“Silence!” said Grakker. “We will discipline you later, young woman.”
“You’re not the boss of me!” said Elspeth.
This was not a smart thing to say to Grakker. When he was done telling Elspeth exactly what he thought of her attitude, her antics, and her lack of discipline, even I felt sorry for her.
“We will proceed in silence,” Grakker said at last. Pointing to a pair of the shapeshifters, he said, “Walk beside her and make sure she does not make any sounds that might betray us.”
We started out again.
* * *
The castle loomed before us like some mountainous nightmare. But sneaking into it was not as difficult as I expected, for two reasons. First, a wall that seems tight and secure to someone as big as Smorkus Flinders can still have some pretty big holes in it. Second, the Ting Wongovia knew exactly where to find those holes.
Though we entered at what seemed like ground level, we found ourselves sliding down a wall. Then I remembered how things shifted and slid in Castle Chaos.
With the Ting Wongovia leading the way, we pressed ourselves against the joint where the surface that was currently the floor met one of the walls. We scurried along like an army of mice, passing through one room, and then another, and still another. The current ceilings loomed far above us. The things that hung on the walls were stranger than I can explain, the sounds and smells beyond my ability to describe.
Twice we managed to remain unseen while monsters—servants of Smorkus Flinders, I assumed—lumbered past us.
The third time we were not so lucky. I can still remember the rush of fear I felt when we entered a large room and Spar Kellis stepped from a shadow to squat down in front of us.
“I thought you were never going to get here!” said the giant blue blob.
Then he started to drool.
CHAPTER
19
Krevlik’s Duty
I FIGURED THIS WAS THE end. Either Spar Kellis would hand us over to his “glorious boss” Smorkus Flinders or simply squash us and eat us on the spot.
Or maybe he would skip the squashing part and just eat us alive.
Neither of these happened. Instead, the Ting Wongovia threw out his arms and said, “Thank goodness you’re here! I was beginning to think I was leading us in the wrong direction.” Turning to the rest of us, he said, “Allow me to present the spy that I have mentioned to you—my good and faithful friend Spar Kellis.” Turning back to the monster he whispered, “Wipe your chin, Sparkles. You’re drooling.”
Looking embarrassed, Spar Kellis scrubbed the back of his hand over his chin. “Please excuse me,” he said, glancing past the Ting Wongovia to the rest of us. “I can’t help it.”
“They understand,” said the Ting Wongovia. “Now, can you get us to the ship?”
“All of you?” asked Spar Kellis uneasily.
“That would be best.”
“All right, wait a minute.”
He walked through one of the walls, then reappeared a few minutes later with a grubby sack about three times the size of a phone booth. “Climb in here,” he said.
Grakker looked at the Ting Wongovia. “Are you sure we can trust him?”
The Ting Wongovia spread his hands. “I have put my life in his hands more than once. Beside, if we can’t trust him we’re doomed anyway, so what is there to lose?”
And with that he climbed into the sack.
Grakker hesitated, then motioned for the rest of us to follow. In we went: Tar Gibbons, Phil, Madame Pong, Elspeth, Grakker, Galuspa, the shapeshifters, the chibling, and me. It was smelly and dark inside, and when Spar Kellis picked up the bag, we all fell together in a jumble. The shapeshifters acted quickly to keep us from getting squashed; forming themselves into bars and arches, they stretched out the bag and lifted themselves away from those of us on the bottom. Once they did that it was still smelly and dark, but at least I could breathe.
The discomfort was worth it, because less than five minutes later Spar Kellis set the bag down, opened the top, and whispered, “Here we are.” Climbing out, we found ourselves standing on a table the size of a football field. About ten feet from us was possibly the most beautiful thing I have ever seen: the Ferkel!
“Ah,” sighed Grakker. “My ship. Quickly, crew—inside, so that we can begin to repair the damages.” Turning to Spar Kellis, he asked, “How much time do we have?”
