Hunt and Power. Stephen Hayes

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      “You just said to keep Stella on side,” I shot at him. “What better way—”

      “Perhaps you should do something for her yourselves,” said Charlie. “Instead of falling in with her family’s plans. In any case, if your mother found out—”

      “Well, that’s why we’re asking you first,” said Peter, and all four men grinned at each other.

      “It’s on Saturday night,” I said, but I was cut off.

      “Well definitely not then,” said Dad firmly. “I wouldn’t want you at some party on a Saturday night that’ll go to all hours, no matter who you were with. I don’t think anyone there is likely to supervise you.”

      I knew that even if we could get them on side with Stella, it would be extremely hard to make them trust us enough to go to a party on a Saturday night. Damn—why did parents have to be so bloody protective?!

      “Aw come on,” I said, getting a bit desperate. “We’ll be okay; we won’t drink or anything—”

      I knew I was pulling at straws now. I couldn’t think what I could possibly say that would make them change their minds.

      “Amelia said that if we couldn’t persuade you to let us come,” said Peter, “that she would use magic to help us get there anyway.”

      “Amelia Woodward is going too, is she?” asked William.

      “Yep,” said Peter. “She trusts Stella, too.”

      The adults looked at each other, the rest of Peter’s words starting to take effect.

      “So you’re saying that there’s nothing we can do to stop you going,” said Dad finally.

      I felt rather guilty. It was all well and good to plot against our parents when we were away from them, but after this conversation, I actually felt rather bad about going out against my dad’s will.

      “Pretty much,” said Peter finally.

      “We’d better speak to Freddy then,” Charlie said to Dad. “I wonder if he knows.”

      “He does,” I said. “Amelia told him herself, and he’s okay with the precautions that have been taken.”

      “What precautions?” asked Dad.

      “Stella made her father and grandmother seal pacts,” said Peter. “They’re not allowed to use magic at the party, nor are their supporters allowed to use magical devices they’ve created. The pact seems to cover all magic, so Amelia, Stella and Marc can’t use any either.”

      All their faces cleared. “That’s pretty good then,” said Charlie. “That would make the party safe as far as magic goes, particularly if Freddy’s okay with it. Although are you absolutely sure about this?”

      “What do you mean?” asked Peter.

      “Well, it sounds like the only proof you’ve got of any such pact being made is Stella’s word,” said Charlie. “And what Stella says and what Stella does aren’t necessarily the same thing. I personally find it difficult to believe the Hammersons would be so flexible to give up their magic at a time when enemies are so close at hand.”

      “So do we,” I said. “And so does Stella. But they want this to go ahead, and they needed her to cooperate for it to work. That’s why she thinks there’s probably something going on. But if there is, then they’d have trouble doing anything now, with the pact in place.”

      “Amelia can read Stella’s mind,” said Peter. “And she says it’s true, so I suppose it must be.”

      I grinned; even the way Peter said it made it sound dodgy. Now the adults were looking at each other, really not sure what to do. I could see their minds ticking over.

      Then Charlie finally said, “Well, I don’t see what there is we can do to stop you going, but I’m going to advise you to be on your guard, always, because you’ll be most likely outnumbered by Hammerhearts at least fifty to one.”

      “Hammerhearts?”

      “That’s what the Hammersons call their supporters,” said Dad in disgust. “People with their hearts set on the Hammersons—disgraceful.”

      “Well it’ll only be us there,” I said. “We’re going to lock the crystals up so they can’t try manhandling us to get them off us.”

      “Good thinking,” said Dad. “Though I must say, I can’t imagine your mothers will be happy about this, you know. Do you intend to tell them?”

      Peter and I looked at each other in a defeated sort of way. Neither of us wanted to, but we knew we would have to.

      “Let us talk to them first,” said Charlie. “I expect they’ll want to drum you tomorrow though, so be ready.”

      I groaned, but I couldn’t see any other way to go about it.

      * * *

      It turned out that while we had been talking to our fathers, Amelia had been going all over Chopville, answering the calls of people from the Young Army who were trying to convince their parents to let them go to the party. So far, no parents had said yes without magical persuasion. Amelia had been contacted by Natalie, Lisa, Serena, Kylie, Katie, Sophie, Erica, Sebastian and Jane.

      “But there are plenty more people who will probably call her tonight,” Marc told us at recess; it was from him that we were receiving this information.

      We had told the girls and James what we’d discussed with our fathers the previous night, and we planned to talk about it with our mothers when we got home from school that afternoon, always assuming none of us got detention between now and then. I wasn’t sure if our fathers had told our mums about it, because neither Mum nor Marge showed any sign of knowing when we’d seen them that morning. In the afternoon, however, we would be home for a couple of hours before our fathers got home from work, so we would have to face our mothers without them. Perhaps William and Carl might jump to our defence; one could hope anyway. Nicole also tracked down Amelia during period three, when all the year-tens were doing PE, and let her know to expect a call from us that afternoon.

      “She says Darcy and Lena have already asked for help this afternoon,” Nicole told us at lunch time. “So we can only expect her to come once she’s finished with them.”

      “What does she do, anyway?” asked Simon.

      “Some sort of spell,” said Natalie. “My parents wouldn’t hear a word of it at first, but then Amelia did something to them, and suddenly they seemed to see the good side of letting me go. It wasn’t the domination charm, ‘cause they seemed to know what they were talking about. My sister wanted to come too, but they put their foot down then.”

      When the six of us got home that night, we discovered very quickly that our fathers had not told our mothers the previous night, but had told them instead right after we left for school that morning, before they themselves went off to work. William and Carl were in the lounge room, watching television again, СКАЧАТЬ