The Faithful Heart (42 page)

 

 

“Dermot and Brendan have even chased your own people from their
farms and villages, and had my family not taken them in, many would
surely have starved on the roads!

 

 

"Yet though I have much cause to seek revenge, I will offer you
terms of peace. I am willing to marry Ruairc MacMahon here and now
to keep the peace between our clans in spite of all these grave
offences against the Maguires, provided you restore Ruairc to the
clan and to his own rightful property as the third heir.

 

 

“Otherwise, Brendan and Dermot, and any who are willing to defend
their actions, shall have to answer these misdeeds through combat,”
Morgana concluded boldly.

 

 

Dermot shouted, “It’s all a pack of lies!”

 

 

He swished his sword at Morgana, sending the altar flying.

 

 

Father Doyle went running from the great hall as he had been advised
by Ruairc prior to his arrival, as the couple moved to defend
themselves.

 

 

One of the MacMahon elders, a close cousin called Seamus, demanded
of Ruairc, “Is any of this true?”

 

 

Brendan, still desperate to marry Morgana to satisfy his ambitions,
begged her, “Please, it was all Dermot’s doing!I didn’t know
anything about it until it was too late! I thought it was a game. I
didn’t mean to kill Conor. By the time I found out about Aofa’s
poisoning of your father, he was dead, I swear.”

 

 

A shocked silence filled the room, until Dermot roared like a mad
bull and swung for Brendan, narrowly missing him.

 

 

“Now you know the whole truth, from the schemer’s own lips. I shall
issue a challenge to your family to assemble at the great field at
Ma Niadh tomorrow for trial by combat,” Morgana declared.

 

 

“I’ll see you dead first!” Dermot bellowed, then charged.

 

 

Morgana jumped up onto the window seat. “Ruairc, we’re leaving,
now!”

 

 

In front of the entire stunned assembly, Morgana leapt out the
window. She felt herself falling for a terrifying moment, until at
last she grabbed the rope. Her arms felt as though they were being
ripped from their sockets, but she clung on and began to slide down.

 

 

She heard arguments breaking out all over the hall, with a great
deal of shouting and clashing of weapons. Morgana shinned down the
rope as quickly as she could, not even daring to look up. A huge tug
on the rope signalled that Ruairc had indeed had the sense to follow
her, as more roars and the clang of steel against steel signalled
that pandemonium had broken loose.

 

 

Morgana slid down the rope easily, though her hands were raw from
the rough hemp. She untied two mounts in the courtyard as soon as
she landed on her feet, and leapt into one of the saddles.

 

 

“We’ve got to get out of here before they close the gates,” Morgana
called to Ruairc over her shoulder.

 

 

"I'm right behind you, love!"

 

 

They rode around to the front of the castle and called to their men
to mount. Just then the alarm sounded.

 

 

“Owen, your sword, quickly!” Morgana called.

 

 

Owen threw the sword to her, and she rode straight for the
gatehouse. Kicking two guards out of the way, she hacked at the rope
for lowering the portcullis, and leaving only a thin strand, she
waited for the rest of her group to ride through.

 

 

“Come on, Ruairc, hurry,” Morgana shouted, as the MacMahons and
mercenaries came running out of the castle with Dermot at their
head.

 

 

“I’ll cut it. You go on!” Ruairc shouted.

 

 

Morgana rode through the archway safely.

 

 

Ruairc gave the rope a last swinging blow, but his horse stumbled,
and he was unable to get through the gate before it slammed down to
block the exit.

 

 

“It’s Ruairc. He’s trapped!” Morgana called to Owen.

 

 

“We have to leave him!There’s nothing we can do! He’s a MacMahon, in
his own castle. Not even Dermot and Brendan would be so evil as to
harm him after what they’ve just admitted in front of their entire
sept
!”
Owen urged, as he pulled on Morgana’s bridle.

 

 

“No, I won’t leave Ruairc!” Morgana insisted as she struggled to
break free.

 

 

But a shower of arrows and shot came raining down on them, forcing
them to move out of range up the road.

