The Switchers Trilogy Part 37

'Declan invited me in,' he said.

Declan nodded. 'People can't see the door because of an illusion; fairy glamour, it's called. But we can take it off if we choose to. If there's someone we want to let in.'

Tess felt hurt. 'Why didn't you take it off for me, then?' she asked.

To her disgust, Declan roared with laughter. 'I wanted to see if you could find your own way in,' he said. 'And besides, it was fun watching you wearing your brains out trying to understand what was going on.'

He laughed again and Tess decided to ignore him. She turned back to Kevin. 'Why didn't you come out, then?' she asked. 'Since you seem to be especially privileged around here.'

'Would you have, Tess?' said Kevin, looking towards the three children. 'Would you have left them here with him?'

Tess's heart seemed complete again. Whatever else might happen, she was rea.s.sured. This was the Kevin she knew and trusted.

If little Colm understood the conversation, he showed no interest in it. He tugged at Tess's hand and, when she didn't respond, he let go of it.

'Go home now!' he whined, and set off for the hole at the entrance to the hall.

He was small enough to crawl through easily. At least, in his own shape, he was. But as he dropped towards his hands and knees to go through, he turned into a pig. A large pig. Far too large to go through the hole.

Declan snickered, and despite herself Tess laughed as well.

'Why doesn't he try something smaller?' she said.

'Because it isn't him that's doing it,' said Kevin. 'It's Declan.'

Declan smiled and gave a mock bow. 'A simple enchantment,' he said.

'But how?' said Tess. 'I don't understand.' She turned to Declan. 'Who are you, anyway?'

'You know who I am,' said Declan. He nodded towards her cousins. 'I'm Maurice's brother; their uncle.'

'But you can't be. You're too young.'

Declan shook his head. 'I just look young,' he said. 'I'm what you could be, and your cousins. And what he could have been if he'd had the sense, poor soul.'

'Don't "poor soul" me!' said Kevin. 'I don't need your pity!'

'Maybe not,' said Declan. 'But I bet you'd change places with me if you could. Don't you think so, Tess?'

Tess suspected he might be right, but in deference to Kevin's feelings she said nothing.

'I did what you all wish you could do,' Declan went on. 'I didn't give up the gift when I turned fifteen. I kept it.'

'But you can't!' said Tess. 'You have to ...'

Declan interrupted her. 'You have to blah blah blah,' he said. 'You have to nothing. We discovered something, your uncle and I.'

'Uncle Maurice?'

'Who else? Shall I show you, Tess? Shall I show you what Maurice and I discovered in these woods?'

Tess hesitated, remembering the weird things she had seen and the fear she had experienced. What was happening here still frightened her.

'I'm not going anywhere,' she said. 'Not until I understand what's going on here. Will someone please explain?'

As soon as Colm stopped trying to get out of the crawl-hole he was relieved of his pig shape. To keep him occupied, Brian Switched into C3PO, and in immediate response, Colm turned into R2D2. Tess was satisfied as another mystery was explained, but she couldn't help wis.h.i.+ng that she had thought of it herself, and tried it. The two metal men went to the far end of the hall, where Brian responded to his brother's bleeps and whirs in soft, patient tones.

Meanwhile, the others flopped around on the silken cus.h.i.+ons and listened as Declan told his story.

'Maurice was the first to discover that we could change ourselves into other things,' he began. 'You mean Uncle Maurice was a Switcher, too?' said Tess.

'Is that what you call us?' said Declan. 'Switchers?' Tess nodded, still trying to absorb the unlikely information.

'It isn't the word I would have used,' said Declan, 'but I suppose it doesn't matter. He was the first of us to discover it, and for a long time I was afraid, and wouldn't join him when he came out here to play with the Good People.'

'The Good People,' said Tess. 'You mentioned them before, Orla, didn't you?'

'Fairies,' said Orla. 'It's what people called them in the old days.'

'That's right,' said Declan. 'And back then there were still people who believed in their existence. In our existence, I should say. My mother was one of the last of them, I suppose. No one believes in us now.'

'Of course they don't,' said Tess. 'I mean, fairies! How could anyone believe in them?'

Declan plumped up a few more cus.h.i.+ons and stretched himself out comfortably, propping his chin on his elbow. 'I think,' he said, 'that we'll have to start at the beginning. In ancient times. Do you want to explain it, Orla?'

Orla nodded and took up the story. 'I'm sure that there's nothing you don't know already,' she said. 'But maybe you forgot. Everyone does.'

'I didn't,' said Kevin.

Tess kicked him playfully. 'Smarty-pants,' she said. 'You didn't even go to school!'

'That's why I remember it,' said Kevin. 'I read it because I wanted to and not because I had to.'

'All right, all right,' said Tess. 'Go on, Orla, will you?'

She did. 'Do you remember all that legendary stuff about the Fir Bolgs who were the first inhabitants of Ireland, and then the Tuatha de Danaan came along, Danu's people, from across the seas, from Tir na nog?'

'The Land of Eternal Youth,' said Tess.

'That's right. There are lots of stories about those people,' Orla went on. 'The books are full of them. They were a race of magicians and they could change their shape and work magic spells.'

'Oh, yes,' said Tess. 'Like the Children of Lir.'

'But do you remember what happened to them? To Danu's people?'

'I do,' said Kevin. 'There was a great battle when the Milesians came to Ireland. The Tuatha lost. They were allowed to stay in Ireland on one condition.'

