Chapter 16

We were up early the next morning and packed what we would be taking with us in my backpack and a pair of saddle bags for each of us. The servants must have heard us moving around in the room, as our breakfast arrived soon after we finished packing. Following a decent breakfast, we again turned in our room key before leaving.

"We'll be back in a few days. We're still checking on my Wife's Sister," I told the man behind the counter. It wasn't Conner.

Bow Lane Gate was already open this early in the morning, as ships departed at all times of the day and night depending on the tide. Limerick was as far as sea water reached up the Shannon Estuary, and shipping was affected by the tides. Imagine my surprise on seeing Captain O'Sullivan on the quay soon after we stepped on to it.

"Hello Captain!" I called in greeting, as we approached him. I was wearing the Senior Apprentice robe again this morning. He seemed startled to see me, but recognition soon showed in his eyes and on his face.

"Why young Apprentice Ken! Are you still in Limerick? I thought you were looking for someone out in the country," he said in greeting before he noticed Sunshine with me.

"Or have you found her?" he asked with a wink.

"This is the lady that I will shortly be marrying. Her name is Sunshine," I told him bringing Sunshine forward for him to see better.

"Sunshine, this is Captain O'Sullivan. I came to Limerick on his ship," I told her. She smiled at the Captain, but was still shy around strangers, especially large men like the Captain.

"Where are you bound?" the Captain asked noting our saddle bags, plus travel would be the main reason that someone such as we would be out here on the quay at this time of the morning.

"We need to go to Carrigaholt Castle to see about Sunshine's Sister," I told him. "You wouldn't be going in that direction would you?" I asked next.

"We just got in late last night after fighting the waves for five days. We need to unload our cargo and get some rest before putting out to sea again, but there should be plenty of ships going to Carrigaholt Bay. Let me see if I recognize anyone here," he told us looking around at those on the busy quay, and after a minute or so he hailed another man.

"Captain Murrogh, a minute of your time if you please, Captain!" O'Sullivan called.

"What is it, Donogh? I need to shove off shortly," the other Captain asked him as he approached.

"Are you bound for home?" O'Sullivan asked.

"Aye! Where else would I be bound for? I don't fancy the long voyages anymore," Captain Murrogh told him. He was a short older man with a beard going gray and a weather beaten face, but appeared to still be able to have weathered any storm.

"Could you accept a couple of passengers bound for Carrigaholt Castle?" O'Sullivan asked him.

"Paying passengers!?" the other Captain asked with a smile.

"Yes, two of them," O'Sullivan answered indicating both of us. "Young Apprentice Ken here can be a handy fellow to have along on a voyage," he assured him.

"All right, but I'm leaving shortly. Are you ready to go?" he asked, this last was to us.

"Yes, Captain. We're ready to leave immediately," I assured him.

"Give him a fair price now, Murrogh. He did me and mine proud on a trip here from Dublin," Captain O'Sullivan told the other Captain who named a price for the two of us that seemed fair to me, and I accepted, digging the coins out of the inner pocket of my robe.

"Follow me," Captain Murrogh told us after bidding Captain O'Sullivan a good day. His ship was somewhat smaller than the Aine had been, being about forty-five feet long and proportionately wide. It also smelled of fish. Some of them long since dead.

"All right, lads. Time to push off," the Captain told his small crew after we had boarded the ship. The crew soon had us away from the quay and out in the main channel. The Shannon Estuary is some sixty-five miles long and varies in width from nine plus miles wide between Loop Head in County Clare in the north, and Kerry Head in County Kerry in the south, and it narrows to just under two miles wide at its narrowest point.

With an outgoing tide and the normal flow of the river, we made good time as the ship was traveling very lightly loaded going back home. The fish smell was soon dissipated some by the breeze. The crew didn't seem to notice it at all, but I put that down to familiarity.

It turned out that Sunshine was not a good sailor, and she stayed in the small cabin in the stern of the ship that the Captain had offered for our use.

