4. Tea with the Badgers

Katy could not help throwing herself to the ground as Aquila circled in to land on the hilltop. His mighty wings blocked out the sun and his great, yellow talons were stretched forward as if to seize her; but, when she dared to lift herself up, she saw that he was paying no attention to her at all. He was standing before Elyon, his wings folded back and his noble head bowed in reverence.
‘Hail, Aquila!’ said Elyon. ‘Well met!’
‘Hail, Elyon! Lord!’ said the eagle. ‘This is gladness of heart and joy beyond telling. Faster than the wind I have flown at thy summons. I am thine to command. Tell me thy will and it shall be done.’
Katy noticed that Aquila was talking in a very old-fashioned way — just as she imagined a Knight of the Round Table might talk — and she wondered if he always spoke like that. Then she noticed that Elyon had begun talking in the same sort of courtly fashion — rather like King Arthur — and that he was looking at her.
‘A young Son of Tellus, brother to this Daughter of Earth,’ he was saying, ‘is even now in great peril close by the Hill of the Two Sisters. With him is the rabbit, Drimwort — one who is known to both thee and me. Wilt thou carry this Daughter of Earth to them there? And wilt thou then, for my sake, bear all three unto Kinder Chase — to the home of Minerva, the ancient owl?’
‘Aye, sire,’ said Aquila. ‘And with a right good will. But —’ He faltered.
‘Speak on,’ said Elyon.
‘But I would fain perform for thee some mighty deed of valour.’
‘For my sake — or for thine own?’ asked Elyon. He looked searchingly into the eagle’s eyes. ‘Aquila, thou art good and true — but proud. Thy dignity is wounded by the task which I have set thee. Let it not be so. Think thou on the Fires of Frim. Wouldst thou be above thy master? Go now and do my bidding that thou mayst be blessed.’ Then Elyon put his head close to the eagle’s and spoke softly in his ear for a while. Katy could not hear what was said but she saw Aquila (who had been hanging his head and looking very chastened) begin to brighten up and hold his head high again.
Then the two of them came to where she was standing. The eagle crouched low on the ground and Elyon helped Katy to climb up among its feathers which were the colour of burnished gold.
‘Sit close against his neck,’ he said, ‘and hold on with both your arms. But do not fear! You shall not fall. Happy is the child who rides the wind on Aquila’s back!’ He waited until Katy was properly seated and then he said, ‘One more thing, little one. When you meet the owl, Minerva, ask her what she knows of Olrik. Remember well — Olrik. He is the one you must find.’ Then, kissing her again on her forehead, he commanded Aquila to depart.
The mighty eagle rose into the air, its wings making great whooshing sounds. Soon Katy could see all Shalanor spread below her. To the south there were hills and forests and, beyond them, the sea — sparkling in the sun and dotted with islands. A river, like a silver thread, flowed through the forests. Where it met the sea it divided, and on the island formed by the divided river and the sea there was a castle complete with turrets and high towers — just like in a fairy-tale.
‘Arwendal Keep,’ cried Aquila. ‘Rightful home of Queen Emeline. Seat of all the kings and queens of Shalanor.’
To the north were more hills and forests, then cliffs. Beyond the cliffs — far, far distant — was range after range of ever-higher mountains, some covered in snow. Katy wanted to ask Aquila what they were called, but the eagle was already descending. He was heading towards the foot of a round, green hill which had two standing stones on its summit.
Katy looked down below her and almost fell off Aquila’s back in shock at what she saw. Lying in a heap was Simon (she recognised his blue jumper which was just like hers). Beside him, wringing its front paws in fear, was a large rabbit wearing spectacles. And charging towards them down the hillside was a horde of screaming, shouting creatures of every shape and size. Most were waving weapons — swords, spears, clubs and axes — and they were almost upon Simon and the rabbit.
‘Quick, Aquila! Stop them!’ she yelled. But the horde was already faltering in its tracks. The shadows of the great wings had swept over them and, looking up, they had seen the huge eagle dropping from the sky upon them. With a great battle-scream, Aquila caught up one of the leaders (a vicious-looking fox) in his talons. He lifted it into the air, wheeled round, and dropped it onto an outcrop of rock, where it lay, crushed and broken. Then — Katy hanging on for dear life! — again he plummeted towards the horde. It was enough. With yelps of terror, they began to retreat, scrambling back up the hillside and falling over one another in their haste to get away from that beak and those talons.
Satisfied, Aquila landed next to Simon and the rabbit.
‘So, Drimwort,’ he said. ‘This is a fine mess I find you in!’
‘Indeed,’ said Drimwort looking somewhat shamefaced. ‘But it was you we were looking for.’
‘Well, now you’ve found me, thanks to Elyon,’ said Aquila. ‘So come on! Don’t just stand there! Help get that Son of Tellus on my back and then get on yourself. We haven’t got all day!’
At this point, Katy noticed that the eagle did speak differently when he was not talking to Elyon. ‘How odd,’ she thought. But then her attention was taken up by Simon who was looking very pale and gasping with pain every time his foot was moved. ‘Is it broken?’ she asked him.
