Roland's Castle (14 page)

“Makes sense,” Oliver conceded.

“But Bril-a-Brag said you told them
all my secrets,” Roland protested, only half believing Savitri’s
story.

“I told them a load of rubbish.
They think there is crock of gold deep under the castle keep. I
made it all up!”

Roland felt relieved, in more ways
than one. Obviously he had not wanted his secrets told to the
enemy, but the idea that he had been betrayed by someone in whom he
had placed so much trust had shaken him.

“Thank you,” he said to Savitri,
pleased that his faith had been confirmed, “I am sorry I doubted
you.”

“I am on your side,” she said,
looking him right in the eye, “But I’m not your Asian sidekick. Now
we have to get out of here,”

“We are in the middle of an armed
camp with sentries all around. Nothing could be simpler,” Oliver
said sarcastically.

Savitri told them, “I have arranged
a little diversion which should be going off just about…..
NOW!”

And there was an “aieeeeghhhh!”
From a distant tent and then the sound of Gloatenglorp’s voice
shouting at full volume, “Rats in my trousers!

Rats in my trousers!

Wet fish and pudding pie

All fall down and hope to die

Hail the midshipman

Windmills and daffodils

Jousting with giants

Mint juleps form hamster
jam
!

As he shouted this out, he emerged
from his tent with his sword drawn and started running and leaping
through the camp slashing at anything that moved. Others rushed
from their tents fearing it was a surprise attack by an army, only
to find that Gloatenglorp was a handful all on his own, spreading
terror, chaos and confusion as people fled before him.

“I cut through the rope holding him
up whilst he was sleeping,” Savitri explained, “just enough so that
it slowly gave way and he fell on his head and woke up. It has
happened before and when it does he goes berserk….”

Everyone was too busy fleeing for
their lives to notice that the prisoners were escaping. As quickly
and quietly as they could they made their way through the madness
that had erupted. On one occasion Gloatenglorp came close to them,
still yelling and shouting nonsense and brandishing his sword to
the terror of all nearby. Bril-a-brag was nowhere to be seen and
Roland suspected he knew when to make himself scarce when his
servant was in that kind of mood. Probably has his head beneath the
bedclothes, Roland thought. Good. The longer the better.

The escapees quickly found their
way to the Scary Oak and climbed up inside the trunk. Brother
Goodwill was waiting and ready to help them up through the trap
door, “Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! What a wonderful adventure you
must have had! And quite a long one too! You must tell me all about
it and how thrilling it was, and about all the lovely people you
met whilst having it!”

“He really needs to give it a
rest,” Oliver said.

“It’s better than what we were in
for below,” Roland replied.

“Point taken,” Oliver agreed.

Firebrace was not pleased when they
returned to the
great hall.
Neither was he
pleased to hear of their adventure, to hear that they had been
captured, or to hear that they had nearly been tortured.

“I told you it was a foolish plan,”
he said.

“But we got away with it – and we
got some useful information,” Roland said.

“We did?” Oliver asked.

“Of course,” Roland said, “I think
I did rather well. I got a good gawp at their plans plus When I was
in their tent they were talking about something that would give
them an advantage – Gloatenglorp couldn’t translate it but it is
some kind of siege weapon, no doubt. We must find out what it is.
“

You’re not thinking of going back!”
Oliver gasped, and Firebrace looked like he was about to burst with
fury and frustration.

“No,” said Roland, “I don’t think
we can sneak back in again.”

“Don’t you?” Oliver said
sarcastically.

“No, but we could really do with
being able to see beyond the passage that leads to the Scary Oak –
maybe climb out onto the branches and see if we can see any
further.”

“There is always the inspection
cradle,” said Brother Stalwart, who had been awakened by an excited
Brother Goodwill anxious to tell everyone about the lovely
adventure.

“Inspection cradle?” Roland
asked.

It’s used to maintain the tower
from the outside – and to clean the windows. It can be “projected
out on a boom.”

“Right out to the back of the Scary
Oak hill?”

