Peter and the Starcatchers (17 page)

“But the Starcatchers—
you’re
good, aren’t you?” said Peter. “If
you
have the power, why don’t you just use it to control these…these others?”

“Because it doesn’t work,” said Mol y. “Because if people have the power, even if they start out using it for good, in time they wil use it for evil.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because that’s how it al started, this business of the Starcatchers and the Others. It has been going on for thousands of years, Peter. Nobody knows precisely when it started, but in the beginning, somebody must have stumbled across some starstuff that had fal en to Earth. And whoever that was touched it, and felt it—it’s a
wonderful
feeling, Peter. Not just the flying. That’s the most obvious, but there’s
much
more…”

“Like what?”

“Intel igence, for one thing. It’s not so much that you become smarter, as that you feel as though you can real y
use
your mind. You can see things you couldn’t see before, understand things that others can’t. Sometimes you even know what other people are feeling—you can
feel
it. And sometimes, if you’re close enough, you can change the way they feel

—make them afraid, or happy, or sleepy…”

“The guard,” said Peter. “The night I saw you in the room with the trunk, and the rat—the guard fel asleep that night. Slank thought he was drunk. But you made that happen.”

“Yes,” said Mol y. “I made that happen. I’d begun to suspect that the trunk…but I’m getting ahead of my story.”

“You were talking about the first person who found the starstuff,” prompted Peter.

“Right. Wel , whoever that was had suddenly become the most powerful person on earth. And he must have shared it with some others, probably his family, his descendants.

Because in time there came to be legends—stories of beings who had incredible powers, who could fly, who could control others. You’ve heard of those legends, Peter.”

“I have?”

“Yes. In fact, I’m sure you studied them. The legends of Zeus, of Apol o…”

“You mean mythology? The Greek and Roman gods? But Mr. Grempkin said that was just…”

“That
was all true,
Peter. Except that they weren’t gods. They were people who’d found the starstuff. But to ordinary people, they appeared to be gods; they inspired fear; they were worshipped; they were obeyed absolutely. In time they learned to guard their secret better, to use the power more subtly; instead of gods, they were cal ed royalty. But they ruled just the same. They grew in power; they prospered; they had families; there came to be more of them. And they al wanted the power; they al needed the starstuff.

“But as I said, it only lasts for a while, and then you need more. From time to time, more fal s to Earth, but nobody knows when it wil fal , or where, or how much there wil be.

And so there came to be struggles, desperate struggles, over the starstuff that was known to exist, and the new batches that fel to Earth.
Wars
were fought, Peter. In the history you were taught, the wars were caused by disputes over land, or trade, or religion. And some of them were. But in truth, much of the death and misery visited upon mankind over the centuries was the result of a secret, vicious struggle, among a very few people, over starstuff.”

“And were the Starcatchers part of that struggle?” asked Peter.

“No,” said Mol y. “They were a response to it. As the struggle became more violent and widespread, a few of the people who knew the secret of the starstuff began to see how dangerous it was—how there could never be enough of it, and how easily it could be turned to evil purposes. Those few formed a secret society—a secret society within a secret society, real y. They swore an oath that they would dedicate their lives to ridding the earth of the starstuff, except for the smal quantities they would need to carry out their mission. Their strategy was simple. They would not try to get the existing supplies of starstuff away from the Others; in time, they knew, those supplies would be used up. Instead, they would focus their efforts on new batches of fal ing starstuff. They would get to these first, and capture them. And so they cal ed themselves the Starcatchers.

“And their strategy worked, Peter. It took time, but it worked. For years the Others didn’t realize what was happening—only that it was more and more difficult to replenish their starstuff supplies. By the time they found out about the Starcatchers, they had been greatly weakened, and most of the starstuff was gone.”

“Where did it go?” asked Peter. “What do the Starcatchers do with it?”

“I don’t honestly know,” said Mol y.

“What do you mean, you don’t know?” said Peter. “You’re one of them, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” said Mol y, “but I’m stil only an apprentice. It takes a great deal of training to be a senior Starcatcher. And one of the last things we learn is how to return the starstuff, once we’ve captured it.”

