"I don"t know. But we have to use the torch now. We won"t get far without it."
He unfolded the map and squinted at it. "We should head to the second catacomb that"s where we saw her before so it makes sense that we might see her there again." He tapped the map. "It"s not far, we should see the first catacomb coming up fairly soon."
They headed off, the forest eerily quiet. Occasionally the yellow eyes of nocturnal creatures stared at them out of the darkness. After a short distance, Tanya exclaimed as something heavy hit her leg.
"What is it?" said Fabian.
"It"s the compa.s.s," said Tanya. "It"s fallen through a hole in my pocket into the lining of my coat. The nail must have pierced it and made a hole it"s gone through too."
"Give it here," said Fabian. "I"ll put it in my bag it"ll be safe there."
With some difficulty, Tanya squeezed her hand through the hole into the coat lining and retrieved the compa.s.s, but she was unable to locate the iron nail. It would have to stay there. "Make sure you put it somewhere secure," she said, handing the compa.s.s to Fabian. "If we lose it we"ll only have the map to rely on."
They carried on walking further into the trees, until they were so far in that Tanya was beginning to get the horrible feeling that they were going the wrong way. Seemingly out of nowhere the first catacomb came into sight.
Fabian broke into a jog, heading past the railings.
"This way!" he called over his shoulder. "It can"t be far now!"
Tanya ran after him, straining to keep sight of the flickering torch as he sprinted ahead. "Slow down! I can"t see!"
Very soon they came into a small clearing.
"This is where we saw her," said Fabian. He aimed his torch at the dense trees surrounding them, his hand shaking with adrenalin.
"Are you sure?" said Tanya. "I don"t see the railings perhaps this is a different clearing."
Fabian consulted the map. "But I"m sure this is it it must be."
"Look," said Tanya suddenly, pointing past a thick tree. "Shine the torch over there."
Fabian held the torch up and a flash of silver glinted through the trees.
"There it is."
As they edged closer to the railings a chilling sound cut through the air.
"What"s that noise?" said Fabian, his eyes darting about fearfully.
"It sounds like somebody . . . crying," Tanya murmured.
Fabian crept forward and Tanya followed, her heart hammering hard in her chest. Past the railings, sitting at the foot of a tree, a dark figure was hunched over and hugging her knees. Her long black hair spilled to the ground where foxgloves were growing in abundance, swaying softly in the night air.
"It"s her," said Fabian. "It"s Morwenna Bloom."
Tanya stepped forward and a twig snapped under her foot, but the girl did not look up. Instead she continued to sob into her hands.
"Morwenna," Fabian called, finding his voice at last. "Morwenna Bloom!"
At the sound of her name the girl looked up, and Tanya was startled to see that she wasn"t crying after all she was laughing.
"You found me," she said, standing up and brushing the leaves from her dress. She looked exactly the same, barely a day older than in the photograph.
"We know what happened to you all those years ago," said Tanya. "And . . . and we"ve come to help you." She couldn"t believe how easy it had been to find the girl . . . almost too easy.
"You"ve come to help me? How?"
"We want to help you find a way out of here," said Tanya. Suddenly, and for reasons she could not fathom, she became frightened. In the eerie moonlight, Morwenna looked almost wraith-like. Tanya took the scissors out of the raincoat and stuck them in the back pocket of her jeans, then offered her coat to the girl. "Take this. It"ll protect you."
Morwenna took a step towards them, a strange little smile playing on her lips as she took the raincoat. "And what do you have to protect yourself, I wonder?"
A low, rumbling growl had begun in Oberon"s throat. Tanya looked down and saw the dog"s hackles were raised and his body was completely rigid. He had placed himself directly between Tanya and Morwenna.
It was then that Tanya knew there was something horribly, terribly wrong.
"Protect me from what?"
Morwenna stared at her with gla.s.sy, coal-black eyes.
"Protect you from me, of course."
For a moment Tanya thought she had misheard.
"Do you know why I"m here?" Morwenna"s voice was high, sing-song. It chilled Tanya"s blood.
"I"m here because of something that happened fifty years ago. And now, the only thing that can set me free is the debt that is owed me."
"What debt?" said Fabian. "What are you talking about?"
Morwenna smiled then. A cold, twisted smile. "The debt is from a friend of long ago." She looked Tanya directly in the eye. "Your grandmother."
