Chapter 5

Characters introduced in this chapter:

Greine -- Sunshine

Mage, Rose's twin, 5'-1" tall, 108 pounds, 34C-21-23, 16 years old, short red hair, green eyes, some freckles, very cute; thinner when they first met

Rose

Sunshine's twin Sister - only present in the spirit at this time

Master Eogham

Master of Glenquin Castle, A tall fat man with a long brown beard and unkempt hair

Like Dublin, the Limerick of 2170AC (After Cingetorix - King of the Trerari from the beginning of whose reign they measure their civilization) in the Other Reality was nothing like its sibling in our Reality. It was a town just coming out of the Middle Ages, and like Dublin it was still surrounded by walls.

Like its sibling in our Reality, it had known settlers back into antiquity. Its location on a large island, at the head of the Shannon River Estuary, also known as Lock Luimnigh, made it a natural defensive position as well as an outstanding trading location. The island was originally known as "Inis Sibhton" during the pre-Viking and Viking period.

The city dates from the first Viking settlements of 912 AC. The Viking Sea-King, Thormodr Helgeson, was reportedly the first to build a permanent settlement here in 922. He used it as a base to raid the length of the Shannon, pillaging settlements. In 937, the Limerick Vikings clashed with those from Dublin on Lough Ree and were defeated.

In 944, they were defeated again by the forces of the local chief of the Daleassian Clan who had joined with the O'Brian King of Thormoud and Munster. The Limerick Vikings were forced to pay tribute to the Clans after that. The Vikings never regained their power in Limerick and were eventually reduced to the status of a minor clan, but they still played a part in the endless power struggles of the Irish over the centuries.

The King of Munster, Donal Mar O'Brian, built a castle fort on the island in 1190 in defiance of the High King. Later on his death in 1194, the High King took possession of the castle fort and the island was renamed King's Island. By this time the entire city had been surrounded by walls, and had come to be known as Irishtown. The Vikings had established their own town, Danetown, south across the Abbey River from Limerick. It too had been walled for protection. Both towns grew and prospered through the following centuries. Again like Dublin, they were considered neutral territory by the various factions during their political in-fighting.

Captain O'Sullivan had docked the 'Aine' at the Merchants Quay just south of the King's Castle on the Shannon River side of Limerick. He told me to use the Bow Lane gate into the city. The street there would take me to Mary Street or 'Maire' as he pronounced it. He had assured me that I would be able to find food and a room along that street. It being late afternoon already, I quickly made my way into the city. I soon found a hotel and entered.

"I would like a room for the night," I told the man behind the counter there, who did not appear to be glad to see me.

"We don't have free rooms for Apprentices," he growled at me. "Try down the street at the stable." His attitude definitely aggravated me, but I decided to try to be nice even if he wasn't.

"I didn't ask for a free room," I pointed out politely. "I only asked about a room for the night. I have money to pay for it."

"You won't ever have enough money for a room here," he told me. "No Apprentices are accepted here."

"I see!" I said, smiling. "Perhaps you haven't met the right Apprentice yet."

"Your paltry Magic won't work here. So don't even try it. We have a Wizard to protect the premises," he told me in a belligerent voice.

"I see," I said again. "And you think that gives you the right to be discourteous to those who come in here?" I asked. I could see that he was less than happy with me, but did not expect him to draw a sword and start over the counter at me.

Seeing this, I added Magic to the freeze spell that I had been casting, and froze him in mid-air. The spell, however, had no effect on gravity, and his frozen form slammed into the floor shortly following that.

"Damn, I bet that hurt," I said in English, as I turned to leave since I wasn't welcome here.

"How did you do that?" demanded a man dressed as a Wizard who was now standing between me and the door.

"It's just a simple freeze spell. Of course gravity did do its part also," I told him.

"You shouldn't have even been able to get in here!!" he shouted at me. "The ward on the building should have kept you out. And the preventive spell should have prevented you from using that freeze spell. How did you do that?" he demanded again angrily.

"Ward?" I asked, as if confused. "Do you mean that little tickle that I felt as I passed through the front door? As for your preventive spell, I simply canceled it," I told him.

"No one is that powerful!" he told me with conviction.

"Okay!" I agreed. "I'm not that powerful. You figure out how it happened," I told him with a grin, as I walked straight toward him. I had been casting my wards around me while talking to him, and simply walked past him, as he tried to cast a spell to stop me. It was way too late, and he had way too little power, as the spell didn't even tickle my wards as I passed him.

I had made up my mind, however, that something needed to be done about this particular hotel. The question was what? I crossed the street to a pub that also served food. It turned out to not be great food, but it was eatable. I thought about what to do while I ate.

Also while eating, I could sense that the Wizard had removed the freeze spell from the man, reinstalled the ward around the building, and cast the preventive spell again. It seemed that my visit had not affected their resolve.

