Azrael's Twins and the Circle of Stone: Book Two of the Nearworld Tales

by Vincent Mortimer

  ‘There have to be some perks to being a princess, don’t you think?’

  Quinn smiled back at Niamh. ‘You try calling him then. I can’t wait to see his face with this offer.’

  Chapter 22

  Dead or Alive

  The line of pixies that stared down Grady was unusually daunting for creatures so small.

  Fingal floated inches from Grady’s face. ‘You expect us to believe you can change centuries of history and find us a home? We may be small, but our brains aren’t.’

  ‘We’re not asking for much,’ said Grady, unfazed. He was using his best stern face and did not flinch. ‘All we want is your help to search the town.’

  ‘Ha!’ said Fingal. ‘All you want is for us to reveal ourselves to the world when we’ve been doing quite well without your help!’

  ‘Why are you shouting?’ said Quinn calmly.

  ‘Why?’ said Fingal. ‘Why not! It’s always worked for us before.’

  ‘You mean it’s worked when you’ve been hiding and no one else but your own kind can hear you,’ said Grady.

  ‘Are you looking for a head-butting, son?’ said Fingal, floating even closer to Grady’s forehead.

  ‘Are you offering?’ said Grady, not backing down an inch.

  ‘Right …’ said Fingal, drawing back and pushing up his sleeves.

  ‘I think that’s enough,’ said Fengal as she raced across the gap to push Fingal away.

  ‘Oi!’ said Fingal, recovering his balance. ‘What was that for?’

  ‘Shut it!’ shouted Fengal in a surprisingly loud voice. She turned back to Grady and smiled. ‘He likes you.’

  ‘Funny way of showing it,’ said Grady, eyeing Fingal who floated off to the side while muttering under his breath.

  ‘He doesn’t normally give warnings. “Pre-emptive action” isn’t just a clever phrase to him. It’s a way of life.’ Fengal drifted over to Niamh. ‘Can you deliver on your promises?’

  Niamh nodded. ‘There’s only one person we know who can take on the Morrigan. If she’s back – and we think she is – then we need Azrael to fight her. We can’t do this alone. If we don’t find her and put a stop to her then it won’t only be our world that will have a problem. She’ll come for you as well. There’s no way you’ll be able to hide from her and she’ll certainly come for Grady and me too. You could say that our lives depend on me keeping my promises.’

  Fengal bobbed in the air as she considered Niamh’s words. She glanced at Grady and then drifted slowly over to Fingal and gave him a head-butting that made even Grady flinch. ‘Yer a daftie, as our mum used to say. There’s not a trace of a lie in her words.’

  Fingal rubbed vigorously at the spot blooming on his forehead. ‘You can take that as a yes. We’ll help.’

  ‘Can you be discreet about it?’ asked Grady. ‘We don’t want to give too much away.’

  ‘Discreet is our middle name,’ said Fingal, before whispering ‘How do you spell that?’ to Fengal.

  ‘Are you sure this is a good idea?’ said Eilidia as the group flew towards the township.

  ‘No,’ said Niamh tersely. ‘But we need to find Azrael and I can’t think of a faster way. Can you?’

  Eilidia shook her head. ‘We need to find him soon. Your dragon won’t survive another fight with that witch. She was lucky to make it through the last fight. And you can be sure she’ll try and find the witch again. It’s in their nature.’

  Niamh said nothing but knew Eilidia was correct. This was about more than a dragon. She glanced down at her reflection in the lake and this time was not surprised to see Persephone smiling back at her.

  ‘When did they say they would start the search?’ said Tiana.

  ‘I think they already have,’ said Quinn, pointing to the churning mass of brown that was drifting along the lake edge road ahead of them. Ahead of the swarm the children could hear a chorus of shrieks and howls from those batting away the pixies that flitted around their head.

  ‘Oh no,’ groaned Niamh. ‘That wasn’t the plan!’

  ‘I did warn you,’ said Quinn, chuckling. ‘They have a direct approach to problems.’

  Niamh landed gently on the beach and stared at the carnage in front of her. As she stood with hands on hips a pair of pixies detached themselves from their extremely close face-to-face with an elderly witch whose hat had been knocked to the ground.

