The Cup of Galfar. Alderosa's Daughter

“I think they were interested in Earth long before, it’s just that after their defeat in Ameron their influence on Earth increased. I should also mention some peculiarities about Earth. In some ways it is even more mysterious to us than Galfar. A long time ago, several centuries back, there was a close bond between Ameron and Earth. There were many natural ‘windows’ between the two spheres, and people could quite easily move between them, sometimes without even noticing. But gradually, due to some unknown causes, the ‘windows’ became fewer and fewer. People of Earth visited Ameron less and less, and those who continued to visit other spheres were persecuted and sometimes even killed. Evolution of life on Earth went in a totally different direction than here in Ameron, a direction strange and incomprehesible to us. Centuries went by, and Earth forgot about other habitable worlds, not on distant stars, but literally within arm’s reach. Moreover, in their stubborn pride, people of Earth not only lost connection with us, but refused to believe in the existence of any life other than their own.

That is how, in a few centuries, Earth’s humanity completely lost the ability to travel to other spheres. That is why I said that Earth is farther from us than Galfar. Do you understand?”

Allie silently nodded.

“That is why Galfarians feel so much at ease on Earth,” continued Zand. “It is very easy to hide in a place where no one believes that you exist, and do your dark business. They don’t dare to come to us anymore, although, it turns out, they still use our territory for their Galfar-Earth ‘window’. That’s what I think about all this.”

“Uncle Zand, sir,” pleaded Allie, “so what do we do now? How can I help Mom and Dad? There are only eight days left.”

Zand scratched his shaggy beard.

“I’ve given it some thought. I’ll say what: you’ll need to go to the capital, to Eleont, to see the First Royal Magician, Shelengh the Great. If he cannot help you, no one can.”

Seeing Allie’s trembling lips, Zand hastily added:

“But he’ll definitely help. He is learned in all mysteries of magic science.”

“Where is Eleont? And how do we get there?”

“The capital is far, and not easy to get to,” Zand sounded concerned. “But it can’t be helped. There is only one way to get to Eleont in time. Allie, are you afraid of heights?”

Allie shrugged.

“I don’t know. When I was little, I climbed the diving tower all by myself, they barely made it in time to take me down. I guess I’m not afraid then. Probably.”

“That’s good. Then it should work. You’ll ride on a ‘carpet’, it’s their flying season now.”

“A carpet?!” exclaimed Allie and Lu at the same time and looked at each other.

“Yes, definitely a ‘carpet’, ” Zand smiled slyly at the puzzled friends. “But it’s easier to show than to explain. Follow me.”

He went to a small door in the side wall of the house. Behind the door was a narrow winding staircase that led upward. Allie remembered the tower with the windmill. Of course, they were inside the tower. Zand and the whole gang went up the stairs to the observation deck with glass windows all around it at the top of the tower. The view was excellent: they could see the whole surrounding area. But Allie was interested not in the view of the surroundings, but the interior of the tower. There was a huge telescope mounted on a special platform. There on the platform was a small chair and a table. The eye of the telescope was on the same level with a person sitting in the chair. In the center of the ceiling there was a metal shaft with a pinion. A complex system of gears made up of different cogs, wheels and pulleys connected the shaft with the telescope platform, and there was a special board with switches and levers. Apparently they controlled this whole mechanism.

“Well, do you like it?” asked Zand, noticing the girl’s surprise. He added, his hand on the telescope: “It’s all my handiwork. Pretty much everything here was made with these hands of mine.”

“It’s really cool,” Allie answered and walked around the mysterious construction. “What is this for?”

“I’ll tell you if I have the time. Now look to the south. No, not at the sea, the opposite direction. There, by the forest. See?”

Allie, and then Lu and Lemonade, looked in the direction Zand was pointing. There, about nine hundred feet from the tower, on the edge of the forest, something weird was happening. From time to time some flat objects rose from the ground, ascended forty to fifty feet above the tree tops and, undulating slightly, began to glide through the air, gradually picking up speed, until they disappeared behind the distant hills. It was impossible to figure out what those objects were and to estimate their size. Allie couldn’t understand whether those were birds or some kind of flying machines.

“Uncle Zand, what are those?” she asked, staring at the forest edge.

“Sit down here,” Zand pointed at the chair.

Allie did just that and sat down by the telescope. The chair was hard but comfortable. Zand stood near her and moved a switch on the board. The cogs and wheels started turning, and the whole construction, telescope, Allie, Zand and all, started rotating slowly. When the telescope faced south, Zand stopped it, bent down, looked through the eyepiece and turned some knobs on the switchboard. A minute later he said with satisfaction:

“There. Now you look.”

Allie looked, and saw a meadow, covered with thick soft grass and bright flowers. It was so close that it seemed she could reach out and touch the flowers. The grass had grown very tall, at least waist-high. Only a few random patches shaped like circles or ovals with rough edges had short, dark, intensely green grass. It looked as if it had been trimmed by a lawnmower. Suddenly Allie saw a wave ripple over one of those patches, like the wind that sways the stalks in a wheat field. But the wind couldn’t have stirred such short grass, besides, the tall grass growing just next to it was absolutely still. There came another wave, then another, and now the whole lawn looked like tumultuous sea. Then something happened that Allie had been expecting: the undulating round lawn about twelve feet in diameter slowly took off the ground and up into the air. It stayed in one spot for some time and then started moving away due south.