by Kimbra Swain
I closed my eyes refusing to look at him. “What’s wrong? What did you do?” Finley asked Astor who ignored him. I felt his gaze on me, even though I refused to look at him.
“You shouldn’t be able to hear my thoughts like that,” I said. “Levi was the only one.”
“I don’t know why, but I heard what you called yourself. I won’t allow it, Gloriana. You lived your life. Despite your fairy nature, you made sacrifices to build a home. Just like all of life, whether it’s here in the Otherworld or above, sometimes bad things happen. Sometimes we make mistakes. Sometimes we love like we have never loved. It’s life. I understand that more because I’m here with the Tree. You are not bad or evil or even dark. You are a hope for all of us,” he said, finishing his words with a kiss on my forehead. “I will not push the issue again. Forgive me.”
“There is nothing to forgive,” I replied.
“Thank you, my Queen,” he said.
“All is well, Finley. Let’s go talk to a tree,” I said, taking Astor’s arm. He led us toward the huge trunk of the tree. Winter was just within my reach, then a large door opened at the center of the tree. We entered cautiously. I waited on Astor to lead the way, but he paused just inside the doorway.
“We have to wait for permission to proceed further,” he said.
“Ah!” I said.
“Come to me, Gloriana, Daughter of Oberon, Queen of Winter and the Exiles,” the sultry tree voice said. Queen of Winter. I was not Queen of Winter, but she saw me as such. This might have been a very, very bad idea. Colossally bad.
FOLLOWING Astor down into a large chamber, the first things I noticed were the large stone pillars around the room made of snarled roots. The earthy smell of the Otherworld increased assaulting my nostrils. Stepping first on the main floor of the enormous room, an intricate mosaic at our feet formed the picture of the tree surrounded by the four elements. I wondered if, even though the element stones were back in my vault could I use them. Concentrating on the elements, I could feel the wind and fire at my fingertips. I couldn’t use them here, because no matter what the tree did to me, for the rest of the world to continue, the tree had to live.
“Welcome Gloriana and Finley, children of Oberon, and Sir Astor, son of Rhiannon, guardian of the tree,” a young female said. I wasn’t sure if it was the tree or not. She walked down from another doorway wearing a yellow dress and glowing like the sun. Had I not known better, I’d thought she was an angel. When the light that surrounded her died down, I saw her very child-like features. She smiled innocently enough, but every warning bell in my head was ringing like a church bell at noon.
Astor took a knee before her, while my brother and I bowed slightly.
“Your child grows quickly,” she said. “I hear its heart beating. The fire inside of him is much like his father.”
“Where is his father?”
“La, la, la, la, la, la!” she screamed putting her hands over her ears. “You cannot ask me questions! It isn’t appropriate. If I hear you asking, I have to kill you. Please don’t make me kill you.”
She acted like Winnie would have in the situation. I looked at Finley who seemed very uncomfortable.
“Help me out here. What do I do?” I asked the knight.
“Just wait for her to ask you. When she is like this, she is hard to deal with.”
“Like a child? Does she appear differently?” I asked.
He sighed, “Yes, but mostly as this child. She pretends to be innocent and unknowing.”
I did as he suggested and waited for her to speak again to us. She skipped around in a circle then waved her hand releasing a rainbow of butterflies in the room. I backed away from them knowing that the butterflies we saw earlier would filet you. I’d rather not be filleted in the Otherworld by a butterfly. Astor stood, holding me in place.
“She won’t hurt you,” he said.
“I was worried about the flesh-eating butterflies,” I said.
“What?”
“They said the butterflies here will bite you,” I replied.
He snickered, “Someone teased you. Butterflies are harmless.”
I supposed the joke was on me. I was gonna cream somebody’s corn when I got back to the group. As the butterflies swirled around us another woman stepped onto the floor.
“No, I’ve got this,” the young girl said. Her yellow dress came to her knees which were covered in dirt like she had been playing outside.
