Cage! said her thoughts.
“What kind of bird is it, Auntie?” said a child’s voice.
Not a bird! Lucy’s thoughts insisted.
“Ain’t never seen one like it. Looks rare.” Lucy could see the bright blue eyes of the woman — Auntie she was called — studying her. She knew who the woman was, if only she could think clearly.
“Look how lovely it is!” said the big girl, the one called Millie. “Soft and gray like a lady’s silk dress. And it’s got rainbows around its neck.”
“Its eyes ain’t so pretty,” said the boy named Jack. “Look at ’em, all red and beady.”
“Red as rubies,” said Auntie. “And like as not more valuable. I’ll wager this little prize here’s worth more ’n twenty sacks of birdseed.”
“Oh, Auntie!” said Millie. “You mean we’ll take the bird to the palace, don’t you!”
“Banish that look from your eyes, Missy. I’ll be the one to present this beauty to the Queen.”
Palace. Queen, thought Lucy. Why were those words important?
“Course, I’ll need something a little more elegant than this here crate. Jarvis — get yourself up to town. Find something to carry this critter in.”
“Oh, Auntie! Jarvis don’t know elegant from his own ears,” said Millie. “He’ll bring back an old barrel and want to stuff the bird in it. Let me go. I know what’s elegant.”
There was a long pause while Auntie considered this statement. “All right, go along then,” she said. “But don’t stray beyond arm’s reach of Jarvis. And Jarvis, keep your eye on your sister. Don’t look at me like that, Missy! Understand now if you so much as think of runnin’ off I’ll spank you like you was five years old, no matter how much a lady you think you are.”
“Leave that bird alone now,” Lucy heard Auntie say when Jarvis and Millie were gone. But the youngest boy dropped by every so often to let a shower of birdseed drop through the slats of the crate. Lucy pecked away cheerfully, forgetting that she was in prison. Soon, however, the whisper of Lucy! was in her brain again and she forced herself to sit still and think. Once she had managed to recall everything she had already recalled and forgotten, she remembered why the ship and its crew were so familiar to her. The woman called Auntie was named Captain Mack. Lucy even worked out — with a feeling of triumph — why it was that Captain Mack wanted to take her to the Queen at the palace.
Unfortunately, just as she figured it all out, Millie came galloping up the gangplank with Jarvis behind her. Frightened, Lucy flew into the side of the crate, and in that moment, she forgot everything all over again. Sit still! Her thoughts were urgent. Watch! Listen!
“Here it is, Auntie!” she heard Jarvis call. There was a thud next to her crate. Lucy tilted her head, peering through the slats at a globe-shaped something made of curved bits of brass.
“Exactly what do you call that?” said Captain Mack.
“It’s a lamp, Auntie! Ain’t it lovely?” exclaimed Millie, clasping her hands together. “You hang it from a hook, put a candle inside, and it throws shadows all around — leaves and fruit and flowers. Just see how fine it is. I bet it belonged to a rich family.”
“A lamp! What in blazes are we supposed to do with a lamp?”
“If you squint your eyes, it looks just like a cage, Auntie,” said Millie. “This part opens so you can put a candle in. The bird will fit in just as well.”
“How much did you pay for it?”
“Only five silvers.”
“Five silvers! Every bit of money spent!”
“You wanted somethin’ more elegant than that crate and that’s just what this is,” said Millie. “If it’d been left up to Jarvis, you’d have had to take the bird in a ratty old basket that cost only three coppers. It stank of fish, and you’d have been turned away at the palace gates. Then see how happy you’d be to have your five silvers in your pocket, Auntie.”
“Watch your tongue, Missy!”
“Oh Auntie — Captain — I know just the right things to say to royalty. I know I do! Please take me with you to see the Queen!”
“Stop your blatherin’!”
“You want to make the right impression,” Millie argued. “There’s more to sellin’ a bird than just sayin’ ‘Here you go’ and ‘Where’s my money?’ Royalty have their own way of doin’ things. You got to be tricky — think like they do — or you won’t get half what you should for the bird.”
“And just how did you get to be such an expert on the ways of royalty?” said the captain.
