10

Jack tugged at Megrin's sleeve when they caught up with her on the road heading west.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"With you, of course," she replied. "Don't you have a quest?"

"You don't have to come with us. We know which way to go." Jack didn't want to sound ungrateful for her help or her hospitality, but he was reluctant to draw anyone else into his search. Already Kerry and Corriwen had faced dangers on his behalf.

"Ah," Megrin responded. "Will you know what to do when you get there?"

She stopped on the road and looked down into his eyes. "You will be a good journeyman, Jack Flint, and a good journeyman takes help when it's offered. We all do the Sky Queen's work."

"I just want to find my father," Jack said. "I don't want anybody else to get hurt."

Now Megrin smiled. "Good for you. A nice thought. But your quest is more than you think. It is bound with Uaine's future and the righting of wrong. As is mine. Uaine is my world, and Bodron is my brother. I would not have you and Kerry and Corriwen face him without my help."

She patted him on the shoulder. "If you could find him, that is. He'll hide himself well."

Before Jack could respond, Kerry interrupted.

"Are you just going to leave him like that?" he asked. "The witchdoctor guy?"

Megrin turned. They were only a mile out from the village and the green barrier of living trees could still be clearly seen.

"Oh, for a while anyway." She smiled mischievously. "This way he can do some good and no mischief."

As they walked alongside her Jack noticed that the gossamer cloak and white fur hood were slowly darkening to the drab colours she had worn when they first met her. But she wasn't bent like an old woman any more, and she walked with a determined air, using her carved staff like a hiker. Sometimes, from the corner of his eye, Jack got the impression that she was skimming over the ground, rather than treading it.

"What's happened to your cloak?" Corriwen was curious.

Megrin smiled again. "That was just for show, you know. But you wouldn't expect me to travel in my summer best, would you? I prefer to slip into something more comfortable.

A few moments before, the hood was still discernible, but now Jack could see it was gradually transforming itself into an old shawl which covered her hair, and was tucked into the front of her long dark coat.

As they walked, Jack marvelled at how quickly they covered distance. The farmland gave way to moor and then hills which rose ever steeper as the road carried them higher, until they were walking in low clouds. Here, the air was cold and damp and a wind picked up, driving rain and sleet into their faces.

They were hungry and tired when Megrin called a halt. Jack saw they were on a windswept summit where three standing stones formed the legs of a colossal table, bearing a wide flat capstone in weather-worn granite. Beyond, where the sun was slowly sinking towards the horizon, the sky was a dark smudge on the horizon, the same purple shade they had seen in the night when the moon turned to angry red and the shadows came oozing out from dark places.

She herded them towards the shelter. Jack held back, eyeing the megalith with suspicion.

"Do you plan to brave the wind and sleet alone tonight?"

"I'm wary of standing stones," he said. "Every time we go through them we end up in trouble."

"I'm with Jack on that," Kerry said. Corriwen nodded her agreement.

Megrin chuckled, stooping to get under the capstone, and took her shawl off, letting her silver hair spill down her shoulders.

"That's the Faery Gates you're talking about. The gates between." She beckoned them to join her. "This is a Bor-Dion, as they say in the old tongue, a resting place carved from the hill and set here to shelter the weary."

Jack stepped forward. As soon as he was under the capstone the wind died, although, beyond the massive pillars he could see the tussock-grass and heather bent almost flat by its force. He allowed himself to relax and the cold began to seep out of his bones.

"They built well, the old people," Megrin said. "And cast their geas to ward off harm."

"I'm just glad to be out of the freakin weather," Kerry said, slumping down on the dry earth beside a small circle of stones where previous travellers had lit a fire. "It's like being back home in Scotland in winter. All drizzle and sleet"

He looked at Jack: "I'm frozen stiff. I thought this was supposed to be the summerland!"

"Uaine is the summerland," Megrin interjected. "But you know that all is not well here. The time has come to rectify that. If we can."

