by John Lenahan
‘There,’ Tuan said, pointing to the pond.
I was about to say, ‘Where?’ when a large fish broke the surface of the pond and then vanished underneath the rippling water.
‘There she is,’ Tuan said, pointing, ‘there is Queen Rhiannon.’
Chapter Twenty-One
Barush
‘The Queen’s a fish?’ I blurted.
‘In her fauna state Queen Rhiannon is braden – a salmon.’
‘Can I speak to her?’
‘May I have one of your hazelnuts?’ Tuan tried to look calm but it was a look of calm desperation. I handed him a hazelnut and he cracked it with his teeth. ‘Do you have a knife?’
I reached into my sock and handed him the green-handled blade I found at the bottom of Mount Cas. He stared at it for a moment then walked to the edge of the porch and shaved five tiny slivers off the nut, allowing them to drop in the water. The two of us stood shoulder to shoulder shielding our eyes from the bright torchlight. It probably only took a couple of minutes for Queen Fish to swim to the spot under the dock but it seemed like ages – I never was a very patient fisherman. Finally she tentatively swam up to the floating nut shavings. I thought she was going to ignore them but then she snatched at a sliver and swam away. Tuan sighed and returned my knife. In the middle of the pond, a salmon poked its head above the water. As I watched the large fish mouth pulled tight, the eyes drew closer together and then, as her feet touched the bottom, she rose. Queen Rhiannon did not possess the traditional beauty of, say, Essa or my mother but she was striking none the less. Her hair was long and shiny silver, it floated around her in the water just below her neck. The features on her face almost seemed chiselled but it was the eyes that drew your gaze – they were emerald green.
A set of stone steps rose out of the water. Queen Rhiannon walked out of her pond and up onto the porch. I’m so glad those eyes were that compelling – because I didn’t want to get caught looking anywhere else. I didn’t bow or say anything. I just looked her square in the peepers until Tuan presented her with a robe.
She started to speak and then stopped. It was almost as ien.
‘We have a guest,’ Tuan said, pointing to me with an open hand. ‘This is Conor of Duir. He has brought us hazelnuts.’
I opened the parcel and displayed the five remaining nuts. ‘A gift from my mother, Queen Deirdre.’
‘Deirdre lives?’ she asked, her voice a bit stronger.
‘She does, Your Highness and she has been worried about your people.’
‘What have you told him?’ Rhiannon asked Tuan.
‘I have told him nothing but if the choice was mine I would deem Conor barush.’
Rhiannon turned and walked back down the stairs into her pond and gently scooped up the four tiny slivers of hazelnut that were floating on the water and handed them to Tuan. ‘Arouse the council while I talk to the Son of Hazel.’
Tuan turned and was almost out the door when the Queen called to him. ‘Son, how long?’
‘Two months. I have missed you, Mother.’ Then he turned and left.
‘Would you like a cup of tea, Prince Conor?’
‘That would be lovely, ma’am.’
As she walked to a door on our left the Queen stumbled – she was unsure on her feet. I grabbed her arm to steady her. She stopped and shook me off, proudly straightening herself, but then she sighed in resignation and held my arm as we walked slowly to the kitchen.
‘Deirdre’s son,’ she mused. ‘That would make you Liam’s grandson.’
‘Yes, ma’am.’
In the kitchen there was a black kettle covered with a mesh of gold wire. Rhiannon lifted it to see if it contained enough water, then placed her index finger on a bit of the gold and hummed. Within seconds steam issued from the spout. She grabbed a handful of small white flower buds from a jar, distributed them between the two cups and poured in the hot water. I don’t know what kind of tea it was but it was lovely and it seemed to revitalise the former fish.
We walked through the kitchen into a comfortable sitting room. The tabletops were dusty. Rhiannon apologised for the state of the place. ‘I have been… away,’ she said.
‘Lost, was the word you used before,’ I said as gently as I could.
Queen Rhiannon looked me directly in the eyes for one of those hour-long seconds and then looked vacantly into the distance. ‘Lost… yes, lost is a better word.’
