The Keeper by Darragh Martin Page B

in a lilting voice:
    The first child is born of air
    Of atoms and inventions, of clouds and consequences .
    The next child comes of water
    From music and memory, drops and prophecies .
    A third child twists from earth
    All soil and toil, all feeling and healing .
    Another is forged of fire
    Made of spark and swift, of force and fury .
    The last child tilts from the worlds’ edge
    A Quint quite unlike the others
    Of moons and mysteries, of blanks and histories .
    â€˜What a delightful performance,’ Madame Q said with some asperity. ‘I haven’t heard the Song of Magic since my youth.’
    Oisín was torn between imagining a young Madame Q and trying to decipher the strange song when Cathleen interrupted.
    â€˜It doesn’t have to be too cryptic,’ she said brusquely, picking up her invention that was turning rainwater into washing-up liquid. ‘Air Magic is about the mind, for example. It governs magical mathematics and shape-shifting. Earth Magic is what looks after this house. And our farm. And Caoimhe’s healing. It’s all about the body.’
    â€˜Water Magic draws on the seas,’ Jimmy said. ‘It’s about using your emotions and reading the future and –’
    â€˜Fire Magic is the best,’ Antimony said suddenly. ‘It’s using your spirit to be a warrior and avenge your enemies.’
    Oisín had forgotten that she was still sitting there. She was no longer staring at him, but looking at Madame Q with a strange expression. If Madame Q minded, she didn’t show it, taking over the story in her own grand fashion.
    â€˜And Quintessence is the most important kind,’ she said, pronouncing the strange word slowly, as if it held mysteries too delicate for any tongue to fully unravel.
    â€˜Er, what is Quintessence? ’ Oisín asked.
    â€˜The fifth element,’ Madame Q said with an elegant smile. ‘The study of everything and nothing, of the swirl of the stars across our sky, of the design at work in the smallest snowflake. Only the most advanced druids study it.’
    Oisín didn’t really understand what she was saying but found himself captivated nonetheless. He had a sudden, ridiculous vision of becoming a druid, learning all about Quintessence, using the Book of Magic to uncover the mysteries of the universe.
    â€˜And what does this Book of Magic do, then?’ Stephen said, bringing them all back to earth. From the irritated look on her face, it didn’t seem that Madame Q thought Stephen was of the right calibre to practise Quintessence.
    â€˜The Book of Magic was the sixth book in the Dagda’s cauldron,’ Madame Q said briskly. ‘It has sections on each of the five types of magic.’
    Madame Q flicked through the Book slowly and Oisín started to understand. There was a section full of pale blue fish and tear stains which Madame Q announced was the Water Magic section. The pages with dirt and green writing had to be Earth Magic, and the section with gleaming orange words and tiny dragons was Fire Magic. The pages towards the back, which Oisín assumed had been empty, turned out to have very fine silver writing: Quintessence.
    â€˜So if the Book of Magic can do everything, why would you need the other books?’ Oisín asked.
    â€˜Because they are full of deep magic that this book only scratches,’ Madame Q said. ‘On its own, the Book of Magic can do some strong magic, very powerful magic. But its real purpose is to unlock the other books. None of them can work without the Book of Magic as well.’
    â€˜They’re all lost, though, aren’t they?’ Antimony said, suddenly quite interested.
    â€˜Everything from the Dagda’s cauldron has been lost,’ Madame Q said. ‘The Dagda was in a relationship.’ Madame Q said the word ‘relationship’ as if it were a head-cold – she clearly didn’t approve. ‘He was in one with a