The Future's Mine

by Leyland, L J

  Keir inclined his head as though he was terribly embarrassed at causing offence but his face gave him away – he was amused that he had caused Fergus such consternation. ‘Ah, Fergus, ever so quick to see others doing you wrong. I take it you’re talking about our little construction around the island? Just protection, no more.’

  ‘From what?’ growled Fergus. With his antlers, he stood a good two feet above Keir.

  ‘All in good time, my friend!’ Keir slapped Fergus’s back and motioned for us to join him at a long wooden table framed by benches. A wooden jug was in the middle of the table and small cups no bigger than eggs sat in front of each of us. ‘Ladies first,’ Keir said as he poured Mhareen a cup full of amber liquid.

  Before she drank, she turned to Matthias on her left and poured for him. The drink went around the table until everyone had poured for their neighbour. Fergus reluctantly poured for Keir last. I guessed that this ritual was supposed to symbolise equality and set a welcoming tone but I wondered whether Keir had intentionally sat Fergus on his right so that he had to pour for Keir.

  ‘A man is king of his own land, but clan makes man a king true grand,’ sang Keir and all raised their glasses.

  I quickly followed suit and downed the liquid. It was stronger than Nora’s moonshine and that’s strong enough to strip your gums from your teeth. I heard Grimmy smack his lips and saw him reach for more. My foot found his knee under the table and a resounding thwack could be heard. He hissed at me but withdrew his greedy hand.

  One seat was empty at the furthest reach of the table.

  ‘For Iris?’ whispered Noah in my ear.

  ‘What’s that you say, lad?’ asked Keir, raising an eyebrow.

  ‘Erm … nothing, sir. Just wondering why there was one empty chair,’ replied Noah, fidgeting under Keir’s sharp gaze. Something about Keir made you want to confess all you knew about everything and then apologise for knowing it.

  ‘I think you know who that chair is meant for, don’t you? Your quarry. I’ve heard from your outrider that you are from a part of the Periphery. From the same place Iris is from and that you are here to take her home. I’m not sure how I feel about that. The woman is troubled but useful.’

  ‘Troubled?’ asked Noah, worry creeping into his voice. Not only was Iris key to his plan, she was also his aunt; no wonder he felt apprehensive about what sort of state she was in. She was crucial to our scheme and if she was still as mentally unwell as we suspected – if not more so – that could prove a problem. I gave his leg a reassuring squeeze but his eyes remained concerned.

  The stomp of feet outside prevented Keir from answering. There was banging on the door and an aide flung it open. The warm air rushed from the room and was replaced by an icy blast that made me instantly shiver. Framed by the shadows, an outline of a woman was just about visible. Iris.

  ‘Speak of the devil,’ smiled Keir.

  ‘Go to hell,’ she spat. Her voice was as haggard as her face. Time had not been kind to Iris. She was weather-beaten and sorrow-ridden but was possessed by a manic look of determination. Her brown hair was matted into wild, thick dreadlocks which wound all the way down her back until they straggled off into rats tails. She wore the gothic garb of fairy-tale witches, black layers and shredded fabric. Piercing blue eyes shone from her gaunt face like polished jewels. They were the only part of her that didn’t look beaten. They looked like Noah’s but also not like his at same time. The azure blue was the exact same shade but Noah’s completely lacked any of the menace and desperation that Iris had.

  She gave a feral screech as an eagle flew through the open door and clipped her hair. The eagle landed on a perch behind Keir’s chair but Iris continued to shriek and bat at her body with tremendous strength. Perhaps she was so deadened to the world that she could no longer feel pain.

  Keir said kindly ‘Iris, you know Rex can do you no harm. He is trained.’

  ‘Damn him to the depths and watch him drown,’ she hissed.

  ‘Iris?’ asked Noah, steadily.

  She ignored him and muttered obscenities under her breath. She was visibly shaking, as though she had a palsy, and we watched in silence as she shuffled to the table and picked up one of the cups. She drained it in one gulp and a trickle of liquid ran down her chin.

  The bird squawked suddenly and she cried, ‘Poison! You poison me!’ The cup flew across the room but Keir knocked it away easily.

