The Spinner and the Slipper (13 page)

The men-at-arms paused as they reached the bottom steps, blinking hard against disbelief. Could it be true? Was it possible that this strange, tall man could manifest out of thin air right before their eyes?

“Not another step!” the oak-leaf man declared, drawing a sword from his belt, a blade which had been hidden by magic until that moment.

The guards hesitated. Then, as though coming to a joint decision, they charged, their lances aimed at the stranger’s heart. But in a single smooth motion the oak-leaf man whirled, and the heads of all those lances, cut clean away, fell in a clatter upon the floor. The men-at-arms stood holding nothing more than shortened poles. One guard tried to use his as a club, but his foe kicked him hard in the stomach, sending him sprawling to his back.

The oak-leaf man turned then to Eliana and swept the mask from his face. She gazed into those brilliant green eyes and . . . and . . .

Something amazing took place!

Her mother’s love, contained in physical form both in the necklace and the ring, burned bright, filling her up from the inside out. But another love blazed even brighter.

The combined tears of a mortal maid and a faerie man, mingled together in perfect purity. The tears she had shed in heartbreak—the tears he had shed in his need to mend her broken heart.

The eyes of Eliana and the nameless faerie met across that little distance between them. And each saw home in the other’s gaze.

Eliana tossed her own mask aside and gathered up her golden skirts. Oblivious to all else—to the roaring of the king, to the screams of her stepmother, to the amazed voices of all the gathered crowd—she sprang forward and caught the nameless faerie by both hands. Tears fell from her eyes and from his eyes as well, and as she put her face close to his, those tears mingled and shone like the most brilliant of crystals, but full of life.

King Oberon’s enchantment broke. She knew who he was.

“
Dienw
,” she said, laughing through her tears. She reached up to cup his cheek in her palm. “I name you
Dienw
, for you were nameless, but now you are no longer. Thus I name you, my love, and I claim you . . . forever!”

He caught her in his arms, pressing her to his heart. Even as he did so, a powerful whirlwind spiraled down from the high ceiling above, dowsing all the candles and plunging the room into darkness. The assembled guests screamed, and many covered their faces, while others stared into the center of that maelstrom, where they saw the golden girl and her true love, holding each other close, caught up into the air itself, their hair and garments streaming.

“Seize her! Seize her!” King Hendry shouted. But it was much too late for that.

When the wind died away into no more than a whisper, the whole ballroom was as dark as a cave but for one pinpoint of brilliant light. A halo of white surrounded the perfect form of one small, gleaming glass slipper.

But Eliana and Dienw were gone.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Home

At first Eliana was aware of nothing beyond the roaring rush in her ears and the spinning, spiraling sensation of an upward fall—a weird experience unlike anything she had ever imagined. But as frightful moments passed, she became conscious of her true love’s arms around her, holding her through this tumultuous journey. She felt his heartbeat against her cheek, felt the pressure of his hands on her back. She even thought she heard his voice murmuring into the top of her head, “Hold on, Eliana. We are almost there . . .”

Then suddenly the whirlwind ceased and Eliana’s feet planted on solid ground, one foot still clad in the glass slipper, one bare, so that she stood at an awkward angle.

She stood on the toes of her bare foot the next second, however, as her true love—her Dienw—caught her up and kissed her. And such a kiss it was! Full of purity and passion combined like their tears, a kiss that quite took away her breath. When he released her, she laughed then caught his face between her hands and gave him a sweet kiss of her own.

“Well, I think that will be
enough
of
that,
” a thunderous voice boomed.

A spike of dread shot through Eliana’s spine, and she pulled back from Dienw, whirling to face that voice, which she recognized at once. She had heard it once before, after all, back in the mortal world. Memory crashed down upon her, memory of a warlike figure bowed over her, mighty hands clutching her face. Memory of that same dreadful voice uttering a powerful faerie curse . . .