‘I don’t think so,’ said Simon. ‘Just sprained, probably. But it hurts like mad.’
‘It will soon be attended to,’ said Aquila. ‘Now, are you all holding tight. We must go. Look! The hordes are regrouping.’
And so they were. Seeing that their quarry was about to escape, they had overcome their fear and begun to advance again. But they were too late. Aquila gave one beat of his wings and Katy, Simon and Drimwort were borne aloft and carried in a northeasterly direction, over a river (Drimwort said it was the Lune) towards Kinder Chase.
As they journeyed, the two children and the rabbit caught up with each other’s news. When Katy told of the faun on the rock and how he had turned out to be Elyon, Drimwort nearly fell off Aquila’s back in his excitement.
‘Elyon!’ he said. ‘You’ve actually met Elyon!’ Then it was, ‘How big is he? What’s he like? Is his hair really as golden as the old tales tell?’ and lots more questions of that kind. But when it came to, ‘And what did he say to you?’ Katy fell silent. She thought of the palms of Elyon’s hands.
‘I don’t think he’d want me to tell you,’ was all she would say. ‘It was between him and me. When you meet him (and I’m sure you will) you’ll understand what I mean.’
They had now reached a point where, below them, was a lake out of which flowed a great river.
‘Baligsmere,’ called Aquila, still holding his northeasterly course.
‘A famous landmark,’ said Drimwort nodding to the lake and the island at its centre. ‘That’s where King Harold and Queen Maud arrived in Shalanor from your world back in our year 957. It’s where all their adventures began.’ (Drimwort had, as you know, told Simon about King Harold and Queen Maud as they had journeyed to the Two Sisters; and Simon had told the story to Katy when they were exchanging all their news. She, in turn, had told Simon that Queen Maud was actually the lady who had owned their new home. If you do not already know the story of Harold and Maud, and of Amaryl and Rylama — the twin princesses — and Triladine — the lost prince — I may tell it to you one day.)
‘What year is it now in Shalanor?’ asked Katy.
‘Twelve sixty-six,’ said Drimwort.
‘So it must have been 1685 in our world when Maud came here,’ said Simon who was good at maths. ‘Not long after our house was first built. But that’s impossible. It would mean Maud was over three hundred years old when she died in 1989!’ (He was quite wrong, in fact, because time in Shalanor and time in our world are not in any way related. Each is like a river, flowing at a different speed from the other, and winding and looping backwards and forwards. So that, if you jump out of one and into the other — as Katy and Simon had done — you can never be sure what year it will be when you get there. It was actually 1919 in our world when Maud and Harold found their way into Shalanor).
Below them and ahead now lay a forest. ‘Kinder Chase,’ said Drimwort; and Aquila began his descent. Soon they were all standing among the trees — though Simon was on one leg with his arms round Katy’s and Drimwort’s shoulders.
‘Now for Minerva’s house,’ said Aquila. ‘Though I think it would be unwise of us to arrive empty-handed. She’s a very old owl and she can be a bit crotchety. What’s more, she doesn’t like visitors.’
‘What do you suggest?’ asked Drimwort. ‘I suppose I could write a poem in her honour. It’s rather short notice but —’
Aquila gave him a withering glance. ‘Poetry!’ he said contemptuously. ‘A nice fat dormouse is the thing. Though not a breathborn dormouse, of course.’ He looked at Simon and Katy. ‘Now, which of you would like to catch one for her?’
The children looked at him and each other in dismay. Then Aquila broke into a barking sort of laugh. ‘Only joking,’ he said. ‘Leave it to me!’ He soared into the air, flew off over the trees and, seconds later, returned with something in his talons. ‘There we are,’ he said. ‘Perhaps you could wrap it for her, Drimwort.’
Drimwort took the small, dead creature, wrapped it neatly in a dock leaf and tied it with grass.
‘I’m nearly hungry enough to eat it myself,’ said Simon. ‘We haven’t had so much as a snack since yesterday!’
Aquila looked at the children with astonishment. ‘You’ve eaten nothing at all?’ he said.
They shook their heads.
‘Well, by the Pipes of Elyon, we must remedy that before we do anything else,’ he said. ‘Come! Let’s pay a call on Brock and Beatrice. It’s not out of our way and they keep a good table. I dare say Beatrice will sort your foot out too — badgers are greatly skilled in the healing arts.’
The badgers lived in a comfortable, if somewhat untidy, set under the roots of a huge oak tree just a short distance down the track which would lead them to Minerva. Upon being introduced to Katy and Simon, their delight knew no bounds.
‘To think of it,’ said Brock, scratching his ear. ‘Another Son of Tellus and Daughter of Earth! My, oh my, oh my!’
‘What?’ said Katy. ‘Have other children been here?’
‘Why, yes, bless you!’ said Beatrice. ‘Not in Brock’s time or mine, of course. Nor in our father’s or grandfather’s. But in the time of Brock’s great-grandfather — Gerald was his name — Harold and Maud (King Harold and Queen Maud they later became) — Children of Tellus both — had tea and lunch here! At this very table! Oh, yes. And you, my dears, shall do the same!’