  ‘No-one is poisoning you, Iris. Please sit down, you have guests who wish to speak to you.’

  Her expression dropped into a sly, furtive glance and she whispered to no-one but herself, ‘What do they want with old Iris? What is it they come for?’ She had a nervous twitch which made her look quite deranged.

  I was already beginning to dread the moment when we would have to tell her that Flora was dead – killed by her own father, killed by Iris’s husband-jailor, the Mayor. Flora’s memory was quite plainly the only thing that had kept her going since her banishment. A small flame of determination had been ignited within her the day that she was banished – determination to keep Flora safe. She would comply with her punishment as long as Flora was safe. I guessed that it was her only reason for living, for carrying on. If she discovered that Flora was dead, would she be able to continue and help us with our plan? Or would the fragile mortar holding her together start to crumble and reduce her to rubble? A wreck of a person, crumpled on the floor? Oh God, I wasn’t ready for this. I didn’t know how to act in these situations. Matthias looked as panicked as I did. We were used to people being strong or at least feigning strength when they felt weak. We found emotional and hysterical outpourings acutely embarrassing – Matthias was already squirming in his chair. We were in no way equipped to help this woman or to offer any kind of comfort that she craved. We were inadequate and useless and I felt ashamed that I was witnessing this poor woman’s decline.

  Panic-stricken, I turned to Noah. Yet again, his eyes were as calm as the glassy surface of a lake but they had the soulful depth of the ocean. He looked at her as though contemplating a mild predicament rather than the potential obliteration of our entire purpose for being there. His chair squeaked as he pushed it back. He walked calmly to where Iris stood. Keir made a movement forward, as though to say, ‘Stop! Don’t touch her!’ but Noah shushed him with a single glance.

  Iris cringed back from him with her yellow teeth bared, like a dog fearing that he would strike her. But instead, he held his hand out to her. She looked surprised at this sudden offer of human contact. The hostility slid from her face as she considered his hand. I wondered when the last time was that she had been touched gently by another person. Probably the last day she saw Flora. That was over twenty years ago. Twenty years of rough treatment and imposed mental confinement would be enough to send anyone mad. Iris timidly took his hand, like a child. I felt a stab of sorrow as I remembered Flora’s childlike manner.

  Noah led her to the fireplace. He dragged his own chair a couple of feet from the fire and sat her down in it. He brought another one to the fire and sat opposite her. The heat from the fire made her stiff limbs relax into something less animal. All it took was a tiny bit of kindness for her to shed her cloak of madness. The change in her was visible already. I knew then that he could do it. He could tell her and he could make her feel better and he could keep her on our side. He was just somehow far more human than I could ever be; far more subtle, far more understanding. A fierce wave of love swept through me.

  Noah yawned, stretched out his limbs, and smiled conspiratorially at Iris, as though they shared a secret. To my surprise, she broke into a cackle and curled up in her chair like a sphinx.

  ‘I know you,’ she said with a sly grin.

  ‘We’ve never met,’ he replied with a smile.

  ‘But I know you all the same. I’ve seen you in my dreams.’ She laughed. ‘You’re Tulip’s boy. I’d know those Penmorthan eyes anywhere. You’ve got Tulip’s husband’s hair, too. Black as the night.’ She cackled again. />
  ‘You’re right, Tulip is my mother. You know, that makes you my aunt. I’m pleased to finally meet you.’

  ‘How’ve you got such nice manners when your father is as charmless as a slug?’ she asked. Her eyes were twinkling.

  ‘Skips a generation?’ Noah offered.

  ‘Skips ten in the Farringdon family,’ she crowed.

  ‘This is the most sense we’ve ever had out of her,’ I heard Keir whisper, in awe, to Fergus.

  ‘My mother talks about you a lot. She always said that you looked the most like my grandfather. I see it now. Features less deep-set but still,’ said Noah.

  ‘They’re alive? I don’t believe you. I’ve seen them drowning. I see it every day and I don’t help them. Why should I help after what they did to me? They thrash and cry but the ocean gets them every time. Just what they deserve, just what the doctor ordered.’ Her hunched posture returned and she began to twist her fingers painfully until I could see red marks on them.

