The Legend of the Corrib King (9 page)

‘At one stage we thought that when you were talking about nymphs dancing in the moonlight, you meant Titania's Little People,' said Cowlick.

Pakie shook his head. ‘No, that just meant that it was all happening out there among the islands where the fish feed on young flies called nymphs and the poachers' children sometimes danced by the light of the moon. I had no idea they were going to take me to the funfair. Fortunately I had the opportunity to put the poem in the salmon over at Illaun na Shee. I knew nothing would attract more attention on the lake than a dead salmon, so I was hoping somebody might cop on to what was happening.'

‘Why did they kidnap you in the first place?' asked Mary.

‘I must have been getting too close to them. I had seized their nets a few times, and I suppose they reckoned that sooner or later I'd get them too. So they just burst in on me one night, drugged me and took me with them.'

‘What do you think they'd have done with you if we hadn't found you?' asked Tapser.

‘I don't think they'd have killed me if that's what you mean. No, I reckon that once they were finished here they'd have let me go. At least I hope they would!'

‘But you've still only got two of them,' said Dan.

‘True, but I'll know the others whenever I come across them again.'

‘And what about the motor cruiser?' asked Big Jim. ‘Where did they get that?'

‘Stolen of course,' Martin told him. ‘The owner lives in Dublin, so he didn't even know it was gone.'

‘Rachel and I thought the fairy queen was a boat all along,' said Róisín, ‘and we were right.'

Pakie smiled. ‘You were right about a lot of things, I'm glad to say, or I wouldn't be here now. And so was Biddy. I must call and thank her.'

‘They all did very well,' said Big Jim, but Mary wasn't amused.

‘If I'd known you were going to be out in the lake in the middle of the night,' she told them, ‘I wouldn't have let you go in the first place. Dear knows what might have happened to you.'

‘Well, they're all back safely now,' said Mag, ‘and so is Pakie. That's the main thing. Anyway, Jamesie was with them, so there was no danger they were going to be drowned.'

‘But they could have been poisoned,' Mary protested, ‘picking flowers like that.'

‘If it hadn't been for the flowers and Biddy's magic bottle,' Róisín pointed out, ‘Pakie wouldn't have been rescued and the poachers wouldn't have been caught.'

‘That's true,' said Rachel. ‘You see Biddy, or whatever you call her,' – and she threw Jamesie a dirty look – ‘she told us to give the bottle to Pakie. She said it was a tonic, but with all the talk about poisonous flowers, we decided to pour it into the fuel tank of the
Fairy Queen
instead. It took a while to work its way into the engine, but that's what stopped it.'

‘Well, good for you,' said Pakie, slapping his knee and laughing heartily at the idea. ‘So that's what stopped them.' He laughed again, and in spite of the misgivings that had been expressed about their adventure on the lake, it wasn't long before everyone else was laughing too.

* * *

It was the following afternoon before the gardaí had taken all their statements and they could at last turn their minds to the funfair. There was no shortage of pocket money after their rescue of Pakie, and they checked and rechecked it as they made their way along the boundary wall of Ashford Castle.

Hurrying on, and with an occasional skip of anticipation, they came to the road leading up to Nymphsfield. There they could contain their excitement no longer. Breaking into a run, they raced up the hill and climbed over the stone wall at the side of the road.

Jamesie stopped. ‘Look,' he said, ‘they've gone.'

Silently they surveyed the area that only recently had been alive with bright lights, spinning wheels and all the fun of the fair. Now it was empty. Only light green circles in the grass showed where the tents and stalls had been. Disappointed, they sat down in the long grass behind the wall.

‘It's almost as if they had never been here,' Jamesie remarked.

‘It's a pity,' said Tapser. ‘I was looking forward to seeing Titania and her Little People again.'

‘Odd, isn't it?' Jamesie continued. ‘I mean, the way they left so soon.'

‘Now, Jamesie,' said Róisín sternly. ‘Don't start that again. They've just moved on to another town, that's all.'

The sun came out from behind a cluster of cottonwool clouds, and the grasshoppers began to sing in the long grass. Beneath a waving fern, a daddy-long-legs swayed in the breeze and tried to hang on.

‘What will we do now?' wondered Cowlick.

Jamesie looked at the sky, then down at the lake. ‘The wind is up, and you know what that means? Come on.'

‘Where are you going?' shouted Cowlick.

‘Dapping of course.'

Tapser called Prince and dashed after him.

‘Wait for us,' cried Róisín.

‘And this time,' shouted Rachel, ‘stay away from Illaun na Shee.'

TOM McCAUGHREN is one of Ireland's leading authors for young people.

He has written five adventure books –
The Legend of the Golden Key, The Legend of the Phantom Highwayman, The Legend of the Corrib King
(new editions of all three published by Mercier Press in 2011),
The Children of the Forge
and
The Silent Sea
.

He has also written three books for teenagers. Two of these –
In Search of the Liberty Tree
and
Ride a Pale Horse
– are set against the background of the 1798 rebellion. The third –
Rainbows of the Moon
– is a highly acclaimed thriller. Set on the Irish border during the recent ‘troubles', it has been translated into several languages. His five books featuring the fox, published by Wolfhound Press, have also been widely translated.

As well as several short-listings, his books have won a number of awards for literature. These include the Reading Association of Ireland Book Award 1985, the Irish Book Awards Medal 1987, the White Ravens Selection 1988 (International Youth Library, Munich), the Young Persons' Books of the Decade Award 1980–1990 (Irish Children's Book Trust), and the Oscar Wilde Society's Literary Recognition Award (1992).

A journalist and broadcaster, Tom McCaughren was RTÉ's Security Correspondent for many years. He is married and has four daughters.

The Legend of the Golden Key

'A delightful book'
The Sunday Independent
.

A tale as old as time, 'The Legend of the Golden Key' is about a beautiful young girl who defies her miserly father and his promise of a fortune in gold and chooses instead to wed her penniless lover. The lovers disappear but what of the fortune? One summer day five young hopefuls decide to solve the mystery of the Golden Key. The story story behind the legend is about a beautiful girl in old Ireland who defies her father and his promise of a fortune in gold, and instead chooses to run off with the pennyless love of her life. The pair disappear, but what of the fortune? Tasper and his friends start their quest at the castle, where strange things begin to happen on the grounds and unexplained lights are seen in the sinister fairy fort.

Can they solve the riddle? Will the treasure be found?

ISBN: 978 1 85635 801 9

The Legend of The Phantom Highwayman

When Tapser goes to visit Cow-lick, Róisín and Rachel, they set out to investigate the stories of a local highwayman, whose ghost the locals claim can still be seen galloping along the High Road. Soon they find themselves caught up in a tangled web of ghost riders, spies and smugglers.

ISBN: 978 1 85635 802 6

For more information and titles, please visit the Mercier Press website
http://www.mercierpress.ie/tommccaughren

We hope you enjoyed this book.

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