The Legend of the Corrib King by Tom McCaughren Page B

followed Martin down to the boats, and as they got ready to shove off, he added, ‘We’ll be carrying out a lot more searches now, so stay away from the islands – all of them. Is that clear?’
    There was no mistaking the serious tone of his voice, so they all nodded solemnly.
    â€˜And what about Clonbur tomorrow?’ asked Jamesie.
    â€˜That’s right,’ said Rachel. ‘The man with the rings said they would meet at the fair.’
    â€˜I haven’t forgotten,’ Martin assured them. ‘There’ll be some of our people at it. So I want you to stay away from there too, just in case the poachers recognise you and give them the slip. Come on now, it’s time we were getting back.’
    * * *
    Having helped them put the engines back in the boathouse, Martin returned to his station to make out his report. Somehow they all now felt at a loose end, disappointed that they weren’t being allowed to help any further in the search for their Uncle Pakie.
    Róisín could have been speaking for them all when she said, ‘I don’t care what anyone says, they’ll never find that van without us. Dear knows what colour it is now.’
    â€˜Come on,’ Jamesie suggested, ‘let’s go into Cong.’
    â€˜Good idea,’ said Cowlick. ‘We need matches anyway.’
    â€˜And I’m hungry again,’ said Rachel.
    As they made their way into the village, Róisín wondered about the motor cruiser the poachers had used. ‘Maybe that’s the boat they were talking about when they said they were taking him to the fairy queen.’
    â€˜If it was a boat they were talking about,’ said Jamesie.
    â€˜Well, whatever they meant, they also said nobody would find him so long as they stayed close to the little people,’ Tapser recalled. ‘That’s the bit that puzzles me.’
    â€˜One thing’s for sure,’ said Cowlick, ‘if they’re going to meet in Clonbur that’s the end of the trail for us.’
    Parking the caravan at the abbey, they went to a shop to get drinks and sandwiches and some other supplies including matches.
    â€˜Well Jamesie,’ said the woman serving him, ‘I suppose you’ll be taking your friends to the funfair.’
    The others, who were examining some blackthorn walking sticks near the doorway, looked up.
    â€˜What funfair?’ asked Jamesie.
    â€˜Out at Nymphsfield. Sure I thought everybody knew about it. Did you not see the poster on the Market Cross?’
    Running from the shop, they found a coloured poster on the back of the stone cross, advertising the carnival.
    â€˜That’s it!’ exclaimed Tapser. ‘The funfair!’
    Róisín nodded. ‘We should have thought of it before. Big Jim told us it was coming. And we saw the lorries ourselves.’
    â€˜So we’re still on their trail,’ smiled Cowlick.
    â€˜But a funfair,’ said Rachel. ‘Do you really think that’s what the man with the rings meant?’
    â€˜It must have been,’ said Cowlick. ‘Look what it says.’
    The poster was divided up into a number of sections, advertising the big wheel, swing boats and merry-go-round. But what Cowlick was pointing to was a section headed ‘Titania’s Palace’. ‘Remember, we saw the sign on one of the lorries,’ he said, and read aloud, ‘See the Fairy Queen and her amazing troupe of acrobatic riders.’
    â€˜The fairy queen,’ gasped Jamesie.
    â€˜It’s from A Midsummer Night’s Dream ,’ Róisín told them, ‘by William Shakespeare. We’ve done a bit of it at school.’
    â€˜What’s it about?’ asked Tapser.
    â€˜Titania was the queen of the fairies, and there was one called Puck, and a changeling and all that sort of thing.’ Róisín smiled, and added, ‘It’s the sort of book you’d enjoy, Jamesie.’
    Jamesie,