Free Goblin Quest by Philip Reeve Page A

letters.
    â€œI am not at all sure that ‘cushion’ is the right translation for that word,” said Fentongoose. “We are still working on it.”
    Dr Prong read on. “ For many years the peoples of these Isles have lived in terror of the dreadful Cushions which come from across the ocean from the land in the west. There is a bit missing here – we could pick out only a few words – ‘fire’, ‘death’…”
    â€œI am almost sure that word cannot be cushion,” said Fentongoose.
    â€œAnd ‘west’ can’t be right, either,” said Zeewa. “There is no land west of the Autumn Isles. The ocean stretches on for ever. Unless…”
    â€œWest of the Autumn Isles, down the path of the Setting Sun,” said Henwyn. “That is where Prince Rhind said Elvensea once lay.”
    â€œ They came ,” said Dr Prong, impatient at all the interruptions, “ across the sea. And wherever they went, death and fire did follow. But then it says, In this year, in the month of Trevas-Billas – the harvesting of the oats – there came from the east in black ships seven wozzards.”
    â€œI’m sure that says wizard, actually,” said Fentongoose. “There is no such thing as a wozzard.”
    â€œWozzard is quite definitely what it says here,” said Dr Prong firmly. “It must be an old-fashioned form of the word.”
    â€œWell, it’s a very silly one,” said Fentongoose. “But have it your own way.”
    â€œNow, where was I?” said Prong, scowling at him. “Ah yes: black ships … seven wozzards…”
    â€œYou see?” asked Fentongoose excitedly, turning to the listeners. “these wizards…”
    â€œWozzards!”
    â€œThese wizards must have been the Lych Lord and his six fellow sorcerers, the ones who helped him raise the Black Keep and build the seven towers of Clovenstone!”
    Skarper and Henwyn both knew that story, which Fentongoose had first told them while they sat with Princess Ned in her old ship, balanced on Westerly Gate, on the evening of Henwyn’s arrival at Clovenstone. Long ago, seven sorcerers had tamed the power of the slowsilver lake which lay beneath this place, and they had grown great and powerful and set out to right the wrongs of the world, until one of them had argued with the others, and cast them down, and become the Lych Lord. So this stone book came from a time before that happened – a time so long ago that it made you feel dizzy just imagining such a depth of years.
    â€œ Seven wozzards ,” said Dr Prong, going on with his reading in a loud voice, as if daring Fentongoose to interrupt again. “ These seven vowed that they would defeat the Cushions . (Perhaps it says pillows? No, that still does not make sense…) So they sailed into the west, despite our warnings, and we feared that they would be … (Now, this word means, ‘to render something into a paste, or purée, by jumping up and down on it whilst wearing stone-soled sandals’, but I do not think it is meant to be taken literally, I think it just means that they feared the seven wozzards would be killed. It is certainly a rather colourful way of putting it.) However, seven nights later (or possibly nine, or thirty six) we beheld a mighty fire upon the western sky, as of a terrible battle raging. And the sea was troubled, and the sun grew dark. And soon after that, the wozzards in their seven ships returned to tell us that, by their magic, the Queen of Elvensea has been cast down, and her Cushions had been scattered…”
    â€œSo they were scatter cushions?” asked Skarper.
    â€œâ€¦ and her land was sunk beneath the waves. Many of our ships have sailed there since, and our sailors report that there is nothing to be seen of it, only a wild waste of waters restlessly rolling.
    â€œ The wozzards told us that they achieved all this