She pulls another sheet from her basket and dumps it into the water. ‘Nothing that the Rialis have done. Nothing… yet. Now, I have work to do, Cillian. Niamh is heading this way and I don’t want you scaring her off. Life and death is an ongoing process. You need to stop believing what you think you know. The Rialis hide truth in their lies and lies in their truth.’
‘Will she be safe there?’
‘The rules of sanctuary apply to all who have the right words to enter. She is safe inside its walls, from you as well as others who would harm her.’
‘She’s a human who killed Kin. She’ll never be able to leave. The Court will find her guilty.’
‘Then it’s just as well your family have been tasked with the duty of overseeing the sanctuary, isn’t it? Enforcing the rules. As the only Kinfolk able to enter you’ll be able to visit her. If she wants to see you. But it’s time to stop dawdling here. Someone wants Niamh dead. Someone wants her alive.’
‘And I need to work out who?’
‘No, you need to work out why. You’re not listening, Cillian. Only a fool doesn’t listen when death itself speaks. Now, you have a fiancée waiting for you to return to her with a trophy. Go back.’
And with that she flicks her wrists, the sheet held in her gnarled fingers flaps up into the air, and I back away to avoid it touching me. Then she’s gone, the stream has disappeared, and I’m back in the human world. Her magic has returned me to the car park. I blink, not used to being at the mercy of someone else’s magic. There’s no hint of the mist anywhere.
Ahead of me the sun appears over the horizon. The hunt is over. My palm tingles and I watch as the sigil and Niamh’s name disappear. My heart sinks as I come to terms with the fact that I didn’t reach her in time. I failed. The Wild Hunt will be called and… I shudder, knowing the consequences of my failure.
I pray that theBean Nighewas telling me the truth, and Niamh has somehow reached St Marnox. Maybe she’ll be safe. For a while, at least. If not… No, theBean Nighecouldn’t lie about that. Niamh will reach the sanctuary. Now I just have to hope she stays there. I sigh, realising there’s little hope of that in the long term but I’ll do what I can to persuade her to delay it as long as possible. But first, I have a delivery to make.
I open the boot of my car, retrieve my hunting kit and set to work cutting out the deer’s heart.
Chapter15
Niamh
Ihead deeper and deeper into a wall of thick mist. I can’t see anything in front of me, but somehow I manage to keep running without falling or bumping into anything. Around me, the sound deadens and I slow to a standstill, unable to run any further. I can’t hear Cillian chasing me. I can’t hear anything at all, other than my heartbeat pounding in my chest.
‘Niamh!’ I turn at the sound of my name, a woman’s voice calling to me through the mist. Even as I identify the direction it’s coming from, the mist begins to thin, and I cautiously make my way towards it.
‘Hello?’
I’m lost on a mist-covered moor, and yet a woman is calling my name. I’m definitely in the middle of a drug-induced nightmare. Or I’m dead. Maybe that was the Underworld the voices mentioned. I pinch my arm, and it hurts. Hopefully not dead. Ahead of me a patch of mist shimmers. It’s roughly the size and shape of a normal doorway, but there’s no walls, no frame, nothing but this endless mist around it.
The sound of a running stream reaches me moments before I find myself on its bank. It burbles over a bed of uneven rocks, some worn smooth by the passage of time, others still jagged and uneven, as if only recently been sheared off by some force of nature.
Across the shallow water, sits an old woman with a large wooden basin beside her. She’s got an old-fashioned washboard in one hand and is humming a tune under her breath as she rhythmically dunks her washing into the water before rubbing it on the board. The large white sheets flapping in and out of the water make me think of death shrouds.
‘Hello, Niamh,’ the old woman says, and for a moment the voice is familiar– she sounds just like my mother. But one look at her weather-beaten face and I can see it’s not her.
‘Hi,’ I say, wondering how this old woman knows my name. I look up and down the stream. Where has it come from? Where has she come from? There’s no sign of any houses or even a bothy nearby.
‘I thought you would make it here faster,’ the old woman says, giving me a sly grin. She has a kind voice, but her toothless smile causes me to take a step back. Her appearance reminds me of something from a fairy tale. What is she talking about? I was never even supposed to be here.
‘I’m not supposed to be here at all,’ I say. I’m supposed to be at home, in my bed, with Rose in the room next door. This morning, we were supposed to be going to the gym, then meeting friends for lunch. I want that life back, not whatever this is.
‘Maybe not. But none of us could have foreseen what happened.’
‘What are you talking about?’
The woman smiles again. Behind me, a flock of crows fly up into the sky, reminding me that I’m not alone out here and Cillian could be stalking me, closer than I think.
‘There’s a man?—’
‘Isn’t there always?’ The old woman chuckles.
‘He’s coming after me. You should go. Hide.’
‘I do not fear the Huntsman.’
