by Emily Rodda
As he began bustling around, filling his rucksack, Leo moved to a shadowy corner and began changing into the things he had taken from the red hooks. With every piece of new clothing he put on he felt freer and more alive. By the time he was fully dressed, he could almost feel the blood fizzing in his veins.
‘I’m done,’ he said simply. He turned around, and gasped.
Mimi Langlander was standing on the other side of the storeroom – but she was a Mimi Langlander transformed!
The frilled lemon-yellow shirt, the pale pink shorts and the pink zip-up jacket with its bows and grinning kittens were gone. The enormous, grubby sneakers were gone. And the sulky, snooty expression had gone as well.
The Mimi Langlander who faced him stood tall, with her shoulders back. She was wearing slim black trousers, soft black shoes and a strange green and gold jacket with a high, Chinese-style collar. She looked exotic, poised and, really, Leo thought, quite beautiful. He could suddenly imagine Mimi standing on a concert platform with her violin, accepting the applause of a huge audience.
Colour flared in Mimi’s cheeks. ‘What are you staring at?’ she snapped.
‘You look amazing,’ Leo said, startled into speaking the plain truth. ‘Those clothes suit you a lot better than – um…’ His voice trailed off as Mimi glared at him.
‘Well, naturally they suit her,’ put in Conker, busily strapping up his bulging pack. ‘They chose her, didn’t they? I mean, would you want to be worn by someone who’d make you look ugly?’
The colour in Mimi’s cheeks grew brighter. Then the corner of her mouth tweaked in a wry smile. ‘My sisters’ clothes have probably been miserable ever since I started wearing them, then,’ she said, gesturing at the tangle of pink and yellow lying on the floor. ‘I’d better put them on the red hooks so they can find new homes.’
‘Afterwards, maybe,’ Conker said absent-mindedly. ‘For now, you’d better hide them in here. We don’t want to leave the Blue Queen any clues. Speaking of which…’
He began feeling around in his pockets. ‘I’ve just thought… before we do anything else, I’d better write a report.’ He pulled out a very short, very blunt pencil and a grubby little notebook. He bent closer to the candle, stuck out his tongue and began writing laboriously.
When he had finished the note, he tore the page from his notebook and passed it to Mimi and Leo. ‘That explains things pretty clearly, don’t you think?’ he said with satisfaction.
Leo took the note, and he and Mimi read it.
BQ HAS TAKEN LANGLANDER HOSTAGE.
QUEST TO RESCUE IN PROGRESS.
PASS IT ON.
CONKER
‘Who are you writing to?’ Leo asked, bewildered.
‘The others, of course,’ said Conker, taking the note back and folding it small. ‘The old team! I don’t suppose you were planning for us to do this all on our own?’ He laughed, as if he’d made a very good joke.
‘Well, yes, I thought …’ Mimi began.
Conker looked up quickly. When he saw that Mimi was serious, the amusement died from his face and was replaced by a look of embarrassed pride. He squared his shoulders. ‘Well, I’m very flattered,’ he mumbled. ‘And Freda will be too, when I tell her. My word she will!’
He rubbed his beard, and his eyes began to shine. ‘What if the four of us did face the Blue Queen on our own?’ he breathed. ‘Oh, that would be a story for the minstrels to sing about and no mistake. Think of it! Courage and sacrifice – a gallant struggle against tremendous odds …’
The glow faded from his eyes. He shrugged. ‘But I have to admit it would probably be a story with a very sad ending,’ he said. ‘You know – with everyone dying? And I hate those.’
‘Me too,’ said Leo fervently.
‘I don’t mind them,’ said Mimi. ‘But I wouldn’t like to be actually in one,’ she added quickly, as Leo glared at her.
‘Yes,’ sighed Conker. ‘It was a lovely thought, but I really think it’s impractical. Six isn’t the ideal number for a quest, but it’s a lot better than four. I speak from experience. Besides, the others would never forgive us if we left them out of this. Our last quest was a bit of a disappointment – swamp lurgies aren’t much of a challenge.’
He turned to Mimi. ‘But I thank you for your faith in me, Mimi Langlander,’ he said, bowing low. ‘It means a lot.’ He straightened, sniffed, and hurriedly turned away, wiping his eyes.
