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.’
‘Seriously?’
I nodded and she laughed but stopped right away and held her chest in pain.
‘I think you need another session. I’ll see if she’s up for it.’
I found Graysea and asked her if she could gill-up for Mom again. She said she was on her way to do just that now that she had seen that everyone else was OK. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Gerard’s big fist hand me a glass.
‘Is that wine?’
‘It’s something a bit stronger,’ the big man replied.
‘Good,’ I said, knocking whatever it was back in one. The whole world wobbled like I was about to do a flashback on a bad sitcom.
When I could risk moving again without falling over, Gerard said, ‘More?’
‘Yes please,’ I replied holding out my glass.
‘You wouldn’t have any of your wine with you, Gerard?’ Macha asked, coming over to the fire. Behind her stood all of the horses, like groupies awaiting the beckon of a prima donna rock star.
‘You know I do.’ Gerard poured her a glass and she took a sip with her eyes closed like it was a chalice filled with the elixir of youth.
‘Oh, it has been so long,’ she sighed.
‘It has indeed,’ Gerard said. ‘You look good for a dead woman.’
Macha smiled at him but he didn’t return it. ‘I’m surprised to find you here, winemaker. Thank you for coming to save me.’
‘Spend no thanks on me, my Queen, I came because of Dahy. I would follow that man to the gates of hell if he wished it and I will defend him from all harm.’
‘Well then let us both make sure no harm befalls him,’ Macha said, still smiling but not as much.
‘Let’s,’ Gerard said. ‘More wine?’
‘No,’ she said, placing her hand over the top of her glass. ‘I have been long away from your wine for too long. Like your company, too much of it would be overly intoxicating, but thank you.’ She handed me her empty glass and walked away.
‘So you two have met?’ I asked Gerard.
‘Oh yes,’ he replied. ‘We have met.’
Tuan offered to fly Mom home. She must have still felt pretty banged up ’cause she accepted. Oracle guy was given something that put him into a coma, and then stuffed in the barrel that just yesterday had held Graysea’s saltwater bath. For good measure he also had a paralysing pin stuck in his neck. I wanted to feel sorry for him but I once had travelled on a wagon in a barrel and I’m sure that it was much more comfortable to do it unconscious. Still I made sure he had a few pillows in there with him.
As Gerard hammered the barrel lid closed I said, ‘Well, Lugh is lugh-ed up tight.’
‘What did you say?’ Dad asked, and I also noticed that everyone else had stopped in their tracks.
‘It was a joke. You know, locked up tight?’
‘But what did you call him?’
‘Lugh, the Brownies said Oracle guy’s name is Lugh.’
Gerard stepped back like the barrel was about to bite him. All eyes shot to Macha.
‘Is this true?’ Dad asked.
She looked surprised. ‘I thought you knew.’
Nieve stepped up to Macha. She had a look on her face I’m pretty sure I had never seen before. She looked – frightened. ‘Are you saying that the one who had kept you prisoner for all of these years is Lugh of the Samildanack?’
‘Yes,’ Macha replied.
Gerard actually stumbled into me when he heard this. I steadied him and said, ‘What does this mean?’
‘It means,’ he said, looking at the mallet in his hand, ‘that in that barrel, I have just sealed – a god.’
Macha rode in front on the way home.