Wormwood Gate (20 page)

‘Ask a stupid question,' Aisling muttered. She rose carefully to her feet. ‘All right,' she said. ‘Take me to the other side. I'm ready.'

Her stomach lurched as the gulls massed around her and gripped parts of her coat and boots in their beaks. It was too like the first time this had happened to be comfortable, yet once they took off it was nothing like it at all. They flew slowly and carefully, not bumping her or scraping her with their wings or even varying the height they were flying at much. It was a little like riding stomach-down on a slightly wobbly conveyor belt, which was unnerving in itself; without having contact with the ground or the walls, she had no sense whatsoever of where she was or where she was going. She could have been floating suspended in a blank void and never have known the difference.

When the light came, she didn't believe it at first, assuming that the glimmer she saw was her eyes playing tricks on her. The seagulls had a grip on both ends of her coatsleeves, so she couldn't lift her hands to her eyes to rub them, but she blinked and squeezed them shut; and when she opened them again and found it had made no difference, and the light began to grow brighter, she allowed herself some cautious hope. It was probably not the exit, but it would be wonderful even if it was a lantern or a torch or a cluster of phosphorescent mushrooms.

She was expecting that eventually the light would grow brighter until she couldn't look at it any more, and then she would blink and be back in her body and back in the City; but in fact, as she and the gulls grew closer to the light it grew more distinct but not brighter. It was sunlight, she was sure of it, which irritated her, though she couldn't pinpoint why. There were hints of green in the distance, and no sign of buildings, and when the tunnel ended abruptly, leading out to a brightly green hill whose slopes were shrouded in mist, she almost swore out loud. The tunnels hadn't brought her back to the beginning, had they?

The seagulls set her down, more gently than the last time. She rubbed her arms and shook her legs out a bit. ‘Thanks,' she said, and she looked around.

Down the hill she could see a narrow river, though whether it was
the
River, she couldn't tell. Uphill, there was a woman standing a little way away, with her back to Aisling, facing into the bank of mist.

‘Hello there!' Aisling called out. ‘Sorry to disturb you, but would you happen to know …'

She trailed off, realising that she wasn't sure what question she wanted to ask.
Would you happen to know the procedure when a mortal dies in the Realms Between?
Or
Would you happen to know if I've been hallucinating this entire episode and I'm in a coma in a hospital bed somewhere?
Or maybe even
Would you happen to know what I should do next? Because, honestly, I have no idea, and at this point I'm sick of improvising. I'd kind of like somebody to tell me what to do
.

The woman turned around. She had one eye, the missing one being covered by an eyepatch, and she looked identical to the queen-that-will-be.

‘Greetings,' she said. ‘How did you come to be here?'

Aisling opened her mouth, closed it, frowned, and said cautiously, ‘Forgive me, but that's kind of a long story, and I'd rather not get into it right now. What about you? Why are you here?'

‘I am waiting for the mist to clear,' said the woman. ‘It is solid now, to keep me from passing through to the City of the Three Castles. When it clears, that will mean that one of my sister-queens is dead, and I can go back safely and await my turn on the throne.'

Aisling closed her eyes and rested the heels of her hands over them for a second. ‘So …' she said, lowering her hands, ‘who might you be?'

The woman straightened her back, drawing herself up to her full height. ‘I am the Queen of the City of the Three Castles. Not the Queen-that-is. The Queen-that-will-be. I was called too soon from the shores of the River – these very shores, indeed. I was called back to the City before the Queen-that-is had died, and yet the third of us held the throne. I know not how or why such a thing might be, and yet it was. And it was a great wrong, and greater still that I should be in the City with my two sisters still alive. Fortunately, there was one who knew this and took me back to the River's shore, though the route she took was a strange one, passing through the lands of mortals, and I had need to borrow the Ferryman's fee, for I had not a single coin, nothing to carry but the clothes on my back. And now I wait.'

‘Right,' said Aisling, her mind reeling. The other one – the one they met in the City – she must have been an imposter. For a city where nobody could lie, there were certainly a lot of people pretending to be things they weren't.

