by Anne Forbes
“The noise is being carried on the wind. They’re not in Glenmorven yet,” he announced, “they’re still on the other side of the ridge.” And he pointed between the hills to where the ridge loomed dark against the lowering sky. Then they saw them; the towering shapes of giant, stone men, crashing themselves against the protective shield that the Lords of the North had put in place.
One of the broadcasting team ran breathlessly up to them. “Kate, Kate, come this way,” he gasped. “The press ’copter’s coming in. They’ve got Harvey Mason on board,” his voice sounded awed as he mentioned the name of the famous TV presenter. “They’re going into the next valley and want you with them: you ought to get some great shots.”
Everyone crowded across the road and scanned the sky as a clattering noise in the air announced the arrival of the helicopter. It landed more or less in front of the house on the rough ground beside the burn. Kate was talking into her microphone all the way as she ran towards it with her cameraman trailing her.
It was only when the helicopter took to the air that Clara grabbed Neil’s arm.
“Stop them,” she cried. “Stop them, Neil!”
“Don’t worry, Clara,” Shona’s mother said, “I’m sure they’ll keep well out of the way of the giants.”
Lewis was the first to realize what she meant and ran down the slope to the banks of the burn with the others streaming behind him, shouting and waving their arms at the helicopter.
They were too late, however, and as it banked away and headed for Glen Garchory, Kate Cameron saw them and waved back. Maybe she had been mistaken, she thought. They were just kids, after all, excited and a bit overawed by the television crew. She looked away and they slipped from her mind as the helicopter soared over the peaks of the mountains and headed for The Valley of the Giants.
“We’re too late,” Clara almost wept.
“Too late for what,” Shona asked, panting and out of breath as she followed the others in their mad dash.
“Look at it,” Neil said pointing to the whirling rotors of the helicopter. “Just look at it! Don’t you see, Shona?” He put an arm round her shoulder and squeezed her. “It’s too awful to think about,” he said, his eyes following the ever decreasing shape of the sky ’copter, “but the giants don’t know what helicopters are, do they? They’ll think it’s a dragon. And … well, you know what they did to Arthur!”
32. The Valley of the Giants
“Good Lord! Just look at the size of them!” The helicopter circled high over a valley that seemed chock full of giants.
“We’re now flying over what I think I might call ‘The Valley of the Giants,’” Kate said into the microphone. “Down below I can see dozens of them; huge, giant figures of stone. We’re going to fly a little lower so that we can give you a better view of them. Can we do that, Bill?” she asked the pilot.
“No problem,” was the answer as they circled lower and lower.
“The giants are making a terrific racket,” Kate informed viewers. “You might be able to hear their voices above the noise of the helicopter.”
It was a strange sound, for the giants talked in an unearthly, growling roar. They could hear it over the whirr of the rotors. It was an eerie sound that jarred their tense nerves but although they shivered apprehensively, they knew they had to go on.
The story came first, and what a story it was turning out to be! Nevertheless, they were wary and more than a little scared for instinct told them that for the first time in their lives they were in totally uncharted territory. The giants had a tremendous presence and were more than things to be gawped at on a TV screen. It was with a great effort that Kate managed to keep her voice steady and speak calmly.
“The giants have gathered at the end of the valley but although they seem to be pushing forward, they are making no move to enter Glenmorven. Not yet, anyway.”
It was then that viewers around the world had a stunning shot of the huge stone figures looking towards a sunlit mountain that lay bathed in glorious light while the sky around was black with cloud.
The roars of the giants increased as they milled around on the ridge, growing more and more frustrated at the invisible shield that blocked their way into Glenmorven. Again they turned and vented their anger on the mountains, tearing rocks and boulders from their slopes.
“Shall we go down closer and get a better look,” Kate suggested breathlessly, knowing that her viewers would expect it. “That’s better. Now that we’re closer to them, I can tell you that they’re pretty huge. The size of a block of flats at least, wouldn’t you say, Harvey?”
