League of Extraordinary Robots, Yolanda Jackson [leveled readers TXT] 📗

his wand, he made Prince Harry’s mouth disappear so that he couldn’t scream. Prince Harry had what his great grandparents would have called a conniption fit and demanded in a mumbling voice to have his mouth put back. Wisker didn’t pay the spoiled prince any attention and went on with his plans, using his magic wand to fly himself, the prince and porcupine silently out of a nearby window and unnoticed to a piece of land far behind the castle.
Wisker got a good look at the prince. “Humm,” he said to Porcupine. I can remember when I couldn’t do any thing right to satisfy the prince and so I got treated like nothing more than a peasant instead of the royal wizard. I’d like to give him a good tongue lashing.”
“We don’t have any time to waste,” Porcupine reminded him.
Prince Harry glared at the two of them. Without his mouth, he couldn’t cry, talk or scream for help, all he could do was mumble and that fell upon deaf ears. Wisker and Porcupine were much too busy thinking about what they could best do to help the people and the Land of Mayfair to pay any attention to the spoiled prince, other than to be sure he stayed where they put him and Wisker’s wand had done a good job of that by putting a barbed wire fence around him. Prince Harry had made one attempt already at getting over the barbed wire fence and had decided immediately that that wasn’t a very good idea. “Without a mouth, I can’t even suck my thumb where I poked it on that barbed wire,” he thought to himself. “This is no way to treat a prince!”
Finally Wisker and Porcupine were almost ready to leave for the Land of Bots, there was just one more thing to do. Wisker used his wand to write a magical message which read, “I Wisker have kidnapped your boy. I know about your deal with Glendora and it does not sit right with me. If you want to see your boy again, let the people of Mayfair go.”
Then Wisker took out his wand and said, “ Bibbledy, boobledy, dibbledy drow, send to me a large black crow.” Wisker had no more than finished saying the words than a large black crow flew in through the window and landed on Wisker’s wand. Wisker smiled and patted the crow on the top of its head. “I have a mission for you,” Wisker told the crow. He folded up the letter carefully and attached to it a lock of hair from Prince Harry’s own head, so that the king and queen would know that the letter was on the up and up. “I want you to take this letter straight to King Alfred.” The crow took the letter in its beak and without looking back flew straight to King Alfred.
Wisker held up his wand and almost instantaneously he, Porcupine and the spoiled prince deep in the hidden tunnels and on their way to the Land of Bots. By the time the letter was delivered, they were walking through the magical doorway and into the Land of Bots. Wisker summoned up the power of flight, a large black hole appeared, swirling its way through the air. Wisker, Porcupine and Prince Harry flew through the hole which closed as soon as they were on the other side.
Prince Harry was more than a little surprised to see this part of Whisker’s magic. He had never seen anything quite like it before. His eyes grew big and his face had an expression of excitement. “Wow!!” he said, but of course since he had no mouth, it was a very mumbled and hard to understand ‘wow’.
“I guess it’s time to give you back your mouth, isn’t it boy?” laughed Wisker, reaching out his wand and putting the spoiled prince’s mouth back in place. “But see to it that that you use it properly.”
“What is THAT supposed to mean?” asked Prince Harry. Imperiously.
Wisker eyed him for a moment. “That means that never again do you use that tone of voice to me or to anyone else when I’m around to hear you,” he answered. “And when you speak to me, you say sir or Mr. Wisker, and you will speak respectfully, is that understood?”
“Sir or Mr. Wisker???” screamed Prince Harry. “Well I guess I will not!! I don’t say sir or Mr. to anyone and as far as respect; I am a royal prince I don’t speak to anyone with respect. This is my mouth and I will use it as I choose.”
Wisker reached out with his wand and took back Prince Harry’s mouth. “I guess I gave it back to you a little too soon,” he remarked calmly.
Porcupine grinned as he saw the spoiled prince’s face turn all different shades as he tried to scream and couldn’t because he had no mouth with which to do so. “Kind of hard to throw a temper tantrum when you can only mumble,” he reflected.
Wisker, Porcupine and the spoiled prince soon found them traveling in a large, black hole, flying over mountains and villages. Wisker reached his wand over and restored the spoiled prince’s mouth; then he waited for something rude to come out, but there was nothing. The prince glanced over at him. “Thank you Mr. Wisker,” encouraged Wisker but the spoiled prince said nothing. :”Thank you Mr. Wisker,” repeated Wisker firmly, a little louder.
“I am a prince, I don’t say thank you,” said the spoiled prince.
