The Unicorn Hunter (25 page)

Fenris looked disgusted while Nero practically spat his own teeth out with indignation. ‘A dog?' he growled. ‘You want us to pretend we are
dogs
?' He looked over at George, who was sitting up in front of Roisin, his stubby front legs braced against the pommel of the saddle, and sideways at Bran, who loomed over him. ‘No offence.' George barked and wagged his tail happily while Bran simply looked away with cool indifference.

‘Try not to rise to the insults,' Fenris said to Nero. ‘It makes life much easier.'

‘Enough of this,' said Fachtna. ‘It will be the Samhain Fesh soon and Cernunnos's patience must be wearing thin.'

Just as they turned to set off, Finn mac Cumhaill emerged from the trees. Bran gave a bark of joy and raced to his side, cringing on her belly and licking his hand while whimpering with delight.

‘You would still take her from me?' he asked Maddy, as the rest of the Fianna stepped from the gloom of the forest. Their horses nickered and stamped their hoofs, their hides steaming with sweat.

‘I have to, you know that,' said Maddy. ‘But you have my word I will send her back to you.'

‘Come with us and you can stay with her,' said Danny. ‘We really could use the help.'

Finn mac Cumhaill smiled sadly. ‘My love is in this world, not in yours. I can never leave here, even for a moment. While she still breathes the same air as me, there is hope.'

‘We'll keep Bran safe and send her home soon,' said Roisin.

They turned their backs on the grieving hero and his silent men and plunged into the icy river. Bran and the wolves swam across, their heads held high, while
Fachtna simply flew to the other side. They cantered across a meadow still blooming with flowers with the moon at their backs until they reached the mound. Its unnatural shadow sat all around it like a barrier and Maddy could feel its chill on her cheek as she turned her head to take one last look at the forest.

‘We'll leave the horses here,' said Fachtna. She held out her arms to help Maddy down, while Danny and Roisin slithered to the ground. ‘They will attract too much attention mortal-side.' She looped their reins around the saddles so they were not hanging loose around the horses' legs and slapped them on the rumps. They tossed their heads and cantered for home. Maddy looked at Danny and nodded her head slightly.

‘Are you trying to delay us, getting rid of the horses like that?' she asked Fachtna.

‘What are you accusing me of?' demanded the faerie, as Danny sidled around behind her and climbed on to a rock.

‘It's your queen that wants an eternal winter, a path into the mortal world, so if we don't make it back in time to hand the hunter over, then all of faerie goes to war and the boundary is too weak to hold them back at the mound,' said Maddy. ‘She benefits if we are late. Halloween is the best time to break through, right, when you are strongest?'

‘When time collapses into chaos,' said Fachtna. ‘Yes.'

‘So a little bit of delay here would hand Liadan her dearest wish and mean you wouldn't have broken your vow that we would come to no harm.'

Fachtna's eyes blazed with rage while her wings rattled a warning. ‘I swore an oath to the monarchs that I would help you find the hunter, to my queen that I would not allow you to lie about her in the matter and to you that I would bring you safely home,' she barked. ‘I'm not a treacherous, deceitful, filthy mortal …'

‘Hey, Fachtna,' called Danny, and as the faerie turned toward the sound of his voice he aimed an upper cut to her face with his fist, catching her right on her pointed chin. The faerie crumpled to the ground without so much as a sigh. They all looked down at her in shock.

‘I can't believe that worked!' said Danny as he hopped off the rock, massaging his hand. ‘But I think I might have broken a finger on her jaw.'

‘Is she really out for the count?' asked Maddy as George trotted over and swatted the faerie's face gingerly with a paw. Bran cocked her head at him and whimpered as he jumped nervously away from Fachtna.

‘Looks like it,' said Fenris, his voice quiet with shock.

‘It was lucky that rock was there. I would never have got enough power to knock her out if I'd had to jump to reach her chin,' said Danny.

‘What have you done?!' asked Roisin, her eyes wide with fear. ‘She is going to be so angry when she wakes up!'

‘She is, isn't she?' said Nero, his voice quivering with nerves as he backed away toward the mound with his tail tucked between his legs. ‘Perhaps now would be a good time to leg it?'

