Felix and the Red Rats (17 page)

The princess smiled, and nodded.

‘Well, then. I think we’ve waited long enough. Let the vase be shattered.’

Princess Pia looked to Medulla, but he was still busily engaged with the struggling count. It was a small dilemma. Bella, seeing her uncertainty, picked
up the hammer and handed it to the princess.

‘I think it’s your task, really,’ she whispered.

The princess smiled. ‘Excellent idea!’

Then she turned to the table, brought back the hammer, and swung it strongly and directly at the vase.

There was the sound of shattering glass and the shimmering teardrop smashed into a thousand pieces. Instinctively, everybody in the chamber had covered their eyes. Now as they took their arms away from their faces, the table was glistening with fragments surrounding a silver crown and a roll of parchment.

The elderly lord stepped gingerly across the floor and took up the roll and unwound it. Holding it up before his eyes, he then read out in a surprisingly ringing voice, ‘The answer to the question “What three creatures are bound by Pia?” is’ — he paused for effect, and turned to smile at Princess Pia — ‘… ant … ape … and asp!’

The Council of Nobles stood as one and applauded loudly and long. Princess Pia waved to them, Medulla extricated himself from the regent, and Bella, Felix and Myrtle jumped up and down, grinning and laughing.

As the applause and shouting died down, the old lord laid the parchment back down on the table and then reached for the crown. He lifted it high in the air before placing it gently on Princess Pia’s head. Then,
gesturing towards the throne he led her to it as a father leads a bride down the aisle.

Princess Pia mounted the rostrum and settled herself on the black throne. She gazed about the room, smiling radiantly.

Of all the people in the chamber, only Count Cava was neither laughing nor clapping. He had clambered to his feet, and now stood indecisively like a rat in a corner, torn between a desire to make a crazy dash for it and the more sensible option of surrender.

Visibly slumping, realising there was no future in flight, he looked up and readjusted his expression. Fixing an oily smile on his face, he approached the throne, crunching over the shattered shards of crystal littering the floor.

He bowed before Princess Pia and said, ‘Your highness, I fear I may have given you the wrong impression of my position. Let me assure you that there is nobody in this room more delighted than I am that this cursed riddle has been solved and that you are now securely restored to your rightful throne.’

‘Uncle … ?’ Princess Pia said, unable to conceal her disbelief.

‘I believe that in the time I held the throne in trust for you, as it were, my actions have been honourable, my conduct impeccable and my instincts always loyal.’

Pia looked at him calmly. ‘Uncle, have you already
forgotten that one of your first actions as regent was to exile me to that mountain fastness, to exile me there as a virtual prisoner?’

‘But, my dear,’ protested Count Cava, ‘you cannot imagine that that was out of malice, or that it was out of anything other than a desire to protect you in anticipation of a glorious day such as this?’

‘To be honest, Uncle,’ said Princess Pia, ‘I can imagine it
was
out of malice, actually; and nothing you have said or done in the last ten years has persuaded me otherwise.’

The count feigned a look of utter bewilderment and shook his head. ‘In that case, I am truly sorry,’ he said. ‘Somehow for ten years we have been completely at cross purposes.’

‘Apparently we have,’ said Princess Pia.

‘The confusion,’ continued the count easily, ‘is undoubtedly entirely my fault, and I do hope you will accept my full and unconditional apology?’

Princess Pia inclined her head in assent.

‘And may I express my determination to serve you in future in any capacity, nay any
humble
capacity, you may see fit to employ me in.’

‘
Humble
capacity, Uncle?’

‘Humble capacity, your highness.’

Princess Pia glanced at Medulla who had moved up to stand behind Count Cava in case he might prove yet a danger to the princess. She gave Medulla a warm
smile, and then turned back to the count.

‘In that case, Uncle, I’m sure you’ll be very happy to learn that I will overlook your past indignities towards your brother’s daughter and hereby appoint you Lord …’

Count Cava sagged with relief.

‘… of the Stables,’ continued the princess. ‘You will be from henceforth in complete charge of the—’

‘… pigs?’ asked the count in disbelief.

