‘Er, yes, yes, I have heard that tale too, thank you.’
Luna felt ashamed that her carelessness had been so innocently pointed out to her.
‘Now, if it’s tales you’re after, the best person for that – well, house, rather than person – would be that once magnificent figure over there.’
With a slight movement of his eyes, along with the curtains and the vases in the windows, he indicated the wrecked building alongside them. Close up, it was obvious that at one time it had indeed been a remarkable structure, reaching up far higher than Luna would have thought possible. Now it looked dangerous, being close to collapse.
‘Do you think he – or should that be she? – could have seen anyone pass by?’ Rouger asked.
The house shook slightly, just as a man or woman might shake their head.
‘Her memories are all over the place, all mixed up, I’m afraid.’ The house sighed. ‘Such a shame: each room, at one time, had a tale to tell.’
‘I don’t suppose any of those tales would be of any use to us anyway,’ Rouger said, now bored and eager to be on his way.
‘The Fay Queen took one of my friends, you see,’ Luna admitted miserably.
The house gasped.
‘Didn’t he – I assume it is a he! – didn’t he ever listen to any of those tales warning all children to beware of the Fay Queen?
‘Yes, yes; but I was responsible too,’ Luna replied honestly. ‘Neither of us ran when we saw her.’
‘Well, if you climbed somewhere very high up, you might be able to see the roads she might have taken.’
‘Is it safe?’
Rouger looked towards the towering yet creaking building uncertainly. Luna grinned; if Rouger felt wary of climbing it, it must be very dangerous!
The house had also noticed that Rouger was glancing warily at the derelict house.
‘The old house? Of course it isn’t safe! I didn’t mean climb her! I meant you could climb the princess’s high tower.’
‘There’s another high building around here?’
Luna looked about her, stretching up on her toes, trying to see the very top of a high tower through the encircling trees.
‘Not exactly: I’m not really quite sure exactly where it is. But if I told you the tale of the princess and her tower, it might contain some clues as to how you can get there.’
*
Chapter 13
The House that Wouldn’t Stop Growing
Time was when children amused themselves, using their own incredibly vivid imaginations to conjure up entirely new worlds.
Whenever Jill played with Jack in the crude tree house they’d built, she would imagine that it was a small, delightful cottage in which they would eventually raise the many children they would have together.
Jack, however – flattering himself that he was by far the more imaginative of the two of them – regarded the small, wooden construction as a vast and towering palace, one from which he could look out over the kingdom he wisely ruled.
Now the kingdom they lived in, unfortunately, wasn’t wisely ruled. In fact the king, seeking to build his own great palace, taxed the people cruelly. And whenever a village found itself unable to pay the increasingly onerous taxes, he would send in armed men to punish them, burning their homes and either destroying of stealing the crops in the fields.
One day, it was the village that Jack and Jill lived in that had to pay this most heavy of prices. The men the king sent to punish the villagers were ruthless, going about their task of burning the village with obvious glee. No home was left untouched. The entire village was left homeless and destitute.
The only building the king’s men had missed was Jack’s rudely built tree house. Of course, the entire village couldn’t hope to seek shelter in such a small building, but Jill had such an incredibly big heart that she insisted everyone should at least try and find themselves some space within the spreading branches of the great tree in which they had made their play home. As she pointed out, the countless leaves would keep the rain off their heads, while the thick trunk and branches would ensure they weren’t suffering the cold leaching up from the bare earth.
Using the materials they salvaged from the wreck of their village, the villagers moved into the tree, rebuilding their homes amongst its surprisingly many branches. Strangely, no matter how many people climbed up into the tree, it seemed to constantly grow and spread out its already considerable reach, accommodating everyone seeking shelter in its warm embrace.
The building work, of course, was confused and continuous, yet many people kept it to themselves – for fear of being deemed a little loose in the head – that extra rooms or connecting stairs to other homes had appeared as if by magic from nowhere. In fact, the innumerable stairways, bridges and curving pathways that began to appear, linking every home in the most unimaginably elaborate ways, drew everything together until it more resembled one gigantic building rather than a village.
As the tree and the house grew, so, of course, did Jack and Jill. Many young boys of the village began to tentatively ask the increasingly beautiful Jill for her hand in marriage, but she refused them all: her heart, as it had always been, was set on Jack.
Jack, however, put his own heart into building the already towering structure ever higher. In line with his own dream, he included verandas from which he and Jill could look out over the kingdom: of course, it wasn’t his kingdom, but in a way it was his in that only he could see the whole land in its entirety.
Then one day, as he was building the tower higher still, he spotted another tower that was being built far away. He rushed down to one of the many rooms, a room that like so many others had just suddenly appeared one day. This one, however, with its unusually complicated devices for mapmaking and charting courses, contained exactly what he required; a telescope.
Peering through the telescope while standing on his own tower’s highest balcony, Jack saw that the new tower was still being built, still rising within the midst of its trembling skeleton of wooden scaffolding. This new tower also had its own balcony, its own curious observer, viewing the surrounding land through a telescope.
