Silver Hill (11 page)

As Jack turned he saw Fergus, then Berry climbing in through the open window. Jack wondered if they’d come to apologise to Orin but neither of them spoke. Seconds later the two young rats were joined by Motley.

‘Are the rest of the Night Guard with you?’ Jack asked.

‘No, no, no, certainly not, wouldn’t do to take them away from their duties. No, we’re here on business. Something I need to get to the bottom of and these two youngsters seem to think you know something about it.’

Jack tried not to laugh as Motley marched up and down in front of the two smaller rats. They both hung their heads so Jack presumed they’d done something wrong. Motley stopped in front of Fergus.

‘It wouldn’t go amiss if you spent a bit more time grooming, you don’t get sleek fur like mine in two minutes you know.’

Fergus hung his head even lower. Jack felt sorry for the little rat. He knew what it was like to have unruly hair; no matter how long he spent at the mirror his hair never looked good. When Motley finished inspecting Fergus and Berry, he turned back to Jack, cleared his throat and thrust out his chest before continuing.

‘We, the rest of the Night Guard that is, are on a very important mission for Nora. I left these two youngsters in charge at the house, I gave them some important jobs to do, jobs I wanted doing. They now tell me they’ve been helping Camelin find a missing key. When questioned further, I find, not only have they not done the jobs I gave them, but they went and cleared up the mess in Camelin’s loft instead.’

Motley stood to attention, narrowed his eyes and stared at Jack.

‘I know they were helping Camelin to look for a key, but I didn’t know anything about them helping him tidy the loft,’ said Jack.

‘Help! Help! They tell me they were left to do it all on their own and it was such a mess it’s taken them hours. They also tell me that Camelin promised you’d give them some biscuits, gingerbread ones to be precise, in exchange for all the work they’d done. Is that true? I came back to check on the jobs they should have done and found them on their way here. Have you got gingerbread for them? Have you been encouraging some of my junior Night Guard to neglect their duties?’

Jack looked at Fergus and Berry. He felt very sorry for them.

‘I had no idea about the loft clearing or about the biscuits.’

Motley turned to Fergus and Berry and started tapping his foot.

‘What have you got to say for yourselves now?’

‘Camelin promised Jack would have some biscuits for us, didn’t he Fergus?’ Berry said so quietly Jack could hardly make out what he was saying. Fergus nodded in agreement.

‘I don’t think you should be cross with Fergus and Berry,’ said Jack. ‘It’s all Camelin’s fault. If you wait here I’ll try and sort out the payment. I’ll go and ask Grandad if he’s got any biscuits.’

Motley nodded his head and the two little rats looked very relieved. Jack went down to the kitchen and looked in the biscuit tin but it was empty. The kitchen door was open and Jack could see Grandad in the garden hoeing his potatoes. Jack went to join him.

‘Are there any biscuits Grandad?’

‘Got your appetite back have you?’

‘I wondered if there were any gingerbreads, only the tin’s empty.’

Grandad stopped hoeing for a moment.

‘The new packets of biscuits are on the second shelf in the pantry. Be a good lad and put them in the tin, maybe you could make me a cup of tea and bring me out a couple of shortbreads too, this is thirsty work. Help yourself to what you want.’

Jack thanked his Grandad and went back to the house. He was relieved he’d be able to sort out the payment for Fergus and Berry without too much trouble. He went back to the kitchen and found three packets of biscuits and tipped them into the tin. He shook the crumbs from the packets into a dish then picked out all the broken biscuits to add to the crumbs. The dish was quite full when he’d finished. Before he went back upstairs he put the kettle on.

‘Help yourselves,’ said Jack as he put the dish of broken biscuits on the bedside table. He smiled as he saw Orin bound across to the bed. She had a liking for biscuits too. ‘I won’t be long, I’ve just got to go and make Grandad a cup of tea.’

Jack was longer than he’d planned to be. Grandad needed some help tying up his tomato plants. By the time he got back to his room the light was beginning to fade. When he put the light on there was a hurried movement as three little rats darted behind the curtain.

‘It’s only me, you can come out.’

Jack smiled as Fergus and Berry peeked out from behind the curtain. Orin scampered onto the bed.

‘I thought you’d have gone by now,’ said Jack then realised that was probably a bit rude.

‘Motley told us to stay here until you got back to thank you for the biscuits and the others say thank you too,’ explained Berry.

‘Others?’

‘Yes,’ continued Fergus, ‘Motley sent each one of the Night Guard up in turn so they could share the biscuits.’

Jack looked at the dish, it was nearly empty.

‘No wonder there’s not much left!’

‘There’ll be even less soon, Raggs hasn’t been yet,’ Fergus mumbled as he looked longingly at the plate.

Jack heard a scampering on the ivy outside. Raggs, the old ship’s rat, appeared on the windowsill with his long whiskers twitching.

‘Oh, something smells good!’

‘Please help yourself,’ said Jack.

‘So kind, we didn’t get anything like this on board ship you know, only had hard biscuits then, good for keeping your teeth sharp but no taste or flavour.’

‘Can you stay a while?’ asked Jack.

‘Should be on my way but I’m getting old now and it would be good to rest my weary bones for a while. Motley’s had us out every night since you got back from Annwn. Watching the boundaries you know.’

‘What for?’ asked Jack.

‘Intruders. Nora wants us to make sure there are no strangers around.’

‘Oooh! Tell us more,’ squeaked Berry excitedly. ‘We never get to hear what’s going on.’

Raggs picked a crumb from his pale grey fur before peering closely at the two younger rats.

‘Not my place to tell, you know. I don’t want to get into trouble for passing on confidential information to juniors.’

‘Could you tell me?’ asked Jack.

