CHAPTER TWENTY
Love is Blind

Milli watched in horror as the toys fell into step like marching infantry. Some of them had fingernails as long and sharp as knives. Others carried small bottles that contained what she imagined to be poisons of the deadliest sort. Some drew weapons from their pockets or from the lacy hems of gowns. One thing was clear—each and every toy was intent on wreaking havoc of the worst kind and the trapped children had nothing but ribbon and crumpled wrapping paper to use in their defence.

‘Papa!’ cried one little child.

‘Please, stop them!’ cried another.

Some children were sobbing openly now, unconcerned with keeping up appearances. Several others called out to their parents, but the adults could do nothing except stand there helplessly, arms waving and mouths moving in silent panic.

The Drabville fire brigade arrived and tried frantically to extinguish the flames but they didn’t respond to being doused with water. If anything, they seemed to leap even higher in devilish mockery. Some heroic firemen tried to brave the flames in their yellow heatproof suits, but found that the fire acted as a kind of force field and they could not get past it to help the children.

There was no time for logical thinking. All the children could do was band together on the stage, with the youngest at the back, and try to defend themselves. But as the toys were armed with all manner of weapons there seemed little chance that everyone would escape unharmed.

Ernest succeeded in kicking a doll into the fire and hoped he had destroyed her, but the doll re-emerged seconds later. Even though part of her plastic face was melting, making her look more ghoulish than before, she continued to advance with the army of toys.

As he hovered above in his sleigh, Dr Illustrious opened his arms and let out a peal of triumphant laughter. As he did so a harsh wind blew up around him, tearing off his disguise. First the red coat and wide belt were whipped away, followed by his pants, gloves and buckled shoes. Underneath was not the pitch black suit the children were accustomed to seeing Dr Illustrious wear, but long flowing robes. Finally, Dr Illustrious tore off his hat and beard revealing himself to the stunned onlookers. A collective gasp rose from the crowd when they saw him. He might be wearing his hair cropped short but there was no mistaking the hollow eyes and shrunken features. The children could not decide what to be more frightened of, the advancing army of evil toys or the skeletal figure of Lord Aldor glowering at them from the skies.

Lord Aldor’s laughter lashed the crowd like a whip. Above the clamour rose the voice of one of the fathers, Bert Granger, a hulking dairy farmer who wasn’t prepared to take what was happening without putting up a fight. He stepped forward with his clenched fists raised and eyes glowering.

‘Whaddya want with our children?’ he bellowed. “Ave you not plagued us enough? For pity’s sake, let them go.’

Lord Aldor peered curiously over the edge of the sleigh.

Bert Granger continued, ‘If you ‘ave a beef then take it up with us. What kind of coward are yer, to attack defenceless children!’

Others added their jeers but Lord Aldor’s gaze was so unflinching he might have been a god on Mount Olympus looking down on the little clay people to see what they were up to. Looking up into Lord Aldor’s face was like looking into an empty wasteland where it was lunacy to expect to see anything there other than desolation. Even Lord Aldor’s mouth when he opened it to speak was as dry as a crater.

His voice filtered down to them. ‘You look confused. Would you like to understand my motivation? The truth is, I hate every last Drabvillian to the core. You people reek of cheerfulness, spirit, resilience and I have grown tired of it. The very scent of you is like acid on my skin. This town was meant to be reduced to ruin years ago but you have somehow eluded my schemes. I tried to be fair but you scorned my generosity. I am here now to prove that you cannot resist my will—your lives are not your own! It is I who decides your fate! Your world will exist as I dictate, and I say there shall be no happiness, no music in the streets, no laughter. Only when I have achieved this shall I be at peace.’

With these final words, Lord Aldor pushed a button on his remote control and the toys crouched in readiness to strike.

‘Attack,’ he said coldly. ‘Let them suffer as I have suffered! Let the hills ring with the echoes of their screams for years to come.’

