel sorry for him because he's under Sadie Huffington's spell, not because he got goofy from Miss Alodie's biscuit," Daisy said.

Jesse nodded thoughtfully. "You're right, I guess." Then he turned to an imaginary camera and said, "Well, that's all for this time. We'll see you next time, and until then, always remember, you are are Top Dog if you act like Top Dog!" Top Dog if you act like Top Dog!"

"Oh, brother!" Daisy said, rolling her eyes.

As they made their way through the throne room, Jesse's eyes took in the rich carpeting, the iron chandelier the size of a large upside-down tree hanging from the ceiling, and the giant tapestry on one wall. The tapestry showed the scene of a lion being ripped apart by whippets while a knight, who looked an awful lot like St. George, watched in obvious satisfaction. Along the opposite wall was a wooden table as long as a bowling alley set with a silver bowl the size of a water trough.

"This place is awesome," he said to Daisy.

"Awesomely hideous hideous , more like." Daisy glanced down at the notebook. She looked up and pointed to the doorway ahead, flanked by two highly , more like." Daisy glanced down at the notebook. She looked up and pointed to the doorway ahead, flanked by two highly 164.

polished suits of armor, complete with long axes. "The gallery should be straight through there, past those empty suits of armor," she said.

They were just pa.s.sing through the doorway when one of the suits of armor creaked to life. A voice bellowed from behind the visor: "Halt!"

The long axes came down, slicing through the air behind them and only just missing them.

Jesse and Daisy froze. Then Jesse felt something poke him in the middle of the back.

"Forward, march!" the knights shouted, prodding them into the gallery with their long axes. The cousins stumbled forward.

"They're taking us to Sadie Huffington," Daisy whispered, then yelped as one of the knights jabbed her extra hard.

Larger than the throne room, the gallery was long and empty. Black and white squares of marble covered the floor. Lines of towering, fancily framed portraits stared out from the walls. The people in them all looked like they had lived in different time periods. As Jesse marched past them, he realized that every single portrait was of either George or Sadra. It would have been funny if it hadn't been so creepy. In a few moments, he'd be standing in front of Sadie Huffington, in the flesh. Think of something! Think of something! he told himself. he told himself. Fast! Fast!

165.

He became aware of something in his hand. He looked down and saw that he still held two of the dog biscuits. He glanced back at their captors. He couldn't see their faces through the holes in their visors. Were they dog-men, just like the landscapers Daisy had described? It was worth a try.

"Mmmm!" he said loudly, smacking his lips. He opened his hand, which was sweaty and made the aroma of the dog biscuit more pungent. He held up his hand and waved it back and forth over his head, under the knight's noses.

"What are you doing?" Daisy whispered.

Jesse whispered back, "I'm tempting them with treats."

Daisy, catching on, began to play along. "Mmmm!" she said loudly. "I wish I had one of those tasty biscuits for myself."

"No way!" Jesse told her. "These tasty biscuits are all mine!"