by Kailin Gow
“Tell your Pixies to come inside the Summer gates,” I said. “That we must stand together now. That we mean them no harm.”
Delano nodded. “We haven't got much time,” he said. “The suns are the source of all magic – as much mine as yours. Without them we will grow weak – we will die. It is only the Hordes who can see in darkness, who can survive...”
“Hurry!”
I returned to the tower, running to my father. “Hurry,” I said. “We have to change the spell – have it let in Winter and the pixies.”
“The pixies?” My father furrowed his brow.
“I've convinced Delano to join us – he's not stupid. He needs those suns as much as we do. And the wolves – the centaurs – let all of us in!”
It took fifty fairies to cast the spell a second time, but they managed, and a ring of protection was cast that allowed all our allies into the palace. I looked around sadly. My beautiful Summer Palace, a place of rest, a place of childhood and fond memories, had been transformed into a military camp. Swords and armor were strewn everywhere; bodies of the injured lined the gardens while Rose and her fellow-alchemists tended to their wounds.
“I never thought it would be this way,” my father spoke gravely, as our allies funneled in through the enchanted gate, fighting off the Dark Hordes as they did so. “An army fueled by such anger, such hatred. An army so captive to their own pain that they want nothing more than destroy everything in this land. They will blot out the suns – they will destroy all! I never thought such hatred could exist.” He sighed, placing a hand to his grey-tinted beard. “But I was a fool not to know of such darkness.”
“None of us could know.” The Winter Queen came forth, her expression grave.
“We must retire – the leaders, all of us. To strategize.” My father extended a hand to the Winter Queen and she took it, a small smile on her lips.
“And now we are friends, then?”
“We must be friends,” said my father. “We have suffered too much of the same thing – lost too many of our friends, our allies, our family, to hate one another now.”
We looked around. Never had it been like this – pixies tending the wounds of werewolves, Summer and Winter fey sharing the last of their provisions. Centaurs and the loyal minotaurs lay down side by side in the stables, resting their heads on the same hay. My heart constricted. Is this what it took, I wondered, to get us all to fight together? Was it our shared fear, our shared pain, that could bring us closer than all my treaties ever could?
My father, Delano, Logan, Kian, the Winter Queen, Cary, Shasta and I all retreated to a private chamber, bolting the doors behind us. Kian remained silent, and although I could not see his face behind his visor I saw him turn his expression to his mother and sister. He too, I knew, felt the strain of his disguise.
“If only we had been wise,” said my father. “If only I had been wise. If I had not left the kingdom to Redleaf to run – if I had been bold enough to stand up to her and to the people in the early days, to insist on peace before war created such a chasm between us.”
Tears were falling from the Winter Queen's face. “I do not blame you alone,” she said softly. “For I too bear the burden of this guilt. I let my anger get the better of me – I cloaked it in stoicism – but it was anger nonetheless. Anger at Summer. Anger at those Summer fey who died at the Silver Bridge, alongside my husband. Had I been less rigid, I might have seen a way for peace. I might have let Breena marry him...” Her voice choked in her throat. “My son. They might have created a united Feyland simply by marrying. I convinced myself that the people would not accept it. But perhaps it was I who would not accept it.”
“It is too late for regrets,” said my father. “Whatever happens, we will come out of this as friends.”
“Yes,” the Winter Queen whispered. “Friends.”
“I can't bear this!” Kian's voice rang out loud and clear from behind his visor. “Mother, I can bear this no longer!”
He thrust the helmet from his head, shaking his long, tangled hair from beneath the mask. He ran to her, taking her hands in his and pressing them to his lips. “Mother, I'm so sorry I deceived you, so sorry....”
The Winter Queen clapped a hand to her mouth. “Kian!”
“We were afraid of the secret getting out – that the others would find out that there was no Midnight Knight, only those of us who believed in the power of that myth...I was afraid to tell you on the battlefield, when so many might see. I was wrong to put you through such pain, mother. Forgive me.”
She trembled – on the verge of fainting for the first time in her life. Kian caught her deftly.
“Brother!” Shasta ran to him, enveloping him in a great bear hug. She then hit him soundly across the face. “That's what you get for lying to us!”
Yet the Queen said nothing, but only wept quietly, hiding her face in Kian's chest, holding him close. Kian had always told me he was convinced that his mother had not really loved him. But as I saw her hold him tight, clutching him as if to hold him back from the reach of Death itself, I knew that the Queen loved Kian even more than I did – even more than any of us could have.
“You have given us all hope,” the Queen whispered. “As the Midnight Knight, you convinced us to still take up arms and fight. But as a mother, seeing you here in front of me inspires more hope than any legend could have done.”
“I love you, mother,” Kian whispered, saying words I knew had never been spoken between them.
She caught her breath. She had forbidden that word in her house – forbidden what it represented: uncontrolled passion, dangerous magic. But now, as she wiped the tears from her eyes, all that was forgotten.
“I love you too, my son.”
