Tyger Tyger (19 page)

Teagan turned around to check on Aiden and realized Finn was still standing naked in the middle of the motor home, knife in hand. She put her hands over her eyes and turned back quickly.

"Are you all right, Aiden?" she called.

"Yes," Aiden said.

"Find a seat." Mamieo slid behind the wheel. "We're moving." She glanced in the rearview mirror. "Put the knife away and find your pants, Finn. He's not coming back in, and you're embarrassing us all."

Teagan waited until she heard the bathroom door close before she grabbed Aiden, shoved him onto the bench seat by the table, and sat down beside him. Mamieo's empty saltshaker was rolling across the tabletop. Teagan grabbed it and put it back in the pill basket.

Finn came out of the bathroom again, clothes on this time. He looked straight ahead as he stalked past the table and sat down in the passenger's seat beside Mamieo.

"I told you I'd take care of things, boyo," Mamieo said. "There was no need to make a spectacle of yourself."

"You turned red all over, Finn," Aiden said helpfully. "So did Teagan. As red as Kool-Aid."

The back of Finn's neck went from pink lemonade to Blastin' Berry Cherry.

"Yeah," Aiden said. "Like that."

"I don't want to talk about it," Finn said.

WHERE are we off to, Mamieo?" Finn asked.

"It's a goose chase," Mamieo said. "With us being the goose. When the goblins go a-hunting, they expect you to run. I want that spying
cat-sídhe
to see that we're going south before I turn the Tank around. I can shake the cats for a night, until we've figured out what's to be done."

"I know what's to be done," Finn said. "I'm going back to Mag Mell to bring Mr. Wylltson out, and you are keeping Tea and Aiden safe."

"All by yourself, is it?" Mamieo snorted. "Those taken by Fear Doirich don't come out."

"What about Aunt Aileen? You brought her out, didn't you?"

The Tank swayed and leaned as they curled around the ramp onto the freeway. Teagan grabbed Aiden as he slid across the bench seat, and Finn gripped the armrest.

"We don't know that the Dark Man took her," Mamieo said when they were on the freeway.

"But we know she came out," Finn said. "And Saint Pádraig, too. What about him?"

"Saint Patrick went to Mag Mell?" Teagan asked.

Mamieo glanced at her in the rearview mirror. "He made it out by the skin of his teeth, and him with two holy
aingeals
walking by his side. How did you find your way out? You had no Green Man holding a light for you, nor
aingeals
holding your hands."

"I knew the way," Aiden said.

"Did you, now?" Mamieo glanced in the mirror again.

"Kyle goes in and out, too," Aiden said.

"Kyle?"

"The goblin that came in the windshield," Teagan said. "He said his name was Kyle."

"You should have run over him," Finn said.

"And send him straight back to Mag Mell, full of news? He'll find his way back eventually, but it will take him some time without his eyes. Let him stumble about a bit while we figure out what to do."

"Oh, my god." Teagan pulled out her cell phone and pressed a number on speed dial. "I've got to talk to Abby before he finds her."

"It's about time," Abby said when she finally picked up. "Where are you?"

"I'm with my grandma. Listen, Abby, you need to get out of your apartment. Kyle followed us, and ... he's looking for you. He said he was going to use the Internet to find you."

"Let him look. I'll deal with him."

"No, Abby, he's got some ... really bad friends."

"Goblins?" Abby asked.

"Yes," Teagan said. "They are going to hurt you to get to me."

There was a long silence. "Tea ... Finn doesn't have you dealing drugs or something, does he?"

"No. You need to find someplace to stay—someplace other than your apartment."

"I love my apartment. I'm not leaving it because of some boogeymen."

"This is life and death, Abby, I swear."

"How long?" Abby asked, and Teagan almost wept with relief.

"A couple of days," Teagan guessed. "Until I call you, okay?"

"Okay, I'll find a place. But just for a couple of days. I've got a life, you know."

"Good," Teagan said. "I'll call you, I promise." She hung up and turned back to Mamieo. "Why is it that goblins can kill us, but all we can do is send them back to Mag Mell?"

"They can't kill your immortal spirit," Mamieo said. "It takes more than a goblin to do that. You can't kill theirs, either. And isn't it the spirit of that foul thing that we see walking here wrapped in skin and bones of his own making? You can send
that
flesh back to its maker."

