Ill Met by Moonlight

by Mercedes Lackey

  “I wonder,” she said to Blanche, “whether I should tie these down where Edward could not fail to see them at once or tie them higher up?”

  But as she spoke, her hand reached to cover the pretty golden oval on a golden chain showing the lion and the lamb lying together. With it she picked up the ribbons, sat on the stool, and dropped the ribbons into her lap. Blanche leaned over her, seemingly looking at the ribbons, which she picked up and carried to a table. She returned with Elizabeth’s trinket box. This she set in Elizabeth’s lap while she loosened Elizabeth’s necklace. She handed that to Elizabeth, who dropped it into the box, and then removed Elizabeth’s earrings. Those, too, went into the box.

  Elizabeth was quivering with the desire to take the amulet in hand and run to the maze, but she knew she must not. She waited patiently to be clothed anew and even contributed to a brief conversation about which pieces of jewelry would best befit the new gown; that permitted her to scrabble in her trinket box and take out the amulet, which Blanche hung around her neck well away from the cross beneath her clothes. At long last, after what seemed like hours, Blanche allowed her to pick up the ribbons, leave the apartment, and make her way along the graveled walk to the wilderness.

  They went first to the central pool, around which were low beds prepared for flowers in the spring. Both searched the surrounding mostly leafless trees and bushes for any movement. There was no hint of any unnatural watcher, but just entering the most direct path into the Wilderness they saw two of the boys from the school. Elizabeth squeezed Blanche’s hand and complained that the wind was far sharper than she had expected. Blanche, pushing Elizabeth to the side where they would be less visible from the straight path to the entrance, said that they should walk by the maze where the thick yew bushes would shield them from the wind. Trembling with anxiety, Elizabeth agreed.

  They took a side path to the left and then another going right, pausing as soon as they were around the corner to listen, then to peer out and watch. Neither saw or heard anything, but Elizabeth whispered to Blanche that it was not right. She knew the boys from the school; they should have been talking. Blanche nodded.

  Now they hurried, stepping as softly as possible and holding their skirts close so they would not catch on or touch any bushes. A last turn to the left brought them to a wider path, across which were the tall, arched yews that marked the entrance to the maze. They stopped in the last shelter of the path and listened. Nothing. Cautious glances along the path showed it empty. Elizabeth shivered.

  Perhaps the boys had not stayed in the Wilderness or had taken the most direct path to the Lion Gate, which would take them out to the park. Wait, Elizabeth’s head said. You can come back later or tomorrow to use the amulet. But her heart pounded and her teeth were so tightly clamped that her jaw hurt. Perhaps it was not wise, but Elizabeth wanted her Denno. She needed him.

  Knowing she should not, Elizabeth pulled Blanche across the path through the entrance to the maze. Inside they waited just out of sight of the entrance but there was still no sight or sound of the boys. They scanned the trees and bushes opposite and the ground around the base of the bushes and paths, but there was no sign of any watcher either.

  Elizabeth shivered again and hurried Blanche along toward the center, feeling a little less frightened. She was sure that neither the watcher, if there was one, nor the boys if they had followed, could see any farther through the thick walls of yew than she and Blanche could see themselves.

  By choice, Elizabeth would have set the amulet down in one of the dead-end paths, but she had no idea how much space a Gate needed. Those she had seen, at Logres and Avalon, were large enough for several horses. At the center she looked around with great care and examined each of the three pathways. Blanche looked, too. Neither saw anything they thought could be a watcher.

  “What if it is a cricket? Or a mouse?” Elizabeth whispered.

  “I do not know,” Blanche whispered back. “I looked for mice, but I do not believe it could be much smaller and still be able to remember anything. What about those boys?”

  For answer, Elizabeth put her fingers to her lips and held her breath as she listened. There was no sound of footsteps or sense of anyone brushing against the tall yews that bordered the paths. Another sweep of the open area and Elizabeth sighed and opened her cloak. Blanche undid the golden chain over her dress and replaced it with another gold chain and locket which she took from her pocket. Elizabeth laid the amulet on the bench and stepped away.