 

 

Dermot cursed foully through the grating of the portcullis as he
watched the Maguires escape.

 

 

Morgana turned back to look for Ruairc one last time. She raised her
fist defiantly as she declared, “I shall see you again, Dermot
MacMahon, tomorrow at Ma Niadh!”

 

 

 

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

 

 

Once Morgana and the small band of Maguire soldiers were safely back
at Lisleavan, Finn and Patrick hugged their young cousin in relief.

 

 

“God, I’ve been out of my mind with worry about you.Are you sure
you’re all right, and that you can see?” Finn exclaimed.

 

 

“I’m well, truly. Brendan didn’t hurt me, though Dermot tried.
Ruairc’s been left behind at Carrickdoo, though.He cut the rope on
the portcullis so I could escape, but got trapped inside himself,”
Morgana informed the brothers breathlessly, and then told them of
everything that had befallen her since she had ridden off to the
convent on that fateful day.

 

 

At the end of her tale, Patrick reassured her, “Don’t worry about
Ruairc, Morgana, he’s nothing if not a survivor. They won’t harm him
in his own family home, and if I know Brendan and Dermot, they will
no doubt try to use him as a bargaining point somehow.”

 

 

“I know that too, or at least it is what I try to tell myself so I
won’t go out of my mind with worry,” Morgana acknowledged with a
sigh. “I will just have to wait for the worst, and hope for the
best. Now, tell me how things went at Kilgarven and the other two
sites. Did Ruairc understand my cryptic message?”

 

 

“Your plan worked like a dream,” Patrick said enthusiastically.
“We've taken all three of them over, and fortified them with some of
the surplus troops from here. The food and provisions were all
there, as you had guessed.”

 

 

“Excellent, well done.Time for the next phase of my plan. If Dermot
and Brendan and the MacMahon clan respond to my challenge of trial
by combat at Ma Niadh tomorrow, they will all have to assemble
there. Dermot will try to use it as an excuse for a pitched battle
in the field, and I am nearly certain that the Spanish are in
Donegal Bay, from a message that they received this morning.

 

 

“While we're gathered with our paltry little force,” Morgana said
ironically, “I want our men to capture their castles at Carrickdoo
and Ardnagreine.”

 

 

“There will be much fighting,” Patrick warned.

 

 

“Not if we send in MacMahon men. We must explain things to them,
about Ruairc being captured, and the Spanish invasion. We must
present them with the facts, and let them decide whom they wish to
be loyal to. Patrick, you will lead the force, so pick your men, and
go see the MacMahons in the village.”

 

 

“But I want to be with you, Morgana,” Patrick complained.

 

 

“I wish you could be there as well, but this is more important.
Trust me, I'll be fine.”

 

 

Patrick nodded reluctantly. “I'll assemble the two forces at first
light, with me at Carrickdoo and Fintan at Ardnagreine. We will wait
around the castle precincts until we see Dermot and Brendan ride
off. Then we will enter one way or the other. If I can, I shall come
to you to tell you of our success, and see your fight with Dermot
and Brendan.”

 

 

Morgana turned to Finn and said, “Now you know what to do. If
anything goes wrong in the field tomorrow, the men in Ma Niadh and
Tulach will have to come out to reinforce us. And if you see the
Spanish ships coming, fire off your cannon once as a signal.”

 

 

“I’m coming with you, Morgana.Owen can stay with the garrison inside
the castle. If Patrick can’t be with you, I want to stand by your
side.”

 

 

“And of course, if anything goes wrong, you are the new leader,
Finn,” Morgana agreed quietly.

 

 

Finn shook his head. “Nothing will go wrong. Everything is in place.
We have only to wait.”

 

 

 

But as Morgana had predicted, her best laid plans did go awry, for
the following morning brought thick fog over the whole of the lough
and her entire territory.

 

 

Morgana shivered with a deep sense of foreboding as she dressed in a
thick warm shirt, and a padded jerkin, with a loose fitting doublet
over it. She wore thick leather leggings crossed with leather
thongs, and secured her sword around her waist before placing her
dagger and pistol in her belt. She tied her warm cloak around her
shoulders and took up a small shield as well

 

 

Morgana strode down to the great hall, where the MacMahon men had
gathered for a hasty breakfast, and accompanied Patrick out to the
castle courtyard, where she watched him mount with his troop.

