Sons of Macha

‘As for my general’s question,’ Dad continued, ‘I shall repeat it. Where is my mother?’

The Oracle started to smile and then sat back into the shadows and laughed. One of those bad-guy laughs that irritates everyone except the laugher. We waited.

‘I never thought I would see the day when the Lord of Duir would climb up my mountain only to say, ‘I want my mommy.’ He laughed again. I’m glad it was dark in there ’cause I smiled too.

‘Conor, welcome back,’ he said, wiping the smile from my face, ‘I see you have brought your Imp with you. But where are the archer and the Druid? Oh dear, did I kill them?’

‘No,’ I said trying hard not to let my voice wobble. ‘Not that you didn’t try.’

‘Impudent as ever,’ he said in a tone that almost had some warmth in it. ‘Someday that will get you killed.’

‘I would advise you not to threaten my son.’ Dad obviously had heard something different in his tone than I had.

‘Or what? Your Shadowwitch will cover me with sap?’ Oracle looked to Mom and Nieve. ‘Which one of you is the Daughter of Hazel that practises the forbidden lore?’

Mom stepped forward but didn’t say a word.

‘So who are you?’ the Oracle asked pointing to Nieve.

‘I am Nieve of Duir and I too want my mommy.’

That should have been funny, but the way my aunt said it made it sound menacing. Saying that, Oracle guy laughed – apparently he doesn’t menace easily.

‘Well, now that we are all introduced,’ the Oracle said rising, ‘it is time for you to go. Apologise to my Brownies on your way out.’

Dahy is not the kind of guy who lets emotions get in the way of his tactics but on this day, the arrogance of the Oracle and the anticipation of seeing Macha again got the best of him and he jumped the gun. He raised his banta and stepped towards the dais. All I remember of the next ten seconds was: G-forces, wind and pain. By the time I came back to my senses I saw that I, like everyone in my party, was pinned to the wall by a force of wind that made our faces scrunch up like astronauts during take-off. When I finally could force my head to move, I saw I was three feet off the ground.

Oracle guy was standing in front of his dais with his arms outstretched as dust and leaves swirled around him under the light from the ceiling discs. If before I thought that this plan was maybe a mistake, now, seeing Oracle guy looking so all-powerful, I wondered if this was actually a fatal mistake.

‘What arrogance,’ he said; his voice, carried on the wind, was so loud it made my head vibrate against the stone. ‘To imagine that sticks and swords – and even Shadowmagic are enough to defeat ME!’

Chapter Seven

Diddo

I tried to speak and then yell but the wind seemed to push my words back in to my head. I wasn’t party to the entire plan for this campaign but I was pretty sure that getting pinned to a wall wasn’t part of it. I could only hope that we got back on schedule before Oracle guy killed us.

The pressure of the wind was so intense that I was starting to have trouble breathing. Now that would be one for the books – being suffocated because of too much air. I looked to my left. Not because I wanted to, it was just that I could no longer keep my head straight. As my cheek pressed painfully against the stone wall I saw Mom moving her hand into her pouch. I don’t know how she did it, I couldn’t move a thing. Her hand came out with one of those gold and amber balls that she had invented. It was a hybrid weapon made from Real and Shadowmagic. I had never seen it fail to kick the crap out of anybody she had lobbed it at. Ever so slowly she brought her hand to her lips and incanted directly onto the ball. The gold and amber glowed and then despite the force of the wind it started towards the Oracle – but not for long. I heard him laugh through the howl as Mom’s bomb came back at her and silently exploded as it reached her chest. Normally I would have had to turn my head or cover my face at the brightness of it but all I could do was close my eyes. When the flash blindness finally receded to small black dots I saw that Mom was out cold. At least, I hoped she was just unconscious. For all I could tell she might have been dead.

The horror of that thought hit me at the same time as all the noise stopped. Blessed quiet filled the room as the wind and pressure ceased and I slid down the wall onto my feet. Mom crumpled to the ground. As I ran to her I heard Dahy’s voice shouting the word that I had taught him, ‘Ninja!’ My training kicked in and I slowed to a crawl. Mom looked like she was still breathing so I slowly turned to see that the rest of my team had already gently flowed into action. Oracle guy looked very confused. He waved his arms and flicked his wrists but in the windless chamber he seemed powerless.

