Alfie Bloom and the Talisman Thief (17 page)

“Robin? What's going on?”

“What's wrong? Is he OK?” called Madeleine, hastily pinning the bandages.

“
Are you looking at this room?” whispered Robin. “He's gone, hasn't he?”

Amy called up the workshop on the mirror. The elf that had been guarding his room was nowhere to be seen.

“Yes, he's gone,” said Alfie.

“Right, I'm going to try to get up to you.” Robin poked his head out of the chest. His hair was plastered to his forehead with sweat.

“Don't do anything stupid, Robin,” said Alfie. “There are elves all over the place. There's even one in the library up here; you won't be able to get to us.”

“Actually, he might,” said Amy, showing Alfie the library in the mirror. It was empty. “They're all in the Great Hall.”

Alfie glared at the elves in the mirror as they ate his food and drank wine from barrels they had dragged up from the cellars, laughing as the sprite that had impersonated Ashford capered around the room for the Queen's amusement.

“The difficult bit is going to be getting him past the doorway of the Great Hall.”

Alfie watched as Amy checked the whole route from the workshop to the library. All of the elves had disappeared from their posts around the castle
to
join the party. As long as Robin could get past the hall without being seen, he would be able to reach to the library safely, unless…

“I don't see that evil-faced one, Merioch. Where is he?”

“He was out in the courtyard when you were visiting Orin,” said Madeleine. “Sending back some of the elves that got sprayed with the iron filings. They looked pretty burnt. I haven't seen him since. I think he went through with them.”

“Robin,” Alfie said into the radio. “The coast is clear, but you need to go now. Stop when you get to the entrance hall. We'll let you know when it's safe to run past the Great Hall.”

“OK,” crackled Robin. “I'll turn the volume right down and hold it to my ear so they won't hear you. Now, am I clear to the entrance hall?”

“You are,” said Alfie, images flashing in the mirror as Madeleine checked Robin's route.

“I won't talk to you again in case they hear. Follow me in the mirror and just say ‘clear' when it's safe for me to pass the Great Hall.” He put on his backpack, which looked very heavy. Alfie realized that Robin had filled it with the little iron-filing bombs and was holding a couple in his free hand. “Wish me luck,” he whispered.

“
Good luck!” Madeleine shouted as they watched Robin leave the room in a cautious crouching run.

“He's in the corridor. He's going up the steps…” Madeleine commentated needlessly as she clutched the mirror, knuckles white. Reaching the entrance hall, Robin looked up and pressed the radio to his ear.

“Wait,” said Alfie. Madeleine called up the Great Hall, turning the mirror to look around the room. Most of the elves were at the table but several were milling around closer to the door. Alfie watched and waited, radio to his ear, ready to give the word. Amy got up and opened the inner door, positioning herself by the secret panel to open it for Robin.

Most of the elves were idly watching the sprite who was balancing anything he could find on to an elf who had fallen asleep slumped over an empty wine barrel. Finally a jug of water balanced on a teetering plate sent the whole pile cascading down, soaking the elf. Rudely awakened, he leapt to his feet, skidding and sliding on fruit and broken crockery. The Queen smiled lazily as the elf chased the sprite around the room, cheered on by the watching elves.

“Now, Robin. Go!” said Alfie, taking advantage of the chaos. Flicking back to the entrance
hall,
they watched Robin scurry past the doors unnoticed. Madeleine cheered as he started up the stairs. Ashford let out a little snort in his sleep at the noise.

“He's going to make it,” she cried as Robin took the stairs two at a time. But Alfie had seen a movement against the wall at the top of the stairs. He looked closer. It was an elf, his skin glamoured to match the colour of the wall he was standing against.

“Robin, stop!” he called into the radio. Robin stopped dead still. Realizing he had been seen, the elf started towards him. Robin feinted right. When the elf moved in that direction Robin hurled the metal balls in his hands at the stone wall. They shattered, sending out a shower of iron filings and Madeleine punched the air in delight as Robin raced down the corridor to the library leaving the elf dancing around, shaking the iron from his burning skin.

Alfie scanned the shadows and his heart sank. Another camouflaged elf was waiting metres from the library.

