Wild Blood (13 page)

It seemed to take forever to get there. Tess waited for a resistance of some kind, or a shift in the atmosphere like the one that she experienced every time she Switched. But it didn’t happen, and after a while Tess began to think that Cat Friend must be making a fool of her. But when she opened her eyes she was amazed to find that she was inside the hill and, judging by the distance they had covered, had been for some time.

She let go of Cat Friend’s tail and stopped to look around. They were in a long, dimly-lit hall like a broad tunnel, lined with rough stones from the base of the walls to the crude arch high above their heads. To a rat the place was enormous, but Tess guessed that the roof would not have been much higher than a man’s head. She wondered vaguely who would have built such a place, but more perplexing was that still there was no sign of Kevin or the children.

Cat Friend seemed equally perplexed, and the two rats conferred briefly before moving on across the stony floor. At the end of the hall a stone wall blocked their way, but on the left, low down, was a hole in the wall. Although it was huge for a rat, it was small for a human. A child might have crawled through, but an adult would have had to lie down on their belly to squeeze in. Since there was no other way forward, the rats went in, all their senses straining for any signs of danger.

Before they had gone more than a few feet along this smaller tunnel, they heard sounds of life ahead, and their way was lit by a strange, golden light. A moment later they emerged into a second hall. It was roughly the same size and shape as the one they had just come through, but there all similarity ended.

For this hall was, without doubt, a fairy
sidhe.
The mysterious light that they had encountered flooded the enclosed space, but there were no lamps nor was there any opening to the outside. Tess and Cat Friend crouched at the end of the small tunnel, trying to get their bearings in the extraordinary surroundings.

The first thing Tess noticed was Orla and Brian, who were standing nearby and were involved in what appeared to be a rather cruel game. They had a small, black kitten, and they were tossing it between them as though it was a ball. Beyond them was a table, covered with the most scrumptious food that Tess had ever seen and, further on still, she could see Kevin sitting on a pile of silken cushions, looking sulky.

Tess touched noses with Cat Friend and was about to move forward when she felt a large hand grasp her tail and lift her from the ground. Quicker than thought, she twisted in the air, in an attempt to bite the aggressor, but before her teeth reached their target the hand jerked away and she found herself being flung through the air in a wide arc.

Before she began to descend she Switched into a bat and flew on up towards the ceiling, where she gripped a rough edge of stone with her paws and waited to get her bearings. Beneath her the game had abruptly ended and Orla was clutching the kitten, which clung to her jumper with tiny claws. Beyond them Kevin was on his feet, and they were all staring towards a boy who stood beside the crawl-hole.

He, in turn, was gazing up at her. He appeared to be a teenager, around her own age. His eyes were grey and he had fair hair, but beyond that it was hard to describe him in terms of the human race. He was dressed in clothes that glimmered and moved like molten silver and gold, and his skin shone with the same, golden light that suffused the
sidhe
so that it was difficult to say whether he reflected the light or created it. But despite his extraordinary appearance, there was something about his face that was familiar to Tess. She was still racking her brains, trying to work out what it was, when he began to speak.

To her bat-brain the sound was meaningless; a booming resonance bouncing around the confined space. Intrigued, she dropped from the ceiling and fluttered to the floor beside the table, where she Switched into human form.

‘Yay! Here’s Tess!’ Orla shouted.

‘Yahoo!’ yelled Brian. ‘What took you so long, eh?’

Orla tossed the little black kitten towards her. As she caught it, it transformed itself into Colm, red wellies and all. Tess was so surprised by the sudden change in weight that she dropped him, but he changed into a huge, brightly-coloured butterfly as he fell, and went fluttering off around the hall.

Tess laughed, delightedly. It was like a dream come true, being among friends, all Switchers, with no one to keep secrets from And when she perused the loaded table, she knew that she was really in heaven. All her favourite foods were there; macaroni cheese and sausages and heaps of chips with vinegar and tomato ketchup, and trifles and cream buns and too many things to take in. She reached for a chip and was about to put it in her mouth when Kevin roared from the other end of the hall.

‘No, Tess! Don’t eat it!’

She turned and stared at him, dumbstruck. He ran over.

‘Don’t eat it, Tess,’ he said again. ‘Don’t eat anything, you hear? Nothing at all.’

