The Battle for Rondo Page 3

  Suddenly realising that everyone was looking at him, he gulped and shrank back into the folds of his cloak like a tortoise retreating into its shell.

  ‘Hal –’ Bertha began in a high voice.

  ‘We heard about the dragon attack, Bertha,’ Hal said quietly. ‘The forest is alive with the news. I’m sorry about your friend.’

  Bertha’s eyes filled with tears. Wurzle’s shoulders slumped.

  ‘Where are Conker and Freda?’ Leo asked, to break the heavy silence.

  ‘They should be back any minute,’ Hal said. ‘They went to see Peg at the camping shop. She sent a messenger mouse saying she had news for us. It might be the lead I’ve been waiting for.’

  Bertha sighed and he glanced at her quizzically.

  ‘What’s this job you have for us, Hal?’ Mimi demanded.

  ‘First things first,’ Hal said, turning to her and looking straight into her eyes. ‘You need to get settled. Bertha will show you the way to our headquarters. Everything you need is there.’

  In other words, Leo thought, seeing Mimi nod her understanding, somewhere at headquarters there’s a Safe Place where we can hide the Key. And Hal’s not going to tell us anything, or let us do anything, until the Key is safely stowed. But what about Wizard Wurzle? We can’t let him see…

  ‘Wizard Wurzle, you might prefer to stay here with us and wait for Conker and Freda,’ Hal went on smoothly. ‘If you’d like Tye to tell you a little more about the

  Terlamaine vision, that is.’

  ‘Oh, certainly!’ gasped Wurzle, rising instantly to the bait. ‘Oh, yes, indeed!’

  Bertha nudged Leo and Mimi and began leading them out of the glade.

  ‘The vision of my people as they lived before the Blue Queen destroyed them in the Dark Time was one of the memories of the Ancient One, Wizard Wurzle,’ Leo heard Tye say behind them. ‘As you have heard, Mimi and Leo spent time in the Ancient One’s cloud palace when it came to earth in Hobnob. They found that memories still clung to their clothes and hair, like tiny glittering flecks, when the Ancient One had gone. They collected the memories, and gave them to me.’

  Leo glanced over his shoulder and saw the little wizard gaping in awe as Tye showed him the small, plump, drawstring bag that hung from her belt.

  ‘Tye is a bit – different, isn’t she?’ he said to Mimi when they were well away from the glade. ‘She’s friendlier. Sort of… softer. Do you think it’s because of the Ancient One’s dreams? Because she doesn’t feel so alone any more?’

  ‘Of course,’ Mimi said absent-mindedly. ‘Leo, have you seen any Flitters yet?’

  ‘No.’ Leo hadn’t thought about it, but now that Mimi asked, he realised that he hadn’t seen a single one of the tiny green fairy-like creatures that should have been swarming everywhere in Flitter Wood.

  ‘The Flitters are patrolling the treetops,’ Bertha called over her shoulder. ‘The tigers do a very good job on the ground, but they can’t do much about the queen’s blue butterflies. They’re the Flitters’ responsibility.’

  ‘But how can the Flitters stop the butterflies?’ Leo asked. ‘It’s not as if they can fight them.’ He smiled at the thought of the fragile Flitters doing anything warlike.

  ‘Lawks-a-daisy, of course Flitters can fight!’ Bertha exclaimed. ‘If they have to – and if the enemies are their own size, of course. They use thorns from the berry trees as weapons and they’re very fierce with them, too. There isn’t a wasp in Rondo who’d dare to invade Flitter Wood, I can tell you. And now that the Flitters know the blue butterflies are spies, they’re fanatical about keeping the wood clear of them.’

  As she spoke, they reached a place that Leo remembered very well. A giant tree rose in front of them, its great boughs, spangled with hanging ferns, spreading wide from a tall, straight trunk.

  ‘The Flitters’ Nesting Tree!’ Mimi exclaimed.

  Bertha sighed and nodded at a neat hut that stood at the edge of the Nesting Tree clearing. The hut was made of dead branches and sheets of bark, and was complete with a door that could be locked and two small windows. To Leo it looked very inviting, like a snug cubby house. On a cleared patch of ground in front of it was a small stone fireplace stacked with dry sticks.

  ‘That’s where Hal and Tye are living,’ Bertha said, with obvious disapproval. ‘Though why Hal decided to set up his headquarters here, I do not know. He and Tye would be far more comfortable if they stayed in the tavern with me. But they insist that they prefer this.’

