Prince of Hazel and Oak s-2

by John Lenahan

  She looked like I had just slapped her in the face. She pressed her hand to her chest on top of the place where her truth-seeking glass hung from a gold chain. ‘I will not go about interrogating people with the Owith glass.’

  Spideog stepped up to her and took her by the shoulders; for a moment I thought she was going to squirm away and for another second I thought he was going to slap her. ‘Use the glass, Princess. We are at war – we must be certain. Use the glass on us, as you should have used it on him.’

  She looked at me. For a nanosecond she was just a girl with pleading eyes wishing me to say it wasn’t so. She bowed her head and removed the finger-sized crystal from around her neck. As tears welled up in her eyes she asked, ‘Did Turlow betray… me?’

  ‘He did, Princess,’ Spideog replied.

  ‘He betrayed us all,’ I said.

  The crystal remained clear. Essa turned and secretly wiped her eyes as she placed the crystal back around her neck. Then she got back on her horse, raised her chin high and shouted to her company, ‘Mount up! We must return to the Hall of Knowledge. Prince Conor and Master Spideog bring news and it means – war.’

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Ribbons of Gold

  My return to the Hall of Knowledge was not the triumphant one I had imagined when I left. News of Araf’s death swept through the camp. The usually taciturn Imps jabbered among themselves and often broke down into mournful cries. Yogi ran up to me and asked about Tuan. When I shook my head, he threw his own back and turned into the bear. His cry transformed into a roar. It was frightening and heartbreaking. I reached to comfort him but he growled and swung at me. Even so I tried again and this time he let me hug him. He shrank in my arms and I was left with this strongest of men crying on my shoulder.

  ‘Where’s Mom?’ I asked Nieve, who was the only one in the headquarters tent.

  ‘She has returned to Castle Duir.’

  ‘How is my father?’

  ‘Oisin lives but I fear not for long.’

  Nieve waited for me to say more; when I didn’t, she asked a one word question, ‘Brendan?’

  Oh gods, I thought, I had forgotten that there was something going on between those two. ‘I’m sorry,’ I said.

  She dropped her chin and allowed herself one deep sigh then said, ‘Dahy has called for a war council in half an hour. You should freshen up.’ Before she left she held my face in her hands and then kissed my forehead. ‘I am very glad you are safe,’ she said.

  There was hot water, so I washed up a bit and found some clothes. By the time I got to the meeting everyone was there. Dahy looked up and said, ‘I’m glad you could make it, Prince Conor.’ I couldn’t figure out if he was being sarcastic or not so I just bowed and found a place to sit.

  ‘I believe the attack will come as soon as Cialtie’s forces arrive. This is good. It means that tomorrow’s battle will only be half of the day.’

  ‘Cialtie’s attacking tomorrow?’ I blurted.

  ‘If we are lucky tomorrow’s attack will not be until the afternoon or late morning at the worst.’

  ‘When did we find that out?’

  ‘We, meaning everyone here, found out fifteen minutes ago when they arrived at the war council – on time,’ Dahy said, laying to rest my doubt over whether his greeting had been sarcastic or not. ‘We must assume the attack is imminent. With your escape, Cialtie knows that surprise is no longer on his side. He will attack swiftly before we can call for reinforcements. Our Pooka hawk scout has just confirmed my suspicion. The Brownie and Banshee army is less than a day’s march away.’

  A day, I said to myself, I was hoping to join the contingent that rode to Castle Duir for reinforcements. I was hoping to see Dad before it was too late. Now, looking around the faces in the room, I knew I couldn’t leave. Tomorrow we make a stand and the only thing that I could hope for was to survive the day.

  ‘As you all must have heard by now The Turlow has betrayed us,’ Dahy said without emotion. I looked to Essa. Other than her jaw clenching, she too showed nothing. ‘That means the enemy knows our strengths and our weaknesses. We can put this to good use. We have erected stone ramparts on three sides of the Hall but the western ridge above the valley, as you know, is undefended. This is where the main attack will come. Turlow will be certain that there is no way to defend the hill from a frontal assault – tonight we will prove him wrong.’

