Call of the Kings (8 page)

Their chant was taken up by the congregation and soon the rafters shook to the great ululation of her name.

Slowly a figure emerged alongside the abbot. Medium height, long jet-black tresses to her shoulder, and piercing eyes of translucent blue sapphire. Wearing a matching blue floor-length dress, Leannan Sidhe opened her arms wide in a smile of gratitude at the thunderous welcome. It was a carefully staged entrance designed to awe the congregation. Once again Kate’s mother and her former husband were the most vociferous in their welcome.

Leannan Sidhe waved her arms downward to still the tumult.

‘Brethren of Skellighaven.’ Her voice was melodious yet loud enough to carry to the back of the chapel. ‘Thank you for that great welcome. Although I have only been here for a few short days, I feel as if I already belong among you.’

Kate’s husband led a few cries of appreciation.

‘When I came here I discovered that you had been the victim of certain misdeeds involving sorcery with regards to your devout and just approach to dealing with heretics. This had sown the seeds of disunity and discord among you. I am glad to say that I have been able to help correct those misdeeds, restore your unity, and replace your just approach. Any future threats to your abilities to cast pagans and heretics in the Devil’s Pit will be dealt with by me. You need have no fear of retribution for I, Leannan Sidhe, divine Christian veneficus of Ireland and sworn upholder of the faith, will protect you against evil sorcery in whatever form it returns!’

The congregation broke out again in thunderous applause. Twilight motioned to Tara that it was time to leave. They’d heard enough. The Delaneys had undoubtedly been cast into the Devil’s Pit and there would be more. If they didn’t do something about Leannan Sidhe.

‘Other than Elelendise and her now famous terminus in her fight with Merlin, have you been involved in the death of a veneficus in the past?’

Tara and Twilight had transformed back to Katre at the compound.

‘Yes,’ said Twilight. ‘Two of them forty-five years ago. Go-ian and Go-uan. They were Viking twins.’

‘Were they . . . we . . . any different to kill than ordinary mortals?’ Tara asked.

‘Yes. It’s harder due to the heightened senses. Death has to be really well thought out to work on a veneficus, especially one with the power of that Leannan Sidhe. However, if we plan on saving the innocents of Skellighaven from the Devil’s Pit and their properties and valuables from the abbot, your grandmother, and father, the Witch Fairy has to go.’ ‘And this time,’ said Katre vehemently, ‘they go with her.’

Tara nodded, her lips set in a thin line of determination. ‘Saint

Columba and Saint Patrick saved them from an unjust heretic’s death indeed. I saved them and it was a mistake that cost Nell and Patrick Delaney their lives. It won’t happen again.’

‘Did she have any animals with her?’ Katre asked.

Twilight looked at Tara with his eyebrows raised.

‘No, and I didn’t detect any,’ Tara replied. ‘Did you?’ She directed the question at Twilight.

‘Yes. She had the strong smell of lynx about her.’

‘Lynx?’ Katre said. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen one. It’s a big cat, isn’t it?’

Twilight chuckled.
‘Genus felis.
A big cat and deadly killer. Gray, brown body about the size of a large sheep with sharp, slashing claws and teeth. Lives on a wide range of animals including reindeer, red deer, sheep, goats, hares, and birds. Generally gives humans a wide berth unless cornered. Lives in forests, dense shrubs, and grass. Hunts on the ground but can climb trees like a squirrel. Usually solitary but sometimes hunts in packs. Our Witch Fairy has chosen her ligamen animal well, eh?’

Katre shuddered. ‘Thank goodness there’s not many of them around,’ she said.

‘Just because they’re not seen doesn’t mean that there are only a few of them around,’ said Tara. ‘I had one for a friend for a while when I was a small girl back in Skellighaven before it disappeared.’

Twilight looked at her.

‘I suppose it’s getting near the time we chose your animals. You can’t go on using all of them all of the time. For one thing it’s not fair to them.’

‘I know,’ she said. ‘I’ve been thinking about which species to have.’

‘What have you narrowed it down to?’

‘It’s between birds and mammals,’ she said sheepishly, and Twilight and Katre both laughed.

