The Purple Emperor

CHAPTER NINETY ONE

Palaemon raised his lance and Nymph stepped forward with her bow.

Henry gave a panic-stricken scream. 'Don't shoot! Don't shoot!' But it was already too late to shoot. Flapwazzle was clinging to him like a hairy chest and anything that hit Flapwazzle would hurt Henry too. 'It's Flapwazzle!' Henry shouted, hugging the endolg. 'It's Flapwazzle!'

'Relax,' Pyrgus said. 'It's an endolg.' He grinned. 'Hi, fella!'

Both Palaemon and Nymph reluctantly stood down.

'It's Flapwazzle,' Henry said again, beaming. 'I thought you were dead, Flapwazzle. What are you doing here?'

'Saving your hide as usual,' Flapwazzle told him sourly.

Henry hung on every word as Flapwazzle told them what happened. The tidal wash in the sewers had carried the endolg past Henry's refuge and along the main pipework until the system took a right-hand bend. At that point, Flapwazzle was smashed into the brickwork. When he regained consciousness, he was floating in the river.

'Endolgs are quite difficult to drown,' he told them seriously. 'We don't use much air at the best of times and we can actually extract a little oxygen out of water, like fish. We die underwater eventually, but it takes a while.'

'What did you do then?' Henry asked excitedly. 'After you woke up in the river?'

'Swam for shore,' Flapwazzle told him. 'What do you think I did?'

But the nearest shore, as it happened, was Palace Island. Flapwazzle dried himself out in the sun -endolgs are slow movers when waterlogged – then returned to the palace in the hope of finding Henry.

'That was very brave of you,' Henry said, smiling at Flapwazzle. 'Considering Quercusia wants to lock you up.'

Flapwazzle made the rippling movement Henry took for a shrug. 'She has the attention span of a lettuce. Besides, she's locked up again herself now.'

Comma said, 'Mother's been locked up again?' He looked, if anything, relieved.

'What happened?' Henry asked.

'I'm not sure.' Flapwazzle had slid down from Henry now and was talking to them from the floor. 'Somebody said the order came from Cossus Cossus, Lord Hairstreak's Gatekeeper.'

Pyrgus looked at Blue. 'Hairstreak must have found her more trouble than she was worth.'

'She's mad. She's been mad for years. You can't have a mad woman on the loose, giving orders. I can't believe Comma let her out in the first place,' Blue said.

'She's not mad,' Comma said. 'You've always had it in for her.' He sounded sulky, but not altogether convinced.

'Well,' Pyrgus said, 'one less thing to worry about.'

'What happened, Flapwazzle?' Henry asked quickly. 'When you went into the palace to look for me?'

'The Sisters of the Silk Guild told me what had happened to you. I knew you wouldn't find the Purple Emperor in the palace -'

'How did you know?' Pyrgus interrupted Flapwazzle.

'Overheard some guards talking. They'd taken the Emperor to Hairstreak's mansion. I figured you'd find out eventually, so I came here.'

'Yes, but how did you know we were in the maze?'

'I didn't,' Flapwazzle said. 'I got lost and ended up in the ventilation ducts. I was trying to back out again when I saw you on one of the view screens.'

Henry couldn't stop grinning. 'That was clever of you, Flapwazzle.'

'Anyway,' Flapwazzle said, 'once I got here and figured out the controls, I tracked you and switched off traps wherever I could.'

Nymph said, 'I don't suppose you know a way out, do you, Flapwazzle?'

And Flapwazzle said, 'Oh, yes – that door there.'