Deception (11 page)

Fairies of all kinds were flying, walking, laughing, eating, and all stopping to stare as I walked and stood next to Ian’s side.  “I never dreamed of any place like this ever being so beautiful,” I was breathless with fear and awed by the sight of it all.   I couldn’t believe my eyes.  My brain just couldn’t accept what it saw.  I’d seen this place before though, in my dreams, many times.  And the stone frog, I knew it too.  It’s a wonder I hadn’t caught it before. 

“We like...beauty.”  I’d been staring off in the distance so this comment caused a sharp jerk of my head.  His eyes were smoldering purposefully, his silver shine returning to them.  Come to think of it, they’d done that before when I’d caught him staring.   I felt self-conscious suddenly worrying about my hair and hideous costume.  This was a side of Ian I’d have to get used too.  And I definitely could.  And definitely investigate the silver eyes more.

His lazy smirk invaded my senses, affecting every part of me like never before.  It was his greatest asset there upon owning the ability to disarm me from anything.  “You’ll always be mine, Grace.”  He answered my thoughts again in some weird way but offered me a way out by turning back to the height of activity. 

Once, I remembered making up a whole scene in my dreams of this place.  The walls of ivy were there.  The flowered floor was everywhere I looked.   With a fierce realization, I caught sight of what lined the walls.   ACCH!  Green roses!  Red ones too.  The walls were lined with climbing vines of them.  They’d meant something.  I turned to him.  “The roses!  They were you!”  His eyes danced with my jumpiness. The small trees that were not really trees seemed alive with wings and dancing along with us.  Fairies.  A single maple tree stood in the center of the room was exactly as I’d imagined it in my own dreams.  Or had I?  Was I seeing the future?  Was it planted there?   I got an eerie feeling in the pit of my stomach.  I didn’t realize I’d left Ian and walked away from him but turned back now and looked at him staring at me.  I really didn’t know what to say.  “I dreamed about this place. Did you know that too?” It was a hint at something dangerous I might not want to know. 

Of course he did. Now wasn’t the time to act like a child, though.   “Could you see them?” I asked again. My dreams.

He pulled a green rose from behind his back and gave it to me.

“No, I couldn’t see your dreams all the time.”  Funny the way he said that.

Guess I knew deep down inside somewhere he was behind it whether it was him or me who conjured them there or not.  “All this time!  All the magic!  It was real.  Things just appeared and disappeared.  And you…you were always there.  Why were
you
always there?”  Why not someone else.  There was something I was missing.  Somewhere on the edge of my mind the thought of him knowing what I dreamed about or even thought about made its way to the cliff side.  My thoughts were inconclusive eluding me once more of the whole truth without him filling in the gaps.  He had said his mother told him to watch me.  But who was his mother?  And why watch me?  Simply because I am not all human.  This Firebearer descendant.  What was he still hiding?

He frantically pulled me into a garden off the main courtyard-like area where we came in and gestured for me to sit down on a sturdy looking rock jutting out
from
the entrance.  Every
thing
else was still watching me.  “This is the Seelie court’s domain.”

I interrupted to affirm what I knew. “You mean like Seelie and Unseelie?”  My eyes darted at every movement.

“You know more than I thought?”

“I can read, Ian,” I said sarcastically.  “Aren’t the Unseelie known for their nastiness?  Thank goodness you are Seelie.  Aren’t you?” 

“Seelie!  Seelie!  We see you!” The sound of little voices came from the fountain spouting beside us in little rainbow swirls.  I jumped barely, but saw three little midget-like creatures swimming and watching me.  They were like little beautiful mermaids making circles around each other.

“Water sprites!”

Oh! I mouthed but didn’t vocalize. 
 
First, the hidden world of the Fey, then goblins, now water sprites. 

Ian just watched me.  He could now do that without undue stress and I could tell he liked it.  His face showed all kinds of strain and intrigue at the same time.   “Yes, I am Seelie.”  Another pause.  “The Seelie court guides the summer and spring, the Unseelie oversee the winter and autumn.  The Unseelie are mostly foul and loathsome creatures and tend to invite other undesirable creatures near them.   They are anything but nice, but not all of them are as ferocious as they paint themselves to be.”  He pouted out his chin the direction of the woods and back.  “But yes, the Seelie are known for their more desirable code of conduct.  Death before dishonor.  Love conquers all. And never forget a debt.  The Unseelie hold opposing beliefs.”  He seemed caught up in the thought looking off into the trees.  He lingered for a second in whatever he was thinking and then came back to me again. 

