Chapter 34

We awoke fairly early the next morning, as the Sisters wanted to see this new castle. I was worried about what Ken had said, and that they would be disappointed. We quickly dressed in our Wizard's robes, but I didn't know if Ken and the O'Hallinan Sisters were up yet.

"Ken could still be asleep," I told my women, who were ready to leave for his apartment.

"No, they are awake and up," Airmid told me, confidently.

"Are you sure?" I asked wondering how she could know that.

"Yes, we can hear him, just as we can hear you," Almha told me, matter-of-factly.

"What?" I demanded in shock.

"We can hear him just as easily as we can hear you," Airmid repeated. "We have to listen, of course, but we only really do that when we need to know something."

After I thought about it, it kind of made sense. Both of our Mothers had shared a mental link with others. I just wondered how Ken was going to take this news when I told him. I would definitely have to tell him.

"If you are sure that they are up, let's go over there, and see about breakfast," I told them. When we reached the screen wall, I knocked on the door.

"Come in, Kell!" I heard through the door. We have always been able to track each other, and tell where the other one was by our Talents, so I wasn't surprised, and entered, passing through Ken's familiar wards. It wasn't until I was several feet into the room, that I thought about the Sisters also entering, and turned to lower Ken's wards only to discover both Sisters behind me and through the wards. They were smiling at me.

"His wards are very similar to yours," Almha told me.

"Ah ... yes!" was all that I could think to say, and continued into the room. Ken and his ladies were already up and were also dressed for the day in Wizard's robes.

"Are you going to take all of your things with you?" Ken asked as we joined them.

"I don't see why not. If we don't like it, we'll just return here. It's not like we have a huge amount of things," I told him, and paused. This was going to need to be brought up rather delicately.

"You know that both of our Mothers had mental links with others," I started.

"We've only known that since we were about what -- three?" Ken asked with a smile.

"Ah ... yes. Well, I just found out a few minutes ago that not only can the Mac Sweeney Sisters tell what I am thinking and doing, but ... ah ... they can ... can also read you!" I finished quickly. Ken was still smiling at me. Didn't he understand what I had just said?

"Yes, I felt their touch a short time ago. I was startled at first until I remembered exactly what you just brought up. We do share pretty much the same genes," he told me.

"You aren't upset?" I asked, somewhat amazed.

"No, not especially. I'll just need to set the privacy spell more often," he told me.

"Yes, no fair peeking when we are in here alone," Sunshine told the Sisters, who blushed.

"No, we wouldn't do that," Almha assured her, before blushing again. "You haven't ... have you?" she asked Ken, uncertainly.

"No, I wouldn't do that either," Ken assured both of them. There was a knock on the door following that. I could feel Ken drop his wards.

"Come in, Eamon," he called after that, and the Castellan entered followed by several women with dishes, and our breakfast.

"We'll be ready to leave whenever you are. Enjoy your breakfast, Master Ken," Eamon told us before he departed. The women had already left.

"We'll be ready shortly, Eamon," Ken assured him. Breakfast was quickly consumed, and the Sisters fetched our possessions from the Guest Chamber while Ken called up his wards around his apartment. He and the O'Hallinan Sisters were going with us. The Sisters and I followed them down the stairs. Arriving in the bawn, we found a number of people there waiting for us.

The first was the Captain of the Guard with six men, and what appeared to be a supervisor.

"My Lord, this is Sergeant Oisin O'Carroll, my Cousin. He is our Training Sergeant. He will be in charge of the men going with you, and will evaluate any of the guards that are still there," Captain O'Carroll informed us.

Next was an older woman with what appeared to be her Daughter of perhaps ten years of age. She was seated on a large two-wheel cart loaded with possessions, bedding, and food. It was pulled by two horses.

"This is Caoimhe, and her Daughter, Gwennola. She is the Wife of Sergeant Oisin, and will be cooking for you while you are there. Her Daughter will assist her," Eamon informed us. Our horses and the cart had been brought out shortly after we reached the bawn. The Sisters stored our things on the cart.

"That's fine," Ken acknowledged before laying out the plan for the move to Fantstown Castle.

"Here is how we will proceed," he started, as everyone gathered around. "Kell and I along with our ladies will transfer to Fantstown Castle first to ensure that it is safe there," he started. There was an immediate objection from the Captain of the Guard and the Sergeant.

