Free The Dragon in the Driveway by Kate Klimo, John Shroades

do to us?” Jesse wondered aloud.
    “If you ask me, they look even scarier up close,” said Daisy warily.
    “I don’t know,” Jesse said thoughtfully, “I was just thinking that they seem a little less scary now. See how they’re looking at us? They don’t look mean at all. In fact—”
    Daisy cried out, “Look! They’re crying! Ohmygosh, Jess! The hobgoblins are
crying.
”
    “Their tears … they’re actually muddy,” Jesse said. Although pretty much everything about the hobgoblins was muddy, there was something about those muddy brown tears that not only moved Jesse’s heart but also his brain.
    “I think I know what they are,” he said quietly. “I mean, besides hobgoblins and chthonic ones and St. George’s minions. Daisy, these are the children of the earth the professor was talking about. We’re looking right at them.
St. George’s first victims.
”
    Daisy, who had begun to think the exact same thing, said, “They are, aren’t they?”
    The hobgoblins prodded them gently with their mitts and they began to move forward as a group.
    “And you know what else?” Daisy said as they marched along the tunnel with their hobgoblin escorts. “I think they brought those torches for us.”
    Jesse nodded. “Probably they see fine in the dark,” he said. “Or sense things … like bats.”
    At the mention of bats, Daisy reached up and patted the bandanna on her head. “That would make sense,” she said. “Do you think they’re taking us to St. George?”
    “Probably,” said Jesse. “But it’s not their fault, Daze. What choice do they have? St. George has made them his slaves, right?”
    “Poor things. They probably don’t like St. George any more than we do,” she said. Somehow it made Daisy feel better to have been taken captive by beings who were themselves captives. “Well, at least he didn’t catch Emmy in his trap. She’s safe in the laurel bushes.”
    “Right,” said Jesse, but he wished he knew that for sure.
    They soon arrived at a spot where several tunnels came together to form a star. A massive tree root grew right down the center of it. The hobgoblins halted before the root. For one uneasy moment, Daisy was afraid that the root might be blocking the way. But then the hobgoblins arranged themselves around the tree root and sat cross-legged, like kids at circle time. They looked up at Jesse and Daisy and made that moist, grunting, earthy sound again.
    “What do you guys want?” Jesse asked them.
    “Maybe they want us to admire the humongous tree root,” said Daisy. “But I’ve kind of had enough tree roots for the time being, thank you very much.”
    Still, even Daisy had to admit that it was an impressive sight, this hairy, densely tangled network of roots that hung down in a ball almost to the floor.
    They were startled when the very next moment, they heard a deep voice coming from inside the tree root: “You may approach Her Eminence!”

CHAPTER SEVEN
HER ROYAL LOWNESS
    The voice coming out of the tree root sounded like a bullfrog, if bullfrogs could do more than belch.
    Jesse and Daisy exchanged looks of surprise.
    “Another talking tree?” Jesse whispered.
    Daisy frowned. She wasn’t so sure. She wasn’t exactly an expert, but it didn’t
sound
like a dryad.
    The hobgoblins shifted to clear a path for their guests. Jesse and Daisy approached the strange tree root cautiously.
    Daisy peered into the tangle of hairy tendrils and thought she saw a pair of shiny eyes staring back at her. Perhaps it was a dryad after all.
    “You find yourselves staring into the magnificent eyes—which we have
not
given you permission to do—of Queen Hap of the Hobgoblin Hive of Hobhorn,” said the froggy voice.
    “What’s a hobhorn?” Jesse wanted to know.
    “It is our mountain home,” the queen said.
    “You mean Old Mother Mountain?” Daisy asked.
    “
You
might mean Old Mother Mountain,” said the queen distastefully. “But it’s the Hobhorn to us, and always has