Prince of Hazel and Oak (Shadowmagic Book 2)

by John Lenahan

  In the end they came around and decided that there should be a Pooka presence with Dahy’s army at the Hall of Knowledge. The Queen pledged a small detail comprising a handful of bear Pooka soldiers, a courier wolf and a Pooka hawk for reconnaissance. Aunt Nieve agreed to escort the Pooka recruits back to the Hazellands.

  ‘I would really like it if you came with us,’ I said to my aunt after the meeting, ‘and I think Brendan would too,’ I said, testing her reaction.

  She didn’t return my smile, she didn’t really look very happy at all. ‘I have a duty to your mother and to Duir. I have too long been too far away. Escorting the Pookas needs to be done and Castle Duir should not be left without one of the family.’ Then she smiled, took my face in her hands and kissed me on the forehead. ‘When I was young I worked on a spell that would allow me to be in two places at one time – I only ever succeeded in giving myself a headache. I wish now I had worked harder. Be careful, nephew. Find a cure for my brother and come back safe. Now I must tell Brendan.’

  ‘Yeah,’ I said, ‘what’s going on with you two?’

  She smiled and gave me a very un-Nieve-like girly shrug then practically skipped away.

  That night I was invited back into the Queen’s sitting room for tea.

  ‘My son Tuan has asked me if he could be your group’s guide to the end of the Brownie Peninsula. Is this agreeable with you?’

  ‘Yes, ma’am. I really like Tuan.’

  ‘He is very fond of you, Prince Conor. May the gods take care of you both.’

  ‘I’m sure we will be fine.’

  ‘Well,’ she said in a knowing motherly tone, ‘just to be sure I am sending a bear with you.’

  ‘If you insist.’

  ‘I do,’ she said in a voice that made it clear that I would have been an idiot to discuss the matter further. ‘How you will reach Tughe Tine Isle I cannot counsel you on.’

  ‘Don’t worry about it. I’m a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of guy – we’ll figure it out.’

  The next few minutes were spent in talking about what my pants had to do with anything.

  ‘I would be happier if the Banshee were not with you,’ the Queen said.

  ‘What have you got against Turlow?’

  ‘You suspect that the Banshees from the Reedlands destroyed the Hall of Knowledge, do you not?’

  ‘I do.’

  ‘Then how can you trust a member of that race?’

  ‘A member of your race tried to eat me a couple of days ago. Should I distrust the Pooka? My father told me that Banshees were some of the most loyal guards he had ever known and one of the finest persons I have ever known was a Banshee.’

  The Queen raised her hands and I stopped. ‘Banshee loyalty is well known, Son of Duir, but in the past too many Banshees have been loyal to your uncle. Can you honestly say that Cialtie will bother Tir na Nog no more?’

  I started to say something then shrugged – she had a point.

  She reached across and touched my cheek. ‘You remind me so much of your grandfather.’

  ‘I didn’t peek – honest.’

  She smiled at that – a smile that charmed me as much as I’m sure it charmed my grandfather. ‘Liam too voiced his opinions passionately but he was more stubborn than you. He refused to let Dahy put soldiers in the Hazellands and that stubbornness eventually killed him. Make sure you do not allow pride to stop you from what you truly think should be.’

  I wasn’t sure what she was talking about and obviously it showed on my face.

  ‘Let Essa know how you feel.’

  ‘Oh,’ I said, leaning back in my chair. ‘Well, Essa is … Essa is a difficult woman.’

  ‘The best ones always are. As a matter of fact, that is what your grandfather used to say.’ She reached under her chair and produced a plain wooden box. ‘Liam gave me this, years ago. I would like you to have it.’

  She opened the box. Inside, on a bed of satin, was a throwing blade with a green glass handle inlaid with gold wire. It was identical to the one that contained the message and was thrown at Brendan on Mount Cas. I picked it up and admired it.

  ‘As you can see I have never used it,’ she said. ‘The tip is still very golden.’

  ‘Do you know where my grandfather got this?’

  ‘Dahy,’ she said. ‘It was one of two that he made. Liam told me that Master Dahy gave one to him and the other to his true love.’

