The Unicorn Hunter Read online

  ‘What’s the matter with him?’ asked Maddy.

  ‘Nobody knows,’ said Granny. ‘His mother had him in and out of hospital, wore herself out going up and down to Dublin to see specialists with him, and not one of them could tell her what was wrong with him. But he seems happy enough in himself and he’s managed to keep body and soul together since his mother died, God rest her soul.’

  ‘Still doesn’t explain why all the dogs go mad when he’s around though,’ said Maddy.

  ‘Well, doctors say a brain that isn’t well gives off different brainwaves than usual,’ said Granny. ‘Animals are meant to be sensitive to brainwaves – they can often tell when someone is ill, like if they have a tumour. Whatever is wrong with poor Bang Bang, they know something isn’t right.’

  Maddy chewed on her cornflakes and thought about it for a while.

  ‘Some of the things he comes out with though, they’re a scandal,’ said Granny, her mouth a thin line of disapproval.

  ‘Like what?’ asked Maddy.

  ‘Well, I went up for Communion one day at Mass and there was Bang Bang sitting in the front pew with his great long legs stretched out in front of him, so I had to step over him to get to the altar. The priest was handing me the wafer and when he said, ‘Body of Christ,’ Bang Bang leaned forward and said, ‘Gander poo!’

  Maddy choked so hard on her cornflakes some of them wedged in her sinuses. She coughed and spluttered as she tried not to laugh. Granny fixed her with That Look over the top of her glasses. ‘Isn’t it time you got ready for school?’

  Maddy nodded and shovelled the last of her cereal into her mouth before heading off to her bedroom, avoiding Granda’s glare. She changed quickly into her school uniform, checked she had everything she needed in her rucksack and went to the front door. ‘Myself and Roisin have to do some more studying after school today so I’ll be home a bit later than usual,’ she said.

  ‘You’ve no time. You need to be home before dark,’ said Granda.

  ‘But—’ began Maddy.

  ‘No buts. Come home straight after school, no messing on the way,’ said Granda, flicking the morning paper open.

  Granny looked at her and shook her head ever so slightly. Do as you are told.

  Maddy sighed and let herself out the front door. She zipped her jacket up tight against the sharp air and began the ten-minute walk to school. Blarney had woken up and was bustling about. People were doing a bit of early-morning shopping in the Co-op while sales assistants hid their yawns. Cars whizzed past, taking people into Cork for work or dropping children at school, brushing the crumbs of breakfast eaten on the run from their uniforms. She crossed the bridge and the river that ran beneath her feet was swollen with autumn rain, its voice deeper and more self-important than usual as it tumbled over its rocky bed. A lorry thundered past, the slipstream created by its grimy metal sides puffing against her hair. Maddy took a deep breath. She loved this time of year. The trees were turning every shade of red and gold before their leaves dropped and they went into a deep sleep. The whole world seemed to burn with their last surge of sap and the air was as crisp as an apple. The warmth from the sun was weak but the light was molten yellow. The earth would turn and Maddy could hope things would be better next year, as she seemed to do every year since her parents had died. The wool of her school tights prickled against her skin, as the air was still just a little too warm to justify wearing them. Maddy longed to scratch at her thighs, but Granny would have a fit if she was seen doing something like that in public.

  She groaned as she spied Bang Bang up ahead, on the pavement-less side of the road, muttering away to himself and rooting around in the row of evergreens that marked the boundary of the fields that surrounded Blarney Castle. He was raking away with his hand, stuffing bits of paper and bottle tops in the cavernous pockets of his coat. Maddy fixed her eyes on the ground and pretended the pavement was the most fascinating thing she’d ever seen. If she caught his eye, and Bang Bang was in the mood to talk, she’d never make it to class on time. Bang Bang seemed to have days when he would gabble for hours on end and he really didn’t have a preference as to who he talked to. Anyone who looked like they were listening would do.

  She had just sneaked past him and could see the playground and hear the bell ringing when she heard Bang Bang cry out and start to sob. She closed her eyes for a moment and sighed. Bang Bang was forever cutting himself on the rubbish that he found and never, ever knew what to do about it. He would sit and cry until someone sorted him out. She couldn’t just leave him.

  She waited to let a car pass and crossed the road to him. His shoulders were heaving as he sobbed.

