Bride of Fae (Tethers)

by Rigel, LK

  It worked both ways, Beverly discovered. Elyse’s knowledge, her skill, her connection to the world tree Igdrasil—all these things became a part of Beverly too. Beverly’s own link to Igdrasil remained intact and grew. She was a wyrder, the very thing Dandelion hated most in the world.

  It was a glorious existence, with no obligations. When Elyse slept, Beverly came out and practiced. Most wyrds failed, unable to get through the boundary Elyse had put on Glimmer Cottage.

  But Beverly was able to use the glimmer glass. She’d sit on the roof, enjoy the fragrant jasmine, drink the peppermint tea Elyse hated, and watch Cade and Marion in the glass.

  At night she watched the lights at Faeview. It made her sad. It made her want something she could never have. That life was gone.

  But she couldn’t stop watching.

  One day Beverly heard Elyse think about dumping this body for a new one and saw that her skin was thin and wrinkled. How much time had slipped by? Then Lily turned up in the glimmer glass, living on the other side of the world, and Elyse launched an elaborate wyrd to bring the faeling to Glimmer Cottage.

  Morning Glory’s little daughter, all grown up, wasn’t interested in being Elyse’s new host. Lily was amazing. She freed Beverly from Elyse. Then she freed Elyse from her own personal hell.

  And fell in love with Cade in the bargain.

  A Fairy Bride

  MAX SAT ON HIS FAVORITE tree stump away from the fire. He listened to the musicians play, kicking the back of his heels against the stump in time to the rhythm. Idris wanted him in the throne room for something, but Idris always wanted him in the throne room for something.

  Max hadn’t stopped to listen to music, just for the pleasure of it, since the night Princess Cissa surprised everyone with the fairy cup. It seemed long ago. He pictured her flying triumphantly over the heads of the fae gathered in this room for the troop. So excited. So brave. So naïve.

  She was still brave, but she’d lost her innocence. Everyone had lost their innocence. These days, it was gloomy all over.

  The faewood was still the faewood, and the music was still sublime, but even that most precious of fairy delights was blighted now by the shift to the dark. A human man and woman danced at the center of the circle, both on the verge of passing out. Fen and Violet laughed and applauded as inebriated pixies goaded the dancers on.

  Everything was going to hell. Cissa worried constantly about Dandelion, wondering why he’d been gone so long, afraid he’d fallen in love with that human. If only it were that simple.

  Max’s scheme hadn’t worked—not yet, but he was sure Dandelion had understood the clues. Each time Idris looked in on the iron cell, the prince had dug a little deeper. But not deep enough.

  Idris was furious with Max for giving Dandelion the idea to pack dirt around his face and in his hair. Traces of Dumnos iron in the ground, even fine particles, would afford some protection against the cold iron. Dandelion would still feel pain, but it might not drive him mad.

  That was Max’s ruse. A bit of human-style magic—redirection of attention. Idris watched him help the prince in one way and missed the other thing, a new tether jewel buried beneath the prisoner, tied not to the faewood but to the fae realm near Mudcastle.

  “Goblin!” Goldy flew in over the dancing humans and landed on the stump beside Max. He bent forward and retracted his wings. “I’m glad you’re here.” He’d come from Mudcastle; he wasn’t wearing his tether. “You won’t believe…”

  Before Goldy could say more, a pixie popped in over everyone’s heads. “Elyse is dead!” she shouted. “The wyrding woman Elyse is dead!”

  The music stopped. In the stunned silence, the humans fell to the ground, one sickening thud and then another. Fairies and pixies erupted with chatter in response to the news. What would Aubrey do?

  “That’s not the half of it,” Goldy said under his breath. “Lily is in Tintagos Village at this very moment. She’s all grown up, staying at the Tragic Fall Inn.”

  Max often forgot that time passed differently in the human realm. It seemed only a few weeks ago he’d watched Morning Glory escape from Idris, carrying the child into the portal.

  “She doesn’t know she’s faeling,” Goldy said. “And she’s going to marry the new earl.”

  “New earl.” Max said.

  “Don’t you people ever get out? Is the human realm so irrelevant?”

  “No,” Max said drily. “And yes.”

