by Tam Erskine
"No harm." He forced a smile, feeling unreasonably embarrassed at his discomfort. She tormented mortals and regardless of how 'truly terrible' they were, it seemed wrong. But it seemed wrong to upset her too. "It's just different than how I'd do things, I think."
Ilanya snorted. "Mortals. There's no reasoning with you. We'd only take the awful ones, the ones deemed evil by human standards." She caught his gaze, as if willing him to understand. "It's not as if we'd take good ones, just like trimming a plant. Pluck, and off come the useless leaves."
"Ilanya?" Ivy interrupted, still not looking at the Glaistig or at him as she spoke, staring at the ever-deepened gorge instead. "Have your kind always been able to shift time?"
"As far as the folk know, we cannot do such a thing, Princess. Surely if we could, the Queen herself would know." Any trace of Ilanya's laughter was gone. Her lips were drawn in a tight line. Her hand flexed as if seeking something to grip. "If a generous queen before your own mother had allowed us such a skill as a boon . . . well, that would be in a time long since passed."
He felt it, that rising tension between them--almost as if it were a solid thing growing in the dusty air between them.
Ilanya stepped in front of them and stared until they were both watching her. Then she looked down into that deep gorge and casually kicked a rock over the edge with her hoof. "Having knowledge of such a secret could be dangerous. What the Queen knows, she can change. What she doesn't . . ." She shrugged. "There's not much my herd would hesitate to do to keep such a secret--ˆ we had that skill."
Jack stepped forward, but neither Ivy nor Ilanya moved. Ivy was closer to the edge, putting him squarely between the two fey creatures.
Is it always like this? Moods here change as suddenly as the breeze.
He wasn't as alarmed as he'd been when they faced the hound, but he still felt as if something unpleasant squirmed in his belly, excited and afraid all at once.
But then Ivy smiled, ever-so-slightly. "One can always hope that such a skill would be used for the good of the realm."
"Indeed." Ilanya's entire posture relaxed; her grin returned. "If such a skill were truly ours, we'd only use it in dire circumstances--to protect our own or those we deemed necessary to the well-being of the realm."
And this isn't considered mad, he reminded himself. This is normal. He shook his head as they carefully would their way down the rim of the gorge.
"They're here!" Daisy let out an uncharacteristically shrill noise. She couldn't help it: she'd been worried to the point of imagining the worst, horrible scenarios ranging from Jorge serving Jack up as a meal to the Huntsmen coming upon them as they slept. From there, she'd even started imagining less probable fates--staked out and bound by vine-gnarlers, held for ransom by free-ranging Durgs.
"They're here, but not alone," her sister added.
Jack and Ivy were slowly hiking down the last bit of trail, accompanied by--of all strange surprises--a grinning Glaistig. Aside from seeming inordinately slow, they appeared fine, but the Glaistigs were as likely to grin during trouble as not. Solicitous up until they skewer their victim, and often afterwards as well, that was their way.
Clematis nudged Jonquil, who'd started to drowse a bit. "Wake up."
"They don't look to be prisoners," Hagan said, nocking an arrow just the same. His attention was fixed on the approaching group. "Just say the word. It's not long enough to pierce her heart, but I can get an eye. Matty, you take her right eye; I'll take the left."
Jonquil had already risen to the air and was hovering by the branch where Hagan was standing at wait. "Daisy calls it--neither of you is to let loose unless she says to."
Surprisingly, Clematis and Hagan both grinned and nodded.
At least they were behaving. Daisy opened her mouth to ask Jonquil what she was doing.
Jonquil grabbed her hand and squeezed. "I'm going closer." Before Daisy could answer, Jonquil zipped off towards Jack and Ivy.
If we survive this, I'm going to get help looking out for them. Maybe Grandmother Nogs can offer some advice.
Sighing, Daisy said, "You heard her. Hold your position."
"What?" Jack glared at Ilanya.
She'd covered her mouth with her hand, trying to muffle her growing chortles.