  Mimi wrinkled her nose, but Leo could understand Hal and Tye’s point of view. ‘Here they don’t have to see other people, if they don’t want to,’ he pointed out. ‘It’s quiet. And they’re in the open air.’

  ‘That may be,’ said Bertha loftily, ‘but as far as I’m concerned a room supplying hot baths and a comfortable bed is far superior to a forest hut with a gang of tigers as bodyguards!’

  She seemed very ruffled. Clearly her loyalty to Hal was warring with her doubts about his common sense. Leo hastily asked her where the Safe Place was.

  Bertha gave herself a little shake as if recalling herself to duty, and trotted to the Nesting Tree. ‘Member of the Ancient Order of Safe Places, please show yourself,’ she said.

  With a wet, sucking sound a slab of damp, fern-covered earth between two of the Nesting Tree’s enormous roots opened like a shaggy trapdoor, revealing a velvet cushion as richly green as a pad of moss.

  ‘At your service,’ said a soft, mellow voice.

  Leo and Mimi kneeled beside the trapdoor. Bertha discreetly moved away and turned her back.

  ‘Please state your password,’ said the voice.

  ‘Marion,’ said Mimi, glancing at Leo, who nodded. No one else in Rondo knew Mimi’s real name, so as a password it was ideal.

  ‘Marion,’ repeated the Safe Place. ‘Please be aware that I will not open again until this password is repeated. If you wish to continue, place the object to be guarded.’

  Mimi took off the Key to Rondo and put it on the cushion. The ugly old pendant and its silver chain gleamed dully against the rich green velvet for a split second. Then the cushion sank rapidly into darkness.

  Leo felt the same slight prickle of panic that he had felt the first time he’d seen the Key, his only way home, disappear into the depths of a Safe Place. He told himself not to be stupid. He told himself that entrusting the Key to a Safe Place was far less dangerous than carrying it around. But he still felt strangely hollow as he stood up, brushing leaves and dirt from his knees.

  ‘Thank you for using the services of a Rondo Safe Place,’ said the voice from deep inside the black hole. ‘Please mind your feet.’ The shaggy trapdoor squelched shut, sealing itself so perfectly that it was impossible to see where it had been.

  Feeling worse than ever, Leo glanced at Mimi. She grimaced and shrugged. ‘It feels bad,’ she said. ‘But we had to do it. After last time…’

  After last time, when the Key nearly fell back into the Blue Queen’s hands, and Rondo was a breath away from another Dark Time.

  ‘Mimi! Leo!’ a familiar voice bawled from the trees.

  As they shouted back they heard the sounds of tramping feet, and in moments Conker was bursting into the clearing, short, chunky and full of energy, his hair and beard wilder than ever, his fang earring swinging. Freda the masked duck was beside him and Tye, Hal and Wizard Wurzle were close behind.

  ‘Oh, my heart and lungs, it’s good to see you!’ Conker bellowed, clapping Leo and Mimi on the shoulders. ‘The old team, back together again! And just in the nick of time, too! The quest is on!’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Bertha asked sharply. ‘Has Peg seen –’

  ‘As good as!’ Conker led the way to the fireplace, shrugged off his bulging pack, and squatted to light the fire. ‘She checked out the Tavern of No Return for us late last night. It was all locked up, but one of the top-floor windows was wide open, and a rope made of sheets knotted together was hanging out of it, down to the ground.’

  ‘So?’ Bertha asked coldly.

  ‘So Grim and Misery Merk were holding him prisoner last night, and he escaped!’ said Conker. ‘Ah, if only Peg had got there earlier! I knew he’d try to get help from his old pals the Merks eventually. And it was dabs to dibs the Merks would lock him up so they could sell him to the highest bidder. You know what they’re like.’

  ‘Who are we talking about?’ Leo asked blankly.

  ‘Who?’ roared Conker. ‘Oh, my blood and bones, Leo, who do you think? The villain Hal wants to find! His no-good thieving brother! Spoiler!’

  Chapter

  4

  Big Ideas

  The Merks’ prisoner could have been anyone!’ Bertha snapped. ‘They tried to keep Mimi and me prisoner when we went into their disgusting tavern by mistake and –’

  ‘Peg knows Spoiler’s scent,’ Freda cut in. ‘Her sense of smell’s very good at night.’

  When she turns into a bear, Leo thought queasily, remembering the huge, shambling owner of the camping shop.