  “Lord Dumnos has died.”

  “Well, I’m sorry to hear it, Goldy,” Max said. “I know you cared for him.”

  “I loved him, Max.”

  “Seems to be a lot of that going around.” Max thought of Cissa and allowed himself an inward smile to go with his inward pain.

  “That’s terrible.” Fen stood in front of them, and wearing his tether.

  Max grunted. How long had he been there?

  “About Elyse,” Fen said. “I always kind of hoped Aubrey would get to see her again.”

  Blast it all. If Idris was watching—and these days, Idris was always watching—then he now knew Lily was in Tintagos Village.

  Another pixie popped in, her eyes huge. “Fight!” she said. “Fight in the throne room! Princess Cissa is freaking out!”

  Fear and excitement shot through Max’s heart. Goldy jumped up with him but hesitated.

  “Go!” Max said. “I’ll see you there.”

  Goldy transported away and Max headed into the hall. He hated having to pass by the sealed front entrance to the Bower of Elyse. He should tell Cissa where Dandelion was, but she couldn’t do anything about it and it would only cause her pain. He still hoped the prince would break free before it came to that.

  The throne room was an embarrassment. Drunk and drugged fairies were draped over sofas and chairs and passed out on the floor. Pixies flitted about, smashed goblets on purpose, and stole leprechauns’ hats.

  Idris sat on the throne, cold sober, his gaze fixed on Cissa standing before him. Her head was bent forward, her face covered by her long red hair.

  She held the abomination in her hands.

  When she looked up, the color had drained from her face and her eyes sparkled with tears.

  Max moved through the courtiers, getting closer to the throne until he found Goldy. The fairy whispered, “She was giving him hell for the mess the place is in. Told him he had shamed the moonstick throne. He handed her that glass. Whatever she saw in it broke her.”

  Idris waved Cissa aside as if she was a servant. None of the courtiers reacted. The only one besides Max and Goldy who seemed offended by such treatment of the princess was Aubrey, sitting on an ottoman in the corner, his shoulders hunched forward.

  “The thing is, something’s wrong there,” Goldy said, “I’ve never known a fairy who could work a glimmer glass.”

  Max looked around the throne room. The others were impressed too, the treesaps. They’d believe anything. It never occurred to them they were being manipulated. All they saw was magic, not magic’s perversion.

  Idris spoke in a clear voice of command, addressing everyone in the room. “We must think of our dear friend Aubrey. He’s lost his child in the human realm.”

  The regent was all kindness and concern, the benevolent ruler.

  “And in other faeling news, I hear Lily has returned to Tintagos Village and plans to marry Lord Dumnos. Delightful.”

  He didn’t mention Morning Glory. Probably didn’t want to remind his audience she still eluded him.

  “A faeling Countess Dumnos could be a useful thing indeed. Aubrey, you will deliver my wedding presents to the bride.”

  Aubrey rose and nodded. Max couldn’t tell what feelings lay behind that placid expression, but there was no missing the cruelty of the assignment. Now Idris sends the treesap to Tintagos Village. Now, too late, Elyse gone.

  Cissa, on the other hand, did not even try to control her emotions. Max didn’t have to guess what she couldn’t tear her eyes away from. Dandelion in his cold i
ron cage. It was over. Idris had gone completely dark. There was no turning back for him.

  “You owe me,” Cissa said to Idris. “You owe me a favor. Anything in your power to grant.”

  Idris trembled but suppressed his rage. “I haven’t forgotten.”

  “Let him go.”

  “Ah, princess. For you, I would if I could. But this isn’t in my power. As regent, I’m sworn to protect my people, and your brother is a dangerous fairy.”

  “I should have known,” Cissa said quietly, not to Idris but to herself. Max wanted to break something—like Idris’s face—and make everything all right again for her. Return her to her carefree, thieving, happy old self.

  “I can do one thing to make him more comfortable,” Idris said. “Goblin!” All eyes in the room shifted to Max. “Remove the glimmermist from your prisoner.”

  “Your prisoner?” Cissa’s look of betrayal sliced through Max’s gut. She believed he was working for Idris. And he couldn’t deny it.

