Chapter Five – They Find the Gold and the Rainbows (Lost Rainbows – Serial)

By Connie Cockrell

Shamus O’Malley is on a quest to recover the Leprechaun Kingdom’s magic rainbows and gold before the rainbows are lost forever. To do so he must travel to the new world where he finds the evil wizard, David Bannon, intent on using the magic from the rainbows and the gold to conquer the Leprechaun Kingdom. He also finds an ally, Becca Bannon, the wizard’s niece. Can Becca and Shamus recover the rainbows and gold and defeat her wizard uncle?

This entry is part 5 of 16 in the series Lost Rainbows

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They Find the Gold and the Rainbows

She led him into the house. He was impressed. The floors were polished wood, fine paintings hung on the walls and stuffed furniture filled the rooms. The walls were painted in quiet, restful colors, pale yellow in the dining room, sage green in the parlor. They walked though the house to the kitchen where she opened a door. Stairs led down. “His lab is down in the basement.”

He followed her down. Becca walked him through a long hallway. There were doors on either side, all closed. She stopped at another door and set of stairs. “I’m not supposed to go into his lab without permission. But I want to prove to you we do not have your things.” She went down, Shamus right behind her, two flights of stairs. The stairs ended in a short hallway, with a door at the end. She opened the door and went in.

Shamus’s mouth hung open. It was all white tile on the walls with silver shelves and glass beakers and odd-shaped glassware. A long black-topped table was in the center of the room near the door. Becca walked him around the table. There were machines lining the walls, small lights on the front of them. Shamus could feel the power of them, though he didn’t know what the power was. At the end of the room, a sheet was draped over something tall.

“You see,” Becca said to him. “These are all Uncle’s things. Not yours.”

Shamus walked over to the sheet and pulled it down.

Becca rounded on him. “You mustn’t do that. Uncle will be angry.”

“I’ve seen this before, Miss Becca. I jumped through it in my world and landed here.”

Again her eyebrow rose. “Your world?”

“Yes, Ireland. I’m a leprechaun.” He gave her credit for not blurting out, “There’s no such thing.”

“My mother used to tell me stories when I was a baby, about fairies and leprechauns and the early gods of Ireland.” Her face was wistful. “They were nice stories.”

Did she, now? “What do you remember?”

“Leprechauns keep their gold at the ends of rainbows. They love music and can play many instruments and dance. Many were cobblers. That’s shoemakers, you know.”

He nodded. “It’s all true, Miss Becca. I saw the thief send our gold through a mirror just like this, then go through it himself. I followed but the mirror was closing. I landed outside your gate.”

Becca shook her head. “I don’t know. It doesn’t sound like my Uncle David. He’s quite kind. He took me in when my parents died. He told me he loved my mother but she loved Daddy first.”

Shamus was uncomfortable with this personal information. He just wanted to find the gold and get back to the sidhe. “What about all of those rooms in the basement above us. He could have stored the gold there.”

She frowned. “We could look, I suppose.”

They put the sheet back on the mirror and went back upstairs. They opened all of the doors on the left, then began opening the ones on the right. The door third from the end was locked. Becca looked at Shamus. “This doesn’t mean the gold is here.”

“Can you get the key?”

“The housekeeper hangs them on a hook over her desk.” Becca’s gray eyes became fearful. “Ms. Como doesn’t like me to go near her desk. She gets very cross when I misbehave.”

“You’re not misbehaving, Becca. You’re helping a traveler in need.”

She sighed. “That is true. Wait here.” She opened the door to the room they had just checked. “I’ll get the keys.”

Shamus nodded and went into the store room. Becca closed the door. He sank to the floor and leaned against the wall beside the door. The room stored art. Paintings were stacked one in front of the other on the floor to his left. At the back were sculptures. Some stood by themselves on the floor, others were on tables. He closed his eyes. It had been a long night and he was tired.

 

#

 

He started awake at the sound of the door opening. Before he could move, Becca was inside and closed the door.

“I’m sorry it took so long. Ms. Como was at her desk. I had to wait for her to leave.” She pulled the keys from her pocket and jingled them softly.

Shamus stood up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. “I fell asleep. Did anyone follow you down here?”

She shook her head. “No, no one pays any attention to me.”

He stared at her. She seemed serious but he wondered how it was that the adults responsible for such a precocious child would ignore her. Shamus eased open the door and the two slipped out into the hall. He closed it and they hurried to the locked door. Becca searched through the keys. Ms. Como had each one labeled. “That makes it easy,” Shamus murmured.

“I think this is the one.” Becca held up a key. “It’s the only key that isn’t labeled.” She stuck it into the lock and turned it. The door opened and they slid inside. Becca turned on the light as Shamus closed the door. He turned quickly when she gasped.

In front of them were three dozen brass pots of gold. Becca blinked. “I didn’t believe you,” she told Shamus. “I’m sorry.”

He walked to the pots and stood there, staring. “That’s all right, Becca. It was a little hard to believe.” Shamus walked slowly around the gold but stopped at a table against the wall opposite the door. “Look at this.”

Becca hurried over as he picked up something colorful. “What is it?”

“It’s the rainbows that go with the pots.” He held up one – it hung limply from his hand. “It’s not as bright as it should be.” He examined it closer. “It’s fading.” Shamus thought through all of the lore surrounding the rainbows. He’d never heard of a rainbow fading. Then again, he’d never heard of them being stolen either. “We need to get these back to my land. I have no idea what will happen if the rainbows completely fade to gray.”

Becca turned and tried to pick up a pot. She strained a bit, then stopped. “It’s too heavy, Shamus. How will we move them?”

The sound of the sword leaving its scabbard made her turn to her companion. Her eyes went wide.

“Don’t be afraid. Our swords are also wands. I can move the pots with magic.” He held the sword out, pointed at the pots, but nothing happened. A look of fear crossed his face. “It’s not working. It’s as though the magic is gone.”

“We don’t have magic, Shamus.” Becca looked worried, too. “We use machines and science to do things.”

 

~~~~~

 

Lost Rainbows

To be continued…

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© 2015 Connie Cockrell