Sons of Macha

‘Right this way, Prince Conor.’

The stables were quite an operation here at Castle Duir. He led us past what must have been a hundred stalls and then outside to a paddock that contained four ponies.

‘Spirited or docile?’ Pilib asked.

I toyed with the idea of answering, ‘Super spirited.’ That would teach her a lesson for putting me through this but I had to remember that no matter how bossy she was – the kid was blind. ‘Docile please.’

Pilib placed his fingers in his mouth and emitted a series of whistles. The ponies looked up and then at each other as if saying, ‘Who, me?’ The smallest of the ponies slowly walked over to us. She was glossy black, just like Ruby’s sunglasses. I picked Ruby up and placed her feet on the bottom wooden rail of the corral so she could reach over. The stable master whistled again, this time quietly without the fingers in the mouth and then pointed to the young girl. The pony walked slowly up to Ruby as I guided her hand to the animal’s snout.

‘This is Feochadán,’ Pilib said.

I remembered a story my father used to tell me when I was young about a sheep that got covered with feochadán. As Ruby tentatively stroked her pony’s nose I said, ‘It means thistle.’

A huge smile crossed Ruby’s face. It was the first smile I had ever seen on that face and it changed her from a bossy tyrant to the young girl that she was. ‘Thistle, that’s a lovely name for a pony. Hello Thistle.’

That pony looked up and I could have sworn it recognised its new name. A stable hand showed up with a saddle.

‘Oh no, I’m not teaching her to ride.’

‘On the day a young girl receives her first pony,’ Pilib said, ‘surely she must ride it. I wouldn’t worry, Feochadán is very easy to ride. Shall I get Acorn for you, Your Highness?’

Acorn, I thought, I did so want to see Acorn and it was a beautiful spring day. Well, I could see no harm in having a quick wander around Castle Duir.

Ruby allowed herself to be hoisted onto Thistle without any of her usual I can do it myself fuss. Acorn was brought to me and even though he tried to hide it, I could tell he was pleased to see me. I mounted up and we left through the stable exit. True to Pilib’s word, Thistle was the calmest mount I had ever seen. Ruby showed no signs of being scared. She sat on her pony like she had been doing it all of her life.

Outside the castle walls the sun from a cloudless sky stopped the cool spring breeze from being too cold.

‘I would like to talk to a tree,’ Ruby said.

‘You want to talk to a tree?’

‘Yes, now. Father said I would have a big bedroom, a pony and I would get to talk to a tree. I’d like to talk to a tree now.’

‘Wouldn’t you like to just ride for a bit and save some of the other stuff for later?’

‘No.’

The best tree to have a conversation with is, of course, Mother Oak but Glen Duir is almost a day away at a hard ride. With Thistle it would probably take a month. Well, Duir doesn’t mean oak for nothing. Castle Duir was certainly surrounded by oaks – so I just started for the nearest treeline.

When I got to the edge of the oak forest I had some misgivings. These trees didn’t have the same welcoming feel that Mother Oak has – but then what tree does? I dismounted and walked up to a huge snarly barked oak and wrapped my arms around it. Instantly I knew I was in big trouble.

Chapter Four

The Oak

This was different from any tree I had ever communicated with. When I touched it I knew instantly that I wouldn’t be able to let go until it released me. The world disappeared. All of my senses were lost except for the touch of where I was held to the bark. This tree didn’t talk, it probed my mind. What it found it brought to the fore and what it found was stuff that I had buried for a reason.

I was in grade school and all of the kids were bullying Jimmy Murphy. Jimmy was overweight and crap at sports. I just stood there. I should have done something but I just stood there. I liked Jimmy but I just couldn’t be seen being his friend. Then the memory I had long tried to forget. He came to me for help and I pushed him over. Aw Jimmy, I’m so sorry.

Then my mind conjured up the image of a Banshee growing up with his family. I saw his entire life, right up to the moment when I stabbed him at the edge of the Reedlands. He was the first man I had ever killed. As my sword pierced his chest I could see everyone he had ever known and loved watching me with eyes filled with hate. I tried to protest, I tried to say that I didn’t mean to kill him. That he was trying to kill me. But the words wouldn’t come. My mind was not my own. I felt a pain rise in my chest.

