by Chrys Cymri
‘You’re too young,’ I said firmly, ‘and you can’t fly at the moment. You’re coming with me, but you’re going to have to keep quiet. And I want you to stay hidden. Pierre will be able to see you, even if nobody else can.’
‘Hidden where?’
I sighed. ‘I’ll just have to wear my fleece. It’s a bit warm for it, but I’m not carrying you in my shirt.’
‘Okay.’ Jago cocked his head. ‘Do you have anything to eat? I’m starving.’
‘Didn’t you have any lunch?’
‘No. I’ve been hiding by the car for ages.’
‘And jumped in when your father and I weren’t looking.’ I pulled the sandwiches from my pocket. ‘Here you go. Cheese and tomato. Enjoy.’
I pulled out my MacBook and tried to do some work on my sermon for Sunday. After another look at Facebook to see if Peter had ‘unfriended’ me yet, and wondering if I should take that step, I closed my Word document. An intensive hour of web surfing revealed that plenty of Doctor Who websites were offering conjectures as to who would play the next Doctor, but no date had been set for the official announcement.
We’d left the M1 and were now travelling towards, I assumed, the minister’s office at Whitehall. I slid my laptop away and pulled out my black fleece. Jago had curled up for a nap in one corner of the case. After a leisurely stretch, forelegs and then back, he allowed me to transfer him into a gap between shirt and fleece.
The Ford pulled up outside Sue’s imposing cream-coloured building. Pierre stepped out and reached my side while I was still struggling to open the door. ‘Don’t worry about your case, Reverend White,’ he said as I changed from cool car to warm afternoon. ‘I’ll have it delivered to your hotel.’ A moment later he was back in the Ford and driving away.
‘So we’re staying overnight?’ Jago asked, his voice muffled under my clothing.
‘So it seems.’
‘Hurray!’
‘Quiet,’ I commanded him. The front door had opened, and a dark-suited man gestured that I should come in. I waited patiently as he first waved a metal detector over my body and then glared at the mixture of plastic cards in my wallet. ‘I don’t have any other ID. I wasn’t expecting to come here.’
‘Indeed.’ The man sniffed. ‘I shall accept your driver’s licence. This time. May I take your fleece?’
‘I’ll keep it on,’ I said, although I was beginning to sweat. I flashed him what I hoped looked like an embarrassed smile. ‘I haven’t ironed this shirt, you see. I’d like to hide the wrinkles.’
‘Your choice, ma’am.’ He returned my wallet. ‘Follow me, please.’
I remembered the wide stairway and the portraits from my last visit. The unicorn painting which had once hung in the hallway was gone. In its place was a highly detailed landscape. I had to hurry to keep up with my guide’s long strides, but even a quick glance made me wonder if the lake and mountains were from a place in Lloegyr. The building near the water tugged at my memory, as if I’d seen it somewhere before.
We turned right, then left. The man pushed open a white door, and announced, ‘The Reverend Penelope White, Minister.’
The room was a mixture of small windows and wood-panelled walls. Even the artificial light did little to lift the gloom. Three men and two women, all wearing crisp white shirts, dark ties, and golden insignia on their shoulders, rose as I entered. Sue, at the head of the table, remained seated. The minister’s dark red suit jacket looked as pristine as her carefully arranged hair, and I felt distinctly underdressed.
‘Reverend, good to see you,’ Sue said. ‘Roger, would you please arrange for a new pot of tea? And some Jammie Dodgers?’
I took the only free seat at the small table. A pad of yellow paper, a ballpoint pen, and a glass of water rested on the dark surface. I slipped my hands under the edge and loosened the bottom of my fleece to give Jago more room.
‘Thank you for coming, Padre,’ said the oldest man in the room. I knew very little about military insignia, but his attitude told me that he must be the highest-ranking officer. ‘I’m Commodore Vince Roberts. To my right are Commanders Janet Hubbert and Emily Goddard.’ The women gave me a nod. ‘To your right are Captain David Norden and Lieutenant Keith Charlton. All of them are here because I value their opinions, and they’ve been given permission to speak freely.’
‘Penny is my go-to person for matters concerning Lloegyr,’ Sue told the group. ‘She’s had more interaction with creatures from our sister country than anyone else I know.’
