The Raven Queen (6 page)

Better
, the leaves whispered.
But I could have done without your tone
.

‘Sorry,' Maddy muttered.

The tree said nothing more. Dark clouds began to build up, piling on each other as they rushed to obscure the sun. The temperature dropped a couple of degrees as the sunny back garden was thrown into shade and a chill wind began to blow around Maddy's ears. She let out a long sigh of relief and let her body relax. Maddy had no idea what Meabh was up to, but it was obvious she had heard her and had the power to act. All she could do now was sit tight and see what happened.

She had just turned to walk back into the house when a flicker of movement caught her eye. It was Una, crouched in the corner of the garden, her rags wrapped tightly around her withered body. She was rocking backwards and forwards, tears streaking silently down her wrinkled cheeks while her soft eyes locked on to Maddy.

‘So you're back, are you?' asked Maddy. ‘I'm a bit angry at you for grassing me up to Granda.'

‘I had to,' said Una, ‘for your own good.'

‘When people do things to me I don't like,' said Maddy, ‘it doesn't make me feel any better.'

‘You have no idea what you have done,' said Una.

Maddy shrugged. ‘Probably not. But I had to do
something
.'

Una shook her head, her face gleaming silver with the tracks of her tears. ‘Foolish child. Arrogant Hound.'

Maddy sighed. ‘You're always having a go, but I'm still here and the world hasn't ended yet. I'm still alive, aren't I?'

‘No,' said Una. ‘You're just not dead yet.'

‘There's no talking to you when you're in this mood,' said Maddy. ‘I'm going to finish my dinner and get some sleep. Stick around if you plan on being helpful.'

The little banshee just sniffed and looked away, an expression of disgust on her face.

‘Suit yourself,' said Maddy, as she walked back into the house.

Within two hours the wind was a raging beast, howling and battering its way up and down the street. It shook windows, knocked over wheelie bins and screamed through cracks around doors. The clouds piled up one on top of the other in soft charcoal folds and then unleashed the rain from their bellies. It hammered from the sky and bounced on the dusty pavement like stones. Soon the gutter was transformed into a muddy flood, litter and leaves swirled out of sight while water ran down the road in rippling sheets. Sodden barbecues were abandoned, children were yanked indoors no matter how badly they wanted to go out in their wellies and splash in the rain, and that annoying dog was silenced. It got so dark everyone switched on the lights in their houses, although no one pulled their curtains. As far as Maddy could see, most of the neighbours were standing in front of their windows, gazing open-mouthed at the
shrieking storm that had blown up out of nowhere in the middle of one of the hottest summers Ireland had ever known. Even the monsters were stunned into silence, their grubby fingers clinging to the windowsill as they gazed at the chaotic sky.

The TV continued to flicker away in its corner as news bulletins warned of falling trees and flooded roads. ‘Freak weather conditions have been caused by an unforeseen collision of warm and cold air fronts over the Irish Sea,' said a rather frazzled-looking weather presenter. ‘The storm is expected to die out in the early hours of the morning, but until then the public are advised not to make any unnecessary journeys.'

Maddy felt her heart lift a little bit when she heard this. Did this mean Granda would be trapped in Blarney tonight? Or would he send another Sighted to come and get her? But it would have to be someone Aunt Fionnula knew. Even she wouldn't hand Maddy over to a complete stranger.

‘It's freezing,' complained Danny. ‘Can't we stick the fire on?'

‘Do I look as if I am made of money?!' barked Uncle Jack, as the phone started to ring in the hallway. ‘I'm not putting the heating on in July. If you're cold, put a jumper on.'

Aunt Fionnula walked into the room and held the phone out to Maddy. ‘It's Granda, for you.'

Maddy cautiously pressed the phone to her ear. ‘Hello?'

‘I can't get out there until the storm is over,' said Granda, and she could hear him grinding his teeth in frustration. ‘Awful handy this storm, isn't it?'

Maddy felt her bowels turn to water. How much did Granda know? Had Una told him she was sworn to the Autumn Court? Granda was terrified of the Tuatha de Dannan, Meabh most of all – he'd hit the roof if he knew. While her mind worked at a million miles an hour, Granda sighed.

‘I will be there first thing,' he said. ‘Don't do anything stupid, Maddy. Just go to bed tonight and wait for me to come get you in the morning. I mean that. No sneaking out in the middle of the night.'

‘No, Granda.' The lie tripped so easily from her tongue. But she didn't really think he believed her – sneaking out in the middle of the night was what she did. He was hardly expecting her to change now, was he?

‘Be a good girl, Maddy,' said Granda. ‘One day you will have children of your own, and then you will know what an awful thing it is to worry about them. Let me talk to your cousins now.'

I'd be a good girl
, thought Maddy as she handed the phone to Roisin,
if it ever got me anywhere
.

Tucked up in bed that night she listened to the rain thundering against the window. Despite the drop in temperature, the room still felt stuffy with every window in the house sealed tight against the water. She was wearing jeans, a T-shirt and a hoody. The duvet was pulled up under her chin in case Aunt Fionnula decided to check on them before she went to bed. But everyone in the house had settled for the night and the bedroom door had not creaked open once.

She rolled on to her side and thought about the force of the storm. It was terrifying what Meabh could do even when she wasn't the Tuatha in power, even in the mortal world. She thought about what the news presenter had said, about a warm and a cold front colliding, and imagined a blonde queen and a red-haired one fighting above the Irish Sea.

‘Are you still awake, Ro?' she whispered in the dark.

‘Course I am,' said Roisin, her voice muffled by her duvet. ‘I can't sleep when I'm petrified.'

‘You don't have to come with me, you know,' said Maddy. ‘I'm not going to think you're a coward or anything.'

