“So, I have tended the herensuge by myself. I bring her little trinkets from time to time, and ensure the mountain lake near her cave is stocked with fish. I have grown to know her as well as a person can know the herensuge. I know her favorite fish to eat. I know she would rather collect a simple piece of aluminum foil than the most expensive gold coin. I know that she is afraid of thunderstorms and other loud noises. We lived simply, and until this week, that had been enough. She was safe. I was happy. But now she is gone, and I am a failure.” Mr. Mendizabal let his head fall into his hands. His shoulders shook with silent sobs.
Uchenna stood up. “When are we going to start looking for this dragon?”
Professor Fauna clapped his hands. “You are right! We have spoken long enough! There is a time for learning, and a time for action!”
Uchenna thrust her fist in the air and shouted, “Time for action!”
Mr. Mendizabal sniffed, drew his sleeve across his face, and said. “Yes! Action!”
Elliot raised a finger. “Uh, can I just stay here and continue the learning part?”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“Mitxel Mendizabal led the group up a steep trail behind his house. Jersey ran out ahead, snuffling up the new smells of the Basque Country. The path zigzagged up the mountain, and soon they were high enough that the sheep in Mr. Mendizabal’s field looked like little woolly beetles on a muddy green carpet.
After another half hour of sweaty climbing, the trail opened onto a wide blue lake. Beyond the lake was a sheer cliff towering hundreds of feet above its shore.
“Amaaaaazing,” Uchenna breathed.
“This was worth the hike,” Elliot agreed.
They walked around the edge of the lake. Fish nibbled at the surface. With a splash, Jersey plunged into the water and resurfaced with a flopping silver fish in his mouth. He coaxed it down his throat.
As they approached the rock face, the opening of a cave came into view.
Uchenna knelt down. “Look at the size of these tracks!” There were giant dragon footprints crisscrossing the turf.
Elliot felt faint.
“And someone else was here,” Uchenna said. “Recently.”
Indeed, there were boot prints in a few different sizes and a set of tire tracks. There were also deep claw marks in the turf.
Professor Fauna tugged at his beard and turned to Mitxel, “Is it possible that the herensuge was kidnapped?”
Mr. Mendizabal threw up his hands. “How could someone kidnap her? What power on earth could take a herensuge against her will?”
No one knew. Which made them all rather nervous.
Mr. Mendizabal led them into an immense cave. The daylight streamed in, illuminating tiny trinkets that were scattered all over the damp stone floor.
“She would never leave her treasure like this, all messy and helter-skelter! Always she kept it in a nice neat pile!” Mr. Mendizabal’s mustache trembled.
While Professor Fauna comforted his friend, Uchenna and Elliot wandered around, looking for some kind of clue as to who may have taken the dragon.
But as the minutes went by, Elliot became more and more frustrated. Finally, he threw up his hands. “How are we supposed to find her? What are we even looking for? We’re not detectives! And what do we know about rescuing dragons? Also, isn’t it time for us to get picked up from school? Back in New Jersey?”
Uchenna scowled at the cave, her hands on her hips. “I’ll tell you one thing, Elliot. I’m not going to back to New Jersey until we find this dragon.”
“Listen to yourself,” Elliot pleaded. “We are in Europe. Without our parents’ permission! Looking for a dragon! And you’re not going back without finding it?”
Uchenna turned her gaze on her friend. “You got that right.” Then, she stalked off to the back of the cave. Elliot watched her walk into the darkness.
Uchenna’s eyes scoured the ground. At each shiny trinket, she bent over and picked it up. A key chain with multicolored charms. A glittery toothbrush. A piece of construction paper with sparkles glued to it.
Mr. Mendizabal was speaking to the professor. “She lived a very isolated life, Mito. She preferred it. She is like the Euskaldunak that way.”
“But the Basque people are not isolated. You trade, you travel all over the world—”
“Bah!” Mr. Mendizabal scoffed. “Maybe Basques like my brother do. But not respectable men like me. If we let this global Mippie Mouse culture invade every corner of our lives, how will we know what it is to be ourselves? Will we even be Basque anymore?”
