by Michael Kerr
“You are the whortles that brought this catastrophe upon us,” he said. “Go back to where you came from, for you are not welcome in this land.”
“What do you mean?” Sam asked. “How can we be to blame for a forest fire?”
Before the fairy could answer, King Ambrose appeared at the palace door. “Still your tongue, Toadflax,” he said. “These humans are our friends. They risked their lives to return the chalice to safety, and by doing so saved Allworlds from the Dark One.”
“It didn’t save us from the Dark One’s wrath,” Toadflax said. “I think―”
“I did not ask you what you thought,” King Ambrose said, glaring at Toadflax before walking across to where Sam, Ben and Tommy stood in silence, not knowing what to say or do.
“What brings you back after so long?” King Ambrose asked them.
“So long?” Tommy said. “Its only been five weeks in our time.”
“Two harvest terms have passed here since Figwort and Speedwell returned to tell us of your adventures,” King Ambrose said. “Time obviously passes very slowly in your world.”
“Are Fig and Speedy...?” Sam could not finish the question. She was scared that she might be told that they had been lost to the fire.
“They are both fine,” King Ambrose said. “Even now they are on a mission, to try and save fairykind from extinction.”
“What exactly happened here?” Ben asked, having seen a spear sticking from the back of a dead fairy, and realising that more than a fire had been responsible for the destruction.
“The Dark One was told that we helped you return the Chalice of Hope to Iceworld, and so he sent an army of vile beasts called horgs to mount a surprise attack upon us,” King Ambrose said. “Aided by his dark and powerful sorcery, the horgs overran us. Those they did not send heavenward are being taken back to the horg stronghold as hostages. And they have taken my crown, and without its power all fairies are doomed to become feeble, grow old very quickly, and cease to be.”
“Then we’ve got to catch up with Fig and Speedy and help them,” Sam said.
“I doubt you would find them,” Ambrose said. “And without the ability to perform magic, you would soon fall into the hands of the horgs. The Dark One would then force you to take him to where the chalice is, and then destroy it and spread his evil unchecked throughout Allworlds.”
“Then why were we called back here?” Ben asked.
The king’s brow creased in a frown. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“The stones on the necklets you gave us lit up, and the portal back to here was waiting when we went looking for it,” Sam said.
“The stones are made of the same material as the gems in the crown,” King Ambrose said. “I can only guess that the crown contacted you for some reason. Mayhaps it knows what we do not, and sees in you a power that is not readily apparent. Should you decide to risk your lives, you will need to travel far, and will come up against danger and hardship far worse than you encountered on your last journey. If you insist on going, I shall give you directions, but urge you to return from whence you came.”
“We’ll take the risk, King Ambrose. What will you do?” Sam asked.
“Toadflax and I will search for any fairies that have survived, and then head west and find a new place to settle, in the hope that the crown is returned and we have a future to look forward to.”
Soon after, Sam, Ben and Tommy set off north, heading for the lava beds, riding on badgers that King Ambrose had magically enlarged to the size of ponies. His only request was, that when they reached the desert of rock, where nothing grew and the heat of the day was so strong that it could crack the solid lava, they should set the badgers free and continue on foot.
Away from the burned part of the forest, the air became clearer, and they travelled through green and pleasant countryside under a bright orange sky.
“This isn’t why I came back,” Tommy said. “All I wanted to do was find Pook and Gorf.”
“Tough,” Ben said. “Finding Fig and Speedy is a lot more important. Saving the fairies that were captured and returning them and the crown to King Ambrose is the priority here.”
“Says who?” Tommy said sulkily.
“Says me,” Ben replied.
“And me,” Sam agreed.
Tommy dug his heels into the flanks of the giant badger he was riding, and went on ahead at a gallop, wanting to be by himself, knowing that Ben and Sam were right, but deciding that being right could sometimes be a pain in the backside.
After travelling for four turns of the three moons, the scenery changed. The grass became stunted and brown, and in the distance they could see the heat shimmering off a dull grey expanse of rock that stretched away as far as they could see.
That evening they set the badgers free, and watched as they ran off, back in the direction they had come.
“We’d better travel at night when it’s cool, and find places to shelter from the sun during the day,” Ben suggested.
“Like we did when we crossed the Desert of Storms,” Sam said.
Ben nodded. “Yeah. And let’s keep our eyes open. We don’t know what dangerous things live here. I still get goose pimples at the thought of those giant scorpions that nearly made a meal of us.”
They ate the remaining food that they had brought from their own world. Toadflax had given each of them a sack full of nut pie, berries, edible roots, dark bread and a kind of cheese that was a pale green and as soft as Dairylea spread. He had also refilled their wooden flasks with fresh water, and they hoped they would have enough to get them through the lava beds, to where they would have to find a fresh supply.
The three different coloured moons shone bright in a navy-blue sky that was studded with twinkling stars that seemed much closer than the ones at home. Walking through the wide valleys of smooth black rock was eerie. There were strange formations that resembled giant whirls of soft, dark ice-cream, and openings that Tommy informed them were the mouths of lava tubes.
As dawn broke, they stopped at the bottom of a narrow canyon, in front of a cave’s entrance that had a sign nailed to the rock wall outside it.
