No Ordinary Fairy Tale, page 42
part #0 of No Ordinary Fairy Tale Series
Linden was taken aback. Where was the Empress getting all this information? Surely the Blackwings hadn’t observed all that from one brief flight over the Oakenwyld . . . but there was only one other possibility, and her mind balked at the thought.
“What a wretched existence,” remarked the Empress, flicking dust off the arm of her carved throne. “If it were not for your willful attachment to humans in spite of all Jasmine’s attempts to enlighten you, I should feel quite sorry for you all. But as it is . . .”
“Why?” Linden burst out. “Why do you hate humans? When you depend on them for so much—”
“I do not hate them,” said the Empress coolly. “Any more than you hate the sparrows and rabbits you eat for your dinner. But I do not befriend my dinner, either. And it does not please me to see my subjects degrading themselves by keeping company with humans, telling them our secrets, and encouraging them to waste their creativity on their own kind, when those talents would be so much better used by us. And speaking of which . . .”
She murmured a word Linden could not hear and made a beckoning gesture. Immediately Rob stepped out of the shadows, his guitar slung across his back. He bowed to the Empress, then sat down at her feet and began to play, paying no attention to Linden at all.
“My court musician,” said the Empress fondly, looking down at him. “And my most loyal subject – are you not, my Robin?”
“Your Imperial Majesty,” said Rob, “to serve you is my only pleasure.” There was no trace of sarcasm in his tone, and Linden felt a shiver of unease.
“My Robin is also an accomplished spy,” the Empress continued. “The night you first came to Sanctuary, he saw you rescue the human boy from Veronica, and set out to discover why you had done it. Imagine his surprise when he learned that you were one of the Forsaken! I could scarcely believe it myself, when he brought his report to me.” She smiled indulgently. “Of course Veronica was furious with him for stealing her prey, but she soon calmed down when I told her he had acted on my behalf. She appreciates cunning, though she has yet to master it.”
Brought his report to me . . . Had Rob betrayed them after all? Linden’s stomach convulsed, and her hand clenched on the Stone she still carried in her pocket.
“Indeed, if not for dear Robin’s vigilance, I might never have guessed that there was treachery breeding among my subjects,” the Empress went on, her fingers twining idly in Rob’s hair. “But he has insinuated himself into their very midst, gained their confidence, so that when the time is ripe I can gather them and destroy them in one blow. And, of course, he has also met with your new Queen and tested her powers, that I might know precisely how many soldiers I will need to send out to add the Oakenwyld to my empire. The answer being, of course, hardly any,” and she let out a merry little laugh.
No, thought Linden numbly. It can’t be. Not after all he’s done to help us . . .
Then Rob gave the Empress one of his slow smiles, and Linden’s last flicker of hope died. Surely no one could look so adoringly at a woman he hated?
“You never know, My Lady,” drawled Rob. “I may be a rebel myself.”
The Empress smiled back tolerantly, as though this were an old joke. “He will have his fun,” she said to Linden. “But what he and I both know is that I own his very soul. Do you know what sets him apart from faeries like Veronica? Poor child, she strives to be like him without knowing his secret: she has enticed one human after another, and yet the talent she steals from them always fades away. But Robin received his gift by tasting the blood of a human musician, murdered for his sake. He took that cup willingly from my hand, knowing full well what was in it; so to deny me, he would have to deny himself.”
Linden’s head reeled, and she clutched at the bars of her cage. She had trusted Rob, believed in him – and he had done this? Had he sent them to look for the Stone of Naming on the Empress’s behalf, so that she could extinguish all hope of resistance to her power? If so, it was a good thing that Linden had not admitted to finding the Children, let alone getting the Stone from them. As far as the Empress and even Rob knew, their mission had failed . . .
You mean it hasn’t? said a cynical voice in her head that sounded painfully like Timothy, and Linden buried her face in her hands. It was true: all her efforts to save the Oakenfolk had been futile. Rob had proved a traitor, and Garan a coward. Even the Stone in her pocket was useless, for the secret rebellion against the Empress was no secret at all, and soon it would be stamped out.
Oh, Great Gardener, she wept brokenly. Help me, please – I’m so afraid, and I don’t know what to do.
But even as she prayed Rob strummed his guitar, while the Empress tapped her fingers and smiled. And in all the whispering echoes of that once-holy place, Linden could hear no answer.
Seventeen
Veronica crouched in front of Timothy, one slim hand tipping up his chin. She inspected his nose where the door had struck it and said, “How fragile you humans are. Is that blood?”
“Linden,” said Timothy thickly, pulling away. “Where is she?”
“With the Empress, of course,” Veronica told him. “And Rob is with them, too – you remember Rob, I am sure?”
He shrugged, not wanting her to guess how much he knew, or cared. But his spirit leaped at the news. The Empress had only to turn her back for an instant, and Linden could slip Rob the Stone . . .
“It is a shame you didn’t let me take your music at the beginning,” Veronica went on, stroking his hair back from his face. “It would have made everything so much easier.”
Timothy clenched his hands. He could feel the calluses on his fingertips, earned from countless hours of practice; he wanted suddenly, and very badly, to play again.
