Issina, her sisters, and Odele were invited to live at the castle. Odele instantly accepted. It was a beautiful, richly adorned place, but Issina felt empty inside without Oken. Only a few days had passed since she had healed Braeden, but she felt her life drastically changing. Didn’t Oken need to help train her further as a healer? The king and queen seemed to think she was capable of serving the land as the healer, but she felt inadequate and small. Her heart sinking, she kept looking out the windows at the forest. Surely, she would be able to escape the castle for a walk in the forest. Oken would find her then, and she could see him, hold him, apologize for running away once again. Their bond was completed, but she did not feel complete, and she longed to find him. But there were banquets and dances and celebrations to attend. The growers still had to be chosen, and the king and queen wanted her to help in the decision. Already, people were lining up to see her, to be healed if they were sick or injured, but she made sure the king and queen knew she was not ready. Too much. Too fast. She needed Oken.
“Feeling a little low?” a male voice asked as she turned a corner. She still hadn’t grown used to fine clothes and nearly tripped over her own shoes.
“Braeden!” She lowered her eyes. “Hello.”
He moved toward her and she froze. It wasn’t that he frightened her. She simply didn’t know how to act around him. He was preparing for his wedding with Edryn, and she was truly happy for him, but everything about the castle, including Braeden, reminded her of how sheltered Odele had kept her. Everything here was foreign.
“Are you feeling unwell?” he asked, lifting her chin with his hand. She looked up at him and tried to smile. His eyes were so kind. His bright hair glistened in a patch of sunlight through a window.
“I-I’m, everything is, I mean—”
“Don’t worry, I understand. You must feel out of place here. Your sisters have told me how you were treated most of your life, and I am sorry. They feel terrible. I think you have changed their lives. If that is not a healing power, I don’t know what is.”
His eyes filled with gratitude and Issina looked away, even though he still held her chin. “They are here because of me,” she said, her throat constricting, “so of course they feel terrible about treating me the way they did.”
He chuckled. “I think it goes beyond that, and besides, you have changed my life as well. You saved me.”
“I only did what I am destined to do. My father was a healer. It’s in my blood.”
“You will bring these lands something beautiful, Issina. Please, look at me.”
She turned her eyes back to him, and he lowered his hand from her face. “I love Edryn very much,” he said with a smile. “When she and I are married, you’ll be my sister. I’ve never had a sister, and I only want you to know that when I first saw you, I was drawn to your magic in ways I have never been drawn to anyone. Because I am on the council, I had been concerned for the kingdom for a long time, wishing we had a healer, but not knowing if we would ever find one. I think I knew when I saw you that you were what we needed.”
“It’s not magic,” she mumbled. “I mean, I know it seems like magic but it’s only focused emotions. It’s nothing like what my sisters have.”
“No, it is more special, and I respect you deeply.” He grasped her hands and squeezed. “I only hope you can learn to feel comfortable here and accept the incredible person you are. Your family loves you, even your mother. There is goodness in her. I see that it’s buried, but it is there.”
“Yes, it is,” she said as an ache in her heart dwindled. “You’re perfect for my family, and I am happy you can see the goodness in them. There were times in my life that I felt such a thing was impossible—goodness amid such treachery and anger.”
“You are a healer. You must know now that there is always hope.”
“Yes,” she said as he let go of her hands. “I believe you are right.”
As the celebrations died down and everyone’s thoughts turned to Edryn’s wedding preparations, Issina found ways to excuse herself from the castle and take walks on the royal grounds. They were shady and cool and beautiful, but they were not the elven forest, and she wondered if Oken could find her. Still, she tried. She felt a connection to him, a thread of longing. Faintly, like tiny echoes, she heard his thoughts. They were indistinct, hardly making any sense at all, but she knew they were a part of her bond to him. Perhaps he was trying to communicate with her and she was too far away. Deep in her core, she knew he ached to see her. He was waiting for her life to adjust, waiting for her to come to him on her own terms, but she felt such a thing was forever away.
“I think a horse ride sounds wonderful,” Edryn said on a warm, sunny day. “Issina, would you like to join us?”
Sybil looked up from a plant she had been working on, and smiled. It was a vine she was coaxing around her arm. “Yes, I think that sounds lovely. Issina, what do you think?”
It was the first time her sisters had directly asked her to join them for anything. They had said little things to Issina since their move to the castle. Compliments. Apologies. Gratitude for everything she had done. Brief glances filled with guilt. In a way, Issina felt guilty too. She wanted a pattern to evolve, a comfort zone. She knew it was a ways off. Still, she had to try.
“Yes, I would love to come,” she said. “I’ve never ridden a horse. But will the townspeople mob me and want me to heal them?” She thought about the crowds near the castle and was glad for the thick walls and guarded grounds surrounding her.
Edryn shrugged. “We will help you, and we’ll take a trail through the royal grounds, far away from the public entrance. Nobody will know we have left. We will take a guard or two.” Then she lowered her voice. “I’m dying to get out of here. Is it just me, or would you also like to see the tree again?”
