The Jack Hansard Series: Season Two

Episode 3.4

'He was sure it's the same woman?' I asked urgently.

'Seemed so,' said Branok. 'We'd heard this lady were in our lands huntin' bluecaps an' the like. It were all over the towns, when our Merouda came back from her tradin'.'

That surprised me. 'You go into the towns?'

'What, out among the big 'uns?' Ang chimed in.

Merouda treated her to a raised eyebrow. 'Don't you?' She grinned again, showing teeth more pointed than Ang's. 'We needsta do business. We sits an' waits in shadows fer them that come as needs us, an' we trades what they needs fer what we wants. Last I went, we traded our tin woven with piskie magic fer other metals and engineering parts. Always in need of solder we are, and batteries, too. Humans may've left our mines, but we be keepin' 'em shored up and well in use.'

'An' yer customers be wantin' toys such as this?' Ang said, scowling at the tin monkey.

There were sharp edges to the way Merouda smiled. 'I makes meaner curses, too.'

'I don't doubt it,' I cut in, and sent Ang a warning glance. I'd done business with knockers on a few occasions before. I knew their charmed trinkets to be vicious little things; arcane booby-traps scored in metal. If a knocker hands you a piece of jewellery, it's probably best to pass it on to your worst enemy instead. 'So Merouda, what exactly was the word on the street about this woman?'

She shrugged. 'Zactly? That she be from up country, lookin' fer fairy folk round our parts. One incomer said 'e'd seen her wi' little cages full o' dancing lights, what sounded much like bluecaps. Saw her in the Big City, 'e said.'

My mind tripped up over this. 'Which city? Surely not London?'

Merouda cackled. 'Na, ya great bleddy tuss! I means Truro.'

'That best be a place an' not another made up word,' Ang hissed under her breath.

'We passed it on the way here,' I said loudly. 'Probably, what, an hour's journey by car? Did Goron go all that way by himself?'

'Ain't nothin' fer a knocker what has the knowin' of the leys.'

I couldn't step back fast enough. 'Hey now. Ley lines? I'm not messing with those.'

'Whassat, gwas?'

I openly grimaced. 'Fairy pathways. They criss-cross the country where the damn things used to live, like scars they've left on our reality. It's as dangerous as trying to travel through the Nether.'

''Tis only a skip to Truro,' said Merouda flippantly.

'Aye, and Goron knows it well,' Branok agreed. 'Well acquainted with the ol' fairy relics, we are.'

I cleared my throat. 'Nevertheless. We'll drive.'

* * *

When I said 'we', I hadn't intended for Branok and Merouda to join us.

As it was, Ang sat next to me in heated silence while in the back father and daughter jabbered loudly and enthusiastically in a mix of old and modern Cornish. Knockers, I was quickly realising, did not have the same sense of restraint as their coblynau cousins.

'Whassis?' Branok yelled at a road sign.

'Lookithat!' Merouda cried at a brightly lit house.

'Go, go, go!' they chorused at traffic lights.

Despite multiple admonishments, they'd both abandoned their seat belts and spent most of the journey stood up in the seats with faces pressed against the windows. I could only be grateful that it was dark and there weren't many other cars on the road.