I breathed a small sigh of relief, making sure I created no air current. We had all been working on the assumption that Oracle guy’s powers came from wind. It seemed not to be such a stretch after seeing how the Mertain harvested power from ocean currents. Days before, Tuan in the form of a crow had carried a parcel of stuff that Mom, Essa, Nieve and Fand had come up with. I know it sounds silly but it was like magic expanding cavity filler. As a test they had set off a teaspoon of it in Castle Duir. It filled the room with an amber coloured substance with the consistency of light pumice. It kept going into the hallway and for a minute Mom was worried that it was going to take over the entire floor. There were people back at the castle who were still trying to dig out the room.

Tuan had reconnoitred the mountain and discovered two large holes at about the height of the Yew Throne Room. We figured that if we plugged those holes, the wind in the chamber would stop and Oracle guy would be powerless. The Shadowmagic baton Dahy threw off the mountain just before we entered the Yew House was Essa’s signal to ride Dragon Tuan up to the summit, detonate the parcels and draught-proof the throne room. If Dahy hadn’t jumped the gun maybe we could have done all this without so much pain.

Once the wind stopped, subduing Oracle guy was easier than any of us expected. He was still trying to figure out what had happened to his powers when Nieve came up behind him and pinned him with one of her paralysing specials. As soon as he was incapacitated Dad and Nieve went to Mom. Nieve placed her hands on both sides of Mom’s head. She was like that for a long time before she said, ‘I think she will be fine, but I would like to get her to your mermaid as quickly as we can.’ I didn’t like hearing Nieve using words like ‘I think’. I sat and held Mom’s hand, not knowing what else to do.

Dahy made us all jump when he shouted into the darkness, ‘MACHA.’ Just the sound of that one word spoke the decades of loss the old warrior felt. Dad rose and stood beside him.

A form in a black hooded cloak seemed to appear out of the darkness as it stepped into the light. It made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. I was half expecting the hood to drop back to reveal the face of The Grim Reaper. As if we were still in our ninja mode none of us even breathed. The reaper raised her hands and pushed back the hood. Amber hair, just like Nieve’s, fell across her face. As she pushed it away I saw her eyes. They weren’t dark brown like Dad’s and his sister’s but pale blue – like mine. Then I remembered something that Spideog had said to me: ‘You have your grandmother’s eyes, you know.’

No one said a word. Like a bunch of zombies, we all stood and stared at each other until I just couldn’t stand it any more.

‘Are you my grandmother?’ I asked.

She smiled at me then. It was strange. Not the grandmotherly smile that I had ever imagined. She was far too young looking and beautiful for that. ‘Yes, I am,’ she said. ‘I see you received my message.’ She looked to my father.

Dad stood stock still as she walked up to him, placed her hands on both sides of his face and tenderly kissed him on the forehead. ‘I thought, my son, I had lost you to the Real World and when I heard Conor’s tale of your strange illness, I thought I had lost you again. But here you are and looking fit and well.’

Dad was at a loss for words. They stared at each other and as every agonisingly long second passed, my father seemed to lose a year. When he finally spoke he sounded like a five-year-old. ‘Where have you been?’

Tears welled up in Macha’s eyes. ‘Here my son, locked in this dreadful place.’

Nieve stepped into the light and quietly said, ‘Hello Mother.’

Macha looked to her daughter and then took her hand. ‘You have become a proper sorceress, my child.’

Nieve could only nod yes.

Macha hugged her and then turned to Dahy. ‘General, can you take me away from here?’

‘I can, my Queen,’ Dahy said dropping to one knee.

My grandmother walked over to him, knelt down and placed her hand on his cheek. ‘Not your queen, Diddo, only me, Macha.’

‘Did you just call Dahy Diddo?’ I blurted.

Dahy stood and gave me a look that made me think he was going to snap me in half. And considering that Dahy can snap me in half, it was a pretty scary look.

‘Hey,’ I said, raising my hands in a gesture of surrender, ‘I’m sorry to break this tearful reunion, but we have an injured Shadowwitch here and I for one would sorely like to get the hell off this mountain. What do you say, guys?’

