by Frewin Jones
She stumbled, her arms flailing. The sky wheeled. The rain fell sideways. She screwed her eyes tight as the river rose up to smack her and to pull her under in a dark, chilling embrace.
“Gracie!”
“Tania?”
With a gasp Tania opened her eyes. She was back on the path and Edric had his arms around her. Her legs felt weak; her whole body seemed to be falling away from her like a thing made of water. If Edric hadn’t been holding her, she would have crumpled to the ground.
She panted, clinging onto him, her forehead on his shoulder.
“What happened?” he asked.
“Drowned…” Tania gasped. “The poor thing….”
“You’re all right now,” he said. “I’ve got you.”
“It happened again,” she said. “Like at the theatre. But it was a different girl this time.” She looked around. “It was here, and things were almost the same. It couldn’t have been all that many years ago, but when? Oh, wait…. Queen Victoria had just died. That means I must have gone back to the start of the twentieth century.” She pointed toward the river. “She was there—acting up, you know? Being naughty. And she fell into the water.” She screwed up her eyes. “Is this going to keep happening to me now? Am I going to keep reliving scraps of all my past lives?” Her voice shuddered. “And my deaths?”
“I don’t know,” Edric said. “I don’t understand why this is happening. Maybe Eden will be able to explain it, or maybe the King will be able to stop it.”
“But I can’t reach them!” she said. “I can’t get into Faerie. My gift doesn’t work anymore.”
“Perhaps this is a bad place to try,” Edric said with a reassuring smile. “It might be like those places where you can’t get a proper signal on your cell phone. You’re just not getting a good signal here, that’s all.”
She looked at him, wanting to believe him. “You think?”
He nodded. “We should try somewhere else. Listen, let’s go back to the station. We can get an over-ground train to Hampton Court. You’re bound to be able to get through there.”
“Yes, I’m sure you’re right,” she said. “Come on.” She glanced uneasily at the spot where Gracie had fallen into the river. “I want to get away from here.”
The day was beginning to brighten up, and to the west the sky was showing blue under the ragged trailing hem of the departing clouds. Tania and Edric stood side by side on a lawn that sloped down to the river. The tall red-brick Tudor towers and walls of Hampton Court Palace reared up behind them, with their white stone windows and their ornate decorations and gap-toothed battlements.
It had taken them three-quarters of an hour and two changes of train to get here, and so far as Tania could see, it had been a complete waste of time. Faerie was still barred to her. She had tried six times: three times with Edric, three times without. All she had got for her effort was a foul taste in her mouth and a fierce stinging sensation that swarmed all over her body like a painful rash.
She stared moodily into the river, aware of Edric watching her in strained silence.
He didn’t know what to say. Neither did she.
At last she spoke, her voice hardly audible over the swirl and swish of the moving water. “Why can’t I get through? That’s my gift, isn’t it? The ability to walk between the worlds. So what’s gone wrong?” She looked at Edric in sudden alarm. “Eden and Sancha told me that one day I’d have to choose where I wanted to be: Here or in Faerie. And if I chose to be here then the Faerie part of me would die. What if that’s already happened? What if I can’t ever get back?”
When she had first gone to Faerie she had been told how there were certain places in the Realm where the skin that divided the two worlds was at its thinnest, places where the membrane that separated them was as fine as a dragonfly’s wing. Hampton Court was one of those places: If even a shred of Tania’s Faerie self remained, then she should have been able to step into Faerie here.
And yet she couldn’t.
Edric took her hand. “You still have Faerie alive inside you,” he said. “I can feel it. There has to be some other reason.”
“Something strange happened last night,” Tania said. “After I’d spoken with my parents, I went upstairs to call you. The next thing I remember is waking up on the floor in my bedroom.” She stared at him as the full memory came back to her. “I had a taste of iron in my mouth when I woke up. The same taste that I’m getting now.” Her eyes widened. “The same taste I had in the fortune-teller’s booth. Do you think Gabriel Drake has something to do with this? Is he stopping me from getting into Faerie?”
