Shadowmagic - Sons of Macha (26 page)

‘There are more of you?'

‘Yes.'

‘What I need to know, Mícheál, is what will
you
do?'

It didn't take long for him to decide. He leaned in and said, ‘What do you need?'

I told him about the marble. He suggested I stay out of sight all day in case Murano were to accidentally spot me.

‘I've been here too long,' Mícheál, said standing. ‘Meet me after dark outside the tea shop. I'll take you to The Grove.'

Before he left I grabbed his arm and said, ‘You couldn't lend me some money could ya, I'd kill for a toothbrush.'

Maeve was the one to show up after dark at the tea shop. She was riding a motorscooter.

‘Da says you lost your marbles.'

‘In a manner of speaking.'

‘He also says you're never going to pay me back for that dinner.'

‘That, I'm afraid, is true.'

‘I sure can pick 'em. Hop on.'

We drove to an old barn on the outskirts of town. Inside were about fifty men and women. The Grove turned out to be not a place but the collective noun for a group of Druids. Imagine a room full of bearded men and wild-haired women in hooded robes, and then throw out that image. The Grove was made up of normal-looking butcher, banker, baker types. The only thing they had in common was a story handed down from mother to son and father to daughter for scores of generations. A story that said their ancestors were expelled from The Land of Immortals. There must now in the Real World have been over a hundred thousand descendants of the original Fili; this group were the last ones, the only ones to keep the faith. The only ones to have never broken the chain.

My arrival silenced what seemed to have been a heated debate.

Maeve was the first to break the silence. ‘Are you really a prince?'

‘I'm afraid I am.'

Someone in the crowd said, ‘A Prince of Oak?'

‘Hazel and Oak, yes.'

A young man dressed in motorcycle leathers came to the fore, ‘My name is Cullum. How do we know you are what you say?'

‘It's a fair question, Cullum. I can offer no proof until after you help me. If at the Fairy Fingers I and my companions vanish in a puff of smoke, then you will know what I have told you is true. If nothing happens then you will know you have been made a fool of by an idiot. What have you got to lose?'

‘If I help you break your friends out of jail, I have a lot to lose.'

I started to answer but the policeman held up a hand and stopped me.

‘But I am willing to help because I believe he is what he claims to be. We have been waiting for an event like this for … for ever. Can we now pass it by for lack of faith?'

Cullum spoke again. ‘Mícheál tells us you are at war again with Maeve.'

‘This is true.'

‘Some among us harbour a hope of someday returning to Tir na Nog. Maybe our best bet is to allow Maeve to win.'

‘Maybe you're right. I don't know Queen Maeve, but I know her daughter Fand, who is my friend, and I know my uncle Cialtie. I know this war is not ours but has been thrust upon us by others. And I know that we are right.'

‘Can you take us back with you?' Cullum asked.

‘No, he cannot!' another voice shouted out. ‘He is not The One!'

What followed was pandemonium as they all started arguing in a dialect that I couldn't quite grasp. ‘Hey, hey,' I shouted, quieting them down. ‘There is no use arguing. Essa is our sorceress, only she could answer that.'

‘Time is short,' Mícheál said. ‘Conor's companions are to be transported to Dublin tomorrow.'

That was the first time I had heard that news and it shocked me.

‘I have already had the Mulhern boys, who work at the quarry, bring bags of marble offcuts to the Fairy Fingers. I won't go against the wishes of The Grove, but I for one think we should help Conor and his friends. When our ancestors came to this place they found a simple time. Still, they didn't subjugate, they were men and women of peace and teaching. I believe Conor when he says that he and his are not the instigators of this war. Maeve and her war was what got us into this mess – I feel it in my bones that backing Maeve again is not the way to get us out.'

I was asked to wait outside while they deliberated. Maeve said, ‘I vote with Conor,' and came outside to keep me company.

‘Could you do me a favour?' I asked.

‘If I can.'

‘Could you make sure Mrs McDunna gets paid, and those boys who got the marble from the quarry.'

Maeve placed her hands on her hips. ‘You want me to pay all of your bills on the money I make serving cups of tea? Not forgetting that you owe me money too.'

‘I don't want you to pay it with your salary – I was hoping you could pay it with this.' I pulled a bar of metal the size of a chocolate bar out of my backpack and handed it to her. She was so surprised by the weight, she almost dropped it.

‘Is this gold?'

‘Yup.'

