The Kingdom of Noitcif

Chapter Twenty-Two - Aboard

  All Espen could do was squeak before a cloth was fastened across his mouth and tied behind his head. His hands were quickly tied behind his back before he was overtaken by the sensation of being swept off his feet. He glanced down and saw the fringes of his robe dangling, but what was further below him was enough to make anyone give a gasp of horror. For although the young king felt the unmistakable feeling of being carried on someone's shoulder at a very brisk pace, there was no one visibly there holding him. However, Espen caught a glimpse of the illuminated wall beside him, and saw the shadowed form of himself bouncing on the shoulder of the very silhouette he had been chasing.

  Espen struggled for a moment, but that rewarded him with an electric shock shooting up his arm. Once again the young king began hammering on his captor's back, but when the throbbing came again, it rendered him so immobile that he decided to go along for the ride or he'd have no fighting strength left for when the right moment came. The two of them passed the castle - where Espen could faintly see the outline of his bedroom window against the gloom - and then the horse stables - where a quiet snort from one of the equine animals could be heard. With a sickening lump in his stomach, he wondered if he'd ever see these places again.

  From underneath him, the shadow was talking to itself.

  "Left? No, right. Gosh darnit, that road got changed, too? How am I supposed to get around here if everything's been remodeled?!"

  The voice sounded strangely familiar to Espen, yet he couldn't quite put his finger on its owner.

  Finally, after so much bouncing and jostling that Espen was sure he would have bruises the following day, his invisible captor stopped, let out a strange series of beeps, and a door seemed to open out of the night sky itself. It was a well lit door, with strange blue lines framing the its edges, but before Espen had a chance to process what it was, his captor grabbed a looped rope that had dropped down, which pulled them up at surprising speed and swung them into the doorway before it shut with a bang.

  There was no mistaking the fact they were inside of something now. Pitch blackness surrounded Espen on every side, and yet he could clearly hear mechanical humming and electronic whistles in the gloom. Tiny yellow lights flickered and winked at him from the ceiling and walls, and wherever the shadow set its foot, a blueish light gently lit up around it. Another loud slam, and Espen knew another door had shut behind him. All of a sudden, he was shifted upright and shoved into a chair which secured itself firmly around his ankles, and the lights went on with an audible snap.

  Espen was temporarily blinded. He blinked, squinting at the florescent yellow bulbs over his head, but once his eyes adjusted, he realized the prison he was trapped in appeared to be nothing more than a common kitchen. However, it was too common, for it looked like something out of the Base World, which meant that the person who owned this abode was not from Noitcif. Espen suddenly remembered his captor, and glanced wildly around the room for him, but his presence and shadow seemed to have completely vanished. But he was in fact still with him, for as he listened, he could hear distinct human whistling coming from another alcove of the kitchen. And as Espen stared, he saw a spoon twirling in a teacup, as if by magic.

  Espen's situation began to press in on him, but was unable to think about it in much detail; for as the invisible, whistling figure carried the teacup back into the room and set it upon the side table next to the adjacent chair, he removed the gag from the young king's mouth and spoke.