 

 

“Good luck! God be with you all!” Morgana called.

 

 

She continued to wave until her cousin was enveloped in the swirling
fog.

 

 

Morgana gathered her own force together soon after, for she intended
to be at the field of Ma Niadh long before the MacMahons arrived.
She had the largest share of her men conceal themselves in the trees
lining three sides of the pitch, and she had also brought along an
assortment of weapons which were hastily secreted in small ditches
covered with leaves by the Maguire warriors.

 

 

To her back was the fortress of Cullen, with Angus on the alert
should they need reinforcements, and Finn had alerted Tulach to the
west as well. Morgana prayed the Spanish wouldn’t arrive, but her
one advantage was that Dermot and Brendan couldn’t be sure how much
she had known of their plans, and how well-prepared they were.

 

 

Finn came riding up with Aofa, captured from Kilgarven the day
before, in chains, and she stood with the rest at the head of the
clan. The look of pure venom in her eyes told Morgana that her
younger half-sister hadn’t learned any lessons from her mistakes, or
from her brutal treatment at the hands of Dermot MacMahon.

 

 

Aofa’s face was bruised, and the habit she had stolen from Morgana
was in shreds and covered with stains.Morgana could also see that
the reason why Aofa still wore a nun’s coif was that someone had
raggedly chopped her flaxen hair up to her shoulders, as a shorn
lock straggled out of the veil. Aofa’s vanity was such that cutting
her hair had probably wounded her more than Dermot’s physical
cruelty.

 

 

Morgana almost felt sorry for her, but needed only to remind herself
of how her father and the villagers had suffered at Aofa’s hands for
her to steel her resolve. Aofa might well be her sister, but she had
to be brought to justice for the good of all concerned.

 

 

Soon the Maguires heard a warning cry, and the MacMahon forces and
their English mercenaries began to troop into the field. There were
literally hundreds of men mounted in full armour, and at their head
rode Dermot and Brendan, outfitted in the finest armour Morgana had
ever seen. Unfortunately, there was no sign of Ruairc, but she had
to be patient. Perhaps Patrick was rescuing him at that very moment
from Carrickdoo.

 

 

The brothers’ steeds were also in full knight’s armour, and Morgana
suddenly understood Dermot’s game. Both he and Brendan had been
trained for some time abroad in France with the two O’Reilly sons,
and were skilled in the art of jousting and other knightly talents.

 

 

Undaunted, however, Morgana marched to the centre of the field, with
Finn by her side dragging Aofa along.

 

 

“I have called you here to answer the charges, that you suborned my
sister to lure my brother into a trap. You ambushed and murdered
Conor in the forest, and then you paid her to poison my father so
that Aofa would become heir, and you would marry her to get your
hands on the Maguire lands, Dermot MacMahon,” Morgana boldly
accused, wasting no time

 

 

Dermot smirked. “Even if what you said is true, is it worth fighting
over? We can settle this once and for all if you marry me.”

 

 

Morgana gasped, and her eyes narrowed. “It is true, since Brendan
admitted it in front of everyone yesterday. But I am willing to
adopt peaceful methods to restore good will between our families. I
am prepared to marry Ruairc MacMahon, who has been much wronged by
you and Aofa and Brendan, in order to unite the clans and avoid
bloodshed, but the clans must be allowed to determine the punishment
of you three who are guilty,” Morgana stated loudly for all to hear.

 

 

“No, the two heirs must marry,” Dermot argued, though Morgana could
see Brendan glowering at them both.

 

 

“The lady is obviously unwilling, and I cannot blame her after what
you have done! Brendan confessed, I heard him myself!” the eldest of
the MacMahons piped up.

 

 

“In view of these serious charges, you must name your champion,
Dermot. If your champion wins, she must be satisfied to wed you, and
if her champion wins, you have committed crimes which are punishable
by death.”