“Quake!” Jax called, running into the room and grabbing Ava’s arm. He pulled her clear just as the shards of the mirror broke free, and the glass shattered to the floor.
I joined him in wrapping my arms around our trembling child. The floor swayed as if the house sat on ocean waves. The dress Ava wore returned to its floral silk form.
The roof began to crack in places as tiny specks of plaster rained down upon us.
“Ava, it’s alright.” I tried to sooth her, but she continued to shake in our arms. “It will be over soon, I promise.”
I didn’t know for sure. There were earthquakes back home and humans were yet to master the ability to predict them. I thought back to the quake in Newey in ‘89. My mother and I had just returned from the park near one of her friends’ houses when it hit. I remember standing in the doorway as the entire house shook around us. I sprinted, my mother calling my name. But I darted through to the back. Passing the kitchen I watched the cupboards open, and cups and plates crashed to the floor. I dashed out the rear door and hid behind the tomato bush beside our house. There I stayed, shaking just like Ava was now.
My mother found me moments later as the world around me continued to quiver and she did what she always did to calm me: she sang.
So I sang.
I don’t know where the words came from, but the tune I knew by heart. The melody of my song, with the words for her. For my child. For my Ava.
Da da da do
Da da da de
Child of light
You are far more than me.
Da da da do
Da da da de,
A guiding hand
Brought you down to me.
Of thy angels
and of blessed fey
My darling Ava,
You will light the way.
I sang the tune twice before her body succumbed to the melody, and another before the quake passed and the roof ceased to rumble. She slowly brought up her head, tears staining her cheeks.
“Mum,” she began, her voice as angelic as the moment she first spoke.
“What?” Jax and I both asked.
“Sorry about your mirror.”
“It wasn’t your fault. Besides, it wasn’t big enough anyway.”
Jax laughed and released us both. “I think I will go check on the others, if you two are okay?”
I nodded and he helped us both stand before placing a light kiss on my lips and leaving the room.
While watching us, Ava started to frown again.
“What is wrong?” I asked, taking both her hands in mine and leading her away from a few tiny shards that had spread further than I first realised.
“I don’t know.”
“Well you don’t need to figure it all out now, you have plenty of time.”
How am I supposed to teach her everything she will need to know when I am starting like thirteen years behind? She will be my age before I even get through the story of how I met her father.
“Mum?”
“Yes?” I asked, shaking the depressing thought from my head.
“Before, when you were…” She tilted her head in thought.
“Singing?” I offered.
“Yes, when you were singing. You said I ‘will light the way’. What way?”
“I don’t know. But let’s go find out.”
“How?”
“You once brought your father back to life, and he returned with a message. Let’s start with that and go from there.” I offered her an inviting smile, or at least the best I could offer her at that moment.
She squinted up at me.
“Come on, let’s go find your father.”
“Do we have to?”
Is she afraid of Jax? He loves her as I do. Surely she can see that. “Why don’t you want to?” I asked as we moved out of the dressing room and into my bedroom.
“Your light, it’s brighter now. It faded darker before, when he touched you. I don’t like the dark.”
She really is still a child. “With a heart as bright as yours, you will never have to worry about the dark.” I placed my hand against her cheek. She relaxed into it again and the corners of her lips raised ever so slightly. “I guess it can be a little scary at first. Just remember that your father loves me, and you. You will see, we can be a light for each other. Trust me.” I lowered my hand and held it out to her. She laid hers in it and wrapped her delicate fingers over mine.
“Okay, but mum?”
“Yes, Ava?”
“Can I keep this dress?”
“You can borrow it, like everything else in there.”
“Except the blue ones?”
“Yes, except the blue ones.”
“Okay.”
Three booming knocks drew our attention and I moved to open the door. In the hall stood a herald for Sayeesies, and my father, Max.
“What’s up?”
My father frowned. “Desmoree, this herald has come with a message for you, he refused to allow me to deliver it.”
I rolled my eyes. The heralds had now become the only way the Stalisies and Tanzieth fey communicated with one another—other than screaming that is. They were all young, maybe late teens, and wore silly red and green checked pants and shirts that made them look like little golfing Christmas elves.
“What do they want?” I asked not opening the door wider than I needed to.
“Your presence is requested at the centre of town for the deliberation of power.”
“The deliberation of what now?” I asked, taking a quick glance back into the room. Ava had moved over to sit on the chair by my window and was looking out at the gardens of my father’s property.
“You need to come with me,” he repeated.
I snapped my head back to him. “Like hell I do buddy.” I tried to keep my voice low so as to not startle Ava but he was getting on my nerves. “Look here. I get that you are given a message and you have to deliver it, but I don’t have to do what you ask. Why the hell do they need me there any way? Can’t they deliberate on their own?”
“They did.”
“Then why do you need me again?”
“They wish to deliver the results of the deliberation.”
“Are you for real? Just send a memo, I don’t care what they decide to do. I just had my daughter so I am staying right here.” I moved to close the door but he stuck his foot in the way.
