Ill Met by Moonlight

by Mercedes Lackey

  “Strong, yes,” Denno agreed. “Yet, Majesty, she was caught in the trap of a spell of dissolution and almost destroyed. And it was nothing exotic, an ordinary Unseleighe spell, so she is vulnerable to the workings of the dark Sidhe. Her strength saved her. She fought the spell for weeks, but she was near the end before I discovered what was wrong. She cannot be left unprotected.”

  Titania sighed. “That is true. What she carries is too valuable to lose. Her healer was careless, also. I felt the remnants of the spell tangled in her power lines. I cleared them. You will find her unimpaired.”

  Careless? Mwynwen? Denno swallowed. “I am sorry to hear that. Could those remnants have done her harm?”

  Titania shrugged. “No physical harm, certainly. Perhaps some memories might have faded, but I did not think a faulty memory would be a good thing for this child.”

  “No. Not if the FarSeers are correct. Thank you, Majesty.”

  Unimpaired? Elizabeth thought. Denno did not tell me there was any danger of being left an idiot. A frisson of cold ran over her, and she began to tell over in her mind some of her recent lessons and even the horrible memories of her terror. While she worried that over, she missed what Denoriel and Titania were saying to each other.

  The Queen’s silvery laugh drew her attention just in time for Elizabeth to see her flick a sidelong glance at Denno. He shifted uneasily, to Elizabeth’s surprise, and even more to her surprise he looked away from the Queen and out of the window. Very faintly, Elizabeth, who had also looked that way, heard the sound of childish laughter.

  Denno’s face, Elizabeth thought as she looked back at him—the children being of little interest to her—was more flushed than she had ever seen his pale skin. It was interesting, but Elizabeth had no time to think about it. Titania had leaned forward to touch her arm. Elizabeth raised her eyes and was caught once again by the Queen’s brilliant emerald gaze.

  “I must explain to you, Elizabeth, what I have done so you will not fear that there is anything wrong with you,” Titania said. “Ordinarily humans who are brought Underhill or find their own way here are not permitted ever to return to the mortal world.”

  Elizabeth gasped with fear and involuntarily backed up a step. Titania caught her by the chin. Elizabeth froze.

  “You need not be afraid, my dear. You belong in the mortal world and would make great trouble for us if you were not returned. Exceptions are made. You will go back when your lessons are finished.” She cast a glance at the window herself, and added, softly, “And those we take to dwell here among us, are those who—sadly—are little missed, and valued even less, in the World Above. Or—once in a very great, great while, are those who would have died there.”

  Elizabeth breathed again.

  “Usually when we send mortals back, we wipe all memory of Underhill from their minds. However, because you must be taught to protect your mind, I could not do that. You must be able to retain what Tangwystl will show you. Therefore, I have sealed your ability ever in your life, even unto your deathbed, to speak of Underhill while you are in the mortal world. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, Majesty.”

  Elizabeth kept her voice low and respectful. If the Queen could do that to her—and Elizabeth did not doubt Titania could—she could do worse if she were annoyed. But Elizabeth felt resentful. The Queen should have trusted her. In all the years she had known them, never once had she hinted that Denno and Alana were not as others.

  “You must not be afraid of this impairment of your speech. No other damage has been done to you. And what we will teach you here will help to save your life, perhaps many times.”

  There was another burst of childish laughter from the window. The smudged and ragged little boy was now just outside it, his hands on the pane of glass, peering in. The Queen looked that way.

  “And now you may go,” she said.

  Elizabeth sank down to the ground in her deepest curtsey again, murmuring, “Thank you, Majesty.”

  But before the words were out, she was Elsewhere.

  Chapter 14

  “Where are we now?” Elizabeth gasped.

  Denno looked around, seeming as dazed as she was for a moment. Then he took a deep breath. “Ah, in Avalon. In front of the Academicia.” He took another breath. “I didn’t know Titania could do that.”

  Elizabeth gave a slight shiver. “I was afraid for a moment that she could do anything she willed to, anything at all.” She reached up and took Denoriel’s hand. “What are we supposed to do now?”