‘So the poor old fish are out then?’ Twilight said, still grinning.

‘I can’t make up my mind. On the one hand I see the wonderful relationship you have with the pica. Your ‘Wings of Twilight’ can fly everywhere, watch everything from high in the sky or trees, and get to you quickly with messages or instructions when required. On the other hand, and the lynx are a good example of this, a fierce mammal can protect you with their fighting prowess when called upon to do so.’

‘I agree. It’s impossible to have both.’

‘Did you choose the pica?’

‘No, they were chosen for me long before I became a tyro. The day Merlin introduced them to me was one of the most memorable of my life.’

‘Were they chosen for you before you were born?’ ‘Probably.’

‘Is there a species out there waiting for me?’

‘Yes, all of them. That’s where you’re special, different from all the rest of us . . . again. We all had a species chosen for us. All the animals would take it as a great honour to be in ligamen to you. You do the choosing.’

‘How long have I got?’

‘If we’re going to take on Leannan Sidhe and her lynx, you’ll want your animals by your side, so not very long.’ ‘When are we going back to Skellighaven?’ ‘In three days.’ ‘I’ll decide by then.’

Chapter 5

‘Some of our most productive work is done at night. Mortals have to sleep, but it renders them defenseless and oblivious of what’s going on.’

As third-generation Viking, with their ancestors coming to these shores with Guthrum, the first Norse
jarl
to invade with a substantial force, Swein, Harold, and Beorn Godwine had flourished through their father and his close association with Canute, who had followed Guthrum and become the first Viking king of England. Because the social structure of the lowlanders was largely tribal and inadequate for the basis of forming and running a permanent empire, Canute had formed a small standing army of highly trained professional soldiers and housecarls. These were employed as his personal bodyguard and law keepers in the event of any refusal on the part of the populace to pay the Danegeld, a pernicious land tax levied on all property owners. After Canute’s demise and death, these soldiers had evolved into landowners of repute to control great swathes of the English countryside. This was the basis upon which Earl Godwine had formed his vast estates and power base.

When Swein and his soldiers were banished to Denmark by Twilight, separating him from Edgiva, his kidnapped abbess who subsequently joined him, he spent a great deal of time in Denmark fuming and plotting his revenge with his second in command, a tall Viking housecarl called Eric ‘Ekki’ Salonen. When they were joined by Swein’s two brothers, Beorn and Harold and their men, also banished by King Edward the Confessor following the choking death of their father and discovery of the plot to take over the throne, the plotting took on a more structured approach. First was their revenge on the accursed wizard Twilight and his child tyro for their banishment and the death of their father. They did not believe a man who had eaten bread and washed it down with wine all his life like their father could suddenly die choking on it, especially as he was only a few feet away from the hated wizard at the time. Secondly their ambition to take the crown of England from the head of the pitiful religious wreck Edward the Confessor was undiminished, and the plan was that Harold, the oldest of the three brothers, would be wearing it one day soon with Beorn and Swein by his side.

First the wizard.

It was decided to send Ekki Salonen with a small, hand-picked group of soldiers to England to kill Twilight by any means possible. Any other associates of the Wessex wizard were also to be dispatched summarily, but he was the main target. They were aware of the advantages a veneficus had, through the use of the enchantments, over ordinary mortals, as they were regarding the previous eradication of the Viking venefical strain under Freyja, which had become lore in their great Norse sagas. All options were studied and Salonen carefully briefed, but the final parting was typically Viking.

Failure is not an option. Don’t come back without the runeslayer’s head.

On a moonlit night some four days later, Ekki Salonen and his small band of twenty men, following the route of Guthrum’s invading forces all those years ago, rowed up the long shingle beach of Lyme Regis and, leaving two men to guard the longboat, struck immediately inland for Avebury.

‘When I first joined Merlin he changed my vision for a few days so that I could only see things in black and white.’ Twilight, Katre, and Tara were sitting outside the Avebury compound watching the sun set over the Silbury Mound.

‘Why?’

