Danny and the Dragon Ring, Dragon's Tooth Series Book Two

By Roger Crane

A year had passed since we had escaped from the cave of the Dragon Men, but we were still no closer to unraveling the mystery of the dragon’s Tooth and the world it had come from. It seemed that my father had died in vain. There was only one thing to do: go to Belgium and search for the portal to the wormhole in the forest of the Ardennes. Alfie would join us there. As Kaylee and I made our plans for the summer, little did we know that others had also made plans for us, that we would meet a mysterious Belgium girl named Luna, and that four of us would end up jumping across the universe to a world of dragons and Viking men.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Roger Crane
• Release date: Dec 17, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463685600

Roger Crane

A retired English teacher and writer. A poet, artist, and desert trekker for as long as he can remember. A life-long lover of books. These things coalesced to make him what he is today. Roger believes that reading is the only way to learn the mechanics and art of writing, but being a good observer of people and having something to say makes it come alive. Roger loves the meditative quality and beauty of the desert but writes wherever he is. He loves crafting characters by leaning heavily on his own experiences challenging life, taking risks, and making mistakes along the way. Deep thought about his characters along with exhaustive research and editing are his keys to writing convincingly.

Book preview

Chapter One: The Unsolved Mystery

My mind kept wandering. I was trying to finish my homework, but I couldn’t help returning to what I thought of as unfinished business—the unexplained mystery of the dragon’s tooth. This had been happening a lot lately, because of the fact that I still had no proof that it was a dragon’s tooth—or of anything else which the soldier had written. That would be the ex-British soldier who claimed to have gone through a wormhole portal to a world of dragons during the Battle of the Ardennes in World War II. This portal was supposed to be somewhere in the forests of Belgium. However, the soldier vanished not long after his story came out.

The most concrete evidence I had had come from Paleontologists and concerned what the tooth wasn’t: it wasn’t the tooth of any dinosaur yet discovered on earth. As far as the box the tooth had come in, anthropologists didn’t have any idea of the people who may have crafted it, and the experts in ancient languages could not read the inscription on its side, because it was too short. This was intriguing stuff, but not enough for me. I like explanations which make sense scientifically, and I like to think that I can solve any riddle or puzzle; but I was stumped here. That bothered me, especially considering that this tooth had cost a lot—my father’s life. I had left it alone for almost a year now, ever since things had cooled down after our escape from the cave of the Dragon Men and their roundup by Scotland Yard.

When I say our escape, I refer to Kaylee, Alfie, Detective Inspector Chandler, and myself. Kaylee and I had gotten to be very good friends with the Inspector, but we hadn’t talked with him since then about the events of that night. I think that we all wanted to put some distance between us and that horrible ordeal. I had concentrated on my new school, new friends, and getting to know Britain, but I hadn’t forgotten—and how could I? My father’s death demanded that I find the answer to this riddle. And I guess the reason that I was preoccupied with the affair now was that it had been a year—almost to the day. School would soon be out again.

I stood up and pushed my chair back from the desk. This was the tall and elegant mahogany desk which had belonged to my father and was now mine. I opened the one drawer in the middle of the desk and pulled out the small box which housed the tooth. It was about six inches long by two inches wide and deep, and made of a dark red wood. On each side an inscription had been carved above a very stylized painted picture of a dragon, in letters which looked similar to runes, or hieroglyphs.

Crick, the soldier, had given the meaning of the inscription in his book. According to him it read: Dragon Master, Lothar. He had explained everything, but proved nothing. What I wanted now was something—anything—which I could accept as proof, but it seemed that there was nothing. I walked to the window and looked out at the night sky. Venus was sitting above the western horizon tonight, and seeing this planet made me think of my grandfather. Venus was my favorite planet, simply because it was the first planet which gramps had helped me to locate with the telescope he’d bought me. This had been in the backwoods of New York State, and I felt homesick. I had not gone back home after my adventure, because there had been no time before school started. I had taken Ethel up on her offer to live with her and Harry while attending school in England. Much to my surprise, I had been accepted at an all-boy’s school, which would lead eventually to Oxford.

I had never asked Gramps if it was possible to travel through space in a wormhole, whether in a space ship or by simply jumping through a portal of some kind, as the soldier claimed he had done. According to him there was a pyramid in the forests of Belgium, something that could draw in a wormhole. Scientists had theorized about the possibility of wormhole travel, but most concepts had it in space, and we had a lot more fiction than fact on that subject—including that one TV series in which they had supposedly harnessed one in a lab. If I could somehow find a pyramid in Belgium, it would certainly be a starting place for solving this mystery, but what were the chances of that? One in a trillion?

