Dragon Keepers #3: The Dragon in the Library by Kate Klimo Page B

afraid she would smudge the glass.
    "That's quite all right!" said Willum Wink. "The young ones have so little self-control. But she'll do no real harm."
    Jesse signaled to Daisy and she joined him by one of the cases. On display were skulls of animals
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    she recognized along with skulls of animals she was pretty sure didn't exist in their world. There were fangs and bones and precious stones and strange-looking pressed leaves and equally strange flowers. One entire case held an arrangement of cracked geodes and the names, presumably, of the famous dragons that had hatched from them: Timor of Quartzite, Mina of Feldspar, Saffron of Hematite. Their names alone made Daisy want to hear their stories.
    "We need some cases like this for our Museum of Magic," Emmy said.
    Jesse and Daisy turned to look at the dragon.
    "That would be cool, wouldn't it?" said Jesse.
    "Super-ultra-fantastic-cool," said Emmy as she continued to scratch. She was so good-natured that Daisy found it hard to worry about the persistent itch of hers.
    Jesse had moved on to the next case. "You guys," he called out to Daisy and Emmy. "This stuff is awesome!"
    Daisy and Emmy joined him. In the case were weapons and shields with crests emblazoned on them. There were helmets and coronets molded to a full-grown dragon's head. In the next case were dragon-size broaches and rings and necklaces studded with a dazzling assortment of gems. In yet
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    another were household items: bowls and goblets and cutlery and a massive mortar and pestle made of jade. A relatively smaller object, flat and made of silver, with an intricate design of a dragon on the top, drew Daisy's attention.
    "I wonder what this is," she said.
    "Maybe it contains some anti-itching powder for me," Emmy said.
    Jesse and Daisy both turned to her again.
    The dragon was grinning widely, her emerald eyes gleaming with mirth. Was their junkyard dog making a joke? Her first in twelve days! The cousins chuckled appreciatively.
    Then Daisy turned back to the case and tapped it. "Mr. Wink, what's this thing here?" she asked the elf, who had been standing by with quiet pride as they pored over the exhibit.
    "That would be..." He took out a monocle and fitted it into his right eye, peering into the case. He snapped his fingers, trying to summon the name, murmuring, "(What do they call them, now? You know! I do?) Ah, yes. A Toilet Glass."
    Jesse and Emmy both burst out laughing.
    "A Toilet Glass," said Jesse.
    "Do you make wee-wee in it?" Emmy asked.
    Willum Wink leveled at Emmy the now-familiar
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    Squint of Disapproval. "Your humor, young lady, escapes me."
    Daisy explained. "It's just that where we come from, toilets are what we call the place where we go, where we make, um..." She groped for a more delicate way to say it.
    Wink raised both hands, warding off further attempts to explain. "Say no more!" he said, removing his monocle. "I glean your meaning. A garderobe! (How odd they are, these Keepers and their kept one!)" He explained, "This is not an object of the garderobe. (Is it? My word! Goodness, no!) It is an object of the boudoir, a lady's private chambers."
    The three of them continued to look puzzled, so the shelf elf said, "(The depth of their ignorance is unfathomable, is it not? It is!) Permit me." He fished a set of keys from a loop on his belt, unlocked the case, and opened it. Removing the object from the display, he held it in one hand and popped open the top, revealing a disk of metal on the inside of the lid. Wink polished it with his hanky and then shone it at them.
    "It's a mirror!" said Jesse.
    "Right you are," said the elf.
    On the bottom of the disk was an empty well that Daisy figured was probably for face powder or
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    blush. "I think it might be a lady's compact!" she said, taking it gently from the elf's hands. "It's really beautiful!" She held it up and looked at her face in the mirror. She was amazed at how good she looked, considering everything she had been through. Even