Max and the Millions

by Ross Montgomery

  “Don’t mention it,” said Sasha. “Have a good day.”

  The foreman practically skipped out of the room. It was the Sasha effect—five seconds with him and anyone was smiling.

  “Now, that,” said Max, “was teamwork.”

  “You were great!” said Sasha, giving him a high five.

  Max grinned. “Let’s go! We’ve got just enough time to save the floor people before Pitt gets back! Luke will have already spoken to the Reds and Greens by now—he’ll be waiting for us.”

  Sasha looked worried. “How are we going to get into Mr. Darrow’s room without Joy seeing us?”

  “We’ll climb the gutter outside his window and sneak in!” said Max. “Joy’s waiting outside our dorm, remember? Once we’re done, we can climb back through our window and she’ll be none the wiser!”

  Sasha gulped. “But…what if she gets into our dorm somehow and sees we’re not there?”

  Max rolled his eyes.

  “She’s five years old! What’s she going to do—break down the door?”

  * * *

  Joy broke down the door.

  It hadn’t taken long for the Sparkle Pony Summer Club to find the large wooden statue of St. Goliath in the corridor. With all fifty girls holding it, and Joy riding it like a rodeo bull, the statue made an ideal battering ram. The door gave on the tenth try.

  “Saaaaashaaaa!” Joy cried, leaping into the dorm. “No more hiding! Come out and play with—”

  Joy looked round in shock. The room was empty and the window was open, curtains flapping in the breeze.

  “They’ve gone!” she cried. “Quick—upstairs! Get them before…”

  But the Sparkle Pony Summer Club weren’t listening to her. They were staring at something on the floor, their mouths open and their eyes captivated.

  “It’s…it’s here,” one of them whispered.

  It was a large cardboard box, hidden behind the curtains. Written on the side were the words:

  CONFISCATED CANDY

  KEEP OUT!

  “Our sweets,” said one of the girls. “I thought he’d thrown them all away!”

  Joy tore off the lid and gazed inside. An entire summer’s worth of forbidden sweets lay in the box: chocolates, jelly beans, gummy bears…

  She held up a handful and smiled, letting the sweets pour through her fingers.

  “Girls, change of plan. We’re staying right here.”

  “Whoa, Excelsior!”

  “Miss Binkles.”

  Sigh. “Whoa, Miss Binkles.”

  Miss Binkles came to a gentle stop on top of the dune. Luke shielded his eyes and gazed up at the Sky Compass. They had been following it for twenty long minutes now, and it didn’t seem to be getting any closer.

  “Why are we stopping?” said Ivy.

  “Mmph,” said Luke. “I thought I heard something behind us. Guess it must have been—”

  Ivy tackled him to the ground just as a warfly buzzed overhead. The two of them rolled into balls and hid beneath Miss Binkles, their hearts pounding, barely daring to breathe. The warfly hovered above them. Luke could see the fly rider on its back gazing down, wondering whether it was worth getting a closer look at the flea below….

  “Act natural, Miss Binkles,” Luke whispered.

  Miss Binkles did her best. The fly rider paused, then turned the warfly round and buzzed away.

  Luke picked himself up.

  “Whew! That was the closest one yet. Feels like we’re seeing more and more of them now.”

  Ivy didn’t answer. She was watching the warfly disappear across the desert with a faint smile.

  “Amazing, aren’t they? You could go anywhere on one of those—right up to the ceiling, even! Can you imagine what the Floor looks like from up there?” She looked at the ceiling longingly.

  “What is it with you and flying?” said Luke. “You had all those drawings in your hut—flies, gnats, that one of you on a moth…”

  Ivy looked shocked for a moment, but quickly regained her composure. She brushed the sand off herself.

  “You wouldn’t understand. I’ve been stuck under the Bed my whole life. We’re not all kings, you know—we don’t get whatever we want at the click of our fingers!”

  Luke scowled. “I’m not a king! And I never asked to be one, you know!”