“At least,” he agreed, “enormous things! They seem to be made of a mixture of rock, stone and earth but what is amazing is that they can walk and move their arms.”
“They seem to be throwing stones about,” Kate said as they swooped down. “Not at one another, though. Just chucking bits of the mountain around.”
“They seem to be able to see,” Harvey said, peering downwards, “but I can’t see their eyes …”
The pilot obligingly flew even lower and as he did so the noise of the rotors sounded loud above the voices of the giants. There was a sudden hush as all the giants stopped dead, turned their heads upwards and looked at the helicopter.
“Dragon! Dragon!” they roared in their growling tongue and as the wave of angry sound hit the helicopter, those inside it very quickly decided that it really was time to move out.
“Whoops!” Harvey said. “Bad move! Get us out of here, Bill!”
The pilot didn’t need to be told. He went up almost vertically and it was just when they were breathing a sigh of relief at having got out of a sticky situation that the first slab of rock flew past them.
The cameraman, to give him his due, kept his camera rolling and audiences around the world sat up, suddenly horrified, as they saw roaring hordes of furious giants lobbing huge rocks at the helicopter.
“We’re in a bit of a difficult situation here,” Kate tried to keep her voice calm. “Get us out of here, for goodness sake, Bill! They’re chucking rocks at us!”
Fortunately for those inside the helicopter, the giants’ aim hadn’t improved with practice. They were still rotten shots. Indeed, they had as much success with the helicopter as they’d had with the dragon and, if the truth be told, a cross-eyed, three-legged camel could have done a lot better.
“It just needs one of these rocks to hit the rotors and we’re goners,” Bill shouted above the roar of the engine.
It wasn’t a lucky shot that hit the helicopter, however. It was a new giant emerging from the mountainside. It rose up, tearing itself from the slopes in a flurry of stones and earth and got to its feet just in time to meet the helicopter as it dashed for safety. They met face to face.
It was so sudden that there wasn’t a lot the pilot could do — and he could see from the look of surprise on the giant’s face that it was just as taken aback as he was. Bill threw the helicopter frantically to one side and would have made it to safety if the edge of one of the rotors hadn’t clipped the giant’s shoulder.
That did it. Kate screamed and shut her eyes as the crippled helicopter fell out of the sky. White-faced newscasters in London could only watch in horror as the camera revealed a whirling kaleidoscope of sky, mountain and glen.
The headlines, needless to say, were immediate and predictable:
BREAKING NEWS: PRESS HELICOPTER CRASHES IN VALLEY OF GIANTS
The expected crash, however, didn’t come and she opened her eyes as Harvey shook her. “The giant’s caught us,” he said urgently. And, looking through the perspex bubble of the cabin, they saw that the giant had one hand underneath the skids and the other on the rotor blades above their heads.
Shaking like a leaf, James picked his camera up and, in a trembling voice, Kate started to speak. “We don’t quite know what the giant plans to do with us,” she said, hanging onto a strap as they slipped haphazardly from side to side as the giant walked across the glen. “Perhaps he
thinks we’re some sort of new toy …”
The giants in the valley spoke excitedly in their growling voices and parted to let the new giant through. Still holding the helicopter, it walked to the end of the valley and stopped when it came to the magic shield that prevented it from entering Glenmorven. There was an evil leer on its face as it held the helicopter high, knowing that the Lords of the North would be watching.
Inside Morven, the Lords of the North were watching. They looked at one another, their faces appalled. This was a side to the Cri’achan that they’d never witnessed before … nor would ever have suspected.
“Break the shield,” Lord Alarid said, looking grimly at the crystal. “Break it or he’ll drop the helicopter.”
The giants gave a roar of triumph as the invisible shield disappeared and Kate hung on grimly as the helicopter jerked backwards and forwards as the giant carried it to the side of the mountain and placed it carefully on a jutting bluff of rock that looked down onto the ridge.
