The Unicorn Hunter Page 14

  Danny grinned.

  ‘Hello, Fenris,’ said Roisin. ‘Where is Nitaina?’

  ‘At the den, with our pups and the rest of the pack,’ said Fenris. ‘This isn’t the kind of hunt I would want my young ones at.’

  ‘And is it OK if you come with us?’ said Maddy with a sidelong glance at Liadan. Technically the wolf pack were allies of the Winter Court and they had been promised dire punishment for helping Maddy the last time she had gone through the mound. But Liadan gave a dismissive wave of her hand.

  ‘They are free to go with you and protect my interests,’ she said, although Maddy noticed that both Fenris and Nero went stiff at the sound of her voice and did not look at the Winter Queen. ‘But there is another who would also go with you, with my blessing.’

  Maddy watched in horror as the Winter Queen’s escort parted to let Fachtna through. The dark faerie strode forward to stand beside her queen.

  She looked at Liadan in disbelief. ‘Do I really need to have this conversation again?’ she asked. ‘I’m not going anywhere with her. I’ll be dead before we’re out of sight.’

  Liadan hissed with rage. ‘You have accused me, Feral Child, of one of the worst crimes known to our kind – namely, raising my hand against a unicorn. My captain and the wolves go with you to make sure that not only do you complete the task entrusted to you but you do not try, in any way, to implicate me in this crime or falsify evidence against me. Fachtna is my witness.’

  ‘I wouldn’t do something like that!’ said Maddy.

  ‘Your hatred for our kind is overwhelming,’ said Liadan, fidgeting with her reins as her mount began to sidle and dance on its clawed feet, the creature unnerved by her anger. ‘It leaks from every pore in you; I can taste it in my mouth. I would be a fool to take the word of a filthy, lying mortal.’ She looked at the other monarchs. ‘I demand that my captain accompany her!’

  ‘Finn mac Cumhaill will not be tempted out of the Shadowlands so she must go to him. It’s a dangerous journey and she needs a champion,’ said Niamh.

  ‘For once, Aengus, your charming wife is right,’ said Meabh.

  ‘We’re not going with her!’ said Danny.

  ‘Well, unless any of my fellow monarchs can spare a warrior or two …’ Meabh trailed off into silence.

  ‘Out of the question,’ said Nuada. ‘I need all my warriors about me in such uncertain times.’

  ‘As do we,’ said Aengus Óg. ‘This mortal could fail miserably and then the rest of her kind will be upon us as soon as the barrier between their world and ours is gone.’

  ‘Alas,’ said Meabh, smiling down at Maddy like a cat that has just swallowed a whole mouse, still wriggling, ‘I too need all the able-bodied faeries in my court by my side. In such troubled times it is wise to conserve your strength.’

  Maddy ground her teeth in frustration. She knew exactly what was going on. The Tuatha monarchs were hedging their bets, waiting to see if she failed. Anything could happen over the next couple of days and they were arming their war bands, testing their strength and looking to see if they could make a grab for power. Even when faced with an annihilating war, they still could not see further than their own ambitions and petty squabbles.

  ‘You are fortunate that the Winter Queen can spare her captain,’ said Meabh. Liadan inclined her head graciously, her cold-blasted eyes giving nothing away. Fachtna bared her filed teeth at Maddy in a parody of a smile.

  ‘Yeah, right.’ Maddy snorted.

  ‘You do not understand, you rude, wilful mortal,’ snapped Sorcha. ‘You are a subject of the Autumn Court. The four courts are at peace, and for Fachtna to harm you in any way would be an act of war.’ Sorcha threw a look at Meabh. ‘Honestly, how can you deal with such treacherous creatures? Every word from her lips is an insult.’

  ‘She has to promise not to hurt me or my cousins,’ said Maddy. ‘She has to promise not to touch us or do anything that could result in us being harmed by another. She has to protect us, all of us – Fenris, Nero and George as well – as if we were her own.’

  Aengus Óg raised a black eyebrow. ‘Quite hysterical, isn’t it? I cannot believe this is the new Hound.’

  Meabh sighed. ‘Swear it, Fachtna, or we will be here all day.’

  Fachtna looked at Liadan, who gave a slight nod. She looked at Meabh, put a hand on her heart and bowed. ‘I so swear, Fachtna of the Winter Court, not to harm the mortal of the Autumn Court or her kin while on this hunt.’

