The Secret of the Swords (5 page)

The first-ever girl squire!
Nursie's words were still ringing in her ears as Tommy sprang from her bed early the next morning. Sir Benedict and Mrs Moon had decided that Tommy should continue to share sleeping quarters and take her meals with the kitchen girls rather than sleep in the barracks as the last Keeper of the Blades had done.

Tommy quickly ate a piece of bread, then crossed the courtyard to the armoury, eager to get to work. Today she was planning to check the blade of every sword for sharpness.

But the minute Tommy stepped into the sword chamber her plans were forgotten, as the Old Wrecks started clamouring.

‘Sword Girl! Sword Girl! Thank goodness you've come. Sir Walter was here at dawn!'

Tommy's throat went dry. ‘Was he happy with his sword?' she asked in a voice barely louder than a whisper.

‘He was not,' boomed Bevan Brumm.

Tommy clapped a hand over her mouth. What had she done wrong?

‘He wasn't unhappy with your work, dearie,' Nursie explained.

Tommy shook her head in confusion. ‘Then what …?' she began.

‘His sword wasn't here,' said Jasper.

‘Wasn't here?' Tommy thought she must have misheard. ‘Where was it?'

‘It's gone,' Bevan Brumm announced. ‘Disappeared. Vanished. Lost without a trace.'

‘I'm sorry, Tommy,' said Jasper. ‘Sir Walter's sword has been stolen.'

CHAPTER 6

‘S
TOLEN
?' Tommy gasped. ‘But that's impossible! Who would steal Sir Walter's sword?'

‘We don't know, dearie,' said Nursie. ‘It must have happened in the middle of the night when we were asleep.'

Tommy hardly dared ask her next question. ‘What did Sir Walter say when he couldn't find his sword? Did he … did he say anything about me?'

‘He demanded to know where the Keeper of the Blades was, but Nursie managed to put him off,' said Bevan with a chuckle.

‘He'll be back though,' said Nursie. ‘You'd better find that sword in a jiffy or not even Sir Benedict will be able to save your job.'

‘But I don't even know where to start,' said Tommy desperately.

‘Why don't you ask Lil?' said Jasper. ‘She knows everything that goes on around the castle.'

‘Yes!' said Tommy. ‘That's a great idea.' She raced through the armoury and out into the courtyard.

The castle was just starting to stir, and the courtyard was coming to life. Chambermaids were gossiping as they aired their mistresses' sheets, a groom was leading a messenger's horse to the stables and masons were busy repairing a section of stone wall. But where was Lil?

Tommy scanned the courtyard anxiously, at last spotting the black and white cat stretched out in a puddle of sunshine, observing the goings-on around her.

Tommy ran over. ‘Lil,' she said, ‘you have to help me. Please.'

The cat turned her watchful green eyes on the sword girl. ‘What's wrong, Tommy?'

‘Someone has stolen Sir Walter's sword,' Tommy told her. ‘And if I don't find it quickly, I'll be sent back to the kitchen!' She gulped. Maybe she'd even be forced to leave Flamant Castle!

Lil sprang to her feet. ‘We'll see about that.'

We'll see about that … The words sent a shiver down Tommy's spine. They were the same words Reynard had used when he found out that Tommy was the new sword girl.

‘Lil,' said Tommy, ‘I think Reynard, the Keeper of the Bows, might have taken it. He wanted the job of Keeper of the Blades for himself.'

‘That oaf?' said the cat scornfully. ‘Not if I have anything to do with it.' She lifted a paw to stroke her whiskers thoughtfully. ‘What we need is a bird's-eye view,' she said.

‘Do you mean we should climb one of the towers?' said Tommy. ‘It might be a bit hard to see the sword from up there.'

‘That won't be necessary,' said Lil. ‘We'll ask the bird's-eye view to come to us.' She tilted her head towards the sky. ‘Pigeon,' she called. ‘Are you there?'

A few moments later, there was a flutter of feathers as a plump grey pigeon landed on a flagstone beside them.

‘Not so loud,' the pigeon muttered. ‘I'm hiding.'

‘Is the physician after you again?' Lil asked as Tommy stared at the talking bird. Did every creature at the castle talk? Why had she never known this before?

