The Cup of Galfar. Alderosa's Daughter

“Well, it’s not China here, but your name sounds rather Chinese. So there,” said Allie, rummaging through her clothes in the closet. In a little while, she put on jeans, a light but warm and waterproof jacket, and leather running shoes. She accessorized her look with a toboggan pulled low over her ears.

“Great job,” approved Lu. “One might take you for a boy.”

“Let’s hope that Mean Jean won’t recognize me,” said Allie, putting on her backpack. “You try to stay quiet in there.”

She threw one final look around her room; somehow she knew that she wouldn’t be back for a long time. Allie also said goodbye to her parents, giving each a hug.

“We’ll save you, I promise,” she whispered, fighting back her welled-up tears.

***

They made it out of the house just in time. As soon as Allie sat down on the bench next to Lemonade who was basking in the sun, Corgy emerged through her door. She had also made an effort to disguise herself, and did an excellent job. Allie would’ve never recognized her in that slender young woman dressed in an elegant light-colored coat. But Lemonade, who had already witnessed her powers of transfiguration, was impossible to fool.

The sorceress crossed the yard, turned the corner onto the sidewalk and made it to the tram stop. Allie followed her about a hundred feet behind, trying to hide behind people’s backs but keeping Corgy in her line of vision at the same time. Lemonade, on the contrary, was running to and fro, sometimes almost catching up with Corgy, and at other times lagging behind. Because of him they almost lost Corgy. Allie noticed the tram that came around the bend, and also the fact that Corgy quickened her steps. That’s when Allie set out running, too, and made it to the tram stop in time; some passengers had exited, and others were just starting to get on the tram. Corgy entered the first of the two cars, and Allie was standing in front of the second one and looking around: Lemonade was nowhere to be seen. Allie realized that the tram was about to go, and the thin line of hope for rescuing her parents would snap. She grabbed the hand rail and took a step inside. The tram started moving. Allie looked back one more time, and at that moment Lemonade flew through the closing doors straight into her arms, knocking her over.

She couldn’t help herself and pinched his ear.

“I’ll deal with you later,” she said quietly and moved up. She found a good observation spot for the whole tram as there were few passengers this time of day. That made their spying task easier.

Corgy got off the tram at the “Polar Pioneers Park” stop. Right by the stop there was a massive stone gate covered in sculptures of polar explorers and polar bears. Behind the gate stretched the park that was known simply as “Three P’s”. It was located on the edge of town and bordered with a forest. That is why, in addition to rides and other various amusements found in any park, it boasted splendind oak lanes, cheery birch groves, sunny grassy areas, and even a large and well-kempt pond. It was no wonder “Three P’s” was the townspeople’s favorite recreation spot.

That was where Corgy the sorcerer had unwittingly brought Allie and her friends. Allie felt that their destination was close, and she was right. Corgy walked along the central park lane and then turned off onto a side path. In another five minutes she was at a metal fence that closed off a pretty large area crowded with various types of amusement rides. There were swings, carousels, bumper cars, and many other rides. The chipping paint and rusty beams gave away the fact that all this equipment hadn’t been used for quite some time now. The large rusty padlock on the metal gate was the ultimate proof of that.

While Corgy fumbled with the lock, Allie hid behind a tree, took off the backpack and let the monkey out. Lemonade was right there too, he was trying to keep close to the girl. The friends huddled and briefly discussed the situation in soft whispers. Lu suggested that she and Lemonade should do the rest of the spying and that Allie should find a good hiding place and wait for their return. This would present fewer opportunities for Corgy to notice the spies, the monkey thought. Allie flatly rejected the plan and promised to be extremely careful. Everybody agreed on that.

Corgy opened the gate, entered and without hesitation made her way around the rusty metal frames. The friends followed after her, Lemonade leading the way and ready to warn Allie and Lu of any danger ahead. He was the first to notice Corgy’s destination.

“Just what I thought,” he muttered under his breath when he saw the sorceress slip into a run-down pavilion with a sign that read in faded red letters, “Cave of Horrors”.

In a few seconds Allie and Lu joined him.

“Why, but that is…” the monkey never finished the phrase, looking at the pavilion in astonishment. The cat only nodded.

“At least we know something about this place already,” Allie said. “Is Corgy in there?”

