Faerie Tale by Nicola Rhodes Page A

with Jacky on her knee, now stood up suddenly, accidentally depositing her burden headfirst onto the rug. 
    ‘Well,’ she said, so much for our gallant heroes, if you could only hear yourselves.  I suppose you are just going to give up are you?’
    ‘Of course we aren’t!’ said Tamar.  ‘No one said we were giving up it’s just … I mean they’re everywhere now.  Thousands of them and no one else seems to be able to fight them.  There just aren’t enough of us.’
    ‘We’d need a small army,’ put in Denny.
    Tamar raised her head sharply at this; her eyes grew wide for a moment and then she seemed to be thinking deeply. 
    Only Denny noticed this. ‘She’s having an idea,’ he thought.  ‘It’s about bloody time.’
    ‘A small army?’ she said.  ‘I might know where I can get one of those.’
    Everyone looked at her. 
    ‘They’re fearsome fighters,’ she added, ‘especially with a drink or two inside them.  They hate Faeries and each one comes with his own armour and weapons.  A great saving.’
    ‘Who are …?’ began Stiles.
    ‘And they aren’t affected by Faerie magic at all,’ she finished triumphantly.
    ‘They sound perfect,’ said Stiles. ‘Who are we talking about?’  
    ‘Dwarfs,’ said Denny.  ‘She’s talking about Dwarfs.  But we can’t have any because they all buggered off to Valhalla – I wish I had.’
    ‘I reckon I know how to find them,’ said Tamar. 
    ‘Oh, no,’ said Denny. ‘We promised . No more messing about in mainframe.’
    ‘It’s an emergency,’ said Tamar stubbornly.
    ‘Anyway, what makes you think they’ll agree?’ said Denny. ‘They might not want to fight, and they don’t exactly like you, you know.’
    ‘Not want to fight ?’ laughed Tamar.  ‘ Dwarfs not want to fight?  You aren’t serious.’
    He’s got a point though,’ said Stiles.  ‘They might not do it if you ask.  Just to be awkward.’
    Tamar grinned like a happy cat. ‘That’s why I’m taking you,’ she said.  ‘They like you .’
    ‘Ooh, a small army,’ chirruped Cindy suddenly.  ‘I get it.’

~ Chapter Fourteen ~
    G etting into mainframe these days was a bit like riding a bike, as the saying goes. Denny could even get them directly into the file that they wanted.  Of course, the clerks had changed all the passwords after the last time – just because they had promised not to do it again, did not mean that the clerks trusted them.
    Denny had got the new passwords in his spare time – not to use them of course (he had promised ) but just out of idle curiosity. 
    Tamar was amused when Denny reluctantly admitted that he could get them into Valhalla as soon as they liked.
    ‘Well,’ she had mocked.  ‘It seems that your integrity won’t stand up to much scrutiny after all.’
    ‘Shut up!’ said Denny, but mildly, ‘or I’ll send you to Milton Keynes.’
    ‘Do they have Dwarfs there?’ asked Cindy innocently. 
    Denny looked sharply at her. Sometimes he felt her dumb blonde routine was a bit over-acted really.  He knew damn well that she was not that stupid. 
    ‘No, he said flatly, ‘just gnomes.’  He heard Cindy smother a laugh.
    Their eyes met, and Denny shook his head reprovingly, but he was smiling. ‘Have it your own way,’ she read in his eyes.  ‘But I know better.’
    He tapped at the computer.  ‘Sure you want to do this?’ he asked, bringing up the file.
    ‘Yes,’
    ‘No.’
    Tamar looked at Stiles in surprise.  ‘I thought you liked Dwarfs?’ she said. 
    ‘’Tisn’t the Dwarfs,’ he muttered.
    ‘Viking’s‘re okay,’ said Denny, who had once met some and got on famously with them. 
    S’not that either,’
    ‘Look,’ said Tamar, who exercised her very own brand of morality, ‘it isn’t breaking the rules if we’re doing it.’
    Stiles looked dubious about this.
    ‘And you don’t have to have a drink if you’d rather not,’ added Cindy brightly, demonstrating a degree of insight that