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Yogi Bear

  Uncharacteristically, I was the first to arrive for our crack-of-dawn departure. A small dusting of snow swirled in a bitter wind that stung my cheeks. It was flipping freezing. I wondered for a second why I wasn’t snuggled up in a warm bed but then the image of my statue-like father pushed that thought away. Nieve’s Pooka etourage mounted up. The five bears were on horseback while the wolf and hawk chose to travel in their animal shapes.

  Nieve showed up with her arm locked onto Brendan’s. She gave him a right proper thirty-second snog and then leapt on her horse. I was about to make a comment but the look on her face made me stop. She didn’t need a joke.

  The rest of my gang showed up and mounted up. We had all said our goodbyes the night before so the two groups saluted Queen Rhiannon and her council, then we waved to each other and went in separate directions. If I hadn’t known better I could have sworn I saw tough-as-old-boots Aunt Nieve wipe a tear as she turned.

  Tuan introduced me to our Pooka bear guard. His name was Yarrow.

  ‘Yarrow the Bear?’ I said with a laugh. ‘Mind if I call you Yogi?’

  I then had to explain what a nickname was. Yarrow liked the concept and he also liked the idea of being ‘smarter than the average bear’ so the name stuck and he became Yogi Bear.

  The path to the Alderlands was on the opposite side of the mountain that we had come up. Tuan and Yogi casually touched trees as they passed, picking up messages that were then deposited on other trees. Pookas in animal form were in the forest as well, especially red squirrels jumping from tree to tree reinstating the pine tree telegraph that had been neglected for so long. Normal animals were also slowly repopulating the Pinelands. Queen Rhiannon had sent out a few envoys to persuade the normal animals that the Pookas were no longer bonkers. I didn’t see any big creatures like boar or deer but the fast little guys, rabbits and foxes and squirrels, were back. Tuan said they seemed jumpier than normal but I couldn’t tell.

  We could have made it out of the Pinelands in one day but Tuan and Yogi decided to call an early halt. ‘The less time sleeping under an alder tree the better,’ Tuan said. I remembered the last time I slept under an alder – everything I owned, including my shoes, was stolen. I wasn’t looking forward to spending time in a forest full of them.

  ‘We are going to have to pay tribute to the King of the Brownies,’ Tuan said that night around the campfire.

  ‘Can’t we avoid Brownie Castle and just get to the island?’ I said. ‘I hate all that royal bowing and scraping stuff. And I’ve met the King of the Brownies – I’m not a big fan.’

  ‘As soon as we enter the Alderlands,’ Tuan said, ‘the trees will inform all of the Brownies that we are there. We cannot avoid Fearn Keep. Do you have anything to give the King for a tribute?’

  ‘Yeah, Mom gave me some gold, mined by Leprechauns from Castle Duir.’ I reached into my saddlebag and produced four slim pieces of gold imprinted with the Oak Rune. They were about the size of a candy bar. ‘How many of them should I give him?’

  Everyone’s eyes nearly popped out of their heads. ‘One will be more than ample,’ Araf said. ‘Put them away and don’t let any of the alders see that gold or you won’t have any to give.’

  Admittedly I had never had a good experience with the Brownies but it kind of bothered me how people talked them. ‘You know, guys,’ I said, ‘I refuse to condemn an entire race just because the first one I met robbed me blind, but it seems to me that everyone hides their wallets when they come up against Brownies. What is it with th
ose guys?’

  ‘Brownies believe that the Faeries of Duir are pretenders to the Oak Throne,’ Tuan said.

  ‘Pretenders?’

  ‘Yes, they believe that they are descendants of Banbha and therefore should be the custodians of the gold mines of Duir.’

  ‘Banbha, she is one of the Three Sisters, right? Isn’t she the one that sailed away and brought the Banshees to The Land?’

  ‘That is the legend,’ Tuan said. ‘The Brownies believe that while she was away the other two sisters, Fódla and Ériu, forced a Brownie named Doran to take a Choosing against his will. He chose the Fearn Rune. Alder Island was created and the Brownies were banished to it. The Brownies believe that the reason the Alderlands are so swampy is because Doran’s heart was not committed to the Choosing.’