"That is our job, my Lord. You shouldn't put yourself and the ladies in danger like that," they protested.

"Captain, we will be in no danger. We will cast our wards and be perfectly safe," Ken assured him before continuing. "Once assured that it is safe there, we will return and transfer the rest of you there, if Kell decides that he is interested in having the castle," Ken finished. It was easy to see that Eamon, Captain O'Carroll, and the Sergeant were not happy with this plan.

"Very well, my Lord," the Captain reluctantly agreed after a few seconds.

"Do not worry Odhar. Kennard's wards protected us the entire time that we were away before. We will be perfectly safe. Kellen and the Mac Sweeney Sisters will back up Kennard. They also have powerful wards," Sunshine assured the Captain and the other men.

"We will return when we have determined that the castle is safe," Ken told everyone, before adding, "It might take a little time to do that, so don't worry."

Ken and I led our women, the horses, and the cart out the gate before stopping to do the transfer. Once the horses were calmed down, the Mac Sweeney Sisters and I joined hands with Ken. He started the transfer spell and its glyph while drawing power from all of us. When enough Magic had accumulated, the O'Hallinan Sisters joined hands with him, he added the Magic to the glyph, and we all vanished from Glenquin Castle.

We immediately reappeared on a road a short distance from another castle. We could see that it was rectangular, not square, and had four or five levels above the ground floor. It was located just off the road that we were on.

"The entrance to the bawn is on the east side," Ken told us as we approached from the west, and directly into the sun. As we neared the front of the castle, it was evident to all of us that this was not a well defended place. The wall of the bawn was low and appeared to have no walkways for the guards. There was no guard tower either. It was also clear that the bawn was rather small. There were a number of building near the castle, but outside the bawn. Lastly, there were no wooden gates behind the yett closing the opening in the bawn wall. I could feel the Sisters disappointment on seeing all of this. We had stayed at well defended castles, and they knew that this one definitely wasn't.

After considering these things for a short time, it occurred to me that I could cast a defensive shell reinforced with my wards around this place rather quickly, and that would be more and better protection than any bawn wall would be. Still, how one was perceived here was as important, and perhaps more important, than the actuality.

Arriving at the entrance, Ken rang the bell there, and we waited. After a time, no one had responded, and Ken rang the bell again. Still no one had responded after a considerable time.

"What's going on here?" Ken asked, and the lock on the yetts opened. Ken and I dismounted and opened them. Still no one had appeared, so we entered the bawn.

"Hello, the castle?" Ken called loudly, but there was still no answer. "Wards!" Ken said to me, and we pulled up our wards around us and the women.

"We need to find out what is going on here," Ken told us.

"Airmid, you and Almha stay here with the O'Hallinan Sisters while we investigate," I told my twins, as Ken and I turned toward the castle entrance. The yett there was also locked, but opened for us as we approached. The low wooden entry door behind it had no way to lock it from the outside, and swung open at a push from us. Inside, the ground floor smelled of horses, and the yett on the stairwell was also closed and locked, but opened as we approached.

The first and second floors above ground level were a mess of trash, broken furniture, and discarded items. This castle was rather narrow at around seventeen feet wide inside, but the chambers were long at around thirty-five feet. It would be possible to divide each floor into at least two good size rooms, once things were cleaned up that is.

We continued on to the third level after a quick check of the two lower ones. This area was warded, and I could tell that they were O'Connell wards, so Ken had set them. Inside the area was very nice and hadn't been trashed because of the wards. It had plastered walls and a large fireplace. There were rugs on the floor, some oak furniture, and a large four poster bed. There was even a fairly large window looking out to the east.

"This is where Sunshine and I stayed while here," Ken told me before we left and continued on to the fourth level. I could also feel the wards there.

"This was Master Fiacha's private apartment," Ken told me in the hallway there. "It is also where he attempted to use Black Magic with disastrous results."

We passed through the doors in the screen wall and Ken's wards into the apartment which was very nice! It was wainscoted with plaster walls above that. There was a large fireplace and some very nice oak furniture. More importantly, there was a fine large copper tub near the fireplace. This was bound to make my women very happy. There was also a large hole in the otherwise nice area rug, and the floor inside the hole was burned.

"You'll need to replace the rug," Ken told me as we surveyed the room. "We cleaned up the mess before leaving, but that was all. You'll also need to replace the window. It was blown out when Fiacha exploded," Ken finished pointing toward the east-facing window at the end of the room that was nothing but a hole now.

