The Catastrophe of the Emerald Queen (23 page)

Chapter
16

At dawn the next day the boys
woke. Mordalayn had remained awake all night keeping watch and as
they silently ate a small breakfast they made no attempt to engage
him in conversation. Once everyone had eaten they put out the fire
and made their way onwards. The Cherubs was on the other side of
the woods and the few boys who had been to the house before were
excited, telling the others about the wonderful garden that the
owner, Maximo Cherubsayl had cultivated over many years. With
talking plants, flowers in every colour you could imagine as well
as a little farm of animals. Not to mention the fairies. 

They walked on as the huge sun
rose in the sky and after a few hours the trees thinned and in the
distance they could see a house. “First!!!” Blautin shouted in
excitement as he pointed to the building in the distance. It looked
like a farm building to Jared and appeared to be a bungalow. A
thatched roof of tight weaving adorned the house and to the left
was a second building that Jared guessed was used to keep
animals. 

The boys
started talking excitedly and hurried their pace, Mordalayn at the
back checking around constantly while Leppard and Challandra were
at the front. 

“
Never been
here before, looks pretty good,” Bue said to Leppard who
smiled. 

“
As I recall
you were not allowed to visit last time due to being confined to
the orphanage as a punishment” 

Bue shrugged and ignored the
comment. “Big house, how many people live there?” 

“
Just Mr
Cherubsayl and his wife. They are old friends of Madame
Veer.” 

As they walked on to the house,
people began to notice their arrival. The front door opened and a
big man appeared. From behind him the three boys who’d gone ahead
squeezed past and ran down the path to the front gate. The man
stepped out and Madame Veer appeared beside him.  

The other boys started to run
and soon they were at the front gate, hugging their friends. As
Jared walked up he could see that the formerly petrified Getruhl
was now smiling and had lost his shyness. The boy was pointing back
to the garden and to the house, talking excitedly. 

Leppard and
Mordalayn stepped forward to greet Maximo. He looked middle aged
and his head was a mop of shoulder length, black hair. Big but not
fat with a big black beard he appeared to be somebody who had
worked his life in the country and had a big, red, happy face. He
looked pleased to see everyone and as the boys ran up to him he
squatted down and hugged a few while shaking hands with others and
clapping a few on the back. 

“
Blautin,
hello son. Still good with a flute I hear.”

“
Jethrul,
hear you’re getting along well these days.”

“
Stone, you
seem to have grown a foot every time I see you.” 

The boys laughed and were
clearly pleased to see Maximo who greeted most by name and made
some friendly comment or other then turned to Jared. 

“
And you must
be the young man I have heard so much about,” he said kindly and
took Jared’s hand in his huge one and shook it hard. “Such a
pleasure to meet you.” 

Madame Veer
then spoke up. “Boys, your attention for a
moment.” 

They paused
in their excitement and she continued. “As you know we are here
because of the danger that befell us. Most of you know of Mr
Cherubsayl’s house and the others have heard stories.”

 
There
was a buzz as the boys murmured their agreement.

 “
You
may relax here and enjoy the grounds and the gardens with Mr
Cherubsayl’s permission BUT you are still under my authority and
absolutely no one is to break house rules or leave the grounds for
any reason. Is that clear?”

 
The
boys mumbled their understanding and then another woman appeared
next to Maximo. She looked about the same age, and was small framed
with blonde hair down past her waist, flashed with streaks of
silver. She smiled at the boys and said hello.

 “
Hello
Mrs Cherubsayl,” they said back and she looked to
Maximo. 

“
I’m sure the
boys would love to explore the gardens with you Max,” she
suggested. “Why don’t I take our guests inside and you show them
around.” 

“
Good idea!”
Maximo beamed. “Who’d like to see the gardens and my lovely animals
then?” 

There were
loud shouts of approval and even Madame Veer smiled. “Good, good.
Right, drop your stuff in the hallway then come
back.” 

