The Last of the High Kings Read Online Free Page A

do before I die.”
    J.J. was aware of the clock racing toward midnight. In another minute or two he was going to have to choose between offending Aisling and offending the old man. He wished Mikey had thought of saying all this at a better time.
    â€œWhat is it you want to do?” he said.
    Mikey pointed up past the Liddy house toward the top of the mountain. “I want to go up there. I want to stand on top of the beacon one last time. Then I can rest in peace.”
    J.J. stared at him. There was no road to the top of the mountain. There wasn’t even a path. Whichever direction you approached from, it was a long, steep climb, way beyond the capacities of a stiff old man like Mikey.
    J.J. laughed. “There’s only one way you’ll get up there,” he said, “and that’s in a helicopter.”
    Mikey nodded. “That’ll do rightly. Will you organize it, so?”
    J.J. had one last chance to avoid offending anybody. He hustled Donal toward the car.
    â€œLeave it with me, Mikey,” he said. “I’ll see what I can do.”

6
    Hazel came in, exhausted but extremely happy, at about 3:00 A.M . The minibus had dropped her at the end of the drive, and she had walked up to the house in the moonlight. The boy she liked most in the world had smooched with her all night, and when she got back from Cork—if they ever got there—she was going out on a date with him. Everything seemed perfect.
    She let herself into the house and closed the door quietly. The light from the upstairs landing spilled down into the hall, and as she passed the sitting room door, she could see Jenny still sleeping on the sofa and a couple of empty wineglasses beside the hearth. She was tempted to see if there was any wine left in the bottle but decided she’d probably hadenough for one night and went on up to bed.
    She couldn’t sleep, though. The house was silent, but her mind was full of noise. She replayed the songs she had danced to with Desmond and tried to remember the things they had said, or shouted, to each other. She dreamed about what she would wear on their date and how they would look together and what everyone would say when they learned that Hazel and Desmond were an item.
    At four-thirty she was still awake, tired now of the circuit of imaginings but still charged with adrenaline. She got up to go to the bathroom, and as she padded across the landing, she heard, from downstairs, the soft creak of hinges and the snick of the Yale lock’s tongue. She did a quick mental reckoning. All the family were in. There was only one thing that sound could mean. She hurtled down the stairs and out through the front door. If Jenny was running, she would be too late already, and the trip to Cork would be delayed again.
    But this time Jenny wasn’t running. She was standing in the front yard, gazing up at the clear white face of the moon. The cloudless skies had brought frost with them, and Hazel winced as her bare feet met the icy flagstones. But Jenny didn’t appear to notice them.
    â€œThe moon,” she said dreamily as Hazel came to stand at her side.
    â€œThe moon,” Hazel repeated. “Still nighttime, Jen. And we have to go to Cork tomorrow, remember?”
    â€œI forgot,” said Jenny.
    â€œNever mind,” said Hazel. She wasn’t always so patient with her wayward sister, but she was feeling adult and generous tonight. “I think you’d better sleep with me in my bed now, in case you forget again.”
    Jenny followed her back into the house and up to her bedroom.
    â€œYou hop into bed, Jen. I’ll be back in a minute.”
    This time Hazel made it to the bathroom, but she didn’t make it back to bed. When she came out onto the landing, she found her father sitting where she had been earlier, at the top of the stairs.
    â€œWell caught, Hazey,” he said. “Have you got a minute?”
    â€œWhat now?” said Hazel. She