I waited for her to say something else. She was a queen after all, it wasn’t like you could just drill her for information. After a while I feared she was getting lost again. I reached into my pocket and opened the parcel and presented her with the five remaining hazelnuts.
She broke the silence. ‘Where did the hazel come from?’
I started to tell her how the new Tree of Knowledge came about and it turned into an autobiography. I told her about how I came to The Land, how Dahy gave me a hazel staff that was once owned by my grandfather and how I accidentally planted it at the site of the destroyed tree and it took root.
‘And your mother gave you the hazelnuts to give to me?’
‘Yes, ma’am.’
‘Did she tell you why?’
‘No, ma’am.’
‘Can you guess?’
I took a deep breath and thought about this. ‘I think you became a salmon, then forgot who you were and the hazelnut helped you remember your Pooka self.’
‘You are a very good guesser, Prince Conor.’
I smiled like a schoolboy. ‘I have not seen a Pooka since entering the Pinelands, except your son. Is that what happened to everyone?’
‘Many were lost before me. I suspect that what you ask is what has happened. I confess I do not know – a sad admission for a queen. I must confer with my son and my council.’ As if on cue, Tuan showed up with four confused Pookas in bathrobes. They bowed to their queen. ‘If you will excuse us, Conor, we have pressing business.’
‘Sure,’ I said and then added, ‘Hey, would anybody mind if I took a bath?’
It’s such a drag to put on dirty clothes after a bath but I had no choice. After almost cooking myself in a bathtub that heated water with the same gold wire system that the kettle used, I re-donned my clothes and smelled pretty much the same as before.
When I arrived downstairs Tuan escorted me to a pair of doors that led to the Queen’s council room. There were raised voices on the other side that I couldn’t quite understand and then I heard the Queen’s voice silence them all. Even if I couldn’t hear the exact words the meaning was quite clear – the Queen had decided and that was that. Tuan gave me an embarrassed look.
‘Don’t worry about it,’ I whispered, ‘I’ve got a pretty tough mom too.’
His smile was interrupted by the opening of the doors. Inside the chamber there were a dozen or so people. Most looked compos mentis but a few still had that abandoned-puppy look. Tuan introduced me in that formal royal court manner that I dislike but have gotten used to: ‘Queen Rhiannon, honourable council members, I give you Prince Conor of Duir.’
I did all the proper bowing and scraping and was then invited to sit.
‘Prince Conor,’ Queen Rhiannon spoke, ‘we thank you for your gift.’
‘Seeing your need, Your Highness, I can assure you that you and your people will have first priority to any fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.’ I thought I was being magnanimous and princely but my statement was greeted by what I can only describe as grumbling. I racked my brains to think what I said wrong. ‘Of course I can only speak until someone chooses the major Rune of Hazel but I will ensure that the new head of th House of Cull will know of your need.’
Well, if my first statement was a mistake, this was a blunder of Titanic proportions. The entire council was on their feet and shouting. The Queen raised a hand to silence them, to no avail. Their accents were so thick and they were speaking so fast, I couldn’t figure out what they were shouting about.
Queen Rhiannon was forced to stand. ‘Silence!’ she hissed
and the council did as they were told. ‘Prince Tuan has recommended that Conor be deemed barush.’
‘Prince Tuan is not a member of this council,’ a robed woman in the front said.
‘And you are not Queen,’ Rhiannon said with a voice that almost made me drop to my knees and thank the gods that I was not that woman. The Queen regained a bit of her composure but when she spoke again her voice was still as sharp as a razor. ‘While you splashed in your pool Tuan ensured you were not bear-food.’
‘But tradition, Your Highness…’ the woman said, this time with much more contrition in her voice.
‘If I had followed tradition – we would all be lost.’
One of the council members banged the arm of his chair with his fist in a signal of agreement. Others slowly joined him and soon the entire council was banging their chairs, even the chastised woman.
Queen Rhiannon gestured for Tuan to stand next to her. He looked confused.
