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

about that later. Right now we’ve got to get you out of here, you and your son.”
    “My son?” Alia asked, a look of alarm coming over her face. “Where is he?”
    Mr. Beeba and Spuckler were thoroughly confused. How could Alia not know where her son was? Me, I knew better. I figured Alia probably had no memory of
anything
that had happened in a very long time.
    There was a sudden burst of garbled syllables as Poog said something to all of us. I couldn’t understand what it was, but somehow it seemed a little more—I don’t know—
familiar
than it had been before.
    “Heavens!” cried Mr. Beeba. “It’s Throck! He’s preparing to leave Smoo at this very moment. An escape ship is docked and waiting for him at the other end of the castle. And that’s not all,” he added.
“He’s taking the Prince with him!”
    “No!” I cried. “We’ve got to stop him!”
    Poog opened his mouth and produced another string of garbled sounds, this time staring intently at me.
    “Quickly, Akiko!” Mr. Beeba shouted. “Get on top of Poog!”
    “On
top
of him?” I asked.
    “This is no time for questions, Akiko! Do as he says!”
    Mr. Beeba was pushing me from behind with both hands, forcing me over to a spot where Poog was floating just a few feet above the floor. I put both my hands on top of Poog’s head and hoisted myself up, resting my stomach squarely on top of him.
    “Hang on tight, ’Kiko!” Spuckler called out as Poog lifted me ten or fifteen feet into the air. “The Poog Express is fixin’ t’ fly!”

    With that, Poog carried me straight across the room. I struggled to keep my balance as we blew through the heavy red curtain and across the throne room. Zipping through the nearest doorway, Poog carried me through a maze of corridors at lightning speed. I wished he would slow down a little, but he only flew faster and faster. Hallways and staircases sailed past in a blur. (To tell the truth, if I hadn’t been scared half to death, I’d probably have thought it was a lot of fun!)
    After a few more minutes of zooming this way and that, we suddenly came to a stop near an open-air platform in one of the highest parts of the castle. Snowcapped peaks stood in the distance beneath a cloudless sky of pale blue. The tops of several towers were visible below. We must have been sixty or seventy stories up. I climbed off Poog and stood there at the base of the platform. An icy breeze blew across my arms, and I immediately regretted having thrown my coat into the lava.
    The platform was about ten feet wide and built of white stone. It jutted out into the air a hundred feet or so, like a bridge leading to nowhere. At the very end of the platform was a spaceship. It was about the size of a small school bus, floating in midair like a boat moored to a dock. Throck was about halfway across the platform. He had Prince Froptoppit tucked under one arm and was walking briskly toward the spaceship. The Prince lifted his head and saw me.
    “Akiko!” he shouted.
    Throck spun around. I’ll never forget the look on his face. He looked shocked. He looked angry. But above all he looked
scared
. Not scared of me, of course. Scared of
Poog
.
    Poog moved slowly out across the platform, and I cautiously followed him. The wind blew so hard my arms felt numb. Remembering what had happened to me on the Great Wall of Trudd, I ordered myself not to look down. And believe it or not, I actually managed to follow my own order. But I couldn’t help being aware of how high up in the air we were. There were no guardrails or anything! Fearing that one good gust of wind would be the end of me, I bent my knees as much as I could and kept very low to the surface of the platform.
    Throck just stood there, waiting, the Prince firmly gripped under one arm. Every so often his heavily
    armored suit sent up a huge cloud of steam that was immediately carried off by the wind.
    HHSSSSSSHHHH!
    When we reached a spot ten or fifteen feet away from Throck, I