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<title>Spellbinder - Chapter 4</title>
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<h1>4</h1><p>The rabbit stew was simply miraculous. It was thick and spicy, mixed with wild mushrooms and other things that neither of them could identify even if they cared to. They were so hungry they spooned every delicious mouthful from their billy-cans as fast as they could then ladled more from the bubbling pot.</p>
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<p>"You can call me Rune," the little man said. "Dilligan Rune, lately of old Skiboreen. You know the place?"</p>
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<p>"I've heard the name somewhere," Jack said, reluctantly pausing in his feeding.</p>
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<p>"Sure you have. Beautiful place it is. And they say: <em>The grass it grows green down in old Skiboreen; the porter is flowing and free. The song and the laughter rise up to the rafters, and herrings leap out on the quay.</em>"</p>
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<p>He leant back, rummaged in a leather pouch and produced a long clay pipe. Jack did a double take as it emerged, surely too long to have been encompassed by the small bag, but Rune didn't seem to notice. He stacked the bowl, puffed a couple of decent smoke rings and leant back while the boys ate like starved wolves.</p>
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<p>"But a long time since I saw the fair place."</p>
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<p>Jack introduced themselves, surprised only by the fact that they were not surprised at all to meet a leprechaun who said he was a Cluricaun, in traditional leprechaun garb, cooking stolen rabbit in a coppice in another strange old world.</p>
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<p>Rune looked them up and down.</p>
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<p>"I can tell from the looks of you that you don't hail from these parts," he said. </p>
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<p>"We're not," Kerry said, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. Jack shot him a look, warning him to give nothing away, at least until the knew more about this place.</p>
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<p>"Well, if I was a guessing man, I'd guess the pair of you have been in the wars. And by the dress of you, I'd guess that you're from someplace I've never been, and I've been many a place."</p>
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<p>He sat back, blue eyes twinkling. "So, if I'm not mistaken, I'd say you travellers just came through yonder Fairy Gate on the hill."</p>
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<p>Jack and Kerry's jaws dropped simultaneously, rabbit stew half-way between billy-can and mouth. They looked at each other, taken completely by surprise.</p>
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<p>"But what I can't guess is whether you just stumbled through by mistake, or was it a deliberate step?"</p>
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<p>He puffed some more, send a couple more rings rolling up towards the leaves above.</p>
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<p>"But then, you know about the Sappelings. And you," he nodded to Kerry, "wield a big man's sword. So I'm guessing you're here on a mission, am I right?"</p>
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<p>Before Jack could stop him, Kerry blurted it out.</p>
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<p>"We're looking for a girl."</p>
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<p>Rune laughed, high and infectious.</p>
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<p>"Sure, aren't we all? You should try Skiboreen. Fairest girls in all of Eirinn, I swear."</p>
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<p>"How do you know about the gate?" Jack demanded. They had trusted people in Temair and had been sadly disappointed, not to mention almost killed.</p>
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<p>"The gate?" Rune repeated. He chuckled again. "Sure, I'm a Cluricaun, and I travel all the roads. Tinker, tailor, cobbler, nailer, and much else besides. A travelling fellow's got to keep an ear to the ground he walks, and that way you learn the ways."</p>
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<p>He beamed at them, a tiny man with ruddy cheeks and huge whiskers curling on either side.</p>
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<p>"And from what you've just said, you <em>did</em> come through the gate, so I imagine then that you're looking not just for any girl, though any girl from Skiboreen is finer than ten from CorNamara, I can tell you. I would guess you're looking for a girl in particular. One that you've maybe lost, hmm? Am I guessing right?"</p>
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<p>Jack nodded before he was even aware of it.</p>
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<p>"And tell me some more, Jack. This girl, she wouldn't happen to have red hair would she? And can she fight like a cornered badger?"</p>
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<p>"You've seen her?" Kerry blurted. "She's been here?"</p>
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<p>Rune shook his head.</p>
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<p>"Sadly, no, I haven't, for she sounds like a fine looking girl to me, even though she might be a shade too tall for the likes of myself."</p>
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<p>"So how do you know about her?" Jack wanted to know.</p>
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<p>"Oh, half of Eirinn knows about her, the fighting girl with fiery hair."</p>
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<p>"How long has she been here?"</p>
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<p>"I never said she <em>was</em> here, did I now?" The Cluricaun gave a mischievous smile. "Though I did hear a whisper about a girl on foot in these parts a day or so past. No, what I'm telling you is that Dermott the Wolf, he's got hunters out scouring for her all over. Has been for weeks now, so I heard tell. Looking for a fighting woman with red hair."</p>
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<p>"That's our Corriwen," Jack said. "But who's this Dermott, and what does he want with her?"</p>
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<p>Rune took another long puff and crossed his little legs. He closed his eyes and for a moment Jack and Kerry thought he'd fallen asleep, but after a while, he began to speak.</p>
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<p>"You might have noticed that things are not at all well in Eirinn, these days. Last night there was a hard chill in the air, and this close to the midsummer. And crops are failing all over, since spring never turned its face this past while. Other places got blighted by ice before the corn was knee-high to a Cluricaun."</p>
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<p>"It snowed last night," Jack said. "We almost froze to death on the hill."</p>
