36
They didn’t wait for explanations. They just pulled him roughly on to the compost heap – bandaged hand, hoe and all – squashing him into a tight hug.
All of a sudden Sophie leaped to her feet, dusting herself down with aching arms. ‘Alex, what the hell?’ she said breathlessly. She didn’t care about being quiet. It didn’t matter that they were trespassing in the Queen’s actual back garden, she had to get some answers. They all had to get some answers!
Alex struggled back to his feet, using the hoe as a support, desperate to tell them why he’d left them. They needed to know that he was still a good friend. Still one of the Young Magicians.
‘Henry … Henry is one of the thieves.’
‘He’s what?!?’ piped the three others in unison, Zack and Jonny standing up at the same time like this was some poorly acted soap opera!
Alex held up his hand, the bandage already blotched with fresh blood. ‘I must … must have passed out for a few minutes, but by the time I came round you three were already locked inside the safe!’ He was clearly trying to fight back tears. ‘And I just thought … if you three couldn’t stop the thieves, if you couldn’t get out of there without me, then I’d have to finish things myself!’
‘You travelled along the zip-line all by yourself?’ asked Jonny, impressed.
‘I took one of the umbrellas and tied myself on – I hope that was OK.’ Alex looked down, embarrassed by all the attention.
‘And you put together this crash mat of compost so that we would land safely?’
Alex nodded. ‘Just in case you did manage to escape, I … I figured it might help. My umbrella only just held out!’ He pointed to the battered brolly lying beside the compost heap.
The others laughed incredulously. Alex had saved their lives and they would always remember this. Whenever anyone had a go at Alex, or barged past him in the street, or took the mickey out of his flattened side-parting, they would be there, standing up for him, protecting him the way he’d protected them.
‘But … but how did you manage to get out of the safe?’ asked Alex, baffled.
Jonny explained how his granddad had sneaked him a pick so that they could escape through the secret back way out of the safe. Alex’s eyes widened in wonder at the sound of the mirror tunnel just the way Zack had anticipated.
‘You’d have loved it, Alex,’ said Sophie, grinning. ‘Anyway, we can catch up on all this later. What’s important right now is that we find the Queen and warn her about Henry and the thieves.’
‘Who, with any luck, are well on their way to the Tower of London!’ said Zack.
The four of them looked around. They were actually being concealed by a number of tall rose bushes that grew parallel with the wall.
‘OK, well, let’s go and find the Queen of England,’ said Zack, his body pumping with nervous energy as he looked at his watch … It was almost six o’clock!
‘These … these bushes go all the way round to the inner courtyard,’ Alex told them. ‘If we stay close to the edge, we won’t be seen.’
They set off cautiously, dreading to think what might happen if they were caught.
‘Her bedroom window will face the inner courtyard, not the street,’ Sophie reasoned as they crept through the undergrowth, Alex leading the way, trying not to snag their clothes on the thorny bushes.
All of a sudden she heard a sinister, threatening growl and stopped.
‘Please tell me that was your stomach, Zack …’ said Jonny quietly.
Another growl, louder and longer than the first.
Sophie peered through the bushes, eyes still adjusting to the dark. Beside her, Alex was panting.
Except that the panting wasn’t coming from Alex at all, but from a pack of very angry corgis, now staring Sophie in the face, their hackles raised, their group growling rumbling like thunder.