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But things written down lasted. They were the voices of Feegles who’d died long ago, who’d seen strange things, who’d made strange discoveries. Whether you approved of that depended on how creepy you thought it was. The Long Lake clan approved. Jea
It wasn’t easy, being a young kelda. You came to a new clan, with only a few of your brothers as a bodyguard, where you married a husband and ended up with hundreds of brothers-in-law. It could be troubling if you let your mind dwell on it. At least back on the island in the Long Lake she’d had her mother to talk to, but a kelda never went home again.
Except for her bodyguard brothers, a kelda was all alone.
Jea
‘Rob!’
Hamish and Big Yan came tumbling through the fake rabbit hole that was the entrance to the mound.
Rob Anybody glared at them. ‘We wuz engaged in a lit’try enterprise,’ he said.
‘Yes, Rob, but we watched the big wee young hag safe awa’, like you said, but there’s a hiver after her!’ Hamish blurted out.
‘Are ye sure?’ said Rob, dropping his pencil. ‘I never heard o’ one of them in this world!’
‘Oh, aye,’ said Big Yan. ‘Its buzzin’ fair made my teeths ache!’
‘So did you no’ tell her, ye daftie?’ said Rob.
‘There’s that other hag wi’ her, Rob,’ said Big Yan. ‘The educatin’ hag.’
‘Miss Tick?’ said the toad.
‘Aye, the one wi’ a face like a yard o’ yoghurt,’ said Big Yan. ‘An’ you said we wuzna’ to show ourselves, Rob.’
‘Aye, weel, this is different—’ Rob Anybody began, but stopped.
He hadn’t been a husband for very long, but upon marriage men get a whole lot of extra senses bolted into their brain, and one is there to tell a man that he’s suddenly neck deep in real trouble.
Jea
‘What’s this about the big wee hag?’ she said, her voice as small and meek as a mouse trained at the Rodent College of Assassins.
‘Oh, ah, ach, weel, aye…’ Rob began, his face falling. ‘Do ye not bring her to mind, dear? She was at oor wedding, aye. She was oor kelda for a day or two, ye ken. The Old One made her swear to that just afore she went back to the Land o’ the Livin’,’ he added, in case mentioning the wishes of the last kelda would deflect whatever storm was coming. ‘It’s as well tae keep an eye on her, ye ken, her being oor hag and a’…’
Rob Anybody’s voice trailed away in the face of Jea
‘A true kelda has tae marry the Big Man,’ said Jea
‘Oh, fine, fine,’ Rob burbled. ‘But—’
‘And ye ca
‘Ach, it wasnae that big,’ said Rob Anybody, desperately looking around for a way of escape. ‘And it wuz only temp’ry, an’ she’s but a lass, an’ she wuz good at thinkin’—’
‘I’m good at thinking, Rob Anybody, and I am the kelda o’ this clan, am I no’? There can only be one, is that not so? And I am thinking that there will be no more chasin’ after this big wee girl. Shame on ye, anyway. She’ll no’ want the like o’ Big Yan a-gawpin’ at her all the time, I’m sure.’
Rob Anybody hung his head. ‘Aye… but…,’ he said.
‘But what?’
‘A hiver’s chasin’ the puir wee lass.’
There was a long pause before Jea
‘Aye, Kelda,’ said Big Yan. ‘Once you hear that buzzin’ ye never forget it.’
Jea
‘Aye, but nae one in his’try has survived a hiver! Ye ca
‘But wuz ye no’ tellin’ me how the big wee girl even fought the Quin and won?’ said Jea
‘Aye, but a hiver’s worse than—’ Rob began.
‘She’s off to learn hagglin’ from other hags,’ said Jea
Chapter Two
Twoshirts and Two Noses
Twoshirts was just a bend in the road, with a name. There was nothing there but an i
It sat and baked silently in the hot afternoon sunlight. Right in the middle of the road an elderly spaniel, mottled brown and white, dozed in the dust.
Twoshirts was bigger than the village back home and Tiffany had never seen souvenirs before. She went into the store and spent half a pe
When Tiffany came out she found Miss Tick standing next to the sleeping dog, frowning back the way they’d come.
‘Is there something the matter?’ said Tiffany.
‘What?’ said Miss Tick, as if she’d forgotten that Tiffany existed. ‘Oh… no. I just… I thought I… look, shall we go and have something to eat?’
It took a while to find someone in the i
Miss Tick also asked for a fresh egg, not cooked, in its shell. Witches were also good at asking questions that weren’t followed by the other person saying ‘Why?’
They sat and ate in the sun, on the bench outside the i
She had one in the dairy too, but that was for cheese and butter records. This one was personal. She’d bought it off a pedlar, cheap, because it was last year’s. But, as he said, it had the same number of days.
It also had a lock, a little brass thing on a leather flap. It had its own tiny key. It was the lock that had attracted Tiffany. At a certain age, you see the point of locks.
She wrote down ‘Twoshirts’, and spent some time thinking before adding ‘a bend in the road’.
Miss Tick kept staring at the road.
‘Is there something wrong, Miss Tick?’ Tiffany asked again, looking up.
‘I’m… not sure. Is anyone watching us?’
Tiffany looked around. Twoshirts slept in the heat. There was no one watching.
‘No, Miss Tick.’
The teacher removed her hat and took from inside it a couple of pieces of wood and a reel of black thread. She rolled up her sleeves, looking around quickly in case Twoshirts had sprouted a population, then broke off a length of the thread and picked up the egg.