Tad Williams - The Dragons of Ordinary Farm

Mr. Walkwell raised his hand to show the man he’d heard. “That is Ragnar,” he told them. “You will come to know him well.”

“Ragnar? Wow,” said Tyler. “Sounds like some barbarian hero out of RuneQuest. And put who in the Sick Barn? Was it one of the animals? One of the cows?” He felt like he’d been holding in the questions for days. “And what’s up with the cows here, anyway-do they catch on fire all the time or something?”

Mr. Walkwell stared at him for a moment, then pointed a brown finger toward the front door. “Mrs. Needle waits for you there. She will take you to Mr. Goldring, your uncle. Save your questions for him.”

Tyler was feeling a little better-the tractor showed that there was some technology on the farm, whether Mr. Walkwell liked the stuff or not. All Tyler really needed was enough electricity to recharge the GameBoss. And this Mrs. Needle-he could tell she would be a plump, kindly little old lady like Mrs. Santa Claus from some children’s Christmas special. She’d greet them with cookies and lemonade and say “My goodness!” a lot.

The front door swung open before they could knock, revealing a young man with a thin pale face. He wore a white short-sleeved shirt and gray slacks, as though his parents had just forced him to dress up for church. His thick black hair had been combed down with water at some point, but was beginning to pull loose into funny crooked tufts.

“Ah,” he said. “You must be the children.”

Tyler didn’t like his superior expression, and he sure didn’t like being called a child, either. “Yeah? Who are you?”

The young man’s eyebrow rose, as though questions were rude. “My name is Colin.” He couldn’t be much more than Lucinda’s age, Tyler guessed, but he seemed older because he was tall and because of his weird grown-up clothes and the stiff way he stood.

“We’re supposed to talk to Mrs. Needle.”

“That’s my mother. She’s very busy right now, but I suppose I can take you to her.” He stepped aside, beckoning them in as though he too was very busy and was just making some time for them out of kindness. He didn’t offer to help with the suitcases.

Tyler was taken aback by the size of the entrance hall-it seemed more like the lobby of some old hotel. A big black iron chandelier with dozens of bulbs hung from the high ceiling-so there was electricity, at least-and the walls were covered with striped pale green wallpaper and old museumy paintings of people and landscapes. Padded benches and overstuffed sofas with flowery upholstery stood against every wall, framing close to a dozen doors leading off this huge front room. The center of the hall was dominated by a long staircase that forked upward to the left and right.

“ Sound of Music, ” Lucinda said softly.

“What?”

“You remember, the kids singing? It was on a staircase like that.”

Tyler rolled his eyes. That had been his sister’s favorite movie, not his. Still, he couldn’t help being impressed by the staircase, not because it looked like it was waiting for the Von Trapp kids, but because he now saw that each set of stairs ended flat against the wall-no hallways, no landings, no doors. The grand staircase led precisely nowhere.

“This way,” Colin told them.

Tyler leaned toward his sister. “Scooby-Doo, where are you?” he whispered, grinning, but Lucinda was looking a little sickly and didn’t seem to enjoy his joke.

Colin led them all the way to the back of the hall and opened a door. The room beyond was a kitchen three or four times the size of their living room at home. The noises of pans clanking and water running rolled out. Several people seemed to be working there, but Tyler couldn’t quite see any of them past Colin.

“Mother,” he announced, “the children are here.”

A moment later a woman in a rather old-fashioned cotton dress walked out, letting the door fall shut behind her so that the lively kitchen scene suddenly vanished. Her black hair was as long and straight as a girl’s, her skin even paler than her son’s, both of which made it hard to guess her age. She was pretty in a thin, sharp-boned way, but it was her gray-blue eyes that made her extraordinary, Tyler realized-eyes so intense they almost glittered.

For a long moment the woman examined the children as they examined her. At last she smiled. It wasn’t the most cheerful smile Tyler had ever seen, more like the kind teachers gave you when you made a joke about why your homework was late.

“Welcome to Ordinary Farm, children,” she said. “I am Patience Needle, Mr. Goldring’s assistant and the housekeeper at Ordinary Farm. I will be in charge of you whilst you are staying with us.”

“Cool. So when do we see some animals?” Tyler asked.

Her smile went away for a second, but when it returned it seemed entirely friendly and natural. Mrs. Needle’s English accent made her sound like one of those classy television actresses on public television. “Those details are up to Mr. Goldring, of course,” she said. “But I am sure he will want to show you the farm soon enough.”

“Where is he?” said Lucinda. “Our uncle, I mean. Great-uncle.”

“I’m afraid he’s not feeling well today, otherwise he would have been down to meet you. He asked me to send his apologies. Colin will show you up to your rooms.”

“ Mother,” Colin said, as though he’d been asked to carry them on his shoulders. “I have things to do.”

“Then you can do them after you show Lucinda and Tyler to their rooms. I’m very busy, Colin, with Gideon ill. Run along.”

Mother and son looked at each other. Colin turned away first. “Fine. Follow me.” He stalked through a door on the other side of the room and let it bang shut behind him.

When they followed, Lucinda and Tyler found a steep staircase looming behind the door. At the top was a hallway covered with sweet-smelling wood panels. Tyler climbed the stairs and asked, “So, what kind of animals do you have here, besides cows? Horses? Chickens?”

“I don’t work with the animals,” said Colin as the corridor turned first one way, then another, closed doors standing on either side like sentries. “I’m modernizing the systems.” His superior tone had returned.

Yeah, thought Tyler. Horse and wagon picking up the guests. Nice job so far.

They came to a new corridor, dark despite the dim electric lights every few yards that filled the hall with long, jittering shadows. The bulbs were so ancient and flickery that they looked like they had been in place here since Edison invented them.

“This house really is crazy,” muttered Tyler.

“It was built by a genius.” Colin actually sounded angry, like Tyler had called him crazy. “Octavio Tinker was one of the greatest scientific minds of all time. Very few people can even begin to understand his work. He was your mother’s great-uncle. She’s a Tinker, right? And if you’re lucky enough-” He stopped suddenly, two angry spots of red high on his cheeks. Tyler thought how weird it was that this gangly, dark-haired kid knew more about their family relations than they did. Tyler opened his mouth to ask about this, but Colin cut him off like a slammed door. He turned right suddenly and led them into a final, very short hallway that ended in a wall with a window in it.

Two doors faced each other across the hall. Lucinda dropped her suitcase and went to look out the window. There was a flowering cherry tree at one side-the prettiest of a number of trees in front of their windows-and a gigantic white concrete building in the far distance. The strange building looked like a tube half-sunk in the ground. Tyler, gazing out too, wondered what it was-a hangar or a bomb shelter of some sort? It was like something that had dropped from the sky, landing with a titanic crash and kicking up earth all around.