"This isn't too bad! I was expecting something a lot worse," I told him, as we returned through his wards and the doors to continue up to the Hall on the top floor.

When we reached it, we found that the Hall, like the first two floors, was a mess. It covered the entire fifth level, and there was a large fireplace in the side wall, similar to the ones on the last two levels. Some of the plaster and part of the wainscot had been gashed or broken, as had most of the tables and benches. Spoiled food and garbage were scattered around on the floor along with liquids that had a strong smell to them.

Finally, there was a dead man lying on the floor under the chandelier of Magic-powered lamps. One of the lamps was also broken. It appeared that the dead man had been the one to break it, to his detriment. He had been dead for some time.

"This will take some cleaning up," I said.

"Yes, it appears that the others fled when this idiot managed to kill himself," Ken admitted.

"I guess it's safe to bring the women in. No one appears to be here. We'll need to do a lot of cleaning up, and there are some definite changes that I would like to make based on things we have seen in the places that we visited, but this isn't too bad," I told Ken, as we started back down the stairs.

When we reached the bawn, we found our women with their wards raised and talking with several men who had come to the gate. Their conversation stopped, as Ken and I approached.

"A good day to you, Master Wizards," an older man said to us when we joined our women.

"This is Donogh O'Driscoll. He claims to have been the Castellan here previously," Sunshine informed us.

"Previously?" Ken asked with a frown.

"Master Fiacha brought his own people with him when he became the new owner. Those of us working here at the time were all dismissed. I understand that not all of Master Fiacha's people remained here all that long, and the staff was considerable depleted over time," the man, Donogh, told us.

"There were only four or five people working here when I was here a few weeks ago," Ken told him. "When we arrived today, we found the castle deserted."

"Yes, Master Wizard, we saw them leave over a week ago. They didn't speak to anyone, either here or in Killmallock, but those who saw them said that they looked very afraid of something, and in a great hurry," he told us. "We also tried to check on the castle and found it locked up," he added.

"Yes, it was, but we have never had a problem with locks," Ken told him. "I can also believe that they left in a hurry and didn't say anything to anyone. There is a dead man in the Great Hall. It appears that he tried to destroy one of the large Magic-powered lamps there, and that is what killed him," Ken told the men gathered there.

"Are you the new owner, Master Wizard?" Donogh asked.

"I claimed the castle after the death of Master Fiacha from Black Magic. I was here at the time to arrest him for the practice of Black Magic. The new owner, however, is my Cousin, Kellen O'Connell," Ken told them, pointing to me. All of the men had turned pale and taken a step back at the mention of Black Magic. They now turned their attention to me.

"How long were you the Castellan here previously?" I asked Donogh.

"I was born here, Master O'Connell. My family has been the Castellans here for over four generations," he told me.

"I see, and who are these other men with you?" I asked, looking at the other five men with him.

"This is my Son, Daghdha," Donogh told us pulling a young man forward for us to see. "The others were guards here previously. All but Tighearnan O'Faelan who was the Mason here previously," he finished, and brought forward a middle aged man with broad shoulders, thick arms, and large hands.

"Are all of you seeking reemployment here?" I asked to be sure of why they were here.

"Yes, we are, Master O'Connell, if you have need of additional people," Donogh told me.

"We have a few people on loan from my Cousin Kennard O'Connell, who is the Owner and Master of Glenquin Castle," I told him pointing to Ken. "They will be here shortly. The Castle will require considerable cleaning. We will be doing that before our people arrive. If you are still interested in a position here, return in about three hours. Our people will be here by then, and we will have straightened things up also," I told the men, who seemed surprised that we would be doing any of the work.

"We will return in three hours, Master O'Connell," Donogh O'Driscoll told me with a small bow before he and the others departed.

"What is this cleaning that you mentioned?" Airmid asked, as the men moved down the access road.

"The former servants left a mess on the first two floors and in the Hall on the top floor. It will all need to be cleaned up," I told her and the others.

"The ground floor will need some attention also. It still smells like a stable," Ken added.

"We can take care of that," Sunshine told him with a smile.

"Let's put our horses in the stable, and park the cart before we begin. We won't need them when we return to Glenquin Castle," Ken reminded us. The stable was quite dirty and unkempt when we checked it. The horses would have to wait to use it.