by Emily Rodda
‘What are you doing, dear?’ the Blue Queen asked, with a ghastly, false sweetness that did nothing to disguise the sharpness in her voice. ‘Do not be disturbed by the noises outside. My guards will deal with the invaders, and until then my spell will hold the door against them. They cannot defy my magic as, unfortunately, my foolish friend George is able to do.’
Mimi closed her fingers protectively over the pendant and said nothing.
The Blue Queen forced a smile. ‘Now, you were going to give that old thing to me, in exchange for your dog, remember?’
‘That was before I realised what it was,’ Mimi said, tightening her grip on the pendant. ‘This is the Key, isn’t it? It’s the Key to Rondo, and you’ve been after it ever since you first saw it hanging round my neck that afternoon in Leo’s room.’
There was a great thump, and then another, as a heavy boot kicked the door. Mimi didn’t move her eyes from the Blue Queen’s face.
‘You didn’t want me to realise the pendant was important, so you used one of your rings to trick me,’ she went on bitterly. ‘You said the ring was the Key, though I don’t suppose it has any power at all. When we forced you to go, you stole Mutt and left the ring for me to find. You knew I’d come after Mutt, and the real Key would come with me.’
Without releasing the pendant, she pulled the black and gold ring from her finger.
‘This didn’t bring us here, and it was never going to take us home,’ she said. ‘You can have it back.’
She tossed the ring onto the floor. It rolled on the rug and hit the toe of the Blue Queen’s shoe.
The Blue Queen didn’t even look at it. Her face was tight with rage, but when she spoke, her voice was like honey.
‘You are clever, Mimi Langlander,’ she murmured. ‘Now, be clever enough to give me the Key. Then you and your little dog can leave here in peace.’
‘Don’t listen to her!’ Spoiler screeched, dancing on the spot in rage and frustration. ‘She’s trying to bewitch you! Cover your ears!’
Mimi lifted her chin. ‘You can’t bewitch me, so you can stop trying,’ she said to the Blue Queen.
‘That’s it!’ shouted Spoiler, punching the air with his fist. ‘You tell her! You show her what Langlanders are made of.’
‘Langlanders!’ hissed the Blue Queen, her voice cold with contempt. ‘I warn you, girl –’
‘Don’t let her scare you,’ Spoiler panted. ‘She won’t try hurting you while you’ve got the Key. The story goes that Rondo will end if the Key is harmed. And she can’t take the thing from you, because she’s a witch, and you’ve got to give it to her freely! But I can take it! I can.’
He hurled himself forward, knocked the Blue Queen aside and seized Mimi by the shoulders.
‘Leo!’ Mimi screamed.
‘Whoops!’ hissed the hidey-hole at the same moment. ‘This looks bad. Do you –? Ow!’
Leo had burst from the mirror without thought or hesitation. The fire had blazed up with a roar, spraying the room with blue sparks. The queen was staggering back, falling against the bed, shrieking in rage. People were shouting outside the door, which was shuddering as a strong shoulder smashed against it again and again.
Leo was aware of nothing but Spoiler throwing Mimi heavily to the ground and scrabbling for the pendant while she rolled and gasped, trying to fight him off.
And Leo wasn’t the only one. Snarling, Mutt lunged forward, breaking his chain. He flew at Spoiler and sank his tiny teeth into the man’s leg.
Spoiler howled. He kicked, trying to shake Mutt off, and howled again as the little dog hung on grimly. Then Leo was upon him, both arms wrapped around his neck, hauling him back.
Spoiler choked. His eyes bulged. His hands flew to his neck and tore at Leo’s arms, trying to break the strangling grip.
Sobbing, Mimi struggled to her knees. Mutt released Spoiler’s leg and sprang into her arms. Clutching him tightly she began to get up. Spoiler made a last, frantic grab for her. One meaty hand clawed at the chain around her neck.
Mimi screamed and jumped to her feet. The chain snapped cleanly. The pendant fell to the floor, bouncing on the blue rug.
With a triumphant cry, the Blue Queen leaped for it. But Mimi was there before her. Snatching up the pendant, narrowly evading the queen’s grasping hands, she dodged behind the throne-like velvet chair that stood before the fire. She shoved the pendant deep into her pocket and looked wildly around for a way of escape.
