Tyger Tyger (23 page)

There was no door and no way to knock against the mossy walls, so Teagan stepped inside, Aiden and Finn right behind her. It felt like stepping into a chapel, a house of worship made from living plants. Ivy cascaded down the walls.

She heard Aiden draw in his breath. The carved wooden table, the candlesticks, the sunlight through the branches ... it was another of her mother's paintings.

There was a pale girl sitting in a chair just inside the door, an embroidery hoop in her lap. Ivy twined through her long blond hair and flowers hemmed her dress. She was intent on her needlework. Next to Aileen Wylltson, she was the most beautiful person Teagan had ever seen.

"Excuse me," Teagan said.

The girl looked up in surprise. Her embroidery hoop fell to the ground as she stood.

"Aileen!" she said, and started rattling in a language that sounded like Mamieo's Gaelic. Her words trickled off when she saw Teagan's brown eyes. She looked at Finn and Aiden, then stopped speaking entirely, uncertain.

"I can understand most of it," Finn said. "She's been waiting for your mother."

"Has she seen Dad?" Aiden asked.

Finn spoke again, but the girl shook her head.

"Aileen?" Her voice was pleading.

Finn touched Teagan's arm. "Aileen's
deirfiúr,
Teagan." He pointed to Aiden. "Aileen's
mac,
Aiden."

The girl put her hand over her mouth and shook her head. She came closer and studied Teagan's face. Tears filled her aqua-blue eyes, and then she was speaking so fast that the words seemed to be tripping over one another. When she stopped, Finn nodded at her.

"I didn't get all that," Finn said. "But I got enough. Teagan, Aiden, I'd like you to meet your aunt Roisin. Your mother's younger sister."

"Aunt?" Aiden said. "I have an aunt?"

Teagan was doing the math in her head, and it didn't add up. This girl couldn't be more than fifteen. If Aileen had left Mag Mell when she was twelve, that was ... twenty-seven years ago. But her mother
had
known a Roisin ... and made her a promise.

Roisin looked warily at the sprite peeking out of Aiden's hair. She said something, and Finn replied with a nod.

"She says sprites are nasty creatures," he translated. "They pull nose hair."

"Don't I know it." Teagan rubbed her nose. "Ask her what Aileen promised her."

When Finn finished the question, Roisin turned luminous eyes on Teagan and started speaking, gesturing to the hall around them.

"She promised she'd make a way for Roisin to get out of Mag Mell. The Dark Man was keeping them both, but Aunt Aileen brought her here"—he waved his hand at the hall—"to Yggdrasil's hands, to keep her safe. This is the one place in Mag Mell that Fear Doirich cannot walk."

"Tell her that something happened to Mom, but she remembered her promise before she died."

Finn had hardly started when Roisin swayed. He caught her arm to keep her from falling.

"What's wrong?" Teagan moved to her other side to help.

"She didn't know her sister was dead," Finn said. "I could have done a better job of breaking it to her."

Teagan took Roisin's other arm, and they helped her to a chair. Finn knelt beside it and started talking very softly.

"What's he telling her?" Aiden asked.

"About Mom, I think," Teagan said as Roisin's eyes lifted to her. "And about us."

As Finn went on, Roisin's face grew white and still, and then her head bowed. By the time he was finished, the girl's long blond hair was a curtain in front of her face, but Teagan could tell she was crying.

"She's been waiting for her sister," Finn explained, "a very long time."

Teagan heard a thump and turned to see something hopping down the stairs. It was fluffy, orange, and had a Cheshire grin on its face. It bounced down two steps at a time, then walked upright, its catlike head held high and its long tail twitching.

"Dia
duit,
" it said in a little-girl voice, and bowed.

"Is that
cat-sídhe
talking Gaelic, too?" Aiden asked.

"It is." Finn reached for his club. "It said, 'God to you,' which means hello."

Teagan touched his arm. "Wait," she said. "It's not like the ones at home. It doesn't look sick."

The creature jumped up on Roisin's lap, and the girl wrapped her arms around it. It put its paws on each side of her head and tipped its face up to look into her eyes, then made a sympathetic mewling sound, for all the world like a mother cat comforting a kitten. Roisin wiped her tears away with the heels of her hands, and hugged it harder.

"She's got a
cat-sídhe
for a friend?" Aiden asked.

