“So,” one of the men in front of them said, “You’re the boy with the tennis balls, aren’t you? If you hand them over, then we can let you continue on your way without any trouble.”
Edgar laughed. “Really?” he said. “Are you really going to threaten us with those little knives, when we have a dragon?”
“Oh, we’re prepared for that,” the robber replied. “Bill,” he said to the man on his right. “Show them the Brussel sprouts.”
Edgar’s heart sank when he heard the words. Dragons are extremely tough creatures, but Brussel sprouts are one of the few things that they cannot handle. One could say that they are allergic, but it is really a bit more drastic than that: if a single Brussel sprout so much as brushes up against a dragon’s scales, she is instantly turned to stone. Edgar hoped desperately that the robber was only bluffing.
No such luck. Bill reached into a pouch at his hip and pulled out a handful of Brussel sprouts, which he prepared to throw.
Chapter 11
“Wait a minute,” Edgar said, slowly climbing down from the dragon’s back and placing himself between Bill and his scaly friend. “Let’s not do anything hasty here. I’ll be happy to give you the tennis balls. Just put the Brussel sprouts away. Please.”
“The tennis balls first,” Bill insisted.
“Okay,” Edgar said, putting the Bible down and taking off his backpack. “I’ve got the tennis balls right here.” He pulled them out of his backpack, one by one, and tossed them to the robbers, who greedily snatched them up.
“All right, that’s all of them,” he said. “Now, we’ll just be on our way. . .” He put his backpack back on and stooped to pick up the Bible.
“Not so fast,” said the leader of the robbers. “What’s that book you’ve got there?”
Edgar’s mind raced. He could not let the robbers take the Bible. A few tennis balls were no problem; that was only money. But he needed the Bible to save the Dragon Kingdom! He glanced at the robbers behind them, desperately searching for some way out.
Suddenly, he got an idea.
“This is a very special book,” he said. “It has the power to transform its owner; it turns violent people into peacemakers, and it turns thieves into generous people who give what they have to help the poor. Why do you ask? Would you like to have it?”
“Oh, no,” the leader of the bandits said hastily. “We’re quite happy with the tennis balls. Anyway, we really must be going.”
Edgar tried hard not to laugh as he saw the fear in the eyes of the robbers. They really did not want to risk getting transformed into generous people! All five of them disappeared quickly into the forest, and Edgar, Lucretia, Cornelius, and the dragon were able to continue on their way.
“That was impressive,” Cornelius said as they rode along. “But doesn’t it say somewhere in that book, ‘you shall not lie?’”
“Oh, it wasn’t a lie,” said Edgar, and he began to tell Cornelius about some of the people he had heard about in Sunday School, people whose lives had been transformed when they read the Bible.
The four companions journeyed on through the forest, a bit poorer but happy to be alive and on their way to save the Dragon Kingdom.
After two days of riding, they emerged from the forest into a field of tall grass. A huge mountain rose up in the distance, covered with stone buildings. Near the peak stood a majestic palace with a gleaming golden roof. This was Draconia, the capital city of the Dragon Kingdom.
“Ah, my home,” the dragon sighed, seeing the city.
“I’ve missed this place,” Edgar said. “Somehow, it feels like –“
He was interrupted by a dark shape that leaped out of the tall grass in front of them.
Chapter 12
“A shadow dragon,” the dragon said grimly, eyeing the inky black creature that crouched, ready to pounce, on the road ahead of them.
Edgar shuddered as he stared at the creature. It seemed to be about as large and strong as his dragon, but completely and utterly black – even its eyes and its teeth!—and it hissed angrily at them. He wondered why it did not just pounce on them. What was it waiting for? Could it be that it was weakened by the sunlight, and wanted to scare them off without a fight? The thought gave Edgar hope.
“Edgar,” Cornelius whispered, “use the Bible!”