“The giant seems to have put the helicopter down,” Kate said in relief. “Has … has he gone, Harvey?”
“Hang on and I’ll check,” he replied, scrambling out of the machine. With a jaunty wave, he walked to the edge of the rocky outcrop, his legs shaking and his heart beating fast. Knowing that James’s camera was focused on his back, he daren’t show his nerves but nevertheless, he took a very deep breath before looking downwards into the glen. The giants were still there, milling about on the slopes of the ridge, but although they looked his way, they made no move towards him. In fact, they totally ignored him and it was with a feeling of acute relief that he backed away from the cliff edge and returned to the helicopter. “I think it’s quite safe now,” he said, popping his head inside the door. “We seem to have lost their interest!” Holding out a hand, he helped them down onto the heather and as the pilot looked ruefully at the bent rotors of the helicopter, James moved forward and focused his camera on the ridge.
“What’s happening now, do you think?”
“They seem to be lining up, as though they’re waiting for somebody,” James said, filming the giants that crowded the glen below.
“Look,” Kate grabbed Harvey’s arm. “Get that shot, James. There, over to your left. Another giant’s rising out of the mountains!”
“Gosh, he’s huge, isn’t he? Much taller than the others.”
“It’s some kind of ceremony, Harvey. I’m sure of it.”
The new giant was something else. Taller, bigger, more regal and more threatening than all the others put together, he walked with steady steps through the serried ranks of giants that lined the ridge.
“He’s their king,” Harvey whispered.
“The Old Man of the Mountains,” agreed Kate, not knowing where the words came from.
“Cri’achan Mòr!” the giants cried. “Cri’achan Mòr!”
Cri’achan Mòr stopped at the head of the glen and as he came within sight of Morven, he halted and with a mighty roar of triumph, raised his great, stone arms to the heavens. All of the giants did the same and crowded in behind him as he stepped down into Glenmorven.
33. Exodus
“Everyone pull out,” yelled a technician, waving his arms to attract attention. “The press ’copter’s down but they’re all okay. Harvey says to clear the glen. The giants have crossed the ridge and they’re in an ugly mood.”
Nobody needed to be told. They could see the giants crossing the ridge from where they stood. It was a frightening sight as wave after wave of the huge figures loomed up over the ridge and marched on heavy feet into Glenmorven.
“Cripes! Let’s get out of here!” gasped a white-faced reporter. There was a mad rush to get into cars, vans, anything that moved and a hassle of frantic hooting, revving and reversing to get onto the road that led out of the glen.
At the castle, Shane looked frustrated as he climbed into the waiting 4x4. “Chuck staying, then?” Sammy asked. Shane nodded and as the ground started to shake under the weight of the giants’ feet, he started the engine and took off at speed.
Shane grunted. “I tried to reason with him but he wasn’t having any of it!” he said, starting the engine. “I don’t think he was even listening!” he said disgustedly as he backed into the driveway.
And this was, indeed, the truth. Chuck had been so absorbed in the stream of data pouring from his computer that Shane’s panic-stricken pleas to leave had barely registered. Indeed, such was his concentration that he’d barely looked up as Shane told him what was going on outside. Leave the castle with Powerprobe up and running again? What on earth was he on about? A total no-brainer if ever he’d heard one.
Now, although Chuck hadn’t seen the giants, the others had. And it made a difference!
Shane hadn’t wasted time arguing. He knew it was pointless. If Chuck wanted to stay, that was his business — but no way was he going to hang around.
He put his foot down hard on the accelerator, so that the gravel spurted beneath his wheels, and took off down the driveway at speed.
Sammy looked back out of the rear window as they left the castle grounds and whitened as he saw the huge figures of the giants, fast approaching from the ridge, terrible in their intensity.
The scene of panic was repeated at Glenmorven House.