“There's another, dead ahead,” he shouted. Robin spun on his heel and ran in the opposite direction, towards Alfie's bedroom.

“
Robin,” said Alfie as his cousin hurtled towards his bedroom. “Hide in the secret bathroom in my bedroom, behind the panel to the right of the wardrobe. Push on the dark knot in the wood and the door will pop open, remember?”

Robin nodded as he ran. The elf slipped out of his glamour and began to charge after Robin. He was fast. Within seconds he had grabbed Robin's backpack. Not wanting to touch the chain-mail shirt, the elf tried to drag him to the stairs by his bag. Alfie held his breath as his cousin struggled to pull away, his walkie talkie dropping from his hand.

The stitching on the bag finally tore apart under the strain, sending a dozen of the metal balls crashing to the floor. The elf leapt out of the way, falling over the other who was running to join him, while still shaking the iron from his skin. Robin raced away as they both ended up in a heap.

“Ouch,” said Amy. “I thought elves were supposed to be graceful?”

Madeleine changed the view to Alfie's room. Robin burst through the door and over to the panelled wall where he jabbed at the knot in the wood. The door to the secret room popped open.

“Watch out!” cried Alfie, who had seen
something
move near his bed. The warning went unheard now that he had no way to communicate with his cousin. An arrow tore through Robin's sleeve, pinning his T-shirt to the woodwork. As he ripped it free, a shadow detached itself from the shadows of the bed curtains. Merioch. He raised his bow. Robin seemed to think twice about trying to slip through the secret door.

Alfie couldn't hear what the elf was saying, but it soon became obvious as Robin slowly removed his chain-mail shirt

The second the chain mail dropped to the floor, Merioch grabbed Robin by the wrist and dragged him from the room.

“No!” screamed Madeleine, sliding to her knees. Amy caught the mirror as it slipped from her hands.

Merioch glared his disapproval at the two elves picking themselves up from the floor. They followed him meekly as he dragged Robin down the stairs towards the Great Hall. Robin wasn't even bothering to struggle. After the way the elf had treated Ashford, Alfie thought his cousin was wise not to resist.

He watched the mirror helplessly as Amy closed the door to the study and rushed over
to
throw her arms around Madeleine, whose shoulders were shaking as silent tears splashed down on to her T-shirt. Alfie fought the urge to hit himself in the head. Why had he gone along with Robin's plan? He should have told him to stay where he was.

“Ashford said he had a way to end this,” sobbed Madeleine. “We should have waited for him to wake up.” Alfie felt worse than ever as he watched his cousin wiping her eyes and nose on her sleeve. She shrugged Amy's arm away and shook the butler by his one good shoulder.

“Wake up! Ashford,
please
wake up! We need you.”

Alfie could see that it was no use; an earthquake wouldn't wake Ashford until the potion had worked its course. He eased Madeleine's hands off the butler and set her down on the footstool. Artan floated over and wrapped himself around her like a blanket.

Alfie picked up the mirror. “Great Hall.” His voice shook as he wondered what they would see there. The elves were in a semicircle around Robin who had been pushed into a kneeling position before the Queen. She was holding something and seemed to be asking him a question. Robin
answered
and the Queen smiled and lifted the object to her mouth.

“I have one of yours.” Alfie nearly dropped the walkie-talkie as a cold female voice crackled out of it. Amy and Madeleine stared at Alfie in horrified silence.

“Your friend refuses to tell us where you are, so I'm giving you one last chance to do the right thing. Give me what I want and I will return the boy, just as you remember him. If not, I will leave him to Merioch.”

“You let him go right now!” screamed Madeleine, wrenching the walkie-talkie from Alfie's hand. “Do you hear me? Give him back, or
you'll
be the one who's sorry.” Artan roared his agreement from her shoulder.

A cruel laugh rang out from the radio, echoed by the rest of the elves.

“Bring me the lens. Within the hour.” Her voice cut through the air like a razor blade. “Or you'll hear every second of Merioch questioning your friend. One way or another, you
will
bring me what I want.”

The radio went dead. Alfie quickly yanked it from Madeleine's hand to stop her throwing it across the room in rage.