But there was none. She knew that as well as Leo did. The bedroom door was locked. The balcony doors led nowhere but to a terrible drop. There was nowhere to run.
The blue flames roared and spat. Sparks showered the room. Spoiler bellowed, rolled desperately and broke Leo’s grip. The next moment he was on his feet, kicking Leo viciously and limping after Mimi.
Groaning, Leo tried to get up, to go after him, but fell back as a sharp pain shot through his ribs. He tried again, moving more carefully. This time he made it to his knees, then to his feet.
But he knew he’d never reach Spoiler in time to save Mimi, or the pendant. Spoiler had shouldered the Blue Queen out of his way. Only the chair stood between him and Mimi now. He and Mimi dodged around it, watching each other intently. Mutt growled in the crook of Mimi’s arm, looking more than ever like a fluffy toy with teeth.
Spoiler’s pyjama leg was soaked with blood below the knee. His eyes were red. A swollen vein was throbbing in his forehead. His top lip twitched. His teeth were bared. He looked quite mad.
Then, suddenly, he snapped.
Snarling, he lifted the velvet chair and swung it violently aside. It crashed against the wall beside the fireplace.
Mimi screamed, turned on her heel and ran straight for the shuddering, spell-locked door.
And as she reached it, the door vanished.
A short, broad figure came hurtling through the gap. It was Conker, off-balance and yelling in shock. Mimi ran into him, bounced back, and fell. Hal, very grim and drawn, stepped rapidly over her to catch Spoiler in a bear-like grip. Tye and Freda, both looking aghast, appeared in the empty doorway behind him.
‘What are you doing here?’ yelled Conker, staring wild-eyed at Leo and Mimi. ‘You’re supposed to be home in bed! Oh, my heart and gizzards! We arrive at the castle to get your dog for you – and what do we hear but you screaming and yelling –’
‘What happened to the door?’ quacked Freda, looking very alarmed.
Spoiler was struggling and swearing in Hal’s arms. Mimi was scrambling to her feet, backing away from them. His mind a whirling confusion of clamouring thoughts, Leo started towards her.
‘Leo! Stop!’ The Blue Queen’s voice, high and thrilling, cut through the tumult.
Leo froze. Suddenly he couldn’t move at all. She heard Mimi call my name, he thought dimly. Mimi was frightened. She wasn’t thinking. She called my name …
‘Turn to me!’ the Blue Queen ordered. And, unwillingly, Leo turned. He couldn’t help it. His body seemed to be acting by itself. It was as if he was a puppet, and the Blue Queen was holding his strings.
‘Stop this, witch!’ he heard Hal’s deep voice say. ‘You have nothing to gain by it.’
‘I have a world to gain by it, as well you know,’ purred the Blue Queen. ‘You saw what happened to the door. Leo, walk out.’ She pointed to the balcony.
And Leo did as he was told. Sweat broke out on his forehead as with all his might he tried to resist the Blue Queen’s will. But his legs moved, one after the other. His hands opened the balcony doors. Then his legs carried him on, out onto the balcony, right to the low stone ledge.
He looked down at the moat, far below. Seven white shapes were gliding on the dark water. The seven swans. Waiting.
‘Climb onto the ledge, Leo,’ said the Blue Queen. ‘Stand quite still, facing me, and wait.’
Leo felt the cold stone of the balcony ledge beneath his hands. He felt himself following the order, and even in his terror he wondered at the fact that his injured ribs
gave him no pain. He stood on the ledge, with his back to the terrible drop. The breeze blew around him, carrying with it the sour smell of the moat.
‘Now, Mimi,’ he heard the Blue Queen say calmly. ‘Come forward and give the Key to me, or I will tell your friend to jump.’
Chapter 32
Decision
Hal, Conker, Tye and Freda stood frozen to the spot. Even Spoiler had stopped struggling and was staring at Mimi with bloodshot eyes. But Mimi was looking at Leo standing on the balcony ledge. Her face was ghastly pale in the flickering blue light.
‘Mimi, stay where you are,’ Hal said evenly. ‘The Blue Queen must not gain control of the Key to Rondo. Nothing is more important than that.’
Mimi tore her eyes away from Leo and looked at Hal.
‘We didn’t know,’ she said dully. ‘We didn’t know the pendant was important. We thought the ring brought us here. You must have known it didn’t. Why didn’t you tell us …?’
