Silver Hill (31 page)

After everyone had eaten their fill and chatted about their adventures Nora stood and announced that it was time to go.

‘Aw, can’t we stay a bit longer?’ said Camelin.

‘I’m afraid not, Jack’s Grandad will wonder where he is if he’s not back at Ewell House when he comes to collect him. And there’s the little matter of a loft inspection too.’

Camelin looked at Jack.

‘We had an accident with one of the raven baskets and didn’t have time to clear it up,’ explained Jack. ‘We were in a bit of a hurry last night.’

Nora didn’t reply but Jack could see she and Coragwenelan were smiling.

‘I believe this is yours?’ said Gwillam as he pulled Camelin’s raven basket out from under the table.

‘Aw great, now we won’t have to fly back, we can use the basket.’

‘I don’t think so,’ said Nora as she pointed her wand at it. There was a sudden pop as it shrank to the size of a small plate. ‘It’ll be easier to carry home like this.’

Camelin pulled a face but didn’t complain.

Jack suddenly remembered Nora’s key. He took the chain off and offered it to her.

‘This isn’t my key Jack, it’s yours.’

‘But it was in the drawer in the herborium,’ he replied.

Camelin scowled at Jack.

‘You had it all the time?’

‘He did,’ said Nora. ‘And he was right not to use it for the wrong reasons.’

‘I don’t understand,’ said Jack. ‘It’s a magic key, it shrinks and grows to fit any lock.’

‘It’s not the key,’ said Nora. ‘You’re the one making it change shape, the magic is coming from inside you.’

‘Oh my!’ said Timmery. ‘Jack can do real magic.’

Camelin humphed.

‘How?’ asked Jack.

‘The power of Annwn is within you,’ explained Gwillam. ‘Each time you come here it grows stronger. A time will come when you won’t need your wand any more.’

Jack was amazed. He didn’t know what to say. He would have liked to ask Gwillam more but he didn’t get a chance. Gwillam went over to a group of hooded figures waiting by the path that would lead them to the Western Portal. Coragwenelan thanked them all for what they’d done and Jack had a lump in his throat as he said his goodbyes. He wished his visit to Annwn could have been longer.

‘We’ll be in touch soon,’ Gwillam whispered to Jack. ‘It won’t be long before Elan is back in Glasruhen.

Everyone waved as they started out along the path towards the Western Gate.

‘We’ll be home in no time,’ said Nora.

‘We’d have been there in half the time if you hadn’t shrunk my flying basket,’ grumbled Camelin.

When they got back to Ewell House Nora went straight to the herborium to make Raggs comfortable.

‘Don’t disappear,’ she called to Camelin. ‘Remember, you have a loft inspection.’

Camelin flew around the corner of the house and Nora and Jack climbed the stairs. When they looked inside the loft, Jack’s mouth fell open. The floor was spotless. There wasn’t a single oversized polystyrene ball anywhere to be seen. Camelin sat on the window ledge with his beak open too.

‘How did this get so tidy?’ asked Nora.

‘We helped,’ squeaked Fergus, as he and Berry appeared beside Camelin.

‘It was the least we could do since you’d gone to rescue Raggs,’ added Berry.

Jack smiled. This time Camelin could find something nice to give the little rats as payment. He owed them.

‘What happened to the window?’ asked Nora.

Camelin shuffled from one foot to the other, ‘If I hadn’t bigged it we wouldn’t have been able to fly through it.’

Nora pointed her wand at the frame and shrank it back to its original size.

‘That’s better, everything’s back to normal now.’

‘I’d better get my things together,’ said Jack. ‘Grandad will be here soon.’

‘We all owe you a great deal,’ said Nora. ‘We couldn’t have saved the Druids without you both.’

Camelin coughed and looked pointedly at the wand sticking out of Nora’s pocket.

‘Yes, you can have it back now, but if I hear that you’ve misused it, you know where it’s going.’

Camelin jumped onto the floor, and hopped, skipped and jumped over to Nora. ‘I’ll be good,’ he promised as he carefully took his wand back.

Nora smiled.

‘No more bigging. Unless it’s an emergency! I think you and Jack ought to have some wand practice tomorrow. One of you has a lot of catching up to do.’

Before Jack went down to the kitchen he went back to the loft to say goodbye to Camelin. He was surprised to find him on his back with his legs in the air, on a raven-sized beanbag.

‘Where did that come from?’

‘Do you like it? I didn’t think you’d mind me shrinking your beanbag, only I wanted something a bit more comfortable than a raven basket.’

‘Does Nora know?’

‘She said no bigging, she didn’t say anything about shrinking.’

