Maeve – the first Shadowwitch, the inventor of Shadowmagic, the mad Druid who had decimated half of her people’s rowan forest in a maniacal quest for power. The leader who swore an oath to overthrow the House of Duir. The Fili Queen who attempted to harness a power so strong that it destroyed her and her army. She was back, and so was her army.
Outside, hundreds of soldiers suddenly appeared, naked and screaming. Cialtie, it seemed, had anticipated this. Banshees were ready, passing out cloaks and boots. Then they led the dazed Fili into the Lodge where they found their old yew bows hanging. Even though the bows were all almost identical, the proper owner walked straight up to his own weapon and picked it out like it was a son or daughter.
Maeve and her Fili army were back and in league with Cialtie, the Banshees and the Brownies. Cialtie was right. This was the ally that ensured his victory.
I took off my masks when it was just me and Jesse in his tent. ‘I have to find Ruby and get back to Duir,’ I said, ‘but I don’t know how to do it without getting you into trouble. Any ideas?’
But Jesse wasn’t ready for a chat about planning. He was still way too freaked out. ‘Did you see what they did?’ he asked, wide-eyed and pale.
‘I sure did.’
‘Whatever happened in there … it can’t be … it can’t be right.’
‘No, it was very wrong and I’m freaked out too.’
Jesse continued to look off into nothing. I tried to snap him out of it. ‘Hey,’ I said playfully punching him on the arm, ‘you were awesome in there.’
‘I was?’
‘Hell yes. The way you stood up to Lugh. That was, like, the bravest thing I’ve ever seen.’
‘What?’ he said, finally looking at me. ‘Really? Gosh I almost forgot I did that. I did do that, didn’t I?’
‘You sure did.’
Jesse smiled. ‘I was terrified.’
‘Well, you pretended not to be very well. It was – princely.’
He looked like he’d been slapped. ‘Gosh, I think that’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.’
Jesse then burst into tears and gave me a hug. That may not be princely behaviour in anybody else’s book but it was just fine in mine.
A Banshee guard outside the tent announced himself and asked loudly if he could speak with Prince Codna. I only had time to turn away and throw up my hood before he entered the tent. Jesse nodded to the messenger and wiped his eyes.
‘I have been sent to ask if you or any of the Brownies have seen the girl,’ the Banshee said, standing to attention.
‘What girl?’ Jesse asked.
‘The blind girl, Your Highness. She has powers of which we were previously unaware. She has killed two guards and escaped.’
I almost turned then. Surely this was some kind of joke.
‘I find that hard to believe,’ Jesse said.
‘It is true, sir. She is gone and all that is left of two of my most trusted guards are their clothes.’
‘This is indeed very strange,’ he said in his faux-prince voice. ‘I shall assign some Brownies to help you with the search.’
The guard saluted and left.
Jesse picked up my bandana and eye gauze mask and handed them to me. ‘Go find her, Conor, and get her back home.’
‘But what about you? Won’t it be suspicious if your Shadowguard disappears?’
‘Don’t worry about me. I’m sure I can find a new Shadowguard.’
I put on my mask and stood. Before I left Jesse took my hand and said, ‘I remember what you once said, Conor. No one can unmake us friends.’
Outside the tent was a disorganised mess. Soldiers were running all over the place looking into tents and under bushes. If Ruby was wandering around out here I had no chance of finding her first. Saying that, how could she have escaped? The messenger said she had killed two guards. Now that certainly wasn’t true. Maybe she had help. Maybe Mom or Araf had organised a breakout.
I decided to risk going in to the Lodge to see if I could have a look at where she had been held. I had to risk talking to a couple of Banshee guards. I was worried that maybe speaking would give away that I was a fake Shadowguard, but I didn’t seem to arouse any suspicion.
Ruby’s holding cell made me want to cry. There was just a straw mat and a bucket for her to use as a toilet. On the floor was a half-eaten apple. How could anybody do this to a young girl? By the door, a pile of soldier’s uniforms lay on top of two pairs of shoes. I picked up one of the cloaks and dust fell from the inside of the sleeves.
