The Magic City

by E. Nesbit

  CHAPTER VIII

  UPS AND DOWNS

  We left Lucy in tears and Philip in the grasp of the hatefulPretenderette, who, seated on the Hippogriff, was bearing him awayacross the smooth blueness of the wide sea.

  'Oh, Mr. Noah,' said Lucy, between sniffs and sobs, 'how _can_ she! You_did_ say the Hippogriff could only carry one!'

  'One ordinary human being,' said Mr. Noah gently; 'you forget that dearPhilip is now an earl.'

  'But do you really think he's safe?' Lucy asked.

  'Yes,' said Mr. Noah. 'And now, dear Lucy, no more questions. Since yourarrival on our shores I have been gradually growing more accustomed tobeing questioned, but I still find it unpleasant and fatiguing. Desist,I entreat.'

  So Lucy desisted and every one went to bed, and, for crying is verytiring, to sleep. But not for long.

  Lucy was awakened in her bed of soft dry seaweed by the sound of thecastle alarm bell, and by the blaring of trumpets and the shouting ofmany voices. A bright light shone in at the window of her room. Shejumped up and ran to the window and leaned out. Below lay the greatcourtyard of the castle, a moving sea of people on which hundreds oftorches seemed to float, and the sound of shouting rose in the air asfoam rises in the wind.

  'The Fear! The Fear!' people were shouting. 'To the ark! to the ark!'And the black night that pressed round the castle was loud with the wildroar of waves and the shriek of a tumultuous wind.

  Lucy ran to the door of her room. But suddenly she stopped.

  'My clothes,' she said. And dressed herself hastily. For she perceivedthat her own petticoats and shoes were likely to have better wearingqualities than seaweed could possess, and if they were all going to takerefuge in the ark, she felt she would rather have her own clothes on.

  'Mr. Noah is sure to come for me,' she most sensibly told herself. 'AndI'll get as many clothes on as I can.' Her own dress, of course, hadbeen left at Polistopolis, but the ballet dress would be better than theseaweed tunic. When she was dressed she ran into Philip's room androlled his clothes into a little bundle and carried it under her arm asshe ran down the stairs. Half-way down she met Mr. Noah coming up.

  'Ah! you're ready,' he said; 'it is well. Do not be alarmed, my Lucy.The tide is rising but slowly. There will be time for every one toescape. All is in train, and the embarkation of the animals is even nowin progress. There has been a little delay in sorting the beasts intopairs. But we are getting on. The Lord High Islander is showingremarkable qualities. All the big animals are on board; the pigs werebeing coaxed on as I came up. And the ant-eaters are having a latesupper. Do not be alarmed.'

  'I can't help being alarmed,' said Lucy, slipping her free hand into Mr.Noah's, 'but I won't cry or be silly. Oh, I do wish Philip was here.'

  'Most unreasonable of girl children,' said Mr. Noah; 'we are in dangerand you wish him to be here to share it?'

  'Oh, we _are_ in danger, are we?' said Lucy quickly. 'I thought you saidI wasn't to be alarmed.'

  'No more you are,' said Mr. Noah shortly; 'of course you're in danger.But there's me. And there's the ark. What more do you want?'

  'Nothing,' Lucy answered in a very small voice, and the two made theirway to a raised platform overlooking the long inclined road which led upto the tower on which the ark had been built. A long procession toiledslowly up it of animals in pairs, urged and goaded by the M.A.'s underthe orders of the Lord High Islander.

  The wild wind blew the flames of the torches out like golden streamers,and the sound of the waves was like thunder on the shore.

  Down below other M.A.'s were busy carrying bales tied up in seaweed.Seen from above the busy figures looked like ants when you kick into anant-hill and the little ant people run this way and that way and everyway about their little ant businesses.

  The Lord High Islander came in pale and serious, with all the calmcompetence of Napoleon at a crisis.

  'Sorry to have to worry you, sir,' he said to Mr. Noah, 'but of courseyour experience is invaluable just now. I can't remember what bears eat.Is it hay or meat?'

