Hero Rising

“Let’s go to Smoofyland.”

Smoofyland was a theme park based on a popular TV unicorn she kept telling Finn he loved. It was fifty miles up the road from Darkmouth and yet, because Legends kept getting in the way of their plans, they’d never been.

“You would love Smoofyland,” Clara told Finn.

“I would not,” Finn insisted.

“You love Smoofy,” Clara told him.

“I do not,” he said, deeply unamused by the very suggestion.

“Well, you used to,” she said.

“When I was a baby,” he conceded.

“You had a Smoofy cake for your ninth birthday,” Clara reminded him.

“You promised not to mention that again,” said Finn.

“You used to love the Smoofy the Magic Unicorn TV show theme tune,” his mother said, before bursting into song.

“Who’s the sparkly unicorn with magic in his mane?

“Smoofy! That’s who.”

“If you sing one more line—” Finn warned.

Clara sang two more lines.

“Who’s the flying unicorn who’s friends with a rainbow train?

“Smoofy! That’s who.”

Finn did not want to hear the Smoofy theme tune. He did not want to go to Smoofyland. He did not want a holiday at all.

He wanted Darkmouth back. For his family. For his dad. For himself.

They had saved the town from an invasion by Fomorians led by the particularly brutish Gantrua, who had brought with him a house-crushing Hydra. They had rescued a group of Half-Hunters, including Emmie’s father Steve, who had been trapped between worlds by the spectral traitor Mr Glad. This had occurred on Finn’s birthday, when he was supposed to be made a proper Legend Hunter. But that did not happen because a man called Lucien had turned up, and stolen Darkmouth from them.

An assistant to the Legend Hunters’ leaders, Lucien had seemingly spent too long in a small office in a narrow corridor in a tall building in Liechtenstein, and wanted some proper action for once. He had struck lucky when all those leaders – the Council of Twelve – were desiccated at the same time.

It cleared the way for him to give orders and take control of the shell-shocked and confused Half-Hunters who had survived the Darkmouth invasion, and who didn’t know who to believe. Lucien pointed out that a boy who had spent time palling around with Legends should be the last one to trust.

Estravon Oakbound, the rule-obsessed assistant who had once journeyed with them to the Infested Side, agreed.

That sealed Finn’s fate.

Lucien captured Broonie the Hogboon and took him away for Desiccation. He stripped Finn and his father Hugo of their right to defend Darkmouth and forced them to move into a small house with Emmie and Steve.

In the weeks that followed, that house saw disappointment, anger, bewilderment, and several arguments about who ate the last of the biscuits.

What happened next? Steve was sent to Liechtenstein to report back on his strange experiences. The Half-Hunters had gone home too, as the threat was over for now – besides, most of them had to go back to their jobs as accountants or washing-machine repair technicians or balloon-animal makers and the like.

Lucien stayed in Darkmouth though, bringing loyal assistants with him. He claimed to be looking for the truth of what happened. But nothing about Lucien rang true.

It was clear to Finn and Emmie that Steve had been sent to Liechtenstein not just for information but to get him out of the way. It was even clearer that there had been a conspiracy to take Darkmouth for the assistants. Knowing how to reveal this truth was another matter.

Finn would not let it go, though. He would fight to get Darkmouth back.

There would be no holiday yet.

“You really would love Smoofyland,” his mother kept insisting. “You know it’s in Slotterton? It was an old Blighted Village, once filled with Legends, so you never know what might happen.”

“I’ll be bored and embarrassed, that’s what’ll happen,” said Finn.

“Smoofyland has a rollercoaster.” She smiled. “The sparkliest rollercoaster ever built.”

“Exactly,” said Finn.

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“Hello,” Finn said as he passed a man sponging down a car.

“Hello,” said the man from Bubble Blast Car Wash.

If Finn had stopped to think about it for a moment, he might have noticed that the Bubble Blast Car Wash man was washing the same part of the car over and over. And that he wasn’t really washing it too well anyway, just sort of waving a hand over a windscreen that looked shiny enough as it was.

But Finn was distracted. Firstly because he had managed to get a glob of Squishy Bar stuck between his teeth, which required trying to dislodge it with his finger. Secondly because he was following two people through the many back lanes of Darkmouth while trying not to be seen. Or heard.

Hanging back, with a baseball cap pulled low, he dialled a number on his phone. It was quickly answered.

“They’re talking about cakes, I think,” he whispered down the line.

“Cakes?” asked Emmie’s voice loudly.

“Cakes,” replied Finn.

Ahead of him, two assistants were walking purposefully towards some unknown destination. They wore the greyest of grey, as if someone had designed it specifically to be the least interesting colour ever invented. There were too many of these suits, and the assistants wearing them, around Darkmouth these days. Finn had begun to recognise these two, though. She was Scarlett. He was Greyson. Finn had made it his business to find out what they were up to.

Scarlett and Greyson stopped.

Finn nipped behind a bin, pressed in tight against the wall, and listened.

“Why hasn’t it worked?” Greyson asked. “It should have worked.”

“We can’t talk about this in public,” said Scarlett.

“We’ve added the sherbet,” replied Greyson, tapping his head as if hoping an answer would fall out. “We’ve added chocolate. We’ve even experimented with custard.”