The Key to Rondo

by Emily Rodda

  ‘No, no, no!’ Leo exclaimed, shaking his head and clenching his fists. ‘That’s not what I mean! Look, forget about being prickly for just one minute, will you? Listen to me!’

  He glared at her. She raised her eyebrows in the haughty, superior way he loathed. He controlled his anger and took a deep breath.

  ‘Mimi, maybe you’re the reason this whole thing started,’ he said, forcing himself to speak in a level voice. ‘But that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m interested in things that have happened since. Like, why did the Blue Queen want us to go with her? Why did she take Mutt? Why did Spoiler try to grab us? Why did Conker –?’

  ‘Oh, that!’ Mimi broke in harshly. She had become very pale. Her eyes looked huge. ‘Well, the only thing I can think of is that maybe the Blue Queen needs us – needs people from our world, anyway.’

  ‘What for?’ Leo demanded.

  ‘To make herself more alive?’ said Mimi, and shrugged as Leo’s jaw dropped. ‘After all, she was the only person to come out of the box. She might be the only one with the strength to do it. She might be some sort of vampire, who drains the life force from people of our world to give more life to herself.’

  Leo couldn’t think of a thing to say. He couldn’t even close his mouth.

  ‘She tried to get us,’ Mimi went on, turning even paler, if that were possible, ‘and when she couldn’t, she took Mutt instead.’

  Leo’s first thought was that Mutt was so tiny that his life force wouldn’t be worth much. Then he remembered the little dog’s furious reaction to Einstein, and changed his mind. Mutt was small, but he certainly had plenty of determination.

  ‘We’ve got to get to the castle and save him,’ Mimi whispered. ‘We’ve got to. I can’t bear it otherwise.’

  Leo saw that her eyes were shining with tears, and immediately felt mean for making jokes about Mutt, even in his own mind. However unlikeable Mutt was, why should he be drained of life just to make the Blue Queen stronger than she was already?

  Drained of life … Leo felt cold. And with the cold came a bleak awareness of just how desperate his and Mimi’s situation was. Here they were, in the middle of a forest, high in a tree around which tigers prowled. They were depending for escape on a bunch of fairies whose language they couldn’t speak and whose friendship was still, in Leo’s opinion, in question. They didn’t know which way to go to save themselves. They had no weapons, no food … ‘What’s happening?’ Mimi interrupted, stiffening.

  And at the same moment Leo realised that the ringing in his ears had suddenly grown louder, and had separated into words. At last, he was hearing the voices of the Flitters.

  Danger! Danger! Danger!

  The Flitters were all swarming upwards. In an instant, the hammocks were empty, and the roof of the hollow was a moving mass of green. All peace and comfort had disappeared, and a terrible fear filled the air.

  Almost at once, the reason became clear. A sound drifted through the hole in the tree trunk – the distant sound of raised voices.

  ‘Someone’s come into the clearing,’ Leo whispered, jumping up.

  Dead ferns crackling and snapping under his feet, he moved close to the hole through which he and Mimi had slid just minutes before. As Mimi hurried to his side, he stood on his toes, parted the fern fronds cautiously and tried to peer out.

  He could see nothing but ferns, leaves and dimness. But he could hear. He screwed his eyes shut, listening intently to the sounds floating up from the ground.

  ‘There!’ a woman’s voice said huskily. ‘I knew how it was! The Flitters heard us. They fled, and the Langlanders went with them. See? Langlander tracks go right to the Nesting Tree before moving on again. Who knows where the two are now!’

  Leo and Mimi exchanged silent glances, both remembering how Leo had run to the edge of the clearing and back before the fungus had appeared and they’d begun to climb the tree. I laid a false trail by sheer luck, Leo thought gratefully.

  ‘It’s not my fault, Tye,’ the woman’s companion grumbled. With a chill, Leo recognised Conker’s voice.

  A fresh wave of terror swept over him from above. He looked up. The Flitters were swirling in agitation.

  Danger! Danger! Danger!

  The voices chimed in Leo’s mind like tiny, frantic bells. And his last flicker of hope that there had been some sort of terrible mistake, and that Conker was after all a friend, and not a deadly enemy, went out.

  ‘Tye was the person Conker wrote to about us,’ Mimi hissed.

