Challenge of the clans (25 page)

Chapter Twenty-three

THE KING OF THE HILL

Finn was battling, feeling his life being squeezed out. He struggled to keep his consciousness, squirmed violently to pull his arm clear of the coils and stab at the thing with his spear. But he couldn't move, and the grip on him was tightening, tightening. He could feel his consciousness slipping away with his last breath.

But Caoilte leapt forward, directly upon the sluglike creature, throwing his arms about its coils and wrenching at it to loosen it from Finn. Soon others of the band joined him, gripping the thing at several points to wrench at it.

They succeeded in forcing it to ease its hold on the trapped warrior, but they also brought its wrath upon themselves. It uncoiled suddenly, whipping about at them, sweeping several of them down in a heap* Then it was upon them, its pliable body spreading, oozing down over them in a sticky blanket that could smother them.

Finn, gasping for breath, fought his way back to frill consciousness. Seeing the struggle before him, he climbed to his feet. He ignored a swimming head and charged to the attack. Locating what he thought must be the head of the thing, he leapt upon it, shoving the broad head of his spear against it.

The creature stiffened then, and from it came a voice.

"Keep back your hand," it said, "and you will not have the curse of a lonely woman upon you."

"Release my friends," he told it, "and take the woman's shape again."

It slid back from the men it had fallen upon, its form pulling together, rising, solidifying into the outlines of the Red Woman.

"Why do you leave me alive?" she asked him. "I would not have left you your life if I could have taken it from you."

"You are beaten," he told her. "iVe no more need to harm you. Now, be out of our sight, and let us continue our hunt in peace."

"I'll bother you no more," she promised. "But you'll not catch the beast you seek."

With that she turned and, in two steps, faded into the mist.

"Now that was surely an unpleasant little fight," said Caoilte, trying to wipe some of the sticky substance from his arms in disgust. "For such a beautiful woman to change into such a horrible worm!"

"Look there!" shouted Crimall.

They all looked around in time to see the homed beast whisk by them once again and race away.

"Quickly, after it!" Finn cried.

"You are mad!" Cnu Deireoil. "There's certainly magic at work in this. The magic of the Others, too, Td say. Don't challenge it, Finn. The last time it nearly destroyed us. "

"We can't turn away from fear of anything, " Finn told him. "I've said that I will not stop until that beast is caught, and I'm bound to that now. I'm going on. Will you others come as well?"

The challenge roused the other warriors too. To a man they started off again with Finn after the beast. The hapless Little Nut, drawn against his will, followed in their wake.

It was fully dark by this time, and between it and the mist they would surely have lost their quarry, but the moons upon its sides glowed brightly, giving out streams of light that showed clearly througli the shrouding gray. So on they chased, keeping the beast always in their sight.

Through all the night they followed, until at last the sun rose, striking through the mists, burning them away with golden light, revealing the countryside around. The hunters found themselves in a strange and eerie land. Ahead of them, an enormous hill thrust suddenly, starkly from the gently rolling lands below it. Its sides were steep and rocky, but its top was softly rounded, green with grass and thickly covered with trees. Across the rolling meadows at its foot were scattered scores of the smooth earth mounds that marked ancient burial places, the great numbers clustered there indicating that some tremendous sacred aura existed about this place.

But this aura meant nothing to the band now. Their whole attention was directed on the beast ahead. For it was making straight for the hill, and they shouted in triumph, thinking it trapped at last.

They were wrong. Without slowing its pace, the beast rushed right against the steep, rocky cliff side at the hilFs base and vanished there.

The men and hounds pulled to a stop, staring ahead in angry disbelief

"How can it have gotten away?" said Crimall. "We had it there. We had it!"

"I know how it could escape," said Gnu Deireoil unhappily. He was not staring at the place where the beast had vanished, but up at the looming hill itself "I know this place. It is Cnoc-na-Righ. It's truly the realm of the Others we're in now!" He looked pleadingly at Finn. "Please, let's be away while there's still time!"

"So, you did not take the beast," said a woman's voice.

Startled, they all wheeled about to see the Red Woman regarding them from a nearby mound.

