Free Jack Shian and the Mapa Mundi by Andrew Symon Page B

tried hard to remember what Rana had said about using the beetler when she had listened in to the Congress discussions in the same front room the year before. There was something you had to avoid: but what? Jack had just got to the base of the door when he became aware of movement to his left. He froze, and looked over. There it was again, at the very base of the door hinge: an enormous spider. Jack hurriedly moved in the opposite direction and passed under the door.
    This room is gigantic , he thought, as he looked up at the ceiling. Everything seemed so far away and so high up. He was aware of voices, but found the sounds hard to make out: a bit echoey. Were they arguing? After a moment or two his ears tuned in to the sounds, and he realised that it was just more than one person talking at the same time. The skirting board , he thought, that’s where Rana said she hid . He scurried over to the side of the room and settled down to listen.
    “What else can it possibly mean?” demanded Murkle angrily. “The paper quite clearly talks about a saint’s cave.”
    “Have you any idea how many saints there are?” replied Cosmo heatedly. “And how many caves are linked to saints? The humans have wandered about for centuries naming places, often without any real idea of why. It would be like – how do they put it? – looking for a needle in a haystack.”
    “Most of these papers are of human origin,” said Daid quietly. “I do have some understanding of how they think.”
    “Then explain to us, please, what this bit here means.” Murkle sounded annoyed.
    “It’s complicated; these parchments are very old, and the script is not of our age.” Daid’s voice was weary. “It will take time to read them and put them together in the right order. We don’t even know if this is the full set.”
    “Well, let me look at the Shian papers then,” demanded Murkle. “It is my area of expertise, after all.”
    “But the whole point is that they’re together, don’t you see that?” Cosmo tried to keep the heat out of his voice. “We can’t look at one part without the other.”
    “Then for goodness’ sake let us decide on a strategy, otherwise we will get nowhere,” snapped Murkle. “I propose that we meet each evening to read and discuss.”
    “There are dozens of parchments,” pointed out Uncle Doonya. “That will take weeks.”
    “Then let’s make an inventory of what we have and divide up the work,” said Cosmo. It was more a command than a suggestion. Taken aback by his tone, Murkle muttered under his breath something about knowing your place, but he found he could not disagree.
    An hour later they had sifted through most of the parchments and were beginning to put them into piles. Jack was getting bored. He had hoped to catch some vital information, but it looked like they were a long way off getting that far. Warily, he moved back under the door, taking care to note that the spider had not moved. Once he was back in the hallway he reached up and dislodged the cap from his head. In a second he had regained his normal height, but as he stood up …
    “ Oww! ” screeched Rana, and she thumped Jack on the side of the head.
    As Jack stumbled he felt the beetler cap catch on the edge of a shelf. He quickly pushed the cap down into his pocket.
    Aunt Katie came running out of the kitchen. “Honestly, I can’t let you out of my sight for a minute.”
    Rana glowered at Jack as they trudged into the kitchen. Jack tried to indicate that she should shut up, but Rana’s back was up.
    “He stood on my foot, Mum,” she claimed loudly.
    “Rana …” Jack’s voice was hushed, but urgent.
    Luckily, Aunt Katie appeared not to notice anything untoward, and she admonished both. There was a moment’s silence. “How’s Lee-Brog, then, dear?” enquired Aunt Katie of Jack.
    “Oh, er … fine. He wasn’t in. I mean, we went up to the High Street, er … for a walk.” Jack stuttered through the first excuse he could