“But what do you mean
return
?” said Peter. “Return it
where
?”

“That’s what I’m tel ing you,” said Mol y. “I haven’t learned that yet. However the process works, I think it’s dangerous, because there are…
forces,
I think, and…they’re not al good. This is probably a crude way of putting it, but: just as we have the Others and the Starcatchers here on Earth, there seems to be something similar going on up there.” She pointed toward the sky. “And you must be very, very careful when you deal with these forces, or…” She shook her head.

“But here on Earth—the Starcatchers are winning here, aren’t they?” said Peter. “You have the upper hand?”

“Wel ,” said Mol y, “in recent times, yes. We’re better organized than the Others, by our very nature—we’re working for a common cause, while they’re every man for himself, and quick to stab the other one in the back for a bit of starstuff. So we’ve got quite an organization, and plenty of observers, counting people and porpoises.”

“The porpoises!” said Peter. “So you
were
talking to them!”

“Yes,” said Mol y, blushing. “Sorry about the lie. We’ve been working with the porpoises for many years. Extremely intel igent, they are. More intel igent than many people, if you ask me. Anyway, there’s more sea than land, so as you’d imagine a fair amount of starstuff lands in the water, and the porpoises have learned, much as we did, that it’s best to get rid of it.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s very odd, what it can do to animals. Some of them hardly seem to be affected by it. But some of them change in the
strangest
ways. Horses, for example. It’s very bad to let a horse near starstuff.”

“Why?” said Peter.

“Back to your mythology,” said Mol y. “Have you ever heard of a centaur?”

“The thing that’s half man, half horse,” said Peter. “But Mr. Grempkin said that was…”

“It was real, Peter. And not very pleasant, either. Something quite similar happens with squid.”

“What’s a squid?”

“An ugly, slimy, il -tempered beast that lives in the sea, with lots of long arms,” said Mol y. “Some time ago, some of them got hold of a large batch of starstuff and…wel , the porpoises were
years
sorting al that out, not to mention al the problems that human sailors had with what they cal ed ‘sea serpents.’”

“Oh,” said Peter.

“But, as I was saying, with the porpoises helping us, the Starcatchers have been able to deal with the starstuff situation most of the time, over most of the earth. The problem is that, every now and then, a new batch fal s, and we’re not always able to get there before somebody finds it. Often, no harm is done; in fact, the results can be quite nice. Not so many years ago, some starstuff fel in Italy. Our agents got there soon enough, and thought they’d retrieved it al , but apparently they missed some, and some young men found it. Fortunately, they were not inclined toward evil. Have you ever heard of the artists Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo?”

“No,” said Peter.”

“Wel ,” said Mol y, “they were quite good. But we’ve not always been so lucky. I don’t suppose you’ve heard of Attila the Hun?”

“Was he an artist?”

“He most certainly was not. He was a very bad man who found a very big bit of starstuff and did some very bad things.”

“Oh.”

“Occasional y,” Mol y continued,
“very
occasional y, even one of the Starcatchers succumbs to the lure of the starstuff, and has to be…dealt with. But for the most part, the Starcatchers have done their job, and done it very wel . I don’t mean we’ve eradicated evil from the world, of course—the world wil always have evil—but because of the Starcatchers, it has been a good long time since any
widespread
evil has been the result of starstuff. So to answer your question: Yes, for the moment, the Starcatchers have the upper hand. But only for the moment.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean at the moment, the situation is a bit…unbalanced.”

“Unbalanced?”

“Yes. About two months ago, a very large quantity of starstuff fel to Earth, in Scotland. A
very
large quantity. Father says it’s the most that has fal en in his memory, and perhaps in centuries. The Starcatchers knew it was coming; I don’t know why, but we
feel
it when it fal s. And, as I say, this was an unusual y large amount—we had people see it as wel as feel it.

They were headed to the landing place on horseback immediately. It was a remote spot, no towns around, and our men got there quickly. But the starstuff was gone.”

“Somebody found it first.”

