Roland's Castle

  Chapter 14

  As a parting gift Og-dra-gob gave them all horses. Oliver looked at them nervously.

  “There's nothing to it!” Said Botherworth.

  “I didn’t know janitors could ride,” said Goodwill.

  “It isn’t in the job description – and it didn’t come up at the interview, but I find it useful!”

  Botherworth mounted and then fell straight off the other side. He remounted and grasped the reins, “When you fall off, you just gotta get straight back on! I’m a bit rusty, that’s all, plus a slippy saddle…”

  Oliver mounted with a lot less difficulty.

  “See! Nothing to it!” said Botherworth, “Now, where do I put me broom?”

  With such things sorted out the adventurers rode out for their journey. It was a long one, but the thought that they were at last on the right track — so it seemed — kept them going.

  They passed out of the pastoral landscape of Og-dra-gob’s territory into more mountainous terrain and continued until the mountains that Brandon Senior had spoken of came into view. The foothills were covered with trees and the peaks cloaked in cloud. As they got yet closer they could see that inside the cloud there were forms, like living creatures, moving upwards and downwards. They were graceful creatures, like sea creatures, with flat tails and flippers that pushed against the air like wings. Their movements had all the appearance of swimming, although technically they were in fact flying slowly through the mist. They were soaring upwards from the trees, as if to take gulps of air, and then diving down into them again. They were moving as if to a perfectly choreographed dance.

  “They must be the whales,” Oliver said.

  “I think they must be,” Roland said.

  “Something seems to have gone right – at last,” Botherworth said, almost as if he were disappointed at being proved wrong about life in general.

  The adventurers rode up to the edge of the forest. It looked quite impenetrable so Roland tried to get the whales’ attention from where he stood. He waved his arms and shouted , “Excuse me! We need your help! We have been told you can help us. Can you?”

  There was no response from the whales. Roland tried again, “We have come here from the Unfinished tower. A man called Firebrace sent us. We must get to the moon so we can get to the sun and get more sun warriors to save the tower from—”

  “ — from the Spirus,” Savitri cut in, “The most evil, nasty, vile, murderous creatures that have ever been on the earth.”

  “Which is round, in case you didn’t know,” Oliver put in.

  The whales seemed to gain interest. Near the adventurers part of the cloud started to billow and then extended right over their heads. Slowly The whales moved into the new part of the cloud and started circling, nose to tail, right above Roland. Then one of the creatures swam down so that its head projected out of the bottom of the cloud. It emitted a high pitched noise that caused all of the adventurers to cover their ears.

  “Gor' blimey!” cursed Botherworth.

  “Somewhat distressing!” said Goodwill.

  “Was that ‘buzz off’?” Oliver asked.

  The horses were also disturbed by it. They started to rear up and whinny in protest. The adventurers dismounted and shooed them away. They bolted for home.

  “What do we do without horses?” Oliver asked.

  Roland shrugged, “We have found the whales, if they cannot help us, I reckon it’s game over anyway.”

  He looked up again and cried out, “I am told you can help us! We need to get to the moon!”

  Another of the creatures dipped its head down out of the cloud and again emitted the high—pitched noise. This time they had all covered their ears in readiness.

  “Tell them why again,” Oliver urged, “Perhaps they didn’t fully understand the first time.”

  Roland did so, “We need the help of the people in the sun in order to save the castle that protects the unfinished tower. We must reach the sun. We must get to the moon so that we can reach the sun and ask the Great Council of Grand Flames for reinforcements.”

  Another of the whales dipped its head beneath the cloud, emitted the high pitched sound and then drifted upwards again. Once more they had covered their ears.

  “We don’t seem to be getting anywhere,” Oliver said, lowering his hands.

  The whale rejoined the other whales and they all began to ascend, as if they were leaving.

  “No!” Roland cried out, “Please don’t go! We need your help! We have been through so much to get here! Please help us!”

  The whales continued to ascend for a few moments, then they stopped and all of them turned to face inwards toward the centre of the circle. Then, slowly, majestically, they begin to rock back and forth in a see-saw motion, as if nodding to each other.

  “What are they doing?” Oliver asked.

