Authors: Don Hurst
Cloud Riders (27 page)
She still wore the dress Vicki had chosen for her. Her makeup remained the same. Not much in physical appearance had changed since their last meeting, except she maintained Paul's size. She exuded pleasantness and almost a friendliness in a fake sort of way. “My boy, our existence is in trouble. Danger lurks within the wormhole, as you have seen. It was I who directed your ride to the mouth of the hole so you could see what threatens us all. It is time we became friends. Good friends. Together we are strong, divided only I am strong. You may consider me your friend,” she said with the sweetness of a mother talking to her newborn baby. “There are great advantages to having a friend like me.” She held up one hand. “No, no, my boy. No need to thank me."
Paul lowered into the chair. “So, cloud-land is in danger from solar system Vile Extinction. Is it your intention to tell me how I'm supposed to save Earth solar system from her? You got any clues?” Paul tried to hide his annoyance at Horrid's fake sweetness. Her words struck him as being those of a bully laying a trap.
"Yes, Paul, my dear boy. Perhaps you would like some food? Friends do that for friends."
At the mention of food Paul's stomach rumbled, as if it could hear and answered. The only other time he could remember being hungry in the sky came at Reshape's direction when he first met Fawn.
Calamity laughed, raised a hand and snapped two fingers, resulting in a loud fleshy sound that circled the room. Out of the wall appeared a Paul-sized Claude Nab dressed as a butler, looking almost comical. His chest strained the uniform buttons, and the fabric around his thighs appeared about to burst. He carried a tray, held high with one hand in the waiter's tradition, a sour look on his gorilla face. He appeared extremely uncomfortable and angry.
Paul viewed the scrumptious food piled high on the platter and tried not to allow drool to dribble down his chin.
"Mister Nab was summoned so you would not be frightened by the appearance of a meal.” Calamity laughed a sweetly nervous sound. She turned and stared at the red gorilla's eyes, and the gaze he returned sent a message of dislike for their new game. “If he disobeys me, which, I assure you he will not ever do!” she directed at the reluctant ape in a tone of absolute dominance. “He would steal your sister once again.” She shook her head and grinned a malevolent smile so evil it made Paul's toes curl. “He is quite taken by your Vicki Sue Winsome. Are you not, Mister Claude?"
The ape began to grow, causing his uniform buttons to pop and threads to tear. Calamity glared, and her gorilla immediately shrank to Paul's size.
"Have you heard of King Kong?” Paul asked, as if he asked her about the weather. He fought the impulse to laugh and run for his life.
Claude Nab growled, bowed and placed the platter of food on the ice table. “Here.” He looked at the frown on Calamity's face. “Sir,” he added in haste. Claude's prison didn't have bars; it had something much more confining—Calamity Horrid.
"Who?” Calamity quizzed, putting a finger to her temple to indicate she struggled to try and answer Paul's question. “King Kong? There was a King Neptune, once. But a wind blew him apart and into the Earth seas."
She paused long enough for Paul to extend an arm toward the main platter that Claude Nab had placed almost out of his reach.
Paul cut a piece off a medium-rare steak and shoved it into his mouth. Tenderness and taste to please a king. He pulled the platter a little closer as he watched Calamity Horrid and Claude Nab to guard against any sudden growth, which would signal an attack. But why was he hungry? He didn't have to eat up here.
"Paul, my boy, may we talk about saving the solar system?” She laughed, as if her question were the punch line of a joke.
"Sure,” he said through an overstuffed mouth.
"Paul, I've been told you are the only one who can save us.” She stopped. “Eat. Eat. Eat and listen, dear boy,” Calamity insisted in her counterfeit overly-sweet voice.
He pulled the platter closer yet and scooped up and chewed on a yellow and white substance that tasted like cheese mixed with sourdough bread and pickles, with perhaps a dab of mayonnaise and butter.
She snapped her fingers and Claude Nab the waiter vanished into the side wall. “You have seen Vile Extinction,” she said in a voice so sugary she had to pause to maintain the being-nice role she had undertaken.
The fork and the food disappeared as Paul reached for something blue and red. “I only saw part of her,” Paul said with his mouth full. He chewed fast and swallowed. “I couldn't see all of her. Kind of crept toward us in a dark wormhole tube of some sort. She looked flat with two suns that stared at me, and planets and moons and everything. She and that wormhole looked super gigantic. How big is she?"