Kerry set about gathering wind-blown leaves and twigs which he crumpled together in the old hearth. Corriwen shook the rain from her hair and laid her cloak out to dry.

"Where are we going?" Jack asked. "And what are we supposed to do?"

Kerry flicked his little lighter to try to set the damp leaves alight. The flame flared out like a blowlamp again and he yelped as it scorched his thumb.

"Why don't you consult that book of yours?" Megrin replied. "It's led you on the right path so far."

Jack wasn't surprised she knew of the Book of Ways. There was a lot more to Megrin than he had suspected at first. He squatted down and drew the ancient book from his pack.

Kerry cursed under his breath and sucked his thumb, unable to set fire to the wet leaves. Megrin glanced across at him, frowned, then closed her eyes for a moment. She pointed a long finger at the unpromising pile of kindling and when she opened her eyes again, Jack saw them flash brightly for a mere fraction of a second.

Something whickered past him, an invisible twist in the air. He felt it clearly on his cheek, like a hot breath of dry wind. The firewood burst into flame with a sudden whoosh.

Kerry jerked back with a cry of alarm and fell hard with his feet in the air, frantically rubbing at his eyes. Looked up at Megrin who still stood with her finger pointing.

"You've burnt my eyebrows right off," he yelled. "You could have blinded me!"

Corriwen burst into peals of laughter. As Kerry rolled on the ground she slumped against Jack, helpless with mirth. Tears streamed down her face and he felt her convulse against him. It was the first in a long time that Jack had heard her really laugh.

"Oh stop," she cried, when she managed to get a breath. "I can't take any more!"

Kerry pulled his hands away from his eyes, glared up at them: "And what are you laughing at?"

Jack felt the laughter bubbled up inside him until his knees started to shake and he could take Corriwen's weight no longer. They sagged to the ground, holding on to each other.

"There's nothing funny in getting blinded," Kerry snorted. "Freakin' witchy magic!"

But that only set them off again until they were both knotted in a heap, unable to stop.

"A pair of kids, so you are," Kerry said. "We're supposed to be on serious business here!"

***

When the laughter began to subside, Jack sat up and rubbed his eyes. Every now and then Corriwen would give a little giggle which she was unable to suppress, even when she clamped a hand over her mouth.

"OK, OK," Jack said. "I'm laughed out and my stomach's sore."

"Yeah, very funny," Kerry said. He looked up at Megrin who seemed to have caught the laughter infection and couldn't hrlp but smile. "Next time you should give me some warning instead of blowing me to smithereens."

"I'll try to remember, Master Kerry," she said as she opened a little cloth bag and produced some of the bread and meat left over from the night before. "Now, about that serious business…."

Jack held the Book of Ways in both hands as the leather cover opened slowly and the pages purred until they stopped at a blank page. The words began to appear. Megrin leant over them as they huddled to read.

Road now leads to ring of power

Ever on to shadow glower

Heroes may be tested sore

Journeyman returns once more.

Heed the wise, yet follow heart

Journeyman must then depart

To face the weird of evil bane

Ever on to madness reign.

When they were done, Jack let the book close in his hands.

"It doesn't look good," he said.

"It never did before," Corriwen said, as brightly as she could, but both Jack and Kerry could read her. She knew there was trouble ahead, but she was ready to meet it. "And aren't we still whole?"

"I don't like this madness thing," Kerry said. "And I don't want to be tested sore again."

Jack managed a smile. "I told you to stay behind. This is my problem."

"Ah, how much you must learn, Jack Flint," Megrin interrupted. "I saw you all come through the gate a long time ago. The three of you as one. There's power in the number, the unshakeable triangle."

"It's like I keep telling them," Kerry said. "All for one and each for everybody else! But I still don't like this madness thing. I don't like mad folk."

Megrin ushered them round the fire and they sat around its glow, breaking off generous hunks of meat and bread. Megrin waited patiently until they had eaten their fill. The fire would die down every now and again but she would gesture with her fingers and it would flare hot again. Kerry remained wary, but somehow he managed to anticipate her and pulled back from the hearth. Though she tried, Corriwen failed to hide her mirth.

