Read Online Akiko and the Great Wall of Trudd by Mark Crilley - Free Book Online

me,” said Mr. Beeba as he peered through the drifting snowflakes, “or is that the end of the bridge up there?”
    It was so dark that I couldn’t see much of
anything
. But as we continued walking, the outline of a faraway shore gradually became visible, with the dark outline of a mountainous horizon beyond it. We walked even faster, and before long the end of the bridge was plain for all of us to see.
    We’d done it. We’d made it to the realm of Alia Rellapor.

“Hot diggity dog! ” Spuckler cried, obviously very pleased with our progress. “Get ready, Alia!” he added at the top of his lungs, cupping his hands around his mouth and sending his voice echoing over the hills. “We’re on our way!”
    Gax buzzed and squeaked cheerfully. Even Poog had a big smile on his face.
    I wasn’t happy
at all
, though. I know it doesn’t make much sense, but even though we’d spent days and days doing everything we could just to get here, now that we’d arrived I wanted nothing more than to turn around and go back.
    “Don’t worry, Akiko,” Mr. Beeba whispered, almost as if he were reading my thoughts. “I’m just as frightened as you are. I’ve had moments when I secretly hoped we’d never even
make
it this far. But I’m sure that in the end everything will be okay.”
    “Really?” I asked. “You promise?”
    “Well, er,” he replied, gesturing nervously with his hands, “if you mean ‘promise’ in the sense of ‘guarantee,’ I’m afraid it would be rather disingenuous of me to imply, er—”
    “Look, Mr. Beeba,” I interrupted, “just say yes, okay?”
    He gave me a confused glance, then cleared his throat and spoke with a great show of confidence.
    “Yes, of
course
I promise, Akiko. I promise, I
promise
.”
    “Thanks.”
    We stepped off the end of the bridge and into the blanket of snow covering the shore. There before us was the faint outline of a road stretching out over the hills.
    The snow was thicker here by several inches, and it occurred to me that we might eventually have trouble following the trail. Not only that, but we had nowhere to spend the night! Surely we couldn’t just sleep out in the open. But we couldn’t keep walking all night, either. My head was starting to hurt and I began to really wish I were back at home in my bed, tucked under the covers, where I could just lean over, turn out the light, and—
    GRRUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!
    Suddenly there was this horrible rumbling sound in the sky above us. At first I thought it was thunder, but then I realized that the noise was getting steadily louder and more mechanical sounding.
    “I’d know that noise anywhere,” Spuckler said. “It’s a Gotgazzer!”
    “A Gotgazzer!” Mr. Beeba repeated, searching the skies frantically.
    “What’s a Gotgazzer?” I asked.
    “It’s a kind of spaceship. . . ,” Spuckler began.
    Whatever he said after that was drowned out by the noise, which had now become so loud that Spuckler, Mr. Beeba, and I had to clamp our hands firmly over our ears. Gax was quivering, and Poog had floated down until he was nearly touching the ground.
    A large black shape descended slowly from the sky in front of us. Bolts of flame shot out beneath it, allowing the ship to settle gently onto the ground like an enormous dragonfly. The snow whirled madly in all directions, preventing me from getting a good view of the thing. Then the rumbling abruptly stopped, leaving a weird humming sound in my ears.
    The clouds of snow gradually disappeared into the air, and I could see the spaceship clearly for the first time. It was about thirty feet wide and curved like a boomerang, with the steely gray surface of an armored submarine. There were several different kinds of guns mounted on the wings, and a big round window in front that looked like it could have been taken from one of those gigantic old warplanes you always see in the movies. The entire surface had a dull shimmer, as if it had been carefully polished for years