  'It's buns,' said Lucy. 'I beg your pardon, Mr. Noah. Of course I oughtto have waited for you to say.'

  'In my ark,' said Mr. Noah, 'buns were unknown and bears were fedentirely on honey, the providing of which kept our pair of bees fullyemployed. But if you are sure bears _like_ buns we must always behumane, dear Lucy, and study the natural taste of the animals in ourcharge.'

  'They love them,' said Lucy.

  'Buns and honey,' said the Lord Islander; 'and what about bats?'

  'I don't know what bats eat,' said Mr. Noah; 'I believe it was settledafter some discussion that they don't eat cats. But what they _do_ eatis one of the eleven mysteries. You had better let the bats fast.'

  'They _are_, sir,' said the Lord High Islander.

  'And is all going well? Shall I come down and lend a personal eye?'

  'I think I'm managing all right, sir,' said the Lord High Islandermodestly. 'You see it's a great honour for me. The M.A.'s are carryingin the provisions, the boys are stowing them and also herding thebeasts. They are very good workers, sir.'

  'Are you frightened?' Lucy whispered, as he turned to go back to hisoverseeing.

  A long procession toiled slowly up it of animals inpairs.]

  'Not I,' said the Lord High Islander. 'Don't you understand that I'vebeen promoted to be Lord Vice-Noah of Polistarchia? And of course thehearts of all Vice-Noahs are strangers to fear. But just think what adifficult thing Fear would have been to be a stranger to if you andPhilip hadn't got us the ark!'

  'It was Philip's doing,' said Lucy; 'oh, _do_ you think he's all right?'

  'I think his heart is a stranger to fear, naturally,' said the Lord HighIslander, 'so he's certain to be all right.'

  When the last of the animals had sniffed and snivelled its way into theark--it was a porcupine with a cold in its head--the islanders, theM.A.'s, Lucy and Mr. Noah followed. And when every one was in, the doorof the ark was shut from inside by an ingenious mechanical contrivanceworked by a more than usually intelligent M.A.

  You must not suppose that the inside of the ark was anything like theinside of your own Noah's ark, where all the animals are put in anyhow,all mixed together and wrong way up as likely as not. That, with liveanimals and live people, would, as you will readily imagine, be quiteuncomfortable. The inside of the ark which had been built under thedirection of Mr. Noah and Mr. Perrin was not at all like that. It wasmore like the inside of a big Atlantic liner than anything else I canthink of. All the animals were stowed away in suitable stalls, and therewere delightful cabins for all those for whom cabins were suitable. Theislanders and the M.A.'s retired to their cabins in perfect order, andLucy and Mr. Noah, Mr. Perrin and the Lord High Islander gathered in thesaloon, which was large and had walls and doors of inlaidmother-of-pearl and pink coral. It was lighted by glass globes filledwith phosphorus collected by an ingenious process invented by another ofthe M.A.'s.

  'And now,' said Mr. Noah, 'I beg that anxiety may be dismissed fromevery mind. If the waters subside, they leave us safe. If they rise, asI confidently expect them to do, our ark will float, and we still aresafe. In the morning I will take soundings and begin to steer a course.We will select a suitable spot on the shore, land and proceed to theHidden Places, where we will consult the oracle. A little refreshmentbefore we retire for what is left of the night? A captain's biscuitwould perhaps not be inappropriate?' He took a tin from a locker andhanded it round.

  'That's A1, sir,' said the Lord High Islander, munching. 'What a headyou have for the right thing.'

  'All practice,' said Mr. Noah modestly.

  'Thank you,' said Lucy, taking a biscuit; 'I wish. . . .'

  The sentence was never finished. With a sickening suddenness the floorof the saloon heaved up under their feet, a roaring surging batteringsound broke round them; the saloon tipped over on one side and the wholeparty was thrown on the pink silk cushions of the long settee. A shudderseemed to run through the ark from end to end
, and 'What is it? Oh! whatis it?' cried Lucy as the ark heeled over the other way and theunfortunate occupants were thrown on to the opposite set of cushions.(It really _was_, now, rather like what you imagine the inside of yourNoah's ark must be when you put in Mr. Noah and his family and a fewhastily chosen animals and shake them all up together.)

