Deep Amber (13 page)

Constable Taylor realised that he was staring at the knight with his mouth open. He closed it quickly, and cleared his throat, trying to summon up a Voice of Authority. It was distinctly difficult when the person you were trying to impress was at least six feet higher up than you and was holding a sword dangerously close to your
head, but Constable Taylor did his best.

“I am afraid I must request that you accompany me to the police station, sir. You are under arrest for disturbance of the peace and various counts of damage to property. You do not have to say anything—”

But he got no further, because the knight simply frowned, and leaned forward, and pointed his sword at Constable Taylor's chest.

“Sir, your thanks are a little hard to understand, but no matter. I am afraid I cannot join you at your station, tempting though I am sure your feast would be. I have a Quest to fulfil. Can you direct me to a dragon, or perhaps the sorcerer who set these metal beasts on your peasants?”

Constable Taylor was embarrassed to find that his mouth was open again. He shut it firmly, and went for his radio. But the knight was already wheeling his horse around.

“Farewell, peasants,” he called. “Since none of you can help me, I shall try my luck westwards. I did think that I heard a roar from that direction that had the very tone of a dragon… Till we meet again!”

He waved his sword to them all, and clattered
off down the road, just as two children burst through the crowd and shouted something that sounded like, “Sir Bedwyr! Come back!”

Constable Taylor shook his head, and spoke into his radio.

“This is PC Taylor, requesting back-up. Serious incident Wemworthy town centre. Four cars requested. Repeat,
four
cars requested. Suspect heading down the High Street towards Whites Lane.”

Chapter Thirteen

Sir Bedwyr made his last stand outside the Green Dragon Inn, on the outskirts of Wemworthy. Luckily for the police back-up he had dismounted from his horse and left him outside while he went to ask for directions to the dragon. When the knight came out, Dappletoes was in custody and there were four police cars surrounding the door to the inn.

“YOU ARE UNDER ARREST FOR BREACH OF THE PEACE AND SERIOUS AFFRAY,” called a policeman through a loudhailer, standing well back behind one of the cars. The other officers closed in slowly, keeping a careful eye on Sir Bedwyr's sword hand. Behind him, the heavy oak door of the inn banged shut.

Sir Bedwyr drew himself up to his full
height and laughed contemptuously.

“Miscreant peasants! I am a knight of Roland Castle. Out of my way, or I shall chop your livers into small pieces for the rooks to feast on!”

The police officers looked at each other nervously, but stood their ground. Sir Bedwyr unsheathed his sword and there was a tense stand-off.

“Now, now, sir,” said Constable Taylor, who was directly in front of the knight. “There's no need for any fighting. We'd just like you to put down the sword and come with us.”

“I shall give you to a count of five to retreat,” said Sir Bedwyr angrily. “Then I shall consider any remaining men my enemies and fell them instantly!”

Constable Taylor looked at his back-up helplessly. There wasn't anything in the police manual about dealing with knights and swords. It was all rather difficult. He really wished he'd stayed in bed that morning with a headache.

“ONE!” roared Sir Bedwyr.

“Umm – shall we call for more help?” hissed the policeman closest to Constable Taylor with a worried frown.

“TWO!”

Constable Taylor rubbed his chin thoughtfully. He was wondering whether to order a strategic retreat when a young girl ran out of the crowd and pushed her way through the circle of policemen.

“Sir Bedwyr!” she shouted. “It's me – Dora! Put your sword down!”

The knight frowned, and stopped counting, but he didn't lower his sword.

“What in the name of magic are you doing here, Dora?' he hissed. “Out of the way! I'm quelling the local peasantry!”

“No, no, you mustn't!” said Dora, desperately. “They'll lock you up!”

As Sir Bedwyr hesitated, Jem wriggled his way through the police circle as well, and ran up to join Dora.

“Jem!” said Sir Bedwyr with a look of disgust. “How do you always manage to turn up when there's trouble?”

Simon, standing at the edge of the small crowd that had gathered near the Green Dragon, wondered where the two newcomers had appeared from. Had they come out of the cellar as well? They were both dressed in slightly odd,
old-fashioned clothes, and there was something different about the way they moved and gestured. Simon watched in fascination as Sir Bedwyr, deep in consultation with the two children, failed to notice the inn door opening slowly and carefully behind him.

“Enough!” roared the knight after a few minutes. “Out of my way, you two. It's time the people of this strange land learned to show some respect to a knight of the realm. Three, Four, FIVE!”

But as he started forward to deal with the policemen, Sir Bedwyr was caught completely unawares by the landlord of the Green Dragon Inn, who emerged from the open door and landed a perfect blow on the back of the knight's head with a full bottle of Gordon's gin. Sir Bedwyr hit the ground like a felled tree and the small crowd that had gathered cheered and clapped.

As the policemen approached with handcuffs, Albert Jemmet pushed his way past Simon and went to have a brief word with the two children standing helplessly next to the knight. Together, they seemed to be trying to argue with the arresting officer, but Simon couldn't catch much except the odd word or phrases.

“Yes, their uncle… if we could just… should have taken his medicine… very sorry… No, we really…”

But the policeman was clearly adamant. Sir Bedwyr was going down to the station to be processed. He took Albert Jemmet's phone number and promised to call him, and then they drove off smartly, after requesting that the crowd disperse and go home.

