The noise of pursuit attracted the rest of the villagers as Jack, Kerry and Corriwen came haring down the field, with the two angry farmers in loud, lumbering pursuit.
"Megrin must have done something to the boots," Jack cried. "We've got speed back."
"So have I," Corriwen said, keeping pace as they streaked away. "Good magic!"
They skidded to a halt beside a pigpen. Somebody had left a scythe against the fence. Kerry snatched it up.
"Frying pan and fire spring to mind," he said.
Boru, the headman came pushing forward through the crowd, that had gathered, accompanied by several young men. He wore the Scatha's sword on his belt and walked with a swagger. The young men, who were clearly his sons were each armed with the rest of their weapons: Kerry's sword, Jack's amberhorn bow and Corriwen's twin knives.
The other villagers made the evil-eye signs with their fingers and shrank back. Jack could hear them talk in stage whispers.
"How could they have lived the night?"
"They truly must be fiend-friend."
"Demon-touched, I say. That's the only way they'd survive the nightshades."
"Should have killed them first and fed them to their own."
The boy with the amberhorn bow fixed an arrow and drew back. Jack stood firm. Even from this distance he could see the chief's son's aim was way off. He was no archer. Kerry swung the bolas slowly. Corriwen grasped her stave and eyed Boru's sons
"Put down your arms," Boru called out. "You'll never get away alive."
"Yeah, like you didn't already try to kill us last night!" Kerry's temper was rising already.
"We've come for our property," Jack said. "Give it back and we'll go away."
Boru drew the Scatha's sword. Jack knew his father had wielded its twin on Temair, before Jack was born, in the first battle with the Morrigan.
"These weapons are forfeit," Boru said, swinging the great blade back and forth. "And your lives are too."
He took a step forward. His sons spread out to surround the little group.
Jack held up the ash bow. "One move and your son gets an arrow in the eye. And for you, I'll send the nightshades. Nightshades that don't care about your rowan barrier."
He turned slightly, gave Kerry a nod. Instantly Kerry understood. He wheeled away, whirling the spade around his head and raced along the barrier, slashing with the scythe at the upright posts. They splintered like matchwood all along the front of the village. A whole section of the rowan fence lay scattered.
The crowd let out a collective gasp. Kerry spun back and placed himself between Jack and Corriwen before anyone had time to react.
"Where's your protection now?" Jack asked. "I swear I'll cut all of it before dark, and you'll never get it built in time."
Kerry took Jack's lead: "And I can conjure up even worse than that. You've never met the Scree, have you? Or the Fell Runners. And there's huge Cluricauns that'll suck your eyes out and roast your children."
He waved scythe spade theatrically. "And they're all coming for you tonight!"
Corriwen suppressed a smile. She started doing a strange little strut, waving her fingers about and chanting in her own tongue.
"She's bringing out dayshades," Jack cried. "They're even worse."
The crowd fell back further, leaving Boru and his kin standing at the front.
"They're not getting this sword," Boru growled through gritted teeth. "I can sell it for two plough-horses at least."
Some of the worried villagers protested.
"But if they bring the 'shades…."
"Not if they're dead, they won't!"
Jack watched as the men argued amongst themselves. The women looked scared. The chief held up the sword.
"You want this?" He challenged. "You've no powers in the sunlight,
He turned to the strapping lad next to him.
"There's but three of them, with a scythe and a toy bow. "
"We can take them, Da," his son replied. He wielded Kerry's short-sword, but it was clear he was not used to the weapon. The boy with the bow was still aiming off to Jack's left.
Jack pulled Kerry and Corriwen close and whispered to them. Now he knew he had one advantage that Boru didn't suspect. Kerry passed the scythe to him and began to swing his bolas. Jack stepped forward. His heart was beating fast, but he knew with the element of surprise gone there was nothing else for it. He had to have the firestone heart and the Book of Ways, the only inheritance he'd ever had from his father.
Boru also took a pace, a broad-shouldered Goliath compared to Jack's slight frame. He glanced contemptuously at the rustic tool.
"You think you can, strangeling?"
"I can try," Jack said, trying to keep the shake out of his voice. Whatever magic Megrin had wrought as they slept, they now had the speed they needed. Maybe that was all they had, but it might be enough. Jack crossed his fingers.
"Come on then," Boru snarled. "Let's see what you're made of. I'll fillet you where you stand."
With that he let out a bellow and charged forward. Kerry suddenly darted off to the right in a brown blur. The motion took Boru by surprise. He instinctively turned his head. Jack ducked under the swinging blade and jabbed fast with the back of the scythe. It caught Boru hard on the shin.
He roared in surprise and pain and Jack was past him in a flash. On his flank, Kerry was a streak of motion. Jack saw the three rocks of the bolas swing up and he heard sound like a hammer-blow, then the big fellow who had Kerry's sword was down flat.
The sword now in Kerry's own hand.
Boru hopped about on other leg, then spun very quickly. He grunted with the effort as he hacked wildly. Even as he ducked under the swing, he saw Corriwen sprint out on the other side and use her staff as a fulcrum. She leapt from the ground like a pole-vaulter and her heels caught two of Boru's sons each on the chin. Her knives went tumbling away as they staggered back. In an instant she was on her feet and both knives were hers again.
