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

13. Proof of Identity

An hour later Joe met Max and Scarlet at the tree top platform in the woodland overlooking the river that the three of them had visited the day before. He had told them both of how the symbol took him to the Faerie Ring and about the conversation he had had with Sir Edgar.

‘It seems a bit far fetched to me,’ said Max.

‘What’s happening now?’, Joe asked Scarlet who had the binoculars trained on the graveyard as well as the church. When they arrived, there was already a police car parked on the verge outside the church so they had decided to continue straight to the hideout in the woods.

‘Any sign of Sir Edgar yet?’

‘No. Hang on. I think I've got him. He’s hidden in the undergrowth on the opposite side of the road. The brown suit he wears camouflages him well.’

‘Let me see,’ Joe took the binoculars from Scarlet, ‘yes that’s him.’

‘If he’s got nothing to hide, why doesn’t he just go up to the police and tell them what he told you?’, said Max.

‘If we are having trouble believing him, I don’t think anyone else will either,’ replied Joe. ‘Wait, he’s walking away now towards town.’

A policeman was unrolling a tape between two posts as a sign to prevent anyone from entering the graveyard. He didn’t seem to take any notice of the old man as he walked past leaning on his stick.

Nothing else happened until two figures emerged from the church. ‘That looks like your dad,’ Max said to Joe, ‘who’s that woman he’s talking to?’

Joe refocused the binoculars towards the entrance of the church where his father and a woman were talking. It looked like she was crying.

‘It must be Peter’s mum. There are also some other policemen taking samples of the slime from the blanket and it looks like Mrs Merchant is not very happy about all these things happening in the church.

‘Good day to you all,’ came the polite voice of Sir Edgar as he appeared in the hole beside the tree trunk.

Both Scarlet and Max gave a little squeak in surprise as they stared at the old man as he nimbly lifted himself through the hole and sat on the platform with the children. They all shuffled away from him slightly, still unsure whether they trusted him yet, but there wasn’t anywhere to go, apart from over the edge of the platform.

‘I thought you had called the police when I saw them in the graveyard,’ he said to Joe, ‘but then I spotted the light reflecting off the lens of your binoculars from up here. I presume our friend has updated the two of you on what we talked about earlier.’

Scarlet and Max both nodded together at the same time.

‘Good, well you wanted proof and I have it for you. All I can do is put the facts before you and let you make up your own minds,' continued Edgar as he removed a metal tube from his jacket. He unscrewed the top from the tube and placed a roll of coarse yellow cloth in front of them, gently untying the string around it and carefully opening it out. Inside the cloth were several pieces of yellow brown paper, the edges worn and soft with age and slightly torn in places. All three of the children stared down at the top paper. There was an ornate border of entwined coloured patterns around a block of writing that none of them could understand. At the top of the paper was a large unrecognisable letter similar to the writing that Joe had already seen inscribed on the stones at The Faerie Ring. This letter gleamed with gold still polished and shiny, despite the dullness of the paper it was drawn on. At the bottom of the page a thick red waxy circle was indented with a shield containing three crowns within.