by Molly Ringle
Cassidy burst through the doors a few hours later, Elemi running after. Barging past the officials, Cassidy threw their arms around Nye, who had risen in greeting. Merrick, still seated to accommodate his aching leg, opened his arms to Elemi.
She burrowed into his embrace so fiercely it made him grunt. Then she lifted her face with a radiant smile and said, “I knew you’d come back.”
Tears burned in his eyes, but he beamed. “Well, how else was I going to tell you about my adventures?”
Elemi turned in rapture to Larkin, who had stood to greet her. “You’re Prince Larkin. You were in my house! I did your hair!” She bounced on her heels.
“And I thank you for it, friend.” Larkin caught her hand and kissed it. “Those clover pins served me well, by the by.”
“You’re supposed to curtsy,” Merrick told her, “and say ‘Your Highness.’”
“Don’t listen to him; he’s a buffoon,” Larkin assured her.
Haluli stepped forward, glowing to outshine the electricity. Cassidy stared at her, stock still.
“It’s really you,” Cassidy said, their voice small, uncertain.
Haluli offered a hand, smiling anxiously, and Cassidy took it. “Will you come out a moment and speak with me?” Haluli smiled down at Elemi. “Both of you.”
Cassidy nodded, eyes bright with tears, and Elemi and Cassidy went outside with Haluli.
Meanwhile the officials continued taking down statements from Merrick, Larkin, and Nye. After a while, Cassidy, Elemi, and Haluli came back in. Cassidy was wiping their eyes but smiling, and Elemi was talking with animation to Haluli, who laughed in reply.
It was almost midnight. The number of officials had increased by several, and now included a kind woman from the Researchers Guild—one of those who hadn’t been comfortable with Janssen’s leadership, she told them. The police chief said that Larkin and Merrick would be required to spend a few more days talking to the authorities, including the palace and the Researchers, before it could be determined whether any charges would be brought.
At those words, Cassidy’s mouth dropped open, and they began to harangue the chief. Charges, was he crazy? Merrick and Larkin were heroes. The two of them had done what the entire rest of the island put together couldn’t do.
The chief had his hands up in propitiation within half a minute, and kept promising it wasn’t up to him; he was just the messenger here.
“It’s all right, Cass.” Merrick reached out to grasp his sibling’s elbow. “If it’s prison, so be it. I’ve seen worse.”
He meant it. He had thought over this possibility on the walk back. For one thing, he probably deserved charges for what he had unleashed on his country. For another, having his magic restricted, even being confined to jail in the human realm, would be a downturn, but nothing like the thorny nest in Vowri’s territory or the nightmare birch forest. It would only be temporary, he would be reasonably cared for, and at least Larkin and his family could visit.
They were released to a nearby hotel for the night, with a police escort who would stay too, both to guard them and to guard against their escaping.
In the parking lot of the hotel, under the stars, Nye and Haluli drew to a halt and beckoned over Merrick and Cassidy. Larkin and Elemi came too, while the officials hung back, talking near the police car.
“Kids, I’m … going to be staying with her,” Nye said.
“Staying how?” Merrick asked.
“She can stay with us,” Cassidy said, and appealed directly to Haluli. “Of course you can. I want you to.”
“And I want to, but … ” Haluli glanced toward the streetlamp buzzing in the parking lot. “It’s all wrong on this side for me.”
“She’s not the kind who can live among humans without hurting,” Nye said. “The metals, the plastics, the electricity. Look, she’s already dimmer.”
Her light, her color, were indeed grayer than they had been in the fae realm. Her garments and the wings folded against her back looked ragged too, bits of dust crumbling off their edges.
“But he was damaged from visiting your realm,” Merrick protested. “It’s your turn, isn’t it?”
Haluli didn’t seem offended. “It was only one spell that damaged him. And my haunt is the one place where I can restore him. But I would have to do it daily to keep back the effects, otherwise they’ll advance. He has to stay there.”
“How is that safe?” Cassidy sounded shrill. “Merrick and Larkin just detailed all the terrible things that can happen to a person in there!”
