Shadowmagic - Sons of Macha (39 page)

We bundled up the branches and Elves packed them on their backs and legged it to Castle Duir. I warned them about the marble mines and told them to go around to the west side where there was a small entrance. I was going to be back to the castle before them and promised to warn the guards of their approach.

Eth had given me some gold wire and a half a dozen
rothlú
charms. We bundled some of the bigger branches with that and then shouted, ‘
Rothlú
.' The bundles vanished – presumably to reappear at home. I asked Bran if he could coordinate from here and he said he could. For a pacifist Elf type he got military pretty quick. We hung bunches of yew wood off dragon Tuan until he gave me a look that I interpreted as, ‘Put one more stick on my back and I'm making charcoal.' And we headed back to Duir.

I wasn't going to be there long, though. The Chamber of Runes had given me a gift and I had just figured it out.

‘D
oes it always rain like this here?' Ruby asked me with a jiggly voice as we galloped down the road from the Fairy Fingers.

‘This is Ireland,' I said as the horizontal rain dripped off my nose and onto her head, ‘so to answer your question – yes.'

‘That must be why it's so green here.'

I laughed. ‘I never thought about it but I guess you're right. And how do you know it's green? Can you, like, smell it?'

‘It's called the Emerald Island, bozo. I can read braille, you know?'

‘Do you think if I got into one of those automobile contraptions without touching the ground, that I would still end up looking like your grandmother?' Essa shouted over her shoulder.

‘What do you suggest, we steal one?' I shouted back.

‘Yes.'

‘Last time we were here you stole a horse and cart, and ended up in jail. Remember?'

‘This time,' she said, ‘I'll add a snoring cure to the spell.'

‘The town's not far. If you're nice I'll see about getting you a towel.'

I kicked my horse and got a sense that she didn't like it. I hadn't brought Acorn in case things got hairy and I had to leave my mount behind. I didn't even know this horse's name so Ruby dubbed it Connie. Short for where we were going.

I looked behind to make sure that the young woman we had brought with us, Anula, was keeping up. She looked scared and unhappy but she kept the pace.

Tuan and I had made it back to Castle Duir from the Yewlands – just. Towards the end of the flight every wing stroke bobbed us up and down in a way that gave me the impression that if Tuan stopped flapping, we would drop like a stone. I asked him if he wanted me to dump the load of yew wood but I only got a dirty look in reply. When we finally arrived, Tuan near collapsed. I wanted to throw up but didn't have time.

I got Mom, Dad, Nora, and Brendan together and told them about the vision I had in the Chamber of Runes. Then I told them what I thought it meant.

‘I won't take Ruby unless you want me to,' I said to Brendan and Nora, ‘but if she comes it will make my mission a whole lot easier, and she can stay there until this war is over. They are good people – they're Druids – they will take care of her.'

I had never seen two people more torn. They wanted to have their girl by their side but they also wanted her safe. They wanted to go with her to the Real World but they knew if they didn't defend their newly adopted home that there would be no place for them to go back to. In the end they agreed. That's why Ruby, her babysitter Anula, Essa and I were hammering down an Irish back road in the pouring rain.

It was getting late in the day. I didn't dare go to the police station to see Mícheál in case one of his fellow officers recognised me. Now that the pony show was over, three galloping horses were conspicuous enough. I pulled my hood down over my eyes and prayed that Agent Murano wasn't still around.

I walked dripping into the tea shop just as Maeve was closing up. She didn't look all that surprised to see me. She just smiled and said, ‘I have been thinking about you all day.' She hugged me and as she did she saw Ruby come through the door. I felt her stiffen and say, ‘Oh my …' She pulled away from me. Her whole front was wet from my rain. She dropped to one knee. I'm not sure if it was to get onto Ruby's level or if she went weak at the knees.

‘Is she … blind?' Maeve asked with a hushed reverence.

‘Hey Lady,' Ruby said, ‘I'm right here. You can ask me yourself, you know?'

Then Ruby turned to me and said, ‘Is she another one of your idiot girlfriends?'

Mícheál organised a meeting of ‘The Grove' outside town in the same barn as before. He said it wasn't hard to get everyone together; they had all been on high alert since the last time we Tir na Nogians showed up. Still, it was almost midnight before everyone arrived. I felt sorry for Essa. Anula, Ruby and I were young enough to walk around but poor Essa was stuck sitting on her horse for hours. If she had to, she could have gotten down, but becoming an old woman was something she was not willing to do again. ‘Three times was quite enough,' she said. So while we sat around drinking cups of tea she sat high above us like some princess, which – when you think about it – she was.

Ruby's appearance had freaked out Maeve. When I asked her why, she clammed up, saying I had to speak to her father, but her reaction fortified my suspicion. I had interpreted my vision properly.

At the barn I kept Ruby hidden for optimal effect. When everyone was there, I was called into the main room. This time they were decked out in long-hooded Druidy-type robes but the effect was ruined when I noticed most of them wearing modern sneakers. I wanted to ask them where I could get a nice pair of Nikes around here but then reminded myself to concentrate. This was an important occasion and I wanted to begin with the solemnity that it deserved – but as usual instead my opening salutation was more Scranton Conor than the Prince of Hazel and Oak.

‘Hi everybody. Ah … the last time I was here one of you asked if you could come back with us and then another said that I wasn't “The One”. That would be “The One” with a capital O.'

‘That is correct, Conor,' Mícheál said. ‘Since you have been here there has been much debate among The Grove. We do believe you are from The Land but you do not fulfil what was foretold.'

‘Yeah, I get it. I'm not “The One”.' I stepped around the corner and led Ruby by the hand into the main room. ‘How about her?'

You know that look when everyone yells ‘Surprise!' and the birthday person jumps and then opens her mouth wide right before she almost faints? Well this was like that but in reverse. Everybody freaked and two people actually did go down – just like I had seen in the Chamber of Runes.

‘Hey, hey, listen up everybody,' I said, ‘I don't have much time. Would any of you like to take a trip to Tir na Nog? We got apples there you just wouldn't believe.'

It was an hour before dawn when I rode through the portal back into the Hall of Spells. Nieve and Nora were there waiting.

‘You are very wet,' Nieve said.

‘Really? I hadn't noticed,' I replied as I dismounted into a growing puddle.

‘Is she safe?' Nora asked, like the nervous grandmother that she was.

‘Yes, Nora. She is with Mícheál. He is a good man. He helped me the last time I was there. He wanted to come but he saw that looking after the Blind Child Who Was Foretold was more important.'

‘Oh, I hope they don't spoil her.'

‘I wouldn't worry about that, Grandma. Ruby has a way of bringing people who know her down to earth.'

Nora nodded and relaxed, but I was pretty sure I wouldn't get a smile out of her until she saw her little Gem again.

Just then, the first of the two dozen Irish Druids came through the glowing circle. Tea shop Maeve was one of the first and I introduced her to Nora so she could tell her about her father.

Initially a lot more of The Grove wanted to come after seeing the Blind Child but then I warned them that we were walking into a war – possibly an unwinnable war. Dropping everything and travelling to a mystical land is a tough decision. Jumping into possibly certain death is even harder. I was impressed that I got twenty-four.