Chapter 18
Logan came up to me as the Winter Queen, Shasta, and Kian continued their embrace. “I'm glad we were able to do something good,” he said, pulling his lionskin cloak more tightly around him. Even with the magical fires we had produced, it was still freezing around us: it would only grow worse, I knew, as Feyland adjusted itself to the lack of sun.
“We'll get out of this,” I said. “I know we will. The Midnight Knight – the Red Wolf – the Summer Queen. We'll manage.”
But my voice betrayed my uncertainty.
“When we were engaged,” Logan said slowly, “I promised the wolves that our engagement meant one thing – restoring the magic and power of my kind. To bring magic back to the Wolves, to bring us back to our glory, just as my grandfather would have wished me to do. They – Josephine, I mean – they all thought the way to do that was to marry you, to ally Fey and Wolf Fey together, permanently. But now...” He took my hand. “Breena, I don't know what's going to happen after the war. I don't know how things are going to be with us. But I don't want to have made that promise to my people in vain. If I don't...I mean, if we don't...I'm going to do it anyway. I'm going to find a way to bring magic back to my people. Make us fully Fey again, instead of half-wolves, half-humans, still possessed of some semblance of magic.”
Logan and I went aside into a private room, where he took my hand. “I love you, Breena,” he said. “And that love will give me hope. But I don't want to rely on that love for the sake of my men. Josephine was right to want what she wanted – power for the Wolf Fey. But she was wrong to link that goal to my marriage. If I end up with you, it will be for you alone – not for these stupid politics. I want to be with you because we want to, not because we have to. And if you choose...him – I won't be letting down my Wolves. I can't deal with that on top of a broken heart.”
He pulled me close and kissed me, and for a moment I let myself succumb to this love, this desire. But as he kissed me I felt another calling – the stirring from another room. It was Kian's voice, echoing in my head.
My darling, I have already thanked you for saving my life – for my own sake. But now I must thank you again. Not for what you have done for me. But for what you have done for her. For my mother.
She loves you. I always knew she loved you.
I know it now – too.
I could sense his joy, mixed with bitterness. Was he to find her – find her love after all these years – only to lose it with the darkening of these suns?
I could feel Logan's kiss upon my lips, but as my mind connected with Kian's I felt that kiss, too – I felt Kian embrace me in his own mind, and felt my mind meet his in that image. My lips trembled as I felt his phantom touch.
I looked back at Logan – and then I knew. As much as I loved Logan, as much as I tried to convince myself that he was the one for me, I knew my bond with Kian would always be greater. It went beyond friendship, beyond desire. It was a meeting of our souls, a bond of magic greater than anything Logan and I could ever have.
I had to choose, and I knew my choice.
But I couldn't tell Logan now. Now he needed all his strength, all his courage – as Kian did, too. They both needed to have faith in my love if they were to survive this war.
I squeezed Logan' s hand. “I will always love you,” I said. “As a friend – and as more. And for as long as we need to be engaged for the sake of this war – be it hours or days – I will stand by your side.”
We walked back to the main room. Kian and my father were poring over maps of Feyland, trying to come up with a strategy.
“But surely Delano must do something!” My father turned to Delano, who was sitting by himself in a corner of the room, a scowl on his face. “He is responsible for this mess, after all.”
“I've really had enough of this fairy gall,” said Delano. “Just because I agreed to this alliance doesn't mean I'm going to take the fall for this stupidity! Tell them, Shasta.”
All eyes turned to Shasta, whose face fell. I tensed with sympathetic fear.
It was time for her to explain.
Chapter 19
“What are you talking about?” The Winter Queen asked sharply. “Shasta, what is he talking about? Explain this!”
“Listen to me, your Highness!” Delano said. “I admit it – I told the girl what she needed to do. I gave her access to my library. I thought she'd call upon a few demons, maybe a banshee to do. I thought it would be a welcome addition to my army – her taking that responsibility for them upon herself. But I didn't expect her to break them all out of the Gorge.”
“It's not true!” The Queen looked horrified. “Tell them it's not true, Shasta.”
“You know as well as I do, your Highness, that only fairy blood can unlock the gates of the Gorge. Surely you must have wondered how it was that a pixie came to do it. After all, whatever bastard fairy blood I have the misfortune to have running in my veins was clearly insufficient to the task at hand. And even if it weren't, I'd never tap into it willingly. I'm proud of being a pixie – and proud of having little to do with the likes of those who have oppressed my people for centuries. Until now,” he concluded lamely.
“No, it was the Fey. The two of them – the Summer boy and that girl there! And some poor alchemist – poor little girl; she had no idea what the potion she was making was for. Shasta told her it was for unlocking the gates to the Crystal River, didn't you, Shasta?”
“I didn't mean to!” Shasta cried. She had never looked more like a little girl than she did at that moment, stamping her feet, tossing her long dark hair. I remembered my first impressions of Shasta: she seemed to me then to be impossibly beautiful, impossibly elegant, strong and brave and always effortlessly superior to me. Now she looked like a child, caught in its own lie. Had she changed, or had I?
“Explain yourself, Shasta,” The Queen's voice was cold. “Now!”
