The Princelings of the East

by Jemima Pett

  Chapter 3: The Tunnel Network

  In which Fred meets a Mysterious Stranger and George finds a Sky Courtyard

  The drip drip drip from the ceiling of the tunnel and the patter patter patter of their feet on the tunnel floor seemed to have been going on for hours. Or days. Or even weeks, thought George. It was still damp underfoot, and it still smelled of, well, marsh - which was not surprising since the castle was surrounded by it. But surely they should have passed beyond the marsh by now? Was the tunnel actually leading them in a huge circle?

  “I could really do with a rest,” he called softly forward to Fred, who was leading the way as usual.

  “I was hoping to find somewhere dry,” was the response.

  George said nothing, just put his head down and carried on doggedly. ‘Dry’ would be nice too.

  He was thinking about nice things like dry, warm and food when he bumped into Fred’s behind, mainly because it was suddenly stationary. Fred grumbled softly but didn’t otherwise complain.

  “The tunnel makes a sharp turn ahead,” he explained. “I just thought we ought to be cautious.”

  George made a grunt of agreement and they crept forward to the bend.

  They peered round the corner to see a faint glimmer of light. As they went slowly forward the tunnel bent once again to make a zigzag. Far in the distance some light cut into the tunnel at an angle.

  “Well, something looks interesting up there,” said Fred.

  “More importantly,” said George, “it is nice and dry under our feet, and we could just have a short rest and plan our next move.” And he sat down with a good stretch of his limbs to make a nice resting position on the now dry sandy floor of the tunnel.

  “Well, I think it’s fairly obvious that we go and find where that light is coming from,” said Fred, likewise finding a nice comfortable position to rest. He muttered quietly to himself as he pondered on the nature of the light.

  “It doesn’t look like daylight, but it’s steady, so it isn’t firelight. There’s not much air movement in the tunnel so I don’t think it’s an opening onto the outside world. It’s too bright to be artificial. We’re just going to have to go and investigate.” And, so saying, he got up and went along the tunnel to have a look. He had no idea that George had fallen fast asleep and heard nothing of his musings.

  As Fred drew closer, the light seemed to take on a translucent quality. He was only about twenty steps from where it shone into the tunnel when something blocked the light; a shadow fell across the tunnel and must belong to something huge. Fred stood stock-still, not daring to breathe. He briefly considered turning round and running, but didn’t want George to think he was a coward. Something large, black and pointed protruded into the tunnel from the place where the light had been. It was attached to a face with black beady eyes that followed the nose out then looked each way up and down the tunnel. On its second look in Fred’s direction, it stopped and fixed its gaze on him.

  “Urr, well, hi.” it said.

  Fred was relieved that it spoke, which was a good sign, but bemused by the strange way in which it spoke. He decided that it was a greeting of sorts and needed a response.

  “Greetings and good health to you and your family.” he replied formally.

  “Mighty kind of you I’m sure.” The owner of the beady eyes stepped out into the tunnel, dressed in a very snazzy black and white suit, with a crest just like Fred’s, but white. Fred had never seen such an outlandish get-up but decided he was travelling, and maybe there were lots of outlandish things in the outlands. He turned to make a comment to George and was stunned to find George was not there. Oops, no back up, just when you really need it, he thought. He turned back to the stranger.

  “My name is Fred, and I’ve travelled from the Castle in the Marsh,” he introduced himself, expecting the stranger to do the same.

  “Are you now? Well, that is interesting. Have you been travelling long?” asked the stranger, but instead of waiting for an answer, he carried on talking as if to himself and replying to his own question. “Has he been travelling long, what does that mean? Well, I suppose it could be useful knowing whether to check that way out or whether to carry on as usual.”

  “Um, well, I’m going to one of the other castles to see if they have any problems like the Energy Drain,” Fred offered, to see if that would get more information from the stranger.

  “Yeah, well, there’re lots of castles in that direction and I don’t reckon I’ve ever seen a castle in that direction before,” the stranger said, nodding first at the way Fred was going and then at the way they had come. “If you’ve got an Energy Drain down there, there’s no reason for going that way.”

  “Which way are you planning to go?” asked Fred.

  “Oh, my usual, I s’pose,” said the stranger. “No point in changing for the sake of changing.” He gave Fred a piercing look. “You gonna tag along with me till we get there?”

  Fred swallowed. He was tempted, but suddenly realised that he might lose touch with George. They had never been apart before. Well, apart from when one was Thinking and the other was, well, whatever it was George did when Fred was Thinking.

  The stranger moved off, and Fred found himself following. Well, he thought, George is hardly going to do anything other than follow along this tunnel, is he? And because the light had gone out from where the stranger had emerged, Fred never thought about the tunnel forking off to the left as he hurried to run alongside the stranger, and the main tunnel widened as if to allow two-way traffic.