For a moment, Braxton was excited, and grabbed again at Brewster. “Will you send them all down to that thing?” he chuckled. “Order the birds to tip the train, and they’ll all fall out. My brother first. I shall watch with delight as he is wrenched apart, and every piece of him eaten by that sea-monster.”
“What a sweet thought,” smiled Brewster, and immediately everybody in the sky-train hung on very tightly to their chairs.
But it was the balloon which tipped and tossed, and now the bottom of the basket was just a short distance above the white spray at the top of the waves. It rocked backwards and forwards and up and down, and Braxton obviously felt dizzy as he flopped to the side, calling for Brewster to stop.
Once again the eight tentacles of the giant octopus came crawling out of the sea, stretching upwards, and feeling, as though sucking the air. Slimy green with a thousand knobbly suckers all the way up every tentacle twirled and reached, each spiralling around the others like eight blind serpents. There was a splash and the spray swept up, soaking the bottom of the basket. The dark water swirled, parted, and then closed as the octopus sank under the surface again.
Then, with one violent pitch, Brewster swung the balloon away, and as Braxton lost his balance, Brewster caught his right leg and his left arm, and hurled him right out of the basket and into the ocean below.
With a high echoing scream, Braxton hurtled down, arms and legs waving in frantic panic. He hit the water with a massive splash and immediately the eight long tentacles rushed upwards and grabbed him. They circled around his body like the coils of an anaconda and bit by bit, he disappeared beneath them.
There was one more scream, suddenly stifled as the coils tightened and pulled downwards. The ocean began to writhe. The fight below the surface could be guessed as the waves increased, more wild spray was flung upwards, and the waters seemed to be boiling. For one moment, Braxton’s arm appeared through the tossing waves but at once a green tentacle clamped around the wrist, pulling it down. The next time they saw a hand reach up through the slouching waves, it was entirely disconnected. With a toss and a skip, up came the hand again, then the wrist, and then the whole elbow. But there was no Braxton on the end of it. The arms pitched, came down with a splash, and was caught by the pale green reaching tentacle. Nathan gulped. Clearly Braxton had already drowned and his body was now being eaten in pieces.
The waters splashed and churned for some minutes but gradually calmed, the surface was unbroken except for a shoe which now floated gently.
Everybody stared. The sky-train did its fifth circle, and the Balloon quietened, hovering placidly over the wild scene below until absolute peace was slowly restored. Zakmeister broke the silence. He looked in amazement at Brewster, saying, “You meant to do that? You’ve killed my brother?”
“Who, me?” sniggered Brewster. “Innocent little Brewster twinny-win Hazlett? Never! It was Drassog the giant octopus who has eaten your brother. What a shame. What a pity. Too late now.”
“He deserved to die many times over,” Zakmeister muttered, “but I admit, this makes me feel somewhat – shocked.”
“No need,’ called Brewster. “He wanted to kill all of you. Then the poor little man fell out of the basket. Lost his balance, he did. But enough of all that. What’s done is done, and Drassog isn’t hungry anymore. Your brother gave him a nice crunchy dinner.”
One long green slimy arm, heavy with suckers, waved out of the depths, just as though Drassog was saying thank you for dinner. Tansle had hidden her face in her hands, but the others, even blind William, couldn’t stop staring.
“Now,” said Granny, her voice shaking, “it’s time to go home.”
“Yes, yes, off you go,” called Brewster. “But remember this Natty-Watty and Pops the wopsy-head, you both owe your friendly wizard another favour. Remember that. And you know exactly what I want.”
Nathan nodded. “So Yaark wasn’t inside Braxton?”
The balloon began to fly off, taking the higher winds and heading towards the cliffs and the land beyond. “You know the answer,” Brewster yelled back. “And you know why. ‘Tis the favour I expect you both to pay.”
Zakmeister yelled as loud as he could as the balloon sailed out of sight. “So my brother did all those vile things himself? He wasn’t ruled by Yaark inside?”
“Yaark has other little maggots to fry,” came back Brewster’s voice. “No Yaark, not this time. Braxton needed no help. But I do, my friends. Remember, I do.”
“It was a nasty way to go,” gulped Zakmeister, “and not the way I would have chosen.” Clearly he felt a little sick and there was a green tinge around his dark cheeks. “But I thank you, for now that danger is gone, and at least I didn’t have to kill my own brother. I knew I had to do that one day, but I never wanted to. Now everything is done.”
