Stinking Beauty

by Elizabeth A Reeves

  “I’ll find a way,” I said, moving past him towards the door. I could feel him there, looming behind me in the darkness, but the idea didn’t frighten me.

  It should, I reminded myself. I had a lot to hide from Dallan, whether or not he was as merciful as his title suggested. He was judge, jury, and executor in our world.

  And his primary mission in existence was to make sure that Magic never devolved back into Chaos.

  The way Magic acted around me, volunteering action, refusing others… those all suggested that Magic wasn’t as controlled as we were taught to believe.

  And I was certain our current calamity wasn’t helping keep that tentative balance. These traditions were reenacted constantly weren’t just stories as the humans suspected, or just there for the sake of repeating, each action was part of one great spell, the spell that held our world together.

  We were all part of the great tapestry. Some of us were warp, some weft. Some of us sparkled and drew the eyes, while others set the foundations so the pattern could exist.

  Even one broken string could be catastrophic.

  Multiple strings out of place, weakened or broken and the entire piece would collapse.

  I might be a failing string, but I wasn’t ready to give myself up to the authorities yet. Maybe it was selfish of me. I hoped it would be enough for me to just try to fix the breaking pieces instead of sacrificing myself for the whole.

  I mean, I didn’t know for a fact that I was a stretched out or broken string. For all I knew, confessing what I knew to Dallan and his sister would be more catastrophic than me remaining in the tapestry.

  I was afraid.

  I swallowed down that terror and wandered back into the press inside the Throne Room as unobtrusively as possible. One benefit of being short, and not dressing in a flash manner, meant that I was pretty good at disappearing in crowds.

  Astraea, Antoinette, a few members of the council including Muriel, and the king and queen were still in conference around the throne. I could see their expressions moving in an animated fashion, fear, concern, determination… all in turn.

  Around them, the princesses stood scattered. The younger ones stood together under the watchful eyes of women I assumed were their governesses. The older ones stood on the outskirts of the group around the throne, listening from a distance for any news about their missing sister.

  I spotted the one I needed to talk to almost immediately. Gwendolyn was an active, athletic girl, who had the posture of a dancer, with a straight back and neck, and gracefully held arms even at rest. She had long hair, caught somewhere between gold and red, that fell in lazy curls down her back. Her expression was alert and worried if the faint line between her eyebrows were any indication.

  I wandered past her, then looked back as if startled. “Princess Gwendolyn?” I asked softly. “You look worried. Do you need to talk to someone? If so…”

  She whirled towards me with a startled expression. The wideness of her eyes told me that she had been fighting off tears.

  “Godmother!” She clutched her throat. “I did not see you there!”

  I smiled in what I hoped was an encouraging and sympathetic manner. “You poor dear,” I murmured. “This must be so hard for you! I know that you and Talia were very close.”

  I might not be the best Fairy Godmother, but I did watch people a great deal and one of the things I had learned very early on in my life was that people love to talk about themselves. For most people, all they needed was a few pointed comments or questions, and they could launch into an epic dialogue featuring themselves and every detail of their lives. It very rarely required any sort of encouragement or subtlety.

  Gwendolyn burst into tears. I used that as an excuse to usher her away from the crowd. I handed her a handkerchief from my pocket. It was in the guidelines for Fairy Godparents that they must always carry at least three handkerchiefs at one time.

  I had only the one, so I hoped I would not end up in the position of needing another one before I could restock.

  Sometimes even the most ridiculous rules existed for a reason.

  The princess mopped her face with the handkerchief. She blinked at me with her cornflower eyes, now rimmed in red.

  “I knew that Talia was in trouble,” she whispered, glancing around to make sure no one would be able to overhear us. “I knew, but I didn’t say anything to anyone. She made me promise. But… Now she’s gone and… I should have told someone!”

  I hushed her gently. “You couldn’t have known that something would happen,” I reassured her. “You kept a promise to your sister. It is not your fault that she’s missing.”

  “Isn’t it?” She clutched the damp handkerchief to her chest. “If I had told someone, she wouldn’t be missing now.”

  “Do you want to tell me now?” I asked, trying to be as soothing as innocuous as possible.

  She studied my face. “Will you tell my parents?”

  “If I must,” I admitted. “If it is something they need to know, most certainly. Is this secret even worth keeping at this point?”

  Gwendolyn sniffed in a very un-princess-like manner. She crumpled the handkerchief in her hands. “There was a boy,” she said, at last, her voice low and trembling. “He was a prince. Prince Denny was his name. Talia met him in the woods when we were wildflower hunting and they stumbled across each other somehow. Talia used to go and meet him. I would cover for her sometimes…” Her eyes welled with tears.

  I patted her hand. “Tell me about this prince. Did you ever see him yourself?”

  Gwendolyn started to shake her head, then nodded. “I nearly forgot. I did see him one time. Just from the side. All I could see was that he was tall and had a strong sort of profile. He wore a hat, so I don’t know what color hair he had… anyway, it doesn’t matter anyway.”

  “Why not?” I asked in surprise.