My eyes went to the forest of oaks below and my mind went back to that night on which I had led my friends through the forest to the doorstep of the cottage. We had just escaped from the secret cave of the men who called themselves Dragons and walked overland the short two miles from Wycombe to Lane’s End. I had thought of these Dragons as a weird sect of druids but, according to their story, they were much more than that. Their ancestors had supposedly come from another world—walking, not riding in a spaceship. And John Newby claimed to be the direct descendent of the king who had led his people here. This part agreed with the soldier’s story; a king had come to earth from the other world through the portal—or, more accurately, he had been sent to earth with his people by the other race in that world, a race of Viking-like people.

Thoughts of John Newby always made me remember how cocky I had been back then, and how reckless. I felt sure that someone had been on my side throughout the ordeal and helping me, although I could not say how. My adventure had changed me, partly because I had survived after looking death in the face. I would never take life for granted again. And partly because I had almost caused the death of my friends. That had hit me hard. Until I found myself chained to a table and holding their lives in my hands, I had never doubted myself, but then I felt that I had let them all down. Kaylee had goaded me into action, and afterwards, when everyone said that I was a hero, I knew the truth: I was just a kid put in a tough situation who had done the only thing he could do, and only when I’d gotten over myself. We had all made it out of the cave, because we had not done what the dragons had expected—that is, we had not individually tried to save ourselves, but we had cooperated. That was the real story. Also, it was my pet rat, Freddy, who found the way out of the cavern.

That was the night which changed everything. A short two weeks earlier I had left my home in America and started out for England with a mysterious box hidden in my backpack—me, a kid who had never gone anywhere, except to my grandfather’s farm in New York, or on boy-scout outings in West Virginia, now sneaking out of the house in the middle of the night and taking a plane to England. In my pockets were my dad’s American Express card and a few dollars in cash. I had already used the card to purchase a boarding pass online. I was running away from the police and the crazy curator who had accused me of stealing his artifact, but I was also going to find my father’s killers, get justice, and find some answers about the tooth—although I had no idea how I would do any of that.

After escaping from the cave, my knocking on Ethel’s door signaled the end of my conflict with the dragons and my great adventure with Kaylee, but also of the ordinary, uneventful life I had lived in Norfolk, Virginia, up to my fourteenth birthday. It had been the beginning of a new life, a life which I could never have dreamed I would be living. Yes, I was rubbing elbows with the rich kids of England, but that didn’t turn me on. I was in London, where everything had happened, and still with Kaylee. She was living with her aunt only a few miles away and attending a girls’ school. We had had a lot of opportunities to explore London—without looking over our shoulders for dragons. I had even been able to work on getting Mr. Frye’s emporium in better shape. He had left the shop to me in his will, and I was hoping to open it soon for business—at least on a part-time basis with someone to attend the shop for me. I was really happy, and yet, I was not completely satisfied.

It was surprising enough that I had found and helped to round up my father’s killers, but soon I would be fifteen and I was no closer to unraveling the mystery that meant the most to me. My father’s legacy was the tooth and the spirit of adventure it stood for, and I wanted to honor his legacy by proving once and for all that he was right. He had believed the story completely, and I wanted to believe it. If it wasn’t true, then I had to have proof for that, as well.

I had learned from my father that a man finishes what he starts, and there was still one thing which I had not tried to get an answer for: the portal—actually the pyramid which called it up. Was it sitting somewhere in the forest of the Ardennes, in Belgium, just waiting to be discovered by someone? If so, why shouldn’t that someone be me? It occurred to me that if the story was true, someone was probably watching the portal. Lothar would be pretty old by now, if he hadn’t passed on yet, but the soldier had maintained that they always had one of their princes in this world. According to him, they were watching the people whom they had banished, whom they called Lowlanders, and also making sure that we did not discover their portal. Considering my odds of finding such a portal in the forest, I wasn’t too concerned about that.

I returned to the desk and sat down, sliding the box back into the drawer. I guess I am a lot like my father, after all, I said to myself. Looking for the end of the rainbow. But it would be a great summer vacation. I could even write a report for school.

