“Now how am I going to get this report to England?” complained Randolph, patting the count of Spanish ships in his shirt pocket.  “We’re on the wrong side of the Alps.”

“Don’t forget this is my wish,” Rosa reminded him.  “Where are we?”

“I think we’re on the eastern side of Italy,” Chris replied, with a sailor’s experience.  “That looks like the Adriatic Sea.”

Hansel said.  “Gretel and I have been there before.  Our family used to summer on the Adriatic.”

 “It’s getting dark.”  Hombre was worried.  “We need to find shelter…and food.  I should have kept some apples.”

WHOOSH!

There was a flash of lightning, a cloud of smoke, and the roar of thunder.  And everyone turned to look at Llywarch.

He pointed to a nearby city where a display of fireworks was lighting the sky.

“It’s like the boy who cried wolf,” Rosa repeated.

Drawn by the brilliant colors, Chevy poked Rex with his stick and the oxcart with all its passengers lumbered towards it.  The pyrotechnic display burst into colorful circles above the skyline revealing houses of Mediterranean pastel with high balconies and red tile roofs.  In the center, there was a Grand Palace with a dome and a tower.  Some rockets, shooting beyond the walls of the city, illuminated the vineyards and orchards surrounding it.

The travelers found themselves joining a throng of visitors at the entrance to the city where they were stopped by the gateman.  He was in masquerade costume, dressed as a Harlequin clown.  It was a multi-colored suit with a floppy hat and he wore a mask with a long nose.  The revelers going past them into the city were dressed in all sorts of costumes, but each wore a mask with a long nose.

Through the gates they could see a Piazza separated by a canal.  A stone arched bridge spanned it, connecting the two sides.  Fountains lined the canal along its length and in the center was a Great Fountain.  Water from the canal flowed into it and then on out until the water passed through a huge grate in a far wall of the city, joining a river a short distance before it reached the sea.

Oils of many colors were poured into the canal and set ablaze as part of the display for the celebration.  Throughout it and the fountains, flames leaped up in different hues.  Those of the Great Fountain almost touched the fireworks in the sky.

The gateman looked Llywarch up and down.  “That’s a great costume and your nose is perfect.  You can go right in.  But your friends will have to put on masks.”  And he handed out ones with long noses.  “You can leave your animals over there,” he added, pointing to an enclosure off to one side.

“Why are you celebrating?” asked Hansel.

“Don’t you know?” replied the gateman.  “We are celebrating our victory over the Turkish pirates tomorrow.”

Randolph sputtered, “WHAT?  You haven’t fought yet and you’re already celebrating?”

“Well,” replied the gateman, as he scratched behind his ear.  “It is more of a formality.  We fight them every month when the tide is right.  And they always lose.  You see we have the Blue Fairy to protect us.  I guess we got into the habit of combining the two events so people who come in from the countryside for the fighting don’t have to come back for the celebration.  The battle starts at midnight.  You’ll need to turn in your masks by then.”

“Why do these masks have such long noses?” asked Rosa.

“Oh, that’s to please the Blue Fairy.  Years ago she knew a boy…or a puppet…something like that…with a long nose.  This reminds her of him.  It’s an odd story and I am not sure how much of it’s true.  Maybe she just likes noses.  To each her own, I say.”

“Wait!  Here are two pirates trying to sneak into the city,” said Chris.  And he pulled two people dressed in pirate garb out of line, a fat one and a skinny one.

“Look!  They have Devil Chickens on their shoulders,” said Rosa.

“Let go of my wife, you masher!” said the skinny pirate.  He and his wife were a farm couple coming in to join the festivities.  The chickens on their shoulders were stuffed and painted to look like pirate parrots.

The woman screamed and fell, causing a commotion among those entering the gates.

“Here now,” said the gateman.  “If you can’t keep your hands to yourself, I’ll have to throw you out before you get in.  We run a respectable Carnival here.  Besides you already have two women.”  He winked at Gretel and Rosa and smiled broadly, revealing a mouth devoid of teeth.

“Oh dear,” said Gretel.

“Nobody has me!”  Rosa insisted, glaring at Christopher.

Gretel moved closer to Randolph.

While the gateman was distracted, two other arrivals in masks and pirate outfits hurried through the gates.  They also had what appeared to be parrots on their shoulders, but as they passed, one bird turned to the other and whispered without moving its lips, “Fooled ‘em.”

The skinny man pulled his wife up and the two hurried away, looking back over their birds to make sure they were not being followed.

