Swift

  Ivy rubbed her palms on her thighs, fidgeting with anxiety. What if Richard had decided not to keep his promise after all? What if he’d decided it was too dangerous to stay, and flown off to some faraway place?

  ‘Richard!’ she called hoarsely. ‘You’d better come soon! I’m not going to wait forever!’

  But still there was nothing. Not a word, not a sign.

  The faery was gone.

  Ivy took a deep breath and let it go. Then she leaped to her feet, snatched up a stick and hurled it into the underbrush. ‘Curse you!’ she stormed. ‘You liar, you oath-breaker, you – you demon blackguard wretch of a spriggan!’

  There was a long silence, while the wind murmured through the treetops. Then a light, ironic voice said, ‘I see my reputation is at stake.’

  Ivy spun around. There on the path, as though he had been there all along, stood Richard – but not Richard as she had last seen him, covered in filth and bruises and dressed in rags. His hair hung straight and clean almost to his shoulders, and his jacket and slim trousers looked new. If not for the purple shadow around one eye and the scab on his upper lip, she would hardly have recognised him.

  But before she could speak, he vanished. A tiny bird with a blue-black head, shadowy wings and white underbelly flitted past, landed on her other side, and turned into Richard again.

  ‘I was a few hundred feet up when I heard you calling,’ he said. ‘And I needed to make sure that you’d come alone.’

  Blood rushed into Ivy’s face. She’d been so busy worrying that she might not be able to trust him, it had never occurred to her that he could have similar doubts. ‘You thought I’d betray you?’

  ‘Not willingly, no. But if your Joan found out that you’d helped me, she might not have given you a choice.’

  He had a point. Ivy’s fury subsided, and she gave a reluctant nod.

  ‘Ready to go?’ Richard asked. ‘It’s a little late, but we should be able to get to Truro in time.’

  ‘I can’t.’ Ivy passed a hand wearily over her curls. ‘My little sister Cicely’s gone missing.’

  He frowned. ‘You mean she just disappeared? Like that other one – Keeve?’

  Ivy hoped not, since she suspected that Keeve was dead. But she couldn’t deny the possibility. ‘Yes. Do you have any idea where she might have gone?’

  Richard looked sober. ‘None at all.’

  No easy answers, then. She’d hoped she wouldn’t have to do this, but she could see no other way. ‘Then I’ll have to say goodbye,’ Ivy said. ‘I can’t go to my mother now, not until I find Cicely. Besides, my brother’s figured out that you can change shape, and he thinks he knows how to catch you. It’s not safe for you to stay here.’

  ‘What do you want me to do, then? Go back to your mother, and tell her you aren’t coming?’

  How could a simple little word be so hard to say? ‘Yes. But,’ she added quickly, ‘don’t leave it at that. Tell her everything that’s happened since you and I met – especially the part about Cicely.’ If Marigold knew that her youngest daughter was missing, maybe she’d come and help with the search. ‘And tell her that if she has any more messages for me, she’ll have to deliver them herself. You’ve done enough.’

  The faery’s brows lifted, and he gave her an appraising look. Then he bowed to her without a trace of irony, and vanished. He didn’t even turn into a bird; he was simply not there any more. Ivy stared at the place where he’d been standing until her eyes began to burn, and she realised she’d forgotten to blink. Then she shook herself into swift-form, and flew away.

  nine

  Ivy searched for her sister all night, gliding low over the uneven ground. She glimpsed a badger digging in the underbrush, and fox cubs tussling at play; she passed a field where rabbits browsed in the grass, and watched an owl wing silently by. The twin lamps of a human vehicle wound through the landscape, turned into the drive of a little farmstead and winked out, while in the distance hundreds of similar lights marked the boundaries of some great city. Yet she found nothing to suggest that Cicely had passed this way.

  She turned westward and winged along the coast, skimming over sweeping curves of sand and coves where foam-capped breakers smashed upon the rocks. The sea-cliffs were riddled with holes, many of them adits from abandoned mine workings that likely connected to the Delve at some point. But still she could find no trace of Cicely.

