Gifted Thief

by Helen Harper

  ‘I don’t see no ring.’

  ‘Watch this space.’ I started to stride away again.

  ‘Uh Integrity! Stop!’

  ‘I have to find the others,’ I said. ‘They probably think I’m dead by now.’

  The genie looked exasperated. ‘So why are you taking the long way around?’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  Bob stood on his tiptoes and smacked me on the side of my head. ‘Hello? Teleportation?’

  Oh. I’d completely forgotten. I grinned. ‘Thanks, Bob.’

  He tsked. A faint shadow crossed his face while I snapped my fingers and declared in a deep voice, ‘The tower.’

  ‘You don’t have to do that with your hand, you know.’

  ‘I know but I think it adds a little something to the effect,’ I said, as I felt myself being tugged away. It really was a handy Gift to have.

  *

  Lexie, Speck and Brochan were relieved to see me. Once again I enjoyed several hugs. ‘We’re making a habit of this,’ I joked.

  ‘We didn’t know what had happened to you!’ Lexie burst out. ‘That wanky genie…’

  I sighed. ‘It wasn’t his fault. But I certainly won’t be asking for any more wishes any time soon.’

  ‘What happened, Tegs?’ Brochan asked. ‘Who was it?’

  ‘It was the Bull all along. I should have suspected him from the start. I guess there are so many people around here who seem to hate me that he was too obvious.’ I explained to the three of them what had happened.

  Speck’s face turned green. ‘Heights. I hate heights.’

  ‘It was kind of fun once I realised I wasn’t going to hit the ground.’

  ‘What colour is my aura?’ Lexie asked eagerly.

  ‘Orange. It’s very bright,’ I admitted.

  She folded her arms. ‘Orange? That’s awful!’

  I blinked. ‘Why?’

  ‘Orange and blue don’t go together at all. Now I’ll have to re-think my entire wardrobe! Not to mention dying my hair.’ She shook her head. ‘All this time I’ve been clashing.’

  ‘I wouldn’t worry about it, Lex. I don’t think there’s anyone except the Bull and me who can see it.’

  She pouted. ‘That’s two people too many.’

  ‘What am I?’

  I turned to Speck. ‘Dark blue. And Brochan is…’

  He held up his hands. ‘I don’t want to know.’ He paused. ‘Tegs, have you thought about how you came to have this Gift?’

  I frowned. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘It’s a bit of a coincidence, isn’t it? You take the Bull’s true name and now you have the same Gift as him?’

  ‘I’ve never heard of that happening,’ I said slowly. ‘But it does seem to make a kind of sense.’

  ‘Let’s face it, you could write down everything all four of us know about the Sidhe and it probably wouldn’t fit on the back of a stamp. Maybe it’s not just the true names that have power. Maybe if give away your true name, you also give away part of that power.’

  ‘I’m sure the Bull would have realised if his Gift had been diminished.’ I nibbled my lip. ‘What happened with Bob…’ My voice trailed away.

  Speck scratched his chin. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Teleportation. It wasn’t until after Bob had teleported me to the Bull that I could suddenly teleport myself. And others, too. The Bull seemed to think it was strange that I could bring him along with me.’

  ‘You think you absorbed some of the genie’s magic too?’ Lexie’s eyes were round. ‘That’s so cool!’

  Speck nodded. ‘Osmosis.’ When he received a funny look from Lexie, he scowled at her. ‘What? Just because I paid attention in school when you were too busy partying…’ She thumped him and he let out a small screech. ‘Stop doing that! You know I don’t respond well to pain.’

  Brochan gazed at the pair of them with an expression of long-standing sufferance. Then he turned back to me. ‘Maybe the Gift you received is one of learning. You learn what other people can do.’ He drew in a breath. ‘It would make you incredibly powerful, Tegs.’

  ‘I can think of a few Sidhe who wouldn’t be very happy about that.’ I shrugged. ‘I didn’t learn pyrokinesis, and those fireballs were flung at me after I received my true name.’

  ‘That was immediately afterwards. Maybe you weren’t ready.’

  I shrugged. ‘Unless someone else uses their Gift on me, it’s not a theory we can test. I’m certainly not about to ask for anything else from Bob.’

  Lexie gasped. ‘What if you caught wish-granting from him?’

