Alistair Grim's Odd Aquaticum (24 page)

Silly me. I’d forgotten that we were invisible.

A maidservant, her heels echoing on the marble floor, hurried over to the brightest of the windows and waited. In one arm she carried a blanket, and in the other a towel and a golden scarf. We stood there watching her for what felt like ages, and then the window began to vibrate and glow even more brightly. Threads of white-hot lightning streaked along the metalwork that joined the countless plates of colored glass, and then a beautiful woman stepped through the window as if it weren’t there. I recognized her immediately—it was the lady who had smiled at Professor Bricklewick—but she was sopping wet, and as the maidservant swaddled her in the blanket and began toweling off her hair, I noticed a row of curved slits below each of the lady’s ears.

I shuddered. Father was right. The Avalonians had gills!

The maidservant wrapped the lady’s hair in the towel, tied the golden scarf about her neck, and then the pair quickly disappeared through the dais door. The three of us just stood looking after them for a long time, until finally Dalach said, “I think we just found the Lady of the Lake’s shortcut.”

“Cor,” I gasped—when something occurred to me. “Hang on. Earlier today Lord Dreary mentioned a legend about there being
two
Ladies of the Lake.”

“Not just two,” said the Gallownog. “Judging from how many sisters the queen has, I’d say there are at least
seven
who deserve that title.”

“Ach!” Mack cried. “You mean we’ve got seven of those sorceresses to contend with instead of one?”

“Merlin only taught Queen Nimue his sorcery. She may have taught her sisters too, but legend has it that all one needs to pass through this window is the heart of an Avalonian. Thus, I’ll wager that any of these gill people could do it.”

“Father thinks that, although only an Avalonian can get in, anyone can get out.”

“All right, enough of the jabberin’,” Mack said. “As I am charged with keepin’ us on time, I demand we resume our search for Excalibur.”

Dalach ignored him and dragged us closer to one of the dimmer windows. The date between the lady’s feet read
A.D.
1461. The Gallownog suddenly released me from his shackles. My entire body froze in terror. I was human again.
Visibly
human.

“What the—?” Mack cried. “Are ya out of your mind, neep?”

“Hurry, lad, touch the window,” said the Gallownog.

“But, sir, I—”

“As I am a spirit, even if I could pass through on my own, I would disintegrate as soon as I touched the water on the other side. However, you, Grubb, being human, would not.” Dalach grabbed my wrist. “Touch the window with your free hand. I’ll pull you back if something happens. Quickly, Grubb, before someone comes.”

Terrified, I reached out and touched the date between the lady’s feet. But nothing happened. Dalach immediately pushed me toward the glowing window, the one
without
a date. “Now hurry, do it again.”

I obeyed, but this time, as soon as my fingers touched the lady’s stained-glass foot the entire window vibrated and grew brighter. Lightning danced along the metalwork, and Dalach gave my arm a gentle shove. My fingers passed through the glass as easily as they would a spiderweb—and I could actually feel the water on the other side—but then I quickly snatched back my hand. My fingers were dripping wet.

“Just as I suspected,” Dalach said. “Those other windows have been closed since the date between the ladies’ feet. This is the only one that remains open to our world. I’ll wager it works the same as the ocean gateway through which we got here but leads to shallower water—a lake, no doubt. If only we could see what lies on the other side.”

“Would someone mind telling me what’s going on?” Mack cried.

Dalach lifted his shackles so that his face was level with Mack’s. “Although we would need an Avalonian companion to enter Avalon, as did King Arthur, it appears that all we would need to leave is just this window and the ability to breathe underwater.” His eyes flickered with an idea. “Unless, of course, you’re someone who doesn’t need to breathe at all.”

Dalach unhooked Mack from the wrist cuff and handed him to me. “Again, Grubb,” he said. “But this time, hold out the pocket watch in your hand.”

“What the—?” Mack cried. “You’re not stickin’ me in there!”

“Only for a second,” Dalach said. “We need to see what’s on the other side.”

“But, sir,” I protested, and the Gallownog raised his hand.

