The Battle for Rondo Read online

  The Battle for

  Rondo

  Emily Rodda

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  1. Smoke

  2. TUFFS

  3. Headquarters

  4. Big Ideas

  5. The Shop without a Name

  6. Clues and Crises

  7. The Crystal Palace

  8. Spoiler in Despair

  9. Cruelcliff

  10. The Ogre

  11. The Eye of the Storm

  12. The Forbidden Chamber

  13. The Ogre’s Revenge

  14. Flight

  15. The Mirror

  16. The Dragon’s Lair

  17. Dilemma

  18. The Tideseer

  19. Three Questions

  20. Rising Tide

  21. Farewell to the Coast

  22. Under the Counter

  23. Press Conference

  24. Decision

  25. The Plan

  26. Stolen Magic

  27. Waking Nightmare

  28. At the Border

  29. The Bonding of Dragons

  30. Midnight

  31. The Web

  32. Treasured Plans

  33. Win and Lose

  34. Heroes

  Also by Emily Rodda

  Also by Emily Rodda: The Key to Rondo

  Also by Emily Rodda: The Wizard of Rondo

  Copyright

  Chapter

  1

  Smoke

  It’s almost gone,’ Mimi Langlander sighed, looking up at the fading rainbow arching across the morning sky. ‘But it was a good omen. It means that everything’s going to be all right.’

  Her cousin Leo shook his head. His ideas about what was possible had changed a lot in the past two weeks, but he still refused to believe in omens, good or bad. ‘Rainbows don’t mean anything except that it’s been raining,’ he said flatly. ‘They’re just sun shining through water vapour so we see the seven separate colours. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue…’

  His voice trailed off. The word ‘blue’ had given him a sharp little stab in the stomach, a stab that was half excitement, half fear. It had reminded him of things he didn’t want to think about – the things that had driven him outside early on a Sunday morning to splash through puddles on familiar pavements, to wander in the rain-soaked park at the bottom of the street, staring at the swings he had so often played on when he was small.

  Mimi glanced at him quickly then stooped to pick up her scruffy little dog, Mutt, who had sat down on the damp footpath, signalling that as far as he was concerned this walk had gone on long enough.

  ‘Everything’s going to be all right,’ she repeated, pressing her cheek to Mutt’s tousled, mustard-coloured head. ‘It’s got to be.’

  And that doesn’t make sense either, Leo thought, as they walked on to the gate of his house. But he said nothing. He knew that Mimi was as nervous as he was about their plan for later this morning. If positive thinking helped her cope, then let her think positive.

  He led the way up the short path to the front door. As he put his hand to the doorknob he felt again that thrilling stab of excitement and fear, and his mind filled with a picture of the music box waiting silently on his desk, keeping its secret. His inheritance. The Langlander family treasure that was now his responsibility. The exquisitely painted antique box that contained another world.

  Another world… A world of magic and danger, threatened by a queen determined to be a tyrant. A world that had been visited for centuries by his Langlander ancestors, and was home to two of them. A world with its own rules, where anything could happen – where even cautious, sensible Leo Zifkak could be a hero. The world he and Mimi had agreed to enter again today, this time fully understanding the risk they were taking.

  Rondo.

  Leo took a deep breath, pushed the front door open, and froze.

  The strange, sweet chiming sound of the music box was drifting from his room upstairs. Leo’s heart gave a sickening thud. For a wild moment he thought that the box had started playing all by itself. Then he saw the pile of crumpled sheets lying at the top of the stairs, and realised what it meant.

  His mother was in his room, putting clean sheets on his bed. Leo normally did that job himself. But lately – since Mimi had come to stay, since he’d discovered the secret of the music box – he hadn’t been as well organised as usual.

  His mother hadn’t seemed to mind. In fact, she had seemed almost pleased.

  ‘You know, I think it’s done Leo good, having Mimi in the house,’ Leo had overheard her saying to his father in the kitchen the day before. ‘It’s made him relax a bit. He seems more confident, somehow – less worried about doing the wrong thing. And he’s laughing more.’