  Roland shrugged. As he did so there was a faint tremor beneath his feet. They all felt it. There was another, then another…

  The trembling and rumbling grew, then, from the ground between them, a jet of water burst upwards towards the sky. It was narrow at first but quickly got wider — so quickly that they suddenly found themselves engulfed and swept up by it. At the same time Their ears were filled with the roaring of it so that they could not hear themselves - or each other - cry out.

  They were thrust upwards toward the sky, then right through it. Then there was light — a lot of light; light split into spectrums, light whirling around, light in beams and clouds, light in fragments that floated past their eyes.

  It was at the point when they needed to draw breath – just a few seconds after it started — that the roaring and the light quickly halted and they were flung into darkness, landing on soft sand.

  Their eyes grew accustomed to what was, in fact, dim light and they saw that they were in a cavern, surrounded by ships. The whole place smelt of the sea, but as if the tide had gone out long ago.

  “I’m dry,” Oliver said, surprised.

  Me too,” said Savitri

  I don’t think we were in that fountain – whatever it was - long enough to get wet,” Roland said.

  “Impossible,” Botherworth said.

  “Are you wet?” Oliver challenged.

  “No,” Botherworth admitted.

  “What are all these ships doing here? Oliver asked, looking about, “What an odd thing to find on the moon!”

  “You think that’s where we are?” Roland asked.

  “Where else would you find a cavern full of ships?” Oliver said, with a smile and a wink.

  “I’d like to know for sure,” Roland said.

  There seemed to be hundreds of ships, of all sizes and shapes. They were stacked right up to roof of the cavern, many crammed in at odd angles, some broken under the weight of supporting others. Their masts stuck out of the piles like felled trees, or like tentacles reaching out in grim desperation. Plainly there was a shortage of ship storage space.

  The next cavern contained the same, and the next — and the next. There seemed to be an endless supply of ships and very little room to store them. In each successive cavern the ships were newer, less decayed, than in the last, giving the impression that whoever put them there was just moving on from cavern to cavern building ships and filling up the space with them. That idea was confirmed when they entered a cavern containing a fully working ship building yard and with only a few ships stacked to the sides. Men were busy at work building yet more. Roland went up to the man who seemed to be in charge, “Excuse, me, but can you tell us where we are?”

  The man laughed out loud, “Why! You’re in the moon of course! Where else would you be?!”

  “Thank goodness,” said Roland, “Now, can you tell us how to get to the sun?”

  The man laughed again, “What you wanna go there for?”

  “Because it’s there,” said Botherworth, in his best sassy tone.

  “That’s what we said to you!” Oliver told him.

  “I know, and I l
iked it. Wasn’t going to admit it at the time though!”

  Realising Roland was serious, the in—charge seeming man continued, “I don’t know, I really don’t. You’d best ask in the office.”

  Over in the corner of the cavern was a small hut with the word “Office” written on the door. They went over to it and knocked on the door.

  “Come in,” said a voice.

  Inside were three men at three desks, all dressed like clerks in holy orders. Roland said, “I wonder if you can help us. We need to get to the sun.”

  “Before or after the mythtelling?” one of the clerks asked.

  “When is the mythtelling?” Roland asked.

  “After Ogleforth.”

  “And err, when is that?”

  “Soon,” said the clerk.

  “How soon is soon?” Roland asked.

  “Quite soon,” the clerk said.

  “Ahhh... So how do we get to the sun?”

  “That’s difficult, very difficult,” the clerk said. “You need to ask the Great Mistress of the Lighthouse. If you can get her attention and ask her, and if she is willing – only if she is wiling, mind, she will call a Sentinel of the Sun who will, if he is willing, take you to the Sun.”

  “Only if she is willing, and he is willing, eh?” Roland checked.

  “Only if she is willing, and he is willing,” the clerk confirmed.

  “And how long will this take?”

  “The clerk shrugged, “How long is a game of Ogleforth?”

  “Well, surely it must end before the mythtelling,” Oliver objected.

  “That is true, very true… You are learning our ways!” the clerk said approvingly.

  “So how do we see the Great Mistress of the Lighthouse?” Roland asked.

  “Very difficult, very difficult,” the clerk said, again shaking his head, “She doesn’t talk to anyone. She is far too bound up with competitive sport and the hearing of the myths.”

  “So how do we talk to her?”

