Tyger Tyger (26 page)

Teagan resisted the urge to glance toward the arch where Finn had gone. Fear Doirich stopped in front of her, taking his time as he looked her up and down.

"Stop looking at my sister like that, bad guy." Aiden had run over to stand beside Teagan. "And let my dad go."

Fear Doirich ignored Aiden. He stepped closer and ran his fingertips down Teagan's cheek. There was no life in his hand, no warmth. It was like being caressed by death.

"I know you, Aileen's child." His chill breath smelled of the grave, as if he had been feasting on rotted flesh. "I called you here."

Kyle was foul, but this was something different. This was the essence of the shadow men multiplied, made flesh. This was evil.

"You didn't call me anywhere." Teagan hoped she didn't sound as frightened as she felt. "I came after my father, and I'm taking him home."

She started to pull Aiden toward her father, away from the goblin god.

Fear Doirich sang a single note. The air around her vibrated, and she felt something whip around her ankles. Roots had sprung from the ground, lacing themselves around her feet. She struggled to take another step, but couldn't.

"I called you here to take Roisin's place." Fear Doirich spread his arms. "Amergin's blood, and it's all mine. I will kill Roisin the moment she steps out of Yggdrasil's hands, Thomas. I have all I want right here."

"No!" the raven rasped.

Fear Doirich slashed with his golden scepter, ripping the raven from the thorn tree. It flopped like a wounded pigeon beneath the bush, tangled in its still-unbroken chains.

"Stop it!" Aiden shouted. "Leave that bird alone!" Kyle caught Aiden's arm and twisted it behind him.

Fear Doirich examined the smear of blood and single black feather stuck to the globe of his scepter.

"I said, stop it!" Aiden bellowed. Kyle jerked him up off the ground, but Aiden kicked at him and started to sing "Pádraig's Shield." Kyle froze. Ginny Greenteeth had clearly lied about whether or not Aiden's song would work on the Sídhe. Kyle was as stiff as a mannequin.

Aiden twisted away from him and dropped to the ground. The roots holding Teagan's feet writhed.

"Keep singing, Aiden." One foot was almost free. "Keep singing!"

Fear Doirich laughed. He opened his mouth and sucked in Aiden's words as if he were ripping them from the boy's throat, then roared them out again, twisted and discordant. Mag Mell screamed in agony, and the roots tightened around Teagan's ankle. Kyle reached for Aiden again.

"He's mine," Fear Doirich said, and Kyle backed away. "I am your god, goblin child." The Dark Man stepped toward Aiden. "You will never be strong enough to play my game. I know the Song of Creation. I am your god, and this is my will: I'm going to kill you, and feed you to the dirt of Mag Mell. But you already know that. You heard my song when you were underwater, remember? I was singing it just for you."

Teagan felt goose bumps rise on her arms. Fear Doirich
had
known they were in Mag Mell. All her word games with Ginny Greenteeth had been wasted.

"I let you hear it because I wanted you to know. I wanted you to be afraid for as long as possible before I killed you." He licked his lips. "I like it when little things are afraid. When they cry. I knew when your mother died, Aiden. Did you know that? I'm the one who sent the shadows hunting her. Hunting for all those years."

"I hate you," Aiden said.

"Good." Fear smiled. "Before this creation, your ancestors hated and feared me so much that they made a covenant with me to save their own pitiful lives. They swore by the blood of their own children split open before me that goblinkind would serve me forever."

"I don't believe you," Teagan said. "How could any sane creature make a covenant like that?"

"It was easy," Fear Doirich said. "I made it so easy for them." At least he wasn't looking at Aiden anymore. "I will make it easy for you, Teagan." He stepped closer to her.

"Dad!" Aiden called.

"He can't hear you," Kyle said. "The man thinks he's sitting in his nice, safe library telling stories to kiddies."

"Get away from us, bad guy!" Aiden spat at Fear Doirich. "Go n-ithe
an cats thú is go n-ithe an diabhal an cats.
"

The Dark Man laughed. "Any cat that could eat me would choke brother Satan on the way down. Watch, Teagan." His voice was eager. "I want you to
see.
"

He lifted his scepter. Teagan knew what he was going to do, as if he had spoken pictures right into her mind; pictures of blood in Aiden's curls, and white bone shards.

"Run, Aiden!" she shouted, straining to move her feet, to reach anything she could throw at Fear. "Run!" She saw a flash of motion as Finn came through the archway, but he was too far away to stop Fear.

