Alistair Grim's Odditorium (17 page)

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Did Mr. Grim intend for us to pass through that hole in the sky?

Prince Nightshade’s steeds were almost upon us, and for the first time I could clearly see the prince’s face looming up behind them—a bottomless black pit with only a pair of
glowing red eyes beneath an open, black-crowned helmet.

A blue light began flashing on Mr. Grim’s pipe organ.

“Hang on, everybody,” he said. “Here we
gooooo
!”

The Black Fairy shrieked.

The steeds spit fire.

And as Prince Nightshade raised his whip, the glowing red gash that was his mouth stretched apart into a deafening, black-fanged roar of “MINE!”

I froze in terror, certain that my soul had just been snatched from my body—but then the prince brought down his whip, and in a burst of thunder and lightning the Odditorium shook
violently, knocking me once again to the floor.

Dazed, I thought for certain I was dead. Everything had become peaceful and glowing, as if the world had been enveloped in a brilliant white mist.

Mr. Grim rushed over to his pipe organ.

“I’m here!” he cried, gazing out over the balcony. “I’m here!”

I tried to scramble to my feet, but the Odditorium suddenly lurched forward and knocked me back down.

A great
whoosh
sucked the air from my lungs.

And before I could breathe again, everything went black.

W
hen I came to, I found myself sitting on the floor with my ears ringing and my head thick with cobwebs. I tried to shake them off, and discovered
Mr. Grim on the floor beside me shaking off his cobwebs too.

“Are we dead, sir?” I asked.

Mr. Grim shot me a look of surprise, then scrambled to his feet and gazed out over his organ. The shield was gone now and the wind whipped freely across the balcony.

“I was there, Elizabeth,” Mr. Grim whispered to himself. “I was there.”

Elizabeth?
This was not the first time I’d heard that name—Lord Dreary had mentioned an Elizabeth this morning in the library, hadn’t he? But then I noticed Mr.
Grim’s eyes, sad and distant, as if he was longing for something out there in the sky.

“Is everything all right, sir?” I asked tentatively.

Mr. Grim looked startled at first, then smiled and motioned for me to approach the balustrade.

I could hardly believe my eyes. The sky was clear and blue. And far below the Odditorium I spied an endless sea of rolling whitecaps. I had never seen the sea before, but nonetheless knew what I
was looking at. And I must confess that seeing it for the first time awed me as much as anything I’d seen at Mr. Grim’s.

“Congratulations, Master Grubb,” he said. “You have just successfully navigated an interdimensional space jump.”

I looked up at him dumbstruck and he gave me a wink.

“Cleona?” he called, flicking on his talkback. “Cleona, are you there?”

“I’m here, Uncle,” she replied. “Is everyone all right?”

“Not sure yet, but how are you faring?”

“Pshaw, nothing I can’t handle. Although, I am a bit sapped, I must admit.”

“I can imagine. The space jump has all but drained the Odditorium’s animus. Something to do with the balance of spiritual energies, do you think?”

“Forgive me, Uncle, but my brain’s too gooey now for thinking scientifically.”

“Forgive
me
for being insensitive. Yes, you must rest before you recharge the animus. We’ll get by on the reserves until you’re ready, and then you and I will have to
figure out a way to stay longer next time.”

“Very well, then,” Cleona said with a yawn.

“And thank you, love.”

“You’re welcome, Uncle.”

“Gwendolyn?” Mr. Grim said, flicking another switch on the talkback. “Are you there?”

“I’m here, twig!” the Yellow Fairy snapped crossly. “But don’t you dare ask me to start spinning again—my head’s gone all loopy, thanks to
you!”

“By all means, rest. We’ve more than enough of your fairy dust to remain airborne. You’ve gotten us out of quite a scrape, and I’ll be sure to have Mrs. Pinch bring you
down some chocolates.”

“Oooh!” Gwendolyn said, and Mr. Grim flicked off his talkback.

“Oooh, indeed,” he said to me. “Never met a fairy who didn’t like chocolate.”

I was just about to ask if Cleona was a fairy too, but then Lord Dreary called out, “Alistair! Where the devil are you, Alistair Grim?”

“Oh dear,” said Mr. Grim, and I followed him into the library to find Lord Dreary, still in his samurai helmet, entering with Mrs. Pinch.

“Great poppycock!” the old man shouted. “Would you mind telling me what in blazes all that was about?”

“What in blazes was what all about?”

Lord Dreary pointed frantically at the balcony. “
That!
Out there!”

“Just an interdimensional space jump. Nothing to be alarmed about.”

“A
what
?”

Mr. Grim crossed to the table that held the pitcher and silver goblets.

“Mrs. Pinch,” he said, righting one of the goblets, “after you take Gwendolyn her chocolates, would you mind bringing up that bottle of Asterian nectar I’ve been saving?
I’d like to make a toast in honor of the Odditorium’s maiden voyage.”

“If I can find it amongst all your other bottles,” said Mrs. Pinch.

“A toast?” asked Lord Dreary. “Maiden voyage, did you say?”

“And when you see Nigel,” Mr. Grim continued, ignoring him, “please be sure he inspects the gunneries for leaks before the two of you join us down here for a drink.”