WHOOSH!

There was a flash of lightning, a cloud of smoke, and the roar of thunder.  This time Llywarch did disappear - right from the city gates.

Rosa put her hands on her hips and tossed her hair in disgust.

Because everyone was wearing masks and he couldn’t count, the gateman didn’t notice the wizard was gone.  Besides he was still glaring at Chris.  “If I let you in, you must promise to behave,” he insisted in Italian, which no one understood with Llywarch gone.

“Si!  Bueno!  Bueno!”  Chris resorted to his limited linguistic skills.  It was good enough to let them through the gates where they promptly got separated.

Rosa and Gretel hurried over the bridge to a tinker’s wagon selling ribbons and trinkets.  Hombre and Chevy took the animals to the enclosure, where they met a shepherd who was leaving a sheep dressed in wolf’s clothing.  “This is supposed to be a costume from a fable,” the shepherd explained, “but think I have it backward.”  Neither Chevy nor Hombre understood, but they nodded and off they went to explore the Carnival.

Hansel was cornered by a mime who insisted on putting him in a box.  The mime’s hat was on the ground and onlookers who enjoyed the show were tossing coins in it.  Hansel tried to ignore him because he had no money.

“I would have sworn those were real pirates,” said Chris, pointing at the last pair to pass through the gates.  The chickens on their shoulders kept as still as possible.

“Forget it, “said Randolph.  “Let’s take the girls and have some fun.  Blimey, where’d they go?”

Chris and Randolph whirled around to look for them.  But they were nowhere in sight.

“We can keep track of them through pirate attacks, shipwrecks, storms, giants, and avalanches,” said Randolph, “Now we lose them at a Carnival.”

“Rosa probably ran away on purpose,” grumbled Chris.

Randolph grinned and said, “It wouldn’t be the first time.  Wait!  I think I see them.”  He pointed into the crowd of revelers at the backs of two figures, one in a red skirt and scarf, the other wearing an apron.

Chris said, “Rosa’s beginning to put on weight, don’t you think?”

Randolph nodded.  “And Gretel seems taller with that mask on.”

They hurried after them.

Hansel was the first to be arrested, but not before he fell in love.

The mime’s box was a jail cell.  When Hansel accidentally broke out by walking through it, the mime pulled out a finger, cocked his thumb, and aimed it; while up went his other hand in a stopping motion.  Then he blew an imaginary whistle.  And Hansel was being chased by a dozen mime police to the delight of the crowd.  They especially enjoyed the mime who kept pretending to slip on a banana.

Hansel ducked into a tent as someone yelled, “He must be a thief because he’s running.”  And someone else shouted “I’ve been robbed.”

Hansel came to a stop in front of the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen, standing in the center of the tent.  She had shoulder length blonde hair tied with a blue ribbon.  The girl was dressed in a pale blue dress, and she had the bluest eyes.  Her lips were red, her complexion pink, and she had a slender nose; he could tell because she wasn’t wearing a mask.

They stared at each other for a moment that seemed an eternity.  Hansel’s hands began to sweat, while girl nibbled her lip.

“Do…do you want me to tell your fortune?” the girl asked.

Hansel knew not a word of Italian, yet he found he could understand everything she said.  It was as if her heart spoke to his.  He nodded.

The girl picked up a cloth and walked to what looked like a window sitting in a frame on a table.  It was fogged over.  She wiped it clean and peered into it.  Then she gasped.

“What does it say?” asked Hansel.

“It says we are going to have three children,” answered the girl.  “One of them will be a girl.”

“I’ve always liked children,” said Hansel, who had never given them much thought before.

“Can I see your nose?”

Hansel took off his mask.

Just as he did so a voice came from outside, “Let’s look in that tent.”

Hansel glanced at the opening and when he turned back, the girl was gone.  What happened?  Didn’t she like his nose?  He rubbed it.  He had to find her and tell her he was willing to have it changed.

The tent vanished and he found himself standing in the middle of the Piazza surrounded by the mimes.  Before he could get away, they drew another box around him, put an invisible padlock on it, and threw away a non-existent key.  Then they all marched around it shouldering imaginary rifles and beating invisible clubs.

BANG!

One imaginary rifle accidentally went off.  A startled brown hen flew from the shoulder of someone in a pirate outfit.  It was carrying a purse in its beak.

The fat and skinny farm couple came up to the window of the imaginary jail and looked through the bars.  A mime gestured towards Hansel.  Was this the man who stole their purse?

