Astro-Knights Island (5 page)

Chapter Eight

Into the Dungeon

“Rise and shine, sleepyhead!”

Alice opened the door to Simon's hut, expecting him to be snoring in bed. Instead, she found him scrubbed clean and wide awake.

“I'm already up!” he said cheerfully.

Alice pretended to look confused. “I'm sorry, I'm looking for my friend Simon. You know, the guy who never wants to get out of bed in the morning?”

“There's no reason to get out of bed when all you have to look forward to is horse poop,” Simon said. “But now we've got a Princess to rescue. Let's get to the windmill!”

Alice slapped a hand to her forehead. “I packed us some food and left it in the Castle kitchen. Let's grab it first. I'm no good at adventuring on an empty stomach.”

When they got to the Castle, they saw a villager walking down the front steps, clutching a book. Something clicked in Simon's head.

“Alice, do you still have that library slip we got from the museum?” he asked.

Alice patted her skirt pocket. “Got it right here. I don't leave anything valuable down in the servants' quarters.”

“Can I see it for a second?”

“Sure,” Alice replied, carefully unfolding the slip and handing it to him.

Simon examined the slip. It was for a book called
Secrets of the Castle: The Shadowy World Beneath Your Feet.
The call number on top read NON-FIC McM. Mordred had taken out the book five times.

“There's got to be a reason that Mordred kept taking out this book,” he remarked thoughtfully. “Maybe we should take a look at it.”

“What about the windmill?” Alice asked.

“Those weirdos won't make a move until the moon is full,” Simon reminded her. “We've got all day. Come on.”

They entered the Castle and went to the library on the first floor. The once-grand room had been hit hard during the attack. Books spilled off broken wood shelves, and the stone floor was strewn with stray pages.

“What a shame,” Alice said, gazing around with a sad expression. “This was always my favorite place to sneak off to when Mary wasn't looking. There are some great books in here. I love the books about Mordred's inventions or amazing tales about mystical creatures.”

Simon picked up a book from the floor. “Hey, this is interesting. It's called
The Life of Mordred: A Cautionary Tale.
I wonder if any of his secrets are in it.”

“We might as well look through it,” Alice said.

Simon flipped through the pages as they read. “This basically tells us what we already know. Mordred was an inventor who did good things for the kingdom. Then he started to make dark things, so the King put him in prison. But Mordred kept making inventions in a secret bunker. When the Royal Guard discovered it, Mordred escaped in a rocket ship.”

They examined the pictures of Mordred, who had a pointy beard and wore a jacket that was half purple, half orange, and a purple cap with an orange feather in it.

“Is that an owl?” Alice asked, pointing to one of the pictures. “It's strange looking, isn't it? Like it's made of metal.”

Simon thought of the mouse he had seen in Rose's room. “Mordred was definitely up to some strange things. But there's nothing in here about how he got into space. We should probably find the book we came here for.”

They followed the call letters engraved into small bronze plaques on the shelves until they found what they were looking for: NON-FIC McM.

Simon took the book off the shelf and started to flip through it.

“I don't see what's so special about it,” he said.

“Maybe we need to read the whole thing,” Alice said thoughtfully. “It might be written in code. Like where the first letter of each paragraph spells out a message if you put them together.”

She took the book from Simon and started studying it. Bored, Simon's glance drifted to the shelf the book had sat on. A strange round knob protruded from the stone wall behind it.

“What's this?” he wondered out loud. Curious, he touched the knob.

To his amazement, a stone door in the floor slid open right at their feet! He nudged Alice. “Look!”

She peered down at the floor. “It's a secret entrance!”

“Maybe it leads to Mordred's secret bunker, like it says in
The Life of Mordred
,” Simon said, getting excited. “There may be a flying craft down there!”

He hurried down the dark staircase, followed by Alice, and they ended up in an underground dungeon. One candle burned on the wall, casting dim light in the space. A loaf of dry bread and hunk of moldy cheese sat on a rickety table.

“Looks like the dungeon keeper's lunch,” Alice mused, stepping toward the table. “But there hasn't been a prisoner here since—aaaah!”

She screamed and jumped back, nearly knocking down Simon.

“What's wrong?” he asked, steadying himself.

Trembling, Alice pointed toward the bars of the dungeon cell. Simon's eyes widened as a strange creature emerged from the shadows and floated over the stone floor, hovering behind the bars.

The mechanical creature had a big, glowing yellow eye and a shining green dome on top of its head. Its body was shaped like a metal box, and it had no legs, just two long, blue arms.

“What is that thing?” Alice asked.

“I don't know,” Simon replied. “But I bet Mordred made it.”

Now that the shock had passed, Alice became more curious. She slowly moved closer to the bars. “I wonder what it does.”

“Maybe it can build us a ship to the stars,” Simon said hopefully. He pulled on the bars. “But I guess we'll never know for sure. There's no way in there.”

Alice nodded to a lever on the wall. “Maybe this opens it.”

She pulled the lever, but the cell door didn't open. Instead, a small door inside the cell opened up. Simon frowned.

“That's strange,” he said. “I wonder what's on the other side.”

Alice looked thoughtful. “You know, the Castle servants were always whispering about some secret lab that Mordred had built when he was in prison. They say that's how he escaped—he built something that could blast through stone. I was never sure if it was true. But now . . .”

“There must be a way to get to the other side,” Simon mused. “Maybe we should explore the Castle while we're here. See if we can find that lab.”

“Good idea,” Alice agreed.

Before they headed out, Simon grabbed the moldy cheese from the table. Alice looked at him quizzically.

“I told you that I've got lunch for us downstairs,” she said.

“It's not for us,” he replied. “Just something I need to take care of.”

When they went back upstairs, they were greeted by the monk who oversaw the library—and two armed Castle guards.

“You shouldn't be snooping around down there,” the monk scolded them.

“But we're on a mission for the King!” Simon protested. “We're trying to find the Princess, and to do that we need to see if Mordred—”

“The King has forbidden anyone to utter that name in this Castle!” the monk said sternly. “Now leave, or I will have the guards escort you out.”

“Dusty old crank,” Alice muttered under her breath as they left.

“Now I'm more convinced than ever that there's some kind of secret lab down there,” Simon said. “Why else would they be guarding it?”

“Let's go to the kitchen,” Alice suggested. “Nobody will notice if we snoop around there.”

“Good idea. But there's something I want to do first,” he said.

Alice followed Simon down the hall to Rose's room, where he stopped and knocked on the door.

“Come in!”

They entered and found Rose at her dressing table, sobbing.

“What's wrong?” Simon asked.

“I just miss Elyana so much,” the lady-in-waiting said through her tears. “I know I'm just her servant, but we were best friends. I'm so worried about her. I wanted to go to her room and get a kerchief or a trinket—something to remember her by, but the King still has the room locked tight.”

“I'm sorry,” Simon said sincerely. “I can't help you with that, but I think I can help you with another problem.”

He took the moldy cheese from his pocket and placed it on the floor.

“Here, mousie mousie!”

The mechanical mouse emerged from under Rose's dresser, rolled toward the cheese, and began to sniff. Simon reached down and picked it up.

“Got it!” he cried triumphantly.

Alice ran and grabbed a cloth sack from Rose's dresser. “Put it in here so it doesn't get away.”

Simon obeyed, and Alice curiously peered into the sack.

“Did Mordred make this?” she asked.

Rose nodded. “One of his dreadful creatures. Thank you for capturing it for me.”

She leaned down and kissed Simon on the forehead. He blushed.

“It's no big deal,” he said shyly.

Alice looked annoyed. “Come on,” she said, grabbing his arm. “We've got a Castle to explore!”

Chapter Nine

Elyana's Secret

Simon waved good-bye to Rose as he and Alice left the room.

“Can I hold the mouse?” Alice asked. “I still can't believe that Mordred made it.”

“It's all yours,” Simon said, handing it to her. Alice tied the sack to the belt around her waist, and they made their way to the servants' quarters. Alice grabbed the lunch she'd left behind, and they searched the downstairs hallways, looking for some kind of secret entrance—with no luck.

“I guess it's no use,” Alice said with a sigh.

“We need more information,” Simon said. “I keep wondering what the Princess has to do with all this. I wish we could get into her room.”

“Well, there's a door on her balcony,” Alice said. “But we'd have to climb up.”

“I can climb!” Simon said. “Let's check it out!”

They went outside and gazed up at the Castle turrets. Alice pointed to a door on one of them.

“That's it,” she said, “but I don't know. The walls of the Castle are pretty smooth.”

Simon tried to scale the wall, but he quickly discovered that Alice was right. Frowning, he stepped back and looked up at the tower.

“Maybe if we had a rope or something,” he mused.

“I think I saw one over by the mill the other day,” Alice said. “Hold on.”

