Sons of Macha. John Lenahan

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ

      ‘Don’t hurt the girl, O’Neil,’ Murano shouted.

      Ruby let loose another one of her sonic screams that made us all tilt our head a bit until it was over. I was surprised that the lenses in her Ray-Bans didn’t shatter.

      ‘This is your fault, Shrink,’ I shouted. ‘I was a mild-mannered fantasist before you tied me to a chair and tortured me. You turned me into a child killer.’ I gave Ruby a shake for effect and she bit my arm. It really hurt. I lowered the knife and I saw the cops levelling their guns.

      Brendan stepped in front fast and said, ‘Don’t shoot,’ while I repositioned the nail file. I whispered to Ruby, ‘What you bite me for?’

      She whispered, ‘I’m trying to make it look good.’

      ‘Well, ow,’ I said and then got back to work on the FBI man. ‘So is attacking a shackled man in the FBI interrogation book?’

      ‘I never …’

      ‘Don’t make me do it,’ I shouted. ‘You know what you did. You tortured me and wrote out a fake confession.’

      I was stalling for time but I also wanted Murano to feel a little bit guilty about all this. I’m sure in his mind he now felt exonerated about how he treated me. After all, I wasn’t being very chivalrous – I had a knife to the throat of a young blind girl – but I hoped that someone would investigate his actions and get him busted to airport bathroom security.

      ‘Almost there,’ Essa shouted.

      ‘Thank the gods,’ I said.

      ‘O’Neil,’ Murano said, ‘what is the old woman doing?’

      The familiar ring of an active portal reached my ears as Essa said, ‘Who you calling old?’

      Mom, Dad and Nieve burst through the portal on horseback. Mom threw two of her Shadowmagic exploding light bombs at the two cops on the left and Dad and Nieve threw what looked like small knives at the other cop and the FBI man. The knives swerved directly into the chests of the cop and Agent Murano.

      While Mom’s victims were blown off their feet, the cop and the FBI man just looked at the knives sticking out of their chests and fell over backwards.

      ‘Hi, son,’ Dad said casually as he rode over to Murano.

      ‘You didn’t have to kill them!’ Brendan shouted as he ran to the FBI man and reached for the knife sticking out of his chest.

      Dad stopped him. ‘It’s not a knife.’

      ‘I can … I can’t move,’ the Fed said.

      ‘It’s a knife handle but no blade,’ Dad explained, ‘instead of a blade it has one of Nieve’s paralysing pins in it. Pull it out.’ Brendan pulled the knife blade out of the FBI man’s chest and looked at the gold pin.

      ‘Cool,’ Brendan said and handed it to me.

      Murano sat up and felt his chest. ‘I can mo—’

      I stuck the pin/knife back in his chest and he fell over like a stuffed teddy bear.

      Nieve rode over and while hanging dangerously low to the side of her saddle, gave Brendan a long kiss. When it seemed like it would never stop, Brendan’s mother gave a discreet cough. Brendan looked up to see his mother staring at him with her arms crossed.

      ‘Oh yeah. Um, Mom, Gem, this is my … friend, Nieve. Nieve, this is my mother Nora and my daughter Ruby.’

      Nieve replied, ‘It is very nice to meet you, I’ve heard so much about you both.’

      ‘We’ll have plenty of time for niceties once we are back in The Land,’ Mom said, riding by. ‘Let us leave this place.’

      Brendan turned to his mother and daughter. ‘Are you sure you want to do this? You might not ever get to come back.’

      ‘We have already discussed this,’ Nora said. ‘What you did today was right and I am proud of you but your actions mean you can no longer stay here.’

      ‘We want to be with you, Daddy,’ Ruby said taking her father’s hand. His mother took the other and the three of them walked through the portal.

      Mom was next. I asked her to relay a message to Tuan for me when she got back to Tir na Nog then I cuffed the cop with his own handcuffs and hog-tied the FBI man with his belt. I took back the paralysing throwing pins and made sure that Murano could see both the portal and his car. The Fed was obviously very shook up and when he finally could find his voice he asked, ‘Who are you people?’

      ‘We’re Faeries from Pixieland and you, Agent Andy, are a jerk, but you were right about one thing – I’m not crazy. I really did ride a dragon and to prove it to you …’ I grabbed his hair and turned his head towards the portal. Tuan in all of his dragon splendour popped his head through and Agent Andy gasped.

      ‘I was thinking about having him eat you,’ I said as I walked over and gave Tuan a rub on the snout, ‘but then I had a better idea.’

      I whispered into Tuan’s earhole and stepped back. He gave a shrug that meant, ‘If that’s what you want’, and puffed a perfect little ball of fire directly at Agent Murano’s precious Porsche. The car exploded and as the radiator ruptured it gave out a little squeal like a dying mouse. The look on Murano’s face almost made this whole debacle seem worthwhile.

       Chapter Three

       Macha

      Ruby stood in the centre of the Hall of Spells. She tilted her head and spun, dragging her stick on the tiles that represented all of the major runes. ‘We’re not in Scranton any more.’

      ‘How can you tell that?’ I asked.

      ‘I’m blind, not stupid.’

      ‘Ruby!’ her father and grandmother shouted simultaneously.

      The young girl shrugged, turned to me and said sorry, but it didn’t seem like her heart was in it. I laughed.

      ‘Don’t encourage her,’ Brendan said. ‘We are working on Ruby’s rudeness.’

      ‘Well,’ I said, ‘it sounds like frankness to me. If I need an honest opinion I will know who to ask.’

      ‘See?’ Ruby said to her father.

      ‘Ruby’s opinions tend to be too honest.’

      I looked up to see Mom and Dad standing waiting for our discussion to end. I cleared my throat and pointed to Brendan’s mother and daughter.

      ‘Nora СКАЧАТЬ