Chapter 35

Ken Resumes the Narrative

The O'Hallinan Sisters, Sunshine and Rose, and I returned to Glenquin Castle that evening. Eamon must have felt our return, for he soon appeared outside the screen wall to knock, and I admitted him in.

"Did everything go well, Master Ken?" he asked.

"Yes, they did, Eamon. Kell now has a Caastellan, guards, a cook, a mason, a carpenter, and a blacksmith among others. He is contemplating what changes he wants to make in the castle and its bawn. We also found Master Fiacha's treasure, so he has money to pay his people, and to pay for the changes," I told him.

"Will you be here with us for a while now?" Eamon asked next.

"Sunshine and Rose want to return to the Fantstown Castle's village again tomorrow to continue work on their fields. They did some work there today, but haven't finished yet," I told him.

"Our crops here are doing very well, thanks to the work that you and Sunshine did earlier," he told me before changing topics. "Your people need to see you here, all three of you. It will assure them that you are serious about remaining as their Lord," Eamon told us in a very serious voice.

"We will be able to be here for a few days yet before we must go to deal with the renegade Wizards that want to recall the old gods of the Picts," I informed him.

"Will that be near here?" he asked, in a startled voice.

"It will be in the vicinity of Sligo Town, but we have already been there, and will be able to transfer back there. There will be little travel required," I assured him.

Sunshine and Rose had been getting our things settled in the apartment, while I had been talking with Eamon. I still had trouble thinking of them as the O'Hallinan Sisters. They were my twins and future Wives in my mind. I learned later that night that they weren't entirely comfortable with the name yet either, but that was well after Eamon had left, and also after we all had a nice hot bath. Both Sisters wanted sex again tonight, as they had last night, but were willing to spread their fun over the entire night.

It wasn't too late when we arose in the morning, and after a good breakfast, we were off to Kell's again. Having checked with him, we went to speak with the chief of the castle village before continuing the work that the Sisters had started on their fields, and on their herds the previous day.

Kell already had the carpenter busy when we arrived, and he spent considerable time that day with the Castellan and the mason, going over what he wanted done with the bawn, and the new buildings to be built there. The following day, I transferred Glenquin's mason and carpenter over to his place to consult with his people on the projects that he wanted done.

The remainder of our time here was spent with our own people. We visited the village several times and saw the improvements that had already been made with the money from the sale of the wolf skins. We checked the crops in the fields and the herds to ensure that they were in good condition. It was a very leisurely time, and we were all well rested by the time the 10th of July arrived. That morning, I had a serious discussion with the Sisters before transferring to Fantstown Castle.

"We need to prepare to leave tomorrow," I told the Sisters. "The 13th is quickly approaching, and we need to return to Sligo Town to determine where the Wizards will be gathering."

"Are there many places that they could choose?" Rose asked.

"In County Sligo, yes. It is very heavily populated with ancient sites of Power. There were many people that settled there over the ages; in addition a number of major battles were fought there in ancient times. We will need to check a good number of places," I told the Sisters.

Later at Fantstown Castle, I had a similar discussion with Kell and the Mac Sweeney Sisters.

"When do you want to leave?" Kell asked, after I had finished.

"Tomorrow will be early enough to leave. Will you be able to wrap up things here for a few days by then?" I asked.

"Yes, the carpenter has finished replacing the glass in the window. The wooden frame wasn't a problem to duplicate as he had worked on the window previously, and had the correct molding planes to recreate the frame, but there wasn't any glass large enough locally to fit it. Your taking him to Limerick solved that problem. He and several men are busy building the partitions for the first and second floor. The other work is in progress, but will require a considerable time to complete," Kell told me.

"We'll see you tomorrow morning then," I told him.

"What do we need to bring?" Airmid asked.

"I would say to just bring your Wizards' robes, personal items, and a blanket or two. We shouldn't be that long, but I am not sure where we will be staying," I told her. I returned to Glenquin Castle following that, and ensured that everything was in order there.

Friday morning, the 11th of July, we readied our horses and led them out the gate before preparing to transfer to Fantstown Castle to join Kell and the Mac Sweeney Sisters. Eamon and Odhar were there to see us off.

"Be careful, Master Ken, and come back to us," Eamon admonished us.

"We'll be back for another visit, Eamon, but will soon have to return to our Reality for a time. Kell and I need to start college this fall, but will be able to return on the weekends," I assured him, before we transferred to Fantstown Castle to collect Kell and his ladies.

"What's the plan?" Kell asked, when we entered the bawn there.

"We need to check the various places of power around County Sligo for signs of recent Magic use. I believe the best way to do that is to first return to the field where we left Sligo Town," I told him.

"It's the second Friday of the month," Kell pointed out. "Many towns have fairs on that day."

"That could be a problem," I admitted while thinking. "I will transfer there alone and see what is there now, and then return," I told him.

"That could alert the people that we are looking for," Kell warned me.

"Only if they are looking for Magic signatures. Even if they are, they may think that it's one of their people," I told him.