  'It's the sea,' cried the Lord High Islander; 'it's the great Fear comeupon us! And I'm not afraid!' He drew himself up as well as he could inhis cramped position, with Mr. Noah's elbow pinning his shoulder downand Mr. Perrin's boot on his ear.

  With a shake and a shiver the ark righted itself, and the floor of thesaloon got flat again.

  'It's all right,' said Mr. Perrin, resuming control of his boot; 'goodworkmanship, it do tell. She ain't shipped a drop, Mr. Noah, sir.'

  'It's all right,' said Mr. Noah, taking his elbow to himself andstanding up rather shakily on his yellow mat.

  'We're afloat, we're afloat On the dark rolling tide; The ark's water-tight And the crew are inside.

  'Up, up with the flag Let it wave o'er the sea; We're afloat, we're afloat-- And what else should we be?'

  '_I_ don't know,' said Lucy; 'but there isn't any flag, is there?'

  'The principle's the same,' said Mr. Noah; 'but I'm afraid we didn'tthink of a flag.'

  '_I_ did,' said Mr. Perrin; 'it's only a Jubilee hankey'--he drew itslowly from his breast-pocket, a cotton Union Jack it was--'but it shallwave all right. But not till daylight, I think, sir. Discretion's thebetter part of--don't you think, Mr. Noah, sir? Wouldn't do to open theark out of hours, so to speak!'

  'Just so,' said Mr. Noah. 'One, two, three! Bed!'

  The ark swayed easily on a sea not too rough. The saloon passengersstaggered to their cabins. And silence reigned in the ark.

  * * * * * *

  I am sorry to say that the Pretenderette dropped the wicker cagecontaining the parrot into the sea--an unpardonable piece of cruelty andrevenge; unpardonable, that is, unless you consider that she did notreally know any better. The Hippogriff's white wings swept on; Philip,now laid across the knees of the Pretenderette (a most undignifiedattitude for any boy, and I hope none of you may be placed in such aposition), screamed as the cage struck the water, and, 'Oh, Polly!' hecried.

  'All right,' the parrot answered; 'keep your pecker up!'

  'What did it say?' the Pretenderette asked.

  'Something about peck,' said Philip upside down.

  'Ah!' said the Pretenderette with satisfaction, 'he won't do any morepecking for some time to come.' And the wide Hippogriff wings swept onover the wide sea.

  Polly's cage fell and floated. And it floated alone till the dawn, when,with wheelings and waftings and cries, the gulls came from far and nearto see what this new strange thing might be that bobbed up and down intheir waters in the light of the new-born day.

  'Hullo!' said Polly in bird-talk, clinging upside down to the top barsof the cage.

  'Hullo, yourself,' replied the eldest gull; 'what's up? And who are you?And what are you doing in that unnatural lobster pot?'

  'I conjure you,' said the parrot earnestly, 'I conjure you by our commonbirdhood to help me in my misfortune.'

  'No gull who _is_ a gull can resist that appeal,' said the master of thesea birds; 'what can we do, brother-bird?'

  'The matter is urgent,' said Polly, but quite calmly. 'I am getting verywet and I dislike salt water. It is bad for my plumage. May I give anorder to your followers, bird-brother?'

  'Give,' said the master gull, with a graceful wheel and whirl of hissplendid wings.

  'Let four of my brothers raise this detested trap high above the waves,'said the parrot, 'and let others of you, with your brave strong beaks,break through the bars and set me free.'

  'Delighted,' said the master gull; 'any little thing, you know,' and hisown high-bred beak was the first to take hold of the cage, whichpresently the gulls lifted in the air and broke through, setting theparrot free.

  'Thank you, brother-birds,' the parrot said, shaking wet wings andspreading them; 'one good turn deserves another. The beach yonder waswhite with cockles but yesterday.'

  'Thank you, brother-bird,' they all said, and flew fleetly cocklewards.

  And that was how the parrot got free from the cage and went back to theshore to have that little talk with the blugraiwee which I told youabout in the last chapter.