  ‘I’d feel better if she had stopped at “kin”,’ said Roisin.

  ‘Come, child, don’t be greedy,’ said Meabh. ‘I really do think it’s the best you can ask for, considering the history between you. Besides, it will be good for you to get to know each other. You have so much in common.’

  ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ demanded Maddy.

  Meabh just smiled her slow, irritating smile. ‘It’s not really my place to say. Perhaps Fachtna will tell you herself one day.’

  Maddy looked at Fachtna and waited for her to say something, but the dark faerie just looked back at her, her face as still as stone. ‘Fine. But if she’s coming with us then I want a sword.’

  ‘A sword?’ asked Meabh.

  ‘A big one, same as hers,’ said Maddy, pointing at the long blade that hung against Fachtna’s thigh.

  The Tuatha laughed but Meabh snapped her fingers and another warrior stepped forward to unbuckle his weapon.

  ‘Do you even know how to use one?’ asked Nuada.

  ‘Yeah, you stick the pointy end in the bad guy,’ said Maddy. She tried to buckle the belt around her waist but even on the last hole it still fell around her skinny hips. Maddy blushed and ignored the mocking laughter of the faeries as she tied the leather belt in a big knot around her stomach. The sword was heavy and she felt as if she was leaning to one side. It also smacked awkwardly against her leg when she took a couple of steps toward her horse.

  ‘Um, I’m not much of a rider,’ said Danny. ‘Can’t we just walk?’

  ‘Time is short and you will never keep up with Fachtna if you walk,’ said Meabh. ‘Besides, these are faerie horses. They can see in your mind where you want to go and they will take you there. They never drop their riders.’

  Unless someone asks them to, thought Maddy. She looked up the vertical sides of her horse. Even the stirrup seemed like a long, long way away. ‘How are we supposed to get on them?’ she asked.

  ‘Give me strength,’ muttered Meabh as the other Tuatha sniggered. She snapped her fingers again and the warrior who had given Maddy his sword stepped forward, lifted the saddle flap and unbuckled the stirrup leather, lengthening it until the stirrup hung somewhere around her thigh rather than dangling above her head. Maddy put her foot in it and gripped the leather, climbing hand over hand until she could reach the saddle with her fingers and then pull herself up until her stomach was flat on the seat of the saddle. She clenched her teeth and groaned as her bruised ribs grated, but managed to swing her leg over and sit upright, sweating from the pain while her stomach muscles cramped. The Tuatha shortened the stirrup leather again so she could reach the stirrup from the saddle. Horse-mad Roisin had already climbed aboard and was grinning from ear to ear at the chance to ride, while Danny was already beginning to look travel-sick. Maddy looked down. The ground was a long, long way away. George looked up at her and whined.

  ‘Do me a favour,’ she said to the Tuatha. ‘Hand him up to the other girl.’

  The Tuatha looked down at George, distaste curdling his expression. ‘Can he not run alongside you?’

  ‘His legs are about six inches long so I think he’ll have trouble keeping up, don’t you?’ said Maddy.

  ‘Just do as she says,’ snapped Sorcha. ‘She probably won’t go anywhere without him either and time is wasting.’

  Maddy wasn’t impressed at the way the Tuatha picked George up by the scuff of the neck and held him at arm’s length like he had the plague, but the little terrier didn’t seem to care. He wagged his tail so h
ard it was a blur as he was passed into Roisin’s arms and she kissed him on the top of his head and zipped him into her jacket.

  Meabh turned Embarr closer to Maddy’s mount and passed something over to her. ‘For Bran,’ she said. ‘So she can pick up the scent.’

  Maddy looked down at her hand to see a small piece of the unicorn mare’s mane glittering in her palm.

  ‘For you,’ said Meabh, pressing a walnut into her hand.

  ‘I don’t really like nuts,’ said Maddy.

  Meabh rolled her eyes. ‘It’s not for eating, you stupid girl. Crack it open when the time comes and you will find a net inside, a soul catcher. My storm hags have worked with me for days and nights weaving spells into the net that will trap the split soul and keep it in the form it has chosen to take. You didn’t think you would catch it by throwing a rope around its neck, did you?’

  Maddy had not thought that far ahead but she didn’t want to embarrass herself by saying so.

