Alistair Grim's Odd Aquaticum (20 page)

We’d barely traveled fifty yards before an alarum bell began tolling in the distance, followed by shouts and the outbreak of a commotion in the harbor ahead. The Avalonians, alerted to our presence, were no doubt preparing to greet us. But
how
they would greet us…Well, that was the question, now, wasn’t it?

“Are you sure this is wise, Alistair?” asked Lord Dreary. The old man had been insisting that we follow “proper etiquette” by sending an “emissary” in the demon buggy bearing gifts for the queen. Father and Professor Bricklewick, on the other hand, thought it best that we fly directly for the castle itself.

“If we’re to succeed on this quest,” the professor said, “we cannot risk even the slightest appearance of deception. Queen Nimue may already know why we’ve come. After all, not only is she over a thousand years old, but also it is said she possesses the gift of prophecy—and by some accounts, is nothing short of a goddess.”

“A
fairy
goddess,” said Lord Dreary. “Indeed, some legends have it that the Avalonians themselves are an entire race of fairies. And like most fairies, they have little regard for humans.”

“Your counsel is much appreciated, old friend,” Father said. “Which is why I think we should protect ourselves with our own fairy just in case.” He flicked on the talkback. “Gwendolyn, are you there?”

“What is it, Pookie?” the Yellow Fairy replied, and she let out a long coo. Clearly, the chocolate had done its work.

“Would you care to join us on the balcony?”

“But what about this big blue banshee in the bubble before me?” Gwendolyn asked, and then she gasped dramatically. “My, my, my, that was a lot of
b
’s.” She cooed and began flapping her lips with her finger.
“Buh-duh-buh-duh-buh-duh-buh-duh…”

Father rolled his eyes. I myself was quite fond of Gwendolyn after she had her chocolate, but sometimes I’d swear Father preferred her when she was quarrelsome.

“The Gallownog will be just fine,” he said. “We’ve more than enough dust in the reserves to keep everything going for quite some time. Now please, Gwendolyn, your presence up here is required immediately.”

“Whatever you say, Pookie,” she said, and Father flicked off the talkback.

“You’re certain you don’t want Mrs. Pinch and me to return to the gunneries, sir?” Nigel asked. “I should think they’d work just fine now that we’re above water. What’s left of them anyway.”

“We don’t want to appear aggressive,” Father replied. “However, having Gwendolyn close at hand would not be a bad idea in the event we need to—how shall I put it?—
lighten things up
.”

Mrs. Pinch uttered a “Humph,” but I understood Father’s strategy. Should we need to defend ourselves, a ball of yellow fairy dust would be much less harmful to an attacker than a blast from the lightning cannons.

“Well, it’s a good thing we’ve got that colossus back there to show us the gates,” said Mrs. Pinch. “That compass of yours is pointing us in the wrong direction.”

Indeed, the needle on Merlin’s compass was blinking again and pointing straight ahead.

“Remarkable,” said Professor Bricklewick. “The compass must be working in reverse. It’s pointing to another gateway altogether—one of the queen’s shortcuts, perhaps—that’s above water.”

“Which means, in order to get back, we needn’t travel underwater again?” asked Lord Dreary.

“At least not here in Avalon,” Father said. “But we will most certainly end up underwater once we pass through into our world. Oscar, if you wouldn’t mind hiding the compass in the map again, we should probably keep it a secret from our hosts for now.”

The professor snatched the compass out of the air and hurried over to Father’s desk. He uttered a magic spell, and in a flash the compass sank back down into the map and disappeared.

Presently, we heard what sounded like a flock of hawks screeching in the distance. “Good heavens!” cried Lord Dreary, pointing, and there in the sky above the city appeared a dozen or so dragons flying straight for us.

Of course, my only experience with dragons had been the half-human Red Dragons that had tried to kill me at Prince Nightshade’s, but I nonetheless knew what I was looking at.
These
dragons, however, appeared to be much bigger than the prince’s gang, with long, slender necks and gigantic bat wings. And on each of their backs rode a single armor-clad knight.