  Leo nodded grimly. Take this to Tye in Flitter Wood, Conker had said, when he gave the messenger mouse his note. Right under their noses he’d sent out the news that he’d made contact with them and gained their trust.

  Flitter Wood, Leo thought. Of course! That’s why the word ‘Flitters’ rang a bell in my mind. Why didn’t I remember before? Not that it would have done us any good if I had.

  ‘Whose fault is it then?’ exclaimed the woman called Tye. ‘Of all the foolish, inefficient –’

  ‘I thought they trusted me!’ Conker protested in injured tones. ‘And anyhow, I thought you’d be waiting for them. I thought you’d deal with them. I had to send them on their own. I didn’t have any choice. I told you! Someone came up the stairs and nearly caught us pushing them through the door.’

  ‘Who was it?’ Tye snapped.

  ‘Pop, the balloon-seller,’ Conker said. ‘He lost his balloons in the quake. The whole bunch drifted off and ended up caught on the weather vane on the roof of the Black Sheep. Pop got Jolly’s permission to climb out onto the roof from the first-floor window, to try to get them. He turned up right at the wrong moment for us.’

  Tye made a disgusted sound.

  ‘It’s just lucky Pop’s a bit short-sighted,’ Conker went on. ‘He saw us, but he didn’t see what we were doing. We got the door shut just in time.’

  ‘This talk is pointless,’ Tye growled. ‘The damage is done. We will search the forest till the light fails. If we cannot secure the Langlanders by then we will have to go and explain what has happened.’

  ‘We don’t have to explain in person,’ Conker said nervously. ‘We could just send a mouse.’

  ‘Are you mad?’ spat Tye. ‘Send a messenger? When he was depending on you? He is angry and desperate enough as it is about his own failure to contain the Langlanders. No. We must see him, so he can decide what is to be done next.’

  Again Mimi and Leo exchanged glances.

  ‘Spoiler,’ Leo breathed, his skin prickling. ‘They’re working for –’

  He broke off as the sound of low, harsh muttering rose from the clearing. Leo strained his ears, but couldn’t make out the words. The Flitters’ terror was beating down on him like a stinging wind.

  ‘The Flitters might indeed know where they went,’ Tye said, obviously in answer to some comment or question. ‘But they are hardly going to come out and inform us, are they?’

  The muttering began again.

  ‘Good idea,’ Conker said heartily. ‘Go for it!’

  There was a sighing, rustling sound above Leo’s head. He looked up quickly. The Flitters were shrinking even further towards the top of the hollow, crowding closely together, their green wings fluttering rapidly, their tiny faces filled with terror.

  ‘Get back,’ he gasped, pulling Mimi away from the hole.

  There was a flapping sound from outside. Something slapped on the broad tree branch. The ferns that masked the entrance to the hollow began to thrash as they were pushed roughly aside.

  And the next moment, a dark, narrow head had poked through the hole, and glittering, masked eyes were staring straight at Mimi and Leo.

  It was Freda the duck.

  ‘Aha!’ she quacked, and snapped her beak.

  Chapter 15

  Flight

  Leo and Mimi stumbled backwards till they were pressed against the far wall of the hollow and could go no further.

  Danger! Danger!

  Freda turned her head. ‘They’re her
e!’ she shouted. ‘Both of them!’

  ‘How did they get up there?’ Conker’s amazed voice floated up from the clearing below.

  ‘We will have to find out, later,’ Tye said shortly. ‘For now, the important thing is to get them into our hands. If they are not secured, the consequences might be –’

  ‘Go away!’ Mimi shouted passionately. ‘Leave us alone!’

  The duck snapped her beak again. ‘Out,’ she ordered Mimi and Leo, jerking her head.

  ‘No!’ Mimi said defiantly. ‘We won’t come out, and you can’t make us!’

  ‘There’s no safe way down from here,’ Leo added, trying to sound very calm and firm. ‘And even if there were, we want to stay. We certainly don’t want to go anywhere with you and your friends.’

  Freda’s eyes narrowed till they were fierce black slits. ‘Come out,’ she said distinctly, ‘or I will come in.’

  No! No! No! The Flitters’ cries of terror crashed down on Leo and Mimi in a mighty wave, almost making them sag at the knees.

