Shadowmagic - Sons of Macha (20 page)

‘Are you planning to kill that child?'

At first I didn't even know it was Jesse, the voice was so forceful.

Macha answered. ‘Ona's prophecy calls for the blood of the blind child.'

‘What does it say – exactly?' Jesse almost shouted. ‘Does it demand her death?'

My grandmother was obviously not used to being spoken to like this. She replied with only an indignant glare.

Jesse, bless him, was undaunted. He spoke like the prince that he was. Only he and I knew just how badly he was shaking under his cloak. ‘If the spell calls for blood, take some blood, but I will not stand by and watch an unnecessary murder of the child.'

I didn't know if it was the right thing to do or not, but I took that to be an order from my prince and stepped forward towards Lugh with my staff held ready to strike. This also got me that bit closer to Ruby if things got really sticky.

During all of this, the ghost impatiently circled around the centre of the room.

‘How dare you reproach me,' Lugh said and lifted his hand in a gesture that I knew all too well. I braced myself for the inevitable gale that was about to smash me into the next state.

‘Father,' Cialtie shouted. It was maybe the first time I had ever been glad to hear that voice. ‘The Brownie is right. There is no need to kill the child. She still may be of use to us.'

Lugh still didn't take the knife away from Ruby's throat. ‘Once we have the Shadowwitch we won't need this child.'

‘You are probably right, Father, but why chance it? You of all people should know how swiftly winds can change.'

‘Very well,' Lugh said and removed the dagger from Ruby's neck. I relaxed then and stepped back into the room. That's when Lugh grabbed the girl's hand and in a flash ran the edge of the blade across Ruby's palm. Ruby screamed and tried to pull away but Lugh held her wrist firm. Blood dripped from her hand as she stopped squirming and fainted dead away. The Banshee sorceress picked up a bowl and let the blood drip into it. The blood continued to drip as Lugh held Ruby's pale lifeless body by her hair. I had to get her out of here. The sorceress held up a finger indicating that she had enough blood. One of the servants was called and Lugh handed Ruby over like she was a rag doll left after play.

‘Make sure her wound is dressed,' a voice said, saying what I would have said if I could. It was the new Turlow. The Banshee servant bowed her head yes. I had assumed this Turlow was just a Cialtie lackey; maybe there was hope for him.

Lugh and Macha backed into their original positions as the ghost sat cross-legged across from the Banshee witch. Who was this ghost? Lugh said something about a Shadowwitch? I was pondering this when the Banshee finally opened her hand and revealed the last rune. It was less substantial than the others and was clearer than the blueish Shadowrunes that were scattered around the floor. It looked like it was made of the same stuff as the ghost. Then, proving that it was, the ghost picked it up. That's when I came very close to giving myself away. An audible gasp left my bandana-covered mouth. Luckily only Jesse seemed to notice. He gave me a hard disapproving stare. The reason for my surprise was the rune. It was identical to the one my mother made when she undertook the Rite of Choosing using Shadowmagic as opposed to real magic. Mom for the first time ever used tree sap to fuel the changing as opposed to gold. The rune she received for her efforts was transparent and contained a rune that no one had ever seen before. No one knew its meaning and there had never been anything like it – until now.

The ghost held this new Shadowrune on the palms of her hands. Taline pushed all of the remaining runes into a pile underneath the hands and ignited them with Shadowflame. The ghost threw back her head in a silent scream – could the Shadowfire be burning her? Taline then poured Ruby's blood from the bowl into the cupped hands and onto the rune. Smoke immediately poured up from the hands but then dissipated – there was no scent. Then the changes began in the ghost. First there was red. The major arteries began to form like those see-through pages in a biology book. Then the major organs darkened at the same time as the skeleton. Finally flesh began to appear as the sound of a faraway whine grew into a full-blown scream of agony.

When it was done a naked woman lay still, kneeling with her head in her lap like she was praying. Black hair fell in front of her face. My grandmother stepped forward and took the cloak off her back and laid it over the former ghost's shoulders. Then she shushed the Banshee sorceress away and knelt across from the prostrate woman. She reached over, pushed back her hair and then placed her hands on each side of the woman's face and lifted it to hers. I was amazed that the woman's black eyes were open. My grandmother leaned in and stared directly into the woman's eyes and said, ‘Welcome back, Maeve.'

M
aeve – 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.