Faerie Tale

by Nicola Rhodes

  Which meant that Denny and Cindy should have been home long before him.

  * * *

  Denny skidded to a halt in a much more professional manner than she had done she could not help noticing admiringly. And for a similar reason – there was someone in the road. A woman or at least a female person. It was the Faerie Queen.

  Denny dismounted slowly and menacingly and stood rocking on his heels looking at her in a manner that Cindy fervently hoped he never used on her.

  Then, suddenly, Cindy knew what she had to do.

  She teleported straight for the stones

  Without missing a beat, Denny followed her, and hot on his heels was the Queen.

  Cindy only had a few seconds lead, but it was enough. As the Faerie Queen re-materialised Cindy grabbed her, pulled her through the stones and held her there.

  For once, she had completely confounded Denny. ‘What the hell …?’ he began.

  The Faerie Queen pulled free from Cindy and ran. Ran away farther into the Faerie realm. It was either that or face Denny, and no one would do that at the moment. He was confused and, therefore, pissed off and ready to take it out on anyone he did not particularly like. The Faerie Queen qualified.

  It was about to get much worse for Denny.

  ‘She’ll get out again,’ said Denny, ‘unless we guard it.’

  ‘No,’ said Cindy, grimly determined. ‘It ends here. ‘She took a large kitchen knife that she kept secreted about her person at all times. Mystic Athames were all very well, but every witch knows that sometimes you can’t beat a good, sharp bread knife.

  Denny got the point at once, but he asked the question anyway as if it was part of an invisible script. ‘What are you doing?’

  He tried to get to her but was stopped by an invisible barrier at the stones. It seemed that Cindy had a will of her own when she wanted to. Denny could probably have broken through in time. But he sensed that he did not have enough time.

  ‘Sealing the portal behind her,’ said Cindy. ‘Don’t try to stop me. You can’t anyway. She came for you. She was looking for you and, as soon as you left the protection of the house, she found you. She’ll never stop. As long as she’s here you’ll never be able to go out, you’ll never be free of her. She’s made up her mind to have you. But I can stop her, right here, right now; there’ll never be a better chance. The blood of a witch on the stones.’

  ‘You can’t!’ he said. ‘We’ll find another way.’

  ‘There is no other way,’ she said. ‘Let me do this … for you.’

  ‘Why?’ he said helplessly. He pushed futilely against the barrier.

  Cindy smiled wistfully as she raised the knife to her neck. ‘I love you,’ she said sadly, and struck.

  Blood splashed on the stones. The barrier came down – too late.

  Denny fell to his knees and howled.

  * * *

  Cindy awoke to find an anxious Denny bending over her. ‘Cindy?’ he was saying. ‘Cindy, are you all right? What happened?’ he lifted her gently onto her feet. ‘Did you have an accident?’

  Cindy stared blankly at him for a few seconds, then she rebooted her thoughts. ‘I hate premonitions,’ she said mysteriously.

  Denny thought she must have hit her head.

  Cindy replayed events as best she could in her head and then said. ‘Where’s Jacky?’

  I love you?

  ‘He’s fine, Jack took him home What happened?’

  ‘Finvarra’s alive I saw him.’

  He needs to know that part at least … I love him?

  ‘He’s alive?’

  ‘Yes, and since I know you’re going to order me to come home with you and I’m going to agree because it’s so hard to argue with you, why don’t I tell everyone together about it when we get there? I think we should teleport by the way.’

  I do love him; I think I always have. But it doesn’t mean I’m ready to die for him. I’m not out of my mind!

  ‘Teleport?’ said Denny trying to keep up. ‘What about …?’

  ‘They can find us anyway,’ said Cindy. ‘Trust me on this.’

  ‘At least, she can find you,’ she thought, ‘and that’s enough. The faster we get home the better.’

  ‘I do,’ said Denny. He was thinking of the Faerie that had broken into the house. But Cindy did not know about this. He would have to tell her … everything.

  ‘I’ve got a lot to tell you too,’ he said.

  Cindy nodded. ‘It’s about time,’ she said.