“She is,” nodded Lemonade. “I can sneak in quietly.”

“No, that is too dangerous,” disagreed Allie. “Let’s wait till she comes out, and then we’ll go see what’s inside.”

So the three of them hid behind the carousel that offered a good view of the pavilion entrance. In a few minutes there came a low hum and a metallic rattle, and a little car that was waiting first in line outside the pavilion rolled into the “cave”. It was noisy inside the pavilion for some time, and then all was quiet. Presently Corgy exited the pavilion and, checking around her, walked fast toward the amusement park gate. The friends waited until her light coat disappeared and carefully made their way into the “Cave of Horrors”.

***

It was utterly dark inside the pavilion, and it took Allie a couple of minutes to adjust a little. Gradually she began to see the outlines of objects around her. Allie took a step forward and almost tripped over the rail tracks.

“Watch out,” whispered Lu, “be careful, or you’ll hurt yourself.”

“Well, I am being careful, but I can’t see anything,” Allie said in frustration. “Too bad we didn’t bring a flashlight.”

“You can’t see?” Lu sounded surprised.

It turned out that she had excellent night vision, and, naturally, Lemonade did, too.

“Oh yes,” sagaciously pronounced the cat, “humans are imperfect beings after all. Lu, you should be happy that you are what you are now. You can see in the dark like a cat, you cannot be hurt or even, possibly, killed. Advantages all over, in one word.”

“No, Lemonade,” sadly objected Lu. “Being human is a great thing. But you wouldn’t understand. I’m glad I’ve got this viamulator now, but…”

“The viamulator, of course!” exclaimed Allie. “Let’s take it out. It’ll be our flashlight.”

“Why didn’t I think of that?” Lu sighed as she unzipped the pocket and took out the magic cylinder.

It cast the familiar unnaturally blue light around it. Lu gave the viamulator to Allie, and she started walking along the tracks with the cylinder in her hand like a candle burning with a steady blue flame.

All around them they saw the “horrible” things Lu had mentioned in her story. There were skeletons, bats, the red-hooded executioner and many others. They were all made with paper-mache, faux fur, plaster and cardboard and covered with a thick layer of dust and cobwebs.

The little scouting brigade was slowly making its way forward. The tracks made occasional sharp turns. Allie felt that the place was a little spooky, but there was nothing supernatural about it yet. But then, at one of the turns, the tracks split up and went in two different directions: one went left and downhill, and the other turned right and seemed to go straight into a solid wall. Like the real train tracks, the rails had a miniature automatic rail switch. Its cable stretched across the floor to a nearby wooden pole that supported the pavilion roof. There was an electrical switch lever on the pole. The little car that had just entered the “cave” was sitting on the tracks that went right. Allie came up to the pole and put her hand on the switch lever.

“Shall we try it?” She looked at the cat and the monkey questioningly.

“Let’s do it,” agreed Lu. “But be careful. Turn it off immediately if something goes wrong.”

Allie hesitated a second and then pushed the lever down. They heard the familiar hum and rattle, and the car began to speed up toward the wall.

“There’ll be a smal crash now,” the cat impishly rubbed his front paws and watched the car’s inevitable approach to the wall.

“No, there won’t be,” retorted Allie, turning off the switch. The car screeched to a stop about three feet from the wall.

“That’s right,” agreed Lu. “We don’t need a crash. We need to explore. Maybe there’s a secret passage there.”

So the friends set out towards the wall with a pioneering zeal. But when they reached the car, there came a bright flash of light from behind. With a cry of surprise, Allie turned around and covered her eyes. A bright flashlight or spotlight was shining in her face, blinding her and not allowing her to see anything. Then a tall dark figure stood in front of the light. Black itself, it stood as if in a bright halo like the sun during a total eclipse. But Allie thought that it looked familiar: the long hair, the familiar cut of dress. When she heard the voice, although the manner of speech was strange, there could be no doubt. It was Corgy. Fear like a steel ring squeezed around the girl’s throat, arresting her breath.

“So that’s who was spying on me,” Corgy was saying with a tone of slight surprise. “So it seems you didn’t get to taste the fried fish. Too bad, your Mom is an excellent cook. How naughty of you to treat her like that when she tried so hard for you. Well, who else do we have here? A cat, very well. Only makes sense, if there’s trouble, look for a cat.”

