She looked up at me with a faint smile. “Yeah, I guess so.”
No more preparations. We were ready. We flew off toward the center of town.
Finding the gate in the middle of town was easy: I just oriented myself toward the big glowing epicenter of the sky and flew toward it. Unfortunately, we also flew right into the middle of the Unseelie.
I didn’t realize until it was too late that they had the gate surrounded. The tear itself was no bigger than it had been: a glowing hole in the middle of the ancient madrone tree. We headed straight for it and when we landed on the dried grass, the Fae and other magikin swarmed out from the nearby buildings.
One of them took my broom away, another my bag, and a third ripped the nettle cloak off my back, while more held me by my arms. I heard a cry to my right and turned to see that they were holding down the others, too. I didn’t see cold iron on any of them, but there were so many that even Dandelion was overwhelmed. He looked back at me calmly and didn’t try to struggle against his captors.
From behind the tree, Morrigan and Mom stepped out with matching smirks. “You didn’t think it would be that easy?” Mom said with a laugh.
She held out her hand to one of the Fae guards, and he handed her my bag. She opened it up and found the little poppet I’d just made. “Shoddy construction,” she said with a shake of her head. “You really need to pay more attention to detail, Rosamunde. Witchcraft is not something that you can just throw together out of anything you have lying around. It takes proper tools and preparation.”
She dropped the poppet on the ground at her feet. A black blur of fur sprang out of the shadows and snatched it away: Menolly. The feline familiar slashed the poppet only twice with her claws, ripping the shredded t-shirt apart, and then she stood on top of it. Her bright yellow eyes stared back at me, flashing in the dim twilight.
Mom pointed at Ashleigh. “I’ve captured you before, too.” She smirked at me. “You have a habit of getting your friends in trouble. Where are the others? You didn’t bring the child Count and his little army?”
I shook my head. “I wouldn’t let you lay a finger on Glen. I’m here to take you down myself.”
“A pity, we could’ve resolved this so much faster if you were all in one place,” Morrigan said, stepping forward. She took the nettle cloak from another guard and laughed. “A kindergartener’s craft.” She ripped it apart with a single gesture and dropped the pieces on the ground, too. “This is who the guardian sends after me? A girl dressed in dirty weeds and a fop?”
She turned her gaze on Dandelion and approached him. With one long finger, she pulled the golden chain up out of his shirt, revealing the dragon scale amulet he wore. Then, with a yank, she broke the chain and pulled the necklace off of him.
“Without the guardian, you are nothing,” Morrigan said with a sneer. “Too foolish and too tarnished to earn a place in either court. You went to serve a wyrm instead, a dressed-up gatekeeper lurking at the fringes of true Fae society. I bet you don’t even remember your name anymore.” She cocked her head to one side. “Does it make you feel important to have a little job? But you failed at even that. I made it out of Faerie, and you can’t make me go back.”
She turned and spread her arms wide. “I have been cast down in Faerie, so I will rule this world instead. My magic will make the humans cower in fear. I shall be Queen again, and the Unseelie will serve me as their rightful ruler.”
Mom’s head snapped up. “I should’ve seen this coming. You promised an equal democracy for all of the races, but you never really wanted to give up the throne, did you?”
Morrigan threw back her head and laughed, high and shrill. “Did you truly believe that?” She turned to my mother with a wickedly curved smile. “All Fae desire power. We might give you a taste of it, but then we can also take it away.”
Morrigan flicked her hand out once in a dismissive gesture, and I felt the magic drain out of my mother. She seemed to shrivel up as it left her, aging ten years in the process, and then collapsed to the ground.
“Mom!” I cried out before I had time to think about what I was doing. Witchcraft was everything to my mother. I’d wanted to take her powers away, but to see her become a dried up husk frightened me. I struggled against the Fae who held me, but they held me fast.