“Please?” His voice became strained. “I was told not to return without you. This is my first delivery as a herald. Please, it won’t take long? We can leave now and be back before evening. I have my carriage.”
His eyes pleaded with me. I looked to my father who remained surprisingly silent through our debate.
He shrugged. “She will be fine here. Just tell her to stay in your room and spell it or something if you like? I will keep guard outside the door until your return.”
I raised my brow and looked down at the shoe still in the way. “If you would kindly remove your foot, I will be with you in a moment.”
His shoulders relaxed and his cheeks dimpled and the corners of his eyes wrinkled, making him look far younger than I first thought. Maybe even the same age as Ava appeared. I closed the door and made my way over to the centre of the room. Kneeling, I ran my hand in a pattern over the boards and a hole appeared. A hole where I hid a very special book. I pulled it free and resealed the space.
“What is that?” Ava asked, coming to my side as I stood, book in hand.
“This is my spell book. Ava, I have to leave for a little bit, but I will be back really soon.”
She didn’t look concerned. She stared wide eyed at the book in my hand. “Can I see it?”
“Umm…” Can she even read it? She’s a few hours old, if that. “You can look at it, if you promise not to say anything out loud. But first I have to look something up.” I whispered my name so the book would open, a clever trick that would keep out unwanted eyes. Flicking to the section I had seen on ‘protection of place’,
I repeated the cast in my head a few times then handed the book to Ava.
“Don’t close it either or you won’t be able to open it again. Can you read?” I asked as she greedily clutched the book to her chest.
She shook her head. “But I can still look at it, can’t I?”
“Yes. Stay in here and don’t open the door to anyone. I will be back as soon as I can.”
I shuffled back to the door as Ava settled onto my bed, the book laid out in front of her. She could already do so much. I won’t be surprised if I come back and she can read the whole thing and do every bloody cast. Would this be easier if she were a real baby?
I shook off the thought when I opened the door and saw them waiting. It would not have been easier. A real baby would need to be with me or Jax at all times. A real baby couldn’t understand an instruction to stay where they were. Not that a real baby could get themselves anywhere, but they would cry and cry and not be able to tell you what they wanted. Maybe this way is better?
“Okay herald, let’s get this show on the road.”
I gave my dad a kiss on the cheek and whispered into his ear. “Only Jax can go in, okay?”
He nodded and leaned against the wall pulling a small leather book and pen from his jacket pocket. He had started writing when he found out I was pregnant. It was a journal of his memories of my mother, his wife. He wanted to get them all down on paper so that my children would have those stories of her. Even if he became too old to remember them himself.
Not that he was old. He looked not that much older than me really, except for the salt and pepper of his hair. The whole time age thing in this world still spun me out. My great grandmother, Grace, was to be three hundred and seventy-two next week. That’s, if you counted human years. Which she does not. She’s only fifty-three in fey age. A much better number if you ask her.
I followed the herald down to the front door of my house and out into the drive. An older herald and his carriage waited for us, drawn by two odd looking beasts called datherin, sort of like cows but bigger and with clawed feet and large pointed ears.
“I am not getting in that. Look, I will go, but I will go my way. That thing will take forever. You can come with me or go back with the carriage, your choice.” Then I phased.
He jumped in shock, as too did the other herald. The creatures didn’t bat an eye at my display. The young herald took hold of the door of the carriage. “I will go back the way I came. They are waiting for you in the town centre. Good luck.”
I spread my wings and rose up into the sky. Soaring over the trees I thought of Ava and how I would love to be flying over these trees with her. Showing her the beauty of the fey lands. I zoomed across the sky, determined to get this over with as soon as I could, and when I neared the town, the muffled angry calls of people not too pleased, carried on the wind towards me.
A few of them caught my shadow as I drifted overhead and looked up. Pointing, they called to me. Waved.
This is so weird. The last time I saw most of them they were trying to kill me.
I moved over them to where a circle had formed around a small platform and they all went quiet when I landed.
Way creepier.
Grace stood with three men who were all red faced from all the yelling they had been doing.
“Grace, how are you?” I asked, ignoring the men and pulling her into a hug at the same time phasing back to my normal form.
“Desmoree…the baby? You are not pregnant anymore?”
“I had a daughter, one I would like to get back to. What is going on?”
“You had a little girl? Congratulations. I bet she’s beautiful. Does she have green eyes like Jax or…”
“Thank you, she has brown eyes actually, but we can talk more about it later, what’s going on?”
“They requested you be here for the deliberation of power.”
“That tells me nothing, I don’t care what you guys deliberate on.”
“Desmoree, the deliberation of power is a transfer of one authority to another.”
I raised my brows. “And that means?”
“The transfer of power is from Traflier to you. They have appointed you Leader of the fey.”
“Like hell they have!”
Whispers broke out around me.
Grace stepped closer to the three men and they spoke in hushed voices looking from me to the people around us as they spoke.