  Frightening pictures began flickering in front of Leo’s eyes like images on a screen. A huge masked figure raging through a mass of ferns, wings half spread, snapping, biting, crushing. Flitters taken by surprise, scattering in panic, desperate to escape…

  He knew he was seeing the fearful memories of the Flitters. He gazed at Freda in horror. How could he ever have thought she was harmless? To the Flitters she was a giant, a monster more fearful than any wolf or tiger. And here she was, at the very entrance of their refuge.

  ‘Ah yes, the Flitters know me,’ said the duck menacingly. ‘They know what I am, and what I can do. They have met me before. If you value their lives you will do as I say!’

  Leo turned, and his eyes met Mimi’s. He could see that she, too, had seen and felt the Flitters’ terrible memories.

  ‘We’ll have to go,’ Mimi said, her lips hardly moving. ‘We can’t make them suffer because of us.’

  ‘Quite right!’ sneered the duck.

  No! No! the voices of the Flitters chimed in Leo’s mind. No, friends, do not go for our sake!

  But Leo knew they had no choice. Almost without thinking, he took Mimi’s hand. Together they began to move towards the hollow entrance. Freda’s eyes glinted triumphantly.

  No! No! Fly away with us! Fly away! Here! Look here!

  A clump of dead ferns fell softly onto the base of the hollow. A column of light streamed suddenly from somewhere near the roof. Leo and Mimi looked up, startled.

  Come with us!

  High above them, another hole had miraculously appeared in the trunk of the tree. Flitters were zooming through it, out into the open air.

  Come with us!

  An emergency exit at the top of the hollow, Leo thought in confusion. It was hidden by a mass of dead ferns, but it was there. So the Flitters can escape! But we can’t. We can’t get up there. To get up there, we’d have to … to …

  Fly! Fly!

  The duck quacked angrily from the hollow entrance. She had seen the Flitters escaping. She pressed forward, pushing at the ferns that fringed the mouth of the hole. Soon she would be inside.

  Come with us, friends! Save yourselves. Fly! Fly!

  Afterwards, Leo couldn’t remember whether it was he or Mimi who had first sprung upward in answer to that call. Their hands were linked, so it could have been either of them.

  Whoever was responsible, the fact remained that the next instant, as Freda struggled through the entrance hole, quacking with rage, they both rose from the base of the hollow and soared upward to join the Flitters.

  Once they were part of that swirling green cloud, there was no turning back. Before they had time to speak, or even to think, they were rising out of the hole that was the Flitters’ emergency exit and speeding away through the trees.

  They were flying – gliding effortlessly in the centre of a long green cloud that snaked through the maze of leaves and branches high above the forest floor. Cool wind beat against their faces. Behind them they could hear the shouts of Conker and Tye, the enraged quacks of the baffled duck.

  Then the shouts died away and they could only hear the rustling of leaves, the calls of birds, and the fluttering of a thousand tiny wings.

  The cries of the Flitters were ringing in their minds. At first there was joyful relief in the cries. Then there was glee, because the invading monster could not easily give chase through the tree maze. Then came a terrible sadness, because the ancient Nesting Tree had been abandoned, left for the invader to despoil.

  The grief was terrible. Leo couldn’t bear it.

  ‘You had to leave, to save yourselves,’ he found himself calling against the wind. ‘But you can go back very soon. They’re only interested in us. They’ll leave the tree now, to come after us.’

  Yes, they are following as best they can, the Flitters sighed. But the Nesting Tree is tainted now. The invader has spoiled its peace. We cannot return to it.

  ‘Yes, you can!’ Mimi shouted, almost angrily. ‘If you don’t claim your home back, you let them win! And hasn’t the Nesting Tree sheltered you for all these years? It doesn’t deserve to be left empty and alone.’

  There was a moment’s silence. Then …

  Perhaps … we will try.

  There was a trace of hope in the sighing sound. They’ll go back, Leo thought. They’ll go back, clean up, and settle down again.

  Resentment mingled with his relief. He’d talked perfect sense to the Flitters and it hadn’t made a scrap of difference. Then Mimi had talked a load of rubbish about trees having feelings and, lo and behold, the Flitters had listened.

