before.
The Pooka didn’t get up and when he spoke he was hoarse and hard to hear. ‘You must leave.’ He closed his eyes again and I wondered if he had passed out, but then he opened them and looked at each of us. ‘I can’t protect you,’ he said.
Nieve sat him up and Essa got some willow tea into him.
‘I could have sworn I had some poteen with me,’ Essa said. Brendan gave me a furtive guilty glance.
A little bit more of the spark of life returned to our shapeshifter with every sip of willow tea. Araf gave him some food and he gobbled it down. With a boyishly guilty look, Brendan produced the almost-finished bottle of poteen and handed it to Essa, who gave him such a dirty look I was sure glad I wasn’t him. A shot of Gerard’s special moonshine brought all the colour back to our patient’s cheeks and maybe a little extra. He sat with us around the fire wrapped in about four blankets.
‘We do not seek your protection,’ Essa said, breaking the silence. ‘We seek Queen Rhiannon.’
Pooka guy made a snorting, laughing sound that I didn’t like and said, ‘Queen Rhiannon is indisposed.’
‘None the less, we must see her.’
‘You cannot.’
‘We have come a long way and will see the Queen with or without your help,’ Essa said.
He threw off his blankets and stood up. Our friendly fireside guest once again became very angry naked Pooka guy – which was disconcerting, ’cause we were pretty close and seated. ‘You can’t see her. YOU MUST LEAVE.’ His face became repossessed – he reached for his neck.
‘Woah, woah, woah, Pooka guy,’ I said, as I grabbed his wrist before his hand made it to his medallion. ‘I don’t know you very well but I don’t think you are up for one of your quick changes. And anyway, there are six of us and we are all pretty handy. You’d have to turn into a T-Rex to stop us.’
He stood there, unmoving. I wasn’t sure if I was getting through to him.
‘It’s OK, really,’ I said, ‘we’re like a royal honour guard here. Me and Araf are princes, those two are princesses and Turlow here is like a king.’ Brendan coughed. ‘Oh yeah, he’s a cop.’
The Pooka placed his face in his hands. From behind his palms he said, ‘You cannot see her. No one can see her.’
‘I have even brought gifts, look.’ I took out the muslin parcel, untied it and displayed the six hazelnuts.
The look on the Pooka’s face was like that of a man lost in the desert for a week being offered a glass of ice water. ‘Where did you get them?’ he almost whispered.
‘From the Tree of Knowledge.’
‘You lie, the Tree was destroyed.’
‘This is from the new tree. Essa and I planted it ourselves from my grandfather’s hazel wood.’
The Pooka stared hard at my face. ‘You are Liam’s son?’
‘I’m his grandson, Conor.’
‘I will take them to her,’ the Pooka said.
I pulled the hazelnuts out of his reach. ‘No, this is a royal gift from Queen Deirdre of Duir to Queen Rhiannon of Ailm. I was instructed to present it to Her Highness in person or not at all.’
‘Lady Deirdre has been found?’
‘Ages ago,’ I said.
‘I sent a runner to find her. He never returned.’
‘Was he a curly-haired guy who changed into a wolf?’
The Pooka nodded yes.
‘He found her but I have bad news, he’s dead.’
Sadness mixed with resignation crossed the Pooka’s face.
‘I’m sorry. Look, is there any way we can have this conversation while you wear clothes? You’re making me cold just looking at you.’
He took the blanket I offered and wrapped it around himself. I filled him in on all the major news of The Land: Mom and Dad’s and my return, Cialtie getting booted out of Castle Duir and the rebuilding of the Hazellands.
‘So you are Deirdre’s son. My sister was your mother’s tutor – she was very fond of her.’ He didn’t have to say any more. The look on his face told me that she must have died when the Hall of Knowledge was attacked. ‘My name is Tuan. I will take you, Prince Conor, to see Queen Rhiannon.’
He stood and placed his hands on the thick branches that blocked the stone portal, mumbled something in a language I didn’t recognise and the trees creaked up and away. ‘Quickly,’ Tuan said, ‘before the larger animals come back.’
We grabbed our horses and led them through. As the trees were bowing back down into position, I spotted the pack of wolves eyeing us from among some far trees. They didn’t look happy.
Inside the wall, small animals, horses and sheep wandered freely. After I unsaddled Acorn I expected him to join the local horses for a frolic but he and the others grazed uneasily close by. Tuan said that the others in my party could make camp where they were and offered to take me alone to see Queen Rhiannon.
‘I walk with Prince Conor,’ Araf said.
‘No.’ Tuan was adamant. ‘Conor alone may see the Queen.’
Turlow stood. ‘What is to stop you as soon as you are out of our sight from changing into a bear and taking Conor’s nuts?’
I hoped he was talking about hazelnuts but either way he had a point. ‘Yeah, what assurance do I have that you won’t go all hairy and fangy?’
‘You have my word as a Child of Ailm, but if that is not enough then here.’ He reached for the wire that held the medallion around his neck and it expanded at his touch. He slipped it over his head and dropped the gold disc into my hand.
I looked to my travelling companions, wordlessly asking them, ‘Should I trust him?’ Tuan stepped away and allowed us to confer.
Amazingly Araf spoke first. ‘We have come a long way. I do not like leaving you on your own, and if you are hurt I shall have to hide from your mother for the rest of my days, but I think you should go.’
Nieve and Essa both agreed.
‘I think he is exhausted and desperate which makes him unpredictable,’ Brendan said, ‘but I think he is one of the good guys.’
‘You thought I was a murderer.’
‘Yes, but if you remember I also said that you were not a bad man.’
Turlow was the sole dissenter. ‘We have his changing medallion. We can force him to take us to the Queen without risk.’ He looked around for support. ‘Oh, don’t look at me like that. This is a desperate place and we have been attacked three times today. Desperate times require desperate measures.’
I don’t know what the others thought but I was glad of Turlow’s opinion. It’s good to have at least one person on the team that errs on the side of caution.
‘Tuan,’ I called, ‘let’s go meet the Queen.’ Then I surprised everybody by handing him back his medallion. ‘If you eat me, make sure you let Essa watch – she’d like that.’
I turned back to the group and said, ‘If I’m not back in two days
…’ then realised I didn’t know how to end that sentence. ‘If I’m not back in two days – then I’m dead. You can do what you want.’
‘We will be back tomorrow,’ Tuan said. ‘Do not eat any animals. They are not as they seem.’
Tuan and I walked along the wall until we reached a pile of clothes at the base of a tall pine. Tuan touched the tree and said, ‘Thanks.’ He put on a pair of very baggy brown trousers, a black shirt, a black sealskin coat, some leather boots and a rabbit-fur hat. For a guy that changed into animals, he didn’t seem averse to wearing dead ones. We walked over a ridge until we could no longer see my companions.
‘Now is a good a time to change into a wolf and eat me,’ I said.
‘I am not that kind of Pooka,’ he replied.
‘The ones on the other side of the wall were though – weren’t they?’
‘Those Pooka are… they are lost.’
‘What do you mean “lost”?’
I could see he was struggling to come up with an answer. Finally he said, ‘It is not in my power to tell you
