by Lari Don
Just as Helen was recovering from the fright she had given herself, stepping so recklessly into someone one else’s fight, Lavender flew out of the trees. “I found Sapphire but lost you! How dare you leave me alone in the middle of a spell?”
“I had to stop them ripping each other apart, Lavender!”
Sylvie, flickering between wolf and girl, spoke in bursts of snarls and words. “Let me rip … hrrrr … coward … hrrrr … stop me? … oooowwww … protect you, girl … hrrrrr… skulking hiding traitor…”
“I had to hide in the trees to keep our teamwork secret from the Queen, Sylvie.” Lee slid his sword back in its scabbard. “I had to keep you hidden too, even if it was at sword-point. Helen didn’t need protection, did she? She fed the boy, she got back safely. Mission accomplished.” He smiled around at everyone, trying to spread calm and happiness.
Lavender said sourly, “That mission is accomplished. The next one might be trickier.”
Lee looked at Helen. “What next mission?”
“I … em … I agreed to get the Fairy Flag from Dunvegan Castle by tomorrow night in exchange for James.”
“And …?” prompted Lavender.
“And … em … and if I don’t succeed, then I promised to provide music for the Queen’s midsummer revels.”
Sylvie and Lee looked at each other, united for the first time in horror at what Helen had done.
Helen leapt to her own defence, because it didn’t look like anyone else would. “What else could I have done? I had to save James! She would have fed him faery food, if I hadn’t agreed.”
Lee allowed exasperation to show past his usual charm. “I warned you not to say anything you didn’t mean!”
“I didn’t say anything I didn’t mean! I do mean to get the flag … and I do mean to save the boy.”
Sylvie looked at her through narrowed eyes. “You are either enchanted by her, or too full of your own abilities. You have done a very stupid thing, human child.”
Helen barely noticed the trees and flowers as Lee led them back. Was her bargain with the Queen really that stupid? It hadn’t felt stupid. It had felt brave and clever. But no one had congratulated her on her courage and quick thinking.
When they stumbled into the beech tree clearing, Yann and Sapphire were playing ‘dagger paper stone’ by the campfire.
Yann leapt cheerfully to his hooves. “That didn’t take too long! Will we have to do the same tomorrow night?”
“Not quite,” said Helen.
He raised his eyebrows.
“Tomorrow night we need to bring her the Fairy Flag.”
“The Fairy Flag?”
“Uh-huh.”
“From Dunvegan Castle?”
“Mm-hmm.”
Yann’s voice was deep and cavernous. “Why did you agree to that?”
“Because it was the only way to save James!”
“And if you fail to bring her the flag? What’s the forfeit? With the faeries, there’s always a forfeit.”
“If I fail, I have to provide music at midsummer.”
Yann swung away from her, his hooves drumming on the dry ground.
“We can do it, Yann! Dunvegan is a tourist attraction, not a bank vault. The flag is a bit of fabric, not the crown jewels. Lavender and Lee can do magic, you and Sapphire are fast and strong, and Sylvie … well, Sylvie’s pretty scary. How hard can it be to get the Fairy Flag?”
Yann spun round to face her. “If it was easy to steal the Fairy Flag, human child, then the MacLeods wouldn’t have kept it for hundreds of years.”
“Well, I’m sorry!” Helen yelled back. “As the alternative was a little boy never seeing his family again, I thought I did the right thing.”
“The right thing for whom, girl?” demanded Sylvie. “For your people, for this forest, or for your own ambition?”
Yann turned on Lee. “You understand the dangers of faery bargains. If you are on our side, why did you let her agree?”
“He ran away,” said Sylvie. “As soon as the faeries appeared, he was off like a rabbit down a hole.”
“And did you change and chase him, because you can’t resist running prey, wolf girl?” Yann asked. “Or did you stay and help Helen?”
“Once I’d caught up with him, I did try to go back to drag her away, but this coward drew a sword on me. He said he would skin me before he let the Queen see one hair of my hide.”