‘We’ve been briefed on your role in the Church,’ Janet said. Her hair was darker than the lines on her face warranted, and I wondered how old she was. ‘How many times have you visited Lloegyr? Five? Ten?’
‘I’ve lost track,’ I admitted. ‘And I lived there for a while.’ Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sue shudder.
‘So you know them well?’ Vince asked. ‘These--beings?’
‘Some of them.’
Conversation halted as tea was brought into the room. The comforting smell cut through the lemony scent of furniture polish. I accepted my small cup and nabbed a cookie before passing the plate down the table.
‘As I believe the minister has informed you,’ Vince said, ‘the Themis went missing off the coast of western Scotland. At first, we feared an accident. Then we managed to track down footage one crew member uploaded to her YouTube account.’
‘Words,’ Emily said, ‘will be had when that lieutenant is back on shore.’ Her grim tone seemed out of keeping with her youthful face.
‘We downloaded the footage and YouTube has removed the video,’ Vince continued. ‘We can’t see anything in it, but we’ve been assured that it shows, well, something unusual. And people like you, Padre, are able to see things others can’t.’
‘It’s called the Sight,’ I said carefully, watching Sue for any sign that I should stop. ‘Our human brains have the tendency to ignore what we can’t understand. You want me to have a look?’
David placed a laptop on the table and hit a few keys. The light from the screen gleamed on his bald head as he leaned in close. ‘There.’ He turned the computer around to face me.
The video was jerky to begin with. Glimpses of a black hull, green sea, blue sky and clouds. Then the image steadied. Six long green-skinned necks rose out of the ocean. The small heads angled towards the submarine. Rounded backs emerged as they paddled their way closer. ‘Tegan gwych! Dewch i ni fynd â hi nôl!’ one shouted. An alarm went off, which made me jump. And then the footage ended.
‘Wow, that was interesting,’ Jago said. Only then did I realise that he’d poked his head out of the top of my fleece.
‘I can tell you what I see,’ I said. All eyes were on me, and none of them seemed to have noticed the emergence of a small gryphon. ‘Those are elasmosauruses. Or is the plural elasmosauri? Anyway, they’re the same species as Nessie, the dinosaur which Peter Jarvis and I met in Scotland. Did the Themis disappear right after the timestamp on the video?’
‘It submerged,’ David said. ‘Then it disappeared.’
‘One of them shouted, “Great toy! Let's take it home!”,’ I told them. ‘Which makes me wonder if that’s what they did. Took the Themis with them to Lloegyr.’
‘Are you saying,’ Janet demanded, ‘that a pack of dinosaurs have our boat?’
I shrugged. ‘That seems to be the best explanation. The nessies have the submarine.’
Chapter Eleven
Jago giggled. ‘“The Angels have the phone box.”’
His first Doctor Who quote. I felt my eyes prickle in pride. Celebrations would have to follow later.
‘Ma’am,’ Vince said to Sue, ‘with all due respect, I find it difficult to accept that a pack of creatures which are most certainly extinct could have overpowered a nuclear submarine.’
‘But they’re certainly not extinct,’ Jago said. ‘Silly man.’
‘These are elasmosauri from Lloegyr,’ Keith said quietly, one hand scratching at his thin hair. �
�They’re intelligent, speaking animals. A pack of them--what is the group noun for elasmosauri?’
‘A nest,’ Jago told me. ‘Tad says that some people in Alba have started to call them nessies, just like you humans do. So it’s a nest of nessies.’
I bit back the questions I wanted to ask him and focussed my attention on the humans in the room. ‘Shall we just call them nessies? And I like alliteration, so maybe “nest” will do.’
‘As important as correct grammar undoubtedly is,’ Sue said frostily, ‘I’d like us to return to the issue lying before us. Penny, you have dealt with a nessie before. What can you tell us about them? Would they abduct a submarine? For what purpose?’
‘I met the one in Loch Ness,’ I said slowly. For some reason, I found myself editing Peter out of my recollections. ‘She didn’t want to go back to Alba, which is what Scotland is called on Daear, but I managed to convince her. She struck me as intelligent, and she was certainly sad at the thought of returning. Nessie said that she felt at home in our world, and not the one from which she’d come.’
