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<title>Spellbinder - Chapter </title>
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<h1>35</h1><p>The scene was total chaos when Fainn arrived in a coal-black wagon.</p>
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<p>He stepped down, cloak fluttering, unhitched the ties and drew back a hide curtain.</p>
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<p>The great silver cauldron carved with the horned god saw the light of the bleak day. Four men helped Fainn set it on the ground as he shrugged off his black cloak and let the wind kite it away. </p>
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<p>Raising his hands to the tumbling sky he began to chant.</p>
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<p>Inside the rim, the black surface began to swirl, refracting poisonous shades of orange and purple. Green fumes bubbled from its depths and drifted away on the breeze. Fainn's tattoos began to writhe on his skin before he plunged both hands deep into the ancient cauldron, still chanting, calling to strange gods whose names only he knew.</p>
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<p class='break'>* * *</p>
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<p>Jack paused and risked a look behind them. The misty road was wider now and the going more exhausting. Far below, on a big horse, Dermott the Wolf was galloping after them, followed by a small company of armed horse.</p>
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<p>Jack began to turn to follow the others when he paused. Then it suddenly struck him</p>
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<p>They had been running on the flat, along the low-mist road. But now Dermott was <em>below</em> them.</p>
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<p>Ahead of him Connor and Corriwen were labouring, breathing hard. But they weren't just ahead of him and Kerry. They were <em>above</em> them. He stopped again, puzzled, and looked back again The battlefield was still a milling chaos. The clash of arms and the shouts of wounded men came clearly across the distance.</p>
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<p>But now, Jack could see it was clearly far below them.</p>
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<p><em>They were on a hill. </em>Impossibly, what had been flat land was now the side of a steep hill. </p>
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<p>Jack grabbed Kerry. "We're climbing!"</p>
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<p>"Don't be daft. Just keep running."</p>
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<p>He spun him around. Dermott was still coming towards them, only a couple of furlongs behind. He was roaring unintelligibly and waving a huge axe around his head.</p>
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<p>Kerry's mouth gaped. "How did we get up….?"</p>
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<p>"It's the hill, man," Jack cried. "We've found it! <em>Tara Hill</em>!"</p>
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<p>Down on the flat, but close to them, Jack saw Fainn gesticulating over the cauldron. Hedda was moving like a streak, wreaking havoc and on the far knoll, Finn and Fennel hurled great boulders down into the massed enemy. Dermott was closer, urging his horse on and gaining on them.</p>
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<p>The heartstone suddenly kicked on his breastbone. Jack realised he had to move. </p>
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<p>Long arms closed tight around him.</p>
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<p>A sickening sensation of cold, foetid cold, seeped through his skin. </p>
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<p>Fainn's voice hissed inside his head.</p>
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<p><em>Too late, strange boy. Too late. Come to meeeee!</em></p>
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<p><em>No</em>! Jack tried to cry, but there was no air. He felt as if he was falling into darkness while the voice scratched in his brain.</p>
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<p><em>Bring it to me…boy…bring me the talisman.</em></p>
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<p>Jack tried to move, but his muscles felt like mud. The darkening world spun dizzily.</p>
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<p>Something hit him so hard that for a second he blacked out completely and then in the next instant his eyes opened and he was tumbling backwards down the hill with Kerry on top of him, yelling at the top of his voice. They ground to a halt and Jack rolled, just in time to see a dark shape, a <em>Fainn </em>shape, waver in the air and then fragment into a cloud of tiny black buzzing particles as if a million flies had suddenly swarmed together. They hissed in the air and then exploded in a dry puff.</p>
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<p>"What happened?" Jack finally found his voice.</p>
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<p>"<em>Jeez</em> Jack, I didn't mean to hit you so hard."</p>
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<p>"What was it?"</p>
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<p>"I don't know. I turned back and there you were standing and there was this shadow wrapped all around you. You were starting to disappear."</p>
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<p>Kerry helped him to his feet. Corriwen had run down the slope. She grabbed his hand.</p>
