Wormwood Gate (21 page)

‘If they side with one of them, will that mean she wins?' said Julie.

‘If they side with the Queen-that-will-be, it'll even up the fight, so it's anyone's guess who'll come out on top,' said Molly Red. ‘If they side with the Queen-that-is, she'll most likely win.'

Julie stopped dead. ‘What? But then – we have to go back, we have to help her! We can't let the Queen-that-is win! We swore an oath!'

Molly Red shrugged. ‘Your oath was to leave the City of the Three Castles with a better ruler than you found it with. That could still happen, even if the Queen-that-is wins this duel.'

Now it was Aisling's turn to stop dead. ‘How do you know that?' she said quietly.

‘How do you know it's not true?' said Molly Red. ‘Anything's possible. No matter how strong she is, she's not invincible, and as the City weakens, she will weaken too.'

‘No, I mean, how do you know what oath we took. I didn't tell you about it. Did you?' she said, turning to Julie.

Julie shook her head and looked at Molly Red, who was standing still on the stairs below them, facing forward. ‘I suppose the – the Queen of Crows might have told you?'

Molly Red turned, just her head, and nodded sharply. ‘That she might have.'

‘But she didn't, did she?' said Aisling. ‘You didn't need her to, because you already knew. Because you were the one who made us swear it in the first place.'

Molly Red grinned, and her body vanished, and her head transformed into the wrinkled floating head that had opened the door of the house to them. ‘If you were any sharper, you'd cut yourself,' she said in the raspy voice of the head-of-the-house, then transformed back. ‘I needed help, and there was nobody else in the City I could count on,' she said. ‘Most of the City's own people had disappeared or were too afraid of the queen to make a noise. And you – you have your own selves well in hand, do you follow me? You know who you are, and you can't be swayed into being anyone else, oath or no oath.'

‘You get around, don't you?' said Aisling. ‘How many of the other people in the City were really you in disguise?'

Molly Red had opened her mouth to answer when a thought occurred to Julie. ‘We could do what we liked, then, couldn't we?' she said, thinking aloud. ‘Because … we're not from this place, and it – the rules don't have the same sway over us. Do they?'

‘No,' said Molly Red, nodding in agreement, ‘not the same sway at all.'

Aisling gave Julie a startled look. ‘That – yes, that makes sense,' she said. To Molly Red, she said, ‘So we could break the oath we made? I mean, it wouldn't – we wouldn't find ourselves forced into anything. We could just … not do it.'

‘Yes,' said Molly Red. ‘You could.'

There was a pause. Julie bit her lip, not sure whether to feel more cheated or guilty or relieved. She could have stopped herself from killing that seagull after all, if she had fought the urge. If she had known she
could
fight the urge. (But it must have come back by now. It was the way things worked in this place. So did it count as ‘killing', really?)

‘Are you going to?' said Molly Red, casually, as if it were an afterthought, not something that greatly concerned her.

Julie looked at Aisling, who was looking at her. Aisling nodded, and Julie thought she understood. They were on the same side. They were in this together. They wanted the same thing, in more ways than one.

Julie squeezed Aisling's hand and looked at Molly Red.

‘No,' she said. ‘We'll see this through.' From the corner of her eye she could see Aisling nodding, and it gave her a warm feeling.

‘I thought you would,' said Molly Red. ‘Now, we need to take care of our plan B, in case the wrong queen wins.'

‘What's this “we” business, paleface?' Julie muttered.

‘Wait,' said Aisling. ‘Do you know about the dam on the River? The Ferryman wanted me to ask you.'

Molly Red frowned, then grinned and snapped her fingers. ‘Brilliant! The River! That'll take care of it!'

‘What river?' said Julie. ‘There was a river in the City before, where the Liffey would have been, but it's gone now.'

‘Because the Queen of Crows dammed up the Ferryman's River,' said Molly Red, ‘so that the Lord of Shadows couldn't use it to travel through the Realms Between.'

‘Who
is
this Ferryman?'

‘Think Charon,' said Aisling, grim-faced. ‘And Styx. Not that that's the River's name, but it gets the idea across.'

‘Oh,' said Julie. There were so many questions she wanted to ask, but Aisling didn't look like she wanted to talk about whatever had happened to her after she'd … died, or almost died. ‘I suppose … she's the Queen of Death, so it stands to reason she'd have control over the River to the afterlife –'

‘She doesn't,' said Molly Red, interrupting. ‘The River is older and greater than she is. She was able to dam it up because it passed through her lands, but it's not bound to her any more than you are. And if we set it free, it's going to be really pissed off.'

‘But it'll be pissed off at the Queen of Crows, right? We want to take care of herself upstairs, not the Queen of Crows. She's not even here in the City any more.'

‘Oh, we don't need to worry about that,' said Molly Red, smiling.