Grace eventually shook her head then stood tall to join me again. “You defeated him, the deliberation of power must go to you. You have the final say on all the laws of our world now.”
“Good,” I cut her off. “Then as the leader and law maker I say screw this, you don’t need a leader. You can decide for yourselves what you want to do. Split the power over each of you evenly, you all get a say, you all have the power.” I waved my hands dramatically as if sprinkling some magical power over them. Grace just frowned at me. “What?”
“It doesn’t work like that.”
“Well how does it work then? I just want to go back to Ava, can’t you just leave me be?”
“You named your daughter Ava?” Grace asked, pulled from duty and sucked into the joy of the name I had given my child.
“I did, isn’t it the cutest name ever?” Someone cleared their throat beside us and I scrunched up my nose. “This is stupid.”
One of the men who spoke with Grace earlier stepped forwards. His hair was ice blonde and shaved to barely five millimetres high, his dark skin contrasting dramatically with his hair. “You cannot refuse the deliberation. Take the oath and you can get back to your child.”
I glared at him. “And if I refuse?”
“Then the deliberation happens without your oath and we continue to call you here, visit your home with herald after herald, until you do.”
“Fine, whatever, just do your bloody oath thing. I will find a way to get out of this, just wait and see. You don’t want me leading you. I can barely keep a gold fish alive, you want me responsible for the lot of you?”
“Enough, you will not dissuade us. You will repeat the oath and accept the deliberation of power, thus making you the Leader of the fey.”
I nodded, cheers erupted from the crowd. The things we do for our children.
Grace rolled out a scroll of paper and began to read. “The power of one will lead, will guide and light the way. As we shine in the light of those that came before us, we accept our fate is tied to the one. Our power is her power, until the demise of her light, or ours. Repeat after me,” she said, glancing up from the page for only a moment, probably to check I hadn’t fallen asleep with all the blar blar blar. I have no interest in this crap, bloody hurry up.
“Go on then.” I flicked a hand towards her.
“I, Desmoree Shale, will accept the deliberation of power.”
“I will accept the power thing, whatever.”
“Desmoree, you must repeat verbatim. You are wasting your own time here.”
She sounded just like Traflier. I glared and repeated her line exactly. “I, Desmoree Shale, shall accept the deliberation of power.”
“I accept my title,” she continued.
“I accept my title.”
“And to be bound in existence to the power of the fey.”
“And to be bound in existence to the power of the fey,” Whatever that means.
No one spoke. The whole town was quiet. I looked to Grace but she just stood there looking at me.
“Is that it, can I go now?”
She looked to the men beside her, each gave her a curt nod.
“Yes, you can return to your daughter. A herald will be sent to scribe any new laws you wish to implement.”
“No, no new laws, just go about your lives the same way as normal. You know, do what you do,” I said, turning in a circle to address them all. It was like that was what they were waiting for. After I said it, they all started talking amongst each other and filtering their way out of the centre of town and back to whatever the
y were doing before this.
“You should come meet Ava some time, Grace.”
She grinned wide at the invitation.
“But not yet, she’s only newly born. Perhaps in a week or two, after we have settled in?”
Her initial enthusiasm only faltered a little but she pulled me in for a hug and kissed my cheek, whispering goodbye into my ear. Her voice sounded so much like my mother’s that I found myself unable to let go for a moment. She would have loved to meet Ava.
I released Grace, phased back into my fey form, and took to the sky. As I flew over the path I had taken to get there I spotted the carriage and heralds who had come to collect me, only just entering the border of Sayeesies.
When I passed into the sky of Baldea it wasn’t long before I could see my father’s house, and my bedroom balcony doors wide open. Smiling, I slowed my flight speed so that I could land softly without startling her. I phased back the moment my feet touched the beautiful tiled floor.
“Mummy is home,” I called into the room as I stepped through the door.
But Ava wasn’t there, and my spell book lay open on the bed.
“Ava!” I called out, grabbing the book from the bed, closing it and slipping it in the back of my jeans. I dashed towards the dressing room and called for her again.
She wasn’t in there.
The mirror shards had been cleaned up too, and the mirror frame removed, revealing the door it had hidden, which led to the hall. I turned the ornate key and opened it, quickly glancing down to where I left my father on Ava watch. He was gone too. But I could hear voices. Where the hell is she?
I followed the sound of talking.
“Des, Des!” Tai, Jax’s brother, jogged towards me.
“Tai, be careful you will—.” His arm caught the side of the hall table and an ornate ceramic vase teetered on it. I lurched forwards, then it stopped. It hovered mid-air between Tai and I. Tai’s eyes grew wide as he stared past me.
“Her hair,” he said, raising his hand to point and I spun to find Ava standing behind me. The rainbow colour of her curls really was magnificent.
Her arm was stretched out towards us, and a blue light danced like flames over her hand.
Enchanting the Fey- The Complete Series Page 23
