The Raven Queen (9 page)

“They've never understood war,' said Nero. ‘They are peaceful creatures who only strike if they are attacked. And they have no idea what it means to work together. They have no concept of being in a pack.'

‘Poor things,' said Maddy, looking at the blackened forest around her.

‘They'll survive,' said Nero. ‘The younger ones might have perished, but the older trees will grow new shoots and renew themselves and their dryads will heal along with them.'

Maddy thought of Fionn, the beautiful little silver-birch dryad. She and her tree had already survived one burning – had they both survived this?

‘What are we supposed to do?' said Roisin. ‘How are we supposed to fight this?'

‘We can't,' said Danny. ‘Not on our own. Liadan has a whole army behind her and, no offence, Maddy, but being the Hound doesn't seem worth much and nor does being part of Meabh's court.'

‘What's that supposed to mean?' asked Maddy, feeling her temper rise as it so often did with Danny.

Danny made a big show of pretending to think, frowning deeply and tapping at his forehead. ‘Well, being the Hound hasn't given you any superpowers, unless you count being a faerie magnet, which I don't, by the way, seeing as it utterly ruined
my
life. And as for
being the subject of the Autumn Court and under their protection, I don't see any Autumn Tuatha turning up to welcome you home, armed to the teeth with something useful like
big pointy swords
!'

‘Why do you do this every time?' asked Maddy while Roisin sighed.

‘Do what?' asked Danny.

‘Every time we get into trouble, instead of doing or saying anything helpful, you just get really, really sarky and start a row,' said Maddy. ‘It does my head in.'

‘I'm not starting a row. I'm just pointing out the obvious,' said Danny.

‘Yeah? Well, give it a rest,' said Maddy. ‘Or at least say something useful.'

They all jumped in fright as Nero sprang to his feet and started barking. Horrified, they watched as three riders on white mounts slipped between the trees to stand in front of them. Their long ears and small, slight build showed they were elves and not Tuatha and therefore they were subjects of the Winter Court. They looked down on Maddy with beautiful, cruel faces.

‘We couldn't help but hear your argument,' said a dark-haired elf. He smiled but it didn't reach his eyes, and his teeth looked too big and hungry for his red mouth. ‘Will we do as a welcoming committee?'

Nero began to snarl at the elves and puffed his fur up to make his body look twice as big. Maddy watched in horror as the elven mounts snarled back, revealing fangs almost twice as long as Nero's, which looked strange in their horse-like faces. Their red eyes glowed with rage as their taloned paws took a step forward through the charred debris on the forest floor. Instinctively Maddy, Danny, Roisin and Nero took a step back and huddled together. Maddy gagged as the smell of rotting meat rolled over her face from the closest mount.

‘You are a brave doggy, aren't you?' said the dark-haired elf. ‘We caught one of you the other day. He was brave too, even though it took him such a long time to die.'

Nero said nothing, just carried on snarling, but Maddy could hear his growl get deeper. She reached out and put a hand on him to calm him – the elves were
trying to make him angry and she didn't want him to do something that would get him killed.

‘We didn't think there would be much left in the forest worth hunting,' continued the elf. ‘Yet in two days we find two wolves and a Hound. And as an extra treat, two humans. I normally do not like to hunt children – the chase is over far too quickly and you really do not have the strength to last long once we catch you. But it's been so long since I hunted a human that I'll take what I can get.' The other elves laughed.

‘Liadan won't like it if you kill me,' said Maddy.

‘True enough,' said the elf cheerfully. ‘That is a pleasure she wants all to herself. But she said nothing about your companions, so they're fair game.'

Roisin whimpered, and Maddy heard Danny curse softly under his breath, his voice high with fear.

‘She'll be happier if you bring us all in together,' said Maddy, slipping her hand into her pocket and fingering her little iron knife.

The elf smiled again and shook his head. ‘I don't think so,' he said. ‘I think she will be happy enough with just you, little Hound. That means we can have some fun before we bring you in.' All three elves tightened their grip on their reins and licked their lips. The mounts stood up straighter and became more alert as they felt the new tension in their riders' bodies. ‘You know we
like to chase,' he said. ‘So start running. I like a fair fight, so we'll give you a head start.'

