Firestar (9 page)

“You
do
believe me, don’t you?” Sir James said, eyeing George Tatler doubtfully.

Tatler looked at him quizzically from under bushy eyebrows. In the course of his work for MI5, he had heard many strange stories in his time but few to rival those told by Sir James which were, by any standards, in a class of their own. “I wouldn’t believe everybody who told me a story like that,” he agreed, a trifle sardonically, “but then, James, nobody tells faery stories quite like you do. I haven’t forgotten last year!”

Sir James relaxed and smiled as he thought of their adventures of the previous year when Prince Kalman had put Scotland under a tartan spell that had left Edinburgh looking like a cross between
Brigadoon
and
Braveheart
. Scotland, then, had really been something else …

Tatler rose to his feet and moved to stand by the tall windows of Sir James’s office. “Actually,” he began, “when I first heard of the stone giants, I remembered Clara’s story of the Old Man of the Mountains and it crossed my mind that you might be getting in touch with me. So, yes, James, I do believe you. Added to that, I’ve been getting reports fairly regularly about all the giants
appearing
in the Highlands.”

Sir James joined him at the window and as they both stared speculatively at the steep, green slopes of Arthur’s Seat, Tatler shook his head. “Amazing,
isn’t it, to think that the MacArthurs and Arthur live in there? Sometimes I just can’t believe it. Anyway, what are
they
saying about the stone giants?”

“Well, the good news is that they’re not
supposed
to be vicious. All they want to do, according to the MacArthur, is walk about the Highlands in peace.”

Tatler raised his eyebrows. “That doesn’t tie in with the reports I’ve been getting, James,” he disagreed. “Quite the contrary. The police in the Grampians are out in force. There are lots of giants on the roads up there. Actually, police
helicopters
were involved in a bit of a battle with the giants yesterday. They’re a danger to cars, lorries and buses; anything that moves. Anyway, go on. What else?”

“From the sound of things, he thinks they’re still quite weak. If they had all their strength they wouldn’t be collapsing all over the place and they’d be much taller than the average house.”

“I shouldn’t tell you this,” Tatler said, looking at him sideways, “but I know for a fact that Whitehall is discussing sending in the army to blast them out of existence.”

“Hmmm, well, from what the MacArthur said, I doubt if that’ll make much difference. According to him, they could just re-form and rise again as another giant.”

Tatler looked thoughtful. “I’ll pass that
information
on!”

“There’s another problem, George,” Sir James eyed him somewhat anxiously, “maybe it’s part
of the same problem as the giants. I’m not quite sure.”

“Can’t they solve it by magic?” Tatler asked hopefully.

“Magic seems to be at the root of it,” Sir James answered. He gestured vaguely. “I seem to learn a bit more about the MacArthurs each time I meet them. What I’ve now discovered is that they rely on an energy source to keep them alive. It’s called Firestar and it’s in a mountain in the Grampians called Morven.”

“An energy source of their own!” Tatler looked sharply at Sir James and then nodded thoughtfully. “It makes sense, I suppose. It would explain how they’ve managed to live for hundreds of years.”

“Well, they’ve just had the most tremendous shock. About a month ago, something from our world locked on to Firestar. I don’t quite know what happened but it almost killed them.”

“Locked on?” Tatler queried.

“Apparently, there are hobgoblins in Morven…” He broke off as Tatler raised his eyebrows and gave him a peculiar look. “I know, I know,” he said, “the mind boggles, but there
are
hobgoblins in Morven and they look after the machine that keeps Firestar running.”

“For goodness sake, James, if I’m going to have to explain all this to the Prime Minister, she’ll have me locked up in the nearest loony bin!”

“No, she won’t,” Sir James grinned, “not after what happened last year.”

“Nevertheless,” Tatler said stiffly, “mentioning hobgoblins
is
stretching things a bit.”

Sir James persevered. “The hobgoblin that was running the machine said that he saw a man on their screen just before the force attacked them.”

“Is that possible?”

Sir James shrugged. “Firestar is a magic power, remember. I reckon it must have travelled through the satellite to whoever was monitoring it and picked up his image.”

“Satellite,” Tatler looked at him sharply.

Sir James nodded. “Or something similar. My guess is that it’s probably American. It can hardly be a coincidence that shortly after the attack on Firestar, some Americans rented Morven Castle and its estate.”

Tatler raised his eyebrows. “Did they, now.”

“It so happens that Bob Grant is stationed in Aberdeen. You remember him? Lewis Grant’s father?”

“Ah, yes. Lewis was the Black Shadow, wasn’t he?”

Sir James nodded. “Yes, he was the lad that saved all those people from the train wreck on the Forth Road Bridge last year.”

