by John Lenahan
He took off his shirt and then the kilt-like thing he had around his waist. Even though no one could hear it and I couldn’t even say it, a wisecrack sprang into my mind along the lines of ‘What worm are you talking about?’ He dropped down on to one knee and once again placed his balled fists in front of his face in a gesture of intense concentration. I had seen Pooka changes before and it is always impressive but I had never seen anything like this. Not only did it look impressive but it sounded impressive. First he went red – not redhead red but cooked lobster red. Then fist-sized scales clinked into place as he got big. First he got bull big, then elephant big and finally dinosaur big. He raised his head at the same time that his wings fully extended. Of course, I said to myself, worm means – dragon.
I think this would have been one of the most magnificent moments in my life if it hadn’t been ruined by the realisation that momentarily I would be dead. I could hardly blame Dragon Red, in his eyes all he saw was a cold-hearted expressionless killer. He didn’t see my knees knocking ’cause I couldn’t move them and he didn’t even see me open my mouth in wonder ’cause I was frozen solid. I must have looked like a man prepared to die for his sins.
Dragon Red rocked his huge spiny head back and forth then placed his snout inches from mine. Smoke seeped out from between his fangs, my eyes watered and my nose burned from the smell of brimstone. Then he cocked his head back like a snake getting ready to strike. I saw the hair that was hanging in front of my eyes curl and burn as he sent a fireball the size of a car past me. It was aimed directly at The Digs.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Graysea
I didn’t see the fireball hit but I sure as hell felt it. It felt like d been clubbed with a refrigerator. The fire passed and surrounded me as I flew through the air like a test dummy at ground zero during an atomic bomb test. The first thing I did was to pat my head to make sure my hair wasn’t on fire and then I realised that I could. The blast must have knocked Nieve’s pin out of my neck. I turned to see The Digs completely engulfed in flames.
I was instantly on my feet. ‘ARAF, BRENDAN,’ I screamed. I started running around to the far side of The Digs hoping that the fire was not so fierce on that side. Hoping I could get them out of there.
‘TUAN!’
I looked around to get help from Red, to tell him that they were alive in there, but he was nowhere to be seen. At the rear of The Digs, flames were pouring out the back door. I took one step towards it and that’s the last thing I remember.
The pain was excruciating. I suspected from the way it was hanging from my hip, that I had broken my left leg. My head was bleeding like a stuck pig and there was intense pain in my shoulders where the talons pierced my flesh. But the worst agony came from the sight, hundreds of feet below me, of The Digs completely and totally engulfed in flames. There was no way that Araf, Brendan and Tuan made it out. My friends had been burned alive. I retched and then watched as the contents of my stomach sailed down between my legs, then were dispersed by the wind until they landed in the sea below.
I looked up, a painful and difficult thing to do when you are hung from your shoulders.
‘YOU IDIOT!’ I shouted at Red. ‘YOU KILLED THEM.’ I’m sure that with the sound of the rushing wind and considering the substantial distance I was from the huge dragon’s head, that Red wasn’t ignoring me – he simply couldn’t hear – but the memory of Red’s games on the island came to mind and made my blood boil. I kicked and screamed some more.
‘YOU KILLED THEM AND I’M GOING TO KILL YOU. YOU MURDERER.’
I instinctively reached for the Lawnmower and was shocked to find it hanging at my side. I drew it and slashed at his talon. That got his attention. He screeched and let go of my right shoulder, swinging me to the left. Then he banked sharply right – this swung me up, under his underbelly. The scales there were thinner and a pale yellow-green. I knew I would never get a better chance – I jabbed the Lawnmower as I was propelled up towards Red’s belly. The sword found a spot between two scales and it sank almost half its length into the body of the huge beast. Blood spurted out of the wound. Red let go of me and I lost my grip on the Lawnmower. As I fell I saw the huge red dragon flapping away with the Sword of Duir sticking out of his belly.
