Shadowmagic s-1

by John Lenahan

  He held it up and showed it to my mother. She gasped and placed her hand over her mouth. Her eyes instantly watered up. ‘I made that for him when I was a little girl,’ Mom said.

  A voice behind me spoke with so much venom that I didn’t recognise it. ‘Now we know who destroyed the Hall of Knowledge.’

  I turned-it was Essa. You could almost feel the heat from the fire in her eyes.

  I always wondered what it would be like to be a celebrity walking into a movie premiere and having hundreds of people pushing, just to get a glimpse of me. Now I know-it’s quite nice. Gerard and Dahy had arrived the night before and had told Lorcan all about us. The news that the one-handed prince, Oisin of the Red Hand, was about to arrive at the camp apparently sent the whole place buzzing. Imps and Leprechauns lined our route and saluted as we passed-even me. Luckily Imps and Leprechauns don’t believe in prophecies much.

  Lorcan and Gerard were waiting for us outside of Lorcan’s headquarters in the ruins of the Hall of Knowledge. Lorcan obviously wanted to greet the returning prince of Duir with pomp and ceremony, but Gerard spoiled that idea. As soon as we came into view, Gerard started laughing that infectious laugh of his. Essa broke ranks and ran into her father’s arms. Lorcan was about to salute my father when Gerard stepped forward and took Dad by the shoulders.

  ‘My gods, Oisin, what has the Real World done to you?’ Gerard’s voice was without his usual mirth.

  ‘It has made me older, Lord Gerard,’ Dad said.

  Gerard smiled. ‘Has it made you wiser?’

  ‘That is what we are here to find out.’

  Gerard nodded in agreement, then gave Dad a big hug. ‘Welcome home, Oisin.’

  Lorcan tried once more to introduce himself but Gerard thwarted him again. He grabbed Fergal and me by the neck and then gave us a hug that almost banged our heads together. ‘Well, well, Deirdre, these two young things found you after all.’

  ‘They did indeed,’ Mom answered, ‘and I am very glad that they found you too. Thank you for looking after them-Lord Gerard.’

  Gerard laughed. ‘Ah, they are good boys,’ he said as he tightened his uncomfortable hug. ‘Give them a hundred years and they will make good men.’

  We rubbed our sore necks as he approached Mom. ‘Deirdre, you have been too long away. Why did you never contact me?’

  ‘I did not want to get you into trouble,’ Mom answered.

  ‘From now on, let me be the judge of the trouble I get into,’ Gerard said. He took Mom’s face in his huge hands and kissed her on the forehead.

  ‘Speaking of trouble, I think we should get a drink and make some plans.’ Gerard grabbed Mom and Dad by the arms and whisked them into the Hall. Everyone followed except Lorcan, who was still standing to attention. I seemed to be the only person who noticed how uncomfortable he was.

  ‘Would you like me to introduce you to my dad?’ I asked him after everyone else had gone.

  ‘Yes I would, Prince Conor,’ he replied very stiffly.

  Well, well, I thought, it’s Prince Conor now.

  ‘Should I tell him that you knocked me out and tied me up?’

  ‘I would appreciate it if you did not,’ he replied.

  I let him stew for a bit and then smiled. ‘Come on, Lorcan, we have a war to plan.’

  Inside the headquarters it was pandemonium. Gerard was laughing and dishing out drinks and generally being the life of the party that he is famous for.

  ‘Excuse me,’ I said, but Gerard took no notice. I looked over to Essa, who gave me a He’s always like this look. She tapped him on the shoulder and I whispered in his ear. He settled down after that.

  ‘Lord Oisin, Lady Deirdre,’ I said in my most regal of voices, ‘I present to you Lorcan the Leprechaun’-Lorcan obviously didn’t like the title but I couldn’t resist it-‘Commander of the Army of the Red Hand.’

  ‘I remember your father, Lorcan,’ Dad said. ‘Where is he?’

  ‘Dead, my lord. Soon after you left, most of the senior engineers died in a mining accident. Now many of us are suspicious about the cause.’

  ‘I am sorry for the trouble my family has caused you,’ Dad said, bowing his head.

  ‘Your family had caused me no harm, my lord, the source of my- our- trouble is Cialtie,’ Lorcan went on. ‘I am sorry to interrupt your reunions and I know you must be weary after your travels, but we have little time.’

