Akiko in the Sprubly Islands (8 page)

Admiral Frutz’s army
marched us through the woods as fast as they could, which is to say, at a snail’s pace. Eventually we came to a clearing in the trees. At that point the narrow path became a slightly wider dirt road, and the pace of the soldiers picked up just a little. On either side of the road were gently rolling hills covered with miniature grasses and wildflowers. Off to one side in the distance I could see the Moonguzzit Sea. The sun had risen higher in the morning sky, and some of the haze had burned off. One or two clouds dotted the sky, but otherwise there was nothing but blue as far as the eye could see.

“Will you
please
slow down?” Admiral Frutz shouted up at me, temporarily marching backward to glare at me from his position at the head of the procession. “My men’s legs are
much
shorter than yours!” I had begun to outpace everyone and the entire army was almost sprinting to keep up with me.

“Sorry!” I said, going back to my baby steps. “Is Queen Pwip’s palace very much farther?”

“Silence!” came Admiral Frutz’s reply.

Eventually we began to pass evidence of people living nearby. There were tiny stone walls separating one property from another, and small plots of land with neat little rows of leafy vegetables. Then I spotted a miniature farmhouse, surrounded by a tiny wooden fence. The farther we walked, the more houses I saw, each surrounded by strips of farmland and pastures grazed by tiny barnyard animals. It was very weird being able to look down on it all from my point of view, kind of like walking and looking out an airplane window at the same time.

Finally the farmland began to give way to little villages and towns. Gax clicked and whirred as he rotated his head left and right to take it all in. I think he was just as fascinated as I was. There were tiny cobblestone streets and open-air marketplaces, miniature chimneys spouting tiny puffs of smoke, and hundreds of little Sprublian men and women going about their tiny lives. Wherever we went people stopped and stared, pointing and whispering excitedly to one another. There were so many strange and wonderful sights, I wanted to stop and get a closer look at everything.

Admiral Frutz kept us marching, though, and by the looks of things Queen Pwip’s palace wasn’t very far away. For one thing, we now found ourselves marching through the hustle and bustle of a much bigger city. The road we were on had widened considerably and was decorated on both sides by elaborate street lamps and ornate little statues. The buildings were larger and more stately (though even the biggest came no higher than my waist), and there were beautiful parks and gardens on all sides. The city people were not easily impressed, though. They glanced up at us from their newspapers, squinted, and went back to their business.

Finally we came to the gates of the palace grounds. An enormous wall surrounded the complex, a beautifully detailed structure that stood about six feet high. There were elaborate turrets and guard towers, with domes that looked like they been plucked from an Arabian mosque. The entire surface of the wall was covered with polished yellow and turquoise stones that sparkled and shimmered in the morning sunlight. The road we were marching on led directly to a large gateway that was sealed by two ornate doors.

“Halt!” Admiral Frutz shouted. There was a trumpet blast from the rear of the procession, followed by a series of deeper notes sounded by trumpets inside the palace. A minute or two of silence passed as we waited for the gates to be opened.

Then slowly, almost without a noise, the doors parted. Before us, a series of wide stairways led up to a beautiful miniature palace. The whole thing was no more than seven or eight feet high, but it was just about the most amazing building I’d ever seen. It was made up of at least a dozen towers, each topped with an onion-shaped dome that glittered and sparkled like a piece of jewelry. There were elaborately decorated balconies, silvery-shuttered windows, and glistening urns overflowing with exotic plants and flowers. The building was surrounded by dozens of lanterns and incense burners, some embedded in the polished marble of the palace’s foundation, others perched atop ornate golden pedestals.

I heard a muffled clattering sound as Admiral Frutz’s soldiers dropped to their knees and bowed their heads. Admiral Frutz marched forward through the gates and got a foot or so into the palace grounds before stopping and turning impatiently to me.

“Come on, then!” he said in a loud whisper. “And don’t touch anything!”

Gax, Poog, and I
followed Admiral Frutz through the gates, leaving his army outside. As soon as we passed through them, the gates quietly closed behind us, shutting out all the sounds of the surrounding city. The only noises remaining were the squeak of Gax’s wheels as he rolled along behind me, and the echoing clank of Admiral Frutz’s boots as he marched up the tiny marble steps in front of us. When we got within a couple of feet of the palace, Admiral Frutz ordered us to stop.

“No
funny
business, now,” he warned. “An audience with Queen Pwip is a very auspicious honor, and you are expected to behave accordingly.’’ I wasn’t even sure what the word
auspicious
meant, but I got the general idea of what Admiral Frutz wanted from me. I nodded solemnly and kept my mouth shut.

Admiral Frutz clicked his heels and marched into the palace through a side door. There was a minute or two of absolute silence as we stood there all alone. I took the opportunity to ask Poog a question.

“Poog,” I whispered, “Queen Pwip isn’t real
mean
or anything, is she?’’

Poog just smiled and said nothing. It was hard to tell if he could understand anything I’d said, I suppose even if he
had
understood, there was no use in his answering me, since everything he said came out in that weird garbly language of his. I sighed and wished Mr. Beeba were still around. I started worrying about Spuckler and Mr. Beeba again but made myself think of something else.

Minute after minute passed, and still there was no sign of Queen Pwip, I turned around and started to examine a decorative little lamp just a foot or two behind me. It was built entirely out of a beautiful brass-colored metal and covered with decorative carvings. I ran my fingers over its surface and found it surprisingly cool to the touch.

“DO BE CAREFUL, MA’AM,’’
Gax cautioned me.
“THE ADMIRAL TOLD US NOT TO TOUCH ANYTHING.”

