Discoucia

by Nicholas Lovelock

  “I know, it’s OK, you are right, I just didn’t want to hear it,” said Charles.

  Vicki took Jo and Arthur out of the room, and they walked up the stairs and along a long white corridor. They walked past a maid, who was cleaning a painting’s frame.

  “Good morning Nellie” said Vicki. The maid bowed, and then went back to cleaning. They then entered Vicki’s bedroom, which was huge.

  “So, you two are now engaged,” she said.

  “How did you know?” asked Jo.

  “Half of Discoucia knows by now,” said Vicki.

  “Oh no, that was fast,” said Arthur.

  “So Arthur, it’s nice to finally meet you at last,” she said.

  “You’ve met before,” said Jo.

  “I would remember, I have always heard about you but never actually met you,” she said, ignoring Jo’s comment.

  “No, you have met, he was with me on Harrha,” said Jo, who was beginning to smile. Arthur began to roll his eyes, as he knew what was coming.

  “You were with your sister,” said Vicki.

  “Could you please not call me Ally,” said Arthur in the same voice as when he was disguised as Princess Alexandra. Vicki didn’t say anything, she just stared, her mouth gaping. Jo pushed it closed, and began to laugh.

  “He was, no,” she said finally. Arthur coughed and began speaking again.

  “Yes, it’s true, not one of my proudest moments, but at least I can be proud of the fact that I mastered running in heels” said Arthur.

  “So that story about…” she said.

  “Yes, I’m afraid it did happen, but it probably didn’t happen the way you have heard it, I’m not that kind of girl,” said Arthur.

  “Then tell me what actually happened, then I’ll clear this up when I go to the Evermore Midsummer Party” she said.

  Arthur then explained to Vicki what happened on that fateful day in Chene, and she understood that most of the things that happened were untrue.

  “I see now, that makes so much more sense; but I thought you made a great Alexandra” said Vicki.

  “Thank you, I still think I should have been an actor,” he said.

  “So when is the wedding?” she asked.

  “No idea, when we’ve cured my father,” she said.

  “I heard he was ill, and it seemed that he only had a few weeks,” said Vicki.

  “He’s been suspended in time for a while, and we’re going to Lesiga to find a cure,” said Arthur.

  “What makes you think something is there?” she asked.

  “I have a feeling,” said Arthur.

  “Remember you cannot tell anyone about Arthur impersonating Alexandra, for obvious reasons and because she would probably break his nose,” said Jo. Arthur then held his nose, and imagined that to be quite painful. “I won’t breathe a world about that, I just hope you can stop the magician,” said Vicki.

  The day turned to evening, and everything was still. Arthur and Jo went out for a pleasant walk, and they walked past the beautiful hedges and over the running streams. Something was watching them, and it moved behind the hedge and followed them closely.

  “So, any thoughts on baby names?” asked Jo.

  “That’s thinking rather far ahead isn’t it?” asked Arthur.

  Jo pushed him against a tree, and began to kiss him. Arthur didn’t really have a chance to breathe, but eventually saw what she was driving at. Then a rustling made Jo stop.

  “Freddy; Archie mentioned it and I kind of liked it,” he said, gasping for air.

  “Shh, there’s something over there,” she said.

  The strange melody played again, and out from behind the hedge came a small man, with long bony fingers and holding a flute. It had green glowing eyes, and smiled at the two as it began to play. Then out of the dark rushed the black demon, and Arthur stepped in front of Jo. “Good evening, so you like to watch, huh?” asked Arthur.

  The Magician growled, and began to play the flute again. The Demon ran for Arthur. He pulled out a pistol and aimed it at the Magician. “Uh? You said you weren’t going to use a gun!” it said in a rasping but scared voice.

  Out of the bushes came Lilia and Stuart, and with a whack from a spade the two ghouls were knocked unconscious.

  Arthur carried the magician, who was surprisingly light, and Stuart came in behind with the demon tied up in a wheel barrow. “I can’t believe you did this so quickly,” said Charles, who came out of his study with Anna. Vicki came downstairs, and was wearing a pink dressing gown and had her extremely long hair down, which made her look quite different.