  Lorcan walked up to a large round table in the middle of the room. Everyone circled around it. From a satchel around his waist Lorcan produced a medallion and threw it on the table. It was about the size of a beer mat, made of silver and crafted into the shape of a tree. The branches of the tree flowed into the roots, making a continuous circle. It was beautiful and very stylised. ‘This is a template for an amulet,’ Lorcan said.

  ‘What?’ came the instant response from almost everyone around the table. This seemingly innocuous statement made Mom and Nieve snap their heads around and drop their mouths wide open. It was as if Lorcan had just said, ‘ I eat babies for breakfast.’

  ‘Cialtie is making this out of gold?’ Mom asked.

  ‘He has done it already.’

  ‘How do you know?’ Dad asked.

  ‘We have spies in the castle,’ Lorcan said. ‘Cialtie has set up a secret gold smithy in the east wing.’

  ‘We must stop him before he uses it,’ Nieve said.

  ‘I am afraid it is too late. He already has.’

  ‘Where?’ Dad demanded. ‘When?’

  Lorcan turned to a soldier and said, ‘Ask Master Brone to join us.’

  The soldier nodded and left.

  ‘Excuse me,’ I interrupted, ‘sorry for being a little thick, but I’m new around here. What’s so bad about making this thing out of gold?’

  Nieve answered me. ‘Most of the magic in The Land is fuelled by gold. Most gold is used to make amulets, like the rothlu amulet you once wore around your neck. The most important rule when designing an amulet is to make sure the power has a place to go. An amulet must always have a point for the spell to exit from.’

  ‘What if it doesn’t? What if it’s a circle like this one?’

  ‘Then it explodes.’

  ‘Did you notice,’ my father said, ‘that you hardly ever see gold finger rings in The Land?’

  I hadn’t, but when I looked around the room I saw that everyone there was wearing at least one ring but all were made of silver.

  ‘There are very few goldsmiths that can make a ring that won’t blow your hand off,’ Dad said.

  Nieve nodded in agreement. ‘An amulet in a circle will explode-an amulet like that one, where all of the power is channelled back to the centre, is…’ she searched for a word.

  ‘A bomb,’ Dad said.

  ‘Not just a bomb,’ Mom said, ‘there is no way of knowing how much energy it will build up before it explodes.’

  ‘You mean it’s like a magic nuke?’

  Nobody knew what that meant except Dad. ‘That’s about right.’

  ‘How bad?’ I asked. ‘Could it take out a village?’

  ‘It can,’ came a weak voice at the door, ‘and it has.’

  I have seen people who were depressed and down on their luck, but I had never seen a truly broken man before. The man who entered the room was in bad shape.

  ‘This is Brone from the village of More,’ Lorcan said.

  ‘I know Brone,’ my father said. ‘You run the Riverside Inn-I have fished there.’

  Brone perked up a bit when he saw Oisin but then the weight of his news pushed back on his shoulders and he looked down. ‘It’s gone, Lord Oisin, all gone.’

  ‘What is gone, Brone?’ Dad asked gently. ‘The inn?’

  ‘Everything, my lord.’ I didn’t think he was going to say anything more, but then he gathered what little strength he had and went on. ‘A week ago I was upriver fishing when I heard an awful sound, and then a wave came that threw me out of my boat. A wave came upriver! I never heard of such a thing. My boat was d
amaged, so I had to walk back to the village, but when I did-it was gone. At first I thought I was lost but I was not-I was home. Not one stone was left on top of another. Everything-everyone, gone.’ Brone could speak no more. A soldier caught him before he could fall and led him out of the room.

  Dad looked to Lorcan for confirmation. Lorcan nodded yes.

  ‘Why would he do this? Why destroy a village as peaceful as More?’ Dad said as he sat heavily into a chair.

  ‘I think it was a simply a test,’ Lorcan said.

  ‘A test for what?’ Dad said, smashing his hand on the table. He looked at Lorcan with daggers in his eyes and then composed himself.

  ‘For this.’ Lorcan unrolled a sheet of paper on the table. It was obviously printed plans of Castle Duir, as seen from above. Around the castle was a thick circle in red ink with thinner lines circling under the castle and then back into the outside circle. It was obvious even to me what it was.

  ‘You are saying that Cialtie is going to circle the whole castle with a circular amulet?’ Dad asked.

  ‘We think he is almost finished,’ Lorcan said.

  ‘That is why he was hoarding all of the gold,’ Gerard said, understanding. ‘Can you imagine how much gold it must have taken?’