Whatever I did, I had to be careful and do it on the sly. I was now something of a celebrity, and Newby, the druid leader, was on the loose. He had gone on the lam shortly after being arraigned, and authorities believed that he had fled the country. Even if that was true, I knew he would be back if news got out that I was going to Belgium. I would be shadowed in the forest, and that was something I wanted to avoid.

Chapter Two: The Dragon Ring

I reached into the drawer once more and took out the other item it contained—a small box. It held the dragon ring, which Thomas Frye, my late friend and collectibles expert, had given me. He had believed that the ring was part of the collection, as he put it, and that it should stay with the tooth. The soldier had said in his story that he stole the ring from Lothar, the ruler in the other world, from whom he had also stolen the tooth. To me, this confession of his theft was interesting. If his story had been a clever lie, then why would he paint himself as a thief? However, people who are liars and thieves often do and say strange things.

I opened the box and took out the ring, as I had so many times before. Then I turned out my desk lamp. In the absence of light, except that filtering into the room from the full moon in the sky, the green stone in the ring’s setting shone with an eerie translucence. I couldn’t figure out whether it was some kind of phosphorescence or something else. The dragon head, with its golden stones for eyes, almost seemed alive and expressive.

Could it really have come from the dragon world? I wondered. Frye had said that the gemologists and geologists he had consulted couldn’t identify the green stone, or the golden stones. More mystery, without explanations. The ring had sat in the drawer for a year, except for those times I had taken it out to gaze at it in the darkness and wonder.

I closed my textbook. I would have to finish my homework tomorrow morning, before school. I wanted to think about the problems I might encounter on a trip to Belgium, and the best way to go about looking for the portal. In his book, the soldier had said that during the Ardennes Counter Offensive he had been with the British XXX Corps around the city of St. Vith, near the front. His unit had been in the woods to the south of the city and taking heavy shelling. There had been some talk of withdrawing. On December twenty-second, 1944, he was injured by a shell fragment and apparently overlooked. When he awakened, they were all gone. The enemy had overrun their lines. He initially walked westward, trying to rejoin his group, and he said that he had made good time. Later in the day he had gotten lost in the woods. He was sure that at some point he had gotten turned around and headed south, because he hadn’t run into the River Muse or any troops. He had been clear about not hearing any sounds of combat for hours before sunset on the twenty-third.

If I wanted to duplicate the soldier’s journey—which seemed the most logical thing to do—the woods near St. Vith were the starting point. There were two main difficulties in locating the clearing in the woods where the soldier had found the pyramid. One was that the Ardennes Forest covered a lot of ground, much of it very dense and rugged, and I couldn’t be sure exactly when the soldier had turned toward the south or how true to the west he had been going in the first place. The other problem was that so much had changed since the war; roads, farms, and towns had encroached on much of the original forest. The pyramid—granting it had ever existed—was likely to have ended up in someone’s field of barley. Even if not, there might be fences spread across the landscape and barring my way. In Ireland, the rock walls and hedges separating various properties were crossed with gates or little two-sided ladders across them. This was the standard there, where people walked almost everywhere in the country. But I had no idea how things were done in Belgium.

My guess was that the soldier could have gone fifteen miles, max, in one day. Even when he was not one-hundred-percent, a trained soldier could cover more ground than most other people, and he was intent on rejoining his unit. Fifteen miles was an impossible amount of land for me to cover carefully in one day, and even then a three-foot high pyramid of rock could easily be overgrown with vegetation in seventy-five years, unless it was in someone’s back yard. Yes, it was a fool’s errand or a nice summer outing—take your pick.

I started to put the ring away, but hesitated. I had never put it on, because I hadn’t forgotten what Frye had said about a curse on the tooth. However, I had never believed in curses, and after a year of having the tooth in my possession, nothing bad had happened to me. The ring should likewise be perfectly safe. Call it youthful imagination, but I wanted to see it on my finger. The band was too large for me, but I wouldn’t think about wearing it outdoors or in public. Just here in my room.

I slipped the ring over my right index finger, and held up my hand to admire it. Immediately, I felt as though someone were looking at me, which was really silly, since I was in my room alone. After a few seconds, that sensation gave way to a great calm, such as I had after meditating. A sense of purpose began to replace the calm. There was something I needed—no, had—to do. I felt that I definitely should go to Belgium and find the portal to the other world! I knew that I could do it. It was summer time and there was nothing stopping me from buying a ticket and going.