  Absorbed in her search, she scarcely noticed the tiny thread of gold creeping along the horizon. Not until the sky lightened from black to deep blue and the air began to fill with squawking gulls did Ivy realise that it was dawn – and that she should have been home ages ago. Cursing herself for being so careless, she wheeled south-east and flashed towards the Delve. Mica would be returning any minute, and if she didn’t make it back to the cavern before he did…

  Then she caught sight of her brother standing at the top of the ridge, with Mattock and Gem at his side. From the way he was waving his arms he must be angry, or at least passionate about something, but that was of no matter. All Ivy cared about was getting down the Great Shaft straightaway

  Only she couldn’t, because more birds were zooming towards her from every direction, warbling and squawking in a cacophony of avian language. A pair of swifts darted around her, their black eyes staring cold and bright into her own – and then the whole flock dived beneath her, a whirlwind of beaks and claws and feathers, heading straight for the hillside where Mica and his companions stood.

  Bewildered, Ivy hung back and watched as the mixed multitude of birds spiralled around the hunters, still uttering their wordless cries. What were they doing? Had Mica sent them to look for the spriggan? Were they reporting to him somehow? She was still puzzling over it when Mica waved his hand and the flock scattered, flapping off as abruptly as they had come.

  Except for the swifts. They hovered before him, uttering staccato shrieks of alarm, while Mica stood still as though listening. Then he made a sharp gesture, and the swifts shot away like twin arrows – straight at Ivy.

  For an instant her mind went blank with disbelief. Then she remembered what Richard had said: Swifts are communal birds. If you don’t behave like a proper swift the other ones will sense it, and instead of welcoming you, they’ll attack…

  Panic erupted in Ivy’s breast. She whirled and fled, wings flapping frantically as she shot towards the Engine House and the capped shaft behind it. But the other swifts were more experienced fliers, and they quickly cut off her descent. Forced into retreat, Ivy swerved towards the wood, with the other swifts in close pursuit.

  ‘No!’ she screamed, but it came out as a shriek – and then the swifts were on her, stabbing at her with their beaks and beating her with their wings. Buffeted by the storm of their rage, Ivy struggled vainly to fend them off. Control was impossible, and hopelessness filled her as she realised they were steering her back towards Mica and the other piskeys.

  Tsier-sier, sang another bird as it passed above, mocking her with its freedom. Ivy cried out again as a swift’s beak jabbed into her breast, piercing feathers and skin. She had to get away, or they would tear her to pieces. She folded her wings and spiralled earthwards – then snapped them wide and shot up the slope in a last, desperate run for the Engine House.

  Mica gave a shout, and the whizzing sound of his sling rippled the air. Ivy sensed the stone hurtling towards her and rolled – a fraction of a second too late. Heat scored across her back, and the muscles of her shoulder separated in a blaze of dazzling pain. The ground spiralled up to meet her, and she knew it would only be seconds before she hit—

  A freak wind blasted the hillside, thrashing the gorse-bushes and rippling the heather in its wake. Still flapping her one good wing, Ivy felt herself tossed upwards on the breeze. Pain blinded her, and she was still trying to regain control when a dark form loomed up before her and ruthless hands snatched her from the air.

  Ivy gave a final cry of agony as her injured wing twisted. Then she willed herself into piskey-for
m, and let the darkness claim her.

  She had thought fainting would be like sleep, a quiet place where she knew nothing and no one could touch her. But though darkness hazed her vision and she had a fuzzy sense of being disconnected from her body, she could still hear someone talking to her, though faint and far away.

  ‘—don’t know where to find us yet, but they’ll be here any—’

  A moment of merciful oblivion, then it returned, louder and closer.

  ‘—hide you somewhere. But if they find us—’

  The words rose and fell in gasps, as though the speaker were running. Strangely, Ivy felt as though she were rising and falling, too. But she had no idea where she was, or who was with her. A dull throbbing spread through her shoulder and radiated out from her chest, but she couldn’t think what it meant.

