Faerie's Champion

by M. H. Johnson

"And what wonders it showed," the motherly squirrel interjected. "Never have I felt so beautiful as when I spied upon my countenance from within that gilded frame! So beautiful I felt that day,” the squirrel sighed.

  The mayor nodded sadly. "So wondrous we all felt, getting a glimpse of all the beauty of possibility that it showed. Us, all of us, at our highest, most exquisite form. An inspiration for us to better ourselves every day," the mayor declared, everyone nodding in solemn agreement.

  “Except the days it's our turn to gaze upon the mirror. On those days we revel in the pure study of our own inherent perfection,” interjected one of the rabbits quite adroitly using a wooden spoon to sip his stew.

  “And that is why careful regulation is so very important, with an artifact such as our own,” the mayor declared somewhat stuffily.

  The rabbit smirked. “And somehow our fair rotations have resulted in the mayor holding onto the mirror one day out of three, and there are scores of us.”

  “Exactly. And that's why I hold the mirror only a minority of days, surrendering it for the majority, assuring that we all have a chance to gaze at the wondrous beauty that lies within each and every one of our hearts, generosity of spirit being but one component,” the badger declared sonorously. The rest of the gathered crowd scratched their heads at this, but apparently accepted the logic of his argument, forbearing to comment further.

  Jess and Twilight exchanged a knowing smirk.

  “And that is why mastery of mathematics and rhetoric is so very important, my mistress.”

  Jess forbore to comment, their hosts paying Twilight's words no mind.

  The mayor's magnanimous smile turned to a crestfallen sob. "And that is when tragedy befell us, dear lady knight. For when I woke up but a handful of days ago, our sacred artifact was gone!"

  All the animals murmured their agreement, agitation and dismay evident on many of their oddly human faces, and Jess smiled, finding a curious solace in having such a clear choice laid out before her, as fruitless as her prospects might be.

  "Mayor Goodwin, I can, unfortunately, make no guarantees, but if you request my aid as a virtuous knight, I shall be happy to keep an eye out for your mirror during my travels."

  Mayor Goodwin's rich brown eyes immediately lit up with joyous relief. “Oh would you, brave Jessica de Calenbry? We would be ever so grateful for any help you could give us, and earn the gratitude of the village entire for all our days, if you can but recover the mirror!”

  Jess chuckled at that. "It shall be an adventure to remember, I am sure of it!" she declared grandly, the crowd cheering as one, flasks of cider quickly broached as drinking and storytelling began in earnest at that point. Fortunately, save for their own sad tale, the stories they told were happy ones, leaving Jess feeling content and replete as she continued to eat and drink her fill, as if nourishing herself after too long a fast.

  Sometime later, after the festivities had died down, Jess was taking her ease on a fairly comfortable pile of straw in the mayor's own mound, for all that he seemed convinced it was an exquisite mansion, and her straw a down-filled four-poster masterpiece of construction.

  “I don’t have the heart to tell them they all live in prairie mounds, and sleep upon piles of straw.” Jess sighed.

  Twilight was curled in a ball upon her chest, half asleep, gazing at her with a single open eye. "And yet they are cognizant enough to change it and keep it fresh, despite their delusion. Or perhaps it being free of odor and vermin is just another symptom of the odd magic that is Faerie."

  Jess nodded. “You are probably right, my kitty. And just think! A fresh adventure for the morrow.”

  Her cat snuggled, getting comfortable. "Indeed. Let us find this mirror and any further clues as to where the other girls are being kept while on our quest. I am glad your head seems clear and strong once more, my Jess. You need to keep your focus true for what lies ahead."

  "I know, my kitty," Jess said solemnly, even as her eyes slipped closed and she was carried off into the land of nod and dreams of high adventure, free of all heartbreak and care until the morning light broke the spell.

  43

  The morning dawned bright and fair, and for all that her breakfast was no more than a bowl full of nuts and berries that she was assured was a breakfast feast fit for a king, Jess felt remarkably well rested and content, ready to start the day on her new quest, absurd as it was, and thanked the mayor warmly for his hospitality and fare.

  "'Twas a most delicious breakfast, Mayor Goodwin, and I thank you for food and lodging both!"