“Mack is a machine. A machine that’s a pain in the neck, but a machine nonetheless. He has no heart, and should be fine as long as you hold on to him.”

“
Should
be?” Mack said. “That’s your idea of a plan?
Should be?
”

Dalach ignored him. “You have my word, Grubb. You needn’t worry about your mate. But if
Mack
is too afraid to try it, well—”

“What’s that?” Mack said. “Are ya suggesting the chief of the Chronometrical Clan McClintock is a coward?” Lorcan Dalach shrugged. “Why, you—Go on then, Grubb. Let’s show the numpty who wears the kilt around here.”

Dalach nodded. I hesitated for a moment, and then with a deep breath, thrust Mack through the window. The glass vibrated and flashed with lightning, and I could feel the water again on the other side and Mack trembling in my hand. I couldn’t stand the thought of him being alone out there, wherever he was, so I quickly pulled him back. My heart swelled with relief. Mack was all right.

“Brrrrrrr!”
he said, shivering. He spit out a stream of water and shook himself dry like a dog. “That water’s as cold as a Gallownog’s rump!”

“Tell me, chief, what did you see?” Dalach asked.

“Just a bunch of cold, muddy water all around me!”

“The legends are true,” Dalach said to himself. “This window must lead to a lake in our world, but you can’t see it from the other side.”

“And even if you could see it,” I said, “according to the legend, someone from our world would need an Avalonian escort to get him through the window into Avalon. Unless, of course, he had a Sky Ripper like Father.”

“But we’ve just proven that we won’t need an Avalonian to return us to our world, nor will we need a Sky Ripper.” Dalach suddenly cocked his ear. “Quickly now,” he whispered, “someone’s approaching outside the main gate.”

The Gallownog hooked Mack and me back onto his shackles, and like the flicker of a dying flame we became invisible again. I could hear nothing but my own heart pounding in my ears, but after a tense few seconds, someone dressed in a long hooded cloak slipped in between the throne room’s tall oaken doors. A lady, by the looks of her.

A shiver ran down my spine. The last time I’d seen a lady dressed like that was Mad Malmuirie. But unlike the daft witch who captured me, there was no sign of curly red locks beneath this woman’s hood. Only the hint of a golden scarf. Yes, whoever this cloaked figure was, she was most certainly an Avalonian.

The mysterious woman paused for a moment by the gates, listening, and then slunk across the floor, moving briskly from pillar to pillar until she slipped out of sight through the dais door. Dalach raised his finger to his lips and we followed her—down a darkened passageway, up a spiraling stone staircase, and into another passageway, whereupon a pair of guards blocked the woman’s path.

“Halt!” said one. “What business has a priestess in the royal quarters?”

The guards were answered with a flurry of blows, and before I even had time to wonder at it, the two men lay slumped together on the floor. The woman listened at a nearby door and then hauled the guards into a richly furnished bedchamber. We followed closed behind, and she quietly shut the door.

The woman rolled the guards over on their backs and blew some powder from a small vial into their noses. Then she slipped the tiny bottle inside her cloak and dragged the men out of sight behind the chamber’s large four-poster bed. As she was doing so, a long black braid tumbled down onto her breast. The woman tried unsuccessfully to tuck it back beneath her hood, and then removed the hood altogether.

I gasped at the sight of the woman’s face—but it couldn’t be!

“Kiyoko!” I cried, and she whirled with a dart poised in her hand. Dalach glared at me, but I ran to embrace the shinobi even as my mind told me that it could not be her. Kiyoko was dead—I had seen her fall from the sky with Prince Nightshade—and yet here she was, alive again and standing right in front of me.

The Gallownog yanked me back by my shackles.

“Please, sir, let me go!” I cried.

“You heard the lad!” Mack said. “Let him go, ya big bam!”

“Quiet, the both of you!” Dalach hissed.

“It’s Grubb, miss! I’m right here!” But of course I was invisible, and Kiyoko couldn’t see me. Her eyes flitted about the room and she lowered her dart.