“Yes,” Tatler nodded, “I’d heard that the family had moved to Aberdeen.”

“Actually, Bob’s in the States just now, but his office re-routed my call. He was a bit surprised to hear from me, as you can imagine, but when I asked him if he’d heard of any American activity in the area around Aberdeen, he was a bit hesitant.”

“Hesitant?”

“Yes … turns out that a few weeks ago his wife spotted a young chap in Aberdeen that they both
knew from their time in the Middle East. A chap called Chuck Easterman. Bob finds it quite
surprising
that he didn’t get in touch. And here’s the punchline — he says he’s involved with NASA these days.”

“Does he, indeed,” Tatler said, looking suddenly wary.

“What makes it interesting is that just before I called him, Bob had had a phone call from Lewis, who’s on holiday in Glenmorven with Neil and Clara. They’re staying with friends and Lewis says that he saw Chuck Easterman in Glenmorven. He’s quite sure about it. Chuck used to visit the Grants when Lewis was a kid and apparently he remembers his funny haircut.”

“Interesting!”

“It is, for that isn’t all he told his father. He told him that now that the Americans have rented the Morven estate, it’s out of bounds to everyone in the glen. Apparently Chuck’s been going over the mountain since the day he arrived; taking rock samples and using a Geiger counter. They’ve found nothing, though.”

“And how does Lewis know
that
?”

“It was the MacArthur that told me the last bit, actually. They’ve got ghosts in the castle as spies so he knows everything that’s going on.”

“
Ghosts
,” Tatler echoed. “Well,” he shrugged, after a pause, “after all that’s happened, I suppose I shouldn’t be too surprised …”

Sir James grinned. “I’ve given up being surprised at anything the MacArthurs come up with,” he
confessed
, “but this space business is worrying.”

“The satellite theory is interesting,” Tatler said musingly. “I wonder if it could be Powerprobe. It’s the latest one to go up and it’s American.”

“What’s its mission?”

Tatler paled slightly. “I’ve heard that it’s equipped with specially developed lasers,” he admitted. “The Americans are looking for new sources of energy.”

“If it locked on to something like Firestar then the reaction must have been massive,” Sir James looked at him in horror. “No wonder they sent
people
in to suss the place out!”

“Without telling us,” Tatler pointed out grimly.

“I’d argue that out with them later,” Sir James said, brushing diplomatic niceties to one side. “First things first, for if the Americans lock on to Morven again it might mean the end of the MacArthurs. Not only them but Arthur, Lord Rothlan and Lady Ellan, Casimir … Prince Kalman … the Sultan … Amgarad … and probably a lot of other magicians as well that we’ve never heard of! We just can’t afford to let that happen! You’ll have to do
something
about Powerprobe, George. Right away!”

Hughie shut the door against a swirl of driving rain and took their wet coats from them.

“I hope you don't mind,” Lewis apologized, “but Neil and I felt we had to come and see you on our own. Clara and Shona are helping Mrs Ferguson in the kitchen so we slipped off without them knowing.”

Both boys moved over to the fireplace,
holding
their hands out to the warm blaze of logs in Hughie's kitchen.

“We couldn't tell Shona we were coming,” Lewis confessed, “because she doesn't wear a firestone and she doesn't know that you're … well … magic, like us.”

“So you felt that, did you?” Hughie looked at them shrewdly. “I sensed it in you, too,” he
admitted
, “and I asked Prince Casimir about you. He told me that you wore firestones and knew Lord Rothlan and Prince Kalman.”

“Prince Casimir?” Lewis looked thunderstruck. “He's here?”

“Well, he's in Morven,” Hughie answered.

“But … why would he be in Morven?” Lewis looked puzzled.

“Does Morven have magic people inside it, like Arthur's Seat?” guessed Neil.

“Well, there are the hobgoblins, I suppose …”

“Hobgoblins?” Neil repeated, startled, as he remembered the little creatures they had seen on Morven.

“Do they have faces like goats and slanted
yellow
eyes?” interrupted Lewis.

Hughie nodded. “Nice little things,” he said with a smile. “The Lords of the North call them the Rumblegrumbles.”

“So
that's
what we saw when we were on Morven,” Lewis said, looking at Neil as another piece of the mystery fell into place, “
hobgoblins
!”

“What have the Lords of the North got to do with them?” Neil asked curiously.

“Well, they live together in the mountain. Didn't you know?”

Neil and Lewis looked at one another. “We knew Morven was a magic mountain,” Neil said slowly, “but we didn't know it was the home of the Lords of the North.”

“Then,” Hughie said, seriously, “you won't have heard of the attack on Firestar?”

“Firestar?” Lewis looked puzzled. “What's Firestar?”