  ‘You OK, Bang Bang?’ she asked. ‘Did you cut yourself on something?’

  Bang Bang was holding his injured hand with his good one and blood ran in a bright red stream from his palm to patter out of sight on the black tarmac of the road. His skin had gone an interesting colour from the blood and the years of ground-in dirt and he raised a shaking finger to point into the tree in front of him.

  ‘It bit me!’ wailed Bang Bang. ‘Something bit me!’

  ‘I don’t think so. You probably just cut yourself on a can or a bit of glass,’ said Maddy.

  ‘Stupid girl!’ snarled Bang Bang.

  ‘Oi, take it easy,’ warned Maddy. ‘Any more attitude and you can sort out your hand on your own.’

  This just made Bang Bang wail even louder and then he started to suck on his filthy hand to ease the wound, a sight and a sound that quite honestly turned Maddy’s stomach. She turned the leaf litter at her feet over with the toe of her school shoe and frowned. All she could see was more dead vegetation – nothing that could cut skin.

  The tree in front of her shivered and she looked up in time to see a tiny blue-skinned body disappearing into the branches over her head. A nasty little giggle floated down to her.

  ‘See?!’ screeched Bang Bang. ‘There it is, nasty little sneak. I told you, I told you it bit me!’

  ‘Can you see that, Bang Bang?’ asked Maddy, keeping her eyes fixed on the spot where she had seen the flash of blue and a wicked black eye.

  ‘Course I can,’ he snapped. ‘I’m not blind.’

  Maddy stared at his dirt-creased face, her mouth slack with shock. Bang Bang has the Sight, she thought. She got a look at his hand before he jammed it back into his mouth again and she saw two neat puncture marks in the muscly bit of his palm, right below his thumb. The kind of puncture marks fangs would make.

  Suddenly, four of the trees in the row started to shake and shiver and Maddy saw flashes of blue everywhere as the branches rocked with spiteful laughter. The whole row could be alive with faeries! She panicked and jumped away from the trees, grabbing Bang Bang by the arm as she did so. They narrowly avoided being hit by a car, the horn blaring as the driver swerved to avoid them. She dragged Bang Bang across the road as a bank of dark cloud boiled up from the castle and began to roll across the sky, reaching out for the school. It had gone so dark it was as if someone had flicked a switch, and the air crackled with the threat of lightning. Maddy had learned to recognize the signs of faerie activity and would bet money that whatever was hiding in the row of trees opposite the school was going to prove to be the least of her worries in the next half an hour.

  She could see the last stragglers going into the school as she dragged Bang Bang up to the gate. Miss Stone, a teacher who wasn’t Maddy’s biggest fan, was standing there, jiggling the keys impatiently in her hand.

  ‘What on earth is going on, Madeline?’ she snapped. ‘Why are you dragging poor Bang Bang around by his sleeve. Don’t torment the poor man!’

  ‘Please, miss,’ said Maddy, ‘Bang Bang’s hurt his hand. Can he come into the school just for a minute so the nurse can patch it up for him?’ She stretched her face into what she hoped was a winning, head-girl kind of smile, but it cut no ice with Miss Stone.

  ‘Certainly not,’ she said. ‘I’m sure Bang Bang can make his own way to the surgery and tha
t he would prefer not to be bothered by little girls.’ She raised her voice and talked to Bang Bang as if he was deaf. ‘Isn’t that right, dear?’

  Poor Bang Bang just continued to sob. Maddy ground her teeth in frustration. ‘Please, miss,’ she said in a lower voice. ‘You know Bang Bang is special. We can’t leave him like this.’

  Miss Stone looked down her long thin nose at Maddy, her pinched mouth pressing into a white line. Her frizzy red hair was beginning to stand on end as the air snapped with ozone, the atmospherics turning it into a parched Afro. ‘Unauthorized visitors are not allowed on school premises,’ she said. ‘And I’m sure “special” ones would be in breach of Health and Safety. Bang Bang will be fine, but you will be in trouble, young lady, if you do not get yourself to class this instant.’ She drew herself up and stood to one side, pointing at the school doors with the hand that held the keys.

  Maddy looked up at her.

  ‘Well, that’s a bit heartless,’ she said.

  ‘I beg your pardon?’ said Miss Stone, her pale face flushing so dark with anger it drove her freckles into extinction.