"Maybe we didn't yet take it," Finn admitted, "but we know where it is."

"It is brave men you are to follow the beast here," she said. She lifted a hand from the folds of her long cloak. In it she held a long, polished stick of blackthorn, knobbed at one end, tipped with silver at the other.

"Come with me now if you are truly brave, and you will see this wondrous beast youVe sought so long."

She moved gracefully down from the mound and past them, going to the foot of the clifiF.

"That's a druid rod, ' Cnu Deireoil whispered to his comrades. "Careftil. She might mean to try some enchantment."

But all that she did was to lift the rod and strike a blow against the solid rock. There began a shifting and a groaning deep within it. This grew rapidly louder, until the whole cliff^ face before them seemed to shake. A crack appeared in it, widening to a crevice. The rock pulled apart like a curtain being parted, revealing a wide, smooth-sided cave that ran deep into the mountain.

Far down that corridor the Fian men saw the wavering gold of firelight. And from the cave depths the sounds of music and the aromas of food drifted out to them.

The Red Woman turned and beamed upon them, the expression on her face now warm and welcoming.

"Come in now," she said, "till you see the wonderful beast."

Finn had never seen anything like this marvel. He was overawed by the power it represented. How could any magic rend a cliff? Then her welcoming words brought him back to practical reality. He looked down at himself and around at his mates. Their clothes were torn from the chasing, muddied from the fight.

"Our clothing is not clean," he told her, "and we would not like to go in among a company the way we are.

She nodded. Stepping into the cave mouth, she picked a golden hunting horn from a hook there, lifted it to her lips, and blew a single high note.

In a moment ten young men appeared from within the hill. They were tall, slim, fine-featured, nearly boys in looks. All were fair-haired, and all clad in similar tunics of green glowing silk fringed with red-gold.

"Bring water for washing," she told them, "and bring clean suits of clothing, and a rich cloak and tunic for Finn, son of Cumhal!"

"She knows your name, Finn," Caoilte murmured. 'That's not good."

"WeVe no choice but to go on now," said Finn.

The young men left them, but returned soon after carrying silver basins for washing and fine new clothes for all the band. The men cleaned themselves and dressed. Finn's own clothing was finer than any he had ever seen. The tunic was of a soft, cool linen, hemmed with fine gold thread and patterned in elaborate spiral designs. Over it he draped a four-folded cloak of deep forest green, fastening it at his throat with a round brooch of gold set with precious stones. When he strapped back on his well-worn harness and sword sheath, they seemed to him very shabby in comparison.

When the men were ready, the Red Woman directed her ten serving boys to take charge of the pack of hunting dogs. Then she directed the Fianna men into the cave. Courageously, Finn led them forward, determined to show courtesy, whatever the danger.

Again, the Little Nut hung back, looking fearfully into that yawning cavern and up at the smiling face of the tall woman.

"Come along, harper," she coaxed in a friendly way. "You won't be harmed here, that I promise you. And if you try to run, you'll not escape"—her rod lifted and her eyes flickered with a dangerous light—"that I promise as well."

Cnu Deireoil gave a deep, despairing sigh. "I knew it would come to this one day," he said, and fell in behind the rest.

They moved along the long corridor in the rock, going down and into the heart of Cnoc-na-Righ.

The light increased as they moved forward, becoming suddenly intense as they came out into an enormous space. Their dazzled eyes slowly became used to the bright glow, clear, white, and warm as the sun, soft and gently pervasive as the moon. They were looking into a single room, so broad and high that Finn realized the whole inside of the hill must be hollow.

The roof of the chamber was a great vault, carved fi-om the living rock, the strata of it showing in the

smooth surfaces arching above. Far across the space, and from high above, a stream of water spouted from the stones, cascading down in a fanning waterfall to crash in shimmering explosions of spray against the floor. There the water pooled and formed a stream that flowed away to be lost in the distance.

In the center of this area was a ring of widely spaced stones, roughly man-height and of a crude pillar shape.

