Shadowmagic - Sons of Macha (45 page)

What I saw was my uncle throwing the end of the Brownie rope up into Mother Oak where it attached to one of her higher boughs. Then he wrapped the other end around his neck and simply said, ‘I'm sorry.' He whistled twice and the rope instantly halved in length, breaking his neck with an audible snap. I watched him twitch for a few seconds then slowly swing in the breeze.

Cialtie was wrong. The age of Ona wasn't meant to last for ever. It was meant to end today. Ona's final prediction finally came true. It was written that Cialtie would be killed by the Lord of Duir. The day Cialtie became king was the day he killed himself. We were finally free of Cialtie and Ona – but at what cost?

I crawled over to Dad and pushed him over onto his back. I pulled the knife out of his chest. It wasn't one of Dahy's knives – it was mine. ‘Oh Dad, I'm so sorry,' I said as I dropped my head on his chest. A sob sent so much pain through my body I don't remember much after that.

I remember waking up still in the field and Mom was next to me. That was nice. She asked me what had happened and I told her in a dopey matter-of-fact way like it was some TV show I had seen years ago. It felt a lot like that time I killed that guy in the Fililands – my lights were on but nobody was home.

Next thing I remember I was under bedclothes in the infirmary. It was dark and I wondered where I was. A failed attempt to sit up made me realise that my arm and leg were encased in splints. I wondered what had happened to me. Did I fall out of a tree? I looked to my left and saw Tuan in the bed next to me. I was with Tuan, wasn't I? We crashed … Where were we going? Then the memory of the events in Glen Duir flooded back.

‘Dad,' I said aloud.

Grief is a leash. I remembered this feeling after Fergal died. My thoughts would drift to the mundane things, the normal stuff of life: idle chat, food or laughter – then I would remember and the leash would stretch taut like a dog in the yard being pulled back by the neck – a crushing sadness and loss would snap me back into that place where my stomach would hurt and laughter was a foreign language. I knew from experience that the leash would grow longer each day but at that moment I found it hard to imagine life with idle anything.

The Imp-healer, the one that Graysea called the Prison Guard, shot up from her night duty desk and came over to me. She lifted up my head and held a shot glass of liquid to my lips. I didn't protest.

As I drifted off to what I hoped was dreamless sleep she brushed the hair from my eyes and said, ‘I'm so sorry, Prince Conor.'

The next time I awoke it was daylight. I saw that Graysea was in the bed next to me. Her beautiful innocent face made me smile before the leash of grief snapped my mind back to reality. I gasped and she turned to me.

‘Hi Conor, how are you feeling?' she asked.

Grief and pain are cousins to anger. A tiny demon in my brain wanted to yell at her and say, ‘How do you think I feel, you stupid trout', but I remembered this from last time as well and I knew that misdirected anger only made things worse. I forced a comforting smile. ‘Like I fell off a flying dragon.'

I sat up and saw that Tuan was in the bed to my right. ‘How is the dragon?'

‘He'll be OK,' she said. ‘He broke a few more things than you, though. Your mom gave him something. He's going to be like that for a while.'

‘As long as he's going to be OK. I don't think I could stand another …' I couldn't finish that sentence. My brave face was going to need some work. I turned away.

‘Oh, you poor sweet thing,' Graysea said as she hopped over to my bed and hugged me. While I wept on her shoulder I was hardly aware of being transferred into another embrace. When I looked up bleary eyed, Essa was looking down at me.

‘Oh Conor, I'm so sorry about your father,' she said.

We wept some more – she loved Oisin too.

There would be more tears later but when I finally got control of myself Araf was there with a pot of willow tea.

‘Araf hasn't left your side since you were brought in here, except to get the tea,' Graysea said.

‘Yeah,' I said, ‘you mean he hasn't left
your
side.'

The two of them blushed.

Essa picked up the Cull Rune that was sitting on my bedside table. ‘Your mother tells me that this is yours.'

‘I'm afraid so,' I said. ‘The Prince of Hazel and Oak is now Lord of the Hazellands.'

‘I'm not sure what to say,' she said, and then laughed a little. ‘Sorry.'

‘No, no, I'm there with you, Essa. This is ridiculous.'

‘It is not ridiculous, it is … just right,' Mom said.

‘Hi Mom.'

‘Hello son.'

We locked eyes and I knew what her look meant. ‘Later,' it said clearer than any words. ‘Later we will grieve but now I must be strong or else I won't be able to go on.'

I clenched my jaw and nodded to her and she nodded back.

‘I always thought there was more hazel in you than oak,' she said.

