THE LIGHT IN THE NORTH

CHAPTER 16 - Where Your Treasure Is

Will hadn’t been in the mess for days, he’d barely slept, and he certainly hadn’t been listening to the latest gossip, so it came as a nasty shock when it finally sank into his Internet-fixated mind that the team expedition was going to take place in two day’s time. At first, he nearly panicked, but then he remembered what a good job Alnus had done, when he’d led the elves, and he thought he could maybe match that.
It’s no good trying to match Ace, he thought. If you compare yourself to the best, you’re bound to get discouraged. If I can do as well as Alnus did, we might be all right.
Sergeant Olt was equally encouraging when he gave the team leaders their instructions.
“Just be yourself,” he told Will. “You could probably imagine what Ace would do, and do that, but don’t. Use your own ideas, and you might surprise yourself.”


So, on a bright morning in the middle of September, Will got the team together in their hut, and explained what they had to do.
“We’re competing against the other teams,” said Will, “which is always good fun.” He grinned at Ace, then said, “We could probably use some points…”
“Ugh, this is going to mean racing,” groaned Clover. “I can see it coming. I thought you’d given up hoping to win?”
“Clover!” said Ace. “We may have given up hoping, but that doesn’t mean we’ve given up trying.”
“I don’t think we should give up hoping,” said Peter unexpectedly. “We might not be doing that badly. Last week, Gran Starheim was trying to find out who was in the lead. Corporal Lavall wouldn’t tell him, but he did say that the top six were very close together.”
“Really?” said Will. “I wonder… could we have caught up enough to be in with a chance?”
“Yes,” said Betch. “You and Ace only think about how many points you lose, and forget about how many you win.”
“Exactly,” said Stella. “I bet they gave you lots for being so brave in the transforming lesson.”
“That’s not much use if you lose them all straight afterwards,” said Ace ruefully, “but more important is the rest of you doing good work all along, always getting points for things.”
“Look at it this way,” said Dan. “If the top six are close, then three are trailing. And that has to be Poland, Russia and Germany. We must have overtaken them again by now, so that means we’re up with the leaders.”
There was no doubt about it, everyone, even Clover, was looking excited.
“This is one of the last chances for a big win,” said Fran. “Whoever wins this will probably win the whole thing.”
“Oh, great,” said Will faintly. “No pressure, then… OK, it’s a treasure hunt. We don’t know what the treasure is, and we don’t know where we’re going until morning, when we’ll be given a map and the first clue. All the places are on the map, so they can’t be too far apart. The sergeant expects it to take about three days. The winning team isn’t the first one to find the treasure, but the first one to get it back to camp. And we’re allowed to do pretty much anything, even fighting and sabotage. The only thing that’s forbidden is messing about with the clues. We can’t move them or change them or plant misleading ones.”
“But apart from that, no holds barred!” said Ace. “This sounds good.”
“But how are we supposed to find a treasure if we don’t know what we’re looking for?” said Rose.
“Perhaps, once you’ve found the right place, it will be obvious,” said Clover.
“There’s one more thing,” said Will. “We can’t take anything with us, except what we can fit into our pockets. That’s why I got everyone together now, so we can plan what to take. We don’t want twelve bits of blanket and no matches.”


It was slightly chaotic on camp next morning, as the first years tackled the second years’ duties. Phil’s team gave them all some watery tea, and sent the England team on their way with a big cheer. They arrived at the Concourse to be met by Corporal Lavall and Corporal Viella.
“The sergeants have already left for the target area,” Corporal Lavall explained. “It’s a nice quiet corner, humans don’t go there much. If anyone gets into difficulties, message Signals with your location, and one of the sergeants will be with you as soon as possible. Here are the maps, and here’s the first clue. Off you go, and good luck!”


A quick glance at the map showed Will that they were heading for Balestrand Kommune. He unfolded a paper and read out the first clue to the eager team.
“A little cove, a mighty dale,
Walk or fly or swim or sail;
Admire the view, and you will see
A horse above a rowan tree.”

“A horse?” said Peter. “What on earth’s all that about?”
“Doesn’t matter, yet,” said Will. “Come on, we can talk about it on our way down to the beach.”
“I am so out of a job,” grinned Ace.


By the time they had arrived at the beach, everyone understood that as they couldn’t all fly, and they had to go to a cove, it was a sure thing that sailing was going to be quicker than swimming, or walking round by land. Everyone had a look at the map, and they all agreed that the cove had to be Sværen.
“It makes sense,” said Bella. “The first clue’s an easy one, because they don’t want anyone starting off wrong.”
It seemed as if all the teams were thinking along the same lines. They were all heading down to the beach as fast as they could go. The Alpine team had got there first, and laid claim to the best piece of driftwood, a really good plank that could be made into a boat in no time.
“Ace,” said Sizzle, “I’ll trade you this wood for a place for Kiefer in your boat.”
“Done,” said Ace, then realised what he’d said at the same moment Sizzle did. They both apologised to Will.
“Doesn’t matter!” said Will. “Ace is right, that’s a good trade. Nice to have you, Kiefer… just hope your fairies make it to the right cove.”
Will got half the team working on the boat, and the other half working with various chunks of metal.
“I know this will be slower to make,” he said. “The people making sails will be off faster than we will be. But we’ll overtake them, I promise you.”
He was working fast as he talked, and pieces of an outboard motor were taking shape under his hands. Rose, Dan, and Betch were making parts too, and Ace and Wayne were fitting them together, Wayne silent but not unwilling.
Last of all, Will brought out a precious drop of petrol, expanded it, then sealed up the fuel tank. Sure enough, they were the last to leave the beach, but they overtook the other teams one after another. They tried hard not to look too smug, but they were all grinning when they were the first boat to arrive. Kiefer’s fairies were waiting in a tree, and they flew down and helped the England team find a good place to hide their boat for the journey back. After that, they wished each other luck and split up.


