The grass was wet on her feet. The sun was cold. She shivered and watched the shadows. Gradually, the kitchen went quiet behind her. She felt Dad and Crow watching her from the door.
“Mup,” said Dad softly. “Come on in. You’ll get a cold.”
She waited.
“Muuuup?” said Tipper’s sleepy voice, and Mup figured Dad must have him in his arms.
There was a sound of quiet footsteps on the grass, and Crow put his hand gently in hers.
“Mup…” he began.
But Mup pointed to the trees. “Look,” she cried. “Look.”
At first there was nothing, and she began to think she’d imagined it. But then something pale glimmered in the shadows, and a tall woman stepped into the sunshine. It was Fírinne. She looked warily around, checking for danger. Then Mam emerged from the trees. She was not at all wary, and she didn’t hesitate on the threshold of the sunlight. She just strode across the grass, her eyes set on her daughter and her husband, and her son, who was held in her husband’s arms.
She’s magnificent, thought Mup.
And she was. All the sparkle of the morning seemed to be captured and flung back out into the air by her. Even though there was no breath of wind, her long hair seemed to stir with a life of its own; and though she only wore her sensible raincoat and jeans, it felt somehow as though Mam were wearing a cloak, and that cloak were swirling behind her as she walked.
“That’s my Stella,” murmured Dad, and Mup didn’t even have to look up at him to know he was smiling the special smile he only ever kept for Mam.
Mam dropped to one knee in front of Mup, looking into her face. “You did it,” she said. “You got everyone home safe. I knew you would.”
“Thanks, Mam,” whispered Mup. “I knew you’d come home.”
Mam clutched her shoulder, and nodded, and rose to her feet. She turned her luminous face to her husband, and her expression broke into something complicated and beautiful and in love.
Dad smiled his huge, warm, lovely smile. “So,” he said. “I finally got to visit the place where you were born. It wasn’t half as bad as you made it out to be.”
Mam ran to him and hugged him. It quickly turned into one of those kisses of theirs, the smooshy ones that always seemed to go on for ever. Mup groaned in disgust. Tipper bopped Mam and Dad furiously on their heads with his bottle. They didn’t even seem to notice.
“By my tall hat,” said Crow, regarding them in disbelief, “do they always act like that?”
“You’ll get used to it,” sighed Mup.
“Majesty,” said Fírinne, coming up behind them, and coughing uncomfortably. “Majesty, we must get back.”
Mam broke from her kiss, spent a moment gazing up into Dad’s face, kissed Tipper on the nose, and then stood aside, holding Dad’s hand. She glanced back at the trees, and Mup suddenly noticed the shadows there were filled with people. Many different kinds of folk were crowded there – even some raggedy witches standing in a little huddle, all on their own. Everyone was peering anxiously out into the sunlight, and Mup’s heart contracted with fear when she realized that they were waiting for Mam to return to them.
“Majesty”, she thought. Fírinne called her “Majesty”.
“Mam! You’re not leaving us, are you?”
Mam looked gravely down at her. “There’s still so much to do over there, Mup.”
“Is the queen not beaten?” asked Crow in a panic. “Are her enforcers coming back?”
“Don’t worry. The queen has fled. Her people are defeated.”
“But that is only the beginning,” said Fírinne. “There are others, just as bad, waiting to take her place. Now that she is gone, they are ready to swoop in and impose new tyrannies on the people of our land.” She turned to Mam. “Majesty,” she said. “Please tell me you will not allow that to—”
“I am not a queen, Fírinne,” said Mam firmly.
Fírinne flung up her hands in frustration.
Mup clutched Mam’s hand. Mam crouched down to look into her daughter’s face.
“Mup,” she said. “My mother was a bad person – she hurt people, she filled them with hatred and with fear. I don’t want to walk away from all the damage she’s left behind … not when there’s a chance that I could help mend it. I want to go back to Witches Borough. I want to help fix what my mother did there – help people learn how to work together, and how to speak freely. Help build a world where all magics are equal, and all voices, big and small, can be heard.”
Mam looked up at Dad then back to Mup. “Will you come with me?” she asked.
“Yes,” said Dad without hesitation. “Yes. Absolutely. Let’s go.”
Mup glanced back at her house, the warm kitchen, the hallway, the bedrooms. I like it here, she thought. But it’s just a place, really. It’s just a building. She looked at Tipper, at Dad, at Mam, at old, grey Badger stiffly wagging his tail. These people are my home, she thought.
“We must bring Badger,” she said.
“Of course,” said Mam.
“And Tipper gets to be a baby whenever he likes, and a puppy whenever he likes.”
“Yes,” said Mam.
Mup took Crow’s hand. “And no one ever, ever, ever gets left behind.”
Mam looked solemnly at Crow. Crow looked solemnly back.
“No one,” Mam told him, “will ever get left behind.”
“I like the sound of that,” said Crow.
“Do you trust me, Mup?” asked Mam, rising to her feet. “Do you trust me to keep these promises?” Mam’s face was all dark with the sunlight behind her, and Mup couldn’t quite see her expression. It didn’t matter.
“I always trust you, Mam,” she said. “Let’s go.”
And so, Mup, hand in hand with Crow, followed by Tipper and Badger and Dad, accompanied Mam back across the lawn and under the trees, back across the border to the place Mam had been born: back to a land of colour and magic, a land of dances yet to be thought of, and songs yet to be sung.
Celine Kiernan is the critically acclaimed and multi-award-winning author of five novels for young people. Her ghost story, Into the Grey, was the first book to receive both the CBI Book of the Year Award and the CBI Children’s Choice Award. She is best known for The Moorehawke Trilogy, which has won multiple awards. It has been translated into nine languages. The Wild Magic Trilogy is Celine’s first series for middle-grade readers. She lives in Ireland. You can find her online at celinekiernan.wordpress.com.
Victoria Semykina is an award-winning illustrator and fine artist who has been working in the fields of editorial, advertising and book illustration since 2005. Born in Moscow, she studied at the State Academic Art Institute, and later at the Bologna Academy of Fine Arts. In between illustrating, she loves observing people, travelling and riding her red bicycle, which features a useful basket for collecting materials for her collages and other artwork. Victoria lives in Bologna, Italy.
The queen and her raggedy witches have fled – for now – but the kingdom is not yet healed. The castle is haunted by memories of its brutal past. The ghosts are angry, and one of them in particular possesses a magic which may be too much for even Mup and Mam to handle.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or, if real, used fictitiously. All statements, activities, stunts, descriptions, information and material of any other kind contained herein are included for entertainment purposes only and should not be relied on for accuracy or replicated as they may result in injury.
First published 2018 by Walker Books Ltd
87 Vauxhall Walk, London SE11 5HJ
Text © 2018 Celine Kiernan
Cover art and interior illustrations © 2018 Victoria Semykina
The right of Celine Kiernan to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved. No part of this
book may be reproduced, transmitted or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, taping and recording, without prior written permission from the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data:
a catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-4063-7883-2 (ePub)
www.walker.co.uk
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