  Ivy laughed. “Don’t be so oblivious. You’ve been given more choices than most of us get in a lifetime!”

  “I—”

  Luke stopped—partly because he didn’t know what oblivious meant but also because there was a spear jamming into his throat.

  “Don’t move,” said a voice.

  The spear was pointing straight out of the sand in front of him, but Luke couldn’t see anyone holding it. He glanced at Ivy—sure enough, another spear was sticking out of the sand behind her and jamming into her back.

  “Put down the club,” said the voice. “And the sword.”

  Luke and Ivy dropped their weapons. There was a pause; then the dunes in front of them warped and shifted. They were suddenly surrounded by dozens of people in desert camouflage, their faces covered by hoods. The person in front of Luke held the spear steadily at his jugular.

  “State your purpose—why are you here?”

  Luke gulped. “We’re…we’re searching for the Wise Man.”

  “And what is the magic word?”

  Luke thought about it.

  “Please?”

  There was a pause. The sand person lowered the spear and removed the hood.

  “Wow, right the first time,” she said.

  The woman standing in front of Luke had a shaved head with fine blue across her scalp. The other sand people also removed their hoods. They all had shaved heads: some with red stubble, some green, some blue.

  “Congratulations,” said the woman, handing Luke his sword. “You passed the test. Now we can show you the way to the Holy Mountain.”

  Ivy was appalled. “That was a test?”

  The woman nodded. “All those who wish to join the Wise Man must pass the test.”

  “Has anyone ever failed?”

  The woman thought about it.

  “No. Shall we?”

  She hopped onto Miss Binkles and pulled Luke up beside her. A man with a shaved head appeared on a flea and grabbed Ivy, and they bounded across the desert side by side.

  “You are closer to the Holy Mountain than you realize,” the woman explained. “Most do not get so far—the Wise Man will be most impressed when he finds out, Prince Luke.”

  Luke was surprised. “You know who I am?”

  The woman smiled. “I was a Blue once, but I left King Adam to follow a more important path. My name is Follower 43.” She pointed to the man riding with Ivy. “That is Follower 18—he was once a powerful Green, but he, too, joined the Wise Man to find the answers to life’s bigger questions: Why are we here? What is our purpose?”

  “And what did the Wise Man say?” said Ivy.

  Follower 18 turned round, tears in his eyes.

  “ ‘Stop asking me questions and leave me alone,’ ” he said reverently.

  Luke and Ivy shared a glance.

  “We’re here!” said Follower 43. “The Holy Mountain!”

  They were directly beneath the Sky Compass. The dunes rose slightly and then dipped into a deep valley, one so deep that the mountain inside was hidden from view. The mountain was made of rippling black folds piled on top of each other.

  “People say that the Holy Mountain was once the clothing of the Great One himself,” Follower 43 explained. “The Wise Man settled here after the tribes refused to reunite, and focused on trying to bring back the Great One.”

  Miss Binkles came to a stop before a deep cave in the Mountain’s side.

  “Behold!
” said Follower 43. “The Pocket—the sanctuary of the Wise Man.”

  She led them inside. Luke was amazed—it was like a vast cathedral of black cloth, with walls stretching so high you couldn’t see where they ended. Ahead of them stood an enormous structure, glimmering in the half-light. Luke had never seen anything like it. It towered above them, and was made entirely of glass.

  “What is that?”

  Follower 43 bowed her head.

  “That is the Bottle which once held the Serum, the source of all life on the Floor. The Wise Man found it in the desert, and his followers dragged it here for him to study. He spent many weeks inside that bottle, gathering artifacts from all over the desert and working on them tirelessly. No one knows what he was building—he took everything with him when he left.”

  Luke strode toward the Bottle. “We need to speak to him right away! If we don’t get back to the Red Kingdom before the Bin King attacks, then…”

  He trailed off as Follower 43’s words sank in.

  “Did…did you just say he left?”

  Follower 43 nodded. “About, ooh, I don’t know…an hour ago, maybe.”