Sværen was an attractive little village, perched right on the edge of the land with its toes in the fjord, while behind it a wide tree-lined dale stretched back into the mountains. Fairies from several teams were whizzing about high overhead, waiting for their boats to arrive, and looking for anything that could be described as a horse. Rose and Clover joined them in the air, but they couldn’t see anything either.
“That doesn’t look right,” said Betch. “Didn’t the clue say, ‘admire the view’? I bet it’s something you can only see when you’re standing still.”
“Let’s try that bridge,” said Dan. “We’d get a good view from there.”
Looking at rowan trees wasn’t much help, because there were dozens of them.
“There are fields, but none of them are higher up than the trees,” said Will. “And none of them have horses in, anyway. There’s a trick in this, there’s got to be.”
In his mind, he was turning over all the things you could possibly describe as a horse, when Rose, who really had been enraptured by the view, suddenly squeaked, then clapped her hand over her mouth.
“Over there,” she said quietly. “I don’t want to point, in case anyone’s watching, but beyond that old blue house, all by itself – there’s a rowan, and don’t you think that rock face is shaped just like a horse’s head?”
“Brilliant,” said Will. “Well done, Rose! Now, how to get over there without drawing attention to ourselves… any ideas?”
“Diversion,” said Ace. “Half of us rush off madly in the wrong direction, while the other half sneak off quietly in the right one.”
“Thanks, Ace,” said Will warmly. “Will you take the noisy party? Meet up over there, in that little wood.”
“Got you,” said Ace.
They quickly split up, and Will was delighted to see that Ace’s headlong rush was attracting a lot of attention, as people were very interested indeed to know what he’d spotted. Meanwhile Will, with the other half of the team, moved quietly towards the blue house, using every bit of vegetation for cover. Once they got close to the house, they could see that it was not only empty, but had been long abandoned, so they moved more openly after that, and faster. They flew and scrambled up to the horse-shaped rock, eagerly looking out for the next clue. It was easy to spot once they’d got high enough, neatly painted on a smooth stone. Clover read it out and Will wrote it down.
“It’s another one of Corporal Viella’s rhymes,” giggled Clover.
“Along a ridge where goblins dwell
The land is bleak and bare;
The flyer with the sharpest eyes
Will read me from the air.”


Easily joining up with Ace and the others in the wood, they discussed what it meant.
“I’m surprised they expect us to know where there’s a goblin colony,” said Dan. “Why would any of us know that?”
“There must be a clue on the map,” said Will. “There are not even many names on it. I’m going to read them all out, in case something jogs someone’s memory.”
He got through the list without anyone saying anything, but then Clover frowned and said tentatively,
“What was that troll-thing again?”
“Trollabotneggi,” said Will. “You think it could be that? It certainly looks like a ridge.”
“That word ‘troll’ comes up time and again in Norwegian place names,” said Clover. “Don’t you think that maybe the legends about trolls come from goblins? So if that ridge is a goblin colony, it could easily have got a troll name?”
“Yes, I’ve heard that,” said Hogweed. “I think Clover’s right.”
“That’s more like it,” said Will. “It’s something they’d expect us to know. Do you all think that’s the place to aim for?”
Everyone was nodding in agreement.
“Mmm, definitely,” said Dan, “and it’s pretty clear that the next clue can be read from the air – probably only from the air – so we don’t all need to go.”
“It’s right from this side of the map to the other,” said Will, “but even so, it’s only about seven miles.”
“That’s easy,” said Clover. “In formation, at top speed, about three-quarters of an hour.”
“Great,” said Will, “then the rest of us will keep an eye on the others and see what they’re up to, and then head inland. Wherever we have to go next, it should help if we’re more central to start with.”
“Let’s go!” said Bella, bouncing up.
“Not so fast,” smiled Will. ”We’ll need another map.”


Clover had paper, and quickly copied the patterns of the map onto a blank sheet. They chose a rendezvous point, then the five fairies flew off, flying low at first so as not to attract attention. The elves and Hogweed headed back to the outskirts of Sværen, intent on making the best use of the time. First of all, they strolled round grinning at everyone and looking as smug as possible to demoralise the opposition. Lilje was the next to spot the horse, so they decided to follow Gran’s team around, so they wouldn’t be able to discuss their plans in private. That ended in a fight. Will didn’t let it go too far, because they’d achieved their objective of slowing them down. When they’d slowed down as many teams as they could, and only Poland remained, they changed tactics.
“We can still help Poland,” whispered Will. “They’ll be fine with the goblin thing, they’ve got enough of their own, but they need a bit of help to get going.”
So they dropped a big hint about where the horse was, then moved up the dale.


They discovered that Hogweed could march even faster than ever, so that if the elves jumped slowly they could keep together. As soon as they reached the meeting place, where a footpath crossed a stream, they had a drink and waited as patiently as they could. Will studied the map continually, memorising every feature and name, to be ready to work out the next clue.
Then they saw some of the Scandinavian fairies flying overhead, which worried them. How had they got back so fast?
But their own fairies came into sight just then, and quickly spotted them
“Gran only sent his fastest flyers,” said Dan. “I slowed us down, I’m sorry.”
“Hey, don’t worry,” said Will. “You did great speed. Here, have some water. You OK, Bella?”
“It’s hard work keeping up with Rose and Clover!” she gasped.
“But you’re the one who spotted the clue,” said Clover. “I was looking for words again, but it wasn’t. Show Will the drawing, Rose.”
The elves all squashed round to see. It was just a squiggle, three curves with an X in a circle beside them.
“We hovered so long, trying to decide if that was the clue or not, that I think we gave it away to Lilje and Revebjelle,” said Rose. “They didn’t stop to draw it, they just looked and whizzed off again.”
“It’s a good drawing,” said Will, “and it’s quite easy to see where we have to go next, when you look at the map.”
While the fairies rested, everyone looked at the map, and when they spotted it, they all agreed. The main road that skirted the wilderness obviously covered a very steep bit of mountain, and its hairpin bends exactly matched the squiggle.
“Yeah, that’s it,” Ace agreed. “Ulvestad. Are we all going?”
“I think so,” said Will. “I can’t see the sergeants planning something where the fairies had to do all the work. They made it clear that the last one was for flyers, so I bet the next one won’t be. What do you think yourself?”
“I agree with you,” said Ace. “It’s too tempting to send the fairies off again, it doesn’t feel right.”
“Some of the teams might fall for it, though,” said Betch. “That’d be good.”
“Let’s work out the best route,” said Will. “Directly east, I think, then up the road itself to the squiggles. I think we can do that before dark, and even if we can’t, we’ll be well-placed to tackle it in the morning.”
The fairies flew and waited, and flew and waited as the elves and Hogweed slowly and laboriously crossed the mountainous landscape. It had looked so near on the map, but all the ups and downs added miles. Will could hardly think of anything now but how much his legs were hurting, and no-one had energy to waste on talking or joking. By the end, it was only grim determination that kept them going. When the road finally came into sight, it was past eight o’clock and the light had gone completely.
“That’s enough for today,” said Will. “I think you’ve all done brilliantly, that was a horrible journey. Let’s find somewhere to camp.”


