by Maggie Joan
From the corner of my eye, I could see Calico surveying the crowd, turning his head from side to side. The horses never faltered once in their steady march forwards. Not even when one creature refused to move out of our way. Kaisa carried on walking, knocking him down to the ground and treading over him, making him squeal.
His buddy then leapt at Kaisa and I lost my focus on the point ahead. A grimy goblin, covered in mud, jumped for her with a knife poised, ready to plunge into her behind. Before I could even think to shout at him, Kaisa turned on a sixpence and kicked out with her back feet so hard and so high, I toppled forwards onto her neck. If it hadn’t been for her special braids keeping my legs tied to her body, I'd have been catapulted over her head.
Her hooves connected with her target, and the whoosh of air leaving his lungs sounded like a punching bag being pummelled to death. I glanced up at Calico from Kaisa’s neck to see he was already watching me. When our eyes connected, he nodded once and raised an eyebrow. I nodded once in return and sat back up as Kaisa brought her hindquarters back to the ground.
My heart was now racing like a greyhound after a rabbit, adrenaline pumped through my veins at a rate of knots making me feel like with the dogs and Kaisa by my side, I could tackle anything.
“What’s royalty want in ‘ere, eh?” a female voice sneered.
I wondered then whether part of their hostility was due to Calico being who he was. Surely they must know of Aeden’s bloodlines? Or did they?
As I began to wonder just how we would find this mysterious rebel fairy, the crowd up ahead parted like the Red Sea. In the middle of the parting stood a...thing I could put no words to.
It resembled a fairy, in that it looked human. But that was it. Bald, as round as a beer barrel, an ensemble of clothes a toddler wouldn’t wear, and a collection of half a dozen miniature yappy dogs chained together, held by a long chain that wrapped around a podgy hand.
“Say hello to my dear brother,” Calico said, muttering under his breath.
So gobsmacked, I couldn’t even form a sentence to ask if he was joking.
I looked again at the peculiar creature, not quite believing my eyes. A pink t-shirt covered his top half, well down to his popped-out belly button at least—his belly was too big to be covered completely. A green and red tartan kilt sat below his belly and covered him to his knees. A pair of odd socks—one polka dot pink and the other striped yellow and black stretched up his ankles, and on his feet were what I can only describe as Jesus sandals.
“Wondered when you’d come crawling back,” Aeden said, licking his lips. “Not that I mind at all,” he added, looking at me with a gleeful spark in his eye.
I shuddered. I'd rather have a thousand spiders crawling all over me.
“Your Queen has requested your assistance with an urgent matter,” Calico said. “We need you to come with us. Now.”
Silence. Even in this mess of a place, you could have heard a pin drop. The two brothers stared at each other. Seconds passed by. No one moved, nothing made a sound.
“Do I not even get a please?” Aeden asked, smirking.
“Stop being so pedantic,” Calico replied, narrowing his eyes. “Get your...things together and let’s go.”
“And if I don’t?”
Calico pushed Izar forwards, held his sword out, and touched his brothers chin with it. “Are you refusing to honour your Queen?”
Aeden glared at Calico, then spat on his sword. “You mean the same Queen who sent me here?”
Calico pressed his sword into his brother’s skin, pricking a droplet of blood to the surface. “She is still your Queen and you will honour her as such.”
“I would rather die than honour that bi—”
A sickly grin twisted Calico’s face. “That can be arranged.”
I leaned forwards and whispered into Kaisa’s ear, “Let me down.”
She shook her head.
“Kaisa, let me go. I need to sort this before there is blood spilled.”
She stamped her foot and swished her tail. The braids around my legs tightened.
“He needs to speak with someone on his own level. The dogs will come with me.”
After a couple of seconds, she loosened her grip on me. In one quick move, before I could think any more about what I was doing, I jumped down to the ground. I heeled the dogs to my side and as I suspected, Kaisa followed me, her nose gently nudged into my back.
