The Battle for Rondo Read online

  ‘Better to lose your house than to lose yourself,’ the cat put in darkly. ‘As it is, the queen can only have caught a bunch of squirrels and a goat or two. I’ll bet they wish they’d been somewhere else when her power spread. If they can think at all any more, that is.’

  Leo’s stomach churned.

  ‘It’s weird.’ Mimi frowned in thought. ‘The queen’s spies must have told her that Hal wasn’t at home. Why has she bothered to cover the north, when she can take her cloud anywhere she likes? Did she try moving out and attacking anyone before she did it, Bertha?’

  ‘No,’ said Bertha. ‘We thought Jim and Polly, who helped us in the wood, would be in danger. Not to mention the queen’s stepdaughter, Suki, and the rest of the family, of course. But so far there’s been no attack at all! The first two days after you left – after the queen was repelled from Hobnob – she was really quiet. Recovering, Hal says, from the shock to her power. We did most of our defence organising then, while we had the chance. The third day the blue light in the castle tower got brighter and we all braced ourselves for trouble, but still nothing happened.’

  She took a breath and flicked a drooping poppy out of her eyes. ‘The fourth day she sent out swarms of blue butterflies – they were everywhere – and the same thing happened on day five – that was yesterday. I suppose she was trying to find out what we were doing. Then, last night, she smothered the north in smoke. Personally, I think she’s just sulking because the cloud defence committees were organised so quickly, but Hal –’

  ‘Speaking of defence committees,’ the cat said, gazing at the shimmering bundle of rags, which had finally fallen silent, ‘what happened to Wurzle?’

  Bertha sighed and trotted to the rags. ‘Wizard Wurzle!’ she shouted. ‘Drop the shield. There’s no danger!’

  The rags stirred. ‘Are you sure?’ a muffled voice quavered.

  ‘May my new balcony fall to ashes if I’m lying,’ Bertha bellowed. ‘Drop the shield! Please!’

  The watery shimmer vanished. As the bundle of rags rose unsteadily from the ground, Leo saw that it was a hooded cloak that had been patched so many times, and with so many different materials, that it was impossible to tell what the original fabric had been.

  Huddled inside the cloak’s folds was a thin little man. He caught sight of Mimi and Leo and jumped backwards with a tiny cry.

  ‘Wizard Wurzle, may I present my friends Mimi and Leo?’ Bertha said quickly. ‘Mimi and Leo, this is Wizard Wurzle, who kindly came here this morning to attend the second official meeting of TUFFS, the Macdonald’s farm defence committee.’

  ‘TUFFS,’ Leo repeated weakly.

  ‘Team United For Farm Security,’ Bertha explained, looking very pleased. ‘TUFFS, you see? Isn’t that clever?’

  ‘You’d better say yes,’ drawled the ginger cat. ‘It took most of the first meeting to work it out.’

  Bertha looked at him coldly. ‘This is Marmaduke,’ she told Mimi and Leo. ‘He is the TUFFS Treasurer – that is, he will look after our money. If we ever have any.’

  The cat grinned and turned to watch the rooster, who had finally managed to untangle himself from the sheep and was attempting to recover his dignity by rapid preening.

  The wizard’s bony hands plucked the front of his cloak. He mumbled into his hood. The only words Leo could hear were ‘straw’ and ‘exploded’.

  ‘Lawks-a-daisy, Leo, did you have to jump out of the straw?’ Bertha scolded.

  ‘I couldn’t help it!’ Leo protested. ‘There was something in there with me, and I think it was a rat!’

  A pointed nose poked from the ruins of the straw pile. ‘So?’ a squeaky voice said aggressively. ‘I suppose I have as much right to a little nap as you do! More, I daresay. I don’t imagine you were up half the night on cloud-watch!’

  ‘Oh, hello, Rhoda,’ Bertha said, rather flustered. ‘May I introduce my friends Mimi and –’

  ‘We’ve met,’ snapped the rat. She emerged from the straw, flicking her tail at two of the golden-brown creatures as they scurried past. ‘The dots are very bad today, Bertha,’ she complained. ‘If you don’t do something about them soon there’ll be a plague!’

  ‘I have more important things to think about than dots!’ Bertha said with dignity. ‘If you’re worried about dots, Rhoda, perhaps you’d like to have that fox, Sly, back? Sly kept the dots down wonderfully, I understand. Of course, he also nearly ate the whole Flock of Macdonald!’

  Marmaduke sniggered. Rhoda glared at him, but subsided into silence.