The pigeon sighed. ‘Yes, he wants my droppings for one of his potions.' The bird stuck his chest out. ‘I am a carrier pigeon,' he declared. ‘I carry important messages. It is insulting to be hounded for my droppings.'

‘Quite,' said Lil, and it seemed to Tommy that the cat was trying not to smile. ‘Pigeon, I know you're a bit of a night owl,' she continued, ‘and you like to keep an eagle – I mean a
pigeon
eye on the castle. I was wondering if you saw anything unusual around the armoury last night. Perhaps someone sneaking out with a sword?'

‘Why, I did see someone with a sword last night,' said the pigeon. ‘It was that nasty boy who tried to shoot me down with a slingshot last week.'

Tommy and Lil exchanged glances. ‘That sounds like Reynard,' Tommy said.

‘Yes, yes,' said the pigeon. ‘That's him. Reynard. He ran out of the armoury, and I remember being glad that he was holding a sword and not a slingshot. There's no way he could reach me with a sword, I thought. He climbed to the top of the south tower and, when the guard wasn't looking, he threw the sword over the battlements and into the moat.'

Tommy buried her face in her hands. ‘Not the moat,' she moaned. ‘It's patrolled by a crocodile. We'll never get the sword back.'

‘Actually,' said Lil, but she was interrupted by a squawk as the pigeon abruptly took off in a flurry of feathers. The next minute, Tommy was almost knocked over when someone barged into her from behind.

‘What—?' she started. She turned to see a short round man in a brown robe. His gaze was fixed on the sky.

‘It's the physician,' Lil said in a low voice.

‘Where is that pigeon?' the physician was saying to himself. ‘Sir Walter the Bald is suffering and is in need of a cure.'

‘What's wrong with Sir Walter?' asked Tommy. The Old Wrecks hadn't mentioned that he was ill.

‘Mental confusion,' said the physician.

‘Poor Sir Walter. He was in the sword chamber very early this morning, checking on his favourite sword, when he thought he heard his old nurse's voice telling him to hurry back to bed, dearie, and don't make a fuss. Of course, it was all in his head. Sir Walter's nurse died some fifty years ago.'

‘Nursie!' Tommy said, realising one of Nursie's ‘little darlings' must have been Sir Walter the Bald.

The physician gave her a puzzled look. ‘Are you suffering from mental confusion too, girl?'

‘No,' Tommy assured him.

‘Anyway,' the physician continued, ‘the most effective cure for mental confusion is to mix pigeon droppings with honey, and apply the mixture to the back of the patient's neck. Now where is that pigeon?' The physician lifted his gaze to the sky once more, and wandered off across the courtyard.

‘Quick,' said Lil. ‘This way.'

Tommy followed Lil under the low arch leading out of the courtyard and through the castle gate. Once outside the walls, they ran to the edge of the moat.

Looking down into the murky water, Tommy knew it was hopeless. There was no way they'd be able to spot the sword in the sluggish, weed-choked water of the moat encircling the castle. And even if they did spot it, there was still the matter of the—

‘Aaaaah!' Tommy screamed in terror as a hideous beast emerged from the water, its enormous jaws open wide to reveal two jagged rows of sharp teeth. ‘Crocodile!'

CHAPTER 7

‘R
EALLY,
C
ROC,
' said Lil. ‘How many times do I have to tell you to cover your mouth when you yawn?'

‘Sorry,' said the crocodile. He swam closer to the edge of the moat, where Tommy was kneeling, frozen to the spot. After a sly glance at Lil, he opened his mouth again.
‘Muuuuuurp.'

‘And when you burp,' the cat added sternly. ‘You'll make a bad impression on our new sword girl.'

‘She started it.' The giant reptile sounded sulky. ‘She called me a crocodile.'

Tommy didn't understand. ‘But aren't you a crocodile?'

‘I'm a croco
diddle,'
he sniffed. ‘There's a difference, you know.'

‘I didn't know,' Tommy said. ‘What's a crocodiddle?'

‘Me,' said the crocodiddle, as if that settled it. ‘What do you want, anyway?'

Lil explained about the sword and the crocodiddle's beady yellow eyes lit up.

‘So that's whose it is! I was just doing a couple of laps in the middle of the night – backstroke, butterfly, that kind of thing – when a sword splashed into the water right behind me. It almost sliced off my tail!'