Shadowmagic - Sons of Macha (40 page)

Brendan tore himself away from arrow-making when he heard I was back. I assured him that his daughter was safe and in good hands and he brought me up to speed on the defences. ‘We have made about three hundred yew arrows. They are not all actually straight and I wouldn't bet on my chances of a bull's-eye at any distance but at close range they'll work. We also have quite a few yew bantas and a couple dozen pointed sticks.'

‘Pointed sticks? Is that in case of vampire, Fili?'

Brendan smiled and shook his head. ‘Is there any occasion where you aren't a wise ass?'

I went to visit Graysea in the infirmary. She had finally come out of her underwater coma and had changed back and forth from fish to female a couple of times. With each change she lost more of her injury. She could probably have fixed up someone else with a similar wound without too much trouble but apparently healing herself was harder. She tried to get out of bed when I came in but the Imp-healer threatened to sit on her if she tried to get up one more time.

‘She talks mean,' Graysea said quietly after the healer was out of earshot, ‘but she really is nice underneath. She reminds me of matron back in the grotto.'

‘I wish matron was here to help you,' I said. ‘You still look a bit pale.'

Graysea turned way and pinched her cheeks then turned back with a forced smile. ‘Better?'

‘Much,' I said. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the Imp-healer motioning me with her head that I should leave.

‘Conor, I must talk to you … but … I'm very tired. Can we talk soon?'

‘Of course,' I said, kissing her on her forehead. ‘We'll talk tomorrow. You get some rest.'

I walked away with the sound of my own voice echoing ‘tomorrow' in my mind and wondered if for any of us there would be a tomorrow.

I slept for an hour. What a mistake that was. I had one of those dreams that was so crazy I woke up more exhausted than when I went to sleep. I was at a square dance. All of my comrades in arms were on one side of the room: Brendan, Nora, Araf, Nieve, Essa, Dahy, Mom and Dad. Lined up on the other side were: Cialtie, The new Turlow, Macha, Oracle Lugh, Maeve and Cialtie's Banshee sorceress. We started off with a frantic square dance that culminated with us once again facing each other across the room. Then the square dance caller cried, ‘Do-si-do!' and we came towards each other again but this time Cialtie and his side all grew fangs and pulled daggers. I found myself sitting up awake with sweat streaming down my back and a scream just south of my larynx. It was still an hour before dawn. Believe it or not I got out of bed without any prompting. When the day may be your last – getting up at dawn isn't such a bad idea after all.

Dad was up on the parapet looking out at the night sky as it was losing its daily fight with the sun. I climbed up next to him and handed him an apple.

He took a bite and then shook his head. ‘We shouldn't be here,' he said dreamily to the night.

‘Where should we be?' I asked.

‘We should be … we should be tucked up in a cosy bed and then when we finally wake up we should be having a huge cooked breakfast next to a roaring fire. Instead we're chomping an apple on a cold wall. You know Conor, my biggest worry shouldn't be war, my biggest worry should be whether or not there is enough wine in the castle cellars.'

‘Didn't your mother warn you there would be days like these?'

Dad laughed. I was glad to see he still could. ‘My mother is one of the people out there making this day the way it is.'

‘Oh yeah, I forgot that.'

We stood some more in silence until I broke it. ‘Gods, I hate waiting.'

‘Really. I like waiting. I use the time to think. Not daydreaming, mind you, but really thinking.' He looked at me and it seemed he looked older – like he used to look – and I felt younger, like I was looking up. ‘Didn't I ever teach you to use waiting time to think critically?'

‘Every time we had to wait in line and I said I was bored, you made me conjugate Latin verbs. Now that I think of it, maybe that's why I hate waiting so much.'

‘Ire,' Dad said.

‘Ire, eo, is, it, imus, itis, eunt,' I instantly responded.

Dad had said the Latin verb
go
and I involuntarily responded by conjugating it – the English equivalent of saying: I go, you go, he goes she goes …

‘It seemed our waiting time was not wasted.'

‘Yeah, Dad. My Latin will come in handy when we get attacked by Julius Caesar.'

‘Mihi vera placet quod tu es callidissimus, nate,' Dad said. Loosely translated that is:
I am very proud of you, my son
.

Since Latin was the language of the day, I replied, ‘Et tu, pater.'

Mom came up on the wall and took one look at the two of us with our watered-up eyes and said, ‘Aw, you two are just a bunch of softies.'

‘He started it,' I said.

She hugged us both and watered up a bit herself. Dahy crested the stairs and said, ‘Are you ready for today, Your Highness?'

Dad and I simultaneously replied, ‘Born ready.'

‘How about you, my love?' Dad asked.

‘As long as I am with my boys I can do anything,' Mom said.

By this time the sky was lightening and the wall was filling up.

‘Lorcan,' I called. ‘You ready?'

‘Lorcan the Leprechaun is ready, my lord,' he shouted in reply.

‘Brendan?'

‘Detective Fallon of the Scranton PD is ready and able, Mr O'Neil.'

