Petronella and Percy decided that they needed to talk, to call a meeting to decide what they should do.
“Most Janjilons will have to stay here to guard these wicked people. But I need a few Janjilons at our meeting. You know them better than me, Percy. So can you please choose three or four? And, of course, Betty must be among them.”
That was easy. The brightest among the boy-Janjilons were: Soloman, Adrian, and Henry. Betty was the only girl-Janjilon. It had never entered Judge Ormerod’s head that a girl could rule the land in her own right. But now he was worried.
“You other Janjilons,” Percy said, “get into four groups. Nine Janjilons to each group. And make a tight circle around each one of them. Guard them closely. They are dangerous and evil. And don’t believe anything they tell you.”
The Janjilons were very happy to be on the winning side. So they jumped on and around Judge Ormerod and the weird sisters, before they joined paws and made a proper circle again around each of their prisoners.
In the meeting, it was Petronella who spoke first. She wanted to know what had happened. Percy told her that everyone thought Janjilon Betty had drowned. But she managed to grab the stem of a giant underwater lily and insert her head in a big bubble of air trapped under the water lily's head. She managed to float to one side of the lake, at the far end, where the water was shallow. As she was floating around, there, sticking out of the lake’s bank, just below the water, was something shining brightly. It was the Golden Shield.
She burst the bubble and tried to heave the Golden Shield out. It wasn’t easy. But with determination and a little luck, she managed to free it from the soil it was embedded in. After that, she walked around with it under her arm until she saw the tunnel. She thought she would hide in there. And that’s what she did. She dug some soil out of the wall of the tunnel and hid in there.
“That’s where I met her. She waited for me to walk out with her and she had the Golden Shield with her. Then we both came out into the Janjilon grounds,” Petronella said.
Percy went on to tell Petronella that Soloman, Adrian, and Henry had fallen into the water while looking for Betty. The three boys managed to save themselves by keeping their heads above water under the overturned boat while paddling to the water’s edge. They had not found Betty in the lake because she was already in the tunnel.
Petronella listened to the story with interest. Percy must have found it hard to get all this information from the Janjilons. With time and patience, he put the story together and learned to understand the Janjilons’ gestures and to interpret some of their shrieks.
Now, they had to think about what they were to do about Judge Ormerod and the weird sisters.
Percy told Petronella how the Janjilons were forced to drink some vile liquid – a potion boiled up by the weird sisters. After drinking this the children were turned into Janjilons. And from that minute they were totally at the mercy of Judge Ormerod. From what Percy had heard, the weird sisters would all become Grand Ladies of Westshire. That was how Duke Ormerod would reward them.
Petronella tried to imagine Lady Gesuelda, Lady Gismonda, and Lady Gasmina. She shuddered. Betty shuddered, too, still with the Golden Shield tucked safely under her arm, while the other Janjilons turned their heads away in disgust.
“Do you Janjilons know what was in this potion you drank? If a drink made you like this, then there must be an opposite drink which can turn you into humans again,” Petronella said.
“That’s good thinking, Petronella. But where will we find such a drink? And how do we know what’s in it?” Percy said.
Janjilons Henry and Adrian scratched their heads. But Janjilon Soloman was bouncing around pointing to himself and nodding his head furiously.
“He thinks he knows what’s in the drink,” Percy said.
Janjilon Betty turned a somersault and ran around in fast circles on all four paws letting out screeches of excitement, thinking that she would soon be the Duchess of Westshire.
“What’s in the drink, Soloman?” Percy asked.
Janjilon Soloman gave a few low-pitched screeches and held his paw out for Percy to take. Then the Janjilon went towards the door and led Percy out through it. Percy looked back towards the others and said:
“You all wait here. I’ll be back as soon as I have any news.”
So off they went to the hut in the woods to see if they could find the right recipe. Soloman had seen the sisters make a potion when he had looked into their hut in the middle of the forest. They needed to find that recipe book.