  * * * * * *

  The ark was really very pleasant by daylight with the sun shining in atits windows. The sun shone outside as well, of course, and the UnionJack waved cheerfully in the wind. Breakfast was served on the terraceat the end of the ark--you know--that terrace where the boat part turnsup. It was a very nice breakfast, and the sea was quite smooth--a quiteperfect sea. This was rather fortunate, for there was nothing else. Seaon every side of the ark. No land at all.

  'However shall we find the way,' Lucy asked the Lord High Islander,'with nothing but sea?'

  'Oh,' he answered, 'that's all the better, really. Mr. Noah steers muchbetter when there's no land in sight. It's all practice, you know.'

  'And when we come in sight of land, will he steer badly then?'

  'Oh, anybody can steer then,' said Billy; 'you if you like.' So it wasLucy who steered the ark into harbour, under Mr. Noah's directions. Arksare very easy to steer if you only know the way. Of course arks are notlike other vessels; they require neither sails nor steam engines, noroars to make them move. The very arkishness of the ark makes it movejust as the steersman wishes. He only has to say 'Port,' 'Starboard,''Right ahead,' 'Slow' and so on, and the ark (unlike many people I know)immediately does as it is told. So steering was easy and pleasant; onejust had to keep the ark's nose towards the distant domes and pinnaclesof a town that shone and glittered on the shore a few miles away. Andthe town grew nearer and nearer, and the black streak that was thepeople of the town began to show white dots that were the people'sfaces. And then the ark was moored against a quay side, and a friendlypopulace cheered as Mr. Noah stepped on to firm land, to be welcomed bythe governor of the town and a choice selection of eminent citizens.

  'It's quite an event for them,' said Mr. Perrin. 'They don't have muchhappening here. A very lazy lot they be, almost as bad as Somnolentia.'

  'What makes them lazy?' Lucy asked.

  'It's owing to the onions and potatoes growing wild in these parts, Ibelieve,' said the Lord High Islander. 'They get enough to eat withoutworking. And the onions make them sleepy.'

  They talked apart while Mr. Noah was arranging things with the Governorof the town, who had come down to the harbour in a hurry and a flurryand a furry gown.

  'I've arranged everything,' said Mr. Noah at last. 'The islanders andthe M.A.'s and the animals are to be allowed to camp in the public parktill we've consulted the oracle and decided what's to be done with them.They must live somewhere, I suppose. Life has become much too eventfulfor me lately. However there are only three more deeds for the Earl ofArk to do, and then perhaps we shall have a little peace and quietness.'

  'The Earl of Ark?' Lucy repeated.

  'Philip, you know. I do wish you'd try to remember that he's an earlnow. Now you and I must take camel and be off.'

  And now came seven long days of camel travelling, through desert andforest and over hill and through valley, till at last Lucy and Mr. Noahcame to the Hidden Place where the oracle is, and where that is I maynot tell you--because it's one of the eleven mysteries. And I must nottell you what the oracle is because that is another of the mysteries.But I may tell you that if you want to consult the oracle you have to goa long way between rows of round pillars, rather like those in Egyptiantombs. And as you go it gets darker and darker, and when it is quitedark you see a little, little light a very long way off, and you hearvery far away, a beautiful music, and you smell the scent of flowersthat do not grow in any wood or field or garden of t
his earth. Mixedwith this scent is the scent of incense and of old tapestried rooms,where no one has lived for a very long time. And you remember all thesad and beautiful things you have ever seen or heard, and you fall downon the ground and hide your face in your hands and call on the oracle,and if you are the right sort of person the oracle answers you.

  Lucy and Mr. Noah waited in the dark for the voice of the oracle, and atlast it spoke. Lucy heard no words, only the most beautiful voice in theworld speaking softly, and so sweetly and finely and bravely that atonce she felt herself brave enough to dare any danger, and strong enoughto do any deed that might be needed to get Philip out of the clutches ofthe base Pretenderette. All the tiredness of her long journey fadedaway, and but for the thought that Philip needed her, she would havebeen content to listen for ever to that golden voice. Everything else inthe world faded away and grew to seem worthless and unmeaning. Only thesoft golden voice remained and the grey hard voice that said, 'You'vegot to look after Philip, you know!' And the two voices together made aharmony more beautiful than you will find in any of Beethoven's sonatas.Because Lucy knew that she should follow the grey voice, and rememberthe golden voice as long as she lived.

