Faerie Wars

Eighteen

'Where have you been?' Henry's mother asked crossly. She was buttering bread for sandwiches on the kitchen table. Their old picnic basket was open on the worktop behind her, already well packed with fruit, soft drinks and what looked suspiciously like her ghastly vegetarian Scotch eggs.

'We were getting worried,' said his father, a lot more mildly. He'd abandoned his usual business suit for his weekend uniform of slacks and sports shirt, rounded off with pristine golf shoes. He was also wearing one of his more familiar expressions, the one that told Henry he was feeling miserable, but putting on a cheerful front. Henry suspected his father was looking forward to the family picnic about as much as he was.

'I went for a walk,' Henry said. It was a lie, but it was equally the truth, which made him feel a bit better. It was also simple, which meant you were far less likely to be found out. At least he'd got Pyrgus and the stuff safely back to Mr Fogarty.

'You knew we were going for a picnic,' his mother said. 'It's so late now it's hardly worth the trouble.'

'You aren't even ready yet,' Henry said, perhaps unwisely.

'That's because we didn't know where you w ere!' his mother told him. 'Honestly, Henry, you've been behaving so strangely lately we hardly know what to think.'

He'd been behaving strangely? Henry looked at his parents, but decided not to get drawn down that particular road. 'I was just walking,' he said. Then, in the wicked hope of making his mother feel guilty, he added, 'I needed time to think.'

'He wasn't just walking.' Aisling's voice came from behind him. 'He went to see Mr Fogarty, even though you told him not to. I heard him making the arrangements on the phone last night.'

Henry spun round. Aisling was smiling smugly all over her stupid face. She'd known since last night, but she'd waited until now to tell their parents so he'd get into maximum trouble.

'Is this true?' his mother asked. The tone of her voice said she'd take a lot of convincing that it wasn't.

As he fought down a surge of guilt, a hideous thought slid into Henry's mind. Had he mentioned breaking into his school last night on the phone? He didn't think so, but he couldn't remember for sure. Was Aisling waiting to drop that little bombshell as well? He took a deep breath. There was only one way to find out.

Henry lowered his eyes. 'Yes,' he said, 'it's true.' He looked up again and added more forcefully, 'There was a job I had to do for him. I couldn't let him down.' His gaze flickered towards Aisling. If she did know what he'd been up to this morning, now was the time she'd tell. He could hear her triumphant voice: And do you know what that job was, Mum? Breaking and entering and stealing!

If Aisling knew about it, she kept quiet.

'Let him down?' his mother echoed. 'We told you -your father and I both told you – that you weren't to work for him again. As of now. Not some time next month or next week. Henry, this is for your own good. That man is wholly unsuitable company for a boy your age. But that isn't the point any more, is it? The point is, we can't even trust you-'

To his surprise, his father murmured, 'He may have had obligations, Martha.'

'All right,' his mother said. 'All right, we'll find out about his obligations, shall we?' She turned to Henry. 'Did you finish this job you had to do for your friend Mr Fogarty?'

Henry looked at her for a moment, then nodded. 'Yes.' Henry the Truthsayer.

'So you have no more obligations to Mr Fogarty?'

Henry shook his head. 'No.' Which was true as well. He'd told Mr Fogarty he couldn't help him build the portal, but that didn't matter because he'd only have been handing him components anyway. Mr Fogarty, armed robber or not, was still the one who made things. And if he needed help, Pyrgus was there to give it.

'In that case,' his mother said, 'you can no longer have any objection to the request your father and I made that you shouldn't see Mr Fogarty again. Can you?'

'No, I can't,' he told his mother.

'So you agree you will not see Mr Fogarty again?'

Henry nodded. 'Yes.'

'I want you to promise. Promise on your word of honour.'

'I promise on my word of honour,' Henry told her miserably.

'Good,' his mother said briskly. 'Now the only thing to be decided is your punishment.'

His punishment turned out to be two weeks' grounding. (His mother wanted to make it a month, but his father intervened.) He couldn't leave the house unless accompanied by one of his parents or -ultimate humiliation and Mum knew it – his sister Aisling.

But he made no protest, probably because he was feeling so guilty. He consoled himself with the thought that he'd played his part in helping Pyrgus get back to his own world.

He lasted three days before he tried to ring Mr Fogarty. His mum had forbidden him even that form of contact, but it wasn't what he'd promised. What he'd promised was that he wouldn't see Mr Fogarty again. But that had its own problems since Mr Fogarty didn't answer his home phone (as usual) and, when Henry tried his mobile, it was switched off.

He tried again the following day. By now, his parents had stopped watching him so closely. His dad was at work, of course, and his mum soon discovered that grounding somebody was one thing, but acting as his jailer was a real pain. Even Aisling stopped her little game of trailing around after him like some smug guard dog. Henry walked into the kitchen, helped himself to a doughnut, and dialled Mr Fogarty's mobile. It was still switched off.

It was switched off on Friday as well, and on Saturday morning. By now, Henry was taking more and more chances, calling the number just as often as he could. Fogarty's mobile seemed to be permanently switched off. Henry tried to tell himself it was just out of order, but he didn't believe it. Every time he phoned without result, the feeling grew that something was wrong. He didn't know what, but his imagination supplied some weird possibilities.

By Saturday afternoon he found it all so worrying he'd come to a horrible decision. He was going to break a promise made on his word of honour. He was going to go and see Mr Fogarty.