Akasha was more successful. A wave of force radiated off of her and she ripped away from the single man who’d been holding her arms behind her back, and the force rippled out, knocking down several more Fae. In her rage she burst forward toward our mother, so fast that she blurred in my sight, and no one could stand in her way.
She knelt and cradled Mom on the ground. “I’m so sorry,” she sobbed. “I never should have left.”
I knew then what I had to do. They’d taken the necklace from Dandelion, but not me. I concentrated my magic on the scale itself and suddenly I felt strength flooding through me. In one gesture, I managed to shrug the Fae off of me, and then before I knew it, I was standing in front of the towering figure of Morrigan.
I broke the chain at my own neck and held the scale up before her face, where it suddenly began to glow even brighter. “You will go back,” I shouted, because it seemed that there was a howling in my ears. “We’ll send you back and never let you come here again.”
The light was so bright that it blinded me, and the wind was howling in my ears, but I thought that I also heard Morrigan screaming again, this time in pain and rage. I threw the scale at her and ran to my sister.
“Come on!” I said, pulling her to her feet. “We have to close the gate now! Leave Mom for a minute!”
She struggled for a moment, more strong than I’d ever felt her before, but then she followed me. I pulled her toward the tree and put her hands on the edges of the gate, squeezing them together. “Just think about closing it!” I called over the howling. “You can do it!”
Together, we pushed, and it felt as if the whole world was wrenching away from us. For a moment, I thought that force would blow us away, or that the world was flipping upside down and we would fly off into the sky. But I could feel Akasha pushing, and I pushed too, and then slowly the edges of the tear began to close inwardly.
Morrigan’s shrieks were growing so loud I thought they would make us all deaf. I closed my ears to them, and I closed my eyes against the light, and concentrated everything on pushing that gate closed.
Then somewhere in the middle of the chaos, I blacked out.
35
Akasha Steps Up
Akasha
Although Rosa tried to help me, she didn’t have much power on her own. But her hands guided me where to go and then I saw that we could just physically push the gate closed. When she blacked out, I closed the gate on my own, and while it was closing, I used my power to send back everything and everyone that did not belong in our world. Morrigan, her Unseelie Fae, the crow tengu and centaurs and goblins and all the rest, all flew back into the tear to the Otherworld. On the other side of the Veil, I thought I heard the threatening growl of a dragon meeting them.
When I opened my eyes again at last, it was daylight: true sunlight streaming down through a cloudy sky. It had grown suddenly cold again, and I realized that we would be in for snow again soon. But the mortal realm looked normal again, except for the madrone tree, which had been split down the center of the trunk in a single massive crack.
I kept my hands on the tree for a moment longer, wondering if some kind of magic could save its life. It had been a landmark in the town for a century and a half. But it had given everything it had to create and sustain the gate, and now it was gone. I hoped that the spirit of the tree could find peaceful rest.
Then I used the tree as a prop to help me back to my feet, stretched, and looked around.
Rosa was curled up on the ground at my feet with Ashleigh holding her. Ashleigh looked up at me with a faint smile. “You guys did it,” she said proudly. “I knew you could.”
I looked around worriedly, but then I saw that Mom was
n’t far away, sitting up and looking dazed. She still looked changed from losing her magic, but she didn’t look hurt.
Only Dandelion was still standing and smirking as if he had known this would happen all along.
I glared at him. “Well, since you didn’t do anything else, you could at least help me with these two.”
Ashleigh helped me gather Rosa’s scattered belongings from where the Fae guards had dropped them, while Dandelion picked Rosa up easily in his arms. “I’ll take her back to the castle, they’ll take care of her there. You can handle your mother. She may want to get out of here before the authorities show up.”
“No,” a voice croaked. I looked over and saw Mom shaking her head. “No more running. I’ll turn myself in. Let’s get the car, and we’ll all go to the castle together.”
Remarkably, Mom’s car was untouched just down the street where we’d parked it days ago. Dandelion carried Rosa and placed her in the back seat. Then he admitted that he didn’t know how to drive.
