“That was the best Christmas ever!” sighed Peter, as he pushed a very empty plate away.
They had just finished dinner on Boxing Day.
“Not forgetting last year!” interrupted Mother.
“Or next year!” said Father.
“Well, it’s been very, very good,” Peter said again.
“Brill!” agreed Sarah.
For so it had been. Pre-Christmas they had all gone up to the University one evening for drinks and nibbles, as Sarah put it.
“Canapés,” Mother had corrected her, “small eats or nibbles are called Canapés, French, you know!”
The Master always gave a party for everyone on the staff and their families just before Christmas. Peter and Sarah adored it. They were all welcomed into a large room with many armchairs, sofas and tables in it. A huge fire roared in an ancient grate and in one corner stood the most magnificent Christmas tree that they had ever seen. Not only was the tree extremely well adorned, but it had real candles instead of the usual electric lights.
“How on earth it does not catch fire, I shall never know,” said Mother.
“The Master has had a tree like this every year since he came to the University, so I am told,” Father informed her.
“You had better keep well clear of the tree to be safe,” he warned Peter and Sarah, “we don’t want the fire brigade called out tonight, do we!”
But Peter and Sarah were quite happy to eat the eats and drink cola and lemonade, while admiring the flickering candle light and ignoring all the Grown-ups present. However, Peter did notice the presence of a fire extinguisher in the corner opposite the tree.
Christmas Eve arrived and after all the usual preparations were done, they all went to the Midnight service as usual. All sang the old favourite carols in full voice and returned home tired but joyful!
Christmas Day luncheon was provided by Aunt Myf, after the morning’s feast of stockings and family presents. She felt that she and her sister should take turns at doing the cooking, now that they both had families. Then the Pantomime had enlivened Boxing Day afternoon and another huge meal had made the day complete. All the family felt as content as anyone can possibly be.
The following week provided the children with snow to play in. Whatever could be better than that! It was deeply satisfying to be able to ambush school friends in the village with unsuspected, well aimed snow balls. It was also wonderful to go tobogganing on Mother’s best tea tray.
“It was the best at sledging and the biggest tray!” said Peter when Mother found out.
The snow was quite thick enough, also, to make a decent sized snowman. When they came indoors they hibernated over the television. Then, at the end of the holiday Father took them to see: Inspector Inventor, which was one of the films playing at the local cinema over Christmas.
All too soon the holidays were over and school began again. Father returned to the writing of lectures and the plan for a projected dig for the summer. Whenever Peter and Sarah’s father, Dr. Jones, went on a dig, there always had to be a plan, forms to fill in and mountains more paperwork to do with it.
“Where is that?” asked Peter, when he saw the drawings and diagrams.
“Rome!” said Father grandly.
“Rome? Really and truly?”
“Yes, some people are going to dig up the floor in one of the very old churches to see what lies under it. Some of the local archaeologists think there may be an even earlier building underneath. A temple or villa perhaps. The Romans were always building new buildings on top of the old ones. A few of my final year students are helping to make up the team.”
“Are you going as well?”
“Of course, and so are you.”
“Wow!” exclaimed Peter.
“Yes, we are all going. It will be a nice summer holiday for you and very interesting for me.”
“Wow!” said Peter again, then: “Will it be like that other summer when we went to that place in Greece?”
“Not quite,” Father said, putting down his pen, “you see, Peter, we visited Greece so that I could continue the research for my books. Things can be a little more relaxed then, and that’s why I don’t mind if sometimes you and Sarah have a go at helping out on the site. This time in Rome, however, I shall not be in charge and I don’t know if the authorities will let you on to their site. At any rate, you can go and tell Sarah all about it. Then, perhaps, I can finish off this part of the plan!”
Father picked his pen very purposefully and Peter took the hint. He went off to the kitchen in search of Sarah. It was while they were all rejoicing over the prospect of summer in Italy that the blow fell. Peter had found Sarah helping Mother to prepare supper. Mother had just suggested having spaghetti to help get everyone into the mood.
“And besides Rome,” she said, “we might have time to visit other cities: Florence, Assisi, even Naples! We could go to the coast. I’m sure your Father won’t mind if we are enjoying ourselves while he is busy. It will be wonderful.”
The telephone rang. Mother picked up the receiver and almost immediately sat down on the stool that was next to her.