“Mitxel,” the professor replied, “being free to be yourself is not the same thing as being isolated!”
“Hmph. You sound like my brother.”
Uchenna was pushing farther and farther into the darkness. She could barely see the ground. To her left was the great nest of the herensuge—a pile of sparkly objects and hay. It smelled of fish. Ahead of her, the darkness was so thick it looked like a black curtain. Perhaps it was a wall of some kind? She reached out to touch it—and for a moment, she felt like she was flying.
Then, Uchenna realized that she wasn’t flying. She was falling.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Uchenna!” Professor Fauna shouted. He had seen her lean forward and then go toppling headfirst out of sight. He ran to the edge of the darkness and stopped. Mr. Mendizabal came up behind him. “What is down there?” the professor demanded.
“I don’t know! This is her space. I don’t violate it!” Mr. Mendizabal replied.
Just then, the beam of a flashlight swept the darkness. Elliot stood beside the two men, raking the light back and forth.
“Where did you get a flashlight?” asked Professor Fauna.
“I found it with the rest of the herensuge’s trash,” Elliot said.
“Treasure!” Mr. Mendizabal corrected him.
“Do you see Uchenna? Uchenna?!?” Elliot’s cries echoed in the dark cave.
“You shine the light,” Mr. Mendizabal said. “I will climb down after her.”
“Mitxel, you can’t see a thing!” Professor Fauna objected. “You could fall to your death! Let’s get a rope.”
“Fall to his death?” Elliot repeated. “UCHENNA!”
Jersey came bounding up to them, stared into the darkness, and began to whine.
“That girl is my guest,” Mr. Mendizabal said. “She is in danger because I failed in my duty to protect the herensuge. I am getting her. Now.” And with that, Mr. Mendizabal pulled his beret down tight on his head, tied a piece of rope to a nearby rock, and began descending into the darkness. Elliot shined the light down from above, watching Mr. Mendizabal jam his shoes and fingers into crevices as he lowered himself farther and farther down.
“Can you see her?” Elliot called.
“I believe so! A little farther.”
At last, Mr. Mendizabal jumped from the rock face and landed on what sounded, to Elliot, like loose gravel. He could not see, because the beam of his flashlight was blocked by an outcropping of rock.
“I found her!” Mr. Mendizabal called.
“Hooray!” shouted Professor Fauna.
“She is not moving!” called Mr. Mendizabal. “American girl, wake up!”
“Her name is Uchenna!” Elliot cried. He turned on Professor Fauna. “We flew all the way to the Basque Country for him, and he doesn’t even bother to learn our names?” Elliot turned back to the darkness. “Oh, Uchenna, what have we done to you!?”
Suddenly, they heard a groan.
“She is not dead!” Mr. Mendizabal cried. “Hooray! She is not dead!”
Elliot leaped into the air and pumped his fist. Professor Fauna let loose a tremendous sigh of relief. Jersey squealed and seemed to accidentally perform a somersault, leaving him lying flat on his back.
“Wake up, American girl!” Mr. Mendizabal said again.
Elliot heard Uchenna say, “Who’s there?”
“It is Mitxel Mendizabal, your Basque friend!”
“Dad?”
“Close enough,” said the Euskaldun. He lifted Uchenna onto his shoulder and began scaling the rocks.
A few minutes later, Uchenna and Mr. Mendizabal were sitting on the cave floor, Mr. Mendizabal breathing heavily, Uchenna still in a daze. Jersey was licking her face.
Elliot pushed Jersey out of the way and got right in front of Uchenna. “Uchenna! Can you hear me?”
Her eyes looked like she was very far away. “Where am I?”
“You’re in a dragon’s cave, Uchenna! In the Basque Country!” He looked at the grown-ups. “Yeah, that’s not gonna make her any less confused.”