Dahy kicked into leader mode, with a little more chest-puffing gusto than normal. If I didn’t know better, I would have said he was showing off. ‘How many others are in the house?’ he asked Macha.

‘There are seven Brownies that live here,’ she replied, ‘but I think one is away from the mountain.’

‘Well, we took out six on the way in. Conor and Nieve, go see if the ones in the hallway are still down.’

Nieve and I opened the door and peeped around the corner. The pile of Brownies were still there but they were moaning and moving. Nieve dashed up and quickly poked all of them in the butt with one of her pins while I picked up the weapons.

The tall Brownie opened his eyes fully and then a look of panic crossed his face. ‘I cannot move my legs! What have you done to me?’

‘Relax,’ I said, trying to pat him on the shoulder but he took a swipe at me when I got close. ‘Seriously, chill. You just got pinned by one of my aunt’s specials. You’ll be fine in a couple of hours.’ He sat up and then pushed himself along the floor until he had his back to the wall. I felt sorry for him.

‘Where is Lugh?’

‘Lugh?’

‘Yes, the master of this house is Lugh. Lord of All. Where is he?’

As if to answer the Brownie’s question my party came into the hallway. Dad was carrying Mom and Araf had ‘The Lord of All’ hoisted over his shoulder like a bag of manure. Most of the Brownies, now conscious, watched with open mouths as their master was carried to the front door.

‘Did you kill him?’ the tall Brownie asked.

‘No,’ I said, ‘but we are taking him back to Castle Duir. You’re free now. Go back to the Brownielands, he no longer has a hold on you.’

He smiled at me then. One of those smiles that lets you know that the smile-ee knows something you don’t. ‘As long as he lives,’ he said, ‘we will never be free. We will await Lord Lugh’s return. It will not be long.’

I left them with a canteen of water and they left me with a feeling of … doom.

Outside, Dragon Tuan began to ferry all of us off the mountain. Early on in his dragon life, Tuan made it perfectly clear that he was not going to be an air taxi service for the House of Duir so this was a favour I really appreciated. I had no desire to ever see this mountain again and getting off it as fast as I could was a top priority.

Dad and the unconscious Mom went first, then Araf and the unconscious Lugh, followed by Dahy and Nieve. As my grandmother and I waited for Tuan to return she said, ‘I worried about you trying to get blood from a fire worm, I worried that I led you on an impossible task – never in my life did I imagine that you could enslave a dragon.’

As I started to reply, Dragon Tuan flapped up onto the shelf. We had to cover our faces to protect our eyes from the swirling dust. ‘Oh, I wish he was my slave,’ I shouted over the noise, ‘then I wouldn’t have to walk as much as I do.’

I took Macha by the arm and led her over to the green lizard. ‘Grandma, I would like you to meet my friend, Councillor Tuan.’ Tuan rocked his head back and blew a puff of fire that finished with a perfect smoke ring.

Macha bravely walked right up to him and patted him on the snout like he was a horse. Tuan dropped to one knee and lowered his head as Grandma said, ‘I am honoured to meet you, Councillor.’

The flight down was the scariest ride I had ever had with a dragon – and that included when Dragon Red tried to kill me. Tuan was so tired from all the upping and downing that he pretty much just dive-bombed off the mountain. I screamed like a little girl all the way down but Grandma didn’t make a peep even during the G-force-inducing last second level-out. When Tuan became Tuan again I promised I would punch him for that – immediately after I threw up.

I was expecting Macha to be open-mouthed like everyone else who witnesses Tuan’s transformation for the first time but when I looked at her, she had her eyes closed and her arms outstretched. I heard a snort from Acorn – looking not like the bold stallion that often gives me a hard time but more like a colt approaching his mother. That’s when I noticed that all the horses were doing the same thing. They slowly approached Macha with their heads down and then shivered with delight as my grandmother caressed each one of them. It was remarkable to watch. It was like she was part of them but also above them, like a horse god. Macha the Horse Enchantress – the yews had given her the power over horses, and there in front of us was the proof. She hugged each horse in turn. The look on her face was like a mother returning to her children after a long time away.