“Oh dear!” she said, then again, “Oh dear!”
After that she hummed and harr’d for some time and finished off with:
“Of course, I shall come at once. Tomorrow evening at the latest.”
Peter and Sarah sat down on the kitchen chairs and observed the whole scene. It was obvious to them that something very serious had occurred.
When Mother put down the phone, she pursed her lips, wiped her eyes and walked purposefully away, out of the kitchen and down the hall to the study. Peter and Sarah heard the study door shut and waited for Father and Mother to sort out whatever it was.
When the study door opened again, it was Father who came out, looking very worried. Peter and Sarah had left the kitchen by this time and were sitting in the drawing room, which was next to the study.
“Mother is very upset,” Father said, “Grandmother has the ‘flu very badly and her neighbour, Mrs. Kandinsky, has helped to get her to hospital.”
“Oh no!” cried Sarah, “that’s awful!”
“Poor Gran,” said Peter with feeling, for they were both very fond of their Grandmother, even though they did not see so much of her since their removal to Wales.
“Naturally Mother will go to her straight away and will stay until she is well enough to go home. She may even stay a bit longer than that. We will have to see.”
“But who is going to look after us?” wailed Sarah and Peter.
“Oh I am sure Aunt Myf will come to the rescue,” Father gave a wan half smile, “I will take you to school in the mornings and Aunt Myf or Uncle Tomos might collect you in the afternoon and hang on to you ‘til I get back from work. Now then, I am going to telephone to Aunt Myf right this minute. Sarah, you hop upstairs and help Mother pack. Peter, back to the kitchen with you and carry on getting the supper out. I’ll come and help you shortly.” So saying Father went to the phone and Peter and Sarah flew to their posts.
The rest of the evening was a flurry of activity and the following morning saw the whole family up with the lark. Father took Mother to the station where many ‘Goodbyes’ were said, some of them tearful. Having waved Mother off on her long journey to London, Father drove Sarah and Peter to school and then went to work.
Later on that morning, during break time, Peter sought Sarah out and finally caught up with her behind the School Hall where she and some of her friends were playing skipping. When Peter came round the corner of the new building, Sarah bade her friends a hasty adieu and ran to meet him. She could see at once by his face that something momentous was afoot.
“It’s time!” Peter announced solemnly, as he walked with Sarah to the Junior’s Organic Garden project.
Beside the new flower and vegetable beds there was a seat Peter sat down and Sarah joined him.
“Time for what?” said Sarah, though with a sinking feeling, she thought she knew.
“Time to see Gwyn-ap-Nudd.”
“How do you know that it’s time?” asked Sarah.
“I just know, all right,” replied Peter rather grouchily. “If you must know, I’ve had this funny feeling in the pit of my stomach ever since I woke up.”
“Ah,” said Sarah, interrupting, “indigestion!”
“Of course it isn’t.”
“Or you’re missing Mum already, or upset about Gran.”
“No, and no!” Peter replied emphatically.
He bit his lip, a habit he had when under stress.
“I know that we’ve just GOT to see Gwyn-ap-Nudd now, or as soon as possible.”
“But HOW?” asked Sarah.
“I have thought up a most ingenious plan,” Peter replied, and smiled his special secret smile.
“I see,” said Sarah, but she did not really and unfortunately there was no time to talk about it any more, as the bell rang for the end of breaktime.
The children did not manage to meet each other again until Aunt Myf appeared at the school gates to collect them at three fifteen precisely. By that time Sarah was on tenterhooks and felt that if she did not hear Peter’s plan very soon, she was going to burst!
When they arrived at Aunt Myf’s house in Newport, Peter and Sarah went straight into the kitchen for tea, while Aunt Myf went straight to Catrin, who was yelling about something or another.
“Please dears, help yourselves, I’ve put plenty out.”
And indeed she had. There were tomato sandwiches, egg sandwiches, crisps, a jelly, small iced cakes, lemonade and chocolate biscuits.
“Goodness knows when your Father will arrive from work,” said Aunt Myf, as she planted a bottle teat firmly between Catrin’s rosy lips, “so you’d better eat up.”
When they felt that they had done justice to most of the tea, Sarah pulled Peter out of the kitchen door and into the garden. It was a bleak January afternoon; dull, and almost, but not quite, raining.
“I’ve simply GOT to know!” Sarah pleaded, “what is this plan you have cooked up?”
