“That ‘no thanks’ thing is a strange custom. Don’t be surprised if Sophie finds a way to change it. She’s Southern. Manners are very important to her.”
Her attention returned to where Sophie, her grandmother, Niall, and a few fairies were fine-tuning the rules of the competition. “Do you think she can win?”
“I wouldn’t put anything past her. She’s not just a fairy queen. She’s also an enchantress, so she’s got two kinds of magic. I don’t know about her grandmother, but they’ve got the same heritage.”
Tallulah seemed to be playing referee. She climbed onto the throne stone and motioned for silence. “The challenge for the throne will now begin. Niall, as challenger, has the right of choosing the first contest and will compete first. Niall, what do you propose?”
“I propose a contest of music, one of the arts that define the fae. We will each perform a song.”
Emily, who’d come with Eamon to stand by Michael, asked her fairy friend, “Okay, how bad is this?”
“Niall was once a noted bard. Can Sophie sing as well as you?”
“She hasn’t had the training I had, so she won’t be blasting anyone out of the second balcony, but she’s got a pretty voice. I don’t know about Nana, but I had to get the genes from somewhere.”
Niall conjured up a harp and took a seat on the throne stone. His tuxedo looked incongruous in the setting, but that didn’t matter once he ran his fingers lightly across the harp strings. The sound didn’t affect Michael’s ears so much as it went straight to his soul.
Then Niall started singing. His voice was clear and lilting. Michael would have bet that his notes were so true that he could easily shatter crystal if the crystal was pure enough to be in tune. His song was about lost loves found again in eternal summer, and it tugged at the heartstrings in a way Michael had never experienced. At his side, Jen was sniffling, her gaze straying back to the crowd. Emily was clearly fighting not to show how stirred she was, her arms crossed defiantly over her chest and her jaw set, even as a tear welled over her lower eyelashes. Michael couldn’t bring himself to look at the rest of the audience.
Then it was the Drake women’s turn. Sophie and her grandmother conferred for a moment before Leonie started singing the old song that had been passed down through generations, a bit of nonsense that turned out to contain the clues needed to claim the throne of the Realm. Michael could see where Emily got her pipes. Leonie’s voice was rich and strong. Sophie chimed in on the second verse, adding a descant in her softer, more delicate voice. The two voices blended in an eerie way. It wasn’t quite as affecting as Niall’s performance, however. If Michael removed his personal bias for the contestants, he’d have to give this round to Niall.
At the end of the song, Tallulah stepped onto the stone again and called out, “All for Niall!” The applause was intense and went on for a while. “All for the queen!” The response wasn’t dramatically weaker, but the difference was still noticeable. “This contest goes to Niall. Now, your majesty, what contest do you propose?”
Michael noticed the use of the title—a hint of her loyalties or perhaps an attempt to sway the crowd? “I challenge Niall to a contest of magic,” Sophie called out.
“I wonder how this’ll go,” Emily muttered as the participants wrangled over the rules.
“Your sister has the power of the crown and is an enchantress, as well,” Eamon said, as calmly as a television golf analyst. “But Niall is full fae with far more experience.”
“That’s not reassuring,” Emily said, elbowing him in the ribs.
“He is very powerful,” Jen said, her voice tight. “Trust me, I tried to resist him, and it was hopeless.”
“But Sophie wouldn’t have proposed this if she weren’t confident, right?” Michael said.
“You have met my sister, haven’t you?” Emily said with a wry smile. “She’s confident about everything.”
Apparently, this was to be a direct magical battle, not a showcase. As the one who proposed the contest, Sophie got first strike. She and Leonie joined hands, presumably joining their powers, and at first they didn’t seem to be doing anything. Then Sophie said sweetly to Niall. “Come on over here, hon.”
Without hesitation, he walked straight toward the two women and bowed to them before kissing their hands, in turn. Only after he had bowed again did he seem to realize what he was doing. “Yeah, that’s the way Soph pretty much goes through life,” Emily said with a chuckle. “That explains so much about her.”
Niall struck back by hurling a ball of fire at the Drake women, but it exploded harmlessly against a magical shield. When it was Sophie’s move, a wreath of flowers covered Niall, pinning his arms against his sides. He had to use his next move to remove the flowers. When he was free, a tiny storm cloud appeared directly over his head, pouring rain on him while whipping him with wind and flashing lightning. He moved the cloud over Sophie and her grandmother, but another shield appeared over their heads, so not a drop of rain touched them.
Tallulah raised her hand. “That’s a spell repeated,” she said.
“It’s a similar concept, being a shield, but it’s a different spell,” Sophie argued. “The spell to block a fireball isn’t the same as the spell to block water. Water would have gone through the fireball shield.”
“It’s still a shield. This round goes to Niall.”
“What? That’s not fair!” Emily protested.
She looked like she was about to head out and confront Tallulah, but both Michael and Eamon held her back. “Listen to the crowd,” Michael urged. The valley was ringing with boos and jeers. “I think she did that on purpose. She’s building sympathy.”
“The outcome of these individual tests means little,” Eamon said. “It’s all about winning over the gathering for the final vote. Tallulah has made a shrewd move to make the crowd favor Sophie.” Emily’s glare indicated that she didn’t entirely buy that, but she quit straining against the two men.
“Niall, your next contest?” Tallulah asked.
He looked awfully pleased with himself when he said, “I challenge you in another of the great fae arts: dancing.”
Emily laughed out loud, and Michael grinned. “What is it? Will she be able to compete there?” Jen asked.
“Sophie’s a prima ballerina,” Michael said.
“Who was trained by fairies,” Emily added. “Seriously, she’s unreal. If she hadn’t been looking after Nana, she’d probably be the biggest ballet star in the world by now. She’s older than a lot of pros, but give her a year, and I bet you’ll be hearing about her if she even tries to make a go of it.”
Niall got to go first. He beckoned to his consort, Orla, and gestured to the group of musicians who’d gathered nearby. A marble dance floor appeared to cover the ground in front of the stone. They started dancing ballroom-style, moving fluidly in unison. “Wow, they’ve got a real Fred and Ginger thing going on,” Jen said.
“I know, right?” Emily said. “I’ve danced with him. He’s pretty good.”
“How does that stack up against Sophie?” Jen sounded anxious.
“I guess it depends on what they’re looking for, but just wait and see.” Michael was glad Emily had taken care of the endorsement because he’d noticed the suspicious way Jen regarded Sophie. She had absolutely nothing to worry about, but him praising Sophie’s dancing wouldn’t help the situation, and the one time he’d been even slightly tempted by another woman had been the last time he saw Sophie dance.
While Niall and Orla danced cheek-to-cheek, Sophie sat off to the side, putting on ballet shoes and wrapping the ribbons around her ankles. She’d slipped out of her wrap-around dress, revealing that she wore a gauzy short dress under it—some kind of dance outfit, from what he could tell. Once she had her shoes on, she went through some warm-up exercises.
Niall and Orla finished to a nice round of applause. The crowd liked his performance, but they weren’t in raptures. The couple took several bows before finally leaving the stage
area.
Sophie waited a moment before striding slowly and deliberately out to the middle of the floor and taking a starting position. Beneath her feet, the floor turned to wood. Michael realized he was holding his breath in anticipation. He’d wanted to see her dance again ever since the last time.
The music began, slow and mournful. Sophie’s first move was to lift her arm. It was a simple motion, but somehow she made it look like her hand was floating upward of its own accord. She rose to her toes, as though her whole body was being pulled upward by her hand. Then she seemed to be released, drifting back to the ground, her knees bending as her heels hit the ground. Next, it was her right foot that was pulled upward, her knