Wonderscape Read online

  “Something must have happened to Tomoe,” Ren whispered, further along. “She was meant to head them off at the front.”

  “We’ll just have to reach the Wonderway ourselves and hope she meets us there,” Arthur decided. “Let’s start movi—” But his sentence was cut short as an amused voice filled the air.

  “There you are, Pipsqueaks!”

  Down below, a figure stood silhouetted in the headlights of the lead buggy. She was dressed in a cropped fur coat and wide palazzo trousers, both dyed the same shade of seafoam-green. Fear closed Arthur’s throat as he realized their chances of getting home might have just nosedived. That was Valeria Mal’fey.

  “You have my congratulations,” she called, waving a gloved hand. “The White Tiger has finally been beaten!” The liquid-silver surface of her Wondercloak rippled as she moved, distorting the reflections of two security mimics standing at either shoulder. “I’m sorry to have to interrupt your game, but one of the mimics in this building has malfunctioned and we’re here to remove it. If you’d like to come with me, I’ll get you to safety.”

  Ren looked across at Arthur and slowly shook her head. After what Tomoe had told them, he felt the same: going with Valeria would not improve their safety. He wasn’t sure if Valeria was helping Tiburon with his evil scheme or not, but she definitely couldn’t be trusted. Instead, he desperately tried to formulate an escape plan. If they made a run for it, he felt certain they’d be caught, and with the house swarming with mimics there was no point retreating into the tunnel. Mustering his courage, he shouted, “We’re not going anywhere with you!” He hoped to at least buy them some time.

  Valeria smiled, flashing unnaturally white teeth. “You mean, you don’t want an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of my headquarters?”

  Right at that moment, Cloud twisted free from under Ren’s arm and starting barking so furiously she had to seize him before he fell off the roof.

  Recognition drew across Valeria’s face like a shadow. “I know you,” she muttered. “You’re Milo’s pet.” Her smile shrank at the edges. “Does my little brother have something to do with this? Are you three working for that traitor?” With a stomp of her heel, she pointed to the roof and screamed, “GET THEM!”

  And just like that, making a run for it became the best plan Arthur had. “Go!” he cried, leaping to his feet. The others sprang up and scrambled towards the rear of the roof, but as they approached the ladder, the khaki baseball cap of a security V-class rose over the edge. Grinning maniacally, she was holding what appeared to be a glittery hair-clip-cum-throwing-star in one hand.

  Arthur swivelled on his heels, unsure where to go. Ren lifted up a couple of roof tiles and hurled them in the mimic’s direction. “Get away from us!”

  “Grrf!” Cloud barked in support.

  Glancing at their fluffy mimic companion, Arthur had an idea. “Stand back!” he said, crouching to adjust Cloud’s collar. Twisting round the right-hand bead, he frantically searched for the name of a creature he’d seen last night.

  “I don’t think rat-Cloud or pig-Cloud can help us now!” Cecily shrieked, as the mimic advanced. But it wasn’t either of those animals Arthur was searching for. His heart thudded as he found the one he wanted: Cloud. Green-winged Dragon. Female.

  With a twist of the left-hand bead, the transformation activated.

  Everything happened imperceptibly fast. Cloud’s stubby legs lengthened; his body enlarged; giant claws grew from his fluffy paws and his white fur was replaced by emerald-green scales. Tiles cascaded from the roof and shattered down below as the dragon grappled for a foothold.

  With a flick of her tail, Cloud thwacked the approaching mimic twenty metres into the air and it landed with a squelch in the mud of Tomoe’s garden.

  Ren cheered. “Yes, Fuzzball!”

  Arthur grabbed Cecily’s hand and dragged her up the side of Cloud’s dragon-body. “Come on – this is our ride out of here!” Once Ren had clambered onto the tail end, they took off.

  On the ground, Valeria roared, “You can’t escape me! Not while you’re in the Wonderscape!”

  With her eyes squeezed shut, Cecily wrapped her arms around Arthur’s waist. “Don’t you dare let go!” she yelled in his ear.

  “I won’t. I promise!” Straddled across Cloud’s back, Arthur tightened his grip on the now giant-sized ruby collar on the dragon’s neck. Wind thrashed through his hair, making his cheeks glow.

  I’m flying on a robot dragon.