I struggled for a breath.  Those eyes.  I’d looked away for years when those eyes looked at me like that. I bit my lip to hide it, but that lazy half-smile replayed on his lips.  I pinched my eyes shut only to find his eyebrows were raised when I reopened them.  Frustrated with the idea that my daydreaming might come true, I let out a hot breathe a little too close to his face, tossed my hair, and looked away.  Sometimes I hated the power a guy could hold. 

Another green rose escaped his fingers and landed on my lap.  I smiled seeing his skin start to glow. 

“You know, you can do it too. All Fey can.”

“Do what, magic kind of things or glow like you are now?”  I seriously wondered what the glow indicated.  I had my guesses.

“Try this,” he put my hand on top of the rose ignoring my jibe on the glowing.  “Anything of the earth.  You can think about it, want it, and it will be there where you need it.”

I closed my eyes willing a yellow rose of Texas into his lap.  I neglected to think about what the rose might be inferred as, but I rationalized that it wasn’t red.  I pictured touching the delicate petals and pressing my nose to the tips to smell its sweetness. 

When my eyes opened, Ian was smiling widely with my yellow rose between his teeth.  I laughed, wowed by my own magic awesomeness.

“Come on!  You’ve got to be ready for tonight.  They will get you ready,” he gestured towards two short little Fey that giggled as they stole a look at all of him.  I thought that was odd.  He looked down at himself and paused, “I’ll not look like your Ian tonight, but it is still me.  I promise,” he said, smiling with his deep voice disappearing slightly.

I loved the way he said,
Your Ian
.   I couldn’t hide the smile.  “Why, because you didn’t really wear a costume tonight?  Did you?”

“No!  Not completely,” his voice told all.   “Just remember, you are not in Kansas anymore.”  He smiled again. “You’ll be presented to our court’s queen tonight.  She will expect some oddities from a human life, but still she will expect you to bow, speak only when spoken to, and acknowledge her and her …family members. They’ll be the ones with the giant egos on top of their heads. And smile!  Remember all of that and you will be fine.  If she asks you about your eyes, just remind her that the ceremony changes them.”

“What?  Why are my eyes changing?  You said nothing would change.  I thought I was here for safety.  Why all the secrets, Ian?”

“Nothing
scary!
  You will see the queen’s eyes.  We assume your eyes will take on their own likeness.  You have a human likeness, so we are not sure what will happen to them exactly.” 

I gritted my teeth,   “This sounds more like I’m…” 
A freak show
.  He was hurt a little.  I could see that.  Fine.  How bad could it be?

“Grace, it is just the color.  But nothing else will change in your appearance.  You couldn’t be more beautiful than you already are.  I should have told you that earlier.  Much earlier.   I am sorry for that!”

I’d already made my choice, and different colored eyes will not change my mind.  He was impossibly hard to stay mad at.  And in recent years, even harder!

“Don’t leave me!”  I jerked his arm a little closer than I meant too fear finding me pulling tighter when he turned to leave. His wonderful woodsy smell was was probably due to his nature.  I blushed and looked down.  “I’m sorry.”

His mouth quivered with that wonderfully amazing sideways smile. He took my hand and kissed it gently.  “Don’t be!”  And then he slid away.

I swooned.  My mind will explode if I don’t get more answers soon.
 

“And all will be answered in due time, Miss Grace,” a small slippery voice sounded from behind me.  Out of the side of a so called garden, a tall, illuminating lady with magnificent golden brown flowing hair and a gown that shimmered just as much as she, walked towards me with such poise that my clumsiness scale tipped forward suddenly making me feel even more inept just being near her.

“Hello Grace!” Words were falling from this elegant, soft voice that could melt butter.  “You will know all you need to know…soon.  For now, let us get you bathed and gowned for the evening feast.  A party is to be held tonight.  And the celebration is a joyful one.”  This towering, slender woman didn’t seem like one to trifle with.  Her yellowish eyes made her almost catlike.   Even in the way she walked.  The eyes made me wonder if she was the queen. She’s seems more like a vixen though this is the Seelie court.  The nice guys I thought.

“What’s the celebration?” I asked absentmindedly shuffling my feet back and forth nervously.  I watched the two brute guards flanking this lady and me on both sides wanting the answers Ian wasn’t giving.

“You!”

My eyes shot back to her.

