Authors: Jennifer Fallon
‘What pet?’ he asked, dragging his attention away from their audience and back to these very dangerous little girls. Now was not the time to be distracted.
‘The
Youkai
you had with you when you arrived,’ Isleen said. ‘The one who changed into an owl at the Tanabe compound and flew away?’
‘Oh,’ Ren said. ‘
That
pet.’
So the Empresses had been tipped off by the Tanabe. It was a wonder Chishihero Tanabe wasn’t here with her troops, gloating over his demise. But perhaps the Tanabe had misread the situation. The Empresses were expecting someone from another realm, which meant they were presuming a magical guest. And that — if you believed Masuyo about magic-wielders all being of Faerie origin — meant the presence of a shape-shifting
Beansídhe
shouldn’t surprise them.
Perhaps the Empresses weren’t as hard on the
Youkai
as everyone seemed to think. His glimpse of the future said otherwise, but Ren wasn’t sure enough of his ability to give his vision any weight.
‘Delphine should have warned you to keep her under control,’ Teagan added, folding her arms across her chest with a frown. ‘We can’t have them flitting about, stirring up the dregs of the lesser
Youkai
still left in this realm.’
‘She’s harmless,’ Ren assured them, hoping Trása had the sense to stay away. ‘She was frightened, and changed shape without thinking what it meant. You know what the
Beansídhe
are like when they’re startled … are there many lesser
Youkai
?’
he added in what he hoped was a casual tone. Toyoda had been insisting they were on the brink of extinction.
Isleen nodded, her stance echoing her sister’s. ‘More than we’d like,’ she said, and then she brightened. ‘But now you’re here, we can take care of that, can’t we?’
‘Excuse me?’
‘That’s what you’re here for, isn’t it?’ Teagan asked. She seemed confused. ‘That’s why the
Matrarchaí
sent you? To help us? To unlock the knowledge she gave us? And to finish the eradication of the
Youkai
in this realm?’
Eradicate them?
This was what these little girls were expecting from the
Matrarchaí
? An assassin? Ren stared at the two little girls in the firelight, trying to figure out how to answer to that.
‘Did you bring her as a lure?’ Isleen asked. ‘We thought of doing that, but we couldn’t find a
Youkai
who would help us lure the others into our trap, and we didn’t know the true names of any
Youkai
to force them to help. Do you know the
Beansídhe’s
true name? Is that how you control her?’
Control Trása? That’s a joke.
‘I thought she might be useful,’ Ren said, hoping he sounded as if he had some knowledge on the subject. Somewhere among all the confused memories belonging to his brother was something about every
sídhe
possessing a secret name, and that knowing that name gave the person with that knowledge complete power over the
sídhe
. It was how Trása had trapped Toyoda, although she hadn’t mentioned such a trick would work on her.
Funny about that.
‘You should tell us her true name,’ Teagan said. ‘That way we can control her if anything happens to you.’
‘Her true name?’ he repeated, stalling.
‘We’re going to have to insist, Renkavana,’ Isleen said, putting her hands on her hips. ‘Lady Delphine said it would be
a disaster to come this close to cleansing the realm, only to have some rogue
Youkai
we missed in the purges, rallying the troops.’
‘A complete disaster,’ Ren agreed, wondering if these girls had also shared something like the
Comhroinn
with an adult. They looked like children and seemed to have the emotional depth of children, but their words and ambitions were hardly that of children.
Ethnic cleansing, he was certain, was not a game played by little girls.
‘It’s Tinkerbell,’ he said, lowering his voice a little so it seemed he was sharing a secret.
‘
Tinkerbell
,’ the girls repeated in unison. ‘That’s a strange name.’
‘Who can figure out the mind of a
Youkai
, eh?’
The name wasn’t strange enough to worry the girls for long. Isleen brightened suddenly and turned to her sister. ‘Did you see the fireworks, Teagan? I wasn’t expecting fireworks to greet us.’ She nudged her sister with a grin. ‘Can we make everyone do that?’
‘The Ikushima manufacture them here,’ Ren explained. ‘They’re very good at it, too. You saw them on the way in, didn’t you?’