“I can make no guarantees,” said the huge blue monster, wiping away the stream of drool running over his chin. “While Smorkus Flinders does not come here often, there is nothing to guarantee he will not come.”
Grakker nodded. “Thank you for your help.”
“The only thanks I want is the defeat of Smorkus Flinders! Now I must go. If I am missing too long, he will grow suspicious. Be wise. Be brave. Fight well. We are all counting on you.”
“We will do our best,” said Grakker. Then he led the way into the ship.
The rest of the crew went with him, as did the Ting Wongovia.
The shapeshifters, however, flattened themselves out so that they looked like the surface of the table.
“Phil, assess the damages,” ordered Grakker as soon as we were inside. “First check the enlarging and shrinking rays. Then make sure we are sealed tight. Finally check the mechanisms that will allow us to return to our own dimension. Madame Pong, help him as you are able. The rest of you go below and stay out of the way. Tar Gibbons, you are excused from other assignments so that you may prepare to fight.”
“I wish to have my krevlik with me,” said the Tar.
Grakker looked at me, then nodded. “As you will. After all, both law and custom dictate that if you should fall, your apprentice must take up the battle.”
I couldn’t tell if he was teasing or not.
* * *
I followed the Tar to its room, which I had seen briefly the last time I was on the ship. I hoped it wasn’t going to make me wait there with it. Like each of the aliens, the Tar’s room was designed to suit its specific needs and tastes. In this case that meant that the room was actually a pond with a single large rock in the center. A thick mist floated over the pond. High, squeaking sounds filled the air. I wasn’t sure exactly what the little winged creatures that made them were called, only that the Tar used them for snacks and was apt to grab them out of the air as they went flying by.
We paused at the door. The Tar opened a small panel and began to fiddle with some dials. To my surprise, a path rose from the pond’s surface. It led not to the rock in the center of the room, but to a second rock of equal size that now appeared at the right of the first one.
“Guest accommodations,” said the Tar. Hopping over the doorsill and into the water, it gestured for me to step onto the path.
I walked to the rock. Its surface was flat and, to my surprise, dry. I sat in a position the Tar had taught me.
“How do we prepare for battle?” it asked, climbing out of the water and onto its rock.
“First we find the quiet place within. Then we reach out to touch the joy that fills the universe.”
“Prepare with me,” it said.
I nodded, closed my eyes, and tried to attain Katsu Maranda. As the Tar had taught me, I went in my mind to the places and times where I had experienced the greatest happiness, seeking to put myself in joyful harmony with the universe. I saw myself working with the Tar . . . playing with the twins . . . walking through Seldom Seen with my father—
My eyes snapped open. I wasn’t very good at this yet. The joyful things and the sorrowful things were too close together, seemed to overlap, so that the brightness and the darkness were mixed together.
I looked to my side. The Tar was sitting on its stone, eyes closed, strange face wreathed in bliss.
I closed my eyes and tried again. I was almost there when the captain’s voice called over a speaker, “Tar Gibbons and Deputy Allbright, report to the bridge at once.”
The Tar opened its eyes and said simply: “It’s time
.”
Heart pounding, I followed my teacher back to the bridge.
The others had gathered there as well. Each of them solemnly wished the Tar good luck.
The ship’s door opened.
The ramp extended.
The Tar stepped out onto it.
I wondered if our plan was crazy, if we shouldn’t just try to escape to our dimension while we could. But that would be pointless, since it would leave Smorkus Flinders free to tear a permanent hole between the dimensions.
He had to be stopped here.
He had to be stopped now.
And Tar Gibbons had to do it.
I found myself saying a little prayer as the Tar left the ship. I didn’t think I could stand it if anything happened to my new teacher.
That was the first time I realized that I had come to love the Tar.
Elspeth came and stood next to me. We watched through the ship’s view screen as the Tar positioned its lemon-shaped body in front of the ship. Turning to face us, the four-legged alien made a sign that it was ready.
Phil threw a switch.