  A chasm opened between them, and he saw no way it could ever close.

  Cissa turned back to Idris. “Why would you do this?”

  “For the greater good of the Dumnos fae,” Idris said. “Just as you will do what you must for the greater good of all—even your negligent, dangerous brother.”

  “What do you mean?” Cissa said.

  Idris rose to his feet, magnificent. Tall, sinuous, beautiful, powerful. He gently took the abomination from the princess’s hands and tucked it behind the moonstick throne. He faced her, benevolent and smiling.

  “This talk of weddings has inspired me. Marry me, Cissa,” he said softly. “Marry me, and make me a better man. Save me from myself. Make me a better king.”

  She didn’t laugh. She didn’t reject him out of hand and tell a joke.

  She gave him her lovely hand and nodded.

  Idris took her into his arms and looked down on her with something like gratitude. He kissed her then, with his tallness and his beauty and his power, and she allowed it.

  “Let’s get out of here, gob,” Goldy said. His sympathy only made things worse. “There’s someone at Mudcastle who’ll cheer you up.”

  Max doubted it. He’d never feel cheerful again.

  The Wedding Gift

  2012, Glimmer Cottage

  THE TABLES IN THE GARDEN were covered with white tablecloths. The band came back to the temporary stage from their break, and wedding guests paired off on the grass to dance. Elyse was gone. The ghosts of the ring were gone.

  The ring was gone.

  “Get these people off my lawn!” a crow scolded from the yew tree.

  Beverly shook her head at the old bird. This was her son’s wedding party, and the crow would have to bear it.

  Cade was the funny, handsome fellow over there in the white tuxedo and the outrageous white bell crown topper, a mix of rock star and Mad Hatter. He was with his bride, Lily, the little faeling all grown up.

  Lily kissed Cade’s cheek and whispered in his ear. She lifted her gown’s long skirt and picked her way across the lawn, and Cade watched her go with a deliriously happy grin.

  All will be well, all will be right. Beverly sighed. Not all, but some things.

  She’d watched Cade grow up in Elyse’s glimmer glass. Working the glass was one of the first wyrds she’d learned to do when Elyse slept. When Elyse found out, she hid the glass. Then Beverly learned a tracing wyrd, and Elyse threatened to make her forget Cade.

  But then Elyse took pity and relented. For that, Beverly could never completely hate her.

  She felt the thin skin on her hands and the sense of something missing from her finger. The Oracle’s ring was gone, and she knew what that meant. Soon she would die.

  Elyse was gone too, but not her knowledge. Her natural wyrding abilities were incorporated in this body that Elyse had lived in and practiced with for thirty years. Beverly knew what Elyse knew: that nothing could alter the consequence of removing the Oracle’s ring.

  She could live with that. Ha.

  Anyway, she wanted to die. She was free. Free of Elyse, free of James, free of her obligations to Cade and Marion. But it was too late. If Dandelion saw her now, sixty-one years old and falling apart, he’d hardly sweep her off her feet and make love to her in the aurora borealis.

  The human beings she loved were happy, and that was enough. Marion and Cade sat down at the table, and Ian joined them. Moo was middle-aged now, married to Ian at last. They were wonderful together.

  “Here’s the beautiful bride,” Marion said as Lily returned with a bundle of cloth she set on the table. “How lovely.” Marion ran her fingers over the fabric. As it moved, it shimmered like something Beverly would never forget. Like the lights of the borealis.

  “Where did you get that?” she said. “Who gave it to you?”

  Cade said, “Another wedding present?”

  “Yes, from a man I met inside.” Lily unfolded the cloth to reveal a glimmer glass. It was like none Elyse had, but a glimmer glass all the same. Lily handed it to Cade. “He told me not to show it to you.”

  “What is it?” Cade turned it over. “It looks like a steampunk data tablet.”

  “It’s a glimmer glass,” Beverly said.

  “That’s it,” Lily said. “That’s what he called it.”

  “What does it do?” Ian said.

  “Give it to me,” Beverly said. The instant she touched the object, her stomach felt queasy. “Something’s wrong,” she said. “The magic powering this glass isn’t clean.” She put it down and asked Lily, “Did you see anything in it?”