There might be outnumbered still, but the odds now were a little better.
The sword hissed past Jack's ear. Boru was in mid turn. Without thinking, Jack thrust the scythe between his legs and pulled hard. Boru's feet came off the ground and he fell with a heavy a thump.
But before any of them could react, two of his sons hauled him upright and he launched himself with a roar back into the fight, slashing and hacking wildly. Jack jinked left and right, forgetting about the other opponents as he dodged the swinging sword.
As if in slow motion, he caught the unmistakeable twang of a loosed bowstring. He turned as saw the arrow coming right for his chest.
Corriwen shrieked a warning, too late.
Boru roared like a bull and the great sword flashed in the sun as it whirled in his hands.
For an instant, everything froze in Jack's mind. His feet refused to move as the arrow cut the air, straight and surprisingly true.
Jack braced himself for impact.
Then the Scatha's sword swung down in front of him. Right over his heart.
The deadly arrow hit the blade with a ring of metal and shattered. The lethal barb spun away and stuck into the earth.
Boru howled in surprise as the sword jerked out of his two-handed grip, whirred over his head and came down to land point-first between Jack's feet.
"Sorcery!" A voice from the crowd showed both awe and fear.
Jack grasped the hilt and held the sword high, sensing the power within it.
Nobody moved. A strange silence reigned for several minutes as Jack stood there, barely breathing.
He swung his eyes across his erstwhile opponents. The boy with the bow very slowly put it down on the ground. Boru was bleeding from his shin and gingerly rubbing both hands together as if he'd scalded them.
"You have seen what we can do," Jack finally spoke up. "We could do worse."
"Yeah," Kerry added. "A whole lot worse.-"
"Do you really want us to do worse?"
A child sobbing in the crowd. A woman called out: "No. Please. Just leave us alone."
Jack kept his eyes fixed on Boru."Then give us our belongings and we will go."
"And no funny stuff," Kerry said, brandishing his short-sword with obvious relish. "Any tricks and we'll send the Leprechauns tonight, and they're the worst of all. No kidding!"
Boru glowered, still wringing his hands and ignoring the wound on his knee. His eyes were fixed on the magnificent sword but he made no move to retrieve it.
He muttered to his nearest son, who turned back into the village. When he returned with their packs he put them down on the ground in front of them. Kerry and Corriwen snatched them up fast.
"A good decision," she said, as Kerry checked their bags.
"The book's here," he said, turning to leave.
"And the heart?" Jack asked urgently.
Before Kerry could reply a man's hoarse voice broke in.
"Fiend-friends in the daylight!"
He strode in front of Boru, an apparition in a long tattered cloak, tangled hair hanging down his back. Around his head, a kind of hat woven from evergreen leaves sat like a crown and dangling from the ragged leathers he wore were small skulls of every sort, hawks and falcons, rabbits and stoats. On his chest a wildcat skull showed long thin fangs. He carried a long stave decorated with dried bird's claws and rabbits feet and other things Jack couldn't guess at.
"What's he?" Kerry asked. "The local scarecrow?"
"Or witch-doctor," Jack said.
"You know the law, Boru," the strange fellow rasped. "They lived the night, which proves the rule," he croaked. "Kill them all!"
He saw the weapons in their hands.
"What's this? You gave them back."
"No they didn't, rag-a-bones," Kerry shot back. "We took them. Any objections?"
Corriwen tried and failed to suppress a giggle.
A look of consternation passed across the man's face. He drew himself up to his full scrawny height. In the slight breeze they could smell cow dung and stale raw-hide. It wasn't pleasant.
He glared at Boru. "I don't know what sorcery they worked on you, but it won't work on a spellcaster."
He shrugged off the cloak. Immediately Jack saw the black heartstone gleaming on its chain at his neck.
"We came for the heart," he said. "Hand it over and we'll go away."
The man's gnarled hand grabbed the heart tight. His knuckles went white.
"I feel it's power, shade-bringer," he cried. "I will make use of it. What was yours is now mine."
Riggon, the village magician, held up his skull-staff. "Begone strangelings, before I cast a curse on you."
"Do your worst, ragged arse," Kerry cried. "You couldn't scare a mouse."
"Come on Jack, let's grab the heart and get out of here."
He stepped forward; Jack and Corriwen did the same. Riggon held up the staff and began a low guttural chant, shaking the dry bones. As he did so, the air around them seemed to thicken, the way it had done in the Black Barrow on Temair before they came face to face with the nightmare of the Morrigan.
"What the heck…?" Kerry's voice sounded thick and glutinous.
Jack took another step and it felt as if he was wading in deep water. The great sword suddenly felt heavy and awkward. It was difficult to breathe. One more step and the water felt like treacle, cloying around him, weighing him down.
Riggon's face began to waver as if seen through rough glass.
Jack saw a dark shape pass in front of him.
It took Jack a second to recognise old Megrin in her black cowl and long shawl. She was bent with age and her fingers grasped a sturdy stick.
As soon as she passed, the strange thickness in the air vanished completely. Jack finished his step, almost sprawled forward. Close by, he heard Kerry curse very sincerely.