‘Pigs,’ confirmed the princess firmly.

At this announcement, the count sagged again, although this time with disgrace rather than relief, whereas the Council of Nobles, all of whom had suffered at one time or another from the count’s highhandedness, laughed and applauded.

Myrtle, who had been standing with Bella and Felix at the other end of the table, suddenly remembered that Moonface was still languishing in his dungeon.

She gasped his name and Bella said, ‘Oh, my goodness!’

Myrtle broke free from the others and rushed up to the throne just as Count Cava was being escorted away.

‘Your majesty! Your majesty!’ she blurted, bouncing right up onto the podium. ‘Moonface!’

Princess Pia caught her by the hand. ‘Myrtle? What do you mean?’

‘Princess,’ said Medulla urgently, ‘she means the fourth child. The one the count had arrested. He is still locked in the dungeon awaiting trial.’

‘There will be no trial,’ said the princess firmly, and summoning two of the twerp guards gave orders for

Moonface’s immediate release. Myrtle grinned with relief, and Medulla smiled at Pia. ‘Spoken just like one born to rule,’ he whispered.

Much later, reunited with Moonface, who looked shaken and harrowed by his time in the solitary horror of the dungeon, the children sat together in what was once Count Cava’s private sitting room.

The atmosphere was considerably more relaxed than the previous time they’d been in the chamber. Then they had perched nervously on the edge of the chairs or sofas, mouths dry, and nervous of saying the wrong thing, of provoking the unpredictable serpent-like regent.

To Moonface’s huge satisfaction, they had been provided with food, mountains of food, and drink. Now the princess, smiling, said, ‘You must know by now how grateful I am for all you have done. You have not only enabled me to take up my rightful crown, you have also restored Axillaris. You saw how the Council of Nobles reacted. They know, we all know, that the illness is over, the bad feeling, the bad temper … From today Axillaris can begin to heal itself, and this happiness we owe to you.’

‘It was nothing much, really,’ said Bella. ‘It was almost accidental that we twigged to the magic squares and all that.’

‘We feel that nothing is accidental,’ said Medulla.

‘We can offer you much,’ said the princess, ‘but we can talk of that later. First, let us beg you to stay for the festivities, for the formal coronation and …’

‘The wedding,’ grinned Medulla.

Princess Pia smiled, her eyes shining. ‘Yes, the royal wedding,’ she said, and reached for Medulla’s hand.

Bella glanced at the others, and said, ‘I’m sure all that would be great fun and we’d love to be part of it, but really your very best present, Princess, would be to let us go home.’

The others nodded.

‘Our folks will be getting frantic, I guess,’ said Felix. ‘It’s all I want, too.’

Princess Pia looked a little disappointed. ‘But that is easily arranged,’ she said. ‘There is nothing else?’

Felix shook his head. He realised suddenly that getting home would be the best thing in the world. ‘If you could arrange it as quickly as possible,’ he said, ‘that would be better still.’

‘It will be done!’ said Medulla. ‘We will take you to the Way Station at once. How would you like to travel? By cable-car? Or would you prefer to fly?’

Felix grinned. The chance once more to ride through the air, especially in daylight, was wonderful. ‘I’d like to fly!’

Bella and Myrtle nodded enthusiastically as well. ‘But on my own this time,’ Myrtle demanded.

Moonface looked a little confused. ‘How are we going fly?’ he asked. ‘By helicopter?’

Felix shook his head. ‘Uh uh,’ he said. ‘By pig!’

Some time later, they stood on the cobbled pathway before the sliding doors to the Way Station. The twerp named Spleen guarded the door. He looked balefully at Medulla.

‘Have you brought my bounty?’ he asked irritably. ‘You took long enough!’

‘No, I haven’t,’ said Medulla easily. ‘There’ll be no bounty for you either, for these people are not, and never were, rebels.’

‘In fact,’ said Princess Pia, ‘they have saved Axillaris.’

‘They have?’ sneered Spleen. ‘Saved it from what?’

‘Unpleasantness,’ said Princess Pia. ‘And if I were you, I’d hurry up and develop some cheerfulness, or I’m afraid your position as guardian may be
short-lived
.’