“The Royal Guard, no doubt,” said Professor Bricklewick.

The knights were upon us in an instant, their plated silver armor flashing like mirrors in the sunlight. As they began to circle the Odditorium, Father stopped his organ playing and let us drift toward the harbor. I suppose, being fairies and all, I’d expected the Avalonians to be small like Gwendolyn, but these blokes looked no different than us humans.

“Oh, look at the pretty dragons!” Gwendolyn said as she joined us on the balcony. Her eyelids were heavy, and her face was smeared with chocolate. “Hallo, hallo there, dragons!” She perched herself on my shoulder and began to coo.

“Hold tight, Gwendolyn,” Father said. “We may need your assistance should the Royal Guard attack.”

Gwendolyn snickered and tossed a ball of fairy dust playfully in her hand.

“We have you surrounded!” someone shouted, and a knight with a foxtail plume on his helmet reined his dragon to a stop before the balcony. His helmet hid his face, but his steel-gray eyes glared out menacingly from the slot in his visor. “Follow me directly or we shall destroy you,” he said, and as if to prove it, his dragon arched back its head and spit a long stream of fire up into the air.

“We seek an audience with the queen,” Father shouted back.

“She knows why you’re here, Alistair Grim,” Fox Tail said, and he promptly swung his dragon away and pulled out far ahead of us. The other knights swooped in behind him to form a V at our flanks, and Father began to follow them—his organ music jumbled and uneven as he tried to compensate for the jammed steering damper.

“Then the legends are true,” said Professor Bricklewick. “Queen Nimue possesses the gift of prophecy—a gift bestowed upon her by Merlin himself.”

Lord Dreary nodded. “And yet, even though Merlin could predict the future, he often could do nothing about it because he forgot his visions. Just think, Alistair, Queen Nimue may have foreseen our coming to Avalon long before we were even born.”

“And fortunately for us, she didn’t forget about it,” Father said, and with his eyes fixed straight ahead he began to play faster. The damaged steering damper caused the Odditorium to wobble and sputter, but Father managed to keep pace with our dragon escort. We passed over the harbor and were flying above the city when I noticed things had grown quiet below. Gazing down from the balcony, I discovered that the Avalonians had gathered in the streets and upon the rooftops to have a look at us—their upturned faces just smudges of white amidst a sea of brightly colored clothes.

Soon the city gave way to a thick swath of ancient forest. At the far edge rose a high hill, on top of which the gold-domed castle stood at the center of a rambling complex of walls and battlements. Beyond that lay great patches of farmland and gently sloping valleys, and then more forest stretched out to the horizon.

“Begging your pardon, sir,” said Mrs. Pinch. “But what shall we do if any of these knights force their way inside?”

Father’s face was like stone, his mind racing, I could tell. Should it come down to defending the Odditorium, I felt quite confident that we could hold our own against these Avalonians. In addition to all of the Odditorium’s shields and weapons and whatnot, we had the samurai, the wasps, Gwendolyn and Cleona, and of course Broom, who could certainly pack a wallop—not to mention Mack, and my new friend Moral the goose.

“Mrs. Pinch is right, sir,” Nigel said. “Should any of these blokes go snooping about, who knows what dangers they might find.”

“Let’s just hope, for their sake, it won’t come to that.” Father flicked on the talkback. “Attention, all samurai,” he said, his voice echoing about the Odditorium. “Guard all entrances and remain on full alert.”

And with that, a handful of samurai immediately took up their positions on the balcony behind us.

“Are you sure this is wise, Alistair?” asked Professor Bricklewick. “If Queen Nimue thinks we’re hiding something, she’ll be less apt to trust us with Excalibur.”

“I’m afraid she’s already made up her mind about that,” Father said.

“What do you mean?” asked Lord Dreary.

“Clearly Nimue possesses the gift of prophecy, which means she’ll already know whether or not we are destined to wield Excalibur. Hence, nothing we can say will sway her decision. As for defeating Prince Nightshade…well, wouldn’t that be something if she’d tell us how it all turns out in the end?”

