To Catch a Queen

by Shanna Swendson

  “Raise doubts.”

  “But keep it subtle.”

  The section finished, and she moved down the line to her next partner, who bowed to her as she curtsied. “I’m a little surprised by all this pomp, aren’t you?” she said when she stepped toward her partner and took his hand. “Obviously, the queen’s been on the throne for a while, so why a coronation now?”

  The dance took them a step apart for a moment, and when they rejoined to walk in a circle he said, “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, what use would the real queen have for all this? Isn’t the throne won through trials and blood?” With that, she was handed over to her next partner, where she started again. It was hard to tell if the whispers were having any effect, but at least she felt like she was contributing something to the effort.

  When she rejoined Eamon, she asked, “How did it go?”

  “They are a bunch of empty-headed ninnies who care little about who is on the throne as long as they are invited to a big party,” he said with great disgust.

  “So, not so great?”

  “Perhaps I have planted the seeds of doubt, but I’m not sure they’ll remember anything for long.”

  “I don’t know how things went for me, either. Would they even care if there was proof that this was an impostor?”

  “Not as long as it doesn’t interrupt their fun.”

  He sounded so bitter that it was almost funny. She grinned as he spun her in a circle. “Why don’t you tell me how you really feel?”

  “I thought I did.” Before she could explain that she was being sarcastic, he smiled and said, “Now you see why I like humans.”

  “We’ve got our share of empty-headed ninnies. More people vote for TV singing competitions than for Congress, so maybe we’re not too different.”

  The dance ended, and they joined a different group, repeating the same process with similar results. “I wonder how the A-sisters are doing,” Emily asked when they finished that dance. “And I wonder if it’s doing any good at all.”

  The sound of trumpets rang through the throne room, and Emily figured they’d find out soon enough.

  Thirty-two

  The Borderlands

  Immediately Afterward

  It took Michael a moment or two to realize he didn’t have anyone left to fight. He spun around, looking for enemies, but the soldiers were gone, and it seemed like the little fairy creatures had driven away the Borderlands things.

  He was surprised to see how far Sophie was from him. He’d thought they were fighting back-to-back, but she was a good thirty feet away, sitting on the ground and looking stunned.

  “Sophie, are you okay?” he asked, running to her.

  She turned toward him, her eyes wide with shock and horror. “They got the crown.” Her eyes flashed with anger. “I knew this whole thing was a bad idea.”

  He knelt next to her and squeezed her shoulder. “There’s always the chance that the crown won’t do anyone any good. It wasn’t the fake queen who took it from you, so I don’t see any way she’d be able to wear it. She wasn’t the one to defeat you.”

  She leaned into his hand for a moment, as though taking comfort in the touch, then abruptly flinched away. “Maybe, but the fact remains that I was sent to get the crown so I could prove my position to the fairy rulers, and now I don’t have it. What do I do?”

  “It looked to me like you were doing a good enough job of playing queen, regardless of what you had sitting on your head.”

  “I hope you’re right.” She blinked rapidly, fighting away tears. After a couple of deep breaths, she seemed to have herself more under control. With a frown of concern, she asked, “Are you hurt? I thought I saw you get hit, and you were hit when we were coming here.”

  “Something hit me,” he said, craning his neck to see the back of his shoulder. “But while it’s sore, it doesn’t feel bad, not like a gunshot.”

  She moved to inspect his back. “I can’t even find a rip in your coat.”

  “Well, it is waterproofed. Maybe that repels magical spears, too.”

  “Maybe. You can move?”

  He moved both arms and wiggled his fingers. “It’s not at all like the elf shot.” She was still frowning, though. “Okay, what are you worried about?” he asked.

  “I don’t know enough about their weapons. For all I know, something magical did penetrate your clothes and your body without leaving an external mark.”

  “So I’ll be turning into a frog pretty soon?” When she didn’t even smile at that, he got a sick feeling in his stomach. “Or is that the best-case scenario?”

