The Unicorn Hunter (13 page)

‘Let me guess,' said Maddy. ‘You want us to run.'

‘Who on earth are you talking to, Maddy?' asked Miss Rose, her voice shaking with fear, while Fachtna's evil smile just widened.

‘It's no fun unless you try to escape,' said Fachtna.

‘Fine,' said Maddy. ‘After a count of three. One, two …' And then she turned and legged it, pulling Danny and a stunned Roisin along with her. Behind them, the faeries' howls of joy rose over the jarring clang of the fire alarm. Maddy raced blindly through the corridor, her school shoes slapping dully against the smooth surface of the floor. She nearly staggered as she tried to outrun her own ability and she didn't dare look back to see how close behind the faeries were. Any second now, she was expecting to feel Fachtna's long white fingers wrap around her neck and yank her off her feet.

She charged blindly ahead, her fingers grabbing at the walls to steady herself as she almost crashed taking the corners too fast. She could see the sports hall ahead of her and put on another burst of speed, stretching
her hands out to smash the double doors open ahead of her. The hall was empty and she nearly fell as the soles of her shoes slipped on the waxed wooden floor-boards.

She turned back to face the door, her chest ragged with panting and sweat coating her skin greasily underneath her clothes. Danny ran for a stack of moulded plastic chairs they used for parents to sit on for assemblies and hefted one into the air, holding its metal legs out in front of him. Roisin ran behind the climbing frame and peered out through its curling, primary-coloured steel struts with frightened eyes.

Suddenly the fire alarm stopped ringing. The silence it left behind jangled on Maddy's nerves just as loudly as the alarm, but over the roar of her blood pounding in her ears she could hear slow, soft footsteps, and whispering and sniggering.

Only around half the faeries had followed Fachtna into the sports hall and Maddy wondered where the others were. Then she heard the sound of smashing glass and the thuds of furniture being thrown against walls and she realized the rest of the faeries had decided to smash the school up for the sake of it. The ones fanning out behind Fachtna as they eased their way through the swing doors had that hungry, eager look she had learned to dread.

‘No tricks, Feral Child?' purred Fachtna as she flipped her knife from hand to hand, twirling the blade through her fingers so that the early-autumn sunlight flashed on its surface. ‘No iron to swallow?'

‘I'll think of something,' said Maddy as they circled each other. ‘But I am wondering why you're not tucked up nice and safe beneath the mound.'

‘You know why,' said Fachtna. ‘The old bonds are breaking and we can run free like we used to.' She cocked her head at the sound of splintering furniture. ‘Time to have some fun.' She looked at Maddy. ‘Time to settle scores.'

Maddy slipped her hand into her pocket, flicked the Velcro open with her fingertips and pulled out the little iron knife.

Fachtna narrowed her eyes. ‘Do you even know how to use that?'

‘Let's see,' said Maddy, and she lunged forward, slashing wildly. Fachtna stepped neatly to one side and Maddy staggered and almost fell. The faeries laughed as Fachtna grabbed Maddy's wrist and twisted it. Maddy yelled with pain and the knife clattered from her numb fingers to the floor. Fachtna let go of her wrist and shoved her hard, sending her flying across the sports hall to crash against the climbing frame. Maddy looked into Roisin's terrified eyes and then ducked as she felt
Fachtna's arm blur over her head, her fist smashing into the bright bars.

She spun and rammed her head as hard as she could into Fachtna's stomach and got a tiny bit of satisfaction out of hearing the dark faerie's grunt of pain and the whoosh of her breath as it left her body. Without a pause she curled her fingers into a fist and tried to throw a punch, but Fachtna simply swallowed Maddy's hand in her long fingers. She squeezed and Maddy shrieked as the pain shot up her arm. She kicked out, hard, and was lucky enough to connect the toe of her shoe with Fachtna's leg just beneath her kneecap. The faerie yelled as she crumpled to the floor, dropping Maddy's hand.

Maddy turned and made a dash to try to retrieve the dull iron knife lying just a few metres away. But it seemed she had only taken a couple of steps when Fachtna grabbed her ankle and brought her crashing down, smacking her chin and bruising her chest. She tasted blood where she had bitten her tongue and she was about to flip on to her back and boot Fachtna in the face when the double doors to the sports hall swung open and Miss Stone walked in with a face like thunder.