Dienw’s hands caught Eliana by the upper arms and drew her against him. She took courage from his presence at her back. “My king,” the faerie captain said, “this is my beloved Eliana. She has named and claimed me as her own, even as I hoped.”

Eliana’s blinking eyes took in her surroundings. She saw a court much grander, much larger, than any of the sights she had glimpsed at Craigbarr. And so much stranger! Chandeliers of pure crystal hung from the high ceilings, lit not by candles but by the gleaming crystals themselves. The floor at her feet was of polished marble inlaid with countless precious stones in patterns of the Hunt and the Dance and all the mad games best enjoyed by Oberon’s court.

But more awful and beautiful than the surroundings themselves were the people—hundreds of strange, staring eyes in the faces of the most glorious assembly ever conceived. Some sprouted antlers from their foreheads, some antenna. Some blinked at her with faceted eyes like gemstones. They did not wear the gaudy finery Eliana had witnessed in the mortal world, for why should they ever want to? Their own beautifully proportioned limbs and exquisite faces were adornment enough, so they wore very simple robes of starlight and moonlight and moss and leaves. Eliana’s shining gold gown—spun though it was by faerie magic—seemed somehow tawdry in this setting.

She wished she could turn and hide her face in Dienw’s chest. And yet . . . and yet another small part of her—a part growing stronger by the minute—did not fear these people, bizarre though they may at first seem. For a secret piece of her heart responded to the sight with a faint little whisper, saying
These are
your
people, Eliana . . .

More beautiful than all his subjects was the king himself on his high throne of antlers. He stood up now and descended the broad dais steps, his robes flowing behind him like billowing clouds. Eliana wanted to shut her eyes at the dread of his approach; but she bravely faced him, drawing strength from Dienw at her back.

“So you have won her heart,” said Oberon, smiling grimly, a glint in his eye. “Well done, my captain. And I have fulfilled my part of our bargain as well and brought her here to my court.”

“We shall be married at once,” Dienw said. Eliana felt her heart swell with joy at the confidence of his voice.

But Oberon’s smile grew and his eye glinted still more brightly. “Ah, but are you not forgetting something? Will you so easily dismiss my sacred law?”

Dienw’s fingers tightened on Eliana’s arms. She felt the fear that rippled through his spirit, and her own soul trembled in response, though she did not know why.

“No mortal may set foot in the Court of the Faerie King and live!” Oberon declared, flinging up his arm and pointing a long finger directly at Eliana’s heart. “The penalty for such a breach is death. So this girl—this infiltrator of my world—must forfeit her life!”

Out of the shadows, dark figures moved. Figures in strange armor, holding strange weapons, closed in upon the two standing in the center of the court hall. Eliana drew a sharp breath, her heart stopping with a jarring thud against her breastbone. Dienw, quicker than thought, moved her around behind him and drew his sword once more. But he was only one against so many! Eliana had seen him fight mortals with ease, but could he fight off all of his own kind?

“No, you mustn’t!” she exclaimed, catching hold of his shoulder. “I don’t want you to die as well!”

Dienw shot a glance down at her, his whole heart shining in his face. “Do you think I want to live without you now?”

Before Eliana could answer, the whole of the hall rang with bright, bell-like laughter. That laughter echoed against the walls and pillars, dancing down from the ceiling itself. At first Eliana thought that the whole court had erupted into mirth at the prospect of her looming fate. But then she realized that this laugh belonged to one person only.

A great golden woman as tall as the king himself shouldered her way through the dark, warlike figures, dismissing them with little waves of her hand. “Oh, be off with you! Be off at once!” she cried merrily. “Go find some goblins to stick with those long lances!”

King Oberon folded his arms, scowling at the golden lady. “What now, woman?” he snarled. “I’ve honored my part of the bargain. But it’s not my fault if you and my captain forgot the law in the midst of all your scheming!”

“Sweetest love,” Titania cried, approaching her husband and clasping her hands theatrically over her heart. “Do you really think me such a simpleton as that? Take a moment and look at the girl properly. Look at her face! And if that is not enough to remind you, look at the necklace she wears and the ring on her finger. Look at them, husband of mine! Look at them closely!”