  They teleported just as the Faerie Queen appeared in the street. ‘Damn,’ she snapped, ‘missed him again,’

  * * *

  The Faerie Queen had, in fact, registered Denny’s reanimation almost as soon as it happened. He was still the best choice, in her view, for a consort, and she had been regularly sending agents to the house to try to get to him. Until recently though, none had been able to penetrate the safeguards around the group of people living there. It was odd; she could not sense the black haired one from whom such terrible power emanated. She had gone, it seemed, and yet … somehow the power she had wielded was still there, but it was weakening. Only this day an agent had finally got as far as the inside of the house, but a power within had driven it out. Still it was a start.

  And then he had left the sanctuary and exposed himself to her but again had been whisked away before she could … it was very frustrating.

  * * *

  Denny was well aware that the protective power that Tamar had placed around them was weakening, and he thought he knew why. It was him. He was the Master now and he had not been giving much thought to the issue of protecting the house. He realised that he had just unconsciously relied on Tamar for – well, a lot of things actually, a lot of things that she did automatically, things he had taken for granted. But she could not do it now, not without him. The spell was wavering because her will had been removed, technically, now she had no will of her own, only his will and he clearly was not up to the job.

  He had taken her for granted for the last time, he decided. Remembering all the things that needed doing all the time was a lot of effort. Women, he seemed to remember reading somewhere, were better than men at parallel processing. The best he could do was to carry on a coherent conversation about shoes while actually thinking about football. And even then, he was sure he was not fooling her. In any case, she needed to be free again if she were to function effectively. He was holding her back.

  He went to find her.

  * * *

  Cindy had been accepted back without much comment. There really did not seem to be much to say. Tamar had been slightly taken aback to discover that Finvarra was alive again but had glossed over it with the comment that there was a lot of it about. This had led inevitably to the revelation of Tamar’s new status and the reasons thereof. Cindy had been shocked but had wisely said very little about it sensing that it was a particularly sore subject with Denny. She was finding herself being rather more sensitive to Denny’s moods these days. A fact which she found quietly disturbing.

  She hummed as she put the counterfeit Jacky to bed and wondered vaguely where the other – she corrected herself sharply – the real Jacky was. It was hard to mourn for a child that she had never really known. This, for all intents and purposes, was her baby.

  And she really was not too worried about the other. Finvarra had said he was safe, and she believed him. Even Denny had said that the stolen children were probably all right, and if he thought so then, as far as Cindy was concerned, it was probably true.

  She left Jacky curled up in his cot peacefully and went up to her bedroom to brood about Denny.

  * * *

  Denny himself was brooding about Tamar. He was also trying vainly to find her, what he found was the bottle. He picked it up curiously. In view of what he had in mind it occurred to him for the first time to wonder what it was like inside. He concentrated.

  Tamar was in there and none too pleased to see him either. ‘What do you think you a
re doing?’ she snapped.

  ‘I was just curious,’ he said lamely. ‘I just realised that in all the time you were living in here before, you never once asked me over,’

  He looked around him at the sumptuous furnishing (mainly cushions). ‘It’s nice,’ he said. ‘And no need to lock the door,’ he added hopefully, plonking himself down on a cushion and raising his eyebrows at her suggestively.

  Tamar laughed. ‘Is that all you ever think about?’ she said.

  ‘Yes,’ said Denny and pounced.

  * * *

  ‘I have a wish,’ he began carefully after… afterwards. ‘Actually, three wishes,’ he added just so there was no mistake.

  ‘Sure?’ said Tamar. ‘You know it’s not always a good idea.’

  ‘I know what I’m doing,’ said Denny.

  ‘I used to think that,’ she warned him. ‘And look at some of the messes I’ve made.’

  Denny did not comment. One of the worst mistakes she had ever made in this regard had very nearly turned him into a demon.

  ‘I wish …’ he said.

  And Tamar closed her eyes and prayed. Not to anyone of course, Tamar had met too many gods to fall for this one, but just prayed in general.

  ‘… To be Omnipotent, Omniscient and Immortal’ he said.

  Tamar’s eyes slammed open. ‘Oh no!’ she cried. ‘I won’t do it.’

  ‘You have to.’