  Having smoothed the last of his ruffled feathers to his satisfaction, the rooster strutted forward. The sheep trotted after him.

  ‘How do you do?’ the rooster said, nodding graciously to Leo and Mimi. ‘I am Snoot, son of Dawnbreaker, Guardian of the Flock of Macdonald and Vice-President of TUFFS.’

  ‘Vice-President,’ the sheep bleated behind him. ‘And I’m Sec-re-tary. No one else wanted to be Sec-re-tary, but I did.’

  ‘That’s right, Barbara,’ Bertha said kindly.

  Leo glanced dubiously at Mimi. It didn’t seem to him that TUFFS had much chance of protecting the farm from a dot invasion, let alone an attack by the Blue Queen.

  He could see by Mimi’s blank expression that she felt the same way. Bertha, however, seemed quite unconcerned.

  ‘In my opinion, TUFFS is the most efficient defence area committee in Rondo!’ she told them. ‘We’ve drawn up a roster so that there will be someone on cloud-watch day and night. Any suspicious clouds will be reported to Snoot, who will crow the alarm. Three very loud crows.’

  ‘Three crows,’ repeated Barbara, nodding her woolly head madly.

  ‘Immediately on hearing the alarm, everyone will proceed in orderly fashion to one of the official shelters,’ Snoot added importantly. ‘Meanwhile, Wizard Wurzle –’

  The little wizard jumped nervously at the sound of his name.

  ‘Wizard Wurzle might like to explain his role to Mimi and Leo himself, Snoot,’ Bertha said, nodding at Wurzle encouragingly.

  ‘Oh!’ squeaked the little man, looking terrified. ‘Oh, yes… well, on hearing the alarm, my task is to raise an impenetrable defence shield over W3 – that is, over my defence area. This farm, that is, and the nearby villages and forests and so on.’

  ‘But – but can you do that?’ gasped Leo in amazed relief, thinking of Flitter Wood and the cottages further north where Jim, Polly, and Suki and their families lived.

  ‘I do hope so.’ The wizard gnawed at his thumbnail. ‘I’m a bit rusty on large-area shields, I must admit. Normally I just shield myself, you see. But I’ve been practising.’

  ‘Defence shields are Wizard Wurzle’s specialty,’ Bertha said proudly. ‘We’re so lucky to have him in our area! Imagine being in W7 and having to rely on that impossible Wizard Bing, for example.’

  ‘Or being in W5 with that hermit wizard No-Name, who’ll only talk to his owl!’ Rhoda smirked.

  ‘Well, now, I don’t think that’s very fair, you know,’ Wizard Wurzle objected feebly. ‘Bing and No-Name may be a little bit – eccentric, shall we say – but both are very good at defence. As are all the witches and wizards who have been put in charge of defence areas, I might say.’

  ‘How many of those are there, Wizard Wurzle?’ Mimi asked intently. She had a strange gleam in her eye and Leo wondered what she was thinking about.

  ‘Oh,’ Wurzle mumbled in confusion, ‘well, there’s me, of course. And Bing and No-Name. That’s three. And then there’s Pandora, the Thorn Witch, and Zillah – all very fine witches – that’s six. And… dear me, who is the seventh?’

  ‘Wizard Plum,’ Marmaduke the cat put in. ‘And from what Macdonald’s been saying, the townies aren’t too happy about depending on him, either. There’s talk that the shopkeepers have got together to hire a coast witch as back-up.’

  ‘Yes, I heard that too,’ Bertha murmured, as Wurzle clicked his tongue in distress. ‘But I’m not sure it will help very much. They could onl
y afford to employ her part-time.’

  ‘Coast witches aren’t reliable anyway,’ the rat sniffed. ‘They’re not licensed. Anyone can set up as a witch on the coast. All you have to do is stop combing your hair and buy a spell book and you’re in business.’

  ‘This witch seems to be the real thing,’ said Bertha. ‘Jolly says she had very good references. And a wart.’

  Snoot puffed out his feathers. ‘Well, fortunately we do not have to resort to coast witches,’ he said. ‘We have Wizard Wurzle, supreme defence expert, on our team, to respond the moment I sound the alarm.’

  He bowed to the wizard, who gave a jerky little bow in return.

  ‘I hate to bring this up again,’ drawled Marmaduke, ‘but what if Wurzle doesn’t hear the alarm? What if a squirrel’s just said boo to him or something and he’s put up his shield? You can’t hear much inside a defence shield.’