  ‘Logic doesn’t always work when you’re feeling bad,’ Mimi murmured, as if she’d read his mind.

  Leo didn’t answer.

  The Flitters began to slow down, drifting lower and lower so that soon they were threading their way through a maze of tree trunks, and the tips of the tallest ferns were brushing Mimi and Leo’s feet. High above them stretched the green canopy of the treetops, blocking out the sky.

  We are nearing the edge of our territory. The sound chimed softly at the edges of Leo’s mind. We cannot go beyond the ferns. You must fly on alone.

  Leo felt a stab of panic. Fly on alone? How could they do that without the Flitters’ magic to hold them up? And which way should they go anyway? The Flitter flight had turned and twisted so often that he’d lost all sense of direction. For all he knew they’d been flying in circles.

  If only I could see the sun, he thought desperately.

  That way, chimed the Flitters, pointing straight ahead. Fly that way and you will find the sun. Farewell! Be safe! Farewell!

  With that they fell from the air, drifting down like a shower of lacy leaves, settling into the thick ferns and disappearing from view.

  Alone with Mimi, stranded in the empty air, Leo hesitated, wobbling dangerously. Mimi tugged his hand, but all he could think of was that he was going to fall.

  Why do you wait? the Flitters called from below them, a trace of panic sharpening their tiny voices.

  ‘Leo, stop thinking!’ Mimi muttered through clenched teeth. ‘If we fall now we’ll crush hundreds of them. We’ve got to keep going! Just tell yourself –’

  ‘I can’t!’ Leo gabbled. ‘We can’t fly alone. We can’t –’

  Fly on! Fly on!

  ‘They say we can and so we can,’ Mimi snapped. ‘They must mean they’ll help us.’ She tightened her grip on Leo’s hand and shot forward, hauling him after her.

  They flew awkwardly, losing height. Flitters sprang out of the way as the toes of their shoes trailed heavily through the ferns. They fumbled their way around one tree, then another and another. Already the Flitters’ voices were chiming more softly in their minds.

  Fly on! Be safe! Farewell!

  The trees were thinning. The ferns became fewer every moment, shrinking to mere clusters in the deepest shade. Then, suddenly, the ferns were gone altogether. Sunlight had begun filtering through the canopy, makin
g golden pools on the forest floor. Grass appeared, dotted with nodding flowers. Blue butterflies fluttered about.

  And the voices of the Flitters were faint, so faint…

  Through a gap in the trees ahead, Leo saw open ground. ‘We’ve reached the edge of the forest,’ he called excitedly.

  The next moment they had sailed through the gap. The light changed abruptly from green to gold. Sun warmed their faces as they soared across a flower-filled ditch and a bare brown road.

  Leo found it a huge relief to move out from under the trees at last, to see wide sky above him and land stretching ahead. It was like throwing off a heavy, shrouding cloak that he hadn’t realised he was wearing. All at once he seemed to be able to breathe more freely and think more clearly, too.

  Mimi obviously felt differently. ‘There’s nowhere to hide out here,’ she called, and glanced longingly back at the green shade they’d left behind.

  Before they could gather their wits enough to turn, they’d skimmed over a white-painted fence that was leaning over drunkenly, almost touching the road. Then the lush grass of a field was below them, and a rambling farmhouse, an apple orchard, a red-roofed barn, a windmill and several neat haystacks were ahead.

  ‘I know this place!’ Leo exclaimed. ‘I’ve seen it on the music box.’

  And just then, he realised that he couldn’t hear the Flitters’ voices any more.

  Well, that’s it, he thought, bracing himself. We’re really on our own now. Any minute …

  His feet hit the ground with a shuddering jolt. Mimi’s high scream echoed in his ears as he lurched forward and fell, dragging her down with him.

  They came to rest, shocked and panting, beside a large pile of straw. The red-roofed barn loomed above them, the windmill creaked nearby, and somewhere a rooster crowed dismally.

  ‘Leo, why did you do that?’ shouted Mimi, staggering to her feet. ‘Why did you drag us down? We were going fine! We could have turned around and flown all the way to –’

  ‘No, we couldn’t,’ Leo shouted back. ‘The Flitters are too far back to help us any more. And we weren’t going fine! We were losing height every minute, and –’