OK, I said to myself, let’s assume she hasn’t been rescued, or worse kidnapped by somebody else – let’s assume she really did escape on her own. Where could she have gone? I imagined I was a young girl groping along these stone walls. I followed a wall out of the room and into the corridor. The roof was broken here and the wall was covered with pale ivy. I got down on my hands and knees and discovered that some of the stems were broken. Could Ruby have done that as she was feeling along the wall? Further along I found what almost looked like an ivy bush. I looked inside and found an opening in the wall behind it. Vines had grown up from below in what must have been an old dumb waiter shaft. There was still a rope hanging down. At the bottom of the shaft was daylight. There was no way I could fit in there, but Ruby could. As I was poking my head back in, I saw a clump of matted hair hanging from a thorny vine. It was black, just like Ruby’s. ‘Aren’t you a clever girl,’ I said to myself.
I ran outside and around the Lodge until I found where that shaft let out. There was a half-ruined stone outbuilding that probably had been some sort of cooking place or maybe a laundry. In the dirt I found the imprint of a very Worldly sneaker print. She had definitely been there. I rubbed out her footprint and looked into the holly forest beyond.
A Banshee saw me climbing from the outbuilding. ‘Found anything?’
‘No,’ I replied. ‘Have you searched the holly forest yet?’
‘Twice,’ he said. ‘She’s not out there.’
‘Maybe she climbed a tree.’
‘Not those trees, mate. Anytime you get near them they scratch the hell out of you.’
To prove his words he held out his arm. It was covered with deep scratches. He continued around the castle searching in a way a person does when he knows there’s no point but has to keep going because his superior officer ordered him to.
I looked at the holly forest before me. You gotta be out there somewhere, my little gem. The hollies here weren’t like trees, they were more like gigantic bushes. Most were about two storeys high; palm-sized leaves covered them from top to bottom and those leaves were hard and spiked on all sides. There was no way to get to the trunk of these trees without some serious hacking, or permission. I walked up to the nearest plant. I had never spoken to a holly before. I tentatively reached towards it. My last experience with talking to a strange oak made me think twice before bounding up and hugging a tree. I pinched a leaf between my index finger and thumb and gave it a dainty shake like the kind you’d get from a germ-phobic posh lady.
‘Hello there, Mr Holly,’ I said as politely as I could. I braced myself for an attack but could only hear, no not hear, feel – I could feel a tiny voice, but it was just out of reach like I was trying to listen to a conversation through a hotel wall. I got the impression that if I were able to reach through the leaves and touch some wood that I might be able to converse with this plant. I remembered the welted-up scratches on the soldier’s arm but if these trees could help me find Ruby that would be a small price. I scrunched up my eyes and pushed my hand past the wall of leaves and felt around for a branch. The moment I touched it the leaves closed around my arm and spiked leaves penetrated my skin. The pain was excruciating but I was prepared for it and didn’t try to pull away. It was the pulling away that had scratched that soldier up so much. Mr Holly’s voice was strong in my mind now and the first thing I realised was that it was Ms Holly.
‘Who be you?’ she asked as I grimaced in pain.
The question led me to surmise that hollies couldn’t just reach into my head and take out any information like some of the other trees in The Land. I didn’t answer. I wanted to keep my identity a secret. I had no idea if Hollies gossiped or not.
She was in my brain enough to ask, ‘You are Faerie?’
‘Yes ma’am.’
‘I want you to tell me,’ she demanded.
‘I am Faerie,’ I said. ‘I’m looking for a young girl.’
‘What do you want with this child?’
‘I want to help her, she’s lost.’
‘Others today have said this to us but in their blood they harboured malice.’
I looked down at my wrist, beads of blood oozed out of a ring of tiny pinpricks caused by the sharp leaves.
‘You can read blood?’
‘Your blood (actually it felt more like she said sap) reveals to us the truth in what you say.’
‘Then know this, ma’am,’ I said. ‘This young girl is lost and alone. She has been mistreated by these people. I’m here to take her home to her family. Do you know where she is?’
The tree didn’t speak for a while. I got a faint impression that she was talking to someone else.
‘The girl is with us. She is very afraid and says she can no longer see.’
‘Will you lead me to her?’
She released my wrist but I remained in contact with the branch. ‘Walk north touching my sisters. We will lead you to her.’
At did as I was told. While trying to look casual, I touched the leaves of every holly I passed. In my head I received instant messages that subtly changed my direction until I found a large tree that somehow I knew she was under. I looked around; I could hear distant shouting but no one was about.
I pinched a leaf between my fingers and asked, ‘Is the girl here?’
The tree replied by saying, ‘Give me your blood.’
I tried to reach through the wall of leaves like I did before but the tree instructed me just to prick my thumb on one of the leaf’s spines.
As soon as I did the tree asked, ‘Do you mean to harm this child?’
