Donella remained silent.
“Maybe,” Katy said, biting the inside of her cheek, “it would help if you showed me your gift again. I’ve never seen a winter fairy use magic.”
Liam grunted, but before anyone could protest further, he held his hands out. The breeze lifted the pinecone from her hands and back into the air. The pinecone twirled in a full circle several times before it hovered, completely still, above Liam’s head. His gray eyes glinted silver as he mouthed silent words and kept his eyes on the pinecone. Little by little, the breeze picked up snow and began to coat the pinecone with it, spinning the pinecone as the snow stuck to its little brown spikes. The spinning slowed as the snow began to grow thicker and thicker.
Liam then brought his hands together as though he were cupping the pinecone in his palms and began to rub them back and forth. When he was done, the breeze lowered the pinecone down so that Katy could reach it. Sure enough, the entire pinecone was encased in a brittle layer of ice. Just as Katy reached out to touch it, however, the pinecone shot back up above his head, higher this time, and began to spin once again. But this time, it spun faster and faster. Katy realized what was going to happen a second before it did, and she barely had time to shield her face with her cloak as miniature icicles rained down on them.
The breeze gently placed the now dry pinecone back in Liam’s hand. But just as Katy stepped forward to take another look, Liam whirled around and threw the pinecone at the lake as hard as he could, letting loose a cry of fury.
Katy shrieked and stumbled backward as the lake broke apart and a glacier exploded from its depths. It soared above them, at least eight stories high, and then stood there, leaning precariously to the right. And yet, it stayed upright, like an unfinished block of stone half-chipped by its sculptor.
Liam turned back to Katy. “I have just displayed for you no less than five winter gifts. Manipulation of wind, snow, ice, water, and the creation of frost.”
“I didn’t see the frost,” Jagan interrupted. Then he yelped. When he held up his gloved hand, it was covered in little jagged pieces of white.
“Now that you know it can be done,” Liam said to Katy, “Once again, I want you to try to cover this pinecone with ice,” he reached down and grabbed another pinecone before tossing it to Katy.
Katy caught the pinecone and stared at it. With the way her power worked, she would do well if she didn’t set the thing on fire. And yet, she had to try.
She stretched her fingers out toward it and gently flicked her wrist, the way Tearlach had taught her to grow the plants.
Nothing happened.
“You’re not even trying,” Liam called. “I can’t even feel the power stirring within you. If you didn’t have wings, I wouldn’t believe you were even a fairy.”
Katy ignored him and tried again. This time, she let loose just the littlest sliver of strength. Immediately, the pinecone began to smolder.
A murmur went up from the fairies surrounding them, though Katy couldn’t tell if they were impressed or frightened. Nikki stared, and Jagan scratched his head.
“Well,” he said, “that’s…different.”
“It’s lazy is what it is.” Liam scowled.
“Take care, Liam,” Donella finally broke in. “I told you, this one is unusual.”
“Try again.” Liam tossed her another one.
Katy huffed and tried again. And again. And again. If the pinecones didn’t catch fire, they smoked, and if they didn’t smoke, they stayed as they were. But no matter how many times she tried, there was absolutely no ice. Finally, Liam let out a growl and threw his hands in the air.
“I cannot teach someone who will not try!”
“If you want me to do it, then tell me what to do!” Katy pleaded. “I want to know!”
“Tell her how, Liam,” Donella said with a scoff. “Yelling at her isn’t helping.”
Katy wanted to cry. But the longer she practiced, the more fairies she noticed came to watch. They mostly stayed hidden in the trees at the edge of the valley after she had burned her third pinecone in outright flames, but many were growing bolder and coming within twenty or thirty feet as the practice went on. So she gritted her teeth and willed her frustration not to turn to tears.
“You’re used to feeling with your heart,” Liam said. “We all do when we start because our magic comes from our blood.” He stalked over and stood beside her, holding out his right hand. Katy held her hand out, too.