“Ah ha!”
Peter laughed and leaped away from her. Then he ran down to the bottom of the garden.
“Ooooh! You rotten tease!” shouted Sarah at him, as she ran round the opposite side in order to surprise him upon the other side of the privet hedge that divided flowers from vegetables.
“OK, all right, I give in!” panted Peter as Sarah caught him by the arm.
He went over to sit on the garden bench and Sarah followed.
“It was my friend Ben who gave me the idea.”
“Come on, spill the beans, what idea?”
“Keep your hair on! I’m coming to it. Well, you see Ben told me that there’s this Cyber Café in Haverfordwest. He often goes in there to surf the net while his parents go shopping.”
“So?” Sarah said, unimpressed, “we have a computer at home.”
“Yes, but Dad’s always busy on it doing work. He is so awfully busy at the moment, isn’t he? All the lectures that he has to do, his books, stuff for his students, not to mention the plan for the dig in Rome this summer.”
“Yes, yes, but how does all this help get us to Arx Emain?”
“Well, you know how keen everyone is on technology, especially people at school… I think you and I might suddenly be very keen to have a look at this Cyber Café. It might help us with our homework!”
“I still don’t see how… and I haven’t got any homework that needs a computer.”
“Silly girl! You don’t need to have homework. Listen… Aunt Myf likes shopping in Haverfordwest, doesn’t she? I don’t think Dad will mind if we ask her to give us a lift down there in order to have a go on the internet. We’ll get her to drop us off at the Cyber Café, then we’ll tell her we don’t know how long we are going to be and that we will take the bus back home!”
Sarah began to see a glimmer of light.
“Yes, yes!” she cried excitedly, “and if we take the bus back, we can stop off very near to Arx Emain…”
“Visit Gwyn-ap-Nudd and there you are!” Peter finished triumphantly.
Then he got up and bowed to a large, but imaginary audience. It began to rain properly. Peter did not care. He danced round the lawn with Sarah copying his movements. Then, finally, when they found themselves getting cold as well as wet, they ran into Aunt Myf’s house, whooping for joy.
Aunt Myf gave them both a bath towel to dry off. They sat in front of the sitting room fire and did their homework very nicely until Dr. Jones arrived to collect his children at half past six.
“How have they been?” he asked.
“No trouble at all,” said Aunt Myf, “and you are in nice time too! Look, here’s my Tomos home already. Goodbye Peter and Sarah, I’ll see you tomorrow, same time, same place. Until then be good and look after your Father. Bye, bye, everybody!” she waved them off.
“There’s something up with those two,” she thought. “I’ll have to keep my eyes open and see what they get up to.”
Then she forgot Peter and Sarah, as Catrin demanded her full attention once more and Detective Inspector Tomos Davies needed his supper.
It was a very bouncy Peter and Sarah who helped their Father get their meal that night. They telephoned Mother afterwards to enquire how things were going. Fortunately, Grandmother was just a little better, so they all celebrated by playing Sarah’s Murder Mystery board game until it was time for bed.
As the two children went upstairs, Sarah whispered to Peter:
“I’m sure your plan will work.”
“Of course it will work!” Peter replied, emphatically, “and this Saturday we had better jolly well put it into action!”
So, over the course of the next few days a determined effort was made to persuade Father of their need to visit the Cyber Café.
“But there is a computer here,” Dr. Jones protested at first.
“But Dad, you’re always doing work on it and you won’t let us use it to go on the net unless you are with us,” said Peter persuasively.
“And,” argued Sarah, “we’ve never been to a Cyber Café.”
“My friend Ben often goes,” Peter said, as coaxingly as he could and of course at last Father gave in.
“As long as it is no trouble for Aunt Myf,” he said at length, “I mean, you can go just as long as she was going shopping in Haverfordwest anyway. You two are not to browbeat her into a journey that she does not want to do.”
“No browbeating, we promise,” Sarah said.
She knew that there would be no need for anything like that. Indeed, there was no problem at all in getting a lift from Aunt Myf; it was almost too easy.
“Of course you can come,” she said, “I often go into town on a Saturday, you know I do. It’s my little bit of relaxation. You can come any time you want, just let me know.”
And that was that. It was all set!
