Last Wish

by Helen Harper

  The only indication that she’d finished was the faintest prickle across my skin. I opened my eyes and glanced down. The strangeness of not being able to see my own body encouraged a rush of nausea. These days I felt sick more often than a pregnant woman in her first trimester. I gave her a hasty thanks and darted for the door. ‘Anyone who’s not a troll stays put,’ I yelled behind me.

  Lexie’s plaintive complaint rang out across the dining hall. ‘Aw, Tegs, come on.’

  ‘The only ones who are supposed to be here are trolls, Lex. Everyone else needs to stay hidden.’ What I didn’t say was that if the border had been breached I’d also need people I could count on to stay back here and hold the mansion. We had to be prepared for every eventuality. Even with his knowledge of my apparent death, I could never be sure what Aifric was planning.

  I sensed the blue-haired pixie pouting but she fell quiet. I barrelled out of the door and sped towards the border, doing everything I could to avoid looking down again at my own body. One of these days I was going to get the trolls to build a giant slide from the mansion down to the bottom of the hill. Either that or learn how to roller-skate.

  The only light visible by the border was cast by old-fashioned torches which used flame rather than electricity to illuminate the area. The flagpole remained in place but, in order to keep to the fiction that the Adair Clan was finally gone for good, Sorley had taken down the flag. Instead he’d concealed some stitched Adair colours into the flat top of the pole to maintain the border magic but to keep my presence secret from prying eyes.

  I scanned the area and spotted a small army of trolls glaring at the lone figure who stood across the border and who was, incongruously, holding a bicycle. The nearest settlement was miles away; it was a long way to cycle, especially in the dark.

  Whoever our visitor was, he was wearing a hooded top and keeping his face shadowed. Sorley was closest to him and was gesticulating wildly. ‘Show yourself!’ he hissed.

  The hooded man crossed his arms. ‘Not until I see Chieftain Adair.’ His voice was hoarse. I frowned. I recognised the accent.

  ‘I’ve already told you. She’s dead. We own these lands now.’

  ‘I don’t believe she’s dead at all,’ the man – or rather the Bauchan ‒ said huskily.

  My eyes narrowed. Fergus might have proved knowledgeable on the few occasions we’d met in the past but that didn’t mean he should not believe I was dead. Had someone talked?

  I stepped forward, inadvertently brushing against one of the trolls. He flinched, a movement so brief that I barely caught it.

  Irritatingly, Fergus noticed it too. ‘Chieftain Adair!’ he called out. ‘How good of you to come and greet me!’

  Sorley spun round, searching for me. ‘You’re seeing things,’ he growled. ‘Because unless Integrity Adair’s ghost is haunting these parts, she’s not here.’

  ‘It’s alright, Sorley,’ I said softly.

  He stiffened, rage at his security measures being discounted lighting up his eyes. He took his job very seriously. I skirted through the trolls until I was by his side. ‘I know this guy,’ I told him in a half whisper. ‘He’s helped us out before and—’

  ‘And you made me a promise,’ Fergus said. ‘Tell me, did you steal Invisibility from Tipsania Scrymgeour? Or did she give it to you?’

  I hissed. He had better sources than the Nile, the Amazon and the damned Mississippi combined. First things first, though. ‘Are you alone?’

  He pushed back his hood, displaying his face for the first time. His good looks were marred by several ugly bruises. I couldn’t be sure but it also looked as if his nose was broken. The dark shadows round his neck suggested that his croaky voice wasn’t down to an overly energetic karaoke session. ‘Yes,’ he said pleasantly, ‘I am.’

  Truth. I relaxed slightly. During the Sidhe Games the previous year, I’d inadvertently stolen all of Kirsty Kincaid’s Truth-Seeking Gift. The action had almost killed her, although she was relieved when she discovered what had happened because she’d found being able to separate truth from lies too onerous a burden. So far, I was finding her Gift very useful. All the same, I wasn’t about to let my guard down entirely.

  ‘How did you know?’ I asked. ‘How did you know that I was still alive?’

