Behind the Sorcerer's Cloak (30 page)

Chantel laughed.

Adam hugged her again. “We'll make them listen, Chantel. We'll keep telling them what Holly told Doona and the Lady. It's their divorce. It's not our war!”

“You're right, son. It's not your war.”

Their father climbed the stairs and sat between them.

Chantel shot him a sideways look. “What did you hear?”

“Enough.” He sighed. “We'll try to give you kids some choices, so you don't feel caught in the middle.”

“Like what,” Adam said suspiciously.

His dad shrugged. “Like how it's best to share you. We both want you. Can you live part-time with me and part-time with your mom? Lots of kids do that.”

“Yeah, Colin Deskey does. One week with his mom and one week with his dad. He's always leaving stuff at the wrong house.” Adam hunched his shoulders.

“Weekends with one parent, schooldays with the other?”

Adam shrugged.

“Or the school year with one parent and holidays with the other. That would allow one of us to try out a job in another place.”

“Like where?”

“Like England. Uncle Ron needs a farm manager.”

“England! More summers here?”

“Or school in England and summer in Canada. We'll look at all the options, and you'll have a say. I promise.”

“You and Mom aren't going to get together again, are you?” said Chantel sadly.

“No,” said her dad honestly. “But it's not your war.”

When it was time to exercise the ponies, no one discussed the direction for the evening ride. They all knew.

“Everything started here,” said Chantel as they reached the crest of White Horse Hill. “Where Equus first spoke to me.”

“And you walked seven times around the eye of the chalk carving and found half his talisman,” said Holly. She slipped off Harlequin and tied him to the fence.

“None of you believed me.” Chantel giggled.

The four cousins walked to the ancient white chalk lines carved through the grass that gave the hill its name. They sat above the eye, looking out over the valley.

“What a summer. Totally unbelievable,” said Adam. He chewed a clover head. “Do you think we'll hear from the Wise Ones again?”

“I think so,” said Owen, “if we want to.” He lay back on the grass and watched a hawk circling in the sky. “But more on our terms. As equals.”

“So…did anyone actually win?” asked Adam.

We all won,
replied Equus.

G
LOSSARY

Bollan Bane
—a herb still worn by the Manx on Tynwald Day to ward off evil.

Cabbyl Ushtey
—(cavel ushta) the wild white horses of the sea that take riders below the waves. The riders can breathe if they are good; they drown if they are bad.

Cullyn
—(coo-lin) archaic Manx for holly (modern Manx Gaelic uses
hollin
). I use it as a proper name to facilitate the story's plot, but it isn't used that way in the Isle of Man.

Isle of Man
—a small island in the middle of the Irish Sea, between England and Ireland. Ancient name Mann, used here as an Old Magic name. Also affectionately known as Mona, or Ellan Vannin.

Lhiat myr hoiloo
—(l'yat mer hohl-yu) an old Manx saying, meaning, “To thee as thou deservest.”

Manannan
—Manx Celtic Sea-God. His full name is Manannan Beg Mac y Leir, which translates as Lord of Mannin, son of the sea. His name has appeared through the ages as Manannin, Manannan, Mananan, Manan, Mannin. Currently on the Isle of Man it is spelled Manannan.

Manx
—the term used for people born on the Isle of Man and their cultural traditions, folklore and language.

Manx cats
—a breed of tailless cats indigenous to the Isle of Man.

Moddy Dhoo
—(mawtha doo) Black Dog.

Paitchey
—(pay-chee) child.

Paitchyn
—(pay-chin) children.

Pheric
—(feric) a boy's name. An early form of Patrick.

Runes
—ancient Norse symbols comprised of straight lines that could be easily scratched into wood or stone. One of the earliest forms of accounting and writing. Some of the best surviving examples in the world are found on the Isle of Man.

Skeet
—gossip, news.

Spooyt Vane
—(spoot vairn) White Spout, the name of a waterfall in Glen Mooar said to have magical properties.

The Three Legs of Man
—the island's national heraldic symbol, seen in the center of the Manx flag and found on many buildings. The three legs, clothed in armor and joined at the thigh, are one of the forms Manannan takes when under threat.

Tramman Tree
—the Elder tree.

A
UTHOR'S
N
OTE

Behind the Sorcerer's Cloak
is the culmination not only of the Summer of Magic Quartet, but of a life-long love affair with the Isle of Man.

From my first visit at a few months old, until I was twenty-one, I spent annual summer holidays on Ellan Vannin. I played in the ruins of her castles, sailed the surrounding waters and hiked the mountains, glens and beaches, sometimes with family, sometimes with Manx friends and sometimes on my own, for those were the days when children could safely wander without comment as long as they returned in time for meals.