“I could bring you a guitar,” she murmured, as though she had read his mind. “Remember the way you played for me, the first night we met?”
He remembered it vividly, for all that he’d spent the last couple of days trying not to. In spite of everything he knew about Veronica, he couldn’t forget how it had felt to play with her by his side. Before she’d pushed him, he’d been a pretty good guitarist for his age; but that night he’d been a prodigy, a genius.
“The Empress doesn’t want your music,” she went on in the same soft, enticing tone. “Why should she, with the finest musician in all Faery as her favorite? But I—”
Timothy frowned. “You mean Rob?”
Veronica’s lips pursed irritably. “Of course I do. Who else? But he can play as well as he likes, whenever he pleases; somehow the Empress gave him that power. Whereas you and I . . .” Her fingers traced the shape of his ear. “We need to work together.”
Rob, the Empress’s favorite? With a permanent gift of music that no other faery possessed? Dread knotted Timothy’s stomach, but Veronica went on speaking:
“What if we were to make a bargain, you and I? You see, I can’t take your music just now. It’s buried inside you, too deep for me to reach. I need to see the way your fingers move upon the strings, hear you play the melodies that belong to you alone, before I can touch your gift and make it shine. So . . .”
Her fingers drifted down the bridge of Timothy’s bruised nose. “I will bring you a guitar,” she continued, “and you will play it for me. It will be a performance such as you dreamed of last night, one that could not be surpassed if you lived a thousand years. And then, when I take your music, you will be grateful.”
“Sounds terrific,” said Timothy sardonically. “And once you’ve taken it, how long will it last you? A few days? A week?”
She shrugged, unfazed. “Better than never being able to play at all.”
“That’s a good way to put it,” Timothy told her. “Because you know what? That’s what I think, too. Almost anything would be better than not being able to play. So if that’s your idea of a bargain—”
“Oh, no.” Her eyes widened in an unconvincing attempt at innocence. “That was only your part of it. I haven’t even told you mine. First, I take your music . . .”
She stopped and glanced back at the door, her expression furtive. “And then?” Timothy prompted.
Veronica leaned toward him until her lips almost brushed his ear. She whispered: “And then I’ll let you go.”
•••
“I have been thinking, Linden of the Oak,” said the Empress, rising from her throne and walking back toward the cage. “Misguided though your attitude to humans may be, you have shown such loyalty toward your fellow faeries as I have seldom seen. You have endured much hardship on your people’s account, with little prospect of reward, and I find that admirable. So . . . I will make you an offer.”
“Offer?” Linden scrubbed at her burning eyes. “What kind of offer?”
“It is this: if you consent to my terms, I will allow your people to continue living in the Oak as long as it pleases them to do so. I will even send some of my own servants to increase your numbers and make you strong. Your lost magic will be restored, and you will have everything you desire . . . on three conditions.”
She trailed her fingers around the edge of Linden’s cage, spinning it gently as she spoke. “One: the Oakenfolk will all swear fealty to me by each giving me one drop of her blood. Two: you will no longer associate with humans. You will not linger in their company, nor aid them, nor befriend them; none of you will ever again look upon a human with love, nor take a human child and raise it as your own, but will remain true to your own kind. And three: every faery infant born in the Oak must be brought to me within its first few years of life, that I may assure myself of your children’s loyalty just as I am assured of yours.” She stopped the cage and looked at Linden questioningly. “Is that not generous?”
Linden felt as though her chest was being squeezed between two giant fingers. Her breath came quick and shallow, and a rushing noise filled her ears. Everything the Oakenfolk needed . . . she had never dreamed the Empress would make such an offer. Of course the terms were not ideal, but if every other hope was gone . . . She put her head in her hands, overwhelmed. Could she really afford to say no?
“Perhaps you doubt my goodwill,” the Empress said. “But consider: have I ever done you any real harm? I commanded the Blackwings to capture you, not to kill you; and even the fire I kindled beneath your cage was only illusion – meant to frighten you into telling me the truth, no more. The human boy I have locked away for safekeeping, but . . .”
“Timothy!” Linden burst out. “Please don’t hurt him. This was all my doing, he doesn’t deserve—”
“Of course not,” said the Empress in a soothing tone. “I assure you, he is unharmed; no one has so much as spoken a harsh word to him. All I wish is to remove his memories of the past few days, so that he cannot betray the secrets of our people. Then I will set him free . . . just as soon as you accept my terms.”
Linden let out her breath. That didn’t sound too bad. Perhaps Timothy would be happier not remembering Sanctuary, or Veronica, or the dangers and hardships that had followed. And it would be a small price to pay if she could go back to Queen Valerian bringing good news of the Oakenfolk’s deliverance. Surely even Knife would understand . . .
Knife.
The image of her foster mother flashed through Linden’s mind, and at once she realized how foolish her temptation to give in to the Empress had been. Knife had dared to love a human, and had given up her faery heritage for his sake. Her very existence was a denial of the Empress’s creed, and all the Oakenfolk knew it. The only way the Empress could respond to such a threat would be to tear Knife and Paul apart, or else kill them both . . .
Never.