"Where are his real skin and bones?" Aiden asked.

"His mortal bits are sleeping in Mag Mell." This time she turned half around, not bothering with the mirror. "Speaking of sleep, you look done in, girl."

"She hasn't slept for two nights," Finn said. "Not used to the life."

"I thought as much." Mamieo nodded. "You and the wee pratie lie down on the bed back there and shut your eyes. There's nothing but driving going on. No excitement, and you're as safe as we can make you."

Tea looked back at the bed. If she didn't get some sleep soon, she was going to fall over.

"Promise you won't leave without me, Finn."

"He'll not leave you behind," Mamieo said. "I'll see to it."

Finn glared at the old woman. "Mamieo!"

"What?" Mamieo glared back.

"I brought them to you so you could keep them safe until I get things straightened out. It's my fault, isn't it? And my responsibility to set things right."

"Teagan," Mamieo said, "take your brother back to the bed and get some rest."

"I'm not sleepy," Aiden began. "I want to hear what you're saying, and..." He met Mamieo's eyes in the mirror.

"Get in that bed and go to sleep."

"Yes, ma'am." He grabbed Teagan's hand and pulled her to the back of the motor home. Mom had clearly learned the Look from Mamieo.

Teagan boosted Aiden up on the bed, then crawled in after him.

Mamieo and Finn were arguing, their voices too low against the rumble of the Tank for her to make out the words, but not low enough to conceal the tension.

I
t's my fault, isn't it?
That's what Finn had said, and he was right. if he had
never come to the Wylltsons', house...

Teagan closed her eyes, but she couldn't stop the tears. She was glad when Aiden started snoring and the voices were completely drowned out. She was stinky and dirty and more tired than she had ever been in her life, and she didn't know what to do next.

Teagan woke once to find that Finn was sleeping on the floor, his arm over his eyes, and Mamieo was still driving. When she woke again, the Tank was standing still, and it smelled like ... Chinese food. The light was fading outside.

Teagan eased away from Aiden and stepped carefully over Finn on her way to the front. It took her mind a moment to register what she was looking at through the windshield: tall piles of sand, and past them wild, white-capped water. There was a wooden sign announcing that they were at Warren Dunes State Park. She'd come here with her parents once. They'd slid down the sand mountains on cardboard, and picked Michigan blueberries the next day. Aiden had eaten so many that he'd had a stomachache on the way home.

The park was autumn empty. All the summer vacationers had gone home, and even the day visitors had left for the evening. Mamieo stood on the wet sand, staring out at the wild lake with a blanket wrapped around her. Her white hair had come out of its bun and was dancing around her in the wind.

Teagan eased the door open, slipped out, closing it quietly behind her, and immediately wished she had a coat, or at least Finn's hoodie. She could feel winter behind the north wind.

"Awake, are you?" Mamieo asked when Teagan walked up. "I was hoping to speak to you alone again, girl." The old woman took the blanket from her own shoulders and wrapped it around Teagan.

"Don't you need it?" Teagan asked.

"I like the bite in the wind," Mamieo said. "It reminds me that I'm alive. Walk with me." They started down the sand, keeping just out of reach of lapping waves. "I want you to know I consider you and Aiden my own grandchildren, just as much as that knuckle-headed Finn. I'll do everything I can to help you, but I'm afraid it won't be much. I'd never have gotten into Mag Mell myself if the Green Man hadn't torn a hole for me."

"There was no Green Man when we went in," Teagan said. "Kyle said that you could only walk in Mag Mell if it 'remembered' you."

Mamieo nodded. "Even goblins speak the truth upon occasion. I've been discussing the situation with the Almighty. Trying to get my mind around the meaning of it."

"Did the Almighty say anything?" Teagan asked.

"Isn't the Almighty always saying something, girl? Speaking through everything created, whispering in your hopes and dreams. Urging you to get on with business?"

Teagan glanced at the wrinkled face in surprise, and Mamieo laughed.

"You thought listening to dreams was only for the young? I hear that voice more clearly now than ever before. 'There's still work to be done, Ida,' the Almighty was just saying. 'Be about your tending and mending. Creation needs to be put to rights.' That's the business I will be about until I lay these old bones down. Finn tells me you are a mender as well. Taking care of creatures great and small."

