The Firehills Part 1

The Firehills.

STEVE ALTON.

AUTHOR'S NOTE.

Legends of a nonhuman race, inhabiting the land since ancient times and possessing magical powers, are common among the Celtic peoples of northern Europe. They were variously known as elves, fairies (or faeries), the Good People, or the Gentry. In Gaelic they were called the Sidhe-p.r.o.nounced SHEE-which was also the word for wind. For this reason, they were known as the People of the Wind. The Sidhe may be the same race as the Tuatha de Danaan-p.r.o.nounced THOO-a-hah day DAH-nawn. These people traditionally lived in Ireland before the invasion of the Milesians, a Gaelic tribe from Spain.

She is of the Tuatha de Danaan who are unfading . . . and I am of the Sons of Mil, who are perishable and fade away.

-Caeilte of the Fianna, in The Colloquy of the Ancients.

PROLOGUE.

Sam stood on the worn gra.s.s of the playing field, his coat collar turned up and his hands thrust deep in his pockets. High above him, a lone kestrel hung in the wind, a dark speck against the hard blue sky.

Sam s.h.i.+fted the focus of his mind, and suddenly he was looking down on himself, a hunched figure far below, dark against the green gra.s.s. Gazing out through the kestrel's wild yellow eyes, he felt the play of wind along the surfaces of its wings. Its tail feathers flexed and s.h.i.+fted as it battled to hold its position in the face of the gale. Easing himself into the hot flicker of the bird's mind, Sam became the kestrel, giving himself over to its fierce instincts as he scanned the gra.s.s for signs of prey. The gusting wind sent ripples through the chestnut feathers of his back. In an ecstasy of sky and air, he opened his beak and gave a high, harsh cry. Hanging there against the blue, he thought about how his life had changed since the events of the previous summer. Before that vacation-and his fateful encounter with the bard Amergin-life had been so simple. His greatest challenge had been to finish the latest computer game, his most serious concern how to avoid his parents and their endless museum visits. And then he had awakened Amergin from an ancient sleep and found himself plunged into a world he had never imagined. A world where dark creatures stalked the land, and magic filled the air. Hailed as a long-awaited hero, he stumbled from crisis to crisis, aided by Amergin and Charly, his newfound friends. In the end, though, he had been alone. His strange encounter with the Green Man and the final, desperate battle with the ancient evil of the Malifex had taken place far from any aid. And so it should have ended. Wasn't that how it happened in books, after all? The bad guy destroyed, the world saved, the hero returned from the field of battle?

Everything is back to normal. Except . . . something remained. The Green Man was gone, as was his evil twin, the Malifex. Their power was dispersed, back into the land from which they had been born. But something lingered from Sam's encounter. When he had taken on the Green Man's powers for that short time, some bond had been formed. If that power was dispersed, then some of it, at least, lingered around Sam and marked him out as different. An outsider-a stranger in his own world. Off in the far distance, a bell rang, and instantly Sam was back in his own body once more. The kestrel, free of his control, wheeled out over the chain-link fence that marked the boundary of the playing field and was soon lost to view. With a sigh, Sam turned and began the walk back to the line of school buildings, gray and unwelcoming in the distance.

CHAPTER 1.

Megan bustled around her workshop, humming under her breath. An a.s.sortment of cardboard boxes stood on the workbenches, shredded paper spilling out of them and on to the floor. She paused before a shelf, gla.s.ses perched on the end of her nose, and peered at the line of pottery faces. Tucking a strand of auburn hair behind her ear, she selected three and carried them over to a box, where she nestled them gently among the paper strands. The door clicked open, and Charly burst in, jumping down the steps and giving her mother a brief hug.

"How's it going?" Charly asked.

"Getting there," replied Megan. "Just a few more of the Green Man plates, then I'm all packed."

"Shame." Charly grinned. "I was going to offer to help. Amergin's leaping round the living room helping Buffy slay vampires. I thought it might be safer out here."

"A holiday will do him good. He's going square-eyed in front of that TV. Are you looking forward to our little trip?" Megan asked knowingly.

"Yeah, I suppose," replied Charly casually.

