Tyger Tyger (27 page)

"You won't like not being able to use this hand again, either," Teagan said. "I've got to put antibiotic on it to keep it from hardening and scarring. You need to see a doctor."

She found the antibiotic on the ground where she'd dropped it when she was rooting through the kit for socks. Finn grimaced as she smeared the greasy compound on his palm. She padded the palm with gauze and held it in place with the last of the duct tape.

"Now will you help me get this fellow on my back?" he said when she was done. "It's hard to do one-handed."

They sat Thomas up. Finn squatted down in front of him, and Teagan draped the goblin's arms over his shoulders. He took Thomas's arm with his good hand, and Teagan heaved from behind as he stood up. Finn staggered a little before he caught his balance. Thomas was alive enough to mumble something about Roisin.

"You won't be able run with that thing on your back," Teagan said.

"Some of us won't be running." Finn looked toward her father. "I told you the man was warning us with the poem. We should have listened."

Mr. Wylltson was standing. He wasn't telling stories anymore.

"Tea," he said when she walked up, "what are you doing here?"

She was relieved he didn't start with the Blake again. But he'd forgotten it, hadn't he? It had been erased from his mind, like everything else that had come out of his mouth.

"He still thinks he's at work," Aiden whispered.

"Dad." Teagan took his hand. "It's time to go home."

"Five o'clock already?" Mr. Wylltson glanced at an imaginary clock on an imaginary library wall, and a smile spread across his face. "Your mother will be waiting! For some reason I missed her like crazy today."

"Mom's d—" Aiden started, but Teagan shushed him. All of those memories were gone, spilled out to entertain the Dark Man. All of the pain of knowing she was dead would come flooding back, all of the grief, new and fresh when he heard it again. It had almost killed him the first time.

He's
forgotten,
Teagan signed.
We'll tell him later. First
we have to
get him home.

Mr. Wylltson put his hand to his head. "I know I'm forgetting something here..." His words drifted off, and the dazed look returned to his eyes.

"You'll be better," Teagan said. "Just as soon as we get you home."

"What about Lucy?" Aiden looked around. "Where's Lucy?" He ran back across the garden, jumped over Fear Doirich, and scrambled under the thornbush. He crawled out with the sprite cradled in his hand. "Is she dead, Tea?"

The sprite was definitely broken. Liquid leaked from a crack in her hard skin. If she was anything like an insect, that was bad. Insects needed their hydraulic systems working if they were going to move. But the lights in the eyes of the sprite Lucy had killed had gone out. Lucy's still had a flicker of purple and gold deep inside.

"Is she dead?" Aiden asked again.

"I don't think so." Teagan emptied the contents of the Band-Aid box and put the sprite inside with a little bit of gauze to keep her from rattling around. "But I don't have the things I need to fix her here. I don't even know if I can fix her."

"Don't worry, Lucy," Aiden told the sprite. "Teagan's just saying that. She will fix you when we get home."

Teagan shut the box and put it in Finn's bag, then slung the strap over her shoulder. "Let's go."

She looked back once before they went through the gate. Fear Doirich had his face turned toward them, the broad smile of duct tape plastered across it. He was too far away for her to see his eyes, but she could feel them.

She scooted past Finn and his piggyback cargo, and walked behind Aiden and her father along the path beside the broken wall. When they started down the hill, the path broadened and she took her father's other hand. He moved as if he were walking in his sleep, lifting his feet just enough to shuffle forward.

The dead forest stretched out before them. The path through it hadn't disappeared, but Teagan could already see the dark mists rising.

AIDEN," Teagan said, "which way to Yggdrasil's hands?"

"That way." Aiden pointed at the path into the dead woods. "Through the bad guys."

"You're going to have to sing," Finn said.

"I know," Aiden whispered. "The shadows are coming."

"We'll be right here with you," Teagan said.

"But you can't stop them." The corners of Aiden's mouth turned down. "They're coming." He took a deep breath. "If we get through the bad guys, and out of Mag Mell, you will find the things you need to fix Lucy, right?"

"I'll do my best," Teagan said.

"Sometimes your best isn't good enough."

"That's true," Teagan admitted.

Aiden studied the dead trees below. "If I do my best, and it isn't good enough, are you going to leave me?"

"Never, boyo," Finn said. "We'll be right with you, no matter what."