Oberon’s scowl deepened into such crevices and crags, his face was all but transformed. He turned from his wife and marched across the floor to tower over Eliana and the captain. Dienw reluctantly stood a little to one side so as not to obstruct his master’s view of the girl and her humble adornments.

The king looked. And then he stared. And then he gasped out loud, uttering a faintly spoken exclamation: “By all the Merry Dancers!”

Titania drew up beside him, taking him by the arm. “Ah! So you do remember,” she purred. “You remember that chain spun from pure sunlight. You remember that band woven from pure fire. You remember those gifts you yourself gave to your sister, all those ages ago . . .”

His sister? Eliana blinked, closing her hand over the necklace upon which Oberon’s gaze was fixed. “These were my mother’s,” she said quietly but firmly.

“Yes,” Titania said, turning her magnificent smile upon Eliana for the first time. “Your faerie mother—Princess Orrla, sister of King Oberon.”

Oberon blinked. There were tears in his eyes, though they did not fall. “Orrla . . . She was lost to me when she chose to abandon her own kind to marry a mortal.”

“And here stands her half-mortal daughter,” Titania said. “Half mortal and half faerie. And by the fey blood flowing in her veins, she is perfectly welcome here in your court!” With that she laughed again, her ringing, brilliant laugh that set the stars to dancing. She caught her kingly husband in her arms, whirling him to face her and declaring for all his court to hear, “I do believe I’ve won this game, sweet husband of mine!”

The king’s face reddened, turning so crimson that his skin might almost have melted away. Then suddenly his laugh joined with the laughter of his wife, a deep, rolling undertone to her brightness. He kissed her soundly then declared in a loud voice, “You, my lovely tyrant, are the finest wife a man ever had . . . if simultaneously the most bothersome!”

The whole court erupted in enormous cheers. Even the dark, warlike figures threw off their shadows, shining in silver armor and pounding their lance staves upon the floor as they shouted joyous congratulations to their captain. All of those voices mingled together in a huge, echoing chorus of mirth and well-wishing.

But Eliana found her own sphere smaller and more beautiful by far, when Dienw turned her to face him, holding her hands tightly in his and gazing into her eyes.

“Dearest Eliana,” he said softly, as if tasting her name for the first time.

“Lovely Dienw,” she whispered back. “I—I have no home now . . .” Pushing the words out in embarrassment, she asked, “Will you be my home?”

Mischief twinkled in the faerie captain’s eyes. “With all my heart, but I will need something in return, as before. You must give me your firstborn child.”

“What on earth do you mean?”

“I mean that I love you with all the love a man ever had to offer,” said he. Gently kissing the back of her hand, he knelt on the marble ground, barely containing his silly grin. “I want your firstborn child to be mine. And your second, and your third, and every other child you have to be ours. Eliana, will you be my wife, my love, my home?”

“Yes, absolutely, yes!” she cried, and wrapped her arms around him, holding him close. “Of course I will, my Dienw!”

DIWEDD Y STORI

The wedding of the miller’s daughter and the faerie captain was thrown after a faerie fashion with touches of mortal tradition. Whereas fey women wear wedding gowns of many colors, Eliana wore only white. Instead of adorning herself in many brilliant flowers, she wore a simple garland of marigolds.

She and Dienw said their vows, some in a language she did not know, then shared a kiss to seal those vows for all time. Everyone who attended their wedding could see that their love was a love that would last through the centuries.

A few days later, as Dienw escorted Eliana around Oberon’s palace, helping her to become adjusted to her new surroundings, they climbed the stairs to the tower where the crystal ball sat atop a pedestal.

“What is this?” Eliana asked her husband.

“It is for watching over the goings-on in the mortal world,” he replied.

She gave him a wry smile. “You mean spying?”

“
Observing
,” he answered with a grin.

“What’s happening now?”

