have never been outside of the Fililands.’
‘Well then,’ I said. ‘I think it’s about time.’
Fand stepped blinking into the sunlight.
Mom turned to me and said, ‘Prince Conor…’
‘Prince Conor what?’
‘As the senior representative of the House of Duir, announce the queen.’
‘Oh,’ I said, clearing my voice. ‘Ladies and gentlemen and Imps and Leprechauns and whoever else-I give you Her Excellent Royal Highness the Queen of the spookiest folks I have ever met-Fand of the Fili. She’s a great cook too.’
Lorcan and his men saluted and then cheered. Mom looked at me and shook her head.
‘I guess I have to work on this princely stuff.’
‘Yes, you do,’ Mom said with that disapproving look I cultivate.
Mom and Fand embraced. The soldiers broke ranks to shake hands and feel their first Fili.
We all mounted up. Fand rode with Mom, more for emotional support than for Fand’s benefit. A group of Fili jogged along beside us like presidential bodyguards.
The small contingent that Lorcan had left behind had been busy. The stones that had made up the ruined Hall of Knowledge had been stacked as if in preparation for rebuilding. Mom went to work immediately. She helped organise all of the documents that had been found, and insisted, for some reason, that every piece of parchment, no matter how small, should be saved.
That night after dinner I found Fand and Mom in Lorcan’s old headquarters, engrossed with Shadowmagic.
‘I hate to bother you, Fand, but can I borrow my mother for a little while?’
‘Of course, Conor.’
When Mom looked at my face she asked, ‘What is it, Conor?’
‘Come with me, I have a surprise for you.’
I led her out of the room past the wall with the stained-glass window and stopped her before we entered the courtyard.
‘Dahy gave me a hazelwood banta stick that had belonged to Liam.’
‘I remember Father giving that to him. And he gave it to you? That was nice of him.’
‘Yes, it was. The first time I was here I left it behind in the courtyard. I’d like you to see it.’
We turned the corner together. I was shocked at how much it had grown. The last time I had seen it, my staff had sprouted tiny green shoots-now it sported full leaves and had grown almost a foot. Mom dropped to her knees and placed her hand on what once was my weapon. She removed her hands and beamed at me-tears sparkled in her eyes.
‘Lorcan thinks it may be a new Tree of Knowledge,’ I said.
‘He is correct-it is. It is a miracle.’ She hugged me. ‘You, my son, are a miracle.’
‘Aw shucks, Ma-it was nothing.’
If not for the nagging feeling that something was missing, that I knew was the absence of Fergal, the following few days were the happiest I spent in The Land. I helped the Imps and Leprechauns shift rock, organised papers with Mom and even did a little gardening with Araf.
The night before we left to return to Castle Duir I asked Mom if she was going to reopen the Hall of Knowledge.
‘That is not a task for me,’ she said. ‘This is no longer my home. My home was destroyed. That is a job for another. You, perhaps?’
‘Mom, I’m eighteen years old.’
‘Some think youth has a certain kind of wisdom.’ Her eyes twinkled and I didn’t like it.
‘No thanks. One Professor O’Neil in this family is quite enough.’
I was loath to leave this place. Not just because I enjoyed it so much, but because I knew I was now forced to make a decision. During most of the ride back I wrestled with comparisons between the Real World and The Land. When we reached Glen Duir I let everyone ride ahead except for Araf, who insisted on remaining as my royal bodyguard.
‘ Oh my, my,’ Mother Oak said to me as she swept me into her limbs. ‘ You have a difficult decision to make’
‘Yes,’ I said, ‘and I don’t know what to do.’
‘My poor dear, I can feel the conflict inside you. A choice between the heart and the brain – is it not? Most say one should go with the heart but I have touched many a brain that has regretted that decision.’
‘What should I do?’
‘ Oh dear, do not ask me. My advice would be to grow bark and sprout leaves. There is nothing I would love more than to calm your mind but that decision, I am afraid, my son, is yours.’
I hugged Mother Oak and dreamily mounted Cloud, but I didn’t go anywhere. I sat there thinking, long enough to try even Araf’s patience.
Finally he asked, ‘What do you want to do now?’
‘I think,’ I said, making up my mind on the spot, ‘I want to buy a new pair of sneakers.’
Chapter Thirty-Two
We buried Fergal in the family plot, next to his great-grandfather’s memorial. Gerard and Dahy sang a lament. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house.
When it was finished, I was left alone except for about ten Imps. They lifted a massive flat rock across two upright stones that stood on either side of the grave. It was just like the dolmens that the ancient Irish chieftains were buried under. That was my idea. I threw a pebble on top for good luck and said goodbye. On the way back to the castle I got a stone in one of my sandals. It hurt but it made me laugh. I had an image of the ghost of my cousin slipping it in there, for a joke. I had buried Fergal in my Nikes.
Gerard and Dahy were standing next to me when I stood up.
‘I don’t think my dagger will work in the Real World,’ Dahy said, ‘but it might come in handy anyway.’
‘I won’t need it,’ I said, ‘I’ve got an even better weapon.’ I cocked my wrist and Fergal’s Banshee blade, newly equipped with a gold wire, dribbled out of my arm and then I missed it. It hung from my sleeve like a child’s mitten. ‘I still haven’t got the hang of it yet.’
Gerard laughed that hearty laugh of his. ‘There is always a beer waiting for you in the House of Muhn, Conor.’ He gave me a bear-hug that lifted my feet off the ground. When I got my breath back, he asked, ‘Have you spoken to Essa?’
‘No,’ I said, a little ashamed.
‘Speak to her at least.’
I spotted Lorcan outside the castle before I went in. He was supervising the rebuilding of the east wall that had been destroyed by Cialtie’s Golden Circle. He had traded in his sword for a straight edge and a hammer. He was an engineer again and looked happy. He climbed down from the scaffolding when he saw me approach.
‘I’m sorry I missed the burial, but I need to get this done before the winter sets in,’ he said.
‘That’s OK, I don’t even think Fergal would have minded.’
‘He was a good man, Conor. I’m sorry’
‘Thanks,’ I said.
I shook his hand. As I walked into the castle I shouted, ‘Goodbye Lorcan the Leprechaun!’
‘Do not call me that!’
I smiled. One of his workers, who must have been listening, yelled, ‘Look, it’s Lorcan the Leprechaun!’ Lorcan shook his fist at him but he didn’t look that mad. He wasn’t a general any more and that suited him just fine.
Araf was in the courtyard planting flowers.