‘Nieve?'

‘I am with you, nephew of Oak.'

‘Gerard?'

‘The beer is free when this is over.'

‘Tuan?'

The Pooka lifted his chin and as he did his head transformed into the head of a wolfhound. He barked once.

‘Araf?'

The Imp didn't reply – but he did nod.

Essa by this time was at my side and I quietly asked, ‘You ready for this?'

‘As long as I'm with you, Conor.'

We all turned as Fand came up the stairs. Nora was at her side. It struck me that she had yet to see her mother. I could only imagine the conflicting emotions that must have been going through her mind.

‘Are you ready, Your Highness?' I said to her.

She looked to the sky that was now almost fully light and said in that quiet composed voice of hers, ‘If the sun in the sky is willing to face this day – then so am I.'

‘Well, that's everybody, Mr King,' I said to Dad.

Dad slapped me on the back and said, ‘You will make a wonderful Lord of Duir someday.'

‘Thanks, Dad, but I've been meaning to speak to you about …'

I didn't get to finish that thought for just then, directly below us, the Fili ghost army solidified one row at a time. Each row appeared chanting until the whole army culminated in a cacophony that halted with the appearance of Maeve. The Fili Queen looked down at her cupped hands and they erupted with Shadowfire. She then tossed the fire in the air where it sparked like a firework. Each of the sparks found the hidden Connemara marble in the field. Then Maeve threw her hands forward and all of the marble came out of the ground and splatted into the castle wall.

I turned to Fand and said, ‘I'll say one thing for your mom – she knows how to make an entrance.'

As soon as I said it I felt bad. For Fand this was not the time for levity. But then a strange, almost spooky, smile infected just the tiniest corner of her mouth. She never took her eyes off of her mother but she said, ‘Yes, Conor, she does.'

L
et me tell you, walking right up, practically unarmed, to an army of people who had the power to casually rip major organs out of your chest was one of the most terrifying things I have ever done. Intellectually I had decided that I would do it, but it wasn't until I started actually moving towards them that the terror gripped me. It took every fibre of my being to stop myself from wrapping my arms around Dad's leg screaming, ‘Please don't make me go.' I was really scared and I know I wasn't the only one. If we made it out of this alive I promised myself I would buy everyone new underwear. If they were anything like me, they were going to need it.

‘Hello Mother.'

‘Hello Fand.'

I don't know what I was expecting. I had never walked up to a murdering queen and her bloodthirsty army before but I was expecting something different than English afternoon-tea etiquette.

Maeve raised her hand and lifted it towards her daughter. Dahy tensed up and looked like he was going to give one of those pointed sticks a try. Fand raised one finger and calmed everyone. Maeve continued forward and gently placed her hand on the side of her daughter's face. Fand closed her eyes. Then Maeve went into ghost form and her hand entered Fand's head. Fand's eyes shot open and the two queens stared at each other with a burning intensity. I placed my hand on the pointed stick secured in my belt. If Maeve's palm came out with Fand's brain on it I was going to kill her no matter what happened to me.

Her hand came out brainless.

‘You have become a Shadowwitch, daughter.'

‘I have,' Fand replied.

‘Then come and join us.'

‘No, Mother.'

Maeve looked confused. ‘You would oppose me?'

‘With my life,' Fand said.

‘As will I,' Nora said.

Maeve turned sharply to Nora. ‘Who dares interrupt a conversation between the Queen of the Fili and her daughter?'

‘I am your daughter too,' Nora said. ‘I am the daughter of the daughter of the daughter's daughter who had to pay the ultimate price for your arrogance. I am the Fili that was banished from this land when you chose power over harmony. We are the Fili,' she said, pointing to the two dozen very brave Druids from Connemara who were standing behind us in the field. ‘We are the Druids who have endured disease and hunger and old age and death for your sins. So do not presume it is not in my right to talk in front of the queen – for I am Fili and as far as I'm concerned you forfeited your crown eons ago. My queen is Fand.'

Maeve was taken aback but her honour guard were incensed and made a move towards Nora for speaking in such a way to their queen. Fand stood between them and Maeve called them off. Let's just say it was tense out there.

‘You are a Shadowwitch, you know the kind of power we wield. You cannot stop me.'

‘I do not know the power you wield, Mother. I have learned Shadowmagic not for power but for peace. I learned Shadowmancy not to emulate you but to understand you and ultimately avoid your fate. I have no idea of the power you wield, for I have never killed a tree.'

Maeve baulked at her daughter. ‘How can you be a Shadowwitch without sap?'

‘Oh, I use sap.'

‘How do you get it?'

‘I ask for it. Have you become so brutal, Mother, so power mad that you have forgotten how just to say “please”?'

Maeve was at least listening but her entourage was getting anxious – I could feel it in the air. Before another word could be said, a call came from the battlements behind us. From out of the oak forest on horseback came Macha, Lugh, The Turlow and Cialtie. Behind them followed what looked like the entire Banshee nation in full battle armour. They filled every visible space.