Feast Fight! Read Online Free Page B

said. “You run along. I’ll see myself to bed.”
    “Are you sure, Sir Percy?” I said. Normally he says he can’t get to sleep unless someone (me) plumps up his pillows and tucks him up for the night.
    “Quite sure,” he said cheerily. “You need an early night, Cedric. Big day tomorrow, eh? Speaking of which, I need to make one more trip to the village before the king and queen arrive. Wake me early, will you?”
    “Yes, Sir Percy,” I said, stifling a yawn. “Goodnight, Sir Percy.”
    I went to my own little room and flopped on the bed, thinking about everything I had to do for the royal visit. I still had to prepare the best guest bedchamber for the king and queen.And what about Mouldybun Margaret’s horrible banquet menu? With no peacock pie my only hope was to add a bit of that new spice I’d bought. And I’d have to do that while Margaret wasn’t looking…
    My mind was buzzing so much I couldn’t sleep. So I decided to nip to the kitchen again and make
myself
a warm milk and honey.
    I left my room and slunk down the main stairs towards the kitchen. The castle was dark and silent.
    Silent, except for –
what was that
?
    The door to the Great Hall was slightly ajar. I stopped and listened. There was definitely a noise coming from inside. I peeped through the door.
Probably just rats
, I thought.But then I saw something move. A shadow, over by Sir Percy’s chest of silver. It was the thief! I couldn’t let him get away again.
    I crept into the Great Hall and slipped as silently as I could past the long banqueting table towards the hunched figure.
    Then I tripped on something. I managed to stop myself from crying out and bent down to see what it was. It was Sir Percy’s big leather sack. Why had he left it there? And then I had an idea. A silly, crazy idea – but one that might just work.
    Silently I picked up the sack and tiptoed towards the thief. When I was right behind him I held the sack open, raised my arms, and took a deep breath.

    Here goes. Ready – NOW!
    In one fast move I whisked the sack down over his head and arms.
    “MMMPPPHHH!” The thief gave a muffled roar and dropped the silver plates he was holding. He struggled to his feet – and I promptly pulled the sack down to his knees.
    “Got you!” I yelled. But the thief shook me off and started running – straight into an old suit of armour.
    “MMMOUCH!” he wailed, as the armour collapsed noisily on top of him.
    I lunged for the robber, but slipped on the spinning breastplate. To stop myself falling, I reached for the corner of Sir Percy’s new tapestry. It came away from the wall and collapsed on to me, knocking over several more suits of armour.
    “Help!” I yelled, but I was drowned out by the deafening din of helmets, breastplates, greaves and gauntlets clattering to the stone floor.
    I freed myself from the tapestry and saw the thief blindly bumbling his way through the door and disappearing.
    “Stop! Thief!” I cried, but I knew it was no use. He had escaped again!
    Then I heard a loud CLONK! and I was surprised to see the thief staggering
back
into the hall. He stopped, groaned, swayed for a moment – and toppled on to the crumpled tapestry.
    I gasped in astonishment as Mouldybun Margaret marched into the Great Hall in her nightdress. She was holding a large iron frying pan.
    It was still ringing.

    “Gottim!” she said, as Patchcoat appeared behind her.
    “We heard the commotion and came as quickly as we could,” he said. “Blimey, Margaret, that was a fair old wallop. He’s not
dead
, is he?”
    As if in answer, a long muffled moan came from the leather sack.
    “No,” said Margaret, “but he’ll wish he was when Sir Percy gets hold of him.”
    “Shall I fetch Sir Percy now?” I said.
    “Nah, wait till the morning,” said Margaret, tying the drawstring of the sack tight round the thief’s knees. “This scoundrel ain’t going nowhere. But we can’t leave him here. You two grab a leg eachand I’ll