‘Prince Tuan, I, Rhiannon of Ailm, in recognition of your service to the Pinelands, salute you.’ She stood and bowed the lowest bow I have ever seen a queen make. When she came back upright there were tears in her eyes. ‘I am so very proud of you, my son.’
Tuan’s eyes glistened as he embraced his mother and the entire council rose as one and bowed. They stayed that way until Tuan returned the salute.
‘Take your place among the council, Prince Tuan.’
Tuan whipped his head towards his mother in disbelief. She nodded to him and the council resumed their chair banging again until the stunned Tuan took his seat.
Queen Rhiannon sat smiling for a while waiting for Tuan to get a grip on himself. For a moment she looked more like a mother than a queen. Finally she said, ‘Councillor Tuan.’ It took Tuan a micro-second to realise that she was addressing him. ‘Earlier you proposed that Prince Conor should be anointed as barush. Do you still feel this way?’
‘I do, Your Highness.’
‘Do any council members object?’ The lady in the front row that made the stink before had a furtive look around but said nothing. ‘Very well, Tuan, would you please bring The Elements? It seems my clerk is still grazing somewhere.’ I liked this queen. Anybody that can crack a joke at a time like this is my kind of monarch. ‘Prince Conor, you have been chosen for the honour of barush. Do you know what this means?’
I hadn’t the faintest idea. I assumed it was a good thing but at that moment it occurred to me that barush might mean lunch and they were all going to turn into lions and eat me. ‘No, ma’am, I don’t.’
‘Barush mce Conor, iend. It is the highest honour we bestow on a non-Pooka. There have been very few – but one was your grandfather Liam.’
Tuan entered pushing a rolling table that had three bowls on it. Queen Rhiannon stood and walked towards me. I began to rise but Rhiannon motioned for me to remain seated. She stood in front of me and asked to see my hands, which she took and turned palm up. ‘Baruch like all friendship carries no rules or limits. Do you accept?’
‘I would be honoured.’
‘Then Conor, Son of Hazel and Oak, in the name of the Pookas of The Land’ – she placed dirt from one of the bowls onto my hand – ‘and of the rivers and lakes’ – she splashed water from another bowl onto the dirt in my palm and smeared it into mud. ‘And of the sky,’ she said, bringing my hands up close to her face and blowing on them. Then she grabbed a handful of salt from the last remaining bowl and mixed it into the water. She stirred it with her hand then dribbled saltwater onto my palms, ‘And in the memory of our sisters and brothers lost to the sea – I name you: barush.’ She reached inside her robe and produced a coin-sized gold disc attached to a loop of gold wire no bigger than a bracelet. As she reached up the loop of gold wire expanded and she placed the medallion around my neck. Then she pushed my palms together as if in prayer and kissed me on both cheeks. In my ear she whispered, ‘Lord Liam would have been very proud.’
With the pomp and circumstance done Queen Rhiannon announced, ‘We have been asleep too long – there is work to do.’ She instructed some councillors to house the rest of my party and ordered others to whip up some hazelnut potion to try to revive the herbivore Pookas that were inside the wall. The carnivores without, they wisely decided to leave until daylight.
Tuan led me to the guest wing. As we walked I patted him on the back. ‘You are a Pooka hero.’
He blushed and looked embarrassed that anyone would even think such a thing. If he had been a cowboy he would have said, ‘Aw shucks.’
‘Really,’ I said, ‘you were the only one that didn’t get lost and you’re the only Pooka anybody has ever heard of that can change into more than one animal. You’re like a super-Pooka. We should get you a tee-shirt with a big P painted on the front.’
‘You are very kind…’ Then Tuan’s ears began to stretch and fur-up. He had to turn away and compose himself to stop from transforming into some creature. ‘Sorry, Prince Conor, I sometimes change when I get emotional.’
‘Don’t worry about it and it’s just Conor, OK.’
‘You are very kind, Conor, but things are not as they seem.’
‘Oh yeah, so what am I missing?’
Tuan paused and I thought he was about to tell me. It was obviously something important but then he looked over his shoulder and said, ‘I am very busy. I must help round up some lost bunnies.’