Oh yes, the Bible! Edgar had forgotten it in the heat of the moment. He had the magic talisman that could defeat the shadow dragons, and now was the time to use it! He dug the book out of his backpack, lifted it high above his head – and suddenly realized that he did not know what he was supposed to do with it.
“Um, Lucretia,” he whispered. ”Did the magician tell you how you were supposed to use the talisman once you found it?”
Lucretia thought for a second. “Actually, no,” she said. “Why, don’t you know how to use it? I thought you said you had these books in your world!”
“We do,” Edgar said, “but—“
At that moment, the shadow dragon pounced on him, inky claws extended, mouth open to expose its needle-sharp shadow teeth.
Edgar’s dragon reared up on her hind legs, taking the brunt of the blow. Edgar was sent flying as his dragon fell. He landed in the tall grass on the side of the road, but was quickly on his feet again, Bible in hand. Seeing his dragon locked in a life-and-death struggle with her shadowy twin, and not knowing what else to do, he charged the shadow dragon with the Bible raised high over his head. With a shout, he brought the heavy book down with all his might, striking the monster in the face.
The shadow dragon was not amused.
“Now, why didn’t that work?” Edgar wondered aloud as the creature glared at him with murder in its black eyes. “It says in here that the sword of the Spirit is the Word of God. . .”
Suddenly, the shadow dragon drew back with a pained hiss as if it had been burned. It stared at them for a moment, then suddenly fled, disappearing into the tall grass.
“Strange,” Edgar said.
The four companions continued on their way, hoping to make it to Draconia before the sun went down. They did not want to be out in the fields at night, with the shadow dragon lurking about.
Chapter 13
As the four companions made their way toward the city, they discussed what had happened with the shadow dragon.
“So now we know what we need to do,” said Cornelius. “We just have to search the kingdom and find every single one of those monsters, and Edgar can smack them in the face with the Bible, one by one.”
“But that only seemed to make it angry,” Lucretia pointed out. “It wasn’t until he spoke that it got scared and ran away. What was it that you said, Edgar?”
Edgar thought about it. What had he said? “I said I wonder why smacking it didn’t work. And then I said that the sword of the Spirit is the Word of God. Maybe it thought that I had a sword, and got scared.”
“But why did you say that?” asked Cornelius.
“It just sort of came to me – actually, it’s a Bible verse that I learned in Sunday School. I think it means that the words in the Bible are like some kind of weapon for fighting against evil. I’m not really sure.”
“Maybe that’s it!” Lucretia exclaimed. “Maybe when you said those words, which come from the Bible, they hit the evil shadow dragon like a sword! It is an evil creature, and the words in the Bible are a weapon for fighting against evil!”
“Maybe. . .” said Edgar.
“Shall we try it again next time we see a shadow dragon?” Lucretia suggested. “As soon as it shows up, just say some words from the Bible to it, and see if the same thing happens again. Or maybe you could teach us some words, so we could all say them! Do you know any other words that could work – something that might stop a shadow dragon?”
Edgar thought for a moment. “Last Sunday we had a memory verse about shadows. How did that one go? Oh yes, ‘Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.” Edgar was amazed at h
ow quickly the verse came back to him. It was if all this talk about the Bible and Sunday School was digging up memories that he did not even know that he had. Maybe he had listened better than he thought!
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,” Lucretia repeated. “Ummm. . .”
“I will fear no evil,” Edgar supplied.
“I will fear no evil,” Lucretia repeated. “Wait, I know! For you are with me!”
At that moment, a shadow dragon leaped out of the tall grass, knocking Edgar off of his dragon.
Lucretia, after a moment’s panic, mustered the courage to say the words: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me!”
The shadow dragon shrieked and vanished back into the tall grass as quickly as it had come.
“Wow,” said Cornelius, helping Edgar to his feet. “It looks like we have found a way to fight the shadow dragons! Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” Edgar said, climbing up onto his dragon again. “It gave me a bit of a scratch on the shoulder, but it’s not even bleeding.”
The four companions continued on their way toward the capital city.