They did so
and assembled in front of him. Mordalayn, Leppard and Challandra
moved towards the door. Jared made to follow but Mordalayn said
quietly. “No Jared, you go with the boys. Have fun. This meeting is
not for you.” 

Jared looked up confused but
saw Mordalayn’s expression was friendly and handed the Caracalic
his pack and then moved to the other boys. Maximo led them off to
the garden, all of them chattering excitedly. 

Near to the
house was a small garden of tall flowers, like sunflowers nodding
in the gentle breeze. As they walked up to them one of the flowers
turned its head “Hello young people, such a pleasure to see you,”
it said in a lilting voice 

Jared and the
others jumped and one boy squeaked in fear. Maximo chuckled “Now,
now. Don’t be frightened lads. This is the whimsical sunflower. Why
don’t you say hello?” 

Jared stared at the plant,
still not fully comprehending how this world could constantly
surprise him. The flower turned slowly, its head passing along all
of them. Its mouth was just below the centre of its orange face and
it appeared to be smiling. Slowly it extended one of the leaves
from its mains stalk like an arm and looked at Jared. “You are not
of this world are you?” it said. Its voice was lilting and soft,
female and reassuring. The sort of voice you could imagine reading
little kids a bedtime story. 

“
Shake hands
Jared,” Maximo said kindly. 

Jared held
out his hand and grasped the large green leaf which tightened
slightly as it wrapped around his fingers. “Such a pleasure,” the
plant crooned. Its voice was ever so soft and Jared felt sleepy
just listening to it. The other children gazed at it. Some of them
had seen it before but they all still seemed amazed. The plant
turned its face to a neighbouring flower and in a whisper said,
“Serena, we have visitors. Surely you would wish to say
hello.” 

The other
plant raised its dial to look at them and gently shook it from side
to side as if waking up. “My, my. Little men, young Blautin you
have grown” Serena said. Blautin giggled and stood still as the
plant extended one of its leaves to tickle him under the chin.
Other plants nearby, maybe ten in all turned to gaze at the
visitors and Maximo chuckled at Jared’s confused
expression.

 “
Not
used to this are you?” he said,  

Jared shook
his head. The sunflower he had been introduced to turned to him
“You must excuse me now young man. It is high
noon.” 

Before Jared
could reply the flowers all straightened as tall as they could go
and raised themselves up. They were stock still and their dials
were turned to the sun, high above in the sky. A soft song, like a
birdsong but sweeter and more melodious came from the plants and
Jared again thought he would doze off. The plants swayed slightly
to the rhythm. “Come,” Maximo said “it is the plants’ time to
pray.” 

Jared and the others walked
away, glancing over their shoulders as the sleepiness lifted.
Watching the plants, tall and beautiful in the bright sunlight.

 
Further
down was a small pen with a fluffy green animal in it, about the
size of a Labrador puppy. It jumped about excitedly as the boys and
Maximo approached it and yipped loudly. As they got closer, Jared
could see its face was more or less hidden by the tumbling green
locks of fur. Just a small, pink snub nose stuck out from the
middle of the pea green curls. It jumped up and down and rubbed
against the bars of its wooden cage as the group came near.
 

“
And this,”
said Maximo, sliding the bolt on the top of the cage, “is Terka.”
As Maximo raised the hatch the animal launched itself at the hole
and cleared it, landing on Jared who grabbed it as it scrabbled
around chest level and when he had a firm grip, began lapping his
face with a slobbering wet tongue.

 “
Hmm…likes you,” Maximo said amused and a couple of the other
boys laughed. The creature had tiny paws that scrabbled for
purchase on Jared’s arms and after slobbering over his face for a
few seconds more it put its head on his chest and began to purr
contentedly. To Jared it was like holding a big ball of fluffy
cotton wool with a face. He stroked its head and the creature
snuggled up against him. Maximo reached over and took the creature
by its collar and gently lifted it away. It made no attempt to
resist and as Maximo placed it back in its cage it began excitedly
yipping at the boys. “I see you make friends easily young Jared,”
Maximo said with a smile. 

