Jordy was anxious not to upset Alex. He didn’t want to give his step-brother an excuse to run off permanently. If they all started arguing, Alex would definitely go away and hide. He did that when he was upset with anyone at home. He just took himself off somewhere. Jordy called it ‘sulking’ but he didn’t really know what caused Alex’s moods. Jordy admitted to himself, deep down, that the reason Alex annoyed him was because Jordy didn’t understand him. No one really did.
‘No, I agree,’ said Chloe. ‘We’ll play it down, yes?’
So when Alex wandered back into camp, expecting to be shouted at for leaving without telling them, they virtually ignored him. He took Makishi off his face and slung him on the cord over his shoulder.
‘I’m back,’ Alex said.
Chloe looked up from the meal she was making.
‘Oh – are you? Didn’t know you’d gone. I thought that was you over there.’
She pointed to a heap of rags in a dark corner.
Alex pouted. ‘I don’t wear stuff like that.’
‘Yes you do,’ replied Chloe. ‘Worse stuff.’
Alex didn’t take the bait, but eventually asked, ‘Are we moving on today?’
Jordy came over with his backpack already clipped shut. ‘Yep. I reckon from what the bortrekker told me that we’re very close to the Great Water Tank he talked about. The bureaux are on the edge of the lake, guarded by the ink imps. We’ll get the map—’
‘What about the ink imps?’ interrupted Alex. ‘Won’t they try to stop us?’
Jordy laughed. ‘What can a few imps do to us? Nah, we’ll just walk through them and find the map. We need to find Mr Grantham’s watch. Frère Jacques. Then we can start back home again. Now I know how to navigate up here I think I can get us back.’
‘Easy, just like that,’ murmured Alex. ‘Wonder why we didn’t do it before?’
‘Because we haven’t got the watch yet,’ replied Jordy, through gritted teeth.
Nelson loped into camp with a mouse in his jaws.
‘Poor fare that,’ cried Alex. ‘You can do better than that, ginger. Bring us an Attican wild boar.’
Nelson gave Alex a hard stare. He was not a cat who enjoyed being mocked.
‘Yuk,’ Chloe said, ‘I’m glad there are vegetables.’
Nevertheless she stroked her cat until he purred in delight. He flopped over at her feet and began playing with the dead mouse, batting it backwards and forwards. Finally Chloe picked it up by the tail and tossed it away. Nelson stared after it, but decided it wasn’t worth moving for. He was in a nice shaft of sunlight that warmed his fur and it felt very good. The boards were cosy beneath his fur and like all cats he loved a laze.
At that moment six Atticans in dustcoats arrived: the same set that had sniffed around the board-comber and Alex earlier. They were fusty-looking, much taller and broader than the normal villagers that the children had met until now. Their features were stern below their shining bald pates. They also looked stronger than any villager the children had come across. They would not have looked out of place in a hardware store. They had the appearance of harassed counter clerks.
‘Eeerk!’ cried the one who pointed.
‘Eeerk yourself,’ said Jordy, hands on hips. ‘And your name is …?’
Chloe and Jordy did not know who these characters were. They seemed very hostile. Another of them beckoned, indicating that the children should step forward. Jordy was inclined to tell him to take a running jump.
‘These are the ones the board-comber called hunters,’ Alex said. ‘They look a bit aggressive, Jordy.’
‘I’ll give them aggro all right,’ muttered Jordy. ‘Just let ’em step over here.’
Chloe said, ‘They’re getting angry.’
‘Let ’em,’ said Jordy. He was actually not feeling as confident as he sounded. ‘There are only – six of ’em.’
Seeing that the humans were not going to obey the cursory summons indicated by the crooked finger, the creatures moved in to arrest them.
Until this point Nelson had been vaguely aware of intruders. He still lay on his side in the warm sunlight, stretching his head to look at what all the fuss was about. He sniffed and on smelling the strange odour of the intruders his hackles rose. Nelson, like many cats, was very sensitive to unusual odours. When the creatures actually advanced, Nelson went up on his three paws in an instant. All his fur was on end now, his remaining twelve claws were protruding like curved daggers from his paws and he was hissing and spitting