know what to say to this, but she still couldn’t trust the mask.
‘I’d still rather you didn’t put it on, Alex.’
Alex, bundled up in his thick overcoat, looked at the object in his hand.
The object looked back at him.
‘I guess you’re right. But I’m not giving him up. We’re brothers of the jungle, him and me.’
Alex slung the mask over his shoulder on a piece of cord and Makishi didn’t argue with the decision. He knew he had conquered Alex and that he would be carried wherever the boy went now.
‘What do you look like?’ she asked her brother, sighing, sounding very like Dipa. ‘Have you seen yourself?’
Alex ignored the criticism.
‘Time we were moving on, sis,’ he said, taking out his binoculars. ‘Heck, look at those villagers, scurrying around. You’d think that in a place like this there’d be nothing to do, wouldn’t you … Hello, hello!’
Chloe, who’d been packing her bag, stopped and looked at her brother.
‘What is it?’
‘Looks like a – I dunno – a swarm of ants or something – no, wait – they’re bigger than ants. They’re dolls of some kind. Heading towards the village by the look. They’ve got— you should see their faces. Talk about—hey,’ he removed the binoculars from his eyes, ‘I bet they’re coming to attack this village. Yeah, that’ll be it. We’ve got to warn them.’
Alex pulled on his pack quickly and began running towards the village of wardrobes.
‘Wait, Alex. You know we scare them.’
‘We’ve still got to warn them, Clo.’
Alex raced all the way, then ran through the village.
‘Alarm! Alarm!’ he yelled, not knowing what else to say. ‘Enemy on the horizon. Enemy approaching.’
Atticans came running out of their wardrobes and out of the book-built warehouse. One or two of them shrieked and hid their faces in their hands. Others came forward and waved Alex away with both hands, as if he were an escaped animal.
Alex pointed to the oncoming dolls. ‘Enemy on the way!’ he cried. ‘Arm yourselves.’
Chloe caught up to him now and added her own entreaties to those of her younger brother.
Now the Atticans saw the danger and indeed became alarmed. They ran back into their clothes storehouse. Chloe and Alex thought they had gone to hide, but they came running out again with shields and clubs. The shields were old fireguards made of bronze or iron mesh: perfect for protecting the bearers against a small oncoming enemy. The clubs were broom handles which they tested by swishing them through the air.
Alex and Chloe decided to leave the villagers to their battle and make their way on, deeper into the attic.
When Alex looked back, the villagers were doing extremely well. Their skill with the broom handles was almost the stuff of legend. That great Ancient Greek Achilles could have been among them, or the Trojan Hector, such was their talent for this type of fighting. Horrible, ugly dolls ran at them in dozens but the Atticans warded them off with their shields and swatted them, this way and that, with their staves. The villagers had formed a kind of fireguard tortoiseshell, which looked unbreachable. On a single command they took the initiative, moving forward. They forced the waves of barbarian dolls backwards, out on to the plain of boards. The villagers were obviously used to these raids and knew exactly how to cope with them.
Alex and Chloe hurried on, happy to leave the fight in capable hands.
CHAPTER 10
Punch and Judy, I Presume?
Having left the villagers to fight their battle, Alex and Chloe continued their safari across the boards of Attica in their search for the region where the ink imps lived among their writing bureaux. With their packs on their backs and the coat-muffled Alex continually consulting his compass, they managed to march in a straight line no matter in what direction the boards lay. They trusted to the compass and set their eyes on the far horizon.
For the moment though, they seemed to be in a wide long corridor, hemmed in with a roof that fell sharply from a high apex. Above and around them the timbers of the attic formed pillars and angled arches and Chloe had the distinct feeling of being inside a magnificent cathedral or temple. Certainly there were benches and chairs of all kinds, lining their route. Whether it was in her mind or in actuality, Chloe had a sense of walking through hallowed rooms and would not have been surprised if priests had appeared to admonish her and her brother for