  ‘You make it sound like a disease,’ I grunted. ‘And I don’t think that would be possible. Wishes are specific to genies. Teleportation, however…’

  ‘Hello darlings!’ Bob sang. ‘My ears were burning so I knew you were talking about me.’

  I stared at him suspiciously while Brochan sneezed. ‘Why did it take you so long to get here?’

  ‘I was in the library doing some research.’ He reached up to the tips of his ears; tiny flickers of flame were dancing around them. ‘Scorchio!’ he hissed.

  ‘Your ears are burning,’ Speck said in wonder.

  Bob threw him a scathing look. ‘I already said that.’

  We glanced at each other. ‘Ear we go,’ I grinned.

  Everyone groaned. Bob settled down on the back of a chair and pulled off his shoes. He started to examine his toes, picking out miniscule bits of fluff.

  Lexie turned away. ‘That’s disgusting.’

  ‘You’d probably like to know what I discovered in the library,’ he said, holding up a greenish ball to the light before chucking it over his shoulder with a shrug. Speck jumped back about a metre.

  No-one said anything. ‘Oh come on,’ Bob complained. ‘Aren’t you going to ask me?’

  I exchanged a look with Brochan. ‘Go on then,’ I said finally. ‘What did you find out?’

  ‘Well,’ he huffed, ‘if you don’t want to know…’

  I rolled my eyes. ‘I do.’ It was probably some pointless fact about genies’ feet, which was why we were being subjected to this display of toe picking.

  ‘To all intents and purposes,’ Bob declared, ‘the Adair Clan doesn’t exist.’ He pulled his socks and shoes back on and stood up, looking around as if he were expecting applause.

  ‘We know that,’ I told him. ‘It’s hardly news.’

  ‘You misunderstand me. There’s no record of the Adairs. Some books have pages ripped out of them. Others just have a blank space. I am certain that you could scour every piece of paper in that place and you wouldn’t find a single mention of them. Isn’t that curious?’

  I paused. ‘They’re being wiped from history.’ I licked my lips. ‘I’m being wiped from history.’

  Brochan pursed his lips. ‘Very few cultures do that. Most prefer to remember their mistakes so they don’t repeat them.’ He gestured towards me. ‘And the Adair Clan is, in effect, still here. Erasing you doesn’t make sense.’

  ‘Why would someone do that?’

  ‘Because in a generation or two, it’ll be like they never existed,’ Speck answered.

  ‘I’ve seen it happen before,’ Bob said knowledgeably. ‘The Timentuns, for example.’

  ‘Who?’ Lexie asked.

  He snapped his fingers. ‘Exactly!’

  They all looked at me. ‘It does make it more likely that there’ll be another attempt on my life once the Foinse is sorted,’ I said thoughtfully. ‘Rubbing out the past is a big deal. I wonder what they’re all so scared of.’

  ‘More bad jokes,’ Bob said cheerfully.

  I stuck out my tongue at him, then softened my expression. ‘Thank you,’ I told him. ‘You didn’t have to do that. Look around the library, I mean.’

  He blushed. ‘Against my better judgment, I like you, Uh Integrity. This is the most fun I’ve had in a thousand years.’

  ‘So what’s the plan?’ Speck asked.

  I ran my hands through my hair
. ‘I travel to the Foinse with the others. I might be able to glean some information during the journey. Aifric Moncrieffe is going and there’s no way that he doesn’t know that the Adair Clan is being deliberately forgotten. Perhaps I can find out why.’

  ‘You’re going to have to make a run for it once the Foinse is opened,’ Brochan said grimly. ‘It might have only been the Bull who was trying to kill you before but that could change when you’ve done your duty.’

  I nodded. ‘Yep. Teleportation makes escape pretty simple though.’ I pointed to Speck. ‘Can you go back to Aberdeen and talk to Taylor? He knows a lot of people who’ve been around for a long time. See what the Clan-less know about the Adairs.’

  ‘He probably already knows, Tegs,’ Speck answered. ‘You might have wanted to abandon everything to do with your family and the Sidhe, but I bet that he looked into what happened.’

  He was probably right. And if Taylor had never discussed it with me, it was probably because what he’d unearthed wasn’t good. I had to stop pretending it wasn’t part of me. I’d take the news, whether it was good or bad.