There were no trees around, but there was plenty of bushy growth near the road and they managed to gather enough fuel for a small fire. Great slabs of rock littered the mountainside, as if they’d been tossed aside when the road was built, and one of these had landed against another, with a space between. It was as good as a cave to the weary sprites. It sheltered them from the chilly wind that was blowing, and the little fire cheered them and gave them a hot drink. They made blankets, but there was no grass and it was hard lying on the bare rock, but most of them were too tired to care. Will could hardly keep his eyes open.
“Need to keep watch,” he said.
Fran looked at Peter and Betch, and nodded.
“Don’t, Will,” he said. “We’ll do it between us, Betch and Peter and I. You’re all a lot smaller than we are, and you’re tireder. And Hogweed’s tired from keeping up.”
“Fran’s right, Will,” said Betch. “You and Ace are so clever, and you pour it all out so we all get the benefit. But for strength, we’ve got the edge, and we want to be as generous with it as you two are with your cleverness.”
“Thank you very much,” said Will. “I might be copying someone here, but I’ve got to say it… what a team.”
“Couldn’t have put it better myself,” grinned Ace wearily. “Thanks so much.”


They were all stiff and cold when they woke, but that was a good thing in a way, because it made them keen to get up and get moving. It was now a hard but short climb up the road to the hairpin bends, and when they got there they saw that they were not alone.
“Lilje and Revebjelle again!” said Clover. “Are they on their own?”
“Looks like it,” said Dan. “But whatever it is we’re looking for, they haven’t found it yet.”
The position of the X seemed to show clearly where the clue could be found, but the Swedish fairies had obviously been searching hard in exactly that area and found nothing. Will got the map out to check again that they were on the right bend, but they were. It was definitely the middle of three, on the outer edge, right next to the sheer drop of the mountainside.
“That round rock is in exactly the right position,” said Ace. “You don’t think someone’s removed the clue, do you?”
“I can’t see it,” said Will. “Not when that was the one thing that was forbidden. It has to be there! Maybe we’re not looking at this right.”
Everyone prowled around, searching, while Lilje and Revebjelle were flying up and down the nearby cliff. Will stared at the map again, then hit it with his fingers.
“Wait a minute…”
“Ah,” said Ace. “We’ll be all right now…”
“It’s underneath it!” said Will. “That’s why the X is in a circle, to signify the clue is under the round rock.”
“That’s going to be tricky,” said Fran. “Look at the size of it! How are we supposed to move it?”
“Let’s have a look,” said Hogweed. “I think I could lift that up a bit.”
He spat on his hands and bent his knees and managed to lift the huge rock an inch or two off the ground before he had to let go. Bella, who’d been lying flat to peer underneath it, let out a squawk.
“There’s writing underneath it, but not at this side! It’s really tiny, too. You have to lift from the opposite side.”
“But it’s practically overhanging the drop on the other side,” said Dan. “How can we do that if Hogweed’s the only one who can lift it?”
“Shrink it?” said Rose. “That wouldn’t count as interfering, so long as you left it as you found it.”
“You’d never be able to read the clue, then,” said Bella. “It’s too small as it is.”
“Hmm,” said Will. “Very interesting. Rose, can you just fly down and check that cliff-side. Is there anything Hogweed could stand on?”
Lilje and Revebjelle were watching carefully now, to see what they were doing.
“Yes!” shouted Rose. “A perfect ledge, you’d think it had been put there on purpose.”
“It probably has,” grinned Will. “So, only a person standing on that ledge and lifting the stone from that side has a chance of reading the clue. Hogweed, this is your moment of glory. D’you think you can lift and read at the same time?”
“Oh, Will!” said Hogweed. “I hope there’s no hard words!”
“Don’t you worry, you’ll be fine,” said Will. “Let’s think about this, because it’s not going to be easy getting down there, and it won’t be very nice having that awful drop behind you. Rose, Clover and Stella, please could you hover and mask the drop, and be ready to steady Hogweed if he needs it? Dan, you fly right beside him, and give him a hand as he steps down to that little ledge. Bella, could you please make sure that those two” – he pointed up at Lilje and Revebjelle – “don’t get near enough to hear the clue?”
“Leave it to me,” grinned Bella, and took to the air with her knife in her hand.
“Fran, Betch and Peter, could you help Hogweed by taking any of the weight that you can from this side? I’m going to lean out over the edge to help him if there are any hard words, and Ace and Wayne, could you be ready to write them down?”

Once Ace and Wayne were ready, pencils poised, the fairies got into position and Hogweed clambered bravely over the awful edge, gladly grabbing Dan’s hand for balance as he tried to position his big feet carefully on the small footholds. His expression was very serious.
“I’m afraid of losing my balance when I heave up the stone,” he said. “Would it be all right if Dan pushed her hands against my back?”
“Sure,” said Will, “good idea. Can you manage that, Dan?”
“No problem.”
She planted her sturdy little hands firmly against Hogweed’s back, and at once he looked happier and more confident.
“I’m ready,” he said.
He started to heave, and slowly the great stone moved. He slipped his hands round and pushed again, and then the underside was at his eye level.
“Keep – in – the – stream,” he read out, and Ace and Wayne started scribbling furiously. “East is right. In the night you’ll see the light.”
He stopped for breath, panting, then tried to lift the stone just a little higher.
“Past the m –m, Will, help! m – a – r – s – h – e – s…”
“Marshes,” said Will, “you’re doing fine!”
“Edge with care. Now you know – you’re nearly there.”
He let down the stone with a thud, and leaned his head against it for a moment.
“Phew!” he said. “That was a lot of words!”
“Brilliant, Hogweed, you’re a star,” said Will. “We are so lucky to have a goblin who’s such a good reader. Can you manage to get back up now?”
Eager hands helped him back up over the edge, then everyone was cheering and clapping and giving him hugs. Hogweed looked absolutely delighted. You could tell he’d never expected to have such an important role to play.
“You were right to bring the whole team, Will,” he said. “It needed all of us, didn’t it?”
“Yes,” said Will, “but we couldn’t have done it without you. You were fantastic.”
“Sorry we can’t share the clue,” Clover called up to Lilje and Revebjelle. “You’re going to have to fly back and tell Gran he should have brought the whole team!”
They seemed to agree with her, and Will watched them fly off south. It was a shame they’d gathered so much valuable information, but with the delay they’d have now, it probably wouldn’t do them much good. Just then, a car came along, and they remembered that this was actually a road. They hurried out of the way and settled down out of sight to work out where they had to go next.


