Alfie Bloom and the Talisman Thief (20 page)

“Don't give it to her!” pleaded Alfie.

“It's OK,” whispered Madeleine, letting the bird take the string in its beak. Alfie couldn't believe what she had done as the bird fluttered back to the Queen whose laughter filled the hall as she received her prize.

“You've got what you came for,” said Alfie, “so now you'll leave and go home?”

The Queen laughed again. Even Merioch cracked a smile.

“Of course we'll leave,” she trilled.

“And you'll let us go?” said Alfie. “All of us?”

“You and your friends will all remain in Hexbridge.”

Something about the Queen's voice didn't inspire Alfie with confidence. He waited for a “but”.

“But … I like this castle. I've decided it will be my new home.”

“You said you were leaving,” shouted Madeleine,
her
hands clenched tightly by her sides.

“We are. But the castle is coming with us. This land of yours, Hexbridge, will be the first addition to our own lands. Its people will accept me as their Queen. Life for them will be very much the same, except they will worship me and do everything I ask.”

“Maddie already gave you
my
talisman. Isn't that enough? Why can't you just leave us alone?”

“
Your
talisman?” said the Queen, shadows crossing her face and emphasizing its sharp features. She held up the talisman. “This unworthy receptacle for a lens destined to take its place in
my
crown?”

Winds that Alfie couldn't feel swept her hair out around her face like angry snakes. As she towered in front of him Alfie could see the empty hole in the centre of the jewelled circlet upon her head, its other stones glowing gently as though great power lay within.

“Stolen by a pathetic thief who took
two
of my most prized possessions and then dared to return to our lands once more, to steal again no doubt!”

She waved her hand and Merioch seized Madeleine's shoulders, while the sprite grabbed Alfie's arms tightly.

“We have one of yours,” Alfie shouted suddenly.
“
Loth. The one I was disguised as. Let us go and my friends will release him.”

“They can throw him into the lake with rocks tied to his feet,” sneered the Queen. “I have no time for incompetence.” Alfie crumpled as his last hope faded away. “Now, you will show us to one of the towers. The one to the east, which looks down over the village, will do nicely.”

“No,” said Alfie. The Queen nodded at Merioch, who drew a dagger from his belt and pressed it to Madeleine's neck so swiftly Alfie barely had time to shout, “STOP! I'll take you. Let her stay here and I'll take you.”

“We
all
go,” said the Queen, sweeping towards the door. “Bring them.”

Alfie was shoved roughly forwards as the elves marched up the stairs. He bit his lip so hard it began to bleed as he led them towards the tower. The hallways and secret passages of the castle ran through his head as he tried to plot out a route to take them on that would give him a chance of escaping along the way. He considered dashing away and barricading himself into one of the rooms they passed, but the arrows pricking his back stopped him. Even if he could get away he would be leaving Madeleine behind. For a terrible,
guilty
second he wondered if that wasn't such a bad idea. He glared at her as they climbed the stairs to the second floor.

“Why? Why did you bring the talisman? I left it there so that it would be safe from them.”

“It's not what you think,” she whispered out of the corner of her mouth as Merioch pushed her forwards. “Ashford
wanted
them to have it.”

“Silence,” snapped Merioch as they climbed the final flight of stairs. Alfie glared at Madeleine. How could she even know what Ashford wanted? Unless he'd woken up and told her to take the talisman in order to save himself. Maybe he was escaping the castle right now. He couldn't believe Madeleine had been so stupid. She glanced at him as though she wanted desperately to say something, then shook her head and looked away.

“I see no door,” said the Queen, as they reached the stone carving at the end of the corridor.

Merioch bent forwards and hissed in Alfie's face. “Open it.”

Alfie crossed his arms. He wouldn't tell them how to open the entrance. Merioch bent down until he was nose to nose with Alfie, grabbed him by the neck and growled “OPEN IT!”

“Put him down!” cried Madeleine as Alfie
coughed
and struggled against the elf. Merioch whirled around, grasped Madeleine's hair, and yanked her head back so sharply that she couldn't help crying out in pain.

“You don't have to open it, Alfie,” she gasped. Merioch lifted her by the hair until her legs were kicking out in mid air.

Alfie knew he had no choice. How could Madeleine have been so reckless? She couldn't possibly have thought that giving the talisman to the Queen was the right thing to do. He took a deep breath and pressed the four bricks in order. The torches on the wall sprang to life as the wall parted to reveal the entrance to the tower. Merioch dropped Madeleine and pushed Alfie through the entrance as the other elves poured through around them. Alfie tried to contain his rage as they shot up the spiral staircase, rampaging through the room of treasures Orin had collected from around the world.

“Leave these trinkets!” snarled the Queen. “There will be time for this when the castle is within our own realm.” Merioch pushed the stragglers out of the room and they filed up the stairs to the top of the tower. The sprite held on to Alfie and Madeleine's arms to stop them running back down. As they climbed through the trapdoor
at
the top Alfie saw that the misty dome still hung over the castle, keeping it in perpetual twilight.

“Time to view our new domain,” the Queen smiled to Merioch. She waved her arms in a complicated motion and the mist began to swirl as though she were running her fingers through it. Slowly, it flowed down into the courtyard and back through the oak portal.

As the dome disappeared, Alfie could make out the outline of the hills and forest against the night sky. Only a few street lights lit the sleeping village below. Straining his eyes, Alfie wondered if he could see a light from Merryweather farm, far in the distance. Was his dad there, with Granny and the twins' parents? Soon they would all be together again, as slaves in another realm.

