William Wright and the Dragon's Treasure

by Uriah Szilagyi

  Chapter 6: The Menacing Message

  Upon William and Merlin’s entrance into the King’s Hall, a small hunched over man ran up to them.

  “Follow me, sirs, follow me,” he said, and he led them inside.

  As William followed the man, he looked around the hall and saw great arches overhead and flaming torches hanging from the walls. It was all very similar to the inside of a grand cathedral. The air above the tables was filled with the green glow of fairies taking orders from the guests and carrying plates to the kitchen. In the middle of the hall, there was a huge round table. This was where King Arthur and the members of the High Wizard Council were seated. It was also where William and Merlin were being led to.

  “Ah, my dear friends,” said King Arthur, with their arrival at the round table. “Please, take a seat.”

  As they sat down, William looked along the table and noticed the Twins weren’t present.

  “Where’s Trevor and Albert?” he asked Merlin. “Are they coming?”

  Merlin glanced over towards the doorway and smiled.

  “Oh, I have a feeling they’ll be here sooner than you think.”

  William looked over to the doorway and noticed Foddle entering with the Twins.

  It didn’t take long for Foddle to see William and fly over to greet him.

  “It be good to see ye,” said Foddle, hovering beside William. “Ye don’t know how bad it be for old Foddle to listen to them two.”

  “You mean Trevor and Albert?”

  “Yes. Me be thinking about changing them back,” he replied, “ye know, to be a bit slower up top.”

  William laughed. “Well, I don’t think you can wedgie a book, but if you did that to them, I’m pretty sure they’d come up with something that even you’d find uncomfortable. I think it’s better to leave them the way they are, and anyway, at least they’re happy to wash.”

  “Yes, ye be probably right --”

  “Shhhh, shhh, they’re coming over,” interrupted William.

  Trevor and Albert pulled up a chair each and sat down next to William. Surprisingly, they were still dressed in their extremely tight fitting Harsly uniforms, which always looked as if they were about to tear around the bottom.

  “I thought you two would’ve changed into something more comfortable,” remarked William. “I’m sure they have plenty of spare clothes available around here.”

  “Preposterous! Our clothes show our superior intellects, and we would never replace them,” snapped Trevor. “The people around here haven’t even heard of a tie.”

  Albert nodded. “Yes, look at you, William. Have you seen yourself in the mirror lately? It looks like you’re wearing a bath robe.”

  Trevor and Albert both laughed. It seemed their old habits of hassling William hadn’t stopped, only changed. Instead of physical, now it was mental.

  “Well, that’s great guys,” answered back William, “but have you two seen yourselves in the mirror lately?”

  “We don’t need to listen to this anymore. Waiter, waiter!” called out Trevor, waving his hand up in the air and clicking his fingers.

  A waiter quickly hurried over, the same one that had brought William over to the table.

  “Yes, sir, how may I be of assistance?” he asked, nervously fiddling with an expensive looking ring on his finger.

  “How much longer till the food is served?” questioned Trevor. “Seriously, one could starve before being nourished around here.”

  “Very soon, sir,” replied the waiter. “Is that all, sir?”

  “Yes -- yes, be gone,” said Trevor sharply. “Foddle, go into the kitchen and see what they’re up to in there.”

  “Why not ye go?”

  “How dare you ask me to walk into the kitchen. I’m the guest, not you!”

  Foddle sighed. “OK, I be going.”

  With Foddle gone, Trevor and Albert began to talk to each other about the science of food, or rather, the taste of it. This bored William, and he looked towards Merlin to see what he was up to. As William turned to face Merlin, his eyes made contact with the cold stare of the boy he saw earlier in the courtyard. William was shocked to see that the boy was sitting next to the black robed wizard, Zorloth. Were they related? It appeared so. William looked away from the boy and turned to face Merlin. Merlin, however, was deep in conversation with King Arthur and a highly decorated knight.

  William listened in.

  “Three outlying towns have been attacked by goblins in the last month, sire,” said the knight to King Arthur. “It’s very strange. We’ve never had this problem before.”

  “Yes, the time grows nearer,” remarked Merlin darkly.

  “What do you suggest we do, sire?” asked the knight. “We must find a way to defend these towns.”

  With concern, King Arthur looked up at the knight.

  “I need you to organise my personal guards to defend the towns. It’s the only way.”

  “Yes, sire, I understand. I will leave and begin organising the guards right away,” said the knight, and he left to carry out his orders.

  “These attacks on the towns are very suspicious,” said King Arthur, looking tensely at Merlin. “They always seem to happen when the guards are at their most vulnerable. Take the last battle for example. On the day the archers were having their bows restrung, the attack happened. It seemed too incidental for my liking.”

