by John Lenahan
‘Hey Lady,’ Ruby said, ‘I’m right here. You can ask me yourself, you know?’
Then Ruby turned to me and said, ‘Is she another one of your idiot girlfriends?’
Mícheál organised a meeting of ‘The Grove’ outside town in the same barn as before. He said it wasn’t hard to get everyone together; they had all been on high alert since the last time we Tir na Nogians showed up. Still, it was almost midnight before everyone arrived. I felt sorry for Essa. Anula, Ruby and I were young enough to walk around but poor Essa was stuck sitting on her horse for hours. If she had to, she could have gotten down, but becoming an old woman was something she was not willing to do again. ‘Three times was quite enough,’ she said. So while we sat around drinking cups of tea she sat high above us like some princess, which – when you think about it – she was.
Ruby’s appearance had freaked out Maeve. When I asked her why, she clammed up, saying I had to speak to her father, but her reaction fortified my suspicion. I had interpreted my vision properly.
At the barn I kept Ruby hidden for optimal effect. When everyone was there, I was called into the main room. This time they were decked out in long-hooded Druidy-type robes but the effect was ruined when I noticed most of them wearing modern sneakers. I wanted to ask them where I could get a nice pair of Nikes around here but then reminded myself to concentrate. This was an important occasion and I wanted to begin with the solemnity that it deserved – but as usual instead my opening salutation was more Scranton Conor than the Prince of Hazel and Oak.
‘Hi everybody. Ah … the last time I was here one of you asked if you could come back with us and then another said that I wasn’t “The One”. That would be “The One” with a capital O.’
‘That is correct, Conor,’ Mícheál said. ‘Since you have been here there has been much debate among The Grove. We do believe you are from The Land but you do not fulfil what was foretold.’
‘Yeah, I get it. I’m not “The One”.’ I stepped around the corner and led Ruby by the hand into the main room. ‘How about her?’
You know that look when everyone yells ‘Surprise!’ and the birthday person jumps and then opens her mouth wide right before she almost faints? Well this was like that but in reverse. Everybody freaked and two people actually did go down – just like I had seen in the Chamber of Runes.
‘Hey, hey, listen up everybody,’ I said, ‘I don’t have much time. Would any of you like to take a trip to Tir na Nog? We got apples there you just wouldn’t believe.’
It was an hour before dawn when I rode through the portal back into the Hall of Spells. Nieve and Nora were there waiting.
‘You are very wet,’ Nieve said.
‘Really? I hadn’t noticed,’ I replied as I dismounted into a growing puddle.
‘Is she safe?’ Nora asked, like the nervous grandmother that she was.
‘Yes, Nora. She is with Mícheál. He is a good man. He helped me the last time I was there. He wanted to come but he saw that looking after the Blind Child Who Was Foretold was more important.’
‘Oh, I hope they don’t spoil her.’
‘I wouldn’t worry about that, Grandma. Ruby has a way of bringing people who know her down to earth.’
Nora nodded and relaxed, but I was pretty sure I wouldn’t get a smile out of her until she saw her little Gem again.
Just then, the first of the two dozen Irish Druids came through the glowing circle. Tea shop Maeve was one of the first and I introduced her to Nora so she could tell her about her father.
Initially a lot more of The Grove wanted to come after seeing the Blind Child but then I warned them that we were walking into a war – possibly an unwinnable war. Dropping everything and travelling to a mystical land is a tough decision. Jumping into possibly certain death is even harder. I was impressed that I got twenty-four.
Brendan tore himself away from arrow-making when he heard I was back. I assured him that his daughter was safe and in good hands and he brought me up to speed on the defences. ‘We have made about three hundred yew arrows. They are not all actually straight and I wouldn’t bet on my chances of a bull’s-eye at any distance but at close range they’ll work. We also have quite a few yew bantas and a couple dozen pointed sticks.’
‘Pointed sticks? Is that in case of vampire, Fili?’
Brendan smiled and shook his head. ‘Is there any occasion where you aren’t a wise ass?’
