by L. K. Rigel
As the child poured, Nanny Violet surreptitiously refilled the pot with hot Pride of the Port, her personal favorite tea blend. She’d been surprised to find being among humans wasn’t as awful as she’d anticipated. They didn’t have Pride of the Port in the faewood!
“Yes, please.” Max grunted out the words. When did the gob ever not grunt?
“Milk or lemon?”
“Lemon, thank you.”
Since coming to Faeview to be little Lady Lexi’s nanny, Violet had changed her opinion of Max the goblin. His gruffness was now endearing to her, his ugliness an unfortunate sorrow. She was no longer in awe—or afraid—of the gob.
And every time he came, he brought a present. There was that.
This morning it had been delicate little white china plates painted with tiny pastel purple and pink flowers and pale green leaves to match the tea set he’d given Lexi yesterday. At once, the future countess (and heir to the Moonstick Throne, let’s not forget) had called for a tea party.
They’d all met at the Temple of Joy and Wonder for the event.
“And Auntie Cissa,” said Lady Lexi. “How would you like your tea?”
“I’ve always wanted milk and honey and lemon,” the queen said.
“Oh, me too,” Goldy said.
“I’ve tried, but it never works!” Morning Glory said. “It always turns into a curdled mess.”
Beverly laughed, along with Lexi’s faeling parents, which Nanny Violet thought unkind. She was pretty sure everybody had at one time or another tried to put everything in their tea, with equally disappointing results.
But she let it go. Nanny Violet refused all negative thoughts about the woman who’d saved her from Idris’s glimmer glass, even if Beverly was a wyrding woman.
“Here, Auntie Cissa.” Lexi handed the queen a cup and saucer. “Try this.”
Cissa sipped the offered beverage, and her face lit up. “How?” she said. “How did you… sugar and milk and lemon, and not spoiled. Is this a wyrd, or is it fae magic?”
Now she’d done it. She should leave little Lady Lexi alone about that. A worried frown spread over the poor darling’s sweet face, and her violet eyes darkened.
“I…I don’t know.”
“It’s Lexi magic,” Max said. “It’s remarkable. And wonderful.”
Everyone let out the breath they’d been holding, and even the queen smiled.
“Lexi magic. Max has it exactly right,” Cissa said. Then she put her hand on his—she touched the gob all the time; Violet could not understand that—and squeezed it, eww. “Max has it right as usual.”
Lady Lexi continued pouring for her guests, and her grandfather, Dandelion, set a flutter of butterflies dancing around her head, a living crown.
It was the last week of June, and little Lady Lexi had grown as quickly as everyone feared. Her name wasn’t really Lexi. Her official name was Alexandra Lowenwyn Beverly Glory Marion Elyse Bausiney, and she was the future countess of Dumnos.
More importantly, she was the only living heir to the Moonstick Throne.
Even though there wasn’t one flower in her name.
Because of the curse, it was hard to tell how old she was, but Nanny Violet figured she’d pass for nine. Or ten.
Nine or ten, her official name was far too heavy for such a sweet little girl. To her family she was simply Lexi. Nanny Violet called her Lexi, or Lady Lexi for fun, and she was exceedingly proud that Lexi called her Nanny.
It was such an honor to be trusted so! Fen and all the other fairies were insanely jealous. She’d come up in the world, that was for sure. She spoke with Goldy and Morning Glory almost every day, she had been to Mudcastle four times in the past month.
Everybody called her Nanny Violet. She had responsibilities.
She was in fairy heaven.
The idyll was shattered by the sound of human voices, and everyone went on the alert. Someone was approaching from the car park. Of late, the Temple of Joy and Wonder and its sacred lake had become a popular picnicking spot among the villagers.
“It’s getting late, anyway,” Nanny Violet said. “We should go back to the house.”
Blink, blank, blunk. A volley of spells and wyrds packed the tea set in its basket, the carpet and pillows were whooshed off by someone, and the Faeview contingent popped home.
Things had been much easier since the earl developed his ability to transport, though his skills were limited to short distances and even then only within Faeview grounds.