“Thank you is one of the most important things in the world to say,” Wisker told him. “If you don’t say that, I guess there’s no need for you to say anything.” He reached towards Prince Harry’s mouth with his wand and the spoiled prince jumped back hurriedly.
“Thank you,” said the spoiled prince.
“Mr. Wisker,” insisted Wisker. “I am a good deal older than you are and you will address me respectfully, prince or not.”
The spoiled prince opened his mouth to take issue, then his eyes fell on Wisker’s wand and he changed his mind. “Mr. Wisker,” he said but it was evident to both Wisker and Porcupine that this was not what he wished to say, in fact both men had an idea that if their roles were ever reversed and Prince Harry was in charge, Wisker would be on his way to the guillotine and Prince Harry would probably want to pull the lever himself.
“You’re welcome,” said Wisker softly. “You’re very, very welcome indeed.”
Meanwhile, back in the Land of Mayfair, the crow had delivered the message Wisker had given him to the king and queen.
“What is this?” asked King Alfred, opening the message which the crow had given him. His face went white when he saw the lock of hair and read the message. “Our son has been kidnapped,” he said, turning to the queen. The queen fell over in a faint and the king read the letter out loud so that all would know what had happened. “Call all of my foot soldiers and army and assemble them in the courtyard,” he screamed. “Do it now!” The king began to take his anger out on his servants, kicking them and beating them as he moved through the castle. “This man is slowly losing his mind,” whispered the court jester to a nearby footman. We must be very careful in dealing with him.”
“I want you all to go after Wisker and retrieve my son,” King Alfred ordered his foot soldiers and army. “And see to it that my orders reach those who are not yet here.”
“But my lord,” said one of the foot soldiers. “Now that Wisker has his wand, he will be too powerful for us. The only way you can get your son back is to do what Wisker has said.”
King Alfred’s face turned red with anger and his eyes glared. He stepped towards the man and pointed at him. “Take him to the guillotine,’ he ordered. “Off with his head!”
“No, no,” screamed the man. “Please, your majesty….”
But the king was showing no mercy. “Take him away,” he ordered. “I, your king, said to go after Wisker and rescue my son. When your king says a thing is to be done it is to be done!”
Queen Jasline sobbed louder and louder as she thought about Prince Harry, kidnapped by Wisker. “What if he kills him?” she sobbed even louder. “Oh what if he kills him?”
“It won’t happen, your majesty,” soothed the queen’s lady’s maid. “The king has said that Prince Harry is to be rescued and that is what will happen. The king has proclaimed it so that is what will be done.” It was very evident that that young lady knew which side her bread was buttered on.
The little kitchen maid who had been listening to all this, ran quickly back into the castle. “The prince has been kidnapped,” she told all the kitchen workers. “He’s been kidnapped by someone named Wisker.”
The kitchen workers spread the word to the rest of the household staff and some of them were able to get word to the slaves in the dungeons and in the slavery camps. “Hurray,” whispered the slaves to each other, being careful to not let the guards overhear them. “Wiskers is alive and he has come back to save us.”
In the meantime, still out in the courtyard, the king had asked for a volunteer to lead the troups to save Prince Harry but no one had stepped forward. Actually, no one wanted the job and so no one had stepped forward, all hoping someone else would do it.
One of the foot soldiers, Drummer by name, looked all around. Drummer was a big man, large in stature and tall in frame. He wore a silver breast plate and a silver helmet with red feathers on the top. “Well,” thought Drummer, “The king will kill us all any way if none of us step forward so I might as well do it. Who knows, we might be able to save the prince or maybe we’ll just find some place to live.” Drummer stepped forward.

“Well,” thought King Alfred. “He’s so big maybe just seeing him will be enough to make Wisker return Prince Harry.
“Do you vow that you will bring the prince back or not come back at all?” King Alfred asked, as Drummer knelt before him.
“I do so vow,” Drummer answered. Drummer stood up. He turned his head so that the king couldn’t see him and winked at the other soldiers. He raised his arms, sword in hand, high in the air and shouted, “All right men, let’s go and free the prince!”
“Remember, “King Alfred told them all, if you return to the Land of Mayfair without my son you and all your families will be sent to the guillotine. And I want the rest of you villagers to work day and night, building wagons and making weapons for these my mighty soldiers. Get busy, now!”
The villagers got busy, but they didn’t want Wisker to get hurt, so they weren’t sure what to do. Finally, one of them, Greko by name, one of the older men, had an idea. “We’ll only make a few weapons that