‘And what, you found this at the end of a rainbow?'

‘Don't be silly – but I did get it from a Leprechaun.'

‘What am I supposed to do with it?'

‘Change it for money.'

‘Where?'

‘I don't know. If I had figured that out, I wouldn't have been hitting you up for meals this whole time.'

She shook her head no and handed it back to me.

‘Take it, please,' I said. ‘I really do live on a mountain of the stuff.'

A woman came out and said a decision had been made. Inside the Druids were standing almost at attention. Cullum and Mícheál stepped forward together.

‘We have decided to help,' Cullum said.

The plan was a simple one. Mícheál was to start his shift at midnight. When the other cop left, I'd come in, we'd let Essa and Brendan out and then Essa would knock out Mícheál so he wouldn't get into trouble.

I waited outside until the other cop, the one that tasered Brendan the other day, left and then I just walked in the front door. It was easy – too easy. I was just inside the station and walking up to the counter when I heard the door open behind me and a familiar, if not pleasant, voice said, ‘Conor O'Neil.'

I turned to see Special Agent Andrew Murano wearing one of those grins. You know like when a power-hungry fast-food manager catches a teen employee stealing a chicken nugget.

‘Oh, crap.'

‘An American I met over here told me a young Scrantonian stole his cap. I was almost back to my room when I saw a cap-wearing young man skulking around in the dark.'

‘Well, aren't you quite the detective,' I said, more casually than I felt. This was not good.

‘Officer,' Agent Andy said in his over-practised FBI voice, ‘arrest that man, he's in cahoots with the other two.'

I turned and looked Mícheál in the eye. For a moment we communicated wordlessly and he seemed to be saying, ‘Do it.' So I slugged him. Not hard but I made contact. I even threw in a grunt to make it sound more vicious than it was. The cop went down behind the counter with a loud moan. I picked up a stapler and brandished it towards the G-man. Murano instinctively reached for his gun but he didn't have one. The Irish wouldn't let him bring one into the country. Mícheál moaned loudly, which made me glance at him. He was pointing to something under the counter. I quickly reached to where he was indicating as Murano was saying something predictable like, ‘Give it up' or ‘There's nowhere to run', but he stopped mid-sentence when I levelled the taser at his chest.

I could see he was trying to be cool but underneath he was soiling his underwear. ‘You don't even know how to use that thing,' he said.

‘I bet I do.'

‘I'll catch you eventually, O'Neil. There is no place for you to go.'

I dropped my weapon for a second. ‘Nowhere to go? You were there last time. Surely you remember me stepping through the portal to Faerieland?'

‘I don't remember anything after you attacked me.'

‘Oh come on, Agent Andy. I can understand you telling that to your superiors back at the Bureau. I've told people about Faeries and Leprechauns and they tend to look at you funny after you do – but this is me. Surely you remember your car getting trashed by the dragon?'

The FBI man looked very uncomfortable. ‘I told you, I only remember you attacking me.'

‘Aw Andy, it's one thing to lie to your boss but you're just lying to yourself. Now be a nice G-man and lie down on your stomach with your hands behind your back.'

‘No.'

‘Andy, I've been told this taser thing hurts. Let me just tie you up nicely and we'll be on our way.'

‘You'll have to shoot me first.'

Anybody else I would have argued with, but as far as Agent Andy was concerned – I didn't have to be told twice. The electrodes hit his chest and he danced around like an astronaut walking on the sun. I know it's wrong to enjoy seeing a fellow human being suffer, but – you can't be right all of the time.

B
rendan and Essa were simultaneously happy to see me and furious at me for leaving them to stew in jail for so long. We locked the FBI man in a closet. Essa used the same sleeping spell on him that she used on the old cart driver. Mícheál made us tie him up and put him to sleep too, so as to allay suspicion.

‘Thank you Conor, Prince of Hazel and Oak,' Mícheál said before Essa knocked him out.

‘I should be the one thanking you, Mícheál, Son of Rowan.'

The title obviously pleased him. ‘Eh, this is nothing; what you have done for me is far greater.'

‘And what have I done for you?'

‘You've shown me that I and my parents and their parents and their parents' parents weren't deluded superstitious fools.'

Essa took out her gold ball and began to incant.

‘Can I ask one favour?'

‘Sure, Mícheál, anything.'

‘Will you return and let us know who won?'

‘I will – if I survive – that's a promise.'