  Luke and Ivy stared at her in dismay. Follower 43 didn’t seem to notice.

  “Right after Demon first appeared through the Bedroom Door,” she explained, “the Wise Man ran outside, looked at him and went into a trance. He often goes into trances, but this one was different. Nothing could wake him from it! But once Demon and his accomplice left, he came out of it again. He gazed at each of his beloved followers in turn, took a deep breath and said: ‘We’re stuffed.’ ”

  “It was so moving,” said Follower 18, wiping away another tear.

  “Then he took his things and ran into the desert,” said Follower 43. “We tried to follow him, but he told us to ‘get lost.’ We have spent the last sixty minutes in deep discussion of his words—get lost where? Get lost how? Is it possible to become lost by choice, or must one already be in a state of lostness?”

  Luke didn’t waste any time—he grabbed Ivy and started dragging her outside.

  “We have to go, right now! If we don’t find the Wise Man soon, then—”

  BAM.

  A huge boulder flew through the entrance to the Pocket and slammed into the wall beside them, missing them by fractions of a millimeter before rolling to a stop on the sand.

  Luke’s eyes goggled. Written on the side of the boulder, in bright-green paint, were the words

  WE’RE OUTSIDE

  “Oh crud,” he whispered.

  He stepped out of the Pocket, and his stomach dropped. The entire Green army surrounded the Holy Mountain. The sky was thick with warflies, all of their catapults aimed directly at Luke and Ivy.

  And striding across the sand toward them was the Bin King.

  Luke could smell the Bin King from where he stood. He wore long flowing robes made from used tissues, and a crushed metal crown molded from scraps of a bottle cap. His long green hair was scraped into greasy curtains that hung on either side of his face.

  “Well, well! If it isn’t the cowardly traitor, Prince Luke of the Blues!”

  Luke drew his sword and Ivy grabbed her club. Miss Binkles growled.

  “Careful now!” laughed the Bin King. “You wouldn’t want your loyal subjects to come to any harm, would you?”

  He nodded to the soldiers behind him. They parted, revealing a handful of Blue prisoners kneeling in a circle of spears on the sand.

  “One word from me and they’re dead,” said the Bin King. “So choose your next move wisely, Prince Luke.”

  Luke’s eyes darted between the prisoners and the Bin King. His sword trembled in his grip.

  “You…you have to listen to me,” he said. “This is all a mistake. I never told Giant to attack your warfly!”

  The Bin King looked surprised. “How odd—that’s not what I’ve been told….”

  He nodded to the soldiers again, and they dragged Malcolm from the crowd of prisoners. His beard was torn and tattered, and he was still wearing just his underpants.

  “I’m sorry, Luke!” Malcolm cried. “They made me tell them everything!”

  “We found him wandering the desert,” said the Bin King. “He really has been most helpful! Explaining all about your alliance with the one you call Giant, and your quest to turn the Reds against us. Of course, all that stuff about you trying to sacrifice your people was my own embellishment. I hope you don’t mind….”

  Luke trembled with rage. “What do you want, Bin King?”

  The Bin King smiled. “I should have thought that was obvious, Luke. I want to execute you in front of your people! After you’ve confessed to all your crimes, of course. Slaves are so much more servile when they realize their only hope is gone. With the Blues as a workforce, defeating the Reds will be easy!”

  Ivy stepped forward. “Good luck—the Reds will never be your slaves!”

  The Bin King nodded. “Oh, of course not. I’m not going to enslave the Reds—I’m going to kill them!”

  Luke and Ivy gasped. The Bin King turned to face the desert.

  “You see, there are things about the Floor that only I know. For example, the Bin is running out of food. There’s only enough to keep the whole Floor going for a few more days, if we’re lucky.”

  The soldiers stepped forward, their spears leveled. Luke, Ivy and Miss Binkles flung themselves against the walls of the mountain.