The scepter rose and had started to fall when Lucy launched herself out of Aiden's hair, a streak of hissing rage. Fear Doirich twisted, swatting the sprite like she was a baseball, sending her tumbling into the thornbush.

Aiden screamed as the Dark Man swung again, but this time Finn was between them. He caught the golden ball in his left hand.

"You'll not be touching Aiden," Finn said. "Nor Teagan, either." Finn's hand sizzled, and the smell of scorched flesh filled the air.

"The Mac Cumhaill himself!" The Dark Man tipped his head. "Come to me at last. All locked up in Mag Mell as I have been, I was afraid I would never have any visitors."

"Mmmmm-mmm." Kyle took a deep breath of burned-flesh smell. "Burned hero. Smells goooood."

Finn was shaking, but he didn't let go of the golden ball.

"Do you know who this girl is, Mac Cumhaill?" Fear asked. "She's a goblin. Born to be your enemy and my chattel. Her brother is mine; her people are mine. I am going to do anything I want with them. Bend them, break them, use them. Kill them for pleasure when I am done."

"Get out of here, Tea," Finn said through clenched teeth. "Take Aiden and get out of here."

"Can't," Teagan said. "I'm tied down."

"Your little goblin girl's grown
attached
to Mag Mell," Kyle said, putting his arm around Teagan's shoulders.

"Leave Tea alone!" Aiden shouted. "Leave everybody alone!" He put his hands over his eyes and started belting out "Pádraig's Shield" again.

Kyle froze, his arm still around Teagan. Fear Doirich opened his mouth, sucking Aiden's voice in.

"Give up," he said after he'd swallowed Aiden's last word. "None of you are going anywhere."

"Crap," Finn said, and hit him.

FEAR Doirich's head snapped back, and Finn hit him again.

The roots that held Teagan's feet in place twisted, and she wrenched one foot free, leaning away from Kyle's frozen form.

You have to think your way through things, even in the midst of it.
Use
your brain, girl.
She could almost hear her mother's voice. There had to be something she could do.

Fear Doirich dropped his scepter and twisted away from Finn, singing as he turned. Roots exploded out of the ground around them, showering them with dirt and reaching for Finn, but the Dark Man's words were garbled by blood and smashed lips. Some of the roots whipped at Finn, while others seemed to dance in time to Aiden's song.

Fear's
magic was in his mouth.
Teagan pulled her other foot free as the roots holding her started to dance.

"Keep singing, Aiden! You're doing it!" She scrambled to Finn's bag and ripped it open, throwing things aside until she found his duct tape and a rolled-up sock.

"Take him down, Finn," she shouted. "I need him on the ground."

Finn lunged for Fear Doirich, knocking him to the ground and throwing himself on top of him. Fear turned his head and bayed like an animal. The sound made Teagan's hair stand on end. He opened his mouth to bay again, and Teagan shoved the sock in it. He spat it out while she was ripping off a piece of duct tape, then clamped his lips shut, using his tongue to form words behind his teeth like a ventriloquist. The rocks around them started to melt and transform into troll-like creatures.

"Shut him up," Finn said as the rock wall behind him stood up.

"I'm working on it." Teagan leaned hard on Fear's temple with her elbow to keep his head still, and pinched his nose shut. He gasped, and she stuffed the sock in his mouth and slapped the tape across his lips. The rock creatures froze.

Fear was fighting desperately now, but Finn managed to wrench his arms behind him so Teagan could tape his wrists together. Teagan took a good kick to the head before she managed to get his ankles taped together. Fear wiggled like an angry worm.

"You won't be messing with Teagan," Finn told him. "I won't have it, god or no."

"You won't have it?" Teagan nudged the worm with her toe. "I'm the one who shut him up."

"All by yourself," Finn said. "It was impressive. No help from me or the boyo."

Teagan blushed. "I mean—"

"Think nothing of it," Finn said. "I make a habit of rescuing ladies. Saving purses, things like that. It's part of the job."

"Help." Aiden gasped between the words of his song. His voice sounded like he'd had too much whiskey—husky and rough—but his words were still holding Kyle frozen in place.

Teagan grabbed the tape and scrambled to where the
Sídhe
stood. She was worried that she wouldn't be able to move Kyle, but his arms twisted back like one of Aiden's action figures. She taped his wrists. Finn kicked his ankles together, and held him upright while Teagan taped them.