  “Well, I know who the Magician is; I’m afraid it’s your son, Jonathan,” said Arthur.

  “Did someone say my name?” asked Jonathan, who walked out of the kitchen holding a chicken drumstick.

  “If you’re here, then who is this?” asked Arthur, pulling off the magician’s face to reveal a woman who they didn’t recognise.

  “That is Verity, my handmaiden,” said Anna.

  “And her accomplice is…” said Stuart, pulling off the head of the black demon, which revealed the head of the green demon. “This doesn’t make much sense,” said Stuart.

  “Give it another go,” said Arthur. Stuart pulled off the green mask, and underneath was the red demon.

  “OK, I think I understand, one more time,” said Arthur. Stuart pulled off the last one, and it was a sweaty, dishevelled man.

  “He is one of my miners, I fired him when he was stealing gold,” said Charles.

  “It makes sense, keeping you away from the mine and the only way for someone to disappear in the middle of the desert is a trap door, which if we go and look I think we will find,” said Arthur.

  “But why Verity?” asked Anna.

  “This is most probably a relation,” said Arthur, pointing to the man.

  “And with three different disguises, he could appear to be three demons,” said Vicki.

  “If he put them on at once, he would look different each time,” said Arthur.

  “Well, you did it Sir Arthur, and I shall reward you with everything I promised. And you, Jonathan, are coming with me in the morning to my goldmine, and we are going to collect Sir Arthur’s reward and will deliver it to Gard personally,” said Charles.

  “What? I’m not going,” said Jonathan.

  “Yes you are, and that’s the end of it,” said Charles. Jonathan was taken aback by his father being strict with him, but Anna was happy that her son was actually going to get out of the house.

  “OK,” he said, and walked up to bed.

  “We will be leaving now,” said Arthur.

  “Thank you for everything,” said Charles.

  “No problem, pleasure to do it, I think I’m getting the hang of this monster hunting lark,” said Arthur.

  “Where will you go next?” asked Anna.

  “To Escid, I want to visit the ruins of the Old Fortress, and from there I will probably continue to Seone, and deliver the next bracelet,” replied Arthur.

  “Well good luck, and enjoy your tour of the islands,” said Charles.

  When Jo had said goodbye to Vicki, they left the house, and the two criminals who would be taken to the mainland by Sir Charles and Jonathan in the morning. The ship lifted off and sped further south, to the apparently empty ruins of the Old Fortress…

  Two Lilia’s is just two much

  The Isle of Escid wasn’t that far away from Elagos, so it was still dark when they arrived. They landed on the beach, and the pink moon was so big that it was as light as day. Arthur and Jo climbed out of their window and crawled down the ladder, and Arthur slipped on the last rung and landed on the sand. Jo slipped as well and landed on Arthur. “Oof,” said Arthur in a muffled voice.

  “Shh, we don’t want the other two to hear us,” said Jo.

  “You do realise that they are probably doing the same thing as us,” said Arthur.

  “Yes they probably are, but I don’t really want to be thinking about that
now, come on let’s get out of here,” said Jo.

  The moon was so bright they could see their shadows, and they came to the ruins of the Old Fortress which didn’t look that spooky, and Jo dragged Arthur behind a wall. Out of nowhere came a green light, which made Arthur stick his head around the corner. “Huh, what is it now?” asked Arthur, his face covered in lipstick.

  “Yeah, what is it?” asked Jo, her hair all a mess.

  They were greeted by a ghostly apparition; it was a woman with flowing white hair, a horrible face and a tarnished purple dress. “Why do you dare disturb the ghost of Queen Lilia!” is shouted.

  “Lilia, are you playing a joke? Well consider us successfully scared now run along” said Arthur.

  Lilia drew a dented sword and swiped for Arthur. He pushed Jo out of the way, and ducked.

  “OK, very funny” said Arthur.

  The ghost stared angrily with white eyes and went for Jo, but she jumped out of a long broken window and landed on the sand outside. When the ghost turned around Arthur was running away, following Jo since he was being perfectly logical.