Tess's skin crawled. 'I remember that bit,' she said. 'The condition was that they stay below the ground.'

There was a pause as she allowed the new implications of the old story to sink home.

'So they did,' said Declan. 'Most of the time, at least. But sometimes at night they came out and danced in the ruins of their old homes, and the rings came to be known as fairy forts.'

'And sometimes people caught glimpses of them by day as well,' said Orla. 'In wild places, like this one, where people rarely come.'

'The country people saw them often enough to know that they still existed,' said Declan. 'Even the Church failed to wipe out belief in them, though the priests tried hard enough. But a strange thing happened over the generations.'

'What happened?' asked Tess.

'We diminished in size,' said Declan.

'How?'

Declan readjusted himself again. 'It wasn't exactly that we got smaller,' he said. 'It was that people believed that we did. It's a feature of fairy glamour that we exist as people perceive us to exist. So if people expected to see "Big People", then that's what they saw. And as we became known as "Little People", then people saw us as little.'

'Anything to oblige,' said Kevin.

'Maybe,' said Declan. 'But in any event, as people's belief in us diminished, so did we.'

'But why do you keep saying "we"?' asked Tess.

'Because all of us here have Danaan blood in our veins. That's why we have the powers that we have.' He glanced at Kevin. 'Or had, as the case may be. For myself, I chose to keep them.'

'You were going to explain that,' said Tess. 'This is where we started from.'

'I'm getting there,' said Declan. 'When our fifteenth birthday came around, I decided to stay as I was. One of the Tuatha de Danaan.'

'A fairy,' said Kevin.

'If you like,' said Declan.

'And. Daddy didn't,' said Orla.

'He promised he would,' said Declan, and a tone of bitterness entered his voice. 'But when it came to it he lost his nerve. He didn't believe strongly enough.'

It was like getting to the end of a jigsaw. Everything was coming together, now.

'That's why he kept visiting the woods after you disappeared,' said Tess. 'Of course everyone thought he was mad. He couldn't tell anyone the truth.'

'And that's why he wants to sell the land,' said Brian, who had run out of patience with the Star Wars game and come over to join them. 'And why he's so angry all the time. It still hurts him to know that Declan is here.'

Declan nodded. 'He feels that I abandoned him,' he said. 'But it was him who chickened out.'

There was a great depth of sadness in his tone as he spoke, and Tess realised that the same sense of loss was in Uncle Maurice as well, beneath the anger that arose so readily. She remembered hearing about twins; about how close they could be, and she was aware that there was something unresolved in the story.

'And now you're getting your own back, is that it?' she asked.

Declan's face revealed the bitterness he felt. 'He wants to sell the land, don't you understand? He wants to destroy my home; the only thing I have.'

'And what would happen if he did?' asked Kevin. 'Where would you go?'

'Where the rest of us go who have been displaced by what you call "development",' said Declan. 'Away from your world forever. Back to Tir na nog.'

At last Tess felt that she understood. Uncle Maurice, perpetually tormented by loss and guilt, intended to get rid of the problem once and for all, in the only way he could.

'He thought he could be free of me,' said Declan. 'But I have outwitted him.' He turned to Kevin and laughed, a sound made sinister by the words that followed. 'It was your pied piper antics that gave me the idea,' he said. 'He'll never, ever sell the place now.'

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.

WHILE THEY WERE TALKING, Colm had resumed his efforts to get out of the crawl-hole. Each time he failed he retreated and tried a different shape: a beetle, a snake, a mouse. But as soon as he got anywhere near the entrance he turned back into the porker and got stymied again.

While she watched him, Tess reflected on what she had learnt. It seemed that Lizzie was right yet again, and that it was ancestors and not ghosts that haunted the woods and wild places of the land. It made sense, too. There were plenty of stories about affairs and marriages between members of the fairy host and humans. Why shouldn't a bit of the old, wild blood have survived to enable children to use the ancient, magical power?

Colm retreated once again, and the puzzled expression on his face would have made Tess laugh if the situation hadn't been so serious.

'You can't do this,' she said. 'You can't hold the children here for ever.'

'Who says I can't?' said Declan. 'Besides, I don't have to. As soon as they get hungry enough they'll join me at my table. Then they will belong to this world, and they'll never return to that other one, out there.'

'But that's not right, Declan,' said Kevin. 'You know it's not right. People have always been tempted by the fairy world, but there was never anything in the stories about coercion. You can't force anyone to stay here if they don't want to.'

'Why not?' said Declan. 'This is my sidhe. In here I am the king. I can do as I please.'

Tess feared that he was right, and that none of them would ever know freedom again. But she couldn't give up.

'Why should you keep us here, though?' she said. 'Why should you want to? Your brother is out there now. He's sure to agree to any kind of deal you want, if you offer him his children in return.'

'I made a deal with him before,' said Declan, bitterly. 'He broke his word then and I don't have any reason to believe that he won't do it again. Why should I trust him?'

'Because that's what all this is about, really,' said Kevin. 'I've just realised it. This isn't the first battle of the war, is it? It's the last one. This feud has been going on between you two since you were both fifteen.'

Declan looked away and Tess knew that Kevin was right.

'He has always denied my existence,' said Declan. 'Even though he knows the truth he refuses to believe it.'

'Then talk to him,' said Tess. 'You have to give him a chance to negotiate.'

'Why?'

'Because ...' The answer wouldn't come to Tess. She dried up. But Kevin surprised her.