As I have mentioned before, time usually slows down for me when I’m in mortal peril but I didn’t need it in this situation. I was so far up in the air I had a lot of time to assess my dire circumstances. I was plummeting to earth at terminal velocity without the aid of a parachute or even a comedy umbrella. If the fall didn’t kill me, I was going to land in the sea about half the way between Red’s island and another island behind it. It didn’t look like a distance I could swim, even without a broken leg. The major irony was that I was covered with dragon’s blood – the blood of the tughe tine. The stuff that I had spent so long searching for, th pathat I had travelled so far for and had lost so many friends because of – the blood was all over me, in my hair, on my face, soaked in my clothes and I was about to plunge in the ocean where I would have the privilege of watching it wash away as I drowned.
I stretched my hands out to my sides and used the air current to slowly spin me around. I took in my last look of the beautiful islands on the edge of The Land. Then I shouted, ‘I’m sorry, Dad!’ and slammed into the water.
‘Who is Brendan?’
She was blurry but I could see that she had long blonde hair and was dressed all in white. I know it’s corny and cliched but trust me, if you see someone that looks like that immediately after having an almost certain death experience, you too will think it’s an angel and like me – it’ll freak you out.
‘He is friend,’ I croaked. ‘There was… fire. Is he here?’
As she came into focus I saw that she was certainly pretty enough to be an angel. Disappointingly she had no wings but I had a faint image of her floating in the air – or was it… water. Then two things happened that dispelled my illusion of being in heaven. First I tried to get up and was racked with the most enormous wave of pain and secondly my angel giggled. Maybe I could deal with an afterlife that had pain in it but under no circumstances should angels be allowed to giggle.
She lifted my head and put a small glass of liquid to my lips. ‘You say the funniest things,’ she said as I drank. The liquid was very pleasant, which made me think that it wasn’t medicine, but when I tried to speak I realised just how wrong I was. Like with one of Aunt Nieve’s paralysing pins, I couldn’t move or speak, but unlike my aunt’s pins, this was quite pleasant. I drifted off into a dream of heaven filled with giggling angels.
The next time I came to I was mentally in better shape. I was in a cave – a very nice cave. Bottles filled with brightly coloured liquids, as well as unusual scientific instruments and perfectly folded linens, sat on shelves that were carved directly out of sparkling stone walls. Light came from coral-looking glowing things that sat on almost every surface. I touched the one that was on the table next to my bed and I heard it (or felt it in my head) ask me if I wanted it brighter or darker. I asked it to tell me where I was but ‘brighter or darker’, was about the extent of its vocabulary. I braced myself for the coming pain as I tried to sit up and was delighted to find that I didn’t hurt that much, but then I made the mistake of looking under the bed for my clothes – all of the blood rushed to my head and my vision began to darken. Maybe I wasn’t in as good a shape as I thought. I pulled myself back, laid my head on the pillow and closed my eyes until the dizziness passed.
I was in this position when my angel zoomed into the room. She was beyond me by the time I opened my eyes. I sat up to watch her golden hair bounce as she knelt down and placed a stack of towels on a low shelf. I was going to say something but instead I just watched her. When she stood she kept her back straight; the way she moved reminded me of a dancer. Finally she turned – and to my forever shame, as she turned – I screamed. She was old – really old. Now don’t get me wrongn amp;#n’t go around screaming at old people and she
wasn’t hideous or anything, as a matter of fact she was a very attractive old person. It’s just that you get out of the habit of seeing older people in The Land and, also, I wasn’t expecting it.
She placed her hands on her hips and said, ‘Do I look that scary?’
I started to answer her but I couldn’t figure out how to explain why I screamed when I saw her face, so I just said, ‘Sorry.’ She walked behind me and roughly took my head in her hands. ‘What are you
…?’
‘Shush,’ she said and I did. Then she said ‘Hmmm,’ in a knowing sort of a way that made me want to ask her what was wrong with me but before I could say anything, she left.