  ‘We can’t just leave him!’ said Maddy. She flicked a quick glance over her shoulder at the trees but whatever had bitten Bang Bang was staying hidden. For now. ‘He’s got to come in and get his hand bandaged. And then someone has to walk him home, make sure he’s OK.’

  ‘Why?’ asked Miss Stone.

  Because he’s been bitten by a faerie.

  ‘Because …’ said Maddy weakly, as Bang Bang sobbed beside her. ‘Because he’s upset?’

  ‘You will not argue with me, Madeline. I have told you no, and that is that,’ snapped Miss Stone. ‘Nor will you speak to me in such a disgraceful way. Leave Bang Bang go on his way and get inside the school now.’

  Maddy looked around to see if there was anyone who could help and as she turned her head to the right she saw a sight that made her blood run cold. Faeries were walking toward the school, using the same route Maddy had just walked, the road the led to the castle, that ran past her grandparents’ house, shrieking and jabbering like a bunch of sixth-formers on a day out. And right at the front was a very familiar figure with a white Mohican.

  Fachtna.

  Maddy felt her legs turn to jelly with fear and had a sudden urge to pee. She turned back to Miss Stone. ‘Please, miss, please,’ she pleaded, her voice low and urgent. ‘He has to come in.’

  ‘Stop being so melodramatic,’ hissed Miss Stone, oblivious to the howling faeries advancing up the road. ‘I have no time at all for your histrionics, Madeline. Now, for the last time, leave Bang Bang alone and get yourself to class!’

  With tears pricking her eyes, Maddy turned to Bang Bang and yanked on his arm, pulling his injured hand out of his mouth. She grabbed a hank of his dirty yellow beard and forced his head up and in the direction of the faeries.

  ‘Can you see that?’ she asked him softly. She knew the answer already because Bang Bang had gone absolutely still and his eyes bulged from their sockets with fear. ‘Then walk away,’ she hissed. ‘Don’t look at them and don’t look back. Just walk away, find some iron and hide.’ She watched him as he turned and fled with his awkward, dragging gait, his coat flapping around his legs.

  ‘At last,’ said Miss Stone. ‘I shall be speaking to your grandparents about your attitude, Madeline. It’s bad enough you already have one unauthorized visitor on the premises.’

  Maddy looked at her for a second and then ran past her, her rucksack hitting Miss Stone as she scrambled through the gate. She dimly heard the teacher’s cry of anger but she didn’t look back as she raced across the playground. Hope surged through her and gave her feet wings. Someone had come, someone had known that Blarney was about to be attacked by a gang of marauding faeries and they were going to help! She took the steps to the entrance two at a time and burst through the double doors. She didn’t know who she had been expecting, but it wasn’t the person sitting outside the school office. Danny looked up from his mobile phone and grinned at her.

  ‘Danny!’ she squeaked, not even trying to keep the disappointment from showing on her face as she struggled to get her breath back. ‘What are you doing here?’

  ‘Well, you know when you can smell a really bad day coming …’ He looked over her shoulder and his voice trailed off into silence.

  Maddy turned around and looked through the glass of the doors. Miss Stone was still fussing at the gate, completely unaware of the nightmarish assortment of dark faeries that were gathered no more than a breath away from her face, grinning evilly. She double-checked the padlock and then rattled the chain to make absolutely sure the gate was shut fast. She turned to walk away and then Fachtna stepped forward, drew her sword and sliced neatly through the hinges. Miss Stone whirled around and gaped at the gate as it lay on the tarmac of the playground, while the gang of faeries slithered around it, side-stepping the iron.

  ‘They’re coming!’ said Maddy. ‘What do we do? What the hell do we do?’

  Danny checked his phone again. ‘Still no signal. They must be interfering with the transmitter.’

  ‘So we’re finished?’ said Maddy, panic clawing through her stomach.

  ‘Looks like it,’ said Danny, his face as white as a sheet. ‘There’s really only one thing left to do.’

  ‘Which is?’ prompted Maddy, as the faeries reached the front steps of the school.

  ‘Panic!’ said Danny, as he stood up and picked up the chair he had been sitting on, swinging it hard so it smashed the glass case that housed the fire alarm. The faeries outside stumbled to a halt and clapped their hands over their ears, shrieking with pain as the fire alarm jangled through their senses.

