by Lari Don
“A sticky fish? Do you mean sticklebacks?”
“Yes! He catches them for me. Will you catch me one?”
“Sorry, I don’t have a net. But James will catch you another one soon.”
“James is too sleepy.”
“James will wake up soon and catch lots of sticky fish.”
“Promise?”
“Yes. I promise. James will wake up tonight and play with you tomorrow.”
Helen jumped back on the wall and waved at the forest. She didn’t care who saw her. She would go back into the forest tonight and get James out. She had promised.
Chapter 21
No one had seen Professor Greenhill since the morning rehearsal, so when Dr Lermontov announced at teatime that they would be leaving at 11pm to drive to the concert venue, Helen took a risk and put up her hand.
“Professor Greenhill asked me to be her runner tonight, so she’s picking me up and taking me to the venue earlier. I won’t be in the minibus with you, but I’ll meet you there. The Professor said to let you know, so you didn’t worry.”
“You won’t be in the forest on your own, will you?” he asked.
“Oh? Is the venue in the forest?” Helen asked innocently.
He frowned. “You won’t be in there on your own, will you, Helen Strange?”
She thought about the wolves who had been watching her all week. “No, I never seem to be on my own.”
But it wasn’t the Professor who came to get her at 10 o’clock. It was Sapphire.
Helen stood at the back of the lodge and saw a jagged shape land on the track ahead of her. She ran over and leapt onto the dragon.
For the first time all week, Helen wasn’t taking the first aid kit with her to the forest. Instead she was wearing her fiddle on her back. As they flew low along the glen, she felt the hard case press on her spine.
She loved her fiddle. She hoped it would be her violin for the rest of her life. It had a gorgeous gleam, a great sound and she knew its every foible: the notes it played perfectly, the notes you had to nurse and nurture out of it, and where its wolf note was. It was the gateway to the greatest joy she knew: performing music.
Right now, however, her fiddle felt very heavy. So heavy she was surprised Sapphire could lift it off the ground. For a moment, Helen was so scared of the night’s possibilities, she wanted to take the violin case off and drop it to the ground below. But she knew she couldn’t.
She couldn’t imagine a life without music. Wherever she had to play.
Anyway, her fiddle was no danger to her tonight. Who would want Helen Strang to play her fiddle, when Ossian of the Fianna was playing his harp?
Far to the west of their usual meeting place, Sapphire landed on a steep ridge, with trees down one slope, and bare ground down the other.
Her friends had chosen this point well. Looking down in the late evening light, Helen saw the end of the track leading along the forest edge. This was as far as the lodge’s minibus would come in an hour’s time. Behind them, over the ridge and through the trees, was the green mound.
She started to slide down Sapphire’s scales. The dragon smelt spicy and gleamed beautifully, so Helen guessed Lavender had been nervous and had spent most of the day polishing her friend with scented oils. It made the dragon smooth and slippy, and Helen skidded down faster than she meant to.
Yann and Lee grabbed her arms to stop her flying down the ridge.
Yann spun her round and looked at her back. “No first aid kit? Just the fiddle?”
“There won’t be any quests, fights, or injuries tonight. We won’t need first aid.”
“You won’t need the fiddle either.”
“I hope not.” Helen swung the case off her back and laid it carefully on a tree stump.
Sylvie walked right up to her, and stood just a little too close. “What’s your plan to drive the faeries from my forest?”
Helen looked up. “It’s cloudy tonight, which is good, because we won’t have to worry about the Wild Hunt, but there’s bound to be another cloudless night soon. So when the starry hunters are hungry, if the Queen’s still here, she’ll hunt again.
“And we’ll be ready. We’ll lay a trail of aniseed, like drag hunters use instead of real foxes, and lure the hounds of the Wild Hunt to circle round and come up behind the faery hunters. So the Wild Hunt will chase itself out of the forest…”
Lee laughed. “That’s very neat! I must make sure none of my friends hunt that night, because that will take a few of your lifetimes to sort out!”
