Trafford Publishing: Raiders from the Sea: An Ardalba Story

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Raiders from the Sea: An Ardalba Story

by Maire Welford

146 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #04-1192; ISBN 1-4120-3365-9; US$16.50, C$18.83, EUR13.50, £9.50

Adventures full of Celtic druids' magic surround four children who wander through secret rock passages into Queen Maeve's Kingdom of Ardalba, in the Ireland of over 2000 years ago.

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about the book about the author excerpts catalogue info

About the Book

Raiders from the Sea describes adventures of four children from the small Irish town of Glenelk who find their way for the third time through their secret cave, and back 2000 years to the reign of Queen Maeve of the Thousand Spears in her magic kingdom of Ardalba.
This book is third in a series, following The Black Bull of Ardalba (Mercier 2002), and The Fiery Chariot (Mercier 2003). Each book describes complete, separate adventures in magic Ardalba.
Raiders from the Sea describes Sea Raiders threatening Maeve's subjects in a distant part of her kingdom if she will not pay them tribute. Breeon, leader of the fisher folk, brings the bad news to Ardalba. If Maeve refuses to pay, the Raiders' leader, Croomloch of the Crooked Tooth, threatens to destroy all her kingdom. How does the Queen respond to this?
The children travel with the Queen's champion to give her answer to the Raiders. They meet Breeon's son, Lorca, on their way, badly wounded by the Raiders. Roisin helps him with her First Aid skills. Brona uses his belief in Other World magic to save his life.
When Croomloch kidnaps the Queen's son, sending him out in a tiny coracle to where the mysterious Isle of the Blest, just visible on the horizon, will lure him ever seaward and away from the Land of Erin, the children seek help from the Other World, from Mannanán Mac Lir, King of Oceans and Lord of Headlands. Does he help? Do they succeed? Or does Croomloch gain his way?
On their journey the children learn faithfulness, resourcefulness and courage. This book gives an engrossing and satisfying read. Its research into Celtic dress, jewellery, weapons, cooking methods, dwellings, and feasting protocols of the time, give it a satisfying authenticity for children of all ages.

About the Author

Maire Welford was born in Dublin and lived there until her mid-twenties. She moved then to Tiverton, Devon, England where she married. On returning to Ireland with her family she worked in special education in Dungarvan, County Waterford, before settling Mallow, County Cork. She has had articles and short stories published in many journals and magazines, including the irish Independent. Her previous books are:
The Black Bull of Ardaba and The Fiery Chariot: an Ardalba Story.

