by John Lenahan
That’s when time began to slow for me, not a good sign. My gift is only a help when I am personally in a fight. Here, watching this failing battle, my gift was a curse, just as it was when I watched Fergal die. I saw my comrades fall in slow motion. I saw every wound, every spurt of blood as if I was watching some bad war movie. It also gave me time to assess the entire battlefield and what I saw told me it was all over. We were moments away from being overrun.
The aisle on the left broke. Banshees and Brownies poured out. Dahy called forward the soldiers that had been guarding the Tree of Knowledge. A melee of hand-to-hand combat opened in the yard.
I looked for Essa. If this was to be the end I wanted to be at her side. In the confusion I couldn’t see her but I heard her when she yelled, ‘THE SKY!’
I looked up as the entire firmament turned into flame. A huge fireball rolled over and through the holes in the shattered battlements. Fire leapt in and set alight the attackers at the entrances of the aisles. Flames rolled over the top of the defences forcing us to hit the ground as hairs curled on the top of our heads. Then, swooping through the smoke flew a huge green dragon. It circled and came in to land almost exactly where I was standing. As I dived for cover I saw that the dragon had a rider. I got to my feet just in time to see him jump off as the dragon skidded into a stone wall. The dragon rider hit the ground in a graceful roll and popped up on his feet, banta stick in hand. It was – Araf!
I didn’t question how or why. I just got to my feet and shouted, ‘IMPS AND LEPRECHAUNS, TO ME. THE DRAGON IS ON OUR SIDE. EVERYONE, TO ME.’ Araf blew his whistle. To their credit our force spent no time in dazed wonder when they saw their prince arrive miraculously from the grave astride a dragon, they went right into battle mode and cheered as they went back on the offensive.
The attackers that were still standing retreated as fast as their legs would carry them. If that Banshee sixth sense is true then it pretty quickly told them to get the hell out of there.
Another explosion of fire lit up the southern end of the battlefield as a crimson-coloured dragon – one that I recognised as Red – swooped over our position. Its rider, with that unmistakable American accent, shouted, ‘YEE HA.’
Dragon Red landed on the top of the headquarters building just long enough for Brendan to slide off.
‘Hey, O"0%" widtheil,’ the policeman/dragon-rider shouted over the sound of Red launching himself back in to the sky, ‘it’s good to see you’re not dead.’
‘Same to you, Copper,’ I shouted. I was just about to ask Araf what the heck was going on when we heard a sound of a battle horn coming from the courtyard.
Someone shouted, ‘THEY ARE ATTACKING THE TREE!’
By the time I got to the entranceway it was almost over. A dozen Brownies were lying dead on the ground with arrows sticking out of the centres of their chests. Spideog was still firing even though he had a crossbow bolt in his thigh and another in his shoulder. There were four remaining Brownies; two of them had axes and were trying to get to the Tree of Knowledge. Spideog went for the axe bearers when he should have gone for the one in the back. I saw that Brownie cock his arm and then I saw the dagger leave his hand. A split second later two arrows hit the knife thrower – one in the throat from Spideog and another in the chest from Brendan on the roof – but they weren’t in time to stop the throw. The knife was well off the mark but as I watched, it curved in midair and honed in on the ancient archer’s heart. It hit him square in the chest. He dropped his bow, then crumpled first onto his knees and then onto his back.
Brendan dispatched the other attackers from the roof and then out of habit shouted, ‘OFFICER DOWN.’ He slid down a buttress and arrived at Spideog’s side almost as quickly as I did. I lifted the archer’s head; he coughed and blood poured from his mouth.
‘Is the Tree safe?’ he asked.
‘Yes, Master.’
‘Good.’ He coughed again, closing his eyes in pain. ‘Conor, don’t let Essa go. If you don’t tell her how you feel, you will regret it for the rest of your life – trust me, I know.’ He coughed again and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. When he saw the blood on his fingers he said, ‘Oh dear, could you find Dahy for me?’
Brendan took the archer’s head. I turned, there were several soldiers watching dumbfounded. ‘Get Dahy,’ I ordered and they scattered in several directions.
