Goblin Ball (8 page)

“The attackers were human. Everyone believes it was the wyrd.”

“But you don’t.”

“For over fifteen hundred years, I did. Now, I’m unsure.”

“I always forget how old… I mean how long… for how many years you all have been alive.”

“It was Mischief Night. Fairies were flying all over the place, crashing into each other. Terrified. Idris called them together, organized them, calmed them, and somehow herded everyone back to the faewood safely. Because of his bravery, they begged him to become regent. Dandelion was too young then to sit on the Moonstick Throne, and the fae were too afraid. Idris agreed. He liked the way the moonstick crown looked on his head.”

“If my mother’s vanity is any indication, I’m not surprised,” Lily said.

“But after a while, Idris changed. He suggested Brother Sun and Sister Moon should sanctify his regency. The goblins didn’t like it, but the other fae, the fairies, the brownies, the leprechauns, the pixies—definitely the sprites—they were still afraid, and they agreed to it.”

“What does that mean?” Lily asked. “Sanctify?”

“When a fairy monarch is crowned, as they chant the words and drink the dandelion wine from the court’s fairy cup, a binding spell is cast over all the fae of that court. All members of the court are compelled to obey the monarch’s commands. It’s the one device we have against chaos.”

“I can understand that too,” Lily said, perhaps thinking again of her mother, Morning Glory. Her smile, and something about the look in her eyes, reminded Max of a wyrding woman he’d known long ago, the shapeshifter Igraine.

“As the time approached for the sanctification,” he continued, “a windstorm ripped through the Blue Vale. Brother Sun and Sister Moon sent me a message in the winds, delivered by Aeolios.”

“I remember him. The god who loved the woman whose spirit was trapped inside Igdrasil.”

“Well… minor god,” Max said with a chuckle.

“Into the mystic…”
Lily shook her head wondrously. “Dumnos is a land of mist and rain—and the mystic.”

“And proud to be so,” Max said. In his mind Lily’s association with Igraine grew stronger. She couldn’t be the wyrding woman’s descendent. His friend Kaelyn, who knew her, had once said Igraine never had children.

“And what was the message from the high gods?” Lily said.

“I was to protect both children from the sanctification so they would retain their free will, unbound by Idris’s commands.”

“There’s your sign right there that Idris was trouble,” Lily said. “How did you do it?”

“I created a fabric from Dumnos iron, starlight, and lost wishes—you know the dandelion florets people wish on? Sometimes they reach the realm of fae too late to grant. We call them lost wishes.”

“That’s so sad.” Lily said.

Max shrugged. Nothing new in that. Human existence, being mortal, was permeated by sadness. “I imbued the fabric with a charm.” He might as well say it. Besides, he didn’t get many chances to talk about his successes.

In the glimmermist no charm shall find you.
In the glimmermist no charm shall bind you.

“That seems so simple—but of course there was more to it than that,” Lily said.

He just grunted.

“But why did the high gods choose you, do you think, to be Dandelion and Cissa’s protector?”

It was a hit to the pride to even hear the question. Who else in all the faewood or all the vales could have attempted such a thing? But in truth, Max had never asked himself the question. And now, a surprising answer occurred to him.

“Perhaps they were giving me a chance to atone.”

“Atone?” Lily looked at him quizzically. “I can’t imagine you ever doing something that required atonement.”

“That’s kind of you, but I did create
Mistcutter
. For that, Brother Sun and Sister Moon cursed all goblinkind. We weren’t always so ugly, you know.”

Lily was quiet then. She watched Lexi, who’d fallen asleep in the cot, but her mind seemed far, far away. Finally she seemed to make a decision and stood up.

“Would you come with me for a moment?”

He followed her to her chamber and waited by the window where there was a good view of the ruins of Tintagos Castle, the bay, and the Severn Sea.

“This secretary has belonged to all countesses of Dumnos starting with Lydia Pengrith Bausiney in the 1870s.” Lilith ran her fingers along the bottom of a roll-top desk. “My father’s wife,” she added with droll humor. A side door popped open, and she took out a brass key and unlocked a compartment inside the roll-top.

She laid the compartment’s contents out.

“A peacock feather?” Max said.

“Apparently they were the rage. She’s wearing peacock feathers in her portrait in the rogues gallery. Perhaps this one had a special meaning for her.”

“Sun and moon, that’s a bottle of Morning Glory’s love potion.” Max held up a clear bottle with a silver stopper and containing a red liquid. “And half-empty.”

“I had a feeling… but I thought that was just a story.” Lilith set the bottle aside, and as she did so she furtively palmed another object among the treasures and shifted it back to the compartment, behind the love potion, under the feather.

Max said nothing, though he recognized the object. It was a double-banded ring, one silver and one gold. A ring of power—and of danger too. The ring Merlyn had made to enhance his powers, but at such great cost that to remove it meant death.

Max knew the ring’s power and its danger well, for he was the one who’d removed it from Merlyn’s hand.

“And I believe you will recognize this.” Lily was speaking, holding something out to him. “Max?”

“What—oh! I…” Max felt a smile tug at his mouth. “I always wondered what happened to that.”

Lily laid a scoping glass in the palm of his hand, and he fingered the bright-cut apple blossom design.