Uchenna, her voice sounding very far away, murmured, “Why do you have a flashlight?”
“This flashlight?” Elliot lifted the silver object. “Forget the flashlight, Uchenna, it doesn’t matter. You do know that you’re Uchenna, right? We never should have come here. What were we thinking? Oh, Uchenna!”
Uchenna shook her head, like she was trying to get water out of her ear. “I know who I am, Elliot. Get a grip. I just want to know where you got that flashlight.”
“She’s okay! She’s back!” Elliot cried. “Oh, hooray!”
“Elliot! The flashlight!”
“Forget the flashlight! Uchenna, you’re okay!”
“Elliot!”
“What? The flashlight? Fine! I found it in the cave. It’s one of the dragon’s shiny things. Who cares? You’re all right!”
Uchenna took the flashlight from Elliot. She turned it over. She pointed to a big S in a circle. “I’m asking because that’s the logo of Schmoke Industries.”
Elliot stared at the flashlight. Professor Fauna and Mr. Mendizabal leaned over.
“¡Mala palabra!” the professor cried. “Uchenna, you’re right! But . . . it cannot be!”
Elliot muttered, “It is.”
Jersey began to whine.
Uchenna looked up at Mr. Mendizabal. “I guess we know who your trespassers are.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The sun began to sink behind the mountains as they returned to the baserri. Elliot and Uchenna were exhausted and nervous. Of all the people who might have kidnapped the herensuge, why did it have to be the Schmoke brothers? Professor Fauna had been very quiet since the discovery of the Schmoke insignia on the flashlight. He wrung his big hands in his lap. Mitxel was drinking a bitter cider called sagardoa, lost in thought.
Jersey had fallen asleep under the table.
“I don’t understand,” Elliot was saying. “Why would the Schmoke brothers be here?”
“Who knows?” Professor Fauna said, throwing his hands in the air.
“Schmoke,” said Mitxel. “I know this name. They are the men whom my brother, Íñigo, partnered with in his latest business deal: SMP—Schmoke-Mendizabal Pharmaceuticals.”
“Pharmaceuticals? Like medicine? Okay,” said Elliot, “so why would they want to steal a dragon?”
“That’s obvious,” Uchenna replied. “First, dragons are awesome. Second, if they make medicine, they probably want the dragon’s spit. Right?”
“Oh yeah.” Elliot nodded. “Good point.”
“But, Mr. Mendizabal,” said Uchenna, “do you think your brother would help them steal the dragon? Would he sell out your family like that?”
Mr. Mendizabal sighed. “My brother and I do not put our eyeballs together on everything.”
“What?” said Elliot.
“I think he means ‘see eye to eye,’” said Uchenna.
“Right,” said the Euskaldun. “We do not see each other’s eyes. He believes in globalization, in the whole world becoming one through trade and money and businesses. To me, this sounds like an Old MacDonald on every corner. Íñigo thinks bringing world culture to Euskal Herria will mean better medicines and technologies. I think it means our children will stop playing our traditional games like jai alai and only play YouPads instead. This would be very sad, I think.”
“YouPads?”
“Whatever they are called. We fought so bitterly over this that, in the end, we could agree on nothing. We were forced to divide the family’s inheritance. He took the businesses, and he has done very well with them. I care for the herensuge, and I did very well with that, too—until . . .” Mr. Mendizabal’s head drooped.
“So, could he have told the Schmoke brothers about the dragon?” Uchenna asked.
“My brother is many things,” Mr. Mendizabal said, “but he is not a traitor to the family. To reveal the existence of the herensuge to people as untrustworthy as the Schmoke brothers would be unthinkable.”
Professor Fauna suddenly shifted in his chair.
“It would be a treachery beyond belief.”
The professor sighed sharply.
“A betrayal more terrible than anything I can imagine.”
The professor yanked on his beard so hard some hair came out in his hand. “¡Palabrota!” the professor muttered. “Ow.”
Elliot turned his attention to Professor Fauna. He was acting even stranger than usual.