We pulled into Carrigaholt Bay just before 4:00 that afternoon, and the Captain soon had us at the Castle's pier to off load. I had managed to help Sunshine get some sleep for a part of the voyage, and woke her just before we reached the pier which extended quite a distance out into the bay.

On the way down the Shannon, Captain Murrogh had told me what he knew about Carrigaholt Castle. It seems that he was a history buff and more educated that his rough appearance would lead one to suspect.

From what he told me, it appears that Carrigaholt Castle was built as a fortified residence in the 1480's by the Mac Mahon family who were the chiefs of the area then known as 'Western Corkavaskin' and still called 'the West' locally.

The castle had changed hands many times in its life. From the Mac Mahons it pasted to the O'Brian clan for a time before their dispute with the High King, and they lost it. It had then passed through the hands of the Mac Namaras, and the O'Loghlens as well as a number of others after that.

Some one hundred years ago, the then owner had seen the need to repair and reinforce the area where the castle faced the shore of the bay. The castle had been built on the verge of a cliff overlooking the Bay and the Estuary, and over time waves had badly eroded the base of the cliff putting the castle in danger of collapsing. It had required a considerable amount of work, but there were now thick, high seawalls that ran along the beach fronting the castle above on two sides and there was a small round turret at the northeast corner where the two seawalls met, the Captain had told me.

From the pier, we made our way up to the castle moving alongside the high north seawall. We could now see that the castle was surrounded by a bawn that included not only the castle, but a large three story mansion attached to the tower at its southeast corner. There were several other buildings located inside the bawn also. We could see that the bawn in turn was surrounded by an outer wall that covered a considerable area, and there were cottages, farmhouses and other buildings enclosed by it. Captain Murrogh had told me that the estate had once covered some 57,000 acres, but that it was much reduced in size now.

The bawn gate was on the west side of the bawn and presently open. We walked along the wall and entered the bawn. We were facing what appeared to be the back of the castle, as there was no entrance on this long side of it. We walked over to the entrance on the south-facing side of the mansion. The door was presently closed, and no one answered when we rang the bell hanging on the wall.

We continued around the mansion and passed between it and the seawall before coming into a large courtyard formed by the L created by the back of the mansion and the front of the castle. It was easy to see that the castle consisted of four floors above the ground floor. The entrance on the east side of the castle was in the center of the building at ground level and consisted of a pointed arch doorway a bit over six feet at the top of the point and about four feet wide. The oak double doors guarding the entrance were presently closed and there was a matching pair of yetts in front of it.

What was very visible was a large opening above the doorway through which arrows, stones, or other things could be fired or thrown from the first floor at those approaching the door or trying to force it open. There was also a machicolation at roof level to protect the doorway. There was a small battlement all along the top of the castle at roof level. On the northwest corner of the tower a projecting bartizan was visible at the fourth or top floor level.

The final items that were visible were the large windows on the right hand side of this east elevation of the castle. It was very unusual to see windows this large in castles. While there were a number of decent size windows in the west wall of the castle, and also on the left hand side of the east wall, they were small in comparison to the large windows on the right hand side of the wall which appeared to be three feet wide by seven feet tall, and there was one on each of the upper floors.

From looking at it, I estimated the castle to be some forty feet long by twenty-four feet wide a short distance above the ground. My Mage senses told me that the walls were about five feet thick for the ground floor which would make the interior some thirty feet long by fourteen feet wide, and thus a rather narrow castle.

We rang the bell hanging from the side of the castle. After a time, we heard someone moving inside and the left half of the entrance door was opened by a tall thin man.

"We have no lodging for Apprentices. Try in the village," that person told us on seeing how we were dressed.

"We have a message for Master Teige Caech from Master Lochlan," I told him. This tactic had worked at all of the other castles so why not here?

"I see!" the man replied. "You can give me the message," he said holding out his hand.

"It's an oral message, and only to be delivered to the Master himself," I informed him to a frown on his part.

"Very well!" he said with a sigh, and produced a ring of keys after opening the other half of the pair of oak doors which appeared to be a good four inches thick. The lock on the chain holding the pair of yetts closed was next, before he then pushed the yetts open to admit us.

