John Lenahan - Sons of Macha

A form in a black hooded cloak seemed to appear out of the darkness as it stepped into the light. It made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. I was half expecting the hood to drop back to reveal the face of The Grim Reaper. As if we were still in our ninja mode none of us even breathed. The reaper raised her hands and pushed back the hood. Amber hair, just like Nieve’s, fell across her face. As she pushed it away I saw her eyes. They weren’t dark brown like Dad’s and his sister’s but pale blue – like mine. Then I remembered something that Spideog had said to me: ‘You have your grandmother’s eyes, you know.’

No one said a word. Like a bunch of zombies, we all stood and stared at each other until I just couldn’t stand it any more.

‘Are you my grandmother?’ I asked.

She smiled at me then. It was strange. Not the grandmotherly smile that I had ever imagined. She was far too young looking and beautiful for that. ‘Yes, I am,’ she said. ‘I see you received my message.’ She looked to my father.

Dad stood stock still as she walked up to him, placed her hands on both sides of his face and tenderly kissed him on the forehead. ‘I thought, my son, I had lost you to the Real World and when I heard Conor’s tale of your strange illness, I thought I had lost you again. But here you are and looking fit and well.’

Dad was at a loss for words. They stared at each other and as every agonisingly long second passed, my father seemed to lose a year. When he finally spoke he sounded like a five-year-old. ‘Where have you been?’

Tears welled up in Macha’s eyes. ‘Here my son, locked in this dreadful place.’

Nieve stepped into the light and quietly said, ‘Hello Mother.’

Macha looked to her daughter and then took her hand. ‘You have become a proper sorceress, my child.’

Nieve could only nod yes.

Macha hugged her and then turned to Dahy. ‘General, can you take me away from here?’

‘I can, my Queen,’ Dahy said dropping to one knee.

My grandmother walked over to him, knelt down and placed her hand on his cheek. ‘Not your queen, Diddo, only me, Macha.’

‘Did you just call Dahy Diddo?’ I blurted.

Dahy stood and gave me a look that made me think he was going to snap me in half. And considering that Dahy can snap me in half, it was a pretty scary look.

‘Hey,’ I said, raising my hands in a gesture of surrender, ‘I’m sorry to break this tearful reunion, but we have an injured Shadowwitch here and I for one would sorely like to get the hell off this mountain. What do you say, guys?’

Dahy kicked into leader mode, with a little more chest-puffing gusto than normal. If I didn’t know better, I would have said he was showing off. ‘How many others are in the house?’ he asked Macha.

‘There are seven Brownies that live here,’ she replied, ‘but I think one is away from the mountain.’

‘Well, we took out six on the way in. Conor and Nieve, go see if the ones in the hallway are still down.’

Nieve and I opened the door and peeped around the corner. The pile of Brownies were still there but they were moaning and moving. Nieve dashed up and quickly poked all of them in the butt with one of her pins while I picked up the weapons.

The tall Brownie opened his eyes fully and then a look of panic crossed his face. ‘I cannot move my legs! What have you done to me?’

‘Relax,’ I said, trying to pat him on the shoulder but he took a swipe at me when I got close. ‘Seriously, chill. You just got pinned by one of my aunt’s specials. You’ll be fine in a couple of hours.’ He sat up and then pushed himself along the floor until he had his back to the wall. I felt sorry for him.

‘Where is Lugh?’

‘Lugh?’

‘Yes, the master of this house is Lugh. Lord of All. Where is he?’

As if to answer the Brownie’s question my party came into the hallway. Dad was carrying Mom and Araf had ‘The Lord of All’ hoisted over his shoulder like a bag of manure. Most of the Brownies, now conscious, watched with open mouths as their master was carried to the front door.

‘Did you kill him?’ the tall Brownie asked.

‘No,’ I said, ‘but we are taking him back to Castle Duir. You’re free now. Go back to the Brownielands, he no longer has a hold on you.’

He smiled at me then. One of those smiles that lets you know that the smile-ee knows something you don’t. ‘As long as he lives,’ he said, ‘we will never be free. We will await Lord Lugh’s return. It will not be long.’

I left them with a canteen of water and they left me with a feeling of … doom.

Outside, Dragon Tuan began to ferry all of us off the mountain. Early on in his dragon life, Tuan made it perfectly clear that he was not going to be an air taxi service for the House of Duir so this was a favour I really appreciated. I had no desire to ever see this mountain again and getting off it as fast as I could was a top priority.

Dad and the unconscious Mom went first, then Araf and the unconscious Lugh, followed by Dahy and Nieve. As my grandmother and I waited for Tuan to return she said, ‘I worried about you trying to get blood from a fire worm, I worried that I led you on an impossible task – never in my life did I imagine that you could enslave a dragon.’

As I started to reply, Dragon Tuan flapped up onto the shelf. We had to cover our faces to protect our eyes from the swirling dust. ‘Oh, I wish he was my slave,’ I shouted over the noise, ‘then I wouldn’t have to walk as much as I do.’

I took Macha by the arm and led her over to the green lizard. ‘Grandma, I would like you to meet my friend, Councillor Tuan.’ Tuan rocked his head back and blew a puff of fire that finished with a perfect smoke ring.

Macha bravely walked right up to him and patted him on the snout like he was a horse. Tuan dropped to one knee and lowered his head as Grandma said, ‘I am honoured to meet you, Councillor.’

The flight down was the scariest ride I had ever had with a dragon – and that included when Dragon Red tried to kill me. Tuan was so tired from all the upping and downing that he pretty much just dive-bombed off the mountain. I screamed like a little girl all the way down but Grandma didn’t make a peep even during the G-force-inducing last second level-out. When Tuan became Tuan again I promised I would punch him for that – immediately after I threw up.

I was expecting Macha to be open-mouthed like everyone else who witnesses Tuan’s transformation for the first time but when I looked at her, she had her eyes closed and her arms outstretched. I heard a snort from Acorn – looking not like the bold stallion that often gives me a hard time but more like a colt approaching his mother. That’s when I noticed that all the horses were doing the same thing. They slowly approached Macha with their heads down and then shivered with delight as my grandmother caressed each one of them. It was remarkable to watch. It was like she was part of them but also above them, like a horse god. Macha the Horse Enchantress – the yews had given her the power over horses, and there in front of us was the proof. She hugged each horse in turn. The look on her face was like a mother returning to her children after a long time away.

Mom was awake, sitting with her back against a rock, with a blanket on her lap and drinking willow tea when I found her. She gave me one of those forced smiles that let me know she was OK.

‘Hey Mom, it’s good to see you with your eyes open. You gave me a scare. How do you feel?’

‘Good, considering. Your Graysea is a remarkable healer. I’m starting to see what you see in her. I don’t think she is as witless as she would have us believe.’

‘That depends on which side of her brain she is using.’