The Unicorn Hunter

by Che Golden

  Maddy took a deep breath and looked at their faces – they weren’t going to take this news well. ‘I swore fealty to Queen Meabh of the Autumn Court. I said no at first, but she told me I could do it whenever I changed my mind and it seemed like a good way to avoid getting killed by Fachtna. Technically I’m one of them now and I can call on their protection as long as I am in the Land. You guys can’t though.’

  ‘You did WHAT?!’ shouted Roisin, while Danny swore. ‘Are you stupid? Do you have any idea what you’ve done?’

  ‘I got myself a bit of back-up – that’s what I’ve done,’ said Maddy, the blood rising into her cheeks.

  ‘You don’t make deals with faeries, Maddy, you know that!’ said Roisin. ‘They never make a deal that doesn’t suit them in the long run.’

  ‘I know,’ said Maddy miserably. ‘But it’s not forever. My oath holds only for a thousand days.’

  Danny brightened up. ‘That’s not so bad,’ he said. He looked at Roisin. ‘Is it?’

  Roisin glared at them both. ‘That’s THREE YEARS, you eejits! Three years you’re going to have to do whatever Meabh wants!’

  Maddy stared back at her, horror dawning in her eyes. ‘But that’s … that’s until I’m fourteen.’

  ‘Didn’t you realize?!’ asked Roisin.

  ‘No, well, it didn’t sound that long,’ said Maddy. ‘I just thought, you know, a thousand sounds good even when you stick days on the end of it, and I thought Meabh would go for it. Which she did …’

  Roisin narrowed her eyes. ‘Why would she do that? What’s so great about you she wants an oath of fealty in the first place, and why would she accept one with an expiry date?’

  This was going to make Maddy look really stupid, but there was no point lying. ‘It turns out I’m the new Hound,’ she said, blushing furiously now. ‘And that means a lot to them. They’re convinced I can find whoever wants to harm the unicorn and stop this war, and Meabh offered me her help but only if I became part of her court.’

  Danny and Roisin looked at her and then at each other, their faces frozen in disbelief, and then they started to roar with laughter.

  ‘It’s not funny!’ said Maddy.

  ‘Oh, it is,’ gasped Roisin, holding on to her stomach as she laughed. ‘I mean you – the new Hound? Following in the footsteps of Cú Chulainn, the superhero of Irish mythology, him of the big muscles …’ She doubled over as another gale of laughter swept through her.

  ‘Not being funny, Maddy,’ said Danny, ‘but I’ve seen bigger muscles on a sparrow’s kneecap.’ The two of them continued to roar with laughter, and despite herself, Maddy found her mouth twitching at the corners.

  ‘It’s not funny,’ she repeated as giggles began to bubble up from her stomach, and before she knew it she was laughing along with them, with George looking at their faces, confusion in his eyes, wagging his tail and hoping to be let in on the fun.

  ‘Honestly, I don’t know why we’re laughing,’ said Roisin.

  ‘We’re off to face certain death again at the hands of homicidal faeries. What’s not to laugh about?’ asked Danny.

  ‘It almost makes you long for school trips,’ said Maddy.

  ‘Not me,’ said Roisin. ‘You try being the fat kid on the bus.’

  ‘Try being the weird one,’ said Maddy.

  ‘Touché,’ said Roisin.

  They were silent for a moment as they looked at the dark mouth of the tunnel that would lead them into Tír na nÓg.

  ‘So what’s she like then, Queen Meabh?’ asked Danny. ‘Do you think you can trust her?’

  Maddy sighed. ‘You’ve both met her. I wouldn’t trust her as far as I could throw her, but we haven’t got much choice.’

  ‘Do we ever?’ said Roisin.

  They looked at each other, the dancing flames of the torches throwing their faces into relief, exaggerating their cheekbones and eye sockets. Roisin and Danny looked older in the torchlight – Maddy wondered if she did too. She wished she was older, say forty-five – then she’d be so old the possibility she could die in the next twenty-four hours might not be so bad.

  ‘We might as well got on with this,’ she said, shouldering her rucksack.

  ‘Oh good,’ said Roisin, her face brightening. ‘You brought food!’

  ‘You didn’t?’ asked Maddy.

  ‘We didn’t have time. We were trying to catch up with you!’ said Danny.