Yann glanced at Lee with a flash of respect, then whirled round and looked at Lavender. “Did you hide from the Faery Queen too? Or did you stay with Helen? Why didn’t you warn her of the foolishness of this bargain?”
“I tried to stop her, but she wouldn’t listen to me.”
Helen snapped, “Why would I listen to you when your best plan was blowing their hair into their eyes!”
“Helen, that’s not fair …”
Yann reared up, screaming his impatience. “I knew I should have come! I knew none of you could handle this on your own!”
Lavender was floating a wing beat from Helen’s face, trying not to cry. Helen was ignoring the fairy and glowering at Yann, who was scraping angrily at the ground, flicking dry leaves up at Sylvie’s scowling face.
They all took a breath and started blaming someone else again.
“She never …”
“He always …”
“You must …”
ROAR! A blaze of cold silver flame engulfed them all, then burnt off instantly, leaving them unharmed, but shocked into silence.
They turned, breathless, to look at Sapphire.
The huge blue dragon started to grunt and wheeze. Helen couldn’t understand the words, but she felt the dragon’s anger shake the ground.
After her first outburst, Yann, Sylvie and Lavender all stared at Lee. The faery was leaning against the beech tree, polishing his sword, an amused expression on his face.
Once Sapphire finished speaking, Yann translated for Helen. “Our wise friend asks why only the faery is not blaming everyone else for his faults. She asks why we’re all arguing when we’re here to help and protect each other.” Yann frowned. “She asks whether we’re all too small and weak to withstand enchantment.”
“I’m not enchanted,” everyone answered, indignantly.
Sapphire laughed. Then she spoke again. This time Lavender flew round her smoking snout and explained, “The faeries can enchant us to see the best in them, but also the worst in ourselves. If the Queen can divide her enemies, she doesn’t need to fight them.”
Yann pointed at Lee. “Are you making us argue?”
“No, you’re doing it all by yourselves. But your furnace friend might be right, perhaps the Faery Queen is poisoning your friendship.”
“Then the sooner we drive her away, the better,” muttered Sylvie.
“The sooner we give her what she wants, the better,” corrected Helen.
“No! I will not let your mistakes destroy my forest!” growled Sylvie.
Sapphire gave a warning hiss of steam. They were all silent for a moment, staring in embarrassment at the ground.
Then Yann held up his hands. “Let’s start again. If we’re going to save Helen from this unfortunate bargain, our first task is to steal the flag. We have to plan, so we need privacy.” He folded his arms and looked at Lee, clearly waiting for the faery to leave.
Lee grinned at him. “I could help you get the flag.”
“How? If faeries could get the flag, you would have got it years ago,” Yann sneered.
“And why would you help us get the better of your Queen in a bargain?” Sylvie snarled.
“I can help because I know what has failed before, and I’ll explain why I want to help if you will listen to my story with open minds. Will you listen?”
Helen would rather hear a story than more arguments. So she sat down. “I’ll listen to you, Lee.”
Chapter 9
Lee strode to the centre of the circle, his cloak a healthy bright red in the firelight. “Why would I help you get the f
lag back? That’s easy.
“The Fairy Flag is the token of a promise that our faery warriors would fight alongside the MacLeods when they need us most. The flag has the power to summon our army to battle three times. The first time it was waved, we lost dozens of warriors; the second time, we lost hundreds. We don’t want to lose thousands if they wave it for a third time. So any faery would help you bring the flag home.
“Why would I help you outwit the Faery Queen? That’s harder to explain.”
He glanced down at Helen. “You asked me earlier if I was the Faery Queen’s subject. I said no, but didn’t have time to explain. Now I shall.
“She may summon us to her parties and use her Queen’s guard as a small army, but no faery is her subject. I am a loyal and valued subject of … the Faery King,” he said grandly.
“There’s a Faery King too?” Helen looked around urgently, expecting to see a horde of constantly multiplying magical folk surrounding her.