Excerpts

Chapter 14
Mannanán Mac Lir

Back at Rosbeg Aidan, Brona, Rory and Roisin were getting more worried by the minute. What should they do now? If they took a boat across to Inis Alba to rescue Magdawna, they themselves would surely fall into the hands of Croomloch. Yet they could not stand by and do nothing. They were High Nobles of Ardalba, trusted by Maeve in any matter concerning the good of her realm. On this occasion she had enjoined them to remain with her son while he dealt with raiders who threatened her territory. They could not forsake him.
They discussed what choices they had, which were not many. After a lot of talking, Brona decided. "I think I'll consult my stone now. I can't stand not knowing what's happening to Magdawna while we delay here." Roisin helped her by looking into the moonstone in the ring, which Brona held up on her hand, while Brona herself closed her eyes to concentrate on what she could imagine in its creamy depths. "I see Magdawna pushing a boat into the water," she soon told them. "Now he jumps into it and starts to row. He is heading for the island on the far distant horizon." She fell silent. "What else do you see?" Roisin asked her. "I see the island," Brona replied dreamily. "How beautiful it is." "Is the prince still rowing?" Rory demanded, knowing that she too was becoming enchanted by Isle of the Blest. "Yes," Brona told him. "He is rowing with every ounce of strength in his body." When she fell silent again, Roisin stopped staring into Brona's moonstone. Brona opened her eyes.
"What can we do now, when the prince is already beyond our help?" Aidan asked the others, with worry in his wide-set grey eyes. "If we take a boat to go after him, we too would fall under the spell of the island." None of them had thought of that. Brona stood up. "This is the time," she told them, sudden excitement lighting up her eyes. "This is the right time to ask Mannanán for his help. This is the mortal danger from which he will save the prince. Why didn't I see it before? Let's get to Rosdorcha as quickly as we can. There is no time to lose."
All four of them were caught up in the urgency of the moment. Brona took them with her, running and stumbling, towards the top of the great headland, where she would invoke the help of Mannanán Mac Lir.
While the children were hurrying to help him, Magdawna continued to row towards Isle of the Blest. He felt weary, tired of travelling, tired of defending Ardalba, tired of tracking down and punishing its enemies. Sunshine and rest! What could be more attractive? How he longed for the peace he imagined could be found on that distant place of contentment. "Half a day," he kept repeating to himself, "that's all it will take me. I'll get there before the sun sinks under the waves." So well had Cecht programmed him to set out at once in his boat that he had not thought to take with him as much as a full water skin. With eyes fixed hypnotically on the faraway island, he never paused to see how distant behind him the mainland now lay. Yet the island seemed as far away as ever. Blind to his danger, the prince rowed on in spellbound frenzy, leaving Ardalba further and further behind him.
The four children, meanwhile, knowing how great was the danger to Maeve's son, followed Brona along the quickest route to the top of Rosdorcha, which Aidan had earlier worked out for them. Soon they were on its flat summit. Brona ran ahead of them to the farthest and highest point of this great mass of granite, where once again she could hear waves break against rocks far below her. She raised her arms above her head and closed her dark brown eyes as she had done the last time, allowing fierce winds to blow her hair and her clothes wildly about her. Three times, in her strongest tones, she called on Mannanán Mac Lir. The others crept up to stand behind her
"Ocean Ruler and King of Headlands," she shouted above the waves and the wind,
"we need your help." Fierce breezes caught her words and blew them high into the atmosphere. Three times Brona repeated this call. Then she opened her eyes and waited.
At once she noticed a curious path of white foam far out from land seeming to travel towards her across the water. She knew that hooves of Mannanán's white horses striking wave tops in their gallop were stirring up the surface of the sea. He was coming to answer her plea.
The white path of sea foam drew nearer. As it did, Brona could gradually discern shadowy outline of a massive white horse, pulling a mighty war chariot towards her over the tops of the waves. This horse, she knew, was Splendid Mane, swifter than the wind, who could travel equally fast on land or over frothing wave tops. Escorting him rode some of the many wild steeds from Mannanán's herds. She waited without moving, oblivious of Roisin, Rory and Aidan who now stood on either side of her. When this horse and chariot drew nearer to the headland, Brona could more clearly see the heroic person who drove them. He was tall, stern and benign all at once. His wide-set eyes were the aquamarine of sunlit wave tops. His hair, flowing down his shoulders in damp curls, matching his tight-cut beard, reflected radiance of golden sand on midsummer beaches. Brona felt no fear, only wonder to see his magic mail and wondrous breastplate, which Dalb had told them no weapon could pierce. His noble head carried a golden helmet from which shone two magic jewels, bright as the sun. Overall hung his mysterious mantle, the ultramarine of dark and stormy waters, embroidered round its hem with silver thread, and pearls from his oyster beds. When he shook the skirts of this mantle, he could make invisible whatever he wished, and could hurl tempests over the deep. As soon as Mannanán came near to the headland where Brona waited, his horse and chariot left the water to come galloping towards her through the air itself, before touching down at last on solid land before her. The moment Splendid Mane's hooves touched the earth, Mannanán and his chariot became visible to all the children. The Lord of Headlands pulled up in front of Brona.
