The War of the Flowers

by Tad Williams

  Theo tried to remember, but much had happened since those moments on the black boat. "Sad. Wise, I guess, as far as I could tell. Kind of funny, too. He didn't like Hellebore much."

  Mistress Twinge nodded happily. "A man of the people. I wonder where he is."

  "Nobody knows?" The pooka didn't seem much worried. "Now that Hellebore and the rest are gone, the binding-spells are gone too. He's probably sailing around with the king or queen somewhere. Getting a little well-earned rest."

  "You think they're all still alive?" The pooka leaned forward again, bringing a fog of tobacco fumes with her that would make a hyena squint. "Of course they are. You don't kill off any of those folks. They're like the stars, the moon. Like taxes." She stood up and gave Theo a hearty slap on the back that nearly dislocated his scapula. "We gotta get going now. Come on, Streedy, let's go make some of the new arrivals nervous. Theo, sorry to hear you're leaving, fella — I was going to teach you how to play Beetlebout for money, which would be a comfort to your declining years."

  Coathook sat silently until Mistress Twinge had vanished whistling down the muddy street between the rows of tents, Streedy Nettle tagging along after her like a stork following a bulldog pup it had misidentified as its mother. The goblin blinked, then looked at Theo almost shyly. "You saw him last night. What was he like?"

  It took a few seconds for Theo to understand, and understanding brought back pain. "I'm not sure I want to talk about it right now." Coathook's clawed fingers closed on his arm — gently, but with enough force to tell Theo he didn't want the goblin ever to grab him for real. "Please."

  He thought of this small fellow writhing on the floor of Elysium House, having taken real poison to facilitate Button's desperate plan. A desperate plan that actually worked, Theo reminded himself, marveling. "He was . . . well. Very well, considering . . . considering what was coming. We talked about what happened. He asked me to tell him stories about my world."

  Coathook was looking down again. "I would like to hear those stories someday."

  But I won't be here to tell them, Theo thought. Out loud, he said, "I hope I get the chance to do it. Did you know him?"

  "Not well. Only from a distance. But he was important to me, in a way. He was my father."

  Theo could not reply immediately. "You . . . you don't mean he was, like, your spiritual father, do you?" he said at last. Coathook slowly shook his head. The swing of his long nose as he did so should have been grotesque, even comical, but it only reminded Theo of the strange world in which he found himself, where there was so much he still did not understand. "He fathered me. On my mother. In the usual way."

  "My God, and you only knew him from a distance? Didn't you talk to him? Did he know?" "I do not think he knew, although once or twice he looked at me as though something about me troubled him. But I was only a child of one of his early matings and so he did not recognize my name — he had never known it. My mother met him at the goblin academy. She was driven from her nest in shame when I was born fatherless, and took refuge in the countryside." He gave an uncomfortable shrug. "It does not matter now. He is dead. He is a hero. I am Coathook. I am not more or less because of him."

  Theo thought of his own parents, of his lifelong struggle to make sense of himself by making sense of them, to justify himself by making them responsible for all they had done wrong to him, or failed to do for him at all. "That's all? Don't you care?"

  "Of course I care. That is why I wished to hear from you of his last hours. I am on my way to the funeral ceremony, as are all the others of my people who are here, and I wish to think of him in wholeness, but that is all. I am one of them, one of the living, and he is not. Of course I care, but I have always lived my life without him."

  "May outsiders go to the funeral?"

  "It is not for you, only goblins. That is why he said his good-bye to you on the bridge, last night."

  An honor, Cumber had called it, when Theo did not understand what he meant. Now he did. "Did you love him?" Coathook threw up his hand, touched his forehead in a gesture Theo did not recognize, but which had the look of ritual. "As a son or as another goblin, proud of what he did?"

  "Either, I guess." "Then, yes." Coathook stood. "But today the sun came up again, as it always does. Thank you for your time, Theo. I must leave now. I have to go and eat my father."

  Theo sat and watched him walk away, the small, dark-furred figure growing smaller and smaller. Even after Coathook had disappeared Theo still sat in the doorway, watching clouds and listening to the noises all around.