This new observer was very different from himself, however.
She was a princess. And the most beautiful princess he had ever seen.
(Not that he had ever seen any princess before – but you know what we mean.)
As Jack continued to stare, amazed by her beauty and grace, she continued to survey the kingdom through her spy glass. Suddenly, she turned his way: and gasped as she caught him watching her.
She lowered her telescope. Now that he could see her face plainly, Jack knew that he had been right to think she was the most beautiful person he had ever seen. Her mouth was as red as the most succulent apple, her hair as golden as the sun that regularly kissed its soft surface.
That delicious mouth fell open in shock. She urgently called out to the people around her, excitedly pointing Jack’s way.
She had seen him, Jack realised, and fallen in love with him: just as he had fallen in love with her.
*
Soon, the scaffolding surrounding the newly rising tower had been extended, reaching far higher than before. The number of men dangerously scrambling through this maze of woodwork had also increased, such that the tower began to quickly rise once again.
Jack’s heart fluttered excitedly when he saw that the builders were constructing a new, higher balcony. Of course, this new balcony was smaller than the first one, as the extended part of the tower was much thinner than the previously constructed section. Still, however, there was more than enough room for the beautiful princess to stand on it, to peer at her father’s kingdom though the spy glass.
Once again, she directed the telescope Jack’s way. Once again, she gasped excitedly when she saw him looking her way with his own spy glass. Once again, the princess shouted down excitedly to the people around her.
Jack had also had to increase the height of his tower, the
tree – as always – growing to accommodate any change in the building’s already immense structure. If Jack hadn’t built on a few more rooms and stairways, he wouldn’t have been able to see the princess, for the tree’s countless leaves and branches would have blocked his view.
In fact, these days Jack spent most of his time addling extra floors to the building. Either that, or he surveyed the rising of the new tower through his telescope, hoping for another glimpse of the princess.
The princess’s new tower and its veils of increasingly rickety scaffolding continued to rise, the newer sections narrower than ever, each additional level becoming ever smaller. The princess was crammed tightly into the balcony walls of the very latest addition, hardly able to move.
Her mouth opened in awe when she saw that Jack was still able to view her from his own swiftly rising construction of wood, stone, brick and glass.
Hearing of the safety offered by the tree, the people from other villages destroyed by the king’s men had sought shelter there, adding their own complex of new homes, rooms and soaring stairways. The building was now so vast that it was easy for anyone unsure of where they were heading to get lost among its many rooms and roadways. Few people knew their way around the entire structure, with most satisfying themselves with a sound knowledge of the neighbourhood where they lived.
One day, a large troop of the king’s men arrived at the main doorway to the house, demanding permission to enter.
‘Of course you can come in,’ Jill answered innocently.
The king’s captain observed the vast house with suspicion. He was obviously surprised by its sheer size. He realised they could end up searching it for ever and still not find what they had been sent to retrieve, by order of the king.
If they failed to do as the king had commanded, it would be foolish to return empty handed.
‘Who’s the man in charge of this house?’ the captain growled worriedly.
‘That would be Jack,’ Jill replied innocently. ‘I’ll fetch him for you.’
Of course, the king’s men had to wait a whole day while Jill rose up through the great tower to tell Jack that the soldiers were waiting for him. They had to wait another day while Jack made his way down to greet them.
‘We have been commanded by the king to take back the secret of this great tower’s rise,’ the captain imperiously informed Jack.
‘There is no secret,’ Jack answered innocently.
‘The king’s greatest soothsayers and wizards have declared that the secret is a golden apple that grows amongst this great tree’s branches,’ the captain insisted. ‘If you refuse to hand this golden apple over to us, we have orders to burn your whole tower down.’
‘I don’t know of any golden apple,’ Jack replied truthfully. ‘But you and your many men are sure to find it if you search for it,’ he added, indicating with a wave of his hand that they were free to enter.
Of course, Jack’s house was no longer approached by a crude ladder. A gracefully curving road ran up to the great doors that you now entered the house by.
Spurring their horses on, the king’s troop rode up the curving road, swinging in through the great doors – and were never seen or heard from ever again.
It wasn’t long, of course, before rumours began to circulate that the king’s men had foolishly headed towards the more dangerous parts of the building. That is, those sections that had been added on by gnomes, goblins, and even giants. In one far section of the tower, it was told, there was a constant roaring, which many believed could only come from a family of dragons.
No one, however, believed the fairy story that a whale had also set up home amongst the great tree’s branches. There was a vast lake, the story went, lying within the hollow formed where the tree’s incredibly thick trunk forked into a number of only slightly thinner offshoots. Then again, no one doubted the existence of the aqueducts that brought precious water down from the streams and waterfalls that ran everywhere through the higher branches.
