Since we couldn’t find any saddles, we rode bareback. And since all I was wearing was my stupid kelp robe thing, I really was riding bareback. Last summer Mom had taught me the basic techniques of riding without a saddle but on that occasion I didn’t have to hoik up a robe exposing my bare bottom to horsehair and the rest of my lower parts to a winter breeze. Spideog rode in front of me and to be honest, I couldn’t blame him. I wouldn’t want to be confronted with that view for a prolonged period of time either.
Kidding aside, it was a profoundly uncomfortable ride. Riding bareback is twice the work than in a saddle. I was already exhausted from being knocked out and trussed up, and my legs (as well as my nether regions) were going numb with the cold. Spideog was determined to get far away from Cialtie’s camp before I was discovered missing and he wanted to reach the Hazellands as soon as possible to warn of the imminent attack. So we travelled fast and only stopped to rest the horses. I couldn’t disagree with his logic but I would have loved to curl up in a pile of leaves for an hour or twenty.
The sky was dark and overcast during our entire escape. A couple of snow squalls made it almost impossible to see our way but then again, it made us also impossible to spot. All the while I practised the Fili mind-calming chant that Fand had once tried to teach me. I decided on and repeated a mantra ‘Would you like fries with that burger?’ over and over again until my mind and body were almost separate. Spideog said it took a full twenty hours to get out of the Reedlands but I hardly remember anything except the cold.
There were two Banshee guards at the border path leading into the Hazellands. Spideog spotted them before they spotted us. I waited while he snuck up and dispatched them. All that could be heard were two quiet thumps.
In the Hazellands we found our first clean stream. The horses drank greedily and I fell into it face down. My robe had been getting lighter and colder the longer it had been away from water; after the bath it dried and warmed itself and me. I noticed that the slit that Cialtie had cut in the fabric had healed so I decided to give something a try. I slit the robe down the middle from my crotch to the floor and wrapped the dangling pieces of fabric around my legs and then willed the fabric to join together like trousers. It worked – my butt still hung out of the back but I was much warmer for the rest of the trip.
A day into the Hazellands I could go on no longer. Spideog decided we were not being followed. He caught a rabbit and risked a small fire.
‘Do you have enough energy to tell me what has happened to you since we parted?’
I had dreaded that question. The Fili chanting had not only helped me endure the cold, it had also stopped me from remembering how badly I had failed and how many friends I had lost.
‘Brendan is dead,’ I blurted, hoping that if I said it fast it wouldn’t hurt so much.
The archer gave a deep sigh that was the only grieving he allowed himself. ‘And the rest?’ he asked.
‘Araf is dead too, along with a Pooka prince who was our guide. Essa left for the Hazellands, I don’t know if she made it or not. Turlow betrayed us.’
‘I gathered that from what Cialtie said.’
‘You heard our whole conversation?’
‘Most of it,’ he said. ‘I had already cut a slit in the back of the tent when your uncle came in. If I had had a bow, he would be dead now.’
‘So the yews didn’t give you a bow?’
‘The yews do not give bows, Conor, the yews give wood for a bow – if they find you worthy.’ To answer my question he held out the staff he was holding – it was of course yew wood.
‘So the yews told you that you were worthy, eh? I could have told you that.’
‘They also told me something else. They say that someone has killed one of them.’
‘But I always thought a yew could kill anybody before they could chop one down.’
‘That is how it has always been.’
‘Then who did it?’
‘I do not know, nor do I know what this means, but I do know that it does not bode well.’
I asked Spideog if I could have his knife to cut some roast rabbit and he asked, ‘Did I not see you take a knife from that Brownie in the corral?’
‘I did but then I gave it back to him,’ I replied.
‘Why in The Land would you do that?’
So I told him the story about how I had first met Frank and how I had given the worried Jesse the knife that had been thrown at us on Mount Cas.
That sat the old guy up. ‘What did you say?’
‘You know – the knife with the message that was thrown at Brendan when we were up at the mountain.’
He shook his head. He looked confused and very concerned.
‘Oh yeah, I forgot, you were a bit out of it when it happened and you were gone when I found the knife.’ So I told him the whole story about finding the message in the sheath of the knife, which then led us to the Pinelands. I wanted to get some rest but he insisted I tell him everything in detail, especially describing the knife.
‘It was a gold-tipped throwing knife with a green glass handle with a spiral of gold embedded in it. It was almost identical to the one that Queen Rhiannon gave me.’
Spideog was on his feet now. ‘Where did Rhiannon get her knife?’
‘Ah…’ I said, not knowing what could possibly have gotten the old guy so worked up. ‘She said my grandfather Liam gave it to her.’
‘We must go now,’ Spideog said, kicking out the fire and knocking my half-eaten rabbit into the dirt.
‘What? I thought you said we are safe for a bit.’
‘You have had your bit – we leave now.’ He picked up his yew staff and jumped on his horse before I even stood up.
I struggled onto my horse. It took some hard riding but I finally caught up with him. That didn’t mean he was answering any questions. Whatever I had said that was making him ride at that break-neck speed was not up for discussion. I mumbled back in to my McMantra, clamped my thighs to my poor frightened, overworked mount and zoomed into the remainder of the afternoon.
As the sun got low in the sky I started recognising landmarks – we were at the outskirts of the Hall of Knowledge. Every bone in my body screamed for rest and every cell of my skin yelled for a bath, but I also dreaded arriving and having to tell the Imps that their prince was dead. I thought about how Essa would take it and then it hit me that I wasn’t sure if she had even made it out of the Alderlands. I kicked my poor horse and bent my back into the wind.
At dusk, Spideog dropped in next to me, grabbed my horse’s mane and gestured for me not to speak. We dismounted but were spotted by a group of riders in the distance. Spideog looked around for options, cursed under his breath and braced himself for what was to come. We were definitely under-armed. The old guy handed me a throwing blade and held his yew staff in readiness for a fight. I knew that the knife wasn’t going to save me from being killed but at least I would be able to take one down with me.
As they drew closer Spideog seog said, with relief and then waved. I recognised one of them, a Leprechaun from a training session in the Hall of Knowledge. Fortunately they recognised us as well.
‘Did Essa return safely?’ I asked, waving away all of the saluting and bowing. This question confused the senior officer.
‘I do not think so,’ he said.
‘She never returned from the Alderlands?’
‘Oh yes, ages ago. I thought you meant now.’
‘Where is she now?’
‘She should be a league east of here.’
‘Is Turlow with her?’
Confusion once again crossed the Leprechaun’s face. ‘We are seeking The Turlow.’
‘Explain,’ Spideog commanded.
‘A pair of Brownie swiftriders arrived this morning, waited outside our embattlements and demanded a parley with The Turlow. Turlow wanted to go alone but Dahy insisted he bring a guard. When they met the swiftriders at the bottom of the windward knoll, the guard was killed and The Turlow was taken.’
Spideog and I exchanged knowing looks. ‘Are you in contact with Essa?’