"What?" said Tanya, backing away. "I don"t understand!"
"Of course you don"t. How could you? You see, Florence and I had . . . an understanding, many years ago a pact, if you like. I kept my part of the promise, but Florence did not. Now she has to pay the price."
"And what is the price?" said Tanya, dreading what she was about to hear next.
Morwenna took another step towards her. "You are."
23.
ANYA WANTED TO RUN, BUT was prevented from doing so by a combination of sheer, gut-wrenching fear and a morbid desire to hear more. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Fabian, frozen to the spot.
"I . . . I still don"t understand."
"Then let me explain," Morwenna hissed. "A long time ago you and I were not so different. Lonely . . . misunderstood . . . as you know, friendship does not come easily to those like us."
"Those with the second sight," said Tanya.
Morwenna smiled. "Yes. Those with the second sight. But then I did find a friend: someone who understood me and whom I understood in turn because we were the same. That person was your grandmother."
"My grandmother doesn"t have the second sight. You"re lying."
"Am I?" said Morwenna. "The look on your face tells me you might not be quite so sure. I know Florence. She would have hidden it well. She would have wanted to protect you from the truth, from this. She pushed you away to do that. My guess is that the two of you aren"t exactly close."
Tanya stared, dumbfounded, then lowered her eyes.
Morwenna laughed. "Just as I thought. Ever wonder why you weren"t welcome? Why she didn"t want you around? Well, you"re about to find out."
"Why are you saying all this?" Tanya whispered. "What does any of this have to do with me?"
"It has everything to do with you. You"ve your grandmother to thank for that." Morwenna twisted a strand of black hair around her finger. "Florence and I were best friends. Inseparable. We did everything together. However, her parents allowed her more freedom than mine allowed me." Her face darkened. "My father could be very . . . difficult. The honourable Reverend Bloom . . . or at least, that"s what it looked like from the outside. The reality was somewhat different. He was a dominating, controlling man. I had to beg to be let out of the house on some occasions. One day, we were walking in the forest, Florence and I." Morwenna scowled. "I was upset. My father had revealed his plans to have me sent away to a new boarding school in London when the summer ended. Florence begged me not to go it would mean her losing the only friend she"d ever known. I didn"t want to go either, and so we began to talk of running away.
"We had been talking for a while when we realised we were not alone. We were being watched . . . and listened to."
"The fairies," Tanya said slowly.
"They made an offer to us both, a way out of our problems. A place where n.o.body would find us, nothing could harm us, and we would never grow old. The fairy realm."
"But they took you . . ." said Tanya. "They led you astray . . . they trapped you . . ."
Morwenna continued to speak as if she had not heard.
"It was my chance of escape but Florence was not so sure. She was torn between coming with me and staying with her family, but we did not have much time. The fairies had given us until Midsummer"s Eve to make our choice. I pleaded with Florence for days, but still she could not decide. Then, the day before Midsummer"s Eve, she had an argument with her parents in which terrible things were said. After that she made her decision we vowed to leave and never return.
"But Florence had always been the weaker of us. I knew that doubts would start to creep into her mind. Her word was not strong enough for me to trust and so I made her swear to keep her promise. We p.r.i.c.ked thumbs, sealing the pact in blood.
"Midsummer"s Eve arrived, and I waited in the woods. Florence never came. I went to the manor, where the groundskeeper told me that she was feeling unwell. In other words she had lost her nerve. But it was too late for me. I had to go on."
"The groundskeeper was Amos, wasn"t it?" said Fabian. "It was my grandfather."
"The lovesick fool," said Morwenna. "He begged me not to go when I told him I was running away. I gave him a lock of my hair to remember me by and told him to keep it secret and safe. Little did he know his little "love token" was part of a bigger plan. Into it I had also woven a few strands of Florence"s hair, stolen from her comb, to strengthen the promise she had made."
"A lock of hair?" Fabian"s voice was strained.
"The key to my immortality," Morwenna said slyly. "Something of myself as I was. Its preservation in the human world would allow me to be seen by the mortal eye when I chose and keep me forever fourteen. And so I shall be still, when I return.