  Maddy rolled her eyes. ‘Great, so I have to share the food I brought for one person among three. That’ll work.’

  ‘That’s why we should get in and out of this as fast as we can,’ said Danny. He gave a short whistle. ‘Come on, girl, walkies!’

  ‘That is definitely not funny!’ said Maddy as Roisin dissolved into giggles again.

  Danny grinned at her. ‘Sorry, I was dying to say that.’

  ‘Look, stay behind me and let me be the first out of the tunnel,’ said Maddy. ‘I don’t think they are expecting all three of us.’

  ‘OK,’ said Roisin. ‘Just don’t do that funny walk you were doing when we were behind you just now. You looked like you needed to go to the toilet.’

  Maddy ground her teeth. ‘Can we just get on with this without any criticism of my general houndness, please?’ Danny and Roisin nodded back at her, biting the insides of their cheeks to keep from laughing, while their eyes bulged in their sockets with suppressed glee.

  ‘Fine,’ said Maddy. She gave George’s lead a twitch. ‘Let’s go.’

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  It was a shock to walk out of the mound and be bathed in the late golden light of evening. The sun was just beginning to sink and long shafts of pure gold lay lightly on the Land. Fingers of it touched Maddy’s face and warmed her mound-chilled skin. It was a last kiss from summer as it faded away, the air crisp with the bite of autumn. But there was a hint of winter too, in the way the bowl of the sky frosted to an ice blue at its edges, a warning that Autumn’s reign was passing quickly and the lean times of hunger and cold would soon be here.

  ‘Oh wow!’ said Danny. ‘I didn’t realize we were getting a welcome committee!’

  Maddy’s heart sank as she took in the scene in front of them. The pavilions of the four courts were spread out in a meadow that rested between the mound and a brooding forest. Courtiers of every shape, size and breed of faerie were camped on the grass.

  ‘So much for getting in and out quickly!’ said Roisin. ‘They’re all going to be watching us.’

  ‘I don’t mind them watching,’ said Danny. ‘It’s touching I object to. Especially as we have no protection.’

  Horses and riders broke away from the main host and galloped up the hill toward them. Jewels flashed in the sun and Maddy recognized the monarchs, with courtiers riding hard on their heels, pennants streaming behind them.

  ‘They are heading this way!’ said Roisin, her voice breaking with panic. ‘I don’t want to meet them, I really don’t want to meet them.’

  ‘It’s not like we have a choice,’ said Maddy, as she wound George’s lead tight around her hand to keep him close to her side and eyed the approaching riders.

  Meabh led the way, a circlet of gold studded with rough-cut rubies around her head, keeping her tumble of thick red hair away from her face. She burned with a keen light and the colours of her lips and eyes sparkled hard and cold. It was her time, her season, and the power of Tír na nÓg pulsed through her. But the Winter Queen rode hard by her side and even in her crippled elfin body a soft light was beginning to glow as Autumn waned and the power of Winter stirred in her crown of spun crystal.

  Maddy squared her shoulders and braced herself against the soft turf of the mound as the monarchs and their escorts swept up to her. She breathed deep the air of Tír na nÓg, air that expanded in her lungs and hummed with a vibrant song in her blood. It made her feel giddy and wildly alive, an intense joy flooding her as the song of the air and the song in her blood joined their voices. She breathed deep again until her head steadied and the fear lessene
d in her heart. Her hair crackled around her head as the magic of the place seeped in through her pores.

  She flinched but stood her ground when it looked as if the monarchs would ride her down, but at the last moment their horses went from a gallop to a halt, their hoofs churning up turf as they stopped just two feet away from her. Behind her, she heard Roisin breathe out a sigh of relief.

  The horses of the monarchs of Tír na nÓg were huge, far bigger and wider than anything she had seen in the mortal world. Their hides gleamed white, their curling manes hung to their knees and every single one of them had a golden saddle and silver bridle and even their hoofs were shod with gold. Embarr, Meabh’s mount, rolled a huge brown eye at her and snorted hay-sweet breath in her face. She looked back at him and recalled how treacherous he could be to his rider at the command of his mistress. Liadan’s elf mount was a different kind of animal. Smaller, leaner, it had a vicious and cunning expression. It bared its teeth at her, revealing long, sharp fangs, and snarled. It pawed the ground not with a hoof, but with a taloned paw. The smell of rotting meat drifted over to Maddy and she turned her face slightly aside. The mount was the only creature that needed protecting from its rider. Cold poured from Liadan’s twisted limbs and splashed all over the silver that protected the mount from her body, leaving patches of frost wherever she touched it. She was a leaking nuclear reactor and Maddy wondered how she or her court could stand it when Winter’s power was at its zenith and it tortured her in its grip. She must be mad, thought Maddy, truly mad to keep such a stranglehold on the crown and the power of being a monarch when it costs her so much. No wonder she wants to break free into the mortal world and feed on all our emotions to strengthen her.

