Free The Wings of Ruksh by Anne Forbes Page A

mirrors in his house then he will probably be keeping the crown at Ardray,” Lord Rothlan answered. “He’ll have his mirrors set so that he can travel backwards and forwards easily.”
    “Where
is
Ardray?” Clara asked.
    “Ardray? It’s in Appin; quite close to Jarishan.”
    “Is his castle on an island, like yours?” Neil queried.
    Rothlan shook his head. “Kalman’s castle lies in the middle of a magic forest,” he said. “It’s actually more of a tower than anything else. The Black Tower of Ardray,” he mused. “I used to go there quite often when I was young. Kalman and I werefriends in those days. Since then, it seems to have changed a lot. From what I hear, the magic forest is full of goblins now.”
    “Wow!” Neil’s eyes widened at the thought.
    “Couldn’t you use the mirrors you have here in the hill to get to Kalman’s castle, MacArthur?” queried the Ranger.
    “That would be risky,” was the reply. “Mirrors are not only tricky things to set but they can quite easily be locked against intruders. And if you get caught between mirrors — when both sides are locked, that is — well, that’s more or less it! You get held in a kind of limbo land!”
    “Won’t the crown be protected?” queried Sir James.
    The MacArthur nodded. “Its magic will protect it but the Sultan doesn’t see that as an obstacle. He knows the magic words that will release it from any spell. Whoever says them will be able to take the crown from Ardray.”
    “Well, that all
sounds
relatively straightforward,” said Sir James, “but how would you get there? On magic carpets?”
    “We’ve talked about that,” Rothlan interrupted, “but the MacArthur feels that we would be too easily discovered. Birds and other animals can see magic carpets in the air and Kalman has his spies watching us already. According to Hamish, one of his crows has been patrolling Arthur’s Seat, so we have decided that it would be best to travel back in time and only revert to the present when we reach Ardray.”
    The Ranger looked dismayed. “Travel through time!” he echoed. “But I thought …” he stammered, “I thought we’d be going by car or by train to the nearest station.”
    “You’d never get there,” Rothlan assured him. “Any train or bus we travelled in would be sure to have an accident and we can’t take the risk of innocent people being hurt, you know.”
    “You’ll be well looked after, Ranger, I assure you,” the Sultan added. “I’m supplying everything you’ll need for the journey — including the finest horses from my stables at Ruksh.”
    “At Ruksh?” repeated Lord Rothlan and Lady Ellan together, meeting the Sultan’s eyes in startled wonder.
    Neil met Clara’s eyes in rising excitement. No way was he going to miss out on this adventure. A journey through Scotland on horseback!
In the past!
    “It’s not actually the journey that worries me, Ranger,” the Sultan said dismissively. “It’ll only take a few days and you’ll travel safely enough with Lord Rothlan looking after you. No, if there is going to be a problem, it’ll be with the crown itself; for Prince Casimir, remember, used its own magic against it.” He regarded them all seriously. “You see, the fact remains that although it lay for many years in Lord Rothlan’s loch, it didn’t reveal itself to him, did it? Although it tried to attach itself to Arthur,” and here he turned to the dragon and inclined his head, “it didn’t stay with him either but, in the end, fell back into the loch and returned to its master, Kalman. The Meridens have a very strong hold on the crown and what I am afraid of is that, after what happened in the loch, nobody here will be able to take it from Kalman, even with the magic words. Except, perhaps …”
    “Who?” asked Sir James, looking at him sharply.
    The Sultan looked apologetically at the MacLeans. “The children,” he said.
    He raised his hand at the murmur of dissent. “Please