Twenty-eight

Wildgust, Tortillus, Belsha, and the flamingo family were on the rocky outcrop, overseeing the crating up of the zoo animals. It was very strange. There were no guards marching around giving them orders, but, knowing about the palace cameras, they behaved as though they were under surveillance. They had no idea what had happened to Fang. Hearing nothing, they’d assumed that Molly’s attempts to get her hypnotic powers back had failed. Now, desperately worried, they got on with their work.

Then a powerful beating of wings in the air above their heads caught their attention. A brown cow flapper and Silver landed on the mountain ridge. Silver hopped toward Tortillus and Wildgust and broke the news.

“Craaaaark! Fang gone! Palace … safe. SAFE. SAFE. Craaaaark! Come!”

“I don’t believe it!” Tortillus said, startled and quite overcome with astonishment. “That girl has done it. She’s been brilliant. BRILLIANT!” he shouted. He paused, then said to Belsha in awe, “She’s made it possible for us to start living!” He clasped his wife’s hands. “Mont Blancia will be ours again! The people will be free once more—”

Wildgust interrupted him. “What are we waiting for?” he said darkly. “Let’s go now.”

And so Tortillus led his family back home.

They found Molly and Rocky in an extrapretty garden with a fountain bubbling in its center. Petula lay on the warm grass, sucking a stone, while Silver pecked at tasty insects that crawled about in the dirt. Molly and Rocky had cleaned themselves up, and were enjoying a picnic tea. Miss Cribbins and Princess Fang were quiet, sitting cross-legged with the other members of the royal court making daisy chains under a shady tree.

“So you got Silver’s message!” said Molly, getting up and beaming at him.

“You’ve been through the wars,” said Tortillus worriedly, touching her bruised cheek.

“I’m fine,” Molly assured him. “It doesn’t really hurt.” Then she added excitedly, “We sent a couple of guards to fetch the professor and Micky. Rocky’s going to sort Micky out.”

Tortillus shook his head. “You are amazing.”

Molly shrugged. “I couldn’t have done it without Silver and Petula.”

“And that cow flapper put the cherry on the cake,” said Rocky with a smile.

Molly introduced Rocky to Tortillus and his family, and they all sat down to help themselves to the delicious picnic.

“Now,” Molly said, when every cake and sandwich had been finished, “I’ve got an idea that you might all like. Let’s take Princess Fang to her broadcasting studio. She’s got one last royal appointment that she can’t miss.”

Soon they were all crowded inside a small white transmission room with the princess poised in front of a camera operated by a now dehypnotized engineer.

“Come to—the screen,” the hypnotized princess beckoned, staring into the camera’s eye. “Everyone must—come and watch—your near-est screen.”

In the valley below, thousands of people, all dressed in their fairy-tale costumes, stood to attention, their eyes and ears honed in on the giant hypnotic loudspeakers and screens. They watched as Princess Fang’s small mouth moved and listened as the child spoke.

“People of Lakeside,” the princess declared, “you are all now—under Molly Moon’s—power. You will no longer—be under my power.”

Molly’s face now smiled down from the screen. Her green eyes were huge and pulsating. “Lake people,” she said, “very soon you will be free of the hypnotism that has held you captive for so long. Before I unlock it, I want to let you know that Klaucus will again be your king. I hope you will all make this place, Mont Blancia, one of the happiest and best places in the world. Now with the words that you have been trapped by, Mont Blanc, I release you.”

“It’s funny how simple it all is with the help of a bit of hypnotism,” Molly said to Tortillus as they returned to the palace garden again.

Tortillus smiled, the lines of his face creasing like small concertinas. He looked up at the sky. “I can’t believe I’m up here again.” He patted Molly fondly on the shoulder. “Now you, I expect, when you have your brother back, will be making a beeline for your time and your home.”

Molly nodded. “I think we will,” she said with a smile. Then, fingering her green crystal, she added, “I know how much you, Tortillus, would have loved to have seen this mountain covered in snow. Before we go, if you want, I’ll show you.” Molly glanced at the small badgelike watch that was fastened to Tortillus’s tunic. “I can have you back before four o’clock.”

“But that’s in five minutes!” The old man’s hand shook. “Are you serious, Molly?”

“Yes. Fancy it?”

“Can Wildgust come too?”

“Of course.”

So, leaving Rocky with Petula, Silver, and the royal family, Molly took Tortillus and Wildgust to a quiet area beside a jasmine bush. The two hunched men held hands as Molly had instructed them. She clutched her green crystal in her palm, and taking herself into a semi-trance, bid its boomerang-shaped scar open. At once it became an eye-shaped swirl spiraling into itself, all green and airy.

“We’re ready,” Molly said. She gripped Tortillus’s hand. “Whatever you do, keep hold of each other’s hands. As long as we’re in contact, you will travel with me.” She looked at Wildgust’s wide, apprehensive eyes. “And don’t worry, Wildgust. You’re going to love it.”

Molly shut her eyes to concentrate, and Tortillus and Wildgust followed suit. None of them saw the dognake slither toward them with the professor on its back. None was aware that the dognake had clamped its jaws around the hem of Wildgust’s cloak. So when they took off none knew that Professor Selkeem and his dognake were traveling back in time with them.