“I don’t know,” Edric said. “Does he have that much power over you?”
Tania swallowed hard. “Perhaps he has,” she said. “Perhaps this is just the first stage of something bad he’s planning to do to me.” She gave Edric a haunted look. “First he makes sure I can’t escape into Faerie, then he comes for me.”
“He can’t harm you if you fight him,” Edric said gently. “You proved that in the fortune-teller’s booth. You got free of him.”
“Yes,” Tania said breathlessly. “But only just.”
“Listen, you’re exhausted,” Edric said. “Let’s go home. You shouldn’t wear yourself out trying to get through anymore, not for a while, anyway. And it might not be Drake at all. It might be some kind of mental block you’ve got because we’re so close to finding the Queen. And even if it is Drake, you’re going to be a long way from here soon. You just have to be strong for a couple more days, then he won’t know where you are.”
Tania wasn’t comforted by this. “And what about when I come back?”
“When you come back, we’ll find the Queen and she’ll know what to do.”
Tania felt a surge of desperate love for him. She put her hands on his cheeks, staring into his face. “Promise?”
Edric smiled. “Promise.”
“But what if I can never get back?” she asked. “You’ll be trapped here as well. You won’t ever be able to get home.”
He gave a half-smile. “Home is where the heart is,” he said quietly. “And my heart is with you.”
They stepped into each other’s arms and for a long time they stood there by the flowing river, clinging to each other while the clouds crumbled apart above their heads and long raking beams of sunlight shone down on them.
XII
Tania lay on her bed, her eyes closed, her arms thrown up over her face. The taste of iron in her mouth was so bad that it was almost making her retch, and her skin was still stinging from her last attempt to break through into Faerie.
It was early Sunday afternoon. Outside her window lay a bright, rain-washed day of scudding clouds and warm summer breezes—not that Tania got any pleasure from it as she lay stiff and tense on her bed and tried to smother the panic that was growing inside her. She dreaded that she would never get into Faerie again, that Gabriel Drake had somehow stolen her gift from her, and that this was just a prelude to an attack on her. The only shred of relief was that he had not come to her in her dreams. She had slept badly last night but the few moments of sleep she had managed to snatch had been blessedly free of nightmares.
She had done what Edric had suggested: She had made no more attempts to enter Faerie on Saturday. She hadn’t even succumbed to the urge to test herself as soon as she got up this morning. She had waited and waited with growing impatience and anxiety.
And then she had gone for it—with only a mouthful of rusty nails and a crawling skin to show for her effort.
She could hear muffled bumping and banging noises coming from along the landing, the sounds of her mother yanking suitcases down from the top of wardrobes and opening them on the floor ready to be packed.
She heard footsteps along the hallway and the soft creak of her door being opened.
“I’m fine,” she said without uncovering her eyes. “It’s just a headache, that’s all.”
“Did you try again?” It was Edric’s voice.
&nbs
p; Tania sat up. “Oh, sorry. I thought you were Mum.”
Smiling, he came in and sat next to her on the bed. She took his hand, her dark mood clearing a little just to have him near.
“Did you try again?”
She nodded. “There was nothing! I still can’t do it.” She looked at him. “How did you get in?”
“Your dad was outside with his head under the hood of the car,” Edric said. “He said it was okay for me to come up here. Mind you, he didn’t exactly look overjoyed to see me.”
“Think yourself lucky,” Tania said. “A couple of days ago he’d have chased you off with a tire iron.”
“There is that,” Edric said. “But listen, I’ve been thinking. You mustn’t get yourself into a state about this thing. Even if Drake has put some kind of spell on you, the Queen will know how to break it; I’m sure she will. All we have to do is sit tight till she comes back from China. She’ll know how to get your gift back for you.”
“But if she knew how to get into Faerie, she wouldn’t still be here.”