  But something was tiresomely pulling at her sleeve, dragging her awayfrom the wonderful golden voice. Mr. Noah was pulling her sleeve andsaying, 'Come away,' and they turned their backs on the little light andthe music and the enchanting perfumes, and instantly the voice stoppedand they were walking between dusky pillars towards a far grey speck ofsunlight.

  It was not till they were once more under the bare sky that Lucy said:

  'What did it say?'

  'You must have heard,' said Mr. Noah.

  'I only heard the voice and what it meant. I didn't understand thewords. But the voice was like dreams and everything beautiful I've everthought of.'

  'I thought it a wonderfully straight-forward business-like oracle,'said Mr. Noah briskly; 'and the voice was quite distinct and I rememberevery word it said.'

  (Which just shows how differently the same thing may strike two people.)

  'What did it say?' Lucy asked, trotting along beside him, stillclutching Philip's bundle, which through all these days she had neverlet go.

  And Mr. Noah gravely recited the following lines. I agree with him that,for an oracle, they were extremely straightforward.

  'You had better embark Once again in the Ark, And sailing from dryland Make straight for the Island.'

  'Did it _really_ say that?' Lucy asked.

  'Of course it did,' said Mr. Noah; 'that's a special instruction to me,but I daresay you heard something quite different. The oracle doesn'tsay the same thing to every one, of course. Didn't you get any specialinstruction?'

  'Only to try to be brave and good,' said Lucy shyly.

  'Well, then,' said Mr. Noah, 'you carry out your instructions and I'llcarry out mine.'

  'But what's the use of going to the island if you can't land when youget there?' Lucy insisted. 'You know only two people can land there,and we're not them, are we?'

  'Oh, if you begin asking what's the use, we shan't get anywhere,' saidMr. Noah. 'And more than half the things you say are questions.'

  * * * * * *

  I'm sorry this chapter is cut up into bits with lines of stars, butstars are difficult to avoid when you have to tell about a lot ofdifferent things happening all at once. That is why it is much betteralways to keep your party together if you can. And I have allowed mineto get separated so that Philip, the parrot and the rest of the companyare going through three sets of adventures all at the same time. This ismost trying for me, and fully accounts for the stars. Which I hopeyou'll excuse. However.

  We now come back by way of the stars to Philip wrong way up inthe clutches of the Pretenderette. She had breathed the magic wordin the Hippogriff's ear, but she had not added any special order.So the Hippogriff was entirely its own master as far as the choiceof where it was to go was concerned. It tossed its white mane aftercircling three times between air and sky, made straight for theIsland-where-you-mayn't-go. The Pretenderette didn't know that it wasthe Island-where-you-mayn't-go, and as they got nearer and she couldsee plainly its rainbow-coloured sands, its palms and its waterfalls,its cool green thickets and many tinted flowers and glowing fruits, itseemed to her that she might do worse than land there and rest for alittle while. For even the most disagreeable people get tiredsometimes, and the Pretenderette had had a hard day of it. So she madeno attempt to check the Hippogriff or alter its course. And when theHippogriff was hovering but a few inches from the grass of the mostbeautiful of the island glades, she jerked Philip roughly off her kneeand he fell all in a heap on the ground. With great presence of mindour hero--if he isn't a hero by now he never will be--picked himselfup and bolted into the bushes. No rabbit could have bolted moreinstantly and fleetly.

  'I'll teach you,' said the furious Pretenderette, preparing to alight.She looked down to find a soft place to jump on. And then she saw thatevery blade of grass was a tiny spear of steel, and every spear waspointed at her. She made the Hippogriff take her to another glade--morelittle steel spears. To the rainbow sands--but on looking at them shesaw that they were quivering quicksands. Wherever green grass had grownthe spears now grew; and wherever the sand was it was a terrible trap ofquicksand. She tried to dismount in a little pool, but fortunately forher she noticed in time that what shone in it so silvery was not waterbut white-hot molten metal.