‘His answer to me was that this way nothing genuine would be gray or coloured, only black or white. This would teach me to decipher complicated situations by filtering out the many incidentals and images that would seek to obscure the fundamental truths. By removing the shades and colours from the genuine, we can strip a matter down to its barest bones and uncover its carefully encoded secrets. It is a useful facility, especially when your wise counsel has been requested to rule on a complicated issue involving many diverse people and opinions, all of whom will swear on oath that they are telling the rigid truth and that theirs is the just cause.’

Tara considered this for a moment.

‘What about the night. Could you see anything?’

Twilight smiled.

‘That was my question to the long magus. His answer was that if it was a genuine darkness brought on by the onset of genuine night, I would know it. If it wasn’t genuine it would show as shades of gray, depending upon the depth of the deception. That is how you distinguish dewfall from false dawn, rising phoenix from ghoulish spectre, enemy from friend.’

‘Are you going to change my vision that way?’ asked Tara.

‘I don’t think you need it, special one,’ replied the old astounder. ‘Your powers are well in advance of what mine were at the same stage. You worked out that your grandmother, father, and the abbot at Skellighaven were all wrongdoers and punished them according to each crime. Then there was the cow you raised from the quicksand and the ship’s captain you saved from a beating. All very different situations and all recognized as such by you for what they were. That was well before we met. You have a natural ability to decipher complicated situations without any need to strip them down.’

‘That’s a relief.’ The redheaded little tyro grinned. ‘I really like colours.’

‘Have you decided upon your animals?’

Tara pulled a face.

‘I have . . . reluctantly.’

Twilight smiled and winked at Katre and waited.

‘It finally came down to two species, dogs and swans. Dogs because I had a wonderful relationship with two big Irish wolfhounds belonging to a local landowner in Skellighaven. Huge, fierce hunting animals that would tear anyone apart who so much as looked at me when we were together yet let me ride upon their backs like a horse and push and pull them around like puppies. I even used to put my head in their mouths.’

Katre shuddered at the memories.

‘It used to frighten me when she played with them. They wouldn’t let anyone come near Tara when they were playing, including me, yet were so gentle with her. I think it was my first realization that this little girl was different.’

‘And swans, the mute but beautiful
Cygnus olor.
What of them?’

Tara sighed. ‘I love them very much. Strong flyers, good on water, brave and intelligent, mate for life, all excellent qualities for a ligamen animal . . . but I have chosen dogs.’

‘The hamlets and settlements of Wessex will never be the same again when you come by,’ Twilight said with a smile. ‘All the barking dogs will be silenced by your presence.’

‘What I would specifically like,’ said Tara in a cajoling voice, ‘is the close companionship of those two Irish wolfhounds from Skellighaven.’

Twilight looked at her with his black- and gray-streaked eyebrows raised.

‘You mean steal them from the landowner?’

‘Not so much stealing as a straight swap.’

‘What would you swap them for?’

‘Ridding the area of those who would unsettle it.’

The old wizard let out a sharp guffaw and then pondered the situation.

‘Sounds like a fair swap to me. What say you, Katre?’

‘It would seem to me that the landowner is getting by far the better deal.’

‘So be it. We’ll collect them before we deal with the Witch Fairy Leannan Sidhe and bring them back. Say good-bye to your mother, it’s time we were gone.’

After Tara had done so, Twilight gave Katre a lingering kiss. She was going to move into his hovel when they got back, leaving Tara in their current home.

His days of loneliness were about to end.

Twilight didn’t transport directly to Skellighaven. He recalled the abbot introducing Leannan Sidhe to the congregation as ‘recently arrived from Cill Dara, where she had been working with the Gael kings.’ He thought there might be something worthwhile to learn there about the black-haired, blue-eyed venefica. He’d never met an Irish king before, although if the current crop of English counterparts was anything to go by, he would quickly wish he hadn’t met this one.

‘That large hill down there,’ Twilight pointed to a high, green plateau beneath them, ‘is your namesake. It’s called the Hill of Tara, the ancient seat of the Gael kings of Ireland, also known as the Land of Saints and Scholars. This area is known as Cill Dara or Kildare. The current Gael king is Donnchadh O’Brain, son of Brian Boru, and he has ruled Ireland for thirty-five years.’

He pointed to a large circular stone building with guards at the door.