They all exchanged looks and then turned and ran through the mound, Maddy calling for Bran as she ducked inside it.

In the light of the torches their shadows loomed large on the walls. Maddy felt hysterical laughter bubbling up inside her as they sprinted for the mortal world, the dogs and wolves bounding alongside them. They emerged from the tunnel into Blarney and the teeth of a storm. Wind and rain lashed them so hard it drove the breath from Maddy's lungs and she had to pause for a moment, rain plastering her hair and clothes to her body, as she caught her breath.

‘How is Bran supposed to track the hunter in this?' she yelled to Danny over the shriek of the wind. ‘How will she even pick up the scent?' He shrugged, eyes half closed against the driving rain.

‘Maddy!' yelled Roisin behind her. ‘We've got a really big problem.'

‘What now?!' yelled Maddy in frustration as she
turned to see what Roisin was talking about. Her jaw sagged as she watched Roisin help a shivering naked old woman with long grey hair up from the grass outside the mound. Fenris and Nero had twined themselves around the woman to protect her from the fury of the weather as she clung to Roisin's side and gazed all around her in terror. Her blue eyes looked very familiar.

‘Who
is
that?' asked Danny.

Roisin stared at them with eyes as wide as saucers as the woman trembled and whimpered.

‘It's Bran,' she said.

‘What do you mean, Bran?' yelled Danny, while Maddy sank into a crouch, staring at the old woman, while a dreadful thought strolled nonchalantly into her head and gave her brain a cheery wave.

‘Bran was there one minute – the next, her,' said Roisin. ‘Considering she's stark naked and she has the same eyes as the wolfhound, I think it's safe to say
she
is Bran.'

‘Oh no,' said Danny.

‘I've been so stupid,' said Maddy.

‘What? Why is this about you?' asked Roisin.

‘Don't you get it?' said Maddy. ‘They didn't need me at all. Meabh must have known that Bran would transform on mortal soil and could make her way through Blarney on her own to track the hunter down.'

‘But she said it was you,' said Danny, looking confused.

‘No, she said it was “one such as” me,' said Maddy. ‘I should have listened more carefully to what she said, I should have listened to
every word
…'

‘But the Coranied said you were the one as well,' said Roisin.

‘No, everything they said was in the future tense, that it
would
be me,' said Maddy. ‘And they were right – I fell right into Meabh's trap. But they didn't say it
had
to be me; they didn't say it couldn't possibly be done by anyone else – not that I asked.'

‘Oh, I get it,' said Danny. ‘So basically you just got yourself tied up with the Autumn Court and Meabh—'

‘For no good reason,' interrupted Maddy, as she rocked on her haunches and jabbed at her head with the heels of her hands. ‘For no reason at all other than my own pride. I kept asking the wrong questions – even Meabh said that.'

‘Well, I don't see how it could have been done by poor Bran – she hasn't even got any clothes!' said Roisin. ‘How's she supposed to track anyone?'

Maddy looked at the shivering woman. ‘
Una!
' she yelled.

‘There's no need to shout,' snapped a high voice, and the little banshee came shuffling forward with her odd, rolling gait, a bundle under one arm.

Danny and Roisin stared at her. ‘Who is
this
?' asked Roisin.

‘I'll tell you later,' said Maddy. ‘How did you know we were here?' she asked the little faerie woman.

‘I always know where every member of the family is,' said the banshee. ‘That's my job.'

She crouched down in front of the snivelling Bran and gently touched her cheek. ‘Bran, child, it has been too long,' she said.

Bran stopped crying for a moment. ‘Una, is it really you?'

‘It is,' said the banshee, clasping one of Bran's hands in hers.

‘How long has it been?' asked Bran. ‘How long have I been gone?'

‘A long, long time,' said the faerie sadly as she opened the bundle and began to wrap Bran in grey rags just like her own. ‘All you loved are lost to you now. All except Finn mac Cumhaill. Does it hurt to be human again?' asked Una, smoothing Bran's wet grey hair back from her head with her withered hand.

‘It does,' said Bran. ‘I want to go back, Una. I want go back to being a wolfhound and forgetting it all. When I am a wolfhound I don't remember anything about being human.'

