Roland's Castle (23 page)

“It might not be that bad,” Oliver
suggested.

“Not that bad! Stopping us riding
freely about, bashing each other with merry abandon! How could it
‘not be that bad’?”

“If I may,” Brother Goodwill
stepped in, “As a builder and a
former
warrior I understand
something of these matters. Perhaps you do not fully understand
what is planned here…”

“Spoiling my fun by the sounds of
things!” The Count thundered.

“That isn’t necessarily so,” said
Goodwill, “Let me draw you a map and show you. Do you have a map of
the area?”

“Lots!” Said The Count, “Essential
to planning our tourneys!”

A map was brought And Goodwill
sketched out how a railway might look if built through the tourney
zone. “You see, it could go through a tunnel here –with bridges
here it wouldn’t block your way hardly at all. In fact it would add
some interesting obstacles that would make the game more
interesting! Coping with the terrain as you find it is an important
part of soldiering – you would simply have a new terrain to play
with!”

“Yes, yes I see,” The Count said,
“Well, it really isn’t as bad as I thought…”

“And of course,” Goodwill
continued, “if they built a station here…” - and he indicated the
lists – it would enable people to get to the tourney and get back
home again! More people could take part, more merchants, more
knights, bigger, better, more fun that ever!”

“Yes, yes!” said The Count, his
enthusiasm growing, “I see! It’s for transportation! Well, we must
have transport, essential for military purposes you know. Perhaps
we could understand this new technology, even practice using it
ourselves…”

“I am sure that could be arranged,”
Goodwill said.

“Wonderful!” said The Count, “It
appears I was wrong! Now, I will send for the poor man I have
incarcerated – seemingly unjustly – so you can ask him what you
want.”

When Brandon Senior was brought
before them he was a pitiful sight. The bad hair day that looked as
if it had been created by a flock of squabbling starlings was the
least of his makeover issues. He was so filthy his dirt had filth,
and his grime needed a bath too. It was a wonder that there was
enough of him for the dirt to cling too, as he was so thin he
looked like he had been on the Holy Healthy Hermit Diet since the
very first day of Creation. At least he was actually getting
some
nourishment, though; a well chewed rat was clenched in
his hand from which maggots dripped when he nibbled on it. A
nervous tick and a generally addled state added to the impression
that he had been a prisoner for a very long while.

“Is it my turn on the treadmill
again?” he inquired, “It keeps my weight down something beautiful
you know..” and he winked and poked at the ribs that were sticking
so far out of his skin they showed through his mouldy old
shirt.

“I am afraid not,” Roland said. “We
have good news. The Count has approved your idea of a railway
across his land.”

“Does this mean I get to see the
sky again?” the man asked.

“Yes, and lots of it” Roland
said.

“I’m free? The man asked.

“Yes, that as well,” Roland
confirmed.

“I’m frightened,” said the man, “I
don’t understand what ‘free’ means, any more…”

“Understandable, after a long
period of incarceration, but may we ask you a question? We want to
know where the Whales of the Sky are. Do you know?” Roland
asked.

The man just grunted. It seemed he
did not understand. Roland repeated the question. The man looked
around suspiciously, then spoke with a whisper as if telling an
important secret, “You will find them in the trees,” he said,
improbably.

“Really? Are you quite sure about
that?” Oliver asked, “Whales in trees?”

“Where else would they be?” The man
asked, as if surprised at the question.

Oliver opened his mouth to object
strongly but Roland shook his head at him.

“You will find them in the trees,”
Brandon Senior repeated, this time emphatically, “Over yonder, by
the river, five hundred miles in that direction.”

Oliver gave Roland a look that
suggested Brandon Senior was round the twist. Roland shot a look
back that said he half believed it.

“Well, if they are the Whales of
the Sky, I suppose its logical to think they might be found in
trees,” Roland said.

“Fish are,” Brandon Senior said,
with a daft look, but as if pointing out something obvious in order
to be helpful.

