Thaddeus Whiskers and the Dragon by H. L. Burke

Author:H. L. Burke [Burke, H. L.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: H. L. Burke
Published: 2015-02-28T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

Where is that Cat?

Hermes had been brewing a delicate anti-itch potion when the trap door to his tower room exploded open. He dropped the vial which shattered. The blue liquid oozed out and disappeared between the floorboards. He sighed.

Ambrosia climbed into the room, her usually perfect pink cheeks flaming red. “That child is impossible!”

“What child, my dear?” Hermes asked.

“The princess, of course. I swear, I could squeeze blood from a turnip sooner than get her to smile.” She threw her hands up.

“Turnips don’t have blood,” he said.

“That’s . . .” Ambrosia blew out a long breath, shook her head, and smoothed her skirts. “She cares only for someone or something called Thaddeus. Who or what is Thaddeus?”

“Oh, that is her lost kitten,” Hermes explained. He bent down and waved his hand over the broken vial, causing the bits of glass to melt away like ice.

“Lost kitten?” Ambrosia’s thin eyebrows pulled together.

“Yes, that’s why she has been so sad.” He offered Ambrosia his rocking chair.

She sat. “Why didn’t you tell me this before?”

Hermes had tried, of course. Ambrosia had told him not to ramble. He opened his mouth, shut it again, then shrugged.

“The whole wretched tea was an utter waste. This kitten is obviously the easiest route to the child’s smile and therefore her father’s heart. Have you tried replacing the kitten with a similar one?”

“I dislike lying to her.” Hermes squirmed.

“It’s only a white lie. After all, kittens are mostly interchangeable.”

He hesitated. “He was a most uniquely adorable kitten, and the princess is quite perceptive. If she saw through the deception . . .”

“Well, it was only an idea.” She waved at him, and he fell silent. “I have a crystal ball in my suitcase. Fetch it for me, Uncle.”

Hermes’s face lit up. Crystal balls were expensive, and he had broken his some time before. He had left it on an image of a babbling brook one night, and it jammed somehow. Now all it would ever show was burbling water and the occasional drinking deer. Restful but not useful.

Ambrosia’s crystal gleamed like a pearl. He handed it to her, and she passed her twitching fingers over it three times.

“Find me a kitten named Thaddeus,” she intoned.

The crystal glowed. She squinted and held it up to her uncle. “Is that this supposedly irreplaceable feline?”

Hermes gazed into the ball. The kitten slept in a tight little ball, as kittens are apt to do. “Why yes! So he is alive, the tricky little beast. I had–” He stopped as Ambrosia jerked the ball from him.

She pinched her fingers then drew them apart, drawing back the image to get a good look at Thaddeus’s surroundings. “Is that gold?”

He came to stand behind her chair. “It appears to be, and a lot of it.”

“Where is he?” she frowned. She zoomed the image in and out, revealing gold and gems galore. Then something great and green came into focus. Ambrosia and Hermes both gasped.

“That kitten,” said Ambrosia, “is living with a dragon.”

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