I lay there for a long while listening and then dozed off until I heard the old woman saying, ‘Faerie, oh Faerie man.’
I opened my eyes and saw the old nurse and her twin – except maybe eighty years younger – my giggling angel.
‘I imagine this is the one you were expecting,’ the senior nurse said. ‘I am sure you will find that she is not as scary as me.’
I looked up with an apologetic gesture but still failed to say anything other than ‘Sorry.’
‘Pathetic,’ she said, shaking her head as she left.
‘She is a little scary,’ giggling angel said and then giggled. ‘I do not think she likes you very much, Faerie man.’
‘Conor,’ I said.
She looked confused and turned her head like a baffled puppy. ‘What does Conor mean?’
‘It’s my name. I am Conor.’
‘Oh,’ she said, placing her hand up over her face, laughing. ‘Oh, I’m very pleased to meet you, Conor,’ she said and then did a little curtsey.
‘And yours?’
‘And my what?’ she said, again with that head tilt.
‘Your name? What’s your name?’
‘Oh’ – giggle – ‘my name is Graysea.’
‘It is a pleasure to meet you, Graysea.’
‘And it’s a pleasure to meet you, Conor.’
‘You already said that.’
‘Did I? Oops.’
‘So tell me, Graysea, where am I and how long have I been here?’
‘Oh, so many questions. Which answer do you want first?’
‘I don’t mind, either.’
‘OK,’ she said. ‘Um… what were the questions again?’
‘Let’s start with where am I?’
‘You’re in the Grotto of Health.’
‘And where is that?’
That question stymied her for a minute before she came up with, ‘In the Grotto of Health.’
‘OK, how long have I been here?’
‘Ever since I brought you here.’
That was not quite an answer to my question but it was a nugget of information. ‘You brought me here?’
‘Uh huh.’
‘And where did you find me?’
‘In the water.’
‘And what were you doing in the water?’
‘Flying.’
‘Don’t you mean swimming?’
‘I don’t think so.’
I took a deep breath and started again. ‘So you were flying in the water when you just came across me drowning?’
‘Oh no, I saw Tughe Tine drop you. That’s why I came.’
‘You saw the dragon drop me?’
‘Oh, everyone did. We don’t see Moran very often – usually only once every twenty years at the blood fete.’
‘What happens at the blood fete?’
‘That’s when Moran gives dragon blood to the King so he won’t grow old. Don’t you know about that?’
‘I’ve heard something about it.’
This seemed to please her. I sat up higher in bed and as I did I winced where my side hurt. Graysea unabashedly pulled back my sheet and asked me where it hurt. I pointed to my side and she told me to ‘Scoot over.’ Then she sat next to me in the bed, placed her hand on my rib, put her feet up on the bed and crossed her ankles. With her free hand she placed into her mouth a silvery shell that was hanging around her neck by a string of tiny pearls. I watched as her neck thickened, then three slits appeared that began to open and close like a beached fish gasping for air. When I looked down I wasn’t that surprised to see that her feet had changed into one fin. Her fingers, now webbed, pressed hard against my rib. That caused a sharp stab of pain that instantly disappeared as Graysea made a deep gasping noise. She reached up and removed the shell from her mouth and by the time I looked at her fin, it was feet again.
‘Oh, that one was broken,’ she said, getting up and rubbing her own side. ‘I’m sorry we missed that.’
I covered myself up and then flexed the rib. It didn’t hurt at all. ‘How did you do that?’
‘I took your hurt and then lost it during The Change. That’s what we do here. It took quite a few of us a long time to heal you. What happened?’
‘Have you ever seen a hawk swoop down and catch a rabbit?’
Graysea nodded yes, but wrinkled her nose to show that she didn’t like it.
‘Well, that’s what happened to me.’
‘You said lots of funny things in your sleep.’
‘Like what?’
‘Mostly you said “Brendan, Araf and Tuan”.’