  ‘Peg tracked him as far as she could before the sun rose,’ Conker went on, slamming a blackened kettle onto the fire. ‘He was heading north along Woffles Way, towards the Crystal Palace. So if we –’

  ‘Why do you want to find Spoiler, Hal?’ Mimi broke in. ‘The Blue Queen’s the one you should be worrying about!’

  Leo nodded. He was feeling quite deflated. He’d thought that Hal was going to ask them to do something exciting. The idea of trying to catch sleazy, slippery George Langlander was a real anticlimax.

  ‘I am worrying about the Blue Queen,’ Hal replied calmly. ‘And that’s why I want Spoiler found. He’s out of the queen’s favour now, but he was her henchman for years. He can surely give us some clue about what she’s doing.’ br />
  ‘But we know what she’s doing, Hal!’ Bertha cried in frustration. ‘She’s sulking in her castle, trying to think of a way to get around the defence committees!’

  Hal shook his head. ‘She’s gone quiet because she’s working on something new. We have to find out what it is. We must not be taken by surprise again.’

  ‘Something new?’ quavered Wizard Wurzle.

  Mimi moved restlessly. She took a breath as if she was about to speak, then seemed to change her mind.

  Leo frowned. ‘But the queen’s only just perfected the spell that lets her move her power out of the castle,’ he argued. ‘Why would she start on something new so quickly?’

  ‘That’s what’s bothering me,’ Hal muttered, staring into the fire. ‘The only way it makes sense is if it’s something so important that she couldn’t resist starting on it straight away. I’m sure she spread her power over her domain last night partly so she can work on this thing, whatever it is, in secret, and partly…’

  ‘To capture some servants to help her,’ Tye finished for him grimly.

  ‘Servants?’ Bertha said scathingly. ‘But the far north’s deserted, except for –’

  ‘Oh, my lungs and liver, Hal, that reminds me!’ Conker exploded, making everyone jump. ‘I meant to tell you first thing! Old Winkle’s junk shop was broken into early this morning, and guess who the robbers were? Squirrels! A gang of crazy squirrels!’

  Mimi and Leo burst out laughing.

  ‘Squirrels?’ squeaked Wizard Wurzle.

  ‘It’s as true as I’m standing here,’ Conker said. ‘We met Winkle on the street and he told us the whole thing. Right, Freda?’

  Freda nodded shortly. She had begun to look rather sick.

  ‘Winkle woke up, heard noises in the shop downstairs, and went to investigate,’ Conker went on. ‘He found the place crawling with squirrels going through his stuff. When he tried to stop them, they came at him in a bunch, knocked him down and tied him up with his own dressing-gown cord. Then they made their escape with some trinket boxes he’d brought back from his last country buying trip.’

  ‘Conker, are you implying that these were enchanted squirrels, on a mission from the Blue Queen?’ Bertha demanded haughtily. ‘If so, I would be most grateful if you’d tell me what the queen wants with a lot of old trinket boxes!’

  ‘Oh, my liver and kidneys, how should I know?’ blustered Conker. ‘All I know is, Winkle was robbed by a gang of squirrels.’

  ‘Squirrels with funny eyes,’ Freda said uneasily.

  Leo and Mimi stopped laughing. Bertha’s jaw dropped.

  ‘The dragon that attacked the farm had weird eyes,’ Mimi said, her voice trembling a little. ‘They were swirling with different colours.’

  ‘Enchanted!’ quavered Wurzle. ‘An enchanted dragon – oh, spare me! It must have flown straight into the smoke. Out hunting at dawn, I suppose, and thought the smoke was just cloud, or fog…’

  ‘Oh, lawks-a-daisy,’ Bertha whispered. ‘If the dragon who attacked us was working for the queen, then poor Barbara…’

  ‘Is in the queen’s hands now,’ said Hal.

  Leo looked at him. Hal’s face was creased with lines of strain, but his grey eyes were steady and his mouth was firm.

  This hasn’t taken him by surprise, Leo thought. He suspected it. He just didn’t want to tell Bertha – or any of us – until he was sure.

  ‘Oh, Hal, you were right all along,’ Bertha groaned. ‘The queen was working on something new. She was trying to catch a dragon, and now she has!’

  Hal shook his head. ‘The dragon is just a small part of it. The dragon is a servant, nothing more. There’s something else –’

  ‘Something else?’ wailed Wizard Wurzle. ‘Oh, spare me! A dragon stealing Rondo citizens one by one to become Blue Queen slaves! Isn’t that enough?’

  ‘We’ll have to strengthen our defences,’ Conker said, splashing boiling water into the teapot. ‘Add dragon-watch to cloud-watch, tell the crow patrol, contact all the defence committee leaders –’ ‘No!’ Mimi exclaimed.