My wanderings were always enlivened by daydreams, for on the island of my childhood, dreams and magic were a part of life. Folktales were still told and superstitions still acted upon. I cannot remember a time when I didn't know about Manannan, the Moddy Dhoo and the Cabbyl Ushtey, and to this day I see white horses in the crests of waves.

Manannan's presence on the Isle of Man is still acknowledged, and his “cloak of mist” is often drawn to hide the island from view. To the great delight of the Manx, this almost always happens when English royalty visits. The Manx are fiercely proud of the fact their island, though under the protection of the British Crown, has its own thousand-year-old parliament, Tynwald, and is not part of the United Kingdom. Manannan obviously agrees and continues to shield his island from British invaders.

Manannan is said to live on the summit of South Barrule where the remains of ancient walls and ditches of a Bronze Age hilltop fort can be seen. I can no longer climb to the peak as I did in my youth. But last year my friend Nina sent me a photo of herself on the summit, placing a white quartz rock there for me. This Manx tradition of marking important places with white quartz has continued for centuries; I used the tradition to mark Breesha's grave in my story.

The burial of Breesha is based on what I know of the Pagan Lady's grave found within the walls of Peel Castle. She was buried over a thousand years ago, with a magnificent assortment of grave goods, including a necklace of colored glass and beads from around the world. Her necklace sparked my imagination and gave me the thread for the entire fantasy quartet. The necklace is on display in the Manx Museum in Douglas, though no one knows the real order of the beads.

The picturesque ruins of Peel Castle and the Round Tower on St. Patrick's Isle are tourist attractions and the highlight of a visit to the fishing village of Peel. But in my story I used “Pheric,” the older Manx name for the isle.

Peel was home to the biggest herring fishing fleet on the Isle of Man and was once a center for smuggling. Countless stories are told of secret passages under St. Patrick's Isle and the town, though the only one I've seen is in the basement of a restaurant on the Nebb estuary, opposite the castle. The Castleview Inn and its secret passage to the Round Tower are figments of my imagination.

My center of research was the House of Manannan, a wonderfully imaginative interpretive center and museum in Peel, where I learned of early burial traditions and of the intermarriage between Manx women and Viking invaders. I used what I learned as the basis for the chapter about Breesha.

Several times over the last few years, my husband, David, and I revisited the island and looked at runic inscriptions, ancient settlement sites, magical glens and stone circles. One day our friends took us on the electric railway to the summit of Snaefell, the highest mountain. There I was able to survey the entire Kingdom of Mann, as Manannan does from Barrule.

This book reflects my fascination with Manx folklore and traditions. It was great fun to weave so many elements through my story!

Behind the Sorcerer's Cloak
is set in real sites on the Isle of Man, but there reality stops. It is a fantasy story. The characters, the situations and my liberal interpretations of the history and folklore are totally fictitious.

Pictures of Peel Castle and The House of Manannan and historically accurate information about the Isle of Man can be found online at the Manx government's heritage website:

www.gov.im/mnh/heritage/museums/peelcastle.xml
.

Slane lhiu,
Andrea Spalding
Pender Island, British Columbia

A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS

Grateful thanks to the many friends who helped with this book, particularly those in Ellan Vannin.

Graham and Margaret McFee, and Nina, Dermont and Joanna Shimmin enthusiastically hosted, walked, drove and explored the island with me, sent photos and DVDs and answered my many e-mail questions. I wish I could have used every site and story we explored, but there is enough left over for another book! Fenella Bazin shared Manx music and many tidbits of Manx heritage. Her description of the excavation of the Pagan Lady sparked the central motive for the story. Jennifer Kewley Draskau shared her knowledge and passion for the Manx language and enthusiasm for all things Manx. Any mistakes are mine, not theirs, and I beg everyone's indulgence for the things I changed to facilitate the story.

My husband Dave, as always, provided practical support with his library and amazing research skills, and both he and our daughters supplied unlimited moral support. Thanks to the Orca Pod, especially Maggie, who hung in for the duration of the mammoth journey, and to Martin Springett for his inspiring cover art.

Special acknowledgment to the House of Manannan and the Leece Museum in Peel and to the Manx Museum in Douglas, Isle of Man.

Andrea Spalding has written many beloved books for children. She hails from England, where she was long steeped in ancient lore. The landscape of the Quartet is the landscape of Andrea's childhood. She and her husband, David, returned to England four times to research the four books of the series.
The White
Horse Talisman
was nominated for the Silver Birch, Hackmatack and Manitoba Readers' Choice Awards.
Dance of the Stones
was also a Silver Birch nominee.
Heart of the Hill
left one of her four characters in grave danger. Andrea lives with David on Pender Island, British Columbia.

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