Silver Hill

by Catherine Cooper

  ‘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.
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br />   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.’

  Jack hadn’t realised Camelin’s plan was for Charkle but he really was very tired.

  ‘Can’t we go another night?’

  ‘Nope, I want to show Nora that I can do something really good and then she’ll let me have my wand back.’

  ‘So you’ve got an ulterior motive?’

  Camelin didn’t answer straight away. He busied himself crumb hunting again around Jack’s bed.

  ‘You will come won’t you? I’d rather know what’s on the other side of the door before we go through it.’

  Jack agreed that it made sense to send the Dorysk in for a look. Whatever was behind the door wouldn’t notice a tiny creature. The more information they had before Nora came back the better.

  ‘I’ll tell you what,’ said Jack slowly as he pretended to think, ‘if I find a Dorysk first you can go over to Silver Hill and I’ll go to bed and if you find one first I’ll come with you, agreed?’

  Camelin chuckled to himself.

  ‘Agreed, but you know you’ve lost don’t you? I’m the best Dorysk hunter there is.’

  ‘I won’t be able to go far from the house. Is it alright if I just look down the back lane?’

  ‘That’s fine but how will you know when I’ve found one?’

  Jack tried not to laugh.

  ‘You can make the sound of the raven owl and if I find one first I’ll do the same. We can meet back here.’

  ‘Better get ready for a long flight,’ chuckled Camelin. ‘See you soon.’

  Jack watched as he flew off in the direction of the cricket ground, then he began to worry. He knew where to go and look but catching the Dorysk might not be as easy as he’d hoped. Even if he could capture one, he’d no idea how he was going to persuade him to fly over to Silver Hill with Camelin.

  THE PIN MILLIONAIRE

  As soon as Camelin was out of sight Jack consulted his Book of Shadows for a materialisation spell. He intended to create something very special, something he could use to tempt the Dorysk out of the fairy mound. Jack didn’t know much about collecting things. He didn’t know if anyone who already had over a million pins would really want any more. He tried to imagine something unusual, something the Dorysk could boast about. Most pins looked much the same. Then Jack remembered the notice board at the Cricket Club. All the posters had been held in place with drawing pins. A thousand drawing pins in a clear pot might interest the Dorysk. It would certainly be very unusual. The Dorysk could put it on his mantelpiece and show it off, it would be a talking point for anyone who visited.

  Jack closed his eyes and imagined the pot of pins. He raised his wand slowly until it was above his head then drew a large circle.

  ‘Exsisto,’ he commanded and pointed his wand forcefully at the floor.

  A sudden thump and rattling made Jack open his eyes. There at his feet was a small transparent pot crammed full of bright shiny drawing pins.

  ‘Brilliant!’ exclaimed Jack as picked up the pot and examined it before putting it in his pocket. ‘I’m off now Orin, won’t be long. I’ve got a Dorysk to catch.’

  Jack peeped through the crack in the living room door. Grandad was asleep in his chair. He usually slept for a couple of hours after dinner every night. He didn’t think Grandad would wake up but just in case he wrote a note to say where he’d gone and put it on the kitchen table.

  ‘Tego texi tectum,’ he whispered as he touched the paper with his wand.

  The writing disappeared. It would only reappear if Grandad picked the paper up. It was a clever spell, one he’d looked up after he’d found Nora’s note. Jack had remembered it easily because he liked the sound of the words. He was fascinated by all the information he found in his Book of Shadows and didn’t seem to have any problem remembering anything he’d read. Jack stood and listened before going out of the back door. Grandad was snoring loudly and with any luck he’d be back before he woke.

  As soon as Jack was through the gate he ran to the end of the back lane. It came to an abrupt end. Jack stood in front of a small hedge. A signpost pointed across a field towards the road, which led to Newton Gill. There was a well-made stile next to it that Jack climbed over. To his right was a small wood. The information Raggs had given him was correct. Inside the field were three old trees, a tall ash, a stout oak and an overgrown thorn. Jack looked around for the fairy mound. The grass was tall and a mass of poppies covered the whole area. As they swayed gently in the breeze, Jack thought he could see the top of a small grassy hummock in the middle. This had to be the fairy mound. He ran over and stood in front of a badly made tunnel that disappeared into the earth. Anyone who happened to stumble across it would immediately think it was an old badger sett. Jack looked to see if anyone was around. When he was sure he was alone he took out his wand and made the tip glow brightly. The light was invisible in the daylight but once he pointed his wand into the tunnel the whole inside lit up. Jack knew straight away that this was the right place. He could see a small green door with an arched top. Two large black hinges held the door in place and a large silver doorknob glinted in the light from his wand. Jack didn’t know whether to knock and ask for the Dorysk in person or tap on the door and hide until the Dorysk answered. He reached inside then hesitated, he was sure he could see a face in the doorknob. Maybe it was his reflection? As he leant further in, the doorknob quivered. For a moment the silver looked molten. Jack jumped when two pointed ears popped out of the side, a tuft of hair, a small nose and a wide mout
h followed. The head stared at Jack and then smiled. When the head spoke Jack nearly dropped his wand.

  ‘You’ve missed the last feast and the next one isn’t ’til full moon. Goodbye.’

  ‘No wait,’ cried Jack, ‘I’m looking for the Dorysk, is he in?’

  ‘You’ve come to the wrong door. Goodbye.’

  ‘Please, don’t go, it’s important.’

  ‘I’m the one who decides what’s important and like I told you, no feast, no entry, no Dorysk. Goodbye.’

  ‘Won’t you tell me where to find the Dorysk before you go? I really do need to talk to him. I was told he lived here.’

  ‘Not here he doesn’t, lives next door, but he won’t come out if he knows you’re there, he’s always worried about being caught. You’re going to have to be very clever to catch him.’

  Jack looked around to see if there was another fairy mound close by.

  ‘Could you tell me which direction I need to go and how far it might be?’

  The head’s mouth opened wide and it began laughing so hard it gasped for breath.

  ‘It’s next door, right next door, in the next tunnel. That’s a good one – how far!’

  ‘Thank you,’ said Jack once the head had composed itself. ‘Do you know if he’s in?’

  ‘No idea, you’ll have to go and find out. Now I really have to go. Goodbye.’

  Jack knew their conversation was over when the ears, nose and mouth disappeared and the head once more became a doorknob. He put out the light from his wand and carried on around the mound. On the opposite side he found another tunnel. The door was well hidden under ivy and brambles. Jack decided to try to tempt the Dorysk out and then pounce. He took the pot of drawing pins and rattled it several times before placing it in front of the entrance. He went and lay on top of the hummock and waited. He hoped the Dorysk was at home and would soon come to investigate the noise. Jack heard a scraping and a scuffling from inside the mound followed by a sniffing sound. The Dorysk scurried out of the tunnel and bumped straight into the pot of pins. As he fell backwards Jack pounced.

  ‘Got you!’

  ‘Oh please, please don’t hurt me. I haven’t told anyone, please don’t hurt me.’