“I’ve spent a lot of time in your world, but never bothered to learn,” he said with a shrug.
Mom reached for the driver side door. “I’m okay to drive. Get in.”
Ashleigh and I sat in back with my unconscious sister between us. When we were almost to the castle, Rosa woke up and looked around.
“What happened?” Rosa mumbled.
“Shh,” Mom said. “We’re going to the Seelie Court. I’ll explain everything when we get there.”
She turned and looked at the window. “Wait. Is everything back to normal?” She looked around. “Your car works again. Oh! I wonder if my phone works!”
Rosa found her bag and pulled out her phone. Sure enough, it started up at her touch, and then she waited anxiously as it loaded. “Don’t get any closer to the castle yet, or you’ll get guards jumping out at you,” she warned. “I have to tell them that you’re coming in.”
Ashleigh murmured in a low voice, “She wants to surrender.”
I heard Mom sigh in frustration and saw her hands grip the steering wheel tighter. “Yes, dear, I can handle it. Just let me do the talking.”
“No, Mom, they won’t even let you get near the castle. I’ll just call them—”
“I said, just let me handle it,” Mom said, her voice growing in tension. But the more angry she got, the quieter her voice was, turning hard and cold.
Rosa snapped her mouth shut into a thin line, but she began punching keys on her phone, and I realized that she must have been sending a text message.
I turned and looked out the window, trying to avoid the conflict. The last thing that I wanted was for Rosa and Mom to start fighting as soon as they were back together. Rosa should be happy that she was getting what she wanted and Mom was turning herself in. She’d won, so why did she have to keep arguing?
But no one came out and challenged us as we drove up the driveway to the castle. By the time that we stepped out of the car, the sun was starting to set, throwing golden light directly in our eyes. I turned away from the sun and shielded my face from the glare.
Guards immediately surrounded us, and although I didn’t see any weapons pointed at us, I didn’t doubt they were ready to strike if we so much as flinched.
The front doors swung open, and Glen stepped outside. He wore a chain vest over his formal court clothing and a sword hung at his hip. He folded his arms and glared down at all of us.
“Lady Ashleigh,” he said to the faeriekin girl first, with a slight nod of his head. Then he turned to the rest of us. “Rosmerta, Akasha, Rosamunde, and a Courtless Fae.” His tone grew stern. “Are you all prepared to surrender to my judgment?”
Rosa took an angry step forward, but she was blocked by a guard’s hand. “That’s not what you promised! We just closed the gate and came to you willingly. You’re supposed to pardon me and my sister now! And Dandelion has done nothing!”
“Rosamunde,” snapped Mom. “I said, let me handle this.”
And then, to my surprise, Mom knelt on the ground and bowed her head. “I am surrendering to you, Count Glen. I’ll submit to your judgment.”
The guard beside her immediately put shackles on her. I was still staring at Mom when another guard grabbed my arms, twisted them behind my back, and shackled them just the same. From the cries of protest, I realized the same thing was happening to Rosa and Dandelion.
Ashleigh gasped and clapped both hands over her mouth, but she still said nothing.
Glen folded his arms and smiled without warmth down at all of us. “Good. Bring them in to the main hall. Since they’ve surrendered under their own power, we won’t need to wait for a full trial. I’ll render my judgment right now.”
The guards pushed us toward the steps. Instead of struggling, I just went along with them, trying to move forward quickly before they pushed me again. I looked over at Mom, pleading her with my eyes to fix things, but her head was bowed, and she wouldn’t look back at me. What could I do?
36
The Verdict
Rosamunde
No amount of pleading would stop Glen from dragging all of us in handcuffs to the Main Hall of the castle. We were exhausted, hungry, and dirty from running around in the woods for two days, but the traditional Fae courtesy didn’t seem to extend to prisoners.