"I'm trying."

"It'll come clearer as you go, and take some unexpected turns, no doubt. It always does. Finn said Aileen's ashes were scattered in the park. Why was that?"

"Mom loved the park. She loved the trees."

"It is the trees, then." Mamieo nodded. "I thought it might be. Aileen's ashes woke them, and they've been talking about you amongst themselves."

Teagan considered this, and decided that talking trees were not any stranger than being chased by goblins.

"What does that have to do with Mag Mell?"

"'Tis Yggdrasil," Mamieo said, "the first tree, of course. Don't his roots bind all the trees of all the worlds of creation? When the trees spoke of your
máthair,
Mag Mell heard through Yggdrasil. She heard of you from the trees your
máthair
loved."

"She?" Teagan said. "Mag Mell is a she?"

"She's not like this world. You'll see when you go back."

"I'm afraid." Teagan was shivering. "It was like a nightmare. But my dad's trapped in that nightmare. I won't leave him there. Mamieo ... will you watch over Aiden for me? I don't want to take him back into that place."

"Wasn't that the very thing that Finn was asking?" Mamieo said. "Only he wanted to leave the both of you. But I couldn't give him my answer until I had time to walk and listen."

"And?"

"You got into Mag Mell through the memories of the trees," Mamieo said. "How did you get out again?"

"Aiden knew the way." Teagan's heart sank. How could they get out without him?

"There's something else," Mamieo said. "If what I suspect is true..."

"What?"

"We'll see after supper. I'm not sure of it myself yet. But for now there are some things you'll need to know. There are stories of those who walked in Mag Mell and never came back normal. If you hadn't had the ancient blood in your veins, it would have driven you mad."

"What about Dad?"

Mamieo walked silently for a few steps.

"There's nothing broken that can't be mended," she said at last. "If the man is broken when you find him, remember that."

"Why do things like Kyle even exist?" Teagan asked. "Did God create them evil?"

"Of course not." Mamieo stopped to pick up a piece of blue beach glass. "Why would the Almighty do such a wicked thing? All creatures," she said when they walked on, "from the moment they exist, set about
becoming
through their own free will. Some are becoming more of what they were meant to be, and some becoming less. The Dark Man ... he's had half of eternity to become less than he was meant to be."

"Devolution," Teagan said. "Like George MacDonald wrote about in his fairy tales. Mom read them to us."

"A MacDonald, was he?" Mamieo sniffed. "Scottish, then. I've known some of the Glen Coe clan, and they were never better than they had to be."

"I've heard the same about Irish Travelers," Teagan said.

Mamieo laughed. "And truer words were never spoken. The Fir Bolg have the charm on them for certain. Sure and it makes them political heroes and great leaders of men!"

It
makes flustered women give them five bucks just for a smile; that's what it does,
Teagan thought.

"The charm doesn't leave the Fir Bolg," Mamieo said. "Even them that abuse it. They speak lies, and people believe them. People want to believe them." She glanced sideways at Teagan. "Finn's not like that. He's listened to the wee voice every day of his life. He 'feels the Almighty close by his side.'"

"Like in my mother's prayer."

Mamieo nodded. "It's made a gentleman of him."

"I thought he acted that way because he was
the Mac Cumhaill,
" Teagan said.

Mamieo sighed. "And wouldn't he be happier if he wasn't? He's asked too many questions about me and my Rory. About how I've lived alone all these years."

A light was on in the motor home when they turned around, and Teagan realized how dark it had become.

"Someone's awake," Mamieo said. "You like Chinese food, girl?"

"No," Teagan said honestly. "But I'm hungry enough to be glad to have it today."

The old woman laughed. "You're an honest one, at least. It's the fortune cookies I like."

"Mamieo," Teagan said as they walked back along the shore, "what was it you said to Kyle after we tipped him out the window? Was it in Irish?"

"Good Irish Gaelic, but not good Christian words, I'm afraid. 'May the cat eat you, and may the cat be eaten by the devil.' It's a curse, and I shouldn't be using it. You don't have any of the blessed language, of course. Your dear
máthair
could never learn it."

Both Finn and Aiden were sitting at the table when Teagan came through the door. They'd gotten out the plates and silverware for supper, and there was a small pile of fortune cookies between them.