The Catastrophe of the Emerald Queen (28 page)

The king
glanced at his accompanying guards. “Such a good lad eh? Willing to
save his friends,” he said in a jolly tone. 

The guards laughed
nervously. 

King James nodded to one and
the man grabbed a lever on a panel next to him and pulled. The
floor they were on suddenly began to grind and move. With a grating
crunch the circular platform started to retract, triangular
sections appearing with their points in the centre, where before it
had looked like solid stone. The pieces slowly moved back and the
three prisoners then sagged painfully where the floor had been,
their feet treading into nothing. Bue yelled in pain as did Jared
as the iron bracelets on their wrists dug into their skin. King
James waited until the stones had fully retracted and then stepped
forward. The guard threw a coin from his pocket into the yawning
abyss. No one heard it land. 

The king then
raised the large object he was carrying. It was big and had a
velvet cloth over it. He pulled the cloth free and it revealed a
glass cage, an oval dome like a bird cage with a handle on the top
and a wooden base. Inside was Kloee, looking extremely
annoyed. 

“
I take it
this is a friend of yours too?” King James asked Jared. “We found
her hiding in your pack when we caught you. Didn’t we little
one?” 

Kloee glared up at him and her
wings beat furiously as she pounded on the glass with her tiny
fists. James chuckled at her futile attempts to break free and then
turned back to the three prisoners. 

“
You are now
standing above a drop that no one’s ever measured…mainly because
it’s too deep to do so,” the king said in an offhand tone. He
looked at Jared again and his tone changed to one of menace. “Now
Jared… you will answer everything I say or I will drop your friends
one at a time into that hole. Do you understand?” 

Jared nodded, ignoring the pain
in his wrists and straining to look down. There was only blackness
beneath his feet.  

Bue glared at the king but said
nothing. Leppard gritted his teeth while trying to ignore the
biting pain in his hands. 

“
Let’s begin
shall we” the King said, his jovial tone returning. “I want you to
tell me everything about the Emerald Queen that you know. If you
lie to me I will know and one of your friends will die each time
you do so. If you leave something out I will know. Do you
understand?” 

Jared gulped,
petrified. 

“
First of
all, where is she now?” 

“
I don’t
know,” Jared stammered and then continued quickly. “After that
monster tried to kill her at the hospital they moved her but I
don’t know where.” 

The king
smiled, clearly believing him. “Where is she likely to
be?”

 “
I
don’t know where another hospital is like that. They’re everywhere.
She’s probably guarded now anyway.”

 
The
king laughed at that and waved his hand dismissively. “Let me worry
about that Jared. Why have our oracles been unable to see her since
our first attempt?” 

“
Again I
don’t know,” Jared replied almost in tears, knowing that his
answers were crucial to keeping his friends alive. “Mordalayn
poured something on her when he stopped the monster.”

 
King
James glanced from Jared to the guards. “A masking spell. Very
impressive.” He continued. “What is the problem with
her?” 

“
She’s in a
coma. She was in a car crash about three months ago.” The king
looked blank. “She was hurt and fell asleep and she can’t wake
up.” 

The king
looked thoughtful. “So this is why Alegria didn’t simply elect a
new ruler,” he said, more to himself than anyone else. He chuckled
again. “Who would have thought it. For all Alegria’s plans and
magic they never considered their monarch could become trapped in
limbo.”

 “
One
more question Jared,” the king said. “Is she likely to wake
up?”

 “
Again
I don’t know,” Jared replied desperately. “She’s been hurt for a
long time. Maybe.”

 “
Thank
you Jared, you’ve been most helpful.” He turned to one of the
guards. “Tell them to signal our men in Alegria.” The guard bowed
and ran to the door. The king paused for a moment and turned to
leave. Then, as if remembering something he turned to Bue. “Oh and
I don’t like being spat on by fatherless brats,” he glared at the
boy and then turned to the other guard. “Drop him.”

 
Kloee
gasped and silently shrieked “No!” behind the glass. Bue thrashed
frantically against his chains and Jared’s heart leapt into his
mouth. The guard grinned cruelly and reached for one of the
mechanical levers at his side. 

“
Wait!”
 

The voice
carried not just pleading but also a tone of command. The guard
hesitated and looked at King James who was staring at
Leppard. 

The old bow
master cleared his throat. “This boy is young. He has his life
ahead of him. If you have to kill someone, please…take
me.” 

King James
looked at Leppard with surprise and a little admiration. He paused
then smiled kindly. “Courage and self sacrifice, two qualities to
admire in a man.” He shook his head and clapped his hands. “I
applaud your gesture. Very well.” He turned to the guard. “Drop him
instead.” 

Bue screamed,
“NO!” as the guard pulled the lever. 

The chains holding Leppard
detached from the bracelets. 

He fell. Silently.

Chapter
22

“I’ll kill
you, I swear on my mother I’ll kill you
!”
Bue screamed at King James, tears streaming down his
face.

 “
Yes,
yes. Very dramatic,” the king said irritably and turned to Jared.
“I think you can see now that I mean what I say. I will return in
one hour. Use that period to think of everything you can about your
time over here.” He turned and walked away holding Kloee in her
glass prison and the guard followed him. 

Jared stared
and then nodded his head slowly, utterly terrified.

 “
I’LL
KILL YOU!!!” Bue screamed after King James, his voice cracking as
he stared down into the abyss below them. 

