The Kitchen Warriors
By Joan Aiken and Jo Worth
()
About this ebook
The people who live in the house have no idea that an entire village of elves resides in their china cupboard, behind the soup bowls and bread-and-butter plates. And when the humans start their spring-cleaning by taking everything out of the cabinets, the king elf’s crown disappears. Now the elven community is in a terrible state, and the only way to save the realm is to find what their ruler has lost.
Luckily Prince Coriander has returned, after years of training at the elf school, to hunt down the crown. But the kitchen holds hidden dangers—Fendire, the infrared dragon who lurks behind the gas burners; deep-freeze trolls who can swallow an elf in a single mouthful; very scary kelpies in the dishwasher; and the great cat Mistigris. The prince soon finds himself battling a furnace dragon, retrieving his mother’s ring from the bottom of the dishwasher, and rescuing a nixie girl who lives in the kitchen sink—all while racing to discover who will become the new king of the elves!
This ebook features illustrations by Jo Worth and a personal history of Joan Aiken including rare images from the author’s estate.
Joan Aiken
Joan Aiken, daughter of the American writer Conrad Aiken, was born in Rye, Sussex, England, and has written more than sixty books for children, including The Wolves of Willoughby Chase.
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The Kitchen Warriors - Joan Aiken
Contents
1. Prince Coriander’s Return
2. The Cat Mistigris
3. The Nixie’s Rescue
4. The Furnace Dragon
5. The Kelpies’ Bowl
A Biography of Joan Aiken
1. Prince Coriander’s Return
THE KING OF THE ELVES had lost his crown. It was a very old and beautiful one, which had been in the royal family for thousands of years. Also, without having his crown on his head, the king would not be able to make laws, or eat his breakfast, or see ambassadors, or die, or give judgments at the Royal Elvish Games.
So everybody in the elves’ village was in a terrible state of worry and confusion, dashing hither and thither, moving furniture, pulling down curtains, digging, and pushing one another out of the way.
The elves’ village is in the china cupboard, behind the soup bowls and the sugar basin and the pile of bread-and-butter plates. Of course THEY—the people who live in the house—can’t see it; in fact the village is not visible at all by daylight. But in the dark it glows, and that is when the elves go about their business.
THEY—the people who live in the house—had been spring-cleaning; all the china had been taken out of the cupboard, and the cups and plates and bowls washed and then put back again. That, the king said, was when the crown must have been lost.
He was scolding all his subjects. The crown should have been put away in my treasure chest!
he stormed. We heard THEM talking about spring-cleaning last week. Why did nobody take proper care of the crown?
But Corodil,
said his wife the queen, with tears in her eyes, you were wearing the crown yourself until late last night, just before you went to bed. How could anybody put it in the treasure chest? Can’t you remember what you did with it when you took it off to go to bed?
I did just what I always do with it!
snapped King Corodil.
But the trouble was that he did something different with his crown every night. Sometimes he hung it on a cup-hook with the best after-dinner coffee cups. Sometimes he climbed out of the china cupboard and hid the crown inside the butter dish in the refrigerator. Sometimes he went into the pantry, and stowed the crown among the onions or potatoes.
The crown might be almost anywhere, and the poor elves were wearing themselves out, searching here and there all over the kitchen. They had to be extremely careful and quiet, and look sharply about them as they did this, for the kitchen is full of dangers. There is Fendire, the Infrared dragon, who generally lurks behind the gas burners but may come roaring out any minute, with red-hot eyes and tongue. There are the deep-freeze trolls, blazing blue, who can swallow an elf at a mouthful, or turn a whole regiment of elves into ice powder. There are the evil kelpies in the dishwasher, who are slimy and hungry and terribly strong. There is the Norn of the broom cupboard, who sometimes comes out riding on her three-legged broom, and is capable of grabbing handfuls of elves in her sharp talons. There is the dog Garm, who sleeps in front of the coal stove, and the cat Mistigris, whose basket is under the kitchen table.
All these perils had to be faced by the searching elves. But the elves did face them bravely, hunting far and wide, all over the kitchen, while King Corodil grumbled and fumed and urged them to make haste. He was hungry and wanted his breakfast of bread and honey and a golden cup of warm mead. But, of course, by elf law, without his crown on his head, he might not eat or drink or do anything at all, except grumble.
Well, Corodil,
said Queen Corasin, you might at least brush your teeth and comb your hair and beard, while you are waiting for them to find the crown.
These things were allowed. But the king said, I shall do nothing of the sort!
His white hair and cloudy beard were so long and woolly and tangly that he looked like a bundle of dandelion clocks. I shall do nothing at all but sit on my throne until the crown is found,
he said, and folded his arms.
In the middle of all the commotion, a stranger arrived at the elf palace. This was a handsome young man, who looked like an elf prince. He wore a sword, and was well dressed, but seemed to have come from a long way off, for he looked tired, and his clothes were much stained with travel, as if he had