Wayfarer

Eighteen

Timothy sat in the back parlor at Oakhaven, gazing out across the garden. Two days had passed since he and Linden escaped from Sanctuary: They’d huddled in an alleyway for a miserable hour or so until her magic returned, and then she’d turned them both invisible and they’d taken the train home. They’d arrived on Paul and Peri’s doorstep, filthy, starving, and half dead with cold-but they were alive.

The only question was, for how long?

Resignedly Timothy opened his Bible to the fifth chapter of Matthew and reached for his notebook. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven….

He had just started scribbling down some thoughts for the essay he owed the dean when a spasm went through his hand, and his pen tumbled to the floor. He was trying to make his nerveless fingers pick it up again when he heard Paul’s voice from behind him.

“You all right, Tim?”

“I’m fine,” Timothy said quickly, sitting up as his cousin rolled into the room. “Just an aftershock from the Empress’s spell.” It had frightened him the first few times, but by now the spasms were weaker and less frequent, and he was pretty sure they’d soon go away. Still, it was a chilling reminder that if he hadn’t been touching iron when the Empress blasted him, he’d be dead right now.

“Let’s say we just call her Jasmine,” said Paul, wheeling the chair around to face him. “I don’t think she deserves the title, do you? And if Rob can get enough rebels on his side, she won’t be holding on to it much longer anyway.”

“That’s just the thing,” said Timothy reluctantly. “I don’t know if he can. I don’t even know if he and his followers are still alive. For all we know the Emp-I mean, Jasmine-could be coming here with an army to take over the Oak right now, and there’s not much any of us can do about it.”

Paul was silent, his fingers steepled against his lips. Then he said, “True. In which case maybe we should just call your parents and get you on a plane to Uganda before things get any worse.”

“Are you joking?” demanded Timothy. “I’m not going to run away and just leave you all here!”

“Why not? You’ve done everything you can to help the Oakenfolk, Tim, and a good deal more than anyone expected of you. Believe me, Peri and I appreciate all you’ve been through for Linden’s sake. But I’m still your guardian, and I’d be a pretty poor one if I let you hang about in the middle of a war zone.”

Timothy dropped his head into his hands, fingers furrowing up his hair. To be forced to confront his parents on such short notice, when he still hadn’t decided what to tell them, would be bad enough…but even worse was the thought of being thousands of miles from the Oakenwyld, not knowing if his friends there were dead or alive.

“I want to stay,” he said huskily.

Paul frowned, but then Peri’s voice echoed in from the corridor. “I seem to remember another young man who refused to run away when his life was in danger, too.”

She walked into the room and crouched beside Paul’s chair, laying both hands on his arm. “I know you feel responsible for Timothy, and so do I. But after all that’s happened, I think he’s got a right to choose where he wants to be.”

“That’s easy for you to say,” Paul retorted. “Unless you’re volunteering to call his parents and tell them their only son is dead?”

“No,” replied Peri, “but you won’t have to do it either. If Jasmine comes to Oakhaven, she’s hardly going to stop at just killing Timothy.”

Paul threw up his hands. “Oh, well, in that case there’s nothing to worry about. Good news, Tim! We’re all going to die together!”

His tone was sarcastic, but Peri put her arms around his shoulders and kissed his cheek, and when she let him go his mouth had pulled into a resigned smile. Timothy grinned back, feeling his own tension lift a little.

“I can think of worse ways to go,” he said.

Linden gazed out the slit that was all that remained of her bedroom window-Rob had done that, she remembered, and the thought was laced with regret. He’d risked so much to help them, and she’d never had the chance to say good-bye. Was he even still alive?

The garden below was somber with rain, the flower beds buried in black mulch, and the rose hedge a withered skeleton. All seemed quiet, but surely that couldn’t last. The Empress had escaped the battle at Sanctuary, and by now she must have recovered her powers, just as Linden had done. And the faeries who’d seen Jasmine’s true face, with its telltale lines of age, were just a tiny fraction of the many under her command. How long would it be before she gathered her forces and came back to take her revenge?

Linden leaned heavily against the windowsill. It seemed so wrong that it should end this way. The Oakenfolk still squabbling over who should be their next Queen, most of them still blind to the greater danger; Knife trapped in the Oakenwyld, her fate bound to the faeries’ even though she was no longer one of them; and Paul and Timothy, condemned for no greater crime than being human….

Sunk in gloomy reverie, she barely noticed when the whispering wind changed its tune. A gust swirled through the Oakenwyld, scattering twigs and long-dead leaves across the grass-and when Linden looked out the window again, the Oak was surrounded.

A bone of terror lodged itself in her throat. She jumped off the cot and pelted out of the room, shouting up the Spiral Stair, “Your Majesty!”

“Queen Valerian’s busy,” came Thorn’s irritable reply from two landings above. “What’s the matter?”

