Skarr.”
“What do you mean?” Ivar demanded. “Skarr’s not flat.”
“No, but there’s always just another mountain,” Ogo said.
“Oh, you’re such a fool!” Ivar said and went stalking angrily ahead along the turfy track.
“Do you mean that?” I asked Ogo. “Can’t you really tell one mountain from another?”
“Well, they have different shapes,” Ogo conceded, “but they’re all high and steep and rocky and – well – the same colours.”
I supposed he had a point.
After that, we trudged along for miles, through several more showers of rain and rainbows as the sun came out again, until I for one was both tired and hungry.
“Hold up,” Finn said to me kindly. “Here we come into the town.”
“What town?” Ivar said. There was nothing around us except green humps. They were the sort of humps you get when people have been mining years ago and then gone away and let grass grow over the spoil heaps. These heaps grew taller and taller as we went along.
Aunt Beck gave Finn an irritable, puzzled look. “This doesn’t look like any town I know.”
Finn beamed. He almost glowed, he was so happy. On his shoulder, Green Greet stretched his neck and gave out a most unparrot-like warbling sound. But I had been thinking for some time now that Green Greet was not exactly a parrot. He was more something along the lines of Plug-Ugly really. Finn lifted his beaming face up to my aunt and said, “No more should you know, Wisdom. This is my Lady’s town.”
I saw what he meant. If I screwed my eyes up, and sort of peered at the green humps, I saw them as house-shaped, with green thatched roofs and high arched doorways. At length, Aunt Beck was driving Moe down a wide turf avenue with mansion-sized green houses on either side and ahead a tall, tall hill that managed to be both rounded and castle-shaped at once. She looked down at Finn, trotting beside the cart. “Would you say,” she asked, “that the person beside that stone happened to be a leprechaun?”
“Oh certainly, Wisdom,” he said joyfully. “No doubt of it.”
“Then are we to be wary of tricks?” asked my aunt.
“Only if you invite them, Wisdom,” Finn said.
“Hm,” she said.
We reached the castle-mound then and we were suddenly surrounded by little red-haired men, who flooded in from nowhere and took hold of Moe and unhitched her from the cart, chattering all the time.
“Sure, the queen will be glad of this!” I heard, and, “This is royal visiting! Has no one yet sounded a fanfare?” and “Can you smell the sea on them? They come from distant islands, all but one,” and all sorts of other things. “See the bird!”
In no time at all Moe had been led off one way, and the cart hauled away in another, and we ourselves ushered into the castle-mound. There were different people in there, though they were very hard to see. It was as if there was a veil over everything inside. But, if I screwed my eyes up and peered hard, I could tell they were very tall and dressed most magnificently. Almost equally hard to see was the table they led us up to, all laid out with steaming dishes of food, piles of fruit and golden candlesticks.
“Be pleased to sit and eat,” they told us.
Ivar and Ogo made a dive for the tall chairs at the table. Aunt Beck stopped me and looked at Finn with her head on one side, questioningly. “Ought we?”
“You come in friendship. Yes,” he said.
So we sat down to eat. It was all delicious, and I saw that there was even a cup of nuts and diced fruit for Green Greet. Dimly, on the floor, I could see that there were dishes of food for Plug-Ugly. They knew he was there, even if he was invisible. We all had the best meal I’d seen since we left Skarr.
When we had finished, the tall people led us off again, to a place that I knew at once was the throne room. Ogo had eaten so much that he was quietly letting his belt out as we were led in and he had to stop in embarrassment. The place was one where you had to behave reverently. The air of it was warm and fresh and cool at the same time, and it was scented like a garden. There were nets in there, though I couldn’t see them clearly, with birds in them flitting. Green Greet took off from Finn’s shoulder in a whirring of wings and went to perch on one of the half-seen branches.
Then the queen came forward to greet us. I gasped: she was so beautiful. And merrily and eagerly friendly with it. She wore a green dress that hugged her shape and flared at her feet, with a gold girdle hanging on her hips. I remember thinking, This is how a queen should be! as she came towards us.
“Welcome,” she said, and she smiled, meaning the welcome. “It’s not often that we see people from Skarr. What brings you to Bernica?”
My aunt stepped forward, very straight and precise. I could see she was still struggling with her bad mood, but she bowed politely and said, “We have been sent on a mission to rescue the High King’s son from Haranded, Your Majesty.”
“Oh yes, the prophecy,” the Queen said, “to raise the barrier too, is it not?” She looked at us all one by one. “That means you must bring one man from each of the islands. You,” she looked at Ivar, “must be the man from Skarr.”
Ivar nodded. “Yes, I’m the son of King Kenig …” he agreed and tipped his head back proudly.
“A prince, no less,” said the Queen, and there was just a trace of mockery in the way she said it. It made me want to jump forward and explain that Ivar had been brought up to be proud of his birth, but I said nothing, because the Queen had turned to Finn by then. Finn, to my surprise, was on both knees and seemed almost terrified. “And you are the man from Bernica?” the Queen said.
Finn clasped both plump hands in front of him as if he were saying his prayers. “Oh yes, Lady,” he more or less whispered, “unless you think me unworthy.”
The Queen laughed. “How could I think you unworthy, keeper of Green Greet?” she said.
“Well, sure, he does me great honour accepting my care,” Finn said.
The Queen glanced up at Green Greet where he sat among the hard-to-see leaves above us. “What do you say to that, Green Greet?” she asked the bird.
Green Greet put his head to one side and nibbled with his beak. “Honest man,” he said. “Man of peace.”
“There you have it!” the Queen said, laughing again. She added to Aunt Beck, “You’ll have to leave any fighting to these lads, you know!” She looked at Ogo then. “And you, young man?”
Ogo had been staring at her as if she were the most marvellous thing he had ever seen – and I don’t blame him: she was truly lovely. When she spoke to him, he blushed bright brick colour and went down on one knee. “I – I’m from H-Haranded really,” he stammered. “I was brought along as Ivar’s servant.”
“But rightly brought along,” the Queen said. “The prophecy asks for a man from each island, doesn’t it? And we are four islands. I’m sure you’ll prove your worth.” She turned to Aunt Beck again. “You’ll need your man from Gallis too of course. I’ll give you money to see you there—”
Here, while Aunt Beck was graciously bowing her head in thanks and Ogo was struggling to his feet, looking stunned, the Queen was interrupted by a solid, invisible presence that pushed itself up against her skirts. I could clearly see the shape of him in the bellying and rippling of the green fabric.
“Oh, Plug-Ugly!” I said. “Honestly!”
The Queen stooped to put her hand where Plug-Ugly’s head seemed to be. “Is that what you call him?” she said. “How did he find you?”
“He was on an island that seemed to be part of Lone,