That Banshee was replaced by another. This one I knew. This one I loved. I was lying on my sleeping roll the night before we snuck into Castle Duir. Don’t make me watch this, I tried to scream. I tried to pull away but my hands, like they were latched onto a high-voltage wire, wouldn’t let go. I remember that night. He came to talk to me but I was too tired and I sent him away, but as this memory progressed, instead of sending him away, I sat up and said, ‘What’s on your mind, cuz?’

He told me about his plans to kill Cialtie. I told him he was nuts and talked him out of it. After Cialtie was kicked out of Castle Duir – Fergal lived. We talked and drank. He met a lovely girl and I was his best man at the wedding. At the wedding reception he stood and tapped his wineglass with a spoon. He turned to me and said, ‘I’d like to propose a toast to the man who saved my life …’ The memories abruptly ran in reverse and then the scene in the camp played as it really happened. I fobbed Fergal off and then I watched as the next day Cialtie humiliated and killed him. Then I saw it again … and again … and again. The pain in my chest intensified. My head felt like it was going to explode. I watched again as the sword pierced his chest. I watched but this time the man who was wielding the sword – was me.

I screamed.

I was lost. Down so dark a well that I couldn’t see the top. The walls of the well weren’t made of stone or dirt, they were made of … me. I was lost deep in my own mind. Deeper even than after the shock of killing the Banshee at the edge of the Fililands. But it was safe down there. Up there was The Tree. The Tree that grew its roots into my memories and plucked out of them everything I had ever regretted and feared. I was safe down here. I had to shut down; I couldn’t let him into the brain cells that contained the faces of the scores of Banshees and Brownies I had killed during the battle of the Hall of Knowledge. I wouldn’t survive that. Protests, like I had no choice and We were at war, cut no mustard with the oak. I couldn’t let him in there – I was safe in my well. I wasn’t ever coming up. I was safe in my well I was never coming up. I was …

The walls of my well, the walls of my self, my refuge, started to shake. A far-off voice called my name but they would never find me. I was deep, deep in my …

The voice became louder but still it was tiny, tinny, miles away. I could never be harmed … would never let him …

The walls of my sub-subconscious shook more. The voice … I heard the voice. It was … it was … Ruby. I laughed. You’ll never find me down here, Ruby. I’m safe. Safe from the forest of trees … I’m safe. But then I heard her scream. It was that high-pitched piercing scream that she does. The one her father calls The Migraine Scream. I forced myself to think. Where are you, Ruby? It doesn’t matter I am here and I … I am safe. But where are you Ruby? You were with me. I took you riding. You are alone and blind in the Forest of Duir. But I’m safe here. But little Ruby you are not. I must … safe. Safe here. Safe. No. Save. Save her. I must save her.

I reached to the walls of the well. No. I forced myself to think. Not a well – the walls of my mind. I placed my back against a corner of my brain and I climbed. I climbed. I climbed to the sound of that scream. I still couldn’t see anything but the further I went, the closer the sound became. It got so loud it hurt.

I opened my eyes to see Ruby taking another big breath in preparation for another scream. I reached up to stop her but my arm was blocked by a white bed sheet. As she screamed again I freed my hand and caught her by the arm.

‘Ruby,’ I said.

She stopped, smiled and then started hopping around. ‘You see,’ she almost sang, ‘it worked. It worked. I told you it would work.’

I was very confused. I was indoors and in a clean bed. All around me people were rushing into the room. Presumably to see what all the screaming was about. I looked to my left and saw Dad chuckling.

‘Dad? What happened?’

‘I’ve been waiting three days to ask you that,’ he answered.

‘Why was Ruby screaming?’

‘I have no idea,’ he said. ‘She has been waiting by your side for most of the three days that you’ve been in this coma. Just a minute ago she said to me, “Can I try something?” I said yes and she started screaming.’

‘And it worked!’ Ruby said returning to my bed and bouncing her arms off the mattress. ‘Daddy always said my scream could wake the dead and it can. It can, it can. It can. I’m going to tell Daddy.’ And she was off.

‘Where am I?’

