John Lenahan - Shadowmagic

The scream came from a slight Leprechaun chambermaid. We scared the hell out of her. Dad tackled her onto the bed and covered her mouth. She looked up with wild eyes. Then Dad called her by name. ‘Aein, shhh, I won’t hurt you. It’s me, Oisin.’ He showed her his missing hand. Her eyes widened more, which I didn’t think was possible.

A voice came from the corridor. ‘What’s going on in there?’

Dad rolled off the maid, hitting the floor on the far side of the bed. I ducked behind the door, my banta stick ready.

The guard stepped into the doorway. The maid quickly sat up in the bed. ‘What’s all this noise?’ the guard asked.

She shot a quick glance to me behind the door. I didn’t know what she was going to do. If she raised the alarm, we were done for. I’m surprised I didn’t pass out-I wasn’t breathing.

‘I, I,’ she stammered, ‘I saw a mouse.’

I could see the guard through the space in the doorjamb. He let out an exasperated sigh and said, ‘Stupid cow.’

‘No! Don’t go,’ she said.

Oh no, I thought, as every muscle in my body tightened to breaking point, she is going to give us away.

‘No, please come and look.’

‘I have got better things to do than catch mice.’

She shot a knowing glance to me and nodded slowly once. ‘Please, I think this mouse has two heads.’

I smiled at her then. She was on our side. She knew I couldn’t get a clear swing at the guard from where I was-she was luring him into the room. I was impressed by her fast thinking. If I was the guard, there was no way I would have missed a chance to see a two-headed mouse.

The guard stepped into the room. I adjusted the grip on my banta stick and clocked him good, square in the temple. I felt the solidness of the contact clear down to my toes. He did a little comedy pirouette and crumpled to the floor. I leaned over him and said, ‘That will teach you for calling her a stupid cow.’

I closed the door. Dad popped up from behind the bed. ‘Thank you, Aein,’ he said.

The maid threw her arms around Dad and pressed the side of her face into his chest. ‘Oh, Prince Oisin, it really is you.’

Dad stroked her hair.

She stepped back and wiped her eyes. ‘Are you going to fight your brother?’

‘I’m afraid I am.’

The sweetness vanished out of her-all of a sudden she looked like she was made of granite. ‘Good,’ she said, almost spitting. ‘How can I help?’

Dad’s smile covered his face. At that moment he looked a lot like Fergal. ‘Do you know where Cialtie keeps my hand?’

‘In his room, in that fancy box of his.’

‘Of course,’ Dad said. He kissed her quickly on the forehead and turned to leave.

‘But,’ she said, ‘he keeps his chamber door locked.’ That stopped us both in our tracks, and then we heard a jingle behind us. We turned to see Aein holding a fob of keys in her hand and smiling. ‘But I have a key.’

Cialtie’s chambers were decorated with dead things. The walls were covered with mounted animal heads and on every surface there were stuffed birds and beasts. I hate this kind of stuff in the Real World-in The Land, it was a sacrilege beyond measure.

The box was in a small alcove. It was a beautiful thing. It must have been made of wood from every tree in The Land, an intricate patchwork, lovingly made from timber of every hue. Dad put it on a table and stared at it. There was a strip of cherry-coloured wood running along the top. Dad slid it to the left about an inch and then moved a darker strip of wood down. He stepped back and sighed.

‘What’s the problem?’ I asked.

‘It’s a puzzle box. Some Elf lord gave it to Cialtie when we were kids. You have to perform about thirty of these little moves, in the right order, to unlock it.’

‘Can you do it?’

‘I did it a couple of times, but that was a long time ago. This is going to take hours.’

I picked up my banta stick and came down hard on the lid of the box. It shattered into about twenty pieces. ‘My way is quicker.’

‘I wish you hadn’t done that,’ Dad said.

‘Why?’

‘What happens if Cialtie comes back here and finds his favourite box has turned to kindling?’

‘Oh, I hadn’t thought of that.’

Dad gave me that Dad look. ‘Obviously.’

With his lone hand he gently pushed aside the splintered wood-he was shaking a bit. Underneath was a packet wrapped in a red velvet cloth. He unwrapped it and-there it was. Something I never thought I would see-Dad’s right hand. It almost glowed from the yellow Shadowmagic that encased it, like those dragonflies trapped in amber. He picked it up and stared at it. It was a very strange moment. I tried to imagine what I would be thinking, the first time I saw the back of my own hand in twenty years, and I couldn’t.

‘Is this going to work?’ I asked.

‘Deirdre thinks so,’ Dad said, dreamily.

‘Well, that’s good enough for me. Come on, let’s get out of here.’

We reassembled Cialtie’s box as best we could. It looked OK, as long as you didn’t touch it-or sneeze.

We had to get all the way to the other side of the castle in order to get down to the Chamber of Runes. Aein offered to scout ahead for us. Dad told her it was too dangerous, but she insisted. Who says you can’t get good help these days? Whenever we came to a corner we couldn’t see around, Aein got down on her hands and knees with a scrubbing brush and crawled around the corner pretending she was cleaning. Once we had to wait a couple of minutes for a guard to pass. Another time, the way was too well guarded, so we ended up on the walkway that overlooked the courtyard. It was more exposed than we liked but it was our only choice. It actually wasn’t a bad route. There was a lot of activity above us, with the soldiers fortifying the ramparts, but this level was empty.

It also allowed us to get a look at how Essa, Araf and Fergal were doing. They looked OK. Araf had his back to the well. He was hiding it, but if you looked close you could see he was holding a length of rope that was hanging into the well. Fergal was standing guard, so we assumed that Essa was down the well cutting the gold cables. The strange thing was, even though Araf was wearing that ridiculous wig, Fergal was the one that looked out of place. As a Banshee his appearance was perfect, but his body language was so rigid I could feel the tension all the way to where we were.

We came to the south wing and entered a corridor. This part of the castle was old, real old. You could sense it. The end of the corridor sloped around to the left. Aein got down on her hands and knees again and did her cleaning routine. She was gone for what seemed to be an eternity, then appeared back, still on her hands and knees.

‘There is a guard in front of the door to the Chamber,’ she whispered.

‘What did he look like?’ Dad asked.

‘He is standing at attention.’

‘Go up to him and ask him if he wants a glass of water.’

This obviously scared her, but she did it. She came back looking a bit confused. ‘He completely ignored me.’

Dad smiled, walked around the corner and right up to the guard. I thought I was going to have a heart attack. What was he doing? I followed. I mean, what else was I going to do? Dad strolled up to the guard and snapped his fingers in front of his face. The guard didn’t even blink. He just stared straight ahead, like he was in a trance-which he was.

‘One of Nieve’s specials,’ Dad said. ‘She practised it on me once when I was younger; it’s not very pleasant.’

Aein wouldn’t go down to the Chamber of Runes. It wasn’t that her bravery was faltering, it was just that it was not her place. She offered to guard the door and warn us if anyone approached but Dad said that wouldn’t help. ‘Can you do one more thing?’