A collective gasp sounded from the crowd. Aeden’s dark eyes lit up like it was Christmas. Calico turned to see the issue and immediately paled. Shock and horror filtered through his sapphire eyes.
“What are you...are you mad?” he said. “Get back on, right this instant!”
“I’m ok,” I said, smiling at him. “Just trust me.”
“Faye, I'm ordering you—”
“I’m not one of your royal subjects, Calico. You don’t order me.”
His face burned bright red and he seemed to visibly vibrate with anger. I turned my attention to his brother and walked around the front of Izar.
“Hi, Aeden,” I said, giving him my best smile. “I’m Faye.”
He roved his eyes up and down my body, licked his lips very slowly, then replied, “Well, hello, Faye. What a pleasure this is.”
Don’t be rude, don’t be rude I repeated over and over in my head. “You know what this dress is, don’t you?” I asked, moving my hands over the dress.
He hesitated for a second, something flickered through his eyes I might even describe as softness. “Yes, I do.”
“So you know I'm a good soul and I'm not lying to you.”
He took a step back and seemed to lose some of his bravado as his shoulders slumped. “Yes. Not seen colours like that for years.”
“I believe you met my grandmother, before The Great Hunts.”
He gasped, his free podgy hand flying to his open mouth. “No,” he whispered. “It cannot be.”
“Ada is my grandmother. She’s dying, Aeden, and she needs peace. What happened to her is torturing her to death.”
Tears welled in his eyes. “I...what do you need me to do?”
I closed the gap between us and put my hand on Calico’s sword, lowering it. “I need you to come and see her before she dies, tell her she’s forgiven, and that the world now knows she’s not a liar.”
“You want me to lie to her?” He shook his head. “I cannot.”
“No, we’re not lying to her. Isidora is creating a dust that will be administered to all humans. All adults will forget they know about fairy existence and all children will forget once they turn a certain age.”
He looked up at Calico and said, “For real?”
Calico nodded.
Aeden rushed forwards and embraced me in a hug. I tried to ignore the stench of B.O. as he whispered, “Thank you,” over and over to me and stroked my hair.
When he released me, I glanced up at Calico and sweetly said, “Shall we go now?”
Chapter 17
Aeden rode back with Calico. I struggled not to giggle at his screwed-up face and really had to contain my laughter when he suggested we canter back to the Court. I suspected I would get a telling off when he had the opportunity and I was not wrong.
When we arrived back in the gardens, we took a different route through the tunnels and dropped Aeden off at the servants' quarters.
“I presume they’re going to clean him up?” I asked as we rode away.
“Don’t dodge the subject,” he said, all but growling under his breath.
My cheeks burned with heat and my heart began pounding once more. “Calico—”
“Don’t,” he said. “Just be quiet until we’re back in the gardens.”
Oh dear. I really was in trouble. I did as I was told and kept my mouth shut until we reached the glorious outside. I expected we’d head back towards the tunnel entrance near the orchard to report back to the Queens but we didn’t. He guided us to the right and around the side of the huge castle.
&nb
sp; Sandy coloured pathways, like the one we’d ridden down in Eklaria, criss crossed each other over a large area, stone benches dotted around at various points on them. A handful of water fountains with horses as the feature were scattered around too.
“This is really pretty,” I said, letting out a deep breath.
He didn’t respond at all. I looked over to see him dismounting. “Come,” he said, marching across the grass towards the pathways.
I patted Kaisa and instructed the dogs to stay with the horses. Calico walked at such a rate, I had to run to catch up with him. He came to a standstill in front of a beautiful water feature of two horses rearing back to back. Not an ounce of algae marked them, their pure white stone still like brand new.
Finally reaching his side, I sighed and said, “Look, I know you’re—”
He stepped into me, slid an arm around my waist and then kissed me. He ran a hand over my right shoulder and around my neck, curling me into him more. His rosy lips were so soft and light it was like being kissed by a velvet cloud.