“Of course! The leader of our armies, the ruler of our lands. He attends her parties sometimes, to be polite, but mostly he sends his supporters and his spies.” Lee shrugged. “That’s what I am.”
Lavender hovered a safe distance away and asked, “You’re spying for the Faery King, against the Faery Queen? Why?”
Lee lowered his voice, beckoning his listeners near. “Because my King thinks she’s reclaiming her home in this forest in a foolish and dangerous way.
“The Queen has power, but no political sense. These lands were once ours, but time moves on. My King understands that. We can’t just come back and steal children, kidnap musicians and drive wolf packs into the open.
“Humans no longer stay out of the forest for fear of wolves or faeries. They come in for fun, with mountain bikes and nature trails. So we can’t hunt, fight and dance in the trees as we used to. If we want to stay hidden we must be more subtle. But the Queen is never subtle, so my King has ordered me to prevent her midsummer madness overflowing into the human world.
“Bringing the Fairy Flag back and taking the stolen child home, these will both please my King. That’s why I will help you.”
Yann snorted. “I don’t believe a word you say, faery,” he turned to his companions, “and we can’t accept help from someone we don’t trust.”
Sylvie laughed. “It doesn’t matter if the story is true or not. Whether he’s working for the Queen or the King, he’s working for my enemy. That makes him my enemy.”
Helen disagreed. “Lee has been honest so far. He advised us to feed the boy, then led us to him. I know he didn’t help me with the Queen, but neither did anyone else, and Lee did warn me beforehand that he wouldn’t be able to do anything. I think we should accept his help.”
“You trust a faery?” asked Lavender.
“I believe him when he says he wants the Fairy Flag out of that castle. We can work as a team this time. So, Lee, how do we get the flag?”
Lee arranged the folds of his velvet cloak under him and sat down beside Helen.
“There have been many attempts to free the flag. At first, the MacLeods swaddled every first-born son in the flag, so the bravest of our women applied to be the babes’ nurses. The applicants were asked to sing the MacLeod cradle song to soothe the babes to sleep. It’s one of our own lullabies, taught to the clan by the faery who married a MacLeod. By the third verse, our women always slipped back into the Faery lyrics rather than the Gaelic, so they were revealed as spies, they didn’t get the job, and they didn’t get near the flag.
“Since then, my King and his army have tried, almost every midsummer for centuries, to break into Dunvegan. But each chief adds more iron, because they know faeries can’t bear to be near iron. Guns on the walls outside, swords on the walls inside, railings on the steps. Every single door and window has so many nails hammered into its frame that the castle must leak like a sieve.
“We can’t get in, so we’ve tried to get the flag out. But neither fire nor famine has ever forced that persistent clan to abandon the castle completely, and they’ve never taken the flag out unguarded.
“However, they’re not guarding against girls, dragons, centaurs, wolves or teeny tiny tasty petal people.” Lee bared his perfect teeth at Lavender.
Helen held out her hand to the trembling little fairy, frowning at Lee. “It can’t be that simple. The castle is a museum, there must be ancient weapons, fancy portraits, even gold and silver on display. They won’t just be guarding against faeries, they must be guarding against human criminals too, with burglar alarms and locks.”
“You claimed it would be easy!” Sylvie sneered.
Lee shrugged. “These are human defences. If you want the boy, you must beat them.”
Yann said, “Lavender may be small in size, but she is wise beyond her years. Lavender, can you get past these human inventions?”
Lavender nodded. “Simple spells will open most locks that defeat this iron-sick boy, but I’m not so sure about burglar alarms. My people don’t make a habit of theft.”
Helen said cautiously, “If we find the flag fast and get out quick, perhaps an alarm going off won’t be a problem. The police can’t arrest a dragon flying over the sea.”
Yann said, “If it’s speed you want rather than subtlety, I can kick our way in.”
Sylvie added, “My teeth can hold off anyone who responds to an alarm.”
The wolf girl and the centaur grinned at each other, their earlier argument forgotten in their shared enthusiasm for a fight.