Ace read out the whole clue and everyone looked baffled.
“There are no streams or marshes around here,” said Clover.
“No,” said Will, “yet if it’s not this area, which area is it?”
“Maybe it’s just the ‘east is right’ bit,” said Betch. “Keep east, and look for a stream?”
“The trouble with that,” said Wayne, “is that east is just where streams and marshes aren’t.”
“I agree,” said Will. “Looking at the map, that kind of country is here, to the south.”
“Let’s have a look,” said Ace. “Round here, you mean? This mountain, Keipen?”
Ace frowned, looked his notes and then at Wayne’s.
“Hogweed,” he said, “where did the ends of the lines come? Did it look like this?”
Hogweed thought about that carefully.
“No,” he said. “That hard word, marshes, was at the end of a line. ‘Edge with care’ came next, by itself. Then the last line was the long one. Everything else was how you’ve written it.”
Ace wrote it out again on the back of his paper.
“So it looked like this?”
Hogweed looked carefully at what Ace had written.

Keep in the stream
East is right
In the night you’ll see the light
Past the marshes
Edge with care
Now you know you’re nearly there

“Yes, that’s exactly what it looked like,” said Hogweed.
“Thought so,” grinned Ace. “Corporal Viella’s rhymes are not brilliant, but that was such a clunky one I wondered if there was a reason for it.”
He turned the paper round so everyone could see it, then drew a line around the first letters in each line.
“Oh, yes!” said Will.
“You two are so interchangeable,” muttered Betch.
“Keipen!” said Rose. “Oh, that’s clever! Now we’re getting somewhere.”
“Brilliant, Ace,” said Will. “And when we get there, we’ll see a stream – or maybe two – and the one flowing east will be the right one.”
“In the night you’ll see the light,” said Fran. “Does that mean you can only see the clue at night?”
“Phosphorescent paint!” said Clover. “That’s a fairy thing, for secret messages!”
“That I should live to hear you using words like phosphorescent,” grinned Will. “This is fantastic. Off we go, then. It’s a good job we have to be there at night because it’ll probably take us all day to get there.”
As they made their way down the mountainside, they saw the Alpine team coming up, and they waved cheerfully.
“How are they going to manage?” said Dan. “They haven’t got any goblins.”
“One of them will transform Kiefer into a goblin,” said Ace. “Wish I could stick around to see that.”


Once they were off the mountain, the fairies flew south, to mislead anyone who was watching, planning to turn west later and meet up with the others at a good half-way point. It was hard for the fairies to keep stopping and starting over a long distance.
Will was expecting the day to be a bit of an endurance test, but it wasn’t. In fact, in years to come, when he looked back on his time at Fjaerland, it was one of the days that stuck out as a happy memory. Just out with the team, on an exercise, as they’d done many times before… yet this time, with the fun of leading, and realising that it could actually be fun, and also with the sense that all the things they’d learned were pulling together.
He felt such an affection for the whole team, seeing clearly that their shared training would be a bond between them that would last forever, no matter what they all ended up doing. The way they were working together now was wonderful. The elves had surrounded Hogweed, and their unison was giving him even more endurance than he already had, and his long, loping strides were easily matching the elves at a slow jump. They were making really smooth progress, it felt good.
It felt good, too, to be outdoors in the fresh air of early autumn, with miles of open country to enjoy. He could see why humans didn’t come here much. It couldn’t compare with the grandeur of the nearby fjords. But it had an austere, barren beauty, and it was looking its best in today’s clear light. It felt like a huge playground just for sprites, and he could see why the sergeants had marked it down as a good place for expeditions like this.


When they arrived at the meeting place, the fairies were already there, and even better, they had a fire going and water boiling for tea.
“A bit of a luxury, but we had time,” said Stella. “As far as we can make out, we’re in the lead. Cor and Zoza have teamed up and are working together, but they’re still at the goblin ridge. Sizzle hasn’t left the squiggly road yet, and all the others are on their way there.”
“Sounds good,” said Will. “We’ll have to be careful, though. I hadn’t thought about using transforming, but if people start doing that, it changes things. If Sizzle thinks of transforming Kiefer into a fairy, she could overtake us any time.”
“She’ll still have to wait for night-fall,” said Clover. “That’s going to even things up a bit, isn’t it?”
“Well, we don’t want it to be too easy,” grinned Will. “We want to give the others a chance, don’t we?”
They were keen to get on their way again quickly, so they soon put their fire out and scrambled down to the stream to fill their water bottles. The bank of the stream was thick with comfrey, filling the air with its scent, so Hogweed pushed through the tall plants first, to clear the way. All of a sudden he stopped, stooped down, then let out a cry that was like nothing any of them had ever heard from him. Almost a bellow, and full of yearning, it was the kind of noise you’d let out if you’d had a shock, but a tremendously good one. He stood up again, and he was holding something in his hands.
“Look!” he said. He didn’t need to. Everyone was already looking at him. “It’s a bud! A goblin bud! He’s gone to chrysalis, out here all alone, the poor little mite!”
Everyone crowded round to look. It was a sizeable chrysalis, and no-one doubted that Hogweed was right that it was a goblin, though it looked small in his big hands. He was holding it very, very carefully.
“Can we take him with us? We can’t leave him here all alone!”
“I think we’ll have to,” said Will. “We’re a long way from the nearest colony, if it’s that one up on the ridge. He’ll have to come back to camp with us for now.”


It wasn’t the first time people had taken buds back to camp. If you found an unattended one, you had to do something, and the officers always found good homes for them with decent local colonies. Hogweed couldn’t take his eyes off the bud. He looked as if he thought he had found the treasure already.
“I can’t really run while I’m carrying him,” he said. “Would it be all right if I followed on behind?”
“I don’t want to leave you on your own,” said Will. “How about if Dan carries him for you? You know she’s very good at carrying things while she’s flying.”
“I’d carry him so carefully, Hogweed," said Dan. “It’s safe to trust him to me.”
He still didn’t seem sure, and he looked at Ace. Everyone knew that for him, Ace’s word was law, and that had nothing to do with the army, but was because Ace was his leader and his senior sprite from way back.
“I think it’d be a really good idea,” said Ace gently.
Slowly, Hogweed placed the bud in Dan’s hands.
“That’s it,” said Ace. “The sooner we get going, the sooner you’ll be able to hold him again.”