  Wizard Wurzle blushed and shrank back into the folds of his cloak.

  ‘We discussed this at the meeting, Marmaduke!’ Bertha said severely. ‘We decided. Wizard Wurzle just has to keep calm and avoid shocks at all costs.’

  ‘At all costs,’ repeated Barbara.

  ‘That’s all very well,’ whimpered the wizard. ‘But the whole point about shocks is that… well, they’re shocks, you know. You never know when they’re going to happen.’

  ‘Just do your relaxation exercises and say your affirmations three times a day, Wizard Wurzle,’ Bertha said. ‘I’m sure you’ll be fine.’

  ‘I don’t hold with all that flim-flam,’ the rooster declared robustly. ‘Relaxation exercises! Pah! It’s just a matter of keeping your nerves under control, Wurzle. You have to pull yourself together! We’re all depending on you.’

  ‘Depending!’ Barbara bleated. ‘On you!’

  The wizard shrank further into his cloak and began gnawing at his fingernails again.

  ‘What’s that?’ the cat asked suddenly.

  He was looking up. Everyone else looked up too. Leo’s heart lurched. A dark shape was approaching rapidly from the north.

  Wurzle squeaked and the air around him began to shimmer slightly.

  ‘Your affirmations, Wizard Wurzle!’ Bertha cried urgently.

  With what seemed to be a tremendous effort the little man pulled back the sleeve of his robe and peered at the words written in red ink on the inside of his wrist.

  ‘I … am calm,’ he read in a trembling voice. ‘I am brave. I… am… invincible.’ He swayed. He looked as if he was about to faint.

  ‘It’s coming right for us!’ panted Snoot, his feathers standing on end. ‘This is appalling! Why was the warning not given? Who is on cloud-watch this shift?’

  ‘You are,’ snapped Marmaduke.

  ‘Leo! Mimi! Get behind me!’ squealed Bertha. ‘Wizard Wurzle! The defence shield!’

  ‘I am calm,’ gabbled the wizard. ‘I am in-in-in-invisible…’ He had his eyes tightly shut.

  ‘I’m off,’ muttered Rhoda, and darted away like a grey streak.

  ‘It’s all right!’ shouted Marmaduke. ‘It’s not a cloud! It’s only a dragon!’

  And sure enough, as the dark shape dropped lower, green scales flashed in the sun, and everyone could see the dragon’s spiked tail and vast, beating wings.

  ‘Lawks-a-daisy, what a relief!’ Bertha exclaimed. ‘Oh, I feel quite weak in the knees!’

  The dragon swept closer, closer, sailing on the wind.

  ‘Look at it, Leo!’ Mimi breathed. ‘Have you ever seen anything so…’

  Magnificent, thought Leo. He was thrilling with excitement. He’d seen dragons in Rondo before, but never as close as this. He watched, entranced, as the great, glittering beast wheeled above them. Then he caught a glimpse of a cold, flat eye in which rainbow colours swirled, and his heart seemed to stop.

  ‘It is flying rather low,’ Snoot cackled disapprovingly.

  ‘It doesn’t look very well,’ Bertha said at the same moment.

  Leo felt Mimi’s hand tighten on his arm. He heard Bertha’s startled cry, Barbara’s bleat of fright, Marmaduke’s warning yowl. He gaped, rigid with horror, as suddenly, shockingly, the dragon flattened its wings and dived, straight as a spear. The air filled with screams. The beast’s terrible jaws opened. It roared, and fire gushed from its throat. The straw pile burst into flames.

  ‘Wurzle! Help!’ shrieked Bertha, pushing Mimi and Leo roughly towards the cringing wizard and trying to shield them with her own body.

  ‘Run for your lives!’ squawked Snoot, and took off in a flurry of singed feathers. Marmaduke had already gone. Barbara the sheep fell over, scrambled up, shook her woolly head uncertainly and fell over again.

  Then the dragon was upon them. Its multicoloured eyes rolled in its scaly head. The cruel talons on its back feet opened like the jaws of twin traps, reaching for prey. Bertha, Leo and Mimi hurled themselves sideways, cannoning into Wizard Wurzle.

  Leo felt a cool softness envelop him. A vast shape skimmed overhead, blotting out the sun. In terror he heard a muffled roar, a thin, despairing bleat and the beating of mighty wings. Then the shadow was gone, and he could hear nothing but the cries of Wurzle, Mimi and Bertha, and the pounding of his own heart.