  'What a nasty place,' said the Pretenderette; 'I don't know that I couldhave chosen a nastier place to leave that naughty child in. He'll knowwho's master by the time I send to fetch him back to prison. Here, you,get back to Polistopolis as fast as you can. See? Please, I mean,' sheadded, and then she spoke the magic word.

  Philip was peeping through the bushes close by, and he heard that magicword (I dare not tell you what it is) and he saw for the first time theface of the Pretenderette. And he trembled and shivered in his bushylurking-place. For the Pretenderette was the only really unpleasantperson Philip had ever met in the world. It was Lucy's nurse, the nursewith the grey dress and the big fat feet, who had been so cross to himand had pulled down his city.

  'How on earth,' Philip wondered to himself, 'did she get _here_? And howon earth shall I get away from her?' He had not seen the spears and thequicksands and the molten metal, and he was waiting unhappily for her toalight, and for a game of hide and seek to begin, which he was not atall anxious to play.

  Even as he wondered, the Hippogriff spread wings and flew away. AndPhilip was left alone on the island. But what did that matter? It wasmuch better to be alone than with that Pretenderette. And for Philipthere were no white-hot metal and spears and snares of quicksand, onlydewy grass and sweet flowers and trees and safety and delight.

  'If only Lucy were here,' he said.

  When he was quite sure that the Pretenderette was really gone, he cameout and explored the island. It had on it every kind of flower and fruitthat you can think of, all growing together. There were gold oranges andwhite orange flowers, pink apple-blossom and red apples, cherries andcherry-blossom, strawberry flowers and strawberries, all growingtogether, wild and sweet.

  At the back of his mind Philip remembered that he had, at some time orother, heard of an island where fruit and blossoms grew together at thesame time, but that was all he could remember. He passed through thelovely orchards and came to a lake. It was frozen. And he rememberedthat, in the island he had heard of, there was a lake ready for skatingeven when the flowers and fruit were on the trees. Then he came to alittle summer-house built all of porcupine quills like Helen's pen-box.

  And then he knew. All these wonders were on the island that he and Helenhad invented long ago--the island that she used to draw maps of.

  'It's our very own island,' he said, and a glorious feeling of being athome glowed through him, warm and delightful. 'We said no one else mightcome here! That's why the Pretenderette
couldn't land. And why they callit the Island-where-you-mayn't-go. I'll find the bun tree and havesomething to eat, and then I'll go to the boat-house and get out the_Lightning Loose_ and go back for Lucy. I do wish I could bring herhere. But of course I can't without asking Helen.'

  The _Lightning Loose_ was the magic yacht Helen had invented for theisland.

  He soon found a bush whose fruit was buns, and a jam-tart tree grew nearit. You have no idea how nice jam tarts can taste till you have gatheredthem yourself, fresh and sticky, from the tree. They are as sticky ashorse-chestnut buds, and much nicer to eat.

  As he went towards the boat-house he grew happier and happier,recognising, one after the other, all the places he and Helen hadplanned and marked on the map. He passed by the marble and gold housewith _King's Palace_ painted on the door. He longed to explore it: butthe thought of Lucy drove him on. As he went down a narrow leafywoodland path towards the boat-house, he passed the door of the dearlittle thatched cottage (labelled _Queen's Palace_) which was the houseHelen had insisted that she liked best for her very own.

  'How pretty it is; I wish Helen was here,' he said; 'she helped to makeit. I should never have thought of it without her. She ought to behere,' he said. With that he felt very lonely, all of a sudden, and verysad. And as he went on, wondering whether in all this magic world theremight not somehow be some magic strong enough to bring Helen there tosee the island that was their very own, and to give her consent to hisbringing Lucy to it, he turned a corner in the woodland path, and walkedstraight into the arms of--Helen.

  Walked straight into the arms of Helen.]