‘If we don't run?' asked Danny.

The elf shrugged. ‘We'll kill you where you stand. And where is the fun in that?'

As soon as the words left his lips there was a flurry of white behind him and a sword arced through the air, gleaming bright even in the dull smoky light. The dark-haired elf's mount screamed in agony and collapsed to the ground, scrabbling desperately with its front paws, its back legs lying limp and useless. Nero leaped at the second mount, going straight for the throat. The beast reared up on its back legs, tumbling its rider to the ground as it tried to rake at Nero's sides with its front talons. But Nero hung close to its chest, twisting in the air as he gripped tight, and the pair of them were soon stained with the mount's blood.

The third rider yelled and spurred his mount forward straight at Maddy, reaching out a hand to grab her, his lips pulled back from his teeth in a snarl. Maddy slashed at him with her knife, and even though she was reeling to one side to avoid his clutching fingers, she still managed to slice open the skin of his palm. The elf screamed and toppled from the side of his mount, which bolted further into the forest. The stricken rider writhed from side to side, clutching at his hand, the skin turning
black around the cut as the iron poisoned him. Steam rose from the wound and the elf's screaming hit higher and higher pitches as the iron ate into his flesh.

Maddy turned and saw the other two elves closing on their attacker, swords drawn. She was seven foot tall, a faerie, as slim as a ballet dancer. Her white hair was stiffened with lime into a Mohican and her bone-white skin was completely covered in pale grey Celtic tattoos. Muscles rippled through her body as she swung a silver great sword two-handed and her eyes glowed red. Her pale lips bared teeth filed to shark's tips, and smaller silver knives were belted around her narrow hips. When Maddy recognized Fachtna, Liadan's chief, she felt as if she had jumped from the frying pan into the fire.

Danny grabbed her arm. ‘We need to get out of here, while they're all distracted.'

‘But why is Fachtna fighting elves?' asked Roisin. ‘It doesn't make sense – they're on the same side.'

‘I've no idea, but I'm not sticking around to find out,' said Danny. He called over to Nero, who was still worrying at the body of the mount he had attacked, even though the beast now lay completely motionless. ‘Nero, we need to go. NOW!'

Nero looked up, his face covered in gore, and then he bounded to Roisin's side and pressed close to her legs. Roisin was frozen to the spot as she watched Fachtna
and the elves fighting – Danny had to run back and start dragging her to make her move.

But while they were hesitating, they lost their chance to make a run for it. With a flick of her wrist Fachtna spun the sword from the dark-haired elf's hands and opened his forehead with a slice across the skull. As the blood poured down his face, he collapsed to his knees, blinded. Fachtna flung out one sharp elbow into the face of the other elf as he tried to attack her from the side. As he stumbled back, she hooked a foot around his ankles and brought him crashing on to his back. She turned to Maddy, pointed her sword at her face and hissed, ‘Don't move,' before bending to take the prone elf's sword. He glared up at her.

‘You're going to die for this, Fachtna,' he said. ‘Liadan doesn't tolerate traitors.'

Fachtna shrugged as she stood over him pointing two swords at his face. ‘Maybe, maybe not,' she said. ‘A lot of us are going to die soon and perhaps my time is close. But it might not be Liadan who accounts for me in the end.' Then she bared her gruesome teeth. ‘However, if you keep annoying me, I will be happy to dispatch you now.'

The elf spat at her. ‘Go ahead! If you can live with the shame of killing an unarmed foe.'

‘Oh, I could live with that,' said Fachtna, ‘because I
don't really consider you worth calling a foe. Too much bark, nowhere near enough bite. But that doesn't mean you're not useful.'

She lunged forward and drove the sword points into the earth, millimetres from the elf's handsome face. The blood drained from his cheeks and he cringed as she bent close enough to kiss him. ‘Listen close and listen well,' she said, her deep, gravelly voice a dark undercurrent to the sound of the other elves' whimpering and groaning behind her. ‘Tell your mistress: my bonds are broken, and now that I have the Hound there's no limit to what I can do to cause her harm.' She stood up and wrenched the swords free. ‘Now go.'