Hogweed seemed to manage an even greater speed that afternoon, and the peak of Keipen came into view long before dark. Unfortunately, once it had come into view it refused to get any closer, and the last part of their journey seemed slow and wearisome, but eventually they spotted the first stream and came to a halt. The first thing they did was look behind them, and they thought they detected glimpses of movement in the distance.
“Someone’s catching up,” said Fran.
“Then we need to press on,” said Will. “I know we’re all tired, but a big push now might make all the difference. We may need the dark to read the message, but we need the light to find the right place. What were the exact words, Ace?”
“Keep in the stream… does that mean we have to walk in it?”
“Might be safer,” said Peter cautiously.
“Can’t do any harm,” said Will.
He sat down and took his boots off, tied the laces together and hung them round his neck. Everyone followed his example, and they set off in a long line, with Hogweed bringing up the rear and cradling the bud. He seemed to be singing Enter Sandman very quietly under his breath.
“I hope no-one can see us,” said Fran. “We must look really silly.”
“I don’t like this bit,” said Bella. “The water’s cold and the stones are sharp.”
“Cheer up,” said Ace. “Think how happy you’ll be when we win.”
“Look ahead!” said Dan. “The stream’s splitting.”
“East is right,” said Wayne.
“Then soon we’ll find the marshes,” said Rose happily. “Then we’ll be nearly there.”


It was a long walk through the cold water before they saw any marshland, and it wasn’t true marsh, just very boggy ground, where glacier melt had soaked the acidic soil. The stream seemed to spread out, and have more grass in it, so it was hard to tell where it started and finished.
“This must be the part where we have to be careful,” said Will. “Edge with care…don’t get stuck in any boggy bits.”
“I can’t see my feet anymore,” said Betch. “I can’t feel them, either, so I’ll probably fall over in a minute.”
“All the same, it’s a good job we’re in the water,” said Dan. “If you were looking down on this, you’d lose your way. It’d just look like a very wet field. It’s the depth that’s helping us keep our line.”
“Oh, good,” said Bella. “I don’t mind getting wet if there’s a reason.”
“Are you all right, Clover?” said Will.
She wasn’t complaining, and that was a bad sign.
“So cold,” she murmured. “Can’t be much further, can it?”
“Lean on me,” said Will. “It might warm you up a bit.”
“Will!” hissed Ace. “Can you hear anything?”
Everyone stopped, almost by instinct hushing the ripple of water round their ankles.
“Voices,” said Will. “A fair way behind us. Who is it, anyone know?”
“Can only pick up the pitch at this distance,” said Rose. “But it’s not the Alpine team.”
“I agree,” said Betch, another one with sharp ears. “That’s not fairies, and it’s not Kiefer talking to himself, even if he’s still a goblin.”
“So they’ve been overtaken themselves,” said Fran.
“I think it’s Ross,” said Will. “Trying to get his team to get into the water? Very, very quietly, now. Hold onto each other so you don’t stumble. We can’t afford a splash.”
They reached what seemed to be the end of the marsh, and spread out as quietly as they could. It had to be somewhere round here. The trouble was, they could be in the right place now, yet still not be able to see the clue. But it was getting very gloomy, and the fairies had all said it only had to be a bit dark for phosphorescent paint to show up.
“I hope it really is the paint,” Will murmured to Clover. “It’ll look well if it’s something that only shows up in moonlight, say.”
“Oh, don’t say that!” shivered Clover. “That could take hours!”


There was hardly any light left now. Drifts of mist mingled with the damp shadows. Hogweed took his jacket off and wrapped it round the bud. Will brushed water off his face that had dripped off his hair. He was feeling very tired, but he tried to force himself to think. They shouldn’t stay in this cold water for too long… somehow, he had to estimate the likeliest stretch, and make sure they were covering it in the most efficient way. He couldn’t shout, because that would give their position away to Ross, but he just couldn’t move any faster, to get close enough to anyone to whisper. He began to worry, knowing he was losing it, knowing that Ace would have done so much better, when Dan and Bella brought his problems to an end by waving frantically and excitedly. Everyone started wading towards them, and Will felt a throb of relief as he saw the eerie green glow shining through the water. It made him feel dizzy, and he was glad that Clover had let go.
Finally, he got close enough, and then he could see that the clue had been painted on a stone that was now deep in the stream. It wasn’t words, it was shapes. There was an oval, with three small circles inside it, and in the middle circle was an X. Beside it was another symbol, looking like a five-legged spider.
“Oh, well, that’s easy enough,” he murmured faintly, then wondered why everyone was staring at him. He couldn’t think what to do first. They wanted to know the answer, but he had to get them out of this stream, and somehow they had to do it quickly and quietly. His head was spinning, and he nearly slipped.
“Are you OK?” said Ace.
“No,” said Will. “Please could you just do your stuff, Ace, and get us out of here?”
“Of course.” Ace slipped his arm around Will’s waist and just the feel of that gave Will strength, helped him dig deeper to find the last bit of energy he needed. “Look, we can climb out over here, that bush will give us cover. Fill your water bottles before you go!”
Hogweed clambered out carefully, then leaned down and with his free hand helped the others to clear the steep bank, and Fran did the same.
“This way,” said Ace. “It looks firmer, so it might be drier… that’s it, get your boots back on.”
“The trouble with you, Will, is that you’re just not bossy enough,” said Clover.
“Glad you’re feeling better, Clover,” said Will, with a ghost of a smile.
“Are we going to have a rest soon?” said Stella.
She sounded as tired as Will felt, and his heart went out to her. He’d asked an awful lot of her, and she wasn’t as tough as the other fairies.
“Very soon,” said Ace cheerfully. “We’re going to tuck ourselves away in those rocks over there, and light a fire, and get warm and dry. And Will can explain where we’ve got to go next.”

They gathered pine cones and twigs on their way, so by the time they were well-hidden in the rocks, they had enough fuel.
“Everyone who’s tired – and that includes you, Will – rest while we get the fire going,” said Ace.
He tucked his own jacket under Will’s head, and Will couldn’t argue, it felt wonderful. He was full of admiration, and he couldn’t imagine being able to do this all the time, like Ace could. He’d never realised how draining it was. It was sheer pleasure just closing your eyes and listening to him.
“That bud won’t disappear if you put it down for a minute, Hogweed,” said Ace. “How about doing something to this damp wood so it’ll burn?”
Betch held his hands out for the bud and started talking to it.
“Hello, little bud, how are you today? Is it nice in there? That’s a nice thick case you’ve got, I ‘spect you’ll be born soon. Fancy being born in the army, you’ll have to join up now. What will your name be? Comfrey, I suppose. You goblins aren’t very original. Now if you were an elf we could have called you Humphrey, that would be much more fun.”
“You can’t call him Comfrey, he’s Norwegian,” giggled Rose, spooning tea into a kettle. “That’s the English name.”
“Well, what’s the Norwegian word, then?”
“Kulsukker,” said Ace.
“Get you,” said Betch. “You’re pretty good at Norwegian now. Oh well, that doesn’t sound too bad.”
Will dozed off then, with a smile on his face, as if suddenly everything was all right again.


