The Faerie Path

by Frewin Jones

  “It is most definitely…okay,” Rathina said slowly, then she smiled. “You see? I have been practicing. Soon I shall have learned all your strange new words.”

  Tania laughed, squeezing Rathina’s arm. “Good for you!”

  Rathina led Tania out across the twilight gardens for her first visit to the royal stables, a huge complex of wooden buildings that lay west of the maze. Several pairs of intelligent equine eyes watched the princesses from behind half-doors. The cobbled courtyards were filled with warm pools of evening shade; stable boys and girls ran about their duties, bedding the horses down for the night and lighting the lanterns that swung from the gables.

  Having spent the last sixteen years of her life living in a city, Tania felt a little intimidated about being up close to such big animals, and she was wary and watchful as Rathina led her into the stall of her favorite horse.

  “This is my bold beauty, Maddalena,” Rathina told her, giving the neck of the glossy bay mare a firm pat with the flat of her hand. “She is beautiful, is she not? Do not be afraid to touch her. She will do you no harm.”

  Tania reached out tentatively and stroked the horse’s long nose. She was certainly a handsome animal, with a flowing black mane and large, clever dark eyes. Maddalena snorted and nodded, one forehoof thumping the ground.

  “She’s wonderful,” Tania said, breathing in the strong scent of horse and straw.

  “I shall show you my finest saddle and bridle and trappings,” Rathina said. “They were a gift from our father on my sixteenth birthday. Made by the finest leather-workers in all of Dinsel. Come.” She opened the gate to the stall and Tania followed her out into the walkway.

  “Fare you well, my darling,” Rathina called to Maddalena as she closed the gate behind them. “I shall see you anon.” The horse whinnied.

  “Did I ride much…uh…before?” Tania asked, sniffing her hand and quite liking the horsey smell that lingered there.

  “You did, indeed,” Rathina said as they walked along. “But you sat in the saddle like a sack of wheat and spent much of the time clinging onto your steed like a leaf in an autumn gale.”

  “Oh! That’s a shame.” She had hoped that she might have been a good rider.

  “I shall tutor you in better ways, if you would have me do so,” Rathina offered. “Give me six weeks, and I shall make a centaur of you!”

  “I’d like that,” Tania said, meaning it.

  They walked across another cobbled courtyard, and Rathina led Tania through a small door in a low thatched building of white plaster and black timbers.

  The walls were hung with bridles and reins and girths and halters and bits. There were saddles on wooden stands, and folded blankets and sacks of feed and wooden boxes that held various pieces of equipment that Tania didn’t recognize. The room smelled powerfully of leather and grain.

  Tania paused in the middle of the room, suddenly aware that Rathina had stopped in the doorway. She turned. There was a strange expression on Rathina’s face. Tania couldn’t quite make it out. It was like a mixture of determination and unease, as though Rathina was about to do something that she knew Tania wouldn’t like.

  “What’s wrong?” Tania asked.

  Then Rathina’s eyes slid off her face and Tania saw that she was looking at something beyond her shoulder. She turned to follow the line of her sister’s gaze.

  Edric had appeared from behind a wooden partition.

  Tania froze. “What’s going on?”

  “He begged me to bring you here,” Rathina explained. “You must stay and listen to his words.” She backed out, drawing the door closed behind her. “Forgive me, Tania; it is meant for the good.”

  The door banged shut and the latch clicked down.

  For the space of maybe three heartbeats, Tania stared at the closed door, before she slowly turned and faced Edric.

  “Well?”

  She saw him swallow. “I want you to know the truth,” he said. “You have to listen to me. If you don’t believe what I tell you, I promise I won’t bother you again.” He gave a weak smile, his hand coming up to his cheek. “You can even hit me again if it makes you feel any better, but please just listen to me first.”

  “If I remember correctly, I did a whole lot of listening to you back home,” she said in an icy voice. “I don’t want to hear any more of your lies.” It annoyed her that her voice sounded so choked up. All she wanted to do was to get out of there before she burst into tears.

