The Magician's Tower (9 page)

“I'll just a minute you, BOYFRIEND,” Isadora howled, “and … hey, let go of my hair, you evil thing!”

This was followed by a fit of high-pitched chimpanzee chortling.

Oona tapped both boys on the shoulder. “Here's what I believe we have to do. First we'll need to climb the stairs along the wall to get to the next level. Once we get there we will have to hop from one piece of furniture to the next in order to get across to the other side of the room. From there we can travel up the second set of steps to the top level, and again hop across the furniture to the exit. The golden bananas are hanging from the necks of the apes. We'll each need to get close enough to one of them in order to take a banana.”

“I know what to do!” Roderick snapped at her. “You don't need to tell me.”

He leapt from beneath the table and made a dash for the opposite end of the room, toward the stairs leading to the second level. Fruit rained down on him from all directions, and Oona wanted to cover her ears against the manic cry of the apes. But instead of cowering beneath
the table, she followed Roderick, hoping that his lead would draw most of the fire.

It worked … sort of.

Roderick took the stairs three at a time, swatting back potatoes and bananas. For the second time, a tomato struck Oona in the back of the head. She stumbled forward, nearly losing her balance as the juices splattered through her hair and oozed down her back.

“You nasty beasts!” she shouted, but quickly realized that she had been the lucky one when a ripe, red beet hammered Roderick between the eyes. The beet cracked open against his head, spinning him down against the wall just as he reached the second-floor platform.

For an instant Oona thought it had split Roderick's head right open, but kneeling down to see if he was all right, she saw that it was not blood after all, but only purplish beet juice that blobbed down his nose.

Realizing that he was going to be okay, Oona seized her chance to take the lead. The first platform jutted out about six feet from the wall and then stopped, where a three-foot gap opened between the platform's edge and the arm of the hanging sofa. Knowing that a single hesitation might cause her to lose her nerve completely, Oona jumped. But not far enough. Her foot caught on the arm of the sofa, and she tumbled into Isadora's lap.

Isadora let out a sharp scream of surprise.

The ropes creaked as the sofa swung from side to side like a boat caught in a storm.

“Get off me!” Isadora shouted, swatting blindly at both Oona and the two apes that were presently tying bits of banana peel into her golden hair. Oona shoved a pile of fruit out of the way and sat up, careful not to lean too far forward.

Suddenly, the sofa gave a jerk sideways as Roderick landed on the cushion beside her, and for one heart-stopping second Oona was sure that the ropes were about to break and the entire sofa was going to crash to the bottom floor. But the ropes held, creaking under the added weight as Oona pulled her feet up, meaning to crawl over Isadora. But Roderick grabbed hold of Oona's skirt, pulling her back into her seat.

Oona gasped. “Whatever happened to chivalry, Mr. Rutherford?” she chided.

Roderick did not answer, but stepped impolitely over her and caught hold of one of the apes by the arm. He pulled the golden banana from its neck, and the chain snapped off quite easily. He then attempted to push the chimpanzee away, but the chimp was far stronger than Roderick. It picked him up by his arm, seemingly with no effort at all, and dangled him over the edge of the sofa.

“BOYFRIEND!” Isadora shouted, attempting to swat
the second monkey away. “What are you doing? Get this beast off me!”

“I'm a little busy, Isadora,” he called back, clinging precariously to the ape's hairy arm.

“Whoooooa!”

The sound shot from his lips as the ape tossed him through the air toward a fellow chimp on the piano. Roderick somersaulted over the chandelier, and the piano ape caught him by the back of his cloak before fervently tossing him back to the ape on the sofa. This went on for several more throws before both apes became bored with the game, and Roderick came down with a resounding
GONG!
on top of the piano.

Meanwhile, down below, Adler was having difficulty getting past the stripe-faced ape, which had descended to the bottom floor and was blocking his way to the stairs.

“Roderick!” Isadora crooned. “Come back here and help me!”

But Roderick was busy pushing himself to his feet on top of the piano lid. He glanced up toward the next level of furniture, and said: “I have an idea!”