Even a short rest and a hot drink made all the difference. Will was still tired but he’d lost that light-headed feeling and could focus again. And what everyone wanted to know was where they were going next.
“It’s easy enough when you’ve been staring at that map as long as I have,” said Will modestly. “Look… to the north you’ll see two lakes, and one of them is oval and has three islands. And just to make it even clearer, look at the road junction nearby. Three little roads join the big one at the same point, and it looks just like that spider-shape.”
“What a memory,” said Betch. “So, are we all going?”
“No, I don’t think so. There’s something else… I need a pencil, hang on…”
He rooted in his pockets and found one, then drew on the map itself.
“We started here at Sværen, and travelled to the ridge.” He drew a line across the map from bottom right to mid-left. “Then straight across the middle to the squiggly road – like that – then down here, in the bottom left-hand corner, and now we’ve got to go up here.”
He finished by drawing a line up to the roadside lake, then held the map so everyone could see.
“It’s a star!” exclaimed Rose.
“With one line missing,” said Ace. “Fantastic, Will. I bet no-one else has spotted that. So the clue at the lake is going to send us right back to the start?”
“I think so, yes,” said Will. “We still have to get the clue to know exactly where to go, but that doesn’t need all of us. The slowest can start moving back to Sværen, while some of the fairies go north for the clue. But I don’t know who to send. What do you think yourselves?”
“Rose and Clover are the fastest,” said Dan. “But Clover’s pretty tired, aren’t you?”
“I’m worn out,” said Clover. “But I could tackle it in the morning, if that’s what’s needed.”
“I’m not so sure,” said Rose. “What if we can’t find the clue? All we know is that it’s on the middle island. Getting there fast isn’t much use if we can’t find the clue when we get there.”
“The last time the clue wasn’t words, it needed all of us,” said Fran.

Will bit his lip in worry. So many possibilities… and he had to make the right choice. He had a feeling that if he chose wrong now, they’d blow it.
“Just as a matter of interest,” said Betch, “how fast could you and Ace do that distance on your own?”
“It’s not so much the distance as the terrain,” said Will. “It only looks about seven miles, but it’s much further really. Pooling, I’d say about five hours. Longer to get back.”
“No,” said Clover. “You two aren’t supposed to pool for that long, it’s too dangerous. Why don’t you send Dan and Bella, because they’re more cunning at spotting things.”
“But what if they can’t find it?” said Wayne. “How can they let the rest of us know if they need help?”
“Well, but no-one said we couldn’t use Signals,” said Stella.
Will was astonished. That was something he truly hadn’t thought of, and his mind explored the potential.
“That’s a great thought, Stella, thanks,” he said warmly. “OK… I know I have to make a decision, I just hope it’s the right one. Rest now, then on our way again at dawn, that’ll be about 6.30. Elves plus Hogweed – and the bud – start moving east to a rendezvous point here,” – he pointed on the map – “while Rose and Clover fly round for reconnaissance, see what everyone else is doing, then also meet up here. Stella, I need you to stay with the slow party, in case of any urgent messages. Dan and Bella go the island. If you can find the clue, go straight to Sværen. Meet up, say, behind that old blue house. If you can’t find the clue, message Signals to tell me, and I’ll come myself, as a fairy, with Rose and Clover for support.”
“Couldn’t have put it better myself,” said Ace cheerfully.
Will didn’t know if that was strictly true or not, but it was very encouraging to hear.


Hogweed wasn’t as fast the next day. He wouldn’t entrust the bud to anyone but his beloved Dan, and she was busy, so he carried the bud himself. He was still running, but there was a cautious gentleness to it. Will didn’t mind. There was no point getting ahead of the fairies, and even at this speed, they were going to reach the rendezvous point in good time. They saw Crocus and Muscari flying east to west, and earlier they’d seen a couple of Zoza’s goblins paddling in the wrong stream, but it was quite encouraging that Poland had got that far at all.
It wasn’t so bright today. Clouds were coming in from the west and it would probably rain later… another thing to bear in mind. It was all right while they were moving, but once they stopped, Will found himself getting more and more tense. He tried to calm his mind but it was no use. Anytime now he could get a message from Signals, and that would mean he’d made the wrong decision and they’d have endless effort trying to retrieve the situation.
He paced about, watching the skies for Rose and Clover, his mind alert for a message. He spared a moment to be grateful that Ace wasn’t telling him not to worry, but just being a real help by chatting to the others, answering their questions and generally letting Will worry in peace. The skies were still empty.
Suddenly, there was a sharp crack, and everyone stopped talking. Hogweed stared at the chrysalis.
“It’s broken!”
“It’s not,” said Ace. “It’s cracking. Stand by, Hogweed… Will, come here!”
Will ran over, wildly wondering what on earth he was going to have to cope with next, but thoughts like that quickly disappeared in excitement. A new life… a brand-new person… what was finding a treasure, or winning a competition, compared to that?