"I told you there was something wrong with the ones we've seen," Teagan said. "Healthy creatures don't grow maggots in their bellies." The
cat-sídhe
wiggled out of Roisin's arms and jumped to the floor.

"What's its name?" Teagan asked, pointing and hoping her inflection was enough to convey her meaning.

"Grendal," Roisin said.

"Grendal," the
cat-sídhe
agreed cheerfully.

Lucy peered over the top of her nest and hissed. Grendal flattened his ears and hissed back.

"Grendal!" Roisin said. The
cat-sídhe
spat and stalked into the corner. He folded himself up and watched Lucy through narrowed eyes.

Roisin spoke to Finn, and he nodded.

"She says
cat-sídhe
eat sprites," he said.

"Not my sprite." Aiden backed away from Grendal. "No cat's eating my Lucy!"

"You don't let her come out of her nest, then," Finn said. "I'll keep an eye on the cat."

Teagan stepped closer to Finn. "Ask her about my mom. Why was she here? Where are they from?"

Roisin listened intently as Finn asked the questions, then nodded and started talking again. Teagan couldn't understand the words, but she did recognize some names. Amergin ... Éireann ... Doirich. They were from the stories Finn and Mamieo had told.

Roisin had managed only a few sentences when Finn stopped her and pointed at Teagan.

"
Seanathair?
" Finn said. "
Seanathair?
"

"
Cinnte!
" Roisin nodded.

"What?" Teagan said.

Finn's face had drained of color.

"What's wrong?" Aiden asked.

He glanced at Teagan, shook his head, then stood and started pacing as Roisin went on. When Roisin was done, he stopped and ran his hand through his hair.

"Finn," Teagan said, "what's going on?"

He took a breath. "There was one man Fear Doirich hated more than Fionn Mac Cumhaill and all his line together: Amergin, the Milesian bard who locked him in this place. The Dark Man swore to enslave or destroy every living drop of Amergin's blood. He captured the family and brought them here. He tortured and killed Amergin's wife, then stole the man's life one bit at a time, until he died."

"So?" Teagan said.

"So, he was your grandfather, Tea," Finn said. "Amergin the bard was your own grandfather. Aileen and Roisin are his daughters."

"Wait," Teagan said. "You said Amergin married a ... who was my grandmother, Finn?"

"Maeve, the sister of Queen Mab."

Teagan could hear the strain in his voice.

"Maeve was your
máthair'
s
máthair.
That's why Aunt Aileen's ashes opened the memory of the trees. She promised to make a way for her sister to leave. There is power in the promise of a Highborn goblin, and she knew it when she wove her words."

"Our mom was part ... goblin?" Aiden's voice squeaked on the word.

NO." Teagan wrapped her arms around Aiden. "That can't be right. It's not ... logical. Amergin and Maeve lived in the time before time, if they lived at all. They lived so long ago they have become legend."

"Look around you, girl," Finn said. "We're in the heart of Mag Mell, cupped in the hands of a tree that's been praying since before man's time began. You're carrying a goblin toe in your pocket, and your brother's got a human bug living in his hair. What part of this is logical?"

"None of it," Teagan admitted. "But ... why isn't Roisin older? If it were true, she would be thousands of years old."

"Time doesn't move fast here," Finn said. "She said it's stilled by Yggdrasil's prayers. There's more, Tea. There's the reason the Dark Man kept the girls alive. They had none of their father's gift themselves, but they carried the promise of Amergin's song in their bodies." Finn flushed red. "Fear Doirich expected them to bear him children. He planned to breed a new race—part Sídhe, part Milesians, and part god—completely bent to his foul will. Your mother ran away while she was still a child."

"But Roisin isn't old enough to..." Teagan blushed herself. She'd known three girls who'd had babies in their sophomore year, but it still seemed wrong.

"She hasn't left Yggdrasil's hands since she ... since she became a woman," Finn said. "The Dark Man and his wicked shadows are too foul to step on this holy ground. The Highborn can come here, and those that follow them, but they can't drag her from this place against her will. The girls claimed sanctuary."

"And Mom?"

"She knew what the Dark Man wanted. She couldn't stand being trapped. The goblin blood was strongest in Aileen, so she made her baby sister a
promise
and went out. She promised that even her death would make a chance for Roisin to be free. Aileen never expected Mamieo to come walking in the night. Roisin waited for your mom, and while she waited, she grew up."

