Morning Grog
With morning came no relief. Fiona shifted uneasily in the bed, not quite ready to admit to being awake. She dreaded opening her eyes to the new day and the continued nightmare that had become her reality. Slowly and with careful precision she pried one eye open just enough to reach out and grasp the star-shaped pebble that rested on the bed table next to her. Holding it tightly in her palm, hand against her heart, she lay on ber back letting the light tease her closed lids. She wasn't quite sure why, but this gave her some measure of peace. She just had to believe that the occupants of the place that had given her this gift were not capable of such terrible mischief that they would take her grandsons away forever. She knew there was a way to unlock this puzzle. With a line of grim determination set in her forehead, she slowly rose and put on her wrapper and slippers. With her pebble tucked safely in the chest pocket of the robe, she made her way out to the kitchen to start up some coffee. She had decided that she would initiate the day with a bit more American ritual than they were used to, just to see if it would help jog them into more actionable thoughts. She paused for a moment when she saw Roary on the sofa in front of the now spent fire. He was definitely too big for that piece of furniture. One leg was thrown up over the back and the other dangled precariously off the side, his head thrown back at an odd slant and his arms fully distended, one pointing over his head and the other trailing the ground. He looked like he was just untangling himself from a wrestling match, especially with the blankets all askew. "At least he's asleep," she thought, slipping as quietly as she could into the kitchen and starting on the coffee. She put that on to brew and mixed up a batch of biscuits. She took her time with the ingredients, enjoying the kneading of the dough before she rolled and cut and spaced them out for the baking.
As she put them in the oven, Lin joined her in the kitchen. Fiona put a finger to her lips and pointed at the sleeping figure on the sofa. Lin suppressed a laugh and whispered, "Doen't look like a bomb could wake him." Fiona had to stifle her own giggled response.
The two women set about the making of the rest of the morning's repast. Lin cooked up rashers of bacon, while Fiona sliced and arranged a fruit tray for the table. "Probably time to wake him to see if he would like any eggs," said Lin. "Not me," replied Fiona. "Never know how a man's going to take to being shaken awake." "In that case, if the scents of coffee and bacon don't work, he can eat it all cold," said Lin, as Roary began to stir. He managed to make it to the table as the plated dishes were being served up. Fiona set a mug of coffee in front of him. She eyed him as if she expected him to ask for tea, but Roary said nothing, just added a bit of milk and drank the coffee as if it were ambrosia. "Lo' this is good," he mumbled. They filled their plates and ate in relative yet companionable silence.
Afterwards, as Roary helped Lin clear the plates and insisted on helping wash up, they began to discuss their plans. It seemed there was a lot of ground to cover. They each had places they wanted to check out and while some continued along the West coast, others would take them to the Southern edges, and if followed, one would lead fairly far to the North. Roary also wanted to do some additional research that might help them settle on which places would be the best to go to first. Finally, they decided that they would take the time to go to his shop and pull what they could in terms of additional books, but going into Dublin to try and access more records was out unless they really ran dry. They all agreed that the keys had to be somewhere in what the boys had already keyed into and somehow must connect to the Sidhe. It was agreed then that they would start out heading West and then move South, rather in a zigzag pattern, covering as many of the likely and perhaps unlikely sites as they could and looking up the known people who had dealings with the Sidhe in the towns they crossed through. It was likely that this last might be a complete waste of time, but you never really knew. Most people had dismissed Roary's experiences as childhood dreams and, had they known of the more recent encounter, would have put it down to a bit too much of the drink. Yet there was a possibility they might find someone who could point them in the right direction. Of course, they would also be looking for two hounds who were not quite hounds as well. It would do Lin's heart a world of good to have the boys with her, even if they couldn't talk to her in their present form.
They had packed as lightly as they could not knowing how long they would be gone when it occurred to Lin that they had a serious issue. What were they going to do about the swan? They could not just go off and leave it alone. All of their efforts would be for nothing if the poor thing wasn't seen to. It was still not well enough to brave the waves and try to feed itself, let alone fly. They looked at each other for long moments. It was clear that no one wanted to stay behind; perhaps even clearer was that they really could not afford to have anyone stay behind. They would need all of their combined knowedge and fortitude to fathom this riddle and do so quickly. But what could they do for the bird? In the end it was Fiona who came up with the suggestion. Why not ask the barkeep if he would help? He knew all of them. He certainly knew the history, myth and legend of the area, and he seemed to have a big heart. They could tell him the whole story or just tell him they needed to go after the boys and there was the sick bird needing his help.
They opted to only explain that they needed to go after the boys. In their version, the two youngsters had gotten it into their heads to run off to Dublin and they needed to go find them before they got into all sorts of trouble. Roary was going with them to help in the search as he knew the boys, too, and could expand the field. If Padraic was not quite taken with the story, he did not comment on it. He simply agreed to meet Lin and Roary by the strand after the lunch hour to be trained in the care of the bird. If he had known what he was getting himself into, he would probably have showed them the door right then. But a promise is a promise, he thought ruefully as he fed the bird its seaweed and lightly touched its long neck.
"Don't be gone too long now," he said. "I've a business to run. I canna' be here takin' care of yon' bird for any length of time."
"We'll be back as soon as we find what we need," assured Lin.
They parted at the path. When they got to the cottage, Fiona had locked it securely. They climbed in the car with Roary at the wheel and Lin in the backseat. With an air of calm defiance, Fiona plugged in Ian's iPod and turned on U2 to start the journey.
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