  The badger beamed happily. “'Tis I who thank you, lady knight! Indeed, the village entire does, for being so noble as to accept our quest, and we do indeed hope you are able to recover the mirror!”

  Jess nodded solemnly. "We shall try, dear mayor. I can promise no more than that."

  The mayor nodded profusely. "Of course, dear adventurer. We could ask for no more, no more! And of course, if you are successful, we will owe you a boon!"

  Jess grinned. “I would ask a favor of you, sir mayor. You and your townsfolk have not heard tales of young women of mundus having entered this realm, have you? Perhaps wearing exotic uniforms of similar dark blue construction? Or perhaps…” She forced herself to say it. “Perhaps dressed in fabrics of gossamer and silk, the adoring servitors of faerie nobles or knights?”

  The mayor blinked before slowly shaking his head. “I am sorry noble Jessica, daring Squire of War, and middle child of the Calenbry clan, I have heard no tales of such. And believe you me, any rumors circulating through the town I would most assuredly have heard of by now. I have very good ears, you know.”

  The badger wiggled his small excuses for ears and Jess couldn’t help but smile. “Of course, Mayor Goodwin, and I do thank you for your trouble.”

  "No trouble at all, ancient Jezabelle, Queen of the Moonlit Realm! As I will promise you, your secrets are safe with me!" the beaming mayor effused, even as Jess left with a final warm farewell, the entire town waving and wishing her good luck on her quest as she made her way, rested, refreshed, if still with a heavy heart, down the great road that continued to hug woodlands vast and primeval on one side, and lush fields brilliant with wildflowers on the other.

  “Well, what do you think?” Jess said, enjoying the warm sun as its golden rays caressed her cheeks, the rest of her covered by her sparkling mithril mail, for all that she was still warmed by its gentle light. Carefully ignoring words she did not want to hear.

  Her familiar gazed thoughtfully from his favorite perch upon her shoulder, tail swishing contemplatively, things Jess could sense from long experience. "You mean besides the fact that fool of a mayor could sense inner truths that should be hidden to all?" Twilight gazed coldly at the beaming mayor, as if carefully weighing the merits of a quick disembowelment, before sighing and giving a slow shake of his head. "Don't look at me like that, Jess. It was just a passing thought, and perhaps there is more here than even I can sense, for space and time both flow strangely in this place. And if that bumbling oaf has malice in his heart, I'm a bloodhound."

  Twilight spend some quiet moments observing the bucolic splendor all around as Jess strode forward. "As to your question, I think we should simply continue down the path we are on. As we do seem to have fallen right into the most primal of tales, I would not be surprised were this all to take on a storybook-like quality. I have no doubt that whatever we need to know, we shall see or hear hints of, without having to stray very far from the path we are on."

  Jess nodded. “My thoughts exactly. And any major choice that needs to be made will no doubt represent itself as another fork in our path.”

  Her familiar’s shrug was enigmatic. “Perhaps, my dear Jess. But every moment of every day we are making choices.”

  “I meant really big ones. Like say, a huge pile of gold on one path or the cries of a girl about to get buried under a massive tidal wave upon the other.”

  “A tidal wave? Here, deep in the countryside?” Twil
ight chuckled softly. “You’ve never even seen the ocean. How would you even know what a tidal wave looks like?”

  Jess frowned. "It's a big wave that can crash into the shore and wash away whole fishing villages. Geoff told me about it."

  “Here? In the countryside? Not a trace of salt in the air, no seagulls crying overhead, and thus miles away from any sea?”

  “This is Faerie. Anything could happen here,” an increasingly embarrassed Jess declared. “Anyway, that’s not the point. The point is about choices and forks in the road! Not spooning into me with your digs!”

  Twilight dipped his sinuous body forward to peer right into Jess’s face with his own. “You really had to work for that one,” he grinned.

  Jess stuck out her tongue. “The point is we are looking for some mirror. Let me know if you see anything shiny.”

  “As if it would be that easy,” her familiar huffed.

  Jess yawned, stretching her arms, cracking her joints. “I miss Geoff, and Malek, for that matter. When was the last time I had a good workout?”

