“They have to learn, my pet,” Queen Mab petulantly crooned and gazed down in disdain at those who were destroyed and to those whose lives hung in the balance. “They have to know I will be obeyed.” Her glowing fingertips fluttered in the air. Unknown power rained down on those screaming for their lives, begging for forgiveness, and Pip knew leniency was never coming.
“I'm sure your point has been taken, Majesty.” She bowed, lowering herself closer to the ground. “But if you're going to rule, there has to be someone or something remaining.” She peered through her tears at the onetime lush forest, broken bits of wood remained, toothpicks for the gods.
Mab's visage shrank down to nearly human sized proportions. “Carry my words, little one, to whoever is left of your people.” Her lip lifted in a sneer. “Advise them to make tribute, disobedience will not be tolerated. The Winter Court will expect your presence. This is not a request.” She spun away, ready to take her leave before twisting around, giving Pip a glimpse of her icy eyes. “Unless you want me to deliver the message?”
“N-no, Majesty. I'll make sure it's understood, though we have little left to make tribute with.” Pip glanced down at her feet. “Majesty? May I ask why my presence is required?”
The Winter Queen reached out a chilled finger, tipping Pip's face to meet her own. “Is it not enough that I require you to attend me? Must you have a reason? Let us say that you will be tribute enough.” Mab shook her head, and frost covered the point of Pip's chin. “Be a good girl. Go, bring my words to your people. I'll wait at the edge of the...forest.” She deliberately smiled and laughed, Winter wasn't fond of green anyway. She had cages for her trinkets, her amusements.
Pip turned away. But before she could make her escape, Mab called her back one last time. “Make sure to return to my service, little one. I will not be denied.” Then she vanished as if she'd never there, if not for the destruction she'd left behind.
***
Pip sank to the ground, her body shaking as she gave in to her tears, for herself, her family and friends; for her life, for her shattered queendom, and for her dreams. Magic leaked out with every tear, where one fell, a blade grew in its place. Slowly, those who were left crept from their hiding places to surround their true Queen. She raised her watery eyes and repeated Mab's insane demands and demented words with defeat.
“Please, before I leave, we must try to repair what can be saved. Everyone reach out to the life left in the forest; infuse it with your love. Bring life back so I may leave it.”
Around her, the sprites reached out to one another, and a bubble of power expanded. One by one, they searched the decimated land and exhaled their strength. Little by little, green began the return to life. The trees sprouted new branches, tiny emerald buds burst from their pointed tips. Flowers sprang from the ground as if slumbering from winter gone too long, opening tender petals of color, adding to the green. Plants of varying shapes and sizes grew from the scorched Earth to surround the barren trunks. Where once destruction lay, life began again, nature renewing itself.
“I must go now, lovelies, for I fear the Winter Queen will not stop with a simple show of power.” Pip shook her head, it would kill her a little more everyday to leave her beloved forest. Mab meant to see the end of Pip and everything that grew and renewed within the Earth. Spring would never come again if Mab had her sick way, then Summer could not reign. Forever, Winter's power would remain. Pip reached out one last time to the forest, a burst of life rushed from her body, leaving her drained, but contented.
Cries rose up around her as her hand sought out her remaining family member, her sister, Tam. “You must take my place.” Pip raised her fingers to the crown of roses surrounding Tam's head, one matching her own. “Take better care than I have, bring life to the land.” Then Pip strolled away to meet her fate.
“Wait, I can't, I don't know how!” Tam cried to her sister's retreating back.
“You may not yet, but soon the knowledge will come to you. Have faith, little sister, and love. Find your Consort, for love is the only way to save yourself, to save us all.”
“I'll...I'll take care of the forest for you...until your return,” Tam called.
Pip smiled sadly before disappearing into the forest shambles, to the waiting hands of Mab. Her life would end in the service to the mad Winter Queen, this she knew. Even the Queen of the forest sprites could not survive surrounded by the cold and death Winter brings to the slumbering land, and Winter wanted the forest to never wake. A world contained in ice.
