by Barbara Else
~ True Queen ~ sang two silver voices.
For a moment the very air seemed a blur of silver. A murmur trickled through the crowd – Sibilla’s grubby pyjamas had disappeared, and she was dressed in a green and gold tunic, with green leggings and what looked like nice soft boots. Her face and hands were clean. Under the crown of folded silver, her hair was glossy, thick and honey-yellow. (Hodie saw her squint sideways and give it a pat.)
“Now I have to grant a wish?” she asked. Hodie could tell how nervous she was. “To anyone? And I choose?”
The dragon-eagles lowered their great heads and seemed to smile.
“Then I grant it to Prowdd’on,” she said in a shaky voice. “Of course it can’t be to rule Fontania. But he’s really an unhappy man, and I hope he will have what his heart truly desires and be content.”
Prowdd’on gave a delighted snort.
“It is a trick, Magnificence!” cried Gree’sle.
“Shut up,” said the Emperor. “This is finally promising.”
~ Think carefully ~ chimed the re-born dragon-eagle.
~ Very carefully indeed ~ rang the voice of its healed companion.
“I have best brain in Um’Binnia,” said Prowdd’on. “My wish is this – that I am surrounded forever by what I most love.”
Sibilla raised the sceptre. “Are you sure?”
“Never question me,” the Emperor said.
So Sibilla touched the sceptre to Prowdd’on’s shoulder. Hodie saw her arm tremble as if sparks ran through it.
A fresh flask of Roar-juice flew out of Gree’sle’s pocket. It arced through the air, flattened, then with rattling and clattering multiplied into many mirrors. A complete lattice of little mirrors formed around the Emperor, taller than he was – a glittering container, bars of mirrors facing him.
“What’s this?” Prowdd’on bellowed. “Take it away!”
Through the gaps in the mirror lattice Hodie saw a thousand bellowing reflections of the Emperor.
~ We said be careful ~ said the healed dragon-eagle.
~ We said be very careful ~ said the other.
“Get me out!” Prowdd’on roared inside the cage.
A soldier with a crowbar started towards him.
“There has to be another treasure! This isn’t fair!” the Emperor cried.
“There’s nothing else,” said Sibilla.
Hodie fumbled with the button of his shirt pocket. “There is,” he called. “I’d forgotten. But it’s just the last seed.”
“Give it to me!” Prowdd’on stuck his hand out through the lattice. The soldier with the crowbar bowed and waited.
Hodie shuffled over. It was awful being the centre of attention. The Emperor wiggled his fingers for him to hurry. Hodie held the seed up, then drew his arm back.
“I think it’s a dud, but it might still be dangerous,” he said. “I’m not sure …”
Something grey streaked over the cavern floor and tripped Hodie up. The seed soared through the air, the squirrel caught it with one deft paw, scampered up the network of mirrors and dropped the seed into Prowdd’on’s palm.
“I’ve got it!” shouted Prowdd’on. “Now what do I do?”
“Don’t eat it!” cried Sibilla.
“You mustn’t eat it!” Hodie cried at the same moment.
There was a split second of silence, then Prowdd’on chuckled. “Another trick,” he said.
Through the grille, Hodie saw him lift his hand to his (very big) mouth and pop in the seed.
Silence again. The Emperor coughed and spat the seed out.
Too late. It was growing already, sending roots and purple shoots and twirly gold tangles around his head. It threaded through the mirrors, stronger and more flourishing each moment, so fast there was nothing anyone or any dragon-eagle could do about it (even if they’d wanted to). The squirrel chittered and danced and leapt around the cavern walls, screaming with glee.
Lu’nedda took a step towards the glittering tumbleweed that encased her father. “Oh dear,” she said.
Sibilla wiped her nose on her green and golden sleeve, and glanced out at the sky with a look of shock. A moment later, the wind began to whistle into the cavern.
It was an insistent wind, very particular. It whirled around the cavern, chose the shining tangle with Emperor Prowdd’on in the centre, and whisked it out into the air, up and away until it wasn’t even a dot in the cloud-free sky beyond Um’Binnia.
Lu’nedda’s face was wet with tears, but she turned and bowed to Sibilla. “Royal sister. My first announcement as Empress is that I declare the war officially off.”
Soldiers and officers on both sides cheered.
Lu’nedda took Sibilla’s hand. “I am sure you would like to go home as soon as possible to your lady mother.” She bowed to King Jasper. “Royal brother, you and Lady Beatrix are welcome to rest here in my city before you leave.”
Jasper bowed too. “It seems that Um’Binnia has a new ruler.”
“Actually,” a voice cried from the rear of the cavern, “some of us want Ogg’ward for President!”