“I am not sure,” said the wife.  “I thought he was dressed as a pirate and had a bird on his shoulder.”

“I thought he had a longer nose,” said the husband.

The mime motioned for Hansel to put back on his mask.

“That’s him,” the couple exclaimed.  “We’d recognize that nose anywhere.”

“And something pecked at my bottom,” allowed the woman, adding injury to insult.

The onlookers gasped, while somewhere in the crowd a hen cackled.

The mime squad held a huddle to decide the fate of the prisoner.  There was a lot of finger wagging, foot tapping, and fist pounding.  But not a sound was heard.

“Take him to the Blue Fairy,” someone in the crowd suggested,  “She’ll know what to do.”

The mimes nodded in agreement and placed their fingers to their heads knowingly.  Then they spread over the Piazza looking for the discarded key.  The crowd gave hints and suggestions as to where they might find it.  Finally a mime tripped over it.  It was the same one who kept slipping on a banana.

The crowd howled!

After wiping it clean and bending it straight, that mime inserted the key in the lock.  It took the combined strength of all the mimes to force it to turn and open the door.  Then the same mime hopped around the Piazza pretending the door had slammed on his foot.

As he emerged from his cell, Hansel looked around for the girl, but he couldn’t see her, and he wasn’t able to go looking with the mimes surrounding him.  They hauled him off to the Blue Fairy, while the hopping mime bowed to tremendous applause and picked up his overflowing hat.

*          *          *

Rosa and Gretel had no money either, but they each purchased a pretty ribbon by trading the tinker, a roguish-looking gypsy, for a kiss.  Then they headed off to a striped tent that other revelers were pouring into.  As they got closer, they heard singing that reminded Rosa of the Devil Chickens.  But they were welcomed at the entrance with open arms and mugs of brew.

“You are over twenty-one, aren’t you,” asked the purveyor of drinks.

Neither girl had any idea what he was asking, but they nodded their heads and took the drinks.

Before long they were the life of the party, joining in on songs they didn’t know the words to and singing them at the top of their lungs.

Rosa slammed down an empty mug and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.  Then she hitched up her skirt and jumped up on the table.  The entire tent erupted in cheers as she danced Flamenco to the drumming of hands on chairs and tabletops.

Gretel hiccupped and let the rest of her drink spill onto the floor as she tried to climb up, hardly slipping at all.  Politely she thanked the man pushing on her backside, as she struggled to stand upright.  Then she lifted her hem and proceeded to do a folk dance.

Rosa lifted her skirt just as high.  Her feet were tapping merrily.

*          *          *

“I would have sworn those girls were Rosa and Gretel,” said Chris, as they walked across the Piazza.  Chris was sporting a black eye and Randolph’s mask had a broken nose.

“Those were big boyfriends,” added Randolph.  “I wonder if I have to pay for this mask?”

“I’m never going to fight again, “said Chris, as he winced in pain.  “Let’s go to that tent and get a drink.”

“Blimey!” said Randolph, as they entered the tent.  “Is that Rosa and Gretel?”

“Let’s make sure before we do anything this time,” said Chris, rubbing his swollen hand.

Then Rosa looked up and saw them.  “Chris!  Randolph!” she called out happily.  She waved at them and lifted her skirt higher.

“Randy…Randy…Randy,” giggled Gretel, before again thanking the man behind her.

Without waiting for another word, Randolph and Chris launched themselves at the girls’ closest admirers.

“FIGHT!  FIGHT!” yelled Rosa, and she jumped on the back of a man who had Chris in a headlock.  She pummeled him with her fists about his head and shoulders.  Her skirt was blocking his view.

Gretel drew back her fist and took a roundhouse swing at the helpful gentleman behind her.  “Take that, you scoundrel,” she said.  She missed and flattened Randolph, who had been winning his fight.

The tent erupted into a melee.  It was in danger of collapsing when the mime police arrived.

Everything went silent.  The entire tent watched as the chief mime and the owner of the tent played a game of charades.

“It’s a question,” understood the bartender.  “The first word is ‘What’.  The second word…is three syllables, and it means a fool,” he translated the mime’s gestures.  Then he guessed, “What idiot started this fight and should be thrown in jail?”

The mime touched his finger to his nose.  That was correct!

Everyone pointed at Chris and Randolph, who were on the floor beneath a pile of bodies.  And then at Rosa and Gretel, who were on the backs of two of the biggest and ugliest men in the tent, tugging their hair.  Slowly they slid down to the floor, and demurely straightened their clothes.