  ‘The boot’s on the other foot if you ask me, Suzanne,’ Tony Zifkak had rumbled. ‘Leo’s done the girl good. She’s improved out of sight. That was quite a decent conversation we had at dinner last night. She actually smiled a couple of times! And she’s stopped picking at her food, I notice.’

  At this point Leo had eased away from the half-open kitchen door and crept back to his room, his ears burning.

  He had seen for himself that Mimi had changed for the better, and he knew why. Spending time in Rondo, where she could be herself, where she was loved and accepted, had weakened the defences that made her so odd and prickly in the world outside. It hadn’t occurred to him, however, that Rondo had changed him as well – and it had been quite a shock to realise that, at least in his mother’s opinion, this change, too, had been for the better.

  Leo’s mind flashed back to the present. He registered that the chiming music was slowing. The music box was running down.

  ‘Leo!’ Mimi breathed, crowding into the house after him and clutching his arm.

  ‘It’s okay,’ Leo muttered. ‘Mum wouldn’t break Aunt Bethany’s rules. She wouldn’t turn the winder more than three times.’

  As he spoke, the music stopped. There was dead silence upstairs.

  ‘But we didn’t want the box wound up at all!’ Mimi whispered frantically. ‘We didn’t want life in Rondo to go on too far without us! Even that little bit we did on Monday – to make it daytime, so no one would notice the box looked different – changed things really quickly! And what if Suzanne wound it up more than once? What if the Blue Queen’s had time to do something terrible and we weren’t there to help?’

  A draught caught the front door and slammed it behind them. They both jumped. Mutt exploded into a flurry of piercing yaps.

  ‘Leo, is that you? Leo, can you come up?’

  Suzanne’s voice sounded shrill and strained. Leo and Mimi exchanged nervous looks and bounded together up the stairs.

  Suzanne was standing in front of Leo’s desk, staring down at the music box. As Leo and Mimi came in she turned her head, and Leo’s heart sank as he saw how shocked she looked. Had his mother noticed changes on the box? Had she realised that people in the street scene at the front had moved? Had a tiger or a bear suddenly become visible in the forest that stretched along one of the sides? Had a sea-serpent risen from the waves of the ocean on the other side to menace a fisherman standing on the beach?

  ‘Leo!’ Suzanne exclaimed. ‘Oh, Leo, look!’

  She stepped aside, waving her hand at the box. And then Leo could see that she had turned it around, so that its back faced into the room.

  Mimi drew a quick breath. Leo felt his face grow hot.

  When they had left the house, the back of the box had been normal. The Blue Queen’s castle had gleamed white on its hill. The grassy plain had rolled away from the hill on all sides like a smooth green carpet. A dragon had been soaring over the mountains in the distance, its sca
les glinting in the sunlight. The willow trees that sheltered the little house by the river had been clear and bright.

  Now the entire back of the box was a misty blue blur.

  ‘The sun must have faded the paint!’ Suzanne wailed, glancing at the window behind the desk. ‘I only noticed it just now! Oh, poor Aunt Bethany would turn in her grave!’

  ‘It’s all right, Suzanne,’ Mimi said quickly. ‘The paint hasn’t faded. It just – just gets misty like that when – when the music box gets warm from being played a lot.’

  Suzanne stared at her. So did Leo. Mimi nodded vigorously. ‘When it’s played a lot,’ she repeated. ‘The back is always affected first because – well, we don’t know why, exactly, but it is. It’ll go back to normal after a while. Won’t it, Leo?’

  Leo mumbled confused agreement. What else could he do? Mimi’s explanation was ridiculous, but it was obviously the only thing she’d been able to think of on the spur of the moment. And he had to back her up.

  He knew as well as Mimi did what the blue haze on the back of the box meant. On their last visit to Rondo, they had discovered that the Blue Queen’s sorcery no longer depended on her staying in her castle. The queen had learned to convert her magic power to blue smoke, and travel with it wherever she pleased. When Mimi and Leo returned home, their Rondo friends had been preparing to warn everyone of the new danger.

  But it looked as if the queen had done something unexpected. Instead of using the blue smoke to fly into the attack, she had spread it thin and shrouded her whole domain.

  Why? To stop her enemies getting in? To stop someone getting out?