‘Can we see some more?’ Teagan asked, turning to look at him.
‘I mean … we’re here now,’ Isleen agreed. ‘We should probably stay the night at least, before we return home to
Nara
.’
‘We want to see more,’ Teagan demanded.
Ren nodded, beckoning Namito forward. ‘I am quite sure the
Daimyo
would be honoured. In fact, I’m certain he’d like nothing more than to show you his wares.’
A polite cough from one of the courtiers behind the girls interrupted them. It was a woman in her thirties, her streaked ash-blonde hair piled high in an elaborate arrangement that
must have taken hours. She was dressed just as formally as the girls, but when she addressed them, it was with great deference. ‘Your Highnesses might like to consider returning to your palace in
Nara
,’ she suggested. ‘There are many petitioners awaiting your presence.’
‘Stop trying to act like a mother, Wakiko,’ Isleen informed the courtier with a dismissive wave. ‘We can spare time for a fireworks display. After all, we have a special guest to honour and tonight marks the beginning of the end for the last of the
Youkai
in our realm. We have much to celebrate. Why shouldn’t there be fireworks?’
‘Why indeed?’ Ren agreed under his breath. The woman bowed and stepped back, as if she had somehow erred by pointing out the Empresses’ responsibilities. Equally anxious to please, Namito hurried forward to greet his guests and arrange their fireworks display.
Ren stood by and watched, sick with the knowledge that the event these innocent little girls wanted to celebrate was only going to happen if he aided them in committing mass murder.
‘But they’re only little girls!’ Trása exclaimed as she morphed back into human form high in the branches of a huge mountain ash some distance from the Ikushima compound. Under normal circumstances she wouldn’t have risked changing back into her own form so high off the ground, but Toyoda had waved her down and indicated the branch was safe and strong enough to bear her weight.
At least, she assumed that’s what was he was signalling. It was hard to tell in the dark. He could have been waving her off.
Fortunately, he wasn’t. She caught the branches overhead to balance herself as she resumed her human shape, shivering as the cold air embraced her naked skin, but she ignored the chill. She was much more interested in what was going on down on the ground. She peered down through the almost barren branches into the Ikushima compound as Rónán faced a pair of creepily alike little girls, wishing she knew what they were discussing.
On the bright side, they hadn’t killed Rónán on the spot, which was a good thing. But they had the ability to do it with a thought. Trása could feel the latent power in them from here.
‘Those little girls look as if they escaped from
Village of the Damned
.’
‘I not be familiar with that village, mistress.’
‘It’s a special village. I saw it on TV in Rónán’s realm,’ she explained.
The ninja-
Leipreachán
looked at her sideways. ‘It be quite different to this realm then, where ye come from?’
‘You have no idea, little man,’ Trása said, shifting around until she was sitting on the branch beside him. ‘What are they talking about, do you think?’
‘Would ye like to know?’
‘Do you have a way of finding out?’
Toyoda shrugged. ‘There be plenty of lesser
sídhe
still about in this realm, mistress, who might oblige if ye ask them. Mostly they be hiding out of fear, but there be wood sprites and dryads and plenty of the wee folk, who might be willing to aid ye in ye quest to put an end to these monsters.’
Trása glanced at the
Leipreachán
a little alarmed. ‘Quest?’
‘That be why ye came here, isn’t it?’
He said it with such confidence, Trása didn’t have the heart to correct him. Toyoda had been so pathetically relieved to be caught in her trap, it felt cruel to disillusion him by revealing she intended to be gone from this realm as soon as she found a way to open a rift.
‘You’re expecting
me
to save you all?’ she asked, trying not to let her scepticism leak into her voice.
Toyoda nodded, smiling happily. ‘SvenHendrick said the gods would send help.’ He leaned across and patted her knee like a fond uncle. ‘It took a while, but I be so glad they sent someone so pretty.’
For a moment, Trása was distracted by the compliment. She sat a little straighter and smiled, preening under his admiring gaze. ‘Really? You think I’m pretty?’ Then she realised what she was doing, and shook her head to clear the thought. That was the sort of thing her mother would do. This world was so steeped in magic, the
Beansídhe
side of her was coming to the fore.
