Larkspur (34 page)

Jacob nodded and started to jog.

Chapter Two Hundred and
Sixty-eight

White quartz

“
Where
are
we?” Paddie
whispered.

“
I don’ know,” Katy
whispered back.

Paddie moved closer to Katy. They were
standing in a very dark and cold place. Katy shivered as the wet
cold penetrated her flannel just-like-Daddy pajamas.

“
Where’s the fairy?”
Paddie asked. “The little blue one.”

“
I thought you were
asleep,” Katy whispered.

Paddie tipped his head down while his blue
eyes looked up at her. She smiled.

“
Smells moldy here,”
Paddie whispered.

“
Dead.” Katy wrinkled her
nose. “There are dead things here.”

Their surroundings became clearer as their
eyes started to adjust to the deep black. They were in a kind of
long tunnel carved out of rock. There was a stream of water running
through the gutter carved into the middle of the path. They could
make out semicircular arches cut into either side of the
tunnel.

Paddie looked at Katy and she nodded. They
walked to the semicircular space nearest to them. They had to stand
on their tiptoes to look inside the space.

They were looking at a human skeleton. The
skeleton was resting on a metal grate, and there were stacks of
bones under the grate. Katy made a small sound and began to shiver.
Paddie put his arm around her to comfort her.

“
Look.” Paddie pointed
past the skeleton to the very back of the crypt. A dot of a tiny
blue light shone.

“
Edie?” Katy’s whisper
made the light shine brighter. The blue light flew at
them.

“
Shh!” Edie waved her
wand. Katy and Paddie flew up and over the skeleton to a small
space in the back of the crypt. “Be very quiet. Someone’s
coming.”

Katy, Paddie, and Edie hunkered down behind
the skeleton in the back of the tomb. Footsteps echoed along the
tunnel.

~~~~~~~~

Jacob caught up with Valerie, and they ran
to catch up with Sam and Delphie. James came to his side. Gilfand
and Brigid flew just ahead of them. They were making good progress
through the forest.

“
We’re almost there,”
Delphie said.

“
There’s nothing up
there,” James said.

Delphie gave him a patronizing smile and
continued marching through the forest.

“
There’s a path,” Jacob
said.

He pointed to an ancient seam cut in the
forest floor. Sam kneeled down to touch the footpath.

“
This is an old road,” Sam
said. “Not as old as some of the places we’ve been, but
old.”

“
Looks like Roman
construction.” Jacob kneeled down next to his father. Experienced
road builders, Jacob and Sam looked at the plane of the road and
the set of the stones. “It’s well built.”

“
No wonder it’s lasted.”
Sam nodded.

“
The Romans never landed
on this island,” James said.

“
Any thoughts?” Sam looked
up at Gilfand.

“
I’d say it was nearly two
thousand human years ago,” Gilfand said. “A little less. Not Roman,
but around the time of the Romans, maybe a little
later.”

“
Where does that fit on
the timeline?” Valerie asked. “Was this here when Queen Fand’s
human remains were separated?”

Gilfand paused for a moment before giving a
thoughtful nod.

“
Just after,” Gilfand
said.

“
After Christ’s death, not
before.” Delphie nodded. “We’re looking for a church.”

“
I’ve been all over this
tree plantation,” James said. “There’s no church here.”

“
Not now,” Delphie said.
She turned in place and started along the footpath. “Come on! We’re
almost there.”

The footpath was not easy going. They had to
slow their pace to manage the brush and the climb the hill. They
stopped for a moment by a pool of water.

“
When she said
church . . .” James started, as if to himself. He
was looking at the tops of the trees. Valerie put her hand on his
arm.

“
Yes?” Valerie
asked.

James glanced at her and then noticed
everyone was looking at him. He blushed.

“
It may be nothing,” James
said.

“
Tell us your nothing, and
we’ll decide,” Gilfand ordered in an authoritative tone. James
sneered at him.

“
It would mean a great
deal to us if you would share your knowledge,” Valerie said.
“Delphie seems sure, but Jake and I, we feel pretty lost. Anything
you know might help.”

James gave a slight nod and a shrug.

“
You’ve heard of Saint
Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, right?” James
asked.

“
He tortured and killed
millions of healers, herbalists, and midwives,” Delphie sniffed.
“It’s sanitized as ‘killing the snakes.’”

“
The druids identified
themselves with snake tattoos on their arms,” James
said.

“
There were never snakes
on the island of Ireland,” Gilfand sniffed. “The entire story is
absurd.”

“
Let him speak,” Brigid
said. “He can help.”

Gilfand looked at James’s mother, and she
smiled. He gave a curt nod. Brigid smiled at James.

“
Most people believe that
all those stories about Saint Patrick were really about at least
two different Patricks, quite possible more than that,” James
continued. “One came to Ireland from Rome as a slave. One was born
in Scotland. Those two we’re fairly certain about. All of the
Patricks joined the church, either by force or by choice, and they
became priests, monks, and at least one was a bishop of
Ireland.”

“
It would make sense,”
Delphie said. “People would refer to the church leader by one name,
even if the person changed.”

“
Right,” James said. “The
Patricks were chartered by Rome with breaking the back of the
royalty of Ireland, destroying the druids, and taking control of
the island from the people who lived there.”

“
Fairy-humankind,” Valerie
said. “Queen Fand and Manannán’s descendants.”

“
I’d never thought of it,
but yes,” James said.

“
Almost everyone on the
island at that time was fairy-humankind,” Gilfand said.

James looked off into the trees. They heard
a noise and watched as a deer came up to the pond for a drink of
water.

“
Why isn’t he afraid?”
Valerie whispered.

“
Because we’re not really
here,” Jacob said. “We’re here and not here. We’re out of sync with
our time.”

Gilfand nodded.

“
We should keep moving,”
Sam said.

They pushed themselves to their weary feet
and started along the footpath.

“
Sorry, James, please go
on,” Valerie said. “How do these Patricks have anything to do with
the Isle of Man?”

“
An Irish prince ran afoul
with one of the Patricks,” James said. “Legend says that he
attempted to trick Patrick by asking him to heal a man who wasn’t
ill. But in the North, we believe Patrick was like every other
invader. He wanted to steal our land by destroying the aristocracy
and killing the druids. He had the church and the church’s army at
his disposal. And you know, that history is written by those who
win wars.”

James sniffed with anger.

“
Jimmy.” His mother gave
him a soft smile, and he shrugged.

“
I’d tell you that we
Kellys are pretty pissed about invaders to our land, but you know
Cian,” James said.

They chuckled.

“
What does Patrick have to
do with the Isle of Man?” Valerie repeated.

“
Yes,” James nodded. “The
prince’s name was Machaoi. The English call him Kirk Maughold.
Patrick summarily dumped him into a skiff and pushed him into the
Irish Sea. No water, no food, no oars. Somehow, he managed to
survive the journey and wash up here.”

“
He was fairy-humankind.”
Valerie nodded.

“
Must have been, otherwise
how could he have gotten here?” James nodded. “Legend says that
Patrick punished Maughold for his deception by casting him into the
Irish Sea. When Maughold got here, he said Patrick sent him to the
Isle of Man to succeed a couple of Patrick’s disciples.”

“
That’s odd,” Sam
said.

“
It’s a little muddled,
but most things are from this time period,” James said. “We’re
talking about more than a thousand years ago, in a time when
regular people didn’t read or write well. And, as you know, there
have been one and fifty invasions since then.”

They walked along in silence for a
while.

“
What made you think of
this?” Valerie asked.

“
Delphie mentioned the
church,” James said. “The oldest church on the island was supposed
to have been created by this Kirk Maughold. He was a hermit here
for a long time before taking over as bishop. He spent most of his
time making stone Celtic crosses. The church isn’t far from Cronk
Surmark, the Celtic fort where we found the second set of bones.
There are hundreds of stone crosses at the church. You should see
it. It’s wild, and the region of Maughold is mountainous. It’s not
well explored. There could easily be thousands of crosses
throughout the region.”

“
So I’d guess if we’re
looking for a church on the Isle of Man, it’s got to have something
to do with Kirk Maughold,” James said.

“
You think he’s the one
who split up the bones?” Gilfand asked.

“
Quite possibly,” James
said. “Think about it. He’s an Irish prince. What if these Patricks
held his family ransom unless he destroyed fairydom? Maybe Maughold
was a willing participant and wanted to bring the power and magic
of the fairies to the Celtic church. There are thousands of
possibilities.”

“
I wonder if he’s the
queen of Marle’s grandson,” Sam said. “You know, from the
book?”

“
The timing seems right,”
Delphie said. “Yes, there’s a Celtic cross on those images Seth
relayed me.”

“
Like I
said . . .” James started.

They could see the end of the road up ahead
where it opened out into a wide clearing.

“
If it’s got something to
do with the church and the Isle of Man, it’s got something to do
with Kirk Maughold.”

