Alistair Grim's Odditorium (31 page)

“McClintock!”
he cried as he sailed through the air. The monsters gaped and gasped, and then one of the goblins reached up and caught Mack in its claws.

“Give me back the animus!” the prince screamed, but the monsters ignored him and began fighting with one another for possession of Mack.

“Let go of me, ya ugly neep!” Mack shouted, his blue light illuminating the monsters’ faces as they tossed him about. And then old McClintock was swallowed up into the
crowd.

“MINE!” cried the prince, pushing his way amongst them, and the Black Fairy swooped down from the balcony and joined the fray too.

It’s now or never, I thought, and I retrieved Ikari and raced across the yard. It sounded as if total bedlam had broken out behind me, but I dared not look back, and quickly dashed over to
the prince’s chariot. I climbed up onto Phantom’s back, and when the stallion reared, I grabbed hold of the stable roof and pulled myself up. From there, I somehow managed to hoist
myself up onto the battlements, sword and all.

It was then that I saw the first of the doom dogs take shape in a darkened corner of the yard below. I’d remembered from our previous encounter that it took nearly a minute for them to
appear after Mack was opened. And as if on cue, another of the hounds materialized in the shadows nearby. And then another. And another—their burning red eyes brightening as they picked up on
the animus and set off toward the crowd of scuffling monsters.

A chill shot through my body—I was counting on those smelly monsters to throw the doom dogs off my scent. After all, if the doom dogs tracked people who touched the animus, wouldn’t
they track monsters, too? That was my hope, anyway.

I dashed across the battlements as fast as I could, and just as I reached the corner of the castle wall, a cry of anguish from the yard told me my plan was working.

“Get it off me!” a monster screamed. “Get it off me!”

Gazing down from the battlements, I saw Moosh-Moosh come tumbling out from the crowd. He landed in a sunny portion of the yard, screaming and thrashing about in an all-out brawl with his
shadow—which, to my horror, had taken on the shape of a large, black hound. Nigel’s warning from the marketplace echoed through my mind.

Sunlight or no sunlight, once a doom dog latches on to you, you’re as good as done for.

More monsters began tumbling out into the sunlight, each screaming and wrestling with a doom dog. But the prince and the Black Fairy ignored them, and just batted the others out of the way as
they searched for Mack amidst the crowd. My heart squeezed with worry for my mate, but my plan demanded that I rescue Cleona first.

Besides, I thought, it’ll take more than a gang of monsters to scrap old Mack.

I took off again across the battlements. The horn-blowing goblins had also joined the ruckus, so I had a clear shot across to the tower—but then something in the yard again caught my
attention, and I stopped dead in my tracks.

Prince Nightshade seized McClintock from the crowd and punched one of the trolls in the face. The troll went flying backward, taking out at least a dozen or so of his mates along the way as the
doom dogs dragged more monsters into the sunlight. I counted seven of the hounds in all—their victims screaming and writhing in agony as the other creatures backed away in terror.

The prince, on the other hand, seemed unafraid. He stormed over to Moosh-Moosh and, lifting the visor on his helmet, shot the goblin with a bolt of red lightning from his eyes. For a brief
moment Moosh-Moosh was engulfed in a shower of shimmering sparkles, but then the light dissolved, and with it, the goblin’s doom dog too.

“Rise,” said the prince, and Moosh-Moosh stood up and stared vacantly ahead. His eyes were no longer yellow, but glowed with the evil of a purple-eyed Shadesman.

I gasped in amazement. So that’s how the prince uses the animus to make his Shadesmen. He shoots his magic at them just before the doom dogs take their souls!

Then a voice in my head told me it was no time for gawking.

My legs sprang into action, and as I climbed up onto a parapet, I was aware of the prince shooting more of his red lighting in the yard below. My heart sank at the idea of him making more
purple-eyed Shadesmen, but still, my thoughts had room for only the tower. The jump from the battlements to the platform that held Cleona’s sphere was much farther than it had appeared from
the ground.

“I’ll never make it,” I said to myself, and then the Black Fairy landed on the battlements beside me. My blood froze.

“THE BANSHEE!” roared the prince, and I glanced down into the yard to find Nightshade and his entire court of monsters staring up at me.

The Black Fairy screeched and reared back his head to spit.

Jump!
I told myself. And before I could think twice about it, I did.

