The Silver Stag of Bunratty Read Online Free PDF Page B

was a single blue bottle and a silver basin filled with water. In the centre of the room there was a fire, golden and burning brightly. It was only afterwards that Maude realised what an odd fire it was, for no smoke came from it.
    Seated by the fire was a white-haired woman, with piercing, dark eyes. Her face was white too, and finely wrinkled, as if she were very old. But when she stood up to greet them her back was as straight as a young girl’s and she moved as gracefully as a dancer. She was dressed in a black gown, and over her shoulders hung a cloak as white as milk. It seemed to catch the light as she moved, so that when she stood up, the children’s eyes were dazzled.
    ‘Welcome, children,’ she said.
    Cliar went to her and began, ‘I’m sorry, Dame Anna, there was nothing–’
    The lady put her hand gently to Cliar’s cheek. ‘Hush, child, there is no need to explain. I saw that you would come to me.’
    Then she turned to Tuan and placed her hand on his head. ‘Welcome, Tuan, of the clan Mac Conmara. Your people are good people and you are a worthy child of them. And come to me, you two children of the Normans. Let me look at you.’
    Maude and Matthieu came over to her. She took Maude’s shoulders in her hands so that she was looking directly into her face. ‘A brave girl, and proud. But do not be too proud, Maude FitzHerbert, to ask your friends for help.’
    Then she lifted Matthieu’s chin and looked closely at him. ‘You are ashamed because you have not the bright, clear courage of your sister. But do not forget that you have your own kind of valour, and your own kind of strength. When you find that, you will know that you can do wonderful things.’
    Cliar was standing slightly to one side, and Dame Anna smiled at her. ‘As for you, my helper, you are, I think, already on the path of finding what you will become. Now,all of you, you must sit with me for a while.’
    The children noticed that four stools were already placed close to the woman. They sat down, with Gile stretched at Maude’s feet, apparently already recovered from his ordeal.
    Cliar suddenly remembered why she had wanted to see Dame Anna in the first place. ‘It is the stag, Dame Anna, the Silver Stag. It has been sighted and they say there will be a hunt to catch it.’
    Dame Anna was silent for a long time.
    ‘So the stag has been seen,’ she sighed finally. ‘That may mean the end of Bunratty as we know it.’
    ‘Tell us about the stag, is it magic?’ Cliar swallowed nervously as she said the word ‘magic’. She knew that Dame Anna herself had magical powers, but the word was never used when Cliar worked with her.
    ‘Magic? You might say so. Or you might not. But first, let me give you some water. You are all looking hot and tired from the chase.’
    She went to the shelves and took down four goblets – red, green, blue and yellow. She filled them with water from a silver jug and handed them to the children. Tuan held his yellow glass nervously; he had never drunk from glass before, and he had heard it was very delicate. At home there were pottery and wooden vessels, and sometimespewter or silver for great festivals, but nothing like this. Being able to see what you were drinking seemed like a kind of magic to him. He held it up to the light; the glass coloured the water a delicate gold.
    Dame Anna was speaking in a low, musical voice. ‘The stag is part of Tradree – that is the old name for Bunratty. Tradree means ‘the strand of the two kings’, and one of those kings sometimes takes the form of the stag. For centuries it has appeared at a time when the land is to undergo great change – it was sighted when the first Normans came here, and again when Thomas De Clare died. But it also appears when there is treachery in the air: when the two Mac Conmara hostages were hanged here, two young boys unjustly killed; it was seen when Sir Richard’s father, old Thomas, betrayed the friendship of Brian Rua O’Brien