‘And would they steal a submarine?’ Janet asked.
‘The footage makes it look as if they were,’ I replied. ‘But I have no idea why. When I visited the merpeople, I was told that Nessie was unhappy, now that she was once again living off the shores of Alba.’
‘Revenge?’ Keith looked around the table. ‘Because of her expulsion?’
I shook my head. ‘I doubt that. She’d forgotten the native language. That’d make it difficult for her to reintegrate with ocean society, never mind try to organise something like this. When did this happen?’
‘The Themis disappeared two days ago,’ Vince said. ‘We’re still searching the area, and I remain unconvinced about this dinosaur speculation.’
‘Lloegyr is real.’ Keith scratched his head again as his superior officer glared at him. ‘I had a close encounter with a dragon a year ago. You never forget something like that.’
‘Two days,’ I mused. ‘It might be that they’re still working on how to send a demand to you.’
‘How would they know that the submarine belongs to these people?’ Jago asked. ‘They called it a toy, remember?’
‘Or they simply see the submarine as something to play with,’ I added. ‘They might not even realise that there are people inside.’
Vince paled. ‘What do you suggest we do, Padre?’
Jago poked my chin with his beak. ‘The rat kings. Go to them. They know everything. I bet they can help.’
I rubbed my neck and tried to push the gryphon back down at the same time. The one person I could have asked was Abella, but without Raven, I had no way to reach her. ‘I could send a message through to the rat kings. They keep track of what happens on Lloegyr, at least on land. They might also know what happens at sea in Alba.’
‘I’d rather you went to see them in person,’ Sue said. ‘This is a very sensitive matter, and I’d rather it were kept as confidential as possible.’
‘She has no idea how rat kings work, does she?’ Jago had popped up again. ‘They’re telepathic. Once they find out something, they can tell all of their group instantly, if they want to. So long as they’re in range.’
‘I’ll approach Bishop Aeron’s office,’ I said. ‘I’m sure they’ll help out.’
‘Confidentiality,’ Sue reminded me.
‘I think we can trust the padre,’ Vince said. ‘Never mind a bishop.’
Sue looked unconvinced. I wondered if she knew that Bishop Aeron was a dragon. ‘Very well. I will leave this to your judgement, Penny. How soon do you think you could meet with one of these rat kings?’
I pulled out my iPhone. ‘I’ll contact my bishop’s chaplain. A rat is kept on standby at the Palace. I’ll ask for a message to go through asking to speak to any rat king who knows about nessies. When I’ve heard back, I’ll cross over to Llanbedr as soon as I’m free.’
‘This is a matter of national security,’ Sue reminded me. ‘I trust you will free your diary as necessary.’
‘And there are over a hundred men and women on that submarine,’ Vince added. ‘I’d like very much to bring them home safely to their families.’
‘Oh,’ Jago said quietly. ‘That’s really sad. I hadn’t thought about that. I’d hate for anything to happen to Mam or Tad.’
You’d survive, I thought, but of course I couldn’t say that aloud. ‘So would I, Commodore.’
The room fell silent as I concentrated on my text. Once it had been sent, I raised my head again. ‘Done. I suppose I can head back north, if Pierre would be kind enough to give me a lift?’
‘The Commodore and his staff can go, certainly.’ Sue gave them crisp nods. ‘We’ll keep in close touch. But I’d like you to stay on, Reverend.’
The sudden use of my title made me straighten. The naval officers rose, exchanged polite words with the minister, and made their way out of the room. I used the time to pour myself another cup of tea. A shot of Talisker would have been my preference, but I’d left my hip flask in my case.
‘Thank you, Penny,’ Sue said when we were the only humans in the room. ‘I’ve arranged your accommodation and meals, but I don’t plan to keep you for more than an hour.’
I forced a smile. ‘That’s fine. What can I do for you, Minister?’
‘The vampire situation.’ The sudden sadness on her face felt as false as my smile. ‘How is that colony, the one which tried to enter Llanbedr? Have they been settled anywhere?’
How much should I tell her? ‘Bishop Aeron has taken them in.’
‘And what will be done about any further refugees?’
