The Feral Child

by Che Golden

  “Are you finally ready?” asked Fenris. Maddy nodded. “Then let’s go. And remember, move quickly.”

  The pack formed a tight knot around them as Maddy, Roisin, Danny, and Fionn lay on their bellies and began to squirm forward on their elbows through the long meadow grass, skirting the edge of the paddock. Maddy’s clothes were quickly soaked, and the grass was tickling her nose. George stopped and started as her arm swept forward and back like a swimmer’s with his leash clutched firmly in her fist, but the little terrier didn’t utter a sound.

  Maddy didn’t realize how scared she was until she felt her breath catching in her chest in short, shallow gulps. She was using her wrists to try to keep the poker and George’s leash from dragging on the ground and her arms had begun to ache within seconds. She paused for a moment to slow her heart and take deeper breaths. The wolves halted around her, and she felt sharp teeth nip the back of her knee. OK, OK, she thought. She had just started to crawl again when she felt the wolves freeze.

  Then she heard it. The slow, even rhythm of feet padding toward them.

  She held her breath and turned her head to the left to look at the paddock fence. Between the wolves’ legs she could see a mount’s clawed feet as it walked up to the fence. A muzzle dropped down, and she watched the huge nostrils flare and collapse, flare and collapse as the animal sucked in lungfuls of air, searching for their scent. Maddy saw the nose disappear and then heard the high, enraged whinny. The wolves surged forward. “Run!” barked Fenris.

  Maddy scooped George up under her arm and scrambled to her feet, her sneakers slipping on the wet grass. She raced for the trees on the far side of the clearing, the wolves’ rear guard herding her forward. Danny, Fionn, and Roisin were ahead of her, arms and legs pumping. Roisin was the first to reach the trees, but instead of running on, she turned to look back and her mouth became a small O of fear.

  Maddy knew she shouldn’t, but at the sound of splintering wood behind them she had to see turn to see what Roisin was looking at. The little female had smashed part of the high fence down and jumped it. Now she was galloping toward them, clumps of turf flying up from her feet, her neck stretched out and her eyes blazing with hate. Her snapping fangs were virtually on Nero’s tail as he raced for the trees.

  We can’t outrun her, Maddy thought. She stood rooted to the spot as she watched the mare bear down on Nero. She held George tight against her chest, the little terrier’s heart pounding against her palm. Tears pricked her eyes as she watched the gray wolf bunch his muscles for one last, desperate surge, and she yelled a warning as the mare’s teeth raked his hindquarters. Nero staggered and went down, a blur of gray fur and snapping teeth, as the mare screeched and lunged at him, her claws raking him as he struggled to get up. Two of the pack saw he was in trouble and bent their bodies double to turn back and face the mount, their huge paws crossing daintily as they struggled to keep up their speed. A black shadow blurred past Maddy. It was Fenris, hackles up, racing to the fight.

  The wolves leaped and latched on to the mount’s neck and hindquarters, trying desperately to bring her down. She bucked and reared and lashed out with her talons, fresh blood staining her coat, flinging the wolves against the ground as fast as they got a hold on her and trampling them with her feet. The pack were fighting hard, but Maddy could see that they were only slowing the mount down.

  Without thinking, she put George on the ground and charged into the fight, dimly hearing Danny and Roisin yelling behind her. For a split second she wondered what the hell she was doing as the mount shook off Fenris and spun to face her. Her feet were out of control, and she slammed into the mare’s bloodstained chest so hard she nearly bounced off it to the ground. She grabbed a hank of long mane to keep her upright as the mount rolled her maddened eyes and bared her fangs, the stink of her breath rolling over Maddy’s face as she stabbed up with the dull point of the poker. She heard the mount roar with pain and saw the iron pierce the soft flesh at her throat. The mount reared and brought her front legs up sharply, thumping Maddy hard in the chest and knocking her off her feet. Then she raised a leg, spread her claws and slashed down, ripping through Maddy’s jacket and tearing the skin on her back as she tried to roll away. Maddy screamed as red-hot pain lanced across her spine, and she rolled again as the mount slammed a taloned paw into the earth where her head had been just a split second earlier. Maddy tried to back away on all fours, but the mare whipped her head around, jaws gaping and went for Maddy’s face.