“But when you wish to harness magic of other kinds,” he said, “let alone other seasons, you must learn to use your head.” He gave her a look of disgust. “Even if it doesn’t come naturally.”
Katy ignored the jab and tried to focus on what he was saying.
“My first gift was manipulation of the winter air. After much thought, however, I was able to use my mind to picture how I could grow frost and control the ice as well. You must be able to see it in your head. If you cannot see it, it cannot come to pass. Now,” he said, handing her yet another pinecone, “try again.”
***
Several hours later, Katy was sure she would be quite content to never see another pinecone as long as she lived. In the hours that had passed, she had attempted to whip up snow flurries, create glaciers, and coat the stupid pinecone with ice. Again and again and again. The only reason she hadn’t quit yet was because she didn’t want Liam or anyone else to think Peter’s betrothed was a dunce and unfit to serve with him.
Now, as Liam and all the others watched, Katy closed her eyes and for the hundredth time that day, imagined ice gathering on the pinecone. With her mind, she pictured the snow sticking to the pinecone and then beginning to pack. It would harden little by little, until she had ice. She tried to think of it the same way she had pictured plants growing when Tearlach had tutored her. She pressed harder and harder until sweat was running down her temples and back despite the cold, and her body shook with concentration as she pressed every ounce of self-control into that pinecone. She would do this. For Peter, she would not fail.
Help me, Atharo, she prayed. I’m doing my best. But I need you. And yet, she heard Liam’s now familiar sound of disgust.
“Why are you even here?” he asked.
Katy opened her eyes. “Excuse me?”
“You act as if this is all just for fun!”
“Liam, watch your temper. We discussed this,” Donella said as though she put up with his fits every day.
“They're both fools anyway,” he retorted. “It's not as though they’ll actually marry, even if she does somehow miraculously succeed.”
Katy stopped fingering the pinecone. “What's that supposed to mean?” She had tried to be respectful, but questioning her loyalty to Peter was crossing a line.
“I mean there is no way you and your rhin will marry. Not with what’s at stake.”
“Liam!” Donella’s tone was suddenly dangerous.
“Pardon me?” Katy asked. A tongue of white-hot fury leaped up in her belly. Her fingertips warmed. “What do you know about me and Peter? What can you know?”
“I—”
“You weren’t there when Peter let the other children mock him so they would leave me alone. And you weren’t there when he put himself between me and my hunters. You weren’t there when Tearlach struck him with an iron over and over and over again for me!” Katy was shouting now. “You don’t know anything! About me or Peter or what we’ve been through!”
Liam spat in the snow, leaving a yellow stain on what had been unblemished white. “I may not have been there, but I do know it would have been a thousand times easier to let my wife go before we were married than after!”
Whatever words had been on Katy’s tongue died.
“You think you’re different,” Liam continued. “And maybe your power is. But you are a fairy. And no matter how much you want and beg and plead with Atharo for things to be different, it will all be in vain!”
“You don’t know that!” Katy screamed, her eyes pricking.
But Liam wasn't finished. “Go ahead. Get married. I can guarantee you this, though. Come ten years down the road, you will resent him. Everything that you ever thought was unique about your love will go up in flames, and only then will you realize how you deceived yourselves. Your world is built of vapors, girl. And you can’t change that any more than you can create ice on this pinecone! Even if you had power!”
Katy’s blood boiled. “Power?” she shouted. “You want to see power?” Wrapping her fingers around the pinecone, she lifted it above her head and brought it down in one swift motion. And for the first time that she could remember, Katy didn’t think about what she was doing. Instead, she acted on instinct. Heat rolled from her heart through her hands as she channeled the surge of power into the ground. The release felt more right than anything she had done all day. He could claim she was weak all he wanted. That didn’t make it true. He could think whatever he wanted. That didn’t make it right. Red flashed all around her, and heat made the air move in waves. A deafening boom rolled out through the valley, and smoke filled the sky.