A great war was brewing between Winter and Summer, but neither could survive without the other. There could be no winner. Endless Summer would make the land grow weary and tired, unable to replenished itself. Endless Winter would cause the land to die under its rule, never allowing for rebirth. It was useless, this coming war, and neither could see reason. Pip wept for the loss of all she knew. The land needed a champion to make the Courts see sanity. Would someone come to save them? Could someone? It was her greatest and last hope.
Mab stood at the forest's edge, cage in hand. “Come, my little one, time to go home,” she called merrily, almost tenderly, insane with her chilling power.
Pip greeted her fate and crept inside the gilded cage to be lifted to Queen Mab's icy orbs. “Sing little one, try to bring life to Winter.” Mab laughed happily as the birthing song left Pip's lips.
Deep in the forest, as yet untouched by Mab's destruction, music came to the ears of the sprites. They danced and twirled. But, one rose to stand taller than the rest.
***
Kale glanced around; he'd never heard anything so beautiful in his life. His feet stepped toward the music, calling him, drawing toward the whimsical sound.
“Kale, we've not finished here yet.” Ronin grabbed his brother's arm. “What's wrong with your eyes? Too much sun?”
Kale blinked once and then again. “I...I don't know. Do you hear the music?”
“The song of renewal? We all hear it.” Ronin dropped the brush in his hands and rested them on his hips. The pair was seldom one without the other. Their family destined as Protectors and Guides to the Forest. Ronin reached out to the brown hidden beneath the frost, his fingers lingered. The brown refused to release the green. “This isn't right.”
“No, it isn't. Listen.” Kale stood back and held his breath. It sounded in his ears. His eyes closed and his body swayed. He took another step toward the sound. “Something's wrong with the forest.”
Ronin put out a hand. “Kale, life isn't coming to the forest.”
A coldness shivered through his body. He breathed out a frozen cloud of air. Kale pulled away, his gaze searching for a direction. The branches overhead lurched in the same fashion as his body had.
“No.” He pushed Ronin away. “I have to find the birthing music.” He retraced his footsteps, his eyes begging his brother's. “I have to go.” He turned, racing over the ground. The song took on a new timbre, and sadness rained down on him. “I'm coming,” he said to himself, and his feet moved faster.
Chapter Two
Kale hurried through the meadow lands, driven faster by unfounded fear. Even the first buds of tender grasses pushing their timid heads above the soil made his fears grow. Where were the blades that should have begun to wave? The brownness of winter still held its death grip.
The further from the meadowlands he found himself, the deeper winter became. Where were the sprites? Where was the life?
He sped quicker over the forest floor. The cries of the dying sprites grew around him, begging for help, urging him on. He glanced over taking in the changes in the greenery. The bent and ruined trees scattered on the brown bed of leaves. The twisted and broken vines, their leaves crumbling where new growth had started.
“What kind of magic is this?” he wondered as he hurried faster, the birthing song now rang in his ears, their tips tingling with a feeling of dread. Then he came upon the true destruction. Decimation lay around him, tears gathered in his eyes.
&n
bsp; He tipped his head up to the gray sky, a winter sky. A scream tore from his throat. “Who has done this? Who has destroyed millions of years’ worth of love and care?” he shouted to the sky.
There was a whisper carried on the wind. A shudder seeped into his body.
The whisper spoke, “There is another, greater, more powerful.... No love remains in her cold, dark heart. It is she who brought this decimation.”
“Who?” Kale shouted to the heavens. “Who is the one?”
“Mab....” the whisper hissed. “The mad queen of the Winter Fae.”
He fell to his knees. His fisted hands covered his leaf-colored eyes, and one word left his lips, “No.”