Issina looked at the floor. “Yes, I would.”
She allowed servants to help her into a riding dress, gloves, and boots, and she and Sybil and Edryn left for the stables. Odele passed them on their way out, and the soft, nervous smile she directed at Issina was a little warmer than it had been the day before.
Riding was not as difficult as Issina thought it would be. She focused her emotions on the horse, and he seemed to speak to her like Cassia and Gilbert and Gissy had spoken to her. She had a connection with animals, and she guessed it had to do with her healing abilities. She stroked the horse’s strong neck, enjoying the feel of its coarse fur, even through her gloves.
They rode beneath a crystal blue sky, dust kicking up behind them. Edryn was a natural on a horse, and Sybil wasn’t bad, either. The two guards accompanying them kept their distance ahead and behind. Finally, they reached their familiar woods and came upon their demolished home.
Sybil let out a whimpering sigh. “It’s tragic,” she said as she leaned forward on her horse and blinked her three eyes. “Our home was falling apart long before the tree ever grew through it, so I’m not too sad, but still, it depresses me.” She put a hand to her forehead. “Even the tree looks sad. I doubt Genevieve could revive it. It’s so bare.”
“It served its purpose,” Issina said quietly. “It allowed my transformation as a healer.” She gave Edryn and Sybil a warm smile and glanced at their short hair. The castle servants kept trying to style it into clever updos. “With your help, of course.”
“It will grow,” Edryn said, clearing her throat as she touched her hair. She adjusted her gloves over her arms. “It saved Braeden. We cannot complain.”
Together, they all looked at the house, but Issina couldn’t wait another moment. Dismounting her horse, she smoothed her skirts and turned toward the woods. “I hope you don’t mind, sisters, but I would like to take a short walk. Alone.”
“Not at all.” Sybil looked down at her from her horse. “But don’t walk far. We will come looking for you if you don’t return soon. We will worry.”
Issina nodded and took off. She had to find him.
Oken found her first. As soon as she p
assed the well and the beautiful purple flowers, she found the white paths and there he was, waiting. He held out his hand to her as soon as she reached him. The forest seemed more alive, every leaf fluttering, every birdsong a rich, joyful chorus. Even the air smelled sweet, as if welcoming her. It was shady and cool.
“I’m sorry I left again,” she said with a laugh as he embraced her. His arms felt like warm sunshine around her body. “I keep running away from you, and then everything happened so quickly, and I was swept off to the castle for my own protection. If only they knew about you.”
He smiled. His skin was luminous, his eyes intense. He smelled of flowers and water and earth. “I knew something like that might happen. I’ve waited patiently. Becoming a healer is a difficult journey, and you’re handling it beautifully.”
She looked around the forest. “Are there other elves with you? Do they know what has happened? Do they approve?”
“Of course!” He squeezed her. “You’re connected to me, and you will discover how you are connected to them, in time.” He touched her face and a thin stream of light between them pooled into emotions inside her heart, focused and strong and elegant; sorrow for her pain, grief for her father’s death, appreciation for her choice to bond with him and become a healer. What were once echoes in her head now came to her in perfect clarity. Oken’s emotions and thoughts. No specific words yet. She wanted it stronger already, and she knew he did too.
“In time,” he whispered. “We’ll strengthen our bond, I promise.”
She closed her eyes and allowed light to bloom inside her mind. She saw herself with Sybil and Edryn, the three of them dressed in white. They walked through a vineyard and sang. Odele followed behind, her face finally at peace, her arms opened like the wings of a swan.
She looked up at Oken. “For the first time in my life, I’m happy for tomorrow.”
He smiled. “Tomorrow includes your sisters and your mother, I see—if you make it so.”
“Yes, it does, and you, I hope—much, much more of you.” She kissed his lips, and he squeezed her tighter and kissed her in return. The forest hummed around them, and in that moment she opened herself to happiness.
We will be one, he said inside her thoughts. I love you, Issina.
She wasn’t certain how to answer him in her mind, but she knew he felt her answer in her kiss, in the way she held on to him as if she would never let him go. She would become a part of the elves. They would become a part of her. She would learn healing, but for the first time in her life, she knew her most important healing journey was complete.
Oken pulled away and looked up through the trees. “How about a walk in the sunlight before you return to your sisters?”
Smiling, she took his hand. “That would be perfect.”
“But round about the castle there began to grow a hedge of thorns, which every year became higher, and at last grew close up round the castle and all over it, so that there was nothing of it to be seen, not even the flag upon the roof.”
Sleeping Beauty as told by The Brothers Grimm
To Adam, with love
We will chase dragons forever
1
Light
The sun never set in Lisadar. The first time Serina learned that it set in the human realm, she gasped.
“You mean it disappears?” She tried to imagine what complete darkness might look like. The sun in her realm traveled across the sky each day, changing the light, but it never vanished. Even when she slept, a certain amount of light surrounded her. There was always light.