  She thought perhaps Ladbroke’s warning about looking around if she did not see the “ribbons” at first meant that she should not watch, but she found it impossible not to stare at the amulet. Nor did she have much time to wait with a pounding heart and dry mouth. She had barely retreated far enough to seize Blanche’s hand, when a pinpoint formed; a blackness so black that it drew attention like a spot of brightness.

  In moments it had enlarged to the size of a window, then to an open door, through which Elizabeth glimpsed a handsome bedchamber. Before she could see more than the edge of a large curtained bed and a sliver of window, Denoriel stepped through … and, his arms fettered by his tight-drawn cloak, took another step forward into empty air—

  —and fell off the bench into a bed of dead plants.

  Chapter 18

  “Elizabeth!” Denoriel roared, from his undignified sprawl among the dead foliage. “If you have dragged me here to play games, and to make a fool of me—”

  Down on her knees beside him, Elizabeth put an urgent hand over his lips. “I’m sorry, so sorry,” she whispered. “No, I was just stupid. I didn’t think when I put the amulet on the bench. I forgot you would have to step forward. I didn’t realize that the Gate would form above the bench.”

  Denoriel took a deep breath and rose to his feet, drawing Elizabeth up with him. “Why are we whispering?” he murmured.

  She looked about her, furtively, though there was no one there but Blanche. “The watcher, if there is one, can hear.”

  He shook his head, certain that she was imagining things. “There is no watcher.”

  “Are you sure?” Elizabeth asked, her eyes wide with fear. “The person I told you about, the reason I called you, was because I could not feel her. Only by accident I saw her eyes and her ears so I knew, I knew what she was. Blanche did not feel her either.”

  “Shielded,” he muttered. “Heavily shielded. But a watcher without senses … that makes no sense.”

  “It can see and hear,” Elizabeth insisted. “Can you do nothing to make a silence and darkness around us?”

  He shook his head. “No. That—” his head tilted toward the Gate, which had shrunk to a black pinpoint again “—draws from me. And it was very hard to build at all. I am near empty.”

  “I do not think there is a watcher, m’lord,” Blanche put in; she seemed as certain as Elizabeth was uncertain. “We have both looked very hard and seen nothing.”

  “Likely there is not,” Denoriel agreed. “I cannot see what she could learn from setting a watcher on you.”

  “That you were coming. That you can build what you built.” Elizabeth’s anxious voice told him that she was in no way convinced by either of them.

  Denoriel pulled Elizabeth into his arms for a brief hug. The cold iron cross she wore stabbed him like a knife, even through their heavy clothing, the pain sharper because of the depletion of his magical energies. He had to release her.

  “She knows those things already,” he said, soothingly. “Perhaps not that I was coming just now, but what good would that knowledge do her? No, dearling, if this was a Sidhe of the Dark Court, she knows what I can do, and very probably who I am. She can learn nothing from us here except what all of the Dark Court and Bright already know: that you are watched and protected at the High King’s orders.”

  Elizabeth shook her head and Denoriel could see her body relax. “I’faith, I don’t know. But what was she doing here?”

  The question made Denoriel frown. “The body was a
woman’s? You are sure?”

  “She walked like a woman,” Blanche said, with a nod. “And felt like a woman, too. Even from ordinary people, I can usually get a feeling that will tell me if they are male or female.”

  This was—interesting. “And what did she look like?”

  “Black hair, dark eyes, pale skin. She was tall, much taller than my sister, Mary,” Elizabeth told him. She sounded very certain of the description. Not Aurelia, then, unless Elizabeth had been deceived. “And that was not illusion? She was not blond and green-eyed beneath the dark color?”

  “No.” Elizabeth shook her head. “I do not think there was any illusion beyond the eyes and ears.”

  Denoriel breathed out a long sigh. “Likely that is my half-sister, Rhoslyn.”

  “Your half-sister? How do you come to have a half-sister as well as a full sister?”