“
Let me out,” roared Artan, floating to the door. “Let me go down there. I'll take Robin back from them! I'll snatch them up and drop them in the lake if they try to fight.”

“Whoa there!” said Amy, leading Artan to the other side of the room to calm down while Alfie comforted Madeleine.

“So what are we going to do?” Madeleine asked. Her eyes flickered to the cord around Alfie's neck.

“Maddie, you know we can't just give them the talisman, right?” he said softly. “You saw what they did to Ashford. We can't trust them to let any of us go, and who knows what they're planning on using the crown for when they have the lens.”

“OK, OK, I know,” sighed Madeleine. “But we've got to do
something
.”

“What was in the pouch that Ashford was going to take to them?” asked Amy. “Maybe we can find that? It sounded like something they would accept instead.”

“I don't know,” said Madeleine. “It was hidden in a little safe under a tile in his bedroom. He sent Robin down to fetch it while you two were out for your swim, but I don't know what it was. Do you think he asked Orin to put it back there?”

Alfie thought about it. “No. If Orin put it where
Robin
found it that would probably create some kind of time loop. We're trapped in here, so this must be where he asked for it to be left.” Alfie sighed as he looked around the room with its many cabinets and shelves crowded with books, jars, boxes and oddities. It could take days to search and he hadn't even found the keys to most of the little drawers and cupboards.

“But it'll take for ever to find if we don't even know what we're looking for!” sighed Amy.

Madeleine began searching anyway, going through all of the smaller items on the shelves one by one and asking if each could be the item Ashford was going to take to the Queen.

“No. I don't think so. Definitely not,” Alfie answered patiently as she showed them a shark's tooth, a turquoise stone with a hole in it, a spiral fossil and a tiny jewelled bottle.

Alfie eventually left Amy to answer her and tried again to rouse Ashford. It was no use. He wasn't as pale, and he had stopped sweating and shivering, but he was out cold. Orin's potion was working. Alfie wished he could drink some himself and wake up to find that none of this had happened.

He picked up the mirror. Robin seemed fine
for
the moment. He was sitting on a cushion by the Queen's feet, watching as she made the silver sparrow flit from one hand to the other and then peck at the fruit on her plate as if eating. Alfie scanned the rest of the castle. Elves had been stationed at lookout posts again but without their camouflage glamour. The Queen must be confident her ultimatum would work.

The elf that had been guarding the library was back in the chair by the fireplace, his head nodding drowsily. As Alfie watched him slowly falling asleep, an idea began to creep into his mind. It wasn't a particularly well-formed plan, and it would be incredibly difficult to pull off, but as the minutes ticked swiftly by it was the only thing he could think of. He had to rescue Robin and this seemed the only way. He called Madeleine and Amy over and explained his idea.

“You're sure?” asked Amy, watching the elf in the mirror as Alfie took off his shoes and quietly opened the inner door leading to the library. “Because there's no going back once we do this.”

“I'm sure,” said Alfie, against all the evidence his brain was sending him. He stepped into the little passageway between the library and the study. Madeleine followed, an arrow nocked to her bow.
The
three of them stood just behind the panelled door to the library in their socks.

Artan floated inside the study, watching them gloomily. He had begged to be allowed to help, but Alfie was worried he might get overexcited. If the elf woke and had chance to warn the others they might as well just hand the talisman straight over.

Alfie put one hand on the panelled door ready to swing it open, the other tightly clutching a ball of thick, coarse twine he had found on Orin's shelves. He hoped it would be strong enough. Madeleine stood silently next to him, bow raised and half drawn. Amy put down the mirror and took up the cotton scarf she had used to cool Ashford's brow, holding one end in each hand.

“What if he calls our bluff over being ready to shoot him?” she whispered.

Alfie looked at the fierce set to Madeleine's jaw and the fire burning in her eyes.

“He'll believe we mean it,” he whispered back. “Ready?” Madeleine and Amy nodded. Alfie opened the door. It swung outwards silently and they stepped through. Madeleine trained her arrow immediately on the elf, string held taut as the three of them advanced silently on the sleeping figure.