The sky above flashed day and night, so fast that it became blur of dawn and dusk light. The mountaintop palace soon disappeared and there was rock all around them. Suddenly, even behind their closed eyelids, they were dazzled by a white light that became brighter and brighter. Molly wanted Tortillus and Wildgust to see Mont Blanc in its full glory—completely covered with snow. Watching the sky, she slowed down and selected a day when the sky was azure blue. And then they stopped. Quick as mercury, the dognake slithered off, hiding the boy professor behind a rock.

The mountain and valleys around were coated in snow. Fresh, powdery spring snow as white as the cleanest cloud. It peaked on the rocky mountains like whipped egg whites—like meringue.

“Heavens above!” Tortillus gasped. Wildgust squinted and cupped his leathery hand over his eyes.

“So bright,” he murmured. Then he threw off his silk cloak. “I have to fly,” he said. “What bird could resist flying here?”

“Go for it,” Molly said, smiling.

And so extending his wings and shaking them out, Wildgust took off. He circled about Molly and Tortillus, laughing as he flew. Then he dived down the side of the ridge and disappeared. A few minutes later he reappeared, spiraling the thermals farther down the mountain.

“This is a truly wonderful experience,” Tortillus said to Molly. “Thank you, and again thank you for everything you have done for our people. Whenever you want, Molly, please come back and visit us. You will always be our most honored guest.”

“Thanks,” said Molly, grinning, stamping her feet, and slapping her sides with her arms to keep warm. “Before I go, I want you to make a snowman! I’ll get some stones for its eyes and nose.”

Behind the rock, the little professor’s flesh was turning blue from the cold. He shivered in his loincloth.

“I am watching you,” he said coldly, observing Wildgust swooping below. He saw Molly walking farther up the mountain, away from Tortillus, kicking the snow as she went. Tortillus stood alone on the bare white ridge.

“N-nasty, I know,” the professor stammered through chattering teeth, “to be all alone.” Molly had disappeared behind a snowy rock farther up. And Wildgust was now ascending through the air, approaching Tortillus. “I’ll get you,” the professor hissed and he prepared to move.

Wildgust landed. “Stupendous!” he said, his feathers ruffled by the wind. “I suppose there are some advantages to having been mutated into a bird-person.” Exhilarated and breathless, his hawk eyes didn’t see the brown dognake, its tail wrapped around a rock, making its way toward Tortillus’s ankles. Wildgust took a step toward his brother, putting a hand out to touch his back.

And then the most unexpected thing happened. Wildgust gave Tortillus an almighty push. Tortillus teetered for a split second on the brink of the cliff edge—and then fell.

But not so fast that he wasn’t able to take hold of Wildgust’s arm and pull him with him.

And not so fast that the dognake wasn’t able to firmly curl its upper body about Tortillus’s ankle and hold him fast. From higher up the slope Molly saw them fall, and she saw the dognake around Tortillus’s ankle. Then she saw the boy professor emerge from behind his rock.

“NO!” she shouted. “Leave them alone! Leave them alone!” and she began to run down the snowy slope.

Wildgust fell lower and harder than Tortillus, but he flapped his wings and was at once airborne. He grabbed at Tortillus’s arm and began tugging it, trying to pull his own brother down to his death.

“WHY?” Tortillus shouted.

I will be king, not you,” Wildgust cried, his wings beating furiously.

Molly sprinted down the slope, skidding on the ice at the bottom, and nearly falling over the ledge herself.

“You’re demented! YOU’RE EVIL!” she shouted at Selkeem.

“Schnapps is saving him,” the professor replied. “Do you need a magnifying glass? And what are you waiting for? Use your crystal!” Molly instantly felt stupid for not thinking of that herself. Now she froze the world.

At once everything was still and Molly saw the situation in its true light. Wildgust was tugging at Tortillus, his huge wings spread-eagled, trying to pull him to his death. Tortillus hung upside down. And the dognake was clinging on to the rock, half slipping as he tried to stop the old man from falling. On the snow beside her, the professor looked completely out of place in his Tarzan-like loincloth.

Molly reached forward and touched the dognake, carefully directing movement into only him. Schnapps came to life and at once saw the situation. Summoning all their strength, he and Molly pulled. They pulled as hard as they could, and slowly but surely, like a bucket from a well, Tortillus began to move up through the still air toward them.

“Eeeerrrghhhh,” Molly groaned as she wrenched him up. As soon as his body was on the cliff edge she was able to reach Wildgust. Concentrating very hard, taking great care not to let any movement pass into him, she undid his hands from around Tortillus’s arm.

Molly lay on the ground panting, with the frozen people about her on the spring snow, and Wildgust hanging in the air like an angel from hell.

She crawled over to the rock and unwound the dognake’s body from it.

It was now that she let the world move.

Wildgust plummeted away. The professor and Tortillus looked completely bewildered.

“Quick!” Molly cried, grappling for her red crystal. “Join hands. Grab Schnapps, Selkeem! We’ve got to leave. NOW!”

Wildgust flapped his wings and began soaring up high above them. Now he could see the ledge. Molly, Professor Selkeem, Tortillus, and the dognake were huddled there in a circle.

“I’ll get you,” Wildgust roared furiously. But as he shot toward them, he saw that he had lost. He suddenly realized why they were all so close together. It wasn’t from fear. It was a necessity for time travel. They were going to leave him. And, with a BOOM, they were gone.