Hughie looked from Prince Kalman to the frightened faces of the children. That they could see the prince at all came as a shock to him but that they should be afraid of him was little short of astounding.
“What’s all this?” he asked, startled. “Do you know the prince?”
“I’ll deal with this, Hughie,” Kalman said stiffly. “Neil, Clara, please sit down,” he commanded, gesturing to Hughie’s worn but comfortable armchairs.
Shona looked at Hughie doubtfully. “Do you want us to go, Hughie?”
“No,” the prince ordered, “you will stay.” He looked at Neil. “Who are your friends, Neil? And how can they see me?”
“We were in Morven this afternoon,” Neil answered. “Lady Ellan gave Shona a firestone. Lewis already has one.”
Lewis bowed to the prince. “I’m pleased to meet you at last, Prince Kalman,” he said evenly. “Your father told me about you.”
Kalman raised his eyebrows. “Did he indeed,” he said, disdainfully.
Lewis felt such a rush of anger that his eyes blazed furiously. Hughie took one look at his face and, grabbing his arm, pushed him into a chair. “Save your arguments for later,” he advised, “there are more important things afoot at the moment.”
Neil and Clara perched nervously on the edge of their chairs while Shona sat down on the settee, looking round-eyed at Prince Kalman. The prince, Clara thought, looked ill. He was still as arrogant as ever but his robes were stained in places and torn round the hem. As she had never seen him in clothes that were anything less than immaculate she knew that whatever had happened, he hadn’t come out of it well.
In a swirl of velvet, the prince moved in front of the fire as though drawing comfort from its warmth and looked at them.
“I need your help,” he said abruptly.
Neil looked thunderstruck. This was the last thing he had expected to hear from the lips of the prince. “You!” he said in startled amazement, “you need our help?”
Kalman frowned and shot a glance at Hughie.
“I think Prince Kalman would like you to deliver a message,” Hughie said, “to the Lords of the North.”
There was a silence. It was Clara who broke it. “But … you are a Lord of the North, Prince Kalman,” she said, her face puzzled. “Why do you need us to help you?”
“Morven is forbidden to me,” the prince said shortly, “but you can enter. You’re wearing your firestones, aren’t you?”
Neil and Clara nodded.
“You say you’ve just been in the hill,” the prince continued. “You must know that there have been two attacks on Firestar.” He looked directly at Neil. “Morven is in great danger,” the prince said. “There is a new force in the world of magic. It is hidden inside Firestar and is feeding on its power. The Cri’achan are its friends.”
“The giants!” Clara gasped.
“They’re your friends, too, milord,” Neil pointed out, remembering how Kalman had raised the Old Man of the Mountains against them in Hell’s Glen.
The prince smiled sourly. “They were my friends,” he admitted, “but they have turned against me. This new wizard, this Malfior,” he almost spat the word out, “has promised them many things.” He gestured vaguely. “Instead of being tied to the mountains, unable to move, he has returned them to their old way of life. You must have heard that they’re able to walk freely through the glens. Not only that, he has promised Cri’achan Mòr a new, wonderful home for the giants in the halls of Morven. That’s why they’re on the move; they’ve come to claim Morven as their own.”
There was a stunned silence. Everyone believed the prince implicitly and were horrified at his words.
“That’s … that’s awful!” Neil said. “The Lords of the North think they’re safe!”
The prince inclined his head. “That is the message I wish you to take to Lord Alarid,” he said. His lips twisted in a rueful smile. “And you can also tell Alasdair Rothlan that I am relying on him to rid Firestar of this Malfior.”
Neil and Clara looked at one another doubtfully. “The thing is,” Neil said, “we didn’t get into the mountain by ourselves. Arthur took us there. Couldn’t you magic us in?”
Kalman shook his head. “No,” he muttered. “No, I can’t.”
It was then that Lewis muttered the magic word. “Yasran,” he said softly as he rubbed his ring and disappeared.
Hughie started in amazement as Lewis suddenly vanished into thin air, Shona jumped up from the settee in alarm. Neil glanced at Clara in relief, however, knowing that Lewis must have gone to bring Prince Casimir. Much the best thing, he thought.
Kalman swung round and even as his glance focused on the empty chair, his father appeared with Lewis beside him.
Prince Casimir’s relief at seeing his son safe and well was momentary as he took in, not only the shabbiness of his attire, but also the drawn, haggard lines of strain that marked his face. What on earth, he wondered anxiously, had Kalman been up to, to get himself into such a state?