She returned moments later, cheeks red, holding a coil of rope.

“Don't know how much good it will do,” she said. “There's nothing for it to latch on to up there.”

Simon swung the rope like a lasso and launched it into the air. It smacked against the balcony and then plummeted, landing at Simon's feet.

“There's got to be a way,” Simon said stubbornly. He launched the rope again, but once again it failed to latch on to the balcony.

As the rope sank back down to the ground, Simon noticed the crossbow on the platform above the Castle entrance. He remembered how Sir Cador had used it to take down the flying machines . . . and then he got an idea.

Simon picked up the rope and began to climb onto the platform.

“Where are you going?” Alice called up.

Too excited to answer, Simon quickly tied the rope to the end of one of the long, heavy arrows. Then he tied the other end to the bottom arm of the crossbow to anchor it. The crossbow was attached to a large wheel that could be turned to aim the arrow. He turned the wheel so that the arrow was pointing right at the door in the tower.

Alice climbed onto the platform. “Oh, I get it,” she said. “You're going to shoot the arrow into the door, right?”

“Exactly,” Simon said confidently.

Then he pulled the lever on the crossbow, and the arrow shot through the air. But it missed its mark, falling to the ground below.

“Rats!” Simon complained, pulling up the rope.

“Maybe you need to adjust the wheel,” Alice suggested. She stepped in front of him and placed the arrow back in the crossbow. Then she turned the wheel so that the arrow was aimed a little higher.

“Looks good,” Simon agreed. He pulled the arrow back a second time.

Ziiing!
The arrow whizzed through the air and landed securely in the wood door. Now the rope stretched from the Castle right to the tower. Perfect!

“Huzzah!” Simon cheered. He walked over to the rope and pulled himself on top. “I'll search her room and try to find out the connection between her and that secret order.”

He slowly stood up on the rope, balancing. Then he took one careful step after another, trying to keep his balance like a circus performer. When he reached the mysterious door, he pushed it open and jumped inside.

The Princess's room contained a pink carpet, a pink bed, and a dresser with a crown carved into the mirror. The invaders' bombs had left the place a wreck, just as they had the rest of the Castle. There were tattered posters of stars and planets on the walls, just like the ones he and Alice had seen in the order's secret hideout.

Simon wasn't exactly sure what he was looking for, but he figured he would know when he saw it. There was a bunch of jewelry, a hairbrush, and some fancy clothes in the dresser.

Then he opened up a wood chest at the foot of the Princess's bed. Inside, he found an interesting scrap of paper that had been damaged by the attack. A smile spread across his face as he read it.

“Wait until Alice sees this,” Simon said. He tucked it into his pocket and made his way back outside, across the rope, and then jumped down to the platform.

“Thank goodness! I kept imagining you falling off the rope,” Alice said with relief.

“Gosh, nice imagination,” Simon said sarcastically. He handed her the scrap of paper. “Anyway, I found something. Read this.”

The order believes the Great Inventor kept many of his secrets under his bed, but the order dare not come out of its hiding place to seek them. I will do my best to aid them in their search because I believe Mordred is alive! I've detected a beacon on a faraway planet, and I believe it must have been sent from him. I have sent a return signal and . . .

Alice's eyes grew wide. “It sounds like the Princess liked Mordred . . . you know,
liked
him.”

“Gross,” Simon said, making a face. “But I thought the King said Mordred was all evil and stuff. Why would the Princess like him?”

Alice sighed. “It's a girl thing. You wouldn't understand. But, anyway, this proves that Mordred really
did
escape to outer space, and the Princess was contact with him.”

Simon was more confused than ever. “Okay. So Mordred escaped to a faraway planet. Someone from outer space kidnapped the Princess. But if Mordred and the Princess were friends, why would he kidnap her?”

“Maybe he didn't kidnap her,” Alice replied. “Maybe he rescued her.”

“Rescued her?” Simon asked.

“From her strict parents,” Alice said, getting a dreamy look in her eyes. “It's so romantic! For years, Princess Elyana searched the skies, waiting for her true love to return. Then one day, Mordred swooped down from the heavens and swept her away.”

“After blowing up a bunch of stuff,” Simon pointed out. “So if that's true, wouldn't the knights have come back and told us that by now? It doesn't make sense.”

“Good point,” Alice admitted. “I guess there's only one way to find out the truth.”

Simon nodded. “That's right. We still need to find a way to get to outer space!”