Lexi was quiet all the rest of the day, and later in the nursery, when she had put on her nightgown and climbed into her charmed bed, she put her book aside and said, “Nanny, why are goblins so very ugly?”
“Do you think Mr. Max is ugly?” Nanny Violet hedged for time. The girl had never noticed before.
“I think others may find him so,” Lexi said. “The world is cruel to ugly people, isn’t it, Nanny Violet?”
The girl must have aged even further than Cade and Lily believed. According to the child development books Violet consulted constantly, a conversation like this, with such awareness of the world outside her home, belonged to the age of reason. Lexi could be closer to eleven or twelve than nine or ten.
Violet’s fairy heart squeezed in her breast. The little girl was growing up. Too fast! Too fast!
There was nothing to do but accept the fact. The books all said a child at this stage should hear the truth they ask for, but that the caregiver should give a thought to how much of the truth the child could handle. Suddenly Nanny Violet’s responsibilities felt very heavy.
“Humans can be very cruel to those they find ugly,” she said.
“Not fairies?” Lexi looked at her slyly.
Busted. “Fairies are… even crueler. Pretty things make our hearts soar. All ugliness feels like an assault upon our senses.”
“That must be why the goblins went to live in the Blue Vale,” Lexi said. “To get away from the fairies.”
“You may be right,” Violet said. “They split off before I was born.”
“But we like Mr. Max,” Lexi said, as if confirming a truth now challenged.
“We adore Mr. Max,” Violet said. “He’s very dear to us all.”
“But why are goblins so ugly?” Lexi said again. “Were they always?”
“Goblins are cursed,” she said. “Long ago, it’s said, the goblins were the most beautiful of all the fae. We fairies wouldn’t go that far, but it was before I was born so I don’t know. One day a gob did something so very, very—”
She was about to say naughty, but the word seemed too childish for Lexi now.
“—something so bad that even Brother Sun and Sister Moon were shocked. And you know the high gods don’t shock easily. Brother Sun and Sister Moon laid down a curse of ugliness which lodged deep into the very soul of every goblin, and the gods bound all goblins to that curse, and each to each, and each to all. Every time a goblin looks in a mirror or at another goblin, they’re reminded not to dishonor the gods.”
“I shouldn’t like to be ugly all my life,” said Lady Lexi. “Especially if I lived forever, like the goblins.”
“It’s been a long time, and I’ll bet Brother Sun and Sister Moon feel the same way,” Nanny Violet said. “They must regret their curse, so terrible and so final. We all know they are gentle gods at heart.”
“When I grow up, I’m going to be like Granny Beverly,” Lexi said. “I’ll make a spell to turn the goblins pretty again.”
“I don’t doubt it.” Nanny Violet smiled at the girl’s determination.
She didn’t say it couldn’t be done. That no one could change the will of the high gods. What would be the point? Besides, the world was a strange and mysterious place. Anything could happen. And Lexi was special. You could tell, just looking at her.
“I will!” Lady Lexi frowned and flounced her quilt.
She looked so innocent, and yet so determined, that Nanny burst out laughing.
“The goblins will be released
from their curse,” Lady Lexi cried. “I’ll make Mr. Max beautiful again!”
And Nanny Violet more than half believed her.
« Chapter 11 »
Lexi
I. Mudcastle
“Yikes.” Lexi said under her breath as she twisted out of Violet’s path.
“Lexi, girl, where did you go?”
Lexi couldn’t help herself. She burst out laughing, giving her position away. As soon as the fairy heard her, the invisibility spell dissipated.
“I wish you wouldn’t do that,” Violet said. “You know I only care about your safety.”
“Right.” Lexi rolled her eyes. They both knew who was more likely to protect whom in this relationship. Lexi hadn’t called the fairy Nanny in weeks.
“Well, there’s safety in numbers,” Violet said. “Oh, look. We’re here.”
Lexi stopped at Mudcastle’s door, disappointed. A feeling of darkness hovered about the enchanted cottage. “They’re gone.”
“How do you know?”
“I can feel it.”
“Let’s go in anyway,” Violet said. “It’s so hot, and I’m dying for some iced honey tea.”
