The Moon Stealers and the Quest for the Silver Bough (Book 1)

21. St Giles' Cathedral

After they packed up their belongings, Edgar and the children left their attic room and made their way back into the centre of Edinburgh and down the Royal Mile until they came to the front of St Giles’ Cathedral. Although the rain had stopped, there was darkness in the sky that continued to cast a depressing blanket over everything. They approached the Cathedral from the direction of the Castle and could see the crown spire standing proud above the Cathedral building that was mentioned in the leaflet Max had read that morning. They passed a tall green stained metallic statue and walked up the stone steps to the west entrance. There were two ornate doors, one to let visitors in, the other to let them out, both were dwarfed by the grand archway decorated with numerous stone carved gargoyles projecting their heads out from the ledge above the entrance ready to drain water from where it collected in the dips in the roof.

Edgar paid their entrance fees and they entered the Cathedral in single file. Max appeared to be more nervous than usual after his close encounter with the Moon Stealer the previous night. As they walked into the enormous space of the Cathedral, they were immediately dwarfed by the stone columns that stretched high towards the ceiling before dividing into complicated finger like arches that reaching over to touch other pillars. Long thin colourful fabric banners hung down from each column, golden winged angels were embroidered into the fabric and seemed to trumpet their arrival. Whilst above them smaller flags stitched with crosses and crowns, horse heads and stars, hung lifelessly from the roof. At the far end was a large blue stained glass window that towered higher over them as they made their way further into the Cathedral. They had not agreed on a plan about what they were going to do once they had arrived at the Cathedral, but they all seemed to naturally move towards the stained glass window, with their heads all looking upwards not knowing what their feet were treading on.

'What are we looking for?', whispered Max to Edgar, scared to break the peacefulness inside the Cathedral, but desperate to ask the obvious question.

'I’m not sure. Maybe we should start in the Thistle Chapel as it’s mentioned in the riddle,' replied Edgar who had noticed a sign pointing them in the direction of a small chamber.

Edgar strolled off to his right and the children automatically followed. Through another stone archway they entered a much smaller room. Along both sides were wooden seats, carved animals making up the arm rests with highly detailed canopies that looked like crowns stretching upwards above each seat. On the backrest was the coat of arms of the Knight that the seat belonged to, like a name badge. On the ceiling the stone work was so fine that it almost appeared to be made from a fragile veil of lace that hung from the walls. The grey stone detail seemed to be alive with thistles in bloom and gold painted angels holding shields.

Once again, all they could do was look in amazement at the carvings of animals and the ornate paintings on some of the wooden panels. Edgar went over to the first chair and started looking at each coat of arms. Some had more shields on than others, but there were none that he recognised. Thick wooden carvings projected from the sides of the room and towered above where the Knights' heads would have been. On top of each of these was a carved painted animal. At the far end was a separate seat on which was the British royal coat of arms.

'This must be where the King or Queen of England would sit,' Joe indicated to the large chair at the far end which was more prominent than any of the others.

'Do you see anything to do with Hadwyn in here?', asked Max.

'No. I don’t even recognise any of the coats of arms that are on the chairs,' Edgar replied with a sad shake of his head.

Scarlet had been silent up till now. She had been thinking hard about the meaning of the words in the riddle. 'The Thistle is only referred to in the third line of the riddle,' she said. 'What about the second line, And Stevenson's treasure is hidden from sight, maybe that’s the clue that we should be looking for?'