  ‘No, they’re alive. They told me about you, Iris. That’s why I’m here. To take you back home. If you want to, that is.’

  ‘Can’t go home. He won’t let me,’ she whispered.

  ‘He can’t hurt you anymore, Iris,’ replied Noah.

  ‘He’s gone?’ she rasped; she meant the Mayor. Her eyes glistened with hope. Pity washed over me as I realised that his spectre stalked her through every day and taunted her at every turn. He may not have killed her but he had ended her life all the same.

  ‘No, but we need your help to get rid of him. For good this time. The time has come for you to return. The time has come for you to stand up to him. We’ll help you beat him this time.’

  She began shaking violently. ‘No, no,’ she burbled. ‘Can’t go back, he’s got my baby. Must stay here.’

  Oh no, this was it. Noah would have to tell her. I scanned the immediate area for any potential ways she could harm herself. No knives on the table and no glass to smash which was good. But she was sitting precariously close to the fire. I gave Matthias a meaningful look and we both readied ourselves should we need to spring into action and prevent her from jumping in.

  Noah knelt before her and took her shaking hands, soothing them between his own injured ones. ‘Iris, look at me. Flora is free from him. He can’t hurt her now. She is free.’

  Noah fixed her with a look that conveyed all he needed to convey.

  An awful realization crossed Iris’s face as she understood. She understood everything he had told her and all it implied. Iris wailed a low, pitiful wail that made my neck hairs stand on end. Her chest heaved as she wept with tearless rasping sobs. ‘My baby, my baby!’ Her face was distorted and colourless.

  I saw the Highlanders quietly rise from their chairs and leave the building. Perhaps it was out of respect or perhaps they were just as uncomfortable with Iris’s breakdown as I was. Either way, I felt relieved that they were gone. It was too intimate for spectators. Matthias took my hand and led me out of the building. Grimmy followed. We left Noah embracing Iris, confident that he was the best comfort for her.

  We sat under a tree, facing the door of the building. I nuzzled my fur coat and tried to catch snowflakes on my hand. After a while, they stopped melting and that’s when I knew I was dangerously cold.

  ‘We should go into Keir’s house with Fergus and Mhareen,’ Matthias said, pointing to a large, round, thatched house next to the Eagles’ Nest. ‘We can’t wait out here any longer for them to come out. We’ll freeze to death,’ said Matthias.

  ‘You can. But I want to be here in case he needs me,’ I replied.

  The air was so cold that it hurt to speak. It was as though the air had turned the moisture in my throat to ice crystals but there was no way I was moving. Matthias sighed but didn’t move to go indoors. He simply put his arm around me and leant his head against mine.

  ‘Family’s a strange thing, isn’t it?’ asked Grimmy.

  Neither of us replied. I was still doling out a huge dose of silent treatment.

  ‘I mean, they’ve never met but they have an instant connection. Iris trusts him,’ he said.

  ‘Anyone would trust him. He’s trustworthy, unlike you,’ I muttered.

  ‘I wonder if you and Regina … well, you’ve never met but I wonder … oh never mind, you’re obviously not interested …’ he said.

  In the weak moonlight, I couldn’t see him but I could sense that his expression was as smug as a fat cat. Smugness just painted all over his sly little face. My fists tore out tufts of fur from my coat. He thought he had me, he thought I’d rise to the bait and ask him to explain what he was about to say. Take the higher ground, don’t reply, don’t give in.

  ‘I mean, you’re exactly like her … wonder if … but what does it matter? You obviously don’t care … shame really … we could talk about her …’ He shrugged.

  Oh Christ, this is what I had been waiting for – a chance to ask him about Regina and whether he thought I was her daughter. And I couldn’t even grill him about it because I was administering the bloody silent treatment. Oh, he was a wily sod. He had raised the Regina issue on purpose to break my punishment. Grimmy shrugged and made to get up to walk away but Matthias swiped his ankle. He crashed to the ground with a yelp.

  ‘What did you do that for?’

  ‘All right, you worm, I’ve had enough of you teasing her. You know nothing about what happened to Regina, you’re just trying to get her to talk to you again,’ he said.