Without warning, everything changed. The room around me slowly grew dim, and then faded away, to be replaced by a vision of a forest all around me. I saw it very clearly, more clearly than I ever saw things in my dreams. Not only that, but I smelled the forest—the pine scent was overwhelming, combined with a musty dampness. I wasn’t still, I was walking, and there was a little path through the forest, which I was following. In the next moment I turned off of the path and headed through an area where it seemed that no one had been. I went down a slope and up the other side, turning right at the top and still climbing slightly. After that, I followed what looked like an animal trail to the left and saw a small passage through some bushes. I walked through them into a circular-shaped clearing in the woods. A light breeze began to blow through the forest and the leaves in the clearing lifted off the forest floor, making lazy circles in the air. A smaller circle of leaves in the middle of the clearing was rotating around some object there. It was a rock, jutting up three or four feet from the forest floor. Only it wasn’t just a rock, because the sides were angular.

It was shaped kind of like a Mayan pyramid, with a temple on top, but without all the steps up the side. There was a deep, but not very wide, crevice in the roof of the temple portion, as if someone had stuck a knife or sword into the stone, although that would have been pretty difficult. There was a ledge on one side near the top, as if it were for stepping up to stand on the pyramid. I felt a surge of exhilaration, but at the same time my mind was spinning out of kilter. What was wrong with me? I struggled to break free of this vision, and then suddenly I was free and back in my room, with the moonlight streaming gently through the window. I reached down and yanked off the ring. I was breathing heavily. For just a moment, I had been in a forest, and the sensory perceptions had been overwhelming.

I felt something warm in my hand, and looked down at the ring. The green stone was the source of the warmth, and it was glowing softly—really glowing this time. This was twisted! I had the crazy thought that this stone had acted like a kind of channel, taking me in a vision to the place the soldier had described. If that was the case, then it was likely that someone was on the other end of this channel, either in this world or the other. A sudden inescapable question occurred to me: did someone want me to find the portal?

But that’s impossible! I returned the ring to the drawer, but it was not so simple to turn off my thoughts, or the sudden certainty that something totally inexplicable had just happened, and that this could rightly be called evidence.

One thing was clear: I would have to go to Belgium; there was no way to get around it now. And I would take Kaylee with me. Actually, I couldn’t imagine going anywhere far away, and on a journey like this, without her. I glanced at my telescope, standing near the window. I missed my grandparents, and I wanted to see them this summer, but I knew that there was a price for growing up and moving on with my life. I would see gramps again, and we would go hiking in the woods at night and look at the stars through his telescope. But not yet. First, I had this one thing to do. I felt very tired now and decided to go to bed and get up early to finish my work before school. After school, I would go to Kaylee’s Aunt’s house and tell Kaylee about my decision.

I looked for my pet rat, Sammy, and found him in his cage, curled up on the wood chips in the corner. Freddy had passed away not long after our adventure, and I had given him a dignified burial in the forest. I wished that rats lived as long as parrots, but unfortunately we had had only a few years. Sammy was so unlike Freddy, who had loved to sleep in my chest of drawers or under the covers with me; and that was good. I wouldn’t be sleeping with my pets any more. Ethel had suggested what I already knew, that my new status called for new ways. I wasn’t sure that I relished everything about my new life, but I simply wasn’t the same person that I had been a year before.

Chapter Three: The Dream

I have had some strange dreams before, but the dream I had that night, after having the vision, was unlike anything else. Strange animals carrying tall, fierce looking riders were descending on a sleeping village, which was suddenly awakened by clamoring horns. People began to run out of their houses and away from the riders, running and screaming and clothed in nothing more than night shirts. These were fair-skinned people, looking like Norwegians. The riders hacked them down with long, curved swords or skewered them on spears, not sparing women or children. Normally, if something violent happened in a dream, I would awaken immediately, but the dream continued on, as if I were held there by a horrible fascination. Every one of the raiders had black beards and black hair flowing down past their shoulders. Small, winged creatures, looking like miniature dragons the size of toy poodles, filled the air. They spouted fire from their mouths, with which they lit the houses. Some of them latched onto the arms or legs of the fleeing people.

Suddenly, I was not just observing all this, but part of it; I was running alongside the others, desperately trying to get away from the raiders. Now and then I stopped to help someone else keep going. I stumbled and fell, turning to see a rider bearing down upon me, his sword held high. This time, I did awaken, and found that my bedclothes were drenched in perspiration. The moon had moved across the western sky until it sat just above the horizon, but morning was still a few hours away.