~~~~~~~~

The footsteps in the tunnel brought the
terrible smell of burning tallow. Katy and Paddie had to put their
hands over their mouths to keep from throwing up. Edie turned her
light down and flew in front of them. A man’s voice was singing off
key in some weird language.

The footsteps and the torch stopped right in
front of their crypt. Paddie and Katy squeezed their eyes closed
with fear.

“
I know you’re there,” the
man said. “I can smell you.”

Edie’s wand flashed. The man caught the
blast with his hand and laughed. He wiped his hand against the
rough linen robe he was wearing. The sleeve of his robe lifted and
they could see the head of a snake tattooed on his forearm.

“
Fairies,” the man
sniffed. “Devil’s creatures sent to dement honest people. Get out
of there.”

The man moved his hand, and Edie flew out of
the crypt. She bashed against the tunnel wall and dropped to the
ground. The man raised his foot to stomp on her. Katy moved Edie
into the gutter in the middle of the floor just before the man’s
foot mashed on the ground.

“
Stamp them out like
bugs,” the man sniggered.

Katy saw Edie’s little head poke out of the
gutter. She put her index finger over her lips to tell Katy and
Paddie to be quiet. Paddie shivered with fear. Katy put her arm
through his elbow and they shivered together. Katy squeezed her
eyes shut and tried to transport back to her mommy. But no matter
how she tried, they didn’t move.

“
White quartz, little
fairyling,” the man sneered. “You can’t leave. Now get out
here.”

He moved his hand. Katy and Paddie flew from
their hiding place behind the skeleton out into the tunnel. He
looked them over.

“
Who are you and what do
you want from us?” Paddie pushed Katy behind him. “We don’t
even
know
you.”

The man sniffed.

“
You’re no fairy,” the man
said.

“
I’m Paddie Hargreaves,”
Paddie said. “Katy and I want to go home. My grand-daddy is a
powerful man who will kill you with his bare hands when he finds
out you stole us.”

“
Big words from such a
tiny princeling,” the man sniffed.

“
You’d better remember my
name, old man,” Paddie said. “Because I’m never going to forget
you. I will make sure you pay for hurting Katy or me.”

Paddie’s blond head bobbed in a nod. He
stepped back to stand close to Katy.

“
Why do you hate fairies,
anyway?” Katy asked. “You’re one.”

The man recoiled as if he’d been hit. He
threw his torch into a channel of oil that ran along the edge of
the tunnel. The tunnel lit up with fire and smoke. He grabbed Katy
by the collar in one hand and Paddie in the other and carried them
from through the tunnel.