A Box of Nothing by Peter Dickinson

noticing him, but one of his officers caught up with him and said something very respectfully and he stopped, stared, and came back. His whiskers quivered. He squeaked a question and an officer answered. He came closer, wrinkling his nose. James could smell his ratty breath. His mean little eyes under the huge cap were as sharp as pins. He put out a paw and prodded James’s chest. He snickered. Then his expression changed.
    He snapped an order. James’s guards seized his arms. An officer came forward and tried to open James’s anorak. He didn’t understand about the zipper, but he got it loose in the end and pulled the anorak open. General Weil darted in with a quick rat rush and put his paw into James’s inside pocket, which was just where he had prodded the anorak from the outside. He must have felt that there was something there, then. The box of nothing. He snatched it out.
    And it worked.
    One moment there was the dreadful ruler of Rat City standing in the middle of his prison camp with his soldiers behind him, and the next there was nothing but a huge gold-braided cap lying on the ground, jiggling as the rat trapped under it tried to get out.
    James knew exactly what to do without having to think about it. His guards had let go of his arms in their astonishment, so he pounced, grabbed both sides of the cap, squeezed them together till he could hold them in one hand, and then with his other hand pulled the wriggling creature out and held it up by the nape of its neck.
    The camp seemed to go mad. The rat soldiers stood and stared, and so did the guards, but the ants came swarming out of their nest and ran about biting and spitting among the ranks. The voles rushed at the soldiers and wrestled their guns away. The rats were three times their size and outnumbered them, too, but they just let it happen. They could easily have jumped on James and rescued their leader, but it was as though the whole of Rat City depended so much on him that if he wasn’t there to give the orders none of the others dared do anything.
    The voles formed themselves into squads and rushed the main gates. The toads thumped off after them without saying thank-you to anyone. The mice stayed in their ranks, trembling, but after a while they crept away too. James was left alone with the rat that had been General Weil dangling from his right hand.
    But not quite alone. There were still the gulls in their cage, watching everything with their wild haughty look as though it were no affair of theirs at all. James picked up his box of nothing, walked across to the cage, and pressed it against the lock. By the time he had put the box back in his pocket the whole cage had tinkled into rusty scraps, which the gulls shook from their backs. They strutted a few steps, stretched their wings, and folded them again.
    â€œGo on,” said James. “They’ll come to their senses any moment.”
    One gull turned its head, stalked across, picked James up in its beak by the collar of his anorak, and dumped him on the other gull’s back. He scrabbled for a hold as the great wings stretched again. He needed both hands, so he couldn’t help letting go of the rat that had been General Weil. It leapt for the ground as the gull took off.
    Soon they were skimming above the roofs of Rat City. The streets were in turmoil, with barricades blazing at every corner. Nobody bothered about a couple of gulls flying over.

Chapter 14: Gull Country
    â€œWe thought we might not see you again,” said the Burra.
    â€œWere you worried?”
    â€œNot really. We did not think any harm could come to you while you had your box, but we passed a motion expressing our regret.”
    â€œOh.”
    The gulls had left James on a high cliff ledge with no way up or down. The Burra was there already, with some of the junk from the airship. The airship itself was moored at another ledge, a bit along the cliff. It looked decidedly floppy after all the