“What a good boy I am,” sang Brewster from up in the clouds. The balloon could be seen as a tiny blaze of striped colours far, far away, but the echoes of Brewster’s voice were loud. “We twinny-wins are clever, don’t you think? But don’t jump in that water for a little swim, Natty-Watty or Bumble-Bee-Head will have no hair at all.”
Again the wind gusted, and the sky-train completed its last circle.
“Back to the cottage,” mumbled Granny. “As fast as we can. But then take William Octobr and his granddaughter to Peganda.”
Obediently the birds turned, whizzing back towards the coast. They crossed the sands and the great cliffs and soon the ocean was behind them, and no one looked back. No one spoke until finally they saw the cottage down below, and the train began to descend.
“I see no reason to go back to the city,” said William Octobr softly. “We would not object to coming with you to your cosy cottage for a few days. My little Tansle is very hungry and cold.”
“Very well,” said Granny with a faint sigh. “But we have a lot of plans to make. You cannot stay too long.”
“Oh, thank you,” said Tansle, once again bursting into tears.
The train flew down into the cottage grounds and stopped with a swoosh of wings and a rattle and clank of the chairs and harnesses. Everybody stumbled out, and most collapsed at once, sitting down on the warm grass, and waving as the birds once again flew off with several loud squawks.
Messina and Tryppa hurried out as soon as they realised everyone had come back home, asking what had happened. They could see that Tansle was now safe, and that all the others appeared exhausted, so Granny brushed down her apron and started to explain.
“We decided that Tansle needed rescuing before anything else,” she said, and so we went off to get her away from Braxton. But many things happened which we hadn’t expected at all. It’s a long story.”
Tansle was still crying, mostly for gratitude, and Alfie said, “All them tears is a bit annoying. But it ain’t the poor kid’s fault. Bin locked up fer five days and sleepin’ in puddles, she has.”
“Wivout no food,” added John. “Bin starvin’. Hope there’s some cake left.”
“But we have other plans as well,” said Zakmeister.
“Including cake and hot steak pies,” added Granny.
“Next I need to go to Sparkan,” said Nathan. “All those brave loyal people need saving too.”
“And I need to do that special favour for Brewster,” said Poppy, “which is all about Yaark and Wagster. And I’ll need some help with that.”
Bayldon had noticed the sky-train arrive and now wandered out to see everyone. “I shall help with anything you need, my dear,” he told his daughter.
Alan had trotted out behind Bayldon, but Gillywobbles and Candykins had followed Alan, skipping and jumping in the sunshine. Alan, annoyed at the two noisy babies at his hooves, gave an irritated little kick and missed Candykins, catching Granny’s knee instead.
Granny sat down with a jolt of pain and looked accusingly at Alan. “My bad knee. Be careful,” she said, “or I shall magic you back to the army.”
Alan burped in horror, and both the llam
a babies hurriedly hid under his legs, huddled together. Alan seemed somewhat confused at this, and hiccupped.
John called, “Guess wot, that nasty Braxton fellow is proper dead.”
Zakmeister strode forwards, took Bayldon’s arm, and began to explain what had happened to them all.
Meanwhile, as Granny had plopped down on the grass, her apron pocket flew open and a huge puff of self-raising flour, icing sugar, and spider sprang out. Dimples was covered in flour and looked pure white and very, very large.
Bayldon gave one startled look, and promptly fainted. Alan hurried to stand behind him as he collapsed, and Gillywobbles and Candykins quickly stood behind Granny and Poppy, just in case this was the right thing to do.
“Oh well,” sighed Nathan, “nothing much has changed after all.”
I do hope you enjoyed ‘Blind Man’s Buff’, Everything is getting so exciting…
How will Poppy return Brewster’s favour? And just which side is Brewster on anyway? Things are becoming a little confusing, but will you find the answers in the next instalment, ‘Dominoes’?
Find out in Book four: Dominoes
Afterword
I hope you enjoyed reading this instalment of Nathan’s adventures. I would love to hear your thoughts on anything to do with Nathan and his friends.
You can contact me through either the Bannister’s Muster website at https://bannistersmuster.com. or the Bannister’s Muster facebook page.
If you could leave a review on Amazon, that would be wonderful and so very helpful.
See you soon in the next instalment…
Also by Barbara Gaskell Denvil
Bannister’s Muster
Book One: Snap
Book Two: Snakes & Ladders
Book Three: Blind Man’s Buff
Book Four: Dominoes
Book Five: Leapfrog
Book Six: Hide & Seek
Also available in Audio
and soon to be Spanish editions too.
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