Shadows deepened on Hal’s grim face. The Blue Queen laughed. The fire spat. The blue butterflies fluttered in their golden cage.
‘So all your plans have come to nothing, Hal,’ the Blue Queen sneered. ‘You could not prevent the opening of the Gate. You could not stop my pretty spies flying to me with word of it. You could not stop me from escaping Rondo, or making contact with the holder of the Key. And you cannot stop me now.’
She turned to Mimi. ‘The Key!’ she commanded, and held out her hand.
Slowly, Mimi slid her hand into her pocket. ‘Tell Leo to get down, first,’ she said, her lips barely moving. ‘He might fall.’
‘He will not fall until I tell him to do so,’ the Blue Queen said, smiling slightly. ‘And that will be soon, believe me, if you continue to defy me.’
Mimi drew her hand from her pocket. She frowned down at her clenched fingers for a long moment, then took a step towards the queen. The fire blazed up beside her, flooding her face with brilliant blue light.
Tye and Conker moved quickly forward.
‘Do not touch her!’ the Blue Queen snapped, holding up her hand. ‘Step back, or the boy will die instantly, and she will know it is all your doing.’
Conker and Tye stopped and glanced at Hal, as if waiting for orders. He shook his head. Conker moved back. Tye frowned, hesitated, and then did the same.
‘So, Terlamaine,’ jeered the queen. ‘You are Hal’s pet now. Is it because you are so obedient that he lets you leave off your collar and chain when you go out?’
‘Do not let her rouse you, Tye,’ Hal said softly, as Tye hissed and raised her knife. ‘It’s what she wants. It’s the only power she has over you now. She can’t touch any of us. That, at least, I could do.’
Slowly, Tye lowered the knife again.
‘My leg hurts,’ Spoiler moaned. ‘Hal, for pity’s sake …’
Hal dragged him to one of the carved golden chairs by the wall, and sat him down in it. Spoiler slumped forward with his hand over his eyes, but frozen on the ledge, staring through the open doorway, Leo clearly saw him peep at Mimi through his fingers. He knew that Spoiler was trying to work out if he could reach her, and the pendant, before he could be stopped.
‘Guard him!’ Hal said to Freda. The duck flew to the glass table beside the chair and turned to face Spoiler, her masked eyes glittering.
‘This is all your doing, Hal,’ Spoiler said sullenly. ‘You had to meddle, didn’t you? You had to mess things up for me, as usual. And they call you a hero. What a joke! You didn’t even fight me for the Key. You stole it from me while I was asleep. You cowardly sneak! Call yourself a brother!’
He launched himself from his chair. Freda jabbed him hard on the arm with her beak. He fell back with a high-pitched scream.
Brother, thought Leo numbly. Hal’s Spoiler’s brother. Hal’s … Henry Langlander! Good, kind Uncle Henry. Not drowned. Not dead. Here!
Suddenly it seemed so obvious. Suddenly so many things fell into place that it seemed astonishing that he hadn’t realised it before.
Hal was looking at Spoiler with mingled pity and distaste.
‘I took it from you because you’d lost all right to it, George,’ he said in a level voice. ‘You betrayed it. You couldn’t use it to create wealth for yourself because you haven’t got the imagination of a bowl of porridge. So in return for riches and an easy life you let her use it – for the worst of purposes.’
Spoiler snarled at him. The Blue Queen snorted in contempt.
Hal looked back at Mimi. ‘Listen, Mimi, and understand,’ he said urgently. ‘The hair inside the Key is the tip of the brush that painted this world, and everything in it. The Key is Rondo’s master. It can create, and it can destroy. If you give it to the Blue Queen, there will be another Dark Time – one that will never end.’
Numb dread folded around Leo like a heavy cloak. Watching and listening from the balcony, unable to move or speak, he knew what Mimi would decide – what she had to decide.
Mimi had no choice. She couldn’t betray a whole world for the sake of one life.
Just let it be quick, he thought dully.
The Blue Queen tossed her head. ‘The Dark Time!’ she said scornfully. ‘That is what the plodding ones call it – the small ones, the folk with no vision who do not matter.’
‘Folk like Tye and me, and Jim and Polly, and every other normal, hardworking person in this world, you mean!’ shouted Conker.
‘Indeed,’ said the queen. ‘And all those who defied me and resisted me before will soon learn the error of their ways.’