“Quiet, Child,” the woman said. Her red dress stretched to the floor but was split to her privates in the front. “Well, what do we have here? Two handsome men and a sexy pregnant woman. I’d do you all.” She circled us but paid close attention to Finley. She ran her finger through his long hair and he shivered. “I’ve seen you in action, Finley, son of Oberon. I might like to have a taste.” She ran a long red nail down Finley’s chest to his waist but stopped before she got lower.
Astor’s grip got tighter on me when she turned toward us.
“If you think the child was bad, this one is worse. If the hag shows up, we are dead,” he said.
“She’s a triple goddess?” I asked.
“I am, Dear Queen. You look so plump and ripe that way. Look at my knight. He’s turned so protective of you. He was always wanted this chance to be with you. I could make that happen for you, my knight. I’ve offered her to you before, and you always turn me down,” she purred as she walked closer.
“My Lady, as you know, I have taken a vow,” Astor said confidently.
“Offered me before?” I asked.
“The stipulation was that I could have you if I took her as well. I know better than to deal with the devil,” he said.
“She-devil,” I said.
“Now that you have seen her in the flesh, touched her, perhaps you will take me up on my offer?” she asked him.
“No, my Lady. Thank you for the offer, but I still refuse,” he said politely.
Every bone in my body wanted to sass the crap out of this being, but I held my tongue for fear of what she could do to my child.
“Release her knight. I swear not to harm her,” she said.
“Yes, my Lady,” he said withdrawing his warmth and protection from me. I felt the cold of Winter rush into me from our close proximity to my own realm. The power in my tattoo started to pulse. I had been the blonde ice queen since I had changed in the forest before Rhiannon’s castle, but my hair turned even whiter and my skin tinted blue.
“You feel your power. You haven’t begun to tap it, Gloriana. You belong in Winter. The human realm holds nothing for you anymore. Your fiancé is dead. Your daughter taken. Your bard waits for you in Winter. Your child should be born in Winter, not here in Summer. He will be a unique being. Fire from his father. Ice from his mother. I might save myself for him,” she said.
I couldn’t stand by and let her speak of my child that way. “You will stay away from my son,” I said.
“Grace!” Astor exclaimed.
The woman laughed. Instead of striking me down, she walked forward. Her power pulsed off of her in alternating waves of heat and cold. She ran her hand over my belly. I flinched at her touch. Finley stepped toward me, but she flashed her hand out at him. He froze in place with his eyes widened.
“She won’t hurt you!” Astor sounded exasperated in my head. I had no confidence in his word because the menace in the woman’s eyes frightened me.
As she rubbed my belly, she called out to the child. “Do you want to feel the baby?”
“Yes! Is he moving?” the child asked.
“No, but I can make him move,” the woman said.
“Please, don’t hurt my child,” I begged.
“Shush. I protect life, Gloriana. Had you grown up in the Otherworld, you would understand that. I suppose that isn’t your fault. The forces against your father from his past have always sought to kill you,” she said.
“The only ones that wanted to kill me until recently were the Sanhedrin,” I said.
S
he chuckled as the child placed her hand on my belly. My child churned around inside of me, kicking at the walls of my stomach. He had never moved around so much. It was like he knew the danger that stood just outside his comfortable home.
“I want to touch it, too,” an older woman said. When she stepped into the light, it illuminated her wrinkled and wart covered face. She was ugly. Like she fell out of an ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down kind of ugly. She smiled showing me her rotted teeth.
Scuttling over to me, she too placed her hand on my bump. “Please,” I whined. Fear had taken over. My knees shook.
“Tush, tush, Child. We just love when a new life is brought into the world. He will be powerful. However, you are not ready to be a mother,” the hag said.
“Not like us,” the woman replied.
“I would be a great mommy,” the child said.
“When you have him, bring him to us. We will raise him,” the hag said.
