Brigid Lucy and the Princess Tower (7 page)

‘Pree-stuss Re-past-el?’ Biddy asks, following him.

‘Yes. Isn’t she
beautiful
?’ says the bishop. (Who perhaps isn’t a king after all.) He points to the edge of the bell. ‘See, her name is written right there.’

And he is right.
Pristus Repastelle
is engraved in delicate writing along the bell’s rim.

‘
Pristus Repastelle
,’ Biddy reads. ‘So, why did you say she had to be gagged, and that no one could see her, if she is just a bell?’

‘She is not
just
a bell,’ the bishop says. ‘This is a
cathedral
bell. It is normal for a cathedral bell to be kept gagged, so it can’t make a sound until the day it gets consecrated.’

‘What does
con-se-cra-ted
mean?’ asks Biddy.

‘It’s like a very special blessing,’ says the bishop. ‘And then the gag is taken off the bell, and she is rung so loudly, she can be heard all over the city.’

‘Like she rang today, when I undid the rope?’ Biddy asks, smiling proudly.

‘Yes,’ says the bishop. ‘We were trying to keep her a surprise. But you let the cat out of the bag.’ He looks at the policeman and the policewoman and laughs. ‘Or, rather, the bell out of the tower,’ he adds.

Then the bishop, the policeman, and the policewoman all look at Mum and laugh.

And Mum smiles back. Which makes me and Biddy think that perhaps Mum realises that everything that happened wasn’t all Biddy’s fault.

And we also think that Mum might have
forgiven us
for getting lost and found at the Princess Bell Tower.

But she hasn’t.

Biddy’s shoes are lost at the bottom of the tower. We can’t find them anywhere.

And Mum is still so worried-half-to-death that we have to catch a taxi home instead of the train. So we don’t get to see the Princess Bell Tower through the train window again.

And as soon as we get home, me and Biddy get sent to her room, to wait all afternoon by ourselves, till Dad comes home.

Then both Dad and Mum come in to talk to Biddy about running away.

Biddy tries to explain that she didn’t actually run away. She tells Dad and Mum that she was just
looking
at the Princess Tower, and that she was going to come straight back. Except there was a poor, tied-up, captured Princess Bell there, that wasn’t allowed to ring.

‘How would you feel if you were a bell that couldn’t ring?’ Biddy asks Dad and Mum.

Which makes Dad stand up and yell. Mum has to tell him to
calm down
.

This means Dad has to close his mouth tight for a moment.

Then, when he has calmed down, they both talk to Biddy for another ages, nearly forever! Until Biddy promises to never run away ever again in her whole entire life.

And then we all lived happily ever after.

Epilogue

Except that me and Biddy are grounded-for-the-rest-of-her-life. Which means we are
never
,
never
allowed to go and play with Jamie next door, even if we ask really nicely!

Jamie is allowed to come over to our place. But he doesn’t because he still doesn’t want to be a dog.

And when Mum goes to the city for another very-important-meeting, me and Biddy have to stay at home with a babysitter to look after us—even though we are totally not babies.

I usually
hate
being grounded and babysat.

But not today.

Today, Granny is babysitting us. So we are building castles in Biddy’s room and deep, dark caves under her bed. And cleaning out the linen cupboard and finding exciting stuff like Biddy’s old sheets from when she was a tiny baby.

And look! Granny’s found a very round glass ball.

‘It’s a crystal ball!’ Biddy says.

And it is! You know one of those kind-of crystal balls that witches and wizards use to see into the future.

We take it into Biddy’s room and, the most amazing thing happens …

Ooops!
I shouldn’t have said that.

No, I can’t tell you because we have run out of pages. This book is full. I will tell you that story in another book.

See ya!

Magical creatures

Nefariouses—
danger rating—tremendously acutely high

Nefariouses are beautiful ancient female beings made entirely of grumpy and annoyedness. They live inside the bark of trees. They like absolute silence, so they can make up their evil poems and spells in peace. They have been known to eat noisy children. If you find yourself in a quiet place, never, ever make noise just for fun. The nefarious who made that silence will gobble you up dead.

Fillikizard dragons—
danger rating—tremendously acutely high

Fillikizard dragons are small crocodile-like creatures that have a frill of armour around their necks. They are very powerful hunters. Their back legs spin around like wheels, so they can run terribly fast. They have such huge mouths, they can eat other creatures twice their size. Never try to capture a fillikizard dragon, because they can kill you dead with a blast of their foul breaths from three metres away. If you are too big for them to swallow up, they will slobber all over you and you will stink forever.

Scoriaks—
danger rating—very high

Scoriaks are big, heavy, male creatures that live inside rocks. They are so old that they came into being before the earth began. Their favourite hobbies are sleeping and thinking. If you make a noise and wake them up, they will growl and rumble, and split the earth open. Then they will swallow you whole. Or, if they are too lazy to split the earth open, they will turn you into a piece of infinity with just one look of their evil eyes. Be extremely careful when you move rocks around. Sit beside the rocks first to see if you can hear a soft snore. If you can, back away very quietly and go and find another rock to move.

Yebil yebils—
danger rating—a bit high

Yebil yebils are mischievous little creatures that love to see children get hurt. They own every piece of earth in the whole wide world. They demand that everyone ask permission to walk anywhere. If you don’t ask permission, they will pretend to be a piece of vine or a rock or a hole in the footpath and trip you over. Then they bend over laughing and squeal with delight. Make sure you always call out, ‘Please can I play on this earth?’ before you go walking in a new place.