  ‘—stop it. Do you hear me? You have to—’

  She must have blacked out again, because the next time she became aware the up-and-down sensation had stopped. An earthy smell rose around her, dampness seeping into her clothes. She was lying in bed and someone was covering her up, but why was it so wet, and what was wrong with—

  Then the darkness shattered, and pain smashed into her like rocks falling. Ivy would have screamed, but a hand clamped over her mouth, muffling the cry. ‘Stop glowing!’ her rescuer snapped. ‘Now!’

  Ivy was too dazed to protest. She willed herself not to glow, and tried to breathe through the pain instead. And now all was black again except for a few glints of grey light above her, and she was half-buried in dirt, her head resting on something hard and warm that smelled like fir needles…

  Richard.

  ‘…can’t have gone far,’ said a soft voice from above, and for a moment Ivy felt sure she must be dreaming, because it sounded like Mattock. ‘But how could he disappear like that?’

  ‘Quiet,’ came the reply, lower and harsher. ‘Keep looking. He could be anywhere.’

  Mica. Ivy caught her breath, but agony stabbed her chest and she let out a feeble moan. The foliage above them rustled, and Richard covered her mouth again, all his muscles tensed for flight.

  Don’t move, his body told her. Don’t make a sound.

  Ivy dug her fingers into Richard’s arm and bit her lip to keep from screaming. How long had she lain in this dank hole? It felt like forever, and the fiery knots of pain in her chest and shoulder blotted out all other sensation. She would have surrendered to Mica and Mattock gladly, if only it would make the hurting stop…

  ‘…Ivy, it’s all right. They’ve gone.’

  She should have been relieved, but now it hardly seemed to matter. Was it getting brighter? It could be the sun’s rays angling into the cave, but daylight had never seemed so inviting. It bathed her wounds, taking away the pain and lifting her tenderly as her own mother’s arms.

  ‘Ivy?’

  The light was all around her now. A blissful peace enfolded her, and she could feel the world slipping away…

  ‘Oh no, you don’t.’ Richard’s voice was harsh. ‘Stay with me. Ivy!’

  She sighed, melting limp against him. Then a hand smacked onto her injured shoulder, and Ivy’s eyes flew open. The golden light vanished, and cold fire seared through her body. She would have screamed, but the pain was so intense it took her breath away.

  ‘Live!’ Richard shouted, as a second wave of power shocked through her. Ivy convulsed, bolted upright – and slapped him across the face.

  For a moment Richard froze, his eyes wide and his neck still twisted with the force of her blow. Then he collapsed against the back of the muddy hollow and broke into rasping laughter. Only then did it dawn on Ivy that the pain in her shoulder had faded, and her chest no longer stabbed with every breath. She felt weak and a little dizzy, but…

  ‘I’m alive,’ she whispered.

  Her skin was glowing again, and now she could see everything: the burrow lined with soil and dead leaves, the mushrooms crowded into one corner, the roots that kept the ceiling from falling in. Some abandoned fox’s den or badger scrape in the depths of the thicket, so shallow that Richard had been forced to shrink himself and Ivy as small as he could just to fit.

  And yet he’d done it. She’d told him to go, but he’d stayed, and when he saw her in trouble, he’d been ready. He’d flown to meet her, cast a spell to throw off her pursuers, transformed into faery-shape to catch her as she fell. And now he’d brought her back from the very gates of death, and what had she given him in return? A smack hard enough to rattle his teeth.

  The worst of it was, Richard was still laughing. There was more than a hint of hysteria in it, and Ivy was beginning to think she might have to slap him again just to make him stop. ‘What’s so funny?’ she asked.

  He let out a last snort of hilarity, wiped his eyes with one filthy hand and sat up. ‘It’s just…there’s this delicious irony to you hitting me, that’s all. The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept.’

  Which meant nothing to Ivy, but she didn’t really care. ‘You saved my life,’ she said, and her hand went automatically to her shoulder. It was stiff and tender, but the bones and muscles felt whole and even the skin was unbroken. ‘I don’t know how to…’ No, she wasn’t about to thank him, that would put her eternally in his debt. But she owed him a great deal, and it would take her a long time to repay it. ‘I don’t know what to say.’