The mysterious woman had forced me to tiptoe a circle around her and put my back against the garden wall that looked remarkably like the ivy laden one from my street back home.  “My curiosity had me wondering.”

I felt like I was an exhibit in an art or science show with this woman spinning me around.  She looked me up and down a little too much for my comfort zone.

She seemed to be waiting for me to answer.   “About what?” I tried to sound friendly.

The woman didn’t answer.  I first thought she looked to be young, but standing closer I realized she was much older than she first appeared.  Cat lady snapped her fingers and the two small elf-like fairies that Ian previously called came running and bowed.  “Take young Grace here to the bath and dress her in the green silk I had made.  See that her hair is plaited and decorated.”  She never took her eyes off me nor did she change her expression in the least but her voice was like ice.  “Were your eyes always that color?”  She knew!  Which means Ian probably knew.  Smiling the best I could I said what I know, “I was told this ceremony will change them, but I-I don’t know why.”  I was hoping for an explanation but afraid of what I might find out, like everything else around here.

“No matter,” was all she said and then turned and left from where she’d come. 

If that was the future of what I would turn out like, I was in trouble! If that was what Fey women act like, I want no part.  I will stay me.  Why won’t they tell me what I’m here for?  Did I make a mistake?  I needed to talk to Ian, but he was nowhere to be found.  He should have left me with a little more information.
 
I was going off trust and feeling very insecure about it.

The two elflike fairy creatures giggled to remind me they were waiting bowing when I rotated around.  “That lady seemed a little standoffish.”  I gestured toward the exit the elegant lady had left from.  More giggling aspired.  “What’s so funny?”  I raised my eyebrows.

“Miss Grace, why she is the queen!  She can be anything she wants to be.”  More giggling! 

I nearly fell right then with fear, but fought back to keep composure in case anyone might be watching.  After the initial shock, I began making a mental list of what the queen had said and I’d responded back.  I’d even pondered if that’s what a queen might be like, but didn’t assume that was the queen.  I just assumed the queen would announce herself. 
How stupid I felt!  All in all, I felt okay with what had been said, but wondered why the queen had come to see me in the first place.  Did Ian even know?   The infatuation with the color of my eyes was a little alarming.  

“Follow us!” the smaller fairy bowed, and lead the way to the bath. 

The hot spring was an amazing sight.  Beautiful fragrant flowers, including the roses, were different now that Ian was connected to them.  I’d never pinned roses with fairies.  I’d pictured dainty little pixie like flowers that probably didn’t exist anyway?  And what of the dandelions?  Where do they come in?  I have not seen any in here, but nothing in here resembled a weed in any way. 

The clearest water ever seen was running down the side of a spout coming from between the blooms.  Farmer Frankhorn probably never dreamed all this was in his backyard. 

“Humans see what they want to see.  A human could search all day and not find one clue to our existence if we wish for them not to.” 

The little creature heard me.  I went stiff at the ominous thought of anyone able to read my thoughts.

“Yes, we can!”  The little smiling creature was looking up at me.  “All Fey can.  At least they can read humans pretty clearly. You have human instincts.  That makes it a little more difficult, but not impossible.   Otherwise we’d never survive going to your world.”

I’d ponder the mind reading thing with Ian later not liking the idea.  So it was true. 
IAN! Uh!
He can…He has been…
Oh, no! 

My hands flew to my face and I began to weep adolescently until I folded my arms and huffed loudly. 

“What is it?” Both little fairies were alarmed.

“Nothing!”  I knew very well what was wrong.  Ian could and has been reading my mind for a long time.  I was horrified.  Oh, the things he probably knew.  How could I face him?  Then my eyes turn to slits.  Now, I was mad.  The tears stung.  What had he done?  Surely this wasn’t part of the protection program he was sent to watch over me with.

I licked the salty tears from my bottom lip really not sure I hated it.  But I was very sure I would tackle that idea when I saw him again.    He said he wouldn’t leave me. 

“He was just trying to protect you, Miss Grace.  It was his duty.  He didn’t have a choice.  He wasn’t allowed to return until the problem—“ the little fairy stopped fast and frowned. The other, just barely taller fairy shot her the death glare.  “I assure you Miss Grace, he isn’t anything but a gentleman.”

“My name is Danella!”  She pointed to herself, bowed, and then to the other fairy, who bowed also.  “And this is Tren.   Now Miss Grace, it is time to get ready.”