At those words Lemonade shivered and jumped on top of the car to hide from the bright light and Corgy’s eyes.

“And who is that scarecrow? Looks like an old friend of ours. Must be one of the transported,” Corgy said that, looking at Lu.

While the sorceress was talking, Allie calmed down. The gripping fear was gone. The girl picked up the monkey and stepped behind the car. Corgy, in the meantime, kept talking:

“Listen, Allie – that is your name, isn’t it? If you don’t want to end up like this monkey of yours, better hand over the viamulator. You’ve got it, I know. The pretty colorful cylinder. Be a good girl.”

“All right,” Allie’s ringing voice sounded firm. “I will give you the viamulator, if you help Mom and Dad.”

“Of course I will, don’t you worry,” quickly assented Corgy. “Well, give me the viamulator, just throw it to me. I’ll catch it.”

Everything else happened so fast. Allie couldn’t explain why she acted the way she did. She just knew one thing: she didn’t have a clear plan at that moment. Allie took a step forward and stood on the car. Putting Lu down on the seat next to Lemonade, she stretched her right hand with the viamulator towards Corgy. The blinding light wasn’t hitting the girl’s face now, and Allie was able to see the sorceress clearly now. She was standing next to the switch lever pole with one hand on the switch and the other extended towards Allie. Her eyes were gleaming with victory, her lips drawn apart in a sinister grin.

Suddenly Allie’s fingers made a subtle movement, as if on their own. There was a soft click, and a bright green beam of light burst out of the viamulator and hit Corgy’s face. Almost at the same time the car jerked forward, almost throwing Allie off. The girl held on to the seat. The last thing she saw was the tiny squirming figure of Corgy that was hanging off the switch lever and squealing.

Then all went dark.

***

The car rolled out of the dark into an enormous cave. Gigantic icicles were hanging down from the ceiling that couln’t be seen; some of them had reached the floor and turned into ice pillars. Thousands of colorful sparkles were playing on their crystal surface, and flames of cold light pierced the thick ice from time to time.

Lu was looking around with agitation. The cave was familiar to her. It seemed like it was just yesterday when she had gone down these tracks in a similar car. Allie, judging by her face, was utterly raptured. It was one thing to hear someone else’s story and quite another to see everything with your own eyes.

Lemonade was not moved by the beauties of the ice kingdom. He stretched out his neck and was intently looking ahead and sniffing the air with his sensitive nose.

“It’s so beautiful,” Allie whispered, delighted. Despite the rattle of the wheels, her voice sounded very clear. It seemed to resonate and amplify against the giant ice pillars.

“Yes it is,” muttered the cat. “But, if I remember Lu’s story correctly, there are much less pleasant and beautiful things ahead of us.”

Allie and Lu turned their heads and looked at what Lemonade was pointing at.

The car was on the home stretch now before a tunnel in the cave wall. Its mouth was a gaping black hole into which the rail tracks vanished.

“Everybody, jump off now,” quickly ordered Lu and lead the way, leaping off the car. Allie and Lemonade followed her. They watched their empty carriage disappear into the dark tunnel, and then looked at each other.

“Well, what do we do now?” inquired Allie.

“I believe we need to go back,” Lemonade suggested half-heartedly.

“But Corgy is there. She is probably waiting for us, unless she has set out on a chase,” said Lu.

“I shrank her,” Allie interjected modestly.

“You did… what?” Lemonade asked in astonishment.

“Remember that chair in my room? That’s what I did to her.”

Allie flung the viamulator, which she had been firmly gripping in her fist, into the air. And now she saw that all of the disks, including the blue one, were tightly pressed together and made up a solid cylinder. Therefore, there was no light coming out of it, that is, it was turned off. Allie looked at the monkey, concerned. But she was sitting on a rock, resting her head on her hands, as sound as a bell.

“How are you feeling, Lu?”

“Just fine, what can be wrong with me?” the monkey answered carelessly, but was suddenly suspicious: “Why are you asking?”

“That is why!” Allie showed her the viamulator that was off.

Lu stared at it for a few seconds, but when she realized what was going on, she yelled out happily and hugged the cat.

“Yippee! This means something is changing in me for the better, if I can do without this thing now.”