Mannanán did not descend from his chariot. They could all see his magic weapons held in their places beside him, his two spears called Red Javelin and Yellow Shaft, and his two swords, Great Fury and Little Fury. He wore the Retaliator, his greatest sword of all, in its scabbard hanging from his jewelled belt. This was the sword that never failed to slay. Mannanán spoke to Brona. His voice was elemental, the voice of the storm, the voice of thunder, and the voice of relentless waves crashing on solid rock below them. "Dark-haired maiden from the mystery of the future, you called on me for help?" he asked her.
"Ocean Ruler and Great Lord of Headlands," Brona replied, "I did indeed call for your help. No other can help us now or save our prince from destruction." She told him the whole story of what had happened from the moment Breeon first came to Ardalba to report what sea raiders were doing in Maeve's territory. As her tale continued, first Aidan, then Rory, and then Roisin interrupted to fill in bits where each one of them had taken action.
"And now there's nothing more we can do by ourselves," Rory told him forlornly. "Magdawna is already far from the shores of Ardalba. In following the mirage of Isle of the Blest, he will be lost on the deep unless you can help us."
"Indeed no mortal man may reach Isle of the Blest's shore," Mannanán agreed. "It is part of Tir na n-Óg, the Other World that stands so close to yours." He thought for a moment, while the children remained respectfully silent. "One way I can help you," the Ocean Ruler told them, "is to lend you my magic coracle, Wave-sweeper. That will propel itself and guide itself to wherever you may wish to go. It will travel faster than any craft made by mortals. In this you may follow your prince until you catch up with him. Then perhaps you will persuade him to return. While you travel in Wave-sweeper, I will shake my magic mantle between you and Isle of the Blest to hide it from your sight, in case you too should be beguiled into going there." The four children could feel their worries leave them. Who could fail when help came from the great Lord of Headlands?
"Thank you," they all said. "Thank you for Wave-sweeper"
Mannanán looked kindly at them. "Do not be afraid," he told them. "You cannot come to harm in my coracle. Remember, none of you must attempt to cross into Magdawna's boat. My protection covers you only for as long as you remain with Wave-sweeper." He held out his hands in farewell, arm-clasping each one of them in turn. "Go safely," he said. "You will find Wave-sweeper waiting for you at the most seaward point of Rosbeg." With that he turned his chariot round and drove Splendid Mane back over the cliff and down through the air to the wave tops, where other horses from Mannanán's herds waited to escort them away, until the children lost sight of them in the distance.
For a moment no one spoke. They were still overawed by the great Ocean Ruler, and his generosity in lending them his fabled craft. "Come on," Rory said at last. "We've no time to waste. Let's get back to Rosbeg."
They started down Rosdorcha as fast as they could. "Be careful," Roisin warned, "we don't want any falls. A broken arm or sprained ankle would mean that person couldn't come with the rest of us in Mannanán's boat." Each one of them took extra care after that, until they were safely down from the great headland, and on their way to Rosbeg. Brona had said nothing since they had met Mannanán. Nor had Aidan. They were still thinking about the whole experience. Aidan thought about the Ocean Ruler's armour and weapons. "Whom do you think he would fight with them?" he asked the others. "There would be no one strong enough to stand up to him." "Isn't that why leaders of countries in our own era keep collecting bigger and better weapons?" Brona replied. "They all think that if they have more weapon power than anyone else, then no one will dare attack them." By now the four were near Rosbeg. They hurried out to the foot of its headland to look for Wave-sweeper. It was Rory who found it, a leather boat, rounded at each end, and big enough to carry a small sail, which at that moment was furled around the mast. "You might need your sailing skills after all," Roisin told Aidan with a laugh. "He won't," Brona contradicted. "This boat does not need mortal skills." "Should we find Breeon to tell him what we're doing?" Roisin asked. "We haven't time to look for him," Rory told her. "Every minute counts now. We have to get to the prince as fast as we can." They paddled through shallow water to where Wave-sweeper waited for them, and climbed on board. At first nothing happened. The boat did not move. Then Brona commanded the magic craft. "Please find Magdawna and take us to him." As soon as she spoke, Wave-sweeper's furled sail shook itself out on the mast and let the wind fill it. Without any touch of human hand, the rudder creaked around, setting Mannanán's craft on its course towards Ardalba's prince.
Wave-sweeper moved across the tops of the waves faster than a man could row it or the wind could blow it. It quickly left the shore of Ardalba behind until soon the four children could see Magdawna's boat, a tiny speck on the ocean ahead of them. Looking beyond that, they noticed a dark glow in the distant sky, which hid Isle of the Blest from their sight. "That must be the fringe of Mannanán's mantle," Roisin told them. Onwards their magic craft glided, and drew nearer to the prince every second. Soon they were within hailing distance.