“Great Gardener, give me courage,” she whispered, and then she stood up straight and faced the Empress. “No,” she said. “You will not have our blood, or our fealty, or the service of our children, and we will not turn our backs on our human friends. If we die, we die. But we will not surrender the Oak to you without a fight.”
The Empress’s face hardened. She smacked the flat of her hand against the cage, sending it swinging high into the air. “It is a fight you will lose,” she snapped, as Linden clung to the bars in dizzy terror. “And when you and your human friend stand before me for judgment, you will both regret that you did not accept my offer. Robin!”
Rob stopped playing, set his guitar aside and looked up at her expectantly.
“Fetch the human boy,” she said. “Bring him to me.”
“As you will, Your Imperial Majesty.” He rose and bowed, then stepped towards the door.
“Oh, and Robin?”
Rob turned, brows lifted in a wordless question.
“Send word to all the faeries in the city that I wish them to attend me at once – and be sure to include your fellow would-be rebels. Clearly, it has been too long since my people witnessed an execution.”
Linden’s heart stuttered. Her eyes flicked towards Rob, silently begging him to do something, say something, to reassure her that he was on their side. If he hesitated or looked troubled, even for an instant . . .
But the only thing that crossed Rob’s face was a smile. “Of course, My Empress,” he said, and went out.
•••
“I don’t believe you,” Timothy told Veronica flatly, though his pulse was galloping. “After the Empress went to all this trouble to capture me, you really think she won’t mind if you just let me go?”
“Of course she would mind,” Veronica said with a roll of her eyes that made her look almost human. “If she knew I was doing it. But you are going to escape all by yourself – or so it will appear. Look.” She unzipped the front pocket of her fitted jacket and pulled out a small brown envelope. Opening the flap carefully with her long fingernails, she shook out a loop of leather cord and then used it to draw out the rest of the packet’s contents.
It was a cross, formed from two square-edged nails bound together with copper wire. The thong went through a loop at the top of the cross, so it could be worn as a necklace.
It was also, unmistakably, made of iron.
“Where did you get that?” demanded Timothy. He grabbed at it, but Veronica whisked it out of his reach.
“I found it under one of the beds upstairs, months ago,” she said, dangling it teasingly in front of him. “One of our human guests must have left it behind, and I thought it might prove useful one day. If you wish, I will give it to you, to use in making your escape – but you must give me your music first. Is it a bargain?”
Timothy sucked in a breath and let it out slowly. His eyes followed the cross as it swung back and forth at the end of the leather cord. It had to be as potent a weapon against magic as the key he’d lost, if not better . . . and what good would his music do him, if the Empress was going to kill him anyway?
“All right,” he said in a rough voice. “It’s a bargain.”
“No, it is not,” said Rob unexpectedly from the doorway, and the triumph froze on Veronica’s face. She whirled, the cross still dangling from her hand.
Timothy saw the opportunity at once, and went for it. He lunged – but Rob shoved him back and grabbed Veronica, hauling her up against the wall. His hands gripped hers and raised them high, swinging the cross close to her cheek.
“Rebelling against the Empress?” he said silkily. “Conspiring with a human to defy her commands? I wouldn’t have expected it of you, Veronica.”
Her lips parted, but she did not speak. Only her eyes moved, white-ringed with fear, following the shallow arc of the cross as it dangled beside her head.
“On the other hand,” remarked Rob, “I find the irony amusing. What will you give me not to tell the Empress? If you could offer Timothy such an ingenious bargain, I’m sure you must have something even more interesting to propose to me.”
Veronica licked her lips, the first nervous gesture Timothy had ever seen from her. “I wasn’t really going to give it to him,” she said.
“Oh, were you not?” The iron cross inched nearer to her face. “The truth, Veronica.”
“It is the truth!” Her voice rose to a shriek. “I only meant to trick him into giving me his music! I serve the Empress! I would never have let him go!”
“I see,” said Rob, plucking the necklace from her grasp. “Well, then, you will just have to miss the execution,” and with that he tapped her on the forehead, and she collapsed unconscious on the floor.
Timothy stood warily in the center of the room, watching Rob. “Execution?” he said.
“I am here to fetch you at the Empress’s command,” Rob told him. “You and Linden are to be put to death. So I suspect you will need this more than I will.” He stepped around Veronica’s motionless body, took Timothy firmly by the wrist, and let the cross fall into his hand.
“What?” said Timothy.
“Do not wear it openly,” Rob said, “but keep it against your skin. It will be of little use as a weapon with so many of my people around you, but it will shield you from the Empress’s power until we can find a way to free Linden.”
So Rob was on their side after all. Timothy had begun to doubt it, but the cross in his hand was proof enough. He looked down at himself helplessly for a moment – T-shirt too thin, no pockets in the boxers – then bent and tucked the cross into the side of his sock, folding the thick ankle band down to hide its telltale shape.
“I wish that your quest had succeeded,” said Rob. “Then I and my allies could fight openly in your defense. Still, we will do what we can.”
Timothy hesitated, then took the plunge. “We didn’t fail,” he said. “Linden has the Stone of Naming in her pocket.”
