League of Extraordinary Robots by Yolanda Jackson (interesting books to read for teens TXT) 📕

fairly or wisely,” he told him. “You must change your ways or a punishment is coming upon your land.”
King Alfred laughed. “You are a silly old fool,” he told him. “Now get out of my sight before I have you tossed away where no one will ever see you again.”
King Alfred didn’t believe that Wisker was really a magician but simply a trickster but he wasn’t sure and he didn’t dare have him thrown out into the darkest part of Mayfair where the sun never shone and from which nobody, NOBODY had ever found their way back.
“If he is a real wizard, I might need him to be on my side at some point,” he reflected, so he satisfied himself with just calling Wisker an old fool and letting it go at that.
Wisker began traveling in and out from the land of Mayfair. He would cast a magic spell and the guards would never even notice him as he passed by them. He traveled to this part of the land outside of Mayfair and to that part of the land outside of Mayfair until at last he satisfied himself that he knew what the Bots were really like.
After that Wisker began calling for nightly meeting in the graveyard. Many of the citizens of Mayfair attended and those who were too afraid to attend would get their information about what had been said from their neighbors who had been there.
“The king is lying to you,” Wisker told the people. “For some reason he is keeping the people of Mayfair hostage and not telling them the truth about the Bots.”
“You tell one thing and King Alfred tells another,” said one man. “How do we know what to believe? How do we know who is telling the truth?”
Wisker reached into of his long cape and pulled out a large silver coin. “This will show you that I have been out of the land of Mayfair,” he told them. The coin had a picture of the Bots on it and was crafted from the finest silver available and by the hands of a very skilled craftsman. As the coin was passed around through the crowd for all to see, it began to shine brighter and brighter until by the time it got back to Wisker it was shining brighter than anything any of them had ever seen before.
One man, by the name of Nigel, stepped forward and reached out to touch the coin again. He very carefully laid one finger on it.
“How did you get this?” he asked Wisker, as he gently rubbed his finger over the glowing design on the coin.
“I got it from a Bot,” answered Wisker. “The Bots are mere harmless creatures and the king of Mayfair is not telling his citizens the truth.”
“How do we know that you didn’t make it?” asked Bettina, who together with her friend Andrea was in the crowd. “You are after all a wizard.”
“I may be a wizard, but I could never imagine something like this,” answered Wisker.
The people continued to gaze at the coin and then they began to wonder what it was really like outside of Mayfair.
“Well, how do we get out of here?” asked Nigal. “I for one want to see what it is really like outside of Mayfair.”
“First we must keep this a secret,” said Wisker. “We must take it slow. If the king finds out that we know he isn’t being truthful with us, he will have us all beheaded. I am a wizard and a powerful one, but the king has magic too, by virtue of his position as king and I am not sure if I can defeat him or not.”
“We must be very careful,” called out a voice and the crowd murmured in agreement.
Wisker looked out over the crowd and they all quieted, waiting to see what he would say next.
“I will choose one person to take on my next journey,” he announced.
“Take me, take me,” called out several voices.
“No, take me,” said one skeptical old man by the name of William, raising his hands and demanding to go.
“No,” called out one woman. “You are the town drunk. Who is going to believe you no matter what you say when you come back? Take me, Wisker, take me with you.”
“No,” said William. “I would be the perfect one to go with you. I may be a drunk but you all know me and you all know that I am not a liar. You all know that whatever I would tell you when we came back would be the truth.”
“Yes, you are the one whom I will take with me, William,’ said Wisker. He drew out his magic wand and the group quieted once again, anxious to see what was about to happen. He twirled his wand around in the air above his head. “Dibbldy dobledy wibbldy woo,” he said, in a voice much unlike his usual speaking voice. Then he pointed his wand straight at William and continued. “We’ll go on this trip, just me and you.”
Suddenly the wand let of sparkles of light and within miutes Wiskers and William disappeared. The people looked all around, where had they gone? Suddenly there was a big bang and the underground tunnel began to shake. Lights, the colors of rainbows bounced off the tunnel walls. There was one more big blast and then all was quiet, very, very quiet. Then the people could hear the sound of the soldiers’ foot steps above them.