It felt very strange. Even when she’d lived in
Tír Na nÓg
, Trása had felt more human than
sídhe
. It was peculiar to be feeling the opposite.
‘Tell me about SvenHendrick,’ she said, figuring that was a safer thing to ask than revealing her ignorance by blurting out ‘who are SvenHendrick?’.
‘They be the most powerful Undivided ever seen in this realm,’ Toyoda told her with a wistful sigh. ‘We be so happy when they be invested. It seemed like everything be exactly right with the world.’
‘If they were so powerful, how come the terrible twins down there are running the show?’
Toyoda shrugged. ‘I not be entirely sure. It started when Hendrick met Wakiko.’
‘Who is Wakiko?’
‘She be mother of those abominations,’ Toyoda replied.
‘Wakiko? Those girls don’t look Japanese,’ Trása said with a frown. ‘They look like little Vikings.’
‘Wakiko be Norman,’ Toyoda said. ‘The Empire of the Rising Sun reaches far and wide, mistress.’ He pointed to the courtiers standing behind Rónán and the twins. ‘That be her there. In the blue kimono. She still be there for the girls, but they be the ones who rule the roost.’
Down in the compound, Namito was hurrying forward, bowing obsequiously to the children. It seemed they were holding everyone in thrall with their mere presence.
‘How is it in a realm ruled by the Japanese, you have Norman Undivided?’ Trása asked.
‘Isn’t it the same in ye realm, my lady?’ the
Leipreachán
asked, sounding surprised. ‘SvenHendrick’s mother was a Gaul. The right twins not always be born in a place ye’d prefer. The
Matrarchaí
find the twins wherever they can find them.’
‘The
Matrarchaí
?’ she asked, sounding just as surprised
to hear of them in this realm as Toyoda was to learn of the differences in hers.
‘Have ye not heard of the
Matrarchaí
, mistress?’
‘I’ve heard of them, Toyoda,’ she said. ‘I’m just surprised to learn that you’ve heard of them too.’
‘The
Matrarchaí
be at the root of all our troubles in this realm,’ he told her with a heavy sigh. ‘At least, that’s what the elder
Youkai
believed, although being one of the lesser
Youkai
, they didn’t confide in me ’bout it, as a rule.’
Trása smiled, imagining her uncle treating a
Leipreachán
with anything other than disdainful contempt. ‘I’m sure they didn’t.’
‘The
Matrarchaí
in this realm be the ones who oversaw the breeding of the psychic twins. They be the ones who brought Wakiko to court. They be the ones who started all the trouble between the Undivided.’
Before she could ask exactly what trouble he was talking about, the sky overhead exploded in a brilliant burst of light. She blinked, the afterimage of the fireworks blinding her for a moment.
‘They only be five or six when Lady Delphine came through the rift. She claimed to be of the
Matrarchaí
from a realm similar to ours where the Undivided had destroyed all the
Youkai
races. She said she came to warn us.’
‘She was lying, I suppose?’
‘No. It be true enough about the dead
sídhe
. What she left out was that she hadn’t come to be warning the
Youkai
about it, but to do the same here.’
‘Didn’t somebody think to check what she was telling them?’ Trása asked, as a second brilliant shower of light burst overhead. ‘I mean … how hard is it to send a rift runner through to another realm to be certain?’
‘It be very hard, mistress,’ he told her, flinching a little as another starmine that blinded them with its brilliance.
Keeping up with this convoluted tale was making Trása’s head spin. The distraction of the fireworks exploding overhead and the biting chill of the night air weren’t helping much, either. ‘Hang on … let me get this straight. The
Matrarchaí
introduced the Undivided — or at least this realm’s version of them — to some Swedish girl called Wakiko, who gave birth to those two down there and … what? They all lived happily ever after?’
‘Not exactly.’
By
Danú
, this is like unravelling a felted fleece.
‘What do you mean,
not exactly
?’
‘Hendrick and Sven had a falling out, when Sven tried to kill Isleen and Teagan in the cradle.’
Of course he tried to kill them. This realm is insane.
She sighed, almost afraid to pose the obvious question. ‘All right. I’ll bite.
Why
did he try to kill them?’