‘Oh, yeah?’ snarled the twerp, looking her up and down insolently. ‘And who are you when you’re at home, then?’

At that point, Medulla bent down and told him. Spleen’s eyes widened and he looked at Princess Pia with sudden fear. She met his stare evenly. At once, Spleen dropped to one knee, and whispered, ‘Forgive me, my lady. I didn’t know—’

‘You shouldn’t need to know,’ the princess rebuked
him. ‘Pleasantness is all it takes; that and a friendly smile.’

Considering that to be an order, Spleen attempted to fashion his face into a friendly smile, but it had been so long since he had tried one, every muscle in his face resisted. His eyes narrowed and his lips contorted into a frightful grimace.

‘He shouldn’t really have attempted that,’ grinned Bella.

‘Not bad,’ said Medulla encouragingly. ‘But practice will make perfect.’

Shortly after they had made their final farewells, they found themselves once more in the concrete shed. The wooden door at the far end was illuminated by a thin line of sunlight down the hinge side and in that narrow shaft motes danced. They manoeuvred their way around the darkened machinery and pushed at the door which swung open into blinding sunshine.

‘Thank goodness it’s open,’ said Bella. ‘Just our luck if the bolt had been shoved home and the door locked again!’

Myrtle grinned and reached into her jeans pocket. ‘Nobody could’ve locked it, anyway,’ she said. ‘I’ve had the lock in my pocket all the time.’

They stepped into the sunshine. Myrtle handed Felix the lock and he secured it and pushed the hasp home. ‘That’ll stop anybody else finding their way in
there,’ he said. ‘It’s a pretty dangerous shed when you think about it.’

‘Funny how we both had hidden things in Axillaris,’ said Bella to Myrtle. ‘You with the padlock and me with my diary.’

She reached under her sweatshirt and pulled it out. ‘Funny isn’t it,’ she said. ‘You write stuff down and often you have no idea what you’ve written or what it could mean.’

‘Something to do with magic?’ asked Felix.

‘Or Fortuna,’ grinned Bella.

For a moment or two they were all quiet, breathing in the warm safety of the pine forest and its lovely turpentine familiarity.

But then, suddenly, and without warning, Moonface lunged toward Bella, grabbed her diary, and then, without a backward glance, ran pell-mell up the zigzag path, shouting, ‘Dusty! Dusty! I’ve got it! I’ve got it!’

Myrtle gave Felix and Bella a shrug and an apologetic look, then spun on her heels and chased after Moonface.

‘Hoy!’ shouted Felix. ‘Moonface! You dirty rat! Bring it back!’

And he and Bella set off in pursuit.

THE END

Gray did not stay in the kitchen long. With a distraught look, but without explanation, he grabbed the paper bag out of Mum’s startled hands, and fled down the passage, I guessed to my bedroom.
Whoops
, I thought,
guess I’ll be sleeping in the living room tonight
.

The policeman quickly regained his composure after the shock of Gray’s astonishing complexion was revealed, and he made his apologies and left.

‘I’ll have to go and talk to him,’ said Mum softly. ‘John, take over, will you, and make sure nothing spoils.’

She was gone quite some time. In the meantime, Dad recruited Martha and me to attend to the salmon and the other things cooking on the range and then to the serving up.

‘What about Gray?’ asked Martha. ‘Should I serve up for him?’

‘Of course,’ said Dad, ‘although I don’t think for one second he’ll be eating with us. You can take a plate down to the bedroom.’

While we were fussing about in the kitchen, I noticed that Uncle Felix and Bella were sitting together on one of the sofas in the living room. They looked to be having a deep and somewhat animated discussion, although you wouldn’t say exactly that they were arguing. Whatever it was, it was too far away to hear, and their tones were hushed anyway.

We were just putting the dinner on the table, when Mum returned.

‘Well?’ Dad asked.

‘It happened yesterday lunchtime,’ said Mum. ‘Poor boy … He and Robbie had just come back with some burgers and Robbie had gone off to wash his hands—’

‘But not Gray,’ grinned Dad.