  Fergus’s mouth lifted into a half-smile, revealing two chipped front teeth. He had indeed been in the wars. Curiouser and curiouser. ‘A certain green-eyed assassin,’ he said. I stiffened. There was no way that Chandra had given me up. ‘She undertook a perilous job to kill a certain Sidhe and yet, despite the obvious dangers, she abandoned her team to complete the murder alone.’ He shifted his weight. ‘She could have killed this Sidhe on a previous occasion but she chose not to because they were old friends. However, weeks later, she changed her mind and suddenly assassinated her bestie in full view of the Moncrieffe heir and his mate.’ His smile grew. ‘And a couple of Fomori demons. I’m told this assassin still has no trouble sleeping.’ Fergus shrugged. ‘I like puzzles. And this one was easy to solve.’

  I tried to breathe normally. ‘Who else knows?’

  ‘I’ve not told anyone, if that’s what you mean. As to who else is as intelligent as I am and has managed to work it out, I couldn’t say.’

  It was difficult to intimidate someone when they couldn’t see you but I still tried. I hardened my voice and crossed my arms. ‘Yes, you can. You’ve proved you’re intelligent enough.’

  Fergus nodded smugly. ‘Yeah, alright, you’ve got me there. I don’t believe anyone else has put two and two together. Not with the state Byron Moncrieffe has been in. He’s been marching up and down the Highlands and growling at anyone who so much as glances in his direction.’ He smirked. ‘Your boy is hurting.’

  Pain stabbed at my heart. The urge to leap through the border and grab Fergus by his blood-stained lapels and demand he tell me everything he knew about Byron was almost overwhelming but I had to act responsibly. My role demanded it. ‘You’ve been in a fight,’ I observed, glad that my voice remained tremor-free. ‘Tell me about it.’

  ‘I’d love to. But, Chieftain, why don’t you let me inside first? You promised me sanctuary.’

  ‘I promised sanctuary in the event of more Fomori attacks,’ I pointed out. ‘I don’t believe they’ve ventured across the Veil since I died.’

  ‘You’re nit-picking.’ Fergus stepped forward, letting the bike drop to the ground. His features were clearer now that he was closer to the flickering torches and I realised how pale he was. He was in considerable pain. ‘I need asylum.’ He swayed slightly.

  Alarmed as I was by his condition, I still needed to know more. I couldn’t afford to be soft-hearted. ‘Why?’

  ‘I might have slightly irritated the Innes Chieftain.’

  ‘Go on.’

  Fergus’s eyes were growing unfocused. ‘I might have met his only daughter in a Dundee nightclub. And I might have taken her back to my place.’ He paused and shrugged ruefully. ‘She had fun but Daddy Dearest is less than impressed. Our Sidhe overlords don’t like the idea of their bloodlines being tainted.’

  Tiring of the conversation, Sorley waggled his spear. ‘I suggest we keep him outside the border until we can be sure, Chieftain.’

  ‘Let him in,’ I said. ‘He’s telling the truth.’

  Sorley’s heavy bottom lip jutted out. He did as I bade, however, gesturing to two other trolls who took hold of Fergus by the arms to help him.

  ‘Bring him up to the mansion,’ I said. ‘At least Taylor will be kept busy for a while.’ My old mentor was no surgeon but he did possess some sterling first-aid skills.

  ‘Wait,’ Fergus whispered. ‘There’s something else.’ His eyes fixed on a patch of ground to my right; I was, after all, still invisible. ‘I was right before, wasn’t I? Tipsania Scrymgeour is here.’

  I took a leap of faith. ‘She is.’

  Fergus chuckled softly. ‘Is her dress ready?’

  Confused, I asked, ‘What do you mean?’ His jaw wo
rked in response. Judging by his pupils, he was on the verge of passing out. ‘Fergus!’ I demanded. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘The invitations have gone out,’ he said. ‘Her wedding to Byron Moncrieffe is happening in thirteen days’ time.’

  I drew back. What? That didn’t make any sense. I opened my mouth to question Fergus some more but his head dropped forward. He was already out for the count. Shite.

  Chapter Two

  ‘He’s still unconscious,’ Taylor informed me. ‘I don’t think he’s in any real danger but he’s travelled a long way and he’s lost quite a bit of blood. There’s probably mild concussion too.’

  Tipsania flounced towards him, hands on hips. She was the perfect modern-day representation of Scarlett O’Hara. ‘Can’t you throw water in his face or something? I need to know what’s going on!’