  ‘Brochan, it’s a lot to ask, but do you think you can find a way to get to the old Adair lands? It’s almost three decades since they were used but…’

  ‘I’ll do it. There might be traces there of things that can help.’

  ‘I can use the teleportation thing to get you there,’ I began.

  He shook his head. ‘No. I can use the journey to help me. There’ll be some tired travellers along the way who might be more loose-lipped than the people around here.’ He looked at me warningly. ‘Rely on those Gifts too much and who knows what you’ll miss.’

  He had a point. It wasn’t just teleportation. I could spend hours trying to work out what one person’s aura meant instead of paying attention to more reliable indicators like body language and tone of voice.

  Lexie bounced up and down. ‘What can I do?’

  ‘Eavesdrop. Everywhere. Sneak around here and find out what’s really going on with all these highborn Sidhe wankers. Not just in terms of the Foinse and the Adairs, but everything.’

  She beamed. ‘Gotcha.’

  ‘And me?’ Bob piped up. ‘You’ve still got two wishes, you know. You ask for the Adair Clan to be restored to their rightful position and…’

  ‘No. No more wishes,’ I said.

  He pouted. ‘I’d be better at eavesdropping than her.’

  Lexie looked like she was about to slam her palm down and squash Bob like a bug. ‘I think she’ll do fine,’ I replied drily. ‘You’re coming with me. You can be another pair of eyes. An honorary Clan member.’ My eyes gleamed. ‘For the first time in twenty-six years, the Adair Clan entourage will outnumber the others. There’ll be three of us for two of them.’

  ‘Three?’ Brochan asked. ‘Who’s the third person going to be?’ He looked at my face and groaned. ‘No. Not her. She’s nuts.’

  I grinned at him and winked. Right now, she was the only Sidhe apart from possibly Jamie whom I trusted.

  Chapter Nineteen

  The Sidhe were sticklers for punctuality. I’d slept surprisingly well on the hard bed and the pain in my ribs was far more manageable now I’d had some rest. It was a struggle to get up and drag myself down to meet the rest of my merry band at dawn, even though I was usually a morning person.

  They were waiting, several with scowls on their faces. It clearly galled a lot of them that they’d had to come to an Adair for help– and that they’d been forced to delay the trip because of me. For my part, I waved happily at them. Lily and Aifric smiled back. Byron glared at me suspiciously for a moment before relaxing into a small smile. The others simply glowered.

  ‘Chieftain! You honour me with your request,’ Lily sang.

  ‘I can’t believe the Macquarries let her come,’ the younger of the two Kincaids muttered.

  ‘That’s because they’re all crazy,’ I heard the Darroch Chieftain reply. Even though she was agreeing with Kincaid, she still received a nasty look for butting in on the conversation. Interesting. Maybe they all hated each other as much as they hated me.

  One by one, they mounted their horses. Even Lily sprang up onto a pretty white mare. ‘No bells,’ she said sadly. ‘I like bells. Ding a ling a ling a ling!’

  Byron leaned over to me. ‘She wanted them tied into the mane,’ he informed me. ‘Along with multi-coloured ribbons.’

  I shrugged. ‘What’s wrong with that?’ If I could get a nice docile horse with hot-pink fripperies attached to its mane, maybe this riding business wouldn’t be so bad.

  Byron frowned. ‘You haven’t forgotten how serious this mission is, have you?’

  ‘Hey,’ I said lightly, ‘I chose to accept it. It would have been a shame if you chose to self-destruct ten seconds after delivering it, though.’

  ‘Huh?’

  ‘Mission Impossible?’

  Aifric and his horse trotted over. ‘This mission is far from impossible, Ms. Taylor. Don’t be so anxious.’

  Good grief. Pop culture references were clearly going to be lost on this lot.

  ‘Mount up, Integrity,’ Byron said. ‘We don’t want to waste time.’

  He pointed at a red-faced man who was struggling to keep hold the reins of a massive black stallion. It bucked and snorted. Even the other horses seemed terrified of getting too near to it.

  My mouth dropped open. ‘You have to be kidding me.’

  He smirked. ‘Psych,’ he whispered. ‘He’s mine. That one’s yours.’ He pointed at a chubby mare. It had a vacant expression in its eyes and what appeared to be the chewed remnants of a straw hat hanging out of its mouth. ‘Ethan Hawke might not agree but I thought Barbie would be a better fit.’

