The Shadowmagic Trilogy. John Lenahan

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СКАЧАТЬ Sally. It seemed as if he wanted me to be something – but he wouldn’t, or couldn’t, tell me what.

      A knock came on the front door that was so loud, it made me jump to my feet. Now, weird is what my life is these days, but here is where all the weirdness began.

      We live in a converted barn outside of town with a regular-sized front door that is cut into two huge barn doors. When my father answers a knock, he always peers through a tiny hatch to check who’s out there. I, on the other hand, like to undo the bolts and throw open the two big doors. It shocks visitors and it has the added effect of annoying Dad. I don’t do that any more.

      I dramatically swung open the two doors and found myself face to face with two of the biggest, sweatiest horses I had ever seen. Riding them was a man in full King Arthur-type armour and a woman in a hooded cloak. With hindsight I wish I had said something clever like, ‘The stables are around the back,’ but to be honest, I was too gobsmacked to speak.

      When the woman pulled back her hood, she took my breath away. She was astonishingly beautiful, with a wild mane of amber hair. She seemed to be about five or ten years older than me – twenty-five, twenty-seven maybe, except something about her made her seem older than that.

      ‘Is this the home of Oisin?’ she asked.

      ‘There is an Olson here, Olson O’Neil,’ I stammered.

      She considered this for a second and took a step into the room – or, I should say, her horse did. I had to back away to stop from being trampled.

      ‘Who are you?’ I demanded.

      She looked around the room and her eyes stopped on an oak fighting stick that was mounted on the wall. A look of satisfaction crossed her face. ‘I am his sister,’ she said.

      I started to say, ‘Yeah, right,’ and then two things struck me. One was that she was speaking in Ancient Gaelic – I was so stunned by the appearance of those two that I hadn’t noticed it before. The second was her eyes – she had Dad’s eyes, and nobody had dark peepers like my father.

      ‘Dad!’ I called out. ‘There’s a woman out here who says she’s your sister.’

      That is when all hell broke loose. Dad came charging out of the bathroom screaming at the top of his lungs, with toothpaste foaming out of his mouth like a rabid animal. He grabbed the war axe off the mantel, which I always assumed was there just for decoration, and hurled it at his sister. She pulled her head back just in time to avoid getting a quick nose job, but her companion wasn’t so lucky. The flat side of the axe hit him square on the shoulder and knocked him from his saddle. The rider desperately tried to stay on his mount. The horse made a horrible sound as he pulled a handful of hair out of its mane, but it was no good. He hit the ground with a crash of metal and then, as if being attacked in my living room by equestrians wasn’t surprise enough – he disappeared – he just vanished! One second I was watching the Tin Man falling through the air, arms and legs flailing in all directions, and the next second he was gone – poof! In the space where he should have been, was a pile of rusted metal in a swirl of dust.

      Dad shouted, ‘Conor, watch out!’ I looked up just in time to see a spear leaving my aunt’s hand – and it was heading directly for my chest. Then everything seemed to go into slow motion. I remember looking into my aunt’s eyes and seeing what almost looked like pain in them, and I remember turning to my father and seeing the utter defeat on his face. But what I remember the most was the amazing tingling sensation that I felt all over my body. An amber glow seemed to cloud my vision, then I noticed the glow cover me from head to toe and then encircle the spear, just as it made contact with my chest. The spear hit me, I fell over from the force of it, but it didn’t hurt. For a second I thought, That’s what it must be like when you receive a mortal wound – no pain. Then I saw the spear lying next to me. I felt my chest and I was fine.

      Dad sat me up. ‘Are you OK?’ he asked.

      I wish I had a picture of my face at that point – I could feel the stupid grin I had pasted on it. A horn blew – Dad and I looked up in time to see my would-be assassin galloping away from the door.

      ‘Can you stand?’ Dad asked.

      I remember answering him by saying, ‘That was very strange.’ I was kind of out of it.

      ‘Conor,’ he said, helping me to my feet, ‘we have to get out of here.’

      But it was too late. Two more riders, this time in black armour and on black horses, burst into the room. Tables and chairs went flying in all directions. Dad grabbed my hand and we tried to run out the back, but before we could take more than a couple of steps I saw, and heard, a black leather whip wrap around my father’s neck. I tried to shout but my voice was strangled by the searing pain of another whip wrapping around my own throat.

      The next thing I remembered, I was chained to a dungeon wall talking to my father about the family tree.

      ‘What’s her name?’

      ‘Nieve,’ Dad said, without looking at me.

      I was about to ask, ‘Why does she want to kill us?’ when I felt something crawl across my ankle. It was a rat – no, I take that back – it was the mother of all rats. I’d seen smaller dogs. I screamed and tried to kick it away. It moved just out of reach and stared at me like it owned the place. Just what I needed, a super-rat with an attitude.

      ‘Where the hell are we?’ I yelled.

      ‘We are in The Land,’ Dad said in a faraway voice.

      ‘The Land? What land?’

      ‘The Land, Conor – Tir na Nog.’

      ‘Tir na Nog? What,’ I said sarcastically, ‘the place full of Pixies and Leprechauns?’

      ‘There are no Pixies here, but yes.’

      ‘Dad. Quit messing around. What is going on?’

      He turned and looked me straight in the eyes, and then with his I’m only going to tell you this once voice he said, ‘We are in The Land. The place that the ancient Celts called Tir na Nog – The Land of Eternal Youth. I was born here.’

      I began to get angry. I was in pain, we were definitely in trouble, and Dad was treating me like a kid, making up some cock-and-bull story to keep me happy. I was just about to tell him what I thought of him, but then I thought about the guy who fell off his horse. ‘Did you see that guy disappear?’

      ‘He didn’t disappear,’ Dad said, and I could tell he was struggling to make this so I could understand. ‘He just grew old – quickly.’

      ‘Come again?’

      ‘When someone from The Land steps foot in the Real World, they instantly become the age that they would be there. That soldier was probably a couple of thousand years old.’

      ‘What!’

      ‘He was an immortal. Everyone from The Land is an immortal.’

      I looked deep into his eyes, waiting for the twinkle that lets me know he’s messing with me. When it didn’t come, I felt my chest tighten.

      ‘My God, you’re СКАЧАТЬ