‘The others –’ Leo began.
‘No, no, don’t you worry about that. I won’t say a word about it to them,’ Conker snuffled. ‘I wouldn’t want to hurt their feelings. But I’ll know, in here’ – he punched his chest in the vague position of his heart – ‘and I’ll never forget it.’
After that, it seemed impossible to question him about the mysterious ‘others’. Neither Leo nor Mimi could face admitting the truth – that Mimi had assumed Conker and Freda were to be their only companions because she hadn’t had the faintest idea that there were any ‘others’ who might help.
Leo shook his head in frustration. He loathed the feeling that he was being swept along, out of control, but there wasn’t a thing he could do about it. For the moment he just had to follow where Conker led, and hope for the best.
Chapter 12
The Trouble With Mice
Conker gave a last, tremendous sniff and cleared his throat noisily. ‘Well,’ he said with forced heartiness, ‘enough of that! Here – have a lemon drop.’
He felt around in his pocket and pulled out a handful of large yellow sweets shaped vaguely like flattened lemons and covered with a dusting of dot crumbs and fluff.
‘Help yourself,’ he said grandly, holding the lemon drops out on the palm of his rather grubby hand.
Not wanting to offend him, Leo and Mimi each took one of the dingy sweets, murmuring insincere thanks.
‘Take two!’ Conker urged.
‘Oh, no. One’s plenty, thanks,’ Leo assured him, surreptitiously rubbing the lemon drop between his fingers to get off the worst of the fluff. He would have liked to throw the thing away, but Conker was watching him eagerly. Trying not to think about the dot crumbs, he pushed the lemon drop into his mouth.
‘Delicious,’ he said. And it was true that the lemon drop tasted good, if rather gritty.
‘I might keep mine for later,’ Mimi said hastily, pushing the lemon drop deep into her pocket. ‘I’m not hungry just at the moment.’
Leo wished he’d thought of that.
Conker took a lemon drop himself and put the rest away. ‘All right,’ he said, chewing with relish. ‘We’d better get on. You hide your clothes while I get this report on its way.’
He bent and knocked sharply three times at the base of the nearest wall. He straightened up and looked around expectantly, but nothing happened. He sighed deeply and began tapping his foot.
Mimi and Leo rolled their old clothes and shoes into tight bundles and hid them behind a box labelled Crabs’ Ankles. As they turned around again, there was a scuffling sound from the back of the storeroom and a brown mouse appeared from behind a sack of potatoes.
It was even smaller than the mouse that had brought the message to Leo’s bedroom. It sauntered up to Conker, sat back on its hind legs, and held out a tiny paw in a bored sort of way.
‘About time!’ said Conker tightly, handing over the folded note. ‘Take this to Tye in Flitter Wood, please. It’s very urgent.’
‘Oh, they’re all urgent, aren’t they?’ sighed the mouse, fussily clipping the note to the gold chain around its neck. ‘Why you people can’t plan ahead, I do not know. It’s one emergency after another with you. We were only saying in the cheese room earlier –’
‘Just deliver the message, will you?’ Conker roared, suddenly losing his temper.
‘Well, really!’ said the mouse. It sniffed and stalked away, its tail held out very stiffly behind it. At the potato sack, it stopped and combed its whiskers, deliberately taking its time, before finally disappearing into the shadows.<
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‘Something’s got to be done about those mice,’ growled Conker. ‘Once upon a time they couldn’t do enough for you. Now they act like they’re doing you a favour by carrying the mail.’
He shook his head. ‘In my opinion, the trouble started when they stopped wearing caps. Discipline went out the window after that. They said the caps kept getting knocked off in low tunnels. Well, why didn’t they just tighten their chin-straps, I’d like to know?’
He glared at Mimi and Leo as if waiting for an answer.
‘Chin-straps can be a bit uncomfortable,’ Mimi said cautiously. ‘I had a hat once –’
‘Uncomfortable?’ Conker exploded. ‘What does that matter? Why, in my day mice were proud to wear messenger caps, and the more uncomfortable they were, the better they liked it! Young mice dreamed of getting their first caps. They half-strangled themselves regularly, they wore their chin-straps so tight. But this young generation – bah!’
‘Are they paid?’ asked Leo curiously.
