John Lenahan - Prince of Hazel and Oak

‘Oh,’ Araf said.

‘Who?’ Brendan and Tuan asked together.

I had to take a slug of Pooka-shine before I could even say the name. ‘Cialtie.’

This kinda killed the happy party mood of the evening but it didn’t stifle the discussion. We all eventually agreed that if the Hazellands were destroyed to stop the Pookas from getting hazelnuts, then that meant that the Hall of Knowledge was once again in peril.

‘We should inform Dahy,’ Araf said.

‘Inform him of what?’ a woman’s voice asked from the doorway. It was Aunt Nieve followed by Essa.

We filled the ladies in on our epiphany. At first they thought it was just drunken ramblings but then they asked more questions. Soon they thought it was a pretty good theory too.

‘We should talk about this on our walk,’ Nieve said.

‘Good idea,’ Brendan replied, jumping up to join her.

‘You two have a walk planned?’ I asked as I gave a questioning glance to Essa. The tilt of her head implied she knew something that I didn’t. The walkers just smiled. Brendan came back into the room to pick up his jacket from the floor beside me. As he leaned down I whispered, ‘And what’s all this then?’

‘It’s a walk,’ he replied with a smile. ‘I have a choice between sitting here listening to you whine or a walk in the moonlight with a beautiful woman. Hmm, let me thin’ on that for a second.’ He grabbed his jacket and they left.

I turned to Essa. ‘So I suppose you are off to join your snuggly Banshee?’

‘Actually,’ she said, plopping down on the cushion next to me, ‘what I could really use is a drink.’

I jumped up and got her a glass. Tuan poured her a measure of Pooka-shine and she downed it in one.

Then she smiled at me and said, ‘Can I have another?’

I took this to be a very good sign.

I really could have used a lie-in the next morning, but p›

In the end they came around and decided that there should be a Pooka presence with Dahy’s army at the Hall of Knowledge. The Queen pledged a small detail comprising a handful of bear Pooka soldiers, a courier wolf and a Pooka hawk for reconnaissance. Aunt Nieve agreed to escort the Pooka recruits back to the Hazellands.

‘I would really like it if you came with us,’ I said to my aunt after the meeting, ‘and I think Brendan would too,’ I said, testing her reaction.

She didn’t return my smile, she didn’t really look very happy at all. ‘I have a duty to your mother and to Duir. I have too long been too far away. Escorting the Pookas needs to be done and Castle Duir should not be left without one of the family.’ Then she smiled, took my face in her hands and kissed me on the forehead. ‘When I was young I worked on a spell that would allow me to be in two places at one time – I only ever succeeded in giving myself a headache. I wish now I had worked harder. Be careful, nephew. Find a cure for my brother and come back safe. Now I must tell Brendan.’

‘Yeah,’ I said, ‘what’s going on with you two?’

She smiled and gave me a very un-Nieve-like girly shrug then practically skipped away.

That night I was invited back into the Queen’s sitting room for tea.

‘My son Tuan has asked me if he could be your group’s guide to the end of the Brownie Peninsula. Is this agreeable with you?’

‘Yes, ma’am. I really like Tuan.’

‘He is very fond of you, Prince Conor. May the gods take care of you both.’

‘I’m sure we will be fine.’

‘Well,’ she said in a knowing motherly tone, ‘just to be sure I am sending a bear with you.’

‘If you insist.’

‘I do,’ she said in a voice that made it clear that I would have been an idiot to discuss the matter further. ‘How you will reach Tughe Tine Isle I cannot counsel you on.’

‘Don’t worry about it. I’m a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of guy – we’ll figure it out.’

The next few minutes were spent in talking about what my pants had to do with anything.

‘I would be happier if the Banshee were not with you,’ the Queen said.

‘What have you got against Turlow?’

‘You suspect that the Banshees from the Reedlands destroyed the Hall of Knowledge, do you not?’

‘I do.’

‘Then how can you trust a member of that race?’

‘A member of your race tried to eat me a couple of days ago. Should I distrust the Pooka? My father told me that Banshees were some of the most loyal guards he had ever known and one of the finest persons I have ever known was a Banshee.’

The Queen raised her hands and I stopped. ‘Banshee loyalty is well known, Son of Duir, but in the past too many Banshees have been loyal to your uncle. Can you honestly say that Cialtie will bother Tir na Nog no more?’

I started to say something then shrugged – she had a point.

She reached across and touched my cheek. ‘You remind me so much of your grandfather.’

‘I didn’t peek – honest.’

She smiled at that – a smile that charmed me as much as I’m sure it charmed my grandfather. ‘Liam too voiced his opinions passionately but he was more stubborn than you. He refused to let Dahy put soldiers in the Hazellands and that stubbornness eventually killed him. Make sure you do not allow pride to stop you from what you truly think should be.’

I wasn’t sure what she was talking about and obviously it showed on my face.

‘Let Essa know how you feel.’

‘Oh,’ I said, leaning back in my chair. ‘Well, Essa is… Essa is a difficult woman.’

‘The best ones always are. As a matter of fact, that is what your grandfather used to say.’ She reached under her chair and produced a plain wooden box. ‘Liam gave me this, years ago. I would like you to have it.’

She opened the box. Inside, on a bed of satin, was a throwing blade with a green glass handle inlaid with gold wire. It was identical to the one that contained the message and was thrown at Brendan on Mount Cas. I picked it up and admired it.

‘As you can see I have never used it,’ she said. ‘The tip is still very golden.’

‘Do you know where my grandfather got this?’

‘Dahy,’ she said. ‘It was one of two that he made. Liam told me that Master Dahy gave one to him and the other to his true love.’

Uncharacteristically, I was the first to arrive for our crack-of-dawn departure. A small dusting of snow swirled in a bitter wind that stung my cheeks. It was flipping freezing. I wondered for a second why I wasn’t snuggled up in a warm bed but then the image of my statue-like father pushed that thought away. Nieve’s Pooka etourage mounted up. The five bears were on horseback while the wolf and hawk chose to travel in their animal shapes.

Nieve showed up with her arm locked onto Brendan’s. She gave him a right proper thirty-second snog and then leapt on her horse. I was about to make a comment but the look on her face made me stop. She didn’t need a joke.

The rest of my gang showed up and mounted up. We had all said our goodbyes the night before so the two groups saluted Queen Rhiannon and her council, then we waved to each other and went in separate directions. If I hadn’t known better I could have sworn I saw tough-as-old-boots Aunt Nieve wipe a tear as she turned.

Tuan introduced me to our Pooka bear guard. His name was Yarrow.

‘Yarrow the Bear?’ I said with a laugh. ‘Mind if I call you Yogi?’

I then had to explain what a nickname was. Yarrow liked the concept and he also liked the idea of being ‘smarter than the average bear’ so the name stuck and he became Yogi Bear.

The path to the Alderlands was on the opposite side of the mountain that we had come up. Tuan and Yogi casually touched trees as they passed, picking up messages that were then deposited on other trees. Pookas in animal form were in the forest as well, especially red squirrels jumping from tree to tree reinstating the pine tree telegraph that had been neglected for so long. Normal animals were also slowly repopulating the Pinelands. Queen Rhiannon had sent out a few envoys to persuade the normal animals that the Pookas were no longer bonkers. I didn’t see any big creatures like boar or deer but the fast little guys, rabbits and foxes and squirrels, were back. Tuan said they seemed jumpier than normal but I couldn’t tell.