“Well,” said Albert, as he came over to where Simon had just been joined by a breathless Cat. “We've got a pretty situation here, I must say. Simon, Cat – this is Dora, and this here is Jem. They're from the same place as the knight.”

The four children looked at each other. Dora started to curtsey, and then stopped, feeling confused. Did they even do that in this world? Judging from the look on Cat's face, she guessed not. Jem stepped forward, and gave them both a flamboyant bow.

“Well met!” he said. “Looks like we've all been chasing after Sir Bedwyr. Most eligible knight in Roland Castle, but not exactly the brightest…”

He grinned at Cat, who was still breathing hard, having run all the way to the Green Dragon.
She nodded back. He looked friendly enough, she thought, and the girl with dark plaits looked rather sweet, if a bit shy. Both of them, though, had a strange way of standing, an odd air about them – as if they didn't quite belong.

Simon nodded at Dora, and then Jem. “Welcome to… er… our world,” he said, and immediately felt ridiculous, but Dora gave him a warm smile, and nodded back.

“Well then,” said Albert, taking charge. “Introductions over. Maybe we'd better all go back to Simon and Cat's place for a nice cup of tea. I think we need to talk.”

Albert stirred six sugars into his tea and then, after a pause, added another two.

“Helps me think,” he said, as Cat raised her eyebrows.

They were all seated round the kitchen table with a hot mug of tea and a plate of chocolate biscuits. Jem and Dora had looked rather suspiciously at the biscuits to start with, but Jem was now happily tucking into his fifth.

“Right,” said Albert, as he took a great gulp of his sweet tea. “Let's get this straight.” He pointed
his teaspoon at Dora. “Lord Ravenglass sent you and this young man through a portal from the palace? With the missing items from this world?”

“Yes,” said Dora, and she tipped up the pack, sending the goggles and the peculiar boxes tumbling out.

“That's my camera!” said Cat, and seized it. “How did
you
end up with it?”

“And my DS,” said Simon, picking up the console wonderingly. He turned to Cat. “And I
told
you I didn't have anything to do with your missing camera!”

She made a face at him, and went on checking the camera over. After a few moments, she looked up with a bemused expression. “What's with all these pictures of noses and warts? And is that a knight falling off his horse?”

Jem grinned. “Sir Rodrick,” he explained. “He gave me a good hiding for that one. But what about the fortune-telling machine?” he added, eagerly, pointing to the DS. “How does it really work?”

“It plays games,” said Simon, opening it. “The one in there at the moment is called
Castle Quest
. You choose a character, then you have to
go through various levels and collect gold coins and stuff.”

He turned it on, and demonstrated. Cat watched the two boys, heads together, bent over the DS. Jem was exclaiming in amazement at how quickly Simon was able to battle with evil dwarves and collect gold coins, Simon was equally impressed at how far Jem had got with no previous experience. She turned to Dora. “Boys, eh?” she said, one eyebrow raised. Dora looked rather startled, and smiled tentatively.

Albert Jemmet tapped the top of the table with his teaspoon.

“All right, enough of that,” he said sternly to the two boys. “We've got a serious situation on our hands here. Things have been slipping back and forth between the two worlds for a few days now – Cat's camera, the DS, the sword. That's not normal at all. We've clearly got a very large rift that's getting worse by the minute – and now it's big enough to drag across a whole horse and an associated idiot in armour. If Jem and Dora are right, then Lord Ravenglass knows all about it, but there's still no sign of it being shut down by anyone in the kingdom.”

He tapped the display on one of his strange electrical machines, where the needle was quivering madly back and forth.

“Energies all over the place. If the rift doesn't get shut down soon, the worlds are going to start bleeding into each other.”

“What do you mean, bleeding into each other?” said Cat. “Is that dangerous?”

Albert frowned. “Very dangerous. Which means we need to start working together to find what's causing it.”

“You said there was a rift,” put in Jem. “Caractacus said the same, and that it needed to be shut down. But how do you know about the rift, and the kingdom? Where do you come into all this?”

Albert looked at them all sternly.

“I come into this because I'm
from
the kingdom. And as it happens, it was Caractacus who contacted me about the rift in the first place. I'm an agent for the Great Forest, and it's my job to keep this particular world safe and balanced. And I must say, there are some people who've been making my job damn near impossible.” He pointed his spoon at Simon. “You've got a whiff
of magic about you. You
and
Cat. And you know something you're not saying.”

Albert leaned back in his chair, and fixed them all in turn with his shrewd gaze. “We need to focus,” he said. “There's deep amber at the bottom of this, or my name's not Albert Jemmet. We need to find it quick, and close it down.”

Dora and Jem exchanged glances. Deep amber! It was what they were supposed to be looking for. Simon opened his mouth to say something, but at that moment Albert's mobile went off with a loud electronic fanfare, and he whipped it out of his overall pocket, disappearing into the hall to answer it.

When he returned a few minutes later, he looked grim. “Damn and blast! That's the police. That brainless fool of a knight has escaped from police custody. I need to get after him. And while I'm gone
you
,” he pointed at them all, as he grabbed his canvas bag and made for the door, “need to start working together. You need to find me that piece of deep amber, before we're all in a very great deal of trouble indeed.”