Herbie Brennan - Ruler of the Realm

‘Indeed and I am not, sir, as a fine, big, clever man like yourself could probably tell by the colour. Don’t hold with those lads at all, to tell you the truth: far too well organised. I’m what you might call a Lep.’

‘Ah,’ said Fogarty, without the slightest idea what a Lep was. ‘Well, now, listen, Mr Nyman, I want you to get back to Hersel- to Madame Cardui – and tell her I’m in the middle of some very delicate negotiations -’ He stopped: Nyman was shaking his head solemnly. ‘What is it?’

‘Herself said you might be a bit troublesome, begging your pardon, sir, and if you was, I was to tell you one thing -’ He beckoned Fogarty to bend over again and when he did, whispered, ‘There’s big trouble, sir. Regarding Henry.’

It was brilliant leading a commando raid. Pyrgus was wearing full camouflage fatigues with a helmet sporting so much greenery than it looked like a vegetable patch. His face was painted in olive and brown stripes. But that wasn’t the really good bit. The really good bit (as he wriggled on his stomach through the undergrowth) was that there were twenty heavily armed men right behind him, all tough as nails, all ready to lay down their lives for the mission.

And every one of them called him sir.

‘Freeze!’ Pyrgus ordered in a whisper.

‘ Sir! ’ they snapped in whispered unison; and froze. It was so, so cool.

He wished Nymph could see him now.

Or maybe not. He raised his head carefully above the level of the grass to discover he was still lost. The problem was that crawling on your stomach changed your whole perspective. Things that looked one way when you were standing up looked completely different when you were lying down and peering through a shrub. But what was he to do? He couldn’t just march his men down the main avenue of the Ogyris Estate. This was a raid, not a frontal attack. You didn’t mount a frontal attack with twenty men, no matter how tough they were.

Besides which, a frontal attack would start a war and they’d only just averted one now Blue was back to stop the Countdown. But at least Mr Fogarty and Madame Cardui hadn’t called off the raid. So Pyrgus got to lead twenty men.

He hadn’t told them they were lost, of course. Wouldn’t want them demoralised so early in the mission. Besides, he had to concentrate on meeting up with Nymph. How good was that? The Forest Faerie had agreed to send some people and Nymph was leading them. Blue back safe, no war, he was leading twenty men and going to meet up with Nymph again. Life could not get better than this.

He was about to bring his head down and press on regardless when he caught a glint of something from the corner of his eye. He swung his head round. Water! It was sunlight glinting on water. The lake! If they got to the lake, he could find his bearings eventually. He was bound to. He’d been able to follow the lakeside path even in pitch darkness, so daylight had to be a doddle, even crawling.

‘Left turn!’ he hissed, and swung himself round.

‘ Sir! ’ his men responded and fell in behind him.

Blue said, ‘Have him released, Madame Cynthia. And get that thing out of his head.’

Madame Cardui frowned. ‘My deeah, you do recall it was Henry who kidnapped you?’ She hesitated. ‘What thing?’

Blue was sitting on the edge of the bed pulling on her boots. ‘Henry didn’t know what he was doing,’ she said firmly. ‘He was taken over by Beleth.’

‘Beleth?’ Madame Cardui exclaimed. A look of sudden comprehension crossed her face. ‘I wondered if that was a demon transport beam. My deeah, I think you’d better tell me everything.’

Blue told her. It took surprisingly little time.

‘Poor Henry,’ Madame Cardui said when Blue had finished. She moved to the door and gave instructions to one of the guards outside. When the man hurried off, she turned back to Blue. ‘I’ve ordered Henry released. He’ll be taken directly to the infirmary to have Beleth’s implant removed.’

‘Thank you,’ Blue said. She had almost finished dressing.

Madame Cardui sat down heavily on the bed. She seemed suddenly very old. ‘I’m losing my edge, deeah. I was looking in the wrong place.’

Blue glanced at her, but picked up her meaning at once. ‘So was I, Madame Cynthia. I thought Uncle Hairstreak was behind all our troubles. Not that he wasn’t behind some of them.’

Madame Cardui said, ‘Speaking of which, you need to cancel the Countdown.’

‘Yes, of course. I’ll do it at once.’

Madame Cardui hesitated. ‘There’s one thing…’

‘Yes?’

‘I’ll make this quick, deeah,’ Madame Cardui said; and told her about the time flowers.

‘So that’s how Henry got me out of Hairstreak’s mansion – he never told me. I thought it might be some sort of stasis spell.’

‘The thing is,’ Madame Cardui went on, ‘when you disappeared with a Countdown in place, we – that’s to say Gatekeeper Fogarty and myself – decided we could not possibly permit the Faeries of the Night to retain such a powerful weapon – you can easily imagine the military implications, of course. So we ordered a commando raid to destroy the flowers. Pyrgus is leading it as we speak.’

‘Why Pyrgus?’ Blue asked quickly. He was her older brother, but she’d always been protective of him.

‘Pyrgus knows exactly where the flowers were being grown. I just hope this is the only place they’re being grown.’ She waited.

After a long moment, Blue said, ‘You did right, Madame Cynthia. Flowers that stop time would change the entire balance of military power. How many men has Pyrgus taken?’

‘A score of our finest,’ Madame Cardui said, ‘but he’s meeting with an equal number of the Forest Faerie. Alan persuaded them to help us.’ Rather surprisingly, she thought; but it never did to underestimate Alan.

‘I suppose the Forest Faerie are being led by that Nymphalis creature?’ Blue said sourly.

Madame Cardui smiled slightly. ‘I imagine they might be. I’m not yet privy to the arrangements.’

‘Where is Gatekeeper Fogarty?’ Blue asked. ‘I should like to know more about this raid.’

Madame Cardui looked at her fondly. One moment an injured girl, the next every inch a Queen. Blue was her father’s daughter all right – especially when there was the slightest danger to her family.

‘I’m afraid he’s still with Queen Cleopatra.’

‘Have him come to see me as soon as he returns,’ Blue commanded and stood up. ‘I think I’ll visit our Generals in the Situation Room. After I cancel the Countdown, we need some urgent talk about our Hael strategy.’

‘Perhaps not so urgent,’ Madame Cardui murmured gently. ‘The demons’ plans for you have failed abysmally.’

Blue looked at her directly. ‘Henry said if they didn’t succeed with me, they would invade the Realm.’

Madame Cardui blinked. ‘The portals are closed.’ She hesitated. ‘Aren’t they?’

‘That’s what I said,’ Blue told her. ‘Henry says they’ve opened new ones.’

After a moment, Madame Cardui asked, ‘Where?’

‘That’s the problem,’ Blue said. ‘We don’t know. What I do know is we need to contact Uncle Hairstreak and accept his offer of a treaty. We can’t afford to squabble amongst ourselves with Beleth at the gates.’

‘I agree entirely,’ Madama Cardui told her. ‘If you really feel strong enough, we can get that under way at once.’

But as they left the room, a military messenger arrived with news that turned their situation upside down.

Pyrgus stood up cautiously.

He and his men – his men! – were at the rendezvous spot, a small ornamental grove on the far side of the lake from the main house, but there was no sign of Nymph or any of her Forest Faerie. It was a worrying development. If she was late, she was late, but if she wasn’t coming at all, how long was he supposed to wait? By now Ogyris would know about the shattered glasshouse. There’d be new security in place – a contingent of crack guards at the very least. Which meant a fight. One Pyrgus would rather tackle with the Forest Faerie at his side.