The Green Moon

The Secret Police of Yeho were described by the incomparable Max Frei.

* * *

In the Office of the Absolute Order, Juffin disappeared in his office, and Max, Sir Shoorf and Blaise settled in the Hall of the Common Work, Max at a table, with a paper, a jug of kamra and some pies, Sir Shoorf and Blaise in some chairs. Blaise saw on a table the book Sir Shoorf was reading before - it was called the Ancient Poetry of Uguland.

'What's Uguland?' Blaise asked.

'It is the province that Yeho is the center of, Sir Blaise,' Sir Shoorf explained.

'And because of this all the rest of the World calls us the Uguland wizards.' Max smiled. 'Though some of us aren't from Uguland at all!'

Blaise smiled.

'And the magic that takes its power from the Heart of the World is called the Ugulandian Evident Magic,' Sir Shoorf added.

'Is it?' Blaise said. 'Interesting! Sir Shoorf, shall you lend the book to me sometime?'

'Of course, Sir Blaise, if you will,' Sir Shoorf said. 'Now shall I teach you to build the shield against the Silent Speech?'

'Of course, Sir Shoorf,' Blaise said.

'Now then, Sir Blaise, listen carefully,' Sir Shoorf said.

Blaise nodded.

'Well now, Sir Blaise, imagine you have a glass dome around you - a glass dome that nothing can pierce. Put all your energy into it. And I shall be sending you a call - I shall see when I can't reach out to you.'

Blaise nodded and tried to imagine an impenetrable glass dome around him, putting every effort into it.

'Very good, Sir Blaise,' Sir Shoorf then said. 'You are gifted. I can't reach you.'

'Thank you, Sir Shoorf.' Blaise smiled. 'Now, Max, if you send a call to Melamori, I'll build a shield - just in case!'

'Thanks a lot, Blaise my friend.' Max smiled.

'That's very considerate of you, Sir Blaise,' Sir Shoorf said.

'Thank you, Sir Shoorf,' Blaise said.

'Now have some kamra and pies, Blaise,' Max said. 'And take the newspaper.'

'Thank you, Max.' Blaise smiled. 'I will.'

He settled at the table by Max's side, poured himself some kamra, took a pie and the newspaper and began eating and reading. The newspaper was very interesting - such bizarre names and events! 'Two students of the Royal High School get into a fight using the second level of white magic', 'The annual banquet of the Guild of the Masters of Perfect Dreams,' 'A man locked out by an ancient lock gone mad', 'A Tasherian ship arrested for bringing illegal artifacts to Yeho,' 'An Izamonian detained for waking the whole street with his shouting'...

'An exciting city,' Blaise remarked.

'Yes.' Max smiled proudly.

'Oh, see, Max - 'Some hooligans bent a number of streetlamps in the Street of the Forgotten Dreams! General Boh is most irritated!'

Max smiled.

'Most irritated, indeed! So that's what he was hollering about! Strange, of course...bent streetlamps...was any Forbidden Magic involved here? Apparently not...they would've called us...either that or they didn't think about it...oh well, nobody's called us to look into this...'

'They will, Max, if there's something suspicious about these events, I'm sure,' Sir Shoorf said, looking up from his book.

'You're right as always, Shoorf.' Max smiled.

'The Street of the Forgotten Dreams... What lovely names do the streets have here!' Blaise said.

'Yes, they do.' Max smiled. 'By the way, it was in the Street of the Forgotten Dreams that a girl of mine kept a pub, called Armstrong and Ella....'

'What!?' Blaise exclaimed.

'After my cats.' Max smiled. 'They're very large cats and have very lovely bass voices...'

'I see.' Blaise smiled. 'You see, Sir Shoorf, Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald were singers, with lovely bass voices...'

'I see.' Sir Shoorf nodded.

'Juffin told me you've established a fashion to keep cats as pets, Max,' Blaise said.

Max nodded and smiled.

'My cats are very famous, and that was why the lovely lady decided to call her new pub after them.' Max smiled. 'One day I came to the pub, and was so charmed by the innkeeper that it became my favorite haunt. Naturally, my cats moved to the pub too, and they were absolutely right, for I'm constantly forgetting to feed them - I'm very hectic, and my work only adds to it.'

Blaise nodded and smiled. He didn't ask where the lady was now - obviously it was some sad story, for Max didn't look like a butterfly.