‘Well that’s a different matter entirely. Nora said if she wasn’t around we were to come and find you and tell you everything and you’d know what to do. Something to do with a strange sounding word that starts with
vesp
...’

‘Vespula!’ gasped Jack. ‘I know exactly who you’ve been looking out for, you don’t need to worry, I know all about Velindur. Does Nora think he might come here? I thought she’d released him a long way from Glasruhen.’

‘Whoever he is he told her he’d have his revenge. We’ve been watching out for anyone we don’t know in the area who might be trying to cause trouble.’

‘And have you seen anyone?’

‘Nothing suspicious but I could tell you what everyone else has been doing in Glasruhen.’

‘What’s Vespula?’ asked Fergus.

Raggs coughed.

‘I don’t think you need to be worrying about that. Let the rest of us take care of it.’

‘See,’ said Fergus, ‘I told you they don’t tell us anything, but we know secrets too. We know what Camelin’s gone looking for, don’t we Berry.’

‘You do!’ said Jack.

‘We do,’ confirmed Berry.

‘Would you like to tell us?’

‘Maybe we shouldn’t, we don’t want to get into any more trouble,’ replied Fergus.

‘We could trade,’ said Jack. ‘Some more biscuits for information?’

Fergus and Berry both sniffed the air and looked at the dish. Fergus whispered in Berry’s ear.’

Raggs looked crossly at the two younger rats.

‘Spit it out lad. Don’t you know it’s rude to whisper? If you can’t say it to all of us don’t say it at all.’

‘I er… er I’d like some more biscuit and I can tell you what Camelin’s doing even if Berry doesn’t want to.’

‘No I can help tell too,’ squeaked Berry.

‘So,’ began Jack, ‘what’s Camelin been doing?’

Fergus took a step closer to the dish.

‘He’s looking for a Dorysk.’

‘Whatever, for?’

Fergus lowered his voice to a whisper and began speaking rapidly.

‘He needs one to go through the keyhole but he’s gone to find one first so he knows where it is and then he’s going to ask you to magic some pins so he can bribe him and ask you to go Dorysk hunting but he’ll already know where to find one.’

That was too much information for Jack to make sense of.

‘You mean he’s gone to find a Dorysk?’

Both rats nodded.

‘Then he’s going to pretend he doesn’t know where it is and get me to go Dorysk hunting with him?’

‘Exactly,’ said Fergus. ‘Can we have some more now?’

‘Yes, help yourselves.’

‘Why would he want a Dorysk to go through a keyhole?’ asked Raggs who’d finally finished nibbling his biscuit and was busy cleaning his whiskers.

‘Because he wants his wand back,’ said Berry.

‘I’m not sure it’s the keyhole in the herborium that Camelin is thinking about,’ said Jack thoughtfully.

‘I know where the Dorysk is,’ announced Raggs.

‘You do!’ replied Jack.

‘He’s in the fairy mound.’

‘What’s a fairy mound?’

‘Any mound you find between oak, ash and thorn trees belongs to fairy folk. A family of badgers used to share this one but they moved out, they found it too noisy on feast nights. When fairies get together they can make quite a racket, you know, and fairy music’s not to everyone’s taste. The badgers didn’t like it.’

‘And you know where this fairy mound is?’

‘Oh yes, it’s at the end of the back lane, the Dorysk likes the fairies and joins in when they’re feasting and they don’t seem to mind. They never let us rats inside the mound though. I’ve offered to tell them some of my stories but they just laugh. They don’t stay in one place too long and can disappear in the blink of an eye.’

‘You’ve all been really helpful,’ said Jack. ‘Thank you.’

‘Well, must be off, I’ll take these young whipper-snappers with me too,’ said Raggs as he hustled Fergus and Berry towards the open window.

When they’d gone, Jack sat on the end of the bed and had a think.

‘Is it the keyhole on Silver Hill?’ asked Orin.

‘I think it might be, but I really don’t want to have to fly over there again tonight. Not if I don’t have to.’

Jack was deep in thought when a flutter of wings startled him. Camelin swooped in through the open window and landed on the floor. Camelin spoke before Jack could say anything.

‘Can I smell biscuits?’

‘There’s a dish on the table,’ answered Jack.

‘Ooh I love biscuits!’ Camelin replied as he hopped round to the table. ‘Where are they?’

‘On the plate,’ said Jack.

Camelin gave Jack a black look.

‘There’s none left!’

Jack looked at Orin, who was busy grooming her fur.’

‘Fergus and Berry must have eaten them.’

‘All of them!’

‘No, the rest of the Night Guard had some too.’

‘Why didn’t you tell them to save me some?’

‘Because someone promised they could have them.’

‘Not everyone, only Fergus and Berry.’

‘If you’d got here earlier you could have had some.’

Camelin began searching the floor.

‘Not even a crumb,’ he grumbled.

‘Fergus and Berry did two jobs for you so they had twice as much as everyone else.’

‘That’s not fair.’

‘Oh yes it was,’ said Jack firmly, ‘it wasn’t easy getting them some biscuits. You should have asked me first before you promised them something.’

‘Wasn’t time, had things to do.’

‘What kind of things?’

‘Just things. Can we get down to business now?’

Jack sighed.

‘I suppose so but I’m tired and was going to have an early night. You did give Charkle the message didn’t you?’

‘I did, he’s getting ready to fly over to the standing stones, he’ll be in Annwn in no time. That’s why we haven’t got any time to waste. I’ve got a plan.’

Jack smiled. He wanted to hear what Camelin had to say.

‘A plan? What kind of a plan?’

‘Well, I got to thinking, if we go and find ourselves a Dorysk, and we’ve got something he really wants, we could persuade him to shrink down and come over to Silver Hill with us tonight. He could go and have a look through the keyhole and if Norris and Snook are there, we’d have a nice surprise for Charkle when he comes back.’