19

"What do you mean you never had a friend?"

Kerry was lying comfortably, his weight on one elbow, on the bank of the stream. The girl with gold-flecked eyes sat elfin-like, face cupped in both hands, studying him with great intensity.

At first he thought he must be dead and that she had to be an angel.

The last thing he could remember was running in the tunnel and then the water slamming him in the back. The next he was lying on warm grass. All around him, the sweet scent of flowers filled still air. Somewhere close, a little stream burbled over pebbles. Birds sang clear in musical notes.

And then he'd seen the girl, a slight figure sitting on a smooth stone, bare feet at the edge of the water. She had hair the colour of summer corn and wide, lustrous brown eyes. Her elbows rested on her knees and her chin was cupped in both hands.

"Hello!" It was all he could think of saying.

She stared at him silently.

"Are you an angel?" Kerry had begun. She shook her head.

"A fairy? Something like that?"

He was completely baffled. How he had suddenly arrived here was a mystery. Wherever here was.

The girl smiled and her eyes sparkled.

"I am Rionna. This is my place."

"Hi Rionna. I'm Kerry. At least I was Kerry. I don't know what I am now. Is this like heaven? Or limbo?"

"It's my place," she said, still smiling. "I brought you here."

She walked across the shallow water towards him, making neither sound nor splash, and knelt in front of him.

"You were in…danger," she said. "I felt your fear. It called to me. Here there is no fear."

Very tentatively she reached a delicate hand and touched his.

"Welcome Kerry. Safe in Rionna's haven."

"I don't know how you did it, but thanks. I'm awfully scared of water. I can't swim."

She leant closer, examining his face. Her free hand touched him on the side of his nose.

"What are these things? These marks?"

At first he was taken aback and touched his skin where she did. Their fingers met and a strange jolt sent a shiver up his arm.

"Oh, these? They're freckles. I get them all the time, being Irish. You want to see me in summer. I'm like a freakin' leopard."

She held his hand, her fingers warm.

"I knew someone would come, one day. I am glad it is you. I never saw a Kerry before."

"Oh, no. I'm just a boy."

She frowned, puzzled. "A boy?"

"Yes. Just a kid. Well, a bit more than a kid. But not a man. Not yet."

He grinned. "You mean to say you never met a boy before?"

She shook her head. "I never met anyone before."

"Well, just wait until you meet my friends."

Rionna leaned closer until they were almost nose to nose. She smelt of apple-blossom.

"What is a friend?"

"What? You mean you never had a friend?" Kerry repeated incredulously. "I mean, everybody's got friends. I've got Jack and Corriwen. Best friends I ever had."

"Where are they?"

"I dunno. We were in this room and I…I…saw horrible things. I just grabbed Corrie and pushed her out. I've been scared before, but this was different. It was like every bad thing in the world was going to happen. If I hadn't ran, I think I'd have dropped on the spot."

He lowered his head. "But Corrie wasn't outside and I fell down a hole. And Jack, well I don't know what's happened. I shouldn't have left him, but I couldn't help it.

"It makes fear," she said. "It makes terror and it feeds on it."

"What does? The thing in the chair? I saw - at least I thought I saw - a Roak. It's a big carrion bird from Temair. But this wasn't any Roak, believe me. It was the worst thing ever, times ten. It reached right into me, honestly it did."

"It only shows what it wants you to see," Rionna said. "It's a soul-eater. That's why I sang this haven. It's where I come to be free of it, out from its shadow."

Kerry sat up, now even more confused. "I don't think I got any of that. You mean you live in there? In that nightmare castle? And you sang this place?"

"I made a song in my heart," she said. "I sang here into being. Here is peace and safety. Beyond is madness. I have watched it grow strong and dark, and I have hidden from it for a long time."

"Jeez, if you can sing a place like this into existence, you'd be a smash hit at karaoke. That's a fine talent you've got."

"I heard you, felt your fear. It sowed the nightmare in your heart and your heart cried out to me. I urged you on and you came."

"That was you?" He recalled the sing-song in his head. Water comes…water goes…water rises…water flows… "I thought I'd flipped my lid."

She looked at him, uncomprehending. Kerry grinned. "Gone loony. Pure mental." He made a clockwise sign with his finger at his temple, but she didn't seem to have a clue what he meant.

