Astro-Knights Island Read Free Page A

loud sound came from the craft, like the whir of a motor, and the disk began to rise from the platform. The villagers cheered and waved good-bye, and the flying disk shot up into the sky, quickly becoming a glinting silver dot against the blue. Then it disappeared.
    â€œI wonder if we’ll ever see them again,” Alice mused.
    â€œOf course we will!” Simon said confidently. “The Knights of Arturus will never be defeated!”

Chapter Four
    The Mordred Museum
    â€œThe Knights of Arturus have been defeated,” Alice said. “At least, that’s what the gossips in the mill are saying.”
    â€œThey don’t know what they’re talking about,” Simon insisted. “The knights will come through, I just know it.”
    But even as he said the words, Simon felt a twinge of doubt. The knights had been gone for days now. Every day, he stared up at the sky, waiting for them to return. And every night, he fell asleep disappointed.
    The two friends were sitting on a fence by the stables, underneath that same blue sky. As peasants, they very rarely got a day off, and when they did, they tried to spend it together.
    â€œSo what do you want to do today?” Simon asked.
    â€œWell . . .” Alice said slowly. “I was thinking we could go to the Museum of Mordred.”
    Simon made a face. “You know I don’t care about that guy. All those stories are a bunch of nonsense.”
    â€œBut they’re an interesting bunch of nonsense,” Alice countered. “And, anyway, I think you need to take your mind off those knights. I can tell how worried you are.”
    Simon hopped down from the fence. “I am
not
worried,” he lied. “But since it’s your turn to pick what we do, I’ll go.”
    Alice jumped down, landing next to him. “Cool! You won’t regret it, Simon.”
    They walked toward the Castle, heading away from the stench of the stables and the muddy field. As they made their way along the grassy path they jumped over jagged craters in the dirt, still fresh from the attack. On the main road in the village, the shingled walls of the Crop Circle Inn were singed and the Planetarium next door had a broken window.
    When they got to the museum, a small stone house with a wood roof, Simon suddenly realized something.
    â€œHey, we can’t go here,” he said. “Doesn’t it cost a coin to get in?”
    â€œNo problem,” Alice said. “There are always coins in the fountain.”
    She ran to the elaborate granite fountain that Mordred’s fans had constructed next to the museum. The fountain’s base was round, with another round pool on a platform rising up from the center. And rising from the second pool was a spacecraft carved from stone, with a twisted trail of smoke connecting the craft to the fountain. Water flowed into the pool from three small tubes at the end of the craft.

    Alice jumped into the fountain and began to splash around, looking for coins.
    â€œSo what is this thing supposed to be?” Simon asked.
    â€œMordred’s worshippers call it a rocket,” she said. “They say it’s what he used to escape to the stars.”
    Simon shook his head. “Ridiculous.”
    â€œI thought so, too,” Alice said. “Until we got attacked from the sky. Hey, two coins!”
    She flipped a coin down to Simon and jumped out of the fountain. Simon sighed.
    â€œWhat a waste of a perfectly good coin.”
    â€œIt’ll be fun,” Alice said, dragging him by the arm. “Come on!”
    Inside the museum, the curator greeted them with a sneer of disdain. A pale man with a neatly trimmed red beard, he was dressed in fine purple trousers and a matching velvet hat. He clearly had no time for peasants.
    â€œSorry,” he said. “You need one coin to enter.”
    â€œNot a problem,” Alice said with a grin, handing him her coin. Simon reluctantly turned