Exactly what Lexi had hoped for. She’d sensed when they passed the Temple of Joy and Wonder that Mudcastle was empty, that Beverly and Dandelion had gone flying and wouldn’t be back for hours.
“I’ll fix us both a glass. Sound good?” Violet flitted off to the kitchen.
“Sounds good.”
Lexi scanned the lounge. Not here. She closed her eyes and sent out a tracing wyrd… yes! It was there. She popped into the master bedroom and found it, tucked away in a bookcase. Thank sun and moon. She might have a chance to return it before her grandmother noticed it was gone.
She slipped the book into her new long pouch, a present from Queen Cissa along with a hidey pouch (though she was pretty sure Max had made them). It worked great! Lydia Pengrith’s Tales of Wyrd & Fae disappeared inside, taking up no space and weightless, as if nothing were there.
How convenient.
She hated being so sneaky. She wasn’t that kind of person. But no one seemed to understand that she wasn’t a child anymore! And anyway, didn’t she have the right to know about spells and magic and… and everything? She was a person—not someone’s precious sparkly object!
She went back out to the lounge and met Violet coming from the kitchen with two glasses of iced tea.
“Thank you.” She meant it too. For all that Violet was sometimes a pest, they’d become pals of a sort.
“Why do you have Beverly’s book in your pouch?” Violet said.
“What—you know what’s in my long pouch?”
“Well, duh,” Violet said. “If you want to hide something, put it in your hidey pouch, silly.”
“I guess that makes sense.” Ack. The hazards of a rushed life. How many millions of little details were there she hadn’t had time to learn yet?
She pulled out the book. “I wanted to borrow it.”
“Oh, no, no, no. Best not. That one is special. Beverly would put a honking, hurting wyrd on you if you borrow that one, no matter how much she loves you.”
“Darn.”
“Why don’t you read it while we’re here?” Violet brightened. “We can pull down the new hammocks outside and enjoy the lazy July day.”
“Vi, that’s brill!”
Hours passed. It was twilight when Mudcastle’s inhabitants returned. Beverly said nothing when she found Lexi swaying in the hammock, enthralled by Lydia Pengrith’s journal, but with a stern raised eyebrow she promptly took the book away.
Before Beverly returned from her room, Lexi felt the boundary form around the book, and her emotions did a dance of yin and yang. Part of her was so, so sad the journal was now locked away from her; the other part was thrilled with everything she’d already learned from it.
II. Into the Mystic
“Daddy!” Lexi stomped her foot, the way she’d seen her aunt Cissa do and launched into her best dramatic voice. “I can’t take it anymore. Please let me pop down to the village.”
“You know we can’t take the risk, sweetie.”
“Agh! Why do you have to be so… conservative?”
That didn’t help. Her dad just laughed. “I’m sorry, sweetie. There’s no one to go with you and keep you safe. You’ve driven Violet away, your mom is visiting Moo at the Tragic Fall, and I’m waiting for a phone call from Duncan Edan that I just can’t miss.”
“I’m sorry I called you conservative.” Poor Daddy. He looked worried. “Is it about the Clad?”
“What do you know about the Clad?”
“I listen,” Lexi said. She didn’t understand it really, but something called the Clad made her dad and mom anxious and sad. Especially her dad. It had to do with the nasty Sarumens, and Duncan Edan, who worked for Daddy, was on our side. “I care.”
“Bottom line, no. You can’t pop down to the village. Not now.”
“But I haven’t been anywhere in so long!”
“So long?” her dad smiled. “You were born six months ago.”
“Eight. I have to get out of the house, Daddy. I feel like a prisoner.”
“Not a prisoner, surely.”
“A pampered prisoner,” she said. “I could go to the faewood. They all know about me there.”
Bad suggestion. Her dad flew out of his chair and grabbed her arm.
“Ow!”
“Never.” His lovely green eyes darkened and flashed with anger… and fear. “Never go to the faewood without someone we trust.”
“Daddy, you’re scaring me.”
“Good, sweetie.” He pulled her into his arms. “I want you to be afraid.”
“It’s not fair.” The tears flowed then, real ones. “Why do I have to be afraid of both realms?”
