The Changeling (20 page)

At the next twist in the path she bumped straight into him – he had been waiting for her. He took hold of her by her shoulders, as if he were afraid she might run off. He said urgently, ‘I have to talk to you. We have to go home right now.’

‘I know what you mean – I want to let my parents know I’m alive too. Maybe there’s a way to send everyone a message—’

‘No, that’s not what I mean. I mean –
we have to go home.
Right now. And never come back.’

Aoife took a quick, disappointed step back, so that his hands fell from her shoulders. Below their feet the bird-filled forest flowered, and shining rivers coiled; above them, eagles circled under rainbows. This was the world where she’d been born and to which she had felt such a deep, powerful urge to return – and the farmer’s boy just wanted to be safe above in the human world, where
he
belonged. ‘I know this place is dangerous . . .’

He said sharply, ‘I’m not
afraid.
’

‘. . . but it’s my world, Shay. It’s where I come from. And there are other people here like me – other changelings. I feel like I belong.’

He glanced down the steep path to where Caitlin and Ultan were strolling on ahead of them, and said, ‘Maybe digging out that tunnel won’t be that big a job. I’d say we could do it.’

He hadn’t even listened to her. All he could think about was leaving her. Aoife sighed, and said sadly, ‘OK, but listen – you can’t go that way, you’ll be killed. We need to go to Falias. Caitlin said the only way back to the surface was from there.’

‘But she also said it’s a week’s walk!’

‘I know it’s awful if John Joe thinks you’re dead – I hate worrying people too – but what can we do? As soon as we get there, you can go home.’

Shay answered instantly, ‘I’m not going anywhere without you.’

Aoife felt instantly much lighter – at least it wasn’t her he was trying to get away from. ‘No, seriously, it’s a good idea you going first – you can tell everyone I’m safe as well.’

‘I’m not going—’

‘
Shay
. This is my world. I want to explore this famous city that Caitlin’s on about. I want to discover stuff, like where I was born and what I can do. I want to meet other people like me. Just tell everyone I’m all right, and I’ll be back soon.’

Shay cried, slightly wildly, ‘How soon?’

‘I don’t know – a month?’

‘
A month?
’ He was staring at her as if she’d lost her mind.

‘Why not? Once everyone knows I’m all right.’

‘It’s too long, much too long!’ He had gone white, his eyes dark green and shining, like holly leaves.

‘Shay, what’s the matter? Tell me!’

He drew the palms down the sides of his face, hard. ‘Aoife, do you realize how long Ultan McNeal’s family have thought him dead?’

She had seen his anniversary Mass card on Carla’s nan’s mantelpiece. Ultan had said he’d been away a few months, but it must have been longer, for him to have had at least one anniversary. ‘A year? Two?’

‘Thirty.’

‘
Thirty?
’

‘And his father is still mourning him. And his mother is dead.’

‘Oh God, poor Ultan, he’s lost all track of time—’

‘And Caitlin McGreevey’s mother is in the graveyard above in Ballinadeen.’

Aoife groaned. ‘So she
did
die in the fire.’

‘No. She passed away when I was a little kid, of old age. The fire that killed the priest happened nearly half a century ago.’

Aoife stared at him. ‘But—’

Shay said in an anguished voice, ‘Aoife, it’s like the legend of Oisín.’

‘Oisín . . .’

‘The Fianna hero who followed the fairy Niamh to the Land of the Young. He thought he had only been away for three years, because he never grew older and nothing ever changed, but when he returned, three hundred years had passed in his own world and all his family and friends were dead. Suppose it’s like that for us, Aoife – suppose time is flying by above, while we are trapped down here? What if by the time we get home, everyone is old or dead?’

CHAPTER FIVE

Ultan insisted on helping – he jumped into the hole left by the collapsed tunnel and began hurling rocks aside. He was a strong farmer’s lad himself, under his soft layer of flesh.

Caitlin stood screaming at him: ‘Ultan, stop it – you’re not allowed! You want the dullahans after you, hey?’

‘Banshees and lenanshees go to the surface all the time, don’t they?’

‘They’re different, they’re
ancient
types. We’re the children of Danu and we have to stay here!’

Ultan was struggling to lift a small boulder. ‘What about those guys in Falias who sneak back for the human food? I’m after hearing
they
don’t wait for anyone’s permission.’

‘Don’t go quoting those lunatics at me. If they want to risk getting sucked dry by a dullahan for the sake of a packet of cheese-and-onion Taytos, that’s their business.’

