Authors: Candace Blevins
Her arms went around me, the land around us morphed again, and I looked fast, only to see no landmarks at all on the side of the mountain. The Summerlands weren’t going to kill me, but apparently intended to put obstacles in our way and make life difficult. I could only guess it was because the cavalry was on the way to rescue Sophia from me and return her to her father.
Instead of being aggravated, though, I silently expressed gratitude to the land, letting it know I was happy Sophia had such a powerful presence looking out for her well-being. I transmitted my love for her, my desire to see her safe, and then told Sophia, “From where we are, focus on a tree about twenty percent below the top of the mountain, just to the left of the area straight in front of us.”
She nodded again, her arms still around me, and the land morphed again.
I could hear the water, and so could she, though we couldn’t see it. I let go of her, thinking we’d have to run, but she squeezed tighter and said, “I can do it by sound.”
The next thing I knew we were standing in the spray, and as I heard the beat of dozens of horses’ hooves nearing us, she stepped us towards the water.
“It’s the Winter Queen, Soph. Leaving now will be considered an insult.”
“And staying could put you in a Fae prison.”
“You can’t make her angry. You need her as an ally.”
“I’ll only stay if you go through the falls and trust me to be there as soon as I can.”
There was no time to argue, so I walked into the falls and back to the human realm, leaving her to face the Winter Queen on her own.
Sophia
Aaron had given me so much energy, even after all of the teleporting I wasn’t dreadfully tired.
I’d been terrified for Aaron, though. Stepping into the Summerlands without safe passage is terribly dangerous, but to do so as an enemy of the crown? He hadn’t lived for so long by making stupid decisions, though, and his actions told me he believed in me.
Oddly, his belief allowed me to stand at my full height with my head high, and I faced the Winter Queen as the Swan Princess who would soon be Swan Queen. I would hold title year round in these lands, and would reign over her half the year and be her near-equal the other half.
“My Lady,” I greeted as she neared. “I would request a time shift, so when I step through the falls it will be as if it is happening now, so we can have the luxury of polite conversation.”
She waved her arm in a horizontal circle and made a fist, and the sounds around us stopped — no birds chirping, no roaring of the waterfall, no movement of the horses. Even her guards were frozen, thank goodness. Whether she knew I wanted conversation they couldn’t hear or not, I wasn’t sure.
One didn’t thank people in Faerie, especially Queens, so I said, “As you can see, I’m on my own at the moment, which means I haven’t been kidnapped. I escaped with no help, and while I’ve had help hiding, at no time was I under anyone’s influence.”
“Fae Law says your helper is a kidnapper, and I’m obligated to return you to your father.”
“I intend to marry him, Mabel. I love him.”
Using her first name was a risk, but one I thought I could manage. No one could hear us, so it wouldn’t be a public slight, and I was trying to come across as her equal.
Her smile told me the ploy had earned me a little respect, though her words said otherwise. “You take liberties you haven’t been given, little one.”
“And not ones I’m prepared to take in this moment, though I’m working my way there. What advice would you have for one, such as myself?”
Back to my political training — do something to show respect and get them on your side. Asking advice can be tricky, but in this instance it felt right.
“You have good instincts,” the Winter Queen said with a touch of a smile. “Use them. Also, let your dragon help you control and hold power. It will hurt, and he’ll be reluctant to cause you pain, but you should insist. You’re going to have to step into and out of your roles. When he’s your teacher he can’t be your lover, too.” She paused and added, “Make sure you’re officially married or mated before you come back, please. I won’t look the other way twice.”
I nodded and dared to ask a favor. “I flew to the falls to enter Faerie, and was nude. I borrowed some material from The Summerlands to make this, is there any way I can take clothes out with me, My Lady?”
The Queen chuckled and waved her arms at one of her guards. His shirt and trousers landed on the ground before me, and he stood in boxer shorts, an undershirt, and his sword belt. She looked to another of her guards, one wearing a tunic instead of pants and shirt, and the oversized tunic landed at my feet as well. “I can’t let you keep what you borrowed, but the tunic will look like a dress on you, and the pants and shirt should fit Aaron.” She pulled her own scarf from around her neck and tossed it down from her horse. “Use this as a belt. Consider it a gift, no need to return it.”
I wanted to thank her and it annoyed me I couldn’t. I donned the tunic, wrapped the belt around it, and smiled my best thank you before turning towards the falls. The Winter Queen hadn’t stopped time completely — the droplets were falling ever so slowly, and it would probably take five minutes for a drop to make it from the top of the falls to the creek below. A journey normally traversed in a matter of seconds.