  Hal and Tye! Leo thought in panic. What if they were in Hal’s house by the river when the blue smoke spread? What if the others were with them? Conker, Freda, Bertha…

  He wet his lips. ‘There’s really no problem, Mum,’ he said, in the calmest, most casual voice he could muster. ‘Once the box has – um – cooled down, it’ll be fine.’

  ‘I only played it a few times,’ Suzanne said doubtfully. ‘While I was making your beds. I can’t see how that could have – ‘

  ‘We would have done the beds, Suzanne,’ Mimi broke in. ‘You’ve got enough to do. Weren’t you going to work on the design for that bird book today? Last night you said it was running late.’

  It was painfully obvious to Leo that this was an attempt to distract his mother’s attention, but fortunately Suzanne seemed to take it as genuine concern. She smiled at Mimi, glanced at her watch, and moved to the door.

  ‘You’re right,’ she said. ‘I’d better get on with it. I’m glad – well, I hope – the music box is really okay. I’ll be in the studio if you want me.’

  They heard her hurry along the hallway, stop to pick up the pile of used sheets, and clatter down the stairs. Mutt yawned widely and closed his eyes.

  ‘I won’t be long,’ Mimi said, and ducked out of the room.

  Leo quickly changed into the soft white shirt, the rough trousers, the broad belt and the old leather jacket he always wore in Rondo. He was pulling on the high brown boots when Mimi reappeared, suddenly poised and elegant in her high-necked green and gold jacket, slim black pants and soft black shoes. Around her neck, suspended on a silver chain, was the oval pendant that was the Key to the world of the music box.

  Leo stared at the pendant. It looked just like a piece of clunky old jewellery. But inside it were hairs from the brush that had created the music box world. It was the Key to Rondo, and inside Rondo it could create and destroy. Inside Rondo it was all-powerful.

  He recognised, and fought off, the little wave of envy he always felt whenever he saw the Key around Mimi’s neck. Old Aunt Bethany had left the music box to him – steady, responsible Leo. It was such an irony that, without knowing what she was doing, she had left the means of entering the secret world of the music box, a world she knew nothing about, to Mimi Langlander. Aunt Bethany hadn’t thought Mimi was responsible at all.

  But would I want to be going into Rondo alone? Leo asked himself fiercely. No, I wouldn’t. Do I trust Mimi with the Key? Yes, I do – now I know her better, anyway. So what’s the problem?

  Only, a small, half-ashamed voice said in his mind, that I’d like to control something so powerful. I’d like to know what it feels like to imagine something, and have it come true. I’d like to have a go at using the Key – just once.

  ‘Mutt’s sound asleep on my bed,’ Mimi said. ‘The walk was a good idea.’

  She went to the desk, turned the music box around, and started scanning the front.

  Leo finished putting on his boots and hurried to join her.

  Last time they looked, their five Rondo friends had been in plain view. Hal, tall and spare, his greying hair tied back in a warrior’s tail, had been standing by the door of the Black Sheep tavern. Tye the Terlamaine, her tiger-striped face turned to the sky, her lithe, black-clad figure poised to fend off any sudden attack, had been beside him. Sturdy, wild-haired Conker, Freda the brown duck and Bertha the pig had been close by. Now the paved area outside the tavern was deserted except for Jolly, the landlord, collecting some empty glasses.

  ‘Where are they?’ Leo asked tensely, and turned the box so they could examine the forest side.

  Almost immediately, they both gave a gasp of relief. Across the road from the forest, beyond a green field and behind a red-roofed barn, a large pink pig in a flower-laden hat was clearly visible.

  ‘Bertha’s at Macdonald’s farm!’ Mimi hissed. ‘Right! We’ll go there! And this time, Leo, try not to let the magic make you all confused and weird. This is the third time we’ve done this. You should be used to it by now.’

  The third time, Leo thought uneasily. Third time lucky? Or unlucky?

  Telling himself not to be superstitious, trying to ignore the butterflies in his stomach, he lifted the music box and turned the winder on the bottom. One, two, three… four, five, six times. He put the box down and opened the lid to check that the music was playing. He let a few chimes strike, then shut the lid again.

