First Aid for Fairies and Other Fabled Beasts (13 page)

Helen listened at the door of the surgery for a moment. There was no sound in the hall, so she crept out. On the top of the nearest bookshelves was a brass bowl with old matchboxes in it. She reached up and grabbed one, then, on a whim, picked up an old violin case from the bottom shelf.

Then she tiptoed back into her Mum’s surgery, and clambered out through the window holding Catesby under her arm.

She climbed quickly up the hill, past the wood where the friends usually met, right to the summit, picking up branches as she went. It wasn’t the highest hill in the area but it was the nearest, and speed was the most important thing.

Together Helen and Catesby built a small pile of sticks and lit it with the matches. It was a struggle to get the first flames burning as the drizzle was still drifting down, but Catesby used his stronger wing to fan the flames, while Helen ran to the clump of trees to fetch drier fuel.

When the fire was as high and as bright as they could make it, Helen picked up the violin case, took out her old three-quarter size violin and started to play as loudly as she could, drowning out the hissing of the rain hitting the flames.

First, she stood still and played the ballad of Tam Linn, which she had glanced at in the library just a few hours before. Then, as her muscles were stiffening after her bruising evening, she strode round the fire, playing the tune she shared with Rona. This time it was longer, with a battle and pain and threats and fear, but there was still no end.

Helen glanced guiltily at the drops of water bouncing off the varnish on the violin. She hoped it would still play strongly and glow healthily when her sister was big enough to play it. But right now she needed the violin’s voice, even if it was raining. And she began to bow even faster.

There was a flapping of wings, and Sapphire arrived with Rona on her back. Helen kept playing, with Rona humming beside her, until Yann galloped up too.

“Why have you summoned us, healer’s child?”

As the flames died down, she wiped the fiddle dry, laid it carefully in its case, then started to tell them her story.

“The Master was waiting for me in my mother’s surgery. He wanted me to sew up a wound in his ear.”

“And did you?” Yann interrupted.

“Yes.”

“I damaged him and you fixed him?” Yann said incredulously.

“I had to.”

“You had to? Why? Did he ask nicely? Did he offer you treasure and power? Did he offer you answers?”

“
No!
He was holding my sister’s toy. He was …”

“He threatened you with a toy? I thought you were stronger than that, human child.”

“Shut up, Yann. Shut up and listen to me.”

“Why should I listen to you? You traitor! You collaborator!”

Catesby was squawking at Yann and Rona was grabbing his arm.

But he ignored them and came closer to Helen than he had been since they had held the clue together at Carterhaugh. He shouted in her face, “I should never have trusted a human. We will fight the Master and find the Book on our own from now on.” And he turned to leave.

“I can find him for you!”

Yann stopped.

Helen spoke softly, almost inaudible through the rain that was getting heavier and heavier. “I have listened to all your stories, Yann. If you will let me finish my story, I can find him for you.”

Yann turned back but didn’t look at her. He lifted his face to let the rain land on his cheeks and eyelids.

“He threatened my baby sister’s life, so I sewed up his ear. But he let me know he still had the clue, and that he hadn’t found the Book yet. So, when I was sewing up his ear, I …”

There was a blur of purple and Lavender appeared beside the hissing fire.

“What have I missed?”

“Your human friend has been using her heroic healing powers on our sworn enemy, and now she’s trying to justify herself.”

“I just sewed up his ear, Yann. I didn’t save his life!”

“Would you have saved his life?” Yann demanded.

“I don’t know. Would you stop me saving a life if I could?”

Yann didn’t answer.

“Helen! Did he hurt you? Are you alright?” asked Lavender into the awkward quiet.

“Lavender. That feather you gave me … can you find it again?”

“Of course, it is still part of me.”

“Good, because it is now part of the Master’s ear too. I sewed it in as I repaired the wound. I watched him as he left the surgery and he went north. If we go north, and if Lavender can find her feather, then
we
can find the Master.”

No one spoke. Everyone looked at Yann.

