A Wizard Abroad

own ends. But Its power was so terrible that only an army of all the wizards in Ireland — for that's what the druids were — could even think about going up against him; and without the Treasures to protect them, they all would have been destroyed. The Cup, known as the Cauldron of Rebirth, raised up their fallen, and the Sword, Fragarach the Answerer, held off Balor's creatures, and the Stone of Destiny kept the ground of Ireland whole and rooted when Balor would have dragged it off its foundations and overturned the whole island into the deep. All their power together, and all the wizards', was just enough to buy the time for the Spear of Lugh to pierce Balor's fire and quench it at last.'

She took a sip of her tea. 'Now, three of the four Treasures we still have — at least one of them is in the National Museum in Dublin. But they have no virtue any more. No-one believes that the gold and silver cup they have here, the Ardagh Chalice, is the Well of Transformations, the Bottomless Cauldron. No-one reallybelieves that the notched bronze thing in the glass case is Fragarach, even though the legends say so. Its virtue has long since ebbed away as a result: the 'soul' in it, if you like, has departed. And the Stone of Destiny, the Lia Fail, is now just a cracked stone half buried in the ground somewhere up North, with an iron picket fence around it, and tourists come and take its picture because it's supposed to be Saint Patrick's gravestone or some such. Not because of what it really is, or was.' Her smile was very rueful. 'The thousands of years and the loss of trueknowledge of the nature of the Protectors have taken them and made them just a cup, just a sword, and a rock.'

'What about the Spear?'

'Its 'soul' was the strongest of all of the Treasures,' Mrs Smyth said. 'It should be the easiest to find. but it's nowhere in the world that we can feel. No, what we're going to do — if a re-enactment. .' She sighed. 'I can't say. We're going to have to work something out from scratch. In the meantime, if I were you, I would step lightly. And thank you for coming to me. Where are you staying?'

'With my aunt, Anne Callahan, at Ballyvolan.'

'Right,' said Mrs Smyth, and made a note. 'Now then; another cup of tea?' Nita groaned.

They went down to the little tea shop in Enniskerry, and had a Coke to kill the time until the number forty-five bus was ready to leave. 'She's not much like the Seniors at home,' Nita said, thoughtful, 'except she's as tough.'

Ronan was sitting slumped back in his chair, his legs crossed, scowling out at her from under those black brows. The hair rose a little on Nita's neck, and she started to blush, and felt extremely stupid. 'Just because she's not like your precious Seniors. .' he said.

'Ronan, just shut up. You think you're the greatest thing on wheels, don't you?' And Nita scowled back at him, mostly to cover her own confusion at her anger. 'You've got a chip on your shoulder the size of a two-by-four, and you'd better do something about it before it ruins your wizardry. And I'm not one of your little herd of head- nodders, so don't waste your dirty looks on me. You don't like the news, that's just tough.'

He stared at Nita, and his expression had changed slightly when she dared to look at it again. He looked a little shocked, still angry: but there was an odd thread of liking there. 'No,' he said softly, 'you're not one of them, are you? Girls have big mouths, where you come from.'

She blushed again, feeling more like an idiot than ever, not understanding her own discomfiture.

'Wizards tell the truth, where I come from,' she said, annoyed. 'I wasn't criticizing your Senior, as you would have discovered if you had let me finish. Your manners need work, too.'

'And what else needs work?' he said, with that same odd soft tone.

She just looked at him, and her insides roiled.

That dark regard was disconcerting when it was bent hard on you. Worse still when he was smiling. He was the kind of guy who gets notes passed about him all day, the kind that girls look at from the safety of groups, stealing glances, laughing softly together at their shared thoughts about him. 'Hulloooo!!' he said to her, waving a hand in front of her face. 'Earth to Nita!' 'Uh, nothing,' she said hurriedly. She finished her Coke in one gulp. 'Listen, the bus is ready to go.'

'What's the hurry? I don't hear. .' From outside there came a roar of diesel engine. Ronan looked at Nita oddly, then grinned. She flushed again, and inwardly swore at herself.Oh, he issomething special. This is awful!

'Can't keep the man waiting,' Ronan said, and got up. 'You going to come with me?' 'Uh, no, I'll walk it. Fresh air,' she said, mortified at the feebleness of the excuse. 'Exercise.' 'As far as the bus stop, then.' Reluctantly she walked out to see him that far.

'Do you have my number?' Ronan said as he got on. 'Call me if you have any problems.' Problems! Do I have problems! Sweet Powers that Be… 'I'll do that,' Nita said. 'You're in the book.'

Ronan made an annoyed face. 'I can'tbelieve this,' he said, and the bus doors shut in front of him. Nita started home to Kilquade. It was a longish walk, about eight miles: but she was really beginning to enjoy the walking. This was one of the prettiest places she had ever been, and the quiet and the sound of the wind and the warm, fair weather were all conspiring to make it very pleasant. She ached slightly from the previous night's exertions, but there were some things worth aching for. She couldn't get rid of the look of Ronan's face, the whole feel of him, the uneasy, uncomfortable sense of — power: there was no other word for it. Add to that the fact that he was good-looking, and funny, when he wasn't being angry — even then. .Nita smiled grimly at herself, annoyed: it was funny to be so attracted to someone she so much wanted to give a few good kicks. God help me, that's what it is. I fancy him.

The admission made her nervous. Neither parents at home or the sex education classes at school ever told you anything reallyuseful about how to handle this kind of thing. Oh, the mechanics of it, body changes and so forth, and how not to catch diseases, and responsibility, and family planning, and all the rest of it. Notimportant stuff, like: kissing — how did you do it and still breathe? Is not wearing a bra a come-on? Is it worth chasing someone you fancy, or will it just make you look stupid? And if you catch him, what do you do then? Or what do you do if youget caught… ?

Nita heard something stirring in the hedge off to the right. At first she thought it was a bird — lots of birds nested in these hedges, encouraged by the thorns — but this sounded too loud. Nita paused, and saw a flash of colour, a soft russet red.

'Ai elhua,' whispered a voice in the Speech, 'I have a word for you.'

Nita's eyebrows went up. She hunkered down by the hedge. The red dog-fox was deep inside it, curled up comfortably in a little hide against the wall that the hedge grew against. 'Madreen rua!' she said. 'Are you all right?'

'Oh yes. But that you may be. .' The fox glanced around, a shifty, conspiratorial look. 'And that I may pay back a debt and all things be even again. There are wizardries afoot.' 'No kidding.'

'Then you should get help for them. One of the Ard-tuatha is in hide, not half a mile from here.' Nita was confused: there were several different ways to translate the term. 'Ard. .You mean, one of the Powers that Be? Here?'

'In truth. We are bound, we are all bound not to say exactly where, or who. But it is one of the Old Ones. Catch it at its work, and it must help you, yes?'

'That's one way to put it.' Nita frowned. The Powers that Be were required to assist wizards when requested to do so. But you had to catch Them first. and They usually made that difficult, preferring to do Their work in secret. It made it harder for the Lone Power to sabotage it. 'Well,' she said. 'I am warned,madreen rua. My thanks.'

'All's even,' the fox said, and in the tiny space where it lay, it somehow managed to get up, turn around, and vanish back through a dark hole under the wall.

Nita got up and went on down the road, trying to make sense of what the fox had told her.It's hard to believe. Why would one of the Powers be living around here…?

She made her way down the little lane to her aunt's drive, and the farm. In the field to the right she could see