James A. Owen - The Shadow Dragons (Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica)

ALSO BY JAMES A. OWEN

The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica

Book One: Here, There Be Dragons

Book Two: The Search for the Red Dragon

Book Three: The Indigo King

Lost Treasures of the Pirates of the Caribbean

(with Jeremy Owen)

THE CHRONICLES OF THE

IMAGINARIUMGEOGRAPHICA

THE SHADOW

DRAGONS

Written and illustrated by

James A. Owen

SIMON & SCHUSTER BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS

An imprint of Simon & Schuster Childrens Publishing Division 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020

www.SimonandSchuster.com

This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the authors imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales

or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright 2009 by James A. Owen

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

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Book design by Christopher Grassi and James A. Owen

The text for this book is set in Adobe Jenson Pro.

Manufactured in the United States of America

2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Owen, James A.

The shadow dragons / written and illustrated by James A. Owen. p. cm.

(The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica ; bk. 4)

Summary: The Winter Kings Shadow, having gained control of the doors from the Keep

of Time and of an army of Dragon Shadows, plans to use the turmoil of World War II

to take over both worlds, but all Caretakers, past and present, come together to

stop him using some unlikely weapons.

ISBN 978-1-4169-5879-6 (hardcover)

[1. Time travelFiction. 2. Characters in literatureFiction. 3. World War,

19391945Fiction. 4. Fantasy.] I. Title.

PZ7.097124Shc 2009 [Fic]dc22 2008050303

ISBN 978-1-4391-6055-8 (eBook)

For James Chapple and Jeremy Owen

Contents

Writing The Shadow Dragons was an interesting challenge. Its a middle book, and so brought with it both the expectations generated by the first three, as well as those anticipated by the stories to come. It was the most complex book to work on, and the easiest to understandbecause the characters involved are now old friends. And so are the ones in the book itself.

Navah Wolfe and David Gale have continued to be among the most valuable supporters of my work. I believed (and still do) when I started my relationship with Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers that I had found in David the ideal editor. He has found a perfect balance of push and pull, of encouragement and prodding, which allows me to do what I do to the best of my limits. And Navah has become an invaluable first reader. Without a doubt her queries about characters and situations has made this a tighter bookand in one specific case, allowed me to revise one character to better reflect who he was supposed to be (and in the process made the book better by far). After David and Navah are done, Dorothy Gribbin and Valerie Shea are the editing gatekeepers, who make us all look smart. I am grateful to them all for all the hard work.

Julie and Ellen at the Gotham Group, and my attorney Craig Emanuel, continue to keep the contracts pulled together and make sure that everything I need to keep doing this for a living flows smoothly and well. And Cyndee Larson at National Bank of Arizona has gone the extra mile time and again to make sure the lights are on so that I can keep doing the work I need to do. Without their support I would be hoeing a much tougher row.

Its also been gratifying to know that Ive had the support of all the executives at Simon & Schuster. Rubin Pfeffer and Rick Richter have moved on, but I remain hugely appreciative for their kindness and faith in my work. And Carolyn Reidy, Justin Chanda, and Jon Anderson have all made it easy to work with this house, and I am looking forward to working with them for a long time to come.

My art directors, Laurent and Lizzy, continue to make the books shine; and over at foreign rights sales, Cecilia and Shannon have made sure that the books are shining in around two dozen other languages. My publicists, Paul and Andrea, have arranged stellar signing tours and taken very good care of me.

Friends old and new inspire me to my best work: Jim Pascoe, Daanon DeCock, Joe LeFavi, Jason Lust, Brian Henson, and Lisa Henson make me proud of my profession. And my friend Rachel Nabors (subcultureofone.com) gave me one of the best character designs (the Yoricks) Ive ever had the pleasure of drawing.

My family, in particular my wife Cindy and children Sophie and Nathaniel, are the reasons that I love what I do. Watching Nathaniel and Sophie come into their own as creative individuals gives me the steam I need to keep my wheels turning, and hopefully tell the kind of stories that will inspire them throughout their lives.

My Coppervale team continues to be my base. Lon, Mary, and Jason are supportive in the best of ways; and I would not be able to keep the schedule I do without Jeremy, who is my protector and advocate in more ways than I can count.

And not least, I want to thank a friend who remains with us in spirit, and (in his brothers words) who often seemed more committed to my goals than I was: James Chapple. He was not a writer or an artist, but was a very good man who saw virtues in me I could not see for myself, and was and is one of my great friends and inspirations.

It might be said that a mystery is simply a secret to which no one knows the answer. The answers to some mysteries may have been known, once, and then were lost as the centuries passed. But there are other secrets that are so ancient that the truth of them is impossible to discover, and they must forever remain mysteries.

No one living or dead knew the identity of the Architect of the Keep of Time.

Before Atlantis, before Ur, before any stone of any city was erected upon the Earth in the Summer Country or in the Archipelago of Dreams, the keep had stood.

The Earth was a wilder place in those early days, before the rise of man. Magic and myth mingled freely with history as all manner of creatures tried to make sense of the world around them. Some were more advanced than others, and they took it upon themselves to shape, and to organize, and to look after the welfare of the races that were developing on this young world.