John Lenahan - Prince of Hazel and Oak

A troop of Banshees had snuck around to the site of the first attack. They guessed that if they each carried a bough of a tree that the gold strips might not register the branches as weapons and would let them through. They guessed right. Because of our small numbers we had only defended the hill with a handful of soldiers. The Banshees attacked with the branches and at the same time catapulted a bag of swords over a wall from the side. The Banshees quickly overpowered the guards on the hill and armed themselves. Our defences were dangerously thinned as soldiers were ordered to defend the Tree of Knowledge on two fronts.

I think at this point Dahy would have surrendered but no one was offering. This was it – it was a fight to the death and the realisation hit me that the death would be ours.

That’s when time began to slow for me, not a good sign. My gift is only a help when I am personally in a fight. Here, watching this failing battle, my gift was a curse, just as it was when I watched Fergal die. I saw my comrades fall in slow motion. I saw every wound, every spurt of blood as if I was watching some bad war movie. It also gave me time to assess the entire battlefield and what I saw told me it was all over. We were moments away from being overrun.

The aisle on the left broke. Banshees and Brownies poured out. Dahy called forward the soldiers that had been guarding the Tree of Knowledge. A melee of hand-to-hand combat opened in the yard.

I looked for Essa. If this was to be the end I wanted to be at her side. In the confusion I couldn’t see her but I heard her when she yelled, ‘THE SKY!’

I looked up as the entire firmament turned into flame. A huge fireball rolled over and through the holes in the shattered battlements. Fire leapt in and set alight the attackers at the entrances of the aisles. Flames rolled over the top of the defences forcing us to hit the ground as hairs curled on the top of our heads. Then, swooping through the smoke flew a huge green dragon. It circled and came in to land almost exactly where I was standing. As I dived for cover I saw that the dragon had a rider. I got to my feet just in time to see him jump off as the dragon skidded into a stone wall. The dragon rider hit the ground in a graceful roll and popped up on his feet, banta stick in hand. It was – Araf!

I didn’t question how or why. I just got to my feet and shouted, ‘IMPS AND LEPRECHAUNS, TO ME. THE DRAGON IS ON OUR SIDE. EVERYONE, TO ME.’ Araf blew his whistle. To their credit our force spent no time in dazed wonder when they saw their prince arrive miraculously from the grave astride a dragon, they went right into battle mode and cheered as they went back on the offensive.

The attackers that were still standing retreated as fast as their legs would carry them. If that Banshee sixth sense is true then it pretty quickly told them to get the hell out of there.

Another explosion of fire lit up the southern end of the battlefield as a crimson-coloured dragon – one that I recognised as Red – swooped over our position. Its rider, with that unmistakable American accent, shouted, ‘YEE HA.’

Dragon Red landed on the top of the headquarters building just long enough for Brendan to slide off.

‘Hey, O"0%" widtheil,’ the policeman/dragon-rider shouted over the sound of Red launching himself back in to the sky, ‘it’s good to see you’re not dead.’

‘Same to you, Copper,’ I shouted. I was just about to ask Araf what the heck was going on when we heard a sound of a battle horn coming from the courtyard.

Someone shouted, ‘THEY ARE ATTACKING THE TREE!’

By the time I got to the entranceway it was almost over. A dozen Brownies were lying dead on the ground with arrows sticking out of the centres of their chests. Spideog was still firing even though he had a crossbow bolt in his thigh and another in his shoulder. There were four remaining Brownies; two of them had axes and were trying to get to the Tree of Knowledge. Spideog went for the axe bearers when he should have gone for the one in the back. I saw that Brownie cock his arm and then I saw the dagger leave his hand. A split second later two arrows hit the knife thrower – one in the throat from Spideog and another in the chest from Brendan on the roof – but they weren’t in time to stop the throw. The knife was well off the mark but as I watched, it curved in midair and honed in on the ancient archer’s heart. It hit him square in the chest. He dropped his bow, then crumpled first onto his knees and then onto his back.

Brendan dispatched the other attackers from the roof and then out of habit shouted, ‘OFFICER DOWN.’ He slid down a buttress and arrived at Spideog’s side almost as quickly as I did. I lifted the archer’s head; he coughed and blood poured from his mouth.

‘Is the Tree safe?’ he asked.

‘Yes, Master.’

‘Good.’ He coughed again, closing his eyes in pain. ‘Conor, don’t let Essa go. If you don’t tell her how you feel, you will regret it for the rest of your life – trust me, I know.’ He coughed again and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. When he saw the blood on his fingers he said, ‘Oh dear, could you find Dahy for me?’

Brendan took the archer’s head. I turned, there were several soldiers watching dumbfounded. ‘Get Dahy,’ I ordered and they scattered in several directions.

Brendan was weeping openly. Spideog smiled and said to him, ‘If the yews allow it, I want you to have my bow.’

Brendan tried to speak but nothing came out.

Dahy crashed to his knees next to us. He took Spideog’s hand and said, ‘Hey, old man.’

‘Who are you calling old?’ Spideog smiled, his eyes still closed.

Dahy looked up and barked, ‘Someone get a healer.’

Dahy’s old comrade in arms shook his head. The meaning was obvious – a healer would do no good. Then he opened his eyes and said, ‘She lives, Dahy.’

‘Who lives, old friend?’ Dahy asked.

Pain and coughing racked Spideog’s body, blood poured freely from the side of his mouth. I didn’t think he would open his eyes again but then he reached up and grabbed Dahy on the side of the arm. ‘Macha… Macha lives.’ Then his hand dropped and he breathed his last.

The folds of his tunic had obscured the knife in Spideog’s chest. As Brendan laid him down the material fell away and the green knife handle came into view. Dahy pulled it from the torso and examined it closely. ‘Where did this come from?’

A sinking feeling like a punch in the stomach almost made me retch. I walked over to the dead Brownie that had thrown the knife. I knelt down and rolled his body over – it was Demne, the eldest son of the Brownie King. It was Frank.

By the time I looked up Essa, Araf and Tuan were in the courtyard. My head was spinning. Overwhelmingly conflicting emotions mixed with confusion made me almost catatonic. I had just won a battle but had been partly responsible for the death of Master Spideog. But then – here were my friends brought back from the dead.

The sound of flapping and screaming in the sky snapped me back to full attention. High, high above us flew a dragon; below him hung a writhing, screaming man. When Red was directly above our heads he opened his talons and let the man go. The screaming ended when the freefalling body hit the side of the headquarters roof. The snapping of his neck was plain to hear. He bounced and landed on the ground face down, not far away from Essa. The Princess used her foot to flip him over. It was Turlow. Essa stared at him with a clenched jaw as her eyes watered up.

‘I wanted to do that,’ she said.

I looked back up and saw Dragon Red flying away and remembered. I remembered what the last months had all been about. I started shouting, ‘NO, RED, RED COME BACK.’