Everyone but Katy coughed as the smoke cleared.
The field that had been covered in deep, powdery snow just moments before was no longer white, nor was it powdery. Instead, they all now stood on a field of dry, yellow grass. Flowers looked as though they had sprouted and then wilted under the heat of a hundred suns. Up to the very edge of the clearing, where the trees ringed the valley, winter was gone, and everyone stood in what appeared to be an oval of drought.
A little flicker caught Katy’s eye, and she looked down at her arms to see their usually green marks flash the same shade of red that Jagan wore before returning to green.
Katy looked at Donella, but she seemed to be at a loss for words just as much as everyone else. Jagan’s mouth was open, and Nikki was darting from side to side examining everything and mumbling to herself. The other fairies took turns staring at her and then studying the world around them and then back at her again.
“Well,” Donella finally said in a quiet voice, still staring at the ruined valley around them, “I can see why you didn’t want to demonstrate for us in the session hall.”
The only person that didn’t seem surprised or impressed with the display was Liam. Slowly, he walked over to her and bent to pick up the pinecone where it had fallen at her feet. He studied it, twirling it carefully in his hand.
“You can think you’re different all you want,” he said softly. “But you cannot change what you are.” He tossed the pinecone at her and walked away. In spite of herself, Katy examined it.
All that magic, and there still was no ice.
12
Only Because
“Aw, chin up now,” Jagan said with a smile as he threw a log into the fire. “It might not have been what you expected, but at least you showed them your power finally.” Nikki flopped down on it and pulled out her knitting.
Katy glanced out at the other fairies who were huddling around their respective fires. Most were eating something that looked like meat and vegetables as they talked quietly in clusters of three to five. A few sent her shy smiles, but she doubted after that display that they would be lining up to eat with her.
“So, your first morning.” Jagan sat on her other side and stretched his hands out toward the fire he’d just fed. “What did you think?”
Katy and Nikki stared at him. “Have you lost your ackers, Jagan?” Nikki quirked a brow. “What kind of question is that?”
“I’m sorry!” Jagan threw up his hands and leaned back. "I'm only trying to be nice.”
“Well, be nice somewhere else until you can talk sense." Then she looked at Katy. “Are you alright?”
Katy tried to give her a grateful smile. “Nothing I’m not used to.” Although that explosion of power hadn’t quite been planned… But here she was. Right back where she had been before they’d come. Before her manifestation, even.
Nikki blew on her gloved hands and rubbed them together.
“You’re a Winter fairy.” Jagan threw a snowball at Nikki. “I still can’t understand why you hate snow.”
Nikki jumped up and yowled as the snow went down her neck. She danced, trying to paw the ice out of her clothes. When she was finally done, she marched back over to their big log and plopped down to glare at the fire.
“I was born in the winter, yes, and my gift has to do with ice manipulation, but that’s about all I want to do with it.” She shivered. “I hate the cold.”
Despite her mood, Katy let out a laugh.
“Well, I’m a Spring fairy and I survive it, so you will, too.” Jagan threw more wood log onto the fire.
Nikki wrinkled her nose. “Come on, Katy. I’ll introduce you to some of the others.”
“No, stay here,” Jagan said, standing again. “If you want me gone so much, I’ll get dinner, and everyone will be happy.”
“See that you get me the—”
“The one without the onions. I know,” he called back.
Nikki grinned to herself and tucked her hands under her knees as she turned back to the fire.
“How long have you known one another?” Katy asked. Anything to keep her mind off of her spectacular fail.
“I’ve been coming here since I was a baby. But Donella didn’t take Jagan in until he was eleven. Which would have made me…” She made a face as she thought. “Ten.”
“That’s nearly the same age difference that I have with Peter,” Katy said. Nikki beamed, which gave Katy another idea. She’d never had a close girl friend to confide in, not one her age, at least. But growing up in Downing had provided her with more than enough opportunities to see the other girls walking around in cloisters, whispering to one another and giggling as the boys walked past. Hoping she wasn’t being too forward, she leaned in closer. “Do you like him?”