  I’m FLYING on a ROBOT DRAGON!

  The situation was something out of a dream, but Arthur had never felt more awake. Adrenaline coursed through his body, his senses on high alert. He could hear Cloud’s ragged breathing and smell her strange dragon odour in the air, like a mix of burnt toast and black treacle. As they soared higher, he pressed his knees into her thick hide, feeling the ridges of her scales digging into his thighs.

  Despite being the size of a lorry, Cloud flew with expert grace, swinging her long tail for balance and flapping her eight-metre-wide wings to lift them higher. Far below, Tomoe’s house shrunk to the size of a matchbox.

  For a few minutes, they glided in circles above Tomoe’s garden with nothing but the thud of Cloud’s wings to keep them company. Then Ren cried, “The Wonderway! Over there!”

  Arthur didn’t turn to see where she was pointing; one false move and he’d slip off Cloud’s back and fall hundreds of metres. Instead, he stretched forwards and patted Cloud’s leathery cheek. “Can you see what Ren’s spotted, girl?” It felt strange calling Cloud a girl, but Arthur was getting used to strange in the Wonderscape.

  The cat-like pupils in Cloud’s yellow eyes flitted. She gave a thundering roar, which made Arthur’s ribs shake, and swerved to the left. “Hold on!” he shouted, clinging to the horns on her spine.

  Cecily screamed as they banked lower. Ahead, between the edge of Tomoe’s garden and the forest, was a clearing wide enough for a dragon to land in. As they flew closer, Arthur spotted a huge black frame standing in the trees – a Wonderway.

  Cloud beat her wings as they hovered into the space, dust swirling into the air.

  “Prepare to land!” Arthur called, reaching for the disc on Cloud’s collar. He twisted the bead on the right until the disc read West Highland Terrier. Male again and once they were close enough to the ground, he clicked the left-hand bead to trigger the transformation…

  At which point, he narrowly avoided doing the splits, as a fluffy white dog padded out through his legs.

  “Watch out – we’ve got company!” Ren cried.

  An angry shout came from behind. Arthur turned to see the two wounded V-class units from earlier had been joined by a third. While they carried axes, she had a spiky iron club raised threateningly above her head.

  The Wonderway wasn’t far. Arthur had started to make a run for it when he heard a loud whinny and a huge black horse came galloping through the trees.

  Tomoe Gozen was riding towards them, her long sword gripped in her right hand. Tugging the horse’s red bridle with her left, she charged the mimics and swung her blade, striking all three of them at once.

  The two axe-wielding mimics staggered back. The V-class with the club swiped at Tomoe’s legs, but the warrior easily parried her blows.

  In a blur of black hair and silver sword, Tomoe dismounted her horse and delivered two, three, four hits to the mimics, moving with dancer-like grace. Arthur was mesmerized. Tomoe seemed to predict the V-classes’ every move, dodging aside just in time, and then aiming directly for their weak spots. She handled her mammoth sword as if it weighed no more than a feather.

  In a few seconds, it was over. With one final blow, Tomoe struck the remaining mimic at the waist and she dropped to the ground to join a scrambled mess of other V-class body parts. Despite her exertion, Tomoe wasn’t even out of breath when she turned to face them. She sheathed her sword across her back and walked over. “There are far more than I expected,” she told them gravely. “The plan has cha
nged. Which among you collected the realm-key?”

  Arthur glanced at Ren, who nervously stepped forwards. Tomoe laid a hand on her shoulder. “Use the talent only when you need to,” she advised cryptically. Her eyes drifted to Arthur and Cecily. “I didn’t intend for this, but I must ask the three of you to continue my mission. You have to stop Tiburon and free the other heroes.”

  “What?!” Arthur said, his heart racing. They couldn’t possibly defeat Tiburon on their own! Apart from anything else, they were already busy trying to prevent the universe from turning them into slime. “Why can’t you come with us?”

  Her brows drew together. “I have fought many battles and I know when the odds are against me. If I don’t take a stand here, we’ll all be overrun and none of us will make it to the Wonderway. Better that you three escape, at least.”

  Arthur gulped. Judging by the seriousness of her tone, there was no opening for argument. Cloud started whimpering, so Cecily bundled him into her arms and let him bury his head under her Wondercloak. “It’s all right, boy,” she murmured softly. “We’re going to be OK.” But as she stared at Arthur, her face flushed with panic.