“Yes,” said Mol y, “but that has happened before. And usual y whoever it is is stil there when our agents arrive. In fact usual y they’re floating at treetop level, happy as birds, and it’s easy enough for our agents to retrieve the starstuff from them, and help them to forget al about it by…wel , it’s a technique I haven’t learned yet. But when it’s used, they fal asleep; and when they wake up, they’ve forgotten al about it, no harm done. But this time there was nobody there, and no starstuff. And that was the odd part. This was a large and powerful supply, Peter. It can be moved, but it takes skil and knowledge to handle it, and a proper container to put it in. So it wasn’t moved by some local folk who happened across it. Whoever took it knew what it was, and knew how to handle it.”

“The Others.”

“Yes. Somehow, they got there first, and now they have more starstuff than they’ve had for centuries.”

“And you…the Starcatchers…you don’t know what they’ve done with it?”

Mol y laughed, but not happily. “Oh, I know exactly what they’ve done with it.”

“What, you…you mean…You mean
the trunk on this ship?
”

“Yes,” said Mol y. “That trunk.”

“But how…I mean, who…”

“Bear with me just a little longer,” said Mol y. “We’re almost there. The Starcatchers have always had spies among the Others. After the starstuff went missing in Scotland, we had our spies poke around, and they found out quickly enough what had happened to it. It had been placed in a trunk and taken to a castle in a little town cal ed Fenkirk.”

“Couldn’t the Starcatchers fetch it from there?” asked Peter. “Using those, what did you cal them, techniques?”

“Unfortunately, no,” said Mol y. “For two reasons. One is that those techniques are not effective against people who know how to use the starstuff power. The other is that, in addition to the Others, the castle was heavily guarded by soldiers.”

“Soldiers?”

“Soldiers of the Queen of England.”

“The
Queen
?” said Peter. “Are you saying the Queen is one of the Others?”

“No,” said Mol y. “At least we don’t think so. The Starcatchers have people who know the Queen—my father is one of them—and they’re quite certain she is not in league with the Others. But apparently somebody close to the Queen is, and whoever that person is has made it impossible for our agents to get near the trunk. After a week in the castle, it was moved under heavy guard to London, where our spies learned that it was to be loaded onto a ship cal ed the
Wasp.
And that was a very bad sign indeed.”

“Why?” said Peter.

“Because the
Wasp
was bound for Rundoon,” said Mol y, “which is ruled by His Royal Highness, King Zarboff”—she held up the three middle fingers of her right hand—“the Third.”

“Oh my,” said Peter. “He’s one of them, isn’t he.”

“Yes,” said Mol y. “Zarboff is one of the Others. He’s perhaps the most evil one there is. The Starcatchers could not al ow him, of al people, to gain possession of the trunk.”

“That’s why you’re on this ship,” said Peter. “To stop it.”

“No,” said Mol y. “My father put me on this ship precisely because he believed the trunk was
not
here. It was for my safety. He sailed on the
Wasp
because our spies said that’s where the trunk was. Obviously,” she added bitterly, “they were mistaken.”

“What was your father planning to do on the
Wasp
?” asked Peter. “I mean, how was he going to get the trunk away from the others, if there was only one of him on the ship?”

“It wasn’t going to happen on the
Wasp,
” said Mol y. “It was going to happen when they got to Rundoon. There would be other Starcatchers waiting. They had a plan to get the trunk, and capture Zarboff, who’d become a problem. It was quite a bril iant plan, real y, except that…”

“…except that the trunk isn’t on the
Wasp.
”

“No,” said Mol y. “They switched it. I suspected it the first day, when I saw how that sailor reacted when he touched it. I should have tried to get word to Father then, but, stupidly, I didn’t. Then that night—the night you saw the flying rat—I went down there to check, and as soon as I walked into the hold, I knew it was the trunk. I could
feel
it, the immense power, like nothing I’ve ever felt. So I tried to send a message to Father, using Ammm…”

“Who?”

“The porpoise, Ammm. But I’m not very good at porpoise, and I thought I’d muddled it, and then Ammm came back and told me…he told me…” Mol y pressed her face into her hands, sobbing. Peter wanted to do something, pat her shoulder, perhaps; but he was terrified she would take it wrong. So he stood helplessly and watched her sob for a minute or so. Final y she raised her face, showing him reddened eyes and tear-wetted cheeks.