The Black Fairy spewed his bolt of thick black fire—I could feel its heat through the soles of my shoes—but thankfully I had jumped just in time and the bolt blew apart a section of
the battlements instead.

As I feared, however, my landing came up short, and I hit the platform with my lower half dangling over the side.

“No!” the prince shouted at the Black Fairy from below. “You’ll hit the banshee!”

I grabbed one of the sphere’s conductor pipes and pulled myself up onto the platform. I took in the whole of the contraption at once. Unlike the sphere in the Odditorium’s engine
room, its polished steel pipes twisted back into the sphere itself. And there was Cleona inside, staring back at me amidst the crackling red and purple light. My heart soared. She was all
right!

“Thank goodness you’re safe,” I said. Cleona pounded her fists against the inside of the sphere. I could see that she was trying to tell me something, but I couldn’t hear
her through the red and purple flashing glass.

“Don’t worry, Cleona,” I said. “I’ll get you out!”

But then, in the reflection of the polished steel pipes, I saw the figure of the Black Fairy rise up behind me.

Without thinking, I struck the sphere as hard as I could with Ikari—but the blade merely bounced off, the force of it spinning me round. At the same time, the Black Fairy swung his fist
for my head. Happily, I still had enough wits about me to duck, and the demon smashed one of the conductor pipes instead, tearing it free.

A freezing blast of air hit my cheek. The Black Fairy screeched and raised his fist to pound me. But then, in a streak of bright blue light, Cleona shot out from the ruptured pipe like a
cannonball.

“AAAIIIEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!”
she cried, and slammed headfirst into the Black Fairy’s chest. The creature screamed, his arms and legs pinwheeling as he fell
backward off the platform and out of sight onto the battlements below.

“Behind you, Grubb!” Cleona cried, zooming back in my direction, and I spun round to find Prince Nightshade standing above me atop the sphere. In one hand he held McClintock; in the
other, his fiery-tipped whip.

“MINE!” roared the prince, readying to strike, but then Cleona whizzed past me and slammed smack-dab into his face. Nightshade howled with surprise, and as he tumbled off the sphere
and into the yard below, Mack went flying from his hands.

“Mack!” I cried. And in a blur of streaking blue, Cleona darted upward and snatched him from the air.

“Quick, Grubb, we’ve got to get out of here!” she said, and she traded me Mack for Ikari. I slipped Mack into my remaining pocket, and Cleona stood with her back to me.
“Wrap your arms about my neck,” she said. I obeyed, and in a flash Cleona took flight, soaring up and over the yard with me hanging on behind her.

“After them!”
Prince Nightshade shouted. He leaped into the air and cracked his whip, but Cleona had already flown us much too high for him to reach, and the prince tumbled
back to earth with a roar of frustration.

“Bring me the animus!”
he cried, dashing for his chariot. Scores of Shadesmen mounted their skeleton steeds, while other monsters scrambled for weapons and shouted for the
drawbridge to be lowered.

Higher and higher we climbed. And as Cleona flew us out beyond the battlements, I could see that the castle moat was completely empty. Farther off, all around the moat was a rocky cliff that
dropped off abruptly into a sea of dark clouds, giving one the impression that Prince Nightshade’s fortress had been ripped from the earth, ground and all.

The sound of a tolling church bell drew my attention back to the castle. The heavy wooden drawbridge was being lowered over the moat.

“They’re coming!” I cried.

“I am well aware of that, thank you,” Cleona said.

As we dove toward the clouds, I looked behind me just in time to see the first wave of Shadesmen galloping out of the castle, and then everything went dark. I held my breath for what felt like
hours, certain that at any moment the Shadesmen’s arrows would tear into the clouds after us, until finally Cleona and I burst out into a clear blue sky.

“Look!” I shouted. Far below us rolled a land unlike any I had ever seen—rugged hills covered with thick forests and crystal-blue streams that zigzagged toward the horizon in
every direction. “Where are we?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Cleona said. “But I can’t carry you on my back like this forever!”

Thunder and lightning crashed behind me, and I glanced over my shoulder to see Prince Nightshade’s chariot burst forth from the clouds—the steeds galloping hard and spitting fire.
The Black Fairy and Moth Man emerged close behind, followed by the Sirens and then the Shadesmen on their horses—all of them gaining on us quickly as the prince led the charge.