  “Because he was a liar and a cad and…” Gwendolyn flounced her skirts in frustration. “He was everything our parents warned us against. But it was too late by the time Talia realized that he was all wrong.”

  “Too late?” I repeated, not wanting to stop her now that she was finally getting somewhere.

  Gwendolyn froze, her eyes on my face. “I promised,” she whispered. “I can’t tell.”

  “I think you must,” I encouraged, gathering her hands into mine and looking into her eyes.

  Gwendolyn licked her lips, her eyes darting towards where her parents stood. She was visibly trembling now. Whatever she had to say, it frightened her.

  She leaned close and barely breathed into my ear.

  “Talia was with child.”

  Chapter Ten

  Shortly after her confession, Gwendolyn wailed that her sister would never forgive her and that she was the worst sister in the history of the world.

  I did my best to soothe her, but she was making enough of a scene of herself that one of the governesses came over to take her and her sisters off to bed.

  I found the royal couple, the council, and the twins, staring in my direction with expectant faces.

  I, myself, didn’t know what to make of what Gwendolyn had told me. I didn’t doubt that it was true. Princesses like Gwendolyn would never lie about something so important, and no question knowing this secret had been weighing on her heavily.

  I crossed the room, back towards the thrones, with unwilling and numb legs. I curtsied to the king and queen and council more to buy myself a moment to think, than to pay honor.

  “I know something,” I said slowly. “It might be important, it might not be. It is not happy news, and I need everyone here to swear that they will not punish Gwendolyn for what she has revealed. Also… that this news is very likely to make people very angry and that we don’t have time for that if we are going to find Talia.”

  All around me, eyebrows rose. No doubt, they believed I was being unnecessarily dramatic.

  “I suggest that only the minimum of people hear what I am about to say,” I told the king a
nd queen directly. “This is your kingdom, your family, we will respect your privacy.”

  The king looked puzzled; the queen turned white.

  It took a few moments to sort out who would stay and who would leave. Antoinette and her crew left to see what help they could offer to the newly awakened peoples of Gilterra.

  In the end, the king and queen, the twins, Muriel, and two other council members remained behind.

  I drew in a deep breath, silently praying to Magic that no one would find this messenger worthy of hanging. “Talia was meeting a prince, a Prince Denny, in the woods. From what I have learned, he not only was a scoundrel and a liar but that by the time Talia learned these things about him… she was already with child.”

  The queen stopped breathing.

  The king froze, his expression unmoving in his shock.

  The twins looked at each other if the way their hooded heads turned towards each other was any indication.

  The council members watched the king and the queen.

  I held my breath.

  “Slander!” the king roared the words so loudly he nearly ruptured the blood vessels in his face. “You malign my sweetest darling!”

  The queen, I noted with interest, did not shout. She looked down at her hands, her face pale and ghostly. I wondered if she had known all along. Had Talia told her mother her secret? Or had the queen learned of the pregnancy from some other source?

  “I mean no insult, sir,” I said softly, bowing my head to him with respect. “I can only report what I was told. And, if this matter is true, it may explain what has happened here.”

  Muriel murmured something about talking to the rest of the council, then bowed and scurried away, followed by the other two council members.

  The king collapsed into his throne. “My daughter,” he moaned. “My sweet little darling. Can it even be thought of? Can it be considered? Can it be conceived of as true?”

  “It is true,” the queen whispered. “Please do not ask me how I know, just… it is true. Talia is… was… is with child.”

  The king slammed his fists into the arms of his throne with an expression of terrible anguish on his face. “And this… this Prince Denny. This scoundrel who took advantage of my child… where is he?”

  The queen sat still and straight. “We cannot find him,” she said. “No one has ever heard of a Prince Denny here or in any of the surrounding kingdoms.”

  The king appeared to collapse down on himself. “Dishonored,” he whispered, “betrayed, unprotected… What king am I if I cannot protect even the innocents within my own household?”

  Then the king, whom I had known since he was a small child, covered his face with his hands and began to weep.

  The queen sat by him, straight and pale, either unwilling or unable to comfort him in his grief.

  “Enough,” Astraea announced. “Your daughter may be with child, that cannot be changed. But, if we are to find her alive, we must do so with all haste. Unless…” Her voice grew abruptly cold and hard; this was the voice of Justice speaking, “Unless you value her less because she is no longer virginal…”

  The king jolted and stared at us in shock. “Of course not! What monster do you imagine me to be? I want my daughter back more than anything, with child or not. That does not change my affection for her!”

  The queen unbent a little and laced her fingers through his. She whispered something in his ear and kissed his cheek.

  He clutched her hand in his.

  “We want our daughter back,” she said, firmly, turning her eyes to us.

  “What do you know about this Prince Denny? Who else knew of Talia’s condition? Is there anyone that should be here at court with you that is not here?” Astraea’s voice was calm and efficient. “The more information we have, the more likely it is that we will be able to discover why your daughter was taken and by whom.”

  “And who killed the poor girl in the tower,” Dallan reminded us.

  Astraea nodded. “That, too.”

  “I’ll ask if anyone is missing,” the queen said, her eyes on her husband, but her words for us. Whatever understanding had passed between them, I could see that it had strengthened their bond. I could sense it. I could almost see it.