  “You mean when you weren’t busy being consumed with heady passion in the arms of your faerie lover? About three months, I’d say, though the gods only know how time slides through this place.”

  Jess shuddered. "Thanks, Twilight. And I had gone a whole glass without thinking of, well, you know, him." She sighed, before shaking herself in sudden alarm. "Three whole months? That's an entire season!"

  Twilight nodded solemnly. “Approximately, yes.”

  “Why didn’t you say anything?”

  “You thought yourself in love. It seemed you were all but settling down. And if you had chosen your mate, what really was there for me to say?” Twilight sighed. “And yes, I did try to remind you, gently, of the fact that our original purpose for this quest was the pursuit of missing children, not finding our heart’s desire. But you seemed all but oblivious to those concerns. And truly, you have done enough for the world you call home already, Jess. If you wanted to choose this place and time to retire from glory, I was not going to hinder that.”

  Jess sniffled, feeling her eyes grow hot. “I really did think I was in love.” She gave a single forlorn sigh, forcing herself to pick up the pace. “I still think I might be. I just don’t like feeling that maybe I was, well…”

  Twilight looked up from his grooming. "Under the influence of odd faerie enchantments which were beyond our awareness to sense, or ability to counter?"

  Jess nodded her head sadly. "Pretty much. Which is strange. I'm used to seeing the strands of power that make up a spellweave, as if they really were but glowing threads in the air, for all that no other wizard I know of can sense them, never mind that I can't even cast a proper spell. So the thought that my love might be influenced by enchantments I can't even sense, I really had no defense against that."

  "Neither of us was expecting it," Twilight consoled. "Indeed, this wasn't the first time you've been swept away by the cries of your heart, leading you far from the path you originally intended. Not the first time by far. It is, however, the first time we've had to worry about faerie glamour being a factor. The first time that I recall, anyway." Twilight gave a brooding shake of his head.

  Jess blinked. "Twilight, what are you talking about? This is the first time I've felt this way about, well, a man before." She felt herself flushing. "I've surrendered my heart before. You know I adore Onnika and Rulia both. They are so beautiful and lively and I love them each in their own way. And Morlekai? Let's just say he's a fierce good kisser, and if Father and Geoff hadn't always been around, who knows? But Talvi, oh Talvi."

  She gave a forlorn sigh. “I could lose myself in his arms forever.” Jess’s brisk pace had slowed to a stop, her eyes hot and stinging, and she had to resist the urge just to sink to the ground at her feet and curl herself up into a grief-stricken little ball.

  “Yes, I know, my dear Jess,” Twilight soothed, gently stroking her cheek with his forehead. “But I thought we agreed we wouldn’t say his name aloud? Come, dear one. Time for us to continue our journey, wherever it may lead.”

  And so they did, the questing knight in sparkling mithril, loyal familiar by her side, strolling along the quiet road for many an hour as the gentle morning sun waxed and grew to a brilliant day, only slightly cool with a touch of autumn, the gentle trilling of birds a soothing song of life and renewal to Jess’s ears, putting at ease all her worries and cares as she tried to lose herself in the moment, allowing the day to slowly roll by.

  And then the birdsong abruptly stopped, the braying of panicked beasts and the howl of wolves suddenly echoing through the air.

  Jess felt a sudden chill that instantly transmuted itself into a tingle of excitement. Hilt at the ready, Jess’s quiet stroll turned to a loping run, her cat adroitly leaping to his roost, ready to spring from her shoulder and launch himself at enemies as yet unseen.

  “Twilight! Do you catch any scent?”

  “Yes. Sheep and wolves.”

  Jess's run lost its urgency. "Just Mother Nature's dance, then. Not quite so dire a situation as I had feared."

  It was then that three strange looking beasts broke through the underbrush, falling upon the road in a heap of farmer’s straw hats and fur. Jess immediately leaped back, falling into vom Tag stance, sword unsheathed with inhuman speed, already raised high and ready to lash out to deadly effect, mithril blade flashing brilliantly in the sun, having gone from heartsick girl to cold veteran of a dozen bloody battles in the blink of an eye.