"What about Jack and Corrie? What happened to them. "

She shook her head. "I don't know. I only heard you. You were in tune. You must have a good heart."

Kerry blushed. "No. That's Jack Flint you're thinking about. He's the good guy. The Journeyman."

She smiled at him. "Maybe, but your heart is true, and it called to me. That's why I opened a way."

He gave her his hand and she clasped it.

"I appreciate it, I really do. Another step and I'd have been a goner. An ex-Kerry."

She laughed, clear and innocent. Kerry got the impression she didn't do that too often.

"And it's a lovely place you got here. Look at the size of those trout! One of them would feed a family."

She laughed again and turned to look into the water. He saw her lips move and one of the big fish peeled away from the far bank and swam to the shallows, then gave a little flip and beached itself on the shingle.

"For you," she said.

He shook his head and nudged the trout back.

"That one looked tasty for sure, but it wouldn't be sporting, would it? Now if I could do that back home, I'd have no need of hooks and lines,"

"What is this home?"

"Oh, that's where I come from. Me and Jack, we're from Scotland, but there's this ring of standing stones, and when you go through…"

And once he started, he found he couldn't stop telling her of how they'd stumbled between the stones, desperately trying to escape the shadow that had pursued them into Cromwath Blackwood to Temair, and how they had found Corriwen. He told her all of their adventures while she listened, fascinated.

"A great hero you must be, Kerry," Rionna said when he'd finished. "And to have such friends. I knew you had a good heart."

"I can't believe I left them. To tell the truth, I was scared rigid. After I saw that thing, I was right out the door. Quick as a blink. Next second, I was in a tunnel with all that water at my back."

Kerry sat up to face her again. "What exactly is this thing?"

"Something brought from the underworlds to Uaine. I remember sunshine and stars when I was but little, but they are long gone. This brought the darkness."

"But what is it? We were told it's got something to do with Copperplates, which I don't know much about. They were stolen by some magician guy called Bodron."

Rionna lowered her head and closed her eyes for a second. To Kerry it felt as if a cloud had passed in front of the sun.

When she started to speak, Kerry just sat still and listened.

***

"Bodron is….he was…my father," Rionna began. "I barely remember him now, as he was, before he opened the Dark Way.

"And then everything changed.

"I remember my mother - she was beautiful. Golden hair and shining eyes. She died when I was very little.

"I didn't know it then, but I know now, that he cast a binding on her so that she lay still and never changed, and he beseeched the Sky Queen to bring her back, but she never answered.

"And from his despair came anger, dark anger. I was just a baby, but I could sense his rage and was afraid of it. An old woman nursed me then, and but for her, I might have starved.

"Then my father travelled to far places, and when he returned he was very different. Something burned in his soul. He brought us to this old keep to begin his work.

"That is when the darkness came."

Rionna paused. Her eyes were wide, but Kerry could see they were focused far in the past. He sat quietly and waited for her to continue.

"By the time I had learned to walk, I found a way to travel between places. Perhaps a gift from my mother, who was a Geasan woman from a far world beyond the standing gates. And it is just as well. Because what came with the darkness was cold as death and hungry too. The keep became a place of shadows and strange things. And there were shades in the shadows, unseen things of foul intent and evil mischief. They are loose in Uaine and poison the night."

"We've met some of them," Kerry interrupted, without meaning to do so. She didn't seem to hear him.

"I could wander unseen and slip between, to where I wanted to go. I would sit with my mother in the secret place where she lay, pale as a cloud, and hope that perhaps she might draw a breath and free my father from his bane. But she never did.

"From my hidden place, I watched him work night after day, consulting the shining pages that he had sought in far-off places, until one day he found a way to put them in order.

"I remember the change in the air at that moment. The dead coals in the hearth burst into orange flame, though the air turned cold, and in the middle of his chamber, appeared a a dark pit that led to who knows where. "From it, something emerged, something that defied the eye, hurt the soul.

"I had read his scripts, and I knew that this was a beast of dark places summoned to Uaine. And it brought its own minions, the nightshades.

"From that day I lived in fear and hid in the between places until I learned to make this haven with my song. Not even that demon can find me here."

"But why did your father want to conjure up a creepy monster?"

"Because he thought the Sky Queen had abandoned him. He summoned a lord of darkness and promised it Uaine if it would bring my mother back to life."