I fell asleep again, and I dreamed again, and this time I saw the same terrifying raiders drawn up in ranks on a great meadow, ringed by trees, as if they were waiting for a battle. Their strange creatures flitted in the air around them or sat at rest near their feet. I stood on the other side of the meadow from them, amid a small company of men, the same fair-skinned people, now wearing robes. Behind each man stood a dragon; and these dragons were the kind I was familiar with from storybooks—giant creatures who dwarfed the men. Even though my side had dragons, it didn’t seem as though the fight would be even, because there were so many of the raiders.

One of the men standing in front of his dragon stepped out a few paces onto the field and held up a huge green crystal, maybe two foot long and as big around as a man’s thigh. Its base was circled by a band of metal, which seemed to be silver. He pointed it toward the raiders. Without warning, a green ray of light shot out from the crystal toward the men in the front rank on the other side of the field. The laser—that’s what it was—instantly bored through some of them, like an arrow through water, and continued through the ranks to the forest, where the trees began to smoke. Men, or what was left of men, began to drop to the ground from front to rear, their bodies blacked and smoking, many of them with gaping holes. As the smoke ascended upward, a loud murmur rose from the raiders: the sound of consternation, anger, and fear. It was obvious that the man wielding the crystal could have wiped out the whole army of raiders, but had been careful to keep his beam steady. After this one display of power, he stopped.

The view changed again, and I saw a deep, green valley in the shadow of a snow-clad mountain peak. The valley was dotted with homes of a type I’d never seen. It was all very tranquil. Dragons flew here and there in the air, with men and women on their backs. Into my mind came the knowledge that peace had ruled now for many centuries. But, dark clouds appeared on the horizon and billows of smoke rose from the top of the mountain behind the valley. An army appeared on the brow of the surrounding ridges, an army composed of the same strange, dark-haired raiders. The air turned black and I felt that I couldn’t breathe.

I awakened once more, to find that it was morning. The sun’s rays were just beginning to shine on the woods outside the window. The dream was fresh in my mind, and it made sense to me, unlike many of my dreams. The life of that world—it wasn’t earth—was at stake. I thought about my question of the night before, and knew that I had to go to Belgium.

I looked at the clock. I had overslept, and was in danger of being late. And I still had to get my homework done before school!

Chapter Four: Inseparable

Kaylee didn’t know what to make of my strange dreams and the way I had felt when I put on the dragon ring, but she was delighted that I wanted to go to Belgium and try to find the portal. I told her straight up that I wasn’t sure it actually existed.

Sure, whether the portal exists, or not, is immaterial, she said. We should, at least, go and look. And what a smashing summer this will be!

We were sitting on a bench in the garden of her aunt’s house, which consisted of a beautiful series of walks planted with colorful flowers and bordered by low hedges. We often spent time here when we didn’t have anywhere special to go or didn’t have the time for anything else. I usually rode the four miles on my bike, but sometimes Ethel or Harry dropped me off. Today was Saturday, so we had more time. Kaylee’s aunt had invited me to spend the night, and we would go riding the next day. She was very kind and very good to Kaylee. This horse riding thing would take a little getting used to, I thought, but it was fun. At the moment, we were watching the sun drop slowly westward.

Even if the portal really does exist, it will be nearly impossible to find, I said.

Ah, that’s what I thought. And you would be the one to find it. Kaylee put a hand on my arm and smiled encouragingly.

Belgium is a little country, but it’s got a lot of forests.

We’ll take it one part at a time, even if we have to go back more than once.

It might lie there undiscovered forever, buried by time—or by dirt and leaves.

Listen to himself! It’s not there, he says. We’ll go look for it, he says, but we’ll never find it. Kaylee threw up her hands and shook her head. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot before you get started, Danny boy.

Okay. Okay, I replied. I do want to do something, even if it’s just to make me feel like I’m doing something. And after what happened last night, I shouldn’t predict what will happen.

That’s right. Seems to me that someone else wants you to find this portal. That’s the best evidence that it’s real. Besides, it will be great craic. A grand adventure.

I don’t know if it will be a grand adventure, but it will be just you and me again, Kaylee.

Aye, you’re catching on now. Kaylee cozied up to me and kissed my cheek.

It’ll be safer this time, too—no dragons. That, is, if we don’t tell anyone what we’re doing.

What do you mean, don’t tell anyone? I have to ask permission of my aunt.

No one except our families, and I’m sure that your aunt won’t have a problem, since you’ll be with me. She’s sweet on me.