“Oh, her haunt isn’t like those places,” Nye said. “It’s one of the nice spots. And that guy, that faery who put the spell on me—”
“He’s gone,” Haluli filled in. “Returned to the elements some years back. No other in my haunt should give Nye any trouble now, especially when he has the gift of his poetry to pay us with.”
“This is insane,” Merrick said. “When would we even see you? Time is a mess in there. You could say you’d visit us tomorrow, but it might be a week, a month … ”
“I know.” Nye’s tone turned gentler. “That’s the hard part. But, see, that’s the great part too. If I stay here, you’ll only have me a few more years. If I go with her, I’ll be dropping in on your lives for, who knows? Decades, maybe.”
“At totally unpredictable intervals,” Cassidy said, their voice strained.
“Yeah,” Nye admitted. “But would you rather have it the other way, honey, really?”
Merrick couldn’t speak. Larkin slipped an arm around him.
“If you go to live in the fae realm,” Elemi said, a look of calculation in her eyes, “could I come visit?”
“No,” Cassidy said, at the same moment that Nye and Haluli said, “Yes.”
Nye crouched and kissed her on the cheek. “I will be so excited to see you grow up.”
When he put it that way, Merrick and Cassidy couldn’t argue anymore.
Nye stood and hugged Merrick. “Let my friends know, will you? And have someone look after my garden.”
“Wait, you mean tonight? Like, you’re leaving now?”
Nye hugged Cassidy next. “I’ll come see you tomorrow. Haluli will have someone fetch you. They’ll find you, wherever you are.”
“Your tomorrow,” Cassidy accused. “Our, what, next winter?”
“Whenever it happens to be.” He laid his hand on Cassidy’s cheek.
“I’ll be there too,” Haluli said to Cassidy. “I promise. This is how I want it. You’ve all made me so happy.” She wrapped her arms around Nye.
“But, Dad,” Merrick tried, and found he had nothing else to say.
“Larkin, you wonderful, inspiring man.” Still embracing Haluli, Nye held out a hand for Larkin to clasp. “Take care of my family. Let them take care of you.”
“You have my word.” Larkin folded his hands around Nye’s. “I wish you all the happiness the realm can offer.”
Haluli gave them a nod, and Nye’s eyes twinkled in excitement, and in a sudden wind that blew dust into Merrick’s face, they were gone.
CHAPTER 49
HAPPILY EVER AFTER” WAS NOT HOW LARKIN would have described their return to ordinary life. An investigation ensued, one that took weeks and required Merrick and Larkin to stay for days at a time in Dasdemir—they took Nye’s empty house—and report each day to the palace, where they answered questions in a room with armed guards.
Public opinion, meanwhile, was mostly approving of the pair of them. They had become heroes: the daredevil citizen witch and the runaway prince who together had plunged into the fae realm, locked up Ula Kana, and miraculously come out alive.
In addition, they had released a total of two hundred and seventy-nine living prisoners from Vowri’s realm, who had been put there from as far back as the early 1800s to as recently as one month ago, and everything in between. The remains of the six from the desert, in addition to nineteen more who were found long dead in the realm, were also returned, and most were identified.<
br />
The majority of the survivors had been locked up so long they had no friends or family, at least none they had met before, but all were being looked after and honored, and quite a few were recuperating. Fifty-eight of them, meanwhile, did still have surviving loved ones, who had given up the captives as forever lost. The gratitude of these families at being reunited was immeasurable.
But on the other side were the many dead, and the many more grieving.
All told, during the six weeks of Ula Kana’s terrorism, there had been forty-three deaths and thirty-six missing and presumed dead. If these numbers weighed sickeningly upon Larkin’s conscience, they weighed even heavier upon Merrick’s. Merrick paid visits to each and every bereaved household—by his own insistence, not mandated by officials. He quietly withstood those who accused him in rage, and just as quietly embraced those who forgave him. Larkin came with him on each visit. They went to see all the former prisoners too, and were thanked effusively by them, aside from the ones fae-struck beyond repair, who rarely spoke to anyone.
