Tyger Tyger (24 page)

Aiden pinched her again.

Are goblins good fighters?
he signed.

We're not
goblins.

Finn shifted his weight, leaning back against them. She was closer to him than she had ever been before, close enough that she could feel his heartbeat. There's been
just one name pounding in that boy's heart ever since he first saw you, hasn't there?
How could her name be in the Mac Cumhaill's heart if she had even a drop of goblin blood? It couldn't.

Finn says goblins are evil,
Aiden signed.

We need to be
really, really still.
No more
finger talk.

But
what if—

Teagan used the Look. She was getting better. Aiden gulped and stuck his hands in his pockets.

Finn must have misunderstood what Roisin had said. Teagan had seen goblins, and her mother was not like them. Roisin wasn't like them.

The toe spasmed in Teagan's pocket, and Ginny Greenteeth looked up as if she'd heard her name called. She left the table and prowled around the hall, then came back, stopping and sniffing the air just beneath them. A dark sprite flitted about her head. Ginny slapped it away and continued her search. The water goblin's eyes examined the floor, then lifted to the ivy curtain.

Teagan pulled the toe out. It was struggling desperately, fighting against the cloth it was wrapped in. Ginny's eyes met Teagan's through the leafy vines. Teagan lifted the toe and shook her head. The water goblin grimaced, then lowered her eyes and took a seat just beneath them.

Something fluttered in front of Teagan's face. The dark sprite had come to see what Ginny Greenteeth was looking at. Its eyes flashed black and red when it saw them. It opened its mouth, but before it could make a sound, Lucy hit it, moving like an air-to-air missile.

They tumbled above the heads of the crowd, legs and arms and wings tangled, dropping behind Roisin's couch. The only one who noticed was Grendal from his place on the mantel. Aiden squirmed, and Teagan thought he was going to try to go after Lucy, but Finn shifted his weight again, squishing Aiden in place.

Grendal left his perch and went to investigate, but Lucy appeared again before the
cat-sídhe
got there, cradling something in her arms. She rose into the air, flew down the hall, and disappeared into a hiding place of her own, high up and out of sight. Grendal came out from behind the couch a few minutes later, jumped back onto the mantel, and started licking his paws and cleaning his whiskers.

Something new came through the door, and Teagan felt Finn's heartbeat quicken. It was Kyle, in the flesh.

He took a seat at the table and helped himself to a bowl of whatever Ginny Greenteeth had brought. There was a sense of foulness about him, as if something unclean had entered the room, and it changed the very air of the great hall.

Kyle glanced across the table at Ginny Greenteeth, and Teagan's flesh crawled. His eyes weren't pools of oil. They were amber, ringed with green.

Finn had made no mistake. The
goblin blood was strongest in Aileen.
...Cousin Kyle had her mother's eyes.

It felt like something nasty was spreading through Teagan's body, something filthy pumping in her veins. Suddenly lots of things made sense, things she hadn't wanted to think about.

Like Aiden's ability to make Finn do what he wanted when he sang.

Goblins steal your will away
...

And her mom's uncanny skill at any game of strategy.

Mab, the
Queen of the vile Sídhe, gifted in war and slaughter
...

What would Mamieo have done if she had known the sort of creature she was tucking in with her own children? But she couldn't have known. Aileen hadn't known herself. Had the Green Man blessed Aileen on her way out of Mag Mell like Mamieo had thought? Or taken her memories and her second sight? Maybe that
was
his blessing. It allowed her to live a normal life. Until the shadows found her, and brought everything back.

Teagan's body felt so heavy that she was surprised Finn could hold her in place.

She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to mouth the words of the prayer her mother had taught her. The prayer Aileen had learned from Mamieo. Would the Travelers' Almighty even hear a goblin's prayer?

TEAGAN woke to find a large wet spot on Finn's shoulder. She wished that she could say it was all tears, but she knew it wasn't. At least part of it was drool. She'd slept with her mouth open and slobbered all over him just as she did on her pillow. Female goblins probably all drooled when they slept.

She lifted her head, and a string of mucus stretched from her face to his shoulder. Great. Tears and drool and snot that had dripped from her nose as she cried silently for half of the night. Her head felt like it was full of cotton, and her eyes felt puffy and wouldn't quite focus.

