Secrets of the Dragon Tomb Read Online Free Page B

picked up his pen to start sketching on another sheet of paper.
    If he’d had his way, Papa would have had his meals in his workshop, eaten them with greasy hands while he poked about machinery, and emerged into the sunlight only when some particularly interesting visitor turned up. Hanging around after meals with guests was not exactly his strong point.
    At least that meant I would have the floor to myself. Freddie could only dodge my questions for so long. I fixed him with a piercing look.
    â€œI say, Edward,” Freddie said. “You should try this.” He pulled a small bottle from inside his jacket. “It’s called stickleberry juice. It’s all the rage over in Chinese Mars, apparently. Delicious stuff. Absolutely full of bubbles!”
    He pulled over a glass and sloshed a purple liquid in. I sniffed at it suspiciously. It smelled sweet. Bubbles were rising to the surface.
    â€œGo on!” Freddie said. “It’s even taking off in Tharsis City, I’ve heard.”
    I picked up the glass and took a sip. He wasn’t having me on. It was nice. It tasted like gold might have if you could have grown it on a bush and made juice out of it. And it was bubbly. Really bubbly. Freddie nodded enthusiastically, and I took another big gulp. Wow. The bubbles felt like a sandstorm bouncing around inside my mouth.
    Freddie topped up my glass.
    I took one last mouthful, then shook my head. He wasn’t going to divert me this easily. Even if the stickleberry juice was really, really nice.
    I opened my mouth to say, Freddie, why are you really here? But all that came out was, “Murrgrrphsthm.”
    I stared down at my mouth and tried again.
    â€œGurrflbnurrrrr!”
    My tongue had gone completely numb!
    Freddie raised his eyebrows at me, then turned to Papa. He’d done this on purpose!
    â€œSo,” Freddie said. “This water abacus. A jolly clever thing, eh? What might one use it for? Could you, for example, use it to help you design new structures or machines?”
    â€œQuite, quite!” Papa said, finally diverted from his sketching. “The water abacus could perform all the calculations one must now perform by hand. What might otherwise take weeks could be done in hours on the water abacus, and I fully expect that, when it is completed, it will be able to perform calculations no man could hope to manage.”
    I grabbed for a glass of water to clear the numbness from my tongue. It didn’t help. I bulged my eyes at Papa, but he didn’t notice. I wondered if I should bang on the table.
    â€œHow about for travel?” Freddie asked. “Might a man with such a device in his ship be able to navigate away from the dragon paths and fly through the void between the worlds without becoming lost?”
    Papa frowned. “Perhaps. I hadn’t thought of that. Of course, such a man would need sufficient power to escape the planet’s gravity well, and a means of sealing his craft such that the air did not escape. And, of course, the distance between the worlds would be far greater if one did not use a dragon path. Still, it might be possible. It might be possible indeed.”
    I squeezed my eyes open and shut a few times. Why was Freddie so interested in the water abacus? A few minutes ago, he’d claimed he couldn’t operate an ordinary abacus and didn’t know the difference between Latin and Greek. Now he was discussing engineering and flying through the void with Papa.
    â€œAnd codes?” Freddie asked. “I read in The Times that the Emperor Napoleon has begun to send his orders in code so that they can’t be read if they’re intercepted. Could your device decode these?”
    I’d thought Freddie had just been running away from trouble, but maybe it was more than that. Maybe he’d come here because of Papa’s water abacus. By why would he want it?
    Papa frowned. “I see no reason why not. But Mars is not at war