The Warriors of Brin-Hask (5 page)

Going down to the beach for a hamburger didn’t seem that relevant when you’d just
seen an alien bounce four metres straight up in the air and vanish back into the
maze you were still stuck in – an alien who’d just casually called you by name even
though you’d never met before. For a long moment, Amelia and Charlie just stood there,
afraid to move in case they were about to walk into an ambush.

In the end, Charlie said, ‘Oh, let’s go. If he wanted to eat our brains with mayonnaise,
he could have easily done it right here.’

This disgusting piece of logic made sense to Amelia, and together they made their
way out. By the time they emerged onto the lawn, Tom was limping back down the hill
to his cottage.

Charlie gazed longingly back up to the hotel – wanting another squiz at Hugo the
rat, Amelia guessed – but sighed, and said, ‘Probably easier to get information out
of Tom than our parents, don’t you think?’

‘Yeah.’

It wasn’t as though Tom liked them. He barely tolerated them being around, unless
there was a job in town he needed doing, but he had one big attribute in his favour:
he didn’t go easy on them just because they were kids. He might keep secrets for
his own reasons, but he never hid the truth to ‘protect’ them, like their parents
did.

So they went downhill to Tom’s.

They caught up with him as he was closing his front door.

‘What now?’ he grunted.

‘We just met your mate, Leaf Man,’ said Charlie.

Tom stared. ‘Who?’

‘The tall guy in the black coat,’ said Amelia. ‘He was lurking around the maze.’

Tom groaned in exasperation and opened the door again. ‘Get inside. And don’t
touch
anything, Charlie.’

Amelia stepped as carefully as she could among the clutter and said, ‘Is everything
OK up there?’

‘No,’ Tom said bluntly. ‘A phone call came. Snavely is going to bring one of the
senior managers from Control. Someone with the authority to make a binding decision.’

‘Oh.’ Amelia wished there were somewhere she could sit down and process that thought,
but Tom didn’t offer to clear a space on his sofa for them.

‘Well?’ he said, leaning against the doorframe.

‘We just want to know who Leaf Man is,’ said Charlie. ‘And what’s up with those rats?’

‘And what will happen to the hotel if we lose it,’ Amelia added. ‘And why Leaf Man
won’t sign the register.’

‘Right,’ Tom grunted. ‘Let’s see. Well, half of it I can’t tell you because I don’t
know myself, and the other half I won’t tell you because it’s none of your business.
How’s that?’

‘Does my dad know about Leaf Man?’

Tom shrugged. ‘I don’t know. He might.’

‘So would it be OK if I asked him?’

Tom stood upright and glowered at her. ‘Don’t play games with me, missy. In case
you haven’t noticed, what you two know and who you blab it to is the whole reason
we’re in trouble here.’

Amelia blanched, but Charlie retorted, ‘That’s not true at all. You’re just happy
to blame us because it makes everyone forget it was
you
who started it! You were
the one who went psycho and stole the eggs out of Ms Ardman’s room! Plus,
we’re
not
the ones who let a bunch of cyborg rats in through the gateway!’

Tom turned purple, and was undoubtedly about to bellow at Charlie in unforgiveable
language, except at that very second, the entire house shuddered on its foundations
and the gateway beneath them belched out a cloud of icy air.

Tom growled. ‘Already?’

‘The Brin-Hask!’ said Charlie. ‘Can we stay? Please?’ he begged, all manners and
sweetness now. ‘We won’t get in the way, we promise.’

Amelia didn’t think watching an army of alien warriors arrive from another galaxy
would be the best way to relax after the day’s adventures, but Charlie had already
bunkered down on the arm of the sofa. She edged over to the wall and tried to look
inconspicuous.

‘Fine,’ Tom grumbled. ‘But listen up: the Brin-Hask have suffered a terrible defeat
in battle. Not only are they exhausted, injured and far from home, they’re also pretty
hacked off about being beaten. Which is to say,
watch out.
They won’t have any patience
with you if they feel the slightest bit disrespected or insulted. Understand?’

Charlie nodded. ‘Don’t annoy the angry soldiers. Got it.’

Amelia just shivered.

And then they waited. And waited.

‘How long –’ Charlie started, but Tom hissed, ‘Shh!’

So they waited some more.

It was weird, Amelia thought. Were the Brin-Hask ghosts? Or made of vapour? If they
were here, why couldn’t they see them? Or even hear them? Maybe they were liquid,
and were flowing silently up the stairs against gravity.

As Charlie started to fidget, something moved at the top of the stone steps. Amelia
blinked and tried to focus harder. Yes – there it moved again. Something about the
size of a sugar cube, only purple. And as it grew, or rather, as it moved, Amelia
could see it was part of something larger – an arm?

Yes, an arm, and it was followed by a head, and the rest of a body, all densely furred
like purple velvet. The alien, about as tall as a pigeon but shaped like a miniature
bear, got to its feet and immediately turned to help up the next one.

This one was slightly shorter, with a silver shield strapped to its back. Its fur
was the colour of bubblegum.

‘Wha–’ said Charlie, but Tom poked him before he could go on.