“Who doesn’t like Jagan?” Nikki laughed. “He’s nice and smart and funny and would do anything for anyone who asked him.” Then she gave a little sigh. “The opposite of me, I guess. He was the first one who suggested I try knitting, you know. To help me focus my hands so my head would be clear to think.”
Katy didn’t agree with that at all, but she was not to be deterred. “Yes, but do you…do you fancy him?”
A fleeting look of panic crossed Nikki's face in the second before Jagan announced his return with their suppers. Katy let the subject drop, but she had no doubt in her mind that Jagan meant every bit as much to Nikki as Peter did to her. The question was, did Jagan feel the same way?
“So tell me about the Third Isle,” Jagan said in his sing-song accent. “What’s it like?”
Katy studied her stew. “I’m not sure how to describe it. We have one range of mountains that crosses the isle from north to south, and the only way to get around it is to go all the way to the northernmost or southernmost coastal villages. The castle is placed on a moor near the center of the isle, though it’s closer to the east side than the west. The moor is green with large gray boulders scattered about it, and forest surrounds the entire isle, thanks to Tearlach. But we’re hoping that will disappear soon, now that he’s gone.” She paused. “What isle are you from?”
“Oh, he’s from the First Isle,” Nikki piped. “I’m from the Fifth, though technically, I was born here.”
Katy had just popped a little disc of meat into her mouth, and was savoring the explosion of salty herbs, but Nikki's answer made her stop.
“You were born on the King’s Isle?”
“Oh yes. My mum accompanied my father here for the sessions, and I was born before they could leave.”
Katy stared at her. In her years spent with Emma in the old woman’s time as a midwife, Katy was well aware of one very important rule for expecting mothers. “Wait, your mother traveled on a ship when she was with child?”
“Well, she wasn’t expecting when she left!” Nikki started laughing.
Katy couldn't conceal her shock. Emma, her old mistress, had taken her to many births when sh
e was younger, before she was old enough to help much, and before people had hated her so. And she’d seen Emma warn mothers to stay near the home when they were near their time. “But the summit only lasts a month.”
Both Nikki and Jagan stared at her as though she’d just swallowed a watermelon. Then Nikki began to giggle, as did a number of fairies who had settled on a log nearby. Jagan turned red and looked rather unsuccessfully as though he was trying to bite back a smile.
“What is it?” Katy asked, looking around.
“You…” Tears rolled down Nikki's face as she clutched her side, doubled over in laughter. “You really don’t know how babies are made?”
It was Katy’s turn for her face to burn as she realized why everyone was laughing. “Isn’t…isn’t it the way human babies are…made?”
But everyone just laughed more.
“Alright, alright, alright.” Nikki sat up and attempted to straighten her face. “So when lady fairy meets a man fairy—”
“I know that!” Katy cried, which only made everyone laugh even harder.
“Apparently, you don’t!” someone nearby guffawed.
“What’s all this?” Donella walked over and met them with a motherly smile. “You seem to all be having a good time.”
“Madam.” Jagan stood and gave a quick bow, but even he couldn’t smother his laughter completely. “It appears that Katy isn’t familiar with how fairies…” His voice broke off and he blushed all over again.
“Katy doesn’t know how fairy babies happen.” Nikki wiggled her eyebrows at Katy. “I hope you and Prince Peter have been good then because—”
“That’s not funny,” Donella said in a quiet, deadly voice. Immediately all laughter ceased. The other fairies turned back to their food with renewed interest, and Jagan looked at the ground. And if the severity in Donella’s rebuke wasn’t harsh enough, Liam appeared just behind her.
“We weren’t trying to be rude, honest!” Nikki said, all joviality gone as she looked back and forth between Donella and Katy. “Really, I’m very sorry!”
The Autumn Fairy of Ages Page 11