  ‘I saw this in a Shadowcasting, but I didn’t know what it was,’ Mom said in a faraway voice. ‘How could I know? How could I imagine anyone would do such a thing?’

  ‘Let me get this straight,’ I said. ‘If Cialtie sets this off, he kills any army attacking the castle-right?’

  ‘If Cialtie sets this off,’ Nieve replied, ‘it could destroy all of The Land and everything in it.’

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  The Evil Eye

  ‘Is there any chance of getting another boarburger?’ I asked the Imp that was serving food. He replied with the customary blank look I seemed to get from everyone around here when I tossed in a Real World reference.

  I was delighted to sink my teeth into some meat. The Fili food was amazing but I was tired of nuts and berries. The Imps had barbecued a couple of dozen boars. They were so good it made me think that McDonald’s should have McBoar on the menu. Araf, Fergal and I were chowing down, while most of the others were having high-powered meetings: Essa was off with Nieve, and Mom and Dad were with Gerard. After my second burger I spotted Essa walking among the ruins and excused myself.

  I found her standing alone, staring at the stained-glass window of the woman sitting in the hazel tree. She saw me and quickly turned away, wiping her eyes.

  ‘Hey, are you OK?’ I said.

  ‘Yes,’ she said, putting on a brave face, ‘it’s just this place. How would you say it?- It freaks me out.’

  I laughed, and so did she, but it was a bit strained.

  ‘Are you sure that’s all?’ I asked.

  She looked away and didn’t answer.

  I took her hand in mine and said, ‘It will be alright.’

  She turned and looked at me, but I still couldn’t read her expression. ‘So you have become an oracle, have you?’

  ‘I have talents you can’t even begin to imagine,’ I said, flashing a smile that I learned from Fergal.

  And then the strangest thing happened. She threw herself into my arms and kissed me-hard. It wasn’t a tender kiss. It wasn’t even passionate-it was almost desperate. Then she turned and started to run off, saying, ‘I can’t do this.’

  I grabbed her arm before she could go. When was I going to learn never to grab Essa when she wanted to leave? She did her customary anti-attack manoeuvre-which meant I ended up on the ground, with her holding my arm behind my back in an extremely unnatural position.

  ‘Ow, ow, ow,’ was about all I could say.

  ‘We have a battle to prepare for,’ she said, letting me go, and stormed off.

  ‘Hey!’ I shouted after her. ‘You kissed me, remember?’

  I sat there, rubbing my arm, and thought about Sally. She may not be as beautiful as Essa, but at least she was less painful.

  ‘Girl trouble?’ It was Dad, with a smile on his face, the first smile I had seen him wear since he heard about what Cialtie was doing.

  ‘Are all the women in The Land that fiery?’ I asked.

  ‘The good ones are,’ he said and helped me up. ‘I’m just about to meet with Lorcan. I think you should be with us.’

  Lorcan and his generals were standing around the table, looking at the map of Castle Duir. They all came to attention when Father and I entered the room.

  ‘Lorcan, your army is not large enough to breach Castle Duir.’

  ‘It must be, my lord, we have to attack before Cialtie completes his circle of gold.’

  ‘How do you know it is not finished already?’

  ‘We must assume it is not. If it is finished-all is lost.’

  ‘We must assume that the circle is complete, but all is not lost. Cialtie thinks his weapon is a secret and therefore has not bothered to guard it sufficiently. Deirdre says that the perimeter of the castle is only patrolled by a single troop of Banshees.’

  ‘That is so.’

  ‘I assume you have some goldsmiths in your ranks.’

  ‘Half of my army are Leprechauns, my Lord, they know how to work gold.’

  ‘Give me ten of your most trusted goldsmiths. Cialtie’s ultimate defence may prove to be his downfall. Can your army be ready to march at dawn?’

  ‘It can, my lord.’

  ‘Can you make Castle Duir in two and a half days?’

  ‘We can.’

  ‘Good. Deirdre, Nieve, Conor, Fergal, Essa, Araf and myself shall try to gain entrance to the castle on the morning of the third day. If all goes well, my brother will open Castle Duir for you.’

  ‘And if all doesn’t go well?’ I said, and instantly regretted it.

  ‘Then,’ Dad said with a sigh, ‘there won’t be anyone left to worry about it.’

  That night Gerard opened several barrels of his finest wine.