‘Sucked dry?’ He laughed loudly and deliberately. ‘Ha, ha, ha! You’re making that up.’

‘It’s in the book!’

‘Sure it is. You’re forgetting you told me before, them things have no heads.’

‘Oh, for . . . Isn’t it obvious? They carry their heads around with them, under their arms. How else do you think they call your name?’

Ultan looked startled and nearly dropped the boulder on his foot. ‘I did wonder about that . . .’

‘First they call your name and then they suck you dry.’

‘Stop
saying
that. You’re full of crap.’ But he climbed out of the hole and stood on the edge of it, with his thumbs hooked in his elastic waistband. ‘Anyway, there’s no point trying to dig our way out with our bare hands – we won’t be getting through there without a proper machine to help us. Or super-strength as a power.’

Aoife stopped digging as well. Ultan was right – the rocks were getting so big, they were impossible to lift. Shay was still frantically clearing away what he could, but it was obvious that it was an impossible task. She climbed out of the hole and said to Caitlin, who was trussing up the unconscious cat even tighter, ‘Is it really a week’s walk to Falias?’

‘More like two weeks. Lugging this thing with us is really going to slow us up.’

Aoife did a quick mental sum, with a wide-eyed glance at Shay. Two weeks – two hundred weeks – four years. Carla would be at university. She felt dizzy and panicky at the thought. ‘Do we really have to bring that monster with us?’

Caitlin knotted another strand of net. ‘Won’t get into Falias without it – we have to bring a live beast with us if we’re going to be allowed in.’

‘Is there no quicker way?’

‘Nope. I can fly pretty well, but Ultan here . . .’

‘You lepping about the place like a giant rabbit,’ said Ultan sharply, ‘doesn’t count as flying.’

‘. . . but
Fat Boy
here is way too heavy to get off the ground.’

‘
Hey!
It’s just not my power, all right? Anyway, what about the boat we saw at the lake?’

Caitlin said fiercely, ‘I’m not getting in that flimsy little—’

Aoife cried, ‘There’s a boat?’

‘No!’

Ultan rolled his eyes. ‘Don’t mind her, she’s only lying ’cos she’s scared of water.’

‘
I’m not scared of anything! I just don’t like it!
’

Shay had already vaulted out of the hole. ‘Come on, let’s go and find this boat.’ He seized one corner of the net and started dragging the unconscious cat towards the entrance.

Caitlin sprang to her feet. ‘Danu’s sake, be careful. What’s the rush?’

‘We’re in a hurry to get to Falias, aren’t we?’ He scraped the cat’s body over a pile of stones – it groaned and extended claws like shark’s teeth.

‘Take it handy, ya fool, don’t bash it around! The zookeeper won’t accept it if it’s dead – we’ll get no payment, no city passes, nothing!’

‘Then the quicker we get it there, the better. Look at the state of it: it’s burned to a crisp – it’s half dead already.’

‘Wasn’t me jabbed it full of holes! I told you not to hurt it!’

Ultan said anxiously, ‘Cait, he’s right, we should take the boat. Supposing it does die on us, and we get stuck out here in the wilderness for six more months?’

‘Oh for— Ugh. Grand so, but stop
dragging
it. Lift,
lift
!’

The four of them bundled the cat through the brambles and down towards the forest. At the edge of the trees the changeling boy came to a determined halt. ‘I want to see how Donie is getting on.’

Caitlin scoffed, ‘Come on, ya soft fool, there’ll be nothing to see yet – stuff doesn’t grow
that
fast.’

And Shay said grimly, ‘We’re in a hurry, aren’t we?’

But Ultan’s round face grew stubborn and he dropped his corner of their burden. The cat’s jaw smacked off a stone; its teeth went through its tongue, and drops of yellow blood rolled from its lip.

‘
Careful, ya fool.
’

‘I’m not going anywhere without saying goodbye. It’ll only take ten minutes.’

Aoife did the sum, and shivered. Ten minutes. Sixteen hours in the human world. Yet not to visit the child’s grave . . . ‘Look, let’s do it. It’s only a short distance away.’

They couldn’t find the grassy glade with its soft pile of earth – it was as if it had been swallowed by the forest. Ultan didn’t want to give up looking, and was only persuaded to do so when Caitlin threatened to abandon him. But as they headed back towards where they’d left the cat – the plump changeling lad in tears – Aoife spotted a slim flicker of white beneath the trees. She looked closer. It was the willow cross. ‘It’s there! Oh, it’s beautiful! Ultan, cheer up, it’s a miracle!’

