The main battle for the castle just seemed to Ruth to be a hideous confusion of noise and movement. Once they were through the castle walls her small group headed for the area where, according to the Bognorian nobles who were guiding them, prisoners were kept. They didn't know if they would find Adam and the noble Agorna there, or even if they were still alive, but it seemed the best place to start looking.
The door to the dungeons was guarded, of course, but the pirates were able to take care of that. Once inside they hurried down the steep stone stairs to a guard room where keys to all the cells were hanging on the wall. A couple of surprised guards tried to stop them but failed. Some of the group tried to work out which key fitted which door, while others ran along the corridors looking through the tiny peepholes on the cell doors to try and find the missing emissaries.
"Here," Patrick called out suddenly. "They're here!"
"What number?" Ruth called.
"Forty seven!" he yelled. Tom grabbed the key and they ran towards Patrick at the end of the corridor.
"Are they ok?" Agnes demanded, reaching the door as Tom fitted the key into the lock.
"I'm not sure," Patrick said. "They looked like they were asleep..." The door opened and they hurried into the small room beyond. Adam was lying on a hard bed.
"Adam? Adam!" They tried to wake him, but it was no good. Anxiously Ruth felt for a pulse, fearing the worst. She found it, with great relief, and she could see him breathing. But neither he nor the Bognorian lord Agorna, who they found in the next cell would wake up.
"They must be drugged," Tom said. "We'll have to carry them." They managed to improvise a couple of stretchers from the bedding in the cells, and the Bognorian lords and the pirates helped to carry them back up the corridor.
But when they reached the doorway back into the courtyard they found that their enemies had got there before them.
"Back the other way!" Tom shouted. The pirates held their opponents back while the others ran back along the corridor. At the far end it went up some steps and into a stone-built room with sinks and fireplaces- a kitchen. There was another door at the far side. Ruth tried to open it.
"It's locked!" she cried. "We're trapped!" The others set the stretchers down and began pushing at the door but it was no use.
The pirates took up positions by the open door. "They're right behind us," one said as they turned to hold back the enemy as long as possible. But one of the enemy soldiers had managed to slip past and began advancing on the group clustered round the unmoving door. They shrank back into the corner. Ruth pulled open a drawer behind her and grabbed a knife. In blind fear and panic she threw it at the soldier. The piece of cutlery struck the soldier- and bounced off. Ruth stared blankly at it as it lay in the floor. It was not a knife she had pulled from the drawer but a tablespoon!
The soldier grinned nastily and continued to advance on her. Ruth scrabbled in the drawer but could not find a knife. And despite the soldier's immediate proximity she was not sure sure if she could have used it if she had. He loomed over her and she shut her eyes in fear.
A second of anticipation seemed to last an age. Then she felt Patrick touch her arm and call her name. She opened her eyes to see her assailant lying on the floor, cut down by one of the pirates who had managed to get away from the fighting at the door.
She looked round. The closed door now stood open, and the others were carrying the stretchers through. "There was a bolt at the top," Patrick said. "Are you all right?" Ruth felt very foolish. "Let's get out of here," she said.
Along another corridor, down more steps and through another door and they were out into the main castle courtyard. The main battle was almost over. Ninjas and pirates were pursuing fleeing enemies around the area inside the castle walls. What exactly had happened Ruth and her party weren't sure about, but it was apparent that Will and Zoe had won.
Ruth saw Will and Zoe coming towards them. "We've won!" Zoe said exultantly. "The castle is ours, and Friderts is our prisoner. He tried to slip away disguised as a soldier but he was found. We're just going to see him now."
Agnes pointed to the stretchers. "They're alive, but it looks like they've been drugged," she said. "Can you help them?"
Will knelt beside Adam. "They're not drugged," he said. "It's a kind of trance."
"How can we wake them?" Patrick asked. The other Earth-dwellers were gathering around them.
"I believe it is sound sensitive," Will said, looking at the two unconscious victims. "We can only free them by finding a piece of music similar to the one played to put them in the trance. But I do not know what that will be like."
"Must be a girls' chorus," Agnes muttered. "Some of them are enough to send you to sleep."
"Is this really the time for jokes?" Emma snapped angrily.
"No, maybe you're on to something," Will said. "What's the worst one?" Ruth began to sing:
"In lazy languor motionless,
We lie and dream of nothingness,
For visions come
From Poppydom
Direct at our command."
Those who knew the song- not many- joined in. For a while nothing seemed to be happening. Then Will, who was watching Adam's face saw his eyelids flutter.
"It's working," Will said. He looked across at Agorna. The song finished, and he had not stirred.
"Something else," Will said. This time Patrick began and Ruth joined in.
"Oh love, true love,
Unworldly, abiding
Source of all pleasure
True fountain of joy."
After a moment Adam's eyes were wide open, and he put his hands to his ears. Agorna stirred and his eyes opened too. Ruth bent down to hug Adam. "Are you ok?" she asked. "I think so," he said. "They wouldn't even listen to us, but put these headphones on us and...I don't remember any more."
"Come on," said Zoe, grim faced. "We need to see uncle Friderts."
The story continues...
Brilliant. And I liked the references to 47 and a tablespoon :)
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