Lu’nedda raised her head. In her tattered pink gown, Murgott’s best (scuffed) boots and ratty ringlets, she walked to the centre of the cavern and looked more of an Empress with every step. “I will consult with the rebels!” she declared. “I honestly promise!”
So it looked like a pretty happy ending, if you asked Hodie.
Silvery mist still feathered around Sibilla. Her brother and Lady Beatrix each went and hugged her, then hugged each other.
Gree’sle was looking fairly sick and trying to sneak off.
Allana stopped him – a short stern woman, a tall uneasy man. She beckoned to an officer, who looked very pleased to lead Gree’sle away in manacles.
Allana dusted her hands, then threaded through the crowds, hunting for something – oh, Hodie realised – hunting for him.
“My brave son,” she said in her husky voice.
“My brave mother.” His voice had gone husky too.
“I can go home at last,” she said. “Where I belong. I hope you …” She stopped. It was one of those tricky family moments.
But Murgott’s heavy hand landed on Hodie’s shoulder. “I knew the little Queen could do it.”
“Me too,” said Hodie. “With or without magic, actually. But it is better with.”
“Attention!” Murgott saluted Sibilla, true Queen of Fontania, who was walking towards them in her magic tunic, magic leggings, magic boots.
“Hodie, thank you,” she said. “Just a little thank you right now. We’ll have a ceremony back home, a really huge one where you’ll sit between me and my brother, and I’ll thank you properly. With a medal, or the key to your own palace, or probably both. But what we really need now is some breakfast. I’d like pancakes cooked by Murgott, down in one of our own ships – the normal kind that floats.”
“Sausages,” said Murgott. “Pancakes definitely, and bacon, in the Royal Traveller. It has the most comfortable kitchen I’ve ever known.”
“Hodie, will you join me there, with your mother?” Sibilla asked.
For a moment he didn’t know what he wanted. “I was going south,” he heard himself say. “To become somebody.” He bowed and tried to step away.
Sibilla took hold of his hands and shook her head. “You’re somebody already. The dragon-eagle said. You guarded The Ties. You’re the Companion. Anyway –” her eyes looked mischievous – “the Royal Traveller is moored on Um’Binnia’s south side.”
Hodie felt like someone suddenly realising he was home, at the end of a difficult journey. He blinked, and felt a smile grow from deep inside. Home, where he belonged. Because, after all, the Grand Palace in the City of Spires was south from here too.
“Your Majesty,” Hodie said. “I will be honoured.”
the end
Postscript 1
The Royal Swear Word: Brisket. (It sounds very effective indeed if you clench your teeth as hard as you can before you say it.)
~
Postscript 2
Emperor Prowdd’on’s Moustache Wardrobe
The double spear The circle with circles The six circles The rising sunburst (or embarrassed sea anemone) The double pistol
~
Postscript 3
Um’Binnian Cabbage Cream
This is not the dessert served at the banquet in Fontania. It is the one Lu’nedda serves in her apartment. (If your grandmother made it for you, you’d have to say you liked it. But it would be best not to be too effusive or she might make it every time you visit.)
Find a cabbage as big as your head.
Cut it in half (yes, dear, I mean the cabbage) and put both halves in a pot of cold water.
Put the pot on the stove and let the cabbage cook for 15 minutes. (Watch that it doesn’t boil over. If it does, you’re the one who has to clean up the mess.)
Pour off the water. (Don’t let any cabbage slither into the sink.)
Fill the pot again with boiling water from your kettle.
Boil it for 20 more minutes.
Drain the cabbage dry, then chop it into very little bits.
Put the bits into a bowl, add three big knobs of butter and sprinkle in 12 dessertspoonfuls of brown sugar.
Add a heaped teaspoon of cinnamon and half a teaspoon of nutmeg.
Stir it all up.
In another bowl beat three fresh eggs and half a cup of cream.
Stir the eggs and cream into the cabbage.
Put it all into a baking dish.
Bake the dish in a medium oven until the cabbage is brown on top. (No, no, you can do it in a small oven or a very big one. I actually mean a medium temperature, which is about 180ºC.) It should take about 20 minutes.
~
I don’t think it is actually very nice. But try it with ice cream if you like. Your choice.
~
MAPS of UM’BINNIA
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Barbara Else is the author of the award-winning children’s novel, The Travelling Restaurant. She is a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to literature, and has worked as a university tutor, editor, and freelance writer. Barbara lives in Wellington, New Zealand.
Books in the Tales of Fontania series
The Travelling Restaurant
The Queen and the Nobody Boy
~
www.TalesOfFontania.com
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First published in 2012 by Gecko Press
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Wellington 6141, New Zealand
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Distributed in the UK by Bounce Sales & Marketing.
Text © 2012 Barbara Else
Cover and illustrations © 2012 Sam Broad
© Gecko Press Ltd
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ISBN paperback 978-1-877579-23-3
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