The Queen-that-will-be glanced at the seagulls and frowned.

‘These noble birds – are they your companions?' she asked.

‘Oh,' said Aisling, ‘um, sort of. They helped me through the labyrinth.'

One of the seagulls pushed itself past the others and bent its head before the Queen-that-will-be in a gesture not entirely unlike a bow.

‘Our brothers and sisters in the City are servants of the Queen-that-is,' it said, ‘and we'll be happy to serve you likewise, once the mist clears.'

‘Wait a second,' said Aisling, ‘do you mean none of us can get back until she does?'

‘There are paths along the shore that lead to other lands in the Realms Between,' said the Queen-that-will-be. ‘You can walk them, if your only desire is to leave the shores of the River. Whether any of the paths lead to the City of the Three Castles, I cannot say. This mist blocks the only path I know for sure to lead there, and it blocks the path so that there can never be three queens in the City at one time. And so I wait.'

Aisling looked down the hill and to either side. She couldn't see anything that looked like a path, only the kind of pseudo-trails she'd seen in parks and woods that never really led anywhere, just got you deep enough into the terrain to get thoroughly lost. ‘I won't take the chance,' she said, sitting down. ‘I'll wait with you. Unless,' she added, a thought occurring to her, ‘you know about the dam on the River? The Ferryman thought you might.'

‘A dam on the River? That would explain why it had shrunk to such a tiny stream. But, no, I know nothing of it.' She looked thoughtful. ‘When I return to the City, perhaps – yes, when I return, I will know. I will sense it.'

‘Good,' said Aisling. ‘Good.' She looked at the seagulls, which were milling around aimlessly, pecking at the ground. ‘While we're waiting, maybe you guys can tell me something: why
do
you serve the queen? Seagulls always struck me as independent sorts of birds. Not like, I don't know, falcons or parrots. They always seem to be at some human's beck and call, but not seagulls. They do as they like. Why don't you?'

The lead seagull shifted its head to one side to focus one beady eye on Aisling. ‘We're practical birds,' it said. ‘We'll eat anything we can. We're not above a spot of larceny if it keeps the littl'uns fed. But when the gates were closed, all of a sudden there was nothing to larcenate. No people passing through with their chips in their hands, no black bags full of precious dinners. And the pigeons were at us day and night, foraging where we used to forage. Sure, what were we to do? The queen promised us food, and we gave her our word and bond that we'd do as she said. You're right, it's not the way we'd rather do things, but a bird's got to eat.'

Aisling nodded. ‘It's a classic story,' she said. ‘Scarcity of resources triggers conflict among competitors who need access to those resources. Happens all the time.'

The seagull's head bobbed in what might have been meant for a nod. ‘And since we started working for the queen, the pigeons have been worse than ever. Not bad enough they take the food from our beaks, they have to make it an outright war! As if we haven't enough to be worrying about! You ask me, they're just looking for an excuse to scrap and steal. Cunning little thieves, the flock of them!'

Aisling resisted the urge to point out that the seagull had admitted moments ago that seagulls were happy to steal if they had to, and wondered to herself whether the real problem between the pigeons and the seagulls was that they had too much in common.

‘I see,' she said.

‘The mist is clearing,' said the Queen-that-will-be. ‘Come! If you would come, come! Now, before my sister crosses the River and the mist thickens once more!'

The mist did look less thick than before. Aisling jumped to her feet and followed her. As they stepped through the mist, the seagulls fluttering past them, she felt a tingling, like a weak electrical shock, and for a second everything went white.

*

‘There's no need of a cage, since there's no prisoner for it to hold,' said the queen, folding the blade away and tossing the multitool aside. Julie scrambled to grab it and unfolded the blade. She meant to wipe away the blood, but there was none.
Maybe fairies don't bleed
, she thought.

The queen raised a hand, and the cage disappeared, and the glass wall of the tower room lowered itself back into place. Julie looked at Molly Red and shrugged, trying to signal
What next?

Molly Red smiled a secretive smile and winked and mouthed something that looked like
Patience
. Julie rolled her eyes. She wasn't sure she had any patience in her any more.