"Looking forward to seeing Sam again?"

"Mu-um!" Charly blushed. "I'm going. I'll take my chances with Amergin. Give me a shout, and I'll help you load the car."

"Even better," replied Megan, "send Square-eyes out here to give me a hand."

A few minutes later, the workshop door clicked open once more, and Megan glanced round, smiling. A tall, middle-aged man was framed in the doorway, piercing eyes beneath a sweep of graying hair. Closing the door behind him, he dropped lightly down the short flight of steps and strode across the room.

Megan detected an air of excitement about Amergin as he bent and kissed the top of her head. "Go on," she said with a sigh, "What now?"

Amergin's face broke into a grin. "I have seen a man of the most amazing powers! Superhuman strength, astonis.h.i.+ng speed, the ability to see through solid matter! And all this used in the service of justice-"

"Did he have a red and blue costume?" asked Megan wearily.

"Yes!" exclaimed the wizard. "That's the very man!"

"Superman. That would be Superman."

"Fiction?" asked Amergin, looking crestfallen. Megan nodded.

"I thought as much." Amergin sighed. "Oh, well. I must return," he continued, brightening. "Buffy's on!"

Ever since Amergin had awakened from his ancient sleep in the burial mound on Brens...o...b.. Hill behind Megan's farm in Dorset, he had been like a child in a sweetshop. Everything around him was fresh and new, and his keen mind soaked up information from every available source. Television was his great pa.s.sion. Megan was becoming concerned that he was receiving too much information too soon. The wizard lacked the background knowledge to separate fact from fiction, great drama from soap opera.

Megan watched his retreating back as he clattered up the steps, already practicing his vampire-slaying moves. She smiled to herself, tucked the strand of hair behind her ear once more, and returned to her packing.

In ones and twos, they made their way along the narrow streets of the town. Without seeming to try, they kept to the shadows. Only rarely did the orange glare of a streetlight fall on pale skin or glint on silver jewelry. The late-night holiday visitors making the circuit of pubs and clubs barely noticed them. Such sights were common. Every town had Goths, groups of surly youths and sullen teenagers, rebelling against conformity by dressing alike-black hair, black clothes, black looks in pale skin. From across the town they came, converging on a small door in an otherwise featureless expanse of brick wall. A dull, rhythmic thudding seemed to come from beneath the flagstones of the pavement. Above the door, a spidery sign in purple neon flickered on and off: The Crypt. Down a winding flight of stairs, past blank-faced security staff they paced, bolder now that they were underground. With a contemptuous push, the final doors swung open, and they plunged gratefully into their element. The noise here was deafening, a relentless pulsing felt in the chest as much as heard, making conversation almost impossible. Smoke and dry ice hung in the air, lit by the staccato flicker of a strobe light. Black-clad figures stood in small groups or huddled around tables, staring into the smoke or down at the stained purple carpet. One or two looked up as the double doors swung open once more and the latest arrivals made their entrance.

A man and a young woman strode across the room, and many pairs of eyes followed them. The furtive air that had marked them in the streets above was gone now. They walked with their heads high, he with a look of fierce owners.h.i.+p, she with an amused half-smile. He wore black leather pants and a baggy white s.h.i.+rt, collarless and unb.u.t.toned to mid-chest. Its flaring cuffs emerged from the sleeves of a long, flowing black overcoat. She wore what seemed to be a wedding dress, a sweeping creation of silk and lace complete with veil and train but all of it as black as midnight. Collecting drinks from the bar, Finnvarr and Lady Una moved to join a group leaning against a mirrortiled pillar and took up their positions. After exchanging nods with their companions, they stood in apparent silence, faces expressionless once more, seemingly lost in the pounding music. But between their minds, a mental conversation flickered like summer lightning. Welcome, my lord, thought one of the figures against the pillar, staring with apparent boredom at the dance floor. Welcome. Aye, welcome, chorused the others. Finnvarr inclined his head slightly in acknowledgment. His consort favored the group with a smirk.

What news, my lord? inquired a girl with black lips and a mane of purple hair.

