‘Tinkerbell,’ the girls repeated in unison. ‘That’s a strange name.’
‘Who can figure out the mind of a Youkai, eh?’
The name wasn’t strange enough to worry the girls for long. Isleen brightened suddenly and turned to her sister. ‘Did you see the fireworks, Teagan? I wasn’t expecting fireworks to greet us.’ She nudged her sister with a grin. ‘Can we make everyone do that?’
‘The Ikushima manufacture them here,’ Ren explained. ‘They’re very good at it, too. You saw them on the way in, didn’t you?’
‘Can we see some more?’ Teagan asked, turning to look at him.
‘I mean … we’re here now,’ Isleen agreed. ‘We should probably stay the night at least, before we return home to Nara.’
‘We want to see more,’ Teagan demanded.
Ren nodded, beckoning Namito forward. ‘I am quite sure the Daimyo would be honoured. In fact, I’m certain he’d like nothing more than to show you his wares.’
A polite cough from one of the courtiers behind the girls interrupted them. It was a woman in her thirties, her streaked ash-blonde hair piled high in an elaborate arrangement that must have taken hours. She was dressed just as formally as the girls, but when she addressed them, it was with great deference. ‘Your Highnesses might like to consider returning to your palace in Nara,’ she suggested. ‘There are many petitioners awaiting your presence.’
‘Stop trying to act like a mother, Wakiko,’ Isleen informed the courtier with a dismissive wave. ‘We can spare time for a fireworks display. After all, we have a special guest to honour and tonight marks the beginning of the end for the last of the Youkai in our realm. We have much to celebrate. Why shouldn’t there be fireworks?’
‘Why indeed?’ Ren agreed under his breath. The woman bowed and stepped back, as if she had somehow erred by pointing out the Empresses’ responsibilities. Equally anxious to please, Namito hurried forward to greet his guests and arrange their fireworks display.
Ren stood by and watched, sick with the knowledge that the event these innocent little girls wanted to celebrate was only going to happen if he aided them in committing mass murder.
CHAPTER 41
‘But they’re only little girls!’ Trása exclaimed as she morphed back into human form high in the branches of a huge mountain ash some distance from the Ikushima compound. Under normal circumstances she wouldn’t have risked changing back into her own form so high off the ground, but Toyoda had waved her down and indicated the branch was safe and strong enough to bear her weight.
At least, she assumed that’s what was he was signalling. It was hard to tell in the dark. He could have been waving her off.
Fortunately, he wasn’t. She caught the branches overhead to balance herself as she resumed her human shape, shivering as the cold air embraced her naked skin, but she ignored the chill. She was much more interested in what was going on down on the ground. She peered down through the almost barren branches into the Ikushima compound as Rónán faced a pair of creepily alike little girls, wishing she knew what they were discussing.
On the bright side, they hadn’t killed Rónán on the spot, which was a good thing. But they had the ability to do it with a thought. Trása could feel the latent power in them from here.
‘Those little girls look as if they escaped from Village of the Damned.’
‘I not be familiar with that village, mistress.’
‘It’s a special village. I saw it on TV in Rónán’s realm,’ she explained.
The ninja-Leipreachán looked at her sideways. ‘It be quite different to this realm then, where ye come from?’
‘You have no idea, little man,’ Trása said, shifting around until she was sitting on the branch beside him. ‘What are they talking about, do you think?’
‘Would ye like to know?’
‘Do you have a way of finding out?’
Toyoda shrugged. ‘There be plenty of lesser sídhe still about in this realm, mistress, who might oblige if ye ask them. Mostly they be hiding out of fear, but there be wood sprites and dryads and plenty of the wee folk, who might be willing to aid ye in ye quest to put an end to these monsters.’
Trása glanced at the Leipreachán a little alarmed. ‘Quest?’
‘That be why ye came here, isn’t it?’
He said it with such confidence, Trása didn’t have the heart to correct him. Toyoda had been so pathetically relieved to be caught in her trap, it felt cruel to disillusion him by revealing she intended to be gone from this realm as soon as she found a way to open a rift.
‘You’re expecting me to save you all?’ she asked, trying not to let her scepticism leak into her voice.
