The Search for the Red Dragon (Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica #02)

The Crusade has begun...

There's an old myth in the Archipelago, he went on softly, shaking his head. A legend, really...I recall it mentioned a Crusade, but those events happened seven centuries ago. We always thought it was only a story.

It has been nine years since John, Jack, and Charles had their great adventure in the Archipelago of Dreams and became the Caretakers of the Imaginarium Geographica. Now they have been brought together again to solve a mystery: Someone is kidnapping the children of the Archipelago. And their only clue is a mysterious message delivered by a strange girl with artificial wings: The Crusade has begun. Worse, they discover that all of the legendary Dragonships have disappeared as well.

The only chance they have to save the world from a centuries-old plot is to seek out the last of the Dragonships — the Red Dragon — in a spectacular journey that takes them from Sir James Barrie's Kensington Gardens to the Underneath of the Greek Titans of myth. With friends both familiar and new, they will travel through an extraordinary landscape where history, myth, and fable blend together to tell the oldest story in the world. And along the way, the Caretakers of the Geographica will discover that great deeds alone do not make heroes, and that growing up may be unavoidable...but growing old doesn't have to be.

"This second book in the Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica (following Here, There Be Dragons) is spellbinding, with adventures, puzzles and charming hints of childhood literature." KLIATT

"There are moments that transcend the mixed genres, especially toward the end of the book, and one can see the brilliance of the concept." School Library Journal

James A. Owen wrote and illustrated Here, There Be Dragons. He is founder and executive director of Coppervale International, an art and design studio that also publishes the periodicals International Studio and Argosy Quarterly, develops television and film projects, and is redesigning an entire town, among other ventures. James has written and illustrated two dozen Starchild comics, the Mythworld series of novels (published in Germany and France), and more. He lives in Arizona.

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Prologue

Part One: Nine Years in the Summer Country

Chapter One:

The Angel in the Garden

Chapter Two:

The Reluctant Caretaker

Chapter Three:

The Lost Boys

Chapter Four:

A Dragon Restored

Part Two: A History Undone

Chapter Five:

The Errant Knight

Chapter Six:

The Weaving

Chapter Seven:

The Great Whatsit

Chapter Eight:

The Friar's Tale

Part Three: The Search for the Red Dragon

Chapter Nine:

Shadows in Flight

Chapter Ten:

The Tower in the Air

Chapter Eleven:

Chamenos Liber

Chapter Twelve:

Dante's Riddle

Part Four: Into the Underneath

Chapter Thirteen:

Croatoan

Chapter Fourteen:

The Imperial Cartological Society

Chapter Fifteen:

Haven

Chapter Sixteen:

Echo's Well

Part Five: The King of Tears and the Queen of Sorrows

Chapter Seventeen:

The Tunesmiths

Chapter Eighteen:

Shadows of History

Chapter Nineteen:

The Gilded Army

Chapter Twenty:

The City of Lost Children

Part Six: The Ninth Circle

Chapter Twenty-one:

Shadows and Light

Chapter Twenty-two:

The Thimble

Chapter Twenty-three:

Unraveled

Chapter Twenty-four:

Second Star to the Right

Epilogue

Author's Note