Yann stared at the mud his hooves had churned up. Then he swallowed and looked at Helen. He said, in a quiet voice, “I have regretted my weakness in bringing my wound to you, I have doubted the wisdom of sharing our problems with a human and I have resented seeing my friends admire you. But perhaps some shrewd fate forced me to your door, because without your cleverness and courage we would have failed a thousand times already.” He swallowed hard again. “Well done, healer’s child. We will do as you suggest and follow him north.”

Helen nodded solemnly at Yann, then laughed as Rona and Lavender crashed into her from both sides, giving her delighted hugs and telling her how wonderful she was.

Yann asked, “Where is he, Lavender?”

The fairy floated up from Helen’s shoulder, and rotated slowly in the air above their heads, with her eyes closed and her arms limp by her sides. Then she jerked to a sudden stop and pointed. “North. He kept going north.”

“How far?”

“Four or five leagues, no more.”

“Then I will ride like a two-legged creature, if Sapphire can cope with my hooves.”

So Yann clambered awkwardly onto Sapphire’s back. Rona and Helen fitted round him with Catesby in Helen’s arms. Lavender perched on one of Sapphire’s silver horns to whisper directions in her ear.

The heavily laden dragon lumbered into the waterlogged sky, heading north to find the Master in his maze.

Helen found it even less comfortable than usual on Sapphire’s back, with Catesby’s claws in her arm and Yann sliding around on the slippy wet scales between the dragon’s beating wings, knocking into Rona and Helen when Sapphire swerved to follow Lavender’s instructions.

Nor was Helen very comfortable with the thought that she was trying very hard to find a creature she never wanted to meet again.

The night started to glow as they flew north. Helen recognised the rocky lump of Arthur’s Seat against the bright line of streetlight orange on the horizon.

“That’s Edinburgh!” she called over the noise of the flight.

Before they reached the city, Sapphire landed in a field, bumping briefly into a tree on the way down. Yann immediately tumbled off.

“Is he near here?” asked Helen.

“No,” whispered Lavender. “He is there!” She pointed to the amber glow.

“The city!” said Rona. “But we never go to the city! There are no places to hide, because all the dark corners are filled with desperate humans. We are warned never to go to the city.”

“Well, the Master is there,” insisted Lavender.

“I can go,” said Helen. “I’ve been there lots.”

“At night?” asked Yann. “On your own?”

“If he’s there and the clue’s there, I will go and find him.”

Yann laughed. “Then we will follow you!”

So they fitted themselves back on the dragon, with Helen now up near Sapphire’s head, so she could add her knowledge of Edinburgh to Lavender’s connection with the purple feather.

They flew high over the bypass circling the city, over numberless houses and shopping centres on the outskirts, then inwards to the
tree-filled
squares and elegant roads of the New Town. Finally, they were above Edinburgh Castle. Lavender asked Sapphire to fly round the castle several times.

The castle was lit up against the dark sky. It squatted on a huge black rock, looming over the modern shops of Princes Street to the north and the winding maze of the Old Town to the east.

Lavender pointed to the Old Town; the rows of tall, many-windowed buildings piled
higgledy-
piggledy
on the hill sloping down from the castle. “He is in there, somewhere.”

Helen guided the dragon down to land in Princes Street Gardens, below the castle. Sheltered under the trees, they decided that Sapphire would have to stay out of sight in the gardens, because she could hardly be hidden on open streets, but they hoped that it was too late, dark and wet for Yann, Catesby and Lavender to be noticed as they searched the city.

Leaving Sapphire in the darkness, they walked past tall statues and clambered over a fence onto a shiny wet city road. Lavender flew on ahead, so intent on her feather she hardly noticed if her friends were behind her. The others followed up the curving road towards the tallest buildings.

Suddenly a hand shot out from a doorway and grabbed Helen’s sleeve. She gave a startled yell and yanked herself away. “Gie me a shotty on yir
donkey
, love,” croaked the man crouching on the step.

“Not tonight, mate,” she muttered and they accelerated up the hill.

Rona giggled and whispered, “Donkey? You might need to spend more time grooming, Yann!”

Lavender led them into a dark space between two buildings and up a smelly set of stone steps. They turned sharply into a courtyard with high walls rising up all round them, and faint streetlight reflecting off dozens of small windows. Catesby stretched his healing wing, circling slowly up and peering through the glass.