  ————— The three of them looked back at him, Poppy with a look of poorly concealed worry, Cumber curious but reserved, Applecore hiding whatever she was feeling behind one of the world's smallest but most concentrated looks of disdain.

  "I suppose you're wondering why I've called you all here," Theo said. "Sorry, that's a joke, and it's not a very good one because I actually did call you all here. I'm kind of nervous." He looked down at his hands, clutched together as if both sets of fingers were afraid the other set might sneak off. "I have a question I need to ask you, Cumber. About gateways and going back and forth."

  Cumber Sedge nodded. "I had a feeling you might be wondering, Theo. The answer is, no, there's still no way to come back after you've been here and gone. Undoing the Clover Effect has been set back years. There was your uncle's way of returning, but nobody else will ever try anything that horrible and dangerous and the conditions probably won't arise anyway. So, again, no. If you leave, you are almost certainly leaving for good."

  Theo smiled despite himself. "That wasn't the question I was going to ask, but thanks. What I was wondering is, can people from the other side — from my old world, the mortal world — still come over here? And can they leave again afterward?"

  Cumber looked surprised. It took him a moment to respond. "You mean, are things still the same that way, too? Yes, I suppose so. We haven't had any visitors from there since . . . since everything happened, and you'd still have to get someone with an available trip to go fetch them. But yes, I think so."

  "How about you, Cumber? You've always wanted to visit the mortal world. Applecore's used up her exemption but you haven't. Maybe you could take a trip. A short one, since I'm sure you wouldn't want to be away from Core very long,"— he gave the sprite a mocking look as he emphasized the nickname, then turned back to Cumber — "but enough to see a few things first hand that you've only ever read about. It wouldn't have to be right away."

  Cumber looked at Applecore, then at Theo. "But why?" "Because I have a friend back there named Johnny, just about the only real friend I had, who deserves to see this place — he would get a kick out of it like you wouldn't believe. He'd love goblin drumming, too. And if I can have that one friend come for an extended visit — he might even want to stay, who knows? Maybe we could fix him up with Dolly the ogre — then I think I won't really miss my old world all that much."

  It was Poppy who understood first, but that was because it meant more to her. "You mean . . . you're going to stay?"

  "Unless you're really, really hot to see the Golden Gate Bridge and visit Chinatown, yeah. Maybe someday Cumber and his science-buddies will find out a way to solve the back-and-forth thing, then we can go live there for a while. It actually would be fun to show you around. But I've been thinking about it all day and I realized that I don't have that much left to do back there. My unfinished business is here, learning about my fairy family, learning about the world itself, keeping an eye on . . . on old friends and acquaintances. Not to mention learning more about who and what I really am. And there's a ton of music I still need to hear. I bet there's even ferisher music, right?"

  Cumber laughed. "Sort of. If you like that sort of thing. A lot of it is about farming. And sweeping." "I'll probably love it. And there's probably even wilder stuff I need to hear — giant music, ocean-bottom-living, weird-ass nymph music, all of it waiting for me. What does my old world have to offer that's better? No, I realized I'd b
e going back just as a sort of, I don't know, way of living up to what my parents wanted. 'You can make it, Theo. You can make something of yourself.' But I have made something of myself — I've just done it here. And I have to admit, I'm interested to see what's going to happen next in this new world everyone wants to build."

  Poppy had moved over next to him and had his hand tightly in hers. "We'll help, Theo. You and I. We'll help build it." "Yeah, maybe we will. If I've learned anything, though, it's that I'm a much better musician than I am anything else. I sure as hell ain't a politician."

  Applecore chortled. "No, you sure as hell are not, boyo." "But by far the most important thing is that I have friends here — real friends. I'll miss some things about my old world — the way the sun looks on the trees in October in California, that's almost as good as anything here. And the fog creeping down the hills and stuff like that. But there aren't a lot of people left that I need who aren't here."

  He turned and kissed Poppy. She kissed him back, and in the smell of her breath and the scent of her warm skin he knew that wherever he lived could, with a little luck, become the best of all possible places. With an effort of will he pulled back at last and looked over, a bit embarrassed, to where Cumber still sat with Applecore on his shoulder. They were both grinning at him.