  ‘The Alderlands is an island?’

  ‘It was,’ Tuan answered. ‘When the Pinelands were formed it was joined with the rest of The Land.’

  ‘I still don’t see why they have such a reputation as thieves?’

  ‘Brownies do not like living by the rules of Duir,’ Tuan said.

  ‘What rules of Duir?’

  ‘There really is no such thing,’ Tuan said quickly as if I might take offence, ‘but Duir was the first Land. It has an army and it has all of the gold. There are no official rules but if a throne displeases Duir then life for them could be difficult.’

  I looked to Araf for confirmation. He shrugged and nodded yes. ‘So Duir doesn’t give the Brownies any gold?’

  ‘Your grandfather Finn was very tolerant of the Brownies. After he disappeared Cialtie was very generous to them and since then they have grown bolder.’

  ‘So let me see if I’ve got this right,’ I said. ‘They believe they should have all the gold, so they think it’s OK to steal it whenever they feel like it.’

  Tuan and Yogi looked at each other and nodded. ‘That would be an appropriate summation,’ Tuan said. ‘Even a Brownie wouldn’t mind being called a thief. They are taught thievery and stealth as part of their formal education.’

  ‘Well, that would have spiced up high school.’

  I had a quick face wash in a bowl of freezing cold water and stumbled in the dark back to my tent. Brendan was already in there. Now that Nieve was gone it seemed I had a roommate again.

  ‘Don’t you have a tent of your own?’ I asked as I got into my sleeping roll.

  ‘Why should I bother pitching my own tent when yours is so comfy?’

  ‘I’m like a big importhe Bprince, you know?’

  ‘Are you really?’ Brendan said in the dark. ‘I thought that was just a line you used to meet girls.’

  ‘No, it’s real. I got a castle, family sword, servants – the whole nine yards.’

  ‘Gosh,’ Brendan said, ‘you would think with all that stuff that you wouldn’t have to share a tent.’

  ‘Yeah,’ I said in resignation. ‘Speaking of girls, that was quite a show you put on up there in the Pinelands.’

  ‘What show would that be?’

  ‘The thirty-second movie-star goodbye kiss you had with my aunt.’

  ‘Oh, you saw that did you?’

  ‘They saw it from the space shuttle. You realise, Brendan, that my aunt is probably like a thousand years old.’

  ‘She doesn’t look a thousand years old.’

  ‘Well, I’m just saying, are you sure you want to get involved with a woman that you might have studied about in ancient history class?’

  ‘Conor?’

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘Shut up.’

  ‘I’m just saying …’

  ‘Good night, Mr O’Neil.’

  ‘Yeah, good night, Detective Fallon.’

  I had almost fallen to sleep when Brendan just had to get the last word in.

  ‘Conor, no offence, but if I was going to ask for relationship advice – I wouldn’t ask you.’

  I didn’t answer him. I just silently nodded in agreement.

  The flaps of the tent cracked with the morning frost. Tuan and Yogi weren’t happy with the dusting of snow. It made it difficult to choose the right path into the Alderlands. And being on the right path in the Alderlands is important, ’cause if you’re not on the path – you’re in a swamp.

  After about an hour, the Pookas found what seemed to be a solid trail. The only swamps I had ever seen in Tir na Nog were the ones in Cialtie’s Reedlands. I was not looking forward to going into another but once inside I was relieved to see that these swamps were much healthier than the foul and unnatural ones in my uncle’s patch. Still, it was spooky. Leafless alder trees draped with long catkins lined our path or lived alone on bogie islands. Even though the ground was white with a light snow and the sky was cloudless, the place still seemed to be darker than it should, as if the light was mysteriously being sucked from the place. Small black birds darted through the trees but moved so fast I could never actually see one. Around the edges, the swamps were frozen but in the dark deeper water near the middle, unseen creatures submerged as we passed – their presence only given away by a tiny splash or an ominous plop.

