Authors: Carol Marrs Phipps,Tom Phipps
"I'd like to say I'm enough of a sport to accept Darragh, but my word," said Olloo. “They ate Mom and Dad and nearly ate Doona. I think I'd always be just a bit uneasy."
"I started out thinking like that," said Kieran, "but look what he's been through. He hates trolls and calls himself an Elf. And he really means it..."
"And he got you in the head with a rock, didn't he?" said Olloo.
"Right. But my head still works. I just mean when he runs about insisting he's an Elf, I don't think people can hate him forever. What are you all looking at me for?"
"You're making sense," said Olloo. "You just don't sound like yourself, is all."
Presently, they found themselves walking up to Eamon's shop, the bottom storey of a spacious house, its leaded crystal windows smashed and its shutters off their hinges.
"There are all kinds of tools in here," said Oisin as he stepped through the door.
"Yea," said Olloo. "He had all kinds of tools with him down at the beach. I wasn't sure your aunts quite knew what they were talking about."
"Here," said Oisin. "Take these chisels. That's another one, down there under all that stuff. Can you take these mallets, Kieran...? Shush!"
"What was that?" said Kieran, as they all rushed outside to stand, straining to hear.
An anguished scream came from the palace.
"Oh no!" cried Oisin, breaking into a dead run. "Drop the tools! We'll be back!"
More screams echoed amongst the buildings as they raced up the street, furiously pounding the crunching gravel, fires burning white hot in their chests. "No meanie! No! No! No...!" came a baritone wail, suddenly cut short, doubling the fury of their running.
Suddenly they saw three trolls pummeling their chests with their fists as they stood over the gory bodies of Isbal, Reina and Darragh. "Ooot! Ooot! Ooot! Ooot! Ooot...!"
Oisin, Olloo and Kieran all loosed arrows, far too winded to hit anything. Here came the trolls, swinging their clubs. Kieran dropped to his knee and shot the biggest troll in the neck. Oisin and Olloo each loosed arrows which found their marks, but none of the three trolls was yet down.
Without warning, a fourth troll sprang from behind Oisin, knocking his bow from his hand and grabbing onto his quiver to swing him all about, trying to pull him off his feet. Oisin managed to draw his claymore just as his quiver strap broke, flinging him sprawling onto the ground. As the troll tried to jump on him, he cut the brute in the thigh and the belly before breaking away and getting to his feet to return with a furious whistling swing which took off the troll's head. Just as he frantically turned this way and that to see what was next, the last of the other three troll-brutes, bristling with arrows, dropped to his knees and toppled onto his face.
"There's no way it's safe to spend the night," said Oisin, struggling to catch his breath.
They found torches and buried Isbal, Reina and Darragh in the royal plot by the palace. They cut six long poles and lashed them to their unicorns to drag behind, carrying as many tools as they could manage. By the time they reached the west end of Vorona's Gap, it was growing light.
"I don't ever want to go back there," said Kieran as they cleared away a good spot to sleep, "and in the name of the Fates, let's not set foot in the Strah until it's good and dark."
Chapter 11
A hot wind from the south chased through the waving grass above Doona's head, but it was not enough to dry the sweat gathering in drops along her eyebrows and nose, down where she stooped cutting bunches of big bluestem. A dickcissel called nearby. She stood and threw back her new bluestem straw hat as she ran her stone back and forth along her reap-hook. "You reckon this wind will blow up a rain?" she said, looking up at Donachan with his bow astride his unicorn.
"Nay," he said as he took a spit. "There were buckets of dew in the grass when I woke up. I'd really be surprised. It'd sure be nice if Oisin and them perchance would bring back a couple of scythes." He waited a moment for her to resume cutting before sauntering upwind a bit to peer over the grass, watching for strike falcons.
"I see Roseen 'way yonder, a-coming back with the rack," said Lilee as she stood up to give her reap-hook a good stoning. "We'd better get to bunching and binding. You think Oisin and Kieran...and Olloo... You think they'll be back by morning?"
"If I start thinking about that, I'll start worrying that they're safe. My word, the trolls might go back to Baile Gairdin just every once in a while. I mean we fled the beach camp. They might think that we're trying to go back there. And what would three handsome Elves do if they suddenly met up with trolls, anyway? I mean if they're surprised..."
"Oh go on, Doona! Here I was, trying to cheer you up with the thought of their return, and you go out of your way to think terrible thoughts."
"I'm sorry, Lilee. I don't ever talk about it, but every once in a while I have horrible dreams. And trolls. What made everyone flee Baile Gairdin in the first place?" She fell silent, twisting and tucking her strands of grass as she tied a sheaf and grabbed up another handful to bind. She gave a rattling sniffle and sat back on her heels as Lilee squeezed her by the hand with a firm little shake. "I know you're right," she said as she daubed at an eye with her apron. "Of course they'll be fine. After all, Oisin, Kieran and Olloo saved us from the trolls and got us all the way here. They will be back in a day or two, and it makes my heart dance, all except for what I have to do to Kieran, that is. Poor Kieran."
"Doona, Doona. It's the kindest thing. If I were Kieran, I'd not want to go on and on, making a fool of myself."
Roseen stepped into the far end of the mowed clearing, leading her nodding unicorn with the rack bouncing and pounding along behind, as Doona and Lilee hurriedly grabbed up fresh sheaves to bind.