  ‘Remember when Cialtie came to visit me a little while back?’ Gerard said as he tapped another barrel. ‘Well, he came in person to complain about the quality of the wine I was sending him.’

  ‘What a jerk,’ I said.

  ‘No,’ Gerard said, ‘he was right to complain. I have been sending him swill for years. This is the good stuff, but I can’t let him have it. It shall go to people who deserve it.’

  All of the army got at least a cup. It wasn’t a celebration, it was more like a ceremony-something solemn.

  That night I had another dream. Dad’s right hand was on fire. I tried to run to him but I couldn’t move. I was forced to watch him burn as I was frozen solid.

  Lorcan woke me at dawn. ‘Good morning, Lorcan the Leprechaun,’ I said, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.

  ‘I would appreciate it if you stopped calling me that.’

  ‘Sorry, General, what can I do for you?’

  ‘Why did you not tell me you were a prince of oak and hazel?’

  ‘Well, everyone I ever told tried to kill me. Now that I think of it, you tried to kill me without even knowing.’

  ‘I am sorry for that.’

  ‘No probs, you were just doing your job. Speaking of jobs, shouldn’t you be leading an army into battle?’

  ‘My army awaits but I must show you something before we leave.’

  I dressed quickly and followed him into the ruins of the Hall of Knowledge.

  ‘You left something behind last time you were here.’

  ‘Oh yeah, my banta stick, I almost forgot.’

  ‘Do you remember where you left it?’

  I tried to think back that far. Days in The Land seem like lifetimes. ‘I think I left it in there.’

  We rounded the corner into the courtyard and I saw it. The hazelwood banta stick that Dahy had given me, and had once belonged to my grandfather Liam-Runelord of the Hazellands. It was exactly where I had left it.

  ‘You cannot take it back.’

  ‘Why not?’

 
‘Take a closer look.’

  I had stuck it into the ground in almost the exact place where Essa had found the roots of the Tree of Knowledge. I drew closer and had a good look. Three green shoots with tender leaves had sprouted from the sides of my stick. My grandfather’s hazel staff had taken root.

  ‘It looks as if a hazel will once again bloom in the Hall,’ Lorcan said behind me. ‘A new Tree of Knowledge perhaps?’

  I touched it. It was too young to speak, but I could feel the life in it.

  Lorcan placed his hand on my shoulder. ‘This is a good omen. Good luck, son of hazel and oak. When we next meet, it shall be in your father’s house.’

  ‘I’ll buy you a beer.’

  He smiled and left me alone with the young hazel. ‘This is for you,’ I said aloud to a grandfather I had never known.

  It was strange being on horseback without Acorn beneath me. Lorcan had lent me a mare named Cloud. She was smaller than Acorn and lived up to her name by giving a softer ride, but I refused to get too friendly. It felt like I was having an affair with another horse.

  I was relieved to find that our route wouldn’t be taking us through the Yewlands-I didn’t want to go through that again. Apparently, the only reason we went that way the first time was to make sure no one was following us. I can understand that. There is no way I would take a walk among the yews again, unless my life depended on it. Even then I would have to think about it.

  There were nineteen of us in our party. On horseback were: Mom, Dad, Nieve, Essa, Fergal, Araf, me and ten Leprechaun goldsmiths. Gerard and Dahy rode in the front of a wagon pulled by a pair of magnificent workhorses. I thought the horses I had seen here before were big, but these things were colossal! They might as well have been elephants for the size of them. Gerard’s wagon was packed with about three dozen massive barrels of wine, but they pulled them as if they were hauling feather pillows.

  We kept a leisurely pace. We wanted to arrive at the castle only half a day before Lorcan’s army, so we didn’t have to press too hard. Nieve and Deirdre spent the first day gabbing on horseback like long-lost sisters. Essa and Fergal were both in introspective moods. I understood it with Fergal but I couldn’t figure out what was bothering Essa. The Leprechauns were a bit in awe of us, so they pretty much kept to themselves. I rode abreast with Araf-and you know how chatty he is. Actually, I wasn’t in the chattiest of moods myself. I know this sounds crazy (after all I had been through), but for the first time since I had been here-I was nervous. When I first heard Ona’s prophecy, I wondered- How could I possibly destroy the whole land? -but now it occurred to me, that that might be exactly what I was doing. Cialtie had a weapon that could trash everything, and we were on our way to provoke him. Maybe I was playing right into destiny’s hand.