  “This is where we will find your teacher, the one that Titania has selected for you. There is a door,” Denoriel said, a bit uncertainly.

  Whenever he had come to the Academicia previously, to consult one of the mages or to study with them, the door in the blank white wall had been open, sometimes with the mage standing in it. He was just about to say that they should both think of the name Tangwystl, when the door did open—as always right in front of him, or, this time, in front of Elizabeth. It occurred to him as the mage stepped out that he was quite a distance from where he usually stood, and the door had found him anyway.

  Elizabeth’s hand tightened on his own and he returned a reassuring squeeze. Tangwystl was not a sight to raise the spirits of a child who had already been dealt with by Queen Titania. She was darker even than Mwynwen, but without a spark of the other’s beauty or warmth. Her hair was black and as straight as if it had been ironed, streaked with gray; her ears barely came to points, but when she wrinkled her nose in distaste at something, one could see that her teeth were as pointed as a cat’s. Her eyes were so black that it was impossible to tell whether the pupils were round or long.

  Unseleighe, Denoriel thought. Unseleighe, not entirely elven-blooded either, and somehow bound to the Seleighe court, probably by Titania herself. But was it safe to trust a dark Sidhe with Elizabeth’s mind?

  “I don’t believe you can even walk in that stupid dress,” Tangwystl spat, “and I certainly can’t teach you anything while you wear it.”

  The mage made a gesture and snapped the fingers of her hand; Elizabeth cried out in distress. Her dress, her beautiful court dress, was gone! When she looked down she was clothed in … in boy’s clothes—a white shirt, open at the throat with long, full sleeves that were exposed by a sleeveless tunic. The tunic only came down to midthigh over long, footed hose. Elizabeth stared in horror at her shapely but exposed legs. But horror quickly changed to outrage.

  “And I won’t learn anything from you, even if another bad spell kills me!” Elizabeth shouted. “How dare you make me indecent in boy’s clothing! I am a girl! Give me back my dress, I command you!”

  Even as she spoke the last sentence, Elizabeth felt a gentle oppression, as if she had been wrapped in a soft, transparent blanket. The mage had gestured at her again, a bare moment after the blanket enclosed her; she felt nothing, but a shower of sparks burst in front of her and the mage gasped and shook her hand as if she had been stung.

  Denno’s voice was cold and hard. He said, “This is Lady Elizabeth, King Henry’s daughter, from the World Above. She is not to be treated as you treat your other students or apprentices. Lady Elizabeth is needful and precious to Queen Titania. She knows only the ways and manners of her mortal realm, and should not be expected to abide by ours.”

  The dark Sidhe lifted her lip in a sneer. “She must learn attention and respect.”

  “If you do not deliberately enrage her, you will find her a remarkably attentive student. And abuse will not teach this child respect, only hatred.” Denno’s voice was just as icy as the mage’s. “I must warn you. When she is frightened or angry, she can put out a burst of mortal magic that is very dangerous. It destroyed the Gate of an Unseleighe Sidhe who attacked her and blew him out of the mortal world. Moreover, she is more stubborn than rock. Give her back her dress or we will get no further, and Queen Titania will not be pleased.”

  Tangwystl snarled, showing all her sharp pointed teeth, but Elizabeth was again clo
thed in her silver and red, wide-fur-sleeved, court dress.

  But the dark one was fully as stubborn as Elizabeth, it seemed. “I will not teach her in that dress,” the mage said scornfully. “She must have two spells. One does not matter; that is for inside her mind, but for the other she must gesture, and those sleeves will be in the way.”

  “But, mage,” Denno said, his voice now ingratiating, “in the mortal world, she must wear dresses very like the one she is wearing now all the time. She must learn to gesture properly when her arms are so impeded.”

  The black mage snorted. “I do not care what she does in the mortal world. The Powers will see through her sleeves and recognize the true gesture. But for teaching, I must be able to see her hands and arms.”

  Elizabeth was stroking the full fur sleeves, very pleased with Denno at the moment. “If you can take us back to your house in Llachar Lle, Denno, Lady Alana said there would be other clothing for me in the closet in my room. I would be willing to change.”

