100% Hero (17 page)

'No, he isn't. When you have spent three hundred
years raising wolf pups,
madam
, I'll be interested in
your advice,' the housekeeper snorted.

'
Three hundred
years?' Sugar repeated in disbelief.
'That's not possible.'

'Oh yeah! She's ancient, like a mummy – she knew
my great-grandfather,' Freddy confirmed.

'And oh, how he needed the wooden spoon!' Mrs
Mutton confirmed. 'Spare the spoon, spoil the wolf.'

'Yeah, that's right,' Freddy agreed. 'I'm not sweet –
I'm a spoilt wolf.'

Flasheart snarled with impatience.

'Oh yeah – sorry, Dad.' Freddy looked at the ladies.
'A little privacy?' he reminded them.

Sugar laid her jacket over the back of a chair and
looked up innocently at Freddy. 'What? Oh, okay,
sweetie.'

'Humph. We'll wait in the kitchen.' Mrs Mutton
scowled. 'But be quick. Who knows where those two
blackguards are.'

Once the ladies had left the hall, Freddy reached
forward and took the Moonstone from his father's ear,
then dashed upstairs to find them both some clothes.

With a silent howl the wolf climbed up onto his
hind legs and felt the rush of transformation over
his limbs.

Freddy returned and handed over a pair of trousers
and a t-shirt. He had discarded his own green leaf
underpants for something slightly more normal.

'Thanks, Pinky.' Flasheart smiled and ruffled his
son's hair. 'How was camp?'

'Weird,' Freddy said. 'Lots of ballet, green vegetables
and bloodsucking witch things.'

'Greens? Poor pup . . . but do my Fangen eyes
deceive me – or do you have a tail?'

'Don't ask!' Freddy shook his head.

They both jumped as they heard a crash come
from the kitchen.

'Save it for later.' Flasheart placed a hand on
Freddy's shoulder. 'Keep close.'

A short while earlier, Chester and Hotspur had given
up on their search of the castle. They could hardly
look at each other, so irritated were they. Each was
convinced it was the other's fault that they hadn't
located the entrance to the Hidden Halls. Matters
became even worse when Sir Hotspur joined Chester
in the kitchen and found there was no food. If you
have ever met a hungry wolf, you will know just how
grumpy they can be.

'I'll have a chocolate biscuit,' he said to himself, and
then came to a shuddering halt. 'You, sir!' He pointed
at Chester. 'You have eaten the last Tim Tam!'

Every living being knows that this is a terrible
crime.

'I certainly did not.' Chester touched his perfect
moustache.

'Liar!' Hotspur roared.

With a cry of outrage, Chester took out his glove
and slip-slapped it across the other man's red cheeks.
'How dare you insult my honour. I challenge you,
Hotspur.'

'Very well, sir!' Hotspur's eyes glittered as he whipped
free a sword from above the kitchen fireplace.

Chester's face fell as he looked in vain for a weapon.
His only choice was to flee. He skipped out the back
door and into the garden, the tails of his perfect suit
flapping behind him.

'Cowardly Weren! I'll teach you to steal Tim Tams,
sir!' Hotspur cried, chasing after him. The two men
had sprinted across the grass behind the castle, just
as Freddy and his companions had walked up to the
front door.

Mrs Mutton was making a pot of tea and trying not to
answer any of Sugar's questions. She tutted in disgust
when she opened the biscuit tin and found it empty.

'Hmm.' She eyed Sugar. What on earth was
Flasheart thinking, bringing a human here?

'What's this?' Sugar asked with interest, looking at
the parchment that Chester had left on the table in his
haste to escape Hotspur.

'Don't know, some sort of map.' The old lady
shrugged. 'Do you eat chocolate biscuits?'

'Oh, yes, ma'am. I'll eat anything sweet. That's why
my nickname is Sugar,' she said politely. She was still
uncertain how to behave in a werewolf's kitchen.

'Well, at least
that's
normal,' the old lady replied.
'What's your real name?'

'Candy,' Sugar replied.

'Americans,' Mrs Mutton muttered under her breath.
'I'll fetch more Tim Tams from my secret supply.'

She took a small key from a hook hidden inside
a cupboard. 'Can't be too careful where wolves are
concerned.'

She disappeared down a corridor and into an old
workroom.

Sugar was looking at the huge old fireplace and
rows of polished pans and dishes when the back door
crashed open.

'Come out, you lily-smelling flowerpot.' Hotspur's
bushy red face was sweating from his run.

Sugar screamed and threw a pan at him. Sir Hotspur
bashed it away with his sword and advanced towards
the startled lady.

'What are you doing in my castle, madam?' he
hissed, and held his sword to Sugar's throat. A frying
pan hit him across the back of the head and the great
man slumped to the floor.

'She shoots, she scores.' Mrs Mutton nodded in
satisfaction. 'As usual.'

'Never fear, ladies, for I am here!' Flasheart jumped
into the room.

'And so am I!' Freddy leapt gracefully after him,
landing on his tiptoes.

'Too late, pups.' The old lady pointed to where Sir
Hotspur lay on the floor. 'Already dealt with. Lots of
girl-power in here.'

'Why, my dear Mrs Mutton.' Flasheart grinned.
'You always were handy with kitchen utensils.'

'Foolish puppy.' The old lady couldn't help but
smile.

'Oh yes, Tim Tams!' said Freddy, coming straight
to the point.

He sat down at the table and started eating the
chocolate biscuits that Mrs Mutton had put down.
His eyes drifted over the old map. It was like a plan
of a building only not quite – there was something
strangely familiar about it.