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<p>"Ice in summer. Now that's never a good sign."</p>
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<p>"So what's gone wrong?"</p>
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<p>"That's the question on everyone's lips, no matter where I wander. The answer? Nobody's sure. But there's some say Dermott's stolen the Harp of Tara Hill. The dagda's Harp."</p>
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<p>"The Harp of the Seasons!"</p>
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<p>"What's that?" Kerry asked.</p>
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<p>Rune looked at Jack, motioned him to explain.</p>
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<p>"I read it in a book. The Dagda was like a god, and he had three magic things: a big club that could wipe out lots of people at one swipe; a silver cauldron that was never empty, and a golden harp that made the seasons come in the right order. It's a legend."</p>
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<p>"Legend?" Rune interrupted. "So says <em>you</em>. But everybody knows the great harp has kept harmony in Eirinn since the Dagda and the Sky Queen sailed to the stars long, long ago. And now there's only trouble and discord and famine."</p>
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<p>"That's what the book said," Kerry blurted.</p>
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<p>Jack shot Kerry a warning look again. Kerry realised his mistake, but it was too late to bite the words back.</p>
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<p>"And other things too," Rune said, ignoring Kerry's outburst. "I hear there's been Fell Runners seen on the Mourning Mountains, and Bogrim in the mists of CorNamara and more besides."</p>
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<p>"What are they?" Jack asked.</p>
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<p>"Things you don't want to meet on a lonely road," Rune said. "And they say old, bad things have woken hungry in the dark places too. So, you've come here at a time of trouble, and here you are, looking as if trouble has already found you."</p>
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<p>"We've had a couple of…. er… accidents."</p>
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<p>"Not all roads are smooth, I'll grant you. And the road ahead might be rocky and rough."</p>
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<p>"Can't be as bad as the last place," Kerry said. He lifted a foot, showing the tattered trainer with the flapping sole. Jack's own shoes were cracked and torn.</p>
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<p>"Well, seeing you kindly let me cook your coney, and you were good enough to catch a Cluricaun without claiming the gold, maybe I can help you there." He stood up, grabbed his bag and motioned them to follow round the base of a tree, past a couple of big rocks that looked as if they'd been rolled there long ago, until they came to a green mound, covered in trees. An arched passageway, made from cut stone, led inside the mound.</p>
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<p>"I stay here when I'm passing. It's a Drumlin."</p>
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<p>Kerry asked the obvious question.</p>
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<p>"Where they buried one of the old kings, an awful long time ago. In the battles with the Fir Bolg. Empty now, all mouldered to dust, whoever he was, so don't worry. You might see a thing or two in the dark, but there's nothing to worry about. Wraiths never harmed a soul that didn't deserve it."</p>
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<p>Kerry and Jack exchanged a glance, but Rune sat down on a stone by the entrance and reached for a three-legged wooden object that Jack saw had been elaborately and cleverly carved from a single piece. Its legs were all at right angles to each other, and each ended in a small, perfectly carved foot.</p>
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<p>"Slip a foot on there," Rune told Kerry, who shucked off the useless trainer and placed his own foot on the wooden one.</p>
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<p>Jack did a double-take, at first unsure that he had seen anything at all, but then he saw it. As soon as Kerry's foot came down on the wooden last, the carved foot immediately swelled and buckled as if alive, and in a smooth, flowing motion, stretched itself out until it matched Kerry's own foot exactly.</p>
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<p>Rune chuckled again. "One size fits all." He turned to Jack, flipping the cobbler's last over, and instructed him to do the same. Under his sole, Jack felt the polished wood writhe and stretch until it matched his.</p>
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<p>The Cluricaun picked up Kerry's trainer and examined it.</p>
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<p>"Flimsy thing," he stated, shaking his head. "And made with neither love nor skill. I see children slaving over this. Not a good shoe, at all, at all."</p>
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<p>He picked at the band that crossed over the tongue, peeled it back with a small rip.</p>
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<p>"But this is clever. Never saw a shoe fasten like this."</p>
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<p>"It's Velcro," Kerry said.</p>
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<p>"Quicker than bootlace when you're in a hurry." Rune dropped the mangled trainer, leaving Kerry with one bare foot.</p>
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<p>"But first, let me look at that cut," he said, tugging Kerry down to his height. Kerry sat and let the little man pull his rabbit-skin aside. The long gash seeped just a little, but the skin was cracked around it, as if infection was setting in, and the skin was a florid red.</p>
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<p>"Nasty," Rune opined. He delved into the little bag again and drew out a smooth stone jar and without pause, applied a sticky black ointment to the cut. Kerry closed his eyes and let out a slow breath as the ache instantly subsided, and then, in front of Jack's incredulous eyes, the red faded away and the long gash closed itself over from bottom to top, like a zip fastener.</p>
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<p>"Closewort, we call it." He patted Kerry on the shoulder. "That'll be fine in the morning. Go on and get some sleep, and you'll be on your way to find your girl, and may the road always rise up to meet your feet."</p>
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<p>He led them inside the Drumlin and lit an oil lamp made from a single sea-shell, and as soon as the boys sat down on the dry earth, tiredness overtook them and in minutes, both of them were asleep.</p>
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<p> </p>
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