  As ridiculous as her statement was, I sympathised with her. Even her father, the Bull, wasn’t thick-headed enough not to have noticed that she’d been missing for months. How on earth he planned to hold a wedding without the actual bride was beyond me. Tipsania wasn’t concerned with logistics, however; despite the appearance she maintained in public, she had no interest in Byron. Not these days, anyway. Her heart belonged to a rather intimidating Wild Man by the name of Candy.

  ‘He needs to sleep,’ Taylor said.

  Tipsania gave a frustrated growl. May, who’d been watching the proceedings wide-eyed, shuffled over and put her head on Tipsania’s shoulder. It was a measure of how far my old adversary had come that she didn’t shake off the demon and start throwing things.

  ‘It could be,’ Brochan rumbled, his gills twitching with the tension, ‘that it’s just smoke and mirrors and the wedding will be cancelled at the last moment.’

  I scratched my head. ‘But to what end? The marriage is supposed to cement the alliance between the Moncrieffes and the Scrymgeours. Leaving Byron standing at the altar isn’t going to achieve that. In fact, it’ll do the opposite.’ What I didn’t ask was why Byron was apparently going ahead with the charade. I shouldn’t feel hurt – after all, he thought I was dead. And even if I wasn’t dead, I had no claim on him. But rationality has no place when it comes to affairs of the heart; I could still feel a dull ache in the centre of my chest.

  Lexie piped up. ‘Maybe they think the wedding is still going ahead.’

  ‘It can’t go ahead without the bride,’ Speck said. He paused. ‘Can it?’

  ‘Of course not,’ I dismissed. A niggle of worry gnawed away at me. I wouldn’t put anything past Aifric Moncrieffe; he might change the law to suit his own purposes, although I couldn’t imagine that he’d get away with marrying someone off in absentia. Even he wasn’t that crazy. But the Moncrieffes were still in debt and they’d been counting on the Scrymgeour gold.

  Morna laughed without much humour. ‘The other Clans would never let him do that. We’re living in the twenty-first century, not the first. And Byron is a decent boy. He wouldn’t permit it.’

  ‘He hasn’t seen or heard from his supposed fiancée in weeks and yet he’s apparently letting the wedding proceed,’ I pointed out, disgust in my voice.

  ‘He knows I’m here,’ Tipsania said dully. ‘My father knows I’m here and he’s going to force me to leave.’

  Taylor shook his head. ‘He can’t. He couldn’t get past the border.’

  I swung my head towards her. ‘Does he know you’re here?’ I asked sharply.

  She sank down, her shoulders dropping in defeat. ‘I don’t know. It’s not like I left a note. I wasn’t followed here, I made sure of that.’

  ‘Did you tell anyone you were coming?’

  Her face was completely miserable. ‘Only Candy. And Byron knew as well, of course, because he brought me.’

  I exchanged glances with the others. ‘When was the last time you spoke to Candy?’

  ‘Last month.’ She gave me an icy glare. ‘If the phone signal was better…’

  Exasperated, I pushed back my hair. I couldn’t solve all the problems in the world, regardless of what everyone thought. If all we had to worry about was the lack of a mobile phone mast, we’d be laughing. ‘Would Candy have confided in anyone else?’

  She scowled. ‘If you’re asking whether he’d betray me then the answer is no.’

  I hoped she was right. ‘Who else knows that the pair of you are together?’

  ‘Only Byron.’

  I blinked in surprise. ‘Really?’

  ‘Byron wouldn’t know but for the fact that he walked in on us a while back. He didn’t care. He wasn’t interested in me in the first place and, unlike most Sidhe, he’s not against inter-species relationships.’

  My heartstrings twanged with joy. It had been a long time since I’d believed that his relationship with Tipsania was anything but a farce but knowing for certain still made me feel like dancing on the ceiling. Lexie gave me a knowing glance and I immediately sobered up.

  ‘We should find out what’s going on,’ I said decisively. ‘I’ll investigate.’ I rather liked the idea of being Hercule Poirot; maybe I could invest in a moustache to twirl at appropriate moments. Hot pink, of course.

  Taylor blew air through pursed lips. ‘It’s far too dangerous. What if someone sees you?’

  It probably wouldn’t be wise to suggest my Poirot disguise idea. I pointed at Tipsania. ‘Hello? Invisibility?’

  ‘It won’t last for more than a few hours. That won’t even get you past Perth.’

  Tipsania’s mouth flattened. ‘She can take my Gift from me. As much as she needs.’

