Roland's Castle (24 page)

The man laughed again, “What you
wanna go there for?”

“Because it’s there,” said
Botherworth, in his best sassy tone.

“That’s what we said to you!”
Oliver told him.

“I know, and I liked it. Wasn’t
going to admit it at the time though!”

Realising Roland was serious, the
in—charge seeming man continued, “I don’t know, I really don’t.
You’d best ask in the office.”

Over in the corner of the cavern
was a small hut with the word “Office” written on the door. They
went over to it and knocked on the door.

“Come in,” said a voice.

Inside were three men at three
desks, all dressed like clerks in holy orders. Roland said, “I
wonder if you can help us. We need to get to the sun.”

“Before or after the mythtelling?”
one of the clerks asked.

“When is the mythtelling?” Roland
asked.

“After Ogleforth.”

“And err, when is that?”

“Soon,” said the clerk.

“How soon is soon?” Roland
asked.

“Quite soon,” the clerk said.

“Ahhh... So how do we get to the
sun?”

“That’s difficult, very difficult,”
the clerk said. “You need to ask the Great Mistress of the
Lighthouse. If you can get her attention and ask her, and if she is
willing – only if she is wiling, mind, she will call a Sentinel of
the Sun who will, if he is willing, take you to the Sun.”

“Only if she is willing, and he is
willing, eh?” Roland checked.

“Only if she is willing, and he is
willing,” the clerk confirmed.

“And how long will this take?”

“The clerk shrugged, “How long is a
game of Ogleforth?”

“Well, surely it must end before
the mythtelling,” Oliver objected.

“That is true, very true… You are
learning our ways!” the clerk said approvingly.

“So how do we see the Great
Mistress of the Lighthouse?” Roland asked.

“Very difficult, very difficult,”
the clerk said, again shaking his head, “She doesn’t talk to
anyone. She is far too bound up with competitive sport and the
hearing of the myths.”

“So how do we talk to her?”

The clerk thought, “Join the
Ogleforth match and win a game or two — anyone with a boat can
play. Impress her with your sporting ability. Then maybe,
maybe
, she will notice you, deign to exchange a few words
with you…”

“Doesn’t sound very positive,”
Oliver said, and shot a look at Brother Goodwill who had opened his
mouth to speak but then thought better of it.

“Where do we get a boat and how
much does it cost?” Roland asked.

“The harbour,” said the clerk,
“Just choose a boat. They’re free, no cost. Just play the game well
– play badly and you will suffer a forfeit!”

“What’s the forfeit?” Oliver
asked.

The clerk shuddered, “Get locked
out when everyone else goes home.”

“And that’s bad because…?” Oliver
asked, wondering if there wasn’t more to it.

“That’s bad because they take the
air back inside with them,” the clerk said, “Air is only allowed
out onto the surface during Ogleforth and special occasions – such
as visiting dignitaries. It’s a defensive measure.”

“So no air for losers,” Oliver
said, “Better practice holding our breath,” he joked.

“We shall play to win - and win,”
Roland said. “Now, where is the harbour?”

The clerk pointed through an arch
to another cavern beyond.

They went through the arch and
found themselves in the harbour. It was in the largest cavern — by
far — that they had been in yet. Here there were no boats stacked
up. Instead they were lying around on the sand, as if marooned by
the tide going out. There was a harbour wall in the far distance,
and at the far end of it a very tall lighthouse reaching up to the
very top of the cavern. All around the harbour there were arches
where tunnels led in.

There was an odd thing about the
boats. All of them had strange, tall objects in the centre. They
were like masts, but instead of bearing canvas sails each had a
circular structure, the width of a tall man’s height and more, at
the top. The centres of these structures were made up of many long,
criss-crossing strings. Each one had three ropes hanging from it,
one from the top and one from each side. They looked like they
might be some sort of sail, but it seemed unlikely as the wind
would blow straight through them. Wooden beams, a bit like oars,
stuck out from the sides of the boats but it was hard to see how
they could help in powering the craft.

It was all very well boarding one
of the boats but they had no idea how to sail it. Roland noticed
two men on the quay and approached them.

