Read Online Fair Wind to Widdershins by Allan Frewin Jones - Free Book Online

uniformed foxes was thundering toward them, all of them wielding halberds.
    “Lawks!” said Jack. “We need to hide before that lot gets us!”
    “Hide where?” groaned Trundle.
    “In here!” said an unfamiliar voice at their backs. Around the corner and out of sight of the approaching guards, a door was being held open for them. “Quickly, quickly,” said the urgent but friendly voice. “Get under cover before they spot you.”
    Without further ado, the three friends bundled in through the open doorway, to find themselves in a large office lined with heavy wooden shelves packed solid with scrolls and tomes and documents and folders. The door snapped shut behind them.
    A hedgehog in sky blue robes put his finger to his lips. “Shhh!” he said, turning a key in the lock. He pressed his ear against the door, smiling as he listened to the percussion of passing feet.
    “There,” he said, dusting his paws together. “I never did like those guards, noisy, brutal, dim-witted creatures that they are.” He smiled genially at the three friends. “Now then,” he continued. “Allow me to introduce myself, my young friends. I am the Herald Pursuivant, Keeper of Scrolls, and Personal Secretary to His Nibs the Highmost Chancellor of the Worshipful Guild of Observators.” His smile widened. “But you can call me Percy. Now then, might you tell me who you are and what those things are that you’re carrying, and why you are being pursued through these hallowed corridors by armed guards?”

    “I’m Esmeralda Lightfoot,” said Esmeralda. “And this is Trundle and this is Jack, and this”—she held up the crown—“is the Crystal Crown of the Badger Lords of Old, whether you believe me or not!”
    “Why should I not believe you?” Percy asked mildly.
    “Well, your boss didn’t,” said Jack.
    “He ordered us out of his office and set the guards on us!” added Trundle.
    “Ah, well, His Nibs is not at his best if his mid-morning nap is interrupted,” said Percy. “But even at the best of times, some of us are more open-minded than others. May I?” He lifted the crown from Esmeralda’s hands and turned it slowly so that its crystals glittered and sparked. “What a lovely thing!” he said. “And where did you find it?”
    “In Drune,” said Esmeralda. “And this key was with it.”
    “We came here because one of the seals on the handle is the coat of arms of the ancient kings of Widdershins,” said Trundle. “I don’t suppose you’d know what the other one is?”
    “We think it’s a clue for finding the next crown,” said Jack. “So it would be handy if you recognized it.”
    Percy handed the crown back to Esmeralda and took the key. He stepped over to the window and peered carefully at it in the light.
    “Yes, that’s definitely the escutcheon of the ancient kings,” he said. “But I don’t have the least idea what the other seal is.”
    “You mean we’ve come all this way for nothing?” groaned Esmeralda.
    “Not at all,” said Percy with a smile. “Just because I don’t recognize the seal doesn’t mean we won’t be able to find out what it is.”
    “You can do that for us?” asked Trundle. “Really and truly?”
    “I believe I can,” said Percy. He handed the key back to Esmeralda. “Keep it safe,” he told her. “We must go to the upper ancillary library annex—I think the book we need will be there. Come along with me.”
    He led them out of the office via a back door and along narrow corridors lined with yet more bulging shelves.
    “Excuse me for asking,” Trundle ventured as they walked along, “but what exactly is it that you people do here? What are observators?”
    “We’re scientists,” said Percy. “We measure and check and annotate, we calculate and cipher and compute, we evaluate and determine and prognosticate, we value and weigh and consider every tiny aspect of the Sundered Lands. It’s our privilege and our bounden duty to create a scientific basis