"Good job, boyo," Finn said as Aiden stopped singing. Kyle toppled like a tree, landing face-first beside Fear Doirich's foot.

"Hold his head." Teagan tore off a small piece of tape.

"What are you up to?" Finn asked as Teagan pried one of Kyle's eyes open.

"He's a bilocate." Teagan taped his eyelashes to his eyebrow, holding the eye open. "Mamieo said that the flesh part of him was 'sleeping in Mag Mell' when his spirit went walking. I don't want him dozing off so that he can be waiting for us when we get out of here."

"You think taping his eyes open will work?"

"I have no idea." Teagan taped the other eyelid up. "But it's worth a try. Are you all right, Aiden?"

Aiden put his hand to his throat. "It hurt when he took the words out. It hurt a lot. I don't want to sing anymore."

Kyle twisted his head sideways and spat dirt. He turned his amber eyes, pulled wide open and goggly, on Teagan.

"What's wrong with you, cousin? All you had to do was give him what he wanted."

"And let him kill my father, my brother, and Finn."

"You will learn to enjoy killing." He licked his lips. "It's good, Teagan.
Useful.
"

Had Kyle run with the pack, blood smeared on his chest and face?

"I don't think so," Teagan said.

"I know the world where you were born," Kyle said. "I walk there. That world craves the violence we were born to, you and me. It's everywhere in their imaginings and their dreams. They want to be us."

"Not the whole world," Teagan said. "Not me."

Kyle laughed. "Especially you. You were born to serve Fear Doirich. Don't you understand the power in a Highborn's words? That power reaches even past death. Your mother's mother's mother bound you to the Dark Man with her words, her will, and the sacrifice of her firstborn child. Fear Doirich is your god. If you will bow to him now—"

"I won't," Teagan said. "I'll never live the way you do."

"Then you won't live at all," Kyle said flatly. "Fear will send the shadows and the Sídhe to hunt you through the worlds. He holds the power of life and death over goblinkind."

Teagan ripped off another piece of tape and slapped it over Kyle's mouth. They'd better not meet anyone else she wanted to shut up. The roll was almost empty.

"Are we going to kill them now?" Aiden asked.

Finn looked uncomfortable. "I'm not sure I could do the deed with them taped up."

"They're really bad guys," Aiden said. "We should smash them with rocks like they were going to smash me."

Blood in Aiden's curls, and white bone shards.
The image made Teagan sick all over again.

"No," she said. "We're just going to leave them."

"But Kyle said they'd come after us."

"We'll worry about that later, okay? Right now we need to get Dad home."

Aiden walked over and squatted in front of Fear Doirich. He studied the Dark Man.

"You're a stinking EI," Aiden said. "And you don't even sing good."

"EI?" Finn asked.

"Elvis Impersonator," Teagan said. "It's an Aiden thing."

Aiden stood up and pointed. "Are you going to tape him up, too, Tea?"

There was a Highborn goblin on his knees where the raven had fallen. He was as handsome as Kyle, in a beat-poet kind of way. He had short, dark dreads, and a soul patch on his chin. His clothes were rags, and his side was bloody from the thorn that had almost pierced his heart. The golden chain was disappearing into his body, melting into his flesh.

"You'd be Roisin's Thomas, then," Finn said.

"Hellhounds," Thomas rasped. He sounded worse than Aiden. "Fear ... called the hellhounds. You've got to run. Save ... Roisin."

"What's a hellhound?" Teagan asked. "Do you mean a dog-headed man?"

"Worse ... devourers ... soul eaters. They'll follow forever once they scent you. Even into your world ... I..." Thomas pitched forward onto his face.

"Right," Finn said. He walked over to the goblin and turned him over. "He's alive."

"What are you doing?" Teagan asked.

"Bringing him along." He fumbled, trying to lift Thomas with one hand. "You think Roisin will leave without this pathetic bird? Mind your father, Tea. We've got to move fast."

"Let me see your hand first," Teagan said.

Finn leaned Thomas over his knee and held out his right hand. "It's working just fine. Skinned knuckles is all. See?"

"Your
other
hand," Teagan said.

Finn grimaced as he held it out. Teagan gently uncurled his fingers. His whole palm was burned, and blisters were filling with pus.

"We don't have time for this," Finn insisted. "I don't like the sound of these hellhounds. We need to be moving."