Mom was awake, sitting with her back against a rock, with a blanket on her lap and drinking willow tea when I found her. She gave me one of those forced smiles that let me know she was OK.

‘Hey Mom, it’s good to see you with your eyes open. You gave me a scare. How do you feel?’

‘Good, considering. Your Graysea is a remarkable healer. I’m starting to see what you see in her. I don’t think she is as witless as she would have us believe.’

‘That depends on which side of her brain she is using.’

‘Seriously?’

I nodded and she laughed but stopped right away and held her chest in pain.

‘I think you need another session. I’ll see if she’s up for it.’

I found Graysea and asked her if she could gill-up for Mom again. She said she was on her way to do just that now that she had seen that everyone else was OK. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Gerard’s big fist hand me a glass.

‘Is that wine?’

‘It’s something a bit stronger,’ the big man replied.

‘Good,’ I said, knocking whatever it was back in one. The whole world wobbled like I was about to do a flashback on a bad sitcom.

When I could risk moving again without falling over, Gerard said, ‘More?’

‘Yes please,’ I replied holding out my glass.

‘You wouldn’t have any of your wine with you, Gerard?’ Macha asked, coming over to the fire. Behind her stood all of the horses, like groupies awaiting the beckon of a prima donna rock star.

‘You know I do.’ Gerard poured her a glass and she took a sip with her eyes closed like it was a chalice filled with the elixir of youth.

‘Oh, it has been so long,’ she sighed.

‘It has indeed,’ Gerard said. ‘You look good for a dead woman.’

Macha smiled at him but he didn’t return it. ‘I’m surprised to find you here, winemaker. Thank you for coming to save me.’

‘Spend no thanks on me, my Queen, I came because of Dahy. I would follow that man to the gates of hell if he wished it and I will defend him from all harm.’

‘Well then let us both make sure no harm befalls him,’ Macha said, still smiling but not as much.

‘Let’s,’ Gerard said. ‘More wine?’

‘No,’ she said, placing her hand over the top of her glass. ‘I have been long away from your wine for too long. Like your company, too much of it would be overly intoxicating, but thank you.’ She handed me her empty glass and walked away.

‘So you two have met?’ I asked Gerard.

‘Oh yes,’ he replied. ‘We have met.’

Tuan offered to fly Mom home. She must have still felt pretty banged up ’cause she accepted. Oracle guy was given something that put him into a coma, and then stuffed in the barrel that just yesterday had held Graysea’s saltwater bath. For good measure he also had a paralysing pin stuck in his neck. I wanted to feel sorry for him but I once had travelled on a wagon in a barrel and I’m sure that it was much more comfortable to do it unconscious. Still I made sure he had a few pillows in there with him.

As Gerard hammered the barrel lid closed I said, ‘Well, Lugh is lugh-ed up tight.’

‘What did you say?’ Dad asked, and I also noticed that everyone else had stopped in their tracks.

‘It was a joke. You know, locked up tight?’

‘But what did you call him?’

‘Lugh, the Brownies said Oracle guy’s name is Lugh.’

Gerard stepped back like the barrel was about to bite him. All eyes shot to Macha.

‘Is this true?’ Dad asked.

She looked surprised. ‘I thought you knew.’

Nieve stepped up to Macha. She had a look on her face I’m pretty sure I had never seen before. She looked – frightened. ‘Are you saying that the one who had kept you prisoner for all of these years is Lugh of the Samildanack?’

‘Yes,’ Macha replied.

Gerard actually stumbled into me when he heard this. I steadied him and said, ‘What does this mean?’

‘It means,’ he said, looking at the mallet in his hand, ‘that in that barrel, I have just sealed – a god.’

Chapter Eight

Lugh

Macha rode in front on the way home. Not because she was a queen, but because we quickly figured out that if she wasn’t in front then all of the horses would keep trying to look around to see where she was. Dahy rode with her and the two of them chatted the entire time like teenagers on the telephone. Dad and Nieve rode wordlessly behind. If Macha had any guilt in leaving them motherless for so long, she showed no sign of now trying to make up for it. I couldn’t see their faces but their body language in the saddle made them look like unhappy children forced to ride a pony at a birthday party.