“The brow of the hill is the
perimeter of the tower. The boom will stretch the rest of the way,
if we all hang on to the inside end and support it. There is just
one problem…”

“That is?”

Once you are beyond the limit of
the tower you will be visible. Anyone looking up “will be able to
see you.”

“But they will not be able to reach
me,” Roland objected.

“I really think we should send
someone else, Roland,” Firebrace objected. “the captain of a ship
should send a subordinate to a hostile shore.”

“He should also go down with it,
and I have no intention of doing that either. Anyway, Who do I
send? Someone to take the risks for me? I have been protected for
long enough - the castle’s safety is my responsibility.”

Firebrace nodded reluctant
agreement. He was concerned, but also proud.

“Get this cradle thing ready,”
Roland said, “I am going to have another go at spying on our
enemies!”

The cradle and the boom were found
and Roland, Oliver, Savitri and the Fortressers manhandled it along
the plankway that led out to the Scary Oak. Brother Stalwart opened
the shutters on a window and Roland looked out and down to the
topmost branches of the Scary Oak, far below. For a moment the
height struck him and caused a giddy feeling. He stepped back.

“Still want to try this?” Oliver
asked him.

“Yes. More than ever,” Roland
said.

It was amazing that the Scary Oak,
which looked so tall from below, now looked so small from above.
Its branches reached up only a small part of the distance to the
great sky above.

The cradle was attached to the end
of the first beam and set upon the ledge of the window. It was very
small, and Roland was barely able to cram himself into it. The next
beam was attached and the cradle pushed out from the window. As
each beam was attached to the end of the last the cradle moved
further out from the tower, the brothers taking the strain of
holding it up and also pushing hard. Roland looked over the edge of
the wicker cradle and could see the camp where he had been the
night before. The men below looked tiny and he was cheered by how
small they looked. Surely it could not be so difficult to deal with
such tiny creatures? He laughed and thought how
he
would
look from this high up if he were on the ground. Even smaller, of
course!

He looked back at the tower and
could see nothing. Only the boom being paid out as if from nowhere.
It was as if he were simply hanging in the air. It was amazing. It
was at this point that he realised that he had no means to
communicate with the brothers to tell them when to bring him in. It
was a nuisance. He cursed and wished he had thought of it before.
At that moment a sparrow landed on his shoulder and pecked his ear.
He shrugged his shoulder in an attempt to get rid of it and then
raised his hand to brush it away. The sparrow simply flew to the
other ear and gave it a nip. “Go away!” he cursed, and tried to
swipe it again. The sparrow flew off but then landed in front of
him on the edge of the cradle and looked at him sideways with its
left eye.

Suddenly Roland remembered about
the birds nesting in the roof of the library and Firebrace’s
mention of them as messengers.

He tried it. “Tell the brothers to
pay me out about fifty more feet.”

The sparrow flew off with a few
tweets and headed straight into the tower, becoming invisible as it
did so. In a few seconds it returned and tweeted a few more tweets.
The boom was paid out about fifty more feet and stopped.

“You know my language but I don’t
know yours,” Roland said, "Sorry. Makes you wonder who is the real
bird brain around here!”

And the sparrow made a noise that
Roland interpreted as a laugh.

As he was pushed over the brow of
the hill Roland saw what it had been obscuring. At first he thought
his eyes must be mistaken. There was a huge – creature – with a
smooth, dark polished shell. It was narrow at what Roland assumed
was the front but it became wider and taller toward the rear. It
had horns on what seemed to be its head, but apart from that it
looked like a giant metal rat, except that there were legs sticking
out of the sides - many of them, like a centipede’s - and
tentacles, or feelers, sticking out from around what Roland assumed
was its mouth, He shivered at the sight of it. Surely the castle
could not withstand such a monstrosity. He had seen enough.

“Would you please ask them to pull
me back in,” he said to the sparrow, and it flew off. Within a few
moments he was being pulled back in.

“What did you see?” Oliver asked
when Roland got out of the cradle.