The air around the grave was heavy with the drug of perfume; vibrant with the beat of wings. Every flower and fruit they had planted had forced its way towards the sun – around the rough white willow cross spread a deep carpet of dandelions, kingcups, fluffy meadowsweet, violets, wild bluebells; the intertwined grove of slim young apple trees blossomed and fattened with red fruit. Pale blue, deep red and large white butterflies quivered on every flower; bees were buried headfirst in every blossom; caterpillars dangled on thin threads, swaying in the warm flower-sweetened breeze; birds scrambled and hopped from branch to branch, snatching beakfuls of apple.

Caitlin stared in astonishment. ‘No, you’re wrong, this
can’t
be where we buried him.’

Aoife cried, ‘It is – you can see the cross. And why can’t it be? Didn’t you say he’d be transformed?’

‘But not this quick. It wasn’t like this with Trish. We stayed with her for two days at least, and she only got as far as grass and daisies.’

Ultan said hopefully, ‘Maybe it’s because Donie was so young.’ He plucked one of the small apples and bit into it. Juice spurted. He grinned broadly through a mouthful of rosy white flesh – ‘God, that’s sweet!’ – and offered it to Aoife.

She nearly refused, remembering what he had said over the grave about how if a future apple were small and sweet, they would know it was Donal coming back to life. Eating something that was part of Donal seemed like an act of cannibalism. But a thought came to her of Father Leahy proffering the communion wafer while intoning in his bored, flat voice:
Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: do this in remembrance of me.
She bit down. The fruit tasted nothing like communion bread – the explosion of sweetness startled her into laughing; she tossed it to Shay, who took a bite, raised his eyebrows, passed it on to Caitlin. The changeling girl consumed the rest in two crunching mouthfuls, and wiped her hand across her mouth.

‘All right, maybe it is him, but I’m still not getting this. It’s too weird. Something different has happened here.’ She was frowning at Shay as she spoke, a deep freckled furrow between her ginger eyebrows. ‘I just can’t work it out.’

Shay shrugged. ‘Nothing to work out, far as I can see. Come on – you want to get to Falias before the cat dies, don’t you?’

‘Wait a moment . . .’ Ultan was filling his kitbag with the small sweet apples.

Impatiently, Shay took the knife out of his kit and hacked down two straight branches of ash. ‘We can thread these through the net and shoulder one end each – it’ll make the going easier.’

Aoife was alarmed to find out from Ultan that the lake was at least ten kilometres away – yet the going wasn’t as slow as she feared. Stringing the net on the poles made it easier to carry, and the changelings didn’t walk but ran steadily. Now she was worried that Shay would show himself up as human, by not being able to keep pace. Yet he loped easily along in front of her, his long legs covering the ground. She found herself thinking that it was just as well he played Gaelic football and was so fit – it was as if he had fairy blood himself.

Ultan was munching his way through fruit after fruit as he trotted alongside Aoife. ‘Just spreading Donie around,’ he explained breathlessly as he fired yet another core into the undergrowth.

‘But how will he come back as himself if he’s spread around?’

He shot her a startled look. ‘Hadn’t thought of that. I wonder how that rebirth thing works . . .’

‘You don’t
know
?’

‘Not been here long enough to figure it out. But I’ve been reliably informed it does.’

‘By . . .?’ She jerked her chin towards Caitlin, running next to Shay with her head held high.

‘I know what you mean. But that druid fellow was pretty strong on the subject, and he seemed, you know, wise. Beardy, anyway.’

The grass path dived deeper and deeper into the forest, through a tunnel of blossom – cherry, plum, pear, apple, quince. The yellow-green foliage shimmered with birds, and the undergrowth was alive with creatures. Rabbits fled across their path, one of them pursued by a long red streak of fox. Hedgehogs watched them pass with button eyes.

The cat was lying with its head towards Aoife, its yellowish tongue flopping out through jagged teeth; every so often it took a breath, and each time it exhaled, its red nostrils flared and hairy lips quivered. The rancid stench of its breath turned Aoife’s stomach every time – that, and the odour of scorched hair. Parts of the monster’s dirty white coat had burned down almost to the skin; its tail was more raw flesh then fur. Occasionally its fiery eyes flickered open, and fixed on hers. At those moments it was hard for her to resist holding its gaze – its eyes held a malicious depth which she found both compelling and revolting. Once, after they’d stared each other out for a full minute, the beast closed its foul mouth and made a deep rumbling sound in its throat, alarming Ultan into nearly dropping his end of ash pole.