Brendan was weeping openly. Spideog smiled and said to him, ‘If the yews allow it, I want you to have my bow.’
Brendan tried to speak but nothing came out.
Dahy crashed to his knees next to us. He took Spideog’s hand and said, ‘Hey, old man.’
‘Who are you calling old?’ Spideog smiled, his eyes still closed.
Dahy looked up and barked, ‘Someone get a healer.’
Dahy’s old comrade in arms shook his head. The meaning was obvious – a healer would do no good. Then he opened his eyes and said, ‘She lives, Dahy.’
‘Who lives, old friend?’ Dahy asked.
Pain and coughing racked Spideog’s body, blood poured freely from the side of his mouth. I didn’t think he would open his eyes again but then he reached up and grabbed Dahy on the side of the arm. ‘Macha… Macha lives.’ Then his hand dropped and he breathed his last.
The folds of his tunic had obscured the knife in Spideog’s chest. As Brendan laid him down the material fell away and the green knife handle came into view. Dahy pulled it from the torso and examined it closely. ‘Where did this come from?’
A sinking feeling like a punch in the stomach almost made me retch. I walked over to the dead Brownie that had thrown the knife. I knelt down and rolled his body over – it was Demne, the eldest son of the Brownie King. It was Frank.
By the time I looked up Essa, Araf and Tuan were in the courtyard. My head was spinning. Overwhelmingly conflicting emotions mixed with confusion made me almost catatonic. I had just won a battle but had been partly responsible for the death of Master Spideog. But then – here were my friends brought back from the dead.
The sound of flapping and screaming in the sky snapped me back to full attention. High, high above us flew a dragon; below him hung a writhing, screaming man. When Red was directly above our heads he opened his talons and let the man go. The screaming ended when the freefalling body hit the side of the headquarters roof. The snapping of his neck was plain to hear. He bounced and landed on the ground face down, not far away from Essa. The Princess used her foot to flip him over. It was Turlow. Essa stared at him with a clenched jaw as her eyes watered up.
‘I wanted to do that,’ she said.
Chapter Forty-One
The Green Dragon
I looked back up and saw Dragon Red flying away and remembered. I remembered what the last months had all been about. I started shouting, ‘NO, RED, RED COME BACK.’
I looked to Brendan. ‘Where is he going?’
I didn’t wait for an answer, I was getting frantic. ‘RE-E-E-ED!’ Then I spun on Araf. ‘You were riding a green dragon – where is the green dragon? Where?’
Araf grabbed me by the shoulders, he was uncharacteristically smiling. I looked to Brendan and Tuan; despite the recent tragedies, they were smiling too.
‘I need dragon’s blood!’
‘Calm down, Conor,’ Araf said. ‘The green dragon is here.’
I spun around, searching the courtyard for any sign of a dragon. They were all still smiling like idiots. I was just about to slap them when Tuan placed his hands together into a two-handed fist, then crouched down like a man about to drop to his knees in prayer. When he began to straighten up he didn’t just stop at his own height. His clothes tore away as palm-sized green scales loudly clinked into place on his chest and back. He continued to grow as his face extended and spines grew out of his receding hair. As he reached full size he blocked the sun and extended his wings, sending a cloud of dust and leaves swirling around the courtyard, forcing us to shield our eyes.
‘ight="7%"›No,’ I said incredulously.
‘Oh yes,’ Brendan said, patting me on the back.
I stepped up to Dragon Tuan and he lowered his head. I looked into his eyes, thinking that I would recognise my old travelling companion but his eyes were green and yellow with slits for pupils.
‘Is that you in there, Councillor Tuan?’
He threw his head violently back and blew a massive plume of fire into the air. Brendan grabbed me by the arm and pulled me back. ‘Don’t make him laugh, he’s having trouble controlling the fire-breathing stuff.’
Tuan folded back his wings and lowered his body to the ground. Brendan took a running start and hopped on his back like a cowboy in a movie. Then he held out his hand and said, ‘You comin’?’
‘Where?’
‘To Castle Duir. Tuan wants to donate some blood.’
I took a running start. I was so excited that I almost sailed straight over the back of Tuan.