  Chapter

  3

  Headquarters

  The farm was in mourning when Leo, Mimi, Bertha and Wizard Wurzle left it at last. The barn was scorched. The grass was charred. Bertha’s new balcony was a heap of ash. And Barbara, the little black sheep, was gone.

  ‘I’m – I’m so sorry,’ Bertha had said to Farmer Macdonald, her lips trembling. ‘Wolves and foxes I can fight. But dragons…’

  ‘Rogue dragons are rare, but they’re a fact of life, Bertha,’ Macdonald had answered gruffly. ‘Don’t blame yourself.’

  But Bertha had refused to be comforted.

  It was a subdued little group that trailed across the road and moved onto the narrow forest path leading to Flitter Wood. Bertha was trudging along in front, her head low. Wizard Wurzle was bent almost double, filled with shame because he had failed to extend the defence shield to cover Barbara as well as everyone else. Mimi was silent, her brow creased in thought. Leo wondered if she was still arguing with herself about whether she should have used the Key against the dragon.

  ‘I thought of using it,’ she’d told him miserably. ‘But I didn’t dare. What if one of the queen’s spies had been hiding somewhere near, and seen me? Then Wizard Wurzle shielded us, and I thought we were safe. But… oh, poor Barbara!’

  ‘It wasn’t your fault,’ Leo had said, over and over again. But he knew it hadn’t helped.

  Bertha slowed down a little. The path had narrowed, and delicate ferns now clustered at its edges like frothy green lace. Massive trees rose straight and tall on all sides. We’re nearly there, Leo thought. And for the first time since the dark shape had appeared in the sky above the farm, he remembered that Hal had a job for them, and wondered what it could be. Bertha clearly disapproved of it, and that was strange. Bertha usually felt that Hal Langlander, the hero who had ended the Dark Time, the Blue Queen’s last reign of terror, could do no wrong.

  Leo was considering, and dismissing, the idea that Hal might want them to help him recapture the house by the river, when a low, ominous growl just ahead banished all thought from his mind.

  Bertha stopped. A shadow was barring the path in front of her. Sweat broke out on Leo’s forehead as the shadow moved, black stripes flickered, and the growl was repeated.

  ‘Bertha, Wizard Wurzle, Mimi and Leo to see Hal and Tye,’ he heard Bertha say, very formally. ‘We are expected.’

  There was no reply, but the next instant the path was clear, and over to one side there was the stealthy sound of fern stems snapping beneath the pads of heavy paws.

  Bertha moved on, keeping her pace slow and even and looking straight ahead. Everyone else followed her example. As Leo passed the place where the shadow had barred the way, he felt hidden eyes watching him, and the back of his neck burned.

/>   Ferns closed in around them, covering the ground. The trees were bathed in green light, their trunks and branches dappled here and there with golden coins of sunlight. The silence was complete, except for the sound of the walkers’ feet on the soft ground.

  As Bertha led the way around a bend in the path, Leo saw Mimi start, and heard her catch her breath. He looked over her head, saw what she had seen, and felt his own throat close.

  Hal and Tye were standing together in a ferny glade. Right in front of them, a dozen slender figures sat cross-legged on the ground, deftly braiding vines into thick rope. Some of the workers were adult, some were children, but all of them looked like Tye, with tiger-striped faces and spiky black hair. Behind them, in the overhanging branches of a giant tree, younger children were climbing, jumping and swinging.

  But there wasn’t a sound. Not a sound, though the children were laughing, the tree branches were swaying, and the adults’ mouths were opening and closing as they chatted at their work.

  Bertha had frozen. Wizard Wurzle and Mimi had stopped in mid-stride. Leo held his breath. For a long moment, the vision of the lost world of the Terlamaines held. Then it melted away, leaving Hal and Tye gazing at the place where it had been.

  The silence lengthened. No one moved. Then, suddenly, Tye seemed to sense that she was being observed, and looked round. She saw the little group on the path and said something to Hal, who turned and beckoned.

  Bertha, Wurzle and Mimi moved forward eagerly. Leo followed more slowly, feeling like an intruder who had blundered into a scene that should have remained private. There was no hint of awkwardness in Hal’s warm greeting, however, and Tye herself gave one of her rare smiles.

  ‘Did you see?’ she asked softly.

  ‘We did indeed!’ Wizard Wurzle burst out, before anyone else could speak. ‘What a privilege! To see Terlamaines as they really lived! I – I am overwhelmed! But by what great magic was the vision created? I have never seen its like!’