  Denno turned to her. “Would you, love? But we do not need to go back to Elfhame Logres.”

  He ran his left hand, palm down, along her body; following his left, his right hand, palm up, traced the same path. Elizabeth gasped. She was now clothed neatly in a pale green dress of embroidered muslin with a neat white lace collar and tight sleeves. In fact, it looked something like the portraits she had seen of her grandfather’s queen and her ladies.

  “My dress,” she cried.

  “Safely in the closet, waiting for you,” Denno said, grinning. “You will be much more comfortable in this.”

  “Very good. Very good,” Tangwystl said, with grudging approval. “Those sleeves are even better than the ones I devised. Let us go in.”

  And they were in, standing in the middle of a smallish but very comfortably furnished room. Tangwystl dropped into a large, cushioned chair with its back to a small window that looked out into nothing but the empty, silvery air. There was a low table, on which the mage rested her hands, with two chairs on the other side, both with low backs and arms but no cushioning. One chair was directly opposite Tangwystl’s seat, the other to the side.

  Elizabeth bit her lips. Remembering the warmth that had flowed from Titania’s hands and the sparkling light that had suffused her body, she suspected that the Queen had transmitted whatever spell she used through their linked hands. Elizabeth did not want to take the mage’s hands. The fingers were gnarled and twisted and had bulbous, claw-tipped nails, the skin dark and dry, like old ill-treated leather.

  Elizabeth repressed a shiver; would the skin of those hands flake off and cling to her own sweat-wet palms? But then she thought of the horror eating her mind, of the somehow evil-looking Denno urging her to be safe forever from all her fears by climbing the tower and leaping off. She paused for a moment, recalling the growing sense of threat that had loomed over her if she did not do away with herself.

  And lastly, she realized, for the first time, that if she had destroyed herself, she would not only have lost her life, but any chance of Heaven, for suicides lost any chance of God’s grace. It could happen again. This time she might not be strong enough, or Denno would not come to her in time. She would die in the blackest of sin, and there would be no hope for her. She drew a deep, steadying breath. She would hold those hands if necessary.

  “What is the center of your being?” Tangwystl asked suddenly.

  Almost, Elizabeth answered, “My soul—” but she was not sure that these fae creatures understood such a thing even existed. “M-my h-heart,” Elizabeth said, eyes wide. She would not speak of the horrors through which she had lived.

  “A lumpy, red thing of flesh. Yes. But that is not what I mean … or, wait, maybe that will do.” Tangwystl narrowed her eyes. “Inside yourself, wrap up your heart in a white cloth.”

  The words made no sense. “What? How can I do such a thing?”

  “Stupid child! Have you no imagination? Does everything need to be done by your hands? Do you never make pictures in your head? See your lump of red flesh wrapped in a white cloth. Or, if you prefer, encase it in a shell of armor.”

  Elizabeth considered, eyes even wider. “No. No. If I wrap up my heart or encase it in metal, I will not be able to see or hear or feel anything.”

  “Do not be ridiculous,” Tangwystl said impatiently.

  Denoriel had at first been so relieved that Tangwystl herself did not intend to invade Elizabeth’s mind and make changes in it that he had relaxed and prepared to attend closely in case he might learn something himself. He had his own mental shields—inborn and instinctive; rising of themselves against any invasion. He had never seen the need for more, but now he was interested in anything to do with magic. Thus, watching for Elizabeth’s reaction, he saw the little quiver that showed the child’s jaw had set hard.

  Elizabeth with her jaw set was near immovable. “No, wait,” he said. “It is not at all ridiculous. If that is the way Elizabeth feels about it; that may be the way it will be. To learn, Elizabeth must be convinced of the rightness, of the strong probability, that what she wills will be so.”

  Tangwystl pursed her lips and wrinkled her nose. “She is not yet nine years old. Why can she not simply believe me?”

  Without answering Tangwystl, Denoriel said, “Elizabeth, do you remember the large clear window in my house? You know nothing can come in through that window, yet you can see and hear through it. Imagine a piece of glass, but soft so you can bend it into any shape—it can be done, love; when glass is heated it gets soft. Magic can make it soft without heat. Think of using a piece of softened glass to enclose your heart.”