  She spun on her heel and headed for the door, already stretching one hand toward the latch.

  “You’re still my sun!” She turned at his voice, trembling, and looked at him again. “Remember?” he said. “Romeo and Juliet. But soft! What light through yonder window breaks. It is the east, and Juliet is my sun!”

  “Don’t!” Tania spat. “Don’t say that.” Against her will, all her old feelings for him were being stirred up again. “Don’t talk to me like that. It was all lies!”

  “No, it wasn’t,” Edric said, taking a step forward.

  “Get away from me!” she said, backing toward the door.

  He stopped. “I love you.” He shook his head, his eyes pleading. “It wasn’t supposed to happen like that. I was sent into your world to bring you back here. And yes, I made friends with you at first in order to do what Drake wanted. But then, when I got to know you better, I realized I didn’t care about his plans anymore. I just wanted to be with you.”

  She stared at him, unable to speak. Her blood was pounding in her ears, beating out Liar! Liar! Liar!

  “You destroyed my life….”

  “I know you think that,” he said. “And I know I hurt you. But that day on the river, I was going to tell you the truth. The whole truth about who I was and about who you really were.”

  Tania remembered him saying he had something important to tell her. She had been so nervous that he might be going to tell her he loved her! That would have been a whole lot easier to deal with than the truth.

  “And then,” Edric was still speaking, “then I was going to tell you the truth about Drake.”

  “What do you mean? What about Gabriel?”

  “He never loved you,” Edric said, gazing steadily at her with the eyes she knew so very well. “Not now, and not before you disappeared all those years ago. He only ever wanted to marry you because he wanted your power to walk both worlds. That’s all he wants from you, a way into the Mortal World.” He moved toward her again, and this time she didn’t back away. “That day on the river, do you remember what happened?”

  She nodded.

  “Just before we crashed,” he urged. “Did you see anything on the water? Anything strange?”

  She forced her mind back to those panic-filled moments. She heard Evan’s voice, rising above the growl of the engine and the smash of water on the hull. “There’s something important I have to tell you.”

  And then she remembered how a cold shadow had suddenly come down over them out of nowhere. Evan had gasped. His head had turned suddenly. He had looked scared.

  She had stared ahead along the river and she had seen…something.

  “A boat,” she whispered, seeing it again in her mind’s eye. “A big boat on the river. No, not a boat—a barge. I only saw it for a moment. It was very low in the water.” Her eyes widened. “It was just like Oberon’s barge.”

  And then she remembered the final words spoken by Evan before the crash.

  “No! He’ll know we’re here. He’ll take you away from me!”

  She gasped, feeling again the fierce slap of cold water on her face as she tumbled through the roaring air and was swallowed by the river. She stared at Edric.

  “It was the King’s barge,” Edric said, his eyes locked on hers. “And Drake was on board.” He pointed to the amber pendant that hung against her throat. “I was supposed to give that to you on your birthday,” he said, his voice trembling. “Once you were wearing it, Drake knew he would be able to pull you out of your world.” He grima
ced. “I wanted to destroy it, but once the Amber Stone was smashed, Drake would know that I’d betrayed him, so I had to warn you first. That was what I wanted to tell you that day. That’s what I would have told you if we hadn’t had the accident.”

  Tania’s head was reeling. Gabriel had been kind to her ever since he led her away from her hospital bed, but had it all been pretense? She had been deceived first by Edric; had Gabriel made a fool of her as well?

  She swallowed. “No one here wants to have anything to do with the Mortal World,” she said. “Why is Gabriel so interested in it?”

  “Because of Isenmort,” Edric replied. “He believes he knows how to control metal, and how to bring it into Faerie without being destroyed by it.”

  “Why would he want to do that?”

  Edric looked somberly at her. “For the power it will give him.”

  Tania frowned. “But he already has plenty of power. Oberon has appointed him Regent while he’s away. What more could he want?”

  Edric stood in front of her with his hands on her shoulders. “Drake is insanely ambitious,” he said. “You have to believe me when I tell you he can’t be trusted.”