The prince, seeing at a glance that his father was fit and well, turned his attention to Lewis. Who was this boy to have such magic power? It was only when his eyes dropped to the ring of intertwining gold snakes on Lewis’s finger that realization dawned and its significance hit him like a blow. His father must have given him the ring!
The prince gave Lewis the oddest of looks. Disbelief and sheer fury vied for expression as his eyes flew from his father to the black-haired boy that stood at his side. If looks could kill, thought Clara tensely, Lewis would be very dead — for the feeling of antagonism that shot between them was almost palpable.
Kalman’s jealous, thought Neil, appreciating for the first time the amount of power that Casimir had given Lewis. His magic ring had far more power in it than any firestone.
Casimir, too, sensed his son’s jealousy and eyed him warily. “Lewis tells me that you have something very important to tell me, Kalman,” he said evenly.
Kalman clenched his hands and tried to control his feelings, amazed at the wave of hatred that he felt for Lewis. Until that moment he hadn’t realized just how much his father meant to him — and the knowledge that he thought enough of a human boy to give him a ring of power, was devastating. “I’m glad you’re here, milord,” he said, bowing abruptly to his father. “There’s a lot I have to tell you and I’m afraid it’s all bad news.”
“Perhaps you should sit down, Prince Casimir,” Hughie said hurriedly, trying to break the tension. He drew an armchair forward for the prince and there, in the humble surroundings of Hughie’s kitchen, they listened to Kalman’s tale of the giants’ cavern under the mountains in Hell’s Glen and of Malfior, the malevolent power that lurked within Firestar.
“It spoke to me,” Kalman said, pacing the floor, “and laughed because it thought it had me trapped. Its hold on the giants is strong for the evil, yellow light that shone from the face of Cri’achan Mòr was that of a ferocious, grasping intelligence. Luckily, I’d seen two of the stone giants in the glen before I went into the mountain and, well, it had crossed my mind that maybe the Cri’achan wouldn’t be quite as friendly as they’d been in the past. I cast a spell that would return me to the body of the stag should I be attacked and it’s just as well that I did. The moment Malfior attacked me, I vanished, but in that crucial few seconds he managed to strip me of most of my magic power.”
Casimir looked at him in amazement and gave a murmur of dismay. This was totally unexpected and much worse than anything he’d ever envisaged. If the prince’s magic power had been taken from him that easily then it could certainly happen to the rest of the Lords of Morven.
“Travelling in the body of the stag was slow but fortunately I met up with two musicians who had a van. They drove me most of the way to Morven.”
Neil and Clara looked at one another and knew immediately who he meant, for the Jelly Beans had made the headlines in all the newspapers. Neil made a mental note to read the interviews more closely as he was quite sure that there hadn’t been any mention of a stag.
“This evening,” the prince continued, “I arrived here and was able to renew my power from Firestar.” He paused, looking at his father grimly. “Malfior will know this and he will know that I am here. Now, he’ll be waiting for you to try to find him and will bury himself even deeper inside Firestar. He’ll also call the giants to attack the mountain.”
“They won’t be able to get in,” Casimir assured him. “The Lords of the North have put a protective shield round Morven.”
“That’s something,” Kalman acknowledged, “but what’s even more important is that you find a way to get rid of Malfior. The machine must surely be able to give you some indication of its existence?”
Prince Casimir looked serious. “I rather think I know what it is,” he said grimly. “Rumbletop told me that after the first attack, a strange icon appeared on the control screen. He said it looks like a dancing spider.”
“It could be a virus!” Neil said, sitting up straight.
“It sounds as though it might be,” Kalman said, glancing at Neil fleetingly. “A spider, spreading an invisible web within Firestar.”
Casimir looked worried. “Perhaps I should have done something about it,” he admitted, wringing his hands together. “I can’t understand why I didn’t,” he frowned. “Rumbletop’s been afraid to touch it in case it brought on another attack and as it didn’t seem to affect the machine … he … well, he decided to leave it alone.”
“A mistake,” Kalman pointed out icily.
“Will you come into the mountain and help us?” Casimir asked, rising to his feet. Kalman took a step backwards. “You have Alasdair Rothlan in the mountain,” he answered. “He’s more than capable of tracking down Malfior. You don’t need me!”
“Kalman!” Casimir pleaded.
It was to no avail. Prince Kalman had delivered his message and muttering the words of a spell, he hexed himself out of Hughie’s kitchen.