  “So I figured it was time to make the kind of decision only a king can make,” said the Bin King. “With the Reds gone, there’ll be enough food to feed the Greens for weeks to come—and we’ll have the Blues as our slaves! A perfect solution, don’t you think?”

  “You monster,” sneered Ivy. “Don’t you realize how pointless that is? Even without the Reds, the food’s going to run out eventually!”

  Luke stepped forward. “She’s right, Bin King! We can work out another way, one for all the tribes to survive!”

  The Bin King chuckled. “Perhaps, Luke. But you’re forgetting something important—I’ve tasted power. True power. I took on Demon, and I won! Soon I’ll rule the entire Floor, and the Great One himself will bow down to me! And the only thing that stands in my way is you!”

  The soldiers grabbed Luke and Ivy. They thrashed and fought with all their might, and Miss Binkles even managed to kick a few soldiers to the ground, but they were quickly overpowered. The Bin King leaned close, enveloping them with his stink.

  “Confess,” he said. “Tell your precious Blues it was you who summoned Demon! You who tried to sacrifice them! Tell them that I am the one true king, and to bow down before me—”

  “Never,” said Luke.

  “We’d rather just die, to be honest,” said Ivy.

  The Bin King was impressed.

  “Very noble! Unfortunately, I really do need you to confess before I kill you, otherwise it’ll make things tricky later on.” He turned to his soldiers. “Let’s ramp things up a notch. Guards, cut off Malcolm’s head!”

  A soldier lifted Malcolm’s head by the beard and raised his sword.

  “NO!” Luke cried.

  A horn blasted from the top of the dunes. Then another one sounded, and another, until the entire valley rang with a single note that vibrated in the air like sunshine. The executioner stopped midswing.

  “It’s the Red army!” cried Ivy.

  The valley top around them glowed like fire. On every side stood thousands of Reds waving flags and shouting battle cries. A single figure descended into the valley on fleaback: a woman in a bright-red tunic, her hair braided into a razor-sharp plait that wound down one arm.

  “The Red Queen!” said Ivy. “Luke, we’re saved!”

  The Red Queen leapt off her flea and faced off against the Bin King, her eyes burning with a fiery red.

  “It’s ove
r, Bin King!” she announced, her voice hard as flint. “We have your army surrounded—your reign of terror ends here!”

  The Bin King yawned. “Oh, does it? I’d have thought that my hundreds of warflies would easily overpower your mob of untrained savages….”

  “My savages include ten thousand archers,” said the Red Queen. “All aiming their bows at your warflies.”

  She raised a hand, and the Red army lifted their arrows to the sky. Luke looked around with horror—the Holy Mountain was about to become the site of a massacre.

  “Archers?” said the Bin King with interest. “You can’t have had long to train them. If they miss, we’ll slaughter every last one of you.”

  The Red Queen smirked. “If they miss.”

  The Bin King drew his sword. “So be it.”

  “Stop!”

  Luke wrenched himself free from the guards and threw himself between the Bin King and the Red Queen. This was it—his one chance to save the Floor. He turned to the Red Queen.

  “Your Majesty, I thank you for coming to the aid of the Blues in our time of need. But we cannot fight the Greens today! If we do, then all of us will die!”

  He turned to the Reds on the valley top.

  “I’ve learned a lot in the last hour. I’ve learned about the terrible things my father did to the Reds. And for that, I am truly sorry.” He bowed his head. “I can never bring back the loved ones you’ve lost.”

  He clasped the Red Queen’s hand and held it high.

  “But today is our chance to start again, and make the Floor a better place for everyone! And we’ll do it together! Together, we can choose peace over war! Together, we can live side by side and—”

  The Red Queen snatched her hand away.

  “Together? What are you talking about? I didn’t come here to help the Blues—I came here to kill them, right after I’ve killed the Greens!”

  Luke turned pale. “You what?”

  The Red Queen turned to her army.

  “The Reds have suffered long enough at the hands of two monstrous kings—the age of the Red Floor begins now!”