Alfie Bloom and the Talisman Thief (19 page)

“No,” said Amy as Merioch made a move to search her. “
He
already checked me for it.” She nodded towards Alfie who shook his head to signify he hadn't found it. “It'll be here soon though,” she added quickly as the Queen's face began to cloud over. “Alfie needs to get it from where it's hidden. He sent me to tell you he'd bring it soon.” She let her lower lip quiver. “Please don't hurt us.”

Alfie thought Amy was doing a great job of sounding afraid, but with Merioch standing over her he imagined that most of her fear was real. The storm passed from the Queen's face and she smiled sweetly. “I hope so, little one. I would hate to watch Merioch hurt either of you. Now sit by me. We'll soon see if your friend is really on his way.”

Merioch dragged Amy over to sit next to Robin as the Queen picked up Robin's walkie-talkie again. Alfie had to stop himself jumping up as he realized
her
voice would echo out through the radio he had hidden in the armour and ruin his plan. How could he stop her using it without raising suspicion? He gripped the edge of the table, his knuckles turning white as the Queen spoke into the radio. He let out his breath in a gasp as the Queen shook it and then tossed it aside to smash on the flagstones. The battery was dead; his plan could still work. Robin had noticed Alfie's reaction and said something in Amy's ear. She whispered back and Robin's eyes widened in amazement. He quickly looked away from Alfie so as not to draw suspicion.

“No whispering,” tutted the Queen, tapping Amy lightly on the nose. “Your communication device no longer works, but the clock is ticking.” She smiled and made a ticking motion with her finger then went back to playing with the little silver sparrow. Alfie was glad to see Merioch stride out of the room. He imagined it was to find whoever was bringing the talisman so that he could take it and claim the credit himself.

Amy leant back slightly. Alfie hoped she'd be able to get the knife out of her sock. She shuffled closer to Robin. Alfie guessed it would take her a couple of minutes to cut through Robin's ropes. He hoped Madeleine was watching the mirror and
ready
to act. The walkie-talkie had been a close call.

A dark shadow flitted past the window. Alfie stiffened, but none of the other elves had seen Artan swoop down to float just below the window ledge. Alfie looked to Amy and she gave him a little nod to indicate she had cut their bonds and they were ready to go. He stood up and stretched as though his arms and back were stiff, hoping that Madeleine would spot the signal. She did.

Almost immediately a strange moaning floated down from the first floor. The elves were laughing and shouting too loudly over the table to notice, so Alfie let out an unintelligible shout and cupped his hand to his ear. The table went quiet as the eerie moans echoed through the castle like an angry ghost, growing louder and louder. Arming themselves with their bows, the elves hurried to the entrance hall. Merioch was standing on the bottom step, staring up at the suit of armour inside which Alfie had hidden the walkie-talkie.

Alfie remained just inside the Great Hall to watch Amy and Robin. Madeleine was certainly throwing her all into the screeches and yells echoing out from the armour. None of the elves seemed to want to go anywhere near it. He
assumed
that the story of the animated suits of armour at Muninn and Bone's offices had spread. The Queen finally decided that the disturbance was worthy of her attention and left her throne to view the situation for herself.

Amy immediately leapt up and ran for the window, Robin limping slowly and painfully behind as though his legs had gone to sleep after kneeling for so long.

Alfie held his breath as he tried to keep one eye on the elves and the other on Amy and Robin. Amy was struggling with the stiff iron latch on one of the huge leaded windows. The more Alfie's heart pounded in his chest, the harder it was to stay in disguise. His disguised skin itched as he tried to calm his nerves.

Merioch shouted and the elves took aim at the wailing armour. Giving up on the first window, Amy moved to another and finally managed to unlatch it. Alfie could hear Merioch counting down in Elvish. Just as Amy and Robin managed to open the window the elves let loose their arrows, peppering the armour's breastplate like a pincushion

The armour slowly toppled forwards and came crashing down the stairs in pieces. “Come on!”
Alfie
whispered under his breath as Amy boosted Robin up to the window ledge. Elves jumped out of the path of the pieces of iron bouncing towards them, and Alfie leapt about with them, purposefully jostling the ones that looked close to turning around and seeing Amy and Robin's escape.

A shout from Merioch silenced the chaos. He had found the walkie-talkie that had fallen from the armour and held it out to the Queen. Realization that they had been tricked dawned on their faces. Spinning around, the Queen saw Robin scrambling out of the window. She shouted a curse so strong that a passing fly dropped out of the air stone dead.

Alfie pretended to trip on a chest plate and fell back into the elves rushing towards the hall. They began to topple over each other as Amy pushed Robin out on to Artan's back and pulled herself up on to the ledge. Merioch walked over the backs of the elves that had fallen to the floor and took an arrow from his quiver.

Alfie leapt up and charged into him as he raised his bow. The effect was like hitting a stone statue, but he managed to redirect the elf's aim and the arrow smashed through one of the
tiny
windowpanes to the left of Amy. She cast a desperate glance back at Alfie then hurled herself out of the window and on to Artan. The bear whisked Amy and Robin away as more elves recovered enough to send arrows crashing uselessly after them.

Merioch hurled elves out of his path and grabbed Alfie by his tunic, shouting something in his own language. Alfie mumbled and pointed to his swollen mouth, but this time Merioch wanted an answer.

The prickling that had started in Alfie's skin intensified as the elf disguise began to slip. He struggled but Merioch was impossibly strong. Alfie felt as though his brain was rattling against his skull as the elf shook him violently. As Merioch lifted him into the air, Alfie finally gave up the effort of keeping his disguise.