“No,” I replied. “He is mine.” I stepped away from their hands, and the baby inside of me rested.
“You cannot leave until we dismiss you,” the woman said.
“Gloriana, if you leave, they will kill all of us,” the knight said.
“This is fucking crazy. I want to leave,” I said.
He hung his head then wouldn’t look at me.
“You cannot leave,” the child said. “We must speak with you.”
“I will only speak to one of you,” I said. “This is too much.”
The three images smiled then faded. I turned in a circle looking for them, but the room was empty. Even Finley and Astor were gone. “Finley!” I screamed out.
“Knight! Where are you?” I asked.
“Just be calm. We are still here. We cannot see you, but I feel you here,” Astor said.
“Glory, do whatever you have to do to get us out of here,” Finley said.
“Where did you go?” I asked to the empty room. My voice echoed off the walls. I spun around again, looking for any of the aspects of the goddess. Instead, another woman appeared. A woman that I knew.
“Well met, Grace,” she said. Her belly bulged like mine because she was perpetually pregnant.
“Josie?” I asked. My neighbor in the trailer park at one time was a quiet young woman who cycled through boyfriends like nobody’s business. She seemed like she was always barefoot and pregnant. I thought I had seen her with bruises once, but she was careful to keep her face turned away from me. The truth was for all the pregnancies, I had never seen her with a child. The last time I saw her was the night Amanda and Troy got married. She was the keeper of the earth stone.
The earth stone, one of the four sitting inside my vault back under the Magic Vape shop in Shady Grove, was a piece of black obsidian that flashed brilliantly when the light hit it as if it were coated in black diamonds. I remembered the stone, but the water stone had impressed me more than this one. That stone was controlled by the Lady of the Lake who also held my father’s sword.
My father’s sword.
Excalibur.
“There is no way,” I said shaking my head.
“You are piecing it all together now, Grace. What do you plan to do with all of this knowledge?” she asked.
“To be honest, I have no idea. What am I supposed to do? As much as I would like to be a good Queen, I’m not sure I know how to do the things that need to be done,” I said.
“When two children died at the hands of a fairy, you did what needed to be done to bring the culprit to justice. When chaos erupted through town via a band of mischievous trolls, you turned the situation into a positive for your child, Winnie, who desperately needed the love you and Dylan gave to her. You took in a young boy who was lost between being a boy and a man. He has now found himself, because of your kindness and love. You stood up to a woman who wanted to take everything from you out of nothing more than spite. She had the means to do it, but you made the right decisions, keeping her out of your town. From the problem with the hog to the sylph to the current issues with the loss of your fiancé and bard, you have suppressed the darkness inside of you in order to stay in control,” she said.
“None of that was easy. It was all on instinct,” I said.
“You have the instincts of a queen. It’s in your blood,” she said. “Here, have a seat. I don’t know about you, but my dogs are barking.”
She looked as if she could drop her child at any moment. As she started to sit on thin air, a bench appeared below her. She patted it, and I sat next to her.
“Thank you,” I muttered. “Do you know the things I want to know? I’m sorry. I’m not supposed to ask questions.”
“No, you aren’t. It isn’t appropriate, but I understand that your heart is torn. It’s hard to ignore such a thing. Mine is torn as well between this world and the one above. I’m not just mother to earth, but a mother to the Otherworld as well. I ache when the two are in such turmoil. We have endeavored for many thousands of years to keep the two separate, but one is always bleeding into the other. The town you have control over was formed long before you were born. My servant, Morgana created it,” she said.
“She studied the ways of magic diligently under a great tutor, but in the end, she lost her soul. Now as Queen of Summer, Rhiannon seeks to destroy that which she created. She wants to control it all,” Josie said.
“You can put her down, right?” I asked.
“Actually, no. I cannot destroy life in any form. We use the threat to manipulate those who come here like your knight,” she said.
“He’s not my knight,” I said quickly.