The people were very fearful. They knew that if they were caught by the royal guards something terrible might happen to them. They quickly put out and the lamps and remained extremely quiet, just as quiet as quiet could be.
After a little while one man whispered, “Someone should go and see if the coast is clear.” Everyone agreed that what he said was true, but no one felt brave enough to be the one to go and look so they all just stayed there together as quiet as quiet could be.
In the meantime, Wiskers and William, were having their own adventure on their way to the city of Bots. They found themselves encased in a light which landed on the ground and they stepped out of it. William was so amazed at Wiskers powers that he began to bow down to him but Wiskers grabbed him by the hands and pulled him back up. “No, you don’t bow to me,” he told him. “I am not worthy of your praises. I am but a man who has been granted special gifts.”
William got up and looked all around. He realized as he gathered his thoughts that he was no longer in Mayfair but in a whole different world. His eyes bulged almost out of their sockets as he looked around. He had never seen anything like this in his life. “This can’t be,” he whispered to himself, then he began to run towards the towns of the Bots.
Wiskers ran after him. “Hey, slow down,” he told him. “You’ll have time to see everything, You don’t have to hurry.”
William stared all around, his mouth open in amazement. Instead of buildings made of wood or stone, he saw buildings made of steel that floated through the air. Instead of horse drawn carriages, he saw vehicles that flew in mid air at the speed of light. Bright lights were everywhere and most importantly there were the Bots. They were robots with huge glass heads, big blue eyes, and white fabricated bodies. They moved as fast as light and as far as William was concerned there had to have been a million of them.
“What in the world are they?” he asked Wiskers as soon as he found himself able to speak.
“They are the Bots I have been telling you about, the advanced civilization. Come on and socialize. I know many of them and I’ll introduce you. When the Bots saw Wiskers it was evident that he was well known and that the Bots loved him. One small Bot ran up to Wisker and jumping high in the air gave him what we in our world would call a high five. “Well hello, Charlie,” said Wiskers
“Well hello to you and your friend,” answered Charlie.
William became very frightened and began to clinch his fists and to hide behind Wisker Charlie the Bot followed William. “It’s alright, I won’t hurt you,” said Charlie, in a baby voice. Benji stared at him, not quite sure what to think.
“It’s all right,” said Wisker soothingly. “The Bots are friendly folks. Charlie here is just a young boy. He’s the same age as our own Prince Harry.
Charlie reached out his hand in peace to William. At first William was afraid to shake Charlie’s hand, but he trusted Wisker when he said that Charlie was not a threat so he extended his own hand in friendship.
Charlie was so glad to make a new friend that he began to do back flips all through the streets, almost getting hit by a car. Wisker spun his magic wand and caught Charlie up in a bubble and lifted him away from the traffic, bouncing him up and down in the air as he did so.
“What a strange creature,” said William.
Wisker smiled. “That is one of the war like apes that King Alfred has been telling us about,” he told him. “I told you there was more to Mayfair than the king wants people to know.”
William nodded, still looking around this way and that in amazement to see a world so different in its advanced technology from what he was used to seeing and here it was, right under his nose.
“Charlie, Charlie, where are you?” called a lady Bot, as she hurried along, sounding rather panicky.
“It’s all right, he’s right here,” said Wisker, as he brought Charlie down from the ball of bubble that he was in. “I was afraid he was going to get hit by one of your vehicles, so I caught him up.”
Charlie’s mother was very upset and it was evident that she did not want Charlie hanging out with the humans. She grabbed Charlie by the hands and quickly pulled him away from Wisker, giving Wisker an evil look as she did so.
“Why was she so angry with us?” asked William, puzzled.
“It’s not us, it’s King Alfred. He declared war on the Bots.
Instead of learning about them he chose to destroy them. He told them they were not wanted or welcomed in Mayfair.”
Wisker pulled William back away from traffic. “We’d better get you to a safer place” he told him. “You’re not used to all this and we don’t want you getting run over. Let’s go have some fun while we’re here.” Wisker took William to an arena where bots were cheering and betting on their favorite racer.
William couldn’t believe his eyes. The arena was larger than any arena he could possibly have imagined. “Wow!” said William as he looked all around and