  She rubbed her temples like she was fighting off a bad headache. “I don’t know. I don’t know what any of this means. I’m afraid I’m way out of my depth.”

  That was something he’d never thought he’d hear from Sophie Drake. She didn’t strike him as the sort who’d ever be willing to admit weakness. Either he’d won her trust in a huge way or she was at the end of her resources. Or perhaps both. “Is there anyone who could help?”

  “I’ve already talked to Tallulah, and she hasn’t been at all helpful. Your wise woman might know what to do about whatever it was that hit you, but she wouldn’t know anything about a fairy crown.” She rubbed at her temples again, then abruptly gasped softly and looked up at him, a smile spreading across her face, so bright that it almost lit the dark Borderlands. “You’re a genius,” she breathed.

  “I am?”

  “You asked earlier about my grandmother being the rightful heir. She had to have learned all the same things she taught me, and she’s one generation less removed than I am. There’s a chance she might know something I don’t.”

  “How much would she remember?”

  “She might be clearer on fairy lore than she is about what happened last week. She’s still singing that song she taught me that helped me take the throne, and she doesn’t miss a word. If we bring her here, she might revive enough to tell us something.”

  “Do we have time? They’ve got the crown already.”

  “I should be able to do the same trick with time that I do when leaving our world to come here. We can come back to the time we left.”

  He stood and extended a hand to help her up, but she sprang easily to her feet. Now that she had a plan, she looked a lot more like her usual self, which was reassuring. He didn’t want to face the trouble that had Sophie shaky and shocked. “What about your mother?” he asked as he followed her out of the Borderlands. “I guess you can do the time thing so you can get your grandmother back before she notices anything’s different.”

  “Just in case, I’ll leave a changeling.”

  “Isn’t a changeling another fairy left in a person’s place?”

  “Not always. It can also be an enchanted object that looks like the person. That’s what often happened when people thought their missing loved one was actually dead or in a coma.” Sophie smiled and shook her head. “Funny, not too long ago I was frustrated because my fairy knowledge told me how to make a changeling but not how to free a captive.” She reached for his hand. “Ready?”

  Instead of answering, he squeezed her hand, and they stepped off together. They came out in what smelled like a pine forest. It was still night, or perhaps very early morning. A soft glow appeared nearby, and he saw that Sophie had conjured up a light. “Ah, that’s just what I need,” she whispered. “Could you please pick up that log there?”

  He bent and lifted a log about eight inches in diameter and nearly five feet long. He rested it on his shoulder, and Sophie nodded in approval before dousing her light. She moved forward confidently, apparently in such familiar territory that she could find her way even in the darkness.

  They went another ten or so yards before they were on the edge of the forest, where it gave way to a lush lawn that was still rather wooded, though the trees were more widely spaced. On the other side of the lawn stood a large white house. Michael couldn’t see details in the darkness from where he stood,
but he got the impression that the house was old and stately. It looked very settled in its surroundings.

  “I’ll go make sure the coast is clear,” Sophie whispered. She ran lightly across the lawn and up onto a small rear porch that looked like it must lead to a service entrance. She easily turned the door handle and slipped inside. He was just starting to worry that she’d run into trouble when she reappeared at the door and beckoned to him.

  He focused on stealth rather than speed as he made his way to the house. The last thing he needed was to wake Sophie’s mother by stepping on a twig at the wrong time. He’d heard enough of her mother’s voice over the phone that he didn’t want to have to face that woman.

  He entered through a mudroom. Sophie led him through the kitchen and dining room into a large central hall. The faint light from a street lamp outside, coming in through the transom window over the front door, was reflected in highly polished wooden floors. He followed Sophie into what must have once been a formal parlor. Some of the delicate, feminine antique furniture was still in the room, but it had been shoved aside to make room for a hospital bed.

