13 Curses (32 page)

Sparrow’s friendly grin deflected a couple of hostile stares, but it wasn’t long before a tall, thin man barred their way.

“Something I can help you with?” he asked coolly.

“We’re looking for Tino,” Sparrow answered.

“Tino’s busy,” was the flat response.

“Tell him it’s Sparrow.”

The thin man assessed them a moment longer.

“Wait here.” The man turned and strode off, his face surly. Eventually he returned, giving only a jerk of his head to indicate that they should follow him. He led them through a maze of gypsy wagons, each more beautiful than the last. Finally, they stopped outside a large van that was painted a deep midnight blue. The man knocked, then left without another word. Behind them a door snapped shut as the one before them opened.

A swarthy-looking man stood in front of them, one eyebrow raised. His dark blond hair was a similar color to Sparrow’s, but longer, skimming his shoulders. One of his eyes was hazel, Rowan noticed. The other was green. His expression softened as he took in Sparrow’s untidy attire, then he turned his gaze to Rowan.

“Who’s this, then?” he asked, his voice a lazy drawl.

As his head moved, Rowan thought she saw the tip of a pointed ear protruding from his hair momentarily.

Sparrow nudged her forward.

“She wants to talk to you about the trade.”

The mismatched eyes narrowed, then Tino shifted in the doorway.

“You’d better come in.”

The interior of the caravan was sparser and less ornate than the outside, though it was adorned with racks of glittering costumes. Some even hung on the doorframes and curtain rails, and on a dressmaker’s stand a gown of shimmering silver was half finished. Apart from a shaggy wolfhound sprawled on the kitchenette floor, the caravan was empty of any other living being. It seemed that apart from the dog, Tino lived alone.

From a pot on the stove, Tino poured three glasses of a steaming mixture and handed them out, keeping one for himself. He motioned to the seating that ran around the edges of the van.

“Sit.”

Rowan and Sparrow sat. She sniffed her drink but did not taste it. It smelled of fresh mint, but despite her temptation she resisted. All the books she had read had advised never to drink or eat anything offered by a fairy.

“Who did they take?” Tino asked, sipping his own drink.

“My brother,” she mumbled.

Tino nodded slowly.

“So you want him back.”

“More than anything,” she said fiercely. “Only, I don’t know where to start…. Sparrow said trades can be arranged—with the changelings that are left behind. But when my brother was taken, no replacement was left.”

Tino pressed his fingers together in an arch and took a long time replying.

“It can still be done,” he said eventually. “A switch is a switch. Some of them are straightforward, some aren’t. Wherever possible we try to match the child who was stolen to the one it was replaced with, but it doesn’t always work that way. Sometimes we return fairy changelings and it’s weeks, months even, before the human counterpart is found.” He finished his drink and poured another, declining to offer Sparrow or Rowan a refill as neither of them had touched a drop of their first glass.

“If you want us to search for your brother, then I can
take some details. Can’t promise anything, though.” He cocked his head suddenly, studying her. “Can’t really divulge much more information either… unless…”

His eyes met Sparrow’s. Rowan turned to the boy, who had been sitting quietly the entire time. A question of some kind hung between them.

“Unless what?” she asked.

Tino ran his forefinger around the rim of his glass.

“Well, it all depends on how involved you want to get.”

Rowan felt a tremor pass through her—fear and anticipation combined. Somehow, she sensed she was standing on the edge of a precipice, a turning point in her life that would change everything.

“I think,” she said hesitantly, “that I’m already involved. I’ll do whatever it takes to get my brother back.”

“ ‘Think’ is no good to me,” said Tino, his voice low, insistent. “You have to be sure. Otherwise you’re no use to us.”

“I’m sure,” she said, clenching her jaw to try to bring her nerves under control. “I’m in. Tell me what you want me to do. I’ve got nothing to lose.”

Tino’s lips stretched into a smile. He extended his hand and gripped Rowan’s in a firm, businesslike grip.

“All in good time. Now, first things first. I don’t know your name.”

Her voice, when it emerged, sounded different. Harder. As though something had crossed over in her that could never go back.

“You can call me Red.”

The day after Halloween was dark and drizzling. Everyone at Elvesden Manor apart from Nell and Amos was gathered in the kitchen. The housekeeper had decided to barricade herself in her room and was refusing to speak to anyone.

Fabian took a butter knife from the table and punctured the now-soft pumpkin that he and Tanya had never got around to carving.

“I can’t believe this,” he said hotly. “I can’t believe Warwick has decided that he’d rather go off with that baby-stealing vigilante than come back to his own home! What if he never comes back?”

Florence sighed. Since Warwick had been missing, she had barely eaten, and looked thin and ill.

“I’m taking Amos his meal,” she said. “Then I’m
going to check on Nell.” She got up and left Tanya and Fabian alone.

“Warwick’s just trying to help Red,” Tanya said quietly. “He’s doing what he thinks is best.”

“How can that be for the best?” Fabian exploded. “His place is here, with us—not with her!”

A light scratching at the back door interrupted them. Tanya opened it and stepped back, stunned to see a small red fox looking up at her in earnest. Then she held back a scream as a hand emerged from the fox’s coat, followed by a head and a body, and then Red was standing before her, holding the coat at her side.

