by Karen Healey
I resolved to think this over later and tried to look as if I understood.
‘Time works differently there, but they still get old, eventually, and die. Her father was human, but he married a patupaiarehe woman, and Reka was raised patupaiarehe. She’s nearly the last patupaiarehe in the South Island. The last of her family.’
‘Well, not quite,’ I pointed out.
He waved that off and went on. ‘In 1939, she joined the drama club to get closer to my father. From what I’ve worked out from Dad, she didn’t have to make him love her. He really fell hard.’ He rubbed at his eyes. ‘And then she took him away into the mists.
‘They weren’t a good place for a Pkeh-raised Christian boy who didn’t believe in magic. He was more than half-mad by the time she was pregnant. Then she brought him back, and finding out how much time had passed did the rest. It was the mid-sixties, and he still looked nineteen. His parents were dead. His brother was in his fifties. I think Dad thought he’d been in hell. Trapped by a demon.’
‘He tried to warn me,’ I said slowly.
‘Yeah. He has . . . potential. Latent power. That’s why she took him; to wake him to his power, and make sure that her children had it. But she never really taught him how to do anything, and now he’s too mixed up to learn. He can only see magic, and after I woke you, he saw you had it. He thought your soul was in danger.’
I shivered, suddenly understanding the underlined passages in the Bible. ‘Is it?’
He gave me a small smile. ‘I wouldn’t know.’
I thought of Reka’s fingers on Kevin’s wrist, the bright smile that she gave only to him. ‘Did she love him?’
Mark scowled. ‘Love is a human thing. She says she did, because that’s the word humans use for things they think are beautiful.’
I shuddered.
‘I was born in the mists. I was seven or so before I saw anyone except Reka. When I asked, she took me to visit Dad.’ He laughed bitterly. ‘If she wasn’t what she was, we’d never have found him. When he wasn’t in an institution, the Salvation Army took care of him, and no one anywhere knew his real name.
‘She taught me patupaiarehe knowledge. I guess spells or prayers is the closest English. Chants, blessings, curses. But she’s half-human by blood, and I’m three-quarters. We’re in-between. Time in both worlds helped our power.’ He paused. ‘I don’t use that power now.’
I remembered his voice in the fog, chanting in a language I didn’t recognise, not Reka’s Mori. ‘But you do magic.’
He nodded and twisted his bracelet around his wrist. ‘A different kind of magic. Anyway, when I was a kid, we lived here for a while, like a normal mother and son. Playing human is sort of a hobby for her. She stole everything we needed, and more: clothes, jewellery. I had a lot of toys. She likes human things.’ He shook his head. ‘We went back to the mists, but I asked to come and visit Dad more often. And after our last visit, five years ago, I just stayed. I got Dad into a house and I stayed with him.’
‘She couldn’t make you go back?’
‘Oh, she could have. Probably. She didn’t try.’
‘Why?’
His face closed again. ‘She said it was because she loved me.’
There didn’t seem to be an answer to that.
‘So she made sure I wouldn’t tell anyone what I was or what she was—’ he touched his throat. ‘And mostly left me alone. She thought I’d come back to her in my own time. Once I got tired of looking after Dad, and looking after myself. But I didn’t. I saw normal families, human families, and I knew she wasn’t right.’
He took a deep breath. ‘And then I saw Kevin. He’d just come to Mansfield. And she saw him too. Even then, he looked like Dad used to. He has the same latent power. And she wanted him the same way.’
My stomach tightened. ‘She – God.’
‘He’s my family. I knew I had to protect him, and it wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t left her. I’m the disappointment, you see. I’m not loyal, and I don’t even use patupaiarehe power any more. She wants another child of power, to carry on her birthright.’
‘That’s disgusting,’ I said.
He went on, relentless. ‘I knew I had a couple of years; she doesn’t like children that way, so she’d wait for him to get older. And I knew she couldn’t take him from his home; that’s his place. But Mansfield isn’t a home. So I enrolled there, and I put protections around him, as much as I could without looking obvious, and I did a lot of studying, trying to find a permanent solution.’