“They’re here,” gasped Linden, and dashed off down the Stair. The window-slits were too narrow for her to climb through, but she might be able to sneak out through the hedge tunnel, fly to the House, and warn Knife and Timothy. Yet even as she ran, a pounding noise reverberated through the Oak, like a heavy fist demanding entrance, and she realized it was already too late. They’d found the door in spite of all the glamours she’d put around it, and now…

She skidded to a halt in front of another window-slit, squinted out again-and immediately her fears drained away. The faeries outside were far too big to be Oakenfolk, that was true. But they were still less than half human size. Linden galloped down the last flight of the Spiral Stair, dashed to the Queen’s Gate, and heaved up the bar to let their visitors in.

The first through the door was Garan-but now he stood only a little taller than herself, and when she threw herself into his arms her exuberance nearly knocked him over. “You came! You came after all!” she cried, and he let out a surprised laugh.

“Get off me, you mad girl,” he said, detaching himself and holding her at arm’s length. But his eyes twinkled as he added, “Mind, had I known to expect such a welcome, I might have come sooner.”

Linden blushed and stepped back as the other Children of Rhys came in. There was the guard Garan had called Llinos, and a few others whose faces she had seen at the great council, including-Broch?

“But you-you were against us,” she stammered, looking up into that sharp, sardonic face. “You said-”

“I know what I said,” Broch cut in impatiently. “That it was for the Elders to decide how best to help you. But the Council is divided, and there have been nothing but arguments since you and the human boy left. And by the time Garan announced that he had given you the Stone of Naming and that the rest of us were cowards and traitors to our own kind, I’d heard enough shouting to last me the next two centuries, so I came.”

Linden looked at Garan in delight. “Did you really say that?”

“I am only sorry I could not say it earlier,” replied Garan, sounding a little gruff with embarrassment. “But I dared not draw attention to myself before I had safely given you the Stone. And I hoped that given time I might be able to persuade more of the Plant Rhys to support your cause-a hope that was not wholly in vain, as you can see.” He nodded respectfully to his companions. “We are only thirty-eight men, but we are yours to command.”

“What,” said Thorn’s flat voice from the Stair above, “in the name of all that’s green and growing-”

Linden whirled toward her, dancing with excitement. “The Children of Rhys, Thorn! They’ve come to help us!”

Thorn stalked around the last bend of the Stair and stopped, surveying Garan and his companions. Her gaze darted from one male faery to another, taking in their strong features and close-trimmed beards, the swords at their belts and the bows slung across their shoulders. Then she sat down slowly, her eyes glassy with disbelief, and for once she didn’t say anything at all.

“If we restore the magic Jasmine took from you,” said Garan as he and his followers stood before the Oakenfolk gathered in the Great Hall, “the task will cost us dearly of our own magical strength, and we will need several days to recover. We will never be as powerful as we once were, nor will your own magic be as great as that of the Empress and her followers-but yes, it can be done.”

Linden threw her arms around Wink and hugged her, and Thorn actually whooped before turning it into a cough. “We would be glad,” Valerian began-but Bluebell’s voice cut in:

“You forget yourself, Healer! We are not humans, to take from one another without giving in return: We are faeries, to whom a bargain is sacred. How dare we accept help from these strangers, when we have no means to repay them?”

The pleasure faded from Valerian’s face, and her gray eyes became downcast. “Bluebell is right,” she said. “Forgive me, I beg of you-I spoke too soon.”

“There is nothing to forgive,” said Garan, with a swift glance at Bluebell. “We did not come to you seeking wealth or goods that we could take back to our own land; rather, it is our hope that you will accept us as your subjects, and allow us to dwell among you. For by leaving the Gwerdonnau Llion we have made ourselves exiles, and if you do not give us a home, then I cannot think where I and my men will go.”

Valerian’s smile returned, wavering with emotion. She stepped forward and held out her hand to Garan.

“There is ample room for you all here,” she said. “And as Queen of the Oakenfolk I welcome you, with all my heart.”

Garan took Valerian’s hand and kissed it, then bent on one knee before her with head bowed and both arms spread wide. Immediately all the other men in his company did likewise, although Broch’s mouth gave a self-mocking twist as he went down.

Valerian looked back at the crowd of Oakenfolk behind her. No one moved, until Wink hurried forward and knelt as the Children of Rhys had done. Thorn joined her, and Campion quickly followed. One by one, and then in pairs and clusters, all the Oakenfolk knelt until only Bluebell and Mallow were left standing. And when after an uncomfortable pause the Chief Cook shrugged and bent her knee as well, Bluebell let out a little sob and collapsed to the floor beside her, defeated.

The Oakenfolk had acknowledged their rightful Queen at last.

The moon hung high over the Oakenwyld, bathing the garden in silvery light. Timothy stood on the veranda with Peri and Paul, watching as a line of tiny, winged figures emerged from the roots of the Oak and joined the waiting Children of Rhys on the lawn. Even from this distance it was easy to recognize Linden by her brown curls and the eager spring in her step; he waved to her, and she waved back.