  The two burst into the sitting room, and Lilia was on the sofa with Stuart.

  “Lilia!?” they both said in unison.

  “What?” she asked, and was very confused.

  “What are you playing at, you nearly cut my head off,” said Arthur.

  “I have no idea what you are talking about, if you’re referring to earlier we’ve been over that,” said Lilia.

  “Where did you get that costume from, and how did you get back here so quickly?” asked Jo.

  “I’ve been here the entire time,” said Lilia.

  “That’s true, we’ve both been here ever since you went to ‘get something from the wardrobe’,” said Stuart. Arthur and Jo then collapsed in laughter at the same time.

  “OK, please explain” said Lilia.

  “Would you believe that there is a ghost of you running around the Old Fortress, and they think you’re dead,” said Arthur.

  “Well of course I’m dead, as of now I’m your sweet slightly younger sister that despite all the people who know what I look like have no clue who I am,” said Lilia.

  “Then we obviously know that it is a fake but I think we should play things a bit differently, so let’s wait until morning because I have a fun idea,” said Arthur.

  “What are you going to do?” asked Stuart.

  “You’ll see, and when you see you can join in,” said Arthur. There was a puff of blue smoke, and a message appeared.

  “What is taking you so long?” read Arthur.

  “We’re having fun foiling phonies,” said Arthur.

  “Wow, try saying that when you’re drunk,” said Jo.

  “Want to try?” asked Arthur.

  Arthur grabbed a bottle of Blue Whisky while he was pulling Jo up the stairs.

  “OK, then,” said Stuart.

  “You know what’s funny?” asked Lilia.

  “What?” asked Stuart.

  “They think they’re drinking Blue Whisky but it’s merely blueberry juice mixed with a tiny amount of wine so it tastes alcoholic. If they come down here drunk it’s the placebo effect,” explained Lilia.

  “Why would you substitute it?” he asked.

  “Because my brother can get really emotional and frankly it’s just easier this way. I just hope he doesn’t get into the secret stash in the wardrobe,” she said.

  The Next Morning…

  “Ohhh, my head hurts,” said Arthur, slinking down the stairs. He walked in on Lila and Stuart, who were still asleep on the sofa under a cover. Arthur didn’t wake them, and he walked upstairs to get Jo. They came back downstairs and sneaked past the two love birds, carrying towels. When they got outside, it was about ten in the morning, and they decided to go swimming.

  “That was fast,” said Jo.

  “I never thought Lilia ever felt that way about anyone,” said Arthur.

  “She was stuck on that island a long time, maybe she was waiting for the right person,” said Jo.

  “Maybe, but let’s go swimming since it’s so hot,” said Arthur. They both took most of their clothes off, and Jo was surprisingly wearing a bikini, and it turned out that it was in one of the boxes, with a note on top saying ‘for swimming’. Arthur was just wearing shorts that he didn’t mind getting wet.

  They left all their clothes in a pile, and jumped into the water. They swam about ten yards out, and suddenly the sea began to swirl and froth. Jo and Arthur were then pulled out of the water by a huge hand. Then a monstrous head ascended out of the water.

  “Seashorelle? Hiya!” shouted Arthur.

  “How are my two little adventurers?” she asked.

  “We’re OK, we’re engaged” shouted Jo.

  “Congratulations, have you seen Archie yet?” she asked.

  “Not yet, we have to go to Seone first, and then we will meet her on Vertise,” said Arthur.

  “Good luck, do you know that you will soon be getting close to her domain,” she asked.

  “She has a home?” asked Jo.

  “A massive one, the Great Rim houses it and I’m told that it is bathed in perpetual twilight,” she explained.

  “It sounds lovely,” said Arthur.

  “Did you expect anything less?” she asked.

  “I suppose not. Did you just stop to say hello?” asked Jo.

  “Pretty much, I’m swimming over to the Megalithic Trench and it doesn’t sound very good,” she replied.

  “Have fun, we’ll tell Archie you said hello,” said Arthur, as Seashorelle put them down.