“Some monster – I think it may even
have been alive - like a horned beetle with many legs.”

Brother Stalwart spoke, “A
scuttler! I’ve never actually seen one but I’ve heard of them. A
prime weapon of the detested Spirus! Horrible things - they can
take down a castle!”

“What are they? Are they
alive?”

“They are creatures of sorts. Not
so much like animals — more like aggressive vegetables, but they
are very dangerous.”

“What can we do?” Roland asked.

“Try to defeat it,” Stalwart said,
“What else?”

“What are the chances of that?”
Roland asked seriously.

“We must do our best,” Brother
Stalwart said grimly.

“I am going to attack it from the
air. Get some bombs and pay me out again – I will drop them on
it.”

“That I am afraid we cannot do,”
Brother Stalwart said.

“What!?” Roland asked, “I will be
taking the risk. It is my life.”

“You don’t understand. It is
against our oath. If we aid you in such an attack it may result in
us taking a life. It is against our oath to actively partake in
violence.”

“The villagers will have no problem
helping, I am sure,” Roland said with contempt, pushing past
Stalwart.

Oliver organised the strongest of
the villagers to take control of the boom and showed them how to
use it. Roland asked them, “Can you speak sparrow?”

They looked at him as if he had
gone off his rocker.

“Just keep pushing me out until I
wave my – and he grabbled a neckerchief off of one of them – until
I wave this and then bring me back in again quickly!”

“Do you have the bombs?” he said to
Oliver. Oliver produce three bombs, like round black balls the size
of large apples with fuses sticking out of them. They were hollow
and contained gunpowder.

“I will need something to light
them,” Roland said. Savitri produced her tinder box and gave it to
him.

“Good! We are set!”

Roland was pushed out again. He
looked downwards checking that he had not been spotted, but those
down below were busy going about their business, quite unaware of
what was above them. It was the ultimate sneak attack, worthy of
uncle Dagarth himself, Roland thought, but he didn’t expect that
his uncle would appreciate it.

When he was right over the scuttler
he lit the tinder and picked up the bomb, placing the end of the
fuse against the fire. It fizzled and sparkled. The fuses had been
left long enough so Roland could use his judgement as to how long
to wait until dropping them. It was a good thing too as the first
one dropped onto of the creature long before exploding. It rolled
down the smooth shell and didn’t explode until it hit the ground.
Roland had counted the time between when it hit the scuttler and
when it exploded so he would know how long to wait before dropping
the next one.

The second one did indeed explode
at the moment of contact, but there was little effect. By this time
the men and Spirusses around the scuttler were aware that they were
under attack and were looking around for where the missiles were
coming from. They were scouring the horizon but didn’t think to
look up – not at first.

The smoke from the second bomb
cleared and Roland looked down to see that it, too, had been
ineffectual. There wasn’t a dent or a scratch on the thing, not one
that was visible from up here. He lit the fuse of the third bomb
and dropped it.

It also exploded without effect.
Beneath him the enemy had failed to identify an attacker on the
ground and one of the men thought to look above him. He shouted and
pointed at Roland who quickly realised it was time to retreat.

At the same time he began to smell
something burning. At first he thought it was coming from down
below but then he began to realise that he was getting a little too
warm for that. There was fire right beside him – underneath him! He
looked down to see that he had spilled the burning contents of the
tinder box into the cradle and that it was now on fire. Meanwhile
the archers below were pulling back their bows and taking aim.

Roland pulled the neckerchief to
signal the others to pull him back in but that had caught fire as
well. He dropped it as a flaming rag and started to signal with his
hands. Meanwhile arrows started to rush past him and a couple hit
the bottom of the cradle, one pushing its tip through the floor.
Roland waved his arms frantically but by this time those in the
tower had realised his distress and he was being pulled in quickly.
The cradle was now well on fire and Roland began to wonder whether
he would be burned to death, whether he would die as a result of
falling when the bottom of the cradle burned through, or whether he
would be killed by an arrow – or arrows.