We failed once more, came the mental response, cold and clear. Some power blocks us-I feel it. It is strong, but somehow . . . I cannot see it. It is hidden from me. But how can that be? asked a thin youth with a narrow face and a sneering mouth. No sorcerer remains who could resist us!

Fool! snapped the Lord of the Sidhe, the look of boredom dropping from his face for a moment. The sneering youth quailed, his eyes downcast. Do you dare to tell me my business? Regaining his composure, he continued. Some great power of the Elder Days lingers on. I feel it hovering on the edge of my reach. Something or someone acts as a focus for that power and blocks our efforts. We will never take up the mantle of the Dark One while ever that power remains. A mortal, my lord? asked another.

The Lord of the Sidhe shook his head, the mane of black and purple hair twitching around his shoulders. Mortals lack the discipline. Who among them would oppose us?

These weekend witches with their crystals and trinkets? Real estate agents and housewives, with their suburban covens? No, none remain who truly comprehend the Old Ways. Their kind is gone.

Then who?

I do not know. But I will find out. Send out word to our brethren: Continue the search. Leave no stone unturned. Whoever-or whatever-stands in our way will be found. And then I will crush them. This land will fall beneath the dominion of the Sidhe.

The mental conversation died away, leaving no trace on the blank faces. Only the girl in the black wedding dress allowed herself a smile, as the strobe lights flickered and stabbed through the smoke.

Charly skipped through the small herb garden that separated the workshop from the bulk of the cottage. Though she would never admit it to her mother, she was excited about their trip, and it was largely the prospect of seeing Sam again. Every year, Megan went to Hastings on the southeast coast to sell her pottery at the Jack-in-theGreen Festival, held in the ruined castle. This year, knowing that Sam and his parents lived close by, Megan had suggested that perhaps Sam might like to join them in Hastings for a few days. After all, Jack-in-the-Green was another name for the Green Man. Sam should be keen to see the festival for himself.

Charly had groaned and squirmed, but inside she was hoping and praying that Sam's parents would agree. When a letter had arrived thanking Megan for her kind offer, Charly had taken herself off to her favorite spot-a cl.u.s.ter of prehistoric burial mounds on the hill behind the farm-and in the thin spring suns.h.i.+ne danced her thanks to the G.o.ddess. The weeks had pa.s.sed in painful slow motion, but gradually the days lengthened, and April blossomed into May. And now the weekend was finally here. Charly let herself into the house, avoided the lunging figure of Amergin as he battled the undead from his perch on the sofa, and headed for her room to pack.

They set off very early the next morning. It was a long journey, and Megan would have to do all the driving. Amergin had expressed a desire to learn, but both Megan and Charly thought it would be wise to wait. The wizard was still too fascinated by everything he saw around him to be capable of keeping his eyes on the road. Amergin sat in the front pa.s.senger seat, and as they made their way eastward, he traced their progress on a series of large and unwieldy maps, chattering excitedly.

Just before midday, Megan spotted something that made her brake suddenly and swerve off the road into a field entrance. Off to the south was a gently sloping hillside of spring barley-fresh green and waving in the wind. Megan jumped out of the car and stood on the shoulder of the road, gazing out across the field. Charly and Amergin clambered out to join her.

"A crop circle!" exclaimed Charly.

"Mmm," said her mother, "odd."

"It's wicked!" replied Charly. She loved crop circles, and this was a particularly fine example, a huge central circle of flattened stems, throwing off spiral arms of smaller circles, decreasing in size as they swirled away into the field.

"Yes. Yes, it's nice," agreed Megan, "but it's the wrong time of year."

"How do you mean?"

"It just seems a bit early. Crop circles usually appear closer to harvesttime, when the crop's nearly ripe, though I've heard of circles in canola as early as May before. I don't know. They seem to be getting more and more frequent these days. It's probably all the hoaxers."

"Ladies, forgive me," interrupted Amergin, "but what is this thing?" He gestured across the road.

"Oh, sorry, dear," replied Megan. "It's a crop circle. They've been turning up more and more often in recent years. Some of them are almost certainly hoaxes, people shuffling around in the dark with planks and bits of string, but some of them-I don't know. Some of them look too good to be fakes."

