‘So the Elves are in the Lugh-is-a-god camp too?’
‘Who can tell what the Elves think. I’ve never had a conversation with an Elf that was not about trees or wine. They do know the yews though. They are the only ones that can pass through the Yewlands unmolested by the trees.’
‘I’ve been to this Oracle guy’s house. You know it’s made from yew wood.’
Fand thought and then poured us both some more tea. ‘As I said, Conor, this man raises many more questions than he answers.’
When I got back to my room Ruby was waiting for me. She was sitting in my big leather chair.
‘How did you get in here?’
It was like a scene from a spy movie.
‘I walked in. I’m blind, not lame.’
‘Well, you can walk right out again. Last time you came here I almost got killed by a tree and then again by your father and now that I think of it, I’m pretty sure your grandmother wants to kill me too.’
‘Yeah,’ she said with no intention of leaving, ‘sorry about that.’
‘Are you?’
‘Of course I am. It was very nice of you to take me riding and I’m sorry you got hurt and I’m sorry you got in trouble.’
I took a hard look at her with her huge sunglasses and her feet sticking straight out from my chair and I reminded myself that even though she acted like she was forty-two, she was still only twelve. ‘OK,’ I said, ‘and I’m sorry you had to fend for yourself outside the wall. Let’s not do that again. OK?’
‘Deal,’ she said, sticking her hand out, not quite towards me, to shake.
‘Deal,’ I said, shaking. ‘So what are you doing in my room?’
‘I need something Daddy and Grandma can’t give me.’
‘Hold on, isn’t this how we got into trouble last time?
‘Relax, O’Neil,’ she said, and I had to laugh. She sounded so much like her father. ‘I just need some advice.’
‘About what?’
‘I want to be a sorceress. How do I do it?’
‘Oh, I don’t really know.’
‘Who does?’
‘Well, my mother is a sorceress.’
‘OK,’ she said, sliding off the chair and striding to the door. I just stood there befuddled until she turned around and said, ‘Are you coming or what?’
Now I promised myself the last time Ruby got me into trouble that I wouldn’t allow myself to be bossed around by someone a third of my weight, but I had planned to check in on Mom later anyway, and I really wouldn’t mind knowing how she had become a sorceress myself.
‘Fine,’ I said, taking her by the hand. ‘We’ll see if she’s busy.’
While Dad was ill, Mom had set up the room next to the master bedroom as her queenly office. As we drew closer I saw that the door was ajar and stuck my nose through the crack.
Mom was down on all fours behind her desk, I could only see her feet sticking out. I heard what sounded like hammering and then wood splintering.
I walked over and said, ‘Are we doing a little remodelling?’ It wasn’t Mom. Macha popped up so quick that I jumped and almost fell over Ruby.
‘Ow,’ Ruby squealed. ‘Watch it. There’s a blind kid here you know.’
Macha initially looked like I had just caught her with a hand in the cookie jar, but when she noticed Ruby she became very interested. She walked around the desk, took Ruby’s sunglasses off, then placed her hands on both sides of her head and tilted her face up so she could look closely into Ruby’s sightless eyes.
‘Hey, who are you?’ Ruby demanded.
I wasn’t quite sure what to do. Macha was being awfully rough with Ruby, but then she was my grandmother and what do I know about how to treat kids? Still, it was plain to see that Ruby didn’t like it. When I saw Ruby cock her blind stick back ready for a strike, I grabbed her wrist and got between the two of them. I never saw Ruby hit anybody with her stick but I’d bet money that she was good at it. Macha looked angrily at me.
‘Sorry Macha,’ I said trying to explain myself, ‘but she can’t see, you know.’
‘I do know,’ Macha said. ‘I have been waiting for you, little girl.’
‘Is my mother here?’ I asked.
‘No,’ Macha answered absently, never taking her eyes off Ruby.
‘Are you waiting for her?’
Macha didn’t even answer that. I walked over and looked behind the desk. There was a dagger on the floor and the skirting board had been prised away from the wall.
‘What were you doing behind the desk?’ When she didn’t answer me I said, ‘Does Deirdre know you are here?’
That seemed to get her attention. She started to answer then looked to Ruby then back to me like she was trying to make up her mind about something. ‘Oh well,’ she said reaching into a fold on the side of her dress. ‘I was hoping that I could be around for longer but it seems that now is the time.’ Out of a pocket she produced a lace fan that she snapped open like a Spanish lady at the opera. With a flick of her wrist the door to Mom’s room slammed closed in a way that looked a lot like the magic that Oracle guy used on the mountain. I started to ask her how she had done that but I only got as far as, ‘How …’ before her fan flicked in my direction and I sailed across the room and into the wall. By the time I came to my senses she was sitting on my chest painfully holding my nose. I opened my mouth to gasp for air and when I did I felt and tasted some kind of liquid hitting the back of my throat. She then pushed my mouth closed and jumped on my chest – it was swallow or drown. It tasted awful and I coughed and rolled onto my side as Macha jumped off me.
Ruby let loose one of her migraine-inducing screams. Macha was on her in an instant, covering her mouth, snatching her stick and throwing it across the room. I got up to help her but Macha shouted at me, ‘Stay where you are!’ And I did. Unlike one of my aunt’s paralysing pins it wasn’t like I couldn’t move, it was like my body just didn’t want to move.
‘What have you done to me?’ I said, desperately trying to move my legs.
‘That fluid I placed in your mouth was horse … well you are better off not knowing what part of a horse it was but now that you have ingested it, I have control of your body. Sit,’ she commanded and I dropped hard on my butt. ‘See?’
‘What do you want?’
Ruby squirmed and then Macha pulled her hand away in pain. Ruby had obviously bitten her. As she started to scream again Macha gave her a hard slap. Shock and then tears came to the poor kid’s face. She went instantly from the woman-child that bosses me around to an all-too-fragile twelve-year old.
‘What I want,’ Macha said, looking at her bitten hand, ‘is this child to be silent.’ She reached into her pocket and produced a handkerchief. ‘Come over here, Conor, and gag her.’
I almost laughed. There was no way I was going to do that but even as the smirk hit my face my body stood up, took the handkerchief from my puppet-master grandmother and pulled it across the child’s mouth.
Macha said, ‘Make sure it’s tight,’ and, despite every cell in my brain telling me to stop, I pulled it tighter before I tied it in the back. A muffled cry of pain came from Ruby and the only thing I could do was say ‘Sorry.’
Macha