Merrick ate little, grew thinner, had dark shadows under his eyes, and thrashed with nightmares when he slept. They shared a bed, so Larkin knew of every horrible dream, at least the occurrence of it, even if Merrick did not tell him the details.
Once, as Larkin held him after such a dream, Merrick said, “I wish I were in the nest in Vowri’s realm. I should be. I’m supposed to be.” Larkin kissed him and whispered that no one should be, and certainly not Merrick, and that he loved Merrick and would always be grateful to him for his freedom. He reminded Merrick of the scores of former captives residing comfortably with fellow humans, who would instead still be in those nests were it not for Merrick. He repeated these assurances until Merrick’s breath calmed.
The official pronouncement at the end of the hearings was that both Larkin and Merrick, but especially Merrick, had broken several laws in their unauthorized and reckless use of magic and their dangerous meddling in the fae realm. However, what ameliorating price to put on the release of the captives, or the service of stopping Ula Kana? For Haluli’s speculation had been correct: the anti-human forces among the fae had retreated, losing confidence, once Ula Kana had been removed from the scene and her swayed allies had recovered their own minds. Hostilities dwindled back to their normal low level. The grudging mutual respect slid back into place, and if anything, there was an increase in fae cooperation, at least among the many who saw the humans licking their wounds and felt sorry about the fae’s responsibility for the damage.
Merrick was essentially back where he had been at the start: his rare witch ability was to be restrained under probation, used only with official sanction. He was to contribute a certain number of community service hours, using his flying and other abilities to serve those in need. To this he agreed at once. Larkin knew he would have volunteered it even if he had not been assigned it.
What the investigation unearthed regarding Riquelme’s administration was far less flattering. Janssen’s attempt to magically assault Larkin, when it came to light, cost her her position in the Researchers Guild and put her in jail for six months. Feng and the third witch collaborating with her that night were removed from the Guild. They were all acting under Riquelme’s orders, which caused a great outcry when the public learned of it. Furthermore, an accomplice in his money-laundering scheme had come forward to confess all, sealing Riquelme’s doom.
The referendum took place. Riquelme was voted out of office and, out on bail, awaited trial in his villa on the east coast. It was generally assumed that he would be imprisoned after the case was heard.
Meanwhile, a more harmonious-minded woman took his place as prime minister and reappointed several key positions, including Witch Laureate. The plan to build roads across the fae territory was thrown out, and the fae reacquired a few pieces of land, the largest being Miryoku, whose buildings and roads had been so entirely overtaken by plants that all the citizens had been forced to leave. The new government found the means to recompense every displaced person, and returned that land, along with some other portions along the verge, back to the fae. The Great Eidolonian Highway was rerouted around the former Miryoku, a bit closer to the coast, and life went on.
A new festival was added to the calendar: Unity Festival, to honor harmonious friendships among all islanders. To further improve mutual fae-human understanding, the prime minister proposed programs that would bring more humans into the fae realm for studies, family visits, and work, and vice-versa, arranging for safe escorts of witches and fae in such cases. Everybody was, of course, debating the wisdom and practicality of these proposals, and Larkin doubted they would ever be arranged to the satisfaction of the majority. But such was government, and such were cultural relations, in any country.
As for Floriana Palace, the queen claimed she and the other royals knew nothing of Janssen’s attempt to re-enchant Larkin, though whether this was true, Larkin could not be sure. The royal family, he knew, excelled at maintaining a neutral and innocent appearance. Nonetheless, Larkin was offered a home at the palace and a corresponding place in the government, as befitted his birth. He politely declined. He would rather, he said in an open statement to the nation, live as a regular citizen, in the home of the Highvalley family he had come to love.