‘You’re in one of Fand’s healing rooms.’

‘How did I get here?’

Dad pulled up a chair. ‘That’s an interesting story. Three days ago, the sergeant at arms was shocked to find a seven-year-old blind girl screaming at the Great Gates of Duir. She told him that you were in trouble and he sent a detail out to investigate. They found you curled up on the ground at the edge of the oak perimeter. Ruby says you went out there to talk to a tree – but you’re not that stupid – are you?’

‘Well,’ I said, ‘Ruby wanted to talk to a tree. I, of course, would have liked to have introduced her to Mother Oak but she was too far away …’

‘So you just went out and wrapped your arms around any old oak?’ Dad was almost shouting. ‘What is wrong with you?’

‘What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with that tree? It was like it grew roots into my head.’

‘Didn’t anybody ever tell you about the Oaks of Duir?’

‘No. No one did and whose fault is that – do you think?’

That stopped Dad’s anger, ‘Oh, well, I guess I should have told you.’

‘You think?’

‘Yeah, sorry. ’

‘So what did that tree do to me?’

‘Oaks are dangerous trees, son. If you even brush past one it can snare you. We seem to have no defence against them. They can access our memories and then manipulate our emotions. That’s one of the things that makes Mother Oak so wonderful. She searches out the best in people and reminds you that you are a good person but not all oaks are so affirmative. In fact, almost none are. For the most part, oaks are nasty pieces of wood. I liked to think of them as the junkyard dogs of Castle Duir.’

‘Gosh, and I thought yews were the dangerous ones.’

‘Yews can snare you without touching them but yews aren’t nasty. Yews are the judges of The Land – oaks are the criminals.’

‘But yews can kill you, right?’ I asked.

‘True,’ said Dad, ‘but oaks can drive you mad. Speaking of which – are you OK?’

‘I think so, the worst part was …’

‘You don’t have to tell me. I assure you that whatever the oak stirred up in your mind is nowhere near as bad as he made it seem.’

‘Yeah, it was awful, all of the stuff that filled my head but the oak was right about one thing. I did let Fergal down.’

‘We all dropped the ball on that one, son. We should have seen it coming but never forget – the one who stuck the sword in Fergal was Cialtie.’

Fand entered and told us that there was a host of people wanting to visit with me. Dad picked up a vial from the bedside table.

‘Your mother told me to give you this as soon as you awoke and seemed OK.’

‘I’m fine Dad, I don’t need any medicine.’

‘So you want me to go back to your mother and say that you are defying her?’

I looked at him and frowned. ‘You wouldn’t do that – would you?’

‘Hey, this is your mother we’re talking about. You’re on your own here, pal.’

I took the vial of liquid. ‘OK, I’ll take it,’ I said, ‘but I would really like to …’ That’s the thing about medicines in Tir na Nog – you don’t have to wonder if they are working. There was no possible way I could have even finished that sentence and whatever I thought I wanted to do was instantly of no concern to me. I was back down in my well but this time it was only about six inches deep and lined with satin. Dad said I passed out with a huge smile on my face.

I woke to a question. ‘Are you nuts?’

‘No, I’m OK; the oak tree didn’t drive me mad,’ I said before I opened my eyes.

‘Oh, that’s a huge relief,’ the voice said with an uncaring tone that I didn’t like. I opened my eyes to see a very angry Brendan looming over me. I instantly sat up and backed into the headboard – he looked like he was going to hit me. ‘What were you thinking?’

‘I … I …’

‘Nora and I didn’t know where Ruby was and then you plop her on a horse and take her out to the most dangerous forest in The Land – where you abandon her – on a horse.’

Second most dangerous forest, and it was a pony, I said – to myself, because I knew if I said that to Brendan, there would have been some police brutality.

‘You’re right, I’m sorry,’ I said, ‘I wasn’t thinking.’

‘You’re damn right you weren’t thinking. She could have been killed, or driven insane. What possessed you to do it?’

‘Ruby showed up in my room and said that you promised her a pony but were being slow about it.’

‘So you just went and got her a pony?’

‘Well,’ I shrugged, ‘she’s kinda hard to say no to.’

