Part 39 (1/2)

'Thanks.' Kevin took it and was about to put it into his mouth when Tess realised what he was doing.

'Watch what you're doing,' she yelled.

Kevin dropped the sausage, an expression of horror on his face. 'You tried to trick me,' he said.

Declan shrugged. 'Why shouldn't I? That's what I am, it's what I do.'

Tess expected to feel as horrified as Kevin, but part of her was beginning to be enchanted by Declan. His abilities seemed limitless; his power excited her. Not only that, but in comparison with Kevin's awkward, gawky frame, Declan was graceful and handsome.

'You said you'd show me,' she said. 'How to Switch other people.'

'I will,' said Declan. 'I'll show you more than that as well, if you come with me.'

'Where?'

Declan nodded towards the crawl-hole. 'Out there. To where the night is waiting for us.'

'Careful, Tess,' said Kevin.

'You could come with us, too,' said Declan. 'If you eat fairy food you become fairy, Kevin. You could be what you once were; experience your old powers again, keep them forever.'

Tess could tell that Kevin was interested. 'Why not, Kevin?' she said.

He shook his head. 'There has to be a catch,' he said. 'I'm not sure that I want to stay here forever.'

'You could be a rat again,' said Tess.

'A rat?' said Declan. 'Is that what you like best? A rat?'

Kevin looked sulky and didn't answer.

'I could sort that out for you if you wanted,' said Declan. 'Turn you into one for good. Would you like that?'

Kevin shrugged, but Tess knew that he was tempted.

'You don't have to decide right now,' said Declan. 'Have a think about it while we're gone.'

And before either Kevin or Tess could answer, Declan had become a hare again and vanished out of the crawl-hole.

'Don't go, Tess. What if he tricks you?'

'He won't,' said Tess. 'I'll be OK.'

Kevin nodded wistfully. 'You're your own boss,' he said. 'But promise me one thing?'

'What's that?' asked Tess.

'Promise me that you'll come back before dawn. Before you make your final decision.'

Tess nodded, sobered by the reminder of the short time remaining to her.

'I promise,' she said.

From the skies high above the woods, Tess and Declan could see Uncle Maurice and the others walking across the fields towards home. The gra.s.s was covered with dew and the three who were walking left straggly trails behind them as though they were in no hurry. The fourth one, little Colm, was already fast asleep, secure in his father's arms.

Beside her in the high air, Tess could sense Declan's sadness, despite the disdainful look in his eagle's eye. Somehow she knew that it wasn't only his brother he missed, but the other things as well; the life he would never lead as a farmer, the children he was unlikely to have. As though he sensed her intuition intruding upon him, he banked on the wind and drifted down to a nearby field, where cattle lay sleeping in the gra.s.s.

'Go on,' said Declan, when they had taken on human shapes again. 'Turn them into pigs first. It's good practice.'

'But how?' said Tess.

'Why ask me?' said Declan. 'How do you Switch?'

Tess knew what he meant. Although Tess could Switch as quick as thinking, there was no way she could have explained to someone how she did it. It was one of those things like wiggling your ears; you could do it or you couldn't. And when she thought about it like that, she realised that she did know how to change the shapes of other things as well; she had just never realised that she could.

The cows didn't know what hit them. One moment they were happily sleeping and the next, one after another, they were all turned into pigs. Tess laughed delightedly, and then the pigs were sheep, bleating anxiously and gathering themselves into a defensive group. But Tess wasn't finished yet. In fact, she was just beginning to get the hang of it. It was the same process as Switching; the combined use of will and imagination, and she was already regretting all the lost opportunities.

The sheep became goats, and then half of them became kangaroos. Then, while they were still staring at each other in astonishment, some of them became hyenas and began stalking the others.

'Careful,' Declan warned. 'We don't want to cause any damage.'

He was right. Things were beginning to get out of control as goats and kangaroos began to panic and spring out over the walls and away. Before they got too far, Tess Switched them all back into cows again, which is how the farmer would find them the next morning; scattered around in different fields with no evidence to show how they had got there.

'I can't believe I never discovered this before!' said Tess, turning a rock into a tractor and a field full of round bales into an igloo village. 'I could have had a great time! I can just see it, too. All those times my dad drove me mad reading the paper, I could have turned him into a sloth or a slug or a tortoise or something. And my mum, droning on. A queen bee!'

Declan came along behind, returning Tess's transformations to their original selves.

'There's a girl at school always copying what everyone else says,' Tess went on. 'I'd love to turn her into a parrot.' As she spoke, Tess changed a hawthorn bush into a j.a.panese paG.o.da and a steel gate into a large patchwork quilt. 'And there's a boy who's really horrible to his poor little dog. I'd turn him into a toad and let the dog eat him!'

With Tess Switching everything in sight and Declan changing everything back again, they made their way across the fields until they had come to the road, a half mile or so from the farmhouse.

'Haven't you had enough, yet?' Declan asked. 'There's other things I want to show you before daybreak.'

'Daybreak,' said Tess. 'Oh, my G.o.d. I keep forgetting.'

'There's still plenty of time,' said Declan. 'But I want you to meet the others.'

'The others?'

'Of course. You don't think we're the only ones, do you?'

As a last trick, Tess turned a thoroughbred brood mare into a donkey and, just for the h.e.l.l of it, Declan left it as it was. Then the two friends made owls of themselves again and lifted into the darkness.