“She may not know how to get herself back,” Edric persisted. “But you already have the gift. You’ve just lost it temporarily, or you’ve had it stolen. She’ll know how to help you find it again.”
“But—”
“That guy from the law firm said Lilith Mariner would be back within a couple of weeks,” he said. “And you’re about to go away for two weeks. She’ll be in London by the time you get back.”
Tania looked dubiously at him.
“You trust me, don’t you?” he said.
“With my life,” she said softly.
“Then stop worrying, or you’ll get wrinkles.”
She laughed. “Excuse me! I’m sixteen and I’m an immortal Faerie princess, so don’t bother threatening me with wrinkles, thank you very much.” She stood up, feeling a new hope rising inside her. “Okay,” she said, going to her window and throwing it open. “Let’s get some fresh air in here. And then…” She turned around and looked at him. “Since you’re here, you can get my suitcase off the top of the wardrobe and then you can help me to pack.”
He looked at her in surprise. “You’re not leaving till Tuesday,” he said. “You don’t need to start packing yet, surely?”
She arched an eyebrow. “Edric,” she said, “for a boy who’s been around for five hundred years, you don’t know much about girls, do you?”
“Drive carefully!” Tania shouted, waving as the car headed off down the road. Her father tooted the horn and her mother’s arm appeared out of the passenger window, waving back. Tania stayed there until the car rounded the corner and was gone.
She looked at her watch. It was four o’clock on Monday afternoon. Her mother had told her she should go to bed early that night—eight o’clock at the latest—otherwise she’d be good for nothing in the morning.
“That’s all well and good, Mother dearest,” she said aloud as she went back into the house. “But sleeping is the last thing I want to do right now.” In fact, she wasn’t planning on going to bed at all. She had slept fitfully last night, unable to rest for thoughts of Gabriel Drake, and now she was beyond the point of tiredness, wide-awake in a strange, unnatural, and light-headed way.
She went up to her room. Her suitcase was still open on her bed, ready for last-minute toiletries to be squeezed in before the lid came down and the zipper was dragged shut. She smiled, remembering Edric’s disbelieving face as he had been introduced to the stark realities of helping a teenaged girl pack for a two-week holiday.
“Poor Edric,” she said fondly. “He’ll learn.”
She picked up her phone and began to text him. HI THERE, GORGEOUS. I’M MISSING YOU ALREA A shaft of pain seared into her head as if a bolt of lightning had pierced her skull. She screamed with agony, staggering, dropping the phone, her hands coming up to her pounding head.
The room shook around her, the floor shuddering under her feet, the furniture rattling and vibrating. She heard a ghastly howl above her that was like the fabric of the universe being torn open.
It was Drake! It had to be. He had stripped her of her gift—and now, when she was truly alone for the first time, he was coming for her.
She fell to the floor as the brain-shredding noise echoed and re-echoed in her ears. And now there was a hissing and a roaring like a firestorm, and as she stared up with terrified eyes, she saw the ceiling glow a fierce, fiery red; then it began to swirl, faster and faster, gathering speed like a blazing wheel, spitting out sparks and flecks of darkness.
There was a loud crack, like a mountain splitting open, and Tania saw three figures come tumbling out of the wheel of fire: Three figures in long dresses, three figures that plunged through the ringing air and came crashing to the floor.
A split second later a white crystal sword came plummeting point down in their wake, narrowly missing the sprawling figures and coming to a thrumming halt, hilt uppermost, its point embedded in the carpet.
And then with a rush and a hiss the furious circle of flame was gone and Tania was left, stunned and breathless, staring at the three girls who lay stretched out on the floor in front of her.
Cordelia.
Sancha.
Zara.
Sancha was the first to scramble to her feet. “Eden!” she screamed, staring up at the ceiling. “Eden!” She turned her frantic, tear-stained face to Tania. “They have caught Eden!” she cried. “They will kill her! They will kill her!”
Part Three:
Sisters in Exile
XIII
Tania wondered if she had fainted and fallen into some kind of weird nightmare.
