Alcatraz versus the Knights of Crystallia (33 page)

“
And the execution of my beloved?" Folsom demanded.

"In my eyes, young man,"
Swcbn said, "that one is a trai
tor and a turncoat.
How
would your own laws treat someone
who committed treason?"

The room fell still.
W
here was my grandfather?
His seat
at the table was noticeably empty.

"
C
onsidering this information," said King Dartmoor,
"how many of you
now
vote against signing the treaty?
”

Five of the twelve monarchs raised their hands.

“
And I assume
S
medry wo
uld still vote against the sign
ing," Dartmoor said, "assuming he hadn't stormed out in
anger.
That leaves six against six.
I am the deciding vote.”

"Father," the prince called.
"
What would a hero do?”

The king hesitated.
Then, embarrassingly, he looked up
at me.
He stared me in the eyes.
Then he ripped the treaty
in two.

"I find it telling," he declare
d to S
wcbn, "that you
cannot control your own people despite the importance
of these talks!
I find it di
sturbing that you would be will
ing to execute one of your own for joining a kingdom
with which you claim you want to be friends.
And, most of
all, I find it disgusting what I nearly did.
I want you
Librarians out of my kingdom by
m
idnight.
These talks are
at an end."

The room exploded with sound.
There were quite a
number of cheers
–
many
of these coming from the section
where the Mokians, Australia included, were sitting.
There
were some boos, but mostly there was just a lot of excited
chatter.
Draulin approached
from the ranks of knights, lay
ing a hand on the king's shoulder and
–
in
a rare moment
of emotion
–
nodded.
She actually thought that ripping
up the treaty was a good idea.

M
a
yb
e
that meant she'd see Bastille's help in this entire
mess as validation for restoring her daughter's knighthood.
I glanced about for Bastille, but she wasn't to be found.
Sing
tapped my arm and pointed behind.
I could see Bastille in
the hallway, sitting in a
chair, arms wrapped around her
self, shivering.
She'd lost her Warrior's Lenses back when
we'd been captured, and I could see that her eyes were red
and puf
f
y.

My first instinct was to go to her, but something
made me hesitate.
Swc
bn didn't seem particularly dis
turbed by these events.
She'd turned back to her knitting.
That bothered me.

"Socrates," I whispered.

"What's that,
Al
catraz
?" Sing asked.

"This guy I learned about in school," I said.
“
He was one
of those annoying typ
es who always asked questions.”

"Okay . . ." Sing said.

S
omething was wrong.
I began asking questions that
should have bothered me long before this.

W
hy was the most powerful Librarian in all of the
Hushlands here to negotiate a treaty that the monarchs had
already decided to sign?

W
hy wasn't she worried at being surrounded by her
enemies, capable of being captured and imprisoned at a
moment's notice?

W
hy did I feel so unsettled, as if we hadn't really won
after all?

At that moment, Draulin screamed.
S
he collapsed to the
ground, holding
her head. Then every Knight of C
rystallia
in the room dropped to the ground, crying out in pain.

"Hello, everyone!" a voice suddenly cried.
I spun to find
my grandfather standing behind us.
I’
m back!
Did I miss
anything important?"

At that m
o
me
nt, a lot of things happened at once.

The common people in
the crowd began to scream
in
fear and confusion.
A group of Li
brarian thugs pushed their way
down to the floor ar
ound Swcbn, who continued to sit
and knit.

King Dartmoor unshe
athed his sword and turned to
face the thugs.
Grandp
a
S
medry and I tried to rush down
the stairs to get to the mo
narchs, but were blocked by the
crowds, who were trying to flee.

"Hiccupping Huffs!" Grandpa Smedry cursed.

"Follow me, Lord Sme
dry!" Sing said, muscling up to the
top of the stairs beside us.
Then he tripped.

Now, I don't know how y
ou'd react if a three-hundred-pound
Mokian tripped and began to roll down th
e stairs
toward
y
ou, but I safely say that I'd either:

1) Scream like a girl and j
um
p out of the way.

2) Scream like a gerbil and j
um
p out of the way.

3) Scream like a Smedry and j
um
p out of the way.

The people on the steps chose to scream like a bunch of
people on some steps, but they
did
get out of the way.

Grandpa Smedry, Folsom, Himalaya, and I charged
down the stairs behind the Mokian.
Prince Rikers stayed
behind, looking confused.
"
This part actually looks danger
ous," he called.
"Maybe I should stay here.
You know, and
guard the exit."