She laughed. “A blood oath was sworn, was it not?”
“It was, but I thought you meant something else,” I replied.
“He could be that as well if you chose it,” she said. “Your heart would not be in it though. Not to the extent that it is wrapped up in the Phoenix and the Bard. You may deny your deep feelings for Levi, but you cannot hide them from me. I warn you though when he returns to you. He will not be the same.”
“Returns,” I choked on the words. She had just admitted that I would get Levi back. I felt that stirring in my heart that I had always denied. “I want him to come home.”
“I cannot tell you more, but he will return,” she said. “He loves you still. That much has not changed.”
“I know they were torturing him,” I said.
“Hmm, yes,” she said, but not offering anything else. I also noted that she did not mention Dylan at all. “Your child will arrive soon, too.”
“It’s not time,” I said.
“You don’t realize how long you’ve been in the Otherworld, I think,” she said. “It is almost time. I am not allowed to guide you, but I can tell you that your instincts are correct about where your child should be born.”
“Is there anything that you can tell me that will help me?” I asked. “Damn it. I’m sorry. I’m not supposed to ask questions.”
“I cannot say more, except that I give you permission to use the earth stone,” she said with a smile. “It was an honor to be your neighbor. I can’t thank you enough for all the meals you brought to me, and the long talks on your porch. You cared for me when you didn’t have to do it.”
“You are still pregnant,” I stated, making sure it didn’t sound like a question.
“If I ever have this child, the veils between the worlds will break, and all of the humans will know about us. I must keep this knowledge inside,” she said.
“Thank you, Josie,” I said.
“You may call me Lillith,” she replied.
“Lillith,” I said. “Wow.”
“Take care of my knight. He belongs to you now. He will serve you until his last breath,” she said with a smile. “I have never known another to be so true and pure. Of course, I’m not sure that I ever owned him, because you were always the portrait on the wall.”
“I am not worthy of him,” I said.
“No, you aren’t, but we are rarely worthy of th
e blessings that are given to us,” she said. “It was good to see you. You should return to the knight. The guardians are under attack.” Her face darkened with sadness. “You control your fate, Grace Ann Bryant, daughter of Oberon, Queen of the Exiles. It is a long road, and it will wear you out, but you will find the end.”
“A happy end, I hope,” I said.
“It wouldn’t be a fairy tale without it,” she smiled. “Off you go.”
The room flashed with a brilliant light. When my eyes refocused, I still sat on the bench, but Astor kneeled before me looking up into my eyes.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yes, I’m fine,” I replied. “The guardians are under attack.”
“What!” he jumped up and grabbed his sword. He turned back to me with sadness in his eyes. “I promised to take Finley to Winter.”
“I can go on my own. I know how to get there from here,” Finley said, helping me stand. “You get out of this world right now. Do you hear me?”
“Yes, I will get the others and we will go,” I said.
“I would rather you go now,” he said. “Knight, you can do that right?”
“I can,” Astor said as his sword started to glow.
“No! I’m not leaving my people here,” I said. “We will be fine. Go get Levi. She told me he would return to me, but that he would be different.”
“Torture does a lot of things to a man,” Finley said with troubled eyes. “I will bring him home. He will need you.”
“I need him,” I said. “You go. I’ll go with Astor. I control the earth stone now. We might be able to fend off whoever is attacking.”
“You know it is Rhiannon,” he said.
“I know. I will do whatever I have to in order to protect my own and the tree,” I said.
Finley kissed me on the forehead. “I love you, Glory. See you soon.”
“See you soon. Is Nelly going with us?” I asked.
“Yes, please take her with you,” he said.
“My Queen, we must go,” Astor said anxiously.
I hugged Finley, then turned with Astor to leave him in the center of the tree. Looking back over my shoulder, I saw him as he climbed the stairs on the other side. The mosaic of a snowflake rested above the arched doorway. He looked back at me and smiled, then disappeared into the darkness beyond.