‘Of course they’re paid!’ snorted Conker. ‘Paid far too much, in my opinion. They’ve got a monopoly, that’s the trouble. They’re the only ones small enough to run between the layers – and they know all the Gaps, too. Old Wizard Bing over in Hobnob once tried to train lizards to do the job, you know. But the lizards kept getting lost, and having nervous breakdowns. Bing had to give it up.’
‘Oh well,’ Mimi murmured, before Leo could ask any more questions. She glanced at the door. ‘Are we ready to go now, Conker? Only – I’m worried about Mutt.’
‘Oh, of course you are, of course you are!’ exclaimed Conker, his scowl disappearing instantly. Hoisting his loaded bag onto his shoulder, he went to the door, opened it and peered out.
‘All right,’ he whispered, beckoning.
They all crept out of the storeroom. The muffled sounds of laughter and singing drifted through the glass door at the other end of the hallway.
‘You wait there,’ Conker whispered, pointing at the staircase. ‘Keep out of sight. I’ll go and get Freda.’
Leo and Mimi scuttled to the staircase. They climbed up to the fourth step and crouched there in the dark.
‘What if someone comes down?’ Leo whispered.
‘Oh, we’ll just say we’re waiting for our parents or something,’ Mimi said confidently. ‘That usually works.’
Leo bit his lip. He hadn’t thought about his mother and father since he and Mimi had climbed through the tavern window, but suddenly he couldn’t think of anything else. What was his mother going to think when she got home and found him and Mimi missing?
First she’d be puzzled. Then she’d be annoyed. Then she’d get worried. Then she’d panic.
He sighed and shook his head.
‘What’s the matter?’ Mimi hissed.
‘Mum,’ Leo said. ‘She’ll worry. She doesn’t know where we are.’
‘If she did know, she’d worry a lot more,’ Mimi said reasonably.
Leo nodded gloomily. This didn’t make him feel any better.
‘Anyway, who knows how time works in this place?’ Mimi went on. ‘It mightn’t be the same as at home. If it’s like some of the stories I’ve read, it isn’t. For all we know, a day here is like a minute in our world, and we’ll be back before Suzanne even knows we’re gone.’
‘If we get back at all,’ Leo muttered.
‘Of course we will!’ Mimi exclaimed. ‘We’ve got the ring, haven’t we?’ She held up her hand, and even in the darkness Leo could see the gleam of gold. He looked at it longingly, his mind suddenly filled again with thoughts of grabbing Mimi, wrenching the ring from her finger, and wishing them both back to home and safety.
I’ll just do it, he told himself. It’s up to me. I’m the sensible one. I have to think for both of us. She’ll thank me later.
But he had hesitated a moment too long. Mimi must have seen the expression on his face, because she abruptly made her hand into a tight fist and hid it behind her back.
‘Don’t even think about it, Leo,’ she said fiercely. ‘I’ve got really strong hands, from playing the violin. If you want this ring, you’ll have to break my fingers to get it.’
‘I wouldn’t –’ Leo’s horrified protest broke off as he heard soft footsteps coming down the passage and recognised Conker’s voice.
‘… to tell the others what’s going on,’ Conker was saying to his companion. ‘A bit risky otherwise, don’t you think, Freda?’
‘Insane!’ said the duck flatly.
Just as Conker and Freda reached the staircase, there was the sound of a door swinging open and a burst of noise from the other end of the passageway.
‘All right, all right!’ a voice roared. ‘Plenty more pickles in the storeroom, ladies and gentlemen. Give us a chance!’
‘Jolly’s coming!’ muttered Conker, scurrying up to Leo and Mimi with Freda behind him. ‘Quick! Up to the first floor.’
Instantly, Mimi darted up the dark stairs. Leo followed, very aware that his chance to grab the ring had passed. He didn’t know if he was glad or sorry.
They arrived, panting, at the first floor landing and stood aside to let Conker and the duck join them. Deserted corridors lined with doors led away from the landing to left and right.
Both corridors were littered with framed paintings that had dropped from the walls. The window at the end of the left-hand corridor was cracked, and the curtain rod had fallen down, so that the red curtains lay in a tangled heap on the floor. More earthquake damage, Leo thought guiltily.