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<p>"Something evil was there," she said. "It swarmed around you. Like a black cloud."</p>
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<p>"It was Fainn. He was <em>there</em>. He tried to get the heartstone."</p>
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<p>Kerry turned. "No. He's down there…<em>oh-oh</em>. Come on, that loony's catching up."</p>
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<p>Dermott snarled. One hand swung the big axe around his head. The other lashed out with his whip as they turned to clamber away.</p>
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<p>It whistled in the air and then Corriwen tripped. Jack bent to haul her up when she was suddenly dragged back a yard.</p>
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<p>"Got you," Dermott bellowed. "Come and take what's coming to you."</p>
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<p>He heaved at the whip-handle and Corriwen went skittering down the slope as Dermott backed his horse, adding to the traction. Before either of them could move, he had her under its feet and in one swift move, he leant down, grabbed her by the hair and swung her up.</p>
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<p>"Give me my harp," he snarled. "Give it back or I'll twist her head off her neck."</p>
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<p>They froze. Connor was higher up. Behind Dermott the rest of the horsemen were climbing fast.</p>
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<p>Jack and Kerry stood paralysed as Dermott's hand closed around Corriwen's neck.</p>
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<p>"No!" Connor cried. He was too far away to wield the club. Jack couldn't risk an arrow for fear of hitting Corriwen. Her face was turning dark as Dermott's hand squeezed mercilessly.</p>
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<p class='break'>* * *</p>
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<p>Down on the flat, Finn's voice boomed like rock-fall, so loud that for a moment the battle stopped abruptly. He pointed up the hill. Hedda spun and raised her eyes.</p>
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<p>She crashed through a line of men, jinking and twisting like a predatory cat, striking anyone who faced her and ignoring those who didn't. She hit the slope so fast that divots threw up behind her.</p>
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<p>"Give me my harp!" Dermott raged. "Or she'll die in agony."</p>
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<p>Jack couldn't move. The harp was in Brand's bag on his shoulder. They had come so close that he couldn't give it up, not to a beast like Dermott.</p>
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<p>Yet he could not stand and watch Corriwen die. His hand reached for the long sword.</p>
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<p>Dermott laughed.</p>
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<p>Something whirred past Jack's head, so close he felt the wind of its passing.</p>
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<p>Three stones whirled around each other on cords and wrapped themselves around the horse's legs. It stumbled, tried to rear, lost its footing and crashed on its side. Dermott was thrown, but he still had his hand round Corriwen's throat. She made a desperate choking sound.</p>
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<p>Dermott clambered upright. The horsemen were only twenty yards behind him now.</p>
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<p>"You had your chance," he roared. "First her, and then you three. I'll skin you alive."</p>
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<p>"<em>Dermott</em>."</p>
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<p>The voice barked his name. He spun on one heel. Jack drew the great sword.</p>
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<p>Hedda came racing up the slope. She was just behind the mounted men, then in amongst them. Jack saw the swords flicker and flash, heard them sing through the air as she cut through the riders, saw men fall to one side or another.</p>
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<p>Then she was through them, running, the grotesque mask snarling.</p>
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<p>Dermott's axe was over his head, ready to slice down. Corriwen squirmed, managed to get one hand to her knife.</p>
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<p>"<em>Fight me!</em>"</p>
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<p>Hedda stopped twenty feet away. She sheathed one sword and then flipped her mask up and off. Her hair tumbled free, unbraided, a cataract of flame-red flowing to her waist.</p>
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<p>Dermott froze. </p>
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<p>"Your fate is here and now," Hedda said. "Not theirs."</p>
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<p>Dermott's mouth opened, closed, opened again.</p>
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<p>"You!" He blurted. "You are the one foretold? The red haired warrior woman?"</p>
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<p>Hedda stood stock still. Corriwen sensed the moment, kicked hard and spun free just as Jack leapt forward. The blade swung, almost of its own volition, came down on Dermott's right shoulder with a sickening <em>slice.</em> The axe tumbled away.</p>