Expecting to shrink back to his usual size, Alfie was shocked to find himself growing. Merioch's cold mask slipped as something in Alfie's face seemed to frighten him. Alfie crashed painfully to the floor as the elf hurled him away. The Queen was shouting and something was growling. Getting to his feet, Alfie realized that the growl was coming from his own throat. He was shooting up in size,
bursting
out of Loth's clothes as his body turned green and scaly. Merioch shouted again and the elves let their arrows fly as Alfie watched his hands twist into vicious-looking claws. The change magic had taken control, he realized. It was protecting itself, just as Orin's magic had. He was becoming a dragon.

Alfie felt a cold satisfaction as the arrows clattered harmlessly off his scales. He tried to shout, but a terrible roar burst from his jaws and he felt something burning in his belly…
Flames?
The elves were in disarray. Some of them had run for the portal, others cowered in the corners of the hall. The bravest encircled him, firing arrow after arrow. Alfie span around clumsily, his tail sweeping their legs from under them. Arrows bounced off him as he charged, driving some of them out towards the destroyed doorway. Maybe he could scare them from his castle.

The burning in his stomach intensified. He knew he'd feel better if he released the flames. He felt angry.
They invaded my home, threatened my family, tortured Ashford.
He had never felt such rage. But as the fire bubbled up into his throat, the shreds of himself that remained fought back against the dragon-like fury. He couldn't kill. He
couldn't
burn the castle with everyone inside. Alfie roared and fought back against the anger, bellowing in pain. His huge body doubled over as he struggled to contain the fire inside him.

The elves stopped firing and ran from his great stomping feet and thrashing tail as he tried to control himself. He clutched his great scaly head with his claws, summoning every ounce of mental strength, and tried to shut down the change magic.

“NOOOOO!” he yelled, the sound coming out as a distorted growl as he staggered forwards. The ground rushed up to meet him as he rapidly shrank in size, his skin regaining its colour as he collapsed to the floor and sank into unconsciousness.

The Tower and the Crown

When Alfie awoke he was surrounded by armed elves, their arrows trained on his head. They all stood a few metres back, presumably in case he metamorphosed into a dragon again. Very slowly, he sat up and tied the torn tunic he had been wearing back around himself. The Queen and Merioch stood shoulder-to-shoulder, drawing amusement from his embarrassment.

“You are him,” said the Queen. “Alfie – the keeper of the lens.
My
lens.”

“Yes,” said Alfie. There was no point in trying to deny it. Thirty elves drew back their bows as he got to his feet. The Queen held up a finger and they
relaxed
their strings slightly.

“I can see you don't have it with you,” she said to a chorus of laughter from the elves. “So, where is it?”

“Somewhere safe,” said Alfie. Goose pimples prickled across his bare skin as he clutched the tunic around himself.

“Enough time-wasting,” said Merioch angrily. “You will tell us where it is.”

“No,” said Alfie, amazed that he managed to keep his voice level as he tried to stand tall and defiant in nothing but a torn piece of cloth. “I'm not taking you any—” the words died in his throat as an arrow whizzed past his cheek, grazing his skin just enough for a drop of blood to run down his face and drip on to his bare toes. He felt the ancient magic Orin had hidden within him flicker to life at the threat.
Not you too
, he thought to himself. It had been hard enough controlling the change magic.

“If your next answer is not the location of the lens,” Merioch hissed down the length of an arrow notched to his bow, “this arrow will pierce your heart.”

“Then we will tear this castle apart stone by stone until we find it. And your friends,” purred the Queen in a voice so pleasant she might have been offering him a slice of cake. Alfie swallowed
hard.
Her words struck even more fear into his heart than Merioch's had. What could he do? He couldn't tell them where the talisman was without revealing Madeleine and Ashford, who wouldn't even be awake to defend himself. And what else would the elves find in Orin's study that they could put to terrible use?

The Queen stepped back. Every elf pulled back their bow. “You have five seconds,” she smiled. “One.”

Alfie's heart hit his ribs. What could he do?

“Two.”

The magic flexed its might by sending an electric jolt through Alfie's nerve endings as it prepared to defend its host.

“Three.”

He fought against the raw power rising inside him. He couldn't use it, not without the talisman. It would tear him apart in trying to save him.

“Four.”

Alfie closed his eyes, his whole body vibrating with uncontrolled magical energy. Should he stop fighting to keep it under control? He was going to die anyway.

“Fi—”

“STOP!” Running footsteps echoed through the
hall.
Alfie kept his eyes clenched shut, fighting to control the energy that had been ready to explode out from his body. The Queen stopped her count and the elves began to hoot with excitement. The magic grudgingly let Alfie rein it back as the immediate danger lifted. He risked opening his eyes. The elves were facing a small figure who was holding her arm out towards the Queen.

“Maddie!” he cried. Amy and Robin had got away safely, yet here she was, risking her life for him. With the bows no longer pointing at him, Alfie took a step towards his cousin and froze in alarm as he saw what was dangling from her fist. The talisman. Its purple lens glimmered as it swung from side to side. The Queen watched it greedily, like a snake about to strike.

“Let Alfie go and I'll give you the lens,” said Madeleine.

“You are hardly in a position to bargain.”

“Hush, Merioch.” The Queen smiled. “Let the boy go to her.” Merioch's eyes narrowed as Alfie hurried over to his cousin, unable to believe that she had brought them the talisman despite being told it must never fall into their hands.

“I saw you needed these.” She passed Alfie some jeans and a sweatshirt. Alfie dressed under cover of
the
torn tunic, his gratitude for the clothes doing nothing to diminish his fury at her for bringing the talisman right to them.

“Now. The lens.” The Queen whistled and pointed her finger. The silver sparrow fluttered from her shoulder to Madeleine's hand and pecked at the talisman's string.