“I know all sorts of things about royalty, Auntie.”
“She does act like a spoiled princess most of the time,” said Jarvis. “If you don’t take her along, we’ll never have no peace.”
“Yes, oh yes! Please take me,” Millie clamored. “I promise I’ll never complain about peelin’ potatoes, or swabbin’ the deck, or haulin’ bags of birdseed, or anythin’.”
“Hard to pass up an offer like that,” said the captain, rolling her eyes.
“Then you’ll take me! You’ll take me!” Millie danced around the captain.
“I’ll think about it,” gasped her aunt, stepping backward as Millie leaped upon her like a wild wave. “Watch yourself, girl, or you’ll tip us over the starboard side!”
I ought to worry, thought Lucy when she grasped the fact that she was to be sold like a slave. But she couldn’t worry, for she felt herself overcome by a blissful contentment. Having glutted herself on birdseed, she felt wonderfully at peace, so much so that she hardly noticed Jarvis’s big, bony hands lifting her gently into her new cage. He set her down on a flat, wax-spattered metal bar that braced the inside of the lamp. It must have held a candle once upon a time, but it would do for a perch now. Lucy gripped it tightly with her feet and began to coo. A soft feeling settled over her, like the faded silk scarf that Millie draped over the lamp, and soon she was asleep.
When Lucy awoke, everything was so dark that her first thought was night. She sat very still, fluffing up her feathers and pulling her head into her chest until she remembered who she was.
Then, suddenly, the darkness disappeared with a whoosh. Lucy started at the sight of an enormous grinning face. “Good mornin’, Birdie!” said the face. Millie, Lucy remembered.
Millie draped the silk scarf she had pulled from Lucy’s cage about her shoulders and turned around. Only then did Lucy see that her cage was inside a small room. She watched, puzzled, as Millie stared at herself in a scrap of glass hung on a wall. She couldn’t understand why there were two faces, one on Millie herself, and one in the piece of glass. She watched the two Millies comb their corkscrew ringlets. She watched them pinch and slap their cheeks and bare their teeth like twin horses. Then the glass Millie disappeared and the other Millie was lifting Lucy’s cage. Sit still! Lucy told herself as her cage swung through the air and Millie began to sing:
“Lords and ladies dancin’ at the ball,
Silks and satins and jewels upon ’em all,
See the ladies curtsey, see the gentlemen bow,
Lords and ladies dancin’ at the ball.”
A door opened; Lucy had a glimpse of dark walls everywhere. Then another door opened and she was in the sun. She recognized the smell of the harbor and fluttered her wings.
“There you are at last, Millie! Danged if this ain’t the best day we’ve seen for sailin’ in weeks!” said a voice just as Lucy’s cage came down with a bang that nearly knocked her off her perch. “Get the breakfast like a good girl and we’ll haul that bird up to the Queen,” said the voice, and Lucy remembered that it belonged to Captain Mack. “We can visit the baby on the way back and still have time to set sail today.”
“Oh, Auntie, no!” said Millie. “We can’t possibly go to the palace so early. Why, if we did, we wouldn’t even get to see the Queen.”
The word Queen was rattling around in Lucy’s mind. Why was that word important?
“Royalty never receive anyone before noon at the very earliest,” Milli
e continued. “They take their time in the mornin’. I expect the Queen sleeps till noon. Then she’ll have her breakfast in bed. And she’ll have to be dressed and have her hair curled. That’s the sort of thing her ladies-in-waitin’ help her with.”
“That’s what Millie wants,” said a new voice. “To be a lady-in-waitin’.”
“Oh, be quiet, Mavis,” Millie snapped.
“I ain’t waitin’ till afternoon to sail,” said the captain. “But I suppose we could drop in to see the baby aforehand, on our way to the palace, ’stead of on our way from.”
“It ain’t proper to visit much before three.”
Captain Mack gave a snort. “I guess if Her Majesty ain’t up when we get there, she’ll miss her chance to buy our friend here, in which case we can have bird pie for supper.”
Bird pie? thought Lucy. Fortunately, Mavis poured a handful of birdseed into her cage just then.