Brock put the kettle on the wood fire which was burning in the grate and Beatrice made Simon lie on the bed in the next room while she poulticed his ankle. ‘There,’ she said at last. ‘That should be right as rain in an hour or two — though I’ve never understood what it is that’s so particularly right about rain, have you? Now! Teatime!’
It was really supper, breakfast, lunch and tea, all rolled into one; for when Beatrice heard that the children had not eaten since arriving in Shalanor, she at once decided that at her table they should have every meal that they had missed. There were lightly boiled eggs with piles of hot buttered toast; there was crispy fried bacon with mushrooms and tomatoes; there were pancakes; there were thick slices of turkey with home-made cranberry sauce; there were potatoes baked in their jackets and stuffed with melted cheese; there were apple pies and strawberry flans and raspberry mousses, all served with thick, golden cream; and, finally, there were slices of rich fruit cake topped with marzipan, slices of date and walnut loaf, and chocolate biscuits. (Happily for the children, no one in Shalanor had ever heard of cholesterol!)
When they had all eaten their fill, Brock turned to the eagle.
‘What does this mean, Aquila?’ he said. ‘Dare we hope that the coming of these Children of Tellus spells the end of Morlok’s rule?’
‘Indeed we dare,’ said Aquila. ‘For not only have the two worlds touched again but Elyon walks in Shalanor once more!’
‘He has been seen?’ exclaimed Brock.
‘The Daughter of Earth has spoken with Him — and so have I,’ said Aquila. ‘He has bidden us meet with Minerva. And we should delay no longer. Morlok knows already that the prophecies are being fulfilled. He has had Simon, Son of Tellus, within his grasp, and lost him. He knows too that a Daughter of Earth is, even now, in Shalanor. His plans to invade Galdania will have been set aside and he will foster but a single thought — to thwart the children in their quest.’
‘But what is our quest?’ asked Simon.
‘To give blind Olrik back his sight, of course,’ said Drimwort. ‘I quoted the prophecy to you, remember?’
‘And who is Olrik?’ asked Katy. ‘Elyon said I was to ask Minerva about him, but he didn’t say who he is.’
Aquila glanced at Brock and then at Drimwort. Each lifted their hands in empty gestures.
‘No one knows,’ said Aquila. ‘That’s the problem. Though, if Elyon has told you to ask Minerva about him, it must mean that she can supply us with a clue.’
‘Shouldn’t we go to her straight away, then?’ said Katy.
‘Indeed, we should,’ said Aquila. ‘We’ve delayed long enough. Let’s be on our way.’
The grateful party left Brock and Beatrice to the washing up. ‘Don’t give it a thought,’ said Beatrice. ‘We’ll have it done before you can say Jack Robinson — though who Jack Robinson is and why anyone should say his name, I really don’t know!’
Simon found that he could now walk quite easily again, and they all pressed on to the owl’s nest.
When they arrived there it was already dusk, but, as Aquila pointed out, it was a good time to visit owls because they are not fond of daylight. The nest itself was high in the massive trunk of an old pine tree which stood at the edge of a glade. The children wondered if they were going to have to climb the tree to reach the entrance (which was not going to be easy) but Aquila told them to wait until he had spoken with Minerva. He flew to a branch just below the nest and put his head into the hole. Drimwort and the children could hear the muffled conversation.
‘Visitors for you, Minerva,’ began Aquila. ‘A Son of Tellus and a —’
‘Something to tell us? Who has something to tell us?’ interrupted a quavery, irritable voice. ‘Speak up, can’t you? You eagles always did mutter!’
‘I said, "Visitors for you, Minerva. A Son of Tellus and a Daughter of Earth",’ repeated Aquila.
‘Door? Door to the north? Something to tell us about a door to the north? What are you talking about? My door faces south. Have you been drinking? You’re not making any sense to me.’
‘No — a Son of Tellus and a Daughter of Earth,’ cried Aquila.
‘All right, all right! No need to shout!’ said the voice crossly. ‘It’s not as if I’m deaf, you know! So — a Son of Tellus and a Daughter of Earth, eh? Well, don’t keep them waiting out there. Show them in. Show them in.’
‘That’s difficult,’ said Aquila. ‘Your nest is quite high.’
‘Nasty white eyes?’ said Minerva. ‘Well, what if they have? I don’t suppose they can help it. Show them in anyway.’
‘No. I said "Your nest is quite high",’ shouted Aquila. ‘How do they get up here?’
‘There you go again,’ said Minerva. ‘Shouting one minute, mumbling the next! How do they get up here? On the ladder, of course.’
The next moment a rope ladder neatly unfurled itself from the hole and came tumbling to an end at the children’s feet.
‘I don’t think she’s going to be very easy to talk to,’ said Simon. ‘You go first, Katy. I’ll bring the dormouse.’ He held the ladder steady until Katy was well on her way, then he and Drimwort clambered up after her.