“Where are you?” Kiyoko asked.

I pleaded again with the Gallownog to let me go. He gritted his teeth and reluctantly released me from his shackles. It must have appeared to Kiyoko as if I’d stepped out from the air itself, but her face brightened and the two of us rushed into each other’s arms. She kissed me hard on the cheeks, and after a round of excited greetings, Lorcan Dalach materialized with Mack in blue spirit form.

“Well hello there, lassie,” Mack said with a wink. “It’s a pleasure to see you again, and looking just as lovely as ever.”

Kiyoko turned to me, her eyes wide with wonder. “It seems we both have some explaining to do,” she said. I introduced her to the Gallownog, and brought her up to speed on recent events and our present mission—including the revelation that Alistair Grim was my father.

“So once again we find ourselves in a castle seeking a sword,” she said, smiling.

Kiyoko was referring to our earlier search for her sword Ikari in Prince Nightshade’s castle, but my mind was spinning with so many questions that it barely registered. “How did you survive your fall from the sky?” I asked. “How did you get away from the prince—how did you get
here
?”

“One at a time, Grubb,” Kiyoko said with a laugh. “I should think the answer to your first question is obvious, for just as the prince’s armor saved him from his fall, so too did it save me from mine. I made sure to land on top of him, you see. Had it been the other way around…”

Kiyoko made a splatting sound with her hands and I swallowed hard. Father had been convinced all along that Prince Nightshade had survived his fall from the sky, but hearing it firsthand from the shinobi’s mouth somehow made it all the more terrifying.

“As for my escape,” she went on, “I was thrown free when we hit the ground and slipped away into the forest. Soon afterward I came upon the wounded Thunderbird.”

My mind flashed with images of our last battle with the prince—the fiery tip of his whip striking Gwendolyn, the sight of her and the giant bird on which she’d been riding spiraling down toward the forest below. Cleona had managed to save the Yellow Fairy, but her poor Thunderbird…

“I nursed her back to health with some herbs I found in the forest,” Kiyoko said, “but by the time we arrived at the Thunderbirds’ lair her flock was gone—fled to another location, we assumed, to escape the prince. And so, in return for saving her life, the Thunderbird agreed to help me find you.”

“Cor blimey! You mean you followed us all the way from the Americas?”

“It seems Thunderbirds are quite skilled at tracking fairy dust, and so we followed the trail of Alistair Grim’s Odditorium clear across the ocean to England. We caught up with you this morning on the coast, but unfortunately someone else had caught up with you too.”

Kiyoko slipped out a knobby, twisted stick from under the sleeve of her cloak. I recognized it immediately. It was the magic wand that belonged to—

“Mad Malmuirie!” I cried.

“So that was her name,” Kiyoko said. “It seems Alistair Grim has made more enemies than just Prince Nightshade over the years.”

“But how—? What—?” I spluttered.

“Let’s just say this Mad Malmuirie was not pleased to learn that I was your friend,” Kiyoko said. “We fought long and hard, and I managed to steal her wand, but she flew away on her broom before I had time to finish her.”

“And Mr. Smears?” I asked. “Was he with her too?”

“I met no Mr. Smears. The witch was alone when we fought.”

My mind was doing somersaults now. What had become of Mr. Smears? Did Mad Malmuirie kill him after they freed themselves from Moral’s egg goo? And furthermore, how had Kiyoko made her way to Avalon?

“But now for the strangest part of my tale,” she said. “The Thunderbird and I caught up with you again just as you were about to embark on your undersea voyage. Of course, I did not know that at the time, and when she dropped me off on the Odditorium’s roof, I was suddenly pinned down under a bubble of fairy dust.”

“Cor, you mean you traveled with us here underwater, miss?”

“That I did. And it wasn’t so bad. Difficult to move, yes, but I had plenty of air. However, all that changed when the sea serpent attacked. Luckily for me I was in a position to avoid being crushed. And luckily for you, I managed to kill the beast with this.” She held up Mad Malmuirie’s wand.