The Legend of the Corrib King by Tom McCaughren

else could the poachers have been talking about if it wasn’t the carnival? It fitted perfectly, right down to the fairy queen and the little people. Even Pakie’s poem suggested that the secret must lie in Titania’s tent when it said, Nymphs dance in the moonlight and secrets unfold .
    â€˜Unless,’ said Cowlick as they got their breakfast ready the following morning, ‘the poem ended on the island.’
    â€˜But every other part of it meant more than one thing,’ Tapser reminded him. ‘And Titania’s palace fits the last lines exactly.’
    â€˜It also fits what the man with the rings said about taking Pakie to the fairy queen,’ said Jamesie.
    â€˜But let’s look at it another way,’ said Róisín. ‘Rachel and I have always had the feeling that what they were talking about was a boat. So maybe when the man with the rings said he’d take him to the fairy queen he meant that they were planning to take him off the island.’
    â€˜Then we came along,’ added Rachel, ‘and they had to move him anyway.’
    â€˜But the fat man did say nobody would find him so long as they stayed close to the little people,’ Jamesie pointed out.
    â€˜Then maybe we’re not far wrong after all,’ exclaimed Tapser, jumping to his feet. ‘Maybe they just intend using the funfair the same way they used the travellers’ camp, you know, as a place where they can meet without attracting attention.’
    â€˜That could be it all right,’ agreed Cowlick. ‘That van of theirs, and the caravan, would fit in perfectly at the fairground. And Titania would know nothing about it.’
    â€˜Come on,’ cried Róisín, ‘what are we waiting for?’
    Prince barked loudly, almost as if he sensed by their excitement that they were on the trail again, and a few minutes later they were trotting back to Nymphsfield.
    The morning passed slowly. The amusements were at a standstill and the fairground was deserted. Then, after lunch, the scene suddenly changed. The generator burst into life again, the coloured lights came on, Titania’s Little People saddled up their ponies, and people began streaming in.
    â€˜An afternoon show,’ observed Jamesie. ‘That’s going to make it more difficult.’
    â€˜You can say that again,’ said Tapser. ‘Look at the crowd.’
    â€˜And look at the caravans,’ added Rachel. ‘They all seem the same.’
    People were coming by car, by bicycle and on foot.
    â€˜Isn’t that like their van over there?’ asked Róisín after a while. She was pointing to a blue van that had pulled in beside a cream-coloured caravan parked on the fringe of the fairground.
    â€˜Could be,’ said Cowlick. ‘It’s like it all right, but it’s hard to say.’
    â€˜There’s only one way to find out,’ said Róisín. ‘Come on Rachel.’
    â€˜Careful,’ warned Cowlick, but they had already gone.
    Anxiously the boys watched the two girls circle around to the van and walk casually past.
    â€˜Well?’ asked Tapser when they returned.
    Triumphantly, Róisín held up her thumb. It was smudged with blue paint.
    â€˜And it’s green underneath,’ Rachel told them.
    â€˜So that is their van!’ cried Tapser. ‘Great work. Come on Jamesie, let’s get a bit closer.’
    They yoked up Nuadha again and when they had moved closer to the van they parked in a way that they could pretend they were just watching the fair.
    A few minutes later, Jamesie whispered, ‘Look!’
    Out of the corner of their eye they saw the thin man with the rings arriving at the cream-coloured caravan and going inside.
    â€˜Now we’ll see what happens,’ said Tapser.
    Several times in the next half hour the man with the rings came out and looked around. Everywhere people were milling about. Anxiously they scanned the crowd