by Chrys Cymri
‘I fly with my wings.’
‘A gryphon is too heavy to fly,’ I countered. ‘Which is why you use magic. That magic’s been drained, just for the moment.’
His voice was low. ‘I’m scared. I don’t want to fall again.’
‘Don’t be. It’ll be fine. Setbacks are part of all adventures. Every hero has to face them. It’s part of the journey.’ I pushed him back towards my wrist, and partially unzipped my fleece. ‘How about you climb in there?’
Jago’s claws dug into my palm as he marched over to my chest. His tail flicked against my chin as he plunged into the gap. ‘Auntie Penny, you have bumps down here that James doesn’t have.’
‘And you just keep your beak off them,’ I said firmly. A moment later, he had turned himself around, and his head popped out of the top of my fleece.
I reached my free hand into my trouser pocket. My iPhone was a comforting lump against my fingers. With any luck, within the next hour or so Afagddu would be collected and taken somewhere far more welcoming. I felt certain that Jen would make a fuss over her. And then I could turn my attention towards the care of a flightless gryphon.
The sound of gravel crunching under boots made me look up. Several people had come around the side of the Abbey. For a moment I thought that they might be some of my fellow clergy from the conference. But then I saw their day packs and the grim looks on their faces. Obviously a group of walkers determined to press on, rain or shine. Confident that all they would see was a slightly damp woman, I turned on my iPhone and tapped the ‘Contacts’ icon.
‘What’s that?’ one of the women said, her voice carrying across the distance between us. ‘That strange horse. Has someone dumped paint on its neck?’
‘And what’s that on the back?’ another asked. ‘Oi, you, what have you done to that poor thing?’
For a moment I simply stared at them. They had changed direction and lengthened their strides, one woman at the front, the other five close behind her. Surely not all of them could have the Sight? ‘It’s fine,’ I called out. ‘I’m phoning someone to take care of her.’
‘And what’s that in your arms?’ the woman demanded. ‘That’s the biggest snail I’ve ever seen.’
‘I’ve heard about people like you,’ another man said. ‘Doing things to horses. Get away from her!’
I slipped the phone away and reached up to my neck. No dog collar. I’d dressed down for the conference. ‘Clyde, cut another thin place. We need to get Afagddu away from here. We can’t let them touch her.’
The orange and green blotching his body showed that he agreed with me. ‘Where?’
‘Find somewhere secluded. The back garden. Quickly!’
Clyde scooted up to my shoulder, and somehow managed to cling to my back as he slid down towards the ground. I moved to one side. ‘Afagddu, go through.’
‘But--’
‘We don’t have time to argue. Go now.’ And she obeyed.
The sudden disappearance of the unicorn made the group falter. They were only a few hundred feet away. I wondered how I could begin to explain to them what they’d seen. Then I decided to take the easy way out. Following the angle of Clyde’s tentacles, I turned and stepped through the crossing. I could only hope that none of my fellow humans would find the right angle to follow me through.
I had expected to see the untreated fences and straggling bushes of my home. Dark brown wood met my gaze and, as I turned around, I saw the empty chicken run and the striped lawn. ‘Clyde,’ I said, appalled, ‘this isn’t our back garden.’
The snail waved his tentacles. ‘Snail pups.’
‘Okay, I can understand why you didn’t want Afagddu around them.’ I looked up at the cottage and swallowed hard. ‘But this is Earls Barton Man’s house.’
‘Know it,’ Clyde said. Then his body took on a yellow-brown hue. ‘Panicked.’
And, just as I’d feared, the back door flew open. Earls Barton Man stood just inside. ‘Hello again,’ I said weakly, taking comfort in the fact that I wasn’t carrying a shovel nor had a spirit-possessed dragon to deal with. ‘Don’t worry, I was just going.’
He took off his glasses, gave them a quick wipe against his dark blue jumper, then frowned as he put them back on. ‘What’s that strange horse doing in my garden?’
‘We won’t be here for long,’ I said quickly. ‘Actually, we’re just going. If you’ll just unlock the gate, we’ll leave you in peace.’
‘There’s all those bizarre colours on its hide,’ the man continued. ‘And there’s a horn. And wings. Good heavens, those are wings, aren’t they? That’s a horned Pegasus. Or a winged unicorn. Which is it?’
