First Aid for Fairies and Other Fabled Beasts Read online

  Everything was still.

  They were too far now from Ettrick Water to hear its splash and flow. There were no cars, no birds. Only the light tapping of the drizzle on grass and trees.

  Rona strode straight to the well and stuck her hand in. She methodically searched the bottom of the trough. “Nothing here.”

  “Try the spout.” Helen and Yann spoke at exactly the same time. Helen turned to Yann and smiled nervously. He grinned back.

  Rona’s slim fingers investigated the ridge in the stone spout sticking out from the wall.

  “Yes!”

  She pulled out a small, dripping package and carried it over to the others. As they stood in the centre of the grassy space, under the branches of the tree, her shining wet fingers unfolded a large, irregularly-shaped piece of leather. They all reached out to touch it, then Yann said, “We must hold it fast, like Janet.”

  So they grasped the ragged edges of the leather with their right hands or claws. Helen had just opened her mouth to say, “Now let’s read it,” when there was a sudden sound from above them. A hiss.

  They looked up at the silhouettes of branches and twigs against the dark grey sky. The branches were moving; not blowing in the wind, but shifting and slithering.

  “Hold on!” yelled Yann as shapes and hisses dropped heavily from the tree onto them and the leather they all held.

  At first, Helen thought the tree had fallen on them, but the branches were coiling and writhing tightly round her forehead and wrists. She realized with horror that she was covered in snakes.

  They all cried out at once, screams and moans and shouts of fear. But only Yann used words.

  “Hold fast!” he yelled again.

  Helen felt a snake creep right round her neck, hissing into her ear, and she used her left hand to haul the snake off and throw it into the well. Her throat was free again but she was having difficulty breathing, as the feeling of snakes slithering round her body had brought her to the edge of panic.

  “Don’t let go!” ordered Yann. “The Book says we have to hold fast.”

  “We should run fast, not hold fast,” gasped Helen. She knocked a snake off Rona’s head and kicked away another that was trying to climb up her own leg.

  They were all trying to escape the snakes without letting go of the clue. They were standing on each other’s feet, tripping over snakes and slipping on the wet grass. Then Helen smelt a smell; a farmy smell, a goaty smell. She suddenly realized it was the smell that she had dismissed at lunchtime when Lavender had kept nagging her about it.

  “Oh no! They were with us in the library! They heard us when we found the clue!”

  “Yes, you were very helpful, human girl. You know our silly little stories better than we know them ourselves.”

  She twisted round, to see where the sniggering voice was coming from.

  “Now, children. Give me the clue.”

  They were surrounded by dark shapes, almost as tall as men but with flicking tails behind them, and what seemed to be great hairy trousers.

  “Fauns!” snorted Yann. “Always the Master’s little helpers. I’m not afraid of you, you stinking two-legged creatures.”

  “You should be, colt. You should be terrified of us,” growled the largest of the fauns. “Now give me the clue.”

  Yann said simply, “No.”

  “Give me the clue, or you will regret it.”

  Yann repeated quietly, “No.”

  Then Helen whispered, “No,” and the others said it too. “No. No. No.” None of them would be the first to let go.

  “One last chance, children. Give me that clue!”

  This time they all answered in one strong voice. “NO!”

  The fauns leapt on them. Using their strong men’s arms, and their powerful goat legs, they tried to pull the children away and grasp the leather themselves. But the circle of friends stayed close and held on tight.

  Helen gritted her teeth against the smell, the whipping of tails, the grabbing of hands and the snakes still coiling round her.

  The circle round the clue didn’t let go. They couldn’t really fight, as they had their backs to their attackers, or at best could only turn side on, but they could use their free arms, claws or wings to defend the friend standing at their side, and they could all stamp on snakes and kick goaty legs.

  For a moment or two, in a strangely quiet battle, the friends held firm. There was hissing, breathing and grunting. But no more words.