'Oh, and my first meeting with that lady was something!' Max said. 'The lady slipped a love potion to me - she was of a very low opinion about her appearance - quite wrongly, to me - and she didn't know that I was trying to find an approach to her all evening! But the love potion proved a poison to me - powerful foreign substances, you see - and I would've died, if it wasn't for Juffin.'

Blaise shook his head.

'Well, as soon as I knew what the poison was, of course I won't let off her.' Max smiled. 'And she's got it at last.'

Blaise smiled.

'The potion could've sent her to Holomi, but well...' Max shrugged his shoulders and smiled.

Blaise nodded and smiled.

'The Street of the Forgotten Dreams is near the Street of the Yellow Stones, where one of my places is and where I lived in these times - but I didn't know of the pub, I really didn't, Melifaro brought me to the place, he was escorting an important person.' Max smiled.

Blaise returned to his newspaper. He didn't forget about the kamra and the pies, either. Max bore him company.

'A merchant from the Twilight Market robbed,' Blaise read. 'What's the Twilight Market?'

'It shows you are from the Islands of Tuto.' Max smiled. 'The Twilight Market is the place one can buy rare things - sometimes illegal ones.'

'Of course, how could a poor barbarian know such things!?' Blaise said.

'Indeed.' Max smiled. 'The Twilight Market is a place where one can find many mysterious things.'

'I imagine.' Blaise smiled. 'I would like to see the place.'

'I can show it to you.' Max smiled. 'It's an interesting place. It would be a very romantic stroll.'

'A romantic stroll to an interesting place with you? Any time!' Blaise said.

'Have you parted with Lady Melamori, Max? I hope you had good reasons for that?' Sir Shoorf suddenly asked with genuine concern.

Max and Blaise both laughed.

'It was a joke, Shoorf,' Max then explained, tears in his eyes. 'About romantic in THAT sense, anyways. About romantic stroll in the wide sense of the world, it wasn't. Blaise shall hold me on my word, I'm sure.'

'I will, definitely!' Blaise said mischievously.

'Well, I am glad that nothing grievous occurred between Lady Melamori and you, Max,' Sir Shoorf said with relief. 'I know you are very fond of each other.'

'We are.' Max smiled. 'Thank you for your concern with my private life.'

'It's nothing, Max,' Sir Shoorf said courteously. 'You are rather significant to me.'

'I know, Shoorf.' Max smiled.

'So romantic feelings between members of one sex aren't something reprehensive here?' Blaise asked.

'No. Why should they be?' Sir Shoorf said with mild surprise.

'Well, they are in some places,' Blaise said. 'I don't think they should be, though.'

'It does you honor, Sir Blaise,' Sir Shoorf said.

'Elves, for example, don't make any difference about the sex of the loved one,' Max said mischievously.

Blaise looked at Sir Shoorf and smiled.

'Sir Shoorf is too ceremonious for that, though, isn't he?'

'Quite so.' Max smiled.

'Max, and who are Masters of the Perfect Dreams?' Blaise asked.

'Oh, they enchant pillows so that people can see good dreams.' Max smiled. 'It isn't Forbidden Magic, and it isn't hard to learn, but one has to go to the continent of Cheruhta to learn it, see?'

'I see,' Blaise said. 'There are a lot of interesting trades here!'

'Like mine, for example?' Max smiled.

'Yes, like yours.' Blaise smiled. 'Very much so.'

'An absolutely crazy one, isn't it?' Max smiled.

'Just what I like.' Blaise nodded and smiled.

'One inmate more in this Asylum for the Insane!' Max said. 'You're welcome!'

'Thanks.' Blaise smiled.

At this point they heard a cheerful voice:

'Good news, boys! Melifaro's found our mousie! It isn't our offender, obviously, but he knows something important, I believe!'

'Great!' Max and Blaise said.

'A very satisfactory development, sir,' Lonly-Lockly said.

Juffin smiled.

'Now let's wait and see what he has to say!'

Max, Blaise and Sir Shoorf nodded.

Some time later a violet hurricane rushed into the Hall of the Common Work. Lagging behind were Numminorih, Melamori and a tall, muscular man with handsome face, brown hair and gray eyes and dressed in blue.

'This gentleman is Sir Ledri Keila, a retired Senior Master of the Order of the Secret Grass, and he communicated some most interesting things to me!' Melifaro said.