From the opposite end of the hall, the strange boy advanced, speaking as he came.

‘Don’t listen to him, Tess. He has some very strange ideas. I can’t imagine where he got them from.’

The boy was so handsome and had such an ethereal quality that Tess found it hard to disbelieve him.

‘Take some, go on. Help yourself.’

But Kevin was determined. ‘No, Tess. Please listen. You know it yourself, if only you’ll stop and think.’

‘Think about what?’ asked Tess, her irritation growing. She was remembering Kevin’s deceitfulness earlier, and was not inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt. But her dilemma was shelved for the time being by a new turn of events.

Brian stepped forward and, as proud as punch, stood between Tess and the radiant boy.

‘In any case,’ he said, ‘we are forgetting ourselves. I think we all know who you are, Tess. But I don’t think you have met our Uncle Declan.’

T
ESS TOOK SEVERAL STEPS
backwards, not because there was anything threatening about Declan’s manner, but because she was afraid that if she took the offered hand it might not feel like flesh. Kevin moved over to her, protectively she thought, but it didn’t stop the blood draining from her face, and for a moment or two she was light-headed and faint.

Declan smiled at her reaction.

‘What’s wrong?’ he said. ‘You look as if you’ve seen a ghost.’

‘And haven’t I?’ said Tess.

He laughed. ‘I can understand why you should think that,’ he said.

The butterfly came flitting over and landed on Tess’s shoulder. This time she was ready for the change, and she hefted Colm down on to her hip as he Switched.

‘Go home, Tess?’ he asked.

‘Of course we will, Colm. I’ll bring you home soon.’

But Kevin shook his head. ‘You can’t, Tess,’ he said. ‘He won’t let them.’

‘How can he stop them?’ she said. ‘Will somebody please explain to me what’s going on?’

Colm wriggled to the ground and headed towards the table.

‘Don’t eat anything, now,’ said Orla.

‘Wanna sausage,’ said Colm, reaching for one.

‘Why can’t he have one?’ asked Tess.

‘Because he’ll have to stay here for ever if he eats anything,’ said Brian.

‘He’s right,’ said Kevin. ‘Don’t you remember the rules?’

‘What rules? The rules of what?’

‘Of places like this,’ said Kevin. ‘About not eating the food, no matter how delicious it looks.’

Orla had succeeded in prising the sausage out of Colm’s hand, and was standing between him and the table, warding off the well-aimed blows that he was raining upon her.

‘But that’s ridiculous,’ said Tess. ‘That’s just stuff out of fairy stories.’

Her words met with silence, and as she looked around the hall, she discovered that every eye in the place was turned to her, as though she was an idiot; the last one to get some glaringly obvious joke.

‘It’s ridiculous!’ she said. ‘You can’t be for real.’

Still everyone stared, until she went on. ‘This is the twentieth century, for cripe’s sake! You’re not trying to tell me there’s such a thing as fairies!’

The silence that met her words was her answer. She shook her head incredulously.

‘Where are they, then? These fairies?’

All the others turned their eyes towards Declan.

‘But he’s not a fairy!’ said Tess. ‘Fairies are little people who flit around in the woods and play tricks on …’ She stopped, remembering some of her recent experiences. ‘… and they’re small,’ she finished, lamely.

Declan laughed; a clear, birdlike sound that echoed throughout the long chamber.

‘They’re small except for the big ones,’ he said.

‘And they’re big except for the green ones,’ said Orla.

‘And they’re green except for the pink ones,’ said Brian. ‘And they all have wings except for the ones without them!’

The hall rang with laughter, and Tess would have felt left out; like a new girl at school all over again, if it hadn’t been for Kevin. He wasn’t laughing, and he took another protective step towards her.

But she hadn’t forgotten his deceit. ‘I don’t know how you can be so stuck on the rules anyway,’ she said, glaring at him. ‘Since you seem to be able to break them when it suits you.’

‘What rules?’ said Kevin. ‘What rule did I break?’

‘Only the one that says you can’t Switch any more after you’re fifteen!’

Kevin shook his head in bewilderment. Colm came back and slipped a sweaty hand into hers.

‘Go home, now?’ he asked.

‘Soon, Colm. Soon.’

She turned back to the others, and as she did so the blood left her brain again and she had to lean against the wall for support.