‘I don’t know.’
Her frown looked genuine. ‘That’s the frustration of dealing with Lloegyr. I do wish they had a proper government. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. Their government. Forewarned being forearmed and so on.’
‘Could I have some tea, please?’ Jago asked. ‘I’m thirsty.’
‘You really think I need to know?’
Sue sniffed. ‘Whenever there’s a major crisis in Lloegyr, you seem to become involved. Yes, I do think it’s advisable that you are aware of what you might walk into.’
‘Really thirsty,’ Jago insisted.
‘Then I’m all ears,’ I said, trying to sound gracious. And as Sue turned to retrieve some papers from a box, I moved my tea cup down to the chair beside me. Jago hopped down and slurped greedily.
The next half hour was filled with charts, comments about particular species’ representatives, and a small gryphon asking for more tea and then a biscuit. Many of Sue’s assertions didn’t match up with my experiences, but I simply nodded and kept my mouth shut. When Sue complained about the difficulties of dealing with such a loose federation, rather than a distinct decision-making body, I couldn’t help but feel that there were advantages over our own system. I had mixed feelings about professional politicians.
‘And the dragons are particularly challenging,’ Sue concluded. ‘They have the tendency to eat their delegates if they’ve decided on a change in policy.’
‘Dragons regularly eat other dragons,’ I commented. ‘Particularly when they’re pufflings, or when a matriarch decides that her drake is no longer suitable to be the sire of her children.’
Sue leaned back in her chair. ‘They eat their own children?’
‘The weak ones. And the search dragons.’
‘That’s an interesting term, “search” dragon,’ Sue mused even as I mentally kicked myself. ‘Why are they called that?’
‘They often act as messengers,’ I lied quickly. ‘They’re a green-black colour. Very obvious. Their mothers try to eat them the moment they’re born, and they only survive if they can escape her.’
The minister froze. The sudden chill in the room made Jago leap onto the able to peer at Sue. ‘Is she okay?’
‘It’s a bit sad,’ I continued, trying to sound casual. ‘But that’s dragons for you. They don’t value the young like we do.’ Had she
lost a child? I wondered. Suffered a miscarriage? Something in what I’d said had obviously triggered an intense memory.
‘All very interesting.’ Colour slowly returned to her face. ‘Thank you for your time, Penny. I’ll have to ask you to leave the papers here, of course. Please do bear in mind that, when you speak to a member of their government, they will see you as representing Her Majesty’s Government.’
‘I will,’ I promised, rising to my feet as she did.
‘Good.’ She walked towards me. As she passed Jago, Sue reached out and grabbed him. The gryphon squawked as he was dropped into my hands. ‘I’m a bit surprised at you, Penny. I didn’t expect you to be someone who carries a stuffed toy around.’
‘Toy!’ Jago spluttered. ‘I’m a griffwn glas. We’re the most beautiful of all gryphons. I am not a toy!’
‘I didn’t plan to bring him,’ I said, freeing a hand to smooth down Jago’s erect feathers and fur. ‘He sort of invited himself.’
‘I had a Teddy Bear like that. That sort of relationship finished when I went to boarding school.’ Sue reached into her jacket. ‘Pierre will take you to the Earl Dudley Hotel. Everything has already been paid for, including whatever drinks you order at the bar. But, as a personal thanks for your time, I’ve arranged for you to have a champagne tasting experience on the London Eye.’
I accepted the ticket with a grin. ‘That’s wonderful. Thank you.’
Jago’s crest rose. ‘Hurrah! That’ll be a real adventure. I won’t try to bite her now.’ At my quick glare, he quickly scuttled back down into my fleece.
Sue led me out of the room. I paused in the corridor, once again struck by the landscape of lake and mountains. ‘This is quite stunning. Where’s it supposed to be?’
‘My mother painted it.’ Sue reached up a hand to touch the gold frame. ‘It’s in Alba.’
I forced a laugh. ‘Don’t you mean Scotland?’
‘No. My mother spent nearly five years in Daear.’
My heart was thudding so loudly that I worried Sue might hear it. Now I knew why the scene looked familiar. The building had been destroyed by fire when I’d seen it, but the mountains remained the same. ‘How did that happen?’