Free The Legend of the Corrib King by Tom McCaughren

could see that, and on looking around they could also see there was an assortment of bowls on the table and an untidy collection of withered plants and flowers, and various greens which they couldn’t identify but which they assumed to be herbs.
    â€˜Why is it so important to ye?’ she asked them. ‘The foxglove.’
    â€˜Because we think it’ll help us find our Uncle Pakie,’ Rachel replied.
    Jamesie told her how Pakie had disappeared, and about the poem, and how they had figured out some of it.
    â€˜ Fairies and witches, foxes in ditches ?’ Biddy giggled. ‘Well, I don’t know much about poems, but I do know something about flowers. And ye could be right about the foxglove. It is poisonous. That’s why it’s sometimes called dead man’s bells.’
    â€˜ Deadly the fingers that point to life’s riches ,’ said Tapser.
    â€˜But it can also give life,’ she went on. ‘It has a substance called digitalis that can be used to treat heart trouble.’
    â€˜Health,’ said Róisín. ‘That’s one of life’s riches.’
    â€˜And if Tapser’s right and it has another meaning,’ said Cowlick. ‘It could also mean the poachers. You know, that they’re after life’s riches, the salmon, and that they’re deadly, meaning they’ll stop at nothing to get them.’
    â€˜That settles it then,’ said Rachel. ‘Pakie must mean the foxglove.’
    â€˜And maybe more,’ said Biddy. She got up and went over to the dresser where she had her cures. ‘He could also mean deadly nightshade. That’s poisonous too. And that line about tall spires of gold …’
    â€˜ Beneath tall spires of gold the Story is told ,’ Jamesie reminded her.
    â€˜That could be the great mullein. It’s a very tall plant with lovely yellow flowers all the way up the stem.’
    Suddenly they were thinking that maybe Biddy wasn’t so touched after all, and they crowded around Jamesie to have another read of the poem …
    â€˜Faith an’ your Uncle Pakie’s a very smart man,’ Biddy continued, running her finger across the bottles on the dresser. ‘Because I think he means something else as well.’
    They looked up and waited to hear more.
    â€˜Ye see,’ she said, coming back with a small blue bottle in her hand, ‘he’s talking about the lus mór .’
    â€˜The lus mór ?’ said Tapser. ‘What’s that?’
    â€˜It means the great herb. The great mullein is the lus mór . Deadly nightshade is the lus mór na coille , the great herb of the wood. And the foxglove is the lus mór baineann , or lus na mban sídhe – the herb of the fairy women.’
    They looked at each other, mesmerised by the extent of Biddy’s knowledge of plants and their Irish names.
    â€˜That’s the real clue,’ she went on. ‘They’re all known in Irish as the lus mór .’ Then, when she saw that they didn’t understand, she explained, ‘Well, for one thing these were all very special herbs in days gone by. Ye see, the old stories say that when people believed a child had been stolen by the fairies and a changeling child left in its place, it was the juice of the lus mór that was used to bring it back.’
    â€˜Which one?’ asked Jamesie. ‘The foxglove?’
    â€˜It doesn’t matter which one,’ said Biddy sternly. ‘All ye need to remember is that they’re all deadly poisonous, except the great mullein.’
    â€˜So we’re right,’ said Róisín. ‘Pakie is trying to say where he’s being held. And he’s hoping that whoever finds the poem will try and bring him back.’
    â€˜Maybe he means some place where all these plants grow together,’ suggested Rachel.
    â€˜We thought maybe an island,’ said Tapser, ‘with a church.’
    â€˜Where nymphs