“Karel present,” a young man called.
Then Peter saw him on the end of the first row. Peter stiffened.
“What is it?” Katy whispered as Donella and Ethemu put their heads together to talk.
“It’s him,” Peter muttered.
“Who?” Katy asked.
But Peter didn’t answer. Apparently, the man who had warned Peter to watch himself was the one occupying Peter’s seat on the High Chancel.
“They’re going to call roll for the Lower Chancel now.” Nikki pointed to a male fairy in the second row with short black hair and a small frame. “That’s my father. He’s been voted onto the Lower Chancel now for nearly thirty years. Long before I was born.”
“What does the Lower Chancel do?” Katy asked as she studied the fifteen fairies and humans that filled the second row.
“For all this fuss, not as much as you’d think.” Nikki scrunched up her little nose. “They hear the disputes on their own isles, and if they can’t come to a reconciliation with their own rhins and Higher Chancel fae, then they bring it here to the Higher Chancel. Or Upper Chancel, as some call it. They mean the same thing.”
“Quiet down. Everyone, quiet!”
Everyone paused and looked down at the stage once more. Donella was holding a hand up and looking about the room expectantly. Silence took half a minute longer than it had the first time, but finally, everyone quiet once more. Peter could still feel their gazes on him and Katy, however. He had never felt so exposed.
“We thought it prudent to wait until the prince regent of the Third Isle and the autumn fairy felt comfortable here. Once they’ve gained the experience, then we can return their duties to them.” Donella’s voice was as quiet as her face was serene, but even from his spot in the back of the giant room, Peter could sense the power behind the words she didn’t speak. To his surprise, she turned and looked directly at him, then Katy. “Does that suit you, Peter?”
Peter wasn’t sure if it did or not, but he didn’t really see that he had a choice. Standing up and demanding that he be given a voice in this session, when he had never seen one in his life, seemed useless. So he nodded once. “Yes, madam.”
“Thank you.” Donella gave him a gracious smile. “And you, Clarisant?”
“Yes,” Katy said shyly. “But,” she added in an even softer voice, “my name is Katy, actually. Well, Katrin. But you may call me Katy. It’s the name I grew up with, and I’m quite fond of it.”
Donella stared at Katy as though she had just announced she was growing a third arm. Finally, however, she blinked the surprise away and wore a hesitant smile. “Of course…Katy. And thank you.” Then she addressed the fairy who had objected. “See? Everything is settled, and I promise they will have a chance to introduce their own selves soon. Does that suit you, Shauna?”
The fairy, Shauna, shrugged without looking up from her nails, so Donella turned back to Ethemu and nodded.
“Role has been called. Read the disputes,” Ethemu said to a portly man sitting behind a desk on the far left corner of the dais.
“Actually,” Donella said, taking a step forward, “we need to recite the history.”
“Oh, yes. Of course,” Ethemu mumbled before giving his head just the slightest of shakes. Donella smiled at Nikki’s father, and he stood to address the crowd.
“Every year for nearly a thousand years, the isles have met on this hallowed ground to remember who we are. We solve disputes and decide policy, but more important than such meetings are our sacred traditions.” He pushed his spectacles farther up his nose and glanced around, as though challenging anyone to interrupt. “A thousand years, have we waited for a High King to rise again. And in the meantime, the great tree has withheld its blossoms. Those lovely petals that once blessed the isles as the wind carried them across the sea are but legend in our annals. For though we have waited, no High King has been provided by Atharo, and our isles suffer as we wait.”
He glanced up at Peter and gave the slightest frown. “But to our great sorrow, our Third Isle cut itself off from the others for four hundred years by shedding the blood of every fae it could find.”
Peter felt his face flush as those around him continued to stare, and he couldn’t help wondering if he would be blamed for his fathers’ sins here, too, just as Tearlach had blamed him.
“Four hundred years,” Nikki’s father continued, “we have languished, waiting for the Third Isle’s repentance and return. And as we waited, we knelt at the Tree of Diadems with heavy hearts, knowing Atharo would not grant us a High King without unity.”
“What does he mean about unity?” Peter whispered.
“In the Chronicles,” Nikki whispered, “it’s said that Atharo will make the tree bloom and send another High King when the broken pieces of the isles are united.”
Peter took a deep breath in through his nose and let it out slowly through his mouth. No wonder everyone here gave him dirty looks. Not only was his line responsible for genocide, but the other isles blamed his line for preventing the return of the High King.
“If by some miracle any of my ancestors made it into eternal bliss,” Peter leaned into Katy’s ear and whispered, “remind me when we get there not to thank them.”
Katy gave him a funny look and shook her head before looking back down at the speaker.
“But now,” Donella spoke again, nodding at Nikki’s father, who promptly sat down, “we are overjoyed to welcome back our missing rhin and fairy.” Her smile was brilliant as she gazed up at Peter and Katy. “Now that you are here, we have hope that the tree will soon bloom anew.”
Applause erupted from the audience so loud that it was a good three or four minutes before the roar died down enough for Ethemu to be heard.
“Now that that’s out of the way, let’s begin,” he grumbled.