"Finn!" Mr. Wylltson's voice made them all jump. "What are you doing here? Aileen will be delighted. Who's your friend?"

"His name is Thomas, sir," Finn said.

Mr. Wylltson bent over to study Thomas's upside-down face. "Nice to meet you," he said, and then, in a stage whisper, "Is he all right?"

"Dad?" Teagan asked. "Do you know where we are?"

Mr. Wylltson looked around. "I never liked the South Side of Chicago," he said, "though your mother is fond of it."

"Let's go home." Aiden tugged on his hand, pulling him down the hill.

"Wait until we are right at the trees before you start," Teagan said. "That way you won't have to sing as long."

The black fog grew thicker as they walked toward it, swirling into man shapes and then melting, twirling, and forming again. Aiden clung to his father's hand, but Mr. Wylltson didn't seem to see the dead trees or the shadow men who stood like a solid wall before them, hiding the trail. They had almost reached the wall when Aiden started his song, but his voice was barely a whisper. Holes appeared in some of the shadows, as if cannonballs of air had been shot through them, but they didn't step back or drift away. They stood, waiting.

"You shouldn't be singing with a sore throat, son," Mr. Wylltson said. He felt Aiden's forehead. "I think you've got a fever, too. Let's take you home and see what Mom says."

Aiden looked at Teagan, tears welling in his eyes. She shook her head. She couldn't have her dad falling apart as he'd done when their mother had died. Not now.

"I have to sing, Da," Aiden whispered. "I have to."

"Why?" Mr. Wylltson folded his arms.

"Because..." He glanced at Teagan, then blurted it out anyway. "The monsters will get us if I don't."

"There are no monsters here," Mr. Wylltson said. "It's just an ... unpleasant neighborhood. There is nothing here that will hurt you, son."

The tears splashed down Aiden's cheeks. Mr. Wylltson knelt in front of him and wiped them away.

"You see monsters?" His voice was gentle.

Aiden nodded. "Lots of monsters."

Mr. Wylltson looked around, clearly not seeing anything frightening at all. "All right. We know how to deal with monsters, don't we?" He swung Aiden up onto his shoulders.

"'
Tis
of a famous highwayman
A story I will tell
..."

Mr. Wylltson's tenor swelled, filling the world around them.

"
His
name was Aiden Wylltson
,
And in Ireland he did dwell
..."

"Will you look at that!" Finn whispered.

The shadows were shrinking back, sinking into the ground. Teagan fell into step beside Finn, and they followed Mr. Wylltson and Aiden down the wide path that had been cleared by his song.

"But ... Dad's no goblin," Teagan said.

"Your ma said your da was descended from the wizard Merlin, didn't she?"

"Myrddin Wyllt," Teagan corrected automatically. "He was nothing but a Welsh ... bard..."

"And your da's nothing but a singing librarian." Finn shifted the weight of Thomas on his shoulder. "'A lover, not a fighter.' I heard the man say it himself. A lover of books and poetry, like Merlin, isn't he? That's Milesian blood we're seeing."

"Welsh," Teagan said.

"It doesn't matter, does it, then? It's from your da that Aiden gets his gift, not from your
máthair
at all!"

Mag Mell didn't wind and twist when Mr. Wylltson sang. The path she created was wide, beautiful, and surprisingly short. They hadn't completely passed through the shadows' woods when Teagan saw the tops of Yggdrasil's hands over the shorter trees.

Roisin was standing in the doorway as if she had never left it. She ran toward them, Grendal at her feet.

"
Thomas!
" Roisin shouted when they came out into the clearing. Finn lowered Thomas to the ground. Roisin fell beside him, sobbing and babbling in Gaelic. Thomas managed to lift a hand, and Roisin pressed it to her lips.

Suddenly a howl ripped through the air. It was the sound Fear Doirich had made, his animal scream, multiplied and somehow much more frightening. Grendal hissed and backed up against Roisin.

"What kind of siren is that?" Mr. Wylltson said.

It wasn't the howl of the hunt they had heard before. This was something worse. Something ... hungrier. Hellhounds.

"Police, maybe?" Mr. Wylltson said. "I've never heard anything like it. No, it must be those new fire engines. Which way is it coming from?" The sound seemed to swirl around them, and it was growing stronger.