The toys were close enough now that the children could see the imperfections in their stitching and the dried streaks of glue where weapons had been added to their bodies. Some children tried to remember their prayers, whilst others looked around desperately for something to stave off an attack.

Milli’s mind went into overdrive trying to think of all the knowledge she had amassed during her short but event-filled life. Nothing of much use presented itself. She did know that when you are in the strangest of situations help can sometimes come from the least expected quarter. She ran through all that had happened since her and Ernest’s first visit to the toy arcade and replayed every conversation in her head. As the thoughts raced through her mind she realised that perhaps the most important message had come from the toy she had treasured most. She could almost hear Loyal’s gentle voice as if he were right there beside her: Toys have been the allies of children for centuries. It would take something more extraordinary than an operation to change that.

With the rocking horse’s words echoing in her mind, Milli did something that many people might have considered rash, foolish or just plain dangerous. Taking everybody, including herself, by surprise, she stepped forward and scooped the nearest toy into her arms. It was a teddy bear, and no sooner had she embraced him than he dropped his pocket knife clumsily to the ground. She hugged him tight to her chest and whispered into his furry ear, her hands stroking his deformities and hideous scars. The bear seemed to go limp in her arms, all his aggression falling away, and the two stood melded together in the way children and their toys often interact.

The other toys came to a baffled halt.

Milli turned slowly to face the other children, who were staring at her in shock. The look on her face told them what they must do.

Ernest was first; having a penchant for girly toys, he hesitantly picked up a doll. Finn and Fennel, who were also stranded on the stage, wasted no time in following Ernest’s example. When Milli looked around she saw their old comrades like Gummy Grumbleguts, Harietta Hapless, Horace Rugknuckle and Prudence Cackle were quickly following suit, each gathering a toy into their arms. Due to his size, Gummy thought it only fair that he get hold of two. In the space of a few moments, every child was embracing a toy, despite their scars and wrongly placed limbs. Their faces were horrifying, their bodies lumpy and uneven, but the children pushed away any fear they had and tried to think of these toys as old friends who had been neglected for some time and therefore deserved more of their attention. The children of Drabville held those poor misshapen toys and spoke to them in soothing tones until the mechanisms that had been planted in them to cause harm short-circuited and burnt out and every toy was simply content to be wanted.

It is a toy’s nature to respond to the scent and touch of children. These are as familiar to toys as the scent and touch of our mothers is to us. The children could almost feel the hatred and resentment drain out of the toys. A strange sense of homecoming overwhelmed them all. And as it did, the wall of fire vanished, leaving only a ring of ash on the stage.

The adults stood speechless for a moment, watching their children. Then they ran forward like a wave, exclaiming in admiration and relief.

A sudden creak from above drew everyone’s attention. Lord Aldor’s sleigh was lurching from side to side as the reindeer struggled to keep it airborne. Milli wondered if it had been the menace of the toys that had kept it off the ground. With that dissolved, the sleigh was slowly but surely falling. It gave a last shudder before plunging towards the earth at an alarming speed. The townsfolk scattered, pulling their children well out of harm’s way.

The impact of the collision when the sleigh connected with solid ground made the earth tremor and kicked up a huge cloud of dust. When it cleared and people could see and breathe properly again, the bent figure of Lord Aldor was visible clambering from the wreckage. The wizard now found himself surrounded, with not an ally in sight. The reindeer had somehow recovered from their fall and scrambled away into the night.

The townsfolk drew nearer, no longer fearful of his powers nor enraged by what he had attempted to do. Instead, they felt only pity for this shrunken old man who had wanted to rob Drabville of Christmas. A citizen nearby reached out a hand to support Lord Aldor as he staggered a little, shaky on his feet. For a brief moment, hesitation crossed the magician’s face, as if somewhere in the deepest part of him there was a small hankering for acceptance. Then his expression darkened again. Lord Aldor may have been exhausted but he was not about to allow himself to be humiliated in front of a crowd of mortals. If he did, his reputation would be dust. He gathered all of his remaining strength and concentrated hard on levitating out of their reach. He succeeded in raising himself a few inches above the ground before his body collapsed under him, like a tree that has withered from the inside.