"And did it work?"

She shook her head. "What soul has gone to Tir-nan-Og may never return. She moved, the way a statue might move, but never talked. If this was life, then it wasn't how we would think it. Whatever came from that pit was in her, and her shape stalked the halls and passageways at night when the moon turned to blood.

"And it searched for me with a hunger I could feel in my soul, and from that day I have hidden."

"Just as well," Kerry said.

"A long time to be alone," Rionna said, "but here in my song-place, I have peace. While in my father's world, the beast waits and waits."

"For what?" Kerry asked, bemused.

"For the Talisman. I would listen to my father talk to himself - talk to it. The demon has promised him that the empty thing that walks the shadows will be given true life when it has the Heart of Worlds in its possession.

"The heart?" Kerry sat up quickly. He only knew of one heart, the one Jack wore round his neck.

"Yes. The key to worlds. An ancient thing that will allow the beast to bind Uaine to its black place and build a gateway for its legions. There are two hearts, each pure, created by the Sky Queen in olden times. It already has one of them. When it has its twin, then the gates of the underworlds will be thrown open. After that, madness and terror."

"It's Jack's heart!" Kerry couldn't stop himself. "The Key to Worlds. It's the Journeyman's heart."

"You know of it?"

"Know of it. Jeez, I've seen it. I've held it. The Morrigan nearly killed me for it. Jack got it from his father."

"And it is here in Uaine?"

"It's in your father's castle. 'Cos that's where Jack is, him and Corrie Redthorn."

Rionna's eyes went wide with alarm. "Then he is in awful danger, Kerry. I know from my father's scripts that he almost had both hearts in his possession, many years ago, and would have had it but for the courage of the bearer, who fought the shades and escaped."

"That must have been Jack's dad. Jack was just a baby at the time."

"It will not fail this time. It has waited and waited, as my father has weakened and weakened until I see nothing of himself at all, just the dark hunger he has raised from the pit."

Kerry got to his feet, and offered a hand to help her up. The sun was warm on his back and the scent of flowers filled the clean air. He would have given anything to stay a while in Rionna's secret world. Almost anything.

"Listen, Rionna. I'd love to hang about here, but I have to find Jack. I left him in that hall, with those…those things. I just ran away, and I know he'd never do that to me."

Kerry felt tears sting his eyes and blinked them back. "I'm so ashamed. So I have to find him, no matter what."

"There is only danger where he is."

"I've done danger before." He raised his face and pugnaciously stuck out his chin. "I was nearly a goner too many times to count, but you can't keep the Irish down. Jack's my friend. The best you could ask for. I have to get back and help him."

Rionna smiled up at him, slender and elfin, and her eyes sparkled in the sunlight.

"I knew you were a hero, Kerry-the-traveller. I have waited so long to meet a friend."

She took him by the hand and led him alongside the brook. A short distance downstream, she stopped at a place where a smooth rock overhung a deep pool. Still holding tight to his hand, she raised her own hand over the water and Kerry heard a pure sound, not unlike the crystal clear song of the golden harp on Tara Hill. She motioned him to look down.

The water swirled, and far down below the surface, an image began to take shape.

In the depths, he saw Jack Flint and Corriwen Redthorn approach Megrin's forest cottage.

A shadow passed over the water and when it cleared he saw them again, though now they were standing by a table, clutching each other. For an instant he was so surprised that he didn't recognise the place, but he recognised the look of horror on their faces.

On the very edge of the scene, he saw Megrin reaching out towards them as the skin of her face peeled away in papery strips. Underneath it was something as dark as night.

Jack's heartstone glinted as a long tendril reached from the dark, forming a claw-like hand.

Kerry jumped to his feet. Rionna's song cut off instantly, and below him, Kerry saw the scene freeze into a horrific tableau where Jack's eyes were fixed on the reaching claw, Corriwen's face was half-turned, one hand tight on Jack's arm, and the grasping claw hovered inches away from the Journeyman's heartstone.

"It's not where you think," Rionna said.

"I have to help them. How do I get out of here?"

She looked at him, her eyes glowing.

"There is terrible danger. I saw the heartstone. The demon has seen it too and covets it, and I fear for all of Uaine if it succeeds. It will stop at nothing."