Jago pushed himself out of my fleece and climbed up to my shoulder. ‘I thought humans couldn’t see us.’
‘And what are you?’ The man pointed at the small gryphon. ‘Like some fancy blue parrot, but with--four legs? And a fox tail?’
It was that moment my iPhone blared out the theme to Yes, Minister. I slid it free and lifted the phone to my right ear. ‘Reverend Penny White here. Am I speaking to the Right Honourable Sue Harkness, Minister without Portfolio?’
As I had hoped, this made the man shut his mouth and pull his head back. ‘Yes, it’s Sue,’ the minister’s cultured tones agreed. ‘Penny, I need your help. One of our nuclear submarines is missing, and we think it might be in Lloegyr.’
I lowered the phone and raised my eyes to the grey sky. ‘Can’t I have just one crisis at a time?’ Then I returned the iPhone to my ear. ‘I’m a bit busy right now, but I’ll call you back as soon as I can.’
‘This is rather important, Reverend.’
‘At this precise moment,’ I said sweetly, ‘I’m with a flying unicorn who gives any human the Sight just by looking at her. I’d like to take her back to Lloegyr as soon as possible.’
‘Where are you now?’
‘99a Shurville Close, Earls Barton.’
‘That address? Again? How often have you ended up there? Isn’t this the fourth occasion?’
Not for the first time, I wondered how Sue knew so much about me. ‘Something like that. Could you arrange a distraction so I can move the unicorn out of here?’
‘Certainly. I’ll arrange my secretary to put a call through to him now.’
The man started as a telephone began to ring behind him. ‘That’s the Minister without Portfolio,’ I told him. ‘She would like a word with you. This is all a matter of national security, you see. Special experiments. Very top secret.’
‘Very funny,’ Sue replied. ‘Yes, okay, I’ll keep him on the line for a few minutes. Call me back when you can. Hello? Is that Mister--’
Sue cut off the call. I dropped the iPhone into my jacket and looked at Afagddu. She had started to graze on the short grass. ‘Clyde, can you cut a passage through to Llanbedr Cathedral? We’ll ask Bishop Aeron to take her in.’
‘I like it here,’ Afagddu said quietly. ‘The grass doesn’t speak, and the trees don’t hate me.’
Clyde crawled onto my hands, and I raised him to create a crossing near the abandoned chicken run. ‘You can’t stay here. We keep Lloegyr safe by keeping its existence secret. Usually humans don’t notice people from Lloegyr because their minds dismiss what they’re seeing. But it seems that anyone who looks at you gains the Sight. We can’t be having that.’
The snail’s jaws snapped shut several inches above the ground. I straightened and turned to find that the filly’s dark head had swung towards me. She might only be the height of my shoulders, but the multi-coloured horn ended in a sharp point. ‘And if I decide to stay?’
‘You don’t want to stay here,’ Jago replied. ‘My mam tells me that there are these places they keep people from Lloegyr. And those places aren’t very nice. You won’t have any fresh grass there.’
‘You won’t be the first refugee the Church has taken in,’ I said, as reassuringly as possible. ‘Please, step through. I know what I’m doing.’
‘She does,’ Jago agreed. ‘Auntie
Penny can be very clever. Right now, though, she’s telling the truth.’
I winced at that. Afagddu lifted her chin. I drew back as she walked past. A moment later, she stepped through the thin place. I turned and followed.
Clyde had cut through to the green space near the cathedral’s east window. My feet sunk into warm grass. I lowered Clyde to the ground, and looked around. ‘Hello!’ I shouted at a squirrel standing near the grey stone wall of the building. ‘Could you take a message to the Bishop’s office for me?’
The squirrel’s red fur stood on edge, and her tail vibrated above her back. Then, with a squeal which ascended into a scream, she dashed away. And, I noted with frustration, not in the direction of the Bishop’s house.
‘I like the Bishop’s Palace,’ Jago said. ‘Tad showed me around a few weeks ago. It’s a nice-looking place.’
I lifted a hand to give his head a comforting scratch. ‘It certainly is. Let’s walk there together.’
Jago tucked himself under my left ear, his crest tickling against my cheek. Clyde fell in behind me and, a moment later, so did Afagddu. My stomach let out a growl. Afternoon sun slanted past the timber and stone buildings, and my last meal had been in the early morning. I pulled out my oatcakes and munched as we walked around the south side of the cathedral.