  Tania forced herself to meet his eyes. If Edric was telling the truth, it wasn’t just her that Gabriel was intending to betray—it was the King as well, her family, the whole Faerie Court.

  But who was this man standing in front of her? Evan? Or Edric? Why should she believe him now? Was she so desperate to believe he had loved her in the Mortal World that she’d believe more lies? She knocked away his arms and stumbled backward. “I can’t!” she said. “It’s too much! I can’t think!”

  His voice took on a hard, urgent edge. “Stop! We’re in danger!”

  He was pointing at the amber pendant. Tania suddenly realized it felt warm against her skin. She looked down. The stone was glowing with an inner fire, the amber light spilling out to stain her throat.

  Edric caught her wrist in his hand. “Quick! We have to get out of here.”

  But before they could make a move, the door to the room burst inward with the crack and snap of splintering wood. A howling gale tore into the room, sending them stumbling back.

  Gabriel stood in the doorway, his eyes fierce, his cloaked figure silhouetted against the sky.

  XVI

  “What treachery is this?” Gabriel hissed, and all the kindness Tania had grown used to was gone from his voice.

  Edric stepped in front of her. “I have told her everything!” he said. “She will have none of you now!”

  Gabriel gave a dismissive gesture with his hand and an invisible force sent Edric spinning across the room. Tania winced as his head struck the wall with a sickening thud. He lay crumpled on the floor, gasping for breath.

  “Don’t hurt him!” Tania shouted.

  “Hurt him?” Gabriel echoed, his voice thick with anger. “I shall finish him! I shall put such an end to him that even the crows will find nothing to feast upon!”

  Horrified, Tania ran over to where Edric lay and stood protectively in front of him. He was conscious but he looked dazed and in pain.

  “No!” she said. “You won’t.”

  Gabriel’s eyes blazed and Tania was suddenly convinced he was going to do something dreadful to her. But then he seemed to change his mind and all the anger drained suddenly from his face. He smiled at her, but behind that smile, she could still see the dark stain of his rage in his burning eyes.

  “Forgive me, Tania,” he said. “Such was my wrath that I forgot myself for a time, but it is passed.” He looked down at Edric, his expression dark with pain. His voice was low and full of distress.

  “Why do you betray me so, Edric?” he murmured. “What lies have you been telling?”

  Edric wiped his hand across his mouth. “No lies, my lord,” he said. “I have only revealed to the princess the true reason why you wish to marry her.”

  Gabriel seemed surprised. “Indeed?” He looked at Tania. “And what are these true reasons?”

  “To gain power for yourself,” Edric said.

  Gabriel looked at Tania. “This is foolish nonsense,” he said quietly. “Can you not see that his wits are turned?” He gave a regretful sigh. “I guessed that it was so, and I had hoped to spare you from his pathetic deliriums. I fear his mind was damaged by his time in the Mortal World.” He looked again at his servant. “Edric, Edric. If a man reaches for the sun, he will do nought but burn his hand. Do not seek that which is far above you.”

  Tania frowned. “What are you talking about?”

  “Can you not see?” Gabriel said. “This man has fooled himself into believing there can be love between you and he. He wishes to have you for himself, and he would say anything to turn you against me, to make you doubt me.”

  Tania stared down at Edric, caught in a sudden uncertainty.

  “When have I proved false to you, Tania?” Gabriel went on softly. “Have I tried to woo you, to rekindle our old love?”

  Tania shook her head. “No…”

  “And never shall, Tania. I brought you home for the sake of your father, my King, and for this Realm.” He held out his hand to her. “Come away,” he urged. “Let us bring this mischief to a swift end.”

  Edric staggered to his feet, blood threading down his face from a cut on his forehead. “No!” he shouted. “Don’t go with him; don’t believe him.” He made a stumbling rush at Gabriel.