He pounded his fist into his palm. ‘He’s safe there. But he had to do that bloody play. She just keeps wearing all his defences down!’
‘That’s why you switched into all his classes?’ I asked. ‘So you could prop them up again?’
He nodded, looking exhausted.
I sat there for a moment, trying to fathom the immensity of Mark’s lonely watch. He’d started school the same time as Kevin – nearly five years of guarding his cousin from his mother. However time passed in the mists, he must have looked like a thirteen-year-old kid when his work began; a scrawny, beautiful kid who never made friends, or took part in school events, or even collected the awards he’d won. A kid looking after his father, who never came to Parents’ Days.
‘I think that’s the bravest thing I’ve ever heard,’ I said.
He looked wary, as if he thought that I might have been making fun of him.
‘I mean it,’ I insisted, and then abruptly remembered something important. ‘Kevin’s not going to be at Mansfield after school today!’ I said, feeling panic rise. ‘I made a friend of his take him. But she’s going to call me if Reka turns up.’
Mark frowned out the window, at the sun. ‘It should be okay, so long as he’s back before dark. Reka will need to take him into the mists and it’s much easier to do at night. Everything’s easier for them at night.’
‘So. What’s the plan? Did you find your permanent solution?’
He nodded. ‘I think I’ve found something that’ll work, but it’s risky. When she tries to take him, I’ll cast a spell that will force her to give up her claim. Then he’ll be safe always.’
‘But she has to try first,’ I said.
‘Yeah.’
‘Then what do you need me for?’ I asked, as lightly as I could.
‘You’re the distraction,’ he said. ‘I might not be able to take her by surprise, but she should have a harder time with both of us there. You’re untrained, but you can see her. You’ll puzzle her; enough that she’ll be wary of you.’ His eyes flickered in some internal calculation.
I tried to hide my disappointment. Just the distraction. Right. ‘It sounds so crazy. What do we tell Kevin, afterward?’ He rattled his bracelet again, tapping the little wire-wrought man. ‘Afterward, he won’t remember it ever happened.’
‘Hey! No!’
‘Yes,’ he said inexorably. ‘I can’t explain it to him without choking on the truth – not until he’s already worked it out. Maybe you could; I wouldn’t bet on it. But even if you can, do you think you’ll get anywhere? They wouldn’t stick you in an institution for believing things that aren’t real; not these days, not if you’re harmless. They’d just give you some antipsychotics and a session a week with a concerned and overworked psychiatrist.’ He spread his hands. ‘You’ll soon find out that it’s easier this way.’
I thought about him enrolling in one of the snootiest high schools in the country, with no birth certificate or sane legal guardian. Magic must have made life a lot easier for Mark. What could it do for me?
Or for Kevin?
‘You could wake him up,’ I said. ‘Like you did to me. He’d have to believe me then.’
He looked impatient. ‘I did it to you by accident. I’m not going to try and wake his power unless I have to. Now, this friend you mentioned. What does he know?’
‘She,’ I said, trying not to be resentful about the way he pushed my suggestion aside. ‘Just that Reka’s bad news.’
<
br /> ‘Can she fight?’
I tried to imagine Iris flinging her handbag away and settling into a stance, which rapidly became an image of Iris falling out of her shiny three-inch heels. ‘I really doubt it. And she’s—’ a China doll ‘—little. Iris Tsang, you know? She was at Mansfield until this year. At the theatre last night?’
‘Oh, the short girl. Well, I have to finish preparing.’ He stood, and I stood with him. ‘Reka’ll probably try for him tonight. Let’s meet at your friend’s house at four-thirty. Here’s my phone number.’
I nodded and wrote down Iris’s address for him. ‘I guess I’ll read up on this stuff.’
He took the scrap of paper, his fingers brushing against mine. He hesitated at the contact, and then stepped toward me, spreading his arms.
I moved sideways, raising my arms for a block.
We both froze. Mark’s hands drifted slowly to his sides. I unclenched my fists.
‘I was going to hug you,’ he said carefully.