For there were two Kevins, identical in all respects.

The one beside her, the real Kevin, went pale and turned away. The other one laughed, and, just for an instant, the shadow that he cast upon the wall behind him grew about three feet taller and sprouted antlers. Tess took a step back, but before she could take any more drastic action the looming figure shrank and the second Kevin became Declan again.

For a long moment, everyone was too stunned to speak. But eventually Kevin found his voice. ‘So that explains it,’ he said. ‘That’s how you saw me in the woods. Except that it wasn’t me at all. It was him.’

‘But which one was him?’ said Tess.

‘The one who took the kids,’ said Kevin. ‘The other one was me. The one on the bicycle.’

‘So how did you get in here?’ Tess asked.

‘Declan invited me in,’ he said.

Declan nodded. ‘People can’t see the door because of an illusion; fairy glamour, it’s called. But we can take it off if we choose to. If there’s someone we want to let in.’

Tess felt hurt. ‘Why didn’t you take it off for me, then?’ she asked.

To her disgust, Declan roared with laughter. ‘I wanted to see if you could find your own way in,’ he said. ‘And besides, it was fun watching you wearing your brains out trying to understand what was going on.’

He laughed again and Tess decided to ignore him. She turned back to Kevin. ‘Why didn’t you come out, then?’ she asked. ‘Since you seem to be especially privileged around here.’

‘Would you have, Tess?’ said Kevin, looking towards the three children. ‘Would you have left them here with him?’

Tess’s heart seemed complete again. Whatever else might happen, she was reassured. This was the Kevin she knew and trusted.

If little Colm understood the conversation, he showed no interest in it. He tugged at Tess’s hand and, when she didn’t respond, he let go of it.

‘Go home now!’ he whined, and set off for the hole at the entrance to the hall.

He was small enough to crawl through easily. At least, in his own shape, he was. But as he dropped towards his hands and knees to go through, he turned into a pig. A large pig. Far too large to go through the hole.

Declan snickered, and despite herself Tess laughed as well.

‘Why doesn’t he try something smaller?’ she said.

‘Because it isn’t him that’s doing it,’ said Kevin. ‘It’s Declan.’

Declan smiled and gave a mock bow. ‘A simple enchantment,’ he said.

‘But how?’ said Tess. ‘I don’t understand.’ She turned to Declan. ‘Who are you, anyway?’

‘You know who I am,’ said Declan. He nodded towards her cousins. ‘I’m Maurice’s brother; their uncle.’

‘But you can’t be. You’re too young.’

Declan shook his head. ‘I just look young,’ he said. ‘I’m what you could be, and your cousins. And what he could have been if he’d had the sense, poor soul.’

‘Don’t “poor soul” me!’ said Kevin. ‘I don’t need your pity!’

‘Maybe not,’ said Declan. ‘But I bet you’d change places with me if you could. Don’t you think so, Tess?’

Tess suspected he might be right, but in deference to Kevin’s feelings she said nothing.

‘I did what you all wish you could do,’ Declan went on. ‘I didn’t give up the gift when I turned fifteen. I kept it.’

‘But you can’t!’ said Tess. ‘You have to …’

Declan interrupted her. ‘You have to blah blah blah,’ he said. ‘You have to nothing. We discovered something, your uncle and I.’

‘Uncle Maurice?’

‘Who else? Shall I show you, Tess? Shall I show you what Maurice and I discovered in these woods?’

Tess hesitated, remembering the weird things she had seen and the fear she had experienced. What was happening here still frightened her.

‘I’m not going anywhere,’ she said. ‘Not until I understand what’s going on here. Will someone please explain?’

As soon as Colm stopped trying to get out of the crawl-hole he was relieved of his pig shape. To keep him occupied, Brian Switched into C3PO, and in immediate response, Colm turned into R2D2. Tess was satisfied as another mystery was explained, but she couldn’t help wishing that she had thought of it herself, and tried it. The two metal men went to the far end of the hall, where Brian responded to his brother’s bleeps and whirs in soft, patient tones.

Meanwhile, the others flopped around on the silken cushions and listened as Declan told his story.

‘Maurice was the first to discover that we could change ourselves into other things,’ he began. ‘You mean Uncle Maurice was a Switcher, too?’ said Tess.