  The growl of a chainsaw sounded in the distance. Tomoe spun round towards the house, her hair swinging behind her.

  The ground rumbled as a mob of V-class mimics stampeded over the hill, their hover-wheels churning up the plants and soil in Tomoe’s garden. At the head of the pack were a couple of security mimics brandishing perfume-bottle grenades; the others had made do with spears, axes and swords from Tomoe’s house.

  “These are for you,” Tomoe said, hastily removing a leather quiver of arrows from the back of her saddle, and passing it to Ren. She unshouldered her bow and handed it over too. “Use them well.”

  Ren cradled the items in her arms like they were made of highly breakable china. The bow was taller than her. “Thank you,” she spluttered, “but I don’t know archery.”

  “Yes, you do,” Tomoe said, leaping back onto her horse. “Now shoot fast and aim for the joints, that’s where mimics are vulnerable. And remember: heroes come in all shapes and sizes!” With a defiant smile, she pressed her heels into the horse’s haunches and stormed into the fray.

  “Wait!” Ren called after her, slinging the strap of the quiver over her head. She pulled out an arrow and waved it at Arthur and Cecily. “What am I meant to do now?”

  Arthur noticed the blueprints on Ren’s Wondercloak change into the design for a large black comma. Remembering how the water on his cloak had swirled with Newton’s handwriting earlier, he made an educated guess. “I think when you and I collected those realm-keys, we also received something else mentioned in the loot – a Wonderskill.”

  “Skill, as in a talent?” Ren questioned.

  He nodded. “It’s something to do with our Wondercloaks. I think mine allows me to access Newton’s knowledge of science and algebra – it’s the only way to explain how I know all these new things. Perhaps your Wonderskill is Tomoe’s archery abilities? Try shooting at something.”

  “Preferably her!” Cecily shrieked, pointing to a charging mimic, who had slipped past Tomoe and was about to hurl a spear in their direction.

  A determined scowl burrowed into Ren’s brow as she clasped the bow in both hands. The blueprints on her cloak shifted into plans for a target board.

  In one swift movement she notched an arrow, drew the bowstring and aimed. The arrow gave a soft shhft as it fired. Arthur traced its path through the air. At the edge of his mind, the equations for kinetic energy, momentum and force whirled around, but he didn’t reach for them.

  With a dull thud, the arrow buried itself into the mimic’s hip joint. Her hover-wheels jarred, she toppled off balance and flipped head first into a pond.

  But there wasn’t time to celebrate. “Run!” Cecily cried.

  By the time they’d made it to the Wonderway, Arthur could hear the clash of Tomoe’s sword behind him. Ren retrieved the realm-key from a pocket in her combat trousers and kneeled at the foot of the black frame. “Which realm should we travel to?” she asked, her fingers hovering over the keypad.

  In all the chaos, Arthur had forgotten that they hadn’t decided where to go next. “Err…”

  While he hesitated, Cloud wriggled free of Cecily’s grasp and landed in the dirt. He shook himself clean and scampered under Ren’s hand, tapping the keypad confidently with his nose: 105.

  “Cloud, what are you—?” Ren spluttered. But it was too late. The realm-key shot out of her fingers and disappeared into the hexagonal hole at the bottom of the Wonderway.

  The frame instantly transformed into a mass of spiralling blue smoke. This time, the door in the centre was a tent flap made of oiled khaki canvas. It was decorated with strange gold writing and as a warm breeze blew under it, a few grains of sand skittered to the forest floor in Tomoe’s realm.

  “The realm-key’s gone,” Ren said urgently. “We’ll have to go through, wherever it leads.”

  Arthur glanced over his shoulder. Tomoe’s horse was surrounded by mimics and she was swinging her blade in all directions, her face straining with effort. He wished there was something they could do to save her but he felt helpless.

  Ren notched another arrow. “There could be more mimics on the other side.”

  With no other option, Arthur tore his gaze away from Tomoe and lifted the tent flap. Before either Ren or Cecily could go first, he stepped through the opening.

  14

  The highest temperatures Arthur had ever experienced were during a heatwave a couple of summers ago, when the grass in his back garden had turned yellow and the tarmac on Peacepoint Estate had started to feel sticky underfoot.