Flasheart turned to Sugar, took her hand, and gave
a low bow. 'What a pleasure to finally talk to you, Ms
Smith.' He smiled and his sharp teeth flashed white.

America's top reporter blushed.

'Flasheart Lupin, at your service and in your debt.'
He pushed his black hair from his eyes and gave her a
special raise of his eyebrows.

'Oh no, please, no debt. It was my mistake to have
taken you from your family.' Sugar smiled nervously,
unsure of how to speak to a man whom she had only
known as a wolf. 'Please call me Sugar.'

'It would be my pleasure,
Sugar
–' Flasheart kissed
her hand again and winked – 'to be in debt to such a
beautiful woman.'

'Oh, cat's-vomit!' Freddy couldn't bear any more.
What was his father thinking, talking such mush to a
girl? He was the Grand Growler!

Flasheart laughed, but it died as he saw Chester
appear behind Sugar. He had been to his room to fetch
his gun. Everyone froze as Chester reached out and
took Sugar by the elbow. When she tried to pull her
arm away but couldn't, she was very frightened too.

'My dearest lady,' Chester said smarmily. 'It would
pain me to have to shoot you, but if I must . . .'

'Do so and I'll tear the flesh from your bones,'
Flasheart growled, no longer sounding mushy at all.
Freddy cheered up a little – this was more like a wolf's
talk.

'Ah, Flasheart, I see you have returned home and
brought your idiot of a son with you.'

Freddy looked around for who he might mean.

'Do not mistake me for a ranting fool like your
brother,' Chester continued, nodding at the man
sprawled on the floor. 'The only reason you are alive,
wolf, is because I allowed it. I shall not hesitate to
shoot. Now show me the entrance to the Hidden
Halls.'

Freddy looked at his father with a worried frown.
He didn't know what was in the Hidden Halls – but
he knew that it was the most sacred of secrets.
Flasheart was watching Sugar. He couldn't reach
Chester without putting her in mortal danger.

'You will not find what you seek,' Flasheart said
after an unbearable pause.

Sugar's eyes opened wider in alarm – wasn't he
going to save her?

'I shall have the Treasure of Bane,' Chester declared,
and readied his gun. 'Give me what I want or you
know what I will do.' His voice was like ice.

'Very well.' Flasheart nodded and Sugar gasped in
relief.

'Good choice.' Chester waved them all to the door.
'Keep your hands high.'

Freddy saw his father's signals, perceptible only to
a Fangen. A raise of a black eyebrow, the flare of a
nostril and the tap of a foot.

Run – escape
, he was telling his son.

Freddy's tail wagged uncertainly. He didn't want
to seem like a coward. Then, as Flasheart turned to
leave the kitchen, Freddy caught another signal. The
wolfish curl of a lip and a tap of teeth.
Rathbone.

Danger
, Freddy's ears and tail replied.

Must risk
, Flasheart's eyes and nose told him. He
stared significantly at the parchment on the table.
Help me
.

They walked from the kitchen towards the main
rooms of the castle. Freddy went first, next Mrs Mutton,
then Flasheart, and lastly Sugar and Chester, with his
gun at her back. When they came to a very narrow
section of corridor and Chester's view was blocked,
Freddy nimbly skipped to the left and sprinted out
through the door into the central courtyard. He dived
into the rosemary bushes and lay still, his stomach
tight with nerves.

But Flasheart had read his enemy well. When he
saw that Freddy had run, Chester narrowed his eyes
and pulled his moustache in annoyance, but he stayed
calm. He thought the boy too much of an idiot to get
in his way.

'You should keep that pup under control, Flasheart,'
he hissed, to which the wolf only smiled. 'Which way?'

'To the dungeons,' Flasheart replied.

Freddy crept back to the kitchen. Sir Hotspur was
beginning to moan and murmur, as if in a bad dream.
Freddy inched carefully into the room and grabbed
the parchment from the table. In another minute, he
was sitting on the loo seat with the door safely locked.
His father's silent word
Rathbone
had made his mind
race. He looked at the old paper, intrigued, and then
he realised – it was not a plan of the castle at all!

He raced to the Great Hall and looked up at the
tapestry of Sir Rathbone on his black horse, his sword
held high and the moonlight shining down on him.
Behind him were the arches of huge beech trees and
in the top left corner was Farfang Castle, the very
highest point of which was Freddy's tower.

Freddy looked again at the parchment. It
was a design for the tapestry. What Chester had
believed were rooms were in fact divided sections
of the artwork, and what had seemed to be arched
entrances were the tree's branches. In the corners
of the tapestry were the three sacred symbols of the
werefolk: bottom left was a Moonstone, bottom right
a Blavendoch, top right the full moon. In the top
left corner was Freddy's tower, but this had not been
drawn on the parchment – had it been deliberately
left off? Freddy looked at the ancient writing at the
bottom of the 'map'.

'The Key to the Hidden Halls and the Treasure of
Bane.'

He frowned and looked more closely at the
tapestry. Sir Rathbone's sword was pointing directly
at his tower. The long hours he had spent up there,
banished, came back to him. An image began to grow
in his mind.

'Oh, ha-ha-hardy-ha!' He raced over to the Red
Stairs.

As Chester marched Flasheart and the ladies through
the Great Hall, Sugar pointed at her jacket.

'Can I just put it on, please? This place is as cold as
a tomb.' She shivered.

Chester rolled his eyes.

'Quickly then,' he muttered. She grabbed it.

'You won't get away with this,' Sugar said, adjusting
the jacket as they all descended into the cold damp
gloom.