Amelia put a hand over her mouth to hide her smile. There were now half a dozen little
bear-men at the top of the steps, and each one was fuzzier and sweeter than the last.
Now one popped up that was a pale pink tabby, and she gave a little moan of delight.
Tom gave her a hard, beady look, and shook his head.

In all, fifty or sixty Brin-Hask ‘warriors’ heaved themselves up the stone steps
into Tom’s house. After everything they’d been through, those stairs must have been
like climbing Mount Everest. The last alien to arrive had extremely long fur, almost
white, and the others fell back to make a path for him as he crossed the room to
Tom.

Tom dropped awkwardly to one knee and bowed his head. ‘Hail, King Hibble. We are
honoured to have you stay with us.’

King Hibble nodded graciously. ‘Greetings, Tom. Thank you for your welcome. We, however,
have no honour – until we can avenge our disgrace, we are nothing in our own eyes.’

He spoke nobly, with a kind of brooding melancholy, and a sword hung across his back.
He also sounded like a cartoon mouse. Amelia wanted to cuddle him up. Charlie elbowed
her roughly in the side, and she realised she must have let that thought show.

‘Your grace,’ said Tom, wobbling slightly on that bended knee and sounding very weird
as he tried to be polite, ‘we have the, uh, grass of the sea you requested for the
warriors’ feast. Let me send these children ahead to begin the preparations.’

‘Fine,’ said Charlie promptly. ‘Come on, Amelia.’

Amelia didn’t think that sounded
respectful at all, but followed him to the doorway. Tom hurried them outside and
whispered, ‘Tell your dad he’s got about three hours before the Brin-Hask arrive.
And they’ll want to pitch camp outside on the lawn.’

‘But –’ Amelia knew they could ferry the entire army up to the hotel in a couple
of cardboard boxes in less than ten minutes. Then she saw the look on Tom’s face,
and said, ‘Nothing. Sorry.’

‘Do they get holo-emitters?’ said Charlie. ‘Do you have that many?’

Tom shook his head. ‘Not that many, and they wouldn’t be effective at that scale.
The emitters only mask a person’s shape, they can’t change their size.’

‘So how do we, you know, keep our cover?’ said Amelia.

Tom didn’t answer, just grumbled to himself and shut the door, dismissing them.

‘Pathetic,’ said Charlie, stamping his way through the dry leaves. ‘Worst warriors
ever.’

Amelia didn’t mind. It was a relief to have just one thing today that was a
smaller
deal than expected.

The three parents were still in the library when Amelia and Charlie got back to the
hotel, only now Mary had her shoes off and was lying with her feet up on the arm
of the sofa by the fireplace. Mum was putting ice into a drink and Dad was drumming
his fingers on the desk while he stared at the cyber-rat in its tank. Amelia noticed
the rat was drumming its claws against the glass in time with him.

‘Hugo!’ said Charlie fondly. ‘Has anyone fed you yet?’

Dad gave him a look.

‘Well, I’m starving,’ said Charlie. ‘Why wouldn’t he be?’

‘Why are you starving?’ said Mary. ‘What did you do with the money I gave you?’

‘We didn’t go down to the bay,’ said Charlie.

‘We were down at Tom’s,’ said Amelia quickly, not sure why she was skipping over
the Leaf Man part.

‘Well, you’ll have to wait about …’ Mum checked her watch, ‘another ten minutes.
James has gone to get pizza because your dad’s scared to go back in the kitchen to
cook dinner.’

‘I’m not scared!’ Dad protested, then added with dignity, ‘I’m terrified.’

‘Fair enough, too,’ said Mum, lifting her drink in salute.

‘So what’s going to happen to the Brin-Hask’s feast?’ said Amelia.

‘It’s all covered,’ said Dad. ‘We’ve ordered thirty-eight family-sized pizzas. That
should be enough for every soldier to have half a pizza, with plenty left over for
us.’

‘I’ll say!’ Charlie snorted.

‘What do you mean?’

‘Didn’t Tom tell you anything about the Brin-Hask?’

‘Only how many were coming.’

Charlie hooted, and Mum raised her eyebrows at Amelia. ‘Well?’

‘They’re very small, Mum.’

‘You mean, they’re
micro
,’ said Charlie.

‘Well, at least we haven’t under-ordered,’ said Mary.

It wasn’t until James pulled up and started unloading the boot that Amelia appreciated
just how much food thirty-eight family-sized pizzas was. The whole lobby was filled
with the smell of hot cheese and bread crusts. It was fantastic. It was amazing how
quickly hot food could cheer you up when you were seriously hungry. For the first
time all day, Amelia began to feel a bit more hopeful about Mr Snavely’s return the
next day. Leaf Man said it would be OK – and who knew? Maybe he was right.

Then James, chowing his way through a slab of anchovy pizza, broke off a chunk of
crust and took the lid off the top of the cyber-rat’s tank.

‘Here you go, little buddy,’ James said, dropping it in.

‘James, no! Don’t –’ shouted Dad, but the rat had already leapt onto James’s wrist,
raced up his arm and launched itself off his shoulder. Sailing across the room like
a furry ballistic missile, it landed square on the rug next to Mary before bolting
out to the kitchen.

‘… take the lid off the tank,’ Dad finished faintly.