Page 25 of The Falconer

I can’t trust that Kiaran will tell me everything I need to know. What he doesn’t reveal might be essential to my survival. I won’t make the mistake of waiting.

‘Derrick?’

‘Hmm?’ Derrick turns his head towards me; he’s glowing brightly with rapture. He slips his fingers into the bowl again.

‘Have you ever seen a redcap?’

Derrick grins with delight and laughs. ‘Such hulking creatures. Slow as molasses. Do you know I once took my blade, danced around one and sliced it to ribbons!’ He stuffs more honey in his mouth and sighs. ‘Alas, nothing left for a trophy.’

Slow as molasses?The redcaps had swung their hammers and run faster than any faery I’ve ever faced. I’d love to see what Derrick considers fast. Or perhaps not.

I continue scrubbing my clothes. ‘Do you know how it might be possible for some to escape imprisonment?’

‘It takes time,’ he sings. ‘Tiiiiime.’

Oh, for heaven’s sake. ‘Derrick, focus. Kindly articulate in complete sentences. What do you mean?’

He proceeds to lick his fingers. ‘I can do that. I can speak sentences. What were we discussing?’

‘The redcaps,’ I say through clenched teeth. I try not to snap at him, but he is making this very difficult. ‘How might they escape from beneath the city?’

‘Oh, that’s happening now? How interesting!’ At my glare, he sits up straight and his wings fan. ‘One can’t have a functioning prison without a seal. Over time, the seal reaches the end of its life and begins to falter. Complete sentences!’

My stomach drops. ‘What do you mean, the end of its life?’

Derek smiles gaily. ‘Nothing lasts for ever. A good thing, considering the number of intolerable people about.’

The clothes slip from my hands into the washbasin and water splashes all over my nightdress. ‘Derrick, this is serious!’

He raises his hands. ‘Bright side! If the redcaps were freed first, whoever built your prison had a plan in case it failed.’

A glimmer of hope worms its way inside of me. ‘Really?’

‘Of course! It means the most power is being used to keep the strongestsìthicheaninside the longest. So the least powerful are released first –’ he gobbles more honey off his fingers ‘– and their enemies can kill them off more easily and reduce the army’s numbers before the more powerful ones escape. Brilliant plan. Wish I had thought of it.’

My hope dies, as I should have suspected it would. Whoever built the prison thoughtredcapscould be killed easily? Frankly, that’s the worst blasted planI’veever heard. ‘So let me see if I understand this,’ I say carefully. ‘The one thing protecting Edinburgh is a weakening seal and the current insurgence of evil faeries being let through is thebright side?’

Derrick looks a bit sheepish. ‘Well. Aye.’

‘But we don’t have our own army to kill them off!’

Derrick blinks at me, his light dimming. ‘Cor. When you state it like that it sounds rather depressing.’

‘So where is the seal? How do we fix it?’

‘Don’t know. Never seen it. Pixies don’t get involved in othersìthicheanbusiness.’

No wonder Kiaran didn’t look at all surprised by those redcaps, the secretive bastard. How on earth am I supposed to blow them up if I don’t know where they are? If we don’t fix that seal, Edinburgh will fall. It is an utmost certainty. The faeries beneath the city were trapped there for a reason. If they rise, they will destroy everything in their path.

And there’s something else Kiaran didn’t tell me. ‘Derrick,’ I say. He glances at me warily. ‘Have you ever heard of a Falconer?’

If I weren’t watching for his reaction, I might not have noticed his entire body go rigid. That isn’t the normal response of a pixie drunk on honey. Derrick has never looked more sober.

‘Wherever did you hear that?’ His voice is low. A flicker of fear crosses his wee features. His thin wings fan slowly, his halo darkens.

I frown. ‘Kiaran mentioned it.’

Derrick remains entirely silent despite hearing Kiaran’s name.

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