“Excuse me, we are here to play
Ogleforth,” he said.

“You’re a bit early! Rush hasn’t
started yet!” said one of the men.

“I am told we can take any boat we
choose?” Roland said to them.

“Provided you play, said the other
man, and don’t just go swanning about in it!”

“How do we sail the boats? How are
they powered? What do we do?”

Both men chuckled.

“You’ll see,” one said.

“You’ll see,” the other agreed.

It wasn’t much help to say the
least, not much help at all.

There was not enough room for five
people on board so it was quickly decided that Roland, Oliver and
Savitri should do the sailing whilst Botherworth and Goodwill would
remain on shore and cheer from the sidelines – provided there were
any sidelines.

The three friends boarded the boat
and looked about. There was still no indication of how it was
powered – there were no oars and no sail. There was no rudder
either.

“How do we steer?” Oliver
asked.

Roland shrugged.

They made themselves familiar with
the boat as best they could, although it all made little sense.

“We’ll just have to watch what the
others do,” Roland said.

As he spoke a horn with a low, dull
note was blown and there was the sound of rushing feet from the
arches around the harbour. A large number of people came hurrying
through and started leaping into the boats in a mad scramble. Some
leapt into one boat only to leap out again, whilst some were pushed
out by others who rushed in behind them. There were several
struggles going on over ownership of boats. Several tried to board
the boat that the friends were in but they were able to repel the
boarders successfully. In a few minutes almost everyone was in a
boat. All the squabbles over whose boat was whose had been sorted
out

and there were only a few
stragglers left wandering in the sand.

At that point the horn was blown
again. Yet more people rushed in but From different arches than the
previous group. The new ones leapt onto the sand and formed teams
around the boats. They then waited, presumably for commands. The
horn blew again and on each of the boats one of the team members
looked down at those around the boats and pointed, all in the same
direction, towards the harbour mouth and cried, “Yee-hove-hee!”

The teams of people around the
boats cried “Yee-hove-hee!” grasped the beams at the sides and
started to lift and push the boats so that they slid through the
sand, quickly gaining speed.

Seeing what was happening Oliver
did the same as the team members on the other boats. He looked down
at the boat pushers, pointed where the others had pointed and
cried, “Yee-hove-hee!” The people around their boat also cried out,
“Yee-hove-hee!” and soon their boat was also on its way.

They were headed toward the
lighthouse at great speed. Beyond it they could see the vast
opening of the harbour mouth and through it stars —hundreds
—thousands — millions of stars. As they passed the lighthouse there
was a hissing, rushing sound and they felt a strong breeze all
about them.

“They must be letting the air out!”
Cried Roland.

The rushing air helped to speed
them out onto the surface. They saw immediately that the lunar sky
was starkly divided into a dark area, full of stars, and an area of
blue sky which was like that on earth. Both parts were separated by
a line that arched across the sky. The area of blue sky was in the
distance and the other ships were headed for it.

As they were puzzling over all this
a small bright object came rushing over their heads from behind. It
was so close that they ducked, although it had already passed
before they did so.

“What was that!?” Oliver cried as
they watched it pass over the other ships to disappear behind some
rocks in the far distance.

“I don’t know,” said Roland. “Lets
try not to get in the way of one.”

They caught up the other boats
which were all forming into a line. The trio’s boat joined one end
of it. In front of the line of boats were two other boats, each of
which had a different coloured flag on it.

“What’s going on?” Roland
asked.

“I know what this is!” Oliver said,
“They’re captains picking teams!”

Each of the captains took it in
turns, selecting from the ships in front of them by pointing. As
each ship was picked its pushers pushed it around to join its team
behind its captain.

The friends waited, wondering if
they would be picked, but all of the others were chosen and they
remained, now alone, one unwanted ship and its crew with all the
chosen crews staring across at them.

“Do we get to play at all?” Savitri
asked.

The team who had the last pick
started to wave and shout at them impatiently, gesturing for them
to come over. Clearly they were expected to join it as a matter of
course. Oliver looked down at the boat pushers and cried,
“Yee-hove-hee!”