‘You really have gone too far this time, Madeline,' she barked. ‘The whole school is standing in the playground, there could be a fire raging through this building for all we know, and your hoodlum friends have caused quite a
bit of damage.' She looked at Fachtna and at the faeries who had stopped advancing on Danny to stare at her in amazement. ‘I'm warning you lot now – the guards are on their way and your parents are going to know all about this!'

It dawned on Maddy that Miss Stone was seeing
something
. The faeries' behaviour was so wild, Miss Stone's brain was registering something was there. But Maddy didn't think Miss Stone was seeing what she could see. There was a second of stunned silence and then the faeries roared with laughter.

She's glamoured
, realized Maddy.
She has no idea what she is looking at.

A couple of faeries ran for Miss Stone who, fair play to her, stood her ground and glowered at what her brain was telling her was a bunch of teenagers who had decided to wreck the school and dangle a few primary-school children by their hair. But the faeries were not impressed – they sniggered and stretched out long thin hands tipped with razor-sharp talons. They sliced slowly at her skin and circled her like sharks, nostrils flaring at the scent of blood, their eyes feverish with anticipation of the kill.

‘Stop it!' yelled Miss Stone, her voice cracking with fear. ‘Put those knives away right now and I won't have to tell the guards about them. You're going too far!' The
faeries paused, sharp-toothed mouths gaping and eyes glittering, and then they rushed at her, closing the circle in a heartbeat. Miss Stone screamed and beat at them with her hands – Roisin was screaming as well and Danny, still with the chair in his hand, ran forward to help the teacher, but one of the faeries turned on him and in seconds he was on the ground, his arm across the faerie's throat, fending off its snapping jaws and long sharp teeth. Miss Stone ran for the break in the circle and raced from the hall, her wails echoing in the empty school. The faeries didn't chase after her, but swivelled to focus on Danny, as the faerie that pinned him clawed for his throat, easily avoiding his ineffectual uppercuts and left hooks.

Maddy looked at Fachtna, whose nostrils flared with excitement. ‘Make them stop!' she cried.

‘Now, why would I do that?' asked Fachtna.

‘This is between you and me,' said Maddy. ‘You can't involve innocent people like this!'

‘Here's the thing,
Madeline
,' sneered Fachtna, as she grabbed Maddy by the hair and hauled her up as she got to her feet. ‘You're not that special. I don't really care what mortal I am hurting. With the barrier failing, it's starting to feel like the old days, when I hunted whatever I wanted. I'll take pleasure in slitting your throat, of course, but not much more than they will his,' she said,
nodding toward Danny, who was now curled up in a terrified ball as the faeries kicked and rolled him around between them. Fachtna snarled, her eyes wild and bestial. She put the point of her dagger under Maddy's chin. ‘What do you say to that, Feral Child?'

‘You know, you're not leaving me much choice here,' said Maddy, as she tried very, very hard not to swallow against the razor-sharp knife tip.

Fachtna frowned. ‘What are you talking about?'

‘For one thousand days, I pledge allegiance,' said Maddy.

Fachtna frowned. ‘What trickery is this? I don't want your fealty!'

‘For one thousand days, I pledge allegiance,' repeated Maddy, her eyes fixed on Fachtna's face as the faerie hesitated in confusion.

Something big and black collided with Fachtna and hurled her across the hall. Maddy flew from her grip and bounced painfully off the wooden boards again. It was beginning to feel like an extreme PE lesson. The pale faerie screeched as her dagger clattered away across the floor and she twisted and writhed in the grip of a shaggy black dog with glowing yellow eyes. The doors to the sports hall banged open and the dark faeries poured in, surrounding Maddy and pulling her to her feet with their long, sharp hands. The dog snarled and
Fachtna screamed with rage as they fought in a blur of white and black, although splashes of red were marking Fachtna's white skin. The sports hall boomed with bangs and scuffles as they threw each other around. Fachtna and the Pooka broke apart, spots of blood from their injuries spattering the ground. They stared at each other, panting, and then with a shriek Fachtna hurled herself at the Pooka just as he sprang for her. There was a crack of bones as they collided and fell into a tangled heap, but when they broke apart the Pooka had Fachtna by the arm while her free hand groped for the knives belted at her waist. Maddy struggled against the grip of the other faeries, who howled and whooped as they watched the fight, but she couldn't loosen their grip. There was a sharp tang of ozone in the air and a cold wind rushed through the school, blowing Maddy's hair back from her face. A tiny tornado of autumn leaves advanced into the hall and came to a halt before them. The wind died, and leaves fell in drifts about the feet of the Queen of Autumn.

