Megan paused for breath. “I want to draw while I think. I want to get up at night and paint what I feel in a flurry. I don't want clients and deadlines when I've already got diplomats and officers and renovations and the changing of the seasons to worry about.” Another breath. “But yeah. I do want to room with Lani.”
“So... you are going to UW?”
“Yeah. Maybe double-major in art history and music theory. Those come up a lot for a bard queen.”
Her mother hugged her. “I'm so proud of you. Picking a practical major.”
“Thanks, Mom.”
“And, apparently, already set up to provide for your mom in her old age.”
Megan just hugged more.
Ashling was nibbling on her gingerbread lounge-chair when Megan approached, pulling up a plastic chair next to Kerr's practical confectionery art.
“So,” Megan asked. “Nessa, huh?”
“Nessa. It's good to talk to her again.”
“Are there...ways to get you ...reincorporated?”
“No way am I even going to try. Too busy. Can't leave you alone. You get into way too much trouble without me. Besides, there are so many more things I need to explain to you.”
Megan smiled, about to respond, when Lani announced "Okay, the band is ready."
Since all the O'Reilly's neighbors were on vacation, Sheila had happily agreed to volunteer the backyard as the venue for a sudden private Sax & Violins concert, albeit more acoustic than some of their performances.
Cris opened everything with a slow, steady drumbeat that gradually picked up speed. Then the bass guitars joined in. Sheila O'Reilly had taken Erin in hand, and the pair opened the show, playing a call-and-response duel before building into the rapid, bouncy bass lines of “Yet Another Song About Jumping.”
Violet's Late to the Party t-shirt announced her as Team Sheila, while Katja, even mid-winter, wore her Sax & Violins t-shirt tied off—still team Erin, as the two violins picked up on the musical dueling. They bounced around as Cassia, animated despite the bandages, joined in. Mrs. Kahale joined her on her brand new trombone—and no one cared that she was only sort of playing the same song. Nell joined in last, voice sweeping over the yard, exhorting the audience to jump.
Lani pulled Kerr up, and started bouncing, encouraging her partner. Kerr responded by shyly bouncing along a little. Ashling and Mack were less restrained, head-banging and leaping around with wild abandon.
Justin was too injured to dance, but cheered the loudest when Megan joined Nell with the vocals.
After the freezing cold of pure Winter, the remaining wet leaves, gray skies, and brown and green lawn of a Seattle Christmas was welcome. It wasn't the Ballroom, with the throne, and all of the fair folk. But she had her friends, her boyfriend, the people who'd seen her through a war, and the same mother who had been so stressed, and tired, and controlling all those years was jamming wildly with the band.
Megan kept singing as she joined in on the dance. With a wave of her hand and a few notes, she froze the last remnants of autumn leaves into little crystalline statues of brown, red, orange, and green, which she could lift with the winds she called. The wind picked up, swirling around her as she sang to the tune of a two different horns, two violins, drums, and two basses, and the season—her season—danced with its Queen.
Acknowledgements
As we close the Fair Folk Chronicles (for now), we look back and think about all the people who have had a hand in shaping this world or supporting us while we wrote it. In that look back, we can only really think but one thing: wow, there's a lot of you.
To all of the friends, family, and fans who have provided kind words, general support, and a book purchase, thank you. We appreciate you all, but we only have so much space here.
Thank you to our beta readers. You guys helped us know not only what needed improving, but also what you needed more of.
Thank you to the artists who helped give visual life to the series—Clarissa Yeo and Christopher Kovacs, of course, but also Madison Keller, Danielle Harada, Shayna Walsh, Kaylin Anderson, Nikki Becklinger, Matthew Rose, and David Burke.
So much of this series is about music and our lifelong love of it. So thank you to Jessica De Leon and Kenneth Petrie in particular.
Thanks to the cosplay crew who have taken our words, and turned them into living, breathing people at various conventions and events: James Lozlink Garret, Evangeline Young, Lizzy Lu Cyanite, Nora Paxton Timmerman, Sierra Till, and Jessica Nelson.
Thanks to our support crew in various endeavors here: Jessa Grey, Tai Sager, Jackie Faye, and the Clockwork Dragon authors.
And in a story all about inspiration and imagination, some special thanks to people for contributions that combine multiple of the above, and/or go a bit beyond—and helped inspire us along the way. Kate, in particular would like to thank Jason Cline for the "Loki as Pharmabro" conversation. Jeff would like to call out Sheri Budrow, who his housemate still insists is really Cassia cosplaying from time to time as Sheri.
And finally, we'd like to thank some of the other inspirations. Plenty have been noted or alluded to in the series. In no particular order, and not totally inclusive, we'd still like to say thank you to David Bowie, Terry Pratchett, Richard Dadd, Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show, Alexander James Adams, Alice in Chains, Nirvana, The Dead Milkmen, William Shakespeare, Edgar Allen Poe, Steve Badanes, Will Martin, Donna Walter, and Ross Whitehead.
www.authorjeffreycook.com
www.punkwriters.com
www.clockworkdragon.com
About the Authors
Jeffrey Cook lives in Maple Valley, Washington, with his wife and three large dogs. He was born in Boulder, Colorado, but has lived all over the United States. He's the author of the Dawn of Steam trilogy of alternate-history/emergent Steampunk epistolary novels and of the YA Sci-fi thriller Mina Cortez: From Bouquets to Bullets. He’s a founding contributing author of Writerpunk Press and has also contributed to a number of role-playing game books for Deep7 Press out of Seattle. When not reading, researching, or writing, Jeffrey enjoys role-playing games and watching football.
Katherine Perkins lives in Mobile, Alabama, with her husband and one extremely skittish cat. She was born in Lafayette, Louisiana, and will defend its cuisine on any field of honor. She is the editor of the Dawn of Steam series and serves as Jeff’s co-author of various short stories, including those for the charity anthologies of Writerpunk Press. When not reading, researching, writing, or editing, she tries to remember what she was supposed to be doing.
All's Fair (Fair Folk Chronicles Book 4) Page 21