  The Pookas decided that someone should talk to a tree and let them know we were here. raf was chosen, since nobody has any real beefs with the Imps. He placed his hands on a burly alder for a few moments, said, ‘Thank you,’ and walked back to us.

  ‘She pretended to be surprised,’ Araf said, ‘but I got the impression that they already knew we were here. I told her we were coming to see the King and she wished us good luck.’

  ‘Was that like an actual “good luck”,’ I asked, ‘or a you’re gonna need it “good luck”?’

  As usual I didn’t get an answer from Araf.

  Essa pulled back and dropped in next to me later that day. I stifled the sarcastic comment about Turd-low. Call me genius but I was starting to realise that maybe one of the reasons Essa was so feisty was because I wound her up all the time.

  ‘I have to say, Conor, this is not my favourite place.’

  ‘First trip to the Alderlands then?’

  She nodded yes. ‘I’m not very happy about being here and neither is my father.’

  ‘Your father? How does Gerard know you are here?’

  ‘I have an emain slate with me.’

  ‘You do? Why didn’t you tell me? I could have used that to see how my father is.’

  ‘I have been keeping track of Oisin’s health. It is unchanged. I would have told you if it was otherwise.’

  I relaxed a little. ‘Mom said that he was getting worse.’

  ‘That has not changed either but it seems the progression is still very slow.’

  We rode in silence until finally I broke it. ‘So your dad’s not a big Brownie fan?’

  ‘Some of my earliest memories are of Father complaining about the Brownies not paying their bills, but I think this is less about the Brownies and more about me being too far from home. He worries about me.’

  ‘Well, I don’t blame him. I worry about you too,’ I said. ‘I worry about you coming up behind me and clubbing me in the head.’

  That one got a laugh out of Essa that was loud enough to make Turlow look around and wonder what we were talking about. I hoped he thought we were laughing at him.

  ‘Maybe I should get back,’ she said.

  I almost replied, ‘Oh, we wouldn’t want to keep the Turd-low waiting.’ But as she pulled ahead what I actually said was, ‘Give your father my best.’ Who says I have to be immature?

  The cold air and the rhythm of Acorn beneath should have lulled me into that hypnotic state that makes travelling hours on horseback bearable, but I kept being disturbed by my companions flitting around me. Finally I broke my personal reverie, slid between Tuan and Yogi and asked what was going on.

  ‘We are being tracked,’ Tuan said. ‘Can you not sense it?’

  &8216;Of course,’ I lied, ‘I was just asking you for confirmation.’

  I had a look around. I neither saw nor felt anything. ‘Brownies?’ I asked.
/>
  ‘That would be a safe assumption.’

  ‘Have you spotted them yet?’

  ‘No, Brownies are very good at not being seen.’

  ‘Why don’t you, like, turn into a hawk and see if you can spot them from the air?’

  An almost growling sound came from Yogi. The look on his face made me think that he was about to hit me. Tuan didn’t look angry but I knew instantly that I had made a major social faux pas. He kept his eyes down as if embarrassed and said, ‘That would not work.’

  Even though I wasn’t sure what for, I apologised and slunk back to Araf. I told him what I had just said and asked what mistake I had made. He didn’t know but added how impressed he was that I could make blunders where no one had ever made blunders before.

  C

  hapter Twenty-Five

  The Alderlands

  I didn’t bother looking for our Brownie shadows. If expert trackers like Essa and Araf couldn’t spot anything it was pointless for me to try. Also, from my experience of Brownies, it was unlikely we would get an arrow in the back – the real danger was getting robbed in the dark.

  I made Brendan pitch the tent that night. I was drafted into begging wood from an alder. I found a not too menacingly sized tree and placed my hands on it.

  ‘You have slept under an alder before,’ came a strong and unpleasant voice in my head, ‘but not in the Alderlands. You and … a Banshee slept under one of the lonely trees. Am I not correct?’

  ‘How do you know that?’ I said. ‘That alder was miles away from any other.’

  There was almost a smirk in his voice when he replied, ‘Perhaps we leave messages on the breeze. But where is that Banshee?’