“I’m so sorry, sweetie.” Her dad patted her back. “It won’t be forever in the human realm. But while you’re growing so fast, it’s better to stay under the radar, away from small or fearful minds. In the fae realm, it’s a different level of danger. First, we don’t know if Anzlyn’s gift of a time tether will work. Max and Cissa have found no experience of it among goblinkind or fae, and Beverly can find no mention of such a spell among the wyrd. But more than that, the fae realm is inherently dangerous. It’s a realm of dream and nightmare. The human realm can’t compare.”
“Then let me go down to the village.” Lily sniffed and rubbed her nose. She wouldn’t be put off by the same warnings she’d heard every day since she could understand them. “I’ll pretend I’m a tourist.”
There was an idea. She popped up to her bedroom, grabbed an oversized shopping bag with the Tintagos Castle logo on it—so cool; a red dragon and a white dove—and popped back down to her dad’s study.
“Nobody will even know who I am.”
“Who gave you that?” Her dad eyed the bag. “Goldy or Morning Glory?”
“Violet. She knows I like dragons.”
“Well, your mother hates doves. And so do I,” Daddy said. “I never should have changed the sigil.”
“When you were Ross, you mean?”
“Not much gets by you, does it, sweetie?”
There. He was softening. All she had to do was keep her mouth shut and wait…
“Don’t let your mother see the bag.”
“Thank you, Daddy!” She kissed his cheek. “I’ll find Mom at the Tragic Fall and come home with her.”
“Go straight to the Inn, then,” her dad said. “No dilly-dallying.”
“You’re funny, Daddy. Ta! Thank you!”
She meant to do it. She intended to pop in behind a shrub or tree and go walk like a normal person directly to the Tragic Fall. But she landed behind a lovely red rose bush in full bloom located in the garden behind the shop she’d always wanted to visit, but that her mother was always too busy to stop into.
Who could resist a shop called Into the Mystic?
“Have we met?” A lady met her as soon as she walked through the
door, before the pretty little bells finished jingling.
“No, no. I’m a tourist.” Lexi showed her castle bag.
“I don’t think so,” said the lady. “I’d know that pretty ginger hair and those brilliant violet eyes anywhere. You’re Lady Lexi.”
Discovered! Lexi’s heart pounded. She looked around and counted five customers. Too many to risk popping out on.
“No fear, dear one,” the lady said. “I’m Cammy, and my sister Bella is there at the register. We’re friends of your family. We attended Lord and Lady Dumnos’s wedding—and your gifting. What was it… nearly four months ago? You’ve certainly grown.”
Lexi could feel the emotions in the music of Cammy’s voice. The shopkeeper was surprised by Lexi’s growth, but she wasn’t unnerved. Lexi did feel safe with her.
“Oh, thank goodness.” She let go a sigh of relief. “I can’t tell you how fantastic it is to meet a friendly face.”
“Come in, come in. Were you looking for anything in particular?”
“You mean to buy?” Lexi said. “Actually, I did want to find a different bag, something without a dove on it. And don’t you carry Hobnobs?”
“Chocolate. Your father’s favorites,” Cammy said. She was really nice. “There are some bags over by the wall you might like. I’ll put the biscuits by the register for you.”
Cammy hurried off, and Lexi looked around the shop. They had wonderful things here, though the bagged holy cakes seemed in poor taste.
“Oh, you have magic mirrors.” She picked one up, but it felt all wrong.
“They don’t work,” Cammy said. “None have, since the ones Morning Glory fixed. I don’t suppose you…?”
“Not a problem.” Lexi felt all puffed up. She wriggled her fingers over the display of mirrors and shot the spell to the ones she sensed in storage. As Cammy’s sister Bella joined them, Lexi said, “Done.”
“All righty then.” Bella said.
“Shall we try them?” Lexi heard the lack of faith in Bella’s tone. “I just learned a new spell for mirrors.”
“The one with the apples?” Cammy said.
“Yes.” How wonderful to meet a kindred spirit! Lexi liked Cammy immensely. “Are you a wyrding woman?” she asked under her breath.