Page 73 of Tattered Huntress
‘You can bring as many people as you wish,’ Hugo said. ‘Nobody is stopping you.’
Eleanor scratched her arms and seemed to fold into herself but, to give her her due, she didn’t give up. ‘Everyone knows I’m not the one who’s the treasure hunter here, it’s Humphrey. Maybe the final part of the treasure hunt should be just Humphrey and Hugo. After all, you’re the leaders of both teams who’ve got this far. This competition isn’t about who wins the prize money, it’s about who wins the hunt and is the best treasure hunter at the end of the day.’
‘Mano a mano,’ Humphrey declared. ‘Splendid. What do you say, Hugs old chap? Then it’s not down to who has the better resources or the most people. Whoever gets to the Arkaig treasure first is the greatest hunter,hands down.’
I was too far away to read Hugo’s expression accurately, but I hoped he’d tell Humphrey to piss off. It was the sensible option. Instead, he shrugged. ‘Sure. You versus me. No tricks. No people. Nothing more. Us two against each other.’
I smacked my forehead, wishing that I could smack Hugo instead. Idiot – he was letting his arrogance get the better of him. At least now I knew I’d made the right decision in coming here – I hadn’t been sure before but now I was certain. It was the only thing that made any sense.
I sucked a deep breath into my lungs. Humphrey Bridger was a charlatan and he’d lulled every person down there into such a false sense of security that they couldn’t see it. Hugo thought thatIwas the dangerous one but it was Humphrey he should be worrying about. It was Humphrey we shouldallbe worrying about.
If it hadn’t been for Hester and Otis, my suspicions might never have been raised. Otis genuinely wasn’t remotely intimidated by Hester; he displayed not a single flicker of fear despite her harsh tone and often nasty words. But when I’d watched Humphrey and Greenwood together, there had been no denying Greenwood’s fear. At first I’d put it down to anxiety that his activities at his summer pavilion prison would come to light, but now I reckoned it was something else entirely.
Greenwood had been frightened ofHumphrey– in fact, not frightened but terrified. Why would a rich, famous, powerful man who happily trapped magical creatures and held them prisoner, be scared of someone like Humphrey? It didn’t make sense – unless there was more to Humphrey than met the eye.
Eleanor had said that Greenwood and Humphrey were old school friends but they couldn’t have been; Humphrey had told me himself that he’d gone to Eton, and my research showed that Greenwood was at Gordonstoun. They were both posh educational establishments but they were at opposite ends ofthe British Isles. It was a strange thing to lie about – unless there was a reason to lie.
Eleanor had said that Humphrey needed to win the treasure hunt, but little of what he did or said suggested that he cared about it. For goodness’ sake, he’d wandered off for cocktails instead of participating in the search for the first part of the key. He must have known all along that he’d get a key part from Greenwood, so he’d leaned back and played the role of bumbling buffoon who got on with everyone. None of the other treasure hunters – me included – had given him a second thought.
He’d used Eleanor to persuade the Primes to drop out so now he only had Hugo to beat. Had he brought her along because she was sweet and naïve and helped embellish the fiction that he was like that, too? I should have realised that Humphrey was too fucking good to be true.
I didn’t have all the answers yet and I didn’t yet know everything that was going on, but I did know that the Loch Arkaig treasure was worth ten million pounds and Humphrey was not the man I’d thought he was. I strongly suspected that those two facts were linked.
‘I don’t understand,’ Hester whispered, looking from my face to the group below us and back again. ‘What’s happening?’
‘I’ll explain later,’ I hissed. ‘For now, we need to pay attention.’ She pouted but fell silent.
‘Excellent!’ Sir Nigel clapped his hands. ‘I do so enjoy a good competition. Eleanor, would you be so kind as to add your key part to the others? Then we can see exactly where the Arkaig treasure is and, more importantly, who can be named as the greatest treasure hunter this country has to offer.’
I snorted. That was unnecessarily melodramatic. Eleanor, however, appeared moved and curtsied towards him as if he were some kind of prince. She walked forward, carrying the keypart reverently in both her hands, then knelt down and held it up like a sacrifice to the gods. While everyone watched, she slowly lowered it into place before standing up and stepping back.
I’d expected a crack of thunder or an earthquake. Maybe a glowing light. Instead, nothing happened.
I stared at the assembled parts of the key from my hiding spot up in the hills. All the people below me were doing the same. Hester clicked her tongue. ‘Disappointing.’
Otis was staring ahead rather than at the people below or at the reassembled key. His gaze was fixed on the centre of Loch Arkaig. ‘It’s a mirage,’ he whispered. ‘It has to be.’
I looked up. When I saw what he was talking about, I started to gape too. In the centre of the loch, hovering above the water, was a small island. That definitely hadn’t been there before.
Hester jumped up and down. ‘The treasure must be there! Let’s go! Let’s go now, before the others get there!’
I grabbed hold of her with one hand before she took off. ‘Otis is right. That island’s not real, it’s an image of where we need to go to find the treasure. A sort of magical hologram’
‘A holo … what?’
‘A mirage, right?’ Otis beamed. ‘I knew it!’
‘How do you know it’s not real?’ Hester demanded. ‘Until you reach it and check for yourself, you won’t know whether it’s there or not.’
‘Iknow.’ I grinned. ‘I’d recognise that island anywhere. I know exactly where it is and it’s not in the middle of Loch Arkaig.’
I glanced at the group below us again. They’d finally noticed the hovering ‘island’ too, and their backs were turned to me as they stared at it. Taking advantage of their distraction, I stoodup and jogged to the summit of the hill before scrambling down the other side.
‘Come on!’ I called to the brownies. ‘We’re going now! We’re heading straight to Edinburgh as fast as we can!’
I grinned. I wasn’t done treasure hunting yet.
Chapter