  ‘There is no more time to waste,’ warned Meabh. ‘Ride as hard as you can for the Shadowlands and find mac Cumhaill. For all we know the split soul is already tracking the unicorn mare, and we need Bran on the hunter’s trail if we want to have a hope of avoiding an eternal winter and the end of days. Remember the consequences for faerie and mortal alike if you fail. Remember your loved ones are depending on you, even if they do not know it.’

  With those grim words, Meabh pulled Embarr’s head about and galloped across the meadow to her pavilion, her fellow monarchs and their escorts cantering in her wake, their banners fluttering in the evening sunshine.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Maddy had no idea who the faerie horses were getting their instructions from, but they took off after Fachtna, who was no more than a blur in front of them. Maddy stood up in the stirrups to avoid the feeling of being smacked on the bum with the saddle as her horse galloped along and twined her fingers in its thick blond mane. She clutched the reins in one hand but didn’t bother getting a tight grip – she doubted the horse would obey her, no matter how hard she pulled on them.

  The wind roared past her ears, making her eyes tear, and the only sound she could distinguish over it was the beat of the horse’s hoofs, a sound that reverberated through her body. It was cold and lonely, crouched on the horse’s back with the wind whipping away every word that left her lips before it could reach the ears of Danny and Roisin. Maddy sincerely hoped they were not going to gallop the whole way, because her body was already aching with the strain of keeping her balance.

  Even so, they could not have been riding long when Danny started to pull up his horse. The animal shook its head and fidgeted at the bit as it fought to keep up with its stable mates. The determination of the whole ride began to break up as Danny’s horse communicated its distress to the others and Maddy felt her own horse falter beneath her and saw Fenris and Nero’s smooth bounding strides begin to break and become uncertain as they looked back at the struggling horses.

  Eventually the whole ride came to a stuttering halt as Danny kept a hard grip on the reins, refusing to let his horse go forward. The animal stamped and circled, trying to sidle away, but Danny refused to relax his hands and let the animal have its head. Maddy and Roisin’s horses turned and trotted back to their mate, blowing gently through their noses with a question in their eyes.

  ‘Why are you stopping?’ said Maddy.

  ‘I want to do a quick detour,’ said Danny, his face set and angry.

  ‘You want to do WHAT?!’ said Roisin.

  ‘We haven’t got time for this,’ said Maddy. ‘What’s so important that you want to slow us up from saving the world?’

  ‘Have the two of you forgotten?’ demanded Danny, his neck flushing with anger.

  ‘Forgotten what?’ asked Maddy, while Roisin looked on with a puzzled expression.

  ‘I bet she hasn’t,’ said Danny, nodding to Fachtna, who had turned and half flown, half run back to them, her skin glowing pearly with a fine sheen of sweat. She tipped her head to one side and regarded Danny with an unreadable expression in her red eyes.

  Danny looked over his shoulder. ‘We’re out of sight of the Tuatha camp, and the forest is just the other side of the river. I reckon we can swim across.’

  ‘The trees won’t welcome you, boy,’ growled Fachtna in her hoarse voice. ‘You won’t last any time at all.’

  ‘Oh!’ cried Roisin, as she and Maddy remembered at the same time what they should never have forgotten. Maddy swayed in her saddle and closed her eyes against the memory of Fachtna’s knife slicing through long silver-green fingers.

  ‘Fionn,’ she said weakly.

  ‘Fionn,’ said Danny. He glared at Fachtna. ‘Did you kill her in the end, for helping us?’

  Fachtna smiled lazily at him and slipped a dagger into her hand, tapping its blade against her chin. It looked like a casual enough gesture but the threat was there. ‘The dryad was lucky. Queen Liadan commanded me to burn her tree rather than cut it down, and it seems that it is struggling back into life. Green shoots are said to be growing from its blackened stump while its dryad sleeps between its roots.’

  Maddy swallowed and thought of the pretty little birch dryad, with her black eyes and masses of long silver hair, lying charred and injured beneath the earth, waiting for herself and her tree to grow strong. All because she dared to show them the way to Liadan’s tower. Would her fingers ever grow back?

  ‘I need to see her,’ said Danny, his voice thick with tears. ‘It was our fault she was hurt.’