Aisling rolled her eyes. ‘Is this the part where you tell us to trust you?' she said.

‘It's the part where you don't have a choice,' said Molly Red. ‘Come on, follow me, and I'll take you to the place where the River was dammed.'

She leapt away down the stairs and, after a brief exchange of glances, Julie and Aisling followed her.

‘Are you all right?' Julie murmured when she was sure Molly Red was out of earshot. ‘You seemed like … You've been … You scared me.'

‘I never knew you cared,' said Aisling.

‘Neither did I,' said Julie. ‘Turns out I do, which, you know, I'm as surprised as you are about.'

‘You're still holding my hand.'

‘Yes, I am. Is that a problem?'

‘No! No, not at all. Just an observation.'

‘But seriously,' Julie said, ‘
are
you all right?'

‘I'm fine,' said Aisling. ‘Or I will be. It's all a bit … Did you ever get the flu and have one of those really vivid dreams? This whole trip has been like that. What happened after I got hit on the head wasn't all that different from all the other things that have happened. Which maybe sounds improbable, but you've been here, you've seen what it's like. Well, the River, the Ferryman, all that – it's the same kind of thing.'

‘I read a book once where Fairyland and the Land of the Dead were the same place.'

‘So did I,' said Aisling. ‘This isn't that, I think. But … it's like different levels on a video game? Even if there's a level that's a dream sequence, it's all part of the same game. The place I … went to, or whatever, was like … another one of the Realms Between.'

‘Do you think … when people die in, in mortal realms, that they – they go wherever you went?'

Aisling seemed to chew on that thought for a while. ‘I don't know,' she said at last. ‘I don't think so. Or if they do, they probably don't see it the way I saw that place.'

Julie let that thought sit for a while as they followed Molly Red down the corridors of the Tower and out through the courtyard and past the gates. The guards didn't try to stop them, seeming too dazed to move. Molly Red led them south, to the place where, in Dublin, O'Connell Street turned into O'Connell Bridge.

‘This is where the River was,' said Julie. ‘Before … well, before. It's where it ought to be.'

Molly Red nodded. ‘What do you see, Aisling?' she said.

Aisling frowned. ‘What are you – oh. Oh!'

‘What?' said Julie. ‘What is it? What can you see?'

11

Aisling blinked rapidly and rubbed her eyes to make sure there was nothing caught in them, that she wasn't just seeing floaters or afterimages. She tried to say, ‘
What on earth is going on?
', but only the first word came out, and it was an incomprehensible croak. She cleared her throat and tried again.

‘You tell me,' she said, staring. ‘What
am
I seeing?'

There were hundreds of little black filaments floating in the air, light as spiderwebs and twice as delicate.

‘Only those who have crossed the River can see them,' said Molly Red. ‘I don't know if they have a name. I've seen them a few times, though not as often as those who are born in the Fae Kingdoms and treat crossing the River like crossing their own front doorstep. You may be the first mortal ever to see them, for all I know.'

‘But what
are
they?' said Aisling, her eyes still caught by the threads, which seemed to wink in and out of existence as she watched them, in a pattern she thought she would recognise if she had more time to watch.

‘They are little threads in the tapestry of fate,' said Molly Red. ‘If you can see them, you can catch hold of them, and they'll take you to the Ferryman's domain. But whatever you do when you're there, you'll have to be quick. You won't be able to see them for long, and I don't know how many times a mortal can cross the River before she stops being mortal.'

‘What about you and Julie?' said Aisling. ‘Will you be left behind?'

‘Not bloody likely,' said Julie, slipping her hand from Aisling's and sliding it up to grab her elbow instead. ‘If you're going, I'm going. I'm not letting you out of my sight until we're back home!'

Aisling gave Julie a small grateful smile and squeezed her hand where it was resting in the crook of her elbow. ‘If you hold on to me, maybe – maybe you'll come along?'

Molly Red shrugged. ‘Maybe. Why not? It's worth a try. But whatever you do, do it quickly.'

‘OK,' said Aisling. She looked around her at the black filaments, dancing in the air. There were so many of them, it was almost as if a dark rain were falling from the sky or a dark mist rising up from the ground.

‘On three,' she said, spotting one that seemed to be hanging around for longer than the others. ‘One. Two.' She felt Molly Red touching her shoulder. ‘Three!'

Aisling closed her hand around the thread, and as she did she felt a sort of jolt – like when a rollercoaster car drops down from its highest point – and everything went white, just as it had when she'd passed through the mist with the Queen-that-will-be. When her vision cleared, she was standing with Julie and Molly Red on the same hillside she had found herself on before, in the valley where the River flowed, except that the River had dried down to a trickle, barely even a stream.

There was a man sitting despondently on the hillside, staring at what had once been a river with an expression of utter and complete melancholy. As they came closer, Aisling recognised him.

‘Well, hello there,' she said. ‘I wondered what would happen to you.'

Morgan de Meath looked up, and his expression lightened a little.

‘Greetings,' he said, rising to his feet. ‘I hope your presence here does not mean your mission failed?'

‘We're not done with it yet,' said Julie.

Morgan looked at Molly Red, and Molly Red looked back at him.

‘Did you know,' he said, ‘that the River would not lend the Ferryman's fee to me, as a servant of the Queen of Crows?'

‘I had an inkling,' said Molly Red. ‘I thought I might need you. And I do. Have you had time to think about what I told you?'

‘I am still sworn to the Queen of Crows,' said Morgan. ‘I cannot disobey her.'

‘Yes, you can,' said Aisling. ‘If it's true that you're a mortal, you're not really bound by those oaths. You can fight them.'

Morgan looked alarmed, as if the foundations of his world were shaking. ‘Fight them? Can such a thing be?'

‘How do you think I became known as the Oathbreaker?' said Molly Red.

He looked away, at the dwindling river and the hills and the valley. ‘Is it true, then, what you said? That I had mortal parents?'

‘Yes,' said Molly Red. She stepped closer, touching his arm, a gentle expression on her face. ‘You were born in a mortal realm, and your parents are still alive. You have sisters who have never known you. You can find them again, but only if you break with the Queen of Crows. She means you no good. She means no good to the Realms Between. You must see that by now.'

Morgan blinked and breathed heavily, as if he were fighting tears, and nodded.

‘I have served her faithfully, not because I chose it, but because I thought there was no choice. Now, you offer me a choice, and I choose to rebel. The Queen of Crows has no more hold on me.'

At those words, he shivered all over, as if he had been doused with cold water. He faced the three of them with a new light in his eyes.

‘Now,' he said, ‘how may I help you in thwarting her plans?'

‘There's a dam on the River,' said Aisling. ‘What do you know about that?'

‘I was the one to build it,' said Morgan. ‘At the queen's command, of course.'

‘Of course,' said Aisling. ‘Well, take us to it and help us to destroy it. Then I reckon the Ferryman'll be so grateful he'll let you across the River without a fare. Or the River will be so grateful it'll let you cross without using the ferry. Either way, you'll be back in the lands of the living, and the Queen of Crows will have had one of her plans foiled.'

‘But hurry,' added Julie. ‘We don't have much time. We have to get back while Aisling can still see the threads of fate.'

Morgan gave Aisling a sharp look and nodded, as if he knew exactly what Julie was talking about from first-hand experience.

‘Follow me,' he said and started to sprint upriver along the hillside.

They followed him, keeping pace easily – more easily than Aisling expected; every few strides, it seemed she bumped into a sort of warp in the air, like a heat-haze, which propelled her forward faster than she'd ever be able to move normally. The River was a blur to her left, and all she was aware of as she ran was the ground beneath her feet and the shapes of Julie and Molly Red at either side and Morgan de Meath ahead of her.

A long way and a short time later, Morgan slowed and came to a stop, and Aisling skidded to a halt beside him.

‘There,' he said, pointing up. The valley sloped upwards from where they stood, and at its highest point there was a ramshackle wooden structure bridging the River and blocking it, letting only a thin trickle of water come through.

‘It's big,' said Julie.

‘The River's bigger,' said Aisling. ‘If you want to destroy a dam, you don't need to
destroy
it. Weaken it a little, leave a crack or two, and the River will destroy it for you, and not slowly, either.'

She strode forward, scanning the dam for any weak points. It looked very shaky indeed from a distance, but the closer she got, the more she could see how carefully it had been constructed, every block and plank of wood fitting neatly in with all the others. ‘This might be tricky,' she said when Julie came up by her side. ‘It's not a bad bit of construction. Better than I was expecting.'

Julie tilted her head to one side. ‘Don't you think it looks like a Jenga set?'

Aisling looked again. ‘Huh,' she said, ‘now that you mention it, yeah, it does.'

Julie made a smug face and cracked her knuckles. ‘Step aside and watch the master at work,' she said.

Aisling watched as Julie clambered on top of the dam, hanging down from one of the higher protrusions at an alarming angle.

‘Is that safe?' Aisling cried out.

‘It's really solid!' Julie called back as she grabbed on to a lower-down block of wood and started easing it out of position. ‘But it's not held together by anything. No nails or glue or anything, just the bits of wood and gravity.' The block eased all the way free and she pushed it down to float on the trickle that was all that remained of the River. A gush of water came through the hole that the block left in the dam, and she climbed backwards and down to a lower level.

‘Come over here and give me a hand,' she said, and Aisling rushed over to help.