  Meabh nudged Embarr forward with her heels and turned him until he stood alongside Maddy. She smiled, transforming her beautiful face, and stretched out a hand adorned with a blood-red ruby ring.

  Instinctively Maddy bent her head and kissed the cold, smooth face of the stone. She heard the other monarchs gasp in shock and looked up at Meabh. ‘You didn’t tell them?’

  Meabh shrugged. ‘I like to surprise people. Keep them on their toes.’

  ‘What is this?’ demanded Sorcha. ‘Is this child truly the Hound?’

  ‘It would seem so,’ murmured Meabh. ‘The Blarney Stone itself has pronounced it.’

  ‘What a very young and thin pup it is,’ said Nuada, a sneer on his handsome face. ‘Is this the best the mortals can do?’

  Meabh shot Maddy a warning look. Keep your mouth shut. ‘Was Cú Chulainn any better in his youth?’ she asked Nuada, her voice low and sweet.

  ‘Oh, he was!’ breathed Niamh, sounding like a love-struck teenager. ‘Golden and handsome …’

  ‘You should know,’ said Sorcha nastily. ‘My point is, if this skinny, half-starved-looking child is indeed the new Hound, then why has she become a part of your court? Were it not for the fact that it has to hunt the unicorn hunter, I wouldn’t have allowed such a creature out from the mound, after the damage its predecessors have done, and it certainly shouldn’t be welcomed into any Tuatha court! You should have discussed this with your fellow regents, Meabh.’

  ‘I do not need to discuss with anyone, even the Morrighan herself, whom I accept into my court,’ said Meabh, her eyes wide with mock innocence. ‘But even had I wanted to, I had not the time. The child swore fealty to save her throat from being cut by the captain of the Winter Queen.’

  ‘As was my right,’ said Liadan. ‘The child has insulted myself and my captain grievously. Fachtna was only taking what was her due – until the Pooka interrupted her.’

  Sorcha gave an irritated twitch of her shoulders. ‘I couldn’t care less who has tried to spill her blood.’ She turned in the saddle to glare at Liadan. ‘But it was stupid. And when Winter does it, it looks sinister. This girl has agreed to negotiate with Finn mac Cumhaill on our behalf. We need that dog of his to track the unicorn mare safely. Had Fachtna succeeded in killing this girl, it could have undone everything and brought an eternal Winter. I can’t see any of those snivelling, cowering Sighted left in Blarney stepping into her place, no matter what they are threatened with.’

  Liadan stared hard at Sorcha with her dead white eyes. ‘Fachtna was hot-headed but the girl has called my honour into doubt –’ at this, Aengus Óg gave a bark of laughter ‘– and I have a right to demand blood justice.’

  ‘And there we have our problem,’ said Meabh brightly. ‘We have one court trying to kill the girl, which we all agree would be a bad thing, and no other court, apart from my own, offering her sanctuary, despite the fact that, again, we all agree that the unicorn mare dying would also be a bad thing. This girl is the one chosen to persuade mac Cumhaill to loosen his grip on that animal of his, and she is the one who can walk above and below the mound to track the hunter, so we need her alive and cooperative. Have I got this right so far?’

  Liadan inclined her head. Nuada and Aengus Óg shot each other a look, unsure where this was going, and Niamh smiled behind her hand to see how angry Sorcha was getting. Sorcha’s attendant butterflies were beginning to crash into each other as her rage confused them.

  ‘What is your point, Meabh?’ Sorcha ground the words out through clenched teeth.

  ‘My point,’ said Meabh, flicking an imaginary speck of dust from her plaid shoulder, ‘is that with the Winter Queen not thinking clearly, the girl was in danger and in need of protection. The Autumn Court was the only one to offer it, and in her hour of need she took it. If Fachtna could have been controlled, there might not have been any need for the girl to enter my court.’