"She's trapped inside that Link Traver wormhole. She wants to enter our solar system. My solar system! She's big as a small solar system, flat as parchment and there is no way to measure that.” Calamity frowned. “She's much smaller than the solar system we call home, but could grow fast if she ever wiggles out.” Her voice lowered. “She must be kept in her worm. She must. It's the end of us all if she escapes.” She waved an arm, indicating everything, everyone, everywhere. “And those suns. They might melt my castle."
A cloud of puzzlement darkened Paul's mind. “Who told you I'm the one who has to save Earth solar system? I know it was written in a book back on Earth. But who wrote it there, and why? Tell me that, Calamity, and I'll believe you are truly my friend."
She grimaced at Paul's question, but as she spoke the over-emphasized pleasantness returned. “The knowledge came to me in a way that will be dismissed by your kind as nonsensical. We have more important matters to discuss."
"Figured I'd get no answer on that one. Okay, if you can assure me that Vicki, Will, Holly and Isno will be safe, I'll play this game. And our cloud rides, you will leave them alone. And you let all your girls return to where your pet kidnapped them from.” His demands felt right to him, thinking they demonstrated fast thinking on his part.
A scream came from outside in the hallway, followed by another in a more distant location.
Paul raised his eyelids. Two time-screams? “How can you tell time if two of them scream at once?"
"They do that, sometimes.” Calamity Horrid shrugged. “Sometimes they don't guess right. Can we get back on subject?"
"You can't tell time by guessing."
"So, smart lad, my new friend. If we let the girls go, how will we be able to tell time?"
"That's stupid!” Paul's anger flared. “You're telling me Claude Nab kidnapping girls is easier than stealing their clocks?"
"Clocks?"
"The universe tells you I'm the one who can save the solar system, and it didn't bother to tell you about clocks? Well, Calamity, allow me to fill in the knowledge gap. Clocks show time. No screams needed,” Paul informed her. “Some clocks have hands, one for hours and one for minutes. Some have electronic numbers. Some chime.” Mind questions momentarily got in the way of his explanation. What if screams were chimes in this world? What if sky time differed from Earth time? Different times existed even on Earth depending on location. How could he explain clocks? Alarm clocks? What could be more alarming than screams? What did his dad say? ‘If you can not keep your mind focused it is like trying to fish in the desert.’ “Guess the screams are some kind of time competition?"
"Never knew about clocks.” She pursed her lips. “If my girls held that information from me I'll—"
"If you don't know about clocks, how could you know how to save our solar system?” Paul asked in serious puzzlement. “I thought you were all powerful up here. Where does your power come from?"
"If it's the only way to make you listen, I'll tell you the truth.” She paused as if to reconsider her words, shrugged and continued. “We here are governed by traditions and glimpses into the future. That's where my power comes from."
"The future?"
"Yes. I am a seer and can materialize the future and make it whatever I wish. If I wish to grow, I think of that growth as happening in the future and it happens in the present, which used to be the future. How do you think Claude Nab grows? I taught him."
Paul raised his eyebrows. “Is Maken Fairchild a seer?"
"Of course, dear boy. That and more, I must admit."
"Reshape?"
"Certainly if Maken Fairchild is a seer, Reshape is. One is the other."
"And my dad. You were in charge of the dancing hut when he saved Earth? Is he a seer?"
"No. It took me as seer to build the Ice hut. I am responsible for deflecting the sky stone. All Harry Winsome did was give me instructions.” She glared at Paul. “Later, I started feeling rushed and found Proboscis Snooter nosing around and gave him a job and a new name. I felt free and took my rightful place as Queen of the golden cloud. It is I who rule the sky. It is I who keeps the cloud in constant sunlight, its golden hue as permanent as my reign and dominion. I made Proboscis Snooter change his name to Keen Aware, a replacement for me so I could retire to this beautiful golden cloud and build this magnificent ice castle. I then summoned a wonderful animal who could bring me time callers. Do you see how nice I am as a friend? Only a friend would tell a friend all my secrets. Is there anything else you need covered before we proceed to saving this solar system, and so your Earth, and so your Vicki Sue with her 5:00 A.M. scream destiny?
