Read Online Akiko in the Castle of Alia Rellapor by Mark Crilley - Free Book Online Page A

side. He looked very strange all of a sudden. He turned to face me and gazed deeply into my eyes.
    Bit by bit the room seemed to tilt, first to one side, then to the other. My body began to feel very sleepy, but my mind had never been so wide awake. I was vaguely aware of Mr. Beeba and Gax and Spuckler, but they seemed to fall away into the distance while Poog expanded to fill my entire field of vision.
    What happened next is almost impossible to describe.

    It was as if Poog were sending images directly into my brain. I could see them in front of my eyes, but I could also see them inside my head. It was like dreaming and being awake at the same time.
    I could see Alia Rellapor. She looked younger, happier. She was back at the palace with King Froptoppit and the Prince, smiling, laughing, perfectly content. Then I saw Throck. He was also younger, with less armor and machinery covering his body. I saw him staring at Alia Rellapor from somewhere outside the palace. I saw him mixing potions and casting spells like some kind of warlock or voodoo doctor: chanting, whispering, sometimes shouting.
    Suddenly it became very clear to me: Alia wasn’t evil. She had been
made
evil. She was being controlled by
Throck
!
    I wanted to tell everyone my discovery, but Poog wasn’t finished with me yet. He kept sending images into my brain. Now I saw scenes of our journey, little flashes of things that had happened to us before we got to Alia Rellapor’s castle. I saw Spuckler throwing the stone at the Torg. I saw all of us crossing the Moonguzzit Sea on the superlong bridge. I saw myself climbing up the Great Wall of Trudd. I saw Queen Pwip. I saw Admiral Frutz. . . . 
    Then I saw one scene that was especially clear and vivid. Poog and I were in the forest in the middle of the night. Poog was teaching me words in his own language. It seemed so real I could almost hear the insect sounds coming from the forest and smell the wood crackling on the fire.
    The words. Poog was repeating the words to me, making me memorize them. Over and over he drilled the words into my brain. I felt them forming on my tongue. I opened my mouth. I heard the words coming out, echoing off the walls.
    The
walls
?
    I opened my eyes. I was back in Alia Rellapor’s castle. Spuckler and Mr. Beeba were looking at me with great astonishment.
    “Heavens!” Mr. Beeba said. “Well, I’ll be dagnabbed!” Spuckler said, rubbing the back of his neck agitatedly with one hand.
    Poog was gazing at me with supreme pride.
    “What?” I asked.
“What?”
    “Akiko, my dear child,” Mr. Beeba said. “You just said something in Poog’s language. You said it loudly. And with a
very
convincing accent, I must say.”
    I shook myself vigorously. It was as if I’d just come back from a very long journey.

 Chapter 17 

    “Where am I?”
    It took us a moment to realize that Alia Rellapor had asked the question. She was awake but still lying flat on her back on the big block of marble. There was something different about her voice. It was softer and a little weak, but also more natural and relaxed-sounding.
    We all remained silent. I don’t think any of us knew quite what to say to her.
    “Mr. Beeba!” Alia said, straining to turn her head toward him. “Is that
you
?”
    “Yes, that’s right,” Mr. Beeba said with a confused look on his face. “Are you quite all right, Alia? You look gravely ill.”
    “I feel . . . I feel
weak,
” she answered.
    “Don’t worry, Alia,” I said to her. “You’ve just woken up from some sort of trance.”
    Spuckler and Mr. Beeba stared at me with blank expressions, clearly not understanding a word I’d said.
    “Wh-who
are
you?” Alia asked, rising on her elbows to get a better look at me. “Where did you come from?”
    “My name is Akiko,” I answered, seeing from the look on her face that she had no memory of our earlier meeting. “I come from . . . well, it’s a long story. I’m sure we’ll have time to talk