  Tangwystl’s lips tightened with irritation, but she accepted Elizabeth’s nod of acquiescence and began to explain what the child must will to make the shield around her thoughts and feelings impermeable. Denoriel could neither see nor feel magic as Elizabeth followed the mage’s instructions, but Elizabeth’s eyes were sun-bright, fixed on the mage’s black orbs. Tangwystl very soon nodded, then nodded again, looking more and more surprised.

  After a little while Tangwystl sank back into her chair. She shook her head, looked back at Elizabeth, and told the girl how to dissolve the shield. On the last word of her explanation, she started back, as if lightly struck. A moment later, with a wry twist to her full lips, she said that Elizabeth must be tired and she should rest for a while.

  “Such a will,” the mage said, turning her attention to Denoriel. “I do not believe I have ever met such a will … except … His.”

  Denoriel laughed. “I have reason enough to agree with you. I have been attending upon her … oh, except for the years I was voyaging … ah … I can end that pretense. I was sick for over two mortal years and could not leave Underhill while I was healing.”

  Tangwystl made a sour moue. “Well, tell her not to release spells so quickly.”

  “Tell me yourself,” Elizabeth snapped. “I am not a porcelain poppet or a block of wood. I am sitting right here in front of you. If I have done something wrong, explain, or show me the right way.”

  “It is no pleasure to work with you, mistress,” the dark mage retorted sourly.

  Elizabeth’s lips parted on what Denoriel expected to be another smart remark and he cleared his throat. Her eyes did not even flicker toward him but what she said was, “Ah, I am sorry, Mistress Tangwystl, because it is a pleasure to work with you. I have never been taught so well or so quickly. I am sorry to have been pert, but I try to be an apt pupil for a clever mistress. If you please, will you tell me or show me how I hurt you?”

  The mage smiled, this time softly with closed lips so that her sharpened teeth did not show. “A grateful student, and a sensible one.” And she went on to explain how power could be slowly withdrawn rather than simply being cut off so that a spell snapped like a cracked whip. Then she cocked her head at Elizabeth and added, “So you want to be a party to any discussion about you?” She laughed when Elizabeth nodded decisively. “Well then, I must warn you that you will hear
some things you will not like. And you must keep any more pert remarks between your teeth; adults do not care for reproofs from babes.”

  Elizabeth shrugged and sighed. “About myself I rarely hear anything I do like. Thank you for your warning.”

  Denoriel laughed. “Then you should not listen so close. Eavesdroppers are seldom flattered. But I will tell you that despite your curdled disposition, I love you dearly. I find you enchanting. Are those things not good?”

  She held out her hand to him and he took it, kissed it, and held it comfortingly in his.

  Tangwystl snorted lightly and said, “I must address my remarks to Lord Denoriel, Elizabeth, because he will understand and remember and will be able to explain to you later if necessary. I cannot take the time for that. So, Lord Denoriel, your charge now has a mind shield that should serve her against most mortal assaults. But that is all she has.”

  “You mean she has not enough power to cast spells?”

  “I do not know the answer to that question. Magically, she is the strangest person I have ever come across. I could sense in her what you mentioned, a well of power, but it is confined … I would say by her will, except that when I showed her how to breech the confinement, she could not—so is it her own will that holds the power? I do not know. It was the only thing I showed her that she could not do at once and repeat perfectly later.”

  After a moment, Denoriel lifted Elizabeth’s hand and kissed it. “It may not be enough,” he said to Tangwystl. “Oh, it will protect her if she is again threatened with an amulet carrying a damaging spell, but there is a chance—not a great chance but a real one—that she will need to stand against a dark Sidhe enchanter, at least until I can be summoned from wherever I am.”

  “She cannot hold, not more than a few … ah,” Tangwystl’s dull eyes brightened. “But a few moments would be all that she would need. I will make her an amulet that she need only invoke. Two words. She will be able to hold her shield firm for the time it will take to say two words—I will teach her that. And once that amulet is invoked, even the Magus Majors would have difficulty breaking through.”