Before I could even gather my thoughts enough to kiss him back, he pulled away, leaving me completely breathless and my mind spinning like a carousel in a hurricane.
“That’s why I'm mad,” he said, his voice quiet.
“Be...because you wanted to kiss me?” I whispered, totally off beat.
“No, because I have feelings for you. More than I should.”
“I...I don’t even know what to do with that right now.”
Suddenly, being in his embrace made me feel claustrophobic, like I had no room to breathe. I needed space. I stepped back and pushed him away, shaking my head. What had just happened?
“I’m sorry,” he said, coming back towards me. “I just—”
“Don’t,” I said. “Just be quiet for a minute.”
My entire body now trembling, I sat down on the thick stone edge of the water fountain and allowed myself a couple of minutes to gather my thoughts. This was complicated enough without some hot fairy prince suddenly declaring his feelings for me.
I sucked in a deep breath and stood up. “No,” I said, my voice coming out shaky instead of firm. “You don’t get to do that to me. It's completely unfair. You're playing on the fact you can read my thoughts and it’s not right. How dare you? In a matter of goodness knows how long, I'm never going to see you again and you think you can do this to me?”
He stood open mouthed, taking my rant without a single protest.
“Let’s just forget this happened,” I said, motioning my hand between us. “We’ve got far more important things to be concerned about right now than whatever this is.”
He nodded, once, his lips pulled into a tight line and his handsome face set into a grim stare. “Yes, of course.”
“How long is Aeden going to be with the servants for? I'm just getting a little worried about time.”
He looked up for a few seconds, his eyes blank as he presumably made some quick calculations. “It’s roughly about 1am your time so you’ve been gone about twelve hours.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. “Macie is covering for me. If my dad calls, she’s going to tell him I'm staying at hers for the night. He'll be expecting me home tomorrow evening though so we’ve only got about thirty hours left.”
A beaming grin returned to Calico’s face. “We won’t need that long, believe me. Let’s head back to the Queens and wait for Aeden’s grand entrance.”
Still feeling a little awkward after the whole kiss thing, I said nothing more as we both remounted the horses and headed back into the tunnels, the dogs still trotting faithfully alongside Kaisa.
We emerged into the Queens Court to find them all sat on their thrones, deep in discussion with Isidora about something. As soon as Amode saw us, she jumped up and rushed over, her eyes gleaming with hope.
“Did you find him?” she asked, her voice all high pitched.
Calico nodded. “Yes, he’s with the servants now being cleaned and dressed.”
Amode pressed her hands together and gave Calico such a big smile, I thought her face was going to crack in half. “How is he? Is he good?”
Raising an eyebrow, he glanced over at me, cleared his throat, and then calmly replied, “He’s...Aeden.”
“He’s fine,” I said, in the strongest voice I could muster. “He appreciated our predicament and never protested once.”
“Still my honourable Aeden,” Amode whispered, her eyes glazing over with a wistful look. “I knew he wouldn’t let us down.”
Calico jumped down from Izar and walked across the room to Isidora who stood next to Amode’s throne, discussing something with the other Queens. He took her to one side and engaged in a deep, quiet discussion. Isidora’s eyes flickered to me every few seconds, leaving me wondering what they could possibly be talking about.
I attempted to lip read but their lips moved too fast for me to decipher anything. Thoughts of his kiss came creeping back to the front of my mind and I forced myself to push them away. This was not the time to be fantasising about a male from another species I would be forced to forget about within the next few days.
Amode came over to me, a warm smile on her pretty face, and placed a gentle hand on my lower leg. “You really have been an exceptional friend to us, Faye. We have loved human children for thousands of years, to have been put in a position to close that connection would have hurt us all very deeply.”
“I’m glad I helped,” I said, returning her smile.
“We’ve spoken with Isidora about the possibility of your bloodline only still being in contact with us.”
I gasped. “Seriously?”