‘I thought you only knew one spell.’

‘Aw, shrinking’s easy. You just say the bigging spell backwards.’

Jack smiled. He didn’t think Nora would mind too much as long as he didn’t start flying around the loft in it.

‘See you tomorrow then?’

‘Yeah, it’s been a brilliant weekend hasn’t it?’

Jack struggled to find the right answer.

‘Different,’ he said in the end before making his way back down the ladder to wait for Grandad in the kitchen.

It felt as if he’d been gone a whole week instead of a couple of days. There were still questions he needed to ask and he wanted to find out all he could about crystal magic. He had things he needed to discover about himself too, especially if Gwillam was right and the magic of Annwn was within him. His hand closed around the small key that hung from the silver chain. Nora had said he’d made the key special. His power had made it change shape. He had six weeks before he went back to school and he wanted to spend them finding out as much as possible about his own powers and what he could do with them. He couldn’t wait to begin.

Now I can read and write, Nora’s asked me to make a list of everyone and everything in Glasruhen and Annwn. She thinks I’ve done this all on my own so please don’t tell her that Catherine Cooper’s been helping me. In fact, Catherine’s been helping me write my memoirs, the first three books are finished and you can read all about my adventures in,
The Golden Acorn
,
Glasruhen Gate
and
Silver Hill
.

Of course, the most important bird in the whole of Glasruhen is me, Camelin. I’m the trusted companion of Nora (Eleanor Ewell) and friend of Elan. I’m also the wise and learned teacher of Jack Brenin who, it appears, is The Chosen One we’ve all been waiting for. He wasn’t much good at first but he’s getting better. I am known as: an ace stunt flyer, brilliant Dorysk hunter, food critic, inventor of the raven owl call and operations co-ordinator for the Night Guard (you’ll soon find out about all of those things). I’ve added some comments of my own in brackets.

WHO’S WHO?

Addergoole Peabody
– A
Bogie
, one of the
Not So Fair Folk,
who works mainly for
Jennet
. He gathers information for her, especially about the other
Water Nymphs
. The family name is
Addergoole
and
Pyecroft
is his older brother.
(Don’t ever tell Peabody anything, he’s a snitch.)

Addergoole Pyecroft
– A
Bogie
, one of the
Not So Fair Folk
. He works alone and will trade or sell information to anyone. The family name is
Addergoole
and
Peabody
is his younger brother.
(Pyecroft’s an even bigger snitch than Peabody.)

Agye
– One of the two
Gargoyles
that guard
Uriel’s Well
.
(Read about how I defeated Agye in
Glasruhen Gate
.)

Allana
– Is now a
Gnori
, she used to be the
Hamadryad
of
Newton Gill Forest
when she was known as: Allana, the Beautiful, Guardian of the Grove, Most Kind and Wise.

Arrana
– The last
Hamadryad
left on earth. Her full title is: Arrana, The Wise, Protector and Most Sacred of All. When Arrana transforms from an oak tree into her
Hamadryad
form she is as tall as the tree. She contains all the magic of
Annwn
within her branches and protects all the trees in
Glasruhen Forest
.

Berry
– One of the youngest rats in the
Night Guard
. Berry has smooth fur, which he keeps well groomed. He’s not as big as the older members of the guard and can always be found with
Fergus
.
(I can usually get Berry and Fergus to do odd jobs for me.)

Camelin
– The most important raven in the world.
(Read all the Jack Brenin books to find out how special I am.)

Catherine Cooper
– Chronicler of
Jack Brenin
’s adventures. (
I thought the books should have been called the
Adventures of
Camelin
but I was outvoted.)

Charkle
– A
dragonette
from the
Westwood Roost
. As a baby he was captured by
Spriggans
and imprisoned in a cage. His brothers are
Norris
and
Snook
.
(Charkle’s a bit of a show-off sometimes, especially when he tries to copy my stunt flying and blows fire as he circles.)

Chief Knuckle
– Leader of a band of
Spriggans
living underground close to
Ewell House
. He is the Chief because he has the biggest and best
sniffer
of all the Spriggans (that means he’s got a big nose). He’s brilliant at finding veins of gold, silver and precious stones. There are thirteen Spriggans in Chief Knuckle’s band. Their names are Slinger, Swiper, Scratch, Grunt,
Grub
, Grabber, Whiff, Wheezer, Wrecker, Pinch, Pepper and Punch. It was Slinger, Wheezer and Scratch who tunnelled up into
Grandad
’s greenhouse and kitchen. Whiff, Pinch and
Grub
were the ones who captured
Orin
.