'Really?' Juffin said. 'Curious... See you as when I'm awake, Sir Ledri. Please sit down and have some kamra.'

'See you as when I'm awake, gentlemen.' Sir Ledri smiled calmly.

Max and Blaise greeted Sir Ledri too.

Sir Ledri sat down, and Max poured him some kamra.

'Now, Sir Ledri, what is it that you have seen?' Juffin asked. 'I confess we were rather confused by your sudden appearance and equally sudden disappearance!'

'And someone trod on my scent, didn't you?' Sir Ledri smiled. 'At times it was very discomforting.'

'That was me, I'm afraid.' Max smiled. 'My gift is rather strong. I'm very sorry, Sir Ledri - such is my work.'

'It's nothing, Sir Max.' Sir Ledri smiled. 'I quite understand. I happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.'

'Or rather in the right place at the right time, Sir Ledri!' Juffin smiled. 'We wouldn't have a leg to stand on if it weren't for you!'

Sir Ledri smiled.

'Whatever... Now, gentlemen and unforgettable one, I live rather reclusive life, dedicated to science...'

'That's why I don't know you, and neither does Sir Kofa!' Juffin said. 'It puzzled me.'

'Did it?' Sir Ledri smiled. 'I am flattered... Well, Sir Juffin, that day I practiced traveling between the worlds, you see...'

Juffin nodded.

'Traveling between the worlds always interested me, Sir Juffin, and I visit various interesting worlds frequently, and that day I saw a very interesting one... I saw a huge beautiful ancient castle in a lovely mountain country, near a large lake, with a great forest behind the castle. I turned into a bat so that nobody would notice me, and flew into one of the windows of the castle and looked at the rooms. I saw many children, and lessons of charms, potions and such - I gathered it was a great school of magic. I saw you there too, Sir Blaise - you are one of the teachers in that school, aren't you? You teach about various creatures.'

'Care of the Magical Creatures.' Blaise smiled. 'You were right, Sir Ledri - there are so many bats in the Hogwarts Castle that nobody would've noticed another one.'

'Hogwarts? Yes, I've heard the word. Hogwarts School, that's the name.'

'Yes.' Blaise smiled.

'I was charmed by the castle, Sir Blaise - the vaults, the armor, the maze of rooms, staircases and courtyards, the moving and speaking paintings... And I decided to explore the castle.'

'You aren't alone in this wish, Sir Ledri.' Blaise smiled. 'Students often get detentions for roaming the castle after hours.'

'I imagine.' Sir Ledri smiled. 'Now, I found your library - a very large one, I must say!'

'The library of the Hogwarts School is the largest library in the country,' Blaise explained proudly.

'It must be.' Sir Ledri smiled. 'There were even books in our language in it!'

'It was the language of my homeland, Sir Ledri,' Max said. 'I am from the world you saw.'

'Oh, are you?' Sir Ledri exclaimed. 'To tell you truth, Sir Max, I've always suspected you were too strange to be from the Waste Lands!'

'There goes your story, Juffin.' Max grinned.

'Well, not everyone in this city is like Sir Ledri.' Juffin smiled.

'I should think so.' Sir Ledri smiled. 'Now, I roamed this library of yours, Sir Blaise - I don't know how long, you understand.'

'I do.' Blaise smiled.

Sir Ledri smiled in answer.

'Well, I stayed a bit in the section that kept books about alchemy - alchemy always interested me, you see - and read some very interesting books in your language, Sir Max.'

Max smiled.

'And what then, Sir Ledri?'

'And then I saw a man who appeared from nowhere - the Dark Path, possibly - carrying a great parcel. Then he muttered a few words, and there was that powerful bright white light that was growing larger and larger, and he disappeared in it, and then the light reached me, and the next moment I was in the Street of the Old Coins. I was so scared that I flew to some random house and only there I transformed back into my human form and looked out of a window. I saw nothing special - you must have been gone by that time already, Sir Blaise - and I turned back into my bat form and flew home. It is convenient, you see, and that garden is rather near my house.'

'I see, Sir Ledri.' Juffin smiled. 'Thank you very much, Sir Ledri, you were of a great help to us. Now I can't detain you any longer. Good evening.'

'Good evening, gentlemen and unforgettable one.' Sir Ledri smiled, bowed and left.

'Now, Sir Max, it seems we have to visit your world, after all!' Juffin smiled.

'Looks like it.' Max smiled.