“Yes, sir,” said Mrs. Pinch, and she was gone.

“Made only a bit of a mess,” said Mr. Grim, picking up his spinning top from the floor. “Nothing broken, as far as I can tell.”

“Nothing broken?” Lord Dreary said, storming over to the desk. “Flying all over London with skeletons and black fairies! An armored devil trying to whip us to shreds, and you
say nothing’s broken? How about
your word
, man?”

“My word?”

“Maiden voyage, indeed!” Lord Dreary thundered with his fists on the desk. “I heard what you said. All your talk of drills! You’ve been planning to leave London all
along. You swindled me you—you—
charlatan
!”

“How dare you, sir!” cried Mr. Grim, aghast.

Lord Dreary’s cheeks huffed and puffed like a blacksmith’s bellows, and then he collapsed into a chair. He made to drag his handkerchief across his brow, but upon finding the black
samurai helmet still on his head, he jumped and sputtered and flung the helmet across the room.

“Please try to understand,” said Mr. Grim, sitting on the edge of his desk. “After discovering what I’m about to tell you, I had no choice but to make a temporary change
of plans.”

“Oh, Alistair,” sighed Lord Dreary, fingering his collar. “Alistair, Alistair, what have you done?”

“To be sure, I never meant to swindle you. And you have my word as a gentleman that I shall pay back every cent I owe you. You must believe me, old friend.”

Lord Dreary dragged his handkerchief across his head. “After what I’ve seen today, I don’t know what to believe.”

“Very well,” Mr. Grim began, crossing to the fireplace. “As you know, for some time now I have been traveling the world collecting Odditoria. What you
do
not
know, however, is that the word
Odditoria
, at once both singular and plural, is used to classify any object living, inanimate, or otherwise that is believed to possess magical
powers.”

“Did you say
magical
powers?”

“That I did.”

“Then the rumors are true,” said Lord Dreary in astonishment. “You
are
a mad sorcerer!”

“Madness notwithstanding, I suppose I am deserving of such a title. But my interest in Odditoria has been mostly scientific. After all, when one understands the science behind a magical
object, one can harness its power for practical use.”

Mr. Grim pressed a button on the mantel, and the lion head with the glowing red eyes immediately swung open to reveal a hidden compartment behind it. At the center of the compartment was a
miniature version of the glass sphere contraption down in the engine room. However, instead of a fairy, inside the sphere floated a glowing red orb about the size of a billiard ball.

“Behold the Eye of Mars,” said Mr. Grim. Standing on his tippy-toes, he opened a small porthole and removed the orb from the glass sphere.

My eyes grew wide and my jaw gaped. The lightning from the gunnery cannons, the fires in the ovens and engine room furnaces, even the soot in the chimneys had nothing to do with the lion’s
head. All of it had come from this little, glowing red ball!

“Good heavens,” said Lord Dreary. “You mean to tell me that is—”

“The source of the Odditorium’s firepower,” said Mr. Grim. “You see, according to a little known legend, Mars, the Roman god of war, was said to have given a magical
weapon to each of his twin sons, Romulus and Remus, so that they would always be equal in power. These weapons were known as the Eyes of Mars.”

“And by Romulus and Remus, you mean the legendary founders of Rome?”

“Very good, Lord Dreary. However, according to the legend, Romulus still managed to kill his brother Remus, steal his Eye of Mars, and name the city of Rome after himself. Incensed by this
treachery, Mars took back both his Eyes and buried them separately somewhere deep within the Earth. Just another Roman legend, scholars thought.
I
, on the other hand…”

Mr. Grim smiled modestly and offered the orb to Lord Dreary, but the old man hesitated to take it.

“Go ahead,” said Mr. Grim. “I assure you that, even in its activated state, the Eye of Mars is quite harmless unless one knows how to use it.”

Lord Dreary tentatively took the Eye of Mars in his hands, his face instantly glowing red as he stared down at the orb in amazement. “It’s warm.”

“Quite an effective source of heat on a cold London evening,” said Mr. Grim, nodding. “And so you see, Lord Dreary, the Eye of Mars is only one of three magical entities for
which I have built conductors to harness their power.”

“You mean there are other conductors here inside the Odditorium? Contraptions with which you harness the yellow and blue energy, too?”

“Precisely.”

“Hang on,” Lord Dreary said. “Your trip to the North Country—Gwendolyn, the girl you told to get into the sphere—you can’t possibly mean—”

“You are correct, old friend. The legendary Yellow Fairy. Her magic dust, harnessed in one of my conductor spheres, gives the Odditorium its power to fly. I’ll introduce the two of
you shortly.”

Stunned, Lord Dreary again dragged his handkerchief across his brow. I could tell the old man’s head was spinning, but it all made perfect sense to me. Different kinds of Odditoria gave
you different kinds of energy. Yellow flying energy came from Gwendolyn. Red blasting energy came from the Eye of Mars. And blue mechanical energy came from…Well, that was the question now,
wasn’t it? Where
did
the blue energy come from?

Mr. Grim waved his hand over the orb, and upon uttering a strange incantation, the glow from the Eye of Mars went out.