  I turned to Yogi, who was next to me. ‘What is he talking about?’ I asked but the Pooka shushed me.

  ‘Archers, go with Master Spideog to the battlements – the rest of you grab a shovel and come with me.’

  Any thought of spending my last night resting and reminiscing about the shortness of my life were dashed when I got to the hill. This was going to be a big job. Using swords, long strips of turf were carefully cut from the ground and then five shallow trenches were dug the length of the entire hill.

  Five impromptu gold forges were set up on the summit. Leprechaun goldsmiths minted and hammered long strips of thick gold ribbons that were then laid into the trenches. Essa, Nieve and a handful of Imp and Leprechaun sorceresses spent most of the night kneeling and incanting their mumbo-jumbo over the gold. Then the turf was carefully replaced.

  It was only a couple of hours before dawn by the time we were finished. I saw Essa almost swo when she placed a spell over the last of the strips of gold. I ran to her and placed her arm around my neck and walked her back to her tent. She was almost unconscious when I laid her down, but before I could go she said, ‘Stay.’ I held her as she instantly dropped off into a heavy sleep. I was glad she asked me to stay; if I was to die tomorrow she was the one with whom I wanted to spend my last hours.

  As I held Essa I slid seamlessly into a dream. Her tent faded away and we were lying in front of the fireplace back in my house in the Real World. I knew at once that this was just a dream and not a prediction. I never had the courage to ask Essa how old she was but I wouldn’t be surprised to find that she had like fifty years on her. Although that makes you a youngster around here, I’m sure she wouldn’t appreciate a couple of decades worth of wrinkles just for a tour of my old high school in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Shame, I’d love to show her around where I grew up. I have no idea what she would make of the Real World – it would be fun to find out.

  Saying that, as I watched the fire dance in the fireplace of my old living room, I realised that I would never in reality see that sight again. I would never go back to my home. I lived in The Land now and if I made it through tomorrow’s battle, I knew I would only be taking one last trip to the Real World. That would be to tell Brendan’s mother and daughter how he had died. They probably wouldn’t believe me but it’s the least I could do.

  Still in my dream, I was grabbed from above by the talons of a dragon. He zoomed me into the sky as the sun was setting and flew me to Castle Duir. Ah, the more accustomed I became with dreaming, the more my dreams became just like everyone else’s. There in my subconscious I acted out my heart’s desire. The dragon dropped me into my father’s room where he was sitting up, drinking a cup of tea (there seemed to be no ceilings in my dreams), and standing next to his bed were Tuan and Brendan, all fit and smiling. I reached for my fallen companions…

  I awoke with the euphoria that for a microsecond follows a dream into wakefulness – before the realities of life crush it. My father and my friends were gone, and soon I would engage in a hopeless battle. I turned to Essa but she too was gone. It took all of my will to get out of that bed.

  I expected everyone to be a hive of busyness but they weren’t – they were just sitting around waiting. Some were writing letters, others were polishing their swords or fussing with their bows. Morale was definitely not good.

  Spideog spotted me having breakfast in the canteen. ‘You must speak to them.’

  ‘Speak to who?’

  ‘Your troops.’

  ‘There not my troops, they’re Dahy’s troops.’

  ‘Dahy is their general,’ t
he old archer said, ‘but you are their prince.’

  ‘Look, I told you before I don’t feel very comfortable with all of this royal stuff.’

  Spideog scoffed, ‘Since when is your comfort an issue? You are what you are – and what you are is the royal heir to the Throne of Duir. These men and women need to know what they are fighting for and you must tell them.’

  ‘I don’t even know what we are fghting for.’

  ‘Well, you had better figure it out fast, Conor. Dahy is massing the troops now.’

  Dahy was finishing up explaining the battle plan when I finally emerged from the canteen. It had occurred to me that none of these guys knew anything about the Real World and I thought about stealing a choice speech from history.

  The first thing that came to mind was, ‘We have nothing to fear but fear itself.’ That might have been appropriate for Americans safe in their homes during the Great Depression but these guys did have something to fear – screaming Banshees.