“I know, Gax,” I answered, leaning over to see my own reflection in the highly polished surface. “But it’s all so
pretty
.”

“It had
better
be pretty,” said a tiny, high-pitched voice in reply, “what with all the trouble I had to go through to get this thing built!”

I spun around and looked every which way to see where the voice had come from.

“Over here, my child!” called the voice, and this time I realized that it was coming from inside the palace. My eyes darted around until finally I saw a tiny figure deep inside one of the balconies, half hidden in the shadows cast by the late-morning sun. The figure glided forward into the sunlight, revealing a beautiful little woman no taller than Admiral Frutz. She was dressed from head to toe in satiny white robes with blue embroidery, and wore a large round hat that made her head look even smaller than it was. Her eyes were shiny and black like two tiny drops of ink, and her hair was long and straight, falling over her shoulders and about halfway down her back. She wore a happy little smile on her lips that told me at once I had nothing to fear. I smiled back at her and she gave me a wink.

Admiral Frutz stepped forward from behind her, bowed, and spoke to me in a very stiff voice as if he was reciting something from memory.

“It is a profound honor and privilege to present to you the Greatest Monarch of this or any age, the Fairest Ruler ever to grace the surface of the Sprubly Islands, the Brightest Shining Beacon of virtue and beneficence ever to—”

“Frutz!” the woman interrupted impatiently. “Can’t you
abbreviate
this introduction of yours? I’d swear it gets longer every time you do it.”

“I, er . . .,” Admiral Frutz stammered, suddenly sounding very mild and harmless, “I’ll see what I can do about it, Your Majesty.” The woman stepped forward, motioning Admiral Frutz to one side.

“I’m Pwip,” she said in a very casual voice, “Queen of the Sprubly Islands. Welcome to my palace, Akiko.”

“H-how did you know my name?” I asked, genuinely startled. I’d never told Admiral Frutz, after all. Queen Pwip let out a pleasant little laugh.

“I know a great many things about you, Akiko,” she said with a smile, “and about your friends here, Poog and Gax.” Poog smiled and nodded, and Gax lifted his head higher with a brief series of electronic clicks.

“But that shouldn’t surprise you,” she continued. “Why, it’s the only reason you’ve come looking for me, isn’t it? To find out the things I know.”

“Well, um, yes, that’s true, I guess,” I answered nervously. There was something unsettling about talking to a woman who knew so many things without having to be told. I suddenly realized there was nothing I could keep secret from her.

“That’s nothing to worry about, though, dear child,” she responded, as if she’d heard my thoughts loud and clear. “Why would you want to keep anything secret from me anyway?” She smiled warmly, and I began to feel a little less nervous.

“Your Majesty,” Admiral Frutz whispered urgently. “Your kindness toward these prisoners is most generous, but we mustn’t forget that they were caught in flagrant violation of the Antitrespassing Act of 1403. The stipulated punishment is beheading, is it not?”

“Frutz!” Queen Pwip said, raising her voice. “I know
quite
well what violations have taken place and the punishments that are stipulated. This matter is now under my jurisdiction. Why don’t you run along and do some . . . I don’t know,
drills
or something?”

“But, Your Majesty,” Admiral Frutz protested, “I couldn’t possibly leave you alone with these dangerous criminals.”

“They are
not
criminals, Frutz,” Queen Pwip explained wearily.

“But, Your Majesty—”

“Are you
disobeying my orders
, Frutz?” Queen Pwip asked, her face tightening into a threatening scowl.

“No, Your Majesty, I—I . . . ,” Admiral Frutz stammered nervously, “I . . .”

There was a heavy silence as Queen Pwip stared Admiral Frutz down. Finally his little face loosened up and his jaw dropped a few notches, leaving him looking like a sad little puppy dog. He stared down at his shoes and bowed obediently.

“I’ll be just outside the gate, Your Majesty.”

“
Thank
you,” Queen Pwip said, sighing to herself before turning to face me again. She smiled and waited while Admiral Frutz retreated into the palace, his boots clinking and clattering as he marched across the polished marble floor.

“You’ll have to forgive old Frutzy,” she said at last, turning to me like an old friend. “He means well, really. But he
does
get a little overprotective at times, I’m afraid.” I was pretty impressed with the way Queen Pwip had ordered Admiral Frutz around. She didn’t look mean or tough at all, but she spoke in a way that made people listen to her.

“Come follow me, Akiko,” she said, “and bring your friends. There are some people I think you should meet.’’ I watched as she descended a spiral staircase off to one side of the balcony and reappeared just a foot or so from where I was standing. She was so small she barely came up to my ankle, but she didn’t seem frightened of me in the least.

She showed us to a gateway in the back of the palace and began leading us into a whole new section of the palace grounds. Gax, Poog, and I followed close behind.

“Thank you, Queen Pwip,” I said.

“Why, whatever for, dear child?” she asked with a laugh.

“For not, uh,
beheading
us or anything,”

This produced an even louder laugh, and Queen Pwip dismissed my words with a wave of her hand.

“Akiko, my dear girl!” she said cheerfully as she turned a corner and led us beneath one final decorative arch. “No one has ever been beheaded in the Sprubly Islands! Admiral Frutz makes that sort of thing up just to impress his men.”

Queen Pwip came to a stop before a large iron gate. It stood about six feet tall and barred the entrance to a walled courtyard filled with miniature trees, colorful gardens, and . . . 

. . .  Spuckler and Mr. Beeba!

I couldn’t believe my eyes. There at the far side of the courtyard sat Spuckler and Mr. Beeba, leaning against a wall and resting in the sun. When they saw me looking in at them they scrambled to their feet.

“Akiko!” they both cried together, dashing across the courtyard as fast as they could.