***
Pip's life force belonged to the forest. If Mab kept her promise, and Pip remained forever trapped in her gilded cage, death would come—slow and painful. She wrapped her hands around the golden bars of the cage, gazing back the way they'd come. Each step moved her farther from her home. She opened her mouth, and more of the song spilled out, she could no more stop it from pouring from her body than she could force her lungs to quit working. One silver shimmer trailed down her cheek. In her heart, she was saying her silent goodbye to all that was good and reaffirming. The cage swung back and forth, rocking Pip as the song left, and her tears fell.
***
Mab lifted the cage, spinning it around, gazing between the bars at her newest treasure. She poked one long red fingernail between the bars, scraping the metal. Her blood-red lips pushed out in a pout. “Poor little dear.” She swung the cage quicker, spinning it in small circles.
Pip clutched the bars tighter, her eyes never leaving the bit of green still peeking in the distance.
The Queen twisted the cage, and finally, Pip's eyes rose to Mab's. “Why? What did the forest ever do to you? You could have left it dead, instead you destroyed it.” Her gaze left the Queen's to seek the forest once more.
“Because, my little one,” the Queen poked at the bar as she spoke. “You worked too hard to bring new life. This way, you can continue your song to no avail, and I have succeeded in my quest.” Her voice was almost musical and her lips curved into a cruel smile. “Winter shall forever reign. And with forever Winter, the sprites will die.” She shrugged her delicate shoulders. “Summer will have no place.” She grinned and watched Pip through the bars. “And you, my pet, will become one of a kind.” She flung her head back and insane laughter echoed through the barren land. “Winter's time has come.”
The cage lowered back down to Mab's side, and she continued on her way, her merry laugh carrying Pip further and further into death.
***
Kale lay in the desolation that used to be forest. Sprite-sound was few and seldom did it enter into the part of his mind that wasn't numb. With little more than resignation, he sat up and gazed in disbelief at the land. His eyes moved over and around, few buds struggled to find a place in the tired and ruined landscape. He twisted his head, and on the single leaf left hanging over head, he spied the only living soul besides himself.
“Where has she gone?” he called to the young sprite with the crown of roses on her head.
She jumped to her feet, fear coloring her face. She bit her lip and backed into the shadows.
“Wait! Don't go! You're the first I've seen.” Kale reached out toward her. “At least tell me your name.”
She turned back to face Kale and lifted her quivering chin. “Tam, Princess of the Sprites, sister to Pip, Queen of the Forest.”
Kale jumped up to a bare branch, next to the one on which she stood. “I'm Kale, Protector of the Forest. My brother Ronin and I were clearing winter's remnants when I heard the song. Though, it was never quite like that before. Where is she? Where has she gone?”
Tam's eyes spilled over and she covered her face with her shaking hands. “Mab's caged her.”
“Caged?” Kale looked around, bewildered. “She does not know she kills the little one with a cage?”
Tam shook her head, wiping the moisture from her cheeks. “She knows.” Turning to the direction she'd last seen her sister, she whispered, “She just doesn't care.” She looked over at him, then around at the forest. “Can you help her? I'm afraid to leave the forest. Pip said the knowledge to save what's left will come to me here.” She turned frantic. “Mab will kill her, I know it. I can help here, but only Pip can sustain the forest. She is destiny bound.” Tam reached out to Kale.
His gaze lingered over the destruction. “I don't think I have a choice. Her music calls to me. I can't deny it.”
Tam leaped to the branch on which he stood. “Hurry then!” She grabbed his hands. “Mab has taken Pip to the Winter Fae's Court as her newest trinket. And to show the Court that no one is beyond her reach, no one defies the Winter Queen. Not even the Queen of the Forest. Not even Summer,” she whispered.
“Spring will never survive the coldness of Winter, even without the cage.” Kale pulled his hands free. “Do you know where the seer can be found? I'll need supplies if I'm to breach Winter's defenses.”
Tam pointed to a barren hilltop. “Memda has a hidden burrow. I'm sure she's taken refuge there. Come.” She held out her hand. “She'll have what you need.”