"At midnight, I pa.s.sed into the fairy realm. To begin with I was happy, although I knew I would never forgive Florence"s cowardice. But as the years pa.s.sed, I found that an immortal existence is a lonely one. I came to regret my decision. However when you give yourself willingly to the fairy realm, there is no way out, save one."
"And what is that?" Tanya asked, her voice hoa.r.s.e.
"That another mortal of second sight and linked by blood should exchange places with me," said Morwenna. "I knew of no blood relatives with the second sight. But by making our promises in blood Florence had linked herself to me. Thus she was the only one who could have taken my place, but she was far too clever to venture into the woods. So I waited.
"Years pa.s.sed. Florence married and was expecting a child. Finally, I saw the opportunity I had been waiting for. Never underestimate the power of a mother"s love."
"You stole the baby to take your place." Fabian"s voice was thick with disgust.
"No," said Morwenna, with a cruel laugh. "The child shared Florence"s blood, of course, but it did not have the second sight therefore it could not have taken my place in the fairy realm. The child was merely a bargaining chip . . . I stole the baby to lure Florence into the woods. I had the child brought to me. I knew Florence would guess who was behind it and face up to her past. When she found us she begged for her child as I knew she would. I told her I would return the child if Florence would exchange places with me then and there. If she refused, I would take the baby into the fairy realm and she would never see it again.
"Florence knew there was no escape. She agreed to exchange places, but begged me to take pity on her and allow her a few years to raise her child. She promised that if I would give her seven years she would willingly take my place. She swore that on the child"s seventh birthday, she would come back and pay her debt. Stupidly, I agreed. For after so many years, what did a few more matter? I had lost nothing of my life. I could afford to show a little mercy. Little did I know then that she"d tricked me." She stared hatefully at Tanya. "The child I"m speaking of was your mother."
Tanya remembered the hidden nursery.
"But my mother was born on the twenty-ninth of February the extra day of a leap year."
Fabian gasped. "So her true seventh birthday wouldn"t be until twenty-eight years later!"
"Indeed," said Morwenna. "Nature had allowed Florence another escape. After that I knew I had no chance of getting anywhere near the child again Florence would have taken steps to ensure that it was well protected. All I could do was wait for the years to pa.s.s until she would have to fulfil her promise. But as the time neared, something unexpected took place. Another child with the second sight linked by blood to Florence was born. And with it, the perfect opportunity for revenge." She smiled at Tanya, completely demented-looking. "You."
"No . . ." Tanya protested.
"I must say you took some finding you were protected well," said Morwenna. "But not well enough."
"Who was protecting me?"
Morwenna did not answer. "At midnight our places shall be exchanged."
"No!" Tanya shouted. She turned to Fabian, but he was motionless, with an absolutely petrified look on his face.
"The trees . . . look at the trees!"
Fairies were emerging from their hiding places and some of them were unlike any she had ever seen before: broken, twisted beings that looked as if they knew nothing of goodness. They had skin like bark and limbs of twigs and branches. They were the woodland. And then, within the depths of the trees, a tiny movement in a moonlit clearing caught her eye. Fabian was right. They had been followed.
A face was visible from within the trees for a split second before vanishing; a familiar face. One that Tanya had thought she would never see again. For a moment she wondered if she had simply made the whole thing up in her mind, but then the face appeared again, a finger pressed tightly to its lips, warning her to keep silent.
The face belonged to Red.
Quickly, Tanya averted her eyes, her mind racing. What was going on?
"Bind her!" said Morwenna.
Oberon snarled and snapped as the fairies approached.
"You"re outnumbered," said Morwenna. "And if you do not call the dog off, I promise you they will kill him."
Tanya glanced at Oberon. It was a risk she couldn"t afford to take. She called him off, despite his whines of protest. He nuzzled her in confusion, but she pushed him away.
"Run!" she yelled to Fabian, but the fairies were swooping already, forcing her backwards until she hit a tree. She felt herself being bound tightly to the trunk with something she could not see or fight against; something cold, thin and sticky. The fairies trussed her up until she was unable to move an inch then slithered back into the shadows, all except for an ugly old fairy crone who held her arm with a surprisingly strong grip.
"Staying with us, my pretty?" she wheezed. "You"ll make a fine playmate for my children. Let"s hope you last longer than the others . . ."
Fabian"s eyes were wide with dread.