“It’s written in English,” Ben said.
“I doubt that,” Sam said. “I should think it’s like speaking. We somehow understand what anybody says to us, even though we know they must have a different language.”
The writing on the sign read:
LAVA BED CENTRAL
CONNECTIONS TO.ALL UNRESTRICTED LANDS.
SEE JOURNEY PLANNER INSIDE STATION.
Ben entered the mouth of the cave to find it well-lit with a luminous green glow that seemed to be seeping out of the cave’s walls. Tommy and Sam followed him inside. There was a map on the wall.
“It’s just like the Tube map in London,” Tommy said as he studied it. “Look, it has lands in different colours, with lines running through each one, and the names of places where it stops.”
Sam looked at a yellow line that the legend said was the Southern Explorer Line. She found Ujimar on it and a lot of other names that she had never heard of.
A deep voice said from behind them, “Do you strangelings want to travel anywhere in particular?”
They all jumped in fright, and Tommy made a loud squeaking sound as he whipped round to see who or what had spoken.
The creature was no more than four feet tall. Its broad face was very similar to that of a camel, although it had two arms, two legs, and stood upright. It was chewing, as camels do, and Sam wondered if it had a mouth full of bubble gum.
“We’re heading for Farland,” Ben said.
“I can’t think why you would want to go there,” the creature said. “Horgs live in Farland, and eat anything that isn’t one of them. We don’t offer a service to anywhere that is considered too dangerous for passengers to go.”
“What...I mean, who are you?” Sam asked.
“I’m Lutt, a troglodyte from these parts. Who might you three be?”
“We m
ight be humans from another world,” Tommy said.
“Then you have picked a very hostile place to visit,” Lutt said. “With your thin skin, you’ll bake in the lava beds. Best you go somewhere else. And this is the place to go somewhere else from.”
“Do you run a service to the Land of the Vampires?” Tommy asked.
“Indeed I do. Though that would cost you more than you might be able to pay.”
Sam smiled. They still had plenty of the money that they had found in Pintello’s sack, which had changed from gold duckets to pound coins when they got home from the Crossroads of Time. And she had emptied her Tigger money box and added the pocket money she had saved to the leather pouch. All of it had now turned back into solid gold coins.
“We have plenty of money,” Sam said to Lutt. “But we don’t have the time to travel so far. Maybe when we return from Farland we can make the trip.”
“The express service would have you at your destination in three wags of a Pingo’s tail,” Lutt said.
They didn’t bother to ask Lutt what a Pingo was.
“Let’s go and get Pook and Gorf,” Tommy said. “You know that we’d have more chance of succeeding if the big guy was with us.”
Both Ben and Sam knew that what Tommy said was true. Gorf had rescued Tommy from a raging river, saved Speedy from becoming spider food, and Fig from the beaded scorpions. He had also slain a dragon and stopped the demonic jester from slitting all of their throats while they slept. Without him, they would have most likely failed to return the chalice.
“You’re right, for once,” Ben said. “But there’s no saying that Gorf and Pook will still be at Charlie’s place. Gorf wanted to build a cabin in the mountains. If they’ve moved on, then we come back here and carry on to Farland, okay?”
“Yeah, okay,” Tommy said, even though he had no intention of going anywhere without Pook.
“Follow me, strangelings,” Lutt said, and led them along the tunnel and down stone steps to where an underground river flowed. Moored up to a small jetty was a large canoe.
“It’s a boat,” Ben said. “How can we get all the way to Charlie’s in a boat? It would take forever.”
“You’ll be there before you know it, trust me,” Lutt said. “Now, all aboard, and don’t be tempted to put your hands in the water, or you’ll lose a finger or two to the soldier crabs.”
They climbed into the giant canoe, which appeared to be built from huge bones with animal hides stretched over them. Lutt sat amidships and paddled them out into the middle of the river. The tunnel walls began to glow and started to revolve, at first slowly, then faster and faster until they were a blur. The boat began to vibrate, before rushing headlong into the unknown.
After what seemed only a few minutes the walls stopped moving and the sleek craft glided to a stop alongside a rickety looking pier. All three of them felt dizzy and nauseous, and staggered as they stepped out onto the creaking planks.
“Was that quick enough for you?” Lutt asked.
Taking deep breaths, they gave him weak smiles, but didn’t answer.
“Up those steps, and you will come out in the Land of the Vampires,” Lutt said. “I’ll be back when the sun in this land rises again, so be here on time, or I’ll double my charge.”
They climbed up a long stairway and emerged from inside the hollow trunk of a large tree into bleak light at the side of a narrow road. Everything was black and white here, which was as they remembered it being. Taking a bearing from the craggy mountains, they turned to their left and walked for perhaps half an hour before reaching Charlie’s small castle, which was set into the rock face behind it.
Tommy ran up the steps and pounded on the door with his fists. “Anyone home?” he shouted.
After a while the door opened, and Gorf appeared and made a deep, purring sound that reminded Tommy of a cat that was feeling very content about something.
“Frog, Sam, Ben,” Gorf said. “How can it be you? I thought you had returned to your own world.”
