Page 4 of His Greatest Treasure

That was true. And it was the most comforting thing he could say, but it didn’t exactly answer my question.

“Ye-es.”

Morgan heard my uncertainty.

“Alfie, did you just ring me and tell me something had happened and now you’re refusing to tell me what itis?”

“Um…. Yes? I’m sorry, Morgan, I didn’t think. I just got worried that nobody had told you and then you’d be all alone and you could be vulnerable. I mean, what do we know about thosecuraidhanyway? Aretheygoing to protect you? Lord Somerville should have sent somebody else with you to keep you safe.”

I gasped and slapped my hand over my mouth, glancing around me and hoping nobody had overheard me say something so disrespectful about our father. He did not like being questioned and I’d be in a whole load of trouble if he ever found out I’d said that.

I peeped into the corridor again. Nobody was there, thank goodness.

Luckily, Morgan was pretty clever and he stayed calm and collected. He always looked so unruffled and I wished I could be just like him. He’d learned to hold himself tightly and control his mouth, and I admired him for it.

He asked me about it indirectly, and if I said, “Maybesomeone breaking in,” that wasn’t actually telling him, was it?

Morgan was starting to hurry me, which meant he wanted to get off the phone. He reassured me, “You haven’t told me anything,” which wasnearlytrue, and then added, “You just rang to see if I was ok, and I am. And I’ll be watchful, because I always am.”

My brother was a genius and I sighed with relief. He’d got exactly what I was trying to tell him. That I couldn’t tell him what had happened but he still needed to be careful.

“Thanks, Morgan.”

“Thanks for ringing. Look, I have to go now. Can I ring you tomorrow?”

“Yes. Yes, that would be good.”

“Ok, bye Alfie. Take care.”

“Bye, Morgan.”

When he hung up, the silence in my room almost seemed to ring in my ears.

I’d been so worried about Morgan that I’d almost forgotten to be afraid for anyone here. But I knew we had Glimmer, who kept us all safe. Morgan didn’t have that.

As though my legs were carrying me along on autopilot, I wandered the corridors. Maybe I could go and ask Glimmer what had happened?

That perked me up. I’d have to go down to the vault to see him, and I’d never beenallowed in there before. I was desperate to see where Glimmer lived and all the things he surrounded himself with. I conjured up pictures in my mind of what his vault would look like, and half the time I imagined it lined with weapons that he could use to defend us, and half the time I pictured it filled to the brim with gold coins in a huge pile that Glimmer could sit on. Although I neverreallythought it looked like that. Glimmer was quite practical, for a start, and I wasn’t sure that sitting on a mound of coins would be very comfortable.

With that thought, I walked down towards the ground floor, intending to go and search for Glimmer. I was half-way along a corridor leading to the back door when I stopped.

I couldn’t go and look for Glimmer because the vault was about half a mile from the house.

I wasn’t allowed out.

Sighing with disappointment, I turned away from the back door and began to trudge back towards my room.

Before I’d got very far, I felt something rise inside me. It was a bond. Only, I’d never felt it before.

I looked down, waiting to see it but there was nothing there.

No bond.

But I was sure it was there. I felt the same tugging inside me when I was close to one of my clan, telling me that they were near.

It didn’t make sense because I only had bonds with my clan. Who else would I bond with? I’d never met anyone else. I’d never left the territory.

Just as I was about to trudge on and maybe try to find a book I hadn’t already read, I realised what that maybe-bond could mean.

---