As we approached the west end doors, the Dean emerged. Her grey-white body and silver horn glowed in the sun, a complete contrast to the way Afagddu’s hide absorbed the light. A whiff of thick incense tickled my nose. Clyde said a rude word as the unicorn approached.
‘Marcia was correct,’ the Dean said, stopping a few feet away. ‘You have brought an enaid tywyll to our city. Do you have any idea how dangerous she is?’
‘Afagddu is a child who’s been cast out by her birth herd.’ I forced my voice to remain steady, although I shared Clyde’s low opinion of the Dean. ‘She needs, she deserves, the same protection and care you’d show any child of God.’
‘This is a very dangerous child,’ the Dean countered. ‘You risk all of us by her very presence here. Remove her now, or I shall ensure that you do so.’ The sharp horn glinted as she lowered her head towards us.
Chapter Nine
I knew better than to take on a unicorn with only a snail shark and a small gryphon on my side. ‘Jago,’ I said quietly, ‘go to the Bishop’s Palace. Try to find her, or her chaplain, Aldred. Tell them that’s it urgent that one of them comes to the cathedral.’
‘I can’t fly.’
‘You have legs. Use them.’
Jago whizzed down my side and dashed past the growing crowd of curious onlookers. Several unicorns, a dragon, two gryphons, and a number of weres made their way across the green, making comments to each other in a mixture of Welsh and English. I moved closer to Afagddu.
‘Stop,’ the Dean commanded them. ‘Stay your distance. The filly is dangerous.’
‘Is that an enaid tywyll?’ one of the other unicorns asked. ‘I thought they were a story made up to frighten rebellious foals.’
‘She is, and she is leaving.’ The Dean struck at the ground with one silver hoof.
‘Dyw hi’n ddim ond plentyn,’ said a were-vixen. Several young cubs hovered around her heels, their ears pulled back as they stared at the crowd.
‘She might only be a child, but a child can still be dangerous.’ The Dean pointed with her horn. ‘Look at the grass around her hooves.’
I glanced down. Circles of brown marked wherever Afagddu had stood. ‘She can’t help that. You can’t blame her.’
The next few moments were a confused blur. The Dean plunged forwards, two of the other unicorns at her side. Clyde threw himself in front of Afagddu, teeth bared as he growled at the attackers. I found myself instinctively reaching for my pocket knife. My feet slipped on the grass. I fell against the filly, and we crashed in a tangle of legs and arms. Her muzzle glanced across Clyde’s shell and down his body.
An ache spread across my head. And then, as if I were looking at a TV screen, scenes passed before my eyes. Afagddu, a fully-grown mare, ducked and dived around military helicopters as she flew across a bright blue sky. Hands and claws rested on Clyde’s shell as a voice intoned, ‘Send down the Holy Spirit on your servant Clyde for the office and work of a bishop in your Church.’ The TARDIS wheezed into a landing on the cathedral green, and a blonde woman stepped out, the TARDIS key and a sonic screwdriver in her hands.
I rose shakily to my feet, rubbing my forehead and hoping that I wasn’t suffering from brain damage. Peter Capaldi’s successor as the Doctor wouldn’t be announced for another month yet, and there was no way the BBC would have the courage to choose a woman to play the Time Lord.
Afagddu was also standing, and looked unharmed. I reached down to Clyde. ‘Are you all right?’
‘Okay.’ The yellow pulsing through his body matched the uncertainty in his voice. ‘Feel strange.’
The unicorns had pulled up several yards away, their manes slapping against their arched necks as they half-reared. Then a dark shadow fell across us, and the downbeats of a dragon’s wings slapped my coat against my chest. ‘In the name of Aeron, by the grace of God Lord Bishop of the Diocese of Llanbedr, I demand that you withdraw!’
Most of the group fell back as Aldred landed at my side. The Bishop’s chaplain glared at them, his wings still raised from his yellow back. Jago clung to one of his horns, and from the rise in his crest I knew that the young gryphon was enjoying himself. No doubt he saw the afternoon’s events as a great adventure.
‘I am the Dean of this cathedral,’ the unicorn snapped. ‘And I will not have an enaid tywyll on my grounds.’