"Well, I've got to stop it," Kerry cried. "And to hell with the danger. That's my friends it's messing with."

She nodded, motioned to him to look down, and began her song again, making small gestures with her free hand. The surface of the water rippled, followed the direction of her delicate fingers until it looked like a miniature version of a great whirlpool.

Kerry looked down into a galaxy of glittering stars slowly revolve in the depths. In the centre of them all, he saw the familiar crown of five bright stars,

"The Corona," he whispered. "The Sky Queen's crown."

Starlight sent beams of luminescence up from the surface until Kerry and Rionna were bathed in the light.

Rionna reached out, and the light wove around her fingers in strings of energy which she gathered together and wound until her hands blazed. It was as if she had harvested the light of a thousand winking stars and gathered it to herself.

"Come, Kerry," she said softly, taking him by the hand and pulling him down the slope to a little reed bed at the edge of the pool. She lowered the pulsing light almost to the surface, and one by one, the reeds curled around the light, weaving themselves into a basket, stalk by stalk until the light was contained within its fragile nest.

Rionna led him back to the rock overlooking the water and began to sing softly again as the ball of light in her hand sent colours spiralling across her face.

Kerry looked down again and saw Jack Flint shrink back from the reaching claw, one hand scrabbling for the great sword on his belt and the other moving to cover the heartstone. Corriwen was pushing past him, slashing with her glittering knife in a slow-motion dance.

"You wish to face this?" Rionna asked, and Kerry sensed the question in is head, for her crystal song still filled the air.

"I have to," Kerry replied. His throat was dry and made his voice croak.

"I knew you had a good heart," Rionna said. "You will need help."

Without pause, she tugged at his hand, towards the deep water. Kerry was taken by surprise as he felt his weight tip forward and then he was dropping.

"I can't swim….." he blurted as the surface came up to meet him.

Together they plunged into pool.

Kerry gasped for air. None would come. He felt himself tumble into icy cold.

"I can't swim!" His voice stretched out long and hollow. But Rionna's fingers were still clamped tightly to his wrist. His lungs hitched as he searched for breath.

Then they were not in water. They were flying, tumbling down through circles of luminescence. Rionna turned to him and smiled. Her free hand reached out and stroked his cheek as if to soothe his fears.

When her fingers touched him, Kerry landed hard on his feet, with such force he was driven to his knees and a shock of impact jolted through his bones. His ears popped and air flooded his lungs. Warm, smoky air, maybe, but air. He knelt on solid ground, whooping like an exhausted runner.

"Quick," Rionna urged. "We must move. No time to waste."

She hauled him upright and then they were racing down a dark passage very like the one where he had heard the bestial grunt in the dark.

"Where are we? This isn't Megrin's house."

"That was an enchantment. Nothing is real in this place. But what's not real can still harm."

"You're worse than the Book of Ways," Kerry said. "All riddles."

They came to an old door and Rionna pushed it open.

Kerry just had time to see Jack Flint cringe back from the claw, as Corriwen reached past his shoulder and slashed. The knife went through it as if through smoke but the claw still stretched out towards the heartstone.

***

"Jack!"

Kerry appeared right by his shoulder. Jack saw him stumble forward, almost into the creature's reach.

Then a small figure pushed past him, lithe as a cat. Jack glimpse a pale face and wide eyes. A girl.

She tore at something in her hands. Pieces of green reed shredded in her fingers and then a sudden light exploded, so blinding and fierce that everything stood out in black and white. The heartstone seemed to suck the light into itself. Jack felt its heat on his chest.

The twisting shape hissed like a snake. It gave Jack the second he needed to draw his sword. He swung it just as the claw snatched for the stone again and felt the blade shudder as it pierced the mass of shadow. An ear-splitting shriek ruptured the air.

The light in the girl's cupped hands arced between the sword and the heartstone and the shape dark began to shrink back into itself. The shriek rose to a hurricane roar as shards of light stabbed out from the sword blade.

Jack held the sword steady, his face lit up by the girl's magical light.

And with that, the creature was gone. Nothing remained but smoke and a reek of sulphur on the air.

Jack slowly lowered his sword, and he sank to his knees, totally drained.

There was a long silence before anyone spoke. Finally it was Kerry who did.

"Another fine mess we had to get you out of."