“I didn't mean to do anything serious. I only wanted to create a distraction – something to stop Summer and Winter from fighting each other. I thought if I could just call up one or two of the monsters from the Gorge – not anything big, you understand me – just big enough, then you and the Summer Court would have to work together and you wouldn't notice if I ran off...me and Rodney...”
“So it is true?” Kian looked at his sister with horror. “You really are responsible for the Hordes?”
“I went to Delano, told him I came in peace and wanted to look at his library of Dark Magic, since Mother wouldn't let me look at any of the Dark books kept under lock and key in Feyland.”
“Skirnismal,” Delano muttered half-heartedly.
“And he was so nice, so charming – he said that I could conjure up any demons I liked, that he'd send some of his pixie magicians to support me.”
“I didn't say she could conjure them all up!” Delano snarled.
“I didn't mean to conjure them all up – just one or two. A banshee or something, just to cause a distraction. To show you – to show all of you how stupid this war was, that there were more important things than fighting over fairy territories.”
“Well, that worked, didn't it?” Delano was vaguely sarcastic.
“You be quiet!” Kian snarled at Delano.
“But then when I got the potion and Rodney and I started chanting the incantation – they were too strong. First one demon appeared, and then another – and then I couldn't stop; it was like one of them possessed me, and I kept on chanting, naming all of the different demons, and then all the giants and banshees and the dead – and I couldn't stop myself – and Rodney couldn't stop either. It was like some ghost had possessed our voices. And then when finally Rodney and I managed to escape...it was too late. They had all vanished, gone off to fight with the pixies!”
“Did you think I was stupid?” Delano turned to her. “You let thousands of dangerous beasts loose in my land – of course I was going to try to harness them? You think I was going to let them eat me?”
“But you have to believe me, Mother,” Shasta was pleaded. “I didn't do it on purpose – honestly I didn't!”
The Queen's face grew cold. “Are you telling me,” she said slowly, “that you, a princess of the Winter Court, with all the responsibilities of keeping your people safe, that you deliberately let demons loose into our kingdom, that the very fate of our world hangs in the balance precisely because of you? That your selfishness, that your insistence on being allowed to marry this flame-haired boy of yours, led you to that?”
“It wasn't like that, Mother,” Shasta said in a quivering small voice.
“And to think,” the Queen said. “I wondered about making you Queen. I wondered if you were not the fit one to be my heir.”
“That's not true!” Shasta shouted. “You never wanted me to be Queen. It was always Kian – Kian whom you favored, Kian that you cared about! It's obvious, isn't it? If it had been me that died you wouldn't have cared.”
The Queen's eyes narrowed. “You will never be Queen,” she said. “Such dishonor as this cannot be forgiven. I can no longer extend to you the magic of the Winter Crown. From this day forth, Shasta – and who knows how many days are left on this dark earth – you are no longer Princess of the Winter Court. You are no longer a Princess at all. By the power of the Ancient Winter Queens whose voices live on in me – I strip you of your powers. I strip you of your magic.”
“No!” Shasta cried, tears running down her face. She turned from the Queen, as if to run from the room, but something stopped her.
A shimmering figure appeared in the middle of the room. It came in and out of view, rippling in the air. A Dead one? I put a hand to my sword, fear rising in my throat. But as the figure became clear, materializing right in front of me, I knew I had no reason to be afraid.
It was my mother.
She was shaking with shock and confusion. “What's going on?” She looked around. “Breena!” She turned to my father, her eyes widened. “Frank!”
“Raine!” My father rushed to her, catching her in his arms. “What happened? What are you doing here?”
My mother looked around, steadying herself against him. “I had this dream...” She sighed. “About our daughter. About Feyland. That there was danger. That I needed to come home. Come back here.�
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“But how did you...?”
“It was like a trance. I got out of bed – it was like I was floating – and went down to my studio. And I started painting – but it was like I wasn't controlling the brush. Something else had taken hold of me. And it guided my hands. And I could see – beneath this very dim haze – that I was painting the palace, but I couldn't understand why or how. And then the painting started shimmering...beckoning me closer and closer....and I leaned into it.”
“And then you ended up here?” I cut in. Kian had told me that the greatest fairy painters, those with the most consummate skill, had been capable of making paintings so beautiful that they lured the viewer deep within, serving as a portal to Feyland from the Crystal River, and vice versa. But for a human to create a fairy painting – that was unheard of!
“You're extraordinary!” My father kissed my mother's forehead. “You're an extraordinary woman, Raine.” Yet a chill that passed through the room snapped him out of his reverie. “But we need to get you out of here. There's a war on – the suns have gone out. You may not have much time.”
“If Feyland's magic called me here,” my mother said defiantly, “then here is where I shall stay. I have come to protect my daughter, Frank (and you, if you need it). I'm here to see this through, no matter what the cost.”
“The cost, I think, will be great. For you and for those you love!” A high-pitched, cackling voice filled the room. We turned to face Redleaf, perched high above us, flames glowing at her fingertips.
“You fools,” Redleaf spat. “Your spell was designed to allow the Summer Queen to pass through the gates. Well, after all, I am the Summer Queen. And I am here to take my revenge at last.”
Chapter 20