The Wee Free Men

'Lovely weather for the time o' year, is it not, ye wee scunner!'

'Hey, jimmy, ha' ye no got a pommes frites for an ol' pal?'

'The band is playin' divinely, I dinnae think!'

'Make my caviar deep-fried, willya?'

There was something wrong with the crowd. No one was panicking or trying to run away, which was certainly the right response to an invasion of Feegles.

Tiffany set off again through the crowd. The masked people at the party paid her no attention, either. And that's because they're background people, she thought, just like the background trees. She walked along the room to a pair of double doors, and pulled them open.

There was nothing but blackness beyond it.

So... the only way out was to find the drome. She hadn't really expected anything else. It could be anywhere. It could be behind a mask, it could be a table. It could be anything.

Tiffany stared at the crowd. And it was then she saw Roland.

He was sitting at a table by himself. It was spread with food, and he had a spoon in his hand.

She ran over and knocked it onto the floor. 'Haven't you got any sense at all?' she said, pulling him upright. 'Do you want to stay here for ever?'

And then she felt the movement behind her. Later on, she was sure she hadn't heard anything. She'd just known. It was a dream, after all.

She glanced around, and there was the drome. It was almost hidden behind a pillar.

Roland just stared at her.

'Are you all right?' said Tiffany desperately, trying to shake him. 'Have you eaten anything?'

'Fwa fwa faff,' murmured the boy.

Tiffany turned back to the drome. It was moving towards her, but very slowly, trying to stay in the shadows. It looked like a little snowman made of dirty snow.

The music was getting louder. The candles were getting brighter. Out on the huge dance floor, the animal-headed couples whirled faster and faster. And the floor shook. The dream was in trouble.

The Nac Mac Feegles were running to her from every part of the floor, trying to be heard above the din.

The drome was lurching towards her, podgy white fingers grasping the air.

'First Sight,' breathed Tiffany.

She cut Roland's head off.

The snow had melted all across the clearing, and the trees looked real and properly tree-like.

In front of Tiffany, the drome fell backwards. She was holding the old frying pan in her hand, but it had cut beautifully. Odd things, dreams.

She turned and faced Roland, who was staring at her with a face so pale he might as well have been a drome.

'It was frightened,' she said. 'It wanted me to attack you instead. It tried to look like you and made you look like a drome. But it didn't know how to speak. You do.'

'You might have killed me!' he said hoarsely.

'No,' said Tiffany. 'I just explained. Please don't run away. Have you seen a baby boy here?'

Roland's face wrinkled. 'What?' he said.

The Queen took him,' said Tiffany. 'I'm going to fetch him home. I'll take you too, if you like.'

'You'll never get away,' whispered Roland.

'I got in, didn't I?'

'Getting in is easy. No one gets out!'

'I mean to find a way,' said Tiffany, trying to sound a lot more confident than she felt.

'She won't let you!' Roland started to back away again.

'Please don't be so... so stupid,' said Tiffany. 'I'm going to find the Queen and get my brother back, whatever you say. Understand? I've got this far. And I've got help, you know.'

'Where?' said Roland.

Tiffany looked around. There was no sign of the Nac Mac Feegles.

'They always turn up,' she said. 'Just when I need them.'

It struck her that there was suddenly something very... empty about the forest. It seemed colder, too.

'They'll be here any minute,' she added, hopefully.

'They got trapped in the dream,' said Roland flatly.

'They can't have. I killed the drome!'

'It's more complicated than that,' said the boy. 'You don't know what it's like here. There's dreams inside dreams. There's... other things that live inside dreams, horrible things. You never know if you've really woken up. And the Queen controls them all. They're fairy people, anyway. You can't trust them. You can't trust anyone. I don't trust you. You're probably just another dream.'

He turned his back and walked away, following the line of hoofprints.

Tiffany hesitated. The only other real person was going away, leaving her here with nothing but the trees, and the shadows.

And, of course, anything horrible that was running towards her through them...

'Er...' she said. 'Hello? Rob Anybody? William? Daft Wullie?'

There was no reply. There wasn't even an echo. She was alone, apart from her heartbeats.

Well, of course she'd fought things and won, hadn't she? But the Nac Mac Feegles had been there and, somehow, that'd made it easy. They never gave up, they'd attack absolutely anything and they didn't know the meaning of the word 'fear'.