‘I know,' said Una, ‘but there is a job to be done first …'

‘NO!' Bran recoiled in horror. ‘Not me, don't make me do it …'

‘If you do not find your prey, there will be a war, Bran, a war much like the last one,' said Una. ‘Yet this time I do not think the humans will fare as well. They might not be strong enough against the Tuatha. Would you see these children ruled by Tuatha as once you were?'

Bran shook her head. ‘The faeries are cruel overlords,' she said bitterly. ‘They taught me that.'

‘It is your fate to be the gentle huntress,' soothed Una. ‘You are the one who always brings her prey back alive and unharmed.'

‘I live to find mac Cumhaill's love,' said Bran. ‘That is my fate.'

‘You have not found her yet,' said Una. ‘But right now these children need you. Track your quarry for these children, finish the hunt you started in Tír na nÓg, and then you can find peace in a wolfhound's form again and stay by Finn mac Cumhaill until his wife returns to his side.'

Bran nodded and straightened up. She linked her fingers with Roisin's and looked at Una.

‘It hurts,' she said. ‘The ground where this hunter trod burns with its curse.'

‘Then follow it,' said Una, squeezing her free hand. ‘We will walk with you.'

Bran began to hobble forward, Fenris and Nero clinging to her sides, causing Roisin to stumble over their huge paws.

‘Nero, this is awkward,' she said, bending down to push him away. The wolf turned and snarled at her, snapping his teeth at the air, his eyes gleaming turquoise. ‘What is wrong with you?!' squealed Roisin, as George yelped with fear and ran to cling to Maddy's leg. Nero just carried on snarling at Roisin, his ears pinned back to his head and his black lips peeled to show teeth and gums, while Fenris rumbled on the other side of Bran, his lips twitching from his teeth.

They all eyed the wolves nervously. ‘I think they've got a bit more “wolfy” this side,' said Danny.

‘Probably best to just let them do what they like,' said Maddy. White-faced, Roisin nodded her agreement.

It was slow going. The downpour had turned the ground to a slippery muck beneath Maddy's feet. Her jeans were soaked and hung like cardboard from her legs, chafing her cold skin at every step. Gusts of wind drove the rain into her face as hard as a smack while Bran wept and clung to Roisin and Una as they coaxed her along. George trudged alongside her, his head held low and the rain sheeting off his thin spine. Tremors
shook his little body. The only ones who seemed to be comfortable in the weather were the wolves, who slitted their eyes against the gale and seemed immune to the rain that dripped from their shaggy coats.

Step by painful step they made their way out of the castle grounds. They had to coax and pull Bran through the gap in the fence, and Maddy gritted her teeth and tried to ignore the old woman's cries of pain. They walked through the village, which was deserted and closed tight against the storm and the lateness of the hour. Maddy breathed a sigh of relief when Bran walked past Granny and Granda's house and again when she failed to take the road that would lead them to Cork city and Aunt Fionnula. The unicorn hunter was no one in her family. But the sick feeling of dread still lingered in her stomach. It was someone here, someone she knew, someone whose kids she went to school with.

They walked out of the village and headed for the countryside, past the brand-new housing estates with their raw landscaping and the identical ornamental boulders with each estate's name carved into them. On they went along the deserted road, the tarmac glistening in the wet, the street lights hurting Maddy's tired eyes with their sodium glow. Houses were more and more spread out here, until Bran turned down a rutted lane,
little more than a dirt track that gave access to a handful of houses crouched behind trees. Bran might be finding every step she took on her bare feet agony, but she was full of purpose as she limped up to the door of a little one-storey cottage, not unlike Granny and Granda's, and put her hand flat against the wood.

‘Here,' she said, her eyes full of sorrow.

Everyone looked at Maddy, even George and the wolves, so she squared her shoulders, stepped up to the door and knocked on it loudly. They all stood and waited, breath held to see who would answer. They waited and waited and waited, and no one came.

‘This is ridiculous,' said Maddy. She knocked again and cocked her head, listening for footsteps. Hearing none, she tried the door handle, more out of frustration than hope, and was surprised to find it turned easily in her hand. The door swung open into a darkened hallway that had a musty, dirty smell.