Nothing happened.
* * *
Grakker cursed. “What’s the matter?” he snapped. “Why isn’t the Tar growing?”
“The enlarging ray isn’t focusing properly,” replied Phil. “There must be something wrong with the lens.”
“Why didn’t—never mind. What has to be done to fix it?”
“Fastest way would be to replace the lens. It’s a fairly simple operation.”
Suddenly Plink shot out from under Phil’s leaves and disappeared through the door. Seconds later he came scooting back into the cabin, carrying a clear circle.
Grakker hesitated for less than a second, then said, “Deputy Allbright, take this out and install it.”
I felt my stomach tighten with fear.
“Why are you sending him?” cried Elspeth. “He’s just a kid! He could get killed out there!”
“Silence!” snapped Grakker.
As captain, he didn’t need to explain the reasons for his decision. Besides, I already understood them. With Snout missing and the Tar outside, the crew was down to four: Phil, Grakker, Madame Pong . . . and me. Phil was needed inside to operate the enlarging ray as soon as it was fixed. Madame Pong and Grakker were both more important to the overall success of the mission than I was. And on top of all that, I had already done one repair job on the enlarging/shrinking rays and had some familiarity with the device.
“Come here, Rod,” said Phil. Tendrils snaking rapidly over the control panel, he called up a diagram on a small view screen. “Do you see what you need to do?”
I nodded. “Simple,” I said. As long as I live through it, I added in my head.
Plink handed me the lens. The ship’s door opened. They didn’t extend the ramp; it wasn’t necessary for this operation.
Elspeth grabbed the chibling and held it back while I climbed onto the ledge that circled the ship. Quickly I began to make my way up the side. My work with the Tar had paid off; I moved with a kind of strength and agility I had never had before, making it to the top in a matter of seconds.
I had almost finished the repair when Smorkus Flinders walked through one of the walls.
I stood for a moment, frozen with horror, then dropped to the top of the ship, praying that the monster wouldn’t see me.
Was that wise and cautious, or an act of sheer cowardice? I have asked myself that question a thousand times since that horrifying moment.
All I know is that my delay meant that the enlarging ray was not ready.
Probably there would not have been time to enlarge Tar Gibbons to Smorkus Flinders’s size before the monster struck anyway. That doesn’t make any difference. The images I still carry in my mind are of Smorkus Flinders roaring with rage; Smorkus Flinders storming across the room; Smorkus Flinders bending down in front of the tiny Tar, and with one enormous finger flicking him so hard that his four-legged body flies across the room.
The Tar smashed into a wall. His limp body slid to the floor.
Smorkus Flinders glanced at the ship, then turned to look for the fallen Tar. I realized then another reason why Grakker had kept everyone else inside the ship. The monster didn’t know we were there! He thought the Tar had come alone.
But now what?
Grakker’s words to the Tar echoed in my mind. “Both law and custom dictate that if you should fall, your apprentice must take up the battle.”
Ridiculous. I couldn’t possibly fight Smorkus Flinders. I didn’t have the training. I hadn’t worked long enough or hard enough.
Cold fear shivered through me as a voice in my head whispered, “If not you, then who?”
Smorkus Flinders planned to destroy my home, my solar system, my universe.
Who else was there to stop him?
Moving as silently as I could, I dropped the lens into place.
Smorkus Flinders was still searching for the Tar’s body.
I slid off the front of the ship, raced to the place where the Tar had stood, and waved my arms.
Nothing happened.
I had to get their attention, and fast; I had to grow before the monster saw that I was there.
Suddenly I remembered trying to talk to Smorkus Flinders back in Seldom Seen, remembered how he hadn’t been able to hear me until he had jammed me into his ear.
“The ray is fixed!” I screamed. “Turn it on! Turn it on!”
A beam of orange light shot from the top of the Ferkel.
I stood there, trying to put myself in joyful harmony with the universe.