The days dragged by, but at last it was Saturday morning. Peter and Sarah packed a rucksack each, filing them with edible provisions and other useful items. Sarah found a small box for the Ring of Concealment and buried it in the deepest pocket. “Perhaps, if I’m lucky, Anir will take the beastly thing back,” she thought.
They made a good breakfast of boiled eggs, Cornflakes and lots of hot buttered toast, washing it all down with a pot of tea. As soon as Father was safe at work in the study, Peter and Sarah got their heavy jackets, picked up the rucksacks and left the house. There was plenty of time before they were due to meet Aunt Myf at the main road, so they strolled up the drive at a leisurely pace. It was a beautiful morning, bright, sunny and clear. There was just a touch of hoar frost upon the grass, trees and bushes. Everything seemed to sparkle.
“I wonder what Gwyn-ap-Nudd really wants with us,” said Sarah. Now that the meeting was about to happen, they both began to think of what they might be in for!
“Oh, I expect he wants a few more monsters dispatched,” Peter replied airily, “no trouble, no problem! Peter and Sarah’s ACME Monster Control Company, Inc. Get your monsters dealt with here!”
“Oh silly boy,” laughed Sarah, and they continued on up the drive in a merry mood, laughing and giggling all the way.
“You two seem in a good temper today,” said Aunt Myf, when they met her on the main road. “Jump in dears, just throw the rucksacks in the back will you and we’ll be off.”
So saying she put the car radio on and they all had a sing song right down to Haverfordwest.
When they arrived, Aunt Myf said that she was going to park at the big supermarket.
“I’m going to take advantage of the fact that Uncle Tomos is looking after Catrin this morning. If you are finished before me, meet me in the car park at twelve. I shall leave at quarter past at the latest. If you are not there on the dot, I shall assume that you are getting the bus back.”
“Right!” said Peter, patting the pocket in his rucksack which held the bus timetable.
“Bye then Peter, Sarah; be good and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. When do you have to be home?”
“By tea time,” Sarah replied and gave Aunt Myf her most innocent smile.
“Very well then! Just see to it that you are,” Aunt Myf then gave the pair of them an extra big wink that meant:
“I know you’re up to something!”
Then she departed for the supermarket.
“She winked,” said Sarah, “do you think she suspects anything?”
“I don’t know Sis, but we had better shift ourselves and get on with our plan. We haven’t got that much time.”
Peter began to walk away in a hurry towards the bus depot. On the way, they happened to pass the Cyber Café. By a stroke of luck they saw that Ben was in there already. Peter and Sarah called in to say hello and stayed there as long as they dared. They had a look at a web site about volcanoes, which was one of Ben’s odder hobbies, expressed the appropriate amount of interest, then left as soon as it felt proper to do so.
“That’s good!” said Peter, “Now we have an alibi.”
“Really, brother mine, you sound as if we were going to rob a bank.”
Peter decided to make no further remark and the two of them plodded off to find the right bus.
As they came to the depot, Peter noticed that there was a bus already in with its sign up for Fishguard.
“That’ll do, Sarah, jump on.”
Sarah did as she was bid. She could not decide whether she was feeling excited or nervous. Peter squeezed her hand. For all his brave words he knew that HE felt nervous. They had not been to the Elves at Arx Emain for well over a year. While they were with them on their last sojourn in the underground realm, somehow Peter and Sarah had become used to them and their ways… but now?
The bus had not gone far, when familiar landmarks told the children that it was almost time to ring the bell to get off. The Cleddau River began to be on their right instead of on the left. They passed a small village.
“There ought to be a request stop coming up in a minute,” said Sarah rather uncertainly.
As so much time had passed since their last visit to Arx Emain she had started to doubt her memories of how she had come there. It was not an easy place to find and Sarah knew that there was more than one entrance. Would they be able to find their way to the front door? Peter pressed the bell for the bus to stop. The bus obediently drew to a halt, Peter and Sarah thanked the driver and got off. Peter picked up his rucksack and heaved it on to his back.
“I do apologise,” he said, “I think I pressed the bell too early. I am sure that we are one stop short, we should have gone on a little further to the north.”
“Never mind,” said Sarah, as she adjusted the straps on her rucksack, “we can walk a bit. After all, we’ve done it before and usually when something or someone was after us!”
“True, Sis,” replied her brother, “come on then, it can’t take us that long to find the front door, or rather we had better not take too long, otherwise we shall be late getting home.”