The entry led directly into a lobby over which was a large murder hole in the ceiling. There was no secondary entry door, as we had seen in some of the other castles. The lobby gave access to the vaulted chambers to the north and south of it. The rectangular chamber to the right (north) appeared to be a guard room. To the left was the passage leading to the broad spiral stairway in the southwest corner of the castle. There was also an opening to the mansion there, but it was blocked up at present.

"I'm the Castellan. We are understaffed presently, and the large house has been closed. You will have to stay in the small room on the second floor. What are your names so that I can announce you?" he asked.

"I'm Kennard O'Connell and the lady is my new wife, Sunshine," I told him.

"Very well come up to the room, and I'll check on when the Master will see you," he told us, as he turned toward the spiral stairway and its yett. He didn't say anything to the man who was now on guard in the north chamber.

"The guards and the cook live on the first floor," the Castellan told us on the way up the stairs after opening the yett to the stairwell. "I live on the second floor, and Master Teige lives on the third. The top floor is the Hall, and also where we presently cook as it has the fireplace," he finished, as we came to the second floor. We were shown to a small room near the stair. The interior walls on this floor were of wood paneling, and there was plaster on the exterior walls. The small room that we were shown to had a window about thirty inches square. There was a bed in one corner, but that was all besides some pegs in the wall to hang things on, and a bucket with a lid. A blanket and a comforter were folded up on the bed. Spartan was the first word that came to mind on seeing all of this. Fifteen minutes or so went by before the Castellan returned.

"Master Teige will see you shortly before the evening meal. I will have a bucket of water and a basin brought up so you can wash up from your trip," he informed us. A short time later, another man brought the bucket of water, the basin, and a three legged stool for the basin to sit on up to us. He didn't say anything as he entered and then left still silent.

I judged it to be just after 6:00 that evening when the Castellan returned. We had long since finished freshening up, and had hung the saddle bags from the pegs. My back pack was on the bed, and I had cast my wards in the floor, walls and the ceiling of the room.

"Follow me. Master Teige will see you now," the Castellan told us from the hallway outside our room.

The third floor appeared to be much nicer that those below. The plasterwork and the woodwork were much fancier and even the floor was made of better wood. There was a screen wall of wood just outside the stairwell entrance. The Castellan knocked on the door there.

"Master Teige, I've brought the Apprentices," he said after knocking.

"Send them in," a voice said from the other side of the wall. The Castellan opened the door, and we entered Master Teige's chamber. It was nicely appointed with rugs on the floor, and fine plaster work on the walls above a wainscot of figured walnut. There were several large wing chairs and a bench for seating, a small private dining area, and a large four poster bed. There were even several books on a shelf on one wall. Most notable however, at least to me, was the second paneled wall at the north end of the chamber just past the large window. There was a sliding door in the center of it.

Master Teige appeared to be just a little shorter than I am, but much broader. His hair was coal black, as were his eyes. He appeared to be in his early forties, and he had a Master Wizard's robe on.

"So Lochlan sent you, did he?" Master Teige asked laconically. "How is he?"

"Not so well as he has been, which is why he sent us," I told him. Master Teige was smiling now.

"So there were two of them then," he said looking directly at Sunshine now with a leer. "How convenient of Lochlan to send her to me."

"What have you done with my Sister's body?" Sunshine demanded from besides me now.

"She's here. I haven't been able to revive her yet, but that's all right too. Now that you are here it won't matter," he told her.

"Give her to me!" Sunshine demanded.

"That isn't likely to happen, but I may keep you near her. Two of you will double my pleasure. Lochlan was a fool to send you here with a message, but he always has been a fool. What is the message?" he demanded in a snarl, turning his attention back to me. This wasn't going anywhere near the way that I had wanted it to so I would have to do the best I could. I already had my wards ready.

"Why the message is that Master Lochlan is dead. So is Master Fiacha, and Master Eogham is entertaining a young 'Tree of Life'," I told him. Shock registered on his face for a few seconds.