Hughie told them and both boys looked
horrified
as he filled them in on what had happened in the mountain.

“Are the Americans involved?” Neil asked. “Is
that
why they're here?”

“Shona took us along the secret passage and we heard them talking,” Lewis admitted, looking slightly shamefaced. “We've been trying to find out what they were up to on the mountain.”

“And I saw ghosts,” Neil added. “Two of them. They looked quite … er, fearsome.”

“The Americans were talking about the giants,”
Lewis continued. “They wanted to use them as an excuse to blow up Morven.”

“Shona,” Neil said with a grin, “was furious.”

“Aye, she would be,” Hughie answered, “but you don't need to worry about that,” he smiled. “It'll never happen. The ghosts you saw — Red Rory MacGregor and the Black MacTavish — they passed the news on to Prince Casimir. So if, by any chance, the Americans
do
try to blow up the
mountain
, they'll find that their explosives won't work. The hobgoblins told me that Prince Casimir's hexed them already.”

“Cool,” Lewis said, grinning at the thought of the useless explosives.

“But what was it that attacked Firestar?” Neil asked.

Hughie frowned. “It seems to have been an American satellite that did the damage,” he observed, “but from what the ghosts say, they don't think the Americans know that what they did harmed anybody. They want to get into Morven to find out what's inside it. They never will, of course. The Lords of the North put a protective shield round it that they'll never be able to break … unless …”

“Unless there's another attack on Firestar,”
finished
Lewis.

Hughie nodded. “And there will be,” he said gravely. “Quite soon, too. The ghosts say that the Americans are waiting for their satellite to lock on to Morven again and the Lords of the North aren't sure if Firestar will be able to withstand another attack. It's quite an anxious time for them.”

At that moment, there was a tap on Hughie's kitchen door. Lewis and Neil looked up as it was pushed open and two little hobgoblins trotted
confidently
over the tiled floor towards the fire. Then they saw Hughie's visitors and froze, their tendrils curling out from their heads.

“It's all right, Rumbletumble,” Hughie smiled. “Lewis and Neil are wearing firestones and they can see you.”

The hobgoblins tendrils positively shot out of their heads at this alarming news and it was only when Hughie rose to his feet and took their hands in his that they trotted forward and bowed gravely, still looking apprehensive.

“You've arrived just in time to have some tea and cakes with us,” Hughie smiled, laying a
couple
of cushions on either side of the fire. This was obviously their favourite spot and as they plumped themselves down and warmed their little hands, they looked at him expectantly, smiling with funny, toothy grins that made Neil hide a smile.

“We saw you on Morven, didn't we?” Lewis said gently for the hobgoblins looked so nervous that he thought they might take to their heels and run if he spoke any louder. Their attention, however, was fixed on Hughie as he brought over a plate of tiny cakes and laid it between them. Their eyes positively shone and, oblivious to everyone else, they started to eat the cakes, taking little, delicate bites to make each one last longer.

Hughie regarded them with an indulgent smile, knowing that until they finished, conversation was impossible.

“Well, now,” Hughie asked, once they'd worked their way through half the plate, “what's the
gossip
from the hill?”

“There's just been the most awful row at the castle,” Rumbletumble said, gleefully.

Hughie raised his eyebrows. “What about?” he asked, interestedly.

“Shane wants to go on a giant hunt,” Rumbletumble said excitedly.

“They want to go into the glens to find the giants and see what they're made of,” added Rumbletummy, words spilling out of him. “They're all mad keen on the idea — except Chuck, that is. He thinks it's too dangerous!”

“And,” Rumbletumble added excitedly, “they've just this minute left the castle. It's true, Hughie,” he assured him. “Red Rory MacGregor and the Black MacTavish have just finished telling Prince Casimir so we came down to pass on the news. They say that Chuck's as mad as fire!”

Lewis looked at Neil at the mention of Casimir's name and fingered the magic ring that Casimir had given him in Edinburgh. It'd be great to see him again …

“I think the scientists have been a bit bored,” Rumbletumble explained. “They're more or less just hanging around waiting for their satellite to come back again.”

“They're really excited about the giants, though,” Rumbletummy pointed out. “They didn't believe in them at first, but now that they're in all the newspapers … well, they're determined to go out looking for them. You should see the Great Hall.
The dining table is covered with maps and they've been glued to the radio all day. Shane's worked out that the giants will appear in Glen Crannach next.”

Neil and Lewis looked at one another in horror for Glen Crannach was very near Jennifer's glen.

“I don't think I'd like to go out on a night like this with giants around,” Neil shivered. “It's
pouring
with rain and the thunder's dreadful.”

Hughie frowned. “It's stone-giant weather! Just the kind they like!”