“Quick … into the cars you lot,” Ian Ferguson snapped as they tumbled out of the door to see the giants marching towards them with huge strides. Neil and Clara looked at one another. Scared as they were, they didn’t want to leave, they wanted to see what would happen when the giants reached Morven.
“I wonder what the magicians will do?” Lewis whispered to Clara as they climbed into the back seat of the car.
“Where’s Shona?” Helen Ferguson looked round frantically.
“I’m here, Mum,” Shona shouted, running up with Ugly Mug clutched against her. “I couldn’t leave her behind.”
Her mother smiled, despite herself. “In you get,” she said, “or the giants will be stepping on us!”
“Look,” Neil said, excitedly. “There’s the 4x4 from the castle. Shane and his lot are pulling out, too.”
“I’m not surprised.” Ian Ferguson remarked as he turned out of the driveway and settled in behind the Americans.
Lewis craned his neck. Shane was driving but he couldn’t see Chuck’s spiky hair among the passengers. “Chuck must still be in the castle,” he whispered to Neil.
“He must be mad,” Neil whispered back. “The giants are on the warpath. You can tell by the way they’re stomping along.”
“I hope Hughie’s okay,” Mrs Ferguson said worriedly from the front seat. “I’ve been looking out for Clarissa but I haven’t seen her at all. Do you think we should go back for him?”
“We can’t go back,” her husband said grimly. “The giants would be on top of us before we reached his cottage. And we’ve the children to think of!” He looked through his rear-view mirror and scanned the road behind. It was empty. Maybe, he thought, Hughie didn’t want to run away. He was a very old man. Perhaps he’d decided just to take his chance.
Racing along at the head of the convoy, the television crews were on their mobiles and despite the dangers the giants posed were determined not to pull out completely. Still anxious to get footage of the giants, they’d slowed down as they came to a passing place at the head of the glen. “This is as far as we go,” the producer snapped, jumping down from his jeep. “Offload the gear and get over there,” he pointed to a high bluff of rock that gave them a clear view of Morven. “We ought to have a grandstand view from there!”
“Please stop, Mr Ferguson,” Neil urged, seeing the cameramen puffing up the steep slope. “The TV people are right. The giants are heading for Morven. They won’t come this far. Let’s stop and see what happens!”
“Yes, pull in, Ian,” his wife urged. “We’re far enough away to be safe.”
They clambered out of the car and shivered as the wind hit them. The lay-by gave them a spectacular view and the
y gasped as they saw the giants approach Morven, their roaring voices carried on the wind.
Shona gripped Clara by the arm as they watched them near Hughie’s cottage. As it happened, all the houses in the glen were safe, even Jenni’s house in Glen Garchory, for the Lords of the North had put a protective shield round them so that no harm would come to them. The children didn’t know this, however, and their hearts were in their mouths as they watched the giants approach. Set in a dip in the road, they were afraid that the giants mightn’t see the little cottage and tramp all over it. The giants, however, sensed the protective shield round the cottage and avoiding the belt of trees round the little house, lumbered past. Seeing this, the children breathed again as they saw that, for the moment at least, Hughie was safe.
The castle, however, reared high and unmistakeable in a stretch of open ground. The giants saw it and much to their relief, circled it carefully. Glenmorven House, with its sheltering trees was also given a wide berth as the giants converged triumphantly on the mountain.
Shona gave a gasping sob as the others looked at one another aghast. Why weren’t the Lords of the North doing something to stop them?
34. Desperate Measures
It had been Casimir, in the end, who had persuaded Lord Alarid that they desperately needed Chuck’s help; for despite Rothlan’s best efforts, the machine was still pouring out the same, meaningless jumble of data. But Alarid, wary of Chuck’s motives and terrified of Powerprobe, had dithered and it was only when he had been forced to break the protective shield round the glen to save the people in the helicopter that he’d had to give in — for it was then that they had all ganged up on him.