‘Of course, Councillor Tuan,’ I said with a smile. He blushed again – this guy was cute.
‘Just Tuan, OK?’ he said.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Moran
I wandered around my chambers – they were pretty small for royal digs but the bed was soft and there was an en-suite bathroom. I walked out onto the balcony and let the cold air pink up my cheeks as I looked at the pond that a few hours earlier had been the Queen’s swimming pool.
‘I hope you do not mind this small room,’ Queen Rhiannon said, startling me, ‘but this room was a favourite of your grandfather’s. I thought you might like it too.’
‘I do,’ I said, bowing my head. ‘Thank you.’
Queen Rhiannon leaned against the banister next to me and looked out over her pond. ‘I once asked Liam why he liked this room better than the regal rooms and he said it was because here he had a better chance to see me naked.’ The Queen smiled. ‘He was very cheeky, your grandfather. You have the same twinkle in your eyes.’
‘That is very nice to hear, Your Highness.’
The cold and a clatter of teacups made us go back inside. A mousey little servant, that recently may have actually been a mouse, was twitchingly setting up tea, flatbread and dried fruits. When she spilled the Queen’s tea, Rhiannon placed her hand on the servant’s and said, with a reassuring smile, that she could go. My tea was served by a Queen.
‘I thank you again for the hazelnuts, Conor, but since you did not know of our plight before you arrived, I wonder, is there another reason for your visit?’
‘Oisin is dying.’
The Queen tilted her head like a confused puppy and said, ‘Dying?’
That’s when I realised that the concept of a slow death is quite alien to some of the people in The Land. People here either die fast, in battle or by falling out of a poplar tree – or they commit seafaring suicide by sailing out to sea in a boat – but since there is no sickness, a lingering illness followed by death just doesn’t happen. So I told her the long tale about how Dad reattached his hand in the Chamber of Runes and how that seems to be killing him and how Mom and Fand encased him in Shadowmagic.
Queen Rhiannon took it all in, wide-eyed. ‘For hundreds of years there is nothing new in The Land – I’m lost for a couple of months and all has changed. But I cannot imagine how I can help.’
‘I was hoping you could tell me where I can get some tughe tine blood.’
I don’t think I could have shocked her more if I had slapped her in the face. ‘Who told you of tughe tine?’
I explained about the manuscript that contained the story
of the Grey Ones and their search for the blood of the tughe tine and about our strange encounter with the mountaintop Oracle. Finally I told her of the knife and the message that told me that the changelings would have answers.
Queen Rhiannon just sat there with her hand over her mouth and shook her head for a time before she finally said, ‘You certainly do not bring dull stories, Prince Conor. So Deirdre has developed a way to bring back lost manuscripts?’
‘Yes, ma’am.’
‘She is a very clever witch that mother of yours.’ Queen Rhiannon thought again for a time then said, ‘The answers to the questions you ask are… not easily given. There were members of the council today who wanted you and your party dead for what you have deduced already. We Pookas think like animals. So many animals live so much in fear that they hide their injuries. They think that if another animal sees their vulnerabilities that they will use it against them. But sometimes we think like animals too much. We forget that there are creatures that might want to help. If not for you, Conor, and the Faeries – we all would be lost. Your grandfather was the only non-Pooka to know of our dependence on the fruit of the hazel. If more had known then maybe the Tree of Knowledge would have been better defended.’
‘Dahy is building a small regiment to protect it now.’
‘Dahy lives? That is good news. I think it is time we ended our isolation. Do you think he would accept some Pooka recruits?’
‘I know he would.’
‘Good. Now to answer your question, Conor, I shall tell you of things that even many of my own people do not know. But in the light of recent events maybe more should learn of our history.’ She dropped her head and took a deep breath collecting her thoughts.
‘The Pooka were the first new race. We believe that only the Faeries, Leprechauns and Brownies are older. In the beginning we were not changelings but we had an affinity with animals. We tended herds for the House of Duir and learned magic from Eriu. Using gold we learned how to speak to the animals.’