I was behind them with Araf – tantamount to riding alone – and behind me rode my girls, Essa and Graysea. I didn’t hear them share even one syllable and I wasn’t about to turn around to see if they were OK. The tension permeated the entire group to the point where Gerard, riding in the cart at the rear, was singing dirges as opposed to his usual ditties.

It wasn’t just the imminent outbreak of a cat fight that was upsetting the group, it was like the whole party was spooked. And the thing that was spooking everybody was the guy locked in the barrel on Gerard’s cart. I needed more details on this ‘Lugh being a god’ thing but Mom and Nieve were not in a talkative mood and Gerard didn’t like talking to me when Essa was around, in case she thought he was taking sides. (Even a father can be afraid of a child like Essa.) And I could never get Dahy away from Macha.

At night I tried to entice Grandma into talking about Lugh and her imprisonment but she said that it was far too horrid to speak of. She went to bed early every night with a horse standing guard outside her tent.

I was reduced to spending my days staring at the scenery – not a bad thing. Spring had fully sprung and summer was once again upon The Land. The vibrancy, the … aliveness permeated everything, and – if they were like me – everyone. The feeling – no, not the feeling – the knowledge that you can live for ever came from days like these.

News of Queen Macha’s return preceded us. An hour before our arrival at Castle Duir a rumble and a cloud of dust could be seen in the distance. Dahy and Dad sped to the front and were about to throw us all into battle stations when Macha said, ‘There is no need for concern. It is just my children.’

Sensing the Horse Enchantress’s approach, the horses in Castle Duir’s stables had become anxious. The master of the stables, having heard that Macha was soon to arrive, left open all the stable doors and let the horses run to meet their mistress.

Macha dismounted and walked ahead of us as the sound of thundering hooves intensified. What a scary and magnificent sight: Macha standing alone in an open field, her hands held out as a stampede of galloping horses came directly at her. As they got nearer they squeezed together so as to be close to the Horse Enchantress as they passed. I thought for sure they were going to trample her but at the last second they parted. They swarmed past her like a flock of birds – her hands brushing the charging beasts. They swung around for another pass. They did this three times and I’m sure they would have done it all day if Macha hadn’t put a stop to it. She raised her yew wand and the horses swung in front of her and then stopped as if at attention. From the middle of the herd came a huge silver stallion. I recognised him. The stable master had told me that his name was Echo because he was the spitting image of the horse that sired him – King Finn’s horse. When I once asked if I could ride him I was told that he was wild – unrideable. Yet here he was, head down, offering himself to the Horse Enchantress. Macha patted him on the snout and Echo quivered. Then, fast as a tree monkey, she mounted him and galloped towards Castle Duir. The herd whinnied and followed – leaving us behind.

We didn’t even have to kick our horses to catch up; Acorn leapt to join the herd whether I liked it or not. I galloped up next to Dad and Nieve. ‘I’ll say this about Grandma,’ I shouted into the dust-filled air, ‘she knows how to make an entrance.’

Mom had not been idle with the days that travelling dragon-back had given her. She had prepared a special airtight cell and had a Leprechaun smith make a pair of silver gloves/handcuffs that would hopefully render Lugh unable to whip up a breeze or any magic. While Dad and Nieve secured the prisoner, I went in search of answers.

I found Fand in the Shadowmagic laboratory she set up with Mom. She was stirring something in a small pot.

‘If that’s a super delicate Shadowpotion you’re working on,’ I said, ‘I can come back later.’

‘It’s tea,’ Fand replied reaching under the counter and producing two cups. ‘Would you like some?’

‘Oh, yes, thank you.’

She stirred the pot with a gold stick and when she removed it all of the used tea leaves had stuck to it. She mumbled something and the leaves all fell into a rubbish bin. Then she poured us both a cup.

‘What brings you down here, Prince Conor?’

‘I want to know who Lugh is.’

That query made Fand lean back and sigh. She took a sip of tea before she answered. ‘Maybe that is the wrong question,’ she said. ‘Maybe you should be asking: what is Lugh? A question that many have been asking for a long time. Or maybe the most important question is: who is the man we have locked up in the windless cell? I’m not certain he is Lugh.’