After breakfast, Millie disappeared below deck. “Makin’ herself into a lady,” Mavis observed.
Lucy’s confusion over the word lady wasn’t exactly put to rest when Millie reappeared some time later. Millie’s red hair was piled on top of her head. The silk scarf was tied around her waist, and she wore a necklace that sparkled in the sunlight, making Lucy thirsty because she thought the glass beads were drops of water.
“How do I look?” said Millie.
“Like a complete fool. Now get the bird and let’s go!” said the captain.
I’m the bird! thought Lucy as Millie grabbed her cage. And then it was all a matter of keeping her thoughts together as the cage bobbed down the gangplank, across the dock, and up into the streets of town. Lucy had an excellent view of dirty cobblestones and Captain Mack’s feet marching along ahead of Millie’s. Dark, thought Lucy as they turned down a narrow, shadowy street. Her cage swung to a stop as Millie set it down on the ground. Lucy watched Captain Mack step up to a battered wooden door and knock on it.
“Who is it?” called a tired, cross voice, barely audible over the cries of a baby. The next moment, the door flew open, revealing a gaunt-faced woman balancing a remarkably fat, pillowy baby on her sharp, bony hip. The baby’s curly hair was red like Millie’s. The baby’s face was red as well because it was shrieking.
“There you are!” said the woman over the din. “I seen your ship in the harbor and wondered when you’d be up to take this brat off my hands. Here! Take her!” And with that, she shoved the howling baby at Captain Mack.
The captain dipped under the weight of the child. “Now just one minute, Jane!” she said. “You promised to take care of Phoebe. Yes, you did! And I been payin’ you handsomely for it!”
“It ain’t worth it,” said Jane. “It ain’t worth ten silvers a week. It ain’t even worth ten golds a week. My man and I ain’t had a wink of sleep with that child in the house. Up all night wantin’ to be fed, wants even more durin’ the day. Just look at her! She’s fat as a pig and heavy as lead. My back is near broke.”
“Now, Jane.” Captain Mack tried unsuccessfully to bounce the baby on her hip. “I’ll grant you Phoebe’s a nice, big, healthy child. And maybe she can be a bit fractious.”
“Fractious!” screeched Jane. “She’s got a wail that makes a body want to pitch her out the window. And I can’t promise that I won’t pitch her out the window. My man swears he will if I don’t. Take her today. We’re done with her!”
Captain Mack gave Phoebe to Millie. “Now really, Jane,” she began again. Then she paused, looking surprised, as Phoebe swallowed a sob and smiled at her big sister.
“No, and no again, Captain,” said Jane. “I’ve had her things packed ever since I saw your ship come in. She’s just had her diaper changed, and I put in a bit of bread and cheese for her to eat if she gets hungry on the way back to your ship, which she’s sure to do, mark my words.” And with that, Jane closed the door. It opened once, just long enough for Jane to drop a large basket at the captain’s feet. Then slam, and Lucy jumped.
“Well, that’s that,” said the captain.
What’s that? Lucy’s thoughts were trying to catch up.
“We can take Phoebe back to the ship and leave her with Mavis while we go to the palace,” said Millie, shifting Phoebe to her other hip.
“Waste of time,” said the captain. “Let’s get the bird business taken care of.”
Palace. Bird business. Lucy had forgotten everything again.
“Come on now, Phoebe!” said the captain, trying to take the baby. But Phoebe howled and clung to Millie. The captain threw up her hands and said, “That’s the way of it. You’ll just have to hold her while I transact our business, Millie.” She picked up Lucy’s cage and the basket of Phoebe’s things.
“We can’t take her to see the Queen, Auntie. It’ll spoil everything!” Millie protested. “Stop it, Phoebe!” she added as the baby grabbed at her bead necklace.
“Nonsense!” Captain Mack began walking, stepping along so briskly that Lucy’s cage swung back and forth like a bell. “If Phoebe starts to fussin’, you can wait outside the palace while I talk to the Queen.”
A bored-looking guard met them at the palace gates. “We’ve got business with Her Majesty,” said Captain Mack. She held up Lucy’s cage, and he waved them into the courtyard.