  I raised my eyebrows. ‘Barbie?’ And Ethan Hawke? Byron wasn’t that removed from the rest of the world after all.

  His amusement increased. ‘She likes hot pink too.’

  I gazed doubtfully at Barbie. Judging by her expression and her lack of interest in the world around her, I was going to have a hard time getting her to keep up with the others. I wondered if Byron had deliberately picked her to make me look like a fool. Then I dismissed the idea. He was conniving, sure, but generally he was a decent guy.

  I walked over and patted Barbie’s neck nervously. She ignored me. Maybe that was a good thing. I stepped back and eyed her saddle. I could climb up tall buildings without a rope; surely, I could get on top of a horse. I put one foot into the stirrup and pulled myself over. Barbie didn’t so much as twitch.

  ‘Yee-ha!’ I yelled, lifting a hand in the air as if I were on a bucking bronco.

  The Kincaid wanker sniggered, throwing me such a derisive look that I stiffened. I formed my fingers into a gun and mimed shooting him. His amusement was immediately replaced by stark fear. I smiled coldly. Yeah, buster; it was probably not the best move in the world to piss off the mass murderer’s daughter.

  As I adjusted my weight, out of the corner of my eye I spotted Byron approaching the black beast. The stallion visibly relaxed, allowing him to stroke his mane. With one lithe movement, Byron sprung up. I eyed his thigh muscles as they tightened round the horse’s girth then coughed slightly when he glanced round, grinning as he caught me staring. Oops. I willed the horse to buck him off but although it had appeared to be a deranged beast, now it stood as docile than Barbie.

  Aifric moved to the front of the pack and turned to address us. From my position, I had to crane my neck to look up at him although his aura, a vivid scarlet, remained visible. ‘You should all be proud of yourselves,’ he intoned. ‘What we do will secure the Clans for generations to come. Your children’s children will thank you.’

  My shoulders tightened. I wasn’t doing this to ‘secure’ the damn Clans. Aifric seemed to sense my thoughts and continued. ‘By ensuring the safety of the Foinse, we will save countless lives, both Clan and Clan-less.’

  That was better. I noticed the two Darroch reps nudge each other at the mention of the Clan-less. I narro
wed my eyes at them. Unfortunately they didn’t notice.

  ‘We will return victorious,’ Aifric boomed. ‘Because for the Sidhe, there is no other way.’ He gazed at us meaningfully then, with a flourish, turned his horse round and took off.

  The others followed in his wake. I tried to remember what I was supposed to do to get Barbie to move. I squeezed my legs together but nothing happened; she simply kept on chewing. I gripped the reins. ‘Giddy up!’ She swung her head round as if vaguely curious, blinked once, and returned to chewing.

  I gritted my teeth. This couldn’t be that hard. ‘Come on, girl,’ I whispered. ‘You can do this.’ Even Lily was managing her horse perfectly. If I didn’t get Barbie to get a wiggle on, the others would disappear out of sight.

  The red-faced man who’d been holding Byron’s horse walked over. I opened my mouth to ask him what on earth I was supposed to do to get her going. He didn’t say a word, just smacked Barbie on her rump. Startled, she burst forward into a canter. I was so unprepared for the sudden movement that I almost fell off backwards. Hanging on for dear life, I bellowed out a thank you. I don’t know whether he replied; I was concentrating too hard on not falling off. Barbie might not look like much compared to the others but, given the right incentive, she really could move.

  I followed the others for some distance before we caught up. Aifric still led the way but Byron was at the rear. As soon as Barbie reached him, she started eyeing the stallion’s backside in a manner that had me very worried. She trotted up and gave him a nudge. The stallion was unimpressed, whipping his head round and giving a good imitation of a horsey glare. Before she could try it again, I tugged her reins. She swung her head round at me as if to ask what on earth was wrong with me.

  I shrugged. ‘Sorry, Barbs,’ I told her. ‘I don’t think messing with the monster is a good idea.’

  Byron, turned his head and frowned.

  ‘I didn’t mean you,’ I explained. ‘You’re not a monster.’ I thought about it. ‘Well, you’re a blackmailing monster. And a manipulative monster. But…’

  ‘Integrity,’ he sighed. ‘I thought we were past all this. What kept you, anyway? Were you admiring the scenery?’