‘That’s easily solved,’ Aldred said calmly. He turned his thick muzzle towards the filly. ‘Please follow me. We’ll take you to the Bishop’s Palace.’
The Dean snorted. ‘You have no idea what you are taking in.’
‘I am taking in a child,’ Aldred answered. ‘And Bishop Aeron is very clear on this matter. We will have no more dead children. One tragedy was one too many.’
Only someone exceptionally brave or very foolhardy would dare to stand against a determined dragon. No one in the crowd seemed to fit either category, and they drew away at his approach. Afagddu fell in behind him, and Clyde and I took up the rear. The Dean snorted as we passed her but didn’t try to stop us.
We walked away from the cathedral and along the gravel path which led to the Bishop’s Palace. Various beings stopped to stare at us, but no one interfered with our progress. Timbered buildings gave way to the dark grey stone of Bishop Aeron’s residence.
The large door opened as we approached, and a red squirrel trotted out. ‘I’ve spoken to the magister,’ she said in a breathless, high-pitched voice. ‘Please take the unicorn to the back garden.’
‘Thank you, Glynda,’ Aldred said. He led us around the side of the house, and reached out with one forefoot to pull open the oak gate. Jago used the brief pause to leap from the dragon to my shoulder. I winced as his claws ripped at my coat. Jago was proving to be as destructive to my wardrobe as Morey.
A long expanse of meadow, fringed with trees, met my gaze. Tents filled most of the space. For a moment I simply stared at the mixture of colours, reminded of a similar encampment near the shore of a river. My eyes were drawn to one gold and purple tent, situated in the middle of the group.
The flap lifted, and Elthan emerged. I found that I was both grinning and tearful. ‘Magister,’ I said, walking past Aldred. ‘It’s good to see you here.’
‘Father Penny.’ The vampire grasped my forearms with his strong hands. Although the deep lines in his face spoke of the colony’s recent losses, there was warmth in his tone and his dark eyes. ‘Last I saw of you, it were on the back of an upset dragon. How be Raven?’
‘He’s well, as far as I know.’ I swept an arm to indicate their surroundings. ‘This looks like a good place for your colony.’
‘Aye. The Bishop be very generous to us. We have shelter and food here. And protection.
’
I cleared my throat. ‘Could you offer shelter and protection to another refugee? This unicorn filly?’
Afagddu stepped back as Elthan turned towards her. ‘Don’t touch me. I’ve been told that no one should touch me.’
‘She drains power from the land, and from people,’ I explained. ‘Jago landed on her earlier today, and now he can’t fly.’
The vampire smiled. Then he deliberately walked up to the dark head and placed his hands on her neck. ‘We be all on solid food, now. None be able to shift or fly. There is naught touching you can further do to us. You be welcome here.’
‘May we leave her in your hands, Magister?’ Aldred asked. ‘Explain to her where she might graze, and the sanitary arrangements.’
‘Certainly.’ Elthan patted the unicorn. ‘And what be your name?’
‘Afagddu.’
Clyde and Aldred both growled. Elthan shook his head. ‘Nay, that be such a sorrowful name. You be not called “utter darkness” amongst us here. May I grant you a new name? I would call you “Epona”, the Holy Lady who cares for both equines and travellers. May I do so?’
The filly tossed her head. ‘My dam gave me that name.’
‘It is not unknown,’ Aldred said quietly, ‘for someone to take on a new name after a major change in her life. A new community means an enlarged identity. This new name does not disgrace your dam.’
‘But her mam got rid of her,’ Jago whispered into my ear. ‘Why would she worry what her mam thought?’
‘Families are complicated,’ I murmured in return. ‘It takes a lot for someone to accept that their parents aren’t perfect.’
‘But Mam and Tad are perfect.’
I turned my head to hide my smile. ‘Oh, yes, they’re an obvious exception.’
‘I will be called Epona among you,’ the filly said slowly. ‘But to my dam I will always be Afagddu.’
‘If you insist.’ Elthan gave us a nod. ‘Our regards be to your bishops and to your God.’
The vampire touched Epona on the shoulder, and she followed him into the camp. I watched them go, wondering at the generosity of refugees. ‘It’s how the Church should be,’ I told Aldred. ‘A place where outsiders can find a new family, and a new home.’