  ‘This is easier than I thought!’ said Fingal, sounding pleased with himself. ‘We’ve done most of the lake edge, the first couple of streets off the main road in, and now we’re onto the terrace roads.’ He grinned happily at Niamh, clearly expecting praise.

  ‘You were meant to be discreet!’ yelled Niamh at the startled pixie. ‘Not this … this …!’ she said, gesturing at the bedlam in the street.

  ‘What are you talking about?’ said Fingal. ‘This is discreet! We haven’t nutted anybody and no one gets to see us for more than a moment before we’re onto the next face.’

  ‘We’re going to be in so much trouble,’ said Grady. ‘Mum and Dad are going to work out who did this. I guarantee it.’

  Niamh groaned. ‘What were we thinking,’ she said, watching the mayhem in the town.

  The pixie swarm spread out along the street – surging up alleyways, into shops, and even into the public toilets, causing shrieks and a more than embarrassing moment for a wizard who forgot to pull his trousers up before running out. Niamh and Grady teamed up to scan those areas the pixies had passed by too quickly in their haste. Quinn and Bree formed another pair, as did Tulliah and Hugh.

  Devin in her own dreamy way managed to drift through the crowd, mostly oblivious to the carnage being wrought around her. She waltzed up to a clothes shop window and caught her reflection in the glass. As she stopped to admire herself, she saw in the reflection the largest dog she had ever laid eyes on walk past behind her.

  ‘Aren’t you lovely!’ she said, turning. But the dog before her was no beast. Small and fluffy, its eyes had the knowing look of something much bigger and much, much more intelligent. ‘Oh,’ she said, surprised, and turned to look in the window again. The reflection of the large beast appeared again, but only briefly as the dog moved on. Devin shook her head. I must be going crazy she thought. But she was certain of what she had seen. She ran up the street looking for the dog while also trying to spot Niamh and Grady. The dog trotted ahead but then stopped and looked back at Devin. With a bound, as if it knew what Devin had in mind, it sprang away. Devin quietly cursed, but then saw Niamh and Grady scanning face after face on the far side of the street. ‘Niamh! Grady! Over here!’

  Niamh looked around in surprise as her name was called. Devin was striding up the road, pushing through the crowd as she attempted to keep the dog in sight.

  ‘Devin’s onto something.’

  Together the two children jumped out to cross the street. A dragon trotting past caused them to leap back but they dodged between it and the following carriage to race across to their friend.

  ‘What did you see?’ said Niamh.

  ‘A dog that was different in a reflection to what it was in the street. And I think it knows that I was on to it!’

  ‘But how could you see that on your own?’ said Grady. ‘I thought you need two people to figure out if there was a spell?’

  ‘My teachers often say I’m not in my right mind,’ said Devin, smiling. ‘Maybe I’ve got two of them?’

  ‘Where’s the dog?’ said Niamh, ducking and weaving to try and see ahead.

  ‘He went into that alley,’ said Devin, pointing to a gloomy opening not far ahead.

  ‘Go and find the others,’ said Niamh urgently. ‘Tell them where we’ve gone. And get Quinn to call off the pixies before they do too much damage!’

  Niamh and Grady sprinted into the alleyway. Ahead of them a small fluffy animal ran as fast as its ridiculously short legs would allow. It looked back at the children before undergoing a change. Fur turned from white to black, legs lengthened, and in moments it grew in
to the monstrous hound that had accompanied Azrael.

  ‘We’ve got him!’ said Niamh excitedly as she tore down the alleyway after the dog. The animal rounded the corner into a smaller alley, claws scrabbling on the mossy cobbles. Niamh and Grady were only moments behind. They too slid across the cobbles but managed to keep their feet. The alley was narrow and dank. Water dripped from pipes protruding from the walls higher up and formed green trails of slime across the red brickwork. At the far end was a heavy bolted door with a rusty ancient padlock. The grimy windows along the length of the alley gave no clue of what lay within. The one thing conspicuously missing was a dog – small or large.

  Niamh stared at the empty alley and blinked. ‘That’s not possible.’

  ‘Said the girl who can make herself invisible,’ replied Grady, who was twisting the padlock. ‘Can you open this?’

  ‘Of course,’ said Niamh, sarcasm dripping off her tongue. ‘I’ll get my set of picks out and have it open in a jiffy.’