By the time Jack had at last once more ascended to the top of the tower, a large number of these branches had grown around his balcony, cutting off his clear view of the princess’s tower. By the time he built on a further extension, allowing him to see over the surrounding branches, the princess’s own tower had also risen considerably. Now, however, the princess was seated precariously on nothing more than a wooden seat, fixed to the top of a soaring spire that was little more than a trembling ladder.
Jack gasped in horror, fearing for the poor girl’s life.
*
One month later, a wondrous fanfare of trumpets announced the arrival of a royal procession at the base of the tree.
Jack was already excitedly waiting by his tower’s great doors. He had first spotted the procession a week ago, catching glimpses of it as it had wound its way through the woods towards them.
He watched as they had to take a detour, calling in at well-known smithy to have all the horses shod, for they had already travelled far. He hoped they had sufficient payment, for he was well aware that this was no ordinary smithy, one that accepted gold or silver. The owners would insist that they were paid only in fairy magic, some uniquely precious object that would provide the owner with great powers.
Since spotting the princess that very first day, Jack had asked many questions about her and her father the king. From the many villagers who now lived in his house, he had learned that the king and his daughters owned many magical objects, including a bed that restored youth to anyone sleeping in it, and a mirror that showed you where to find those responsible for all your problems.
Surely though, Jack had worried anxiously as he saw the king’s retinue stop at the notorious smithy, they wouldn’t have these precious objects with them as they travelled? He had breathed a sigh of relief as the procession had continued on its way, thankful that they must have had some fairy device to use as payment after all.
And now here they were, the king’s men in their finest livery, their pennants gaily flying from their rigidly-upright lances. The king’s carriage glittered as if of gold, the horses drawing it delicately cantering as if sternly trained to ignore how tired they were.
Several footmen rushed to open the carriage’s door as it slowed to a halt, dropping steps into place as they did so. The king stepped from the carriage, staring up at the towering building with undisguised distaste.
‘Oh, it’s not anywhere near as beautiful as our palace, Delafeana!’ the King sneered with a fleeting glance back into the carriage’s interior. ‘All this way, just to see such an atrocious mess!’
He briefly stayed by the carriage’s door to help his daughter the princess alight, offering her his hand.
When the princess stepped through the door, Jack thought his heart would explode with joy.
This close up, she seemed even more beautiful than ever. Seeing that he was gawping at her, the princess smiled graciously.
‘I wonder,’ she said, ever so sweetly, ‘if you could tell me the secret of your tower?’
‘Secret? There is no secret,’ Jack said, awestruck and wide-eyed.
‘Oh come, come,’ she chuckled gaily as, with a swish of her long, flowing dress, she moved closer to him, ‘you can tell me this secret, surely?’
‘If there were a secret, I would gladly tell you it!’ Jack gulped embarrassedly.
The princess fluttered her eyelashes, gazed into his eyes, tenderly touched his arm.
‘Please, Jack – I may call you Jack, mightn’t I? That’s what I’ve heard you’re called, after all. Jack, please: I do know that you have a fabulous golden apple here that causes your tower to endlessly grow!’
‘I should have it burnt down,’ the king proclaimed nonchalantly as he continued to scornfully look up at the tower. ‘It spoils the view from our palace!’
‘No papa!’ the princess snapped, whirling on her father. ‘Not until–’
Instantly calming, she turned to face Jack once more.
‘Not until,’
she continued, returning to her ever-so-sweet way of talking, ‘this incredibly handsome prince shows me where this golden apple lies within his glorious tower!’
‘Princess, I swear there aren’t any–’
‘Yes, there is.’ It was Jill. She had appeared alongside Jack. ‘I know where this golden apple is,’ she explained. ‘I can lead the princess to it, Jack: if you’re sure you want her to have it?’
‘Of course I’m sure,’ Jack said huffily, excited now by the joy on the princess’s face, yet irritated that Jill was only delaying things. ‘Why shouldn’t I let the princess have whatever she wants?’
Jill sighed sadly.
‘Follow me then,’ she said despondently. ‘Naturally, it’s at the very heart of the tower.’
*
They entered a small room, perhaps the smallest room in the entire building.
From the very centre of its ceiling, however, there hung the most wonderfully glowing golden apple. It grew from a curling tree stem, one protruding in through a hole in the wall and winding its way about most of the room.
Naturally, Jack failed to recognise that the crudely constructed room was that very first house he and Jill had constructed together. It was a room that had ascended higher and higher as the tree had grown, until it sat almost within the very centre of the huge building.
Unlike Jack, who hadn’t even remembered the room, let alone visited it, Jill had still continued to come here every day, pouring out her heart’s woes – for she had hoped that her life and Jack’s had turned out so very differently, of course.
‘It’s…it’s beautiful,’ the princess gasped in awe, her eyes lovingly and desirously locked on the glowing sphere. ‘I’ve never, ever seen anything like it!’
‘Neither have I, to be honest.’
Jack smiled joyously, pleased that the princess seemed so enthralled with his creation.
‘It’s always been here, Jack,’ Jill explained sadly. ‘It’s just that you’ve never noticed it.’