The pushers responded by crying
“Yee-hove-hee!” and pushed them over to join their team.

The ships of both teams now started
to spread out across the surface. The trio’s boat followed. As they
did so the captain of their team circled back and came level with
their boat. The captain leapt on board, asking, “You new to
this?”

“Yes,” said Roland.

“Thought so! Right! The idea is to
wait until an ogle appears – that’s one of the bright objects that
come flying over. When one that’s coming in low enough is spotted
both teams try to play it, trying to bat it with the racquet—” and
he indicated the strange object that stuck out of the centre of the
boat — “Only one ogle can be in play at any one time – once it’s
sighted and the cry has gone up for it that’s
the
ogle until
it goes out of play – we’ll come to that!”

‘When the ogle appears both teams
try to get it and bat it towards the terminator —

that’s the border between the light
and the dark you see out there where the blue sky is and where the
grandstands are—” and he pointed to the light blue sky in the
distance —“The boats try to pass it to boats of their own team and
try to keep it from boats of the other team, who are trying to
intercept it. When a boat is near enough to the terminator it tries
to hit the ogle so that it crosses it. When that happens it’s
called a Bedern, and it’s a point for that boat’s side.

‘Now, you can get extra points; if
three ships in the same team hit it in a row – one boat passes it
to another in the same team and then that boat passes it on to
another which then strikes it, that’s called a Straker. If four
ships from the same team hit it in a row, that’s a Koenig. If the
last boat to hit it then scores a Bedern, then that’s either a Full
Straker or a full Koenig. Clear?

‘If the ogle simply flies into the
dust and fizzles out before reaching the terminator then it’s a
Lendal – no score, and we go back to the start and begin again,
same as we do after a Bedern. Clear?”

He then showed them how to use the
racquet, “It swivels at the base — here — so that you can twist it
around… These ropes—” and he pulled the ropes that were hanging
from it “— are used to turn it to face the right way and to pull it
back so that it will spring forwards and hit the ogle. If the ogle
is flying high what you can do is this: when you are in the right
position, and at
exactly
the right time you can order the
err… them—” and he indicated the pushers at the side “—to stop and
then toss the boat upwards into the air to enable you to strike it.
Cry
yee-hove-stop!
to stop and then
yee-hove-leap!
To
leap. You have to judge it fine, though!”

“Who are these people pushing the
boat?” Oliver asked.

“Well, err, they’re called
yee-hove-hees, but it’s of no consequence… Anyway, that’s how you
play Ogleforth. Think you can handle it?”

“We have to,” said Roland, “The
success of our quest depends on it.”

“I am sure we can,” said Savitri,
determinedly.

“We certainly don’t want to get
locked out, anyway!” said Oliver.

“Eh?” said the captain, “Oh, you’ve
been listening to the cave-lubbers eyewash! They tell all the
newbies that to incentivise them! You’d have to play very badly for
that to happen!” and he winked and laughed heartily. “But I ‘m sure
you’ll do good! You look young and strong! This match is a
tiebreaker for the Grand Cup of the Silent Seas – which is where we
are, or nearabouts anyway. We always seem to end up losing the toss
and with the last boat in the selection – let’s see if you might be
diamonds in the rough and surprise us!”

With that the sound of the horn was
heard again and their captain jumped back into his ship. He cried
“yee-hove-hee!” and his own boat-pushers responded with the same
cry, then propelled him quickly across the sand away from Roland’s
boat. Roland gave the same order and his own boat glided gracefully
after the captain’s.

Soon the
game was on. A cry went up and the ships all turned towards a
bright flickering object coming at them from the dark horizon. One
of the opposing ships was first to it but narrowly missed hitting
it. The bright ball sped onwards until a ship of Roland’s team
managed to. As it did a shower of sparks exploded from the racquet
accompanied by a very loud, eerie
twang—oiiiiiing
noise that
reverberated across the lunar landscape. The ogle was sent flying
off towards the terminator. Several opposing ships tried to
intercept it but another boat of Roland's team got to it and struck
it once more. Again there was a shower of sparks and the eerie
twang––oiiiiiing
noise.