What about ducks?” Oliver asked,
testing the man.

“The exception that proves the
rule,” the man said.

“What about dolphins? I suppose
we’d find them in bushes?”

“Don’t be so silly,” the man
scoffed, “They’d live in burrows if they came out of the
water!”

“Oh silly me, of course they
would,” Oliver said, giving Roland another dubious look.

“He is certain about the direction
and the distance, Roland said. All we have to do is go and
see.?”

“And if it’s all nonsense?” Oliver
asked.

“then we have followed the only
lead we have, and it has come up short,” Roland said, glumly.

It was plainly the best Mister
Brandon Senior could manage in his sad condition.

Roland and his friends had a long
way to go and time was pressing so they left the old engineer in
the charge of Sir Filbert, who promised to get him back to the
train and tell his son the good news.

“I’ve never seen anyone get around
old Og-dra-gob so quickly!” Sir Filbert told Roland, once out of
earshot of The Count. “He doesn’t give the time of day to most
folks he meets!”

“Perhaps they just never get the
chance to help him,” Roland said.

“Still, you’re quite a team!”

“At least we have done good for
someone,” Roland said. “Now we have to get to the sun and back
before they execute Firebrace…. If you will excuse us.”

“Gladly — and good luck!”

As a parting gift Og-dra-gob gave
them all horses. Oliver looked at them nervously.

“There's nothing to it!” Said
Botherworth.

“I didn’t know janitors could
ride,” said Goodwill.

“It isn’t in the job description –
and it didn’t come up at the interview, but I find it useful!”

Botherworth mounted and then fell
straight off the other side. He remounted and grasped the reins,
“When you fall off, you just gotta get straight back on! I’m a bit
rusty, that’s all, plus a slippy saddle…”

Oliver mounted with a lot less
difficulty.

“See! Nothing to it!” said
Botherworth, “Now, where do I put me broom?”

With such things sorted out the
adventurers rode out for their journey. It was a long one, but the
thought that they were at last on the right track — so it seemed —
kept them going.

They passed out of the pastoral
landscape of Og-dra-gob’s territory into more mountainous terrain
and continued until the mountains that Brandon Senior had spoken of
came into view. The foothills were covered with trees and the peaks
cloaked in cloud. As they got yet closer they could see that inside
the cloud there were forms, like living creatures, moving upwards
and downwards. They were graceful creatures, like sea creatures,
with flat tails and flippers that pushed against the air like
wings. Their movements had all the appearance of swimming, although
technically they were in fact
flying
slowly through the
mist. They were soaring upwards from the trees, as if to take gulps
of air, and then diving down into them again. They were moving as
if to a perfectly choreographed dance.

“They must be the whales,” Oliver
said.

“I think they must be,” Roland
said.

“Something seems to have gone right
– at last,” Botherworth said, almost as if he were disappointed at
being proved wrong about life in general.

The adventurers rode up to the edge
of the forest. It looked quite impenetrable so Roland tried to get
the whales’ attention from where he stood. He waved his arms and
shouted , “Excuse me! We need your help! We have been told you can
help us. Can you?”

There was no response from the
whales. Roland tried again, “We have come here from the Unfinished
tower. A man called Firebrace sent us. We must get to the moon so
we can get to the sun and get more sun warriors to save the tower
from—”

“ — from the Spirus,” Savitri cut
in, “The most evil, nasty, vile, murderous creatures that have ever
been on the earth.”

“Which is round, in case you didn’t
know,” Oliver put in.

The whales seemed to gain interest.
Near the adventurers part of the cloud started to billow and then
extended right over their heads. Slowly The whales moved into the
new part of the cloud and started circling, nose to tail, right
above Roland. Then one of the creatures swam down so that its head
projected out of the bottom of the cloud. It emitted a high pitched
noise that caused all of the adventurers to cover their ears.

“Gor' blimey!” cursed
Botherworth.

“Somewhat distressing!” said
Goodwill.

“Was that ‘buzz off’?” Oliver
asked.