  “Idris.” Lily shuddered. “I remember him from my childhood, chasing my mother and me.”

  “The fae don’t use glimmer glass.” Lydia’s journals and Elyse’s memories had told Beverly that. She picked it up again, and again the sick feeling washed over her. “But this feels fae. Dark fae, maybe.”

  If only she could ask Dandelion.

  The instant she thought of him, his image appeared in the glass. He was lying on the floor in an iron cage, covered with dirt and obviously in agony.

  “Dandelion!” Beverly screamed and dropped the thing on the table. It went blank, but the image was burned in her brain.

  “Dandelion?” Cade said.

  Everyone at the table stared at her.

  “I didn’t want to do this, but I have no choice,” Beverly said. She cast a wyrd over the entire wedding party, omitting herself, Cade, and Lily.

  Ian and Marion seemed to think they were alone. They shared a passionate kiss and went out to the lawn to dance.

  “We have to go now, Cade,” Beverly said. “Your father is in danger.”

  “Mum, you’re confused,” Cade said gently. “Dad died, remember? Just after you came back to us.”

  “I mean your real father,” Beverly said. “Dandelion. The rightful king of the Dumnos fae.”

  Thank sun and moon for Lily. She convinced Cade that his mother wasn’t bonkers and to do what Beverly asked. The three of them were in the DB5 tearing along the Ring road.

  Beverly had to save Dandelion. Even if he found her ancient and disgusting, it didn’t matter. He saved her in Hyde Park, and look where it got him. Locked in a cage, tortured. She had to try.

  Cade parked near the Temple of Joy and Wonder, and they continued on foot. Beverly plunged into the rhododendrons, the evil glimmer glass tucked under her arm.

  “I forgot the torch,” Cade said.

  “Not necessary.” Beverly wriggled her fingers. “Light.”

  Cade and Lily murmured wondrously as the vegetation all around them lit up, glowing from inside. Beautiful. Poor Elyse. What amazing things she could have done if she hadn’t felt stuck inside Glimmer Cottage.

  Beverly wasn’t going to let that be true about her own life. With what time and magic she had left, she would make a difference. Be fantastic. And save the man she loved.

  They were close. She smelled lilacs. The fragrance invigorated her. She felt stronger, more ener
getic. Then she saw it. The mound of dirt, covered with flowers and ivy. Sun and moon, let him see it, she prayed.

  “Look,” Cade said. His voice was full of wonder and delight. “It’s the magic house.”

  “How charming!” Lily said.

  The two faelings ran to the mound. Before Beverly’s eyes, they both disappeared inside it.

  “Wait!” she said. “That’s not what I meant!”

  In the Panopticon

  “CADE!” BEVERLY DIDN'T EXPECT an answer. “Lily!”

  Mudcastle was on the threshold between human and fae, phased into the human realm only when Dandelion was there. He was certainly not there, locked somewhere in that cold iron cage.

  As faelings, Cade and Lily could see Mudcastle in either realm and had transitioned to it naturally. But fae magic wasn’t the same as wyrding magic. Beverly should have known this would happen.

  She needed to find a rift…or a portal. She found the chamomile patch and was just about to step in, but stopped. That would only lead back to Igdrasil. You don’t need a portal. You need a wish.

  And she had one.

  Carefully, deliberately, she held the creepy fae glass to her chest, closed her eyes, and formed her third wish. “I wish I was at Mudcastle in the realm of fae—at this time.”

  A teakettle whistled.

  She opened her eyes. It worked! The fire crackled. The overhead candelabra glowed. The window boxes on the inside were bursting with peonies, irises, lobelia, and snowdrops.

  “Hey, girl,” Goldy said. “Nice to see you.” He took the kettle off the chimney crane. “How about a nice cup of peppermint tea?”

  “It was clever to think of the wish,” Morning Glory said. “Max and Cissa went to Igdrasil in case you showed up there. They’ll be back soon.”

  Beverly set the glimmer glass against the wall and sat in the rocker beside Cade.

  “Are you okay?” she said.

  “Never better,” he said. “Goldy and Morning Glory have been explaining things to us. It seems Lily is the real Bausiney in this marriage.”