It was late evening. In the distance, Braddle could hear voices. They were laughing. The sun, yet to begin its final roll over the horizon, caused everything to ripple with a slow, summer warmth. Braddle felt as if a brick wall had been built around him, close and impenetrable. He yearned to run through the warmth, to throw himself down within it, to join in with the laughter…but he could not. He listened to the voices in the hope that their sound would offer him an aural escape route but they did not; they were moving away, receding into the past. Drostfur had not spoken since they had been locked in his office. He sat in silence behind his desk staring at an invisible point on the opposite wall. Braddle looked at him, waiting for him to do something, willing him to do something, but it looked like he would sit there all night, unmoving. Braddle’s stomach made a loud noise, which sounded, in part, like a loud squawk and a loud croak. Drostfur turned his head and looked at Braddle. He laughed.
“Hungry Braddle?” he asked.
“Starving” Braddle replied.
“Me too.”
Drostfur rose from his chair and went to the door. He hit it hard with the side of his fist. The door opened and a soldier appeared.
“Given that it is not your intention, I presume, to starve us to death I would be grateful if you could supply us with some food.”
The soldier hesitated, unsure what to do.
“At once!” ordered Drostfur.
“Yes sir” the soldier replied and closed the door.
“What are we going to do?” asked Braddle.
“Well, I think we should eat first” said Drostfur. “Don’t worry. We are not beaten yet.”
The soldier returned with a tray laden with bread, larva meat, fruit pieces and leaf juice. He placed the tray on the desk.
“Do you agree with this crazy plan of the traitor Stoo?” Drostfur asked the soldier. The soldier looked nervous but did not respond.
“You need to think hard about what you are doing” Drostfur told him. “The traitor will fail, I have no doubt about that. You need to decide whether you want to be brought down by his treachery or whether you will honour the uniform that you wear and stand with the Council and people of Carporoo.”
The soldier, head bowed, closed the office door without replying and turned the key.
“A good man, I think” said Drostfur. “Well, let’s eat up. There’s more than enough for everyone.”
As they were finishing off the last of the food two soldiers appeared at the window carrying a large sheet of wood. Without acknowledging the prisoners inside they placed the sheet up against the window and proceeded to secure it to the frame with hammer and nails. Braddle tried to keep a count of the nails used but he lost track after the fourteenth one. Drostfur lit the lamp that was on his desk and then sat back in his chair, calmly waiting for them to finish. When the last nail had gone in Braddle felt that all hope had, at last, gone out.
“Where were we?” asked Drostfur. “Ah yes, our plan of action.”
“What possible action plan could we have?” said Braddle. “General Stoo has got us locked up and he has a giant helping him.”
“Yes, I heard. Well, we have to stop him, do we not, and get your mother back in to the bargain? The mystery of her disappearance is solved, I think.”
Braddle shrugged his shoulders and sighed.
“At least we have to try.”
“I suppose” said Braddle.
“After giving it some thought,” continued Drostfur, “you need to speak to your giant and enlist his help. Only he can defeat this other giant. Do you think that he will agree to do this?”
“He has already agreed to help me find my mother” said Braddle “but whether he will do this, I don’t know.”
“Well, you must convince him” said Drostfur. “Before you speak with him you must go to your uncle first and tell him what has happened. We need to defeat Stoo ourselves and we need a fighting force to do so. Tell him he needs to assemble, in secret, as many trusted men and women as possible and await my orders. If he needs to contact me tell him I will be staying with Ipitch (though Ipitch has yet to learn of this honour). I, in turn, will await news from you on the success or failure of your giant. You can contact me through your uncle. Is that clear?”
“Yes” said Braddle “it is clear but aren’t you forgetting something. We are prisoners of General Stoo and are locked in your office. How are we to do all this? By magic?”
Drostfur laughed.
“No, of course not. Come here and I will show you.”
Braddle went round the desk and stood with Drostfur in front of the large wall map depicting the new city of Carporoo. Down one side of the map hung a cord. Drostfur pulled the cord and the map rolled upwards revealing a door.
“There is an empty storage room on the other side of this door” said Drostfur. “High up on the far wall there is a small window. Though small, the window is nevertheless large enough for both of us to climb through. Once through it will be quite easy to make our escape.” Drostfur let the map roll back down. “We will wait though until night has quietened things down a bit more.”
At first, Braddle did not take notice of the fact that Drostfur had a secret storage room. All he saw, at first, was an escape route. As he sat down and savoured the feeling that his situation was no longer hopeless, a question asked itself in his mind ‘Why does Drostfur have a secret room attached to his office? What could it be for?’ Normally, he would not have dared to ask Counsellor Drostfur why he had or did anything but given that they were both about to embark on a prison break and that he had an important part to play in Drostfur’s plan to defeat General Stoo he felt that he had earned the right to know. He was about to ask the question but Drostfur spoke first.
“Get some sleep Braddle. You have got a busy night ahead of you and you need to rest. I will wake you when it is time to go.”
Drostfur arranged the canvas sheets on the floor.
“You can lie here” he said. “I will use it after you have gone.”
“Why, aren’t you coming with me?” asked Braddle.
“I will give you a couple of hours head start” said Drostfur. “That should give you enough time to do what you need to do. The city will be swarming with soldiers once Stoo discovers that we have gone.”
Braddle lay down and wrapped the sheet around him. How could he sleep? General Stoo is the…speak to Alfie…get mother back…His eyelids crashed shut.