I turned and told her, “You see me before you by myself, not under anyone’s sway. Any chance I can talk you into staying neutral while my father and I work this out?”
She considered me a few seconds before saying, “You’re welcome here alone without risk of being captured, but don’t bring your dragon back unless he’s your mate or your husband. If he develops a swan form, you’re both welcome and I’ll crown you Swan Queen and king, and transfer the Swan Lands to you. It won’t officially change things in the other realm, but will put your father’s crown there in question and possibly give you more allies.”
What she was offering was huge, but I didn’t know if Aaron would have a swan form or not. I had a dragon form though, so I supposed it was possible.
I nodded and gave a small bow. “I hope to see you again before your reign ends this year, My Lady. Open Roads.”
She nodded and swept her hand in a horizontal circle again, opened her fist, and the water behind me roared back to life. I saw her lips tell me, “Open Roads,” as I turned and walked through the doorway.
Aaron pulled me to him as soon as I walked through, saying, “You didn’t have enough time to be polite.”
“I asked her for a time shift, so we could have time for a polite conversation, though I really wanted to talk without anyone hearing what was said.” I showed him the clothes and said, “She gave me these, off of her guard, for you.”
He looked at them, then back to me, his face full of worry. “What did you offer her for them?”
I shook my head. “Nothing, and she said to consider them a gift. I’m not certain, but I think she’s on our side and was doing what she could get away with to help. Whether she was helping you, me, or us? I have no idea.”
He shrugged. “We’ll have to figure that out later, but for now we need to move. Our fastest route is to walk to the base of the mountain, ride the Incline Railway to the top, and then my home is less than a quarter mile walk.”
“Are we in danger, now?”
“Not too bad. One of the reasons going through The Summerlands was a strategic move is because it’s the last place they’d expect us to go. I didn’t pick up any humans or shapeshifters around Silver Run Falls before we went in, and have only picked up on a few humans in the distance since I’ve been here.” He started us walking down the mountain on a well-worn trail. “We might encounter people near my home, but I have safeguards set up within a half mile radius, and we’ll be within the safe zone when we step off the Incline.”
He kissed the back of my hand as he said, “Abbott is my neighbor. If he’s home, he’ll know when we get close. He’ll either have someone outside to direct us straight to him, or we’ll go in my house and call him to see where he is.”
“When will you tell me what he is?” He’d once told me his neighbor was a vampire, but surely he wouldn’t be taking me to see a vampire?
“When you meet him. Let’s go.”
The walk down the mountain wasn’t bad, and we encountered several humans coming towards us. When I asked him about where they were coming from, he said, “There’s a nice little community at the base of the mountain — most have bought ancient Victorian mansions in dire need of restoration, while others are renting rooms in dilapidated old mansions. Many of them are artists and writers, and it’s a nice walk up to the falls when they need to get out of the house.”
We walked perhaps a half mile down a sidewalk when we reached the road, and Aaron led me to a tiny little office beside some train tracks. The ticket person smiled and said, “Good morning, Mister Drake.” He exchanged pleasantries with her, asked about her daughter, told her he needed two one-way tickets and gave her an account number by memory.”
As we stepped away from the ticket office he explained, “I have a company account, otherwise we’d have needed to walk up the mountain.”
I eyed the steep tracks, and the train car coming towards us, and asked, “Is this safe?”
His smile told me I was being funny, but he said, “Yes, it was put in before the turn of the previous century, and has been updated over the years with various safety features. It’s ingenious, really. The car going down the track is basically hauling the other up the mountain via a system of pulleys and counterweights. The recorded message in the car makes all kinds of statements about it being the steepest of its kind, and a few other things, but I’m pretty sure the one in Hong Kong that goes up to Victoria’s Peak makes the same claims. No matter, they’re both impressive.”
“You’ve been to Hong Kong?”
“Soph, there aren’t many large cities on the planet I haven’t visited, and I’ve lived in most of them at some point.”
I nodded, and then concentrated on navigating the odd steps inside the rail car. The floor was obviously situated for a steeper section of track, so it was a bit like walking through a distorted section of The Summerlands.
We sat in the very front, and were the only people in the car.