  I toyed with ‘We shall fight them on the beaches,’ but the beaches were miles away. And ‘Ich bin ein Tir na Nogier,’ would most certainly go way over their heads.

  So as I walked to the front of the eager faces of the troops… my troops, I still didn’t know what I was going to say.

  ‘Friends, Tir na Nogians, countrymen, lend me your ears.’ I instinctively looked around for someone to get the joke but the only two who could, Brendan and Dad, were not there. I paused and looked at the eager faces waiting for me to orate some great wisdom but all I could think of were the people that weren’t there.

  ‘I have only been here a short while,’ I said quietly.

  Someone shouted, ‘Speak up.’

  I cleared my throat. ‘I have only been here a short while but during that time I have lost much: my cousin, my friends, and as I speak my father lies dying in Castle Duir.’ I looked at the soldiers, they were all silently nodding. ‘I know I’m not the only one. You Imps and Pookas have lost your princes and we all know of the hardships that you Leprechauns suffered when Cialtie held the Oak Throne. It would be easy to say this battle was about revenge.’ A few cheers popped up in the crowd but I waved them quiet. ‘But my father once told me that revenge was a poisonous emotion. He said, if we must fight, we must fight because it is right.

  ‘This battle didn’t start today. Decades ago the same people who attack us now trashed the Hazellands. They wrecked the Hall of Knowledge and they destroyed everything in it. You know, I once had a teacher in high school – he was a real jerk but he did say one thing that has always stayed with me. He said, “History is not about what we did, it is about who we are.” By destroying the Hall of Knowledge, Cialtie and Turlow are not only trying to kill us, they are also trying to kill what we are as people. My mother, using Shadowmagic, has invented a way to get much of our history back from this place. We must hold the Hall of Knowledge. By holding the Hazellands long enough for reinforcements to come, we will not only be giving ourselves a chance to live tomorrow but we will be saving what we were – and are – we give ourselves a chance to be remembered. That is what immortality truly is.

  ‘We stand together at the brains of Tir na Nog. Let’s kick some Banshee tail!’

  A cheer rose up that was so loud and fast, it shocked me.

  Spideog walked up to me and did something he had never done before. He bowed and said, ‘My Prince.’

  ‘I did good?’ I asked.

  He smiled – a rare smile. ‘You did good.’

  I spent the rest of the day visiting with the troops – basically acting like a prince. I walked around faking being brave and I actually think it helped calm people. Maybe that’s what bravery is – pretending not to be scared. Many soldiers told me stories of their homes and their families that made me realise just how little I truly knew of Tir na Nog. It made me determined to save as much of it as I could.

  Essa was doing pretty much the same thing. I was watching Essa help a man write a letter when Spideog caught me staring at her. ‘Can I ask you a personal question, Conor?’

  ‘Sure,’ I said.

  ‘I thought you and her…’ the old archer nodded his head towards Essa, ‘I thought you two were… you know… wooing.’

  ‘Oh Master, that was a long time ago.’

  Spideog looked confused and said, ‘I thought you only first arrived in The Land last summer?’

  ‘I did,’ I said and laughed. ‘I guess you and I have a different definition of “a long time ago”.’

  ‘So what happened between you two – so long ago?’

  ‘Well, she tried to kill me.’

  He turned and took a long look at Essa, then looked me in the eyes and said, ‘If I were you, I wouldn’t let a little thing like that put me off.’

  It was well into the afternoon when I found myself with Dahy standing on the makeshift battlements.

  ‘Have you ever fought against Banshees before?’ I asked the old warrior.

  The question made him look older. ‘I have fought with them – never against them.’

  ‘So what about that Banshee sixth sense? If they can tell when they are going to win a battle, doesn’t that mean we have already lost?’

  Dahy gave me a look like I had just cursed in church. ‘I spoke with the troops about this before you came out this morning. The Banshees have a very good sense of how a battle is going but they cannot predict the future. Just because they are good at knowing which way the wind blows doesn’t mean that winds cannot change. They are not the mystics they think they are. They drop their trousers to crap just like the rest of us.’