  "You don't inherit anything, you know," said Cumber, teasing. "Just because you stay here you won't automatically be a hero and you certainly won't be rich. No Violet family fortune left. It's all gone into Hellebore's assets years ago, and any property of his will probably be confiscated by the new council and sold to help pay for rebuilding."

  "Didn't want it," Theo said happily. "All I want as an inheritance from my fairy family is some information. Maybe you could help me with libraries or whatever. As far as money and property, well, I've been living in tents practically since I got here. Why change?" He had a sudden thought. "There is one thing I just realized I miss. Cumber, if you do go back to my world to fetch Johnny for a visit, do you think you could get me another leather jacket? Oh, and you might as well bring back my motorcyle, too."

  Cumber Sedge rolled his eyes. "It won't work here, Theo. Machinery from the mortal world won't run."

  "No. But it sure will look cool."

  Applecore had the last word, as usual. "You mean like when you walked into the freezer, fella?"

  ————— The four went out under the fierce stars in search of something to eat and drink. None of them had finished mourning and they all had scars of one kind or another, but even without a word spoken about it they shared an understanding now. As they walked, Theo suddenly fell quiet. "Oh," he said at last. "Wow. I just realized something."

  "What?" Poppy leaned into him. "I couldn't go back to the mortal world anyway — not until they fix the Clover Effect thingie. We've all been talking like that's where I came from in the first place, but I didn't. I came from here. When I was a baby. So I've used up my exemption." He turned to Applecore. "You weren't leading me away from somewhere when you got me out of that cabin. You were bringing me home."

  "He's right," said Cumber. "We didn't think of that."

  "Ah." Applecore smiled. "See? Even when I don't know what I'm doing, I know what I'm doing."

  "I'm glad you made your decision before you figured that out," Poppy told him. "Home." Theo weighed the word for a moment, then took her arm and began walking again. After a while, he started to sing. Poppy joined him and their voices blended sweetly until the ferisher and the sprite chimed in and made it raucous and lovely and silly.

  I think I get it, Theo decided, watching his friends make each other laugh until they couldn't speak. Applecore almost tumbled out of Cumber's pocket and Poppy was clinging to Theo so she didn't fall over either. You really can find Happily Ever After.

  You just needed luck, then it was up to you to make it happen. One day at a time.

  INDEX OF PEOPLE, PLACES, AND THINGS

  Acanthus — a tailoring firm

  Alder Head — one of the fields of Faerie, also known just as "Alder" Alder, Memnon — a Tree Lord, a hero of the ancient Frost War Alma — Eamonn Dowd's sister

  Anna (Dowd) Vilmos — Theo's mother

  Aodh's Harp — a music magazine

  Apple Family — Seed, Skin, Pip, Blossom, Tree, Butter (to name a few) Applebough — Applecore's mum

  Applecore — a sprite

  Appleskin — Applecore's brother, injured by Tansy's carelessness Applewood — Applecore's dad

  Arden Intelligencer — a fairy newspaper

  Ariel's — a food stand in Penumbra Station

  Ash Plains Covenant — an extremist goblin sect

  Assizes — local fairy courts

  Auberginnie — a sprite, formerly named "Eggplant"

  Barberry — powerplant supervisor

  Battistini, John — Theo's friend, a drummer

  Battle of Golden Mountain — a battle between striking dwarves and the Flower lords

  Battle of the Twilight Bell — famous battle from last Gigantine War Beebalm (weft-), Semellus — former owner of The Forcing Shed Beetlebout — a gambling game played with beetles

  Birch — one of the fields of Faerie

  Bitterroot — a company doctor at Darkwood Generation LPB Blocks — late bodyguard of Lord Periwinkle

  Bluebell-Mallow Cooperative — two families combined to make one of the lesser houses

  Bluebells — a clan, Daffodil allies

  Boggart — a sharp-nosed type of fairy

  Bonfire Road — near Pimpernel Rise in Alder

  Bottlecap — a goblin musician

  "Broceliande Blue" — a song Streedy likes

  Brownies — a type of fairy, often in domestic service

  Buckram, Holdfast — ferisher philosopher, author of The Mortal Lens Bugbear — a small and slightly mythical type of unpleasant fairy Burdock, Drift — dead ferisher in the Comb