I went to visit Graysea in the infirmary. She had finally come out of her underwater coma and had changed back and forth from fish to female a couple of times. With each change she lost more of her injury. She could probably have fixed up someone else with a similar wound without too much trouble but apparently healing herself was harder. She tried to get out of bed when I came in but the Imp-healer threatened to sit on her if she tried to get up one more time.
‘She talks mean,’ Graysea said quietly after the healer was out of earshot, ‘but she really is nice underneath. She reminds me of matron back in the grotto.’
‘I wish matron was here to help you,’ I said. ‘You still look a bit pale.’
Graysea turned way and pinched her cheeks then turned back with a forced smile. ‘Better?’
‘Much,’ I said. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the Imp-healer motioning me with her head that I should leave.
‘Conor, I must talk to you … but … I’m very tired. Can we talk soon?’
‘Of course,’ I said, kissing her on her forehead. ‘We’ll talk tomorrow. You get some rest.’
I walked away with the sound of my own voice echoing ‘tomorrow’ in my mind and wondered if for any of us there would be a tomorrow.
I slept for an hour. What a mistake that was. I had one of those dreams that was so crazy I woke up more exhausted than when I went to sleep. I was at a square dance. All of my comrades in arms were on one side of the room: Brendan, Nora, Araf, Nieve, Essa, Dahy, Mom and Dad. Lined up on the other side were: Cialtie, The new Turlow, Macha, Oracle Lugh, Maeve and Cialtie’s Banshee sorceress. We started off with a frantic square dance that culminated with us once again facing each other across the room. Then the square dance caller cried, ‘Do-si-do!’ and we came towards each other again but this time Cialtie and his side all grew fangs and pulled daggers. I found myself sitting up awake with sweat streaming down my back and a scream just south of my larynx. It was still an hour before dawn. Believe it or not I got out of bed without any prompting. When the day may be your last – getting up at dawn isn’t such a bad idea after all.
Dad was up on the parapet looking out at the night sky as it was losing its daily fight with the sun. I climbed up next to him and handed him an apple.
He took a bite and then shook his head. ‘We shouldn’t be here,’ he said dreamily to the night.
‘Where should we be?’ I asked.
‘We should be … we should be tucked up in a cosy bed and then when we finally wake up we should be having a huge cooked breakfast next to a roaring fire. Instead we’re chomping an apple on a cold wall. You know Conor, my biggest worry shouldn’t be war, my biggest worry should be whether or not there is enough wine in the castle cellars.’
‘Didn’t your mother warn you there would be days like these?’
Dad laughed. I was glad to see he still could. ‘My mother is one of the people out there making this day the way it is.’
‘Oh yeah, I forgot that.’
We stood some more in silence until I broke it. ‘Gods, I hate waiting.’
‘Really. I like waiting. I use the time to think. Not daydreaming, mind you, but really thinking.’ He looked at me and it seemed he looked older – like he used to look – and I felt younger, like I was looking up. ‘Didn’t I ever teach you to use waiting time to think critically?’
‘Every time we had to wait in line and I said I was bored, you made me conjugate Latin verbs. Now that I think of it, maybe that’s why I hate waiting so much.’
‘Ire,’ Dad said.
‘Ire, eo, is, it, im
us, itis, eunt,’ I instantly responded.
Dad had said the Latin verb go and I involuntarily responded by conjugating it – the English equivalent of saying: I go, you go, he goes she goes …
‘It seemed our waiting time was not wasted.’
‘Yeah, Dad. My Latin will come in handy when we get attacked by Julius Caesar.’
‘Mihi vera placet quod tu es callidissimus, nate,’ Dad said. Loosely translated that is: I am very proud of you, my son.
Since Latin was the language of the day, I replied, ‘Et tu, pater.’
Mom came up on the wall and took one look at the two of us with our watered-up eyes and said, ‘Aw, you two are just a bunch of softies.’
‘He started it,’ I said.
She hugged us both and watered up a bit herself. Dahy crested the stairs and said, ‘Are you ready for today, Your Highness?’
Dad and I simultaneously replied, ‘Born ready.’
‘How about you, my love?’ Dad asked.