Stella gasped out loud as the chrysalis started rolling about. The crack in the thick brown crust widened and two tiny hands appeared, firmly pushing the sides until they fell apart with another loud crack. Sitting in the wreckage was the nicest-looking goblin any of them had ever seen. His skin was pale and creamy, and his blotches were pale lilac. His hair was white and his eyes were very blue, very bright, and fixed on Hogweed.
He held up his arms to be picked up, and Hogweed gave a strangled croak and stepped forward. Tears were rolling down his cheeks as he picked up the little goblin and held him close. Everyone started exclaiming at once, and in the midst of the confusion, Rose and Clover arrived. When they saw what had happened, they shrieked with excitement.
The little goblin turned his head to look at them all, but his hands were still clinging onto Hogweed.
Ace and Will nodded at each other.
“Go on, Hogweed, tell him his name,” said Ace.
“What, me?”
“Yes,” said Ace and Will together.
“Your name is Kulsukker,” said Hogweed seriously. “You are a Norwegian goblin, and we don’t know where you belong, but we will look after you. We’re your friends.”
“Friends,” said the little goblin, and huddled closer to Hogweed as if he was cold.
“OK,” said Will, trying desperately to think what to do first, “we’re not giving up, but he’s got to be our first priority now, agreed?”
No-one was arguing with that. They couldn’t take their eyes off him, and everyone was smiling fondly.
“Let’s make him some clothes,” said Will. “He’s cold. And while we’re doing that, let’s have the news.”
He drew his knife and sliced a bit off his own jeans.
“I’ll do it, Will,” said Stella. Gratefully, he handed over the fabric and listened to Clover, who was talking rapidly while making a warm jacket out of a bit of wool from her pocket.
“I think we’re still in the lead,” she was saying. “We’ve seen everyone except Gran and Alnus. Everyone’s away from the squiggle now, but Lauro and Crocus are still on their way to Keipen, so they’ll have to wait for nightfall. Ross is heading north to the lake, and so is Sizzle, and we think that Cor and Zoza are just following them.”
“I suppose it’s not impossible that Gran and Alnus overtook us in the night,” said Will, “but if they have, they’ve gone without sleep or rest.”
“Anything goes,” said Ace.
“That’s what worries me,” said Will.
“Gran’s devious, and Alnus is clever,” said Betch, pulling faces at Kulsukker and making him giggle. “If they found themselves lagging behind – which we know Gran will have done – they could easily have decided to gamble on guessing the right place.”
“Let other people do the work, then pounce?” said Fran.
“Something like that,” said Betch.
“So the nearer we get, the more careful we have to be,” said Will. “Someone could be planning an ambush. If it comes to a fight, Hogweed, you’ll have to give Kulsukker to Stella, OK? She’ll keep him safe, ‘cos we’ll need you fighting.”
“All right, Will,” said Hogweed. “He’s having an exciting birthday, isn’t he?”
“Far too exciting,” said Will. “What we need to do now is win as fast as possible, so we can get him home.”


They dressed him, and told him all their names, and gave him water to drink. He was very thirsty and drained everyone’s water bottles, and looked as if he could have managed even more.
“Are you nice and cosy now?” asked Rose.
She stroked his head as he nestled in Hogweed’s arms and fell asleep.
“Lovely,” smiled Will affectionately. “He really likes you, Hogweed. Right, what’s the time? Half past ten, so that’s four hours now since Dan and Bella left, so I think they must have found the clue. We’d have heard by now if they hadn’t. I’m getting more worried about them flying into an ambush. They’re good fighters but they’re only small. Ace, will you take a lead party to the rendezvous at top speed, you, Betch, Fran and Peter?”
“I was just going to suggest that,” grinned Ace.
“We shouldn’t be too far behind you,” said Will. “We’re going to need more water, though.”


Will would have thought that if any fairy could resist the temptation to coo over a baby it would be Dan, but in his opinion she was the worst of the lot. Maybe it was just because she was so happy for Hogweed, he thought charitably.
“Oh, Hogweed, he’s gorgeous!” she yelled. “What’s he said so far?”
She didn’t seem very interested in describing her journey, and Bella wasn’t much better.
“Look at his lovely hair! I didn’t know baby goblins were so pretty! What’s that, Will? Oh, the clue, yes, Ace has got it.”
Ace patted him on the back sympathetically.
“Look at it this way, at least everyone’s happy. They don’t seem to have had any problems finding it. Solving it, though, is another matter. We’ve been racking our brains since Dan and Bella got back but no-one can figure it out. How about if I keep an eye on things for you, so you can really concentrate?”
“Thanks, Ace.”


Will took the paper, which Betch held out to him. Bella had copied it all down. There was a completed five-point star, indicating, as they’d guessed, that they had to return to the start. But the rest of it was puzzling, very puzzling indeed. Will rubbed his hands with relish. Just a string of numbers: 6117062805/726.
He trusted Ace to have tried all the obvious things, yet he felt sure that it couldn’t be anything too complicated. The clue had to be fair to everyone, so it wasn’t going to involve algebra, or anything like that.
The slash puzzled him. 5 over 726? What did that mean? He couldn’t see any significance in that at all. After he’d stared at the numbers for a couple of minutes without getting any inspiration, he tried a different tack.
This has to tell us where the treasure is, but we know it’s in Sværen, don’t we? Maybe it even tells us what it is. Perhaps it’s a series, like an address.
He tried breaking it up in various ways, and when he came to 5/7, that made him stop.
Five sevenths? Divide something into seven? No, he told himself. This isn’t maths. The numbers just stand for things.
The fifth of seven? That was more like it. What came in sevens? Seven days in a week…Friday. Seven stars in The Plough, seven colours in the rainbow… blue. Seven logic gates… it couldn’t be that! Seven notes in the scale…
Blue? he wondered. That at least could be part of a clue. The only blue thing around was the house they were hiding behind… it couldn’t be that easy, could it? If it was, then the first part had to be Sværen itself… then he got it. He grabbed the map and checked, and he was right. It was the grid references. To this location – to the blue building – so the ‘26’ part must be the treasure.