“Don’t be too hasty,” Lemonade reasoned with her, “it might be just the cave.”

“It might be,” Lu the happy monkey refused to stop, “but a fact is a fact.”

“All of this is well and good,” interrupted Allie, “but we should think what we’ll do next.”

After a short counsel, they decided to turn back.

They set out and made their way around the rocks and ice pillars. After a few minutes’ walk they turned a corner and saw a solid rock wall. The tracks disappeared into it, but there was no tunnel or passage in the wall.

“I was expecting something like that,” Lemonade said with a mixed feeling of satisfaction and despair.

“What do we do?” Allie patted the cold rough surface of the rock and looked at her companions, perplexed.

It was rather cold in the cave, and, despite her warm clothes, the girl was beginning to feel it. Seeing that, Lu turned to Lemonade:

“Kitty, dearest, please let’s find an exit, or else we’ll freeze to death here.”

Lemonade looked at the stuffed plush monkey dubiously, but didn’t argue. He turned his head this way and that way, sniffed the air and, telling them to wait for him right there, disappeared behind the closest ice pillar.

“What do you think would’ve happened to us if we’d gone further?” Allie asked the monkey.

“I don’t know what would’ve happened to me, but you probably would’ve ended up like me a while ago.”

“Lu, do you remember how it happened? How did they turn you into a toy? And why a toy?”

“No, I didn’t. But Lemonade’s story about what he heard from Corgy made me think. Remember, when she talked about your parents, she mentioned a shell and a ‘noose’ or something, if Lemonade told it right. And then, the way Corgy called me ‘transported’. So, I think I know what it’s about. Then it’s easy to explain my transformation…”

But then Lemonade appeared, and Lu stopped mid-sentence.

“Well, what did you find?” Lu and Allie exclaimed together.

“I think there’s a way out. Follow me.”

Lemonade led the girls down a path only he knew. For a few minutes it was easy to walk on the even floor of the cave. Then they had to climb over piles of rocks and go around huge boulders. But the hardest thing to do was to climb up a rock to a small crevice that opened up pretty high in the cave wall. The climb was steep, and the uneven surface of the rock was iced over. Lemonade flew up the wall easily. Lu, strangely enough, also turned out to be a nimble rock-climber. But Allie had a hard time. She had to plan out her steps very carefullyin order to avoid slipping and falling down. Several times her foot slipped on the icy rock. It seemed that she was close to falling, but then the girl would miraculously pull herself up and continue the climb. Finally she made it up to the crevice. It was completely dark, but now she knew that she could use the viamulator as a flashlight, and she didn’t hesitate to turn it on. The crevice was very narrow, too narrow for two people to pass by each other, and sometimes the walls were so close together that Allie had to squeeze through sideways.

“Lemonade,” Allie asked, feeling anxious, “are you sure that we are going the right way? Is there really a way out ahead?”

“There must be. I feel a stream of fresh air.”

That’s when Allie realized that she had been feeling a light cool breeze on her face for some time now. “So, I didn’t imagine it”, she thought with relief.

Meanwhile, the walls of the cave almost closed in, and the only way forward was to crawl on the floor through the hole that opened at the very bottom. Lemonade and Lu didn’t have to crawl, but Allie’s progress was slow. Fortunately, she didn’t have to crawl for a long time, otherwise she’d not only have torn her jeans, but also skinned her elbows and knees on the sharp rocks on the floor. The passage ended a few feet ahead, where a large boulder blocked the way. Its edges were not completely flush with the walls, and there were broad gaps on the sides. Gusts of cool air burst into the crevice through the gaps with a low humming sound. Sometimes the gusts were stronger, and the hum sounded more like whistling.

Allie put her hand on the boulder and felt it move slightly. She tried to push it, and it clearly made a little lunge forward.

“Well, guys, I think this is the exit,” Allie turned to Lu and Lemonade. “Let’s push.”

They leaned on the boulder together. It gave way and then suddenly lurched forward and downward. None of the three friends expected that, and they tumbled after the boulder into the dark.

***

There was a real storm outside: the wind was howling, the rain was beating down heavily, from time to time blinding flashes of lightning, orange and green, pierced the darkness, and then peals of thunder shook the sky and the ground. There was a burning smell in the air.