Within the ring of stones was a second ring, formed of tables set around a great bonfire. At these tables were many scores of people, all tall and slender, fair and handsome of looks. They were at a meal, the tables laden with quantities of food—meats and breads and fruits—filling elaborately crafted, gleaming dishes of gold. Musicians were playing a merry air on harp, pipes, and tiompan while others of the bright company performed a lively dance on the open ground about the fire. The clothes of these folk were a dazzling swirl of colors, shifting so swiftly Finn could not identify them all.

"What is this place?" Finn asked, gazing about in open awe.

"A Sidhe it is, my lad," answered Cnu Deireoil. "A hidden palace of the Others. To be brought into it means nothing good for us. Those that are taken Away by the Men of Dea are never seen again by mortal men."

As the Red Woman led them across the vast space toward the central ring, the little harper moved closer to Finn.

*There he is," he muttered darkly to the warrior. "There*s the King-of-the-Hill himself. A dangerous one he is!"

Finn had no difficulty in knowing which one it was the little man was referring to. Across the circle from them was an enormous chair. It was of oak, its high back and wide arms carved deeply with designs of strange creatures—birds and serpents and beasts, stretched out in sinuous curves and intertwined. On this impressive throne sat a lean, lank-bodied man, long

of jaw and nose and high of forehead. His wide, elastic mouth was now stretched by a grin, and his large hands were clapping with the music as he watched the dance. His cloak was an almost painfully bright checkered pattern of reds and blues, and on his narrow head sat a golden crown that seemed a bit too large, for it had slipped down on one side in a rakish tilt.

"He seems a cheerful enough man to me," Finn commented to his friend.

"Oh, he is that," agreed the Little Nut. "But he'll also have your guts to feed the ravens if he has a mind. As changeable as Ireland's weather is our King-of-the-Hill."

They reached the stone circle, and the Red Woman signaled the Fian band to halt. She moved betw^een the stones and approached the king. Drawing his attention from the dance, she spoke to him at some length while he listened intently, his broad grin slowly fading, the wide mouth drooping in a frown. When she had finished, he turned his attention toward the visitors. The gaze of his company had already been drawn to them, and now the music died away, the dancers coming to a stop. There fell a silence more deafening than the noise. Finn felt suddenly uncomfortable as the focus of so many curious stares.

"Come forward!" the king demanded in a sharp, supercilious way.

"Here it comes!" Gnu Deireoil said fearfrilly. "We're in for it now!"

But Finn pushed him forward, and the band moved past the stones, up toward the ring of tables and through an opening into the central area. They stopped again across the fire from the king.

He ran a cold, scrutinizing eye over the Fian men, then dropped his gaze down to fix upon the Little Nut.

"So, Gnu Deireoil, youVe chosen to fall in with the hkes of these mortals, have you? And just how low do you think we can let one of the Tuatha de Danaan sink?"

One of the Tuatha de Danaan? The words astonished Finn. He and Gaoilte glanced at their Httle fiiend.

Cnu was white-feced, clearly terrified in this man's presence. Still he spoke up courageously: "I'm doing as I wish, as any man should be free to do. And these 'mortals' youVe so scornful of are as fine as any man of the Sidhes of Ireland, as you'd know yourself if you'd ever leave this great rock tomb of yours."

"Your wishes don't carry to wandering about the surface of Ireland without the permission of your own people, harper. And as to your feeling about this race that has stolen away our lands and driven us into the hidden places, I can only call it madness."

Finn was not really paying the close attention to this exchange that he might have. His eye had been caught by that of a young woman seated beside the king. She was, he decided, quite the most beautiful woman he had yet encountered in Ireland. She had the fragile, finely sculpted looks of his own mother and a billowing mass of golden hair that glowed as if the sun were beaming upon it. She also had a most intriguing light shining in her large gray eyes, and because of his recent experiences, he now understood what that light implied. He smiled.

Then his attention was yanked harshly back to the conversation as the Red Woman said: "But, my king, do you really think that Finn MacCumhal must be destroyed?"

"Wait now!" he said quickly, stepping forward. "What do you mean, destroyed?"

The king cast a disdainful look upon him. "Stay out of this talk, " he said curtly. "You've no part in it."