She nodded and grinned up at me. “You’re such a pure soul, it would be a shame if we lost touch with you completely. We’ve all spoken and agreed we would like you to be the exception to the new rules and therefore the dust. All we ask is that you keep us secret and within your family only.”
I jumped down from Kaisa and threw my arms around Amode’s neck, tears now rolling down my face. “You have no idea how happy you’ve just made me. Thank you so much.”
“No need to thank us, it’s the least we could do. Besides, we’d love to have you visit whenever you can. The bonds you’ve made here with us and certain animals are ones that can’t be broken lightly.”
I hugged her tighter and contained the rising squeal of excitement rising in my throat.
“Besides,” she whispered. “I think my son would quite like you to remain a part of his life, quite significantly.”
I sucked in a deep breath and held it. I had nothing to say—I didn’t know what to say.
“It’s ok, sweetheart, your secret is safe with me. Our royal lines are not governed by political agendas, we are all free to be with who we please. Regardless of species.”
My cheeks burned with heat. How did she know this already? The fact I could still see Calico didn’t alter the fact that he’d pounced this on me at completely the wrong moment. It was a discussion that needed to be had but not in the midst of everything else.
A sudden hush fell over the room. Amode turned to look at the tunnel entrance and immediately let go of me.
“Oh my,” she said, her hands flying to her mouth. “Aeden, is that really you?”
I followed her gaze and nearly fell over when I saw the fairy prince now presenting himself to the Queens. He resembled nothing of the creature we’d just brought out of Cotopia.
He stood tall and proud, shoulders square like a true regal. He'd lost more than half of his body weight, dark brown hair covered his head, falling in gentle curves to the top of his ears. His clothes matched Calico’s and he also sported a spear and shield. Whatever magic potion he’d been given, I sure as hell wanted some.
Amode ran to her son and flung herself at him. Her shoulders shook as she cried. Aeden let his spear and shield clatter to the floor and hugged his mother back. The overwhelming emotion in the room had tears welling in my eyes.
“Amazing what a little magic can d
o, isn’t it?” Calico said.
I jumped, not expecting him to be behind me. I nodded. “It’s so sweet and your mum looks so happy.”
“We must go soon,” he said. “Time is of the essence and we also need to retrieve Tristan whilst we’re over there.”
My stomach churned with dread. Dad.
Chapter 18
I hadn’t thought about Dad much since I'd been in the fairy realm. To be quite honest between trying to not be eaten and marvelling in the wonders of their world, I'd pretty much forgotten about home.
Tristan was the whole reason I was here. My cause had been pushed to the back of my mind amongst all the magic this world has to offer. Did that make me just as bad as the rest of the adult humans that the fairies all detested so much?
The Queens had very politely asked for me to leave the dress with them before I ventured back home. As much as I loved it, I gladly agreed. Trying to explain a colour changing dress to people would not be a fun thing.
In return, they gave me a sapphire blue silk woven top that felt like heaven on my skin and a pair of white silk pants, complete with some funky little black ankle boots. I looked ready to go to a wedding reception.
Isidora had created us a portal to take us directly back to the woods behind my garden. Otherwise, we would have faced a long journey back through all the lands to reach the doorway I'd initially entered through.
Hugging Kaisa like I'd never see her again, I kissed her velvety muzzle and said my goodbyes. Then, fussing the dogs, I covered myself in their lavender scent and promised to return to them as soon as I could.
“You will be coming back once we have Tristan,” Calico said, taking a hold of my hand. “We won’t be gone long.”
Whilst his words exploded joy inside me like fireworks, I couldn’t help but wonder why I would be coming back. Stood in front of Isidora’s magic portal though, watching wind whip around the Queens Court, now was not the time to ask questions.
Aeden stood to my right and took hold of my other hand. The portal looked like a twilight night sky, a deep midnight blue mixed with blurs of black and white sparkles of stars. We all walked towards it. I sucked in a deep breath and held it, expecting something like the tumbling fall I'd had to endure before.