‘As long as I am with my boys I can do anything,’ Mom said.
By this time the sky was lightening and the wall was filling up.
‘Lorcan,’ I called. ‘You ready?’
‘Lorcan the Leprechaun is ready, my lord,’ he shouted in reply.
‘Brendan?’
‘Detective Fallon of the Scranton PD is ready and able, Mr O’Neil.’
‘Nieve?’
‘I am with you, nephew of Oak.’
‘Gerard?’
‘The beer is free when this is over.’
‘Tuan?’
The Pooka lifted his chin and as he did his head transformed into the head of a wolfhound. He barked once.
‘Araf?’
The Imp didn’t reply – but he did nod.
Essa by this time was at my side and I quietly asked, ‘You ready for this?’
‘As long as I’m with you, Conor.’
We all turned as Fand came up the stairs. Nora was at her side. It struck me that she had yet to see her mother. I could only imagine the conflicting emotions that must have been going through her mind.
‘Are you ready, Your Highness?’ I said to her.
She looked to the sky that was now almost fully light and said in that quiet composed voice of hers, ‘If the sun in the sky is willing to face this day – then so am I.’
‘Well, that’s everybody, Mr King,’ I said to Dad.
Dad slapped me on the back and said, ‘You will make a wonderful Lord of Duir someday.’
‘Thanks, Dad, but I’ve been meaning to speak to you about …’
I didn’t get to finish that thought for just then, directly below us, the Fili ghost army solidified one row at a time. Each row appeared chanting until the whole army culminated in a cacophony that halted with the appearance of Maeve. The Fili Queen looked down at her cupped hands and they erupted with Shadowfire. She then tossed the fire in the air where it sparked like a firework. Each of the sparks found the hidden Connemara marble in the field. Then Maeve threw her hands forward and all of the marble came out of the ground and splatted into the castle wall.
I turned to Fand and said, ‘I’ll say one thing for your mom – she knows how to make an entrance.’
As soon as I said it I felt bad. For Fand this was not the time for levity. But then a strange, almost spooky, smile infected just the tiniest corner of her mouth. She never took her eyes off of her mother but she said, ‘Yes, Conor, she does.’
Chapter Thirty
The Shadowrune
Let me tell you, walking right up, practically unarmed, to an army of people who had the power to casually rip major organs out of your chest was one of the most terrifying things I have ever done. Intellectually I had decided that I would do it, but it wasn’t until I started actually moving towards them that the terror gripped me. It took every fibre of my being to stop myself from wrapping my arms around Dad’s leg screaming, ‘Please don’t make me go.’ I was really scared and I know I wasn’t the only one. If we made it out of this alive I promised myself I would buy everyone new underwear. If they were anything like me, they were going to need it.
‘Hello Mother.’
‘Hello Fand.’
I don’t know what I was expecting. I had never walked up to a murdering queen and her bloodthirsty army before but I was expecting something different than English afternoon-tea etiquette.
Maeve raised her hand and lifted it towards her daughter. Dahy tensed up and looked like he was going to give one of those pointed sticks a try. Fand raised one finger and calmed everyone. Maeve continued forward and gently placed her hand on the side of her daughter’s face. Fand closed her eyes. Then Maeve went into ghost form and her hand entered Fand’s head. Fand’s eyes shot open and the two queens stared at each other with a burning intensity. I placed my hand on the pointed stick secured in my belt. If Maeve’s palm came out with Fand’s brain on it I was going to kill her no matter what happened to me.
Her hand came out brainless.
‘You have become a Shadowwitch, daughter.’
‘I have,’ Fand replied.
‘Then come and join us.’
‘No, Mother.’
Maeve looked confused. ‘You would oppose me?’
‘With my life,’ Fand said.
‘As will I,’ Nora said.
Maeve turned sharply to Nora. ‘Who dares interrupt a conversation between the Queen of the Fili and her daughter?’