Oona pulled her feet back onto the sofa and began to crawl over Isadora. Roderick may have taken the lead, but she didn't plan on letting him keep it.

“Where do you think you're going?” Isadora asked.

“Isadora, why don't you—” but Oona was rudely cut
short when one of the apes grabbed her around the waist and tossed her in the direction of the piano. Skirts flying like a wind-filled flag, she cartwheeled through the air, completely out of control.

To her dismay, the chimp on the piano was presently throwing a handful of dried prunes at Adler, and thus failed to catch her before she slammed down on the piano top. Her shoe clanged against the keyboard, and for one panicky instant her breath was knocked from her body, but a moment later she pushed herself to her knees and the pungent air filled her lungs. The fall had shaken her, to be sure, but, checking herself over, she seemed remarkably unharmed.

Ahead of her, Roderick leapt from the piano to the hanging fireplace, but seemed to misjudge the distance. He only just managed to catch hold of the mantelpiece and save himself from a nine-foot fall. His feet swung forward into the fire, but he quickly pulled himself up onto the chimp-free chimney. From there he hopped to the platform on the other side and began rapidly making his way up the steps to the third level.

“BOYFRIEND!” Isadora cried. “You better not leave me here!”

“Hold your horses, my lady!” Roderick called back.

Oona took her footing on the piano rather precariously. Her shoes had little grip, and they were sliding all
over the place. She steadied herself on one of the ropes, waiting on the lip of the lid as the piano rocked closer to the fireplace.

She leapt … but like Roderick, she jumped too early. For half a heartbeat she thought she was going to fly right into the mouth of the fireplace, but her fingers clamped hold of the mantle. She kicked her feet, fighting to pull herself up. Her dress felt like it weighed two hundred pounds.

Suddenly, there was an ape above her, this one more gray than black, and it cackled at her with wild amusement. It caught hold of the back of her dress, hauling her up. Oona had an idea that the chimp's intentions were not so much to help her but to start up its own little game of Toss the Helpless Girl.

Just as the ape brought her up to chimney height, however, both Oona and the ape realized that something was burning … and a second later Oona
felt
what it was. The bottom of her dress had swung into the flames and was now on fire.

Dreadfully fearful of the flames, the gray ape tossed her in the opposite direction of the piano, but not before Oona reached out and caught hold of the golden banana hanging from its neck. The chain snapped, and she came down on the far platform, rolling over several times before hitting the wall. She quickly sat up, slapping at the
hem of her dress, only to realize that the fire had been doused in her roll across the floor.

“Well,” she said, breathing a sigh of relief. “That was certainly memorable.”

“Isadora!” Oona heard Roderick shout from above. “Grab hold. I'll pull you up!”

Pushing herself to her feet, Oona glanced toward the second level of furniture. She could see Roderick up there balancing on the hanging chest of drawers. He steadied himself with one rope and was using his other hand to rock the chandelier below toward Isadora.

It took only two swings, and Isadora grabbed hold. She hung on for dear life as the ape on the sofa tried its best to pull her free. But the chimp quickly gave up and started throwing the sofa cushions at Adler, who had only just managed to reach the stairs at the bottom of the tower.

Suddenly, the entrance to the tower swung inward, and Mr. Bop stepped into the ape house, causing the entire structure to quake with each step. A fresh round of fruits and vegetables began to pelt the enormous man about the head, and he quickly backed out through the door, apparently having second thoughts about his chances in the physical task.

Oona, meanwhile, raced up the steps to the top floor, determined to beat Roderick and Isadora to the door on the far side of the room.

Two grinning-faced apes blocked her way at the top of the stairs. How Roderick had managed to get past them, she didn't have a clue, but she could see him now, hauling Isadora up to the third floor, Isadora clinging to the chandelier with her eyes shut, her shoeless feet dangling beneath her. She was about halfway up, and Oona realized that there was no time to waste.

Remembering her recent encounter with the gray-colored chimp on the chimney, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a red phosphorus match. The two chimpanzees unfolded their lanky arms and watched with growing interest as Oona struck the match along the wall, and then both of them jumped back.

She held the match out before her.