"All right!" Kell agreed in resignation. "We need to know what is there before we all transfer there." I cast the transfer spell after that and vanished from Fantstown to instantly reappear in the field outside of Sligo Town. The only thing that I found there was a flock of sheep contentedly munching on the grass in the field. There were two sheep dogs that gave me malevolent looks, but I transferred back to Fantstown before they could do anything.

"There are only some sheep there presently," I told the others, when I reappeared there. We calmed all of the horses then before casting the transfer spell again, and we and our horses plus the cart disappeared from Fantstown.

When the six of us, our horses and the cart appeared in the field outside of Sligo Town, the sheep dogs were extremely confused. The sheep, on the other hand, had paid no attention to us and continued eating.

"Where should we start looking?" Sunshine asked, before we mounted our horses and the cart.

"There are several locations near Sligo Town," I told her. "Some are west of Sligo Town and another is north of Sligo."

"We'll take the one north of Sligo. We came south from Ballyshannon and can return to places along the way," Kell told us.

"There was a great battle in 1257 just north of Sligo Town between the O'Donnells and the FitzGeralds," I told them.

"Yes, it was Creadran - Cille on the Rosses peninsula," Kell told her. "We can transfer to Rathcormack and investigate that easily."

"We'll take the sites west of Sligo Town. Where do you want to meet when we are finished?" I asked Kell.

"That's a good question!" he answered. "Do you have any preferences?"

"Perhaps we should meet back here and decide that after we have seen the sites here, and what they hold. We will need to leave for Castlebaldwin tomorrow, if we don't find anything here," I told him. None of our women had been able to follow this conversation at all.

"You speak as if you are familiar with this area," Almha said. Both Kell and I blushed.

"We are familiar with a part of the area in our own Reality. There are many differences between the two Realities," Kell told her and the other women.

"What kind of differences?" Rose asked.

"The major roads are all different, plus we are hesitant to use the place that we know best in our Reality. The Tuatha De Danann, the sidhe from the Otherworld in this Reality, are not the friendly people that they are in our Reality, and we have avoided Kesh-Corann so far. We will need to do something about it before we leave here. That is the reason that we agreed to meet here in Sligo Town in the first place," I told her and the others.

"Yes, even we have heard of the things done by the sidhe!" Sunshine said with a shiver.

"We'll meet back here then," Kell agreed, as he and the Mac Sweeney Sisters moved away from us so they could transfer to Rathcormack and start their own investigation. I turned to my own twins once they were gone.

"We will visit the Carrawmore site first, and then Knocknarea Mountain from there. We will finish with the site at Cumeen," I told them.

"What is there at these places?" Rose asked.

"They are ancient burial sites," I told her.

"With dead people -- like the sidhe?" Sunshine asked in a panic.

"These people have been dead for thousands of years. There are only the tombs left," I assured her. We continued down the dirt track through the field with the sheep, and soon came to another road that led out of Sligo Town. It led to Ballydoogan according to a sign, but we didn't stay on it for more than a few hundred yards before I detected ancient Magic, and we turned off it onto another dirt road on the left.

We were on this trail for around a half mile before coming to the Megalithic Cemetery of Carrowmore. Carrowmore is from the Celtic 'Ceathru Mor' or 'The Great Quarter'. It is the largest cemetery of megalithic tombs in Ireland. I'm not sure what the Sisters were expecting, but it obviously wasn't what we found.

"This is a cemetery?" Sunshine asked, staring at the large area where slabs of rock had been erected and were covered with other slabs of rock.

"These are very ancient burial grounds. These are what remain of sophisticated burial chambers built by people from a highly cultured society to honor their loved ones, and to guide them on their final journey to the next world," I told them quietly in the silence that covered the area.

There had originally been some two hundred tombs here by some estimates. More remained in this Reality than in mine, but some were missing even here. We passed near as many of the tombs as we could, and could still feel the remains of the Magic of those who had been buried here. Magic was also the reason that so many remained here. What we did not detect was the recent use of any powerful Magic.

In the near distance, we could see the hill of Knocknarea with an elevation of some 1,073 feet. It is a monolithic limestone hill, and the highest elevation on the Cail Irr peninsula. In Celtic, it is known as 'Cnoc na Riogha', or 'Hill of the Kings'. At the top is the large cairn called 'Meascan Meabha', or Meadh's Cairn, or Tomb. Queen Meadh was an Iron Age ruler of Connacht. Legend has it that she is buried there standing up and in full armor facing north toward her enemies in Ulster Province.

There are a number of other tombs on the summit of Knocknarea, but Meadh's is the largest. They all face Carrowmore in the lowlands.

It was well that Kell had not taken this area to investigate; as the cart would have had a hard time negotiating the plain leading to Knocknarea over the broken, grass covered ground here. Our horses had no trouble with this, and we rode them up close to the foot of the mountain where a long embankment had been erected in ancient times. It was still mostly there, and was some six feet wide and three feet high.