"Magdawna!" they all yelled together. Magdawna gave no sign that he had heard them. They tried again when they were nearer, and then again and again. The prince behaved as if he were deaf. "What's the matter with him?" they asked each other. "Why doesn't he answer us, or even turn round and wave at us?" Brona looked intently at Magdawna. They were near enough now to throw a rope into his boat so that they could tow him back to the mainland, and still he gave no sign that he was aware of their presence. "More than the Island has put him under a spell," she told the others. "Look at the frenzied way he is rowing, although he must be nearly exhausted by now. I expect that horrible Cecht had something to do with this." "Well, how are we going to get him to turn around if he is so bewitched that he doesn't know we're here?" Aidan asked. They were still calling the prince's name every now and then, hoping to waken him up to reality.
"We'll have to think about it for a while," Roisin said sensibly. "We're all safe enough for the moment. Wave-sweeper is taking care of us, and it's keeping us up with Magdawna's boat as well."
They kept trying to make Magdawna hear them, calling his name, telling him they could get him back safely. But nothing made any difference. His hands pulled his oars through the water again and again, pushing his boat forward, even though his palms and fingers were so blistered by this stage that the children could see how raw they were from where they sat, safe in Wave-sweeper. The prince was covered in sweat from propelling his boat forward so fast for so long. "He'll collapse any minute, if he doesn't ease up," Aidan said. "I've often seen people work themselves to a standstill when they've been trying to win a race. It seems to take them over."
All this time Brona had been thinking. What else could they try to attract Magdawna's attention and get him to stop looking at the island? She couldn't think of anything. They were hoarse shouting and calling to him. There didn't seem much point in going on with that. How else could they break this dreadful spell that held him? Then the solution struck her. "I've got it," she told the others excitedly. "Mannanán promised to shake his mantle between us and Isle of the Blest so that we wouldn't see the island and fall under its spell. All we have to do is to ask Wave-sweeper to bring us up in front of Magdawna's boat and keep us there. Then if Mannanán's mantle is still between the island and us, it will also be between Magdawna and the island. He won't see Isle of the Blest any more and the spell over him will be broken." It was so simple they couldn't believe they hadn't thought of it earlier. "What were we thinking of?" Rory wondered. "Now that you've worked it out, Brona, it's as obvious as anything. Let's do it." Brona petitioned Wave-sweeper to take them ahead of Magdawna's boat, so that the skirts of Mannanán's mantle would move forward to shield the prince as well as themselves from view of the island that lured so many to their deaths. At once Mannanán's magic coracle took them around the prince's boat in a semi-circle until it idled on the waves in front of him. Looking back at their friend, the four children saw him stop his frantic rowing and look around him in puzzlement. His eyes could see them now, and he could respond to their calls.
"Are you all right? Aidan called to him. "Can you hear us?" The prince looked at the four. "How did I get here?" he asked them, a worried expression in his eyes. "And how did you get here? A second ago I was a prisoner in a cave, looking at a gold pendant that dangled in Cecht's hand. Where has he gone?" "You're safe now, Magdawna," Aidan shouted across to him. "You're not a prisoner any more. Cecht had you under a spell to do his bidding and set out for Isle of the Blest. He and Croomloch knew you would be lost at sea. I'll throw you a rope and we'll pull your boat alongside ours. Then you can join us and we'll take you back to Ardalba." "Mine is a bigger boat," Magdawna pointed out. "Why don't you all cross into it and we can pull your little coracle back behind us?"
"His boat is bigger," Rory agreed. "Why don't we do what he says?" "Have you forgotten Mannanán's warning?" Roisin asked. "We have his protection only when we stay in Wave-sweeper. If the prince joins us, then he'll be protected too." "Roisin is right," Brona concurred. "We must go back past Inis Alba and the raiders' camp. Their boats could be ready to attack us. They would recognise the craft they allowed Magdawna to take, and nothing would stop them from capturing all of us. We must stay in Wave-sweeper. When the prince crosses over to join us, he will find that this boat will adapt itself for an extra passenger, and he too will then enjoy Mannanán's protection." "We can't join you," Aidan shouted across to the prince. "Be ready when we get near enough. Abandon your own boat, or better still, put a hole in it and sink it." Brona asked Wave-sweeper to take them over beside the raiders' boat, and with Aidan and Rory holding both boats steady, Magdawna climbed across and got into the magic craft. "I couldn't sink my boat," he told them. "There were no tools to put a hole in it." They all turned to watch it drifting away, when suddenly for no reason that they could see, it filled with water and was lost to sight beneath the waves. As soon as it had disappeared, they turned to go back to Ardalba. But where wasArdalba? All around them they saw only blue horizon, darkened where Mannanán's mantle shielded them from sight of Isle of the Blest. "Do you see the danger you were in?" Aidan asked the prince. "The mystic island is as far away as ever, yet Ardalba has disappeared beyond our vision."
"How will we find it again?" Magdawna was worried.
"That's why you had to cross over into our boat," Brona told him. "Mannanán lent it to us.
We are protected in it, and it will take us wherever we want to go." Without further discussion, she spoke once more to Wave-sweeper. "Please take us back to Rosbeg, to the beach where we found you," she petitioned. At once Wave-sweeper turned again towards land they could not yet see, and took its rapid path across the waters.

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