"Respected soldiers, I have seen no boy," said Otus. "Search this room, if you must."
"We will," grunted Oddthumb. "Up, giant!"
Otus had barely risen from the bed when Oddthumb and his crew pushed it over. They slashed at the blankets, battered the straw mattress, tore off a cabinet door, turned over a thin rush mat, poked up the chimney, pulled charred wood from the fire, and hacked at
the floorboards. The frenzied attack lasted no more than ten minutes, and from his hiding place, Charlie saw a growing pile of ash and straw, broken pottery, and chunks of bread.
"Squirras!" cried one of the soldiers suddenly.
Charlie couldn't see what he had found. It must have been on the far side of the room.19"Greedy, greedy," said Oddthumb. "Six squirras for your breakfast, Otus?"
"I'm a giant." Otus sighed.
"We'll leave one, the smallest," Oddthumb said spitefully.
"I thank you," said Otus.
A soldier with a warty face came and stood directly under Charlie's spyhole. "No boy, here, General," he said. "In forest, maybe?"
"No boy, eh? No boy." Oddthumb paced across the room. He stopped beside Wart Face and looked up.
Charlie found himself staring into a stony gray eye. He dared not blink. He dared not breathe. His own eye began to ache as he held it wide open and unmoving. Could Oddthumb see him? Did he sense Charlie's presence, lying above? An urge to sneeze overcame Charlie. He pressed his lips together, brought his fingers slowly up to his face, and clamped them over his nose.20"Dreaded creatures up there," whispered Wart Face.
"Blancavamps! Maybe. Let us leave here, General."
"Blancavamps?" Oddthumb stroked his chin with a grotesque thumb, as big as his hand.
Charlie had difficulty in stifling a gasp.
"Have you got blancavamps, Otus?" asked Oddthumb.
"Sadly," said the giant, "they steal my sleep."
Oddthumb threw back his head and gave a hideous burbling chuckle. In a second the room was filled with gurgling laughter as soldiers echoed their general. The dreadful sound stopped abruptly the moment Oddthumb closed his mouth. Without another word the general marched out, followed by his troops.
Charlie listened to the stamp of heavy feet receding down the steps. A door at the foot of the tower clanged shut, and the soldiers began to march down the street. Charlie waited, breathlessly. He dared not move for fear one of the soldiers remained in the21room below. He could hear Otus setting his room to rights after the rough intrusion.
Long after the footsteps had faded, the giant finally came and grinned up at Charlie. "You are safe, boy. Be not afraid. I will get you down."
"Thanks," Charlie said huskily.
The giant pushed back the panel, saying, "Step onto my shoulders." He held up his arms and Charlie thrust his legs through the hole. Otus gently lifted him down and set him on the bed.
Charlie wriggled his aching shoulders and rubbed his arms. "I'm not sure how I got here,"
he said.
The giant pulled his chair up to the bed and sat down. Putting his head to one side, he regarded Charlie quizzically. "Your name?" he asked.
"Charlie Bone, sir."
"You are a traveler?"
"I... yes, I am sometimes. I can travel into photos and paintings." Observing the giant's puzzled frown, Charlie added quickly, "Photos are a bit difficult to explain, but I expect you know what a22painting is." The giant nodded. "Anyhow, this time it was different, my traveling, I mean. This time a painting has... kind of... captured me."
"Mmm." The giant nodded again. "My wife had a mirror that took her a-traveling."
"A mirror?" Charlie said excitedly. "My ancestor Amoret had a mirror. It caused a bit of trouble. Someone wanted it... an enchanter."
"Amoret was my wife!" The giant clutched Charlie's hand in his huge fist. "My name is Otus Yewbeam."
"Then... you're my ancestor, too." Charlie's gaze slid over the giant's long frame, from the crown of his head to the tip of his long foot. "Maybe I'll grow a bit."
The giant smiled. "I was this high when I was a boy." He held his hand about six feet from the ground.
"Oh," said Charlie, a little sadly.
"What is your century?" asked Otus.23"Um... twenty-first," said Charlie after a bit of thought.
"There are nine hundred years between us."
Charlie frowned. "I don't get it. I've never, ever come into the past this way. I was just looking at a painting; I saw mountains and towers, but no people, and then, suddenly, it was all around me."
"He is powerful," Otus said gravely. "He wanted you in Badlock."
"Who?"
"Count, enchanter, shadow; he has many names. He brought me here as a captive, twenty years ago, when my wife fled to her brother's castle." The giant's large eyes clouded for a moment, and he looked up at the fading light in the window. "He wanted Amoret. He wanted all the Red King's children. Five he won easily, they already walked the path of wickedness. The others: Amadis, Amoret, Guanhamara, Petrello, and Tolemeo - they fled the evil. It was Tolemeo who rescued my son, Roland, and for that the24shadow punished me. His soldiers relish torture. Now they let me bide in peace. I am forgotten, almost."
Charlie reminded the giant that today the soldiers had not let him bide in peace. "I've put you in danger," he said. "If they catch me... ?"
"No." The giant leaned forward, earnestly. "They will not catch you." He got up and strode over to a hearth set into a wide chimney breast. "Presently, we shall dine on squirra, boy."
"Oh, good." A note of anxiety crept into Charlie's voice. What is a squirra? he wondered.
The giant opened a small door in the wall and brought out a black, ratlike creature with an extremely long, hairless tail. "Only one." Otus sighed. "But it will suffice."
Charlie's stomach lurched. "If that's a squirra, what's a blancavamp?"
Otus chuckled. "They are what we, in our world, know as bats, but blancavamps are white as snow.25The people of Badlock believe them to be ghosts. But I am not afraid of them."
"Nor me." Charlie darted a quick look in the giant's direction. Otus was already skinning the squ-irra and, hoping it was something he would never need to do, Charlie looked quickly away. "Have you ever tried to get home again?" he asked the giant.
Otus gave a rueful smile. "My wife's brother Tolemeo tried a second time to rescue me, but Oddthumb and his ruffians caught us. Tolemeo was lucky to escape with his life. And knowing my wife had perished, I cared less and less how and where my life should end."
Charlie recalled the fleeting image of a beautiful woman smiling out from a mirrored wall, and a near-impossible plan began to take shape in his mind.
"Badlock is a country no one from our world can find," the giant continued. "No one but clever Tolemeo. It is an awful place. There is the eternal wind,26and then in winter there is a deluge. Water fills the land between the mountains, a fathom deep."
"It IS a boat, then." Charlie nodded at the wooden boat shape hanging on the wall.
"Indeed, a boat. There is no other place to live but in a tower."
"And where does the enchanter live?"
"In a dark fortress, a scar on the mountain. I'll show you." Dropping the meat into an iron pot, Otus wiped his hands on a rag tucked into his belt and, before Charlie could protest, lifted him up to the high window.
Night was falling fast, but the mountains were sharply outlined against a ribbon of pale green sky. Close to the top of the tallest mountain, flickering red lights could be seen and, behind them, a black shape capped with steep turrets.
"He is seldom there," said the giant, "but the fires burn constantly to remind his subjects that he is watching them."
Charlie shuddered. It had only just occurred to27him that he might be trapped in this hostile world forever. He was about to be lowered to the ground when he shouted, "Stop.
I see something."
A few feet away from the base of the giant's tower stood a large yellow dog. It was staring up at the window. When the dog caught Charlie's eye, it began to bark.