“There is a moon,” her mother, Ellendia, explained in a voice smooth as chestnuts. She raised two fists—one for the Earth, one for the sun. “When the Earth turns, half of it moves away from the sun. The sun’s light reflects off the moon, like a mirror. That light shines onto the dark half of the Earth, but it is dim. It is never truly dark or light, although the sky gets dark enough so the stars will shine. Lisadar and Rodowa are the only places on Earth protected from that darkness.”
“It sounds beautiful.” Serina had heard of the moon and stars before, how they twinkled in a void absent of any other light.
Her mother’s focus seemed distant, as if she was trying to see to the bottom of a murky pond. “It must be very beautiful. Perhaps one day I will see it.”
Serina gasped again. “No! That would mean you have been banished.” She hung her head. “You would have to do something terribly wrong to go there.”
She felt her mother’s slender fingers curl under her chin and lift her face. Their eyes met, and Serina knew she would never forget her mother at that moment, the way her lips curved into a smile filled with so much joy even her eyes sparkled.
“I believe the human realm is a beautiful and enchanting place. It is why we fairies exist, Serina. Do not forget that.”
She nodded. She was confused, but she didn’t ask any more questions. They would only lead to more things she would have to wrap her mind around. For now, the thought of a moon and stars and darkness enveloped her. She slept fitfully. Outside her window was a sky dimmed with clouds the color of pink cherry blossoms. All around her the air breathed light. She had never known any different. Darkness was something she hoped never to see.
The night her mother gave birth to Aeline, the sky glowed brighter than usual. It was customary for friends to gather around the house and sing after the birth. It was a way to calm the baby, and Serina also found their soft voices comforting. She stood in a corner of the room and held her doll close to her chest.
A sister. She had a sister now.
For some reason it seemed unbelievable. Because fairies were immortal, they did not give birth often. When it happened, it was a magical moment. She watched her mother lying peacefully on the bed with Aeline asleep in her arms. Her mother raised her eyes to the fairy healer standing over her.
“I am finished now, Ellendia,” the healer said. “Make sure you rest.” She gathered her things and nodded goodbye.
Ellendia thanked her and gestured for Serina to come closer. “You may see her now, my dear.”
Serina inched to the bed. Aeline looked like her doll. She had porcelain skin and lips the color of the pink clouds at night, like the ones drifting by outside the many windows. Aeline’s breaths were barely detectable.
“She’s so pretty,” Serina said, her excitement rising. “Can I touch her?”
“Yes, but be gentle. Young fairies are ever so fragile.”
“Was I fragile once?”
“You were.”
Serina reached out to touch her sister’s face. The soft skin sent a tingle down her spine. She felt connected to this tiny being. It was unlike any connection she had ever felt, even stronger than what she shared with her mother. She looked into her mother’s eyes, those deep jewels always filled with love.
“Why does my heart feel so big when I look at her?” she asked, slowly lifting her hand from Aeline’s cheek.
“Because she is your sister.”
She took a deep breath. Questions filled her mind yet again. She didn’t understand why young fairies such as her were given so little information about life. She knew she would grow to be wise like her mother, but it seemed such a long way off. One question pushed through.
“Where did she come from?”
Ellendia’s eyes sparkled. “From my belly. We talked about that, remember?”
“How did that happen?”
Pink blossomed across her mother’s cheeks. “I knew you would ask that eventually.”
“It’s only that I’ve heard the other children talk about how humans have their babies, and there are always two people who—”
“Yes, there must be two fairies to create a child, but we are not like the humans. You have a father, but he is not bonded to me like the humans bond themselves to one another, nor is it like the different types of bonds between elves or sprites. You know of our connection to the elements.”
“Yes.” She looked at Aeline, wondering what ele
ment her sister would harness. There were four main elements—earth, water, fire, and air. Her mother was tied to earth, and had become a master of that element. Serina was tied to water. Her training was moving rather slowly.
“To create a baby inside my belly, I had to connect to my element at the same time I bonded with your father. The combination created Aeline.”
“Will I ever meet him? My father, I mean.”
“One day you might. You already know the male fairies live far away from here. If Aeline had been a boy, she would have been taken away by now.”
“I know.”
She wanted to ask why, but she knew it was a pointless question. She asked instead, “What element is Aeline, then?”
“She is air, Serina. Look, she is waking. When she opens her eyes, you will see sky—just as when I look in your eyes I see a beautiful ocean because you are water.”
Serina waited impatiently as her sister stirred in her mother’s arms. Her puckered lips opened and closed in a tiny yawn. Finally, her eyes opened, and Serina stepped back. Her doll slipped from her limp arms to the floor.
Serina knew other fairies who belonged to air. Their eyes reflected skies, clouds, even wind, but Aeline’s eyes did not reflect any of these. They were deep and smooth and frightening. Serina saw darkness for the first time.
The darkness in Aeline’s eyes never left. Serina tried to ignore it. She tried to talk to her mother about it, but nobody else acknowledged it was there.
Bonded: Three Fairy Tales, One Bond Page 24