"This ring of power," Jack said, thinking about what they had just read. "It sounds like something in a book I once read. It was a magic ring that made you invisible. Do you know what the ring is?"

"I do," Megrin said. "And it is not the kind of ring that will fit your finger. It's our destination. I knew that before your book told you. It is where I am supposed to take you…first."

"And then what?" Kerry wanted to know.

"Then, if you are still as determined as you seem to be, we will go into the unknown."

"If it helps me find my father, I'll go anywhere," Jack asserted. "The Book says the journeyman returns once more. So where he's gone, that's where I'm going."

Without explanation, Corriwen gave Jack a quick, tight hug. "And we're with you."

"Me too," Kerry agreed. "Though I still don't like this madness stuff."

"Well said, all three!" When Megrin smiled, she didn't look at all like an old woman.

***

It was warm and dry under their shelter, and the fire stayed hot in the hearth.

Outside, night fell quickly and the moon shone down on them, silvering the ancient stone pillars. But when Kerry excused himself stepped out of the shelter not long after sunset, he returned with a puzzled expression on his face.

"The moon's all red again," he said.

Jack and Corriwen looked up, exchanged glances, then turned to Kerry.

"I mean, out there it's gone all bloody. From in here it's just the same as usual."

"The old stones protect us," Megrin explained. She stood between two pillars and raised her hands to shoulder height in front of her. Jack thought he saw two white shapes flutter out into the dark, but couldn't be sure.

"A little extra protection won't go amiss," she said. "Now, it's time to rest, for we have a journey in the morning."

She settled down, huddled herself into her cloak and became as still as stone. The three travellers crouched by the fire, tired, but unable to sleep yet. Corriwen sat and used her leather belt to strop her blades until they gleamed.

"I'm glad she's on our side," Kerry said, nodding towards where Megrin was sitting. "Gave me a fright at first, but she's pretty cool."

"Apart from burning your eyebrows off," Corriwen said, keeping her face straight.

Jack leant back against the pillar, absently cradling the heartstone in his hand, listening to them banter back and forth, and soon the voices faded and he fell into a sleep.

***

He jerked awake suddenly, his heart hammering. The heartstone throbbed. For a moment he was bewildered, unable to comprehend where he was. Kerry and Corriwen were huddled together by the fire, and Megrin was still a shadow.

Out in the dark, something grunted, so low it felt like a tremble in the ground and Jack's skin puckered all down his spine. Slowly he eased himself round the pillar and looked out into the night.

The two white wolves were back, white hackles bristling in stiff quills, pacing a perimeter barely a hundred paces away from where Jack crouched.

Beyond, the night was dark, but reddened by a faint glow from the angry moon, and in its shadows, other shadows loped and squirmed in a heaving mass. Now and then, yellow eyes would blare in the dark.

The image of those eyes hunting him through the darkwood came back all of a sudden and he held tight to the heartstone.

But the white wolves padded back and forth, back and forth, silent as ghosts, and the nightshades came no closer.

Jack shrank back, wishing to see no more.

Megrin spoke in a whisper, and her voice startled him.

"This is just the beginning," she said. "We are on the far edge of what is to come. Worse things will face you."

"That's what the Book of Ways said," Jack murmured, his heart quailing at the thought of what might be worse than those terrifying things. "It's never wrong."

"And you still want to go on?"

"I must go on," he replied. "I've come this far."

"You have a brave heart, Jack Flint. A journeyman's son. A journeyman now."

The heartstone pulsed slowly and he laid his hand on the hilt of the Scatha's great sword. A small vibration ran through his nerves, and he felt comforted.

"Nothing can breach the Bor-dion," Megrin said. "Not even the nightshades. And we are well guarded until morning."

In the dark, she reached out and touched Jack's cheek. Her hand felt warm and soft. Like the hand of a mother, he thought, even though he had never known that touch. It soothed his apprehension.

Soon he was fast asleep.