  In the bed lay a figure that looked frail, but that Michael suspected held more strength than anyone would guess, based on what he knew of Sophie. In fact, the sleeping woman reminded him of Sophie. She had a similar build and bone structure, and he’d have guessed that her white hair had once been red.

  Sophie bent over her and whispered, “Nana? It’s Sophie. I need to talk to you.”

  Sophie may have called him a genius for planting the seed of this plan, but Michael was starting to doubt that any good could come of this. The old woman looked far too frail to be of much help, and when she opened her eyes, they were so blank and confused that he wasn’t sure she knew who Sophie was.

  Sophie gently squeezed one bony hand. “Nana, I need your help in the Realm. I’m hoping you know something. You may have told me somewhere along the way, but I don’t remember.”

  Nana blinked, looked momentarily distressed, then suddenly her eyes cleared and she said, “It’s about time you remembered you’re not the only one in the lineage.”

  Sophie flinched, but it only took her a second to recover her poise. “I’m sorry, but you must admit, you haven’t been that forthcoming for a while. Now, do you remember anything about how the crown works? I won it with the trials, like in the song, but is that the only way for someone to take the crown?”

  “Oh, honey, do you really expect me to remember anything useful in my state? You know what you’re going to have to do.”

  “Will taking you to the Realm help?”

  She gestured at her ravaged body. “Could it possibly hurt? Now, let’s get moving before your mother wakes up.” For someone supposedly in the last stages of Alzheimer’s disease, she sounded surprisingly lucid, but then Michael guessed that this kind of conversation might have been taken as a sign of dementia by someone who didn’t know what was going on. “You, with the log, bring it over here, young man.”

  Michael set the log down on the bed, against the railing. As gently as he could, he gathered Nana into his arms, carrying her like she was a child. She weighed hardly anything, but he still felt some muscle around her slight bones.

  Once Nana was out of her bed, Sophie took a nightgown out of a nearby dresser and slid it onto the log, then rolled it into place where Nana had been lying. The next thing Michael knew, the woman he held in his arms was also in her bed, lying so peacefully and so still that she might have been dead. If he hadn’t been holding the real woman, he’d never have guessed that the body in bed was fake.

  “Very nice work. You’ve obviously learned a lot,” Nana commented. “I’d love to see your mother when she finds my body.”

  “Nana!” Sophie scolded. “Besides, I made it so you just look like you’re sleeping. That way I can get you back here before Mama even notices.”

  “You seem to have forgotten to consult me about my wishes,” the old woman said frostily.

  “We’ll discuss this later. But first, we need all the royal help we can get.” She waved Michael back the way they’d come in. Nana fell asleep in Michael’s arms, and he wondered if her momentary lucidity had been genuine or if it was just wishful thinking on their part that made sense out of what she’d said.

  They reached the woods, and Sophie put her hand against his back to guide him through the gateway she opened. When they arrived in the Realm, Nana said to Michael, “You can put me down now.”

  He set her on her feet, keeping his arm around her shoulders to steady her. Already, he was fairly certain that she was taller than she’d been while lying in the bed. She turned back to him. “Thank you kindly for the assistance.” He had to blink in surprise when he saw her face. He’d thought she resembled a much older version of Sophie, but now she might almost have passed for Sophie’s mother rather than her grandmother. Her posture was straighter, her eyes were brighter, and her hair was darker, no longer stark white, but a faded red color. “That’s better,” Nana said with great satisfaction.

  She took in the Realm, a smile spreading across her face. “So, this is the fairy realm. Lovely, isn’t it? I spent my whole life hoping to see this day.”

  “You knew it was real all along?” Sophie asked. “It wasn’t just a legend to you?”

  “I figured it out somewhere along the way, but I wasn’t sure what I could do about it. I never saw any fairies, never found a way into the Realm. I knew it would be you when you were a child and told me about dancing with the fairies.”

  “It would have saved me a lot of trouble if you’d told me then. I might even have been able to save Emily.”

  Nana gasped. “What happened to Emily?”