Zara lay in a crumpled heap on the carpet, face-down, groaning. Cordelia pulled herself into a sitting position and gently turned Zara over, resting her head in her lap.
Sancha stared at the ceiling with a look of absolute horror. “Eden has sealed the portal behind us,” she said. “They cannot follow, but neither can she.”
Tania staggered to her feet. Even in her shock she saw that the clothes her three sisters were wearing were stained and crumpled, and that their hair was wild and their faces smeared with grime.
She also noticed that Sancha was holding a bundle of white silk under one arm and that there was another cloth bundle lying on the carpet near to where the white crystal sword had stabbed into the floor—a tied bundle that was tube-shaped and about a yard long.
“Who can’t follow?” she asked. “What’s happened? How did you get here?”
Sancha gave her a grave, bleak-eyed look. “It is Rathina,” she said. “She has betrayed us all.” She bit her lip, her eyes glancing fearfully around. “This place may not be safe. We should not remain here.” She looked down at Zara. “Is she hurt?”
“Nay,” Cordelia said, smoothing Zara’s golden hair off her face. “Bruises, nothing more.” She looked up at Sancha. “Would that Hopie were here to ease her pain.”
“Please!” Tania’s voice was shrill in her ears. “I don’t understand. Tell me what’s happening!”
Sancha took an awkward step toward Tania and put her hand on her shoulder. “It is ill to meet you so, Tania,” she said. “We have a grievous tale to tell.”
“Had we but known,” said Cordelia, shaking her head, “mayhap we could have prevented it.”
“Water, please,” Zara whispered. “My lips are dry and there is so foul a taste in my mouth that I can hardly bear it.”
“Come with me,” Tania said. “We’ll go to the kitchen. And then you can tell me exactly what’s happened.”
“Call for a servant,” Sancha said. “Zara will need aid if she is to walk far.”
“I don’t have servants,” Tania said, helping Cordelia get Zara to her feet. “I’m on my own here but the kitchen isn’t far away.” Keeping in step with Cordelia, she supported Zara as they walked to the door.
“This is your bedchamber?” Sancha asked, her voice filled with amazement as she stared around the room. “There are so many curious devices here.” S
he turned to the desk and reached toward the computer. “What is this thing?”
“Don’t touch it!” Tania shouted, startling her sister. “It’s made of metal.”
With a look of alarm Sancha drew back her hand sharply.
“Be really careful, all of you,” Tania said. “Please don’t touch anything without asking me first. There’s metal everywhere.”
Cordelia gave her a look of distaste. “You surround yourself with Isenmort?” she asked. “How do you abide it?” She glanced around the room with narrowed, wary eyes. “Your chamber is unlovely, Tania. It has too many sharp edges and it is ugly and unnatural. I do not like it.” She frowned. “And what is that foul taste in my mouth? Is the air so corrupted in this world that it tastes like wormwood on the tongue?”
“No, that’s not normal,” Tania said. “I thought Drake was causing it somehow.”
“Drake?” said Sancha. “Nay, sister, ’tis far worse a foe. But I would have water to wash the taint from my mouth ere I speak of it.”
“We’ll go downstairs,” Tania said, looking uneasily at her sister. A worse foe than Gabriel Drake? Was that possible?
Sancha stooped and picked up the long bundle. She followed Tania as she and Cordelia helped Zara out of the room and down the stairs. Tania was aware of Sancha and Cordelia’s eyes moving rapidly and warily around as they took in their new surroundings.
“’Tis all so small and bleak,” Cordelia muttered as they came down into the hall and headed for the kitchen. “Do you have no longing for space and beauty in this world?”
Tania didn’t reply. She felt strangely embarrassed by her home. The princesses were used to richly decorated and ornamented rooms, and to wide corridors and polished oak stairways hung with tapestries and paintings, to high ceilings of carved plaster and to windows that shone with colored glass. To them this ordinary Camden house must seem drained of all life and color.