“Red!” Tanya managed. “How did you… how did you
do
that?”

“It’s a glamour,” Red said simply.

Fabian ran to the door and touched the coat, speechless for once.

“They’ve let you go,” Tanya said, her eyes shining. “You’re back. But where’s your brother? And Warwick?”

Red came into the kitchen and sat, her face somber.

“They’re still there.”

“What’s happened?” Tanya asked in confusion.

Red reached out to stroke Oberon, who had come over to greet her. He remained with his head on her knee and wagged his tail a little before returning to his bowl to gobble down some biscuits.

“I’m in trouble,” she said. She raked a hand through her tangled hair. “A lot of trouble.”

“What kind of trouble?” asked Tanya.

“The kind where we’ve been set a task by the fairies,” said Red. “And if we don’t complete it, I’ll never see James again—and we’ll all be prisoners of the fairy realm: me, James, and Stitch.”

“Stitch?” Fabian asked.

“Your father. That’s what I called him while we were there. It’s dangerous to use real names in the fairy realm.”

“Why is Warwick still there, though?” Tanya asked.

Red slumped forward, her face in her hands.

“They’ve kept him to make sure I go back. And I don’t know how I’m going to do it. How I’ll ever find them all…”

“Find what?”

But Red was no longer listening.

“If only he hadn’t picked up the bracelet. Anything else, anything at all would have been better than this. They were drawn to it immediately… the charms and what they represent….”

“Bracelet?” Tanya asked as the truth began to dawn. “You don’t mean… surely not
that
bracelet?”

Red nodded, her face still hidden.

“Warwick took it?
Why?
” she exploded.

“He found the Cauldron charm in the sink. He was going to fix it for you—”

“I never wanted to wear it again!” Tanya cried. “I thought it was beautiful at first, but then the drain-dweller died because of it… and the fact that it belonged to Elizabeth Elvesden is just creepy!”

“Well, you’ll probably never get to wear it again anyway,” said Red. “But if you change your mind, it’ll be much lighter.”

“What do you mean?”

Red reached into her pocket and threw the bracelet onto the table.

“Where are all the charms?” Fabian asked.

“I don’t know,” Red said quietly. “That’s the point. That’s the task. I have to find them… and I don’t even know where to begin.”

“You mean they could be anywhere? Anywhere at all?” said Fabian. “Anywhere in the
world
?”

“I know.” Her voice was muffled behind her hands. “It’s hopeless.”

“It can’t be hopeless,” said Tanya, slowly. “Why would the fairies set you a task that was impossible to complete? There
must
be a way to solve it.”

“Tanya’s right.” Gredin and Raven materialized at the back door. “No task can be set by the courts that cannot be completed, however difficult,” said Gredin. “It is a fairy law.”

“Can you help us?” Tanya asked. “Surely you’ll have an insight into where—”

Gredin cut her off.

“Even if we did, we would be forbidden from revealing the locations of the charms. It would be viewed as treachery and result in serious consequences for us both. What we
can
tell you is that in any fey task there will always be an element—a key, if you like—that once discovered, will unravel the entire thing.”

“So we need to find out what that key is,” said Fabian.

“We?” Red shook her head. “This is my task. I only came back to tell you what had happened to Warwick.”

“He’s my dad,” Fabian argued. “And by the looks of it, you’re going to need all the help you can get.”

“How long do you have to find the charms?” Tanya asked.

“I—” Red stopped short. “They never said.”

“So time isn’t an issue,” said Tanya. “But we don’t know how Warwick is being treated. The sooner we save him, the better. So where do we start?”

This time, nobody objected to the “we.”

“Perhaps we should start with what the bracelet is based on,” said Red. “What attracted the fairies to it in the first place… the Thirteen Treasures. We need to go over everything we know about them.”

Fabian obligingly removed a pencil and his brown leather-bound book from his top pocket.

“What are they? And what do they do? Remind me. Call them out.”

“The Platter, which will never allow its owner to go hungry,” Tanya began. “The Cauldron, which will restore the dead to life. The Sword, which will allow only victory and not defeat….”

“The Heart of courage,” Red continued. “The Key, which will open the door to any world. The Goblet of eternal life; the Cup of divination. The Staff for strength; the Light, which never diminishes; the
Book
of Knowledge
; the Dagger, which drips blood that will heal any wound…”

“Hang on,” said Fabian, catching up. “All right, keep going.”

“The mask of Glamour,” said Red.

“And the Halter, a ring that will render its wearer invisible,” Tanya finished.

One by one Fabian scribbled them all down. Then they stared in silence at the list.

“The Platter,” Red said suddenly. She looked at Gredin. “You told us a story about a family that was rewarded by the court with its power. Perhaps the Platter charm could be in the location where that family lived. Perhaps all the charms could be in places where their powers were used. Do you know where that place was?”

“It was hundreds of years ago,” Gredin answered. “The story will have changed over time, and so it would be hard to pinpoint where it happened. And there’s a problem with that theory—not all of the Thirteen Treasures were used. Some of them never had the chance to be used before the dividing of the court—and after that, they were never used again.”