  When Helen felt her grip on the wet leather slipping, she dug her nails in, made a fist and crumpled up her edge of the clue as tight as she could. She had tears running down her face and hardly knew what she was doing, but any time she saw a snake on Rona to her left she threw it off, and knew that Yann was doing the same for her to her right. Whenever she felt a faun behind her, she kicked back into its legs or thrust an elbow into its belly.

  But how long could they hold on? What use was holding fast when they needed to escape?

  Then she felt movement under her feet. Thinking it was another snake, she stamped her heel down, but her heel sank into crumbling soil. The ground was shifting; rising in a dome shape under their feet.

  There was a sudden explosion of earth and turf. A massive black shape rose out of the ground, bellowing and shaking a great heavy head free of earth. As the creature reared up, two huge curved horns pierced the leather and pulled the clue up and away from the circle of friends. They held fast for as long as they could, but as they were lifted off the ground, their own weight ripped the clue from their grasp.

  Then the snakes and fauns fell on them from all sides.

  Helen still had her hand in a fist but the leather had slipped away. She used the fist to hit the nearest faun, then looked around her.

  Lavender had held on longest to the leather, fluttering on the edge, but she was thrown off as the huge monster shook his head and the leather flapped violently. Helen caught Lavender as the fairy fell backwards through the air, then she tried to run for the river but tripped over a snake at her feet. She fell onto the wet grass and curled up round Lavender, surrounded by a chaos of stamping and trampling.

  Helen raised herself onto her hands and knees and tried to crawl away but, as soon as she moved, sharp hooves kicked into her ribs and legs. She sank down again, and the kicking stopped. All she could do was make her body into a barrier between those hooves and her smallest and most fragile friend.

  Even with her eyes closed, Helen could still see the monster. A huge hairy black head with twisted silver horns, resting on massive shoulders. An animal’s head and a man’s shoulders. The Master of the Maze; a Minotaur with a bull’s head and a man’s body.

  But his head was not like the bulls her mother treated. It was not the head of a farm animal, but of an ancient creature; a huge, violent, prehistoric steer or aurochs.

  Helen became aware of fewer thuds on the grass round her head. Perhaps the fauns had moved away? Perhaps she could escape now? She lifted her head slowly to find a snake’s beady eyes only a tongue flick from her face.

  She shivered and slid one hand out from under her to grab the snake. An air-crushing roar erupted from the well. The snake lowered its head and slithered off. Helen twisted round to see what was happening behind her.

  Sapphire was crouched on the ground, hissing and rumbling, but not attacking the fauns. The largest faun stood in front of the dragon, holding Rona and taunting, “If you light a fire, lizard breath, I will grill seal meat on it.”

  Catesby flew at a faun’s face, but the faun ducked, grabbed the phoenix’s left wing, swung him round and let go. The bird crashed into the tree trunk and fell in a heap at the base of the wall.

  Yann was struggling with two fauns, who were clinging to his horse’s back and grabbing him round the neck. He reared up, threw them off, then pivoted round and kicked at the huge shape of the Minotaur.

  The clue was no longer on the creature’s horns but held in his human hands, rolled up like an old parchment.


  The Master held the roll high in triumph and laughed at Yann. Then he shouted in a hoarse strangled voice, “The clue is mine! The Book is mine! The answers will all be mine!”

  “Never!” screamed Yann, and lashed out again, catching the Master on the side of the head with one of his heavy front hooves.

  The Minotaur stepped beneath the flying front hooves, hooked one massive foot round Yann’s back hooves while the centaur was still off balance, and lifted the horse’s belly on to his man’s shoulder. Using Yann’s own weight and momentum to flip him into the air like a toy, the Master sent him crashing to the ground.

  Yann looked small and crumpled on the grass as the Master towered over him.

  There was silence. Every one of the friends was unmoving on the ground or held in the strong arms of a faun.

  “What shall we do with them, my victorious Master?” asked the largest faun.

  “Leave them to lick their wounds and savour their failure, Frass,” the Master’s voice grated. “When I have the power of the Book, these children will be the first to bow down before me, in front of their proud parents.”

