by Conrad Mason
Things were going to be very different from now on.
He couldn’t wait.
The door opened, and a friendly green face peered out.
‘Well, if it ain’t that famous Captain Derringer of the Demon’s Watch!’ said Paddy, with a wink. ‘Come on in. Joseph and Tabs aren’t here yet, so that means more pies for us.’
Derringer smiled as he stepped inside, and the mongrel boy’s words came back to him.
They took me in, all the same.
Yes. It felt like home.
Tabitha waited at the end of the road. Her blue hair stirred in the breeze, paler than usual. She’d told Joseph the night before – she’d decided to stop dying it and let the blonde colour return. She’d always hated being recognized as the Mandeville girl. The girl whose parents were killed. But she didn’t feel like hiding any more. She was proud of her parents, and everything they’d done.
She smiled at Joseph and told him to take as long as he needed. She could tell this was something he needed to do on his own.
He remembered every cobblestone. Every battered doorway. And one more than all the others.
Of course, it wasn’t really green any more. The paint had flaked and chipped away, leaving a few scraps of colour, some of it red – as though the door had been painted and repainted. Joseph couldn’t even tell if the red had come before or after his parents had lived there.
He laid his hand on the rough wood, remembering. He’d been sure the house would be abandoned, but when he tried the door it wouldn’t budge. He edged to the nearest window, and saw that it had a broken pane, but that someone had attached a scrap of sackcloth over it.
He peered inside. The room beyond hadn’t changed a bit. The same old table and chairs, the same bare wooden planks on the floor. Even the same cracked mirror and a couple of bad paintings of fish tacked to the walls. Joseph felt a lump in his throat.
He started as someone entered the room. An elf woman, young and beautiful, dressed in tattered old clothes. She was humming as she went to the stove, took the lid off a pot and stirred the contents. A fine aroma filled Joseph’s nostrils. As she turned, he saw that she was carrying a baby, swaddled in a thick blanket. An elf child, gently slumbering.
Joseph’s gaze returned to its mother. She was looking straight at him, eyes wide with alarm, her mouth hanging slightly open.
A pause.
He raised a hand in greeting.
She looked confused, then angry. Then her mouth twitched up at the corners and she raised her own hand.
Joseph stepped away from the window, turned back up the street towards Tabitha.
He’d imagined returning so many times, to the house with the green front door. In his dreams it had been just the same, and his parents were there to welcome him. It was his home.
Now he knew that dream wouldn’t haunt him any more. It was still a home – it just wasn’t his.
As he walked back towards his friend, his hand slipped into his pocket and closed over his parents’ silver pocket watch.
He ran his fingertips over the engraving – To my dearest Elijah, with all my love, Eleanor – and he smiled.
Acknowledgements
Thanks once again to the good people of Lutyens & Rubinstein and particularly to Jane Finigan, the best agent in town. To my friends, fellow writers and colleagues, and to the extremely brilliant team at DFB – Simon, David, Anthony, Rosie, Phil, Bron, Linda and Sue. To Alison and David, whose artwork has shaped my characters and stories. And finally to my wonderful and extraordinarily patient family, not least Katrina, who has endured more nonsense about goblins than can possibly be healthy, and Sandy, who mostly just slept through the whole thing.
Also by Conrad Mason
Tales of Fayt: Book 1 – The Demon’s Watch
Tales of Fayt: Book 2 – The Goblin’s Gift
Tales of Fayt: The Mystery of the Crooked Imp
(with David Wyatt)
Copyright
The Hero’s Tomb
First published in 2015
by David Fickling Books, 31 Beaumont Street, Oxford, OX1 2NP
This ebook edition first published in 2015
All rights reserved
Text © Conrad Mason, 2015
Cover and illustrations © David Wyatt, 2015
The right of Conrad Mason and David Wyatt to be identified as author and illustrator of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
ISBN 978-1-910200-71-1