“Soon, we’ll be meeting all the dragons of Draconia,” Cornelius mused. “And all of them will probably have impossible names. Dragon, what should I call you when we reach the city? I can’t pronounce Alarusthrastaganuthromianaga.”
“Alarusthrastoganuthromianaga,” the dragon corrected him.
“Yes, well, anyway, I can’t pronounce your name – how am I supposed to address you? If I just say ‘Dragon’, no one will know who I mean.”
“They usually know who I mean,” Edgar said.
“Yes, but Dragon, can’t I just call you Naga?” Cornelius pleaded.
“Absolutely not! Short forms are not to be used in the Dragon Kingdom – not by civilized people!”
“What about Alice?” Cornelius asked. “That’s not a short form – it’s a nickname.”
The dragon considered.
“If you’re going to have a new name,” Edgar said, “why not Stinkbreath? That’s descriptive, at least.”
When Edgar had said these words, his next breath came out as a black cloud that quickly formed itself into an inky black boy exactly the same size and shape as him. Before anyone had time to react, this shadowy Edgar grabbed the Bible out of his hand and disappeared into the tall grass with it.
Chapter 14
As soon as he had recovered from his shock, Edgar plunged into the tall grass in pursuit of his dark twin. Unfortunately, he had no idea in which direction the shadow Edgar had gone. The dark figure did not seem to make the grass move or leave any footprints; it was as if it had simply vanished.
The dragon followed Edgar into the tall grass, sniffing the ground to try to find Shadow Edgar’s trail.
“It has no scent,” the dragon said. “I can’t follow it.”
“But we have to find it!” Edgar cried. “We need that Bible to defeat the shadow dragons!”
“Maybe the crystal can help,” Lucretia suggested, digging the magical jewel out of her pouch. It did not give off even the faintest glow. Lucretia tried walking around and pointing it in different directions, but the crystal gave no response; it was as if it had become an ordinary piece of rock. “Sorry,” she said, placing the lifeless crystal back in her pouch. “It doesn’t seem to be working.”
Edgar leaped back up onto the dragon’s back. “Fly!” he urged. “Maybe we’ll see it from the air.”
The dragon took off and began to wheel around the field in a wide spiral. Edgar scanned the area desperately, but saw no sign of Shadow Edgar anywhere. How could this happen? They needed that Bible!
Edgar was so frustrated that he did something that he almost never did: he opened his mouth and said a very ugly swear word.
To his horror, the word came out of his mouth as a black cloud which quickly formed into a second Shadow Edgar!
The dark figure, who sat facing Edgar on the dragon’s neck, reached out its shadowy hands to grab him.
Edgar wrestled with his inky twin, struggling desperately to keep his seat on the dragon’s back, and to remember a Bible verse – any Bible verse!
“Land! Land!” he shouted to the dragon as he almost lost his balance. He quickly recovered, but then Shadow Edgar got a good hold on him and started pushing him down the dragon’s side.
Suddenly, Edgar remembered a Bible verse he had learned in Sunday school a few weeks before. The teacher had chosen it for him after he had said something mean to one of his classmates. “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths,” he groaned, straining mightily to keep his shadowy twin from pushing him off, “but only what is helpful for building others up.”
Shadow Edgar’s reaction was even more dramatic than that of the shadow dragons – after shaking violently for half a second, he suddenly disappeared in a puff of smoke.
At that moment, the dragon landed with a jolt.
“That was a close one,” Edgar said. “It’s a good thing I remembered my memory verse. Oh, I don’t feel so good.” His shoulder was throbbing terribly where the shadow dragon had scratched him, and he was starting to feel quite dizzy and weak. He pulled back the collar of his pajama shirt and found that the flesh around the wound had become swollen and black. Then, overcome by a powerful wave of dizziness, Edgar fainted.
Chapter 15
Edgar woke up in his own bed to find that all his encounters with shadow dragons and shadow Edgars had been a mere dream.
