The Underground City(66)

“Thank goodness,” Neil said, relief ringing in his voice, “Arthur’s arrived!”

“It’s all right, Kabad,” Clara said reassuringly to the little goblin who clung to her hand, “it’s Arthur. He’s come to see Nessie! Didn’t we tell you he would?”

Watching from the side of the cave, Neil and Clara saw Nessie and Arthur meet. Arthur flapped his wings and seemed truly delighted to see her again while Nessie, who had forgotten her anger, waltzed about delightedly. The goblins, however, weren’t quite so happy. Accustomed as they were to keeping well out of the way of Nessie’s massive bulk, they were quite frankly finding two monsters a bit of a nightmare to cope with. In fact, they had to be pretty nippy on their feet to avoid being trampled on.

“Neil and Clara said you would come, Arthur!” Nessie said happily. “And here you are!”

The celebrations came to an abrupt halt, however, when a sudden crack and a puff of smoke announced the arrival of Prince Kalman. One look at the prince was enough. He was in a towering rage.

“You fool!” he snapped at Nessie, “you complete and utter fool! Don’t you realize that you’ve given the game away completely?”

“I hope I can invite my friends to visit when I wish,” Nessie said sulkily. “I happen to live here, you know.” Then she added in a stronger voice. “These are my caves, after all! Why shouldn’t I invite Arthur to visit me when I please?”

“That’s why you were out there then, was it?” the prince ground out, disbelief colouring his voice. “Attracting the world! Behaving like a lunatic! Waving a flag! What on earth’s got into you?”

“How dare you speak to my Nessie like that, Prince Kalman,” Arthur said hotly.

Nessie batted her long eyelashes at Arthur and Kalman, to give him his due, winced noticeably at this display of affection. It was really too, too much. Monsters were bad enough at the best of times but there obviously wasn’t a lot one could do with this pair of love-sick loonies! Added to which, he thought warily, one of them was a dragon and although he would have like to have said a great deal more, caution prevailed. He took a deep breath and curbed his tongue.

“Where are Neil and Clara?” he snapped.

As everyone turned to look at them, a horrible silence fell.

“It was a plot, wasn’t it,” he grated, looking furiously at Arthur, “it was all a plot to get the children back!”

It was when Arthur blew a gentle stream of fire as a warning that the prince realized he had been defeated; for over the years he had seen smaller dragons than Arthur in action and had no wish to end up as a burnt-out cinder!

Even as he swallowed this bitter pill, however, there was another crack and a puff of smoke. The water goblins who hadn’t had this much excitement in years, screamed and clutched at one another in alarm. Neil and Clara scanned the cave; they knew that another magician must have arrived, but who was it? Prince Kalman, too, swung round, a hex at the ready, half expecting it to be the Sultan, himself.

“It’s Prince Casimir,” Neil said, gripping Clara’s arm.

“Father,” Kalman gasped.

“Kalman,” Prince Casimir’s voice filled with emotion as he gazed on his son. “Kalman, we must talk.”

“Speak! I am listening,” Kalman threw up a hand, his voice hard and unfriendly.

“The Sultan …”

“Don’t talk to me about the Sultan. You might be his vassal but I’ll never bend my knee to him! Never!”

“Kalman! You are my son! The past is over. Please, I beg you … forget your enmity towards the Sultan.” Casimir held out his arms in silent appeal but the prince stood rigid and unbending, his face a cold mask.

“Your enmity might have changed,” Kalman said coldly, “but mine has not. Don’t forget that I found the crown! It was mine! I had such power … and he took it from me! I will never forgive him and nor should you!”

Hopelessly, his father dropped his arms by his side, looking devastated.

Neil looked at Kalman with complete contempt, knowing full well that the crown had belonged to the Sultan and that he had no claim to it.

Kalman must have read his thoughts for his eyes shone with such fury that Neil stepped back startled and Casimir flung out an arm to protect him.

Seeing Kalman’s rage, Arthur thought it time to intervene. Indeed, the blazing stream of fire he sent curling across the floor of the cave, quite successfully stopped the prince in his tracks and did much to remind him of the delicacy of his situation.

Taking a deep breath, he looked round grimly as he realized that given the circumstances, there wasn’t a lot he could do. His face, however, betrayed no emotion and, deciding then and there to cut his losses, he bowed low to his father and then, rather mockingly to Arthur and Nessie. No one moved to stop him as he murmured the words of a hex and in an instant, disappeared.