“Yes, and then we’ll be in trouble and THEY won’t let us out on our own ever again,” Sarah said and plunged off northwards into the scrub with Peter following.
They passed through a small wood and fortunately found a public footpath, which seemed to be going vaguely in the right direction. Then the going became rougher. Scrub and rough grasses gave way to gorse and brambles. To their left the ground rose upwards in a gentle slope.
“Shouldn’t we be turning more to the left?” asked Sarah, after half an hour’s steady plodding during which Peter had insisted upon taking over the leadership!
“Not yet,” Peter said firmly, “I’m sure that we still have to go north more than we are.”
He said this with an air of overwhelming confidence. However, after over a year away from the Elves, he felt a twinge of uncertainty. Did he, could he remember where the doors into Arx Emain were exactly? Peter groaned inwardly. He had begun to realise that actually, really, truly neither of them were absolutely certain which way to go. After going on a few more steps, Peter suggested that they have something to eat from the rucksacks. This was in order to give himself time to think. Sarah agreed willingly. There were some rocks nearby which they used as seats while they took a couple of swigs each from the lemonade bottle and ate some of their sandwiches. As soon as she had finished, Sarah jumped up and picked up her rucksack.
“I’m ready,” she said, “Where to now?”
“Well…” Peter said, very slowly, as if considering their next move.
Sarah cut him short.
“I’m leading from here,” she said firmly, and went forwards quickly to where there seemed to be some ancient earthworks. Peter followed her, glad that Sarah seemed to know where she was going. In fact Sarah thought she did know the way. They passed the earthworks and some very large rocks. Shortly afterwards, the path they had been following gave out. They could both see that down in a dip below them there was a stream.
“What’s this?” asked Peter. “I don’t remember this stream at all. Have we come too far north now?”
“I think that I might remember,” Sarah said, “just give me a minute will you!”
She looked worried and started to pace up and down beside the stream. At last she said:
“I think we ought to cross the stream. I’m sure that I can see trees in the distance.”
“I shall trust in your superior knowledge,” Peter said dryly, with a wry smile, “after all, you have been in and out of Arx Emain much more than I have.”
“That’s true Peter, but I always came from another direction, north, east, west but never from the south.”
“North or south, we’d better hurry up and decide which way to go, it’s midday already!
“Ooooh! What to do, what to do?”
Sarah began to wring her hands, as she always did when feeling under pressure.
“We have come so far, and now it looks as if we’ll have to go back without seeing the Elves at all!”
“We could try going to the top of the hill over there and then we might see what’s what.”
“No, I think it will be better if we go towards those trees.”
They wasted five more precious minutes arguing as to whether it would be better to view the whole scene from the hill top, or to go for the trees! Then Sarah lost her patience and her temper.
“It’s me Ederyn wanted, it’s me,” she yelled at Peter, “because it’s my ring that they want, I’m going this way!” and she sped off down the bank and towards the stream.
As she ran, she looked about wildly for somewhere to cross the dark, swirling, bubbling waters. Thank goodness, yes, there was a nice little bridge. Sarah ran over and followed the footpath that led off to the left. Peter was close behind her, in hot pursuit. Sarah could hear his footsteps clatter over the bridge behind her.
On and on she ran, as if she were in training for the Olympics. Past some buildings that might have been a farm, but she did not stop to look, and on and on. Peter was beginning to catch her up. Sarah could feel that he was close behind, his breathing was heavy: ‘Huh, Huh’. Sarah began to catch her breath also, but she could see that she was nearly there now. On and on she ran, pushing herself to the very limit.
“Yes, yes! I’m under the trees at last, at last!”
Sarah dropped down on to her hands and knees and about half a minute later, Peter did the same. Neither of them could speak for quite a while.
They put all their energies into breathing. At length, after a few minutes, the two children began to feel like continuing the search for the elusive kingdom of the Elves. Peter got up from the ground. He took off his rucksack to adjust the straps again. Turning to face Sarah, he was just about to say:
“I told you so, there’s no-one here!” when Sarah pointed over his shoulder.
She mouthed silently:
“LOOK!”
Peter turned round slowly.
Peering at them from behind one of larger trees was a very strange personage. As far as they could tell, this person was not one of the Elves, not one that they had ever met, anyway. Who could it be, and why was he here in the wood when they were half expecting to meet Anir The Guardian, or Ederyn?