"Paul, I need you to pay attention. This is no joking matter. The solar system will be burned away. I will suffer heat stroke, and so will you. As well as your precious Vicki Sue and your friend Willis."
From outside the room came a voice so unexpected Paul forgot to breathe for a moment. “Mate, you in there?"
"Will?” Paul called back. “What are you doing here?” Paul asked in a mix of amazement and irritation over the interruption. “Go back.” He turned to Calamity, shutting out the fact that she had also heard Will. “Why can't you go into the future and make Vile Extinction disappear?"
"You think I haven't tried!” Calamity screamed. “Maybe it's Link Traver. Maybe its future does not exist! How much do you have to know before giving me a helping hand?” she asked in a voice best suited for far off planets. Her sweet sound forgotten, back came her true voice. “And what is that boy doing outside my door? I gave orders that you were to come alone. I gave orders to Claude, to Velvet, and to you through Velvet. Did Velvet tell you to come alone?"
"Yes."
"Then why are you not alone?"
Holly's voice came through the ice slab door. “I'm here too. Tell Miss Horrid I will scream for her if she needs me to. All right?"
Paul leaned back in his chair and held up both hands, palms outward. “Okay. Okay. As my friend, Calamity, will you let the girls go?” Paul glared at Calamity Horrid with a fierceness he hoped matched hers. “Have Claude Nab return the girls and steal a few clocks,” he said in his best negotiating voice.
"Yes. I'll have Claude steal some of those... What did you call them? Clocks? One for each room to replace our sweet girls, if you will help me by destroying Vile Extinction."
"What about Fawn?"
"What about Fawn? You took her, remember? Can't we stay on subject, Paul? All our lives depend on it.” She glared at the door. “Oh, no."
The door slid open and Claude Nab bent over and walked in, Will in one mammoth hand, Holly in the other.
"Let me go!” Will demanded, pushing against the giant gorilla's closed fingers. “Blimey, beast, at least you could like let Holly go."
Holly's eyes were closed. This wasn't her first encounter with being jailed inside Claude Nab's kidnapping grasp.
Calamity Horrid glared at her monstrous pet as she spoke. “Release our visitors, please."
Growing, the gorilla's red eyes remained fixed on Calamity's. She didn't increase her physical size, her mammoth monkey becoming weakened by her mere presence. He bowed and gently lowered his hands to the floor, opened his grip and allowed Will and Holly to escape.
"Shrink! Now!” She took a deep, exasperated breath. “Then leave us to our business."
Claude Nab shrank to Paul's height. He glared at Calamity, then walked through a wall and out of the room with as much dignity as a discharged employee could counterfeit.
Will and Holly stood next to the door, watching Paul and the castle's boss lady. “Vicki stayed out there with Blanch and the other cloud rides, mate."
Paul put a finger to his mouth to signal Will to be quiet. Much to his relief, Will remained silent.
Calamity resumed speaking in her overly sweet voice. “For some reason...and I've searched the future for that reason...you have been chosen to save our solar system. Fourteen-year-old cloud rider you. Not myself, who would be the obvious choice. No. You, a mere boy.” She cleared her throat. “So, off we friends go to save the solar system. All you have to do is empty your mind of everything and do as I say. I'm sure you will find this easy, dear boy. After all, what could you have in your mind that is so valuable it must be held onto?"
"And if I refuse?” Paul said. He looked over at Will and Holly's scared glances at each other. “Never mind. Everybody gets cooked.” Paul didn't want to provoke a Calamity Horrid growth.
"Everybody you know and everybody you will know, burnt to ashes by those Vile Extinction suns of hers. No matter how small they are when compared to ours, her suns plus our sun equals everyone roasting.” She leaned forward and grew a few inches. The false sweetness of her voice remained, but her words squeezed through clenched teeth. “Now will you listen?"
"Go ahead,” Paul said.
"Our journey begins, then,” Calamity said. “Allow your mind to remain empty."
Paul gritted his teeth and vowed to clear his mind of all lingering thought-debris, a huge evacuation job.
"Hey, like wait just a minute, mate. I'm going with you, don't you think,” Will insisted. “Mate, you pulled off what I couldn't in
five
years and that's what I'm talking about, isn't it."