‘I
am
a coward,' whispered Roisin. ‘But staying here, wondering what is going on when everyone else is carrying on with life the same as usual, is going to send me nuts. And we've all seen where you go when
that
happens.'

Maddy thought about this for a second. ‘Rubbish, isn't it, being Sighted?'

‘Yes,' sighed Roisin, and then she was quiet again.

Maddy listened to Roisin's quiet breathing, the soft rustle of her clothes. She wondered if her cousin had managed to fall asleep after all. Outside the rain stopped roaring down and began a gentler, softer whisper against the glass panes. Maddy had no idea how much time had gone by when the door to the room opened a few inches and Danny slipped his body sideways through the small gap, trying to avoid the point where the hinges would creak loudly in the silence of the sleeping house.

‘Time to go,' he whispered, handing Maddy and Roisin a small rucksack each as they kicked back their duvets and began to pull their trainers on. Maddy looked at her watch. 4 a.m. She rubbed at her eyes.

‘What's in the bags?' asked Roisin.

‘A change of clothes, some bars of chocolate, a torch each.'

‘Blimey, you're organized,' whispered Maddy.

Danny shrugged. ‘I had a feeling we were going to have to go back in. So I stowed these away under my bed, just in case.'

‘Good thinking,' said Roisin.

‘Any proper food in here?' asked Maddy.

‘Give over!' said Danny. ‘I've had these under my bed for months – fresh food would have evolved by now. I wouldn't have had to pack it; it would have been able to walk after us.'

‘We can always stop at the petrol station and get some sandwiches,' said Roisin.

‘Weapons?' asked Maddy.

Danny shook his head. ‘We don't have any iron in the house that can be used as a weapon, sorry. We've all got iron on us. It will have to do.'

Maddy clambered over her own bed and eased the wardrobe door open, bracing it with her palm so the pressure catch would not open too fast and too hard and make a loud click. She grabbed her fake leather jacket and felt for the lump in the lining where she had hidden a crude iron knife that Granda had made for her. She was going to roast, wearing the jacket in this heat. She could already feel the temperature begin to climb as the storm blew itself out. And she had no more knives for Danny and Roisin. It was meagre protection, but she felt it was better than nothing.

She took a deep breath and shrugged the jacket on before looking at her cousins' white faces floating in the dark, their pale skin picked out by wan rays of moonlight.

‘Let's go,' she said.

Ronan was fast asleep in the room he shared with Danny, starfished in his boxer shorts on top of a rumpled duvet. The door to the bedroom where Sean and Paul slept was slightly ajar and they were unconscious from a day of kicking, gouging and biting. Danny jerked his head toward the stairs and they crept down them as quietly as they could, wincing at every creak the steps made beneath the floral carpet. Aunt Fionnula and Uncle Jack were fast asleep at the back of the house and Danny took great care not to rattle the keys on the hook beside the door as he lifted them off. He turned the keys slowly in the locks, so the tumblers turned with sleepy clicks, and one by one they tiptoed out into the moonlit, drizzly summer night.

Although the temptation to run was overwhelming, they walked gingerly on their cushioned feet down the dark terrace and Maddy didn't dare breathe normally until they had reached the top of the ancient steps that led them down the hill and into the heart of the city. She gripped the narrow railing that ran up the middle and watched her feet carefully on the wet, shining stone.

‘How are we going to get to Blarney?' asked Roisin as they hurried down the long flight of steps. ‘It's miles away.'

‘We're going to get a cab,' said Danny. ‘But we have to start walking toward the village. I'm not going into a taxi office – they'll call the guards on us. We have to make someone feel sorry for us.'

‘But we haven't got any money,' said Maddy.

‘We do,' said Danny.

‘How?' asked Rosin.

‘I stole the monsters' birthday money out of Mam's chest of drawers,' said Danny.

‘Oh God,' said Roisin. ‘We're never going to be able to go home – Mam is going to skin us alive when she finds out!'

‘I can't worry about that right now,' said Danny. ‘Let's just get to Blarney.'

It would be a nice problem to have
, thought Maddy.
If we're worrying about Aunt Fionnula finding out the birthday money is gone, it means we came back
. She knew Roisin and Danny were thinking the same thing, but they all avoided looking at each other. At the bottom of the steps, Danny turned away from the quays at the heart of the city and instead followed the road that joined up with the motorway, the road that would lead them away from the safety of the iron-clad
city and into the fields and woods of the countryside, the road that would eventually lead to the faerie mound that pulsed like a tumour in the grounds of Blarney Castle.

The motorway was lit up almost as bright as day with giant arching sodium lights and clusters of road signs, each group with its own white light to combat the sulphur. Despite the lateness of the hour, the road leading to it was still quite busy. No one seemed to notice the three children walking along, although one lorry driver did sound his horn in a blaring blast that made Maddy jump out of her skin, but he didn't stop. She was wide awake and jittery with lack of sleep. The lights hurt her eyes and she felt a bit nauseous.

They walked for a little while, cringing at every car that passed them in case the driver stopped and tried to make them go home, while looking over their shoulders to see if it was a taxi. When they drew level with the Blackrock Shopping Centre, Roisin refused to walk any further.

‘We're going to be walking on the motorway at this
rate and it's not safe,' she said, when Danny tried to persuade her.

‘We have to keep walking,' Danny said.

‘Why?' asked Roisin. ‘We're supposed to be getting a lift anyway. There's no point in hiding from all the traffic, is there, or scurrying away from everyone?'

‘We might have to,' said Maddy glumly. ‘There is no way a taxi driver is going to take us out to Blarney at four thirty in the morning.'

‘What
are
we going to say if a taxi does come along?' asked Roisin.