  But this new realm was even more sweltering than that.

  Sweat trickled down his forehead as he viewed the landscape. Rolling turmeric sand dunes stretched in all directions as far as the eye could see. To his relief, there was no one and nothing else around. Arthur thought deserts were supposed to be dry, but the air felt humid, like inside a bathroom after someone had taken a steamy shower.

  He stripped off all non-essential layers and stuffed them into his rucksack before turning up the bottoms of his jeans to air his ankles. He would have taken his Wondercloak off too, but it was the only thing that actually made him feel cooler – undoubtedly another of its advanced features.

  “Where have you brought us, Fuzzball?” Ren asked.

  Arthur watched Cloud wiggling his rear end, preparing to spring into the sand. “He knew exactly how to operate that Wonderway. That must be how he’s been travelling on his own.”

  “He could have chosen somewhere cooler; this is gross,” Cecily muttered, her face glistening as she tied her leather jacket around her waist. Ren folded up her sleeves and stuffed her gilet into her quiver.

  Whatever planet they were on, it must have been around midday, because the sun was high in the sky. Arthur flapped open his Wondercloak and checked the lining for a planet ringed by flashing text: REALM 105: PLANET TYR, HORSETAIL GALAXY. According to the image on the planet’s surface, there was more than desert in this realm. Arthur could make out cities with towering skyscrapers and huge industrial ports. Sand shifted beneath his feet as he climbed to the top of a dune and squinted into the distance.

  “See anything?” Cecily called, helping Ren redo her hair.

  Arthur shielded his eyes from the glare of the sun. A cluster of dark rooftops and umbrella-shaped palms shimmered near the horizon. “There’s a settlement of some sort, but it’s a bit of a trek.”

  “Then let’s get going,” Ren said, replacing her bow across her shoulders. With her fringe pinned back, you could see her whole scowl for once. “The sooner we get there, the sooner we can find out why Cloud brought us here. He must have had a reason. Also, you never know when a V-class will pop up. We should keep moving.”

  With a shiver, Arthur assessed their surroundings for places mimics might jump out from. He hoped the Wonderscape worked differently to some of the video
games he had played, where the bad guys spawned randomly out of thin air.

  “Do you think Valeria will be able to track us?” Cecily asked worriedly. “Perhaps she can tap into our location via our Wondercloaks?”

  Arthur rubbed the edge of his cloak between his fingers. “Maybe, but if we take them off we’ll only draw attention to ourselves. I haven’t seen a single wanderer who wasn’t wearing one.”

  “That, and we won’t be able to use our Wonderskills any more,” Ren pointed out. “And they’ve saved our lives at least twice so far.”

  With a sigh, Cecily reluctantly agreed to keep hers on. As they set off, Ren swung round her gifts from Tomoe Gozen to examine them in more detail. Arthur noticed the leather quiver had gold kanji written on it.

  “What does it say?” he asked, trudging forwards.

  “I’m not sure what the exact translation is: ‘bravery of the tiger’ or maybe ‘tiger’s courage’.” She glanced over at him. “It’s strange – whenever I touch the bow, I feel this force surge into me from my Wondercloak. I’ve never held a bow before today, but somehow it’s like I’ve been an archer my whole life.”

  “Probably because Tomoe Gozen was,” Arthur said. “You’ve inherited her talent for archery, just like I’ve gained Newton’s knowledge of maths and science.” He concentrated on his memory of Ren’s speeding arrow, and facts about motion, wind speed and acceleration bubbled to the surface of his mind. When he inspected his Wondercloak, there was Newton’s handwriting, shining in the puddles on his arms. “It’s like our Wondercloaks temporarily give us their abilities. That must be why they’re called Wonderskills.”

  Cloud was panting as he trotted beside Cecily, the drying mud from Tomoe’s garden crumbling from his paws. “It’s a pity we can’t use one of your Wonderskills to help us locate Milo Hertz,” she said. “I’ve been thinking: Tiburon might not be acting alone. One of his siblings could be helping him.”

  “Yeah, and I don’t think Valeria and Milo can be on the same side,” Ren decided. “She called him a traitor. Perhaps that’s why they argued at the Expo?”