  The Master turned and stepped off the grass. His bare feet booming on the road, he walked away from Tam Linn’s well. The snakes vanished into the trees and the fauns trotted after their master.

  Lavender was crying in Helen’s quivering arms. Catesby was squawking feebly at the base of the stone wall. Rona and Sapphire were hugging, both sobbing. And Yann was lying, motionless, on the ground.

  Chapter 15

  Helen was shivering. She stood up slowly. “Who’s hurt?”

  No one answered.

  “Who’s hurt?” she asked again.

  “We’re all hurt,” gasped Rona. “But what we have done can never be fixed.”

  “We’ll worry about the clue and the Book once we’re all warm and moving. Who’s hurt the most?” insisted Helen. “Everyone stand up, try to walk or fly. Tell me if anything’s broken or bleeding, or if you’re faint or light-headed.”

  “I can move,” whispered Lavender.

  “Me too,” said Rona. Sapphire grunted.

  Catesby squawked weakly. Rona crawled over to the wall and picked up a heap of dull brown feathers. “Catesby can’t move his right wing,” she called.

  Helen said, “Keep him still. I’ll look at him in a minute.” Then she walked stiffly over to Yann.

  “Yann. Can you move? Yann. Can you hear me?” There was no movement, no sound. “Yann, please. Oh please, Yann!”

  She knelt down by his head and looked into his face. His eyes were closed. “Lavender, more light here, please.”

  Yann turned his head away from her, away from Lavender’s light.

  “Oh thank goodness,” whispered Helen.

  “Go away. Just go away and leave me alone. I don’t want to be healed. I’d rather be dead than bow down before that creature.”

  “Yann, he’s not won yet. He’s only got the clue, not the Book. Don’t give up. Tell me what hurts.”

  Yann scrambled to his hooves, and yelled in Helen’s face.

  “I’ll tell you what hurts! We were set a test by the Book and we failed. We just had to hold fast; just hold fast like some mere human girl managed many years ago … and we failed. We have all this power, knowledge, strength and magic but we lacked the courage to hold on. We failed and we don’t deserve the Book.”

  Helen looked at him and said briskly, “Well, you can move and you aren’t bleeding too much. I diagnose damaged pride. Catesby however has a real damaged wing, so I’m going to fix that first.”

  She turned her back on Yann, and limped over to the phoenix. His right wing was crooked, and his head was lolling on Rona’s hand.

  Helen said, “I need lots of light, Lavender, and Yann, could you come and open the first aid kit for me?”

  Yann humphed, but took the green rucksack from Helen. She asked for her exotic animals book, and leafed through it to the section on parrots and birds of paradise. Light rain fell on the pages, but she wiped the words dry and read the short paragraph on broken wings:

  “Exotic birds with broken wings, like race horses with broken legs, are usually permanently damaged. It is advisable to put them out of their misery rather than waste resources repairing them.”

  Helen looked at Catesby, then glanced at Yann. She shook her head and mumbled, “Well, that just won’t do.”

  Then she tried to feel the bird’s wing, but as soon as she touched it, he stiffened and squawked in pain.

  She asked Yann for the syringe of painkiller and read the sticker on the box that listed how many millilitres was recommended for each size of animal. She estimated that Catesby weighed about the same as a cockerel, and gave him a little less than the stated amount just to be safe. As soon as Helen injected the drug he relaxed in Rona’s hands, and she was able to feel that the wing was broken halfway between the shoulder and elbow joints. It seemed to be a simple fracture, broken in only one place.

  “Can you find a splint in the bag?” she asked Yann.

  “I think the fauns must have kicked you a couple of times,” he said. “The splints are in pieces.”

  “They kicked me more than a couple of times,” she replied, “but I need a splint before we can move Catesby. Lavender and Sapphire, can you hunt for a thin branch about the length of my forearm and as straight as possible?”

  Lavender found a branch, and Sapphire brought it carefully to Helen, who used sticky tape to bind it gently to the wing.