  ‘She’s beyond you, boy,’ said Fachtna. ‘She will sleep until she is strong enough to tend her tree again. Don’t draw attention to her – be grateful my queen allows the tree to go on living.’

  ‘I have to see her,’ insisted Danny. ‘I need to make things right.’

  ‘I don’t know that we can,’ said Roisin.

  But Danny was sliding down from the huge horse anyway, to collapse on the ground in an undignified heap. He dropped the reins and began to walk toward the river.

  ‘Go ahead, I’ll catch you up,’ he called over his shoulder.

  Fenris looked at Maddy. ‘Is he serious?’ he asked.

  ‘Um …’

  ‘Go ahead, boy,’ called Fachtna. ‘You’re about to find out how little the trees like you.’

  As soon as Fachtna said those words the world was silenced. Birds stopped singing, insects stopped buzzing and a wave of tension seemed to roll over them, a wave that came from the direction of the trees.

  Nero sat down and pricked up his ears. ‘This is going to get messy,’ he said in a positively cheerful tone of voice.

  ‘Danny, don’t do it!’ said Roisin.

  Danny hesitated and then stepped down into the water. Fenris growled as every tree on the opposite bank leaned toward him, creaking and groaning as they strained against their roots. Then eyes lit up in the trunks of the trees and peered down from their leaves, bright, glistening orbs that shone with hate. Maddy’s breath caught in her throat and Danny stood transfixed in the gaze of hundreds of dryads.

  ‘What are you waiting for?’ asked Fachtna. ‘Swim across to them. I’m sure once you tell them it was all my fault they will welcome you with open arms.’

  Danny turned to glare at her, but he didn’t make a move to go forward or back. Maddy’s heart ached for him. She knew he cared for the little silver dryad, but he couldn’t make things better. Even if he survived a walk through the trees, there was nothing he could do.

  It was Fenris who broke the deadlock. He padded down to the water’s edge and nudged Danny with his black nose.

  ‘There is no shame in backing away,’ he said with a soft growl. ‘An alpha male needs to know when to make a stand and when to retreat. Now is a time to retreat. Her kin won’t be appeased by your guilt – spilt blood never dries.’

  Maddy breathed a sigh of relief as Danny turned, shame-faced, and went back to his horse. Fachtna waited until he had clambered back into the saddle before she launched herse
lf into the air again, forcing them to kick their horses into a gallop to keep up with her.

  After a while, Maddy’s legs began to tremble with the effort of standing in the stirrups. The horse must have felt the tremors from her thigh muscles and slowed to a steady canter, allowing her to sit deep and look around her.

  The lush, thick turf beneath their horses’ hoofs was beginning to fade to a poorer soil, full of rocks and stones. The forest on the other side of the river began to peter out as well, until only a few stunted saplings struggled to grow on their own. The river grew broader and its voice changed from a babble to a roar with the force of its current, white foam coating the stiller waters at the edges of the riverbank.

  The barren land and the angry river stretched ahead for about a mile and then disappeared abruptly into a roiling bank of dirty yellow cloud. Maddy leaned back to steady herself as her horse came to a sudden halt, the other mounts pulling up alongside her. Fachtna’s wings buzzed as she landed lightly in front of Maddy, while Fenris and Nero flopped down and stretched their long limbs on the thin soil, their tongues flopping from their mouths as they panted.

  ‘What is that?’ asked Roisin, her eyes fixed on the wall of mist dead ahead.

  ‘That is what a mist of dreams looks like,’ said Fachtna.

  ‘Come again?’ said Danny.

  ‘All your dreams, all your hopes, your fears, your darkest desires, your most frightening nightmares … it is all in this mist,’ said Fachtna. ‘It leaks into the land or it comes through the Seeing Stones in the mortal world. The Coranied gather it and live within it here in the Shadowlands, distilling it down in their cauldrons so they can feed it to us.’

  ‘Wow,’ said Danny.

  ‘Is it safe to walk through the mist?’ asked Roisin nervously.

  ‘No faerie ever tries – well, none but Meabh,’ said Fachtna. ‘She walks freely through the Shadowlands. So, is it safe?’ Fachtna shrugged. ‘Some say the mist shifts and can have you lost in the wilderness for years. Some that it is a place where ghosts lurk. We will find out soon enough.’ She looked at the sinking sun. ‘But not tonight. Tonight we rest.’