“Can I ask you questions, Danella?” I smiled deviously at the other thinking she might just tell all .  I needed answers.  And this seemed the only possible way to get them right now, at this very second.  After all, they seemed nice and attentive towards me.

“Fire away!”

“How did you know my name before I knew yours?”  I hung on every word and felt oddly strange undressing in front of someone or
something
else. 

Danella instructed me to immerse myself in the warm bath water, and handed me a strange bottle to wash my hair with.  The soap was a rich scent of rosemary and lavender.  I was in heaven with it all.  The shampoo, it you could call it that, was very thick with the same lavender scent.  It only created three times the amount of bubbles that were already in there.  I at least felt a little more modest with soap bubbles popping up everywhere and even little girlish catching soap bubbles in the air as they floated in all directions.

“Well,” Danella seemed to be deep in thought, “I have known your name since you were born.  I was there at your naming ceremony.   And I have watched you grow up into a fine young lady.  Your grandfather would be proud.  And Ian is
very
lucky!  I hoped you would be friendly and kind.  I am glad I was right.” 

“Let me get this right,” I stopped to put my thoughts in order, “you saw when I was born.”  I paused.  “And you watched me grow up.  How?”  I emerged from the bath now and was drying in my robe. 

“I came to visit you.  Many of us did.  We all wanted to see the…” I stopped when she did. 

She was keeping something from me.  Her seemingly plethoric knowledge of Ian kept my curiosity peaked enough to push on. “What are you not telling me?”

“I cannot, Miss Grace.  Ian made us all promise to not tell you.”

Hmm!  “And you are not going to tell me now, right?”   Mystified, I wouldn’t give up so easily.

“No!” she blushed.  “I cannot deny him.”

I was really starting to get scared about these secrets.  I
was the arrival, yes!  But should I not I know why I am here, if not for just being this supposed “half fairy” girl that was whipped away from her own world and now left hanging with too much unknown.  Do they know how scared I was?

“Yes!”

“Oh, I am going to stop thinking NOW!”

I was waltzed into the dressing area, covered in more lavender scents, and lavished in very little undergarments in my opinion.  And then I saw what they brought out next. 

The gown I’d been told was made exclusively for me.  How they could have known or sized me perfectly, I didn’t want to know. It was perfectly symmetrical and a little untouchable.   Slipping it on felt like rose petals falling against me and once down all the way, it fit me like they sewed it to my body.  I wondered if they would have to peel it off.  It was a beautiful silky emerald green with very little design.  It didn’t need any decoration to make it more beautiful than it was.  Solid was good.   It was backless all the way down to the bottom curve of my back and a little too low cut in my opinion!

“Well, it is not every day a girl becomes a queen.  We have to know you fix up nice.” Danella shot a look at Tren’s outburst.  I noticed the panic in both of their eyes as I turned my eyes back and forth at each of their faces. 

“Queen of what?  Do you mean
me
?”  What were they talking about? 

“You don’t mean me, right?  Queen of what?  Ian would have surely mentioned that part of the deal, right?  Come on now, you are scaring me.”

I started to quiz more, but noticed both of them seemed to be busying themselves purposefully and had shut up tight.  I stomped my foot.  It was childish, yes!  And getting weirder by the minute.    They closed up tighter than a cookie jar just invaded by the snatcher.  They sat me down in a chair facing a vanity like mirror not giving me time to think about the implications.

My hair was now almost completely braided and atop my head.  There were silver maple leaves woven throughout my hair and lavender perfume added to every inch of me.  I felt more like the flower than a girl in a too tight dress and hair I couldn’t bend at my neck to get a sideways glance at my back end.  I had better not drop anything.  Or sit.  Or breathe. 

They stood back and surveyed, both giggling nonstop.  They did that a lot.  They turned me round and round forcing dizziness.  They stopped me in front of the ivy wall that in my opinion was just there for privacy.  But I felt like no walls were stopping the invasion of my
mind’s
privacy anyway so why bother. Suddenly, Danella waved her hand towards the wall and a mirror appeared letting me see myself.  Who was the girl I saw in the mirror?   It definitely wasn’t me!    I almost felt like my identity had been hidden and disguised as Cinderella going to the ball.  This really was a fairy tale. I look…like an elegant gorgeous...woman.

“You are!” Danella said.

I almost expected to see two glass slippers come prancing out to me.  Nope!  But my little fairy godmothers standing in front of me led me out the door.