“Why would he be here?” asked Rona, “This is no place for a fabled beast to hide.”

“He isn’t up here,” said Lavender, “He is down there.” She pointed to the ground.

“Down where?” asked Yann impatiently.

But Helen nodded slowly. “There are cellars and tunnels all over the Old Town. I did a tour with my Dad last summer. The hill these houses are built on is soft sandstone, and when people got crowded or needed storage space in the olden days, they just dug into the hill. Not downwards, but inwards, because the houses are built right on the side of the steep ridge. Most of the cellars and vaults are closed up now, but he might have found a way in.”

“Is his entrance in this courtyard, Lavender?” asked Yann.

“I don’t know. I just know he is under us.”

“The entrance won’t be here,” Helen said. “If the cellars are built inwards, then the cellar sunder our feet will have entrances in the building slower down the hill. You stay here, I’ll look around.”

“I’ll come too,” offered Yann.

“No, Yann, I’ll go with her,” said Rona. “I won’t be mistaken for a donkey!”

Yann, Catesby and Lavender hid in the darkest corner of the court, while Helen and Rona went back down the stone steps.

They went a short way down the main street and up the next close. It was pitch black and the girls reached out to each other, holding hands as they felt their way along the walls. At the top they found another small courtyard, lower than the one they had left the others in.

By the dim glow of reflected street lights, they saw piles of stone blocks and a small concrete mixer. There were wire fences, decorated with signs about hard hats, blocking off an open door into the bottom storey of a high grey building with no lights at its many windows.

The girls retraced their steps and took Lavender and the others quietly to the building site.

“Yes,” said Lavender, her voice abrupt. “He is in there.”

So they squeezed between sections of the wire fencing, stepped round bags of cement and coils of cables and went in the open door. They all stopped for a moment, relieved to be dry.

The door led to stairs: a wide clean set of steps heading upwards, and a narrow dingy set of steps leading down. Helen led them downwards, and after twenty or so steps found herself facing a
narrow
door. Once they were all crowded in front of it, she pushed it open and moved cautiously into the space beyond. Yann had to duck and breathe in, to squeeze through the door behind her.

When Lavender swirled a few light balls into the cold dark room, Helen saw three doorways. “Which way now?”

Rona went down on her hands and knees and sniffed. “That way.” She pointed to a door on the left.

She saw Helen looking curiously at her and smiled, showing her sharp little teeth. “Seals have a good sense of smell, though usually we track fish not fauns.”

They went further in, through half a dozen rooms with small doors, low ceilings and cracked
walls showing bare stone under crumbling plaster. There were no windows in any of these rooms, no fireplaces either; they were just damp spaces hacked roughly out of cold ground. Although there was no furniture, Helen saw that some of the rooms had square cupboards chipped out of the walls. One of them held two old candles, stuck in their own wax.

The dusty stone floor was uneven and Yann kept tripping over his hooves. “Can you put some light balls lower, Lavender, or I’m going to break a leg,” he muttered. The purple fairy flicked her wand and a couple of light balls floated down to bounce and roll along the floor, so they could see where to put their feet.

Helen pushed past a rotten wooden door hanging off its hinges, into a larger room with a choice of two doors. Rona sniffed and shrugged. Everyone looked at Lavender. She rotated a few times in the air, then slowed down and sank to the ground. She shook her head and burst into tears. “He seems to be
everywhere
. The rock is reflecting the magic around and I can’t see anything clearly. I’m so sorry.”

Helen held her hand out to the fairy and said soothingly, “Calm down. We’re in the right place. You’ve brought us this far, we’ll find him. Just be calm.”

Yann said, less gently, “At least tell us if he is near. Are we in danger yet? You have to tell us!”

Helen shook her head at him and stroked Lavender’s long hair. The fairy said, “I can try to get it outside my head. Then it might make more sense. Hold on.”

She screwed her tiny face up in concentration, moved her lips in a silent spell and waved her wand. The dust that their feet had disturbed on the dirt floor began to lift and swirl, creating patterns in mid-air. But just as Helen was starting to see a picture in front of her, Yann sneezed, and the dust shapes exploded.