Then Nieve ran into the courtyard and shouted, ‘Brendan, you are alive.’
‘I am indeed, gorgeous,’ the cop replied from dragonback. ‘I’m off to Castle Duir to save your brother. Come with us.’
Honest to the gods she hopped up and down like a schoolgirl at a boy-band concert and ran two steps towards us before she stopped and dropped her head.
‘I cannot. I must tend the wounded.’
Brendan turned to me and said, ‘Can you give me a minute?’
I nodded and he slid off Tuan’s back and gave my aunt a right proper, back-dipping, snog.
Dahy approached me holding the knife. He looked shell-shocked. ‘Where did you get this?’ he asked quietly. It was almost as if he was afraid to hear the answer.
‘It was thrown out of the window from the house of the Oracle, on Mount Cas. Araf was there, he can tell you all about it.’ He nodded thoughtfully and backed off as Brendan dramatically remounted.
Tuan extended his school-bus-sized wings and began to flap. The muscles in his back tightened and rocked me up and down as I searched for something to hold on to. I grabbed Brendan around the waist. He didn’t seem to mind.
Detective Fallon turned to me wearing a huge ear-to-ear grin. ‘Have you ever been on the rollercoaster at that amusement park in Elysburg, Pennsylvania?’
‘Yeah,’ I screamed back as the wind roared around us. ‘It was very scary.’
‘Well, hold on, O’Neil, ’cause this is a whole lot worse.’
As I held on for dear life, Brendan filled me in on what had happened.
‘That damn paralysing pin that the late Turlow stuck in Araf, Tuan and me was apparently placed high enough on our necks so that we couldn’t speak but our eyes and ears still worked. #82 managed to do that Pooka transforming thing with the unparalysed part of his head. The top of his head changed into like a dozen different animals. Every time he grew feathers or fur or even scales, he managed to push out the pin just a little bit further, until it popped out completely. He saved us.’ Tuan, who had been listening, shook his head up and down.
‘Nice one, Councillor,’ I shouted.
‘We were just outside the back door of The Digs,’ continued Brendan, ‘when the fireball hit. We dived into the swampy bit behind the house to protect ourselves from the heat and by the time we popped out again, you were already being carried off into the wild blue yonder. Tuan used hawk eyes and said he saw you fall into the ocean. How’d you survive that one?’
‘Mermaids,’ I shouted over the sound of the swirling wind and laughed out loud at the ridiculousness of it.
Brendan laughed with me. ‘A couple of months ago I’d have locked you up in the loony bin for saying stuff like that.’
‘And now?’
‘Now’ – the cop thought for a second – ‘now my response is – yeah, that sounds about right.’
‘So what happened when Red came back?’
‘Well, he was surprised to see us alive, ’cause Turlow had told him we were dead. Also he had a problem.’
‘What was that?’
‘You stuck your sword in him in a spot that he couldn’t reach and he was afraid to change back to Red with it sticking out of him. Oh, that reminds me, I’ve got your sword.’ He patted the sword hanging on his belt. I peeped down and instantly recognised the Lawnmower’s pommel.
‘I hope it hurt him like hell,’ I said.
‘I think it did. Tuan agreed to pull it out if he consented to listen to us before he tried to kill us again. It didn’t take us long to convince him that The Turlow had duped us all. He was livid and zoomed off to try to find him, but he came back a week later having had no success.
‘While he was gone we found his house – or I guess I should call it his lair – and waited for him there. Tuan discovered all of these manuscripts in Pooka lingo and sat in the corner and read them the whole time – he hardly talked to us. When Red returned, Tuan and Red got talking shop. I tried to get Red to give me some blood and a lift off the island, but they were so into talking about changeling stuff that they acted like Araf and I weren’t even there. When I got mad at them for ignoring us, Red switched to dragon, grabbed Tuan and flew away. The two of them disappeared for another week. When Red came back there was a green dragon with him.
‘Apparently in order to become a dragon you have to study how to change into every animal there is and Tuan had done that already. Oh, and that problem that he had about not being able to hold a form – well, that’s gone.’ Brendan patted the dragon’s neck and looked over the side. ‘I hope.’