"I see." Amergin looked troubled. "And has anyone seen what creates these . . . these circles? Have there been any tales of lights or strange energies?"

"Well, there are reports of UFOs being seen near circles, you know, flying saucers?" Charly explained. Amergin nodded.

Charly continued. "And people have reported radio waves and b.a.l.l.s of light and all sorts of things inside the circles."

"This is grave," muttered the wizard, "grave indeed," and fell silent.

They ate their packed lunches there on the roadside, gazing out at the huge spiral stamped on the landscape. Then with reluctance they climbed back into the stuffy car.

"Yonder lies the Camp of Goosehill!" exclaimed Amergin, thrusting out one finger and knocking the rearview mirror out of alignment for the eighth time. "A fine town in its time, before the shadow of the Malifex fell upon it. It dates, you see"-he screwed himself round in his seat to address Charly-"from the days when the Malifex sought to speed the destruction of the Old Forest by teaching men the secrets of iron."

"Mmmm," sighed Charly, staring out of the window.

"Nice." At first, she had been excited by Amergin's tales. They reminded her of that breathless summer with Sam, when they had battled the evil of the Malifex and her own powers had first begun to stir. But Goosehill was only the latest in a long series of hill forts, Roman villas, and ancient tombs that had attracted Amergin's eager interest since their journey had resumed after lunch. Now Charly just wanted the journey to be over. The holiday traffic was slow, and the sun beat down through the window. Charly continued to stare across the fields to the distant blue bulk of the South Downs, which had loomed on the horizon to their right for some time now. They reminded her of the ridge of hills behind their cottage, back at Woolgarston Farm, but these were much bigger and somehow more threatening. Their northern flank was scarred by deep clefts and gullies, like a row of clenched fists, and a dark blanket of trees clung to the steep slopes. Charly s.h.i.+vered and settled deeper into the back seat.

They followed the South Downs for much of the afternoon. Sometimes the downs were visible as a blue smudge on the southern horizon. Sometimes the road climbed their steep slopes or pa.s.sed through them in cuttings through the blinding white chalk. They stopped once more, briefly, to buy gas and stretch their legs. Then it was back to the car and a long, dull crawl through the traffic jams on the outskirts of Eastbourne. As the afternoon wore on, Charly finally succ.u.mbed to boredom and drifted off to sleep. Sam carried his small traveling bag out to the car and dropped it into the open trunk. As he turned to go back into the house, he noticed a group of figures across the street, loitering by a phone booth. They were dressed all in black, long coats and leather jackets, dark hair, pale faces, nose rings, and pierced eyebrows. Sam paused. He had seen groups of Goths and bikers hanging around in town, but it was unusual to see them out here in the quiet suburbs. They were standing in silence, staring sullenly at the ground or out into s.p.a.ce. But as Sam was about to turn away, one looked up, and their eyes met for a moment. Sam felt a shudder start at the base of his neck and run down through his shoulders. Turning quickly, he headed back into the house.

Ten minutes later, his father eased the car out of the driveway and turned left into the road, pa.s.sing the phone booth. Slumped in the back seat, Sam gazed out of the window with a feeling of mild anxiety, but the group had vanished. He settled back and closed his eyes. As the car pulled away smoothly, a handful of dry leaves, ragged survivors of the previous autumn, swirled briefly into the air and danced along the pavement. As quickly as it had arisen, the vortex of air collapsed, and the leaves whispered to the ground once more.

Charly awoke to find that they had arrived in Hastings. The car had slowed to a crawl in the holiday traffic pouring down into the town from the high ground to the north. Twisting her head from side to side to loosen the stiffness in her neck, she peered out of the window. The streets were teeming with holiday visitors, brightly colored hordes in T-s.h.i.+rts and shorts despite the weak spring sun. Tour buses were pouring out more of them every minute. The car reached the bottom of the long hill and crept around the corner onto the seafront. To her left, along a side street, Charly saw the cl.u.s.ter of strange buildings, narrow and dark, that loomed above the crowds. They looked like wooden sheds, painted a somber black, but they were three stories high, as if a collection of garden sheds had stretched upward to find the sun.

