Free Floods 8 by Colin Thompson Page B

ordinary people went from street to street ripping up all the drain covers and freeing the Dirt People, who had spent so long trapped beneath them. Hundreds of children had been born in the drains and had known no other world. Now they staggered around in the bright gloom rubbing their eyes in disbelief. So it was true, all those stories their parents had told them about ‘above’ had not been made up after all.
    Within thirty-five minutes of the news ofTransylvania Waters’ liberation spreading across the town, twenty-seven people were being treated for broken legs from falling down open manholes.
    Within one day of the news of Transylvania Waters’ liberation spreading across the town, all the drain covers were put back, but with nice easy-open handles and no padlocks.
    Within two days of the news of Transylvania Waters’ liberation spreading across the entire country, seventeen people were being treated for broken ankles from tripping over the easy-open handles on the drains.
    As readers of all the seven earlier Floods books will have realised, Nerlin was never a wizard of any real talent. He was kind-hearted, well intentioned and a caring, loving husband and father for sure, but not a genius. With the banishment of the usurper King Quatorze, and the throne being returned to the rightful king of Transylvania Waters – Nerlin, descendant of Merlin – all that changed.
    Now that Quatorze was gone and the Dirt People who had been imprisoned down in thedrains were free again and back above ground, all the spells King Quatorze’s evil witches had cast over them vanished. Not only had the King made the Dirt People forget their glorious past and how they were the rightful rulers of the land, he had also spread Hatred Spells on all those above ground to make them despise Merlin and his followers.
    Everyone above ground now felt so guilty at how they had treated the Dirt People that they showered them with gifts of hand-woven calico underpants and envelopes of pressed flowers, the second and third most prized gifts in the whole of Transylvania Waters. 40
    When Nerlin was a very young child his father, Merlin the 84th, had cast a Not-Very-Bright Spell over him for his own protection. 41 If he hadn’t done this, Nerlin would probably have become a rebel and tried to reclaim the throne that should have been his family’s, and as King Quatorze hadsurrounded himself with dozens of evil cronies and spies, Nerlin would undoubtedly have been captured, tortured and turned into a sticky residue at the bottom of Lake Tarnish, like many of the King’s other enemies.
    â€˜Besides,’ Merlin the 84th had said, ‘Nerlin is far too young to be clever. It would only get him into trouble even if he didn’t try to overthrow the King.’
    So the spell was cast. Nerlin immediately forgot his nine times table and how to tie his shoelaces. His mother realised her precious son had suddenly changed from a bright spark to a weak, but pretty, candle and put it down to the overwhelmingly depressing atmosphere of living in the drains, or something he had eaten. Merlin hadn’t told his wife what he had done, just in case she blurted it out by mistake at a coffee morning. 42
    Nerlin grew up as happy as any other young person living in the dismal gloom of a slime-coated drain – which is to say, Nerlin grew up in a trance with a little voice in the back of his head that kept telling him life should be better than this. But everyone else was in the same boat, 43 so they allaccepted it, especially the children, who had never known anything else.

    But now, with King Quatorze banished to Rockall and the passing of time having made Nerlin a lot older, Merlin decided it was time for his son to become clever again.
    Of course, Merlin should have taken over as King, but he was a wise man and realised that he was too old to lead the country. 44 Besides, all the years of being trapped in the drains had