  ‘Or you could give one of us a go,’ Persephone volunteered.

  ‘No thanks,’ said Grady.

  Niamh winced. ‘I hate the fact we’re sharing conversations,’ she said through gritted teeth.

  ‘Not my fault,’ said Grady. ‘It is what it is. Deal with it.’

  ‘Very helpful. Thanks,’ said Niamh, grabbing the lock with both hands. ‘I used to be good at picking the lockers at school,’ she said. ‘Maybe it’s not that much different.’

  ‘Try your iWand,’ said Grady. ‘That should have a lock-picking spell in it.’

  Niamh thought about it and shrugged at the obvious suggestion. She had become so used to using her own wand that the thought of using the iWand had not occurred to her. She flicked open the device and spoke to it. ‘Cast a lock spell.’

  The wand vibrated in her hand and a maddeningly calm voice said, ‘I’m sorry. That spell is only available for personal locks. Breaking and entering is not condoned or supported by this iWand. Please choose another spell, you miscreant.’

  ‘What!’ said Niamh. ‘I’ve never been so insulted by a wand.’

  The wand responded before she could say anything more. ‘I have many more insults waiting for you. Goodbye.’

  Grady laughed as the wand retracted back into itself. ‘Sorry Niamh. Hep helped me set it to “Arrogant Wizard” mode when you left it unlocked a few days ago. I really like it this way.’

  ‘You’ll pay for that,’ said Niamh, forcefully shoving the wand back into her pocket. ‘Guess I’ll have to trust Fitzhollow and Hooligan to help me.’

  She drew her other wand and held it over the lock as if using a screwdriver. A faint glow surrounded the tip and a thin silver line snaked down into the chunky opening. A series of clunks and gratings preceded the lock popping open.

  ‘Brilliant!’ said Grady.

  ‘Why thank you,’ said Niamh as she slowly manoeuvred the lock off the door. ‘But that was too easy,’ she said suspiciously. ‘Now be quiet. That dog has to be in here.’

  Niamh slowly opened the door a crack and peered inside. Grimy light barely cut a path into the gloomy, dank interior of the building but what light there was showed no sign of a dog, large or small. ‘I can’t see anything,’ she whispered as she swung the door back a little further.

  Grady’s eyes took a moment to adjust as he poked his head around the door to look. The dusty floor gave him his first clue. ‘There!’ he whispered, urgently pointing at a patch not far inside.

  Niamh glanced down and saw a paw print, a large paw print, followed by more. ‘There’s a big gap between those prints. I reckon that beast ran straight through the door and across the floor here.’

  Grady nodded. He and Niamh had stepped inside now and their eyes were adjusting to the gloom. The trail led to a rickety set of stairs that faded into the darkness of the floor above. Spider webs clung to the thick beams that spanned the floor and formed a sticky curtain between the children and the stairs. ‘Look!’ he said, pointing to the far end of the room. A blue light pulsed from cracks between the floorboards and the sound of creaking timber echoed around them.

  Niamh gulped, her mouth going dry. ‘What if it’s not him?’ she whispered to Grady.

  ‘Seriously, Niamh? Who else has a giant wolfhound that transforms into a fluffy rat when it’s out in public!’

  ‘Good point,’ said Niamh in agreement. ‘Let’s go.’

  Slowly, deliberately, the two crossed to the stairs. There was no chance they could make it up without the timbers making a sound, but Niamh stepped as close to the edges of the treads as possible anyway. The first step made no sound, nor did the second. But before she could make a third step a voice sounded from above.

  ‘Come up. You’ve done well to catch Cuchulain like that, so come. Tell me what you want.’

  Niamh’s heart leapt when she heard the wizard’s voice. But there was no doubt it was Azrael. She glanced at Grady who pushed her from behind and hurried her up the stairs.

  The wizard sat in a patched red velvet chair with enormous rolled arms. On a battered looking table beside the chair sat a steaming mug of tea in a chipped cup. The remains of a cookie lay on a plate beside it. The dog sat on its haunches beside the chair having its head scratched and clearly enjoying it. At the far end of the room a blue globe spun slowly in mid-air, pulsing gently as it did. ‘Can I offer you tea? And I’m sure I can find more cookies somewhere.’