Mom sat on the edge of Tuan's bed and placed her hands on both sides of his head. The Pooka blinked and then opened his eyes. He looked scared but Mom shushed him and told him everything was all right. The Prison Guard helped him sit up. It looked like it hurt – a lot.

When he was settled I said, ‘How's it going, Councillor Tuan?'

Tuan tried to turn but it hurt too much. ‘Is that you, Prince Conor?'

‘It is.'

‘No more dragon rides for you.'

‘Fair enough,' I said.

Tuan started to cough and it looked like it hurt. The Imp-healer gave him something to drink that brought the colour back to his face, then she sat on the side of his bed and held his hand.

I stared at both of them. ‘You and the Prison Guard?'

They both smiled at each other and Tuan shrugged.

I heard the tapping long before I saw the girl. Ruby came around the corner in high-speed mode, which meant she was thrashing her stick back and forth and people were diving out of her way.

‘Where are you?'

‘I'm here, Ruby.'

She came up to the side of the bed and then hopped on, making me gasp quite loudly.

‘Careful, I broke my leg.'

‘Oops, sorry. Why don't you get your mermaid girlfriend to fix it?'

‘She won't let me,' Graysea said, pointing to the Prison Guard. ‘And I'm not his girlfriend any more.'

‘He dumped you for the princess, huh?'

‘Ruby,' Brendan admonished as he rounded the corner.

‘That was rude of me?' she asked from under her huge sunglasses.

Her dad said, ‘Yes.'

‘Sorry.'

‘That's OK, Ruby.' Then Graysea leaned down and whispered, ‘For the record, I dumped him.'

Ruby turned to me with a huge smile on her face and said, ‘Ha ha.'

‘Ruby,' her dad said again.

‘Sorry,' the young girl said, but we all knew she wasn't.

‘How was your stay in Connemara?'

She wrinkled her nose. ‘It rained a lot and the food wasn't as good as here but Mícheál and his wife were nice. They taught me to play dominoes. But I'm glad to be back with Daddy and Grandma.'

‘Well, I'm glad you're back. Shall we go for a pony ride when I get better?'

‘No trees, though,' she said.

‘No trees.'

Brendan picked her off my bed and she swiped her way out of the room.

‘Sorry about Oisin,' Brendan said.

My chest was completely black and blue from the Brownie rope but it didn't hurt near as much as when people mentioned Dad. ‘Thanks.'

‘Who went to Ireland and got Ruby?'

‘Nieve and I.'

‘Did you get another Guinness?'

‘Na. Considering I'm a wanted fugitive I decided against going to a pub and anyway, Nieve had to stay on a horse.'

‘Fair enough.'

On cue Nieve came around the corner. She sat on the edge of my bed and took my hand in both of hers. Her eyes were awash with tears.

‘You OK, Auntie?'

‘I am not sure I know what
OK
means. I lost two of my brothers, I am the last of my generation and the only family I have left is you. OK is one of those strange words that you have brought from the Real World but if I understand it correctly – I am OK as long as I still have you.'

I couldn't actually make words right then but I vigorously nodded yes and we held each other for a time.

Over my aunt's shoulder I saw Dahy standing at the door. He looked … worried and old – not his usual confident and commanding presence. I waved and said, ‘I'm OK, Dahy.'

‘Good,' he said lowering his head again and left.

‘So,' Brendan said when the leash of grief loosened a bit, ‘what are you going to do now?'

‘I don't know,' I said. ‘I guess I have to build another dolman.'

W
e buried Dad next to Fergal. Gerard sang a dirge and Mom spoke. She talked about meeting Dad at one of Gerard's parties. She admitted that she first fell in love with him when she saw him dance.

Oisin dancing?
We were talking about the same guy? Dad dancing, now that's something I'd pay good money to see. But then, as would happen so often for so long, I was stabbed by the reality that never again would I get the chance to see Dad do anything.

I had been asked if I wanted to speak but I said no, I didn't think I could do it. Mom kept up her stoic face through the whole ceremony. Some may have thought she was being incredibly strong but to me she looked like a violin string about to snap.

When it was over, a bunch of burly Leprechauns lifted a capstone up onto two standing stones just like we had for Fergal. When it was done I picked up a pebble and threw it on top of Dad's dolman, and said, ‘Goodbye Dad.'

I chose a pebble and handed it to Mom. She looked at it in her hand for a long time until tears dotted the small stone. ‘I only just got him back,' she said. Then she threw the pebble onto her husband's monument and collapsed onto my shoulder weeping.