3

A Sliver of Hope

Gafferty and Dad hurried from the supermarket as fast as they could. They kept a sharp eye out for any more hostile Burrow Smidgens all the way to the chocolate factory that hid their cavern home, the Hive. There was no disguising the worry on their faces when they delivered the bag of chilled peas to the Sprout family kitchen.

‘You’ll need to tell Lady Strigida at the Roost about this,’ Mum said, once they’d described what had happened. She chopped the peas into chunks with a fury that made the kitchen table shake. ‘I won’t have any trouble on our doorstep again! After a full-scale battle so close to our own home – it’s intolerable! These young ones shouldn’t have to live through such goings-on.’

Gafferty recalled the fight with the Burrow Smidgens up in the chocolate factory. Although she had managed to befriend a Burrow girl named Quigg, it hadn’t been enough to bring peace. Gafferty’s baby brother, Grub, babbled his agreement with his mother from a high chair and blew a snot bubble for extra emphasis. Gafferty didn’t need any further encouragement.

‘I’ll go to the Roost now,’ she said, cleaning the syrup off her knife in the sink. The glass blade shone in the cosy light from the stove. It was such a small thing, but it was an important one – just like the stolen Great Jewel, the glass knife was a piece of the broken Mirror of Trokanis, an ancient magical treasure that Claudia Slymark was desperate to find.

‘You’re not wandering off anywhere on your own!’ said Dad.

‘Gobkin can come with me.’ She grabbed the shoulder of her younger brother, who was sitting at the table chiselling flakes off a salt crystal to season the soup. He looked up from his task in surprise.

‘I can?’ he said. Gafferty was normally reluctant to take him anywhere. She didn’t have the patience to babysit her siblings.

‘Yes – if we meet a rat I can throw you in front of it. They like to eat little boy Smidgens, I’ve heard. It’ll give me a chance to escape.’

Gobkin was not amused but grabbed his fly eye goggles anyway. Mum looked unconvinced.

‘Are you sure about this, Gaff?’ she said. Gafferty slung her scavenger bag back on to her shoulder.

‘Small Smidgens can move more swiftly and hide more easily. And we need to act now.’

Mum and Dad glanced at each other uneasily, but Gafferty had proved them wrong before. With a kiss from both of their parents the two young Smidgens headed off.

In spite of their fears of encountering another scout from the Burrow Clan, the Tangle – the maze of Smidgen tunnels that ran underneath the human town – was as deserted as usual, apart from the occasional beetle or worm. When they arrived at the Roost, tucked into the attic of an ancient tower that formed part of the hotel, they found the little Smidgen community was as bustling as ever. The golden light of morning tumbled through the tower’s giant window and bathed the hidden town in its warmth. But Gafferty could feel the tension in the air. Many of the Smidgens, in their characteristic bird disguises, were armed. Crumpeck – one of their own – had been responsible for stealing the Great Jewel from the Burrow, and had then been kidnapped by Claudia along with it. The Burrow Clan had attacked the Hive in retaliation, and now no one felt safe.

Lady Strigida was expecting them.

‘It’s the Burrow Clan you’ve come to see me about, isn’t it?’ the old Smidgen said as she led them into her house. ‘Our glider scouts have spotted their rat riders. Not many, mind you – there’s no sign of any army. These seem to be spies, working alone or in pairs. As soon as they think they’ve been seen they disappear. They’re clearly not keen to talk to us. Too busy looking for their Jewel.’

‘Yes – I’ve just seen one of them!’ said Gafferty. She and Gobkin threw themselves down on one of the hotel soap-dish sofas, clearing space amongst the piles of yellowed scrolls and books scattered everywhere. As leader of the Roost Clan, Lady Strigida knew lots about the lore and culture of the Smidgens, a knowledge that had proved invaluable lately. She had remembered the tales about the Mirror of Trokanis and the fact that it had been broken into pieces. Two of the three pieces had been found, but where was the third?

Just then, a familiar face appeared at the doorway.

‘Will!’ said Gafferty. The boy grinned at her.

‘I heard you were here,’ he said, joining them on the sofa. ‘Have you come for more flying lessons?’

‘No chance! At least not with you, after all the times we’ve crashed. We’re here to talk about the Burrow Clan, and what we’re going to do about them.’

‘And what we’re going to do about Crumpeck, don’t forget.’

‘That strange old fossil? His obsession with the Mirror caused a lot of this trouble.’

‘We can’t abandon him, even though he’s disgraced himself,’ said Strigida. ‘We’ve been searching for him ever since he was taken. Claudia Slymark was staying in the hotel, so obviously her room was the first place we looked.’

‘Did you find him?’

‘No!’ Will said before Strigida could reply. ‘But we couldn’t find Claudia either. She’s vanished!’

‘What do you mean?’

‘She didn’t check out of the hotel. All her stuff was there but she wasn’t. After a few days, the hotel removed everything because she hadn’t paid her bill.’

‘Maybe she had to leave in a hurry?’ suggested Gafferty hopefully.

‘It doesn’t sound like Claudia,’ observed Gobkin quietly. He’d been kidnapped by the thief once. ‘She’s cunning and not the forgetful or hasty type. It sounds odd to me.’

‘Everything’s odd!’ sighed Gafferty. ‘Nothing is as it should be! We should be friends with the Burrow, not enemies.’

‘That’s why we’ve been looking for Crumpeck,’ said Strigida. ‘If we can find him, or Claudia, we might be able to find the Jewel. And if we can get the Jewel back to the Burrow, we might be able to convince them that we mean well.’

‘But if Claudia is gone,’ said Gafferty, ‘how are we going to do that?’

Lady Strigida smiled.

‘There’s still hope,’ she said. ‘Thanks to your friend Noah.’

Noah was a human boy, one of the few Big Folk to know about the existence of the Smidgens. He’d helped Gafferty and Will when they were at the Burrow and was familiar with Claudia and her ghosts. He and Will had even worked out a way to send messages to each other: when he had something important to tell the Smidgens, Noah would leave a picture of a bird on his bedroom window sill where the Roost glider scouts could see it.

‘Noah’s mum works as a cleaner and does shifts at the hotel,’ explained Lady Strigida. ‘And she found out what happened to the luggage after Claudia disappeared. The hotel had an address for her, in a Big Folk town called London, and her suitcases have been sent to the local post office to be forwarded onwards. Noah’s mum overheard the hotel manager having an argument with someone on a tellyfone.’

‘A what?’ said Gafferty.

‘It’s a box the Big Folk use to shout at one another while avoiding having to be in the same room with them,’ said Gobkin. ‘It’s in The Big Book of Big Folk Facts.’

‘The disagreement was over who would pay for the delivery of the suitcases to London,’ continued Strigida. ‘They couldn’t decide and so the luggage is still sitting in the sorting office.’

‘We have to go and look,’ said Gafferty. ‘There may be clues in Claudia’s belongings about Crumpeck and the Great Jewel! It’s our only chance to get the Jewel back, otherwise the Burrow might never trust us again.’

She looked at Will and grinned. It was the perfect task for two small Smidgens.