Brendan relaxed and sat down. ‘Yeah, I can’t argue with that, but you’ve got to remember that even though she acts like she’s forty-two she’s only twelve.’

‘I know, and I’m really sorry. I promise it won’t happen again and I won’t take her anywhere without you knowing about it.’

He patted me on the head like I was a schoolboy. ‘You are forgiven, Mr O’Neil. So,’ he said, changing the subject, ‘how are you?’

‘I’m fine. Dad said I was out of it for three days.’

‘The oak roughed you up a bit, eh?’

‘The specifics of what happened are fading now. All I remember is that he made me remember every bad thing I had ever done and I couldn’t stop it. It was horrible.’

‘As bad as being arrested for your dad’s murder?’

‘I don’t want to bruise your ego, Detective Fallon, but compared to the oak – you’re a pushover.’

A commotion outside the door made us both turn. A woman was screaming and guards were shouting.

‘O gods,’ Brendan said, ‘I might be a pushover but my mother is not. If she gets in here she’s going to tear your head off.’

The door opened and a very fierce looking Nora stomped towards me in a way that reminded me of an attacking Banshee. I looked to my left and saw there was a vial of that medicine on my bedside table. I grabbed it and downed it in one. Nora started screaming. I heard it but really didn’t care as I snuggled blissfully down into the satin bed of my unconsciousness.

When you take one of Mom/Fand’s potions you really do go out. No dreams, no visions, no nothing. I had no idea how long I had been asleep. It could have been days or minutes. When I woke up I opened one eye and had a look around. Sitting at my bedside, reading a book, was Essa.

She was back to her beautiful young-looking self. I just watched as she brushed a wisp of hair away from her forehead with a gesture that I knew oh so well.

‘Hey, old lady,’ I said and then braced myself. Essa had been plenty mad at me for so much of the time that I knew her that I was never sure if our meeting was going to be pleasant or not. But then she smiled and my body relaxed and my heart pounded.

‘Hi, I … was worried about you.’

I looked around the room to see if anybody else was there. ‘You talkin’ to me?’

She laughed. ‘Yes I am. Are you OK?’

I sat up. ‘I am now.’ There was an awkward silence where we just stared at each, other until I broke it with, ‘You look good without the wrinkles and the grey hair.’

‘Why, thank you,’ she said with a nod of her head.

‘What’s it like drinking Tuan’s blood?’

‘Gross but kind of – wonderful. I haven’t felt this good in years. I have tons of energy.’

‘Maybe I should order a green dragon cocktail for myself?’

‘Maybe we should get my father to whip up some Tuan blood wine?’

We both laughed. It was nice – normal. Could it be that I was forgiven? I wondered. Could Essa and I ever be – normal?

The question was cut short by the sound of bare feet slapping against the stone floor. I was smothered in kisses even before I could see whose lips were administering them. Not that I had to look, there’s only one mermaid in all of The Land that greets me like that.

‘Oh Conor,’ kiss, kiss, ‘I have been so worried about you,’ kiss, kiss, kiss.

‘Hi Graysea,’ I garbled between smooches, ‘have you met Essa?’

The introduction had the desired effect of getting Graysea to let up on my face.

‘I remember Essa,’ Graysea said in a tone I had never heard from her before. ‘The first time I saw her she hit you in the head with a stick.’

I expected Essa to storm off, hopefully without hitting me in the head, but instead she stood her ground. ‘What are you still doing here?’

Oh my, I thought to myself, this has the potential to turn into a serious cat fight – or a cat and fish fight and they usually don’t turn out very well for the fish. I know it was cowardly of me – I reached for the bedside table but, damn it, there wasn’t any of that knock-out medicine there.

‘Where else should I be but by my beloved Conor’s side?’

To be perfectly honest I wasn’t the only reason she was still here – Graysea had nowhere else to go. When the Mertain King found out that she had stolen his dragon’s blood to give to me, he banished her.

Essa was close to snarling when she said, ‘I can think of several places I would rather you to be.’

‘Essa,’ I said as gingerly as I could, ‘Graysea helped me escape from a very difficult situation.’

‘Oh, did she?’ the Princess said. ‘And what other situations did she help you in or out of?’

