Chapter Eleven

Knights cannot be kept as pets

‘There was an entire chicken in here this morning!’

Mum was staring inside the fridge. I knew what she was angry about. The chicken had been for lunch with Nain. The problem was I had all these hungry knights to feed. I had to keep them quiet while I figured out what to do about them, and they ate a LOT. When I took them the chicken all they did was complain.

‘Just one?’ Galahad had said. ‘We meant one each!’

Mum knew that I’d taken it. She glared at me, waiting for an explanation.

‘Urm, it was…’

And then I did the most disloyal, traitorous, treacherous thing I have ever done in my entire life.

I blamed it on Mr Truffles.

‘I was just moving it around in the fridge, you know, to fit the milk back in, and Mr Truffles jumped up, grabbed the chicken and ran off with it. Sorry, Mum.’ I tried to look suitably sorry in an ‘it wasn’t my fault, you know what cats are like’ sort of way.

Mum calmed down a bit.

I’d have to find a way to make it up to Mr Truffles later.

I went out to the garden to see how the knights were getting on in the shed. It had been two whole days and so far all they’d done was bicker. Except for Bedevere. He turned out to be very good at crafts and had used my Dad’s tools to fix the shelving and make a few more chairs for them to sit on from old paint cans.

‘…and I think that we should just break the door down and find our own way back,’ came a voice from the shed. It sounded like Sir Lancelot. He was always bossing the others around. He and Soppy would make a brilliant pair.

‘But Arthur says the boy is a great magician. He could be powerful.’ That was Gawain. I quite liked him. He was the best of the bunch anyway.

‘Like Merlin?’

‘No, I said a great magician.’ Yup, that was definitely Gawain. He made me laugh.

All the knights started talking at once.

‘You leave Merlin alone. You were always mean to him.’

‘To be fair, he was a bit rubbish. If it wasn’t for him and that melon…’

‘Well, if you hadn’t annoyed that chicken…’

I knocked on the door and they all went quiet. Then Lancelot said, ‘Tomos, let us out at once or you will be very sorry.’

‘I want to talk to King Arthur,’ I said.

‘If you open this door, we’ll push our way out,’ said Bedevere.

I heard a loud noise like someone being hit over the head and then an ‘Ow’.

‘You’re not supposed to tell him the plan, you idiot!’ hissed Lancelot.

This was a problem. If I opened the door they’d all get out, but if I didn’t then I wouldn’t be able to talk to Arthur. I really needed him. The joust was tomorrow and I still had no idea what I was doing. I’d tried to practise on my own, but I didn’t have anyone to aim at so I wobbled all over the place and fell off. Arthur must remember something about the way the knights used to do it, even if he was a bit useless himself.

How on earth was I going to get the door open without all of them rushing out? I remembered that they all believed that I was a great magician. Hmmm, could I use that somehow?

‘Sir Lancelot,’ I said in what I hoped was a brave imposing way, lowering my voice so that I would sound a bit older.

There was a pause.

‘Does the child have a cold?’ someone asked.

I chose to ignore that.

‘Sir Lancelot,’ I went on, ‘you will not have been able to use the … um … the portal to return to your cave yet because I lack one element needed for the spell to work. King Arthur must come out here and assist me.’

I crossed my fingers behind my back, hoping they’d believe me. People don’t often believe me. I’m really bad at lying. My face goes bright red and my nose twitches.

There was a frantic muttering inside the shed. I tried as hard as I could to hear what they were saying, but I couldn’t. Eventually Lancelot rapped on the door.

‘Are you still there, child?’

‘Yes,’ I said.

‘Answer me this, then. Why shouldn’t we just overpower you and go back to the cave the way we came?’

Ah! I’d been hoping they wouldn’t ask that. I thought quickly. Mrs Wendell-Jones must have told us something I could use. Something that the knights feared more than anything. A monster? That massive Green Knight that Sir Gawain had been terrified of? Or Palaug’s Cat, the scary beast that Sir Cei had killed? Maybe I could convince them that Mr Truffles was Palaug’s Cat come back to life and then they would stay in the shed in fear for their lives.

I looked over at Mr Truffles sprawled out on the grass, snoring gently in the sun. Yeah, that wasn’t going to work.

Then I knew.

I took a deep breath to make my voice sound especially scary and said, ‘I saw Merlin’s chicken in town yesterday.’

There was a gasp and then more muttering. Part of me couldn’t believe this was going to work. Surely they couldn’t really be scared of a little chicken? I heard Lancelot cough and tap on the door again.

‘Child?’ I hated how he called me that. It’s like when Soppy calls me ‘squirt’. Really annoying.

‘You can have Arthur,’ Lancelot continued, ‘if you promise to have us out of this hut by sundown.’

‘No problem,’ I said. ‘I promise. Now send forth the noble Arthur, please.’

I’m sure I heard them sniggering at that. There was a bit of a scuffle as the knights all rearranged themselves to let Arthur squeeze through and then I heard Arthur’s voice.

‘You can let me out now, Tomos.’

As I opened the door of the shed, Arthur tumbled out and fell onto the floor in a heap. Inside the shed the knights were perched on shelves, Dad’s workbench and the paint-can chairs that Bedevere had made.

‘Sundown, remember, child,’ Launcelot warned me. ‘You have till sundown.’

I nodded. That was all the time I needed.