The stage clerk put on a pair of spectacles and squinted at the parchment in his hand. “The Higher Chancel has three contentions to judge during the length of this week. The first is a dispute taking place on the Second Isle between a human village and a fae clan. Then the trial of a fairy caught selling vials of his gift, and the third involves altered trade routes over the midwestern sea between the First and Second Isles. And…” He adjusted his spectacles. “Oh, yes. On the morrow, the upcoming rhin, Karel of the First Isle, will face the Tree of Diadems with his wife, Princess Nova. The day after that, the rhin and fairy of the Third Isle will face their tests.”
Peter tensed.
“Very well,” Ethemu said, taking a seat in the first throne on the stage. Donella sat beside him in the second. “The High Chancel acknowledges the contentions, do we not?” He eyed those seated in the first row. “Do we not?”
“We do,” they muttered.
“Good then. You may proceed,” he told the clerk.
The clerk pushed his spectacles higher on his nose, where they promptly slid down. “The citizens of a village on the Second Isle…” He leaned closer to the paper. “MhKali, have been encroaching on the lands of the nearest clan of fae. They have not only trespassed, but have been stealing food from the oasis.”
Ethemu frowned at those seated on the isle behind the rhins. “You weren’t able to negotiate with the parties?”
A balding man stood. His skin was darker than any Peter had ever seen before, and he was tall. His clothing was commonplace, if not very short. “We tried, Sire.” He twisted what looked like a hat in his hands. “But no negotiation could be reached between the fairies and the humans.”
“Some call us fae and some call us fairies.” Katy leaned back to whisper to their new friend. “Which is it?”
“Fae is the ancient term from the language we spoke before we encountered humans,” Nikki whispered back. “The full term is faerie. But the humans couldn’t pronounce it, so they changed it to fairy. At first, the change was just for humans, but now fae and fairies are used interchangeably by both sides.”
“Do the humans deny their theft?” Donella asked, glancing u
p in Katy and Peter’s direction.
The dark-skinned man shook his head. “They admit to the theft, but the human village claims there has been a famine in their allotted fields for nearly a year now, and their children are going hungry. They need the fae food to survive.”
Katy leaned over. “It appears our land isn’t as alone in our struggles as we thought,” she whispered.
Peter nodded. For all their shunning, it seemed the other isles were struggling with fae and human peace as well.
Human and fae witnesses were called, some from the village and some from the clan. It was established that there was indeed a famine ruining the already less than ample crops. And while both sides seemed sympathetic to the plight of the village children and the fae, who, Peter learned, were nomadic to a point and didn’t live in permanent dwellings, both fae and humans remained adamant that they were in the right. The humans needed to poach from the clan’s lands, and the fae cried that their sacred grounds were being desecrated.
The rhins and their fairies took turns asking questions and making suggestions. From what Peter could tell, the rhin of the Second Isle, Akello, was much like the fairy behind them had suggested. He had very little interest in anything that did not involve trade, and that included the struggles between the peoples of his own isle. The other leaders, rhins and fairies alike, however, began to make suggestions that eventually led to a compromise. About half an hour later, they began to quiet down once more.
“In exchange for proper compensation—” Ethemu began.
“Compensation?” Akello cried.
William of the Fifth Isle scoffed. “Come now, Akello. You can’t expect the fae to labor without charge.”
“But the children are going hungry!”
“Then you can take some of that gold you’re hoarding and pay the fae,” William said smoothly.
“You would like that, wouldn’t you?” Akello snapped. “You’d benefit just as much as anyone else.”
Sebastian, rhin of the Fourth Isle, straightened in his seat. “Are you really that daft, Akello? Are your starving children going to eat diamonds?”
“One of the Fifth Isle’s greatest exports,” Nikki whispered from behind Peter. “Very costly and highly guarded.”
“Pardon me!” Ethemu bellowed, but before he could finish, Donella stepped forward. All arguing, even Akello quieted at her glance about the room.
“As Ethemu was saying,” Donella said quietly, looking at each chancel member in turn, “I will gather the proper fae from several isles. You will properly compensate them.” She leveled a glare at Akello. “And they will do what they can to relieve your village’s famine. Then the humans can leave the land of the fae alone.” She paused, then glanced at Akello once more before letting out a huff. “And don’t do what you tried last time by taxing the poor village to death. Kindly remember that you’re their king. Your people are to be pitied, not plundered.”
Akello leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest, muttering something to himself. But before Peter had a chance to ask Nikki what Donella had meant about plundering his people, Donella turned her serene gaze upon them once more.
“Our time is nearly run out for this particular session, but I spoke earlier of allowing our newest members a chance to introduce themselves. Rhin Peter, would you show us your sword?”
It was a strange request, but Peter drew his sword from its scabbard, the familiar grip comforting as he raised his father’s diamond-edged blade in the air. In response, Ethemu, Akello, Sebastian, and William stood and raised their swords in the air as well. Despite Peter’s reluctance, he couldn’t help feeling a bit gratified, as if one of the many broken pieces was finally falling back into place.
“To the High King,” the other four men chanted, “until his throne is filled and he may rest in peace forevermore.”