I shivered in the cold air as the sun began to set in an explosion of reds and golds. ‘You know I had a dream about this. But I never…’ I chuckled to myself. ‘I never dreamt itould happen. I only hope we are in time.’
The guards on the ramparts of Castle Duir shot arrows at us as we approached so we had to fly away and land in the field in front of the castle. By the time a whole battalion of soldiers came at us on horseback, Tuan was Tuan again. The captain recognised me – and recognised Brendan as that madman from the Real World – and once we convinced them that there was no dragon attack, he gave us horses and we galloped to the main gates.
The three of us burst into Dad’s candlelit room. Mom and Fand and a handful of sorceresses were there. Dad, still encased in amber, looked like he was dead.
Mom flew into my arms and hugged her head to my chest.
‘Is he gone?’ I asked. ‘Am I too late?’
She held my face in her hands; her eyes were swimming in tears. ‘It’s not long now – I’m glad you are here.’
‘He’s not dead?’ I said excitedly. I looked to Fand. ‘He’s not dead?’
‘No,’ the Fili answered.
I grabbed my mother by the shoulders. ‘Mom it’s not eel’s blood. It’s not red eel blood.’
She looked at me confused. It had been so long since Mom and I had discovered that old manuscript that she had almost forgotten about it. She had given up hope.
‘Tughe tine – we thought it meant red eel; it doesn’t, it means fire worm. Fire worm,’ I said again louder, trying to make it sink in. ‘Dragon!’
I turned to Tuan and motioned for him to change.
‘Here?’ he said, looking around. ‘Will I fit?’
‘We’ll find out. You better stick your nose out of the window.’
He did as he was told and clasped his hands together and crouched down facing the window.
OK, maybe it wasn’t a good idea to have him change in Dad’s room, especially without warning anybody. Dragon Tuan was a lot bigger than I realised. His back pushed up against the ceiling as plaster cracked and rolled down his sides. Sorceresses were pushed into corners and furniture splintered against the walls. Dad’s bed was pushed at a forty-five-degree angle but remained unharmed. Deirdre and Fand, backs pressed against the wall, stared open-mouthed. I had to shake Mom to get her attention.
‘Dragon’s blood, Mom. The mermaids use it to become young again. It will reset Dad. It should save his life.’
Finally Mom said, ‘How do we
do it?’
‘Red told me that just a couple of drops in the mouth should do the trick,’ Brendan said.
Mom found a crystal glass as I drew the Sword of Duir and cut a nick into Tuan’s wing. We were lucky that his head was out the window ’cause the pain caused him to cough a small fireball that, if it was in here, would have been enough to fricassee us all.
Fand placed her hands on the sides of Dad’s head and incanted. The hard amber shell softened and then dripped like honey off of his face and head. She reached into his mouth and removed the gold disc. Brendan quickly held out his hand and the Fili gave it to him. Dad looked bad and he didn’t look like he was breathing. Fand placed her ear to his mouth and nose. When she came up she held her thumb and index finger just a quarter of an inch apart indicating that he was still breathing if only a tiny bit. Mom took her yew wand, dipped it into the dragon’s blood and then dripped three drops into Oisin’s mouth.
The effects took hold almost immediately. First it was just the colour of his lips but then the wrinkles on his face vanished like someone under the bed was pulling his skin from behind. As Tuan changed back, giving everyone in the chamber some elbow room, Fand moved quickly and incanted over the rest of Dad’s shell and it dripped away. We watched as life and vigour radiated down his neck and all over his body. By the time the shell exposed his right arm there was no difference between his wrist and his runehand. Mom picked up his hand, looked at it from both sides and then gasped as Dad’s fingers entwined with her own. Dad opened his eyes and then amazingly propped himself up on his elbows. He looked like he could have been my fraternal twin.
‘Was I dreaming,’ he said, his voice betraying no hint of illness, ‘or was there just a dragon in my room?’
Chapter Forty-Two
Friends and Enemies
‘Did I wake you?’
‘Oh my, no,’ she replied faster than I had anticipated. ‘Your father did that two days ago. I would have preferred to sleep for at least another moon. I am an old woman you know.’