  “I’ll need to take Catesby home and do this properly with a real splint and tape that isn’t damp, otherwise his wing will heal squint and he won’t be able to fly.”

  Catesby squawked quietly and Helen raised her eyebrows at Rona.

  “Phoenixes heal fast,” Rona explained, “so if you can help him keep his wing straight, he will soon be able to fly again. He thanks you for taking away the pain. If you hadn’t done that he may have had to burn himself up, and then he wouldn’t have hatched again in time to help us find the Book.”

  “So, phoenixes really do burn and become eggs again?”

  “Oh yes, but they can only do it seven times, so they don’t like to waste it.”

  Helen took off her fleece and wrapped the bird in it. Yann shoved everything back in the rucksack and handed it to her.

  “Thank you for helping me,” she said.

  “I was helping Catesby,” he replied and turned away.

  Helen rummaged in the front pocket of the rucksack, where her Mum kept a human first aid kit. Underneath the plasters were some Arnica tablets, which she insisted that everyone suck, to stop their bashes and bumps becoming bruises.

  Yann raised his voice and got everyone’s attention.

  “We must find the Master, before he finds the Book, but how?”

  Lavender answered, “I saw a little of the clue when I was holding it. I saw the words ‘brothers and sisters.’ Does that help?”

  “That’s not enough to get to the Book before him. Any other ideas?”

  Rona said, “The clue was badly ripped when his horns tore it from our grasp. I think he will have to repair it before he can read it. If we can find his lair before he reads the clue, we might be able to work it out before he can.”

  It was decided that Helen would take Catesby home and splint his wing, while the others would split up and ask questions of their elders and their storytellers; those who might know where the Minotaur lurked when he was in Scotland.

  “But don’t let them know why, not yet,” Yann instructed. “If they discover that we’ve lost the Book, they will waste precious time shouting, panicking, blaming people and arguing about what to do … just like we did at the start … and we will lose this small chance to get the clue back.”

  As Sapphire crouched down for Helen to climb up with Catesby in her arms and the squashed first aid kit on her back, Yann trotted up to them. Helen turned to face him.

  “Catesby, my friend. If we challenge the Master again and lose,
he will not let us live. Let the human girl heal you and then tomorrow, when you wake, if we are not safe in our beds and the Book is not safe in its box, tell our families what we did and how we failed. Then see if they can do any better.” Yann stroked the bird’s coppery head. He looked at Helen.

  “Healer’s child. You …” He stopped.

  Helen said, “I’ll fix Catesby. Tell me anything else tomorrow. Good luck.”

  Rona gave her a hug. Helen said, “We still have to write the end to our song. Let’s do that tomorrow.”

  Lavender wept on her shoulder, but Helen soothed her, “Shhh. I’ll see you all soon.”

  She mounted the dragon and they took off into the night sky. As they flew over the narrow strip of woodland, she squinted through the drizzle and saw the dark shapes of her friends move off in different directions, looking for the one they feared the most.

  Chapter 16

  Sapphire landed in the field just behind the house. Helen slid down awkwardly, trying not to jostle the injured phoenix, then walked to Sapphire’s head and said, “Good luck.”

  Sapphire blew some silver sparks out of her nostril sand nodded gravely. Helen stood back to give the dragon space and watched as she launched into the air and took off to the west.

  Helen approached her house very carefully. Would anyone realize she was missing? She checked her watch and was amazed to see that the journeys to and from the well, and the battle there, had only taken a couple of hours. It wasn’t even her usual bedtime yet. But that meant that her Mum and Dad were still up, and it would be difficult to use the surgery in the house.

  She could see light coming from the living room window and her Dad’s computer room. She clambered over the fence, went up to his window and peered in. He was working calmly, so there was no panic; they thought she was in bed.

  She tried the front door, usually opened only for visitors and patients as it led into a tiny waiting room and the small animal surgery. It was locked from the inside. Next, she moved to the dark window of the surgery, where she knew she would find books with detailed instructions on how to splint a bird’s wing.