"Dad, sing," Aiden said. "Sing some more."

Mr. Wylltson started singing again, but nothing happened. Mag Mell didn't shift or move, and no passage opened for them.

"Tea," Finn said, reaching for Thomas.

Teagan pulled Roisin up. "Finn needs to carry Thomas again," she said, hoping the girl would understand. "We have to get out of here."

Finn grabbed Thomas's arm and jerked him into a sitting position. Thomas was either conscious enough or frightened enough to stagger to his feet, but Finn didn't wait for him to take a step. He picked him up and threw him over his shoulder.

"Let's go! Aiden, which way out?"

Aiden started running, pulling his father along. Roisin grabbed Grendal up and ran after them, her long skirt dragging in the dirt.

"The fastest way, Aiden," Teagan called.

"I know that," Aiden shouted back.

Teagan dropped a little behind Finn. The hellhounds were closer; she could feel them coming. She stumbled, then sprinted to catch up.

The ground they were running over started to grow spongy and soft, and then they were dodging the green pools and scrambling over the enormous roots and tree knees, and ahead of them Teagan thought she could see a shimmering in the air—the doorway to the park.

Teagan glanced back. She could see them now, two enormous black hounds bounding through the trees. They were the size of small bears, but sleek as Dobermans, their ears perked and their eyes glowing yellow embers. Their tails were long and thin, like the tails of greyhounds or whippets, and foam streamed from their muzzles as they ran. No one was going to make it to the park. The hounds—the soul eaters—were coming too fast.

I should turn and face them. If I slow them down
,
they won't take Aiden or Finn. They won't take Dad.

Teagan stopped. The fear was worse than anything she'd ever felt. Even facing the Dark Man had not been this bad. It made her legs weak and the air too thick to pull into her lungs.

I don't want to die.

Even as she thought it, she felt the toe in her pocket twitch. There was a way to slow the hounds down and live.

She dug the toe out of her pocket and ripped the wrapping off.

"Ginny!" Teagan shouted. "Ginny Greenteeth!" Ginny's head came out of the leaves that were hiding the deep water.

"Please." The goblin woman's pupils were dilated with fear. "Please don't. I won't hurt anybody anymore. I promise, I promise, I promise!" The water streamed from her stringy hair, running down her face like tears. "I'll be different, I swear."

For half a second, Teagan hesitated.

"Please," Ginny whispered.

The
hounds were coming.

Someone had to die to slow them down.

Teagan felt something twist inside her as she threw the toe.

"By your flesh and by your bones, keep us safe, whatever comes!" It splashed into the water beside the goblin woman. Ginny shrieked as it writhed toward her like a water snake. She snatched it up and crawled out of the pond.

The goblin's shoulders were shaking as she turned to face the hellhounds.

Teagan sprinted after the others. She had almost caught up to Roisin when Ginny started to scream. Roisin stumbled, tripping over her long skirts. Teagan grabbed her arm to pull her up, looking back as she did so.

The larger hound had Ginny by the arm. He shook the water goblin like a rag doll. Ginny's arm ripped from its socket as he tossed her in the air, spewing a mist of blood. The hound threw back his head and gulped it down even as the second hound caught her in its enormous jaws. Ginny threw herself sideways, jerking away from the crushing jaws and wrapping her legs around the hound's neck, fighting for her life, and screaming in pain and fear.

Roisin clung to Teagan as they ran, while Ginny's screaming went on and on and on behind them.

...And then there was a prickling all over her body, and they were running across the park lawn in a Chicago late afternoon.

People coming down the library steps stopped to stare as Finn dumped Thomas on the sidewalk. Roisin knelt beside him, clutching Grendal and looking around wide-eyed at the buildings, people, and cars. A woman took out a cell phone, and Teagan was sure she was dialing 911.

Finn squeezed behind the gate and started rooting through the weeds, looking for his knife.

"There's no time," Teagan said. "We've got to get out of here."

"We could call Mrs. Santini for a ride," Mr. Wylltson said helpfully. "Or Abby."

Oh, god. Abby had only agreed to hide for a couple of days. Teagan pulled out her cell phone and punched a number on speed dial. Even if they got away from the hellhounds, Kyle would be coming, too, just as soon as Fear Doirich was free. Kyle and all of his nasty friends. He knew that Abby was her friend. He knew how to find her.