Meanwhile, Mr. Mendizabal went on, “We swore an oath of secrecy to our father: that we would never reveal the secret of the herensuge to anyone outside of her circle of protectors. No matter how much money was at stake, Íñigo would not breathe a word of her existence to anyone.”
“Well, the Schmoke brothers found out about her somehow,” said Uchenna.
Suddenly, the professor was shouting. “Why are you looking at me?” His eyebrows jagged like thunderbolts.
“I . . . I wasn’t . . . ,” Uchenna stammered.
“Stop wasting time with these questions!” Professor Fauna barked. He stood up. Uchenna and Elliot stared, openmouthed. “Mitxel, do you know where the Schmoke brothers’ operations are in the Basque Country?”
“Of course! Íñigo and the Schmoke brothers are building a new complex in these very mountains.”
“You will take us there!” Professor Fauna said, pointing a finger at Mitxel. “Now!” Without another word, he stormed out of the house.
Elliot and Uchenna watched him go.
“It seems,” said Elliot slowly, “that the professor is hiding something.”
And Uchenna replied, “Uh, you think?”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Mitxel Mendizabal’s yellow pickup truck rumbled along the mountain roads. He started by going down into the valley, but when they reached an intersection, he turned the truck right and drove uphill again, past a sign that said: COMING SOON—SCHMOKE-MENDIZABAL PHARMACEUTICALS. BECAUSE YOUR HEALTH IS WORTH ANY COST.
Uchenna was hanging out of one window of the truck. Jersey was in his special backpack. Mr. Mendizabal had stuffed fresh fish in its side pockets, and Jersey was sniffing frantically through the air holes. He seemed to be trying to find a way to open the zipper and get at the fish. Mr. Mendizabal’s knuckles were white on the steering wheel as he tried to keep the truck from running off the small mountain roads. Professor Fauna glared out the windshield in silence.
Elliot seemed lost in thought. After a while, he said, “If the Schmoke brothers really have captured the herensuge for its spit, and they want to make a medicine to cure all sorts of diseases, is that really so bad? I mean, they could help a lot of people.”
Professor Fauna inhaled and frowned. “Elliot, the oath I swore when I founded the Unicorn Rescue Society was simple. The creatures of myth and legend must be protected. They are few and rare and fragile. Without the society, there would soon be none at all. This herensuge may be the last of her kind. If the Schmokes harm her, no matter how honorable their intentions might be, it could erase a beautiful and noble creature from existence.” He sighed loudly. “And I do not believe the Schmoke brothers’
intentions are as honorable as you think.”
Uchenna gave Elliot a meaningful look. “Professor,” she said, “do you want to tell us anything more about the Schmoke brothers?”
Professor Fauna looked out the window and chewed his lip and did not answer. Elliot raised his eyebrows. Uchenna tried again. “Professor Fauna?”
The professor gazed darkly into the early evening.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The truck rumbled up to the laboratory construction site, which was surrounded by a high chain-link fence topped with razor wire. The building was set back from the road, built into a steep rock face. It was still unfinished, but the central wing of the building looked mostly complete, and there were lights on inside.
Mr. Mendizabal pulled the truck into the driveway, bringing them face-to-face with a security gate and a frowning guard. Mr. Mendizabal quickly reversed the truck around the fence and out of sight. “Tontolapiko!” he said angrily. “I apologize,” he told the others. “When I was last here, there were no guards.”
“There’s only one,” said Uchenna hopefully. “Maybe we can just run past him.”
“What if there are more inside?” asked Elliot. “This one would sound the alarm, and they’d be all over us.”
“There is only one option,” said Mitxel. “One of us must distract the guard while the rest sneak inside. Since he is my countryman and speaks my language, I am the obvious choice for the diversion. That means, however, I will not be able to accompany you for your assault on the factory.”
“Don’t worry, Mr. Mendizabal,” Uchenna reassured him, patting his shoulder. “We’ve got this.”