“A handful of people who live on the mountain park their car down here and take the Incline down in the morning and up in the evening,” Aaron explained. “Some workers, maids and whatnot, do the opposite, though, so I’m a little surprised we have the car to ourselves.”
We were both thinking the same thing, but he only said, “We’ll deal with whatever happens. I’m mostly recharged, and if you’re depleted I can easily give you some.”
I shook my head. I’d taken energy from the waterfall as I passed through, and then from the forest and living things as we walked through the woods. It was a peaceful area and I understood why creative types would want to live there.
Since no one was around, I told him, “Mabel said you need to treat me like a student when you’re teaching me, not a lover. Something about training me to hold energy would hurt, and you’d have to get over it?”
He nodded, his face grim. “I’d pretty much come to the same conclusion, but was arguing with myself about it. We’ll begin in the next day or so. How long did the two of you talk?”
“Not long, maybe five minutes? Perhaps ten.” I shrugged and stopped looking around, giving him eye contact as I said, “I called her by her name, and she chastised me but I saw the respect I garnered for it in her expression. She told me to be sure you and I were mated or married before we came back, because she wouldn’t look the other way twice.”
“My dragon considers us mated, now we have to convince
your
dragon, or your swan, or both.”
“I know we need to wait until we reach your house, but I have a million questions about that. I figured out how it happened, but what does it mean?”
“I don’t have those answers, Soph. Take a look at where we are, though. Enjoy the beauty of the moment.”
The track grew steeper, and steeper, and the station we’d left appeared smaller, and smaller. The view was phenomenal, and I recognized where we were both from my studies of satellite images of the area, and my flight to Aaron’s office because I could see the Tennessee River to our left and Missionary Ridge in front of us.
“The area around Hecate’s temple!” I exclaimed in awe as I recognized the similarities. “The landscape resembles Chattanooga.”
“Yes, there’s a reason Chattanooga was one of the first major crossroads. When railroads were king you had to go through Chattanooga to get just about anywhere. Once airplanes took over, Atlanta gained that particular distinction.”
“So, our fight with the centaur and unicorn was on the other side of Missionary Ridge, basically?”
“Yes, and then you teleported us to Lookout Mountain, if they were called the same things over there.”
“How often does that happen? That the landscapes match?”
“Not often. This is a special area, though. Lots of ley lines as well as fault lines, and with the multiple mountain ranges plus the river? It isn’t surprising the two match up as well as they do.”
“Or that so many powerful supernaturals chose to live here?
He shook his head and gave a wry grin. “Possibly. We aren’t sure.”
The train car came to a stop and we stood and walked up the steps and onto the platform. We once again walked down a sidewalk on the side of the road, and before long I could see what looked like a fort or castle at the end of the street. When I asked about it, he told me “It’s the entrance to Point Park.” He stopped, opened a gate, and motioned me in as he said, “This is my house.”
A man was sitting on the steps of a very large brick house, and I stopped. However, Aaron smiled and asked the man, “I assume this means we’ve been invited next door?”
The man nodded without saying anything, and Aaron motioned me to a gate between the houses.
No one spoke as we made our way across the yard, through the gate, and across another yard to another equally impressive house.
The man held the door open for us and told Aaron, “He’s in the downstairs study. You know the way.”
Aaron took my hand as he nodded to the man and said, “If you could arrange for snacks, it would be much appreciated.”
“Already taken care of. Word travels quickly and Abbott knew you’d need sustenance.”
We walked down the stairs and through several closed doors, each guarded by some variety of shifter. All seemed to be expecting us, and opened the next door as we neared. When we finally walked into the windowless study I was intrigued with all of the security, and why someone would need to be practically buried this far into the side of the mountain, as the house was obviously much larger than what could be seen above ground.
As we stepped into what looked like a combination office and den, a distinguished looking man stepped towards the door.
“Abbott,” Aaron said to the man, “I’d like to introduce you to Sophia Siyanko. Sophia, this is Abbott Hamilton, the Master Vampire of most of the Southeastern United States.”
Vampire? I worked hard not to panic as I looked at Aaron and said, “You realize Swans are like…” I hesitated, unsure it would be wise to finish my sentence.
“Like candy to a vampire?” Abbott the vampire asked with a smile. “Or, some would say like the finest wine, or a nice aged cheese. Nevertheless, you’re safe in my presence.”
He offered his hand and I shook it, surprised. I was used to the people in power kissing my hand and then talking around me as if I weren’t in the room. No one ever offered me the respect of a handshake.