The crowd chuckled. It seemed Master Oisin was not the only one with a talent for storytelling.

‘ “But can you remember them?” challenged the wise woman.

‘The old fellow looked at her. “Maybe,” he said. “If I’ve a mind to. The time I caught the salmon and threw it back in. That’s a tale.”

‘It was indeed; all the folk of the settlement knew it, and the size of the salmon had grown a little with each telling. But every coastal village has its story of an unrivalled catch, be it the full net of herring or the one gigantic fish. The old man’s tale could surely have nothing to do with the sad creature in the cave.

‘On the other hand,’ Prince Oran went on, looking around his audience, ‘a wise woman’s instincts are usually sound. And this wise woman knew, in her heart, that if the old fisherman had brought up that story first, it was the one she needed. “I’d like to hear it,” she said.

‘ “What’ll you give me if I tell it?” said the old man, quick as a wink.

‘ “A hot dinner tomorrow, cooked by my own hand.” If he was quick, she was his match.

‘The old man laughed. The sound was like the creaking of a rusty old cartwheel. Then he told the tale of the mysterious salmon and of the magic pool where it swam. It was a creature of legend, so long had it been living there. Nobody had ever seen it, not properly; only the whisk of its graceful tail or the gleam of its great eyes from the shadows under the bank. The folk of that village – the place of the old man’s youth – gave the pool a wide berth, feeling the tinge of the uncanny on it. It was said the fey lived nearby, and the fey were not to be trusted.

‘By now the wise woman was fascinated,’ the prince continued. ‘In truth, she had thought the old fellow so hostile that even if he still had stories in his mind, he would refuse to tell them. This one, he both remembered and told well. “But you went to the pool,” she ventured.

‘ “Ah, well,” the ancient said, “I was young and foolish in those days. Took no heed of my elders and betters. Yes, I went there, every day I went, when I should by rights have been helping with the nets or digging the garden. Went and watched. Waited for that big old fish to come out and show himself.” ’