The horses were also disturbed by
it. They started to rear up and whinny in protest. The adventurers
dismounted and shooed them away. They bolted for home.

“What do we do without horses?”
Oliver asked.

Roland shrugged, “We have found the
whales, if they cannot help us, I reckon it’s game over
anyway.”

He looked up again and cried out,
“I am told you can help us! We need to get to the moon!”

Another of the creatures dipped its
head down out of the cloud and again emitted the high—pitched
noise. This time they had all covered their ears in readiness.

“Tell them why again,” Oliver
urged, “Perhaps they didn’t fully understand the first time.”

Roland did so, “We need the help of
the people in the sun in order to save the castle that protects the
unfinished tower. We must reach the sun. We must get to the moon so
that we can reach the sun and ask the Great Council of Grand Flames
for reinforcements.”

Another of the whales dipped its
head beneath the cloud, emitted the high pitched sound and then
drifted upwards again. Once more they had covered their ears.

“We don’t seem to be getting
anywhere,” Oliver said, lowering his hands.

The whale rejoined the other whales
and they all began to ascend, as if they were leaving.

“No!” Roland cried out, “Please
don’t go! We need your help! We have been through so much to get
here! Please help us!”

The whales continued to ascend for
a few moments, then they stopped and all of them turned to face
inwards toward the centre of the circle. Then, slowly,
majestically, they begin to rock back and forth in a see-saw
motion, as if nodding to each other.

“What are they doing?” Oliver
asked.

Roland shrugged. As he did so there
was a faint tremor beneath his feet. They all felt it. There was
another, then another…

The trembling and rumbling grew,
then, from the ground between them, a jet of water burst upwards
towards the sky. It was narrow at first but quickly got wider — so
quickly that they suddenly found themselves engulfed and swept up
by it. At the same time Their ears were filled with the roaring of
it so that they could not hear themselves - or each other - cry
out.

They were thrust upwards toward the
sky, then right through it. Then there was light — a lot of light;
light split into spectrums, light whirling around, light in beams
and clouds, light in fragments that floated past their eyes.

It was at the point when they
needed to draw breath – just a few seconds after it started — that
the roaring and the light quickly halted and they were flung into
darkness, landing on soft sand.

Their eyes grew accustomed to what
was, in fact, dim light and they saw that they were in a cavern,
surrounded by ships. The whole place smelt of the sea, but as if
the tide had gone out long ago.

“I’m dry,” Oliver said,
surprised.

Me too,” said Savitri

I don’t think we were in that
fountain – whatever it was - long enough to get wet,” Roland
said.

“Impossible,” Botherworth said.

“Are you wet?” Oliver
challenged.

“No,” Botherworth admitted.

“What are all these ships doing
here? Oliver asked, looking about, “What an odd thing to find on
the moon!”

“You think that’s where we are?”
Roland asked.

“Where else would you find a cavern
full of ships?” Oliver said, with a smile and a wink.

“I’d like to know for sure,” Roland
said.

There seemed to be hundreds of
ships, of all sizes and shapes. They were stacked right up to roof
of the cavern, many crammed in at odd angles, some broken under the
weight of supporting others. Their masts stuck out of the piles
like felled trees, or like tentacles reaching out in grim
desperation. Plainly there was a shortage of ship storage
space.

The next cavern contained the same,
and the next — and the next. There seemed to be an endless supply
of ships and very little room to store them. In each successive
cavern the ships were newer, less decayed, than in the last, giving
the impression that whoever put them there was just moving on from
cavern to cavern building ships and filling up the space with them.
That idea was confirmed when they entered a cavern containing a
fully working ship building yard and with only a few ships stacked
to the sides. Men were busy at work building yet more. Roland went
up to the man who seemed to be in charge, “Excuse, me, but can you
tell us where we are?”

The man laughed out loud, “Why!
You’re in the moon of course! Where else would you be?!”

“Thank goodness,” said Roland,
“Now, can you tell us how to get to the sun?”