We Sled With Dragons Read Online Free Page B

the fate of the world and Oliver and Celia’s destiny.
    Of course, every time she showed up, the twins’ lives were in danger. It was unclear whether she showed up to protect them or if she brought the danger with her.
    Either way, because of her quest for the Lost Library, Celia and Oliver had battled monstrous yetis in Tibet, biting fire ants in the Amazon, giant squid on the Pacific Ocean, and faced witches, warriors, goons, and grave robbers. They’d ridden a yak, escaped crumbling ruins and an erupting volcano, and watched their favorite actor get kidnapped by pirates. They’d also been thrown out of an airplane.
    That one, their mother confessed, had been her fault.
    At least on TV the adventures came with special effects and the story was neatly tied up after half an hour. Even better, the twins didn’t have to go anywhere or do anything to have TV adventures. Excitement, they had long ago decided, was more exciting when it was happening to someone else.
    â€œYou know when Mom and Dad get back they’ll want us to go with them on another adventure, right?” Oliver said, staring up at the ceiling.
    Celia didn’t answer. She knew her brother was right, and she hated when that happened.
    â€œThey’ll want us to go looking for Atlantis,” he continued. “That’s where Mom thinks the Lost Library is hidden.”
    â€œThat
is
where it is hidden,” Celia told her brother. She’d found Percy Fawcett’s journal that said so.
    â€œWe’ll have to beat Sir Edmund there,” Oliver added.
    â€œOf course, when in Svalbard, you must watch out for walruses,” Madam Mumu continued to lecture the girl on TV. “Polar bears are obviously best avoided, but an angry walrus can be equally dangerous. They are a status-driven species, so it is important to establish a dominant posture.”
    â€œWe could . . . you know.” Oliver hesitated. He worried that his sister was going to yell at him for what he was about to suggest. She was pretty good at establishing a dominant posture and she always got the final say on what they watched on TV or who went first into ancient ruins. “We could help them,” he said. “Mom and Dad are pretty hopeless without us.”
    Celia sat on the edge of the bed and stared straight at the TV. Of course they could help their parents, she thought. In spite of themselves, they’d become pretty good adventurers.
    Oliver pulled the old leather journal from the bag and flipped through it. There was a lot of faded writing and drawings from the old explorer’s travels. Some pages were filled from edge to edge with tiny words, others had sketches of the fabled city of Atlantis, with a large temple in the center and rings of walls and moats stretching out from it like ripples in a pond. A statue of Poseidon, Greek god of the sea, stood at the entrance to its vast gates.
    Other pages had odd symbols and crazy drawings of monsters like yetis and giant squid, unicorns and dragons. There was, for some reason, a whole page with a picture of a buck-toothed squirrel arguing with an old bearded man. The explorer who kept this journal must have gone crazy when he vanished in the jungle. What sort of adult would draw a picture of a man arguing with a squirrel?
    The back page of the journal was filled with pictures of a tree. Not different trees. Just one big tree—the same tree—over and over again.
    â€œC-r-a-z-y,” Oliver muttered. He got bored and threw the journal back into the bag. “I mean, if we helped Mom and Dad, we wouldn’t have to go back to sixth grade yet,” he finally said. “And we do have that remote control. It could help.”
    Celia studied the remote in her hands. It wasn’t just a universal remote control. It also had the ability to access the complete catalog of the Lost Library of Alexandria from any TV anywhere in the world.
    I know what you’re