She fastened her burning eyes on Mimi once more.
‘Enough of this delay!’ she snapped. ‘Give the Key to me now, or your cousin will pay the price. And when he has gone, do not forget that I still have your little dog to play with. I have only to say his name and he, too, will do anything I ask.’
Mutt, Leo thought with a shock. I’d forgotten about Mutt. But surely, even for Mutt, Mimi couldn’t …
He watched in horror as Mimi slowly uncurled her fingers. No, Mimi, he begged her silently.
Mimi looked down into her cupped hand and gave a long sigh. Then she flattened out her hand.
The pendant gleamed on her palm. Leo could see it clearly, even from where he was. Briefly he remembered his first sight of it. Then, he had only thought it ugly. Now it seemed awesome. He saw that Conker, Tye and Freda were gazing at it in fascinated horror. Clearly they recognised it. So did Spoiler, who was eyeing it with sulky greed. Hal’s face showed no expression at all. He was looking not at the pendant, but at Mimi.
The Blue Queen nodded with satisfaction.
‘That is better,’ she cooed. ‘I knew you would see reason, Mimi Langlander. You know what you want, and you will stop at nothing to get it. So. We are alike.’
‘No,’ Mimi said in a low voice.
‘Yes,’ the Blue Queen insisted softly. ‘And because we are alike, you know I mean what I say. Come now. It is time to end this.’
‘Yes,’ Mimi said. ‘It’s time to end it.’
And without warning, she spun around and pitched the pendant straight into the middle of the fire.
The Blue Queen screamed piercingly. Spoiler bellowed and covered his eyes. Hal, Conker and Tye shouted in horror.
Mimi, Leo thought numbly. No!
The queen sprang forward, seized a poker and started trying to rake the pendant out of the fire. But it was too late. For a single instant the pendant flashed brightly among the blue flames, a small oval of silver and murky glass. Then there was a tiny cracking sound, and the pendant sank into the white hot coals, hissing, melting, burning …
‘It is gone!’ the Blue Queen shrieked, in a frenzy of rage and terror. ‘You ignorant fool! You have destroyed us all!’
She leaped at Mimi, clawing at Mimi’s face. Mutt growled and snapped at her.
Hal sprang forward. He reached the queen in a single stride, pulled her away from Mimi and pushed her roughly back. She stumbled and fell screaming to the floor.
; Mimi seemed to have taken no notice of the attack, or the rescue. She stood rigidly, staring at the fire as if she could not look away.
The fire roared. Sparks like blue stars sprayed the room. With a grating shriek, the black marble mantelpiece cracked in two, turned bone white, and shattered into a thousand pieces.
Mimi gave a slight start and turned away from it, her eyes glazed.
Don’t you realise what you’ve done? Leo screamed at her in his mind. Don’t you remember what Spoiler said?
The story goes that Rondo will end if the Key is harmed…
There was an ominous rumble. The room began to tremble. Crystal chinked. Wood creaked, groaned and split. The silken wall coverings bulged inwards.
‘It’s happening!’ Spoiler screeched, leaping up. Freda half-raised her wings and flew at him, jabbing his injured leg viciously. He howled and fell to the ground, covering his head with his arms.
The floor quaked. Chairs, tables and cabinets tipped and fell. Bottles and jars toppled and smashed, their contents spilling and mingling. The butterfly cage collapsed into a tangle of gold wire.
Panic-stricken butterflies filled the air. They swarmed through the balcony doorway, desperately seeking escape. Leo screwed up his eyes as they streamed past him, wings and legs heedlessly beating on his face.
He opened his eyes again to a scene of devastation. Everything in the queen’s room was shaking. He wondered briefly why the balcony ledge wasn’t quaking too, and then gritted his teeth and put the thought out of his mind.
The balcony ledge would go soon enough. And he would go with it. He knew it. He told himself he accepted it. But it was the worst kind of torture to have to stand frozen, waiting, unable to move a finger to help himself or anyone else. Where he stood he was safe – for the moment. But he would far rather – a thousand times rather – have been in the quaking room, taking his chances with the others.
Especially, he wished he could be with Mimi. How must she feel, to have been the cause of all this? He no longer felt angry with her. Mimi had been driven half crazy by the decision she’d had to make. She’d felt cornered, and so as always she’d lashed out rashly, heedlessly, angrily, without thinking of the consequences.