  Buttercup — a family allied to Hellebore House

  Campion — another Flower house

  Capelthwaites — shapeshifting fairies

  Cathedral knife — made from crystal of shattered Cathedral, proof against most charms

  Cathedral of Trees — another name for the elder trees at the center of Faerie

  Chamber of Congregation — a kobold restaurant

  Chokeweeds — a common way of labeling the "Excisor" political party Choo-Choo — one of Button's ogre bodyguards

  Christmas — a nightclub in Hellebore House

  Clover Effect — that which prevents free travel between mortal world and Faerie

  Coathook — a "half-wild" goblin

  Coextensives — a middle-of-the road political party

  Common Breath — the main language of Faerie

  Creepers — a common way of labeling the "Symbiote" political party Cuckoo — a Faerie handgun

  Cut-stones — a gambling game

  Daffodil House — family compound in Gloaming District, contains Daffodil, Jonquil, and Narcissus towers

  Daffodil, Lord — head of one of the Seven Families

  Daisy — a noble Fairy house

  Daisy, Dyspurnia — one of the leaders of the Daisy clan, Zenion's sister Daisy, Zenion — one of the leaders of the Daisy clan, Dyspurnia's brother Dano — member of Theo's band

  Darkwood Generation LPB — one of Lord Thornapple's power companies Daughters of the Grove — a service organization of wealthy Flower-folk Deeping Hollow — kobold city underneath New Erewhon

  Delphinion — where Larkspur's territory is found

  Districts — the roughly spiral divisions of the City, they go from "lightest" at the outskirts to "darkest" at the City's center: Sunrise, Morning Sky, Forenoon, Sunlight, Longshadow, Sunset, Twilight, Gloaming, Eventide, Moonlight, Midnight

  Dobbies — fieldworker fairies

  Dogwood, Findus — a power plant supervisor

  Dolly — an ogre, one of the Daisy bodyguards

  Donnus — Drusilla's boyfriend, studying to be a chirurgeon Dooni
e — horsefaced road-fairies

  Doorlatch — an older goblin, assistant to Button

  Dowd, Eamonn Albert — Theo's great-uncle

  Dowsing Academy — a prep school for young Flower nobility Drusilla — Poppy's friend who lives in Forenoon

  Eastwater-Merrowtown Station — a train station near Ys and the dock area

  Elysium House — a Fairy government center

  Evermore — a university

  Excisors — the "anti-mortal" political party, aka "Chokeweeds" Fachan — a type of fairy

  Fenlands — the marshy lands outside the city

  Ferishers — a type of fairy usually drawn to domestic chores Fernwater Row — site of one of the City's main markets

  Festival Hill — Hellebore country mansion in Birch

  Feverfew twins — patients at Zinnia Manor

  Field — a semi-geographical division of Faerie: Elder, Ivy, Reed, Vine, Hazel, Hawthorn, Oak, Holly, Rowan, Birch, Willow, Alder, Ash First Unusual Era — an earlier age in Faerie history

  Foxglove — a leading noble fairy house

  Foxglove, Malander — son of one of the more important Faerie houses Foxglove, Viorel — Lord Foxglove, head of the Foxglove family Gatehouse, The — a restaurant inside Daffodil House complex Gateway Oak — one of the fields of Faerie, also known as "Oak" Ghostweed — a drug

  Gigantine Wars — the wars between the fairies and the giants Glaistig Haven Road — a street on the border between Twilight District and Eastwater.

  Goblin Wars — wars between the ruling fairies and the goblins Goblins — a type of fairy, brought to the City for manual labor Goldenstare — goblin name for King Oberon

  Goodfellow, Robin — the most famous pooka of all, now a boatman Gossamer Hills — a brand of tea

  Grandma Dowd — Theo's maternal grandmother, Eamonn Dowd's sister Graywindle — the river at the border of Larkspur/Daisy lands Great Hill — where the first fairies lived

  Great Rowan — one of the fields of Faerie, also known as "Rowan" Green Women — a kind of fairy

  Greencoat — a kind of fairy