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<p>Corriwen's blades flashed. She twisted forward and thrust them deep into Dermott's chest, both of them to the hilt. Dermott gasped and went rigid. Blood bubbled through his breath.</p>
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<p>"No!" Corriwen cried. "<em>I'm</em> the one. For what you did, it was always going to be me!"</p>
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<p>Dermott toppled backwards and hit the ground with a crash. His eyes rolled up to stare at the thunderous sky and he did not move again.</p>
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<p class='break'>* * *</p>
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<p>Fainn saw Dermott fall. </p>
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<p>He turned his face to the purple sky and howled like a beast, then plunged his hands into the cauldron once more.</p>
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<p>Inside, it was darker than night, and he clenched his mad eyes tight, summoning all his power.</p>
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<p>A black snake looped from the darkness and oozed over the rim. Another flat head appeared and a slick tongue flickered out. Then another and another, long, scaly snakes with glassy eyes and yellow zig-zags down their backs. First a few, then a dozen, then a hundred. </p>
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<p>All around Tara, from burrows and clefts, roots and bushes, came the wild snakes of Eirinn, summoned by the Spellbinder. </p>
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<p class='break'>* * *</p>
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<p>Corriwen wiped her blades, sheathed them and looked at Hedda who still stood impassively. Then Hedda raised her sword, touched her forehead with the bloody blade in salute to a fellow warrior. Corriwen nodded.</p>
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<p>She turned, grabbed Jack's arm, pulled his eyes away from the dead man.</p>
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<p>She pointed down the slopes of Tara Hill. For an instant Jack thought ground itself was rippling and then his eyes focused.</p>
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<p>A vast swarm of snakes was slithering up towards them, faster than he would have believed possible.</p>
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<p>"Fainn!" He muttered.</p>
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<p>"Come on," she said. She pointed behind him up the slope. "We're almost there."</p>
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<p> Together, the four of them climbed to the top of Tara Hill.</p>
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<p>Before them stood a tall stone, made of the same polished glass as the heartstone.</p>
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<p>On the side facing them was carved an exact replica of the harp they had stolen from Dermott's castle and carried with them all across Eirinn.</p>
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<p>Jack knew what would be carved on the other three sides. They had seen the same carvings when they first fell into this world.</p>
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<p>He approached it, looking about him for any other evidence that this really was the place. Somehow he had expected more, something <em>magical.</em></p>
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<p>"What do we do now?" Kerry asked.</p>
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<p>"Whatever it is, you'd better be quick," Corriwen said. The slithering sound carried up to them, and the sibilant hiss of thousands and thousands of snakes.</p>
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<p>Jack took the harp out of the bag and held it up. The wind caught the makeshift strings and strummed a faint harmonic.</p>
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<p>Instantly the heartstone vibrated like glass, in resonant sympathy.</p>
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<p><em>Home on Tara Hill.</em> A sweet voice whispered in Jack's head.</p>
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<p class="centered"><em>Home on Tara Hill</em></p>
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<p class="centered"><em>Home and peace I bring</em></p>
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<p class="centered"><em>Harmony my song</em></p>
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<p class="centered"><em>To summon now the spring.</em></p>
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<p>"Did you hear it?" Jack asked. Kerry shook his head.</p>
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<p>Jack walked forward, bearing the wonderful instrument, suddenly sure of what he should do. He approached the stone and raised the harp in both hands. Above him, lightning forked from one black cloud to another. A vast clap of thunder rolled away over the hills.</p>
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<p>He placed the harp on the flat top of the stone.</p>
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<p>Some instinct made him draw the great sword and he found that it too was vibrating in his hand, as if a powerful current was running through it and into him. It keened like a taut string in the wind.</p>
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<p>He took one step forward, not knowing what to expect and raised the sword up to the harp. The heartstone swung forward and touched the hilt…..</p>
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<p> </p>
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