and pulled the amulet from around his neck that I realised I was in trouble. I rowed away from him with all of my strength – but it was too late. He dropped the amulet into the shell, shouted “Gream!” and threw. I dived to block but the shell ricocheted around the bottom of the boat. Before I could get to it – I heard the scream.
‘I know now that the spell he dropped in the shell – it was a Banshee pain scream. I thought it was only a legend but Cialtie was always a master of old lore. He has since made many a myth become a reality. Legend has it that in the War of the Others, the Banshees developed a scream that gave the enemy’s men – the pain of childbirth. I thank the gods for making me a man and I shall forever look on mothers with admiration. Never again do I want to feel such pain. Not even the arrow in my chest compared to the debilitating agony that hit me in that boat. I doubled up, clutching my knees. I was in too much pain even to scream. Cialtie sped ahead.
‘Through closed eyes I envisioned how the future would unfold. I saw Cialtie winning the race. I saw my father and Deirdre’s disappointment. I saw Cialtie holding the Oak Rune. I saw Cialtie holding the Sword of Duir. I saw Cialtie sitting on the Oak Throne, and I saw Cialtie with a queen by his side – it was Deirdre!
‘That was more than I could bear. I let loose a howl and opened my eyes. The shell was lying on the bottom of the boat, right next to my face. With an effort I know I will never be able to duplicate, I took my hands from my knees, grabbed the shell and hurled it with all of my might. I only threw it about a foot but that was enough – as the shell sank, the scream and the pain subsided. When I finally sat up, I saw that I was in the middle of the lake and Cialtie had an impossible lead.
‘I retook my oars and began to row but without heart, for Cialtie’s lead was too big. Cialtie will win – Cialtie will be king – that thought, like a lightning bolt, shot through my body. “No!” I screamed and I pulled at my oars with all of my strength. The pain of my attack racked my body but I pushed it away. I melded my mind and my body into one. With every stroke, I recalled the indecencies my brother had committed – it fuelled my arms and my back with superhuman strength. The front end of my boat rose up with the speed, and the wake behind me looked as if it came from a galleon ship with fifty oarsmen.
‘I was spurred on not only by the desire to stop my brother, but by anger. I was angry with myself. It was my own fault that I was in that position. I should never have let Cialtie get so close. I only did it so I could gloat. It was pride that defeated me. I realised how foolish I had been and that pushed me even more. I had been so confident of winning the race that I had even taken the Sword of Duir with me. I had disguised its hilt that morning with leather straps so no one would recognise it. You see, in my mind I was already king. I thought I had won the race before it had even begun – it had cost me dearly.
‘Even these thoughts left me as I became a mindless rowing machine. I forgot I was even in a race. Rowing stops Cialtie, Rowing stops Cialtie, ran through my mind like a Fili mantra. I didn’t even know that I had caught up to my brother until I heard him sneer, “Too little, too late, brother.”
‘That snapped me out of it. I heard the roar of the watching crowd. I looked to my left and saw the tip of my boat was almost even with Cialtie’s stern, but when I looked fully around I saw that my brother was right, we were almost at the Castle Beach and I was a full length behind.
‘I have found that important moments in life either happen so fast you don’t even remember them, or so slow that each second seems like a lifetime. I remember what happened next as if I was swimming in honey.
‘Cialtie’s boat grounded first. He jumped into the knee-deep water and began the thirty-second run to the beach. My boat grounded just as he hit the water. There was no way I could beat him. As I have said, the next few seconds seemed like hours, and although it seemed as if I had plenty of time to think through what I did next – in retrospect, I wasn’t thinking at all. I remembered that the winner of the race was the brother that first placed his runehand on the Castle Beach. I lowered my runehand on the seat of the boat, drew the Sword of Duir with my left hand and without even a second thought – I cut off my hand. I didn’t even wait for the pain to register, I dropped the sword and hurled my severed runehand to the shore. The throw pitched me out of the boat, but before I hit the water I saw my hand sail past Cialtie’s astonished face. It landed on the beach, to the silence of a stunned crowd. I had won, my runehand had been the first to touch the Castle shore. I had won – that was the last thing that went through my mind as I splashed unconscious into the reddening water.’
THE CASTLE BEACH
‘You did it to yourself?’ I almost shouted. ‘You cut off your own hand?’
‘Yes,’ Father said.
‘But didn’t you realise that you couldn’t take the Choosing without a right hand, or that you would become the one-handed prince?’
‘No.’
The look on my father’s face made me realise how insensitive my questions were. Of course he realised these things – now.
‘At the moment I raised the sword,’ Dad confessed, ‘the only thought that went through my mind was winning – or more to the point, beating Cialtie. All thoughts of Runechoosing, or prophecies, or even the pain, were superseded by the desire to win. It was foolish.’ I could see in his eyes, he had paid dearly for that impulsive act.
‘It was courageous, Lord Oisin,’ said a voice. It was Araf. I had almost forgotten that the others were there.
Dad gave him a soft smile. ‘Thank you, Araf. You Imps and Leprechauns are a romantic bunch. You have always considered my moment of madness as courageous. It wasn’t, it was stupidity.’
‘Is that why Lorcan’s army is called the Army of the Red Hand?’ I blurted, without thinking.
Mom, Dad and Aunt Nieve simultaneously shouted, ‘What?’ Araf and Essa gave me a very dirty look. I had made a solemn vow to keep Lorcan’s army secret.
Fergal tried to change the subject. ‘It must have created quite a commotion at the finish line when you threw your hand to shore.’
Dad ignored him and looked directly at me. ‘What did you just say?’
‘Me?’ I squirmed.‘I didn’t say anything.’
‘You did,’ Dad said, ‘you said something about Lorcan and an army.’
‘No, I didn’t,’ I interrupted. ‘I do have a few secrets that I have kept from you, Father. Most of them, like what happened at the party I had in the house when I was sixteen and you were out of town, I keep so I will not get into trouble – others I keep because I swore an oath on the House of Duir. There are things it is not in my power to tell.’
I wanted to tell him all, especially now that he was finally telling me the truth, but I had sworn an oath. Dad looked me deep in the eyes and I saw that he understood.
‘You had a party in the house when I was out of town?’
I smiled.
‘Seriously,’ Fergal said, ‘I want to know what happened after you threw your hand to shore – there must have been pandemonium.’ He looked like a little boy being told a bedtime story.
‘I wouldn’t know,’ Dad said, ‘I was unconscious at the time.’
‘I was there,’ Mom said. ‘I wouldn’t say, Fergal, that it caused a commotion, at least not at first. Everyone was stunned into silence. You have to realise that only a handful of us knew how important this race was – most people thought it was harmless family fun. No one could understand what made Oisin do such a desperate thing. Lord Finn and I dived into the lake and carried