  ‘Okay,’ said Mimi, putting her hand to the pendant. ‘Focus on the barn…’

  ‘No!’ Leo exclaimed. ‘Not the barn! There might be blue butterflies in there – Blue Queen spies! If they see us appear, the queen will realise we’re not trapped in Rondo. She’ll realise that the Key still exists – that it wasn’t destroyed! And then…’

  Then she’ll never stop trying to get it. Never, ever…

  Mimi frowned and nodded. ‘Where, then?’

  ‘How about under there?’ Leo suggested, pointing to a heap of straw in front of the barn. ‘Then no one will see us arrive.’

  ‘Good idea.’ Mimi tightened her grip on the pendant. ‘Are you ready?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Leo, focusing on the straw pile as if his life depended on it. ‘Go!’

  ‘Let us in!’ Mimi said.

  And Leo was falling through a tunnel of chiming rainbows.

  Chapter

  2

  TUFFS

  Leo’s nose was pressed into warm, damp earth. His head was spinning. His ears, his hands and the back of his neck were prickling unbearably.

  What happened? he thought hazily. Where am I? Did I fall?

  He felt a stealthy movement beside him, and stopped breathing. Rough hair brushed his cheekbone. A wormlike tail flicked across his nose. Leo’s whole body thrilled with revulsion. With a yell he sprang to his feet, frantically brushing his clothes, face and hair.

  Straw rained down around him as he stood panting and blinking in bright sunlight. He could hear muffled screams somewhere near. As his eyes came into focus, he saw that the screams were coming from a bundle of rags heaving on the ground in front of him.

  ‘Oh, Leo!’

  Leo jumped violently and looked behind him. Mimi was standing there. She had straw in her hair and mud on her chin. As Leo goggled at her, she put her hands on her hips and sighed. ‘We’re in Rondo, Leo,’ she said in a resigned voice. ‘At the farm? Remember?’

&n
bsp; The world steadied. Leo stared around, saw white-painted fences, a water trough, a red-roofed barn with a small balcony jutting oddly from its side… His face grew hot.

  Mimi shook her head at him and hurried to the shrieking bundle of rags. ‘I’m sorry we gave you a shock,’ she said, putting out her hand. ‘Let me help –’

  There was a bang and a flash of light. Mimi screamed and flew backwards, landing on the ground with a thud.

  ‘Mimi!’ Leo yelled. He ran to her and hauled her to her feet.

  ‘It’s okay,’ Mimi panted, rubbing her fingertips with her thumb. ‘It just tingled. It’s some sort of force field.’

  Leo looked back at the bundle of rags. He had just realised that it was totally surrounded by a layer of air that looked thicker than ordinary air and rippled like water, when he heard the sound of pounding feet.

  A large pink pig wheeled round the corner of the barn and came thundering towards them, followed closely by a determined-looking rooster, a ginger cat and a small black sheep. Dozens of small, golden-brown creatures that looked exactly like gingerbread men jumped out of hiding in the long grass and skittered out of their way.

  ‘Bertha!’ Leo called. ‘It’s all right! It’s only us!’

  Bertha skidded to a halt, her hat tilting drunkenly over one eye. The cat swerved nimbly to avoid her but the rooster and the sheep ran into her and bounced back, collapsing in a heap of feathers and curly black wool.

  ‘Mimi! Leo!’ Bertha gasped, tossing back her hat. ‘Oh, thank goodness! Do you know what’s –’

  ‘Are Hal and Tye okay?’ Leo burst out, and felt an enormous wave of relief as Bertha nodded.

  ‘They never went back to Hal’s house by the river,’ she said. ‘He decided it was too risky – and obviously he was right. They’re in Flitter Wood. We’ll go and join them straight away. Hal’s been waiting for you. There’s something he wants us to do.’

  ‘What?’ Mimi asked.

  Bertha hesitated, glancing at the ginger cat who had sat down beside her and was following the conversation with interest. ‘I’d better let Hal tell you,’ she said at last. ‘It’s… well, I can’t see the point of it, frankly. Hal hasn’t been quite himself lately. He’s been under a lot of stress, organising the defence against the queen. And now on top of everything else he’s lost that lovely little house he built with his own hands!’