“Thank you, Peter.” Donella smiled encouragingly when they were finished. The other rhins sheathed their swords once again and sat, so Peter followed suit. He hated to admit it, but perhaps this was something he could learn to do, even excel at. Solving the people’s problems with the others, offering what he could to help, and accepting assistance for his people as well? He certainly wouldn’t want to attend sessions every day of the year, but for one month, he could perhaps see himself fulfilling that duty. Maybe he could even gain some insight from the jolly looking William or the stern Sebastian. Even better would be if some of the fairies on the Higher or Upper or whatever they called it chancel could help Katy find her place.
What he wouldn’t give to see her confident and glowing a year from now in this very hall.
“We have several questions for you,” Donella said. Peter had sat down, but now he stood back up.
“Yes?”
“First of all, how is your isle? Do you communicate well with your subjects?”
That was an odd question. “I’m afraid not as well as I would like, madam. The fairy Tearlach and his family spent years using stolen gifts to grow our forests to the point that travel around the isle was made difficult. There was one road that circled most of the isle, and a few that moved from the capital to different points on that road, but not many. Only ships could visit some of the ports. We’re opening up passages again, but it’s taking time to clear the wood.”
“I see.” Donella wrote something down on the parchment she held. “And what do your advisers and people think about your betrothal to a fairy?”
“What they think really doesn’t matter.”
“I see.” She frowned slightly. “And pray tell, what is that mark, just above your jaw?”
Peter’s heart fell. “Actually…” He swallowed. “Seeing as it happened during Katy’s manifestation, we were hoping you could tell us.” He’d already told the fairies who had visited the Third Isle such, but then, this was something better seen for one’s self rather than described in a letter.
“Intriguing,” Donella said quietly. She glanced down at the fairies in the first few rows, but they all shook their heads. “No,” she said, looking back up at him. “I’m afraid we do not have an answer for you as of now, but we will discuss this at length later.” She nodded, then turned her attention to Katy. “Katy, we also ask something of you.”
The small smile Katy had worn disappeared, but her voice remained steady. “Yes, madam?”
“Would you honor us with your gift?”
4
A Token of Goodwill
Katy felt her face drain of blood as she stared down at Donella.
“You…you want me to use my power?’ She looked around at the hundreds of faces turned toward her. “Here?”
Donella gave a little laugh. “Certainly. Why not?” She gestured around at the room, where every eye was now focused on Katy. “It’s customary for an isle’s fairy elect to give the others a taste of what he or she can do.”
Katy’s mouth felt suddenly dry, and she tried to swallow several times. “I’m afraid, madam, that my gift is not…it’s not like everyone else’s.” She glanced down at Peter. He was staring up at her with that intense worry she always wanted so much to spare him.
“And how would you know that, little one?” An older fairy nearby, a gentleman with gray hair and silver wings, chuckled softly. The mark on his head was brown. “You’d never met another one like yourself prior to this year, had you? And only a very few at that. How do you know your gift is so unique?”
“Tearlach, another fairy, he came to my isle to—”
“We know all about young Tearlach,” Donella’s voice hardened a bit. “He came to us on a number of occasions, the troublemaker. You would be wise to disregard whatever that fool told you.”
Katy searched her memory for something…anything that might change their minds. Surely they wouldn’t want her to destroy anything in this beautiful room. The white marble walls glistened, as did the dozens of chandeliers hanging from above. But there weren’t any plants for her to grow, as she had practiced with Tearlach before he’d betrayed
her. And though she no longer struggled to control herself the way she had before her manifestation, she had worked hard to access her power as little as possible since. For though it no longer threatened to consume her, she could still feel it coursing through her veins.
And it was even more powerful than before.
Well, if they wouldn’t believe her, perhaps they would pity her. “I came to this isle hoping for someone to instruct me.” She worked to make her voice as calm as possible. Then she added in a lower voice, “My gift is dangerous.”
Donella walked toward the front row of tables and began to whisper with the rhins and fairies there. While she did so, a few fairies giggled, and others looked as though they were holding their breath. Katy’s face grew hot as she awaited Donella’s response, for she could feel their eyes upon her, man and fae alike. She could only imagine what they were thinking, how conceited she must seem for believing herself so much stronger than everyone else.
“Very well.” Donella stood and faced Katy once more. But this time, there was no smile. “You may wait until your test.”
“What is involved in this test?” This time Peter spoke.
Donella turned to him. “All rhins and those they wish to marry must pass a test, posed by the Higher Chancel in order to kneel before the Tree of Diadems.”
“Why?” Peter demanded, no longer using his subdued tone from earlier.
“It will be explained more clearly on the day of the test, but for now, suffice it to say that because a queen will often direct the path of the king, we find it wise to test both parties who wish to kneel before the tree.
“So,” Katy called quietly, “if I fail, he wouldn’t be allowed to kneel?”
Donella nodded. “The tree weighs them together, not just the rhin. So both must pass their tests before the rhin is allowed to even attempt the trial at the tree. This ensures a worthy king and queen.” She took a step closer and extended a hand. “But, Claris— Katy. Won’t you allow us to see just a little this evening? We do so long to know you.”
The Autumn Fairy of Ages Page 4