Together, they eased out three more blocks of wood, letting more and more water come through, until the trickle was a genuine stream once more. ‘I think that's enough,' said Aisling. ‘We should get to the bank before –'

There was a cracking, roaring sound, and Aisling reached for Julie's hand instinctively. The River swelled up and rushed towards them, knocking them off the dam and washing them down, down, down, and away, away from where the dam had been, away from the valley, away from Morgan de Meath and Molly Red.

Aisling kept a firm grip on Julie's hand and tried not to panic.
I already died once
, she thought,
and it wasn't so bad
. The water was rushing all around her, those screaming faces everywhere she looked, but she was just about able to keep her head above it, and through the choppy waves she caught glimpses of Julie, still with her head above water, though her face was pale and shocked.

Just as the water seemed to be calming down, there was a strange, sickening lurch, and the water lifted them impossibly high. There was a wave even higher in front of them, and the wave was not wave-shaped but took the form of a woman with flowing hair, a blankly peaceful face, and legs so long and curvy that they looked faintly freakish. She looked familiar, though Aisling couldn't put words on why.

‘Anna Livia,' Julie whispered, her hand gripping Aisling's like a vice.

The river-woman did not open her mouth, and her expression did not change, but a sound came from her like the rushing of water, and in that sound were words:

Y
OU HAVE FREED ME
. W
HAT IS YOUR WISH
?

‘Um,' said Aisling, her mind blank.

Julie looked at her, and then looked at the river-woman. ‘We don't really have a wish, I suppose. Oh! Could you bring us back to the City of the Three Castles? Is that …'

I
WILL
, said the river-woman. Her body dissolved back into a river, and the high wave that had lifted the two of them subsided slowly, though not so slowly that it was comfortable. They were being pulled along, now, by a current too strong to fight.

Aisling closed her eyes and held tight to Julie's hand.

There was a great swell in the River, and the two of them were deposited on land that, if not exactly dry, was at least solid. Aisling took a deep breath, and another, and another, and opened her eyes.

They were back in the City of the Three Castles, on a stretch of street that would have been O'Connell Bridge in Dublin, and though it had let them fetch up on the bank, the River had not stopped its flow but was surging northwards up the street that was not quite O'Connell Street, once more taking the form of a giant woman.

Julie pushed her soaking wet hair out of her eyes with the hand that wasn't holding Aisling's hand. ‘Should we …' She trailed off, staring at the River.

‘Let's see what happens, at least,' said Aisling. ‘Even if we can't do anything about it. Let's see how the story ends.'

Julie nodded, and in perfect step they walked in the River's wake towards the Tower.

‘What do you think will happen to Molly Red and that guy?' said Julie as they passed the O'Connell Monument.

‘I don't know,' said Aisling, ‘but I'm not worried. Molly Red knows her way around these parts. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if this was all part of her plan.'

The River was making a roaring, rushing noise as it surged up the street, and it seemed to change the very bricks and tarmac and concrete it passed over, wiping them away and transforming them to cobblestones that flickered in and out of existence, before settling back into bricks and tarmac and concrete, as if different eras of the street's history were battling for supremacy. The railings around the Tower dissolved into nothing as the River approached it, and the horse-headed guards threw their heads back and neighed, high pitched and frightened sounding, before changing into horses with rope bridles on their heads and galloping away as fast as their legs could carry them.

W
HERE IS THE QUEEN
? said the River.

Its head was level with the top floor of the Tower. From the ground, Aisling could see flashes of light that looked like bolts of electricity, but no detail. The flashes slowed down and stopped, and the Tower seemed to shrink a little, and a balcony grew out of its side for the two queens to walk out on.

‘What is your wish?' said one of them – Aisling couldn't tell which.

I
AM OWED A BOON
.

‘Ask, then.'

T
WO COINS BOUGHT YOUR LIFE
, Q
UEEN-THAT-WILL-BE
. I
HAVE COME TO COLLECT THAT DEBT
.

Aisling thought of the horse that had knocked her and Julie over, the horse that had had the Queen-that-will-be on its back; that horse had been Molly Red, and she had delivered the queen to the Ferryman's land without the fare to pay him. Was this what she had wanted all along? Had they been dancing to Molly Red's tune since the moment they caught that scent of wormwood?

‘Yes!' cried a triumphant voice from the Tower's balcony. ‘Yes, take her life! She is the one who owes you a boon – take her life from her now and leave the City to me!'

No, said the River. C
ENTURIES AGO, YOU SPLIT YOUR LIFE IN THREE TO FOOL ME, SO THAT YOUR RULE MIGHT LAST FOREVER
. T
HERE IS NO IS, NO WAS, NO WILL-BE
. Y
OU THREE ARE ONE LIFE AND
I
WILL HAVE THAT ONE LIFE FOR MY OWN
.