***
Ronin trailed behind his brother. “Kale, where are you?” he muttered, looking for footprints where grass should have begun to grow. “What has happened? Who could have left such destruction?” He feared for his brother's life force. His own was suffering from the lack of green. Where were the sprites? Even their sounds were lost in the madness that surrounded him. He lifted his face to the sky, to Goddess Danu. “Please, Goddess, do not desert us in our hardest hour.” His eyes fell back to the forest and he surveyed the decimation. “For, I fear without your guidance, all hope is lost.”
Then, he hurried faster.
Chapter Three
They hurried over the deadened land, arriving at the hilltop home of the forest sprite's seer. She greeted them as they approached. “My friends, you've come to save the Queen.” There was a parcel lying on the ground. “Protector, you will need this.” She pushed the pack closer to him. “Your brother worries for you. He seeks you even now.”
Kale turned to Tam, grasping her hands. “When my brother arrives, tell him where I've gone. If the worst happens, he'll know what to do.” Releasing her, he twisted around to the seer once more. “Can your sight help me in my quest?”
“Mab has hidden much from me.” A deep sadness sounded in her voice. “The mad queen seeks only death and annihilation.”
He dropped down on his knees in front of her. “Then, all is lost.”
Memda reached out her gnarled hand, brushing his cheek. “Young one, I am as old as the spirit of the trees. My time here is nearly over. Bring back the Queen, keep the forest alive. I cannot see the future, but your past has been revealed. You are strong; your music is matched to the Queen. Bring her home. You, my young one, are the forest's only hope.” She tilted his chin up and gazed into his eyes. “Go, young one, seek that which has been taken from us.” Opening her cloak, she pulled one last item from deep within the fabric. “This will serve as your guide.” She placed the ancient branch in his hands. “This is the last surviving branch from the tree of life. It is very powerful and will help you divine the entrance to the Fae world.” She caressed his cheek a final time. “If you need guidance, I have enough strength left to answer your call but once. Go now.”
“Yes Memda,” Kale answered. “I will try.”
She withdrew to the hollow of the hidden burrow, and he turned back to Tam. The branch quivered in his hands, ready for their trip to begin. His gaze moved over her face, only a child. But, the burden of the forest now lay on her young shoulders.
“Ronin will arrive shortly. He will stay unless and until I need him. Though young, he is a Protector beyond compare.”
“Bring my sister back,” she begged.
“As I told the seer, I will try.” He smiled at her. The branch shook again. “My jou
rney begins.” He winked, slinging the pack over his shoulder, and headed in the direction the branch pointed.
***
Ronin gazed upon the true destruction, and it took his breath. The world stopped as he entered the part of the forest where green was barely thriving, where the sprites had ceased to exist. Death surrounded him like a visible cloak. He fell to his knees, and a groan of despair tore from his throat.
“Are you Ronin?” a small voice called.
He twisted around, searching for the source. A young sprite came out from the branches that didn't sway in the gentle Spring breeze. It was a fact that the air in this place was deadened.
“Who are you?” he questioned, suspicion in his voice.
“I'm Tam, sister to Pip, Queen of the Forest,” she answered, head held high. “Are you Ronin?” she asked again.
“I am,” he returned. “Where's my brother?”
“He left in search of our Queen. He also left you a message. His words were to tell Ronin to wait here, unless or until he needs your help. You are a Protector?” She glanced over him. He was younger than Kale, but not as young as she was.
Again he answered, “I am. If you can tell me where my brother's gone, I'll go help him bring back the Queen.”
“No.” Tam leaped from her branch. “Memda has said you are to remain here. Kale will call if he needs you. She'll hear him if you don't.” She reached out her fingers to a twig sprouting from the ground. “Right now, help me.” Green struggled to come alive within the twig. “The sprites that survived Mab's visit have deserted this part of the forest in fear of her return. Help me bring what we can back to life.” A single bud clung to the tip of the twig now, bent under the weight of the life ready to burst into existence. “It's what Kale asked me to tell you.” A tear glistened on her eyelashes before rolling down her cheek. “I cannot do it alone.”
Tales of the Fairy Anthology Page 8