  ‘You might regret that later,’ Brochan rumbled. He had a point. I didn’t want to draw on Tipsania’s Gift unless it was absolutely necessary. I’d already taken more from her than I probably should have when I ventured across the Veil to retrieve Matthew MacBain’s bones. ‘Besides,’ he continued, ‘a wedding is not that big a deal. It’s certainly not worth risking discovery over.’

  ‘You green-skinned oaf! It’s my wedding we’re talking about here! My life!’ Tipsania yelled.

  ‘But you’re here,’ he said calmly. ‘You can’t marry Byron Moncrieffe if you’re not at your own ceremony.’ His heavy shoulders rolled in a shrug. ‘So who cares?’

  Even without the narrow glance he shot me, Brochan’s meaning was clear. I cared – whether anyone else wanted me to or not.

  ‘It’s not going to be difficult. All I have to do is get far enough north to get a signal and call the Bull. He’ll tell me what’s what.’ I smiled at Tipsania. ‘I can make sure he cancels the wedding.’ I had his true name, after all; I could make him dance the merengue with a stoor worm if I so wished.

  ‘You can’t compel him unless you’re face to face, and you can’t do that without him realising that you’re still alive.’

  True. ‘Then I’ll meet him face to face. I’ll command him to keep my resurrection a secret.’

  Taylor shook his head. ‘You’re putting too much faith in your ability to bend the Bull to your will. There are ways around those sorts of things. He could still drop enough hints to Aifric to make him doubt your death.’

  ‘I’m not sure the Bull is that intelligent.’ I realised I was casting aspersions on Tipsania’s father but she wasn’t listening. She was too wrapped up in her own panic and worry, pacing up and down and causing various haggis to flee out of her path with alarmed squeaks.

  Brochan folded his arms. ‘You can’t take that chance.’

  ‘Much as I hate to say it, Tegs,’ Speck interjected, ‘I think he’s right. And we all know that you’re not concerned because of Tipsania. You should let Byron go.’

  Lexie frowned. ‘Why should she?’

  ‘Well, for one thing he thinks she’s dead.’

  ‘That can be easily solved,’ she scoffed.

  Somehow I doubted that. Even if I told Byron the truth, he’d probably never speak to me again. ‘This is about more than Byron,’ I said, not sure whether I was being honest with myself or not. ‘Something must be up for the we
dding to be going ahead in Tipsania’s absence. We can’t allow Aifric’s machinations to continue and we need to know exactly what he’s up to. Knowledge is power, people.’

  Bob beamed. ‘Indeed it is! I am a supremely knowledgeable being. It’s only natural that you’d want to be as wise and knowing as I am.’ Nobody acknowledged him but it didn’t seem to matter. He snapped his fingers, magicking up a pair of horn-rimmed spectacles and a mortar board.

  ‘Much as I hate to say it,’ Morna said, ‘I think this is worth investigating. Aifric Moncrieffe never does anything without good reason. Something worrying is going on here and it would pay to know what. It would be nice to think that you can hide here for the rest of your days but it’s completely unrealistic.’ She nodded. ‘We can kill two birds with one stone: find out what’s going on with the wedding, and make sure you have a decent enough handle on your Thievery Gift.’

  Before the others could protest again, I said, ‘So it’s settled. And who knows? Maybe we’ll find what we need to bring Aifric down for good. We can get in touch with Angus, too. He might have other insights we can use.’ Suddenly, I felt buoyant with optimism. I clapped my hands. ‘Now all we need is a plan.’

  Taylor looked as if he wanted to argue some more but in the end he just sighed. ‘We need to be sensible and make sure the odds are in our favour. The longer everyone believes in your death, the better.’ He jerked his chin at Brochan. ‘I think that has to include the Bull, too.’

  May squeaked, no doubt sensing my excitement and I grinned in response. This could end up being a lot more fun than leaving the safety of the Adair Lands just to make a phone call. ‘No problem.’

  ***

  It felt like a lifetime since I’d last been in Aberdeen. It was like returning to an old friend – albeit one who’d been in the wars since I’d last seen them. From the foot of the main parade at Union Street the evidence of the Fomori demon attacks was still painfully visible. Many of the grey granite buildings were scarred and there appeared to be a healthy trade in scaffolding. All the same, a deep satisfaction uncurled within my chest; it really was good to be back.