The Queen whistled and dozens of fireflies swarmed up to the tower, floating gently above it like a constellation of green and yellow stars. The silver sparrow on her shoulder snapped its little beak at any that flew too close. Under their soft light, the Queen removed her crown and handed it to Merioch to hold. She removed the lens from the talisman and inserted it into the hole in the crown. All of the jewels seemed to shimmer more brightly in its presence.

“With this lens, the power of all the other
gems
is focused.” She spoke directly to Alfie, her beautiful face ghostly green in the light of the fireflies. “Through it I will expand my realm until all living things call me their Queen. She tucked the empty talisman into Alfie's pocket and patted him on the head.

Alfie's hand twitched towards the crown, but the sprite held his arms so tightly that all thoughts of grabbing it and hurling it down into the lake melted away. The Queen shook her head and tapped him on the nose with her finger, then reached to take it back from Merioch. Her face changed as he didn't let go.

“What game is this?” she asked, trying to wrench it from his hands. Merioch pushed her back with one hand, his face impassive as he held the crown high above her head. “Seize him,” she screamed, jumping up to try and grab it.

Alfie was reminded of the bullies at his last school as he watched Merioch taunting the Queen with her own crown. She stopped trying to reach it as she realized that none of the elves were obeying her command. “Was I not clear?” She held herself tall as she tried to recover her composure. “I said
seize him
.” She pushed one of the elves in front of her.

Merioch
clicked his fingers. Two of the elves behind him stepped forwards and grasped the Queen's arms.

“Traitors!” she screamed in fury. “Traitors. All of you. May your blood boil and your skin shrivel—” She stopped mid-sentence as Merioch placed his finger on her lips and gently touched his knife to her face. Her eyes shot fire at him as he pushed her over to Alfie and Madeleine, just another prisoner.

Alfie could feel cold fury radiating from the Queen as she stood next to him watching Merioch raise the crown and place it on his own head. He wondered if Ashford was awake, if he was watching through Orin's mirror. He thought about Robin and Amy in Artan's tower. What would happen to them when Hexbridge was pulled into the elven realms? They couldn't stay hidden for ever. What would happen to his dad, to Granny, Aunt Grace and Uncle Herb? Would he ever get to go to school and see all of his friends again, or would they all become Merioch's slaves? Or worse, his army.

The grip on Alfie's shoulder lessened as the sprite stared up at the crown on Merioch's head, its gems glowing brightly. Madeleine nudged Alfie's arm with her own.

“I'm sorry,” she whispered. “They were going
to
shoot you, I had to do something. I didn't think they'd bring us with them when they tried to use it.”

Alfie watched Merioch raise his fingers to his temples in concentration. The crown began to emit a low thrumming noise as it lit the whole top of the tower with a purple glow.

“Doesn't matter really, does it?” said Alfie. “We're going with them whether we're up here or down there.”

Madeleine smiled grimly and shook her head. “Not exactly.”

The thrumming changed to a high-pitched piercing whine. Merioch staggered backwards. Something was wrong. The lens in the centre of the crown was swirling like a tiny galaxy, or something more sinister – a black hole. Alfie realized it was growing fast. A wind started blowing around them and the fireflies whirled away, disappearing into the expanding hole in the crown. The elf fell to his knees and tried to prise the crown from his head. It was stuck fast.

The sprite let go of Alfie and Madeleine as the swirling wind blew stronger, sucking bows, arrows and everything that wasn't securely attached into the gaping hole. Alfie tried to get to the trapdoor
but
jumped back as he was almost trampled by the panicking elves fighting each other to pull it open. A piercing screech rang out, and Alfie turned to see the sprite being sucked into the hole, his body appearing to stretch and distort as he disappeared screaming into blackness.

Staggering to the edge of the tower, Alfie hung on to one of the stones of the battlements. Madeleine was hugging the one next to him. He could feel his feet starting to lift into the air as the crown pulled him towards it.

“Hang on!” he shouted to Madeleine over the screams of elves tumbling into the hole behind them.

Alfie wondered if he dared jump off the tower. Surely falling to his death would be better than being sucked through into that terrible nothingness.

A faint hope flickered inside him. Would Artan be able to hear him over the roaring wind? Holding tight to the stone with one arm, he reached into his pocket and found the silver whistle. He clenched it between his lips and blew as hard as he could. Grabbing Madeleine's arm, he made a gesture with his hand to indicate going over the edge.

Fighting the wind, Alfie began to pull himself
on
to the tower wall. Madeleine seemed to consider her limited options and then did the same. Dragging himself forwards until he was sitting on the edge of the battlements, Alfie leaned forwards over the dizzying drop to the courtyard below; only the hungry gravity of the crown kept him from plummeting to earth. He blew again and again on the whistle, the screams of the elves growing fewer as one by one they were swallowed by the void. Now the very stones of the castle were beginning to vibrate, mortar crumbling as they came apart.

In the darkness there was no way to tell whether or not Artan was coming. Alfie grabbed for Madeleine's hand. She met his eyes and shrugged as though to say
might as well
. Together they leapt, launching themselves away from the collapsing tower. Castle stones swirled away into the void behind them as they fell in slow motion away from the pull of the crown.

An animal roar grew rapidly closer as their fall increased in speed, the earth's gravity replacing that of the crown.

“Aaaartaaaan!” screamed Alfie as he saw the bear speeding towards them as the courtyard loomed below. Seconds before they smashed into the cobbles Artan swept under them and they
bounced
on to his back. The bear carried them gently down into the garden where they lay panting on the grass.

Looking straight up, Alfie saw the top floors of the tower implode, sucked into the centre of the crown. Only Merioch was left, hovering high up in mid-air before he stretched, distorted, and was finally swallowed by the crown himself. As he vanished the crown seemed to fold in on itself, disappearing with a little pop, leaving the night still and silent once more.