  “You believe there is a spy involved?” questioned Merlin, stroking his beard.

  “There could be,” replied King Arthur.

  William had heard enough. With a spy creeping around gathering information, life in Camelot just got a whole lot more dangerous. William would have to keep his wits about him. He was the Chosen One, and he would be considered a threat by the spy’s evil master, a threat which must be eliminated.

  Suddenly, Foddle made his reappearance from the kitchen.

  “The food be on its way,” he said, hovering beside the Twins.

  “It’s about time,” snapped Trevor. “I’ve never had slower service.”

  The food arrived a moment later and everyone began filling their plates.

  As he ate his fill of roast beef and mashed potatoes, William thought it would be a good time to remind Merlin of a question he had asked but which Merlin didn’t answer.

  “Merlin … how come you are known where I come from?”

  “Ah, that is a good question,” replied Merlin. “Hmm, maybe … yes, I know. Do you remember when I told you about a legendary battle between the High Wizard Council and an evil warlock?”

  “Yes, I remember.”

  “Well, the wizard struck by a blast from the Tarlos staff was sent to your world, and going by what I know about the wizard in question, he had an unusual ability to foresee the future,” said Merlin, slicing into a sausage. “I would say during his life in your world, he more than likely wrote of his numerous visions.”

  “But if the wizard had such an ability to foresee the future, how come he didn’t predict his own demise?” questioned William.

  “Oh, wizards can never predict their own demise,” replied Merlin. “Their emotions always cloud the visions.”

  With Merlin in a talkative mood, William thought he’d find out about his training.

  “I’m just wondering, when do we start, you know, lessons?”

  “Ah, it is good you show interest in your studies,” replied Merlin, smiling at William. “I plan your training to commence after tomorrow.”

  “Why after tomorrow? What am I doing tomorrow?”

  “I was going to tell you later this evening, but since you’ve asked, I thought a little tour of Camelot was in order.”

  “Sounds interesting, but I’ll get lost. Are you going to take me around?” asked William.

  “I would’ve liked to, but age has got the better of me,” answered Merlin, patting his legs. “These old twigs of mine aren’t all what they used to be, but not to worry, one of my close friends in the High Wizard Council offered his children
to take you around --”

  “If William is to begin starting lessons with you,” butted in Trevor, “then shouldn’t Albert and I apply our minds to something, too?”

  “Our minds are too great to be wasted sitting idle,” added Albert, chewing on a large pork chop. “We need something of nobility and where good wit is needed.”

  “Well, there is one position I know of,” said Merlin, giving William a sly wink.

  “What is it?” asked Trevor excitedly.

  “Yes, hurry up and tell us,” demanded Albert.

  Taking his time, Merlin picked up a piece of sausage with his fork, chewed on it for a moment and then replied, “A knight.”

  “A k-knight?” stammered Albert.

  William laughed. “Where else does a quick mind come into play more than in the heat of combat? And anyway, what could be nobler than a knight?”

  “Y-yes, b-but --”

  “It’s settled, then,” announced Merlin. “King Arthur, it looks like you’ve got two new knights for Camelot.”

  “Fantastic,” said King Arthur, playing along with the game. “They start tomorrow.”

  “We couldn’t possibly start tomorrow,” blurted out Trevor. “We, umm, we were going with William around Camelot tomorrow.”

  “I don’t remember anything about that?” questioned William.

  “You wouldn’t leave your buddies behind, would you?” said Albert, trying to look upset.

  William sighed. “Well … I guess not.”

  “It’s settled. Tomorrow, we all take a walk around Camelot, and if Trevor or I see any other things that we could do besides being knights, we’ll make sure to let you know,” said Albert, looking satisfied.

  It was obvious to William that the Twins were scared of being knights, and their plan to come along with him was only to find something a little less dangerous to do.

  As the feast continued late into the night, William was stuck with listening to the Twins talk about food. It was like listening to accountants discussing tax returns. Foddle suggested to William that he could turn the Twins into slimy slugs to shut them up for a while. William agreed it would at least be a visual improvement, but that he’d better not. Through the feast, Merlin continued to have much to discuss with King Arthur. By what William could overhear, they were still talking about a spy.

  Following a brief argument with the Twins, William’s throat had begun to feel dry.

  “You don’t think a waiter would mind filling my glass with some water, do you?” he asked Foddle.

  “No, of course he wouldn’t --”

  “More water, sir?” asked a waiter, who had served William earlier that night.

  William was astounded.

  “How did you know I was thirsty?”

  “Oh, a good waiter always knows what’s on the mind of his guest,” he replied.

  “You don’t have to call me sir, just call me William.”