My heart began to race in my chest. I had found her. ‘No ma’am,’ I said. ‘I’ve come to rescue her.’
‘How do you propose to do that? The child cannot travel: she is hurt and exhausted.’
‘I have an amulet that will return us home to her father and grandmother.’
I felt the tree believe me and then heard the creaking sound of living wood moving. A gap opened in the dome of leaves that covered the holly from top to bottom and I entered. I thought she wasn’t there at first. I looked all around the base of the trunk and didn’t find her. Then I looked up. She was about six feet above me, asleep, cradled in a basket of branches provided by the holly.
I felt tears come to my eyes. I placed my hand on the trunk and said, ‘Thank you.’
It was tight in there but the holly pushed apart branches as I climbed. She was still asleep when I reached her. She was pale, dirty and her hair was a tangled mess but still I thought she was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I gently pushed her hair away from her face. She opened her eyes and – screamed. She screamed one of those world famous Ruby migraine-inducing screams. I placed my hand across her mouth; I don’t know how but the sound was still amazingly loud.
‘Shhhhh, Ruby, it’s me,’ I shout-whispered.
She couldn’t hear me over the internal sound she was making with her scream so she bit me. I quickly pulled my palm back and fell backwards about five feet and got stuck upside-down in the branches. Ruby then started banging on my ankle with something really hard.
‘Ruby,’ I shouted, not caring who heard me; every living creature within a twenty-five-mile radius must have heard that scream. ‘Ruby, damn it, stop. It’s me, Conor.’
‘Conor, Conor O’Neil?’
‘Yes, now shut up.’
The holly tried to help me untangle myself but only succeeded in dropping me another five feet onto my head. Ruby climbed down. When I took her in my arms she broke down into uncontrollable quaking sobs.
‘Shhhh, it’s all right,’ I said, but it wasn’t.
Outside the tree I heard soldiers shouting, ‘In there. That one.’
‘There are men surrounding me,’ the holly pulsed into my brain.
I reached to my neck for the rothlú charm and then panicked when it wasn’t there. I then remembered I had taken it off inside the Lodge. I frantically searched for the pocket I knew was somewhere in this borrowed set of clothes.
Outside I heard a voice say. ‘Hack it down.’
The tree’s voice in my head barked, ‘Quickly, Faerie.’
I found the amulet at the same time as I saw a sword slice through the holly’s wall of leaves. At the same time I felt the tree’s pain and terror.
I didn’t have time to thank or apologise to the tree. I only had time to say, ‘This is gonna hurt, Ruby,’ and then I said, ‘Rothlú.’
I can’t tell you how disappointed I was when I felt wet grass pressing against the side of my face. I really thought I was going to wake up between clean sheets in my nice warm bed in Castle Duir. Instead, I was once again face down in a field somewhere. This had been my third rothlú spell (or was it four? I didn’t even know any more) in two days. Brains were not meant to be scrambled on a regular basis. I tried to think where I was and how I got there. It was definitely a rothlú so it must be important, but at that moment I couldn’t think and all I wanted to do was go back to sleep in the dirt or if that wasn’t possible, then die. At least I wouldn’t hurt any more.
Then a scream brought me back to the present. At the sound of Ruby’s screech my brain cells finally organised themselves enough so I remembered what I was doing. I was saving Ruby. The hairy hermit told me that the rothlú would get me home but it obviously hadn’t – I was face down in grass and Ruby was once again in trouble. Forcing myself to ignore the all-over body pain, I jumped to my feet. Ruby stopped screaming and began jumping. She wrapped her arms around my legs.
I pushed her back. ‘What’s wrong? Are you all right? Where are we?’
Ruby continued to jump. ‘You’re awake!’
I placed my hands on her shoulder, and tried to make her hold still. It didn’t work and it hurt. I felt like I had just been worked over in an alley by a loan shark.
‘Ruby, why are you screaming?’
She looked at me like I’d just asked a stupid question. ‘You wouldn’t wake up so I did one of my waking the dead screams. And it worked.’
‘So you’re OK?’
‘Yes, yes,’ she said, grabbing my hand and pulling me.
I took a few steps and then had to stop. I turned away and thought I was going to be sick. She grabbed my hand again.
‘Come on, come on, you have to meet someone. She is sooooooo nice.’
I quickly straightened up and finally had a look around. I let Ruby lead me to her new friend as a smile crossed my face. I reached out and placed my hands on that venerable old bark and said, ‘Hello, Mother Oak.’