  The indignation in Elizabeth’s voice made Denoriel smile. His lips parted, then closed, and then he said, “That is a long tale, and I cannot tell it to you here and now. In another place, I will gladly tell you. As for Rhoslyn, I do not believe she will harm you.”

  “But—” Elizabeth began and then closed her mouth firmly for a moment only to open it to say, “I recall that name. Did you not tell me that she tried to steal away my Da and put something else in his place?”

  “Yes, but he was only a little boy then.” Denoriel sighed and shook his head. “You must just believe me that it would not be possible to make a changeling like you now, and without the changeling no one would dare try to take you. Not, I think, that there would be any who would dare to try to take you with or without a changeling. There are protections. And if anyone intended abduction, surely the chances would have been better while you were alone at Hatfield or less well guarded at Hertford.”

  He thought that his reasoning would have convinced her, but she was as stubborn as ever. “But Mary did not come to Hatfield or Hertford so your sister could not conceal herself among the other women. She could not possibly have gotten near me—” her voice betrayed her fear again. He moved to calm it with logic.

  “Love, she cannot abduct you from the midst of a crowd of women,” he pointed out inexorably. “There is nothing to fear; it is not only that you are surrounded by people now—remember, she did not succeed in abducting Harry because he was wearing the iron cross. You have that cross now and she cannot touch you while you wear it. You have your shields, which Harry did not have. If she comes near you, raise them. Then she will not be able to bespell you to go where her mortal servants could seize you. And Blanche also has her necklace, which has already proved a potent weapon! Blanche can drive any Sidhe away with the necklace as soon as you see her.”

  Finally Elizabeth nodded and sighed. “I will try not to be so easily frightened.”

  “No, no,” he protested. “That was not what I meant at all! You were right to be frightened, until I reminded you what protections you have, and I needed to know of Rhoslyn’s presence among Mary’s ladies. If you are frightened again, you must send for me at once. In fact, I think I will take the chance of binding an air spirit to watch you again.”

  “She will know if you do,” Blanche put in suddenly.

  “Yes,” Denoriel agreed. “I think that would be best, for her to know she was seen and know she is being watched.”

  “Would she harm the air spirit?” Elizabeth asked anxiously, clasping her hands before her so tightly the knuckles were white. “I would not want that. They are so adorable.”

  “I hope not,” he said, reluctant to pledge anything where Rhoslyn was concerned. “I do not think so. But if she does, I will know instantly and come at once.”

  Elizabeth sighed. “Thank you … but I still do not like her being here.”

  “Ignore her,” he advised. “To tell the truth, I do not think she will approach you at all. I think she is with Mary to protect her—although I swear to you that no one among my people is trying to do Mary any harm. But there are factions among the Sidhe, Seleighe and Unseleighe, and since Oberon wishes you protected, it is altogether likely that some other faction counters by protecting Mary, and never mind that there is not now and never will be any intent to harm her.”

  Elizabeth nodded wisely. “I understand. Those who intend harm cannot believe that others do not.”

  Denoriel sighed. “I am afraid that is too true, but although Rhoslyn herself would not hurt you, Rhoslyn is not her own master. You must be wary. As any subject must bow to your father’s will, so Rhoslyn must bow to the will of her prince. And he, the prince, might hurt you—or worse—if he wrested you from her.”

  Elizabeth stared up at him, eyes wide. “Would you not try to save me?”

  He laughed briefly without any humor. “I will come. Never fear for that, or yield to despair. I will come to you no matter what bars the way. Hold your shields and wear your cross. Do not believe their threats, for they are terrible liars. They might threaten to set some dreadful beast on you if you do not take off your cross. But the beast, likely, will fear the cross itself, so do not part with it. If you hold tight your courage and your good sense, I will come and others with me and we will bring you back to England safe and whole.”

  She put out a trembling hand and Denoriel took it, suppressing the pain that thrummed in his arm. “You have not once called me noxious or a horror or a nasty brat, even though I made you fall off the bench,” she said, torn between anguish and an attempt at humor. The anguish won. “Oh, Denno, do you think me in terrible danger?”

