Wild Blood by Kate Thompson

fell. Everything else was silent. Even though she felt much safer with Kevin beside her, Tess found that she was holding her breath. Despite the fresh, vibrant greens of the mosses and leaves, the woods were eerie. Like a stone circle or an earthwork, they had the atmosphere of a place which belonged to another age, a place where the living were somehow as insubstantial as the dead.
    The two friends stayed close together as they made their way through the trees, keeping roughly parallel to the crag, calling occasionally as they went. Gradually the birds became accustomed to their presence and began to sing again, making the woods seem less forbidding. When they reached the opposite end and came out of the trees and on to the limestone pavement, Kevin sat down and shook his head.
    ‘It doesn’t make sense,’ he said.
    ‘I know,’ said Tess.
    ‘No. I mean, it doesn’t make sense to search like this.’
    ‘Why?’ asked Tess.
    ‘Because humans are the worst thing to be. You should do it, Tess. As a dog or a hawk or something.’
    But Tess shook her head. ‘I’ve already covered the place from the air. And I’m not going in there on foot. Not on my own, whatever form I’m in.’ She told him about the wolfhound she had met, but found that she couldn’t bring herself to mention the antlered figure, even to him. ‘And in any case,’ she finished, ‘Uncle Maurice has just been here with Bran and Sceolan. Surely they would have found the kids if anyone could.’
    Kevin sighed. ‘I suppose there’s no alternative, then,’ he said, standing up and moving towards the woods again. ‘But there doesn’t seem to be much point, really, does there? I mean, if they were in there, surely they would have been found by now?’
    Tess had to agree. ‘But what can we do? We can’t just give up on them.’
    They had just entered the woods again when the sudden scuttle of a startled rat made them both stop. For a long moment Kevin stared at the spot where the worm-like tail had disappeared, and then he said, ‘I can’t believe we’re being so stupid. Why are we wasting our time searching for the kids when there’s bound to be someone here who saw where they went.’
    ‘Of course!’ said Tess. ‘The rats!’
    Kevin nodded. ‘But I’d better leave it to you to talk to them this time. I don’t think I’m in their good books.’
    They moved on towards the centre of the woods, where they would have the best chance of gathering all the rats. Then, while Kevin settled himself among the trees, Tess walked a short distance away and Switched. To a human the woods appeared quiet and empty, but to a rat they were anything but. The surroundings were alive with rustlings and squabblings and a profusion of irritable images as the farm rats continued their unwilling resettlement. For a few moments the altered perceptions were disorientating, but it didn’t last long. By now Tess’s rat form was nearly as familiar as her human one and, since her rat mind was scarcely concerned at all with the worries that beset her as a human, Tess found it oddly comforting. She had a sudden insight into the way Kevin felt and his reasons for wishing that he had remained in rat form, but before she could dwell on it, he flashed her a reminder of her business. ‘Tail Short Seven Toes having a snooze, huh?’ In his thought projection he used the name that had been given to her by the Dublin rats more than a year ago. To have a name she needed some kind of distinguishing mark, and one of the city rats had obliged her by biting off the end of her tail. Kevin sent another image; of Tess in rat form sitting in the lotus position, eyes closed.
    ‘Tail Short Seven Toes meditating, huh?’
    In return, Tess sent an image of Kevin in a huge glass of lemonade, floating around among berg-sized ice-cubes. ‘Boy chill out, huh?’
    But she got the message. She listened until she could hear nothing that sounded threatening, then sent out a gentle Rat