Sylvie growled. “I don’t know. Will the hounds follow aniseed?”
Helen shrugged. “Most hunting dogs do, but the most important thing is they chase running prey, so we must stay still and let the faeries do the running. You must say the same to your pack.
“So, Sylvie. Do you like my plan? Will you help us tonight?”
Sylvie grunted. “It’s just as ridiculous and unworkable as everything else you’ve done this week, so I suppose it’s just as likely to turn out all right in the end.” She nodded. “That’s your plan for another night. Let’s get their party out of the way tonight.”
So they sat down to wait for their hero and bard.
They waited.
Helen looked at her watch. “It’s not eleven o’clock yet.”
Sapphire described her favourite jewellery to them all.
Lee and Lavender had a colourful conversation about silk, velvet and shoes.
Helen kept checking her watch. It still wasn’t eleven o’clock.
They waited.
Sapphire and Sylvie exchanged theories about the best way to eat sheep without getting the wool caught in your teeth.
Yann and Helen chatted about how long it would take for his dad to calm down, and when it would be safe for Yann to go home.
Helen kept checking her watch. “It’s eleven o’clock.”
They waited.
“It’s five past.”
“Remember, Ossian doesn’t have a watch,” Lee pointed out. “He might be running late.”
No one was chatting now.
They kept waiting.
They weren’t sitting down any more. They were pacing along the ridge, looking along the track for the minibus.
“Ossian has to get here before the students do!” Helen said anxiously. “It’s quarter past eleven. He’s late.”
“He’s not late,” said Sylvie. “He’s not coming. He’s let you down.” There was a tiny purr of pleasure in her voice.
“He wouldn’t let us down. He gave us his word!”
Then Helen’s whole body went cold. “Oh no. He did promise. He gave us his solemn word. And he did mean it. But he lives on Tir nan Og. Where the price of eternal life is your memory!”
She groaned, her failure suddenly clear.
“He promised … and he meant it … but he forgot! He’s forgotten his promise. He isn’t coming.”
There was a deep silence. It was so obvious. How could they not have realized?
Helen groaned again. “Even if Sapphire flies to Fladda-chuain to get him tonight, even if she could find Tir nan Og without a sunset to fly into, he’ll have forgotten the tasks we did to win his favour. We would have to do them all again. We don’t have time to hunt and fight and riddle again.
“We failed after all. We have no bard. We have no music to provide. Not unless I do it myself.”
Helen looked down the ridge. She flinched as minibus headlights suddenly shone along the track.
“I have to get to the mound before the rest of the summer school get here.”
“No!” shouted the fabled beasts gathered round her.
“I have to. If I don’t, James is trapped there forever. I promised his little sister …” She forced the words past the panic in her throat. “I promised his little sister he would wake up tonight.”
She saw Sylvie sidle over to Yann and whisper. Yann glanced at Helen’s fiddle case on the stump.
Helen rushed over, and slung h
er fiddle on her back.
“Don’t you dare, Yann Smith. You are not sabotaging my fiddle any more than you sabotaged the music school. Don’t you lay one hoof on this.”
He walked towards her slowly. Every hoof beat clear on the hard ground. “I will not let you go in there.”
“Yes, you will. You’ll let me go in, you’ll watch the boy come out and you’ll take him home to his family. You will do that.”
Helen turned away from Yann, to look at the headlights getting closer.
Sylvie was blocking her view. “You will not go. We will not let you.”
“We, Sylvie? You and who else? Are your sneaking skulking spying brothers nearby?”
“Yes. In the forest below the ridge. Just waiting for my word, ready to stop the party.”
“But they can’t stop it yet. They can’t! We haven’t got James.”
“You aren’t going to get him. You have to break your promises, girl. You have to break your promiseto the Queen to provide music, and you have to break your promise to the child to get her brother back.”