  Maddy closed her eyes just before someone slammed into her from the side, causing the pain in her back to flare up into agony. She tumbled over in the wet grass as next to her Danny got to his feet and pulled her up with him, his poker held out in front of him. Just as the mount went to lunge again, a little streak of silver sped past them. It was Fionn, who danced right up to the mount’s nose.

  “Stupid horsey,” she squeaked, waving her twiggy arms in the mount’s face. “Come and get me.”

  Maddy watched in horror as the mount spun and focused on the little dryad. The wolves circled cautiously, waiting for a chance to pounce.

  “She’s going to make firewood out of Fionn,” gasped Maddy.

  “No, she’s not,” said Danny grimly, hefting his poker and charging at the mount.

  “Stay close to her!” Roisin yelled as Danny ran to help Fionn. “Stay close to her shoulder, and she can’t kick or bite you!”

  Danny could not have heard Roisin properly because he ran up to the mount, grabbed a handful of mane, and hauled himself on to her back.

  “What are you doing?!” shrieked Roisin. “I never said anything about riding her!”

  “I’m getting her away from you!” yelled Danny. He kicked his feet against her sides. “Giddy up!”

  For a moment Maddy thought it would work. For a moment the mount froze, her ears flicking back as training took over from instinct and she listened to what her rider demanded. Then she remembered who her rider was, bunched her muscles, and bucked hard.

  Danny tried desperately to hang on as Roisin, Maddy, and Fionn screamed. He fell forward as her hind feet came up, dropping the poker and wrapping his arms around her neck. The mount bucked again, and Danny shouted as he was catapulted through the air. As he crashed to the ground, the mount turned back to where Maddy and Roisin huddled together. Fionn ran to them and crouched next to Maddy. Behind the mount, the pack saw their chance and tensed to spring.

  This is it, thought Maddy. She slowly got to her feet and got a better grip on the poker as the mount stalked toward them. When she attacks, I’m going to shove this right down her throat . . . and hope she doesn’t rip my face off first.

  Then something large flew over Maddy’s head. She ducked and blinked as a faerie landed in front of the mount, throwing its hand out. There was a flash of silver, and the mount reared and crashed to her knees, sinking forward on to her face, before slowly collapsing over on one side. Maddy stared in shock as the mare’s hate-filled eyes dulled and turned glassy, her blood steaming in the frigid air as it poured from around the blade sticking into her throat.

  A bone-white hand covered in gray tattoos bent to pull the knife from the mount’s cooling flesh.

  “Well, well, well,” said a rasping voice. “What do we have here?”

  Maddy swallowed as she met a familiar blood-red gaze.

  Fachtna.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Fachtna’s gauzy wings settled like a cloud about her shoulders as she plunged her knife into the earth to clean the mount’s blood from its silver blade. She rose and strode toward Maddy, the various knives strapped around her body chinking sweetly.

  Maddy braced herself, but Fachtna swept past to stand in front of Roisin and Fionn, raising her wings so a dark shadow fell upon them. Fionn trembled and wrapped her arms around Roisin’s waist, hiding her face against her shoulder. Roisin tried to edge around Fachtna and back to Maddy, her arms tight around Fionn, but Fachtna grabbed a handful of Roisin’s jacket and rooted her to the s
pot.

  “Look at me,” she commanded, but Fionn just shook her head and cried louder. Fachtna snarled, baring her shark’s teeth, and she reached down to grab Fionn by the hair.

  To Maddy’s horror, Roisin threw her arm up and grabbed Fachtna’s wrist. “Leave her alone,” she said.

  Fachtna hissed and twisted her arm, breaking Roisin’s grip. She moved so fast Maddy didn’t have time to see or hear the knife being drawn from its sheath. The next thing she knew, Roisin was being forced to tilt her head back as the tip of a silver blade dimpled the skin at her throat, drawing a trickle of dark red blood.

  “Did you think this was a game, little girl?” asked Fachtna, her voice soft in the silence. “Did you think you could come here and play the hero, that you would dance with me around the toadstools before going home?”

  With her free hand she grabbed Fionn by the hair. The dryad had wrapped her twiggy arms around Roisin’s waist and tried to hang on, crying piteously, but Fachtna ripped her away and lifted her up to swing her in the air before her face.

