Chapter 10

Inside the Palace

I gazed around the palace. ‘Wow!’ I whispered.

The crowd stayed outside, chanting ‘Hail, Oh Wondrous One, Bringer of Great Feasts and Provider of Blue Hats’ and stuff like that as the bearers carried our litter through the great wooden doors. Sennufer and the girls fanning us with peacock feathers followed. And I just stared.

Okay, this palace mightn’t have been a great stone castle like the ones in Phaeryland, but inside it was BEAUTIFUL! In fact, it made our castle look like a great cold pile of rocks!

We were in a garden. And I don’t mean like our boring old rose garden at home before my Demon Duck of Doom10 ate it, or the flower beds in the park, all straight lines of yellow flowers and smelling of fertiliser and doggy doo.

These gardens were magic! And not Phredde’s kind of magic, either.

The first thing I noticed were the pools — long shallow pools with brightly coloured tiles. But you could hardly see the tiles because there were so many flowers — great big blue ones, and white ones with their flat leaves floating around them. The pools stretched right up to this sort of pillared verandah, and the pillars were all painted like bundles of reeds with flowers on the tops.

And there were long lines of trees and tiled paths, and through the columns I could see more pools and more flowers and more trees, and tiny fish swam among the flowers in the pools and birds and butterflies fluttered and …

‘Triple wow! With knobs on!’ I whispered.

‘Welcome to your palace, Oh Wondrous Pru,’ intoned Sennufer, ‘She Who Brings Sweet Drinks to the Wilderness, Who Walks through Rocks, Who …’

‘Yeah, yeah,’ I said. ‘Hey, is this all MINE?’

Sennufer bowed again. (They were keen on bowing in Ancient Egypt.) ‘This is your private palace, Oh Wondrous One. The Royal Palace with Prince Methen, Prince Narmer and Princess Nut is next door.’

‘And Queen Fluffy too?’ I asked hopefully. But Sennufer just shook his head. ‘Our great queen died of …’ he coughed gently, ‘indigestion. Many moons ago. But her name wasn’t Fluffy.’

‘Indigestion?’ I demanded. ‘How can you die of that?’

‘The Royal Doctor said something she ate killed her, Oh Wondrous One,’ said Sennufer smoothly.

It seemed they were awfully careless with their kings and queens around here. ‘Isn’t there ANYONE called Fluffy around here then?’ I insisted.

Another head shake.

I tried to think. ‘Maybe Fluffy is a nickname. Like my brother calls me …’ Suddenly it didn’t seem like such a good idea to tell them what my brother calls me. ‘Oh Wondrous One’ was heaps better. ‘Well, is Princess Nut sort of fluffy, then? Lots of curly hair, that sort of thing?’

‘I’m sorry, Oh Wondrous Pru,’ said Sennufer. ‘The Princess has straight black hair.’

I remembered what Bruce had said. ‘How about a cat, then? Is there a Royal Cat called Fluffy?’

‘Oh Wondrous Pru,’ said Sennufer, ‘I have never heard of anyone — or any animal — called Fluffy.’

Well, that was that. But who the heck11 had been leaving us messages?

Bump, bump, bump, fan, fan, fan … The bearers carried us through the gardens, then through MORE gardens. Then a bowing servant opened a door for us and the litter bearers crouched down and we slid off the litter.

‘These are your apartments, Oh Wondrous Pru,’ said Sennufer. ‘Surely they are too humble for a Wondrous One such as yourself — and your Wondrous Official Phaery and Frog too,’ he added hurriedly, as Phredde scowled at him. ‘But they are the best we have. Perhaps you would like to refresh yourself and then meet the contenders for the Royal Throne.’

‘Suits me!’ I said. ‘See you later, Mr Sennufer.’

Sennufer bowed low again, and the bearers bowed and the fanners bowed and the servant who opened the door bowed and they backed out of the doors and shut them …

Finally, we were alone.