“We did. But now we’re back,” Tommy said. “And please, Gorf, don’t call me Frog. It’s a nickname that I never liked.”
“As you wish, Tommy,” Gorf said, before hugging each of them in turn, so hard that they all felt as if they had been in the jaws of a car crusher.
“Where’s Pook?” Tommy asked, surprised that the little bear had not made an appearance.
Gorf’s shoulders sagged. “Not long after we arrived here, Pookie started to lose his memory, and then began to turn back to how he was as a toy. One of his arms and an ear fell off, and his fur came out in clumps. After a few days he was just a moth-eaten, cotton-skinned teddy bear again, with buttons for eyes and a stitched on mouth.”
“Where is he?” Tommy asked, finding it hard to believe that the magic spell that had made Pook alive had worn off.
Gorf led them along the hall and into the room with the giant fireplace. Pook was on a padded wing back chair, propped up against a cushion.
“Oh, Pookie, Pook,” Tommy said, picking him up and cuddling him the same way he’d done when he was a little boy. Tears slid from his eyes and made damp circles on the teddy bear’s almost bald head. “I’m sorry I left you here. Please come back to life.”
There was no reaction from the stuffed toy. It was no more than the sum of the materials it had been made from.
Sam and Ben went to Tommy and stared at Pook. They were almost as upset as Tommy.
“Why do you suppose he...he stopped being alive?” Tommy asked.
“I don’t know,” Sam said. “Mephisto told us that if we believed enough, then he wouldn’t change back.”
“Maybe it was because we left this world and weren’t here to believe in him,” Ben said.
“But we’re back now,” Sam said, reaching up to grasp the necklet of glowing stones at her throat. “Maybe if we all believe in him again and wish that he was alive, then he will be.”
Ben, Sam and Gorf put their hands out to touch Pook, and along with Tommy they closed their eyes and wished and willed and believed with all their hearts that the little bear was alive.
The seconds turned into minutes, but not one of them let doubt enter their minds. And soon after, the spell that the magician from the Valley of Mist had cast began to work again. At first, the bear just trembled slightly under their fingers, before beginning to grow warm to the touch. Then, in an instant, he changed. He filled out, his missing arm and ear reappeared, and the thinning fur grew back thick and luxuriant. He yawned, and his now bright eyes looked at each of them in turn.
“Tommy, Sam, Ben, you’re back,” he said in his Bugs Bunny voice. “What happened? Was life back in Grassington too tame, or did you realise that we’re a team, and that leaving Gorf and me in this crazy world was a big mistake?”
They all laughed, and Tommy kissed Pook on his nose.
Pook had no idea that he had ceased to exist, and believed that he had fallen asleep, and that only a few hours had passed.
“Why are you back?” Gorf asked. He didn’t believe that they had returned with the sole purpose of finding him and Pook.
“We missed both of you, and the adventure of being here,” Sam said. “And the stones on the necklets that King Ambrose gave us began to glow. We thought it was a signal, or a call for us to return. When we got back, we found that the fairies had been attacked by soldiers sent by the Dark One. And in a way it’s our fault.”
“Why?” Gorf asked.
“Because the king helped us. He arranged for Fig and Speedy to accompany us on our quest to return the chalice to safety. The Dark One found out and sent an army to burn the oak wood and the palace. Many of the fairies were killed, and some have been taken prisoner. And the king’s crown has been stolen.”
“What’s so important about his crown?”
“It’s not just a crown, Gorf,” Ben said. “Without its magic the fairies will fade away and be no more. We have to get it back.”
“I feel terrible,” Sam said. “If
I’d left that rotten chalice on the bottom of the lake, then none of this would have happened. I wish I’d never found it.”
“You didn’t find it,” Ben said. “It called out to you, Sam, and led you to it. And it was King Ambrose who said you would have to take it to the Keeper.”
Sam knew that Ben was right. But she still felt a lot of responsibility for all that had happened.
As they talked, dusk fell and the light faded.
“My, what a surprise,” Charlie the vampire said, drifting into the room with his feet a few inches off the floor. “I didn’t expect to ever see you three back here. And Pook, you’re alive again, and looking much better for it.”
Pook screwed up his face in a frown. He thought that Charlie must have had a funny dream, to say something like that.
“Will you be staying?” Charlie asked.
“Only for a while,” Sam said. “We have to leave before the sun comes up.”
“Not another dangerous mission?”
“‘Fraid so,” Ben said. “We came here to see if Gorf and Pook wanted to join us.”
“I’m ready for another adventure,” Gorf said. “I suppose we’ll be risking our lives again, and having to deal with all sorts of murderous beasts.”
“We don’t know what trouble we might run into,” Ben said. “But you can be sure that it won’t be a picnic.”
“And what kind of creature is a picnic?” Gorf asked.
Sam, Tommy and Ben burst out laughing, and then Ben explained what a picnic was.
“Can’t you just stay here and not go looking for trouble?” Pook asked.
“No,” Ben said. “This is something we have to do, Pook. Are you going to come with us?”
Pook gave a long sigh, and then he smiled. “I suppose so,” he said. “But I’m sure I’ll regret it.”