Mum ignored him. ‘It was his hands that alerted him,’ she said. ‘Gray said he was opening the box to get at his burger and he suddenly realised his hand was scarlet. He looked at the other and it was the same.’

‘Just like that?’ asked Martha.

‘Just like that,’ said Mum. ‘No warning at all. Of course he rushed to the bathroom to check out his face in the mirror, and there it was, red as a tomato, just as we saw him before. His hair the same.’

‘So what did he do?’ I asked.

‘Basically,’ said Mum, ‘he hid. He told Robbie about the rats and the cat and all that, and they thought the best thing he could do was hide in Robbie’s bedroom and stay there until the colour wore off.’

‘But it hasn’t worn off,’ said Martha. ‘The rats are still red, and I guess Rusty is too.’

Uncle Felix coughed. ‘And, I don’t think it will wear off either,’ he said. ‘Or at least not until Bella and I take some action …’

‘Bella and you?’ asked Dad.

‘Felix and I have been talking,’ said Bella, ‘and we agree that something is causing these strange transformations.’

‘Of course,’ said Dad. ‘That goes without saying.’

‘Yes,’ said Bella. ‘But we think we might know the cause — we think it could have something to do with us.’

‘Uncle Felix?’ asked Mum. ‘Is this more of your silly magic?’

‘Not at all, Nancy,’ said Uncle Felix, ‘not at all. What Bella is hinting at refers to something quite different. I don’t know how to put it — real magic perhaps, not trickery magic.’

‘I don’t follow,’ said Mum, confused.

‘I did mention to David in one of our earlier conversations,’ said Uncle Felix, ‘that I rather thought the red rats were a kind of signal.’

‘Signal?’ asked Dad.

‘Signal,’ repeated Uncle Felix. ‘Or message, if you prefer.’

‘Message? What sort of message? Message to whom?’ asked Dad.

‘A message to us,’ said Bella, ‘to Felix and me.’

‘You’ve lost me,’ said Dad.

‘We’re not trying to be mysterious,’ said Uncle Felix, ‘it’s just so very difficult to explain. All I can say is that we ignored the message of the rats, and then we ignored the message of Rusty—’

‘You see,’ said Bella, ‘the message is getting more urgent.’

‘And now here’s poor Gray,’ said Uncle Felix.

‘It’s more urgent still,’ said Bella.

‘So,’ said Felix, ‘we are going to have to respond.’

Uncle Felix didn’t really explain how they were going to respond, or when, despite Bella’s mention of urgency. The meal continued and so did conversation, but it wasn’t the meal Mum was anticipating or the meal Uncle Felix had hoped for.

There were a few old reminiscences of life on the hill and of their days at school, but Bella was not nearly so animated as she had been at the lunch, and nor did she laugh so much.

When Dad offered coffee after the meal, Uncle Felix laid a hand on his arm and said, ‘John, if you’ll excuse us, and this is terribly rude, I know, but there are certain things
Bella and I must attend to while there is still daylight.’

‘What you were talking about before?’ asked Dad.

Uncle Felix nodded.

‘Will you be back later?’

‘I do hope so, but who can tell?’

He gave a wan smile, and Bella smiled back.

I knew Dad had been asking whether they’d be back for coffee, but something in Uncle Felix’s bleak little smile made me wonder whether Uncle Felix’s answer meant something else.

Mum stood up. Her face was torn and I knew why. She was disappointed that the meal had turned out so badly, but at the same time she was hoping that somehow Uncle Felix and Bella might unwork the magic that had turned Gray red.

Sensing this, Bella took her hand. ‘We will do our best, Nancy. I’m sure it will work out.’

And then as they were getting ready to go, Uncle Felix, after a glance at Bella, who gave a little smile of assent, said. ‘And, if it’s all right with you, we’d like to take David with us.’

Mum and Dad had exchanged bewildered glances.

‘Would you like to go, David?’ Mum had asked, and I had said ‘Oh, yes!’ before I had time to think about it.

Now, as we walked up the path to the road, I asked, ‘Where are we going?’