When Dienw breathed upon the surface and the crystal had fogged then cleared, it revealed down inside a scene Eliana recognized at once. It was the ballroom at Craigbarr! She realized that she was looking upon everything that happened immediately after she and Dienw escaped in the whirlwind.

“Time is different in this realm,” Dienw whispered to her in explanation. “When we transported to Oberon’s court, we leaped not only across leagues of land but across leagues of time as well. Though a week has gone by for us, only moments have transpired back in Craigbarr.”

Eliana watched as servants scrambled to relight the chandeliers and the general panic subsided. Then Prince Ellis, his face full of fear and wonder, picked up her lost glass slipper and brought it back to the king. King Hendry, brimming with wrath at having his will so thwarted, took that slipper, held it above his head, and declared that they would search the whole kingdom over, and the maiden whose foot fit that slipper would become the prince’s bride . . . like it or not!

Immediately a garish figure pushed its way through the throng. Eliana recognized her stepmother dragging Bridin and Innis in her wake. “Let them try! Let them try!” she demanded.

King Hendry, though his lip curled with distaste at the sight of the trio, could not very well back down on his word so recently spoken. So Bridin and Innis were each given a chance. Try as they would, however, Bridin’s feet were too long and Innis’s feet too wide. Mistress Carlyn burst into angry tears, and she and her daughters were ordered from the premises at once.

So they would return to the mill, Eliana thought, humbled and disappointed. And yet . . . and yet, perhaps Innis would marry Grahame after all. And maybe Bridin would learn at last to stand up against her overbearing mother. Though Mistress Carlyn would live on in disappointment and dissatisfaction, Eliana hoped that her mouse-like stepsisters might find their own ways and make good lives for themselves.

Following the dismissal of Mistress Carlyn and her girls, every other eligible young lady at the ball wanted to try on the slipper. However, the glass—formed so carefully from Eliana’s and her true love’s tears—had been made to fit only one foot in all the worlds.

“What a shame they’ll never find you!” Dienw laughed and kissed his bride. Clearly the captain did not feel sorry at all.

Eliana peered back into the crystal, her lips pursed in thought. “Could you make the slipper fit someone else?”

“I suppose. Did you have anyone in mind?”

Standing on tiptoe, Eliana whispered a name in Dienw’s ear, though there was no one around to hear. He chuckled, delighted at her suggestion and, with a promise to return in a moment, vanished.

He returned soon after, panting a little, and indicated the crystal ball. “Watch now!” he urged.

Eliana stared eagerly into the crystal.

As all the noble ladies tried and failed to fit their feet into that slipper, Prince Ellis stood to one side, his expression tired and sulky. Then suddenly his face lit up with a mingling of slyness and pleasure. He called out to someone Eliana could not see.

Martha appeared on the scene, looking nervous and shaken and so small among all those fine ladies!

“Here,” said Ellis, taking the slipper in his hands and kneeling before the maid. “I think you should give this a try.”

“Oh, Prince Ellis!” Martha exclaimed, pressing her hand to her heart. “I wouldn’t dare!”

“Nonsense,” said he, with a glance at his kingly father. “You are an eligible maiden, are you not?”

So saying, he slipped Martha’s work shoe off her foot and replaced it with the shining slipper.

It fit perfectly.

Prince Ellis leapt to his feet, catching Martha by the hand. “I think,” he said with a winning smile that transformed his face from sulky to truly handsome, “that
you
would make a perfect princess!”

The scene faded then cleared again. Eliana, blinking back joyful tears, peered down upon the mortal marriage of the prince and the housemaid. And there stood King Hendry, looking like a man caught in a bear trap, and beside him his queen, wearing a gown of spun gold and beaming cheerfully at her new daughter-in-law.

“I believe they might very well all live happily ever after,” Dienw said, hugging his wife from behind and kissing her cheek. Then he laughed and shook his head. “Except for King Hendry, that is.”

“Do you know?” said Eliana, taking one of his hands and pressing it in both of hers. “I think you might be right.”