“I’m not breaking any more promises. I’m not failing any more quests.”
Sylvie shook her head, her long silver hair floating in the grey air. “If you aren’t going to break your promises, I’m going to keep mine. My promise to the pack. I have held my brothers back from attacking you all week, but I promised I would let them loose when your plans finally fell apart. I will go to my brothers and we will stop this concert.”
Sylvie turned and ran, flickering as she went, calling and howling, her voice distorting as her body shifted.
Helen leant against Sapphire, who rumbled comfortingly. Lavender, Lee and Yann gathered round.
“I have failed, haven’t I? Right from the start.”
She stood up straight. “But your King, Lee … he said I should finish this quest the way I began and it would all end happily. So let’s keep on failing.”
“What?” said Lee.
“I’ve got to keep on failing. That’s what I have been doing all week. I’ve got to make a total, utter, complete mess of this.
“But first let’s get to the students before the wolves do.”
She started to run downhill towards the end of the track.
As she ran, she tried to think of the right words to persuade Sylvie that she finally had a workable plan, and the right words to persuade the other musicians to play along.
She saw the minibus stop, and the inside lights flare as the doors opened.
Everyone jumped out, all dressed in white shirts, dark skirts and dark trousers. Helen groaned once more. She was wearing her mankiest jeans again. She wasn’t getting anything right this week.
She wasn’t running now, she was creeping, trying to be quiet.
She saw Dr Lermontov’s heavy body squeeze out of the driver’s door. “Stay where I can see you. We are to wait here until the Professor’s front of house staff come to guide us to the venue.”
She heard a boy’s voice say, “How will we see to play? It’s so dark here without streetlights.”
Someone else made a wavering ghosty “Oooh Ahahahaha!”
A girl’s voice said, “Dark forests are really creepy …”
The same ghosty voice challenged, “I dare you to go in!”
“Don’t be daft, that’s how horror movies start,” the girl laughed. “Some idiot going into the forest on their own.”
A fiddler started to play slow eerie music.
There was laughter. “See! Never go into the forest when there’s spooky music playing. Everyone knows that!”
Helen, sliding down to the foot of the ridge, heard a howl behind her.
She leapt up and yelled, “Get back in the bus! The Professor says the arriving audience aren’t to see you! Get back in the bus!”
There was a confused scramble as people climbed back in and slammed the doors. Dr Lermontov looked round, then hauled himself back into the driver’s seat.
Helen called to her friends over the noise of the doors closing. “We have to get between the wolves and the bus.”
She heard Yann’s hooves thudding on the ground, and saw the bulk of Sapphire flying overhead.
“But don’t let the students see you!”
Helen reached the minibus at a sprint, then stumbled back out of the light cast by the bright windows, and stood in the shadows near the rear of the bus.
Yann ordered in a low carrying voice, “Helen, stay there. Lee, to the other back corner. Sapphire, block the path to the forest. I will take the front. Lavender, stay safe on the roof of the bus.”
Helen glanced round. “Can the people in the minibus see us?” She really meant, can they see a dragon and a centaur?
“No,” answered Yann calmly. “They are in brightness and we are in darkness; if we stay on the edge of the light they won’t see us. But we’ll keep our fire and glamour and light balls dark, if you don’t want them to know we’re protecting them.”
“Can they hear us?”
“Are you kidding? Listen.”
Helen calmed her breathing and listened. The students were playing theme tunes of horror films. Helen smiled.
Lee called, “Helen, do you have a weapon?”
“Of course I don’t have a weapon. You’re the only one with a weapon, Lee.”
“No, Helen. Sapphire has fire, Yann has hooves, the wolves have teeth. We all have weapons except you. Here.”
Something rattled at her feet, and Helen bent down to pick it up. She could feel the shape of the hilt. “This is your sword, Lee. Now you’ve nothing to defend yourself with.”
“That’s my old sword. The one I damaged last night. I won a new sword today, but even though that old one won’t win any more duels, it could still hurt a wolf. Don’t be afraid to use it.”