“Will!”
Ace just pointed to the sky. Seven fairies were heading their way.
“Everyone into the house!” said Will.
The back door was slightly open, and had clearly stood like that for years, because there was grass growing around it. They found themselves in a room full of ancient wooden furniture, grey and damp. Dust rose up in clouds, and made beams of light shimmer. It looked as if it had been abandoned by humans for years, and then used as a sprite hideout, because a lot of the things that were lying around were sprite-sized. Hoping they hadn’t been spotted, they moved further into the room, and suddenly they all gasped at once. Standing on a table, amidst a clutter of other small objects, was a magnificent golden vase.
“The treasure!” shouted Rose.
They all got up onto the table for a closer look.
“Now, are you sure?” teased Will. He picked up a few other things to show them, an old tobacco tin, a lead weight for fishing, a tiny iron bar, and a rusty spoon. Everyone laughed, delighted that they’d reached the end, and feeling sure of winning now.
Fran picked up the golden trophy with reverent care.
“Let’s get out of here,” said Will. “Split up into your pairs in case we’re followed, it’ll cause confusion.”
“Not so fast.”
The voice came from the door, and Will’s heart sank. It was Gran.
“We’ll take that, thank you, Fran.”
“You can try,” said Fran.
He shoved the vase into his pocket and drew his knife. Before Will could even check everyone was okay, he was fighting to defend himself against two of Gran’s team at once.
He twisted his head, and got a cut for his trouble, but he’d seen what he wanted to see, that Stella had Kulsukker safe in her arms and was flying off through the door, Bella beside her, with knife drawn.
Ace had Gran down on the floor, they’d both dropped their knives and were fighting with their fists, but winning the fight against the elves wasn’t going to do them much good if…
“Fran! Watch Lilje!”
It was too late. Lilje had flown behind Fran, distracting him with fancy knife work, but really all she’d wanted was to pick his pockets. She grabbed the vase and flew off, and their elves and goblins ran off laughing.
“Dan, don’t,” shouted Will. “It’s not worth it.”
Ace let Gran get up.
“Lazy, Gran,” he said. “Couldn’t you be bothered working out the clues?”
“Winning is the game,” sneered Gran.
“You’re not back yet,” said Ace pleasantly.
Gran ran off after his team, and Will’s team went outside too.
“Don’t worry,” said Will. “They won’t win.”
“How can you be so sure?” said Dan sadly.
“Well, for one thing, Sizzle’s lot are after them, look.”
The fairies they’d seen earlier were now in hot pursuit of Lilje and Revebjelle.
“Good,” said Clover. “At least they caught up fairly. But what happened to Alnus?”
“Probably ran into Gran,” said Betch. “We weren’t the first team they’d fought today, you could tell. They had a few cuts already.”
Will couldn’t stop himself grinning as they discussed it, and Ace was looking at him curiously.
What’ve you spotted? No… don’t tell me, I’ll see if I can work it out. Let me see that clue again…
Still grinning, Will handed it over and spoke to the rest of the team.
“Cheer up,” he said. “We’ve still got the best treasure. Let’s go and find Bella and Stella, and take our baby goblin home.”


The sergeants had been in the area the whole time, observing, and when they saw that the treasure had gone, they rounded up the straggling teams, noting carefully how far each had got, so that by the evening of the third day, everyone was back.
They knew about Kulsukker, and were quick to reassure Hogweed and the rest of the team that they’d done the right thing.
“I can keep him, can’t I, Sergeant?” asked Hogweed.
“While he’s here, he’s yours to look after,” said Sergeant Camilo. “The Commander will make enquiries. If we can find out where his real home should be, you’d want him to go there, wouldn’t you?”
Hogweed looked as if he wasn’t at all sure about that, thought Will. He sympathised, remembering how much Hogweed had hoped that Aesculus would be a goblin. Having a baby goblin to raise had always been his dream. Will hoped it would all work out all right; but right now, he was just too excited to see who’d won.


The Commander herself was in the Great Hall as everyone began to gather, along with General Vandenesse, and it was clear that they were very interested in how the second years had got on, chatting to them all, and asking them how they’d solved the clues. When Sergeant Olt and Sergeant Svir came in, the general took a seat to listen, and the Commander perched on the edge of the stage.
“Team leaders, is everyone here?” called Sergeant Olt. “Good… and I hear you’ve come back with more than you started with!”
He came over to look at Kulsukker, asleep in Hogweed’s arms, and smiled benevolently and patted him on the head.
“Corporal Lavall, you have the order everyone got back?”
“England, Alpine, Scandinavia, France and Spain, Holland and Germany, Poland, Balkans, Italy, Russia,” the corporal called out.
“Thank you. I must say, the whole exercise was very fast. We could hardly keep up with you all! Some excellent boats, and some excellent map-reading. But the question is, who’s got the treasure?”
With a flourish, Sizzle brought out the golden vase and held it aloft. The England team all cheered, glad that the robbers had been robbed themselves.
The sergeants were all smiling, and Will listened carefully.
“Very nice attack, Sizzle. Good tactics. And Gran, your ambush was good, too. Only one problem – that’s not the treasure!”

The noise was deafening. Everyone was exclaiming, laughing or asking questions, all at once.
“Look at the last clue,” said the sergeant. “You all saw that it showed the map co-ordinates for Sværen, or at least realised you had to complete the star shape. 5/7 was the clue that the treasure was in the blue house. But when you saw the gold, you forgot the last bit, didn’t you? The last part of the clue, that told you what the treasure was. The number 26, atomic number not of gold, but of iron. One of the objects on that table was made of iron, and is actually worth far more than gold, because of its historical value. It’s a piece of a sword hilt that was given to Queen Ethelburga by the First Ally, the first piece of iron that sprites ever had, and the beginning of a long partnership in sharing human technology.”
“It had gone from the room when we checked,” said Sergeant Svir. “So I am hoping very much that one of you has it, or we’ll never be allowed to borrow valuable treasures ever again!”
“Yes,” said Will, trying not to grin too much. “Here it is.”
He took the piece of iron out of his pocket, and carried it over to Sergeant Svir.
“I was thinking it might be you,” said Sergeant Svir, “when you left Gran and Sizzle to fight it out over the gold. Well done, Will, excellent work. First place to England, and five hundred points.”
Everyone was clapping, and his own team were yelling with delight. He got back to them as quickly as he could, while the Commander restored the treasure to the glass case that was its home.
Ace nearly squeezed the breath out of him, and he was in such a daze he could hardly listen any more, as the sergeants went on, talking about what they’d observed, praising good work, and giving out more points to other teams. Finally, it was all over, and they could get away. Will was longing for his bed. The team gathered round to thank him, but he shook his head.
“It was all of us,” he said firmly. “It was endurance from people who haven’t got much strength, and terrific effort from people who have. It was great flying, it was good reading. Sure, I solved the clue. That’s what I always do, that’s my job. But you all know who it is who really pulls us together, and changing the leader’s name doesn’t change that for a minute. Your victory, Ace. We all know who our real leader is.”
Ace looked stunned, as if he said one word, he wouldn’t be able to stop himself crying, so he just hugged everyone instead. There was so much hugging going on that Kulsukker woke up, and he held his arms out for a hug, too.
“Ace!” he said.
“You tell ‘em, Humphrey,” said Betch. “Actually, it’s both of you, and it always has been. I hadn’t realised it before, but it felt exactly the same as usual.”


Will was very tired, but before he fell asleep, there was a warm glow in his mind. The whole team had done so well, and were so excited that they’d won. He felt he’d gained a lot of confidence, without really taking Ace’s place. They were in with a chance of winning now, and they’d saved a life. He didn’t know when he’d ever felt so happy.
That was why it was such a shock to wake up next morning and realise that Ace wasn’t there. He got a cryptic message, and then silence. When he hurried outside to find out what was going on, he heard that Blanche Hakarp had run away, and it looked horribly like Ace had gone with her.