Jared was too
scared and bewildered to feel anything. The king had, with not even
a trace of anger, murdered Leppard. The old tutor had bravely given
his life for Bue’s but the king hadn’t even seemed to care. Instead
it appeared to be amused him to take one over the
other. 

The door ahead slammed and they
were in gloom again. The floor ground its way back towards them.
The triangular pieces arrowing to the centre where they locked with
a crunch. 

Bue was
sobbing uncontrollably, his head bowed against his chest. Jared
craned to look at him. “Oh God,” he whispered. “What do I do
now?”

Leppard lay
at the bottom of the pit. He couldn’t remember how long he’d fallen
for but it had seemed a long time. He could feel nothing in his
body and above him, no larger than a star in the sky, was the light
from where the boys were still kept prisoner. As he watched the
light winked out and he guessed that the floor had been closed
again. There was no pain which frightened him and in the pitch
darkness he could see nothing, only hear a slow dripping coming
from somewhere near. 

He was scared at the thought
that death meant spending eternity at the bottom of this hole. He
silently prayed for Bue and the others and hoped his sacrifice
would lead Bue to have a long and happy life. The lad was like a
son to him and he knew deep down Bue was a good boy. 

As he
finished his prayer a bright light suddenly appeared from ahead of
him. He squinted against the sudden glare and as he watched there
was a scuffling noise and a small blue creature waddled towards
him. He looked down and saw his own smashed body in the light the
creature was radiating. He winced and stifled a cry of
fear. 

The creature was incredibly
short but with huge feet, like paddles with black claws on the
ends. It looked like a cross between a rat and a kangaroo. As
Leppard stared in shock at the creature it smiled and
said: 

“
Don’t be
frightened Leppard. I am your chaperon.” 

Leppard
stared at the creature, unable to move and stammered,
“Gryphoid?” 

The creature smiled. It’s eyes
were a deep, limpid brown and its skin was baby blue. Its too-short
arms were folded across its chest and its long, wide blue tail was
curled around its feet.

 “
Yes.”
The smile was serene like a mother to a baby.

 
Realisation hit Leppard then. He was dead. This really was
it. The Gryphoids came for you when you died, or so the legends
spoke. Only those who had been brought back from death had ever
seen them and told of it. Now he knew it was true.

 
He
noticed the dripping noise had stopped and the air around him
seemed to be static.  

“
Time has
stopped for us, for a while,” the Gryphoid said by way of
explanation and sat on a portion of its own tail, adjusting itself
to get comfy. Its skin glowed with the baby blue and sensing
Leppard’s fear it spoke reassuringly. “Don’t be frightened. You are
a good man and you have led a good life. Let me tell you of all the
good things you and your life have achieved for others, some that
you will remember and some that you never knew
of.” 

The creature began to talk. It
told Leppard of all the things he’d ever done that had helped
others from when he was a boy until now. It reminded him of the
things he had done that had made others happy. It said that there
were people whose lives he had saved or forever changed by his
generosity and self sacrifice. It reassured him that while many of
his gestures had been forgotten by both him and others, some people
had never forgotten his kindness towards them. 

Leppard began
to weep as he heard these things. Not with sadness but with joy and
for what seemed like an incredibly long time the creature talked.
By the time they had finished and Leppard’s soul moved on, he felt
more joyful and at peace than he had ever felt before.

Chapter
23

Jared was
thirsty, tired and his wrists ached. He could take most of the
pressure off his arms by standing on tip toe but the bracelets cut
into his wrists harshly. Bue was still crying quietly, his
screaming and thrashing having ended after exhaustion took over.
Jared knew King James would come back soon and to stop him killing
another friend he had to remember everything he had seen, both at
home and here. He had no doubt that they would be killed anyway. If
only there was something they could do. He was downhearted at the
sight of Bue imprisoned, a soul he thought could never be caught.
Leppard's chains hung limply.

Jared racked
his mind to think of what had happened since he had stumbled into
Sophie’s room in Warwick hospital. He remembered the fear and chaos
at Heathrow airport and the futile struggling against Mordalayn’s
iron grasp. He thought about the removal of the tracking sigil and
the horror as it had fought the exorcism. He remembered the
soldiers on the dock and the poor man who’d been taken by the
lake’s guardians for his attack on them. Then his thoughts turned
to the runaway thief in the dusty streets that Mordalayn had saved
and then….

His head snapped upright. Oh
God, what was the man’s name?

 
He
racked his brains for the little scruffy man’s name and then it
came to him. 

Taking a deep
breath Jared went, “Scious, Scious, Scious,
Scious….Scious.” 

He looked around, half
expecting the room to dematerialise in front of them and for them
all to wake up back at the Cherubs. But…nothing. 

“
Worth a
try,” he said to himself. “Might have guessed…” 

There was a loud crack and
ahead of them the air split open as if cut with a sharp knife. A
brief, millisecond of blue light spilled from the slash and
suddenly a man burst forward from it. He was flung forward and
staggered as if coming to a sudden stop after running and looked
around bewildered. His hat flew from his head and he grabbed it
back.

 “
My oh
my,” he said and patted his pockets then his arms and legs as if
checking they were still in one piece. “Who calls Scious away from
his supper?” He looked at the imprisoned boys in front of him and a
look of concern crossed his features. “Dear oh dear, you poor
people. Hello young man,” he said addressing Jared. “Never thought
you’d need the help of one such as I.”