Allie had tumbled down a rather steep rocky slope and was now on the ground, clutching the branches of some kind of bush. Fortunately, she wasn’t hurt by the fall – her Dad had trained her well for all kinds of emergencies, and, while falling, she’d been able to draw her knees up and roll into a ball. None the less, she still had a couple of bruises on her arms and legs.

But it wasn’t the bruises that troubled the girl at the moment. Lu and Lemonade were missing. Allie tried to call them, but her cries were drowned by the rain, wind and deafening thunder. The lightning strikes came with surprising regularity: first green, then orange, and then green and orange again. It looked as if someone had turned on a gigantic strobe light up in the sky that accompanied the violent melody of the storm.

Allie kept holding on to the bush with one hand and covered her face with the other, and then looked around. the flashes of lightning were brief, but she managed to see that she was lying at the foot of a mountain the top of which was covered in thick, low stormclouds. The slope was less steep towards the bottom, there were trees growing there, and further down she saw a real forest. No matter how hard she looked, she couldn’t see Lu or Lemonade anywhere near, but she did notice something alarming: from time to time here and there rocks rolled down the hill. Most of them were small, but some were large enough to cause trouble. Allie realized that it was unsafe to stay there any longer. She let go of the bush and carefully climbed down to the trees. Catching her breath under one of them and trying to call the cat and the monkey, the girl made her way towards the forest. Lu and Lemonade might have taken cover there.

The forest was moaning in the wind, broken branches were snapping and crashing all around. But the peals of thunder seemed more muffled. Allie scrambled through the thick undergrowth and kept calling her friends. It was all in vain; the only answer was the howl of wind in the trees. Once the girl thought that somebody answered her calls. Allie froze and listened hard; indeed, there was something else out there besides the storm. It was a distant sound, powerful and measured, like the breath of a giant animal. But her friends were still not answering.

Allie didn’t know how long she’d been wandering around the forest. She was completely lost and stumbled along, almost completely exhausted. Finally she tripped over a tree root and fell down onto the wet grass. She was close to fainting. “I can’t go any further”, she thought. “Too bad, I’m gonna get an earache again.”

And then Allie felt the earth move under her. It seemed that its surface was rippled by waves like the sea, and the waves were growing with every second. Allie was scared and tried to get up, but then she felt the ground leap up beneath her. The girl was thrown into the air, and then she fainted.

6. ALLIE MEETS UNCLE ZAND

Allie opened her eyes and closed them again: the golden sun was shining straight in her face. Trying to hide from it, she sat up in bed. Yes, she was on a bed, or, rather, a small wooden settee with a nice carved back. It sat by a window in a spacious sunlit room with the same kind of carved wooden furniture. The window was cracked open, and the lacy curtain was moving slightly in the fresh morning breeze. The golden sunray broke through its delicate pattern and cheerfully danced on the pillow.

“That’s what woke me up”, Allie thought and smiled. She felt peaceful and rested. Looking around, she noticed that her clothes were clean, dry, and neatly folded on a chair near her bed. Allie dressed quickly and went over to the table by the other window. There was a skillet with steaming fried eggs and pink juicy-looking ham. Next to the skillet she saw a big sliced loaf of fresh golden-yellow bread with an appetizingly crunchy crust, a big mug of milk and a bowl of jam. Only then, looking at this bountiful spread and inhaling its divine aromas, Allie realized how starved she was. Unable to wait any longer, she sat down and dug in. She reasoned that since she’d been so well taken care of, then surely the breakfast was meant for her, too.

When she was full, the girl came up to the window, drew the curtain aside and opened the window wide. For a moment she froze in astonishment and delight: the window faced a real garden, but what a garden it was! There were flowers of all shapes and colors right by the window. A little further down, there were short bushy trees, some of them covered in blossoms, others – in young green fruit, and still others bent down their heavy branches laden with ripe fruits. The fruits were of unusual kinds: round, diamond-shaped, flat like a wheel, pear-shaped, and even some that looked like big striped doughnuts.

The garden was filled with such fragrant aromas that Allie felt a little dizzy. She went to the opposite window and stopped, stupefied: it was the land’s end. That is, she could see an empty grassy area with some shrubbery here and there. It ended about two hundred feet away, and there was nothing else beyond it, only a strangely-colored sky.