  The clerk thought, “Join the Ogleforth match and win a game or two — anyone with a boat can play. Impress her with your sporting ability. Then maybe, maybe, she will notice you, deign to exchange a few words with you…”

  “Doesn’t sound very positive,” Oliver said, and shot a look at Brother Goodwill who had opened his mouth to speak but then thought better of it.

  “Where do we get a boat and how much does it cost?” Roland asked.

  “The harbour,” said the clerk, “Just choose a boat. They’re free, no cost. Just play the game well – play badly and you will suffer a forfeit!”

  “What’s the forfeit?” Oliver asked.

  The clerk shuddered, “Get locked out when everyone else goes home.”

  “And that’s bad because…?” Oliver asked, wondering if there wasn’t more to it.

  “That’s bad because they take the air back inside with them,” the clerk said, “Air is only allowed out onto the surface during Ogleforth and special occasions – such as visiting dignitaries. It’s a defensive measure.”

  “So no air for losers,” Oliver said, “Better practice holding our breath,” he joked.

  “We shall play to win - and win,” Roland said. “Now, where is the harbour?”

  The clerk pointed through an arch to another cavern beyond.

  They went through the arch and found themselves in the harbour. It was in the largest cavern — by far — that they had been in yet. Here there were no boats stacked up. Instead they were lying around on the sand, as if marooned by the tide going out. There was a harbour wall in the far distance, and at the far end of it a very tall lighthouse reaching up to the very top of the cavern. All around the harbour there were arches where tunnels led in.

  There was an odd thing about the boats. All of them had strange, tall objects in the centre. They were like masts, but instead of bearing canvas sails each had a circular structure, the width of a tall man’s height and more, at the top. The centres of these structures were made up of many long, criss-crossing strings. Each one had three ropes hanging from it, one from the top and one from each side. They looked like they might be some sort of sail, but it seemed unlikely as the wind would blow straight through them. Wooden beams, a bit like oars, stuck out from the sides of the boats but it was hard to see how they could help in powering the craft.

  It was all very well boarding one of the boats but they had no idea how to sail it. Roland noticed two men on the quay and approached them.

  “Excuse me, we are here to play Ogleforth,” he said.

  “You’re a bit early! Rush hasn’t started yet!” said one of the men.

  “I am told we can take any boat we choose?” Roland said to them.

  “Provided you play, said the other man, and don’t just go swanning about in it!”

  “How do we sail the boats? How are they powered? What do we do?”

  Both men chuckled.

  “You’ll see,” one said.

  “You’ll see,” the other agreed.

  It wasn’t much help to say the least, not much help at all.

  There was not enough room for five people on board so it was quickly decided that Roland, Oliver and Savitri should do the sailing whilst Botherworth and Goodwill would remain on shore and cheer from the sidelines – provided there were any sidelines.

  The three friends boarded the boat and looked about. There was still no indication of how it was powered – there were no oars and no sail. There was no rudder either.

  “How do we steer?” Oliver asked.

  Roland shrugged.

  They made themselves familiar with the boat as best they could, although it all made little sense.

  “We’ll just have to watch what the others do,” Roland said.

  As he spoke a horn with a low, dull note was blown and there was the sound of rushing feet from the arches around the harbour. A large number of people came hurrying through and started leaping into the boats in a mad scramble. Some leapt into one boat only to leap out again, whilst some were pushed out by others who rushed in behind them. There were several struggles going on over ownership of boats. Several tried to board the boat that the friends were in but they were able to repel the boarders successfully. In a few minutes almost everyone was in a boat. All the squabbles over whose boat was whose had been sorted out

  and there were only a few stragglers left wandering in the sand.

  At that point the horn was blown again. Yet more people rushed in but From different arches than the previous group. The new ones leapt onto the sand and formed teams around the boats. They then waited, presumably for commands. The horn blew again and on each of the boats one of the team members looked down at those around the boats and pointed, all in the same direction, towards the harbour mouth and cried, “Yee-hove-hee!”

  The teams of people around the boats cried “Yee-hove-hee!” grasped the beams at the sides and started to lift and push the boats so that they slid through the sand, quickly gaining speed.

  Seeing what was happening Oliver did the same as the team members on the other boats. He looked down at the boat pushers, pointed where the others had pointed and cried, “Yee-hove-hee!” The people around their boat also cried out, “Yee-hove-hee!” and soon their boat was also on its way.