“This is going to be one of those days,” he thought, rolling over and burying his head under his pillow. “Strange nightmare, headache, probably late for school, pillow replaced with a pile of straw—wait, what?”
Edgar sat bolt upright and found that his entire bed was one large pile of straw – the kind that dragons liked to sleep on – and that his bedroom was a large stone chamber furnished with several similar piles, many of which held sick-looking dragons. A few healthy dragons slithered around the room, changing bandages, giving out medicines, and generally taking care of the sick ones. This was a dragon hospital!
Edgar started to get up and suddenly noticed that his left shoulder was bandaged where the shadow dragon had scratched him.
One of the dragon nurses, noticing that he was awake, approached him with a bottle of sparkling pink liquid. “Drink this,” she said. “It will help with the headache.”
Edgar sipped the fizzy pink concoction, found that it tasted rather pleasantly of raspberry, and thirstily gulped down the rest. His headache did seem to go down a little bit.
“How did you know I had a headache?” he asked.
“Shadow dragon scratches always cause a headache,” his nurse replied. “You’re lucky that your friends brought you here when they did. If your wound had gone any longer without treatment – well, that could have ended very badly.”
“My friends!” Edgar said. “Where are they?”
“I can bring you to them, if you feel strong enough,” his nurse replied.
“Of course I feel strong enough!” Edgar said, leaping to his feet. He still felt a bit dizzy, but, suddenly remembering a memory verse from Sunday school, he said, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” As he said these words, he actually felt a bit stronger and less dizzy. Perhaps the Bible verse did something to neutralize the poison from the shadow dragon scratch.
“All right,” said his dragon nurse. “Follow me, and I will bring you to your friends.”
She led Edgar to a heavy iron door, which she unlocked with a key and locked again behind them, and through a labyrinth of torch-lit tunnels. Edgar had never seen this part of Draconia before.
“Where are we?” he asked as they walked.
“All your questions will be answered soon,” she replied. “The King would like to have a meeting with you tonight, after you have been reunited with your friends. Ah, here.”
She unlocked
another heavy iron door, motioned for Edgar to go in first, and then suddenly slammed the door shut behind him. As the lock clicked into place, Edgar realized, to his great surprise and dismay, that he was in a prison cell.
Chapter 16
Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, Edgar found that he was not alone in his prison cell. Lucretia, Cornelius and the dragon sat on the stone floor by the far wall. As Edgar approached them, and as his eyes adjusted to the dim and flickering torchlight, he saw that they were chained to the wall, with blindfolds over their eyes and gags in their mouths.
He rushed to their aid, hurrying over to undo their blindfolds and remove their gags. They were relieved and dismayed to find him there with them.
“What happened to you?” he asked as he struggled with a heavy iron lock that held Lucretia’s chains. “How did you end up here, and where are we?”
“We are in the dungeon beneath the palace,” the dragon answered. “We came into the city last night, carrying you, and we were arrested by the King’s guards. They took you away somewhere, and then they locked us up here.”
“But why would they do that?” Edgar asked, giving up his struggle with the lock and searching for a stone to bash it with. “We haven’t done anything wrong! Unless. . . Are we in trouble because I made those shadow creatures? If I hadn’t said those nasty words. . .”
“I don’t know,” said the dragon. “The guards did not explain much.”
“The nurse who brought me here said I would get to see the King soon,” Edgar said, “and that everything would be explained. But that was probably just a lie.”
“What are you looking for?” Lucretia asked as Edgar fumbled around in the dark corners of the room.
“A stone to smash your lock with,” Edgar replied.
“Why not pick the lock with my hairpin?” Lucretia suggested.
Edgar found the hairpin among her ruby tresses and got to work. After several minutes of determined effort and a good amount of guidance from Lucretia, he finally managed to touch something inside the lock that made it open with a click. Once Lucretia was free of her chains, she took her hairpin and quickly set Cornelius and the dragon free as well.