The Smidgens Crash-Land by David O'Connell

Author:David O'Connell
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781526640543
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2022-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

‘I once knew so much … but I am not the person I used to be. My body is weak. My mind is not always at its best. Sometimes I think I have seen things … and they turn out to be merely dreams. Or, at least, I think they are …’

He was rambling. Was he talking to her or to himself? It was difficult to tell. She had to know more. Claudia’s hand reached for Hinchsniff’s bottle and quietly released the ghost into the room.

‘You said there were three fragments of the Mirror to find,’ she prompted. ‘Have you any idea of where the other two might be?’

‘I remember … three pieces, three clans. They must have divided the pieces between the clan houses, but where are they? Everything is in such a tangle.’

‘Try and remember. These houses – are they obvious? We followed the Sprout girl underground for a while. Could they be underground?’

‘Underground!’ The voice brightened, regained some of its strength. ‘A burrow. Yes – one of the houses was underground, I’m sure of it. Outside the town, there’s a place of open ground where Big Folk go to play their stupid sport …’

‘I passed a golf course on the way here,’ said Claudia. Did he say Big Folk?

‘Yes – that’s it. One of the clans lived there, underground, or at least, they did at one time. You must look there.’

There was a flash of blue sparks from the shadowy figure, and an unearthly screech. Hinchsniff careered back towards Claudia, his ghostly form smoking and boiling. His weaselly face was filled with terror.

‘I tried to creep up on him,’ he wheezed, ‘but I couldn’t get close. It was like there was an invisible wall. When I touched it, it sent a horrible shock right through me!’

He slunk straight back into the bottle, pulling the stopper shut behind him.

‘That’s just what that Smidgen’s knife did to me in the toy shop!’ said Totherbligh with a shudder.

‘I said not to come any closer!’ It was the client, his voice shaking with anger. ‘I know all about your phantom helpers, Slymark. Do not think you can use them against me! Now, leave – and do not contact me again unless you have results.’

Claudia didn’t wait to argue. She ran out into the office, past the surprised postal workers coming back from their break, and out into the alley through which she had arrived. The client was a magic user of some sort. This complicated things.

‘What did you see?’ she asked Hinchsniff. ‘What did he look like?’

‘That’s just it!’ snivelled the ghost, still smarting. ‘There was just a sack of letters with an old uniform draped over it. It might have looked like a person from where you are standing, but in reality, there wasn’t anyone there at all …’

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