John Lenahan - Prince of Hazel and Oak

Araf carried him over to the gate where Essa and Nieve had started a small fire and were brewing tea. Essa wrapped him in more blankets while Nieve placed her hands on his temples.

When she released his head she said, ‘He is exhausted and starving.’

‘Was he changing into a bear?’ Essa asked.

‘I think so,’ Araf said.

‘Very strange,’ Essa said. Everyone, except Brendan and me, nodded in agreement.

‘Look, everyone, changing into mooses,’ Brendan said, ‘is mighty strange for me but you people are talking like that’s not strange enough.’

Essa answered him. ‘Pookas spend decades, centuries, studying how to change into their chosen animal. I have never heard of a Pooka that could change into more than one. This must be some sort of master Pooka.’

‘Have you had any joy with the trees?’ Turlow asked.

‘No, we cannot pass without hurting the trees,’ Nieve said.

‘Then we must hurt the trees,’ Turlow said. ‘I will do it.’

‘Slow down, honey,’ Essa said. ‘We have a local here. When he wakes he may help us through.’

‘Or he might turn into a wolverine and rip our throats out,’ I said. ‘And did I just hear you call him “honey”?’ I said that last bit loudly. I shouldn’t have but I was a bit stunned. The only thing I could ever imagine Essa calling honey is that yellow stuff that bees make.

‘What is wrong with calling my fiance “honey”?’ Essa said with that customary fire in her eyes but also with, maybe, just a touch of embarrassment.

‘Yes, Faerie, what is wrong with that?’ her Banshee added.

I was racking my brains for a suitable quip that would stop me from getting clocked by Essa or stabbed by the Turd-low when I was saved by a moan from the Pooka. We all looked at him.

His head was resting on Nieve’s lap. He had a mop of sandy blond hair sitting on top of an almost boyish face. As we watched, he opened his eyes; they were piercing blue. Usually it’s the eyes here in The Land that give away how old a person is, but this Pooka’s eyes confused me. I instantly thought he was very young but then I got a fleeting impression of very old age. After that his peepers were just unreadable. Nieve brushed a piece of grass off of his cheek and smiled at him. It was nice to see such tenderness from my aunt – I certainly hadn’t seen that 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.