  ‘But if they attack, doesn’t that mean the wind is blowing their way?’

  Dahy laughed. ‘There is a tornado blowing our way, son. Any fool can see that. I have sent wolves to Castle Duir and to the Pinelands. I wanted to send the bird but I needed her for reconnaissance.’ He looked to the sky but it was empty. ‘Our only hope is to hold out until we get reinforcements. When we do, the Banshees will turn tail. That sense of theirs also tells them when they are going to lose.’

  A screech above us forced our eyes to the sky as a streak of black came towards us. I stepped instinctively back but Dahy just reached into his satchel and took out a silk robe. Th hawk landed between us and as it raised its head it continued to grow into a black-haired woman. Dahy handed her the robe.

  She looked at me and then, like a bird, sharply turned her head to the general. ‘They are here,’ she said.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  There Will Be Blood

  Just as Dahy had predicted, Cialtie’s army, using Turlow’s intelligence, ignored the stone ramparts, swept wide behind the Hall and prepared to attack what yesterday had been the unprotected hill. Cialtie’s forces took their time setting up. If their sixth sense was warning them about the buried gold barrier, then they weren’t showing it. We stood in a row, two deep, banta sticks in hand, waiting for the attack.

  The previous night there had been a pretty heated debate about whether we should be defending with swords or sticks. Spideog said we were at war and should be using swords like warriors, but I said no. These people were not monsters or robots – they were men and women whose only crime was to have their minds corrupted by evil men. Spideog pointed out that they would not give us the same courtesy. Before I could reply Essa said something that finished the argument.

  ‘What would we win,’ she asked, ‘if after we defeat our enemy, we then become just like them?’

  At that moment I wanted to kiss Essa square on the mouth – but then again I could say that about most moments.

  The battle began with a mortar attack. The enemy cheered as they sent conch shells sailing overhead. Except for the one that Essa batted back like a major league baseball player, half a dozen shells landed on the ground with smoke rising out of them. We backed away expecting the worst but they did nothing. Finally brave souls picked them up and threw them back. Our enemy’s cheering stopped and for a while they looked confused. Orders barke
d from the back of their ranks refocused the troops and they strapped short shields to their arms, drew their swords and waited for the order to charge.

  The silence, as the old expression goes, was deafening. I looked to my left and saw Yogi morph into a bear and growl. I looked to my right; Essa nodded and spun her banta stick. There wasn’t a smiling face to be seen. How I wished Fergal was there with me.

  I didn’t hear the order to charge but I sure saw the results. A couple of hundred screaming Banshees and howling Brownies charged up the hill under the shadow of a flock of arrows launched from the rear. The attackers must have seen the arrows explode into flame as they crossed the gold barrier. They probably expected it. What they didn’t expect was what came next. As the first line of Banshees crossed the point where we had buried the ribbons of gold, their swords and shields vanished in a puff of smoke. Their forward momentum carried them straight into our waiting sticks. It was like hunting in a zoo. Baffled and surprised Banshees ran straight at us as we mercilessly clubbed them and then dropped back so as to let the next line step up and have a fuwing. Banshees, then Brownies, dropped like bowling pins and piled up on one another. Others collided and tripped over confused retreating soldiers who were running in every direction. It was horrible. The sound of it was sickening and the look on their faces just before we hit them was pathetic. I thank the gods we weren’t using swords. I don’t think even the hardest of us could have withstood that guilt.

  When they finally retreated, what remained was a long pile of moaning Banshee and Brownie bodies lying twisted in a heap three deep.

  Since we had no provisions to take prisoners, a detail of soldiers was chosen to untangle and roll the unconscious aggressors back down the hill. Among them were Nieve and her little cabal of sorceresses. They stuck most of the enemy in the leg with one of my aunt’s special paralysing pins – when they woke up, they found it difficult to use that leg for a day or so. It would make a little bit of a difference but not much. Cialtie’s forces were still substantially larger than ours.