The chimps shrieked and shrank back from the flame. One of them actually covered his eyes in a see-no-evil impression that, under different circumstances, Oona might have found funny. The match extinguished itself as she hurried past the apes. She flicked it toward the bottom floor, where it became one more ingredient in the bubbling kettle three stories below.

She reached the end of the platform at a run and leapt for the dressing table. Catching sight of her reflection in the attached mirror, her first thought was:
I look dreadful
. Her second thought, however, was:
I'm going to crash right into it
.

Sure enough, she slammed into the mirror, cracking it down the middle and making the table swing in a perilous arc. She clung desperately to the mirror, and Roderick nearly lost his balance as the table bumped against the edge of the neighboring chest of drawers.

“Don't you drop me, BOYFRIEND!” Isadora howled.

Roderick managed to keep his grip, and a second later Isadora was there with him, atop the chest of drawers. Oona jumped to join them. Her landing caused the chest of drawers to swing sideways, throwing Isadora and Roderick into the air, and the two of them tumbled onto the huge four-poster bed.

“Roderick!” Isadora snapped, pushing him off of her. “This is highly inappropriate.”

“I beg your pardon?” he said, shaking his head.

“I thought you were going to be chivalrous!” she said.

Noticing for the first time that the two of them were sharing the same bed, his mouth began to pop open and close. “But my lady, I assure you, I had no such intention.”

“A likely story,” she said.

“Really,” said Roderick, “it wasn't my fault.”

“Then whose fault was it?” she asked dubiously.

“It was … hers!” he exclaimed as Oona leapt onto the bed and then dashed across the covers toward the hanging lamp on the other side.

“Quick!” Roderick shouted. “She's going to win!”

Like a monkey on a vine, Oona caught hold of the lamp and sailed across the remaining space to the wooden landing. With her feet planted firmly on the edge, she let the lamp swing back toward the bed and turned to make her way to the exit. But something was there, impeding her way. It was that rascally stripe-faced chimp.

“How did you get up here?” Oona asked.

Stripe-face lunged for her. Oona ducked and spun around, but Stripe-face caught hold of her dress, plunging his hand into her pocket. A second later Oona was free, but when she glanced back, she saw that the monkey had something in its hand. Something small and shiny silver.

It was the ring! The evidence she had found beneath the caravan.

For a long moment Oona was torn. She glanced at the door marked
EXIT
and then back to the ring in the grinning ape's hand. Victory was in her grasp, she knew … but the evidence … the case.

Her eyes narrowed.

“Give that back, you little thief!” Oona shouted, and started after the ape.

Stripe-face leapt the distance between the landing and the bed in a single bound. Oona followed suit, nearly bouncing off the end of the bed when she landed. Grabbing hold of Stripe-face's arm, she just managed to stay bed
bound, but the golden banana she had taken from the gray monkey fell from her hand and bounced right across the bed to land at Isadora's feet. Isadora greedily snatched it up, and now both she and Roderick were the only ones with bananas.

But Oona had no time to think. She leapt on the chimp, trying to force the ring from its vicelike grip. The ape snapped at her with its large teeth, the two of them wrestling on the bed. Something flashed in Oona's eyes, and she realized it was the golden banana around the ape's neck.

Oona grabbed hold and yanked, and at the same time shouted:
“Ignigtis!”

A ball of flame appeared in front of the ape's face, and the chimp's expression turned instantly from one of menace to that of horror. It dropped the ring on the bed and bounded away across the room, swinging wildly from rope to rope until it was as far away from Oona and the floating flame as possible.

Oona felt instantly guilty. While she knew that there was no rule against using magic in the contest, she had broken her word to Isadora. Yet it had been the thought of losing a crucial bit of evidence—evidence that could possibly lead her to the punchbowl—that had caused her to do it, not because she had wanted to gain some unfair advantage in order to win.

She picked up the ring, and then the fire—which had been nothing more than an illusion and could not have hurt the monkey even if it had stuck its hairy hand into it—winked out. She repocketed the ring before quickly realizing that both Roderick and Isadora were no longer on the bed.