‘I don’t understand you,’ my mermaid said with her usual tilt of the head. ‘Why are you here? Shouldn’t you be mourning the loss of your fiancé?’

I instantly popped up on my knees on the mattress between them. Essa had stepped back in what I recognised as a preparation to spring. I really didn’t want to be in the middle of this and suspected that any second I was going to get the worst of it.

‘Everyone out,’ came a command from the doorway. Dad was standing there in his drill suit. He wore that kingly face that made the two women snap to attention and then quickly leave. Neither said goodbye to me as they never really took their eyes off each other for the entire exit.

‘Thank you,’ I said when the Princess and the mermaid were out of earshot.

‘Don’t thank me too soon,’ Dad said, throwing me the clothes that he had been carrying. ‘Your mother and Fand have given you a clean bill of health, so come with me – it’s time for some training.’

‘Training for what?’

‘We’re going to launch an assault on the Oracle of Mount Cas.’

I thought about the prospect of going into battle again and then thought about the skirmish that Dad had just saved me from. War didn’t seem that bad at all.

Chapter Five

Graysea and Essa

I was back in Dahy’s boot camp. This time it was worse than the first time. The first time I knew I didn’t know anything. This time I thought I knew everything and Dahy proved to me that I once again knew nothing. We were learning a new technique. The master didn’t have a name for it so I called it ninja school – ’cause that’s what it felt like. None of us were allowed to execute any of our showy spins or flip manoeuvres. Every movement had to be minimal. All over the armoury, where we practised, were wooden dowels balanced upright with feathers perched on top. Every time one of us disturbed a feather, or worse, knocked over a dowel, Dahy would shoot us in the legs with a crossbow bolt that had a woollen ball stuck on the end. If you think that doesn’t sound like it would hurt – then think again.

Araf was really good at it. It wasn’t until I saw him in a room full of feathers did I realise just how economical a fighting style he had. Except for his figure of eight propeller-like stick move, Araf hardly had to change his technique at all. Essa was lucky she didn’t have to learn this stuff. Without all of her flipping and twirling she would have been very unhappy. And when Essa is unhappy – everyone is unhappy.

Gerard, Essa’s father, forbade her to go into the Oracle’s house. She wasn’t about to let her father boss her around like that but when Gerard threatened to withdraw all of Castle Duir’s wine shipments – Oisin took Essa off active duty. She was furious and Dad had to remind her that he was, like, a king. She stormed off kicking anything, and anyone, in her path. In short, Essa was to be avoided, but I was doing that already.

Even though our practice was deadly serious it was also fun. Dad joined us and so did Mom and Aunt Nieve. The ladies had a hard time casting spells without all of that dramatic wicked-witch arm waving. Dad, who already had, like, a hundred years’ worth of Dahy tutelage, just seemed to do whatever the master told him to do without any effort at all. One time I pushed Dad over, just to see if Dahy would shoot the king with his crossbow. He didn’t, he shot me.

Brendan trained with us but he wasn’t going either. He wanted to come, just like he wanted to ask the yew trees if he could use Spideog’s bow, but he had a responsibility to his daughter Ruby not to put himself in harm’s way.

‘And actually,’ he confided to me one day at lunch, ‘I’m in no hurry to see that Oracle guy again. If I recall he kicked our butts good with just a flick of the wrist.’

I pointed that out to Dahy but he said he had a plan. So by day we continued to practise our non-feather-disturbing fighting techniques and by night I rubbed healing salve into the black and blue bruises on my legs that Dahy gave me with his crossbow.

The banging on my bedroom door would have busted any Real World door off its hinges but Duir doors are made of hardy stuff.

‘Conor,’ the voice on the other side bellowed, ‘I want to talk to you.’ I knew who it was right away – everyone in the castle was talking about it. New wine is news around here but when it’s delivered by the master winemaker himself – that’s big news.

I opened the door and there stood the largest of all of the larger-than-life characters in Tir na Nog. Gerard stepped into the doorway, blocking out all of the light beyond. In his hand he held a metal bucket with a piece of cloth over the top – it didn’t look like a weapon but I kept my eye on it.