“
Err…actually, no not usually,” Jared
replied. 

They then rounded another
corner and a group of small flying figures buzzed round the corner
to meet them. Jared jumped again and saw that he was facing about
six or seven little people, about twelve inches in height each with
tiny clothes. They had wings on their backs which beat too fast to
see. They stopped in front of the group, hovering and looking
expectantly at Maximo. 

“
Ahhh,
children and let me introduce my friends the fairies,” he said
turning to the boys. The fairies flew down to the children and
began chattering excitedly. 

“
Hello young
sir, how are we today?” one said to Blautin. Another made a beeline
for Bue and hovered next to his left ear.

 “
Hello
there, may I accompany you on your journey round our house young
fellow?” 

Maximo
laughed. “They are very friendly to people and like to help,” he
said brightly. “Tell me Keran, have Kloee and the others come back
yet?”

 “
No
master,” one replied looking serious. “I think they are still
collecting for you as you asked.” 

“
Good, good,”
Maximo said nodding. “Well, I’ll leave you with my winged friends
for a while.” He walked back to the house.

 “
Want
to play a game?” a hovering fairy said in a high
voice. 

Jared looked around, the other
fairies were nearby, their faces expectant and wings beating
fast. 

“
Err..sure,”
he replied. “What do you have in mind?.”

 “
Brilliant!” the fairy said clapping its tiny hands together.
“We’re going to play Phase.” 

“
Phase,
Phase!” the other fairies shouted darting around the shoulders of
the children in weaving patterns. Two giving each other a high five
and then looping the loop, sparkling dust spilling around
them.

 “
Come
on, I’ll show you,” the fairy said beaming and flew into the back
garden.

 
When
the boys got there, there was a fairly large swimming pool with
wooden cages either end. Both were big and looked sturdy. The fairy
turned to him and buzzed down low.

 “
My
name’s Jeejoh,” he said conspiratorially and winked at Jared. “I’ll
be your keeper for this.”

 
Jared
glanced over his shoulder and saw the other boys coming up behind
them. The fairies were flitting around excitedly amongst them and
darting in wild circles and loops. Jeejoh flew on ahead, down the
slope to the pool.

 
Just
then Maximo stuck his head out a window and shouted. “Hey! You are
going to play beginner’s rules on this I take it?” Jeejoh turned
round and flew up to him and Jared saw them have a short
conversation before Maximo nodded approvingly and shut the
window. 

Jeejoh flew
back down and Jared. “What was that about?” he asked.

 
The
fairy giggled and pointed to the pool. “If you are good at Phase it
can be a bit dangerous. The master just wanted to make sure we were
playing a nice game with you all.”

 
The
boys reached the pool’s nearest edge and another fairy, this one a
plump female, addressed them.

 “
Hello
my name’s Indira,” she said in a high voice. “Now, who knows how to
play Phase?”

 
One or
two of the boys raised their hands, Bue amongst them.

 “
What
level?” she said to Bue.

 “
Twelve,” he replied looking proud, to a gasp from one or two
of the fairies. 

“
My, my,” she
said nodding. “You HAVE had some experience. OK, you can be the
captain of your team. Jared can be the other. Now
choose.” 

They quickly
selected team mates, Jared not having a clue what was going to
happen, then the fairies split off to hover behind the right
shoulder of a boy each.

 “
What
do we do?” Jared said to Bue who raised a finger to his lips and
grinned his gap toothed smile.

 “
Now,”
Indira said clapping her tiny hands for attention. The buzz of
conversation died down. “Last man standing, no substitutions.
Clear?” 

Everyone
murmured their understanding, except Jared who was still confused.
The boys stripped down to their shorts and jumped in the pool. Bue
nudged him and grinned. “Don’t worry, it’s fun. Trust me,” and
jumped in with a splash, swimming over to the far side. Jared
hesitated but looked up and saw Jeejoh hovering, a friendly smile
on his face.