The queen turned on her heel to face the two of them. ‘Well!' she said, dusting her hands off against each other, ‘now that that's been taken care of, what shall I do with you two? A traitor and a spy?'

‘I'm not a traitor,' said Molly Red. ‘At least, not to you. I never swore an oath to you, I never claimed to be loyal to you. If I've been working against you, that doesn't make me a traitor.'

‘And I'm not a spy,' said Julie. ‘I know I told you I was working for the Lord of Shadows, but that was only because you wouldn't believe me when I said I wasn't. I've never even met the man.'

‘Be that as it may,' said the queen with an airy, dismissive gesture, ‘I must still punish you. Both of you.' She glanced out through the glass wall, at the place where the cage had been. ‘Perhaps I was too hasty in destroying that cage. Perhaps I should make two new ones and hang you up in them, let the seagulls feed on you, hm?'

‘That's just silly,' said Julie. ‘Seagulls aren't raptors. They'll eat all sorts of things, but they won't try to eat a living human.'

‘If I command them to, they will,' said the queen. ‘After all, I am the one true ruler of the City of the Three Castles, the Queen-that-is. How should they dare to disobey me?'

The stones of the Tower seemed to ripple as she spoke. Julie's stomach twisted.

‘I don't know,' said Molly Red. ‘You'd be surprised how daring people can be when they get really annoyed.'

As if those words had been a summoning spell, the door burst open and, amid a flurry of white wings, Aisling and a woman who looked like a younger version of the queen strode in, the woman looking fierce and angry and Aisling looking flushed and winded. Julie rushed over to Aisling and grabbed hold of her arms, then squeezed her in a tight embrace.

‘You're alive!' Julie said to Aisling. ‘I don't believe it. I don't believe it!'

‘Steady on,' said Aisling, but she hugged Julie back, and her arms around Julie's waist were warm and solid.

Julie pulled back a little, gripping Aisling's chin between her thumb and finger and staring into her eyes. ‘It
is
you, right? You're not – you haven't been –' ‘My friend Philippa and I had a plan for if something like this happened,' said Aisling. ‘We each came up with a set of passwords in case one of us got kidnapped and impersonated by pod people or alien shapeshifters. Unfortunately, I never told you my passwords, so you're just going to have to take my word for it.'

Julie tucked her head into the crook of Aisling's neck, laughing, halfway between mirth and relief. ‘You are
such
a nerd,' she gasped out.

‘I also have a contingency plan in case zombies attack while I'm alone at home,' said Aisling. ‘Can I have my phone back?'

‘Yeah,' said Julie, pulling away a little but not letting go, even though it meant rooting around in her bag and giving back the phone one-handed.

The seagulls were clustered in a circle at one side of the room, whispering furiously amongst themselves. The Queen-that-is and the Queen-that-will-be were standing facing each other, such utter loathing on each of their faces that Julie could almost feel it radiating off them. Molly Red was staring at the two queens, for once looking alert and interested rather than nonchalant.

‘What have you done?' said the Queen-that-will-be. ‘What have you done to the City?'

‘I have made it better,' said the Queen-that-is. ‘I have made it safe!'

‘You have twisted it beyond recognition and drained it of all its life!' said the Queen-that-will-be. ‘I cannot let this stand. I challenge you!'

‘Accepted! I will defeat you, as I defeated the third of us, and you will suffer as she suffered.'

Molly Red had somehow made her way over to Julie's side without making a noise. She tugged on Julie's elbow.

‘They're distracted,' she said. ‘We'd best leave them to it before they start throwing things and breaking glass. They're not interested in us now.'

She opened the door, and Julie and Aisling went through it, Julie glancing back to see the two queens circling each other, spitting words like venom, as the seagulls watched nervously.

‘What's with the birds?' said Julie as they passed through the second set of doors and headed for the stairs. ‘Why are they acting so shifty?'

‘I think they don't know whose side to be on,' said Aisling. ‘They're supposed to be loyal to the queen, but what does that mean when the queens are fighting amongst themselves?'