A sudden shout from above had every face turning towards the sky. There was the silver rocket from the arcade that the second group of children had ridden in. At the controls, dressed in a silver spacesuit, her hair in sleek black coils, was the curator, Ms Tempest Anomali. She landed the rocket at a safe distance and emerged shrieking at the top of her lungs.

‘I’m coming, Master!’ She swatted away the crowd with her hands as if they were flies. ‘Get back! Don’t you dare touch him with your filthy hands!’

Tempest Anomali supported Lord Aldor to the rocket, looking excited to have her mentor and master entirely dependent on her for the first time. Once she had him comfortably settled, she bared her teeth and hissed at the stunned crowd before climbing in herself and taking the controls.

‘They’re getting away,’ Ernest said in despair.

And for a moment it really did seem as though Lord Aldor and Tempest were about to escape without any comeuppance—until another figure hobbled into the town square, aided by a young man with a rather formal air. Milli and Ernest at once recognised Gustav Von Gobstopper and his nephew, Fritz Braun.

Von Gobstopper clutched a lacquered music box at which he seemed to be directing some kind of incantation. Had he gone mad, the children wondered. Had the stress of all he had endured sent him off the rails? But Von Gobstopper looked more focused and sure of himself than the last time they had seen him.

He opened the lid of the box a fraction and a streak of blue fire shot out. It circled the square once and then darted between trees and startled townsfolk. Finally it disappeared inside an ancient elm. The huge tree began to glow, shafts of blue light spinning from its branches in all directions. Then out stepped a woman with soft fair hair and blue robes that seemed to flow around her like water. A halo of light surrounded her entire body.

‘The Blue Fairy,’ whispered Milli.

‘She’s too late,’ said Ernest. ‘They’re about to escape.’

But it wasn’t too late.

From the folds of her robe, the fairy drew a wand in the shape of a twisted black twig and pointed it serenely at Tempest Anomali.

Tempest looked genuinely alarmed for the first time and raised both hands as if to shield herself. She tried to cower behind Lord Aldor, but he was intent on avoiding the wand himself and, with an unceremonious shove, jettisoned Tempest from the rocket. She landed on the ground in a surprised heap. Scrambling to her feet, she pleaded with Lord Aldor for assistance. As she waved her hands at him, something odd happened: her foot was suddenly where her hand should have been, and she was waving around her boot. Tempest watched in horror as the foot encased in its black studded boot began to blur. She blinked hard, hoping it was a delusion brought on by stress, but her foot continued to fade until it disappeared completely! She was left hopping ridiculously on one leg. The next thing to go were her hands and ears. The Blue Fairy moved her wand a fraction in various directions and Tempest continued to fade away piece by piece, until there was nothing left of her but a shred of silver fabric fluttering in the wind.

With a strangled cry, Lord Aldor jerked the rocket’s controls violently and it jerked upwards. The crowd’s final vision of Lord Aldor was of an old man with his mouth hanging slightly open, his eyes crazed with the knowledge of impending defeat and his body slumped as if every vestige of energy had left him. Even at his weakest moment Lord Aldor had never looked like this.

The rocket darted behind some clouds pursued by a flying column of blue. When the rocket came into view again it was swaddled in blue light. The light grew brighter and swirled around the rocket at such a speed that soon the light and rocket merged into a single blur. A spectacular explosion followed which saw the rocket catapulted through the sky in chunks. All that remained of its inhabitant was a rain of ash that floated softly down to earth.

Moments later the Blue Fairy was standing calmly by Von Gobstopper’s side. The crowd saw but could not hear the words they exchanged before the Blue Fairy herself vanished from sight. For some time after she had left them the trees remained tinged with blue and the air seemed to resonate with a stirring power.