He got up and ran, leaving his stricken comrades behind. Fachtna watched with a curled lip as the blood-blinded elf and the one with the injured hand painfully climbed to their feet and staggered away, holding on to each other for support. Keeping their eyes fixed on her, Maddy, Danny, Roisin and Nero tried to sidle away, clinging together like a parody of a three-legged race. But they couldn't be subtle enough – Fachtna's head whipped round and she raised her sword again and growled, ‘I said. Don't. Move.'

One of the mounts was still alive and, as vicious as it was, Maddy couldn't help but pity it as it moaned softly and paddled at the ground with its paws. With its red
eyes half-lidded and its mouth closed it almost looked like a beautiful white horse and not a monstrosity.

‘What did you do to it?' she asked Fachtna.

‘I cut its hamstrings, so now its back legs are paralysed,' said Fachtna.

Roisin gasped. ‘That's so cruel!'

Fachtna looked at her and raised an eyebrow. ‘Better than it being able to turn and claw me open from throat to belly,' she said. ‘And in case any of you wants to come back with a clever remark, just remember they were about to attack you.' She pointed at Roisin, Danny and then Nero. ‘None of you were going to come out of that situation healthy and whole.'

The mount let out a long, low moan. ‘It's suffering,' said Danny.

‘Yes, it is,' said Fachtna, unsheathing a wicked-looking silver hunting knife with a serrated edge.

‘What are you doing?!' asked Roisin.

‘Putting it out of its misery,' said Fachtna as she bent down. They all turned their eyes away quickly just before Fachtna drew the blade across its soft white throat. The beast choked for a moment on its own blood and then died with a sigh.

‘So why are you killing elves?' asked Roisin, as Fachtna hunted for a piece of moss or some greenery to wipe the blood from her blade.

‘I'd forgotten how many questions you ask, child,' said Fachtna. ‘I'm amazed no one has cut your tongue out yet.'

‘You've left Liadan, haven't you?' asked Danny.

‘We heard that elf call you a traitor,' said Maddy, as Fachtna's face set in anger.

‘Liadan no longer requires my sword,' said Fachtna stiffly. ‘Since she has declared war, her husband has assumed his place as the leader of her war band and her general, as is his duty.'

‘Cernunnos?' said Maddy. ‘Are you trying to tell me that the one Tuatha we thought we could count on to help is now fighting for the enemy?!'

‘Well, he's a Tuatha, and under their customs a husband has to fight on behalf of his wife, even if he didn't pick the fight,' said Fachtna. ‘Something he would have known when he married that war-crazed demented little elf.'

‘
You're
calling
Liadan
war-crazed?' said Maddy.

Fachtna paused in cleaning her blade to glare at her. ‘I am perfectly sane.'

‘But we need Cernunnos,' said Danny, while Maddy rolled her eyes. ‘He's the only Tuatha that has ever been on our side, even if he hasn't ever actually been much help.'

‘We thought he cared about us,' said Roisin. ‘Why
did he always spend so much time in the mortal world, living among us, pretending to be one of us, if he didn't like mortals?'

‘Well, he doesn't care,' said Fachtna, as she ran her hand down her blade to test its edge. ‘He's not going to do a thing to help you, so you might as well get used to that idea. He's a Tuatha – he's not going to choose you over his own kind. He cannot ignore bonds of marriage and family that existed centuries before any of you were born. And let's not forget that war is a game changer. Now that it is upon us, he has a different role to play. As do I.'

‘What do you mean?' asked Maddy.

‘Well, as fate would have it, I am now the closest thing you've got to a friend, little chicks,' said Fachtna, as she smiled her cold, shark's smile.

They looked at Fachtna open-mouthed while she gazed back at them, the smile playing about her bloodless lips. Roisin was the first to break the silence. ‘We're doomed,' she said. Fachtna threw back her head and roared with laughter and they all jumped about a foot backwards to get away from her. None of them had ever heard Fachtna laugh before and it was quite scary. They had no idea what it meant when she laughed, and they also got a better view of her hideous teeth, which made Maddy shudder.

‘It's really not that bad, little chicks,' said Fachtna. ‘Now you have a friend with a strong sword arm who is not afraid to get into a fight over you. When did Cernunnos ever risk anything on your behalf?'