Ivy put a restraining hand on his wrist. "Relax, Jack. Her kind has an odd habit of seeing humour where we mightn't." She pointed to the branches of a solitary tree where Clematis and one of the Bollynoggins had arrows trained on them, presumably intending to wound the Glaistig.
"Eyes or throat, little ones?" Ilanya called out, her voice echoing in the chasm.
"Eyes, I believe." Jonquil appeared up beside Ilanya's head, a surprisingly cruel smile on her tiny mouth. "Though I suspect they could try for the throat with the second volley."
Ilanya stared at Jonquil for several heartbeats. Then, quicker than a lizard capturing an insect, she snatched the Ellyll from the air. "And would you tell them to fire if I held you like such?"
"I would." Jonquil promptly sunk her teeth into Ilanya's hand, drawing blood.
As Ivy and Jack stood, mouths gaping, Ilanya released Jonquil. "Good for you, girl!"
"Do I understand that you mean them no harm, then?" Jonquil hovered just as close as she had before, seeming unfazed by her brief imprisonment in the Glaistig's hand.
"Today, at least." Ilanya winked, then turned to face Jack and Ivy. "May you find the path less terrible than I fear."
And she was gone, galloping up the steep path at a remarkable speed.
"Will we see you there?" Ivy called out.
Ilanya paused, stirring a cloud of dirt and dust as she spun on one hoof to look down at them. "With strange surprises in tow should all go as planned."
Ivy waved once, and then turned to Jack. "That went rather well, don't you think?"
With Jonquil perched on his shoulder, Jack stood, shaking his head again.
Ivy smiled at him and took his hand. "We are unharmed, and may have found an ally."
"You're a strange girl," he said, squeezing her hand. "But I think I like you."
"Oh . . . " Ivy tilted her head and watched him. "I thought you liked me before. Did you just decide?"
He laughed then, harder than she'd ever seen him in all the times she watched him.
"What?" She repeated it several times, but he just laughed and shook his head.
Mortals were an odd bunch.
She looked at Jonquil: the Ellyll shrugged.
Then Jack started to run down the path, towards the other Ellyllon, pulling her with him.
Chapter 13: In which they come to a moat
A short while after they were reunited, they set off again, filling one another in on the events that had transpired.
"So, Grandmother Nogs will not help?" Ivy fought a sigh at the unexpected bad news. She had hoped that the Bollynoggins had spirited the Ellyllon away because the Bog Mother was interested in offering aid.
"The Glaistigs are far fiercer." Clematis looked a bit worn, but her smile was still in place. She'd been as bad as Daisy, hovering around them and asking questions about meals and rests. "If we're only to get one of the two, I'd rather it be the more vicious of the two."
She winked at Daisy. "No offense to Hagan."
"None taken." Daisy grinned at her sister.
Obviously, the trip to the bog had been good for them.
Jonquil landed on Ivy's shoulder. ""I'm not even sure we should continue. I had hoped . . . I thought if you brought the mortal, Jack, if you brought him . . . I thought the folk who'd met and talked would join us."
Ivy nodded. She'd had much the same hope: that somewhere along the way help would appear.
"We're on our own, and I'm not sure what we can actually do. I don't have a plan." Jonquil wrapped her hand in Ivy's hair as she spoke. "Do you?"
"I just know that we need to get in to see the Queen, but a plan? No. Not yet." Ivy kept on the path that would lead to her mother. With all the obstacles they'd encou
ntered, they'd had no time to sit and devise a plan to approach the palace, and it was beginning to look like they'd need one. "But we will." She turned her head to look at the worried Ellyll. "You were right. Don't doubt yourself now."
This time, Jonquil nodded.
Jack tried not to think about their bleak odds; they were finding more trouble at every step. We'll figure it out. We've done pretty well so far. "Do you think we can enter the palace through the front? Is there a back door or something?"
They stopped. They were at the edge of a strangely appealing moat. The silvery water shimmered, as if something wonderful were waiting just below the surface.
"No." Ivy didn't say more though, turning her attention to the water-horse.
It obviously wasn't an intended stop: Ivy's water-horse refused to take them any nearer to it, snorting in apparent irritation as Ivy tried to urge him forward.