  I nodded wearily. I had to fight back a yawn. I tried to calculate how long I had been awake. This day seemed never-ending. How could so much have happened in such a short amount of time?

  “We will return first thin,” Astraea announced.

  “Yes, we will have our people ask if anyone else has any information here in the castle,” Dallan agreed immediately. “If you learn of anything, please direct it to Antoinette and her crew. For now, we must force Godmother Graciously to get some rest, so she can be of service tomorrow.”

  “Grace,” I mumbled. I wanted to protest further, but the truth was that I was on my last legs. If my internal clock was correct, it was no longer late at night or even particularly early in the morning. We were only a few hours away from the dawn.

  The queen reached out and grasped my hand. “Rest,” she ordered in a queenly, yet compassionate way. “We need you to find our daughter. You need to be at your best, I fear.”

  I managed a weak smile. “Thank you, your majesty. I will do my best.”

  “I know you will,” she answered, with odd emphasis.

  I was too exhausted to question what was bothering her. I managed to drop another curtsy to the royals, then followed the twins back through the castle and out into the open again.

  The chill outdoor air was like a brisk slap to the face. It refreshed me enough to find my feet and follow the brisk pace Astraea and Dallan set.

  I hesitated outside of their carriage. “You don’t have to take me home,” I protested. “I can catch a ride with someone else. I’m sure it’s out of your way.”

  “That’s why you’re not going to your home at all,” Dallan announced, making me narrow my eyes at his high-handed attitude.

  Astraea grasped my elbow and propelled me towards the carriage. “It makes sense for us to keep you nearby,” she said.

  “I thought you had cleared my as a suspect,” I protested, doing my best to drag my feet.

  The twins sighed in unison.

  “You have been cleared,” Dallan said with some impatience in his deep voice. “We are counting on your assistance… on your perspective into this kingdom as well as other things. Until we have found the princess, it behooves us to work together.”

  “And that includes kidnapping me?” I muttered, but I stopped fighting Astraea’s none-to-gentle tugs on my arm. I climbed into the carriage and flopped down onto the seat I had used before.

  “I don’t suppose there’s any food left,” I mumbled, stifling a yawn behind my hand.

  The twins did their thing with pushing back their hoods. They shared a bemused look at my expense.

  “You do remember that there’s Magic, yes?” Astraea’s silver eyes laughed at me.

  “Believe it or not, I do know I’m a fairy,” I said sheepishly. “I’m just so tired I don’t know if I’m flying or swimming.”

  “Neither at the moment,” Dallan said, tilting his head as the carriage lurched into movement. “Ah. We’re flying now.”

  “So, where precisely am I… are we staying?” I inquired as Astraea dug back into her picnic basket and came up with an entire pie with what looked like ice cream on top.

  I was past asking questions. I accepted the plate and fork she offered me.

  “At our home, naturally,” Astraea said sweetly. “Do you want some cocoa?”

  I hesitated, wondering how I could balance both my plate and a mug. “Maybe later.”

  She nodded with a smile and bit neatly into some sort of fruit tart. Dallan, I noticed, was cutting an apple into slices and eating them by the sliver.

  “Your home?” I queried, cutting into my slice of pie. From the scent, it was apple, and it already smelled better than anything I had attempted from my bakery. Was this Magic food, I
wondered, or transported by way of Magic from somewhere else?

  I suspected the latter. Magic never quite got food right. Somewhere, an excellent cook and kitchen were keeping us supplied. No doubt from this home I was about to visit.

  “Where exactly do you live?” I asked curiously, taking a bite. The pie was every bit as delicious as it smelled. I hummed in pleasure.

  The twins exchanged one of those glances of theirs.

  “Not far,” Astraea said.

  “A little way off yet,” Dallan added.

  I narrowed my eyes at them. I knew they were laughing at my expense again, but I was too tired and content with my pie to protest. Let them have their little games. As long as it didn’t hurt me, I was in no position to complain.

  As it happened, we didn’t have far to go, because their home was a moderately large castle… on a floating island like the one that held the fairy council building.

  From the outside, the house looked like any nice, beautiful house owned by an upper-class family who didn’t like to flaunt their status around, buy liked to be comfortable.

  It was not what I had expected out of the most powerful beings in our world.

  “It’s bigger on the inside,” Astraea told me frankly. “You don’t seem to like surprises, so I thought I’d warn you. The house is changing all the time. It will decide where to keep you tonight.” She laughed when she saw my expression. “Don’t worry so much! The house isn’t going to put you in a chimney or pantry or something. It’s known for its hospitality and tends to show off. Most people say they’ve never rested better than on one of our beds.”

  She winked at me and Dallan laughed in such a way that I was sure I was, yet again, missing the joke.

  “How are you a Fairy Godmother?” Astraea teased as we walked up the stairs towards their house. The carriage trotted off behind us, no doubt heading towards the stables behind the house somewhere. Oddly, for a house on a floating island, it was surrounded by fields and woods in every direction.

  “Should I be insulted?” I asked.