I ordered ale, but only one, and sat there drinking it slowly while considering what to do, but I didn't have any ideas. "What would Kell do in a situation like this?" I asked myself. The answer came to me as if it had been waiting in the back of my mind and only needed the right question to come to the forefront.

I sat there and sipped my ale, as I began a mantra. It was a simple growth mantra that my Mother and Aunt had taught all of us as children. Ten minutes later I had finished my ale and concluded the mantra. As I prepared to exit the Pub and eating room, I glanced across the street at the hotel. It was now surrounded by a dense hedge of thorn plants some twelve feet in height. It didn't look like they would have to worry about Apprentices applying there for free rooms, or for anyone else staying there for that matter.

I, however, still required a place to stay for the night. I turned back to the man behind the bar.

"Are there any other hotels in the city?" I asked.

"They wouldn't take you across the street?" he asked.

"No, and I don't believe they will have anyone staying there for a while," I told him.

"There is another hotel about a block down just after you cross Red Lion Street," he told me.

"Thanks," I told him, as two other men hurried into the pub.

"You won't believe this, but a hedge of thorns suddenly sprouted all around the hotel across the street," they told the barman, as he handed them the mugs of ale that they had ordered. I just smiled and continued down the street.

The hotel down there was much more accommodating, and I secured a room for the night with no trouble. As my Father and Uncle had done in France, I cast my wards in the floor, ceiling, and walls of the room before using a spell to remove all of the bugs and other vermin that inhabited it. The fish in the Shannon got a surprise dinner, and I spent a comfortable night in the room. I was up early the next morning and quickly prepared to leave.

"Can you tell me where I can buy a horse?" I asked the man behind the counter, as I was handing in the key to the room.

"Continue up this street to the New Gate. Go through it when it opens for the day and continue up Nicholas Street all the way to the Island Gate. After you pass through it, there will be a stable a short distance down the road on the left. Speak to the man there. He sells horses," the clerk told me. I thanked him and went to find some breakfast before looking for a horse.

The only breakfast available this early was some porridge and a bit of bread with butter. It was at least hot, but I would have preferred something different. It turned out to be only an eight or nine minute walk to the Island Gate exit from the city proper. It seemed that Limerick had grown substantially beyond the walls that enclosed the major part of the city. The stable was easy enough to find, as I only had to look for the horses tied up outside it.

"Good Morning," I said to the older man sitting on a stool outside the stable. "I'm looking for a horse."

"To buy or rent?" he asked.

"To buy," I replied.

"Cogan!" he called in a loud voice. "You have a customer." A rather large man in a leather apron and carrying a hammer appeared in the doorway of the stable in a few seconds.

"What can I do for you, young Apprentice?" he asked.

"I require a horse for a trip. A good horse, as it will be a rather long trip," I told him.

"Come into the back. I have several horses back there that are for sale," he informed me, as he turned and deposited the hammer in the area where he had been working. The forge fire there still burned bright in the gloom.

"You're rather tall. I have a horse just right for you," he told me, as I followed him through the stable to the back. There was a corral there with a number of horses. The man, Cogan, separated a large chestnut stallion from the others and brought him over for me to look at.

"What do you think?" he asked, as I reached out to touch the horse. I could instantly tell that he was unhappy about being kept in the corral and about the little that he had been fed. I quickly calmed him and soothed his nerves before checking his general health. He seemed to be in sound physical condition. I then checked his teeth and his feet. He would require a new shoe on his right rear foot, and there was a split in the left front hoof that I started a mantra to seal while I checked the rest of him.

"He needs a new shoe on his right rear foot," I told Cogan after finishing my examination.

"I can take care of that. Anything else?" he asked.

"I'll need tack and grain to feed him," I told him.

"All right. The grain is a bit expensive. Most people just let them eat grass," he told me.

"It will be a long trip, and he will need the extra energy from the grain," I told him.

"All right," he agreed again and then named a price. I was sure that he wasn't serious. My Great Grandmothers, Katie and Margie O'Connell, had taught all of us children how to bargain, and I set about using all of the skills that they had taught us to bargain over the price of the horse. It took a while, but we eventually reached an agreement for the horse, the tack, grain, and the shoe. Cogan seemed quite happy with the final sum that we had agreed on.

"You had a good teacher," he told me, as he led the horse into the stable and up to the area where he had been working previously.

"Our Great Grandmothers taught us children how to bargain when we were small," I told him.

"They taught you very well. They must have had a lot of experience," he said, as he rebuilt his fire and then stuck a shoe in it to heat.

"Yes, they certainly did and still do," I told him, as he continued to pull on the rope to the bellows in the rafters.

"They must be very old then," he said checking the shoe to judge its heat.

"Yes, they are quite old now, but still doing well," I told him, but didn't reveal just how old or how experienced they were. He would have never believed me anyway.