  “They took her last summer while trying to get to me. Remember, I told you about it? I learned everything about the crown and throne when I was saving her. She’s okay now. I hope.”

  “See, it worked out,” her grandmother said, patting her on the arm. “You needed to learn it for yourself.” She glanced down at her nightgown. “If it’s not too much trouble, can you do something about the outfit? I feel underdressed. I can’t bear to be out in public in my nightclothes.”

  “Do you have anything in mind?” Sophie asked.

  “Surprise me.” A moment later, Nana was dressed in a pale blue suit, a hat worthy of Queen Elizabeth perched atop her now-styled hair. Nana glanced down at herself and gave an approving nod. She now looked even younger and stronger than when they’d first entered the Realm. It was like the years were falling away from her. “Now that I’m decent, I don’t believe we’ve been properly introduced.” Her glance at Sophie may as well have been a direct order.

  “Nana, this is my friend, Detective Michael Murray. He’s Emily’s upstairs neighbor, and he helped us earlier when Emily was taken. His wife is currently a captive somewhere in the Realm. Michael, I’d like you to meet my grandmother, Leonie Drake.”

  Leonie held out her hand to him, and he shook it. “Pleased to meet you, ma’am.”

  “Likewise,” she replied, sizing him up with steely gray eyes that he had a feeling didn’t miss much. Turning to Sophie, she said, “Now, what seems to be the problem?”

  “There’s someone trying to take over the Realm, claiming to be the queen who won the throne, and I think whoever’s behind the impostor has the crown. I don’t know how this works. They haven’t gone through the trials, so I don’t know if the impostor could be considered to have won it properly.”

  Leonie shook her head sadly and made little “tsk-tsk” sounds. “Oh, honey, I thought you were the responsible one. You lost the crown?”

  “I had it ripped away in an all-out fight,” Sophie snapped defensively. “But does that count as them really winning the crown? Would the impostor be able to wear the crown and become the true queen?”

  Leonie frowned in deep thought. Her lips moved slightly, like she was reciting lyrics of old songs. Finally, she shook her head. “There’s a slight possibility, depending on how involve
d this impostor was in the scheme that took the crown from you. I wouldn’t chance it. I’d say our best bet is to get the crown back before it goes on anyone else’s head. That would be for the best for both you and this impostor.”

  “That’s what I was afraid of,” Sophie said with a sigh. “Now, we need to get to the palace before the impostor can be crowned.”

  “You mean go near the palace,” Michael pointed out.

  He thought Sophie might have blushed slightly. “Yes, that. And maybe without the crown, I won’t have so much of a target on my back.”

  She took his and Leonie’s hands. They took three steps together and ended up in a familiar setting: the hill overlooking the fake palace. However, they weren’t alone. An army of fairies was gathered there, but they were far more focused on the field below than on any newcomers.

  “This must be Emily’s army,” Sophie whispered.

  “What on earth is Emily doing with an army?” Leonie asked. “I’m not sure I’d trust that child with a Boy Scout troop, bless her heart.”

  “Emily’s grown up a lot since you saw her last,” Sophie said without taking her eyes off the soldiers. “And I believe this is merely an army she raised. She isn’t the one leading it.”

  “They’re on our side?” Michael replied, fighting back the grin at Leonie’s remark.

  “I hope so. I’m really tired of running.” Sophie raised her voice and said, “Excuse me, but are you the free fae working with my sister, Emily?” Some of them turned to regard her, and she added, “She looks like me, but taller, and she’s with a fairy named Eamon, who has silver hair. She sings a lot. If you’ve met her, you’ll know just who I mean.” She sounded like she was encountering an acquaintance at the supermarket, not addressing an army of otherworldly beings.

  “You are Emily’s sister?” one of the fae asked.

  “Yes. She’s down in that crowd, checking things out. I take it you’re waiting for her signal to act. Well, I think I’m what you’re waiting for.”