It would have been easier if Smorkus Flinders hadn’t found the Tar at precisely that moment. Picking up my teacher’s tiny body, he turned back toward the table just in time to see me start to grow.
CHAPTER
20
Battle of the Titans
I HAD EXPERIENCED THE ENLARGING ray during our first adventure, when the aliens returned me from two inches to my regular size. I had blacked out briefly when that happened. This time I didn’t lose consciousness, even though being turned into a giant was much, much worse than simply returning to my natural size.
I suspect the only reason I managed to stay conscious was that my work with Tar Gibbons had made me so much more fit than the first time I had been enlarged.
Even so, the stretching made me weak and woozy. So I was in no condition to respond when Smorkus Flinders tossed the Tar’s body onto the table and smacked me sideways, out of reach of the enlarging ray.
By the time I hit the floor, I was three times my normal height, but less than a midget compared to Smorkus Flinders. He lifted his foot to stomp on me. He probably would have driven me right through the floor, which was in the process of turning into a wall, if the Ferkel had not shot up from the table to hover over me, bathing me in the enlarging ray again.
Snarling, Smorkus Flinders turned to swat at the ship. The Ferkel darted away.
I had grown another ten feet.
The monster dithered for a moment, uncertain whether he should attack me or the Ferkel. The Tar had trained me not to dither. Stretching sideways, I thrust my feet between Smorkus Flinders’s legs, twisted, and sent him tumbling.
He struck the floor like an avalanche.
That settled the question for him. Roaring in anger, he launched himself at me.
I had enough wit to roll out of the way.
The Ferkel soared overhead again and gave me another shot of the enlarging ray.
Smorkus Flinders should have attacked me while I was growing, since I was too woozy then to defend myself. Instead, he threw himself back at the Ferkel—reasoning, I assume, that he had to stop it before it actually made me bigger than he was.
The Ferkel weaved and dipped. Smorkus Flinders lunged back and forth, trying to catch it so he could smash it.
I climbed to my feet. I was taller than a telephone pole now—huge, but still not even half the monster’s height.
A few weeks earlie
r I would have thought there was no chance at all of overcoming such a difference in size. But the Tar had taught me differently. Gathering my strength, I prepared to launch myself at Smorkus Flinders.
Suddenly the monster turned away from the ship. I braced myself, thinking that he was going to come after me. But to my horror and astonishment, he instead dashed to the table. Snatching up the Tar’s body he roared, “Stop where you are! Stop, or I squash!”
Then he curled his fingers over our fallen comrade, ready to make good on his threat.
The Ferkel came to a halt, hovering in the air like someone treading water.
Smorkus Flinders held his hand out flat, then placed his other hand above it. “On your knees, Earth boy!” he said to me. “On your knees or I clap.”
I fell to my knees, my heart pounding with fear for the Tar.
“To the floor!” he roared, pointing at the Ferkel.
I held my breath, waiting to see what Grakker would do.
The Ferkel settled gently to the floor.
Smorkus Flinders walked to it and placed one foot on top of it. I wondered if he was planning to stomp on it.
Grinning at me, he curled his fingers around the Tar’s body once again. “Maybe I’ll squash him anyway,” he said.
“I don’t think so!” cried a tiny voice. To my astonishment, a beautiful winged creature darted out of Smorkus Flinders’s hand. It was Galuspa! He must have shaped himself to look like the wounded Tar and replaced him during the first part of my fight with Smorkus Flinders.
I glanced at the table. The real Tar’s body was nowhere in sight. Hoping that the other shapeshifters had somehow hidden him, I launched myself at Smorkus Flinders, caught him in midsection, and drove him to his knees.
The Ferkel shot into the air.
Suddenly I realized that even though he was enormous, Smorkus Flinders was not a good fighter. In a way, it made sense. Spar Kellis had told us that they judged beings on the basis of their size here. Since Smorkus Flinders was the biggest thing on the planet, odds were he had never had to fight much; the other monsters had deferred to him simply because of his size.