Conker turned left. ‘Mind the paintings,’ he whispered as he tiptoed carefully along the corridor. ‘Don’t tread on them, for goodness sake. They’re Jolly’s pride and joy. He’s been taking lessons, you know.’
The paintings – those that Leo could see – were not very good, and they were all of a large pink pig.
The pig had been painted in different poses. Sometimes it was standing and sometimes it was lying down. Sometimes it was serious. Sometimes it was smiling. Sometimes it was wearing a blue-spotted scarf around its neck. Sometimes it was wearing a straw sunhat covered in flowers and tied under the chin with broad pink ribbons. Sometimes it even had a daisy behind its ear. But it was always clearly the same pig.
‘Doesn’t Jolly ever paint anything else?’ asked Mimi in amazement.
Conker sighed. ‘Well, no, not at present,’ he said, skirting a very large gold-framed picture of the pig leaning against a fence with her front legs crossed. ‘He just paints Bertha. She works for his brother actually. Jolly goes out to the farm to paint her. There are lots more of her downstairs as well. We’ve all suggested he might try another subject. Pigs get a bit monotonous to look at after a while, as you can imagine. But he won’t hear of it.’
‘He must really like her – Bertha I mean,’ Leo commented, for something to say.
Freda quacked explosively. Leo jumped in shock, then realised the duck was laughing.
‘Like her?’ exclaimed Conker. ‘He can’t stand her. He says he’s sick of the sight of her.’
‘Then why–?’ Leo asked helplessly.
‘Bertha was the first thing Jolly painted, you see,’ Conker explained. ‘He was really proud of that picture, and his wife liked it too. Or so she said – she’s a kind soul, Merry, and very fond of him. So Jolly took his picture of Bertha to Monsieur Rouge-et-Noir at the Art Gallery. He thought it should be hung up where everyone could see it. But Monsieur wouldn’t have it. He said the subject was interesting, but the painting wasn’t good enough for the Gallery. He told Jolly to try again.’
‘Wak, wak, wak,’ sniggered Freda.
‘So Jolly did try again,’ Conker went on, shooting the duck a reproving look. ‘He hung the first picture of Bertha behind the bar and painted another picture of her, in a different pose, for the Art Gallery. But Monsieur didn’t like that one either, or the next one, or the next.’
He scratched his beard and sighed again. ‘So then Jolly got stubborn. Jolly’s a very nice fellow, but
he can get really stubborn when he’s roused. And he swore he was going to get a picture of Bertha hung up in the Art Gallery if it was the last thing he ever did.’
‘I can understand that,’ said Mimi. And as she was the most amazingly stubborn person he’d ever met, Leo believed her.
‘The fact remains,’ Conker said, ‘that at last count Jolly has done four hundred and eighty-two paintings of Bertha. Now, I’m not one to lay down the law to other folk, but in my view that’s enough.’
‘More than enough,’ Leo agreed.
They’d reached the end of the corridor by now. The cracked window was right in front of them, and the crumpled red curtains lay at their feet. On their left was a narrow door marked Staff Only which looked as if it might open onto a broom cupboard. On their right was a blank wall. They seemed to have reached a dead end.
‘What now?’ Mimi demanded.
Conker turned to the narrow door and grasped its brass knob. He spun the knob around three times to the right. Then he spun it twice to the left, and four times to the right again. There was a sharp click and the door swung open.
Inside was swirling greyness, thick and dense as fog.
Freda made a high, quacking sound.
‘In you go,’ Conker growled. He seized Mimi and Leo by the arms and thrust them through the door.
Chapter 13
Flitter Wood
The door slammed shut. Grey mist closed in around Leo, blinding him. His feet tried and failed to find solid ground. His hands clawed at empty air. Twisting and flailing uselessly he began a slow, drifting fall through swirling grey space. His ears were ringing with Mimi’s terrified cries as well as his own.
His stomach heaved as he somersaulted, and somersaulted again. In terror he realised that he’d lost all sense of which way was up and which way was down.
Panic-stricken, he beat at the greyness around him. His mind groped frantically for an answer to what had happened, as if somehow knowing would make a difference.
Conker had made some sort of terrible blunder. Conker had impetuously pushed them through the door, not realising what was behind it.