I hadn’t seen Dad that shocked since-well, never. I was shocked too. Dad had explained to me how gold was the fuel that powered the creation of a rune-Mom was going to attempt it using tree sap powered by Shadowmagic. I was sure no one had tried that before. Even with my limited understanding of all this stuff, the suggestion terrified me.
‘That is the craziest idea I have ever heard,’ Dad said.
‘It should work, Oisin,’ Mom said. ‘You and the Duir clan have had the monopoly on magic forever. You think that your gold is the only power there is, but you are wrong, I have proved it. And you might need help in there. What I’m doing may be unknown, but no one has ever tried to do what you are doing, either.’ Mom looked fierce. I made a mental note to get into as few arguments with her as possible.
‘Nieve,’ Dad pleaded, ‘help me on this.’
‘Deirdre and I have discussed it,’ Nieve said. ‘I think this has a good chance of working-possibly more of a chance than even you have.’
I heard the words good chance and possibly, and I didn’t like it. I had an awful thought that instead of having only one parent, I was soon to be an orphan.
Mom picked up the gold and the blank rune and replaced them in Dad’s hand. Dad attempted one last pleading look, but Mom was not for turning. A look of acceptance washed over his face, and they turned to the archway.
‘Wooh, hold on,’ I said, as I ran in front of them. ‘I, I love you both.’
‘You don’t have to tell me that, Conor,’ Dad said, ‘I know.’
‘And I, my son,’ Mom said, ‘will never grow tired of hearing it.’
I didn’t want to touch them and break their concentration. I said, ‘Good luck,’ and got out of the way.
‘May the gods be with you,’ Nieve called.
Then together, as if they had been rehearsing it all of their lives, they took a step towards the archway.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
‘They have entered the First Muirbhrucht,’ Nieve said. I couldn’t see anything before but I sure could now. A wall of light sprang to life as Mom and Dad hit it. It was like a force field in a science fiction movie, the air filled with tiny particles that glowed every colour of the rainbow and some colours that rainbows hadn’t even thought of yet. Mom’s black hair flew up and wildly floated about, as if she was underwater and caught in a riptide. It was beautiful and terrifying.
Their progress was painfully slow. It was obvious that this was not easy. At one point, Dad turned his head enough so I could see his face. He looked like he was screaming but I couldn’t hear anything. In fact the Chamber was eerily silent. Nieve told me that no sound could penetrate the barriers.
‘The first barrier is the easiest,’ she explained. ‘A Chooser can abandon an attempt and come back after the First Muirbhrucht and survive-after that, there is no turning back.’
It didn’t look easy. I could tell that Mom and Dad were using every ounce of strength they had in order to push forward, but even so I’ve seen hour hands on a clock move faster. We watched in silence. All the muscles in my body tensed up in sympathy. I looked on helplessly for what seemed like an eternity, and then the wall of light subsided-they made it through and I found myself breathing again. Neither of them turned around or even paused. I could see Dad’s leg shake as he put his weight on it, like a weightlifter who had just overexerted himself. He was having a tough time of this.
‘Do you think they are going to make it?’ I asked.
‘I do not know,’ Nieve said. ‘I do know that both of them would rather die than fail.’
The second barrier was a lot brighter than the first.
‘The Second Muirbhrucht is the hardest,’ Nieve stated calmly.
Mom and Dad pushed on. I ached to see their faces, to get a sense of how they were doing, but was also glad I couldn’t. I don’t think I could have stood it.
‘Conor, place the Sword of Duir on the table.’
Nieve’s request came so out of the blue. I said, ‘Huh?’
‘The Sword of Duir,’ Nieve explained, ‘always sits on the stone table when a child of Duir is chosen.’
She said it in such a matter-of-fact voice that I just did as I was told-I figured she knew what she was doing. I placed the sword on the table and turned my attention back to Mom and Dad. I didn’t think it was possible but they were moving even slower than the last time.
‘Do you have any other weapons?’
‘What?’ I said, distractedly, not even looking at her. ‘Oh, just a knife that Dahy gave me.’
‘One of Dahy’s throwing blades? Can I see it?’
Oh, for heaven’s sake, I thought, my parents are a second away from killing themselves and you want to admire cutlery, but then I thought, OK, if this is how she is dealing with the pressure, who am I to complain?
It didn’t even occur to me what she was really doing. She was disarming me.
I reached down in my sock and handed her my knife without even looking. She took the knife and with the reflexes of a cat came up behind me. Her left hand grabbed me by the side of the neck and her right hand brought the blade to my throat. I was so stunned I didn’t react right away, but when I did I realised I couldn’t move. My neck was killing me. Nieve was wearing a ring with some sort of needle in it, a gold needle, I rightly assumed-I was completely paralysed. I tried to pull away but nothing was moving. I was rigid as a flagpole. I attempted to speak and was surprised that I could.
‘What are you doing?’
‘Don’t try to move, Conor.’
I tried anyway, but the only things that seemed to be working were my eyeballs. I looked down and saw that my own knife was about an inch from my throat. ‘Nieve,’ I repeated, ‘what are you doing?’
‘My duty’ she said.
‘Hey, I thought we dealt with this already. Dad gets his hand back and I’m no longer one-handed junior.’
‘If Oisin succeeds, I will let you go.’
‘If he doesn’t?’ I asked. She didn’t answer, but I guess it was a stupid question.
I continued to watch Mom and Dad-I had no choice, it was the way I was facing. The Second Muirbhrucht was putting on a spectacular display. It was so beautiful and terrifying that I almost forgot I was paralysed and had a murderous relative holding a knife to my throat-almost. I relaxed for a second when I remembered Mom’s protection spell, but then I remembered that it only works once-Nieve had tried to kill me already. I had an infantile urge to call out to my parents but they couldn’t help me, or even hear me, and I wouldn’t have wanted to break their concentration anyway.
We were so engrossed in the fireworks that we didn’t hear the footsteps coming down the steps until the last second. Nieve spun me around on one of my tent-pole legs, like a comedian dancing with a department store mannequin. She took the knife from my throat and cocked her hand back in readiness to throw. It was Essa. When Nieve saw who it was, I felt her relax and replace the knife to my throat.
Essa stood still and took in the situation. Her expression turned serious but it wasn’t the look of shock that I had expected. ‘How is it going?’ she said.
‘How is it going?’ I shouted. ‘What do you mean, “ How is it going ”? She is trying to kill me! That’s how it’s going!’
Essa lowered her eyes in guilt.
‘They are almost through the Second Muirbhrucht,’ Nieve replied, calmly.
‘You knew about this, didn’t you?’ I spat at Essa. ‘You’re part of this!’
‘Conor,’ she said in a compassionate voice that I had never heard come out of her before, ‘if this works, you have nothing to worry about.’
‘What if it doesn’t work, eh? Maybe you’ll allow me to worry about that!’
‘Conor…’