He turned to Peri, wanting to ask her if they couldn’t go a little closer-but then he saw the wistful look on her face and swallowed the question.

Paul must have noticed his wife’s expression as well, because a moment later he said quietly, “You could ask them, you know.”

Peri did not take her gaze from the Oakenfolk. “Ask what?”

“To make you a faery again.”

That got her attention; she swung around to look at him, frowning. “What makes you think-”

“I don’t think,” said Paul, “I know. Of course you miss it sometimes; why wouldn’t you? I’m just saying that if the Children of Rhys have enough power to undo Jasmine’s spell on the Oakenfolk, maybe they have some to spare for you, too.” Then, as Peri looked troubled, he added gently, “It’s not as though I’m asking you to leave me. You’re still my wife, whether you can change size and do magic or not. But they’re your people.”

For a moment Peri did not reply; then her lips firmed, and she shook her head. “No,” she said. “If the Oakenfolk are going to survive, they’ll need every bit of power that Garan and his people can give them. Besides”-she took a deep breath-“I made my choice to become human fourteen years ago. I wouldn’t go back on it now, even if I could.”

“Not even if it meant you could fly again?” Paul asked.

Timothy held his breath, but to his surprise, Peri smiled. “Who says I can’t fly? The moment this business with the Empress is over, I’m buying an airplane ticket.” Then her face grew serious again and she said, “But truly, I wasn’t feeling sorry for myself. I was feeling sorry for them. Look at their faces.”

Timothy studied each of the faeries in turn, and he could see what Peri meant. Linden and Wink were both glowing with excitement, and even Thorn looked grudgingly pleased; but many of the other Oakenfolk seemed nervous, and a few-like Bluebell, and the hard-faced faery next to her, who had to be Mallow-appeared wary and even resentful about what was taking place.

“I’m afraid Valerian’s going to have her work cut out for her,” Peri said. “A lot of the Oakenfolk don’t like change…and now everything about their lives is changing at once.”

“But having the Children of Rhys join them, and getting their magic back again-it’s so obviously for the better,” said Timothy. “How can they object to that?”

“Because it’s new,” said Peri. “It’s different. It’s frightening. And no matter what happens now, there’s no way any of them can go back to the way things used to be.”

Timothy was silent, digesting her words. Then Paul said, “It looks like they’re about to start. Come on, let’s move a bit closer.”

By now Garan had shepherded all the faeries into a rough circle, arranging it so that all the Oakenfolk had at least one of the Children of Rhys beside them. As the last thin veil of cloud slid from the moon’s luminous face, he turned and addressed them:

“The time has come.” He stepped back beside Linden, holding out his hand to her; she took it, and stretched out her own hand to Wink on the other side. The other faeries hesitantly did likewise, and in a moment the whole circle was joined.

Linden’s heart pounded, and her breath came shallowly between her parted lips. She’d received magic from another faery before, but Amaryllis had been just one dying woman, and the Children of Rhys were strong and many. Would it hurt? What if one of the Oakenfolk panicked, or changed her mind at the last moment, and broke the circle?

“Linden,” murmured Wink in a pained tone, “you’re squeezing my fingers.”

“Sorry,” Linden whispered, and forced herself to relax.

Beside her Garan stood with eyes closed, his brow furrowed in concentration. For a long moment no one moved, and the Oakenwyld was eerily silent. Then Linden saw it: A glimmer of light on the far side of the circle, a slowly expanding radiance that spread from Broch to Thorn and Campion, from Llinos to Mallow and Bluebell…and now the magic was glowing around her too, tingling hot and cold as it swept over her skin and swirled into her muscles and bones. Amaryllis’s dying gift of glamour had thrilled her, but that had been a scant half share of a magic already weak with use and age. To compare it to the power flowing through her now…It was like comparing water to wine.

Still the energy built, until every pore in her body sang with it, and the circle of faeries blazed so bright she had to shut her eyes. The magic was too strong now, too much-any more, and she would faint, or explode-

Garan’s hand slackened in hers, and the light died abruptly as the circle wavered and broke. One after another, the Children of Rhys sagged to their knees and toppled onto the grass, unconscious.

The Oakenfolk all looked at one another, and Linden saw an apprehension on Valerian’s face that mirrored her own. Had the magic transfer worked, or not?

“Look!” came a hysterical-sounding voice from beside her, and she turned to see Wink spreading a length of shimmering, gold-toned silk between her outstretched hands-cloth that seemed to have spun itself out of nowhere. On the other side of the circle Campion had grown to human size and was regarding her far-off toes in amazement, while Thorn rubbed her hands at a bonfire she had kindled on the grass. Faery lights danced through the air; a cluster of violets pushed their way out of the cold ground and stood nodding in the midnight breeze; a roast fit for the Midwinter Feast floated by, so real-looking that Linden could almost smell it.

Jasmine’s curse was undone, and the Oakenfolk had their magic again.