"Come now." She ran her hand over his great neck. "It's water, dear. Surely, you're not refusing to cross water."
"Perhaps, he's hungry . . ." Daisy dove into Ivy's satchel while Jonquil employed Clematis to help her inspect the horse's hooves.
Jack slipped to the ground, stepping closer to that liquid silver. It was quite a way down, but he knew how to swim. The Ellyllon could simply fly across. He started to turn to suggest just that to Ivy when he heard the most beautiful voice, like it was wrought of pure wonder, resonant and strong. Yet no sooner than he'd thought this, he was certain the creature that would carry that voice must surely be fragile. He could think of no reason that this would be true, but he was as certain of it as he was of his own name.
He heard the others tending the horse, but they didn't matter. Not now. He lay down on his belly, his hand dangling over the edge, to reach the gentle creature with that pure voice.
"Just a wee bit closer, darling." Her voice was only for him; none of the others were important.
Jack edged closer. His ankle tangled in ground vines, and he kicked. Once free, he could go over.
Almost there. . .
He saw her then, hair like silver rivulets streaming to her ankles, turning into drops of water as it touched the surface of the moat. She looked every bit like a mother should--like those other mothers that were never his. Her eyes shined with pride. He was certain that's what it was, pride that he'd tried to find her. . .
Yes, that wretched Ivy lies, telling him he was some worthless mortal when really, he was her son.
Jack nodded, trying desperately to kick his ankle free, to reach her.
His mother, for real and true, and she'd take him to meet his father and his brother. In just a moment, all he had to do was come closer.
"Just take my hand, sweetling." She rose out of the water, towering like mighty waterfall, her arms open to embrace him.
But then Ivy was there, gripping his legs, trying to stop him from reaching his home. "Jack! You mustn't listen."
Ivy was not his friend. She'd use him, destroy him, and leave him alone again in that mortal realm. It was so cold there, so lonely.
Keeping his gaze fastened on his mother, his beautiful mother, he kicked at Ivy.
"Come to me." His mother wept, letting loose a wail that made his lungs tighten. "You're so close, my sweetling. I've waited for you, suffered so long."
Jack dug his hands into the soil, trying to pull himself free of Ivy's hateful grasp. His fingers bled and burned.
It was nothing compared to his mother's pain.
Ivy clung to his leg like a leech.
Below his mother's cries, Jack heard Ivy calling her minions. "Hurry, Jonquil!"
Then, Jonquil was there, brushing thistle-coated fingers on his ears.
He squirmed, trying to evade her.
He couldn't let go of the soil or Ivy would be able to drag him away from his mother's embrace. He was too close to let that happen.
"Listen, Jack Merry. Listen and be well." Jonquil slid her hand over his forehead.
And Jack truly heard her, the thing that had been calling him. Her voice was a cacophony of screams, like the voices of drowning men and wailing mothers. It was the sound of water gargling in lungs, filling them until there was no room for precious air.
He scuttled backwards like a crab, frantic and awkward.
"Well, then, the first battle goes to you, Princess." The creature sunk into the oily water of the moat until only her head remained above the slick surface as if it were floating there.
"Stay behind me, Jack." Ivy was breathing as if she'd been running a great distance under the midday sun. "Please, move back."
Jack obeyed without hesitation.
"Until later, sweetling." The creature laughed, and Jack felt as if the fingers of long-dead bodies squirmed in his stomach.
"What was that?" Jack trembled, leaning heavily on the flank of the water-horse.
"That, Jack Merry, is an abomination." She kept herself between Jack and the moat. If she'd known that her mother or Ada had brought out a Coira, she'd never have let Jack close in the first place. "She can read what you've most recently thought, what you want so desperately, twisting it, making a glamour for herself so as to tempt you."
Clematis hovered near. "It only works on menfolks."
". . . that means that Ada expected you to come here, Jack." Jonquil looked at him intently, fluttering just in front of his face. She bowed her head then, sounding worn. "I've no idea how to pass her."