‘That must be Donnchadh O’Brain’s palace. Come, we will pay his highness a visit.’

The old Irish king was sitting in a great carved chair by a large open fire in the great circular hall, surrounded by his senior chieftains and three bards who also acted as chroniclers and satirists. Their job was to continuously praise the king and his great exploits and long rule and damn to all the hells those who would ever oppose him. The old king, well into his eighties now and with a long, gray beard, dozed quietly with occasional interjections in the conversations milling around him.

Twilight spoke softly but clearly to his mind.

Great King Donnchadh O’Brain, I am Twilight, veneficus of Wessex in Britain. I wish you no harm and come with my tyro Tara, a young girl of Ireland who will replace me. We would wish to talk with you.

Donnchadh O’Brain’s eyes flew open and he looked all around the high parts of the ceiling of the circular hall.

‘Show yourself,’ he suddenly barked with a voice belying his years. He looked over and shouted toward the first of six heavily armed guards standing around the inside of the circular wall.

‘Tell your men to have their weapons at the ready, Colm. We are about to receive some visitors of the venefical kind and we know what they’re like, eh?’

All conversation stopped at his words. Then Twilight and Tara suddenly appeared in the middle of the hall. Giving everyone a chance to register their presence, Twilight smiled disarmingly and bowed. Tara followed suit.

‘Thank you for allowing us to speak with you, my lord. I am Twilight and this is Tara. I take it by your comment that venefici are not very welcome around here?’

‘Indeed they are not, so state your business and be gone with you,’ the king said brusquely, leaning forward.

As Twilight was about to open his mouth, Tara put a staying hand on his arm and spoke to the old king in a rapid Gaelic dialect. There followed a conversation between the young redheaded tyro and the old monarch that went on for some time with frequent use of the words Leannan Sidhe. Just as Twilight was getting to fully understand the language, Tara turned to him.

‘The Witch Fairy was attached to this court for three years. She arrived after the many battles the king had with the Viking invaders. Although these people were eventually victorious and drove the Viking into the sea, the fighting exacted a terrible price on the young men of the tribe and everyone was tired of war. As you have explained with the mainland Celts, it was the same here. They wanted a period of peace to rebuild their nation. Leannan Sidhe arrived at the perfect time and dazzled everyone with her magic, and the king welcomed her and made her his court veneficus. She told everyone here that she was the messenger of Brighid, Bright Goddess of the Gael. The king’s words were that at the time it was as if she had been sent by God. For a while she delighted everyone, appearing and disappearing, flying around unseen, and performing magic like they have never seen before. Then the mutilated bodies began to appear.’

Twilight turned his attention to the king, who fired off another rapid burst of Gaelic at him.

‘She was an arch-diabolist glorying in the pain and torture of others. Any others. And since there weren’t any Viking left around for her to practice her black arts on, she turned her attentions to the people around her.’

He waved his arm around to include those in the room and then spat into the fire, which sent sparks flying and sizzling.

‘We began to find dead people with their bodies cut open and their entrails drawn out of them wound around a stick. It takes a long time to die that way and it is the sickest and most painful death a man can experience, and believe you me I’ve seen some pretty barbaric examples. It is said that you can feel every strip of guts and intestine slowly drawing toward the surface. Meanwhile the brain continues to function. In the right hands, unconsciousness and death won’t come for a long time and certainly not soon enough. Anyone who indulges in such torture has a mind lower than anything Hades has to offer. It’s a form of depravity beyond any human comprehension.’

The gnarled old king shook his head in disbelief at the memory of it.

He continued, unworried that someone of Tara’s age shouldn’t be a party to such revelations.

‘Each time we found another corpse with the entrails wrapped around a stick like clotted wool on a hand bobbin, the search for the pervert intensified. Although we had our suspicions, we couldn’t prove anything, couldn’t nail her down. Getting close to her became difficult because she always had that fierce pet lynx pressed against her thigh. We actually think she fed some of the human entrails to the animal. She would also use her magic to confuse the issue and put us off the scent. Until, finally, she was caught in the act actually eating the warm entrails off the stick as she drew them out of a still-live person in the form of Tadhg.’