I wasn’t expecting that and her words stabbed me with a pain worse than my broken rib. I tried to push the thought of them being burned alive out of my mind. I knew I would have to deal with the emotions of that loss – but later – I didn’t have the strength now. I turned my face away from Graysea and slammed my eyelids closed, willing them not to leak. When I looked back, Graysea was upset.
‘Oh, oh what have I done?’
‘No, it’s OK. They are friends that I have lost. It’s not your fault.’
‘Oh, no, I’m not supposed to upset patients. Oh, I have to get matron.’ She turned and ran out of the room. There was no way to stop her.
A couple of minutes later the older nurse came in and stood at the foot of my bed with her arms crossed. ‘Graysea says that you are upset.’
‘I think she is more upset than me.’
‘What happened? What did you do to her?’
‘I didn’t do anything. She just mentioned the names I have been speaking in my sleep for the last… How long have I been here?’
‘Nine days.’
‘Wow, I’ve been here for nine days?’
‘What did you say to her?’
‘Oh, nothing, she just said the names of my companions that… they were killed during my… adventure. She took me by surprise and I turned away for a second. Honest, I told her it was OK but she bolted out of the room.’
The matron uncrossed her arms and her countenance softened. ‘She is a sensitive little fishy.’ She pushed the sheet away from my feet, held both ankles and closed her eyes performing what I presumed was some sort of examination. ‘So how did you like your chat with our Graysea?’
‘It was… interesting.’
‘I bet. I should have warned you about the rule of having a successful conversation with her.’
‘And what would that be?’
‘Don’t ask her any questions.’
We both laughed. ‘Hey, sorry about screaming when I first saw you. I really-’
She waved her hand and cut me off. ‘Don’t give it a second thought. If I had seen me when I expected her – I would have screamed too.’ She came behind me and held my head with both hands; when I started to talk she shushed me again. ‘Actually there are some mornings I want to scream when I look in the mirror.’
‘Can I ask you a couple of questions?’
‘You can ask.’
‘You are mermaids – right?’
‹ whight="0%" width="5%"›‘Oh my, that is word I haven’t heard in a long while, but yes – I am Mertain.’ She pulled my sheet away. ‘OK, Faerie, let’s see if you can walk.’
‘You wouldn’t have my clothes around, would you?’
‘It’s nothing that I have never seen before.’
> ‘Still,’ I said, standing with my hands in front of my dangly bits, ‘I think you have seen enough for today.’
She said she didn’t know where my clothes were, so she gave me a white robe, the same as she and Graysea were wearing. I put some weight on my leg and it felt good. ‘It’s a little stiff but no pain. It was broken wasn’t it?’
‘Actually it was dislocated at the hip. What in the sea happened to you?’
‘I got pounced on by a dragon.’
‘Moran pounced on you?’
I nodded yes.
‘Ouch.’
I walked around the room and everything seemed to be OK. I had a twinge in my knee and the matron had me sit while she did her fish trick and then it felt fine.
‘Would you mind if I ask you how old you are?’
‘Yes.’
‘Sorry, I don’t want to upset you. I’m just trying to sort some stuff out in my head.’
‘And what does my age have to do with your head?’
‘Well, I think I’m on one of the islands off Fearn Point.’
‘You’re under one actually.’
‘Under?’
‘You’re in an underwater cave about half a league under Mertain Isle.’
‘That’s sounds deep.’
‘It is. Healing is faster this far down.’
‘How did I get here?’
‘You will see when you go back up.’
‘Which will be when?’
‘Soon,’ she said. ‘I think you are ready to travel and I’ll tell them that – once you stop asking me questions. So what does this have to do with my age?’
‘Well, I figure you must grow old out here, except for the King…’
‘How do you know that?’
‘Graysea told me.’
‘You got information like that out of our Graysea – I am impressed.’ She folded her arms again. ‘Go on.’
‘I guess I just want to know how fast people age out here. Is it as fast as in the Real World?’
‘I do not think so,’ the matron said, ‘if you must know I am under a thousand.’