  “I have been honoured, William sir,” replied the waiter.

  “Please, what’s your name?” asked William.

  “Oh, you honour me again, William sir, my name is Grudly,” he said.

  William smiled. “Well, thank you, Grudly, for offering me some water, and yes, I’ll have some more.”

  “That be very worthy of ye to show so much respect to a mere waiter. Old Foddle never see a boy so good of heart,” commented Foddle, after the waiter had left them.

  “It was nothing,” replied William, shrugging his shoulders. “I was just being friendly.”

  At the end of the feast, there was an exchange of handshakes between the guests and William. William was enjoying the attention, but that was until Zorloth made his reappearance with the boy, the one who stared at William with hatred.

  “Ah, we meet again, Chosen One,” said Zorloth, sneering. “You haven’t met my nephew, Oden, have you?”

  “No, not yet,” replied William, reaching out to shake Oden’s hand.

  Abruptly, Oden grabbed William’s hand firmly and pulled him forward to whisper in his ear, “I promise you, you will suffer for my father’s death.”

  William wanted to tell him that it wasn’t his fault, but it was too late. Oden had let go of his hand and slithered back into the crowd with Zorloth. Happily, the guests continued to file past and shake William’s hand. William, however, didn’t smile or say anything. His mind was lost in what Oden had whispered to him.

  “Are ye planning to head to bed now?” Foddle asked William, the last of the guests leaving the hall.

  Being snapped out of his zombie like state, William looked around and saw the hall was almost completely empty.

  “Oh, bed … yes, you’d better show me back up to my room.”

  Together, William and Foddle left the hall. The Twins followed right behind after grabbing a few leftover pieces of roasted chicken from the table.

  William felt exhausted after the day’s celebrations and was looking forward to bed that night. As he walked towards his bedroom door, William noticed something scratched deep into it. Apprehensively, he approached the door and discovered a message:

  LEAVE CAMELOT OR SUFFER DEATH.

  “Quick, get Merlin!” shouted William to Foddle.

  Foddle zoomed off down a corridor and left William and the Twins standing at the door, alone.

  “Umm, err, maybe that wasn’t s-s-such a good idea,” peeped Albert, huddling close to Trevor.

  William was too occupied with examining the scratches to pay any attention to Albert and Trevor’s whimpers. As William looked more closely at the scratch marks, he couldn’t believe his eyes … the marks looked like they had been made by finger nails.

  “That’s impossible,” he thought, running his fingers down the text. “Nobody’s finger nails are that strong. Maybe there’s some sort of medieval tool that makes a similar cut, or possibly, magic was used.”

  “Don’t y-you think we should get o-o-out of here?” whispered Trevor, tugging on William’s robe.

  “Listen, you two,” replied William irritably. “If whoever did this wanted to hurt us right now, they wouldn’t have left us a warning, would they?”

  Trevor let out a squeal of fear, “I h-h-hear something.”

  Out from the gloom of the corridor came Foddle, Merlin, King Arthur and two knights.

  “You two search the corridors and rooms,” said King Arthur to the knights.

  Holding flaming torches in their hands, the knights quickly left, heading further down the corridor. Merlin, meanwhile, went to examine the door.

  “Who do you think did this?” William asked Merlin.

  “I don’t know,” he replied uneasily, “but an essence of magic seems to hang in the air.”

  “I’ll order two of my best knights to keep guard outside William’s room tonight,” said King Arthur.

  “Yes, that would be good,” agreed Merlin, and he glanced up at Foddle. “You, Foddle, will rest in William’s room, just as an extra precaution.”

  “That I will,” replied Foddle.

  “Hey, how about us?” shouted Albert angrily. “That message could’ve just as easily been put there for us, too, you know.”

  “He’s right,” said Trevor, “someone out there mightn’t like ultra intelligent people.”

  King Arthur sighed. “I’ll arrange for some guards to be stationed outside your bedrooms as well.”

  “That’s not good enough,” retorted Albert. “We want a magic book to keep guard inside our rooms, too.”

  “Sorry, but there is only one Foddle in Camelot,” answered Merlin. “Maybe I could arrange for a magic toothpick to protect you, eh?”

  “Just forget it!” snapped the Twins crossly.

  After the guards had returned and reported that they couldn’t find anything, Merlin and King Arthur wished William goodnight and left. As soon as two more guards had arrived, which Albert had demanded to know were the toughest, the Twins waddled off to bed.

  William crawled into bed with Foddle resting next to him on a
small table. The hours ticked past, but William couldn’t fall asleep. His mind kept seeing the message written on the door. Who wrote it? After a final yawn, he slowly drifted into an uneasy sleep.