‘I am your daughter too,’ Nora said. ‘I am the daughter of the daughter of the daughter’s daughter who had to pay the ultimate price for your arrogance. I am the Fili that was banished from this land when you chose power over harmony. We are the Fili,’ she said, pointing to the two dozen very brave Druids from Connemara who were standing behind us in the field. ‘We are the Druids who have endured disease and hunger and old age and death for your sins. So do not presume it is not in my right to talk in front of the queen – for I am Fili and as far as I’m concerned you forfeited your crown eons ago. My queen is Fand.’
Maeve was taken aback but her honour guard were incensed and made a move towards Nora for speaking in such a way to their queen. Fand stood between them and Maeve called them off. Let’s just say it was tense out there.
‘You are a Shadowwitch, you know the kind of power we wield. You cannot stop me.’
‘I do not know the power you wield, Mother. I have learned Shadowmagic not for power but for peace. I learned Shadowmancy not to emulate you but to understand you and ultimately avoid your fate. I have no idea of the power you wield, for I have never killed a tree.’
Maeve baulked at her daughter. ‘How can you be a Shadowwitch without sap?’
‘Oh, I use sap.’
‘How do you get it?’
‘I ask for it. Have you become so brutal, Mother, so power mad that you have forgotten how just to say “please”?’
Maeve was at least listening but her entourage was getting anxious – I could feel it in the air. Before another word could be said, a call came from the battlements behind us. From out of the oak forest on horseback came Macha, Lugh, The Turlow and Cialtie. Behind them followed what looked like the entire Banshee nation in full battle armour. They filled every visible space.
Maeve looked to her daughter and said: ‘It is too late for talk, you cannot stop us.’
‘We can stop you, Mother, with this.’ Fand took an arrow out of her belt and handed it to Maeve who received it on the face-up palms of both her hands.
‘Don’t be foolish, daughter, have you not seen what we can do?’ Maeve then faded into her ghost form. The arrow remained on her hands. Her face was the picture of confusion. She grabbed the arrow with one translucent hand and then felt the sharp tip with the other. When it pricked her spirit-skin, fear crossed her face and she dropped the arrow.
‘Go back from where you came, Mother.’
‘But I thought, Fand, it was you who called me forth.’
‘I did not call you.’
‘Then w
ho?’ Maeve asked, truly confused. ‘We were lost in a void and then we … were … We found ourselves on a shadow island. A Shadowwitch of great power must have called us. I thought it was you.’
‘When did this happen?’ Mom asked. She walked up to Maeve and the old queen stepped back.
Maeve placed her hand out as if she was sensing the air in front of my mother. ‘You have power. I can feel it. What do you conceal?’
Mom reached to her neck and pulled out from under her tunic her Shadowrune. When it was made during the unorthodox Choosing in the Chamber of Runes it was so clear it looked to me almost like a hologram of a rune. Now it looked old and cracked as if it was made out of ancient dried blood. Maeve instinctively reached for it but Mom pulled it back.
‘Where did you get that?’ Maeve asked.
‘Last summer I performed The Choosing with oak sap and the Chamber rewarded me with this.’
Maeve was really shocked. ‘Even I would not dare to do such a thing. You created that day. From your Choosing an island … a shadow island became. We who last saw the sun on this field during our battle with Finn found ourselves alive once more – with form but not substance.’
‘How did you get here?’ Mom asked.
‘We simply walked under the waves to the mainland. We need neither food nor air.’
‘This rune was clear for almost a year,’ Mom said, ‘and then this summer, on the night you stole the blood of a child, it darkened.’
Maeve thought, then nodded. ‘We have a bond, Shadowwitch. What is your name?’
‘Deirdre.’
‘Daughter of Liam of the Hall of Knowledge?’
‘I am his daughter,’ Mom said, ‘but Liam and the Hall are no more. All was destroyed – by your allies.
‘And the Tree of Knowledge?’
‘What care you of a tree?’ Fand spat.
‘The Great Hazel is a very special tree.’
‘They are all special, Mother. The day you forgot that is the day you forgot how to be Hawathiee. Do you even remember why you fight? Has power corrupted you so that you use it only to gain more? Is power enough reason to lose me? Is your power enough reason to condemn the Fili to suffer, to grow old and die?’