Whatever
, I thought. His father, at least, proved to have
a spine.
King Dartmoor stood over the body of his fallen
wife, facing down the group of Librarian thugs, sword held
before him.
The other monarchs were in the processes of
scattering away.

It looked as if the Librarians would easily cut down the
king before we could reach him.

"Hey!" a voice yelled suddenly.
I recognized my aunt
Patty standing in the audience, pointing.
As always, her
voice managed to carry ov
er any and every bit of competi
tion.
"I don't mean to be rude," she bellowed, "but is that
toilet paper stuck to your leg?"

The Librarian thug at the front immediately looked
down, then blushed , realizin
g
that he did indeed have toilet
paper stuck to him.
He bent down to pull it off, causing the
others to bunch
u
p behind him awkwardly.

That distraction gave us just enough time to cover the
distance to the king.
Grandpa Smedry whipped out a pair
of Lenses.
I recognized the
green specks in the glass, mark
ing them as Windstormer's Lenses.
Sure enough, the Lenses
released a blast of air, knocking back the Librarians as they
tried to rush the king.

"What happened to the knights?" the king yelled,
desperate.

"Librarians must have corrupted the Mindstone, Brig,"
Grandpa Smedry said.

That's the problem with having a magic rock that
connects the minds of all of your best soldiers.
T
a
ke
down the stone, and you take down your soldiers.
Kind
of like how taking out one cell phone tower can knock
out the texting ability of an entire school's worth of teen-age girls.

Grandpa Smedry focused on blasting the Librarians
with his Lenses, but they got smart quickly.
They spread
out, forcing their way around the perimeter of the floor,
t
rying to get at the king.
Grandpa Smedry couldn't focus
on all the different groups; there were too many.

The room was a chaotic mess.
People screaming,
Librarians pulling ou
t swords, wind blowing. The mon
archs were trying to escape, but the stairs were clogged
again.
Sing sat dazed from his roll down the stairs.
He
wouldn't be able to help again anytime soon.

"Alcatraz, get those monarchs out!" Grandpa
Smedry said, pointing toward the wall.
"Folsom, if you'd
help
me
.
.
."

And with that, Grandpa Smedry began to sing.

I stared at him, dumbfounded, until I realized this gave
Folsom the music he needed to dance.
Both Folsom and
Himalaya spun toward the Librarians, knocking down those
who had tried to push around the outsides of the room.

I turned and dashed up a section of bleacherlike seats.
"Monarchs, up here!" I said.
The seats here were empty,
their occupants all trying to crowd out the other door.

Several of the monarchs turned toward me as I reached
the far wall.
I placed two hands against it and blasted it with
breaking power.
The entire wall fell away as if it had been
shoved by the hand of a giant.

Monarchs rushed
u
p the
steps, wearing a variety of cos
tumes and crowns: A man with dark skin in red African-style
clothing.
The Mokian king in his islander wrap.
A king and
queen in standard crowns and European robes.
I counted
them off, but didn't see Bastille's father.

That was, apparently, because he was still down below.
I could see that he was trying to pull Draulin to safety
–
unfortunately, she weighed like a
bazillion pounds with all
that armor on, not to mention the awkward sword strapped
to her back.
The king must ha
ve come to the same conclu
sion, as he pulled free her sword and tossed it aside, then
began to work off the armor.

I moved to go help, but
t
he
crowds
had
seen my new
exit and were swarming around me.
I had to fight against
them, and it really slowed me down.

"Grandpa!" I yelled, pointing.

Below, my grandfather turned toward the king, then
cursed.
Folsom and Himalaya were holding off the
Librarians pretty well, so Grandpa Smedry rushed over to
help the High King.
I tried to do likewise, but it was slow
going with the crowd in my way.
Fortunately, it looked like
I wouldn't be needed.

People escaped out of the broken hole in the wall.
Folsom and Himalaya h
andled the Librarians. My grand
father helped the High King pick up Draulin.
Everything
seemed good.

Swcbn continued to knit quietly.

Questions.
They still itched at me.

How exactly
, I wondered
, did the Librarians get to the
Crystin Mindstone?
That thing must be freakishly well
guarded
.

Why was Swcbn acting so content?
Who
had
blown up
the
Hawkwind
?
It had to have been someone who would
have been able to get Detonator's Glass into Draulin's pack.
Hers was the room that had exploded.

I glanced at Himalaya
, who fought beside her new hus
band, knocking down enemy after enemy as my grandfather
sang opera.
It occurred to me that perhaps we'd overlooked
s
omething.
And at that
moment, I asked the most impor
tant question of all.