After spending the night just beyond Vorona's Gap, Oisin, Olloo and Kieran decided to avoid a dogleg from going all the way back to Mount Sliabh and make straight for Carraig Faire instead. However, the choice surprised them by forcing them to spend the entire day hiking down a much gentler slope in thick woods. When they saw that they were at last nearing the Strah, they decided to rest. They dangled their legs off the side of a mossy rock facing a large glade and made a somber meal of the last of Isbal and Reina's blackberry tarts as they listened to the evening calls of pewees and watched Baase scamper about through the maidenhair ferns, snapping up beetles and salamanders. Suddenly Baase dashed out into the glade, chasing a vole. "Damnu air, Baase!" cried Olloo, hopping off the rock to give chase. "Come back here, you little cac." Well out into the clearing, he darted this way and that, at last grabbing him up. "Oisin! Kieran!" he cried. "Come see this Fairy ring!"
Oisin and Kieran nodded to each other and sprinted out into the glade to find Olloo standing in the midst of a strange mossy patch, ringed with huge mushrooms.
"That vole came right out in the middle here and vanished," said Olloo. "And have you ever seen a Fairy ring this big? I'd say it's at least five rod across, wouldn't you?"
"That's some Fairy ring, all right," said Kieran, "but real Fairies have been gone from this land for nearly five thousand years. That is, if they weren't just legend in the first place."
"Did I say this is actual Fairy work?" said Olloo.
"Not in so many words."
"Not in any words, Kieran, but since you bring it up, we do have records. That old book we carry might even have records in it. And there used to be thousands of them until they vanished overnight. But we still see their rings, and it's known that they were once the entrances into their kingdom."
"Righty-o. So why are we standing here inside this ring instead of somewhere down in the Fairy kingdom?"
"They're long gone for one thing," said Olloo, "And we're not Fairies either, but there's still a bit of enchantment about the rings..."
"I think you'll have to point it out."
"All right," said Olloo. "Why’s there a solid carpet of moss inside the ring, and not a bit of moss outside of it?" Not waiting for a reply, he set out for where they had left their unicorns tied to the trees.
Kieran stared at Olloo's back as he went. "That's quite a pile of lean air, isn't it, aye Oisin?" he said.
"What ever you say," said Oisin, as he studied the carpet of moss. Presently he was down on his knees looking at something. "See this?"
"So?"
Oisin straightened up. "Hey Olloo!" he hollered. "Here's your proof!"
Olloo came jogging back.
"Look 'ee here," said Oisin.
"We need to go," said Kieran.
"My word," said Olloo. "That looks like a maidenhair seedling turned to pure silver."
"Yeap," said Oisin, "so do you reckon it's what I think it is?"
"How would I know? I mean, what do you think it is?"
"A mother tree," said Oisin. "It's a silver maidenhair tree. The Fairies called it the 'mother tree,' and they all disappeared when the Fairies vanished."
"Well can't we keep it alive until we get back to Carraig Faire?"
"Oh, believe you me, I'd dearly love to, but you can't take a mother tree away from its fairy ring, or it'll die. It's tied to the Fairies' magic."
"So just where are the Fairies?" said Kieran.
"Maybe gone forever, maybe right under our feet," said Oisin, "but these trees are powerful medicine. The leaves are said to be what gave the Fairies their immortality, just as the leaves of our red, blue and great maidenhair trees extend our own lives. Even the seeds and bark have amazing healing properties. Different teas, poultices and tinctures made from the tree can heal any sort of wound, even dangerously festered ones within mere hours. The Fairies even made a preparation from the dried leaves which could be applied directly to heal a mortal wound if it was used right away. I don't know how complete the records of their recipes are, actually. Since I thought the trees were gone forever with the passing of the Fairies, I never went to any effort to search for them and study them."
"So this preparation heals a mortal wound if it's applied soon enough, aye?" said Kieran.
Oisin nodded.
"How soon is 'soon enough?' Will it only work until the moment of death, or can it bring a person back from the dead after they've been dead for a while?"
"Oh, I have no idea at all Kieran, though when they say 'soon enough,' I'd guess that it needs a spark of life to remain for it to work."
"Well this is quite a discovery then, isn't it?" said Olloo. "But if we have to leave it here in the Fairy ring so it will live, it's not much use to us, is it? Besides, it'll be a while before it puts out seed, won't it?"
"If seed is what you're after, but I think it might have to set seed before the leaves are any use. If that's true, it may be a hundred years before it does. But when it does, just imagine."
"Could we imagine as we ride?" said Kieran as he started for the unicorns. "I think it would be stupid to have to outrun shawkyn spooghey."
"Righty-o, Kieran." said Oisin.
"I'll catch up," said Oisin as he carefully snapped off a silver leaf and put it between the pages of his leather bound field journal.
Olloo found his stirrup and mounted. "So Kieran," he said as he watched Oisin coming through the brush in the fading light, "did your sudden interest in the mother tree have anything to do with Isbal, Reina, and Darragh?"
"I knew there wasn't any hope," he said with a sigh. "I just couldn't help asking."
Presently, Oisin went all around his unicorn checking the straps which held the poles bearing his load of tools. "So," he said, settling into his saddle as the first katydids of the evening began to sing, "are we ready?"
"I'm ready to never come back," said Kieran. "We've been gone too long to suit me."
Oisin cut off a good sized chaw from his plug of red maidenhair and gave a tug on each glove. "Well now, speaking of being gone too long," he said, gathering up his reins, "the pies nearly got cold when you went out to fetch Darragh. Did you and he manage to talk about something, or did he just spend the whole time knocking the snot out of you?"
"He quit after he gave me this knot. It hurts wearing this hat. Yea, for someone who refused to talk about his life with the trolls, he had quite a bit to say..."
"Such as?"
"I think we could've learnt something if things had turned out different. He said he missed his fmoo..."