Given there were new openings in the Researchers Guild, Merrick was invited to apply, despite his questionable legal record, because the public as well as the new Witch Laureate—the kind woman who had met them upon their return—had become enamored of the report of his and Larkin’s sojourn into the fae realm. Merrick declined at first, opting to stay home and recuperate, but the Witch Laureate begged him to reconsider and promised that a position would always be open to him. At this, a smile finally graced Merrick’s face, and he thanked her and said he would call upon her before long to discuss it.
So though they were under the public eye to a greater degree than even Larkin had ever experienced before, they returned to the relative seclusion of Highvalley House. With the help of Cassidy, Elemi, and Merrick, Larkin began learning modern ways—phones, email, dishwashers, automobiles, and other complicated nonsense. He took steps toward becoming a licensed animal healer, studying with a witch-veterinarian and practicing on Jasmine the corgi, Hydrangea the giant rabbit, and the cat who prowled about the property. Alf-Sal would sometimes jump into his lap, in otter form, and pretend to need medical assistance, which Larkin would then obligingly pretend to give her.
With the love of his family and Larkin, Merrick gradually began sleeping better, and spoke to Cassidy with increasing interest about perfumes. He had several ideas inspired by the places they had been in the fae realm. Cassidy took up his designs with zeal, creating one blend after another for him to sniff and judge.
In truth, however, it was Larkin’s worst days that seemed to bring Merrick back to life the most: those hours when the modern world alienated Larkin, when the grief of never being able to return to his proper time pierced him, when he retreated to the garden and turned his back upon the machinery and lights of Sevinee, and stared at statues from the eighteenth century with his mind full of lamenting melodies by Tasi or Mozart. Then Merrick would find him, embrace him, sit with him a while, and with patience and sweetness, take Larkin step by step through whatever it was about the twenty-first century that had confounded him that day. Larkin needed him, and being needed healed Merrick.
Nye and Haluli’s visit for “tomorrow” in fact took place eight days after they had fled the human realm. Merrick and Cassidy had been anxious in the interval. When a kiryo bird darted up to the open kitchen window at Highvalley House at twilight, turned into a small sylph, and announced, “Haluli and her human love wish to see you,” they all abandoned their dinner and rushed out to the verge.
Nye looked twenty years younger already: fewer lines in his face, his back straighter, dark color threading back into the white of his hair. That sight alone was enough to erase the worry from Merrick’s brow for the evening. They all l
ingered at the verge for two hours, talking about everything that had been happening. When they separated, the couple promised to come back again “tomorrow,” although this time it ended up being three weeks. So it had gone since, with each interval totally unpredictable, but Nye’s children had to admit he was happier this way and it was, perhaps, the best possible outcome.
Ula Kana, rumor had it, raged within her prison for weeks. Eidolonians could feel small earthquakes throughout most of the island, caused by her ripping lava up from within the earth on Pitchstone Mountain. After some time, she settled, but took up the occupation of luring in other fae, swaying them, and riling them up to go forth and destroy humanity. They flew out gamely, then lost the compulsion as soon as they crossed the borders of the prison, and departed in relative peace. She would likely become dispirited after some time, most speculated, and return to the elements. After that, she would not strictly be Ula Kana anymore and thus the prison would not hold her—but nor would she be the same blend of frightful powers. No faery was ever exactly the same in their next form. She might continue hating humans and lashing out, but likely no worse than any of the other ill-tempered fae currently doing so. All they could do was pray it would be an improvement.
Larkin delivered the eulogy at the service held for Rosamund. He began by making everyone laugh—“In my time it would not have been the done thing for the longest-suffering victim of a witch to praise her at her funeral, but evidently customs have changed”—and moved along gradually to making them cry, when speaking of the love between Philomena and Rosamund that outlasted death. When he stepped down from the pulpit after his speech, he took a seat beside Merrick and kissed him, a moment captured by a hundred cameras. He was pleased to see, in the editorial articles afterward, that many people who had been dubious about Merrick began to view him more kindly, as he was after all far less deceitful than Rosamund had been, and had even done his best to repair her damage along with his own; and in any case, like Rosamund, he loved, and was loved by, a worthy soul. That circumstance alone spoke well for him.