The Celtic Riddle

"So, this means that when we get this far, there are no more clues," Jennifer said. "Isn't that what you're thinking?"

"I guess so. We're still missing some lines before this. We would have to try and find them, to see if there are any ogham clues that go with them, and maybe one or two lines after this one to see if they are blank too. Then we'd know."

"The lines from this one, the one about the mountain paths," Malachy said, looking at the copy of the poem Jennifer had brought with her, "are slightly different in structure. Instead of I am something or other, they start with he who: he who clears the mountain paths, he who describes the passage of the moon and so on. So maybe we have come to the end of the clues. Maybe we need to find the missing ones before that. We're missing the one about the stag of seven battles and the ray of the sun, aren't we?"

"Not anymore," I said. "We now have ray of the sun, which is," I paused to hold up my notes.

"Grianan Ailech to Granard down the line of the noonday sun," Jennifer read aloud. "Where did you find this one?"

"The garda station," I replied. "It's a long story." I felt vaguely guilty about handing over the clue I got from Rob. But I'd given him all the ones we had so far, hadn't I?

"Did you get a chance to talk to Dad?" Jennifer asked. She looked a little lonely in a way, I thought, and missing him. She was wondering whether I'd told him about her and Paddy.

"Only briefly," I said. "There were a lot of people around." She looked relieved. "Don't tell him I told you about Conail's clue," I added.

"Maybe we could do a deal here," she said, a mischievous smile slowly appearing on her face.

"And maybe we couldn't," I said, although I found myself beginning to smile too. "Just don't tell him."

"What did she say?" Kevin asked.

"She said don't tell Rob she told us the clue," Malachy said directly into Kevin's ear.

"Not that, the clue," Kevin shouted. "What was the clue?"

"Grianan Ailech to Granard down the line of the noonday sun," Malachy shouted back. A couple of other diners looked our way.

"I know Granard," Kevin said. "It's a town, County Longford, I believe. I don't know about this ring of fire thing, but Granard's a real place."

"This is the first real place name we've had," Paddy said. "Maybe it's hidden in Granard. Maybe we should go there. I'll see if I can keep the van for another day or two. We could leave tonight."

Jennifer doing an overnighter with this guy? I didn't think so.

"Hold on a sec," I said. "There are a lot of other clues we still haven't found. Why don't we just concentrate on finding them all, and then see what we've got."

Jennifer looked disappointed. "I guess you're right," she sighed. "But I just want to get going and find this thing, whatever it is."

"That's a good point," I said. "Eamon Byrne said the clues were about what it was, as well as where it was. Maybe the Granard clue is a what, not a where. Without the what, even if we knew where, we wouldn't know what to look for. I mean is it bigger than a bread-box? Animal, vegetable, mineral?"

"I think it's gold," Malachy said. "The bogs. Eamon Byrne was in the turf business, peat. They've found all sorts of treasures hidden in the bogs, stashes of gold and everything. The Celts apparently hid stuff in the bogs, or maybe they threw it in as an offering or something. Roman coins, Viking treasures, gold tores. Those are the metal collars the Celts wore around their necks," he said to Jennifer. "In battle that was all they wore, that and their swords and shields. Starkers, they were, when they were fighting. Must have been something to see." He roared with laughter and slapped his knee. "Denny has some good stories about those battles," he said. "We'll get him to tell them soon. That's if you're up to helping him to a whiskey or three, Lara," he added.

"I am," I replied. I had to laugh too. I loved these three old guys.

"So what's left in the way of lines of the poem?" Paddy asked. "The stag of seven slaughters, I know, but what else?"

"Let's see," I said, looking at my notes. "Lake in a plain, a piercing spear waging war, and a god that fashions heroes for a lord, whatever that is."

"Kevin has an idea for one of those," Jennifer said. "We were going there after lunch. Some observatory, or something."

"Oratory," Malachy corrected her. "The Gallarus Oratory. Kevin thinks that would be the place for lake in a plain. Religious place, very ancient. Yer man Eamon Byrne's kind of place. 'Tis a bit obscure to be sure. The clues we've left are getting harder. But Kev sees it this way. There are no lakes in plains around here. They're all in the mountain valleys. So he tinks 'tis the Gallarus Oratory, on account of it's in the shape of an overturned boat, and it's resting on one of the few flat areas there are. So if we're done here, let's get going."