Dragon Keepers #3: The Dragon in the Library Read Online Free PDF Page A

reminded him of some of the
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    hilltop castles in southern France his parents had taken him to.
    "Look, Daze." He got up and pulled her back to the computer. She glanced at the screen, and Jesse pointed to the main tower. "That's called the keep. It's also called the donjon."
    "You mean the dungeon," Daisy said. "I thought dungeons were supposed to be down in the basement."
    Jesse shook his head. "That's what everybody thinks, but they usually put prisoners up in the biggest tower so they could keep an eye on them. Those holes in the donjon are called squint holes. They're for looking outside at the approaching enemy. The bigger holes on the bottom of the ramparts are called murder holes. Isn't that cool?"
    "Ugh!" said Daisy. "Not! Keep going." She returned to her pacing.
    "Soldiers shot arrows through them. Or dumped boiling oil or hot sand down on the enemy."
    "That is horrible!" Daisy said, stopping in her tracks. "You're right. This isn't helping us find the professor, Jess."
    "But wait, Daze," said Jesse. "You're missing the best part. The garderobe."
    "What about it?" she said without enthusiasm.
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    "The potty!" said Jesse, chuckling. "This one was over the moat, so pee and poop went right into the water."
    "Ew! Castles are gross!" Daisy said. "And we're wasting time now."
    Castles weren't so much gross, in Jesse's opinion, as they had been built to impress. Inside, there was never any neat stuff, like suits of armor or spears or tapestries. All of that had been moved to museums. Still, it was enough for him just to stand within the dank, dripping rock walls, with all the pigeon poop, and imagine everything that had once gone on there.
    On the screen, something caught Jesse's eye. Outside the wall of the castle was a little hill. It was labeled DRAGON HILL. Jesse moved the cursor over and clicked on the link. A new screen came up, and his heart began to beat a little harder as he read aloud the heading set in a medieval typeface: "'The Legend of St. George and the Dragon.'"
    Daisy flew back to her chair. "What? Where?" she said.
    "This. Here," he said, pointing to the screen.
    Now Daisy read aloud: "'The most famous legend of St. George is of him slaying a dragon. In the Middle Ages, dragons represented the devil.'" Daisy sneered. "Boo. Hiss. Who are these people,
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    anyway? I don't like them." But she read on.
    "'The village was terrorized by a dragon who lived in a cave in a nearby hillside. The dragon would come out at night and devour all the sheep and cows.'"
    "Jeez!" said Jesse. "Don't these people know anything? Dragons don't eat sheep and cows. They eat broccoli and cabbage."
    Frowning deeply, Daisy continued: "'Desperate, the king began to sacrifice maidens every full moon, until only the king's daughter, the royal Princess Sadra, remained.' Look, Jess," she said, pointing to a series of old tapestries on the screen. "Does this look like anyone we know?"
    Jesse looked and his jaw dropped. Princess Sadra had long red hair and pale skin. And although he couldn't tell what color her eyes were, he began to get the same sinking feeling in his chest, so he looked away.
    Daisy read faster now. "'The king said that anyone who could slay the dragon would be rewarded with the hand of his daughter. St. George heard about the king's challenge. On an armored steed of snowy white, St. George rode forth,' blah, blah, blah. Look." Daisy pointed to the picture of the handsome, golden-haired St. George in the next tapestry. "It looks just like him, doesn't it? The dirty
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    stinking rat. 'Then he rode to the cave of the dragon. The dragon bore down upon him. Its head was immense and its tail fifty feet long.'"
    Jesse broke in: "Do you think Emmy's going to get that big?"
    "Yeah. No. Maybe. I guess so." Daisy buried her head in her arms. "I can't read any more, Jess. They're going to talk about smiting the dragon. I can't stand it."
    It upset Jesse, too, but he read the rest of the story silently. When he'd finished, he