  Fionn clapped her hands over her eyes, but Fachtna shook her until the dryad’s limbs jerked and flailed and she was forced to meet the faerie’s baleful red glare.

  “Treacherous little creature,” roared Fachtna. “Did you think Queen Liadan would not know you had helped these mortals break a contract? What life for you, dryad, now that you have angered my queen?”

  “Mercy,” sobbed Fionn, as she dangled from Fachtna’s talons. “Mercy! My tree . . . it is dying!”

  “Let her go!”

  Danny stood behind Fachtna, the poker back in his hand. The pack were gathering behind him silently, their rangy bodies hesitant and wary.

  “I said, ‘Let her go,’” said Danny through clenched teeth. “You’re not touching her or any of my family.”

  Fachtna’s lip curled with contempt, and she flung Fionn to the ground. She glanced at Danny, reversed the knife in her hand and then hit him between the eyes with its hilt, sending him sprawling backward, where he lay dazed. Then she bent over the weeping dryad, the knife gleaming in her hand.

  “A taste of what is to come,” Fachtna said, as she grabbed Fionn’s wrist. The little dryad screamed as Fachtna brought her knife down on Fionn’s outstretched fingers, severing two of them. Fionn’s green blood splattered on to the snow. She dangled the howling dryad by her wrist and smiled at Maddy.

  “Come save your friend,” taunted Fachtna.

  Maddy’s legs shook with fear. Roisin began to cry softly.

  “No?” said Fachtna, arching a pale eyebrow in mock surprise. “You would have her risk all for you and yet you will not take a step to save her? Perhaps I can persuade you to move.” She moved her knife toward Fionn’s twiggy digits, as Fionn began to shriek in terror and twist in Fachtna’s grip.

  “NO!” yelled Maddy.

  “Ah, you speak,” sneered Fachtna. “Come then, fight me for your friend. Be as brave as that weakling boy.”

  But Maddy couldn’t. Her mind was blank with fear, and it could not tell her legs to move.

  Fachtna stared at her and gave a bark of laughter, before dropping Fionn and wiping her knife on her thigh. The dryad sobbed and shook with pain and terror, her maimed hand curled against her chest.

  “You have condemned your tree to death,” said Fachtna. “Go from this place and await your punishment.”

  With a wail, Fionn scrambled to her feet and ran from the clearing without a backward glance. The trees soon swallowed her up, but her sobs could still be heard. Fachtna turned to face the Amaguks, who cowered behind Fenris and Nitaina. The two leader wolves faced Fachtna with their heads held high and proud, but their eyes were tight with anxiety.

  “Queen Liadan is most disappointed with you,” said Fachtna. “She gave you sanctuary, and in return she thought she commanded your love, unswerving loyalty, and unstinting devotion. You have proved her wrong. The Winter Queen does not like being told she is wrong.”

  Nitaina opened her mouth to say something, but Fachtna cut her off. “Silence!” she said. “I do not wish to hear feeble excuses. Be grateful Queen Liadan does not feel you have outlived your usefulness, or else I would happily turn you and your unborn pups into rugs. Go now, and let her finish her game undisturbed.”

  Nitaina looked at Maddy with sad eyes, and then the wolves turned and slunk away. Danny climbed awkwardly to his feet and joined Maddy and Roisin, his palm pressed to his forehead. A trickle of blood seeped through his fingers. Fachtna’s head turned to follow his every movement, her eyes unblinking. Maddy shuddered as her red gaze settled on her. George slunk behind Maddy’s legs and bared his teeth at the faerie.

  “If the choice were mine, I would gut you and leave you for the crows,” said Fachtna. “But luckily for you, Queen Liadan is merciful and is minded to give you another chance to finish the game. But if you try to get another faerie to help you, I will slice them open from belly to throat in front of you. Now, start walking.”

  Numb with shock and the throbbing pain in her back, Maddy stumbled along, barely aware of how she managed to put one foot in front of the other. Danny’s face was white and drawn, while Roisin tried to hush a growling, furious George, who bounced about at the end of his leash, trying to whip his stubby body about so he could face Fachtna.