  Gabriel lifted his hand and Edric stopped dead as though he had run into a wall. Gabriel’s hand turned slowly, fingers outstretched like claws, and Edric’s head began to twist awkwardly on his neck. His hands caught at his throat and stifled gurgling sounds came from his straining mouth. Tania stared in horror as he rose into the air, his feet kicking, his face contorted with agony.

  Tania threw herself forward and dragged Gabriel’s arm down.

  With a choking cry, Edric slumped to the floor.

  “Leave him alone!” Tania screamed.

  Lightning flashed from Gabriel’s eyes. “What madness is this, Tania?” he said. “What is this man to you? He is nothing! A slave, a chattel, a worthless piece of flotsam to be torn asunder and cast to the four winds at my pleasure.”

  Tania shook her head. “No!” she said. “You can’t do that. Even if what you said about him is true, you can’t hurt him like that.”

  “You would rather he was left free to spread his lies and malice throughout the Realm?” Gabriel said. “I am the King’s Regent and I will not be mocked by this creature. I would have him dead at my feet first.”

  “There must be laws in this place,” Tania said desperately. “If he’s done wrong, then he should be put on trial. You can’t just kill him.”

  Gabriel gave her a long, slow look. “Your compassion commends you, Tania,” he said at last. “And for your sake, he shall not face the death he so richly deserves. Remember. All that I do now was done at your request.” He slipped his hand under his cloak; when he drew it out again, he was holding a small glowing amber ball.

  He held the ball out between finger and thumb, showing it to Edric. Its surface crawled like molten oil, and Tania could see wisps of steam rising from it.

  “No!” Edric groaned.

  Gabriel glanced at Tania. “This I do for you,” he reminded her. His voice grew louder, echoing in the rafters. “Edric Chanticleer, I banish you to the Amber Prison for all of eternity!” He hurled the amber ball down in front of Edric.

  It smashed on the floor, exploding in a blinding blaze of white fire. Tania fell back, her arms up to protect her eyes from the searing light. She heard a despairing cry, cut off short.

  She opened her eyes, but all she could see was the flare from the explosion.

  “What have you done?” Tania whispered.

  “I have passed sentence on Master Chanticleer,” Gabriel said. “At your request, he is not dead. Indeed, fear not, Tania, for he shall never die.”

  Gradually, Tania’s eyes cleared. A large sphere of amber light was floating just
above the ground in the middle of the room, its skin moving like the filmy surface of a soap bubble. Crouched, trapped and immobile, within the sphere was Edric, his frozen hands clawing, his face petrified in an expression of dread, his blank eyes staring.

  Appalled, Tania took a step toward the glowing sphere. She reached out a hand, but its surface was as hot as a flame. Thin yellow smoke coiled up from it and the ground beneath it was scorched and blackened.

  She stared at Gabriel, disgusted by the look of triumph on his face.

  “Let him go.”

  “That is impossible,” Gabriel replied. “There is no way back from the Amber Prison.”

  “But he’s still alive in there?”

  “Ah, yes,” Gabriel said. He spread his hands in a gesture of mock humility. “See how I bow before your desires, Tania. I am yours to command.” He turned to the door and called. “Wardens! To me!”

  “You mean you’re going to leave him alive in there forever?” Tania gasped. “How can you do that?”

  Gabriel didn’t reply.

  Two men in dark red livery came into the room.

  “Take this filth away,” Gabriel said to them. “The sight of him sickens me.”

  The men drew white crystal swords from their belts, and Tania watched in dismay as they used the sword-points to push the Amber Prison through the air, sending it gliding out through the open doorway. The last thing she saw was the tragic, grotesque sight of Edric’s bent and hunched back, floating above the cobbled courtyard.

  “Where are they taking him?” she asked, her voice dull with shock.

  “To the dungeons,” Gabriel said. “Cast him from your mind, Tania. He is no more.”

  She looked at him, her whole body tense, her throat taut and straining so that it ached to speak. “Was he lying? Please, I have to know.”

  “The question demeans you, Tania,” Gabriel said, and his voice was all velvet again. “The man is a lowly servant, and you are a Princess of the Realm. Forget him.”