  ‘And my point,’ snarled Sorcha, ‘is that if that tangle-haired urchin really is the new Hound, then she shouldn’t be in any court. Hounds have offered the Tuatha nothing but insults. To shelter one is to insult the other courts.’

  ‘No one knows that better than I,’ said Meabh. ‘I was thinking only of the good of us all.’ She pouted. ‘It does sound, dear Sorcha, as if you are accusing me of being dishonest in my dealings with other courts.’

  Meabh’s warriors bristled and put their hands on their sword hilts at the perceived insult to their queen. The escorts of the other monarchs did likewise and suddenly the air was charged with aggression and threat.

  But Sorcha was cool in the face of it all and she didn’t flinch from Meabh’s gaze. She smiled, but it didn’t reach her blue eyes. ‘You misunderstand me. I accuse you of nothing,’ she said. ‘You are ever my beloved sister. But that child should not belong to any one of us; Hounds have always been our enemy.’

  ‘What harm could this child do?’ asked Meabh.

  Maddy held her breath and watched Sorcha’s face muscles twitch as she fought to control her temper. ‘I don’t know,’ she said at last, dragging the words reluctantly from her throat. Everyone breathed out and the escorts put their swords back in their scabbards.

  ‘What about those two?’ said Aengus Óg, pointing at Roisin and Danny, his dark eyes hooded. ‘No one needs them, do they? They don’t seem to be worth arguing about.’

  Maddy looked quickly at her cousins and their pale and frightened faces. ‘I do,’ she said. ‘I need them.’

  ‘Why?’ asked the Summer King, his voice casual as he dropped his reins and pulled a wicked-looking dagger from his tunic. He began to clean his nails with its tip. ‘I think they would make magnificent hunting. It’s been a while since we hunted mortals.’

  The other Tuatha laughed at this, their voices sweet and fragile in the cool air. They looked at Danny and Roisin with that hungry expression Maddy was beginning to dread.

  ‘Because she’s the brains and he’s the brawn,’ she said. It was the only reason she could think of under this much pressure. ‘I’m not going anywhere without them,’ she added.

  ‘Another condition?’ asked Meabh. ‘Doesn’t your little brain overheat thinking them all up?’ She looked Roisin and Danny up and down. ‘Will you be very upset if we kill them?’

  ‘YES!’ they all three sh
outed at the same time.

  ‘It seems this little pup is hard to control already,’ said Sorcha, a ghost of a smile hovering about her lips.

  Meabh frowned at her and then looked down at Maddy. ‘Take them then. They will pass through with you unharmed by any faerie, you have my word.’ She clicked her fingers at her escort. ‘Horses!’

  Three of Meabh’s Tuatha dismounted and led their white horses over to the children. Their saddles and bridles were simply leather, but they were beautifully engraved with Celtic patterns.

  ‘You also have an escort of your own, to see you safely to the lands of the Coranied,’ said Meabh. ‘Volunteers, no less.’

  Maddy peered through the legs of her enormous white horse and saw a familiar figure gliding through the Tuatha – a huge black wolf.

  ‘Fenris!’ she squealed. She dropped the reins and dodged around the horse’s legs to fling herself at him, George barking excitedly as he bounced in her wake, but she stopped short as the wolf sat down and puffed up his chest.

  ‘Please don’t hug me,’ said Fenris. ‘I’m not a dog.’

  ‘I don’t mind getting those hugs,’ said a silvery grey wolf as it padded toward her. His eyes sparkled with mischief and his tongue lolled over his teeth in a way that made it look as if he could be laughing.

  ‘Nero!’ cried Maddy, flinging her arms around his thick ruff and hugging him hard. George jumped up and down on the spot, trying to lick and bite Nero’s jaw at the same time. The wolf watched him for a moment and then put one huge paw over the little terrier’s head and pinned him to the ground.

  ‘He’s very sweet, but it is so annoying when he does that,’ he said to no one in particular.

  ‘Hello, Nero,’ said Danny a little warily. He had met Nero once before and it hadn’t gone well.

  ‘Hello, pup,’ said Nero cheerfully. ‘Did I leave any scars?’

  ‘I’ve got a couple,’ said Danny.

  ‘That makes us friends then,’ said Nero, wagging his tail. ‘I’ve a couple from stopping you getting your head ripped off.’