Helen stood with the sword heavy in her hand and waited for the wolves.
Chapter 22
It was hard to tell when the wolves arrived.
Helen couldn’t see them, she couldn’t hear them, but the hair on the back of her neck bristled, and her skin felt cold.
“Sylvie?”
There was no answer. But she was sure they were there.
She couldn’t see her enemies. She couldn’t see her friends. Just darkness in front of her and yellow light behind. She couldn’t step into the light with a sword in her hand. She must not let the wolves past either.
“Sylvie?”
Then she saw, ahead of her, a shining nose and a black muzzle, pushing at the edge of the darkness.
“Yann! Lee! They’re here! At my corner of the bus!”
Another long muzzle and huge paws, inching towards her.
Yann called back, “They’re here too, Helen. Use the sword!”
Helen lifted the sword. She looked at the advancing wolves.
But what if one of them was Sylvie? She didn’t want to hurt Sylvie.
She didn’t really want to hurt Sylvie’s brothers either. She would rather bandage animals than injure them.
She didn’t want to hurt them, but it looked like they wanted to hurt her.
The first wolf, its muzzle getting nearer, bared its teeth and wrinkled its nose, snarling silently at her. It was big, and dark-furred. It definitely wasn’t Sylvie.
Helen blew the hair off her face. What should she use? The edge or the point of the sword?
The wolf got nearer. Helen could hardly make out its night-dark back as it slinked towards her. She lifted the sword and crashed it down.
The sword missed the wolf and hit the ground, jarring her wrist.
There was movement to her left. She heard Lee’s sword whistle efficiently through the air. There was movement to her right. There was no one to defend her there. She slashed out again with the sword.
She didn’t hit anything, and the wolves, four or five of them now, kept coming towards her. Probably they could see she was the weak point in the defence. She had to look serious with this weapon; she had to feel serious.
&nbs
p; Helen gritted her teeth and lunged forward. The wolves all slid backwards.
Then they rushed forward together. She swung the sword in an unwieldy circle. The wolves slowed down, but kept advancing.
This time she jabbed the sword forward, and caught one on the nose. The wolf snarled and leapt back.
“Sylvie! Sylvie!”
She could hear more sword swipes from Lee’s corner, and the drumming of hooves on the ground at the front of the minibus. Past the strains of nervewracking horror music from the bus, she could even hear the fizzle of sparks from Sapphire’s nostrils. All around, she heard snarls and whines, as her friends beat the wolves back.
But no one howled and no one shouted. No one threw fire or swirled light. They fought quietly in the dark, so those they were protecting didn’t even know they were there.
Helen felt the hot breath of the wolves getting nearer.
She jabbed again, then whirled the sword in a fast arc.
Behind the wolves threatening her, she could see, very dimly, more low-slung shapes. More wolves, circling, like sharks round a shipwreck.
“How long can we hold them off?” she panted.
“Until the Queen’s guard come to take the musicians to the mound?” asked Lee.
“That’ll be too late!” gasped Helen. “I need to talk to the students before the faeries get here, or my plan won’t work. We need Sylvie. She’s the only one who’ll understand.” Helen swung the sword again, and peered into the gloom. Which slinking shape was Sylvie?
“Sylvie?”
She lowered the sword.
“Sylvie, answer me!”
Lavender’s voice called urgently, “Helen! To your right!”
A wolf was sneaking towards the doors of the minibus.
Helen raised the sword and drove it towards the wolf without thinking. There was a moment’s dull contact, then a whine. The wolf ran off.
Helen felt sick.
“Sylvie! Sylvie! Listen to me!”
“Sylvie isn’t with you any more,” said a deep voice. “She has shifted. She is with us now.”
The darkest wolf had flickered into a tall boy, dressed in elegant black.
“Who are you?” Helen asked almost calmly, much keener to talk than wave a sword about.
