The Druid

Chapter 12

Alan awoke to the sound of Thomas stomping in the kitchen.

He sat up and rubbed his eyes. There was no sunshine pouring in through the window, but nor it completely dark outside. He guessed it was early morning. Somehow, the others remained asleep.

Alan attempted to stretch out the kinks in his back that he accumulated from sleeping on the wood floor. When he asked Thomas last night if he had any more cushions or blankets to sleep on, Thomas responded by saying, "Soft beds make soft men." and then proceeded to walk into his room and fall asleep.

Alan found Maggie leaning up against the kitchen wall on the other side. Her face showed no hint of sleep deprivation, her green eyes fresh, her skin blemish free and tight, but she had an air of unease about her. She beckoned Alan to the open seat and began explaining. The hardwood of the chair's bottom was softer than the bed.

"We will rinse you as soon as we arrive," she explained. "When my truths are secured by Her waters, we will take you to the Council. A wren has already been sent."

"Why didn't ye send a raven?" Thomas asked, without stopping his breakfast preparations. "I know it's frowned upon, but te circumstances, Mags."

"I obeyed Druid Law by sending word," she said. "The raven flies too swiftly. The wren will provide us with precious time."

Thomas grunted in approval.

"I will corroborate your presence before the Council," Maggie continued. "If the Arch-Druid accepts, then I will testify on your behalf. The Council will then decide. They will have no choice but to acknowledge who you are."

"Mags," Thomas said, "how can ye be sayin' that for sure? You'd be lucky that half of 'em didn't walk out on ye te moment you corroborated."

"King Nuada's sword is undeniable," she answered before continuing.

"Alan, you will then be asked to fulfill the essential step of the coronation process, the Poet's Trial. That is, to find the Stone of Fal, one of the four talismans created by the Tuathe Dé Danann. If you find the artifact, you will be crowned as the rightful king in time.

"And te whole bloody Druid world will be turned upside down," Thomas said, wiping his hands on his tanned pants.

"I know the Stone of Fal," Alan said. "My dad wrote about it. Wait. Isn't the stone a monument somewhere in Ireland? Tourists can touch it even and supposedly it will cry out when the rightful king touches it?"

Thomas growled.

"Yes," Maggie said. "But that is only half of the stone. Perhaps the fiercest of our warriors, Cú Chulainn, split the stone in half out of anger, when his protege was denied kingship. Since then, the half you speak of remains on the Hill of Tara in Ireland. The other half disappeared. That half is what you have to find."

"Nobody has been able to find it?" Callum said.

Maggie nodded.

"How is Alan supposed to find it when, for all these years, no other Druid has been able to? This doesn't sound like a fair trial."

"No Druid has been able to find it," Maggie said, "because it's been waiting for Alan."

Callum puffed and shook his head.

Alan's hands were trembling at the thought of standing before a Council of the most prestigious and powerful Druids. He abruptly got up to retrieve his book that he left by his bedside. Comfort and warmth immediately flooded through him. He sat back down.