  ‘Well, she’s ignored me for two whole days now! What am I supposed to do? I have to get her to talk to me somehow.’

  ‘How about trying an apology, moron?’ I snarled.

  ‘OK, OK, I’m sorry about leaving you to face the deer alone but I was scared. OK? Scared. I’m not proud of it so don’t make me feel worse.’

  ‘Then get some guts, you coward, and help out next time. You promised me in that cave that you were part of our team, that you are on our side but then you abandon us and then tease me about Regina when you know that I don’t find that funny.’

  ‘Ah, Maida, look, I wasn’t deliberately teasing you about Regina just to get you to talk to me. I’ve been meaning to speak to you about it for a while. It’s all been adding up. You know her song, you have her binoculars … Maida, I don’t know what happened to her but what I do know is that … is that … I think you’re her daughter. Actually, I don’t think it, I know it. You’re her daughter.’

  A sudden sob took me by surprise and I instantly upbraided myself; where on earth did that sob come from? This is no time to cry. I guess it was just seventeen years of not knowing, of wondering, of guessing, that had been resolved with three simple words: ‘You’re her daughter.’ It was almost too much for me to take in. It was almost too easy.

  ‘How do you know I’m her daughter?’ I eventually managed to say.

  ‘Because … I can just tell.’

  There was silence whilst I let that sink in. I tried to take deep breaths but my rage bubbled to the surface. ‘That’s it? You can “just tell”? You can “just tell”? Well, break out the champagne, that’s cracked the mystery then! Congratulations, detective! Perhaps you should take up a job crime solving – cases will be solved in no time as you can “just tell” if someone is guilty or innocent. You know, I was hoping at least for a tiny, miniscule sliver of concrete proof, nothing big, I wasn’t asking much, but the best you can offer me is “I can just tell”? Well thanks for getting my hopes up. I knew I shouldn’t have risen to the bait. Pointless.’

  ‘Maida, cool it, you’re overreacting. It’s a start at least,’ said Matthias.

  But Grimmy smiled affectionately at me. ‘That’s exactly her. You are her. It’s like she’s here. That’s what I mean about family. Funny isn’t it, how you’ve never met her but you’re just alike. She’s part of you. She’s in you. That’s how I can just tell.’

  The door from the building creaked open and orange firelight escaped out; long shadows crept through the woods and reache
d our sitting spot under the tree. I shook the icy layer from my clothes and from my mood with great effort. We clambered up, Matthias gingerly heaving himself up using the tree trunk as an aid; his injuries were still causing him problems. The willow bark had mostly kept the pain in my ribs at bay but the cold didn’t help with the creaking stiffness I felt around my torso.

  Noah walked out. His expression was unreadable. We walked towards him.

  ‘Well?’ asked Matthias.

  ‘She’ll come with us.’

  A spontaneous, jubilant whoop escaped me and I dashed to hug him. He laughed and swung me around as though I weighed nothing. His warm lips grazed my forehead and I closed my eyes to savour it. He pulled away from me and tousled my hair absently. ‘It’s not as simple as we had hoped though. There’s … a complication.’

  ‘What is it? Is it about the tapes? Has she forgotten where she’s hidden them?’ I asked.

  ‘No. I’ll let her explain on the boat. We should ask Fergus and Mhareen to get us back to the houseboat as soon as possible. We will need as much sleep as we can if we are to set sail back to Brigadus tomorrow.’

  ‘Is it serious, Noah?’ asked Matthias.

  ‘Yes,’ he replied simply.

  ‘How serious?’

  ‘Well, let’s just say that the Eagle Clan haven’t built defences around their islands for nothing.’

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  The windows were rattling with the full force of Grimmy’s volcanic snores. My God, that man had the most finely tuned talent for irritation, even in his sleep. It was like he was deliberately teasing me, even though he was not conscious. There would be ten minutes of hard, regular snoring during which my temper would steadily rise to a dangerously high boiling point. Then, right on the edge of my cataclysmic eruption, he would stop. All would be still and quiet. I would praise the heavens, weep with joy and promise never to have bad thoughts about him again. Relieved and happy, I would relax into sleep.