I flushed. ‘Oh.’
‘Sorry. It was stupid. You just found out I’m a freak.’
‘You’re not a freak.’
‘What would you call it? I’m all in-between. Not human. Not patupaiarehe.’ His lip curled. ‘I’m a chimera.’
I squinted at him. ‘Maybe you should see the school nurse about that.’
He let out a shocked laugh. ‘Ellie. Look at me.’
The air in the small room was suddenly cold and clammy. I looked up into his strong-boned face and watched as his pupils were swallowed in glossy green.
I let it scare me for a dreary moment, while my skin prickled in the sudden chill. Then something quivered and untwisted in my head, and I saw that Mark’s face wasn’t actually expressionless. It was still and hard, and the blank eyes made it more difficult to read his emotions, but they were there, just under the skin, pulling his temples tight with pain and hope, tensing around the corners of his lips in defiant vulnerability.
‘I’m looking,’ I said. ‘I can see you.’ I fumbled for the words to bridge the gap between us.
Words weren’t going to do it.
I wrapped my arms around him, and felt the shudder that ran down his bones. ‘I can see you,’ I repeated, and this time he breathed out a shaky laugh against my shoulder, and when I dared to look again, the solid mass of his eyes was not blind to me.
We stayed like that for only a moment, and then I drew back, suddenly shy of his blinding smile. My chest was squeezing in a way that I tried very hard to ignore.
‘Four-thirty, then,’ I said, and cleared his path to the door.
‘It’s good that you know,’ he said shyly. ‘You asked what I needed you for? I think what I most needed was for someone else to know. I’m lucky that it’s you.’
He left. I slumped over the table, and thought hazy, confused things about the way his head had felt heavy and hard against my shoulder, about how he twisted his fingers while he talked and retreated behind his hair when he didn’t want to answer questions. The thoughts got mixed up with thoughts of Blake kissing me in the car, and how I had wanted him to at first, tainted memories that made me feel grubby and ashamed.
In any case, I couldn’t fall for Mark now. I had to concentrate on my research.
Most of the books on my printed list were still on the dull metal shelves of the Folklore section. I took them all down, settled myself at a spare desk nearby, and tried to concentrate over the thrumming in my veins.
The results weren’t reassuring. Not every book mentioned the fairy people, but those that did all mentioned their immense magical power and incredible sacredness. Cooked food or its smell were non-sacred, and could drive them off or keep them away, which explained Reka’s ‘allergy’. The books were vague about their appearance. Sometimes they were supposed to have reddish skin and blue or black eyes. Sometimes they were pale-skinned and light-haired. Mostly, the books agreed that they were beautiful, but there were plenty of more monstrous figures too, like men with huge claws for fingers and a taste for human flesh. There was a story about a giant patupaiarehe woman who had a beak for a mouth and speared birds upon it, and one about a man who took the form of a giant lizard, although another book with the same story classed that one as a taniwha, one of the huge, man-eating water monster–guardians.
The patupaiarehe were reputed to sometimes steal human wives or husbands, to live in the thick fogs of the forests and coasts, and to be visible only at dusk and dawn. They were musicians and singers, and their music was magic, capable of curse or transformation. Clearly, though, it was possible to beat Reka. In most of the stories, the humans encountering patupaiarehe avoided potential disaster.
Even as I finished that thought, I saw the problem with my smugness. Of course, I could only read the stories based on the tales of survivors. How many people had simply vanished, their stories never told? I flipped through the titles. And how come so many Mori stories were written down by people with Pkeh names? How much of this was worth believing?
It took longer than I’d thought, even skimming through repeated material, and it all began to blur in my head. I drifted off into unpleasant visions of Reka turning me into something horrible and yanking Kevin into the mists, and I came back to myself with a jerk. I was ostensibly reading one of the stories of Mui and his brothers. The trickster-hero had been human, sort of, but he’d known many spells, and used various magical items that he’d stolen or been given by his ancestors. That wasn’t very useful for my purposes, unless I could find someone willing and able to cram years of lore into my head in an afternoon, and then produce my grandmother’s sacred jawbone. I imagined Nanny Spencer pulling herself out of her ransacked grave to shamble after me, scolding with her unhinged skull. Eleanor, you thieving magpie! I should have known you’d come to a bad end! Your sister would never disrespect me so!