  “OK, see you again sometime,” she said, and disappeared in a splash of foam.

  “We have some strange friends,” said Arthur.

  “Don’t you just love it?” asked Jo, splashing Arthur in the face.

  “Yes,” he said, splashing her back.

  “Ahoy there!” shouted a voice on the shore. Arthur waved, and they both swam towards it.

  It was an old man with a long grey beard and bald head, and a younger woman with long brown hair pulled away from her eyes with a daisy flower. They both wore white jackets, although the woman wore hers on top of a pale yellow dress so it was hard to distinguish.

  “Good morning,” said Arthur, drying himself off.

  “Good morning, I am Professor Quake, who might you be?” he asked, shaking Arthur’s hand.

  “Sir Arthur Pageon and this is Princess Josephine,” said Arthur.

  “It’s an honour Your Majesty, and it’s an honour to meet such an illustrious man as you sir,” said Quake.

  “Who is your friend?” asked Jo.

  “This is my assistant Daisy Bloom,” said Quake.

  “Where are you from?” asked Arthur.

  “Our party are from the Hall of Learning in Azahad,” he said.

  “How big is Azahad?” asked Arthur.

  “The city is huge, and is an amazing sight to behold; I hope you will visit it while you are here,” he said.

  “We would love to, we’re visiting all the islands, and we will get to Arkellia soon,” said Arthur.

  “Good, now would you like to see our work?” he asked.

  “I would love to, let me just get Sir Stuart and Lady Lilia,” he said.

  “Lilia!?” asked Daisy, breaking her silence.

  “Now now, Daisy, what did I tell you about mentioning that,” he said.

  “Sorry, professor,” she said.

  “Right, I will get our two friends and we will meet you at your camp, where is it?” asked Arthur.

  “On the other side of the fortress ruins,” said Quake.

  “Good so not that far then. See you in a minute,” said Jo.

  The professor and Daisy disappeared behind the rocks while Arthur and Jo put their clothes back on. They walked back to the ship and climbed aboard. They walked into the sitting room and saw that everything had been returned to normal. They then heard the sound of talking in the study, and went to investigate. Ar
thur opened the door and saw that the safe door was opened, and the talking was coming from inside. He picked his gun off of the table and walked slowly to the edge.

  Lilia and Stuart were sat inside playing cards. “Point that thing somewhere else,” said Lilia.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “It’s too hot out there, and it’s freezing in here so were staying in here for a while,” said Stuart.

  “Ah, that is actually quite clever. But could you come with us please, were going to visit the archaeological site on the other side of the fortress and I’m taking bets on who the Ghost of Lilia is,” said Arthur.

  “OK,” said Lilia.

  “And why have you put loads of bottles down there?” asked Jo.

  “To keep them cool for later,” said Lilia.

  “Is that just water, so nothing is going to explode down there right?” asked Arthur.

  “Just water but now you’ve given me an idea,” said Lilia.

  “Come on, tell us later,” said Arthur who locked the safe and covered it over with the carpet.

  The archaeological dig wasn’t that big, and when they came to it they saw that a couple of soldiers were guarding the place. The group was stopped by them until Professor Quake came over and let them in.

  “Hello, let me show you around,” said Quake. They walked past a variety of rectangular holes with some people in them, who were digging down into the earth.

  “So, what is it you are looking for?” asked Arthur.

  “The Lost Treasure of Rogera the Pirate,” said Daisy.

  “Never heard of it,” said Arthur.

  “Not many people have, that is why we want to find it before anyone else does,” said Quake.

  “I see, and have you had any luck?” asked Jo.

  “Unfortunately not, every time we think were on to something the morning after all of our equipment is destroyed,” he said.

  “And who is responsible for this?” asked Stuart.

  “Now you can tell them, Daisy, I’m going to supervise trench four,” said Quake.

  “It is the spectral figure of the now dead Queen Lilia,” said Daisy.

  “OK, let’s just examine this from an objective stand point, firstly, what is Queen Lilia doing here? It makes absolutely no sense,” said Arthur.