Almost immediately, they were surrounded by an army of shrieking peacocks whose tail feathers were spread out like shields. Lucy threw her body against the walls of her cage, trying to get away.
“Oh, Auntie! Ain’t they beautiful?” Millie exclaimed. “What are they, do you reckon?”
“I don’t reckon. I know. They’re peacocks. Used to see ’em all about the island. Common as rats.”
“They’re prettier than our bird,” said Millie.
“Prettier, maybe. But not near as quiet and well behaved.”
All around her, Lucy could hear a great noise. As they crossed the courtyard toward the palace’s entrance, she recognized it: the cackling, cawing, screeching, squawking, chirping, chortling, tweeting, trumpeting, whistling, and hooting of thousands upon thousands of birds.
“Look at the doorway, Auntie!” said Millie as they waded through a flock of geese.
Doorway. What was that? Then Lucy saw the grand stone entrance to the palace. It was carved to resemble an enormous cat arching its back.
“The King had it made that way, I expect,” said Captain Mack as they passed beneath the cat’s curved belly, walking between pillars carved to look like legs.
Just inside the doorway, Lucy saw enormous tree trunks everywhere. It took her a moment to understand that the tree trunks were towers of cages that were stacked, one on top of another, in massive pillars that rose to a ceiling high above. The pillars flickered with color in the light from the tall windows on either side of the entrance hall. Soon Lucy saw that the flickering colors were birds fighting and squabbling with each other. Their feathers floated like colored snow in the shafts of light that fell between the cages.
“Hullo!” Captain Mack shouted over the squawking. “They’ll never hear us over this racket,” she said. “Come on, Millie!”
“But we can’t just march into the Queen’s presence unannounced!” Millie wailed.
Queen! thought Lucy. Queen, palace, Father.
“If we’re lucky enough to find the Queen in this jungle, we’ll apologize nice and proper,” said Captain Mack. “Hullo!” she shouted again as she plunged forward.
They must have taken one wrong turn after another, for they passed through room after room, each one filled with birds. In one room decorated in pale peach and pink, hundreds of yellow canaries darted about in a golden cage the size of a carriage house. For a moment Lucy thought she was looking at the sun. Another room was painted a soft blue, with abalone and pearl flowers decorating the walls. Graceful swans glided to and fro in a glassy pool surrounded by fragrant lilies. Another room was starkly white, whiter than the cooing doves that filled it. Another was sinister and dark, haunted by hooting owls, and Lucy shuddered. Still
another room was bright and flamboyant, filled with tropical flowers and parrots that mocked each other. There were rooms with blue birds, rooms with red birds, and still other rooms that seemed catch-all closets for birds, and it was in one of these that Lucy recalled again that she herself was a bird. Her father was a bird, too, a crow, and he was here in the palace. Had she already seen him? Lucy couldn’t remember.
As they moved into another room with cages stacked to the ceiling, a different type of movement caught Lucy’s eye. A girl atop a high ladder was tossing handfuls of something from her apron into the shrieking cages. “There’s your lady-in-waitin’, Millie — takin’ care of a lot of birds,” muttered the captain. “You there! We want to see the Queen!” she called.
The girl gave a start and dropped a shower of the something on Captain Mack and Millie. Birdseed! thought Lucy as it sifted through her cage.
“The Queen’s in the throne room.” The girl nodded toward a large door in a nearby wall.
“We’re here to conduct some important business with her,” said Captain Mack, shaking seeds from her clothing.
“Go on in.” The girl gave a careless shrug.
“But Auntie — we need to be announced,” whimpered Millie, trotting behind the captain.
“Ha! Them that could have announced us has been changed into cats, that’s plain enough. Beyond that guard at the gate, and a few more like that girl back there, there ain’t a servant to be found on this island.”
“Ooh, Auntie! Look at the ceiling!” squealed Millie as they entered the throne room.
Lucy turned the word ceiling over in her mind for a moment, remembering at last to look up. She saw a domed ceiling that was divided into nine triangular stained-glass windows. In each window there was a cat made of golden glass, leaping in the air, swiping its paw playfully at a flying red bird.
The Book of Story Beginnings Page 14