  Everyone looked at her in astonishment. She flushed, but went on determinedly.

  ‘I mean, yes, of course everyone should be warned about the dragon,’ she said. ‘But you – we – have to stop just thinking about defence.’

  ‘Lawks-a-daisy, Mimi, what do you mean?’ Bertha demanded. ‘What else can we think about?’

  ‘How to stop this,’ Mimi said fiercely. ‘We’re always going to be afraid of what the queen’s going to do next unless we do something about her, once and for all. And I’ve been thinking –’

  ‘We can’t fight the Blue Queen, Mimi,’ Conker broke in, with an anxious glance at Hal.

  ‘No way!’ snapped Freda.

  They think Mimi’s talking about attacking the Blue Queen with the Key, Leo thought. They think she’s ignoring all the warnings about how dangerous for Rondo a battle like that would be.

  Once he would have jumped to the same conclusion. But now, watching Mimi’s shoulders hunch defensively, he reminded himself that Mimi might be reckless, but she wasn’t stupid. For a start, she wouldn’t risk revealing the secret of the Key by hinting about it in front of Wizard Wurzle.

  ‘What’s your idea, Mimi?’ he asked quickly.

  ‘Yes,’ said Tye, leaning forward. ‘Speak your mind, Mimi Langlander.’

  The tension in Mimi’s face drained away. She shot Leo and Tye a glance of startled gratitude. But when she spoke she looked at Hal, Bertha and, surprisingly, Wizard Wurzle.

  ‘It might be a silly idea,’ she began. ‘It might not be possible. But… but these committees you’ve set up – they’re all organised around witches and wizards who can create large defence shields to protect their areas, aren’t they?’

  ‘Of course,’ said Bertha, frowning in puzzlement. ‘They wouldn’t be much use otherwise.’

  Mimi bit her lip. ‘Well,’ she said, ‘I was thinking… if the seven witches and wizards can make shields to keep the queen out, why can’t they get together and make a larger shield to keep her in?’

  ‘In?’ Bertha gasped, her eyes very round. ‘You mean –’

  ‘Create a shield wall to stand between the queen and the rest of Rondo,’ Mimi said simply. ‘Let her have the far north – she’s got it anyway. But seal it off, so she can never threaten you again.’

  Her colour brightened as Wizard Wurzle squeaked in amazement and everyone else stared at her, dumbfounded.

  ‘Brilliant, Mimi!’ Conker shouted at last.

  But can it be done? Leo thought, meeting Hal’s eyes.

  ‘Can it be done?’ Freda demanded, and everyone turned to look at Wurzle, who had sprung to his feet and begun pacing up and down in agitation.

  ‘It is – a fascinating idea!’ Wurzle muttered. ‘It would not be possible to screen off the whole of the queen’s domain, of course. But a smaller area – the area immediately around the castle, for example, to which the queen will surely withdraw at times, probably at night, to renew her energies… That should be possible – it should.’ He paused, his face screwed up in thought, then shook his head. ‘But I doubt… yes, I doubt we could achieve it. Not as things stand, no…’

  Mumbling to himself, he wandered off into the trees.

  Mimi shrugged. ‘So,’ she said with a crooked little smile. ‘That’s that.’

  ‘Oh, how disappointing!’ wailed Bertha. ‘It was such a wonderful idea, too! It would have been the answer to –’

  There was the sudden clatter of wings. A large black crow swooped down through the treetops and landed with a thud beside the fireplace.

  ‘Marjorie!’ quacked Freda.

  ‘Tea!’ the crow gasped, and fell on her side.

  Conker half-filled a tin cup with tea and pushed it under the crow’s beak. She took a gulp and swallowed convulsively.

  ‘Terrible news!’ she croaked. ‘I flew like the wind to tell you. The town has been attacked! Attacked by a dragon!’

  As everyone exclaimed in horror, she nodded weakly and took another sip of tea. ‘I saw it all,’ she rasped. ‘The dragon swept right into Main Street, roaring fire. Its scales were green. Its eyes looked mad.’

  ‘Was anyone hurt?’ Hal asked sharply.

  The crow sat up and made an effort to pull herself together. ‘The bank and some shops are on fire, but I think everyone got out safely. Pop the balloon-seller’s eyebrows were singed. Officer Begood was knocked flat on his face by the dragon’s wing and burned on the nose by the hot spinach pie he was eating at the time. And – and Crumble the pie-seller was snatched away!’