Megan, tired and irritable after the long journey, swerved out from behind a tour bus that had stopped to drop off its pa.s.sengers and sped off along the seafront. Soon after, however, she turned inland again and slowed as the streets became narrow and choked with parked cars. The engine began to labor as they climbed back up the hill. Rounding the squat bulk of the church of Saint Clement, patron saint of fisherfolk, Megan turned into a tiny side street and pulled to a halt. Above them, sheltering under the bulk of West Hill, towered the faded paintwork of the Aphrodite Guest House. Leaving Amergin and Charly to struggle with their bags, Megan strode inside to find the landlady, Mrs. Powell.

"My dear!" cried Mrs. Powell as Megan entered.

"h.e.l.lo, Mrs. P." replied Megan with a tired smile, bending slightly to embrace the old woman.

"You look dreadful. Come on in. I'll put the kettle on."

Mrs. Powell bustled off to the kitchen at the rear of the building, and Megan could hear the comforting clinks and clatters of tea being prepared.

As she wandered through to the kitchen in Mrs. Powell's wake, she heard the front door open and Amergin and Charly shuffle in with the luggage. She shouted, "This way!" over her shoulder and made her way to a battered old chair by the stove, where she collapsed with a sigh. Charly burst in moments later and ran over to Mrs. Powell. Grabbing her in a boisterous bear hug, she shouted, "Hi, Mrs. P." and stepped back.

Mrs. Powell turned and fixed her with a penetrating stare from the palest of blue eyes, then broke into a grin. "My dear," she said, "I swear you're prettier than ever! And so tall!"

Charly was, in fact, about the average height for her age, but even so, the top of Mrs. Powell's head barely reached her chin. The old woman was dressed all in black-a long black skirt and a baggy black sweater with a large and saggy turtleneck. Like Megan, Mrs. Powell was a practicing Wiccan, but unlike Megan, she believed in looking the part. In addition to her preference for black, she was festooned with an a.s.sortment of beads, chains, and mystical amulets. Her hair was dyed an alarming shade of foxy red, fading to a line of gray at the roots. All in all, she looked as excitingly witchy as anyone Charly knew. Mrs. Powell suddenly noticed Amergin, who was lurking by the kitchen door looking uncomfortable. She raised one eyebrow.

"Oh, sorry, yes," said Megan, "Mrs. P., this is Amergin. Amergin, Mrs. Powell."

"My dear lady," began Amergin, striding across the room with one hand extended, "delighted . . ." and then he faltered under the force of those piercing blue eyes.

"A pleasure, I'm sure," replied Mrs. P., shaking his hand as if it was a dead fish. "Megan has told me all about you."

Amergin gave her a nervous smile.

Mrs. P., her eyes never leaving Amergin's, said, "Well, you're very welcome in my house, Amergin." She turned to Megan, and the wizard visibly sagged with relief. "I've given you your usual rooms-first floor, with a view of the sea. Oh, my dear, it's super to see you again! I'll make a spot of dinner. No, I insist! Off you go! Freshen up! Come back down at six." And with that she began to clatter around the kitchen once more.

Precisely at six, they a.s.sembled in the dining room, taking their places around a battered old table. Mrs. P. bustled around with steaming bowls of food before collapsing into her chair in a jangle of beads.

"So," she began, "Charly. Tell me, has your mother spoken to you about your initiation?"

"Mrs. P.," interrupted Megan, "it's a little early to be thinking about that. She's only-"

"Megan," said Mrs. P. sternly, "look at the child."

"What about it?" Charly looked from Mrs. P. to her mother, then back again.

Megan sighed, looking suddenly tired.

"I think it's time, my dear," said Mrs. P. "From what you tell me, she's had, shall we say, adventures already. Who knows what the future holds?"

"She's too young." Megan frowned down at her plate.

"And besides, we've only just got here. There are preparations to be made, correct ways of doing things. We can't just rush into it."

"Flimflam," replied Mrs. P. "And you know it."