Sapphire creaked a comment. Lavender explained, “Sapphire can find Skye — it’s almost due west of this glen and it’s the biggest island off the coast — but she’s never been to Dunvegan.”
Lee said, “I can guide you there. All faeries are drawn to Dunvegan by the flag’s power, then repelled by the ring of iron. So you do need my help!”
“Can we all fit on Sapphire?” wondered Helen. “I know she’s grown, but there are a lot of us.”
Yann frowned. “I won’t even try. I will fly on a dragon in an emergency, but it’s not really safe for either of us. Sapphire can’t manoeuvre well with my weight on her and my legs don’t grip like yours. I’ll gallop through the mountains to the coast, cross the bridge in the quiet hours of the early morning and meet you in the north of Skye at the first fall of dark tomorrow night.”
“Tomorrow night?” objected Helen. “We can’t leave this quest until tomorrow! I have to give her the flag tomorrow, so we must fetch it tonight.”
Yann shook his head. “If we get it tonight, that cheating Queen will have a night and a day to steal it from you without fulfilling her part of the bargain, just like she’s stealing the flag from the MacLeods without fulfilling the third part of the faery promise.
“We have to be in and out fast anyway, so if we break into the castle as soon as it’s dark tomorrow, you can be back at Dorry Shee well before dawn.
“Anyway, you didn’t get much sleep last night, my human friend, except when you were pretending to snooze to fool the Wild Hunt. You need a good night’s sleep to be sharp for tomorrow night’s thievery.”
Helen sighed. She didn’t want to think of this quest as stealing, however much Yann was enjoying being a criminal mastermind.
Yann spoke to Sapphire about a rendezvous on Skye, then trotted over to Helen, grinning at her. “You did a really daft thing, making that bargain. But I’m sure we can find your happy ever after, even if we have to break windows and bend rules on the way.” He laughed, his head back, his hooves dancing on the earth, delighted at the idea of chaos and lawbreaking. “And Father sent me here to keep me out of trouble!”
Yann cantered off towards the Skye Bridge. Sapphire left to find the best route to the sea, while Lee headed back to the centre of the forest.
Finally, alone with Sylvie and Lavender, Helen asked the fairy, “Do you want to come back to the lodge with me?”
“No, thanks.” Lavender perched on Sylvie’s shoulder.
Helen felt a tiny flutter of
jealousy. “I’ll just go to bed then, like Yann suggested.”
She turned to leave the clearing, but Sylvie kicked earth over the flames and followed her.
“It’s nearly full summer dark. We’ll walk you home.” Sylvie said softly.
“Are you afraid the Wild Hunt will find me tonight?” asked Helen.
Sylvie looked up as they left the trees. Dark grey clouds hid the stars. “There are no hunters in the sky tonight, but we’ll walk you home anyway. Humans can’t see properly in the dark and you can’t smell anything more delicate than dung or roses. You’d be like a baby crawling along a cliff, out in the dark on your own.”
“Hardly,” said Helen gruffly. “I managed alright last night.”
“Nevertheless,” insisted Sylvie, “we will come with you.”
So Helen chatted to Lavender about places and people they both knew in the Borders, then she tried to include Sylvie in the conversation.
“Sylvie, are you trying to prevent the faery invasion all on your own? Why aren’t older wolves fighting the faeries too?”
“I’m never on my own; wolves work as a pack. My brothers are trying to drive the faeries out too, but they’re content to let me lead. Our elders …” she snorted, “they don’t use this forest as much as the young wolves. They think diplomacy and tradition will keep the faeries in check, and they hope the faeries will only visit occasionally.
“But I don’t think the Queen would go to all this trouble for a holiday home. She’s coming back to stay and she’ll want more land than this. So while our elders rest their old paws, my brothers and I will defend all our lands, not just this forest.”
As they walked along the edge of the trees, their way lit by gentle light from the fairy’s wand, Helen saw Sylvie holding her arm.
“Do you want me to bandage that again?”
Sylvie hunched her shoulders and looked up at Helen through her tangled hair.