  Denoriel laughed. “Not at all.” He squeezed her hand. “I am just so glad to see you. I thought with all your new friends and the court frivolities you had forgotten me.”

  Her eyes fixed on his. “I will never forget you … never. I am sorry it has been so long, but with the king and queen in residence here, there is constant confusion and coming and going, which makes the guards extra alert.”

  Denoriel sighed. “We will need to have some arrangement, some place to which I can come. To build what I did … it takes too much from me and might leave me helpless to defend you.”

  “Perhaps one of the dead-end paths here in the maze?” she hazarded, looking around. “I didn’t know how much space you would need for a Gate. Or, since I see it can take little room, a screened niche in Blanche’s bedchamber?”

  “Not in yours?” Denoriel grinned.

  “Too many people come into my bedchamber,” Elizabeth said perfectly seriously. “Kat comes and Mary used to come when we lived together. If she came now with her ladies …”

  Denoriel was ashamed of himself. What a suggestion to make to a child not quite eleven. Of course she did not understand his weak attempt at humor.

  “Not a real Gate in Blanche’s bedchamber, but perhaps I could create a weakness that would facilitate opening a Gate,” he ventured, thinking aloud. “I will have to think about it. A place here in the maze, yes, if I must come in a hurry. But I do not think it wise for me to appear too often in a private area of the palace—and we cannot have a horse in the maze.”

  That made Elizabeth smile. “That will be easily solved. I have not been riding yet, but I know there is a large park beyond the Lion Gate. One reason I did not send Ladbroke to you sooner is that I hoped to find a place in the park where you could come and we could meet and ride together as we did at Hertford with no one but my guards the wiser.”

  “That makes sense. I should not be too frequent an official visitor, foreign as I am.”

  “Yes.” She sighed, and looked weighted down with cares. “And Kat is afraid to ask for visitor’s privilege for you before Edward’s officers ask privilege for those who wish to visit the prince. She is afraid it would mark you as special and perhaps—because you are a merchant—permission would be refused. And there are new rules about visitors—you know we have a school here and the boys …” She suddenly interrupted her own thoughts, and her eyes widened. “Oh, Grace of God, I almost forgot. There were two boys entering the Wilderness when Bl
anche and I came into the maze. We listened for them, but did not hear them enter the maze.”

  Denoriel frowned and held up a hand. Elizabeth, to her amazement, saw the long ears above the round shadows twitch forward and cup slightly. After a while, in a low voice, he said, “They are just walking by on the path outside.” Then he frowned and added, even more softly, “I think they have walked back and forth on that path several times.” He pointed to Blanche and signed for her to speak.

  “I don’t know why you don’t want to walk with the boys, m’lady,” Blanche said promptly, “but I think they are likely gone from the Wilderness by now. If you like I will go and look. Have you yet decided which color of ribbon you will use for the true path and which for a dead end or a loop?”

  Elizabeth raised her brows at Denoriel, who looked at the ribbons Blanche was proffering. He pointed to the blue, which would probably best fade into the yew branches as it became soiled.

  “This for the dead ends,” she said, looking at Denoriel, who nodded his head. “This for the loops and this for the true path.”

  “We do not have enough ribbon for the whole maze,” Blanche pointed out.

  “I know. I will only do one path from the Wilderness. After all, Edward will not be allowed to come into the maze on his own.” Her laughter sounded artificial to Denoriel, but perhaps the boys would not know the difference. “There will be others to guide him so he will not ever truly be lost. I only want him to be able to show the others that he found the way. The ribbons will be our secret—Edward’s and mine.”

  Denoriel beckoned and they followed him back toward the entrance. Out of sight around the first false path, they stopped and listened.

  “I tell you that Lady Elizabeth is talking to her maid, and I would rather not have heard what I did hear. It is perfectly natural for her to want to make the little prince happy, and none of my business either.”