"She's not grown up yet," Teagan said.

Finn shrugged. "One of the Highborn who visited here to convince Roisin to leave would disagree with that. He fell in love with the girl. His name is Thomas. There is not much power in Roisin's promises—the goblin blood is not as strong in her—but she promised to marry the fellow. He promised to love her as long as his heart beat. I expect Fear Doirich has taken care of that. She hasn't seen Thomas in a long time."

"Ask her if Thomas plays the fiddle," Aiden said.

"Good thought." Finn asked the question, and Roisin shook her head, and there was another conversation with Finn questioning and the girl explaining.

"Thomas doesn't play the fiddle, but his slave-pet Eógan does."

"Slave-pet?"

"A human he stole from Éireann," Finn explained. "The goblins steal beautiful children to be their slaves, and keep them as long as their beauty lasts and they are entertaining. Thomas was quite proud of Eógan's talent. He'd had the man since he was a six-year-old child. But when Eógan tried to run away, Thomas asked Fear Doirich to...
plant
him so he couldn't leave."

"Goblins steal little kids?" Aiden frowned. "Mom wouldn't do that."

"Because she wasn't a goblin," Teagan said. "She must have been one of the children they stole. They must have lied to Roisin since she was a baby."

Roisin jumped up. She pointed to the door, rattled a sentence to Finn, and motioned urgently for them to follow her.

Finn snatched up his kit. "We need to get out of sight right now. She says company's coming."

Roisin led them to the wall, pulled aside the hanging ivy, and pointed up.

"She wants us to climb," Finn said. "She says there's a hiding place up there. She used to hide in it with Aileen."

Teagan pushed Aiden up over her head. He grabbed onto the bark of the tree-wall like a monkey and started climbing. Finn boosted Teagan up, and she grabbed the rough bark with her hands, kicked the toes of her sneakers into the cracks, and pulled herself up after Aiden.

About eight feet above the ground, there was a place where a branch had fallen, leaving a hollow in the trunk like a niche where you'd keep the statue of a saint.

Aiden scrambled in and pressed against the back. Teagan crawled in after him and pressed against him. The ivy curtain hung green and heavy in front of them, but not too heavy for them to catch glimpses of the hall through the leaves and vines. It was a perfect hiding place—for two small girls.

When Finn reached the niche, he handed his kit to Teagan, then swung around so his back was to the tree, his feet braced against the bark rim and his arms gripping bark on both sides, holding Teagan and Aiden in place like a human cargo net. An electric net. The sparkle was back in Teagan's bones.

"You're squishing me," Aiden said.

"Shhh," Teagan whispered. The toe in her pocket was twitching like mad. "She's coming."

Who? Aiden signed.

Teagan pointed as Ginny Greenteeth walked through the door. She held up a large bowl for Roisin to see, then limped to the table and set it down. Aiden shrank back as far as he could. Lucy's eyes flashed like green fire, and she pulled on Aiden's hair until he winced.

Roisin pointed to Ginny's foot and asked a question. Ginny grimaced, showing her peg teeth, and shook her head.

Aiden pinched Teagan to get her attention.

Are
we goblins?
he signed.

No.

A dog-headed man walked through the doorway, a dripping haunch of something that might once have been an ape on his shoulder. He dropped it on the table.

A flight of sprites came in after him, but they bore as much resemblance to Lucy as the
cat-sídhe
did to Grendal. Her wings might be tattered, but theirs were greasy, batlike, and foul. They landed on the fresh meat and started ripping it with their teeth.

Grendal, outnumbered twenty to one, had retreated to the top of the mantel, his ears flat against his head, while Roisin helped herself to a bowl of whatever Ginny Greenteeth had brought to the party. She was eating it with a wooden spoon while she talked to the dog-headed man. Teagan watched the girl lick the spoon, then dip it back into the bowl. She was sure anything brought by the water goblin had to be disgusting, but Roisin seemed to be enjoying it. It looked like whatever was on the spoon
wiggled
as she lifted it to her mouth. She laughed and held the spoon out to the dog-headed man, who licked it clean with his long pink tongue.

The hall filled with creatures from her mother's books—the servants that Mab and Fear Doirich had brought with them on the storm clouds—so near Teagan could see every whisker and wart. Each one bowed to Roisin and Ginny as they came in as if they were royalty.