  ‘Then don’t say anything,’ said Richard. ‘You saved my life too, when you freed me from that dungeon. Now we’re even.’

  His gaze held hers until Ivy began to feel self-conscious. She brushed the soil from her legs and backed away. ‘Well,’ she said, ‘we’re certainly evenly dirty.’

  Richard climbed to his feet, one hand braced on the low ceiling. ‘We need to get out of here,’ he said. ‘I don’t think your brother saw you change out of your swift-form. But if we stay here much longer he’ll realise that you’re missing, and I really don’t want to be around when that happens. Especially not now that I’ve seen what he can do.’

  The fevered energy that had filled Ivy since her healing drained away, leaving her shaken. ‘Mica,’ she whispered. ‘I knew he had a plan to catch you, but I never guessed…’ She looked up at him miserably. ‘Richard, I can’t go home.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘I’ve been gone too long. Even if Mica hasn’t guessed yet that I was the swift he shot, it won’t take him long to figure it out. I’ll be punished for going above – locked up, or put under guard at the very least – and then I’ll never get the chance—’

  She broke off, pushing her fingertips against her eyes. The realisation of how badly she had miscalculated, what a disaster she had made for herself and everyone she loved, shook her to the core. ‘I can’t go back,’ she said. ‘Not until I find Cicely. And maybe not even then.’

  Richard was quiet a moment, his face unreadable. At last he said, ‘It’s your choice. But if I were you, I’d talk to Marigold first. You’ll have a better chance of finding your sister with her help than you would on your own.’

  Ivy wanted to agree, but at the same time she felt selfish for even considering it. She wanted to see Marigold so badly, to know the comfort that only a mother could give – but surely she didn’t deserve anything good after the way she’d failed Cicely? Especially now that she’d abandoned Mica and Flint as well?

  And yet punishing herself wouldn’t help Cicely either. ‘I suppose you’re right,’ she said. ‘But…’ She moved her shoulder, wincing at the tug in her muscles. ‘I’m not up to flying yet. I’m not even sure I could hang on, if I were on your back.’ Especially since his bird-form was so tiny, she couldn’t believe he’d made the offer in the first place.

  ‘Well, we can’t go any farther by magic. I could take you into the wood because I knew you’d been there already, but after that it was back to running.’ Richard tapped his fingers along a root, frowning as he thought. ‘What if we make ourselves human size, and you turn both of us invisible? If we’ve got to walk, we’ll cover more gro
und that way.’

  Ivy still felt wobbly after her near-death experience, and the thought of casting two spells at once made her head ache. But what choice did she have? They couldn’t stay here – the hunters of the Delve would be after them at any moment.

  ‘All right,’ she said, willing herself to sound confident. ‘Let’s go.’

  On the far side of the wood the ground dropped away, sloping down into a little valley where a stream gurgled among the rocks. Richard set the pace, and Ivy did her best to keep up with him. But though nervous energy sustained her for a while, it wasn’t long before her strength began to falter. She’d been up most of the night, eaten nothing in hours, and her shoulder had begun aching again – first in occasional spasms, then with a steady throb that made her feel queasy.

  ‘So,’ said Richard as the path turned away from the riverbank and began to angle upward, ‘now that I’ve finally convinced you I’m not one, what exactly is a spriggan? Some kind of hideous creature, obviously – and I’m trying not to take that personally – but how are they different from other magical folk?’

  ‘I don’t know that much about them,’ Ivy said, focused on putting one foot in front of the other. Her chest was hurting as well now, and she found it hard to breathe. ‘Only that they’re thin and pale and ugly, and bring bad luck and bad weather wherever they go. They love only two things – food and treasure – and they steal piskey-women because they haven’t any women of their own.’

  ‘And they only live in Cornwall? Nowhere else?’

  ‘I’m not sure,’ she panted, wiping sweat from her brow. ‘Why?’

  ‘Because I’ve been to quite a few places, in my time,’ Richard replied. ‘I’ve travelled across England and Wales, and I even spent a few months in Scotland once. This isn’t the first time I’ve been to Cornwall, either. But I’ve never seen a single one of these so-called spriggans – look out!’