The professor and Lord Dreary looked at one another apprehensively, and as we flew on toward the castle, my mind began to spin with thoughts of what lay in store for us beyond its walls. Did Queen Nimue already know about Prince Nightshade? Would she welcome us as friends and help us stop him? Or would she deny us Excalibur and send us back to our world empty-handed—or worse, would she ever let us go from this one?

As we reached the far edge of the forest, Fox Tail and the rest of the knights swooped down toward a vast, open field peppered with colorful tents. A celebration was taking place just outside the castle walls. Jugglers, tumblers, and other entertainers wove their way among throngs of revelers, all of whom wore brightly colored scarves. Mounted knights with lances pranced about on jousting lists, while more knights stood at attention in front of a long dais festooned with banners and flowers. On top of the dais sat a half dozen or so fair-haired ladies, one of whom was hidden by a silken canopy. I could not see her head, but I was certain it bore a crown.

I gasped. “Queen Nimue.” I stole a glance at Professor Bricklewick. His face was frozen in amazement.

“Alistair, you don’t think—” he began, but Father cut him off.

“Yes, I do, old friend. It appears all that merrymaking down there is for
us
.”

The revelers cleared a wide circle in the middle of the field, and Fox Tail and his dragon-riding knights landed in a ring around its edges. Father extended the Odditorium’s spider legs and touched down in the center of the circle. The crowd erupted with cheers and applause. Heralds blasted trumpets, and the knights trotted their dragons and horses into position across from one another, forming a narrow lane that led to the dais steps.

“We really shouldn’t meet a queen without giving her a gift,” said Lord Dreary. “I think that’d be considered rude in
any
dimension.”

“I agree with you,” Father said. “But what shall we give her?”

Without thinking I said, “How about Moral’s egg? I’ve got it here in my pocket.”

“Well done, lad,” Father said with a smile. “And an honorable deed, at that.”

As I reached to fetch the egg, Mack began rumbling in my waistcoat. I’d completely forgotten he was there.

“What time is it?” Mack cried as I opened him.

“A
bad
time,” I whispered, and was about to tap him on his XII when everything outside fell silent. The crowd dropped to their knees, the dragons and the horses bowed, and the ladies on the dais rose to their feet—all except the woman under the canopy. She was seated on a throne of some sort, but her face was hidden in shadow.

“What the—?” Mack said, whirling in my hand. “Where have we gone to now?”

Before any of us could answer, the woman on the throne called out, “Bring me the time stopper!”

A pair of attendants pulled back the canopy to reveal a beautiful fair-skinned woman with a thick golden scarf about her neck. Her chestnut hair, which fell in long ringlets to her waist, was laced with golden ribbons, and upon her head she wore a golden crown. My suspicions had been correct. It was Queen Nimue.

“With all due respect, Your Majesty—” Father said, but the queen raised her hand to silence him.

“You needn’t worry about the doom dogs,” she said. “Avalon exists in a realm beyond their reach. They pose no threat to us here.”

Queen Nimue waved her hand and a section of the balustrade vanished. At the same time, a glowing white staircase materialized out of thin air and stretched down from the balcony to the ground below.

“Now bring me the time stopper, please,” the queen said again.

Father took a deep breath and held out his hand for Mack. “I better handle this,” he said, and I passed him the watch. “Follow my lead, everyone.”

Father mounted the staircase, and as the rest of us descended one by one behind him, I began to wonder whether or not we’d stand a chance against these Avalonians after all. Evidently, Queen Nimue was a sorceress of great power.

Fox Tail met us at the bottom of the stairs and removed his helmet, revealing a handsome, chiseled face and a scarf like the others wore. Gwendolyn, who was still on my shoulder, batted her eyelashes and cooed at him playfully, but the knight ignored her and led us up onto the dais. My throat was parched and the blood pounded in my ears—not only because of what was happening, but also because, despite the queen’s assurances, I kept expecting the doom dogs to appear at any moment.