  Tamar’s eyes narrowed. ‘Yes Master,’ she said in chagrin. And in the blink of an eye, she was free and Denny was the Djinn. Tamar, unlike the unlamented Askphrit did not go in for showy special effects. What she did do was burst into tears.

  ‘Now you know how I felt,’ remarked Denny.

  ‘Sod off,’ she said.

  ‘Quite,’ agreed Denny. And because she was the Master now, he did.*

  *[Djinn are quite capable of nonliteral interpretation and Denny knew that Tamar had not meant this literally. He was just being awkward.]

  ‘Denny!’ she ordered.

  He came back. ‘Yes Master.’

  ‘You know I could just wish us back the other way around?’ she said.

  ‘I know,’ he said. ‘Master … how do I stop saying that?’

  ‘It takes practice,’ she said. ‘I want to know why you did it,’ she said fighting for calm.

  ‘Because we need you at full power with free will and everything,’ said Denny, ‘if we’re ever going to win this. Because I couldn’t live with the guilt. Because 5000 years of servitude is enough. Because I know you’ll find a way out of this for me far sooner than that.’

  ‘All good points,’ admitted Tamar resignedly. ‘You’ll hate it you know.’

  ‘I imagine I will … Master – shit!’

  ‘I mean it,’ she said. ‘It took me about a hundred years to acclimatise and even then I was still mad.’

  That’s right, cheer me up.’ He gritted his teeth, but it still came out. ‘Master,’

  Tamar grinned. ‘That’s going to get on my nerves even more than yours,’ she said.

  ‘I doubt it – Master,’ he said sourly.

  ‘Djinn,’ she said. ‘Don’t answer me, just listen. ‘Djinn, I wish for you not to call me “Master” anymore,’

  ‘Your wish is my command,’ said Denny automatically. ‘Thank you,’ he added. ‘You know I expected to feel it, the magic you know.’

  ‘Only for the big stuff,’ she said. ‘You’ll feel it then all right. Except you won’t because I’m not going to wish anymore.’

  ‘It’s harder than you think,’ said Denny. ‘We’ll see.’

  ‘I will get you out of this,’ she said ignoring, as she always did, the wisdom of experience that was not her own.

  ‘We’ll see,’

  Tamar could not believe it. That Denny, that anyone, even Denny would do this for her. She tried to convince herself that he had not really understood what he would be giving up but it wouldn’t wash. She knew damn well that he understood. She had a lot to live up to.

  She was having another experience; one that only one person had ever had before in the whole history of creation as far as she knew. She had become a free Djinn. Unlimited power and free will. It was a heady experience. Before, when she had become free, she had technically retained her powers, but as a mortal. This was different; she felt invincible.

  ‘And I thought I knew what power was,’ she thought. ‘I had no idea.’ She just hoped it did not go to her head.

  And she was the Master of another Djinn. Yet more power. ‘We can’t fail,’ she thought.

  ‘This is it,’ she realised with a shock. ‘This is what I was waiting for. Time to sort this out. Time to go after the Queen.’

  * * *

  ‘Damn I lost him.’ The Queen was not really enjoying her reign of terror as much as she had hoped. Without her chosen consort, it just was not the same. And since she had set her sights on Denny, her preoccupation with finding him was becoming an obsession – which will take the fun out of anything,

  Now she had lost him, that is she could not find his mind, it was as if he had simply vanished. If one of her Faeries had killed him … but no, his power was still evident, just as … and that was when she realised. Tamar was back.

  She did not understand it. Were they one being? No! Then how was it that when one vanished, the other returned? The power they wielded was similar, and she had never been able to quantify it in either of them, was it, in fact, the same power, did they share it? Such a bond would be hard to break. But not impossible. The Faerie Queen smiled. The dark haired harridan would have to die. Now that sounded like fun.

  * * *

  Denny was watching Tamar in, well … concern, if not actual panic. The power wasstrobing through her. She was thrumming like a badly strung guitar. It made Denny nervous. What the hell had he done? Was this what had happened to Askphrit? No wonder he had gone mad.

  Then suddenly she turned to him and smiled and the power surge faded away. ‘Don’t worry,’ she said with that uncanny knack she had of reading his thoughts. ‘I’ve got it under control.’