  Slowly, with some bemusement, Jess lowered her mithril sword, that terrible artifact once pulled free of the living Void, screaming for the end of all things, now but a shimmering instrument of justice in the hands of she who would be but a paladin, if the continuum allowed for such twists of destiny. "It's just a couple of upright sheep wearing farmer's hats," Jess grinned, shaking with remembrances long forgotten in this odd place trapped between legend and dream.

  Twilight smirked. “And here come the wolves.”

  "Please, noble knight, help us!" pled one of the sheep, hands raised from a kneeling position. Quite an interesting trick, Jess thought. She didn't know whether to be amused or sickened, so oddly these creatures moved, even more so than the townsfolk she had agreed to help. The sheep before her were a bizarre cross between man and beast, shoulders and hips obviously ball socket joints, yet their upright torso upon their short stubby legs made them look oddly off balance, for all that they moved with the same instinctive grace as would any bipedal creature.

  Jess blinked. “What appears to be the problem, sir…sheep?”

  “Farmer Applegrove, dear knight,” declared the sheep at her feet. “And we need you to save us from our overly irate and altogether unfair cousins!”

  “Your cousins?” Jess queried as the howls grew louder and pack of wolves suddenly broke into the clearing by the road from the dense undergrowth.

  "Applegrove! You cannot outrun your responsibilities any longer!" declared one of the half dozen wolves who had burst upon the scene, also wearing farmer's straw hats and standing upright, their leader pointing one clawed finger at the groveling sheep before Jess. He then turned to acknowledge the knight in their midst, bowing as fluidly as any courtier.

  “Forgive us, fair knight. This is a family affair, and not worthy of your time.”

  “Oh, but I think it is, Roundacre!” declared the sheep spokesman angrily, he and his fellows crowding in close to Jess and baaing nervously as the six wolf-like farmers eyed them coldly. “We will not stand for your harassment of us any longer! It is not our fault that terrible creature has taken up residence where it has. We hate it as much as you!”

  “It stole our mirror!” The wolf declared hotly. “And the creature is on your lands! Therefore, it falls on you to get rid of it!”

  “Hold!” Jess declared abruptly. “Please, let’s all get a hold of ourselves and quit acting like bickering beasts here!”

  Twilight smirked. “Couldn’t resist, could you?
” he whispered.

  Jess grinned, refusing to acknowledge her familiar as she kept the focus on the issue at hand. She turned to face the wolf who had been acting as spokesman for his clan. “Tell me, farmer Roundacre, what is your impression of what has occurred? And we will address your concerns after, farmer Applegrove.”

  The wolf, mollified by Jess’s polite request, flashed a pleased grin and Jess smiled back, for all that she thought his cheerful maw held far too many teeth to put anyone at ease.

  “Very well, lady knight. Since you are courteous enough to ask, I shall share with you the nature of the transgressions of which my cousins are guilty!”

  The sheep clan huffed and baaed angrily, but heeding Jess’s glare, refused to interrupt.

  “You see, it all began some time ago when brother Roundacre here was admiring himself in the mirror.” He then patted one of his fellow wolf brethren on the shoulder who nodded solemnly.

  “It is true, madam knight. I was admiring myself in our family mirror, when I espied the most wondrous vision of beauty I ever did behold. Fair and graceful like the sleekest of creatures, the lass stole my heart with but a single winsome smile. Never have I seen hair so rich and lustrous a shade of red, though the crimson curls spilling from beneath your fine helm do come in a very close second.” The wolf vented a great sigh. Jess felt her hair whip about in the sudden breeze. “Of course I had to pursue her and offer my hand in marriage, having fallen immediately in love with just the barest glimpse of her fine form.”

  His brothers nodded in solemn agreement. Apparently pledging one’s hand to another based on nothing more than a chance met glance was not nearly as absurd a proposition as it would be in Erovering, where marriages were as often as not loveless affairs arranged by parents to solidify the family's power and prestige.

  Jess gave a rueful shake of her head. Who was to say the creatures before her had a system any less mad than the one favored by the nobility?

  “Sadly I could find no trace of her, though I did note the oddest scent. Murky, foul, like brackish water. When I went back to my favorite viewing spot to look upon my sleek form once more, my mirror was gone!”