"Let's back away from her grasp while we figure a plan." Ivy steered Jack in front of her, trying to quash the image of him fighting to reach the Coira, to get where she could drown him. "Jack cannot change the Coira. He tried on one of the hounds, but the essential nature of a thing can't be altered."
Daisy wrestled open Ivy's satchel.
"It can. My nature was changed with his gift." Jonquil smiled as she went over to help her sister.
Without prompting, Daisy began passing out their meal. Fortunately, by Ivy's way of thinking at least, she had no way to find any more Drizzle Soup.
"Because you wanted it?" Jack rubbed his eyes. “That was part of it, right?”
"I did," Jonquil said as she brushed Jack's forehead again, unobtrusively.
Ivy knew she was trying to assure herself that he was well.
"And Ivy's stronger, for the same reason, I'd suppose," Jonquil added.
"But the Coira probably doesn't want to change." Jack stared towards the moat and shivered. "And if she claimed she did, there's no way to tell if it's a trick."
"So what can he change if not her nature?" Ivy wondered aloud. "Something small if we can think of it." She squeezed Jack's arm. "You get horribly tired after doing this, worse when you do bigger things.”
They ate their snacks as they pondered.
All the while Ivy kept alert. Her sword might not be of use against the Coira's watery-form, but if she had to bop him on the noggin to restrain Jack bodily, that was still an option of sorts.
Jonquil hoped that they hadn't come quite this far only to be rebuffed at the gate. "What do we know about the Coira?"
"She's water fey, like the Glaistigs are if they go above-ground." Daisy spoke between trips to pile more food on everyone's plate.
"She can't go above-ground, though," Clematis added.
"Why?" Jack reached out and gently wrapped his hand around Daisy. Without a word, he plopped her beside his pile of food and shoved a piece of fruit towards her.
When he glanced at Clematis, waiting for her answer, Daisy started to flutter off.
Clematis popped a ridiculously large berry in her mouth, puffing her cheeks out like squirrel. "Mrm Mrffer."
"What?" Jack and Ivy stared at her.
Exactly! Jonquil thought. She grinned at Daisy. They'd get Jack past the Coira just fine.
Clematis swallowed and repeated, "Warm water. A Coira needs warm water."
Daisy hovered above the plate, leaving the fruit untouched, smiling proudly at Clematis.
Jack's shoulders lowered as the tension seeped a
way. "Then we'll take away her warm water."
"First, you must eat." Ivy pushed Daisy back to the fruit. "We all need to eat before we go on."
Jonquil looked around at them, finishing their food in silence.
Maybe we'll be fine after all, even without as much of the help I hoped we'd find.
"And as the princess looked at it, the moat turned to solid ice, thick as the coldest ice in the world, frozen clear through so not a single drop of water could move . . ." Jack shivered as Ivy led him onto the ice.
"Keep picturing, Jack Merry. Picture how solid it is, how the Coira cannot move." Ivy wished again that her horse had been willing to cross with them; she wasn't at all comfortable as they walked over the moat. "Stay focused. This close to Mother's throne, I've no way of knowing if she's apt to undo what you speak into being."
"Right. The ice is so very thick that everything in it is still, nothing moves, not a ripple." His feet weren't steady as they walked, slipping sideways on the smooth surface.
Tugging him as fast as she dared, Ivy hoped the Coira had no way of breaking free of Jack's will.
At Jack's insistence, the Ellyllon had already crossed and were waiting on the other side. The Coira had no sway over them, but she didn't need to trick them. All the water woman needed to do was to stop Jack: Ivy couldn't--wouldn't--slay her own mother. She wanted to save her word and her people, but to do that, she needed Jack's gift so they could heal her mother.
That meant crossing past every obstacle to reach the queen.
As they touched the almost-black grass at the other side of the moat, Ivy let go of Jack's hand. "We're across."
Jack opened his eyes, glancing back at the moat. As he did so, the ice shivered like it was erupting. A gash appeared in the surface.
"Move!" Clematis yelled.
From the gash, the Coira emerged like a moving ice-sculpture. She kept going, drawing the ice up higher and higher as if each water crystal was a part of her.
Ivy was tugging Jack’s hand, but he couldn't move.