You’re pretty sure of yourself, aren’t you? Kaylee looked away, as if there were someone else with us. A celebrity, he is.

Your aunt knows she can trust me.

Aye, but do I know it? Kaylee grinned and dug her fingers into my side, which she knew always made me lose it.

I tried hard not to laugh and squirm. You don’t…know if I’m …trustworthy, is that it?

The world knows that, Danny boy. She stopped tickling me. When do you want to go?

After your birthday.

Why then, in particular?

To make sure that we celebrate it. Who knows, we might take a plunge into another world and never get to do that.

Aha! So he does believe. Your birthday is coming next week, so why not celebrate them both at the same time?

I said nothing, but my face must have given away my thoughts, and Kaylee’s eyebrows twitched upward. A farthing for your thoughts.

You haven’t got a farthing.

Right. I haven’t used real money in a year. Nevertheless, you are going to tell me what you’re thinking. She shaped her hands into claws, threatening me with more tickling.

You win, I said. I was thinking about the adventure we had. That was something, wasn’t it?

You’ve been thinking about that a lot, have you?

We’re both another year older, but I still couldn’t do anything without you, Kaylee.

Of course. We’re kindred spirits, Danny.

But…

But what? Is that a problem?

Only when I can’t get my homework done.

Danny, my dear boy. Kaylee replied, sounding like Ethel. She looked at me with an indescribable expression.

"Are we still just friends?" I said, spitting out what had really been on my mind. When we had come back from that first adventure, we had told everyone that we were just good friends, so they wouldn’t keep prying, or trying to force us into something we weren’t ready for. I knew that it was a silly question, after all that we had been through together, but I guess I had been doubting myself lately.

Kaylee smiled gently. Danny, we haven’t been ‘just friends’ since I showed you my bruises, back on the farm. That’s when I knew I could trust you, when you showed me that I was so important you would put off your own important plans for me. You know, I fell for you the first time I saw you, but it was only then that I knew who you were. You were so gentle, so understanding, and I saw that look in your eyes.

What look?

The look of determination.

I shrugged my shoulders. I couldn’t leave you behind. Whatever I did, I had to get you out of that place.

I didn’t want to believe it, at first. I went with you because you offered a way out.

I didn’t know.

We hadn’t gotten far down the trail before I realized that I would follow you anywhere.

We held hands then, watching the sun descending over the trees, and the clouds turning peachy.

I still can’t leave you behind, Kaylee, I said.

Why silly, neither one of us has to leave the other behind. She looked sideways at me. "Are you living in tomorrow?

What do you mean?

Are you thinking about what happens when we go to Oxford?

I guess that’s part of it.

You know, you’re not the first one who ever felt like he might lose someone.

I guess you would know.

Meaning my parents? But this is different. I might feel the same way, you know. You’ve grown, Danny. You’d be quite a catch. But we can’t let those kind of thoughts vex us. My grandmother Nollaig used to say that you shouldn’t try to live in tomorrow, or bring the baggage from yesterday with you today. Leave it behind, and every day is new.

Is that what you do? Is that why you could cope so well with losing your parents and Nollaig?

Nollaig’s love got me through. Love is powerful, Danny. Even after someone is gone from this world, they can never truly leave, if their love is in your heart.

I know what you mean. I still remember my father, and I can still hear his laughter, his silly jokes, and…you know.

Kaylee held my hand between both of hers. That’s because of his love, Danny. And that’s why you fear you might lose me.

Because of love?

I don’t see what else it could be. Love is not what most people think it is, Danny—not real love. It is love that makes you want to hang on, and it is love that gives you the ability to let go. That’s something else Grandma used to say. Love will keep us together, Danny.

She didn’t have to say any more, but I marveled at her wisdom—which came, I thought, from living with such an unusual and wise grandmother. The sun was turning all rosy now, and Kaylee slipped her arm around my waist, while I wrapped mine around her shoulders.

Chapter Five: To the Ardennes!

I had decided against the slow route to Belgium via the ferry across the English Channel and then a conventional train, and instead we would take the Eurostar from London, going under the Channel. I didn’t want to get round-trip tickets, because I had something special in mind for the return trip. I stopped by the station a few days before to make sure there would be no snags when we were ready, and picked up two tickets for the first train out, which would go all the way to Brussels. Another train would split off to Paris. From Brussels, we would go on a conventional train to Sancta Vith, as it