I looked around in vain for anyone who might be sympathetic to us. But Ashleigh looked stunned into silence, Serafina had disappeared from her role as regent over Glen, and Heather hung in the back without saying a word. It was less than twenty-four hours since Glen had discovered his grandfather’s assassination, and he was still out for revenge—and there was no one who could stop him. I guess the only consolation I had was that it was all happening so quickly, word hadn’t gotten out about our arrest. There was no time for a crowd to gather like at the very public trial of the other Unseelie two days ago.
Guards forced us to kneel on the hard stone floor in front of the dais that held Glen’s seat. A court officer came forward to open the session in a loud voice, but I didn’t really pay attention. My head was spinning from the shock.
“Akasha McAddams,” Glen began, looking down at my sister. “You are charged with aiding prisoners in escape from this Court’s jail and an accessory to the assassination of Count Duncan. How do you plead?”
I jerked my head up to glare at him. “You promised that if she turned herself in without causing further trouble, then you wouldn’t charge her with the murder. You know she had nothing to do with that.”
“I said it would go better for her if she turned herself in,” Glen snapped. He waved his hand, and a guard came to stand over me. “You are to remain silent until I address you. Akasha, the question was to you. How do you plead?”
Akasha hung her head. I could hear her breathing get faster; she often grew anxious in large crowds, but this was worse than anything she’d ever had to face before. “I didn’t mean to let anyone get hurt,” she mumbled to the floor.
Glen leaned forward in his chair. “I didn’t hear you.”
“I said I didn’t mean for anyone to get hurt!” Akasha burst out. Her eyes were squeezed shut as she tried to talk. “I—I helped Morrigan open the prison to let Allen out, but I didn’t know what he was going to do after that. She said the trial wasn’t fair and you were going to banish him. When I realized what he did, then I ran away so they couldn’t make me do anything else bad.”
I looked up quickly to see Glen’s reaction. His grip tightened on the arms of the chair, but he took a deep breath and seemed to compose himself a little. “So your testimony is that you were coerced into helping the Unseelie against your will?”
Akasha managed to nod.
“Very well. Where are the Unseelie now?”
She shook her head. “I—I don’t really know.”
Mom cleared her throat. “If I may speak, Your Grace?”
He turned to look at her. “Rosmerta, do you know the whereabouts of the Unseelie?”
“The Unseelie kidnapped Akasha and held
her against her will. When I closed the gate,” she said, shooting me a warning glance, “I sent all of the Unseelie back into the Otherworld. I believe that the guardian met them on the other side of the Veil.”
Glen sat up in surprise. “You closed the gate? Is this true?”
“Yes.” Mom bowed her head again respectfully. “I opened it, so I was the one who could control it, and I closed it again.”
At first, I couldn’t believe my ears. Mom was lying and Glen couldn’t tell the difference. Then I realized that we had skipped the normal ceremony that opened the trial, including activating the truth spells and swearing us in to tell the truth. Maybe it would be better if we could convince Glen that Mom had opened and closed the gate all on her own, and spared Akasha from additional charges.
I piped up, “And when she closed the gate, Morrigan was so mad that she stripped Mom’s powers away. She’s not a witch anymore.”
Glen looked over at Ashleigh. “Were you there to witness any of this?”
Ashleigh opened and closed her mouth nervously. I was worried, because she wasn’t used to lying. Before today, she would’ve told Glen the truth without hesitating. But now she just nodded. “I saw it all. And you can tell she’s lost her powers just by looking at her. All traces of magic are gone.”
Glen settled back into his chair and folded his arms. “This changes things. Rosmerta, the charges against you are very serious, including the use of forbidden mind control magic, opening a gate without the permission of the Seelie Court, and kidnapping a minor. However, if you have shown contrition by correcting some of your errors, the Court will look favorably on you.”
Mom bowed her head lower. “I realize that I have abused my powers and hurt others, including my family. I apologize for everything. Because of this, I vow to give up magic for the rest of my life.”
Fae of Calaveras Trilogy Box Set Page 73