“Hurry, Cleona!” I cried. The prince cracked his whip. And with a crash of thunder and lightning, the Black Fairy and Moth Man pulled ahead of him.

“The trees,” Cleona said. “Maybe we can lose them in the forests below!”

“We’ll never make it,” I said, gazing down. “We’re still too high, and they’re coming too fast.”

“It’s our only hope.”

“I’m slowing you down,” I cried. “Take Mack and let me go!”

“Pshaw,” Cleona said, and she fell into a steep dive.

The Black Fairy screeched, and I peered behind me to discover that both he and Moth Man were diving straight for us. The Black Fairy arched back his head to spit, and Moth Man readied to throw
his spear.

“Look out, Cleona!” I screamed. But then a shimmering ball of yellow light streaked across the sky and smacked the Black Fairy square in the chest.

“Aaaggghhhh!”
he screeched, tumbling upward into the clouds—his wings useless in the glowing yellow bubble.

Moth Man looked around in confusion, and then out of nowhere a giant black hawk swooped down from the sky and snatched him up in its beak.

“NOOOOO!” roared the prince in the distance.

And with that the great black bird gobbled up Moth Man whole.

“Gwendolyn!” I cried.

Yes, there was the Yellow Fairy, tucked snugly in the feathery nape of the giant hawk’s neck. She waved at me and then hurled another ball of fairy dust at the prince.

The prince, however, smacked it with his whip, and in a flash of thunder and lightning Gwendolyn’s ball exploded in a shower of sparkles.

“Look!” Cleona cried.

I turned round and could hardly believe my eyes.

An entire flock of the enormous birds was coming straight for us. And at the head of the charge was Mr. Grim, mounted upon the lead hawk’s back.

“Climb aboard!” he shouted, swooping in beside us. Cleona grabbed hold of his outstretched hand and Mr. Grim swung us up onto the bird behind him.

As we climbed higher and pulled away from the prince, I saw there were about a dozen more of the great black birds following us. On some rode the samurai, but on one of the birds in particular
rode—but that was impossible!

“Kiyoko!” I cried.

“You look as if you’ve seen a ghost,” she said, steering her bird alongside Mr. Grim’s. Her hood and mask were gone, and her long braid thrashed about wildly in the
wind.

“But the Black Fairy said you were dead!”

“He thought I was,” Kiyoko said. “He clipped me with his fire and sent me falling into the clouds. Luckily Gwendolyn had gone looking for you, and she caught me in one of her
big yellow bubbles.”

“I believe this is yours, miss,” Cleona said, and she handed Kiyoko her sword. “The prince gave it to Grubb to use in the tournament.”

“Once again I am in your debt, Grubb,” Kiyoko said with a bow of her head.

Mr. Grim must have thought we were talking about our birds, for he nodded his head and with a smile shouted, “That’s right! They’re called Thunderbirds! A species of Odditoria
indigenous to the Americas!” He pointed at Gwendolyn’s bird. “They just love to eat moths!”

Gwendolyn swung her bird beside us, and the other Thunderbirds screeched.

“The Americas?” I asked, amazed. “You mean, down there is—?”

“We were close to the shore when the Sirens attacked!” shouted Mr. Grim. “The reserves and Number One got us inland, and then I sent Gwendolyn and the bats out looking for you!
They found Miss Kiyoko instead.”

“But how did you—”

“You needn’t worry about the others!” said Mr. Grim, interrupting me. “Lord Dreary and Mrs. Pinch are holding down the fort!”

“Why are you shouting, Mr. Grim?”

“I can’t hear you!” he hollered back, pointing to his ears. “Beeswax! A precaution against the Sirens!”

“That reminds me,” I said to Cleona. “Why weren’t you and Mrs. Pinch—”

“Silly, Grubb,” she said. “Only men are enchanted by the Sirens’ song. Everyone knows that.”

“But how did Mr. Grim get the Thunderbirds?”

“Beats me,” Cleona said. “But I should think if he could convince the Yellow Fairy to join him, a flock of big black birds would be child’s play for Alistair
Grim.”

Cleona giggled, and as we sped through the air, I gazed back over my shoulder to discover Prince Nightshade and his army gaining on us. Mr. Grim saw it too.

“Samurai!” he shouted. “You take the Shadesmen! Shinobi, you take the Sirens!”

“With pleasure!” Kiyoko replied, and then she and the samurai flew off on their Thunderbirds toward Nightshade’s minions.