“You carved that design, Max, a long, long time ago. You were sitting in the Avalos sunshine beside Igraine of Kaelyn’s cave as she tried to get you to talk about
Mistcutter
, not knowing you were the sword’s maker and ignorant of all the pain it had caused you.”

“How…?”

“I am Igraine,” Lily said. “And Cade is Ross Bausiney. When my life was cut short by Quinn Sarumen, Brother Sun and Sister Moon granted me another life, and Ross too. A chance to love again. The memories of my life as Igraine were awakened by handling
Mistcutter
. Cade understands and believes, but he only has sporadic flashes of memory, and none that stick. Other than him, you’re the one person in all the realms I trust utterly. It feels right that you should know.”

“I’m… speechless.” It explained more than a few things, not the least why Lily had been able to remove the sword from the stone. Kaelyn had
seen
that it would be Igraine, and Kaelyn’s sight was never wrong.

“I called you Maxim then,” Lilith said.

“My proper name. I started hearing ‘Max’ about the time of the Napoleonic Wars. Everyone thought they were so modern then.”

Lily chuckled. “Well, now you know about me. And I’m so glad.”

“Why do you have the oracle ring?” Max blurted out the question, as this seemed to be a time for confidences.

Lily’s face went red, but she answered forthrightly. “I found it at Igdrasil after the lightning strike, sitting in a cleft near the ground. My first thought was to destroy it. Throw it over the cliff into Tintagos Bay. But somehow I knew it couldn’t be destroyed. Better to keep it here, safely locked away. No one else knows I have it. Not even Cade. I don’t know why, but I feel it would be a danger to him if he knew.”

“Perhaps,” Max said. “I’m sure the Dumnos Clad isn’t the only thing the Sarumen are after, and they have ways of finding out people’s secrets.”

“Quinn.” Lily froze as she spoke the name. “Something Jenna said… I didn’t know, in that other life, that he was fae. She spoke of him as if he is still living. Max, do you want to take the ring with you?”

“No. The less it travels, the better. This is a good, obscure hiding place—as long as the door to your treasures stays locked.” He gave her the scoping glass. “I should be getting back to Mavis.”

“Your pony. See, I do remember things.” Lily returned the glass to the cubby and locked everything away again. After putting the key back in its own hiding place, she and Max went back to the nursery.

Lexi was still napping. Again Max thought she looked angelic, but he’d seen a mischievous spark in her eye. She was going to be a fun one to watch grow up.

“About the Sarumen,” Lily said. “I didn’t like Jenna because she stole my boyfriend. Ha! That sounds so childish. And of course now I’m glad she did it. But I didn’t like her family then because they were rich and powerful and I felt drab and powerless beside them. I had no idea they were magical and powerful.”

“It’s because they’re power-hungry that I don’t trust them,” Max said. “I wonder if they’ll be there today.”

“What do you mean? Why should they?”

“Our queen has invited fae from all courts of the British Isles. She wants to show off her grandniece.”

“Sun and moon,” Lily said. “I told the French girls the picnic might be fancy dress. I had no idea how right I was.”

“The leprechauns had better hold on to their hats,” Max said. “It’s going to be a bumpy ride.”

A modern lawn
surrounded most of the lake. The hunter’s lodge was gone, and a quarter of the way around the lake a Grecian temple had been built about the time Max’s name got shortened. A couple of starry-eyed Bausiney girls had named the grandiose marble gazebo the Temple of Joy and Wonder.

Cade and Cissa were there, overseeing more than helping with final preparations for the day’s festivities. The brownies had just finished the finishing touches on the decorations around the Temple of Joy and Wonder, cheerfully calling out instructions to each other.

With the first guests arriving, the leprechauns thought they were being clever and sly, but it was easy to see all they were interested in was the cut of everyone's clothing and their hats. Hats, hats, hats.

Max unhitched Mavis to let her forage in the chicory behind the temple, which she loved. He joined Cade and Cissa, quite aware of the emerald necklace around the fairy’s neck.

“Max, I was just telling Cade that Morning Glory says Lilith was conceived here inside the temple,” Cissa said.

“I like that,” Cade said. “I choose to believe it.”

“Did you see Beverly yet?” Max asked. “Has she set the boundary at the wishing portal?”

“Mission accomplished,” Cade said. “She’s set it to last a day and an hour, as Cissa suggested. It will stop any wanderers from accidentally falling in.”

The queen bobbled her head and grinned prettily, delighted as always to take credit for a good idea. What a self-involved imp she was! She was happier today than she’d been in a long time, and it gladdened Max’s heart to see it.

“The last thing we need is to lose a guest to the mists of time,” Cade said. “Unless it’s a Sarumen, of course.”

« Chapter 8 »
Seven Ways of Looking at a Gifting

I. Cammy

Dragonflies danced
over the pristine lake and its lush surrounding lawns. Beyond, the branches of nine ancient hazel trees were thick with blossoms. West of the water, butterflies of varied and fantastical colors fluttered about a Grecian temple that looked perfect for a
Pride and Prejudice
film location.

Bordering all, massive rhododendrons, hydrangeas, camellias, and lilacs provided a feeling of gentle seclusion. A spring breeze whooshed over the grass and through the shrubs, lifting skirts and knocking off hats. Cammy drew the fresh air into her lungs and smiled inwardly, thinking that Aeolios—or more likely his cranky wife, Lourdes—wanted to remind the guests that the gods existed and were always watching.