  Niamh and Grady looked at each other in surprise. They had expected the wizard to run or possibly be angry. But they certainly hadn’t expected tea and cookies. His patched cardigan, brown corduroy pants and slippers made him look more like their grandfather than a great and ancient wizard.

  ‘Ginger beer, if you have some,’ said Grady. ‘It’s been thirsty work chasing you down.’

  ‘I must admit I am quite impressed,’ said Azrael, creakily pushing himself out of the chair. He looked every bit his age as he stumbled before standing upright and stretching. ‘Using the pixies was an inspired idea.’ He pulled two glasses from a cupboard under a simple sink. ‘However, that young friend of yours who recognised Cuchulain has some talents of which I am not sure even she is aware. Ginger beer was it?’ He turned the tap and ran water into two ancient looking glasses. ‘Let me know if it’s too tart.’

  Niamh raised her glass to her lips and was surprised at the bubbling freshness of the perfect ginger beer within. ‘Great. Thank you. But …’

  ‘How?’ said the wizard finishing her sentence. ‘It’s a gift. When you reach my age, pulling out your wand to cast every little magic spell is tiresome. I prefer to imagine the world the way it should be and, usually, I can make it so. You wanted a world with ginger beer so here it is,’ he said, smiling and spreading his hands wide. ‘Now. You didn’t hunt me down for a refreshing drink. What, I ask with due trepidation, do you want?’

  ‘We’ve got a proble…’ Grady started to say before Niamh grabbed his arm.

  ‘Wait. Something’s not right.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ said Grady.

  ‘Your gift of silent speech is something of a giveaway,’ said Azrael, his face creasing as he smiled.

  ‘You can tell?’ said Niamh. ‘How?’

  ‘I know many things about you. I know your friends in your head that talk to you scare you more than you admit. That you know you have a destiny you don’t want to face. And that you know, deep down, what you must give in to before you become the wizard and witch you must. And I know you know that you need me. Not just for your dragon either.’

  ‘But we didn’t say anything about Iris,’ said Grady, surprised.

  Niamh stared coldly back at the old man. His eyes still sparkled but he looked more aged than Niamh remembered from their previous meeting. And from the meetings before that. ‘You are probably right. But I think I know a few things about you too.’

  ‘Surprise me.’

  Niamh took a deep breath. ‘You didn’t make a mistake today by letting us find you. People like you do
n’t make mistakes. You need us as much as you think we need you.’

  ‘Go on,’ said Azrael.

  ‘You are fading. I can see it in your eyes. You are running out of time, aren’t you.’

  Azrael steepled his fingers in front of his face in contemplation. He rose unsteadily from the chair and shuffled over to the grimy window. ‘I heard you were a clever one,’ he said, rubbing at the dirt but managing to do no more than spread it around the window. ‘The stories were well-founded.’ He sighed and stood silently for a few moments. Niamh and Grady said nothing. Eventually the wizard turned, shuffled back to his chair, and slumped down into it. ‘You know, when I started this I had no idea where it would lead. I only ever wanted to do great things for the good of everyone. I thought the Twins would be a great gift to the world. But, I cursed this land with them, and myself in the process. I am running out of time. The Morrigan has found a way to keep herself young and strong by using magic I would not, could not, dare to. She is more patient than I thought. I don’t think I can control her this time. I need your help. Do you understand what I’m saying?’

  Niamh nodded. ‘You’re dying. Aren’t you?’

  The wizard nodded. ‘Yes. I have only a short while left. Someone, two someone’s actually, need to take on the job of controlling her.’

  ‘Us?’ said Grady incredulously. ‘We’re just kids!’

  ‘We both know that’s not true,’ said Azrael knowingly. ‘It’s not just two of you anymore.’

  ‘But we can’t take on a witch like that,’ said Niamh angrily. ‘We wouldn’t have a clue how to fight her.’

  ‘You don’t need to,’ said Azrael, shaking his head. ‘The Twins know exactly what needs to be done. There’s only one problem.’

  ‘We have to allow the Twins to take control, don’t we? We have to give control over to the Twins completely. Control of us,’ said Niamh flatly.

  Azrael nodded. ‘It is the only way.’

  ‘You want us to give up our lives to make up for a mistake that you made. How is that fair?’ said Grady angrily.