‘You’ll see,’ said Uncle Felix.

‘Is it far?’

‘Not really?’

‘Shall we walk?’

Bella laughed. ‘What is this? Twenty Questions?’

‘Should we walk, Bella?’ asked Uncle Felix.

Bella checked her watch. ‘No, we’ll take my car. I don’t want to run out of daylight, especially on that path if it’s still as steep as you said it was.’

By that time I’d sort of guessed that we were to find the zigzag path that linked the two roads, the zigzag path that also led, halfway down, to the concrete shed that, at least in Uncle Felix’s book, linked two worlds.

I wondered whether Bella had brought bolt-cutters with her. She’d need them if getting inside was her intention.

Somehow, I rather thought it was.

Sure enough, it took only a few minutes before we parked on the side of the road beside the place the path began. Uncle Felix and Bella climbed out, and I followed. It didn’t look like Bella had any bolt-cutters with her, although she did take a powerful-looking torch out of the glove-box.

Uncle Felix stood at the edge of the hill, looking down.

‘It seems a long time ago,’ he murmured.

‘It was a long time ago,’ said Bella softly. ‘Well, can’t be helped. Hi ho, off we go …’ And she began the zigzag walk down the path.

I was just going with the flow. Somehow, I’d almost
forgotten that this whole expedition was supposed to have something to do with taking some sort of magic eraser to Gray, Rusty and the rats and wiping away their redness. How it was supposed to do this, I didn’t have the slightest idea.

Back and forth we went down the zigzags; Bella in front, me behind her, and Uncle Felix bringing up the rear.

Before long we reached a left turn and the stretch of track that led to the concrete shed. It crouched in the evening shadows among the black pine trees. It was all rather spooky and I couldn’t help but shiver.

We gathered outside the door and I noticed at once that the solid-looking padlock was still in place.

So much for that, then. Or did Uncle Felix have a conjuring trick that could spring open Yale locks?

Bella was bending over at the door and shining her torch at the lock.

Then she straightened and turned to Uncle Felix with a long-suffering smile.

‘Oh, Felix,’ she exclaimed. ‘Why didn’t you look at this lock properly?’

‘What is it? What have I done?’

‘Look,’ she said. ‘The padlock’s in place, all right, but the hasp hasn’t been pushed home!’

And to prove her point she pulled the padlock away from the bolt, and unbolted the door.

‘Ready?’ she asked.

‘I’m ready,’ said Uncle Felix.

‘Right,’ whispered Bella, ‘we’re going in.’

She opened the door and beckoned me inside. Uncle Felix followed. Although I’d only read about it in the books, I recognized the smell immediately: old oil or grease, mustiness, dust.

Bella was spraying the torch beam around and I could see the slightly rusted cogs on the wheels of the humped machine, the rubber belts, and the ancient housing.

‘Turn your torch off, Bella,’ murmured Uncle Felix.

If it had been spooky in the pine forest outside the shed, it was even spookier in the almost complete darkness of the shed. Apart from our breathing, all was utterly silent.

And then it wasn’t. I heard a faint scurry, a flurry. Perhaps a rat skittering across the floor, perhaps a tiny bat swooping around our heads.

All at once, though, I knew the noise was no rat, no tiny bat. It was something else altogether.

It was another breathing sound. A wheezier breathing sound that was clearly neither Uncle Felix, nor Bella.

At that point, Uncle Felix said something very strange.

‘Spleen?’ he said. ‘Is that you?’

For a second there was silence, and then a voice replied.

‘Master Felix? Is that you?’

‘You can turn your torch on, Bella,’ whispered Uncle Felix.

All at once he sounded relieved.

Simultaneously, two torches were switched on. I gasped with surprise as I saw before me what must have been a twerp, exactly as Uncle Felix had described: dark glasses, brown leather shirt, yellow tunic and leggings. He shone his torch about us, and then to my further surprise he walked right up to me and said, ‘Master Felix?’

Uncle Felix coughed and said, ‘Actually, that’s my
great-nephew
, David. I’m Felix, and here is Bella back once more.’