  Danny grabbed Maddy’s arm. ‘Now I think we should run.’

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Maddy could hear Miss Stone screaming at them as they ran. ‘I SAW YOU, DANIEL O’SHEA! I SAW YOU SET OFF THAT FIRE ALARM, YOU LITTLE HOOLIGAN!’ Her voice swooped over the clanging of the fire alarm and Maddy could see the bewildered looks on teachers’ faces as they led their pupils out of the classrooms in neat lines. Danny dragged her along behind him as they whipped around the corner, heading for Maddy and Roisin’s class. All around them classroom doors were opening and teachers were telling shuffling children to line up in pairs. There were shouts as Danny and Maddy ran past, but the teachers had their hands full and nobody gave chase. Miss Rose, Maddy’s sweet-faced, softly spoken teacher was ushering her class out through the door in a crocodile of twos, and Danny spotted Roisin toward the back of the line, holding hands with another little girl. He elbowed his way past Miss Rose, pulling Maddy in his wake.

  ‘Sorry, miss,’ he panted as he shoved a girl against the door jamb. Miss Rose’s mouth was a perfect O of surprise. ‘No time to explain.’

  He grabbed Roisin by the scruff of the neck and this time hauled both girls back through the classroom door and into the hallway, stepping on feet and bumping into protesting classmates.

  ‘What is going on?’ demanded Miss Rose, her face flushing pink. ‘Let go of those girls at once and come with me to the playground.’

  ‘Can’t do that, miss,’ said Danny.

  ‘And why not?’ demanded Miss Rose, just as the demonic squad of dark faeries turned the corner and leered at them.

  Roisin’s jaw dropped as she gaped at them, the blood draining from her face to leave it paper white. Their classmates began to look confused and peered up the hallway, their eyes looking past the faeries. Fachtna walked up to Miss Rose and loomed over her, baring her shark’s teeth at Maddy in an evil grin.

  ‘And why not?’ she mimicked, pretending to look confused and shaking her head. The other faeries laughed. Miss Rose looked at the children around her. ‘Who said that? This is not funny!’

  Fachtna unsheathed one of the knives belted across her chest and ran the point of the blade against the wall, tearing a thin line through the plaster as she walked toward Maddy.

  ‘What is going on?’ squealed Miss Rose, the
panic rising in her voice as some of the girls huddled around her began to cry. Fachtna stopped and turned to face the teacher, bending down until her cold, white face was just inches away. Somehow Miss Rose sensed there was something close by that meant her harm, and Maddy watched the fear cloud her eyes as she searched for the source. It was like watching a blind woman trying to feel her way forward to safety while a predator watched her fumble, ready to spring at her throat at a moment’s notice.

  ‘Leave her alone,’ said Maddy.

  Fachtna whipped her head around to Maddy, her red eyes blazing, and hissed at her. One dark faerie, its brown lumpen body covered with the spines of thousands of thorns, a long tongue uncurling between needle-sharp teeth, leered at a little girl and pinched her skin between sharp nails. She screamed in pain and surprise and cried as she rubbed at her arm. The whole class was beginning to panic as they realized something horrible was happening but they did not have a clue what or where it was.

  ‘You can leave her alone as well,’ Maddy warned the thorn faerie as it bared its teeth at her and snarled.

  Fachtna weaved her head on her neck like a cobra. ‘Oh, we will,’ she said. ‘As long as you give us a bit of sport.’

  ‘Let me guess,’ said Maddy. ‘You want us to run.’

  ‘Who on earth are you talking to, Maddy?’ asked Miss Rose, her voice shaking with fear, while Fachtna’s evil smile just widened.

  ‘It’s no fun unless you try to escape,’ said Fachtna.

  ‘Fine,’ said Maddy. ‘After a count of three. One, two …’ And then she turned and legged it, pulling Danny and a stunned Roisin along with her. Behind them, the faeries’ howls of joy rose over the jarring clang of the fire alarm. Maddy raced blindly through the corridor, her school shoes slapping dully against the smooth surface of the floor. She nearly staggered as she tried to outrun her own ability and she didn’t dare look back to see how close behind the faeries were. Any second now, she was expecting to feel Fachtna’s long white fingers wrap around her neck and yank her off her feet.