Soon they were off to see the Blue Fairy, also.  And the tent was again filled with raucous song.

*          *          *

Hombre tried to win a pie in a limbo contest.  But the second place finisher, a man known as “Long Louie”, complained, and it was decided that dwarfs were disqualified from limbo contests.  Hungry and discouraged, he and Chevy walked to the top of the Piazza.

There under a stone support they found the oak doorway that was the entrance to the city’s water supply.  Intrigued, they descended a flight of rough hewn steps and found themselves in a large cavern beneath the Grand Palace.  They knew something was wrong the minute they entering the chamber.  Busted pipes were spouting water everywhere.  Lines of torches on the walls were partial extinguished, but enough were burning to reveal evidence of a struggle. Tables were overturned.  Lunch boxes were smashed.  Broken masks lay about.  And tools were broken and scattered.  But no workers could be found.

An ancient Roman aqueduct brought water into the cavern from the river to fill the enormous basin.  At the head were two floodgates.  One allowed water to flow out the canal.  The other sent the water back to the river.  It had the same pure quality they’d seen in the Pyrenees, because it came from the Alps.  The basin was walled with brick and cement and large enough to hold thousands of gallons.  If enemies cut off the supply entering cavern, the city could close the outlets and have water to survive a siege of months.

The unbroken pipes in the cavern went outward to supply the city its water.  An ingenious water wheel driven by the flow lifted water from the basin to a tower atop of the Grand Palace.  From there gravity sent it to all parts of the city.  Different color pipes were for different uses.  Blue was for drinking water.  White pipes led to the sewage system.  And red pipes supplied the city’s wine industry.  The water all came from the same source, but “Red Wine is best from Red Pipes” was accepted truism throughout the region.  White wine didn’t have a motto.

It was the blue pipes that were broken, affecting the city’s drinking water.

Hombre picked up a wrench and motioned Chevy to get behind him.  He took off his mask and told Chevy to do the same.  “I do not want to mistake you for someone else.”

“Look!”  Chevy pointed to the ground.  There were marks where bodies had been dragged and thrown into the return.  “What do you supposed happened?” asked Chevy.

“Why don’t you ask me?” came a voice from the basin.

Startled, they whirled and saw a fish poking its head over the rim.

“You can talk?” asked Hombre.

“And you speak Spanish!” added Chevy.

“Certainly,” replied the fish.  “I’m a Spanish mackerel.  Do you know where I can find a boy named Chevy?”

Hombre pointed to him.

“I’m hungry,” the fish continued.  “You don’t have any worms on you, do you?

They shook their heads.

“Oh well,” said the fish.  “I don’t have long to live anyway.”

“What happen here?  Did you do this?” asked Hombre.

“No,” replied the fish.  “It was two Turkish pirates.  And they had the ugliest brown parrots with them.  I have never seen anything like them.  Did you know those birds could talk without moving their lips?

“Los Pollos Del Diablo,” murmured Chevy.

The fish leaned forward and whispered, “Whatever you do, don’t look behind me.“

They immediately looked behind it.

 The fish shook its head in disgust.  “There’s a pirate ship hiding in there.  Those two open the gate to let it in.”

“But how could a pirate ship get through the aqueduct.”

“I know how I’d do it,” said Chevy.  “I’d put the masts on hinges so they could lay backwards when it went though the duct, then pull them upright with ropes, just like when you build a ship in a bottle.”

“You’re as clever as your parents claimed you were,” said the fish.

 “You know my parents?” asked Chevy.  “Are they alive?  Who are you?”

“No,” the fish replied sadly.  “They drowned on the way to the New World.  And you couldn’t pronounce my name unless you had gills.  Just call me Mac.  Your parents left me something to give to you – before they went under for the third time.  I swallowed it, so you’ll have to gut me to get it.”

“WHAT?  I can’t kill you.  You knew my parents.”

But Mac left him no choice.  Leaping over the basin, the fish flopped around on the cavern floor until it died.

“I suppose it would be impolite to eat him?” asked Hombre.

Chevy picked a knife out of one the broken lunch boxes and slit the fish open.  Out fell the other half of his amulet.  When he looped the chain over his head, the two pieces snapped together.  “I feel strange,” he said.

“We have to warn the others about the ship,” said Hombre.  “There’s some more stairs and they look like they lead to the palace.  Let’s warn the Blue Fairy.”