Shadowmagic - Sons of Macha
Page 31
‘It’s a tie. It’s what professors wear when they go to work in the Real World.’
‘Well, I think it looks stupid,’ she said.
‘I always thought so too but today I need all of the psychological support I can get.’
‘I have no idea what psychological means but I will always support you, my prince.’ She kissed me and then hopped into the house and came back with a box tied with a bow.
‘What’s this?’
‘I asked Nora what you are supposed to give as a gift to a first-day teacher.’
I undid the bow and smiled as I looked down at a beautiful shiny apple.
‘Oh, and you get this too.’ She kissed me, bade me good luck and pushed me out the door.
I walked into the central courtyard and stood before the new Tree of Knowledge. It was still young but it was lush and well over two storeys high. I placed my hand on the trunk and asked, ‘Are you going to wish me luck too?’
Hazels are much too cool to actually converse with the Hawathiee but I could have sworn I felt an approving nod.
When I turned to leave I saw that Nieve had been watching me.
‘You’re not going to throw a spear at me, are you?’
My aunt walked towards me, took my face in her hands and kissed my forehead. ‘No, I was going to do this.’ She hooked her arm into mine and walked me to the new classrooms. It was fitting that Nieve was with me. The moment I first set eyes on her was the beginning of all the madness that I now just call life. ‘Your father would be very proud, Conor.’
‘My father, when he found out what I was teaching, would laugh his butt off.’
Nieve laughed with me. ‘He probably would, but he still would have been very proud. I’m actually a little surprised you are teaching a course. I would have thought you would have been too busy.’
‘Oh, I am too busy but I refuse to be relegated to ministerial paperwork and manuscript filing. I wanted to teach a course on joke-telling but no one would let me. Even when I pointed out I was the Lord of the Hazellands, they still wouldn’t let me.’
We arrived at the classroom door. She brushed some lint off of my shoulder and then reached for my tie. ‘What is this around your neck?’
‘I’m not even going to explain it to you Auntie, ’cause I’m never going to wear one again. Do you want to come in and watch my first day as a professor?’
‘No, Brendan and I are soon leaving for Castle Duir.’
‘You know I would love to have you here, Nieve, but I’m glad you are helping Mom.’
She kissed me again, ‘Are you all prepared?’
‘Oh, if there is one thing Dad prepared me for – it’s teaching this class.’
My students all stood and came to attention when I walked into the room. There was half a dozen: four Faeries, one female Imp and, I was glad to see, a nervous looking Banshee. They were all bright-eyed and young. They had taken this course in hopes of soon going on a Real World walk-about.
‘Sit, sit,’ I said, ‘there is none of that bowing stuff in here. In here I am not Lord Anything.’ I scratched my name on the blackboard behind me. ‘I am Mister Conor O’Neil. You can call me by my first name – Mister.’
I looked for a reaction and got nothin’. Maybe it was a good thing I wasn’t teaching joke-telling.
‘Right, welcome to my class – Modern Real World Languages. I know you’re not going to like it much but I’m going to teach you the way I learned. So,’ I took a deep breath and when I spoke I surprised myself at just how much I sounded like my father. ‘The language of the day is – Greek.’
Acknowledgements
It’s hard writing a novel but these people made it a lot easier.
Yvonne Light, the uber-hyphenator.
Evo, Chris & Tee at the fabulous Podiobooks.com.
Scott and all at The Friday Project.
The amusing and inspiring commenters on the Hazel & Oak bulletin board at podiobooks (especially those that spotted my mistakes).
And everyone that emailed me at john@shadowmagic.co.uk – thank you so much. The kind words I have received about Shadowmagic make it a lot easier to sit down and put my fingers on the keyboard every day.
Shadowmagic
and
Shadowmagic:
Prince of Hazel and Oak
and
Shadowmagic:
Sons of Macha
are all available as free podcasts from
iTunes and www.podiobooks.com
and are read by the author
By the same author
Shadowmagic
Prince of Hazel and Oak
Copyright
The Friday Project
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
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This edition published by The Friday Project 2013
Copyright © John Lenahan 2013
John Lenahan asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Source ISBN: 9780007456741
Ebook Edition © March 2013 ISBN: 9780007517770
Version 1
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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