Aiden's arm was laced through her own, his curly head slumped against Finn as well. Something glittered in his hair.

Her brother, the goblin. Somehow, she didn't think his teacher would be surprised by the news.

She took a deep breath. Nothing Roisin had told them changed the reason they had come to Mag Mell. She had to find her dad, and get both him and Aiden out of here alive, and she had no time to think about the rest of it just yet.

Teagan blinked hard and managed to focus her eyes. The glitters in Aiden's hair were bug wings Lucy had used to decorate her nest. How long would it take Finn to process everything Roisin had said?

"Teagan," Finn asked, "you awake?"

"Yes." He'd called her Teagan, not Tea. He was processing already. Teagan wiped her face with her hand. She didn't have anything to dry his shirt off with.

"Good. I need you to hold on to Aiden."

"Are you climbing down?" Teagan asked, grabbing Aiden's collar.

"Not ... exactly." Finn toppled forward into the ivy. It broke his fall, twisting him around so that he landed on his back.

Teagan made sure Aiden was fully awake and helped him turn around and start down, then followed him. Finn was still lying flat on his back when they reached the ground, his lips drawn back in a grimace.

"Are you in pain?" Teagan asked.

"Yes," he squeaked.

She knelt beside him. "Don't move. Is it your back or neck?"

"Arms"—he flopped over—"and legs. Asleep." His face twisted in pain. "Go away. Don't just stand there looking at me."

"You sure you don't need help?" Teagan asked.

"I'm sure."

Roisin was sleeping on the couch where she'd curled up while the nightmare party raged around her. After the chaos of the night, the sound of one Fir Bolg body hitting the floor didn't stand a chance of waking her.

Teagan walked over to the table, trying not to look at Finn, who was doing an excellent imitation of Jim Carrey being attacked by a swarm of invisible bees. He stood up and staggered in a circle, waving his arms and making horrible faces.

"What's wrong with him?" Aiden asked.

"Circulation returning." Teagan hoped that was all it was. "It feels like pins and needles sticking you."

She scooped up a spoonful of slime from the bowl Ginny Greenteeth had brought. It was dead tadpoles in thick jelly. No wonder the frog folk hated Ginny. She made their children into pudding.

"I'm hungry," Aiden said.

"Not for that you aren't." Teagan took the super-size candy bar Abby had given her out of Finn's kit, broke it into two pieces, and gave Aiden the smaller one.

"I like this breakfast," Aiden said, sucking up the chocolate spit that started to leak out of his mouth.

Finn managed to make it to the table, walking as if he were only a little drunk. Teagan handed him the other half of the candy bar.

"Don't you want any?" Finn glanced at her and glanced quickly away. He was processing, all right.

"No." Teagan motioned toward the bowl on the table, then realized he couldn't see the motion if he wasn't looking at her. "I lost my appetite when I saw the tadpole pudding."

Lucy appeared, flying loop-the-loops above them, a bag made of leaves in her arms. She pretended to slide down a sunbeam, landing in front of Aiden. When her feet were on the table, she opened the bag and pulled out the head of the dark sprite, presenting it to Aiden with a flourish and a bow.

"Good girl!" Aiden said. "Here." He broke off a piece of chocolate and held it out to her. The sprite nibbled it cautiously. Her eyes went kaleidoscopic and she tossed the severed head aside, grabbed the chocolate, and started stuffing it in her mouth.

Teagan leaned closer to examine the dead sprite's head, fascinated and disgusted at the same time. The lights in its eyes had gone dark, like the simple eyes in the head of a cicada do when it dies. She reached for it, but before she could touch the thing, Finn flicked it as if it were a finger football. It arced into the ivy.

"Hey, that was mine!" Aiden said.

Lucy dropped her chocolate and pulled her tiny knife.

"If you were any bigger, bug"—Finn shook his finger at her—"you'd be scary. You threaten me with that sticker, and I'll squish you."

"Let Lucy alone." Aiden pushed Finn's finger away. "That other sprite was going to tell the monsters where we were. She saved us."

Aiden glared at Finn, his hands curled into fists and every line of his body a challenge to fight, like a Chihuahua daring a Great Dane to make one false move.

"Aiden!" Teagan put her hand on his shoulder. He ignored her, completely focused on Finn.