Everyone went still as they stared at her, her red hair burning in the gloom and lifting out from her head in a wild static mass of curls. The gold on her skin gleamed, and the whisper of her dress and hair dragging on the ground behind her as she advanced filled the silence.

‘Unhand my subject,' she demanded, her voice
booming loudly in a building that had gone so quiet you could have heard a mouse hiccup. Maddy sagged with relief, but if anything, the faeries that gripped her dug their fingers in harder.

‘Our catch,' one hissed at the Autumn Queen. ‘
Our
kill.'

Meabh raised one arched auburn eyebrow in surprise, but her green and gold eyes were hard and cold with anger. ‘Pooka, to me!' she commanded, and the Pooka left off the fight with Fachtna to bound to her side. With his hackles raised and strings of saliva hanging from his huge jaws, he was an intimidating sight and the group of dark faeries automatically took a step back from his bloody jaws and stinking breath.

Fachtna staggered to her feet and stalked across to Meabh. Her skin was torn and bloody from her fight with the Pooka, but her wings rattled with aggression. ‘It is not your place to interfere!' she said. ‘This hunt is for the Winter faeries and this mortal is subject to no court. I did not accept her oath of allegiance on behalf of my queen.'

Meabh laughed, her voice as light as drizzle. ‘You don't really think that little display of loyalty was for Liadan, do you?' she asked. ‘Really, I thought you were much cleverer than that, Fachtna.' Meabh watched Fachtna's face as realization slowly dawned on it. ‘That's
right, the Feral Child is now part of my court, and as such she is under my protection. Do any of you here really wish to start a blood feud by killing this girl right here and now, no matter how tempting it might be?'

Fachtna glared at Maddy. ‘A clever trick.'

‘I thought so,' said Maddy, as the Winter faeries let her go.

‘Mortals are, at this very moment, trying to break down the front doors of this building to rescue this child and her companions,' said Meabh. ‘Strangely, they find them locked. They will not stay that way forever, and the Sighted will be here soon, so I suggest that any faeries currently on the premises make themselves scarce. As in NOW.' That edge of thunder rumbled again in her voice and the Pooka beside her bared his huge yellow teeth. Fachtna bared her own teeth at Maddy one last time as the dark faeries ran from the sports hall to climb out through open windows in classrooms, escaping from the mortal world back into green fields. ‘Be careful for your family, Feral Child,' said Fachtna. ‘They don't all have the protection of a Tuatha, do they?' She laughed and walked slowly from the hall, to prove she cared nothing for the mortals breaking through the doors at the front of the building.

Meabh listened for a moment to make sure they were all gone. Maddy swallowed at the sound of
the doors being kicked open. She was in so much trouble.

‘Allegiance for just one thousand days, Maddy?' said Meabh, an amused smile playing about the corners of her red lips. ‘I do not remember accepting such terms.'

‘You must have done,' said Maddy, ‘to send the Pooka to save me.'

‘Clever, clever girl,' purred Meabh. ‘And with such a sharp tongue. Be careful it does not cut your throat. Very well, I accept your allegiance for one thousand days and so we play the game.'

‘What happens now?' asked Maddy.

‘Wait and see, my dear,' said Meabh with a wink. ‘Wait and see.'

With that, Meabh and the Pooka disappeared in a whirl of leaves.

Maddy sagged with relief and listened to the shouts of angry adults and the thunder of feet running toward her.

‘A black eye, bruising to her ribs and a few cuts and grazes – I think that's all. On the whole, I'd say you came off rather well, considering who you were fighting,' said Dr Malloy.

Maddy tried to take a deep breath and stopped it in her throat when it snagged in her chest and gave her that broken-glass feeling again. She groaned softly and pressed the inflamed part of her chest with a grazed palm. Her tongue was swollen and painful and her left eye had puffed up like a football. Her mouth felt like the floor of a budgie cage and she had a pounding headache. From the look on Granda's face, she was probably going to have a raging earache as soon as Dr Malloy had gone. Roisin hadn't been touched and Danny had a shoulder bite, which was painful but not infected and didn't need stitches. He was on the other side of her bedroom door, blearily sitting upright in a chair while Aunt Fionnula
screamed at him and then sobbed over him and then screamed at him again. Her bedside manner left a lot to be desired. Maddy was grateful she didn't have to share a room with her. She was exhausted and her back ached to lie flat on her comfy bed, but Dr Malloy wasn't done poking and prodding her.