  Silent and grim, she herded them back the way they had come, past the mounts’ paddocks, where the creatures cowered away from the smell of their mate’s death, back through the hushed forest, its evergreen boughs shutting off the silvery light of the moon. Fachtna stalked through the gloaming like an angel of death, her body gleaming wherever slivers of moonlight could penetrate the canopy.

  Maddy could have wept with despair and exhaustion as the trees began to thin out, and she could hear the half-frozen lake throwing itself repeatedly on the rocky shore.

  Fachtna pushed and harried them on to the beach. The icy wind that whipped off the waves froze Maddy’s eyeballs dry, and she shivered as it forced its way through her clothes to chill her skin.

  “Your deception means that the queen can impose further conditions on your bargain,” said Fachtna. Roisin opened her mouth to protest, but Fachtna cut her off. “Be grateful. You broke the terms of the contract, and my queen is now free of her oath. I could kill you where you stand, and the child is hers to do with as she wishes. Yet the game plays on.

  “Queen Liadan has decreed that there is no way for you to reach the White Tower except by water,” she continued. “You may not go back into the forest and seek help from others. And this time she is making sure you keep to the conditions.”

  Fachtna turned to face the clashing, churning lake, raised her arms and called out in a strange language. Far out in the depths of the lake something disturbed the ice. Chunks shot into the air before plummeting back into the frigid waters. A wave rose and gathered strength as it pushed toward the shore, shoving ice floes aside as it came. It grew and grew until, a few yards from the shallows, it erupted in a volcanic spray and from its shattering green heart leaped two blue horses.

  They galloped to the shore on stilt-like legs, sparks flying where their hoofs struck the wet stones. They circled Maddy, Danny, and Roisin and paced with pent-up excitement. Their manes and tails were matted weeds, water streamed from their coats, and they sniggered with human voices, their lips twisted into sneers that showed sharp canines. One pranced close to Maddy, its dark blue hide almost brushing her face. She gagged at the foul smell of water rot.

  “These water horses will guard the shore,” said Fachtna. “You must play the game alone and come to the Winter Court by no other route.”

  “We can’t cross that lake,” said Maddy. “Look at it!”

  “I’ve always heard such good things about mortal ingenuity,” said Fachtna, with just a touch of sarcasm in her voice. “I’m sure you will find a way. Can’t you swim?”

  “We can swim,” said Danny, his voice almost as harsh as Fachtna’s. “But I don’t think I’m going to make it through
crashing sheets of ice and water that’s below freezing.”

  Fachtna cocked her head at him. “Well, think of something, boy, and think of it quick. It would be an inglorious end to your quest were you to starve to death on this beach.”

  With that, she spread her wings wide and took off into the moonlight, heading toward the tower.

  Chapter Nineteen

  As soon as Fachtna disappeared from sight, the water horses stopped their prancing and began to sidle closer to the children. Maddy felt her sneakers slither and slide on the ice-covered rocks as she backed toward the water’s edge, George at her feet with his hackles raised. Roisin squealed with fear and ran down to the icy waves, but Danny bent and picked up a flat wide stone and hefted it in his palm.

  “Another step,” he said, “and one of you is going to get it right between the eyes.”

  The horses paused for a moment, looked at each other and grinned.

  “Such an unfriendly boy,” crooned one as it sidled ever closer. “That’s no way to treat a friend.”

  “You’re no friend of mine,” said Danny.

  “Ah, but we could be, we could be,” said the other. “If you treat us nicely, we could help you.”

  “How?” asked Maddy.

  “Sit on our backs,” said the first. “We can take you to the tower. The cold won’t gnaw at you, not on our backs.”

  “Why would you want to help us?” said Danny. “Everyone who has helped us so far is going to die.”

  “Liadan likes us,” said the first horse, running a black tongue over its lips. “She wouldn’t stay angry at us for long. And we like to be ridden. It’s been a long, long time since anyone went with us into the waves.”

  Something about the way the horse said that made Maddy shiver. The second one came closer to her and looked into her face. Its eyes were an utter, light-swallowing black. They radiated emptiness—a cold, deep dark vaster than space. To fall into them, said a voice in her mind, would mean peace and untroubled, eternal sleep . . .