They studied each other for a moment, then Finn nodded. Aiden relaxed, as if some hugely important thing had been decided between them.

"I apologize, bug," Finn told the sprite. "You can have a piece of my chocolate, too." Lucy turned her back on him. She hadn't forgiven him, even if Aiden had.

"We'll find Dad today," Aiden said. "So let's hurry. I have show-and-tell at school on Monday, and I want to take Lucy."

"This is a big place, boyo," Finn said. "A whole world."

"Mag Mell's helping me," Aiden said confidently. "We just had to come visit Aunt Roisin first."

Grendal jumped up onto the table and narrowed his eyes at the sight of the sprite sitting cross-legged in the sunbeam, licking her fingers. He muttered something Teagan was sure was a curse, then stalked over to the bowl of tadpole pudding and started lapping it up.

"Are we going to say goodbye to Aunt Roisin?" Aiden asked.

"Before we leave," Teagan said.

"First, clean socks." Finn tossed Teagan a pair of neatly folded old-lady socks for her and one for Aiden. "We should have done this yesterday."

"Our shoes were still wet, so it wouldn't have mattered," Teagan said.

"It'll matter today. We'll raise blisters walking in crusty socks."

Teagan kicked off her shoes and started to pull her socks down. They were crusty, all right—hardened with dried mud.

"Roll the dirty ones," Finn said. "It'll help keep the mud from messing up my kit. I'm going to look around outside."

Aiden pulled his shoe off, and Teagan nearly gagged. Something foul had started to grow between his toes, fed by the damp and warmth of his feet. It smelled like a stinky cheese factory.

"When was the last time you changed your socks?"

"The last time you made me," Aiden said.

"Which was?"

"Last week. I didn't mean to get stinky, Tea. I couldn't
find
any clean socks."

"It's all right." W
hen was the last time she had checked his laundry hamper?
"We'll just wash your feet off, and you can dry them with your shirt."

That would give her time to work out what to say to Finn.

Gee,
Finn, sorry you've been risking your life for a couple of goblin spawn
...

She finished rinsing Aiden's feet off with her bottled water and helped him dry them before she gave him his fresh socks.

"That's it," Teagan said. "We'll need some more water, and we've got to get going." She walked over and sat down on the corner of the couch where Roisin was curled up, a slight frown on her face. She'd held herself like a queen as she sat at the head of the table the night before, mouth firm and head high, but the hand that hung off the edge of the couch, palm up, fingers curled, was the hand of a child.

Teagan pressed her lips together. Engaged at fifteen. Was that normal in this crazy place? Roisin needed one of Abby's lectures about men.

"Roisin." Teagan touched the girl's shoulder. Roisin sat up and looked around wildly.

"It's all right," Teagan said. "It's just me. Do you have water?" Tea-gan held up her almost-empty water bottle and pretended to drink.

Roisin nodded, and led her to a basin carved into a tree. Water filled it as if it were a spring, spilling over the rim and trickling down to sink into the dirt of the floor.

Roisin took a wooden dipper from the wall, filled it, and held it out to Teagan.

It was wonderful, though not cold. Finn came back in while Teagan was filling the water bottles.

"That's good thinking," Finn said.

Roisin looked from Finn to the bottles, then grabbed Teagan's arm and started babbling.

"She's figured out we're leaving," Finn said. "And she's afraid of being left here. She wants us to wait here for Thomas. She says it's safe here."

"Dad's not safe," Teagan said. "We have to go find him." Finn translated, and Roisin's eyes welled with tears. She shook her head.

"Why doesn't she come with us?" Aiden asked. "We'll take care of her."

"She's afraid," Finn said. "She's lived here a long time, boyo. Maybe she's seen enough to take the courage out of her."

"Do you know the way to Fear Doirich's house ... or castle ... or whatever he lives in?" Teagan asked.

Roisin covered her ears and shook her head.

Finn repeated Teagan's question, but Roisin just shook her head harder and started to cry in earnest.

"I'm sorry," Teagan said. "We really have to go. Aiden, you try to cheer her up, okay? I need to talk to Finn."

"We need to talk about something?" Finn followed her back to the table.

"Yes." Teagan glanced at Aiden. "Things have changed. You don't have to go any farther with us. I think you should stay here with Roisin."