"I knew it! I must be the smartest person in the galaxy!"
It was Princess Petronella, standing at the doorway of a building beneath a sign saying FOOD HALL.
"Hi! How are you?" called out Nicola, filled with sudden affection for the princess. There was something comforting about seeing her familiar, self-absorbed face in these frightening surroundings.
"I'm a genius," answered the princess seriously. "I have amazing powers of observation! I noticed that the girl delivering the food looked nervous and I said to myself, I bet that food is poisoned. Then I thought, I bet the Space Brigade is behind it! So I didn't touch a crumb, even though I'm famished! Just when I think I couldn't be any smarter, I outdo myself!"
"You're so modest, too," said Sean.
"It's nice to see you again, Princess Petronella," said Katie.
"Yes, I imagine it would be very nice for you," said the princess. "Tell me, what poison have you used? Are they all about to die painful deaths?"
Nicola and the others walked into the dining hall and looked around curiously. A number of tables had been set up for breakfast. There was a big sign at one end saying,
THE VOLCOMANIAN PRISON CAMP WELCOMES OUR FINE AND CLEVER PRESIDENT, MRS. MANIA!
The room was perfectly silent, except for the low rumbling sound of people snoring.
Everywhere Nicola looked she could see sleeping guards. Some of them had fallen asleep on their breakfast plates, cheeks comfortably cushioned on sausages. Others were sitting upright in their chairs, heads tipped back, mouths wide open, and forks still gripped in their hands.The horrible guard who had reminded Sean and Nicola of the school bully had landed face-first in his scrambled eggs, where he was snoring like a snuffly pig.
At the end of the hall was a raised platform with a long table that had obviously been set up for the guests of honor. Mrs. Mania was sleeping peacefully with her head cradled in her arms. She didn't look at all forbidding when she was asleep--in fact, she looked quite nice. On her left was her son, who was sleeping with his chin on his chest, his hands still clutching his knife and fork. On Mrs. Mania's right was an empty chair with an untouched plate of food that was obviously Princess Petronella's.
"They're just sleeping," Nicola explained to Princess Petronella. "They're not going to die violent deaths."
"Oh good," said Princess Petronella. "I would have been quite disappointed to see Marty Mania die." She pointed at Mrs. Mania's sleeping son. "He might look like a toad, but I've become quite fond of him. I've decided to add him to my collection of 'friends.' I've got so many now! I might actually need to cut back."
She narrowed her eyes at the Space Brigade as if trying to decide which of her friends she didn't need.
"Oh, by the way, this is the president of Whimsy!" Nicola awkwardly gestured at Henry Sweet. She was always forgetting the right way to introduce people. "Ah, Henry Sweet, this is Princess Petronella. Princess Petronella, Henry Sweet."
"I am honored to meet you," said Henry with a sweeping bow.
"You certainly are," agreed Princess Petronella with a sniff.
"Ah, Nicola, we'd better not chat for too long," Sean reminded her. "We haven't got long before they start waking up."
"Yes, you're right," said Nicola. "Let's go, everybody!"
Everyone pulled out coils of rope from their bags. (They had gotten the rope from Poppy the waitress's mother. She had been a tightrope artist before her arthritis started acting up.)
The night before, Greta had trained them all on various knots she had learned at Girl Scouts, such as the Double Fisherman's Knot. Today they were using the skills to tie each guard securely to a chair.
It was hard work. The guards were big people and they were sleeping so deeply their arms and legs were floppy and heavy.
Nicola's fingers ached and beads of sweat formed on her forehead. Henry had estimated that it would take about an hour before the effects of the rose petals wore off and people started to wake up. They had thought that would be plenty of time.
"We're never going to finish before they wake up," said Shimlara desperately from the front of the room, where she was tying up the sleeping Mrs. Mania.
"If only we had more people to help," agreed Greta.
"You've got plenty of people who would be more than happy to help," commented Princess Petronella, who wasn't being much help herself, relaxing in a chair with her feet up on one of the tables.
"What do you mean?" said Nicola, and then she slapped herself lightly on the forehead.
She went through the pocket of the sleeping guard she was tying up and found a heavy set of keys.
"We need to release the prisoners!"