  ‘Famous last words,’ thought Denny.

  * * *

  When they told the others, Denny thought they took it pretty well really, for the most part anyway. Cindy, however, had blinked suspiciously bright eyes and walked away without saying a word.

  ‘You go after her,’ said Tamar to Denny. ‘I know you want to.’

  *

  ‘Go away,’ said Cindy.

  ‘What’s up?’ countered Denny. He did not have to do what she told him to.

  She turned round at the foot of the stairs. ‘I can’t believe you did that,’ she said. And the tears formed in her eyes.

  ‘Do you care about me so much?’ asked Denny. He had not meant to ask this, he did not think he really wanted to know the answer, but it had just sort of come out.

  ‘It’s not that,’ she lied. ‘It’s just … how did things get so messed up?

  Denny grinned in relief. ‘Hah!’ he said. ‘When aren’t things messed up around here?’

  ‘But never this badly. I mean you’re a slave. That’s pretty messed up.’

  ‘That’s Faeries for you,’ he said. ‘From what I’ve heard anyway, when they arrive things always go to hell.’

  Cindy nodded. ‘It was a big sacrifice,’ she said meaning his.

  Denny nodded. ‘No bigger than the one Tamar made,’ he pointed out. ‘Besides, I think I did it partly out of guilt.’

  ‘You did it entirely out of love,’ said Cindy wistfully. ‘You forget. I know you. Better than you think, I think.’ She paused. ‘Oh poor Cindy,’ she said, her anger rising. ‘She doesn’t know what’s going on, too thick to notice what’s under her nose, but I see things too you know. It’s astonishing what you can pick up when no one thinks you’re important enough to hide things from.’

  ‘No one thinks that,’ said Denny defensively.

  ‘You all do,’ said Cindy. ‘I don’t blame you really, I bring it on myself. Peopl
e have always treated me like that. It’s the blonde hair, do you think?’

  ‘I’ve got blonde hair.’

  ‘Yes, but you’re…’

  ‘Ugly?’ said Denny with a grin.

  ‘No,’ she answered seriously. ‘No, not ugly, just … well… you’re a man aren’t you? And besides, you act sort of … and you … never mind.’ She waved a hand. ‘It doesn’t matter. Do you want to see my real face?’ she asked suddenly.

  But Denny had learned a thing or two since taking up with Tamar.

  ‘That is your real face,’ he told her. And he meant it too. Wear a face long enough and it becomes your own. Like politicians and opinions.

  Cindy smiled. ‘One of them anyway, I meant the other one, without the magic.’

  ‘Not at all,’ said Denny. ‘It won’t change my opinion of you in any way. I saw Tamar’s “real” face once you know.’

  ‘You did?’ Cindy was amazed. ‘I’m amazed she let that happen,’ she said.

  ‘It was a sort of an accident,’ admitted Denny. ‘But it didn’t make a difference. I never judged people on what they look like. Well, when you look like me you can’t really.’

  ‘I used to, but not anymore,’ she said. ‘I live in a different world now I suppose.’

  ‘You’ve learned to see beyond the surface,’ agreed Denny. ‘It’s a magical thing.’

  ‘Like the Faerie queen,’ said Cindy. ‘She obviously saw something in you. I should warn you I guess. She’s still after you. She knows you’re alive.’

  ‘How do you know?’

  ‘I had a premonition about it, I meant to tell you before, but I couldn’t think how to put it, sorry.’

  ‘Well, she won’t find me now,’ said Denny holding up his wrists to display the manacles.

  ‘But it’s good that you told me,’ he added seeing her face fall. ‘Maybe I can use it somehow.’

  ‘You’re a nice guy,’ said Cindy. ‘Kind. You don’t have to be. I’m tougher than I look.’

  ‘You’d have to be around here,’ Denny agreed.

  ‘Around here,’ she said vaguely. ‘Yes, you know before I came here I never had a problem with my self-esteem. I was always the best-looking woman in the room. No other woman stood a chance against me. I mean I’m a witch. A witch among ordinary women, that was me, but now … I’m a witch among Tamar and Hecaté. It’s a lot harder.’