Toyoda nodded, smiling happily. ‘SvenHendrick said the gods would send help.’ He leaned across and patted her knee like a fond uncle. ‘It took a while, but I be so glad they sent someone so pretty.’
For a moment, Trása was distracted by the compliment. She sat a little straighter and smiled, preening under his admiring gaze. ‘Really? You think I’m pretty?’ Then she realised what she was doing, and shook her head to clear the thought. That was the sort of thing her mother would do. This world was so steeped in magic, the Beansídhe side of her was coming to the fore.
It felt very strange. Even when she’d lived in Tír Na nÓg, Trása had felt more human than sídhe. It was peculiar to be feeling the opposite.
‘Tell me about SvenHendrick,’ she said, figuring that was a safer thing to ask than revealing her ignorance by blurting out ‘who are SvenHendrick?’.
‘They be the most powerful Undivided ever seen in this realm,’ Toyoda told her with a wistful sigh. ‘We be so happy when they be invested. It seemed like everything be exactly right with the world.’
‘If they were so powerful, how come the terrible twins down there are running the show?’
Toyoda shrugged. ‘I not be entirely sure. It started when Hendrick met Wakiko.’
‘Who is Wakiko?’
‘She be mother of those abominations,’ Toyoda replied.
‘Wakiko? Those girls don’t look Japanese,’ Trása said with a frown. ‘They look like little Vikings.’
‘Wakiko be Norman,’ Toyoda said. ‘The Empire of the Rising Sun reaches far and wide, mistress.’ He pointed to the courtiers standing behind Rónán and the twins. ‘That be her there. In the blue kimono. She still be there for the girls, but they be the ones who rule the roost.’
Down in the compound, Namito was hurrying forward, bowing obsequiously to the children. It seemed they were holding everyone in thrall with their mere presence.
‘How is it in a realm ruled by the Japanese, you have Norman Undivided?’ Trása asked.
‘Isn’t it the same in ye realm, my lady?’ the Leipreachán asked, sounding surprised. ‘SvenHendrick’s mother was a Gaul. The right twins not always be born in a place ye’d prefer. The Matrarchaí find the twins wherever they can find them.’
‘The Matrarchaí?’ she asked, sounding just as surprised to hear of them in this realm as Toyoda was to learn of the differences in hers.
‘Have ye not heard of the Matrarchaí, mistress?’
‘I’ve heard of them, Toyoda,’ she said. ‘I’m just surprised to learn that you’ve heard of them too.’
‘The Matrarchaí be at the root of all our troubles in this realm,’ he told her with a heavy sigh. ‘At least, that’s what the elder Youkai believed, although being one of the lesser Youkai, they didn’t confide in me ’bout it, as a rule.’
Trása smiled, imagining her uncle treating a Leipreachán with anything other than disdainful contempt. ‘I’m sure they didn’t.’
‘The Matrarchaí in this realm be the ones who oversaw the breeding of the psychic twins. They be the ones who brought Wakiko to court. They be the ones who started all the trouble between the Undivided.’
Before she could ask exactly what trouble he was talking about, the sky overhead exploded in a brilliant burst of light. She blinked, the afterimage of the fireworks blinding her for a m
oment.
‘They only be five or six when Lady Delphine came through the rift. She claimed to be of the Matrarchaí from a realm similar to ours where the Undivided had destroyed all the Youkai races. She said she came to warn us.’
‘She was lying, I suppose?’
‘No. It be true enough about the dead sídhe. What she left out was that she hadn’t come to be warning the Youkai about it, but to do the same here.’
‘Didn’t somebody think to check what she was telling them?’ Trása asked, as a second brilliant shower of light burst overhead. ‘I mean … how hard is it to send a rift runner through to another realm to be certain?’
‘It be very hard, mistress,’ he told her, flinching a little as another starmine that blinded them with its brilliance.
Keeping up with this convoluted tale was making Trása’s head spin. The distraction of the fireworks exploding overhead and the biting chill of the night air weren’t helping much, either. ‘Hang on … let me get this straight. The Matrarchaí introduced the Undivided — or at least this realm’s version of them — to some Swedish girl called Wakiko, who gave birth to those two down there and … what? They all lived happily ever after?’
‘Not exactly.’
By Danú, this is like unravelling a felted fleece. ‘What do you mean, not exactly?’
‘Hendrick and Sven had a falling out, when Sven tried to kill Isleen and Teagan in the cradle.’
Of course he tried to kill them. This realm is insane. She sighed, almost afraid to pose the obvious question. ‘All right. I’ll bite. Why did he try to kill them?’
Toyoda shrugged. ‘There be various stories about. The Djinn claim Sven tried to kill them out of jealousy. The wood sprites say they heard it was because Sven be having a recurring nightmare about the twins. His visions showed the girls be the death of all the fey folk in this realm, and he had to kill them, because all the Undivided are part-Youkai, so he was bound to defend the Youkai whatever way he could.’
She shook her head. ‘That logic doesn’t hold. If the Undivided are Youkai enough to want to kill their own babies to protect the Youkai, then Hendrick should have felt the same way.’
The Leipreachán shrugged. ‘Maybe he didn’t have the visions, so he didn’t see the threat.’
‘It’s possible, I suppose,’ she conceded. ‘But it’s still insane.’ Trása watched the girls in question enjoying the fireworks below them, clapping delightedly with every new explosion. She figured Hendrick must have prevailed. ‘So Hendrick discovered Sven trying to murder his babies and stopped him. Then what?’
‘They not be Hendrick’s babies, mistress. They both be in love with her, but it be Sven who eventually married Wakiko and fathered the girls. The brothers never reconciled after Sven tried to kill them and it was left to Hendrick to raise them. The wee girls never forgave their father, neither, specially when the Matrarchaí told them their father tried to murder them in the cradle.’
‘But you said the Undivided went through the rift looking for help.’
‘That wasn’t until Lady Delphine arrived and told them they must be rid of SvenHendrick and invest the girls as the Undivided in their place. And they found ye, mistress,’ Toyoda said, smiling up at her with adoring eyes. ‘I be surprised they didn’t tell ye this before ye came through the rift.’
‘There wasn’t a lot of time to discuss things,’ Trása told him, thinking it was the bald truth. She’d not even heard of SvenHendrick before today, let alone met them, so there never had been a chance to discuss any of this. ‘How did she convince them to rid themselves of two perfectly good Undivided and replace them with a couple of obnoxious little girls?’ Trása well knew the consequences of such a plan in her realm. But the Undivided were not divided here. They were no separated youths, still testing the limits of their authority. They’d been grown men, healthy, hearty and more than capable of holding things together.
‘Lady Delphine approached the Konketsu and warned them the argument between the Undivided was going to destroy the magic if it didn’t end. When everybody agreed the brothers were never going to be reconciled, she suggested transferring the power to Teagan and Isleen, even though they only be little girls, back then.’
‘Not sure if you’ve noticed, Toyoda,’ Trása said, ducking instinctively as one of the starmines exploded almost directly overhead. ‘But they’re still little girls.’
‘Only in body, mistress,’ Toyoda lamented. ‘Lady Delphine shared the Comhroinn with the new Futagono Kizuno after the power transfer. They look like little girls, but they have the memories of a wicked, manipulative Matrarchaí bitch to call upon.’
Trása looked at the little ninja askance. ‘Excuse me?’
‘That be what Lord Hendrick called her, mistress. I just be echoing his words.’
She smiled. ‘I see.’
‘After the transfer, things just went from bad to worse,’ Toyoda continued. ‘Turns out IsleenTeagan don’t need the Youkai to channel the power to the Konketsu.’
‘But isn’t that just because all the Konketsu are part-sídhe?’
‘Aye, they be that … but these girls can take the magic the Youkai loaned them, and channel the folding magic through their mongrel Konketsu without the help of our kind at all.’ For a moment Trása feared Toyoda was going to start crying again, but he seemed to get a grip of himself long enough to continue the story. ‘They not have any loyalty to our kind. SvenHendrick were compelled to protect the Youkai, but Wakiko is all human. Those girls don’t have enough Youkai in them to be compelled to do anything for our kind. Once the Konketsu realised that, they started rounding up the Youkai and sending them to worlds without magic so we’d die. They told us they were better worlds they be sending us to. Worlds with more magic. Worlds where we’d be happy and not have to bother with humans at all.’ He sniffed back a tear, unable to continue.
Trása put her arm around Toyoda’s shoulders awkwardly, thinking she’d never in her life imagined herself having to comfort a sobbing Leipreachán.
‘Why didn’t someone go for help?’ she asked. There were plenty of realms out there, Trása thought, which must be similar enough to this one. Realms that would aid their brethren if they were under attack. And they must have had rift runners aplenty.
‘They did,’ Toyoda told her. ‘But before they left, SvenHendrick destroyed the rift-making knowledge and killed all the Konketsu who could open rifts to keep the Matrarchaí out and to ensure nobody followed them.’ He sniffed and wiped his nose on his sleeve, leaving a silvery trail on the black fabric.
‘When you say destroyed, Toyoda, do you mean gone forever?’ Trása asked, more than a little worried to learn that small but significant fact. ‘Not just lost? Not just bundled up and put away somewhere for safekeeping?’
‘They burned all the ori mahou texts that detail the folding for a rift and most of the gampi trees from which the folding paper be made. Those who can fold the ori mahou can still travel across this realm, mistress, but there be no gateways for us to escape to other realms any longer. That’s why the Konketsu haven’t been able to finish the job of eradicating the lesser Youkai. They no longer be able to send us through the rifts. We have to wait for Youkai like ye to come here, to save us.’
Trása shivered, and she wasn’t entirely sure it was because it was night, and she was sitting naked, high in a tree, watching a fireworks display while this strangely dressed Leipreachán shattered any hope she had of ever returning home.
He wiped his nose again. Down in the compound, the little girls responsible for driving all the Faerie in this realm to their deaths, jumped up and down, clapping with delight, their squeals of glee faintly reaching even Trása and Toyoda, high in the treetops.
‘Is there no other way to open a rift?’
‘Not that I be aware, mistress.’ He looked up at her curiously. ‘Doesn’t ye have the knowledge from the realm ye come from?’
‘Knowledge, yes,’ she told him. ‘Tools, no. We use jewels to o
pen the rifts in my realm. And I don’t have one with me. Why aren’t they killing him?’
‘Pardon?’
Trása pointed to the compound. Rónán was watching the fireworks display with the twin girls, cheering with them like he was their new best friend. ‘Why aren’t they killing him? If these two little monsters down there are set on destroying all the Youkai, and Rónán is Faerie enough to be able to wane himself out of there, why is he staying and why are they treating him like an honoured guest?’
‘We be waiting for help and so be they,’ Toyoda explained. ‘Your friend be Youkai but he looks human. They might think Lady Delphine and the Matrarchaí sent him.’
And Rónán is clearly playing along with that misconception, Trása thought, not entirely sure she blamed him for it. They needed to find a way out of this realm and they needed to do it soon, or Rónán and Darragh would …
‘Hang on,’ she said, turning to Toyoda. ‘You said Sven and Hendrick went for help. How could they? I mean … the power was transferred while they still lived, wasn’t it? In my realm, that means they should have died.’
‘The same holds true in this realm, mistress,’ Toyoda said. ‘Truth be, they were dying when they left. Sven looked as if he’d barely make it through the rift.’ He looked up at her with adoring eyes. ‘The gods must have been smiling on this realm if they were able to find help to send us before the magic withdrawal sickness took them.’
His worshipful gaze made Trása very uncomfortable. She looked away, trying to pretend she didn’t notice. ‘Apparently they were.’
‘Did it take long, mistress? For all that Sven fathered those abominations down there, I liked him and his brother. I’d not want to see either of them suffer before they died.’
Trása’s momentary glimmer of hope died. ‘You’re sure they’re dead then?’
‘Long dead I be supposing, mistress,’ the Leipreachán said heavily. ‘Nobody survives transferring the power from one Undivided to the next, in this world or any other. Why?’
The Dark Divide Page 31