I was trying to stifle my half-hysterical giggles when my mobile phone rang.
Everyone in close proximity twisted in their seat and glared as I fumbled for it.
I glanced at the caller ID and hunched over it. ‘Iris?’ I whispered.
Her voice was sharp with alarm. ‘She’s here. She got here just after we did, and Kevin’s acting really weird. Ellie, what the hell is—’ ‘I’m on my way,’ I said. ‘If Mark Nolan turns up, he’s there to help. Let him in. Okay?’
‘Mark Nolan? Ellie!’
I clicked the phone shut on her panic and punched in Mark’s number.
‘She’s at Iris’s,’ I said. ‘With Kevin, now!’
‘Coming,’ he snapped. ‘Go!’
I abandoned my books, grabbed my bag, and ran like hell, ignoring the death glares from the library’s other patrons.
I jumped down the bus steps before the door had even finished opening, and raced around the corner to Iris’s place. The faded-green door was locked. I pounded on it with both fists, and nearly overbalanced when Iris pulled it open.
She was still small and delicate, still neatly dressed in a black skirt and white cashmere cardigan, but she looked undone in a way that was foreign to her. There were two red spots in her cheeks, and her eyes were wild, her mouth tight with fear.
‘Is he okay?’ I demanded.
She nodded and grabbed for my hand. I let her draw me over the threshold. The air inside felt different, charged with something that prickled down my spine. I shut the door behind me, snibbing the lock open for a fast getaway.
‘What is she?’ she whispered.
‘Bad news,’ I said, and remembered that one of Iris’s majors was Mori. Maybe she’d worked it out.
But no epiphany showed on her frightened face: ‘We’re going over lines.’
‘No. We’re leaving.’ I strode down the hall to the living room.
Iris had an allowance from her parents and lived by herself in the tiny house. I usually considered that yet another reason to be envious and hateful, but today I was just grateful she didn’t have nosy roommates to get in the way.
The two of them
were sitting around the glass-topped coffee table, Kevin in his favourite chair, Reka on the couch, in the space closest to him. Her head snapped round when I entered. She was wearing brown today: a burnished-copper dress that pooled around her feet, and a darker half-cloak that swung over one shoulder. She glanced up sharply as I came in, and despite all my rage, I nearly stepped back.
Menace drifted from her like smoke on a still day.
Kevin finished a speech and cocked his head at Reka like a puppy awaiting a treat.
‘Kevin, I need you,’ I said. ‘Please, come home with me.’
He looked vaguely troubled. Reka put her hand on his knee and his face settled into pleased contentment. My jaw clenched.
‘We’re rehearsing,’ Reka said.
‘We’re rehearsing,’ he agreed.
‘Kevin, please.’ My voice cracked with the force of the plea. Reka snatched her hand back as if it stung. I deliberately stepped into the gap between her and Kevin. I heard her breath hiss between her teeth, but didn’t dare turn to meet her eyes, instead focusing all my attention on Kevin. My body felt like such a fragile barrier.
Kevin frowned. ‘What’s wrong?’ he asked, sounding more like himself.
I paused, caught.
‘Could you get me a glass of water?’ Reka asked sweetly.
Kevin leapt to his feet and hurried into the kitchen before I could grab his arm. I spun, staggered backward into his chair, and kicked it away. It crashed into the wall, but Kevin didn’t charge back in. I heard the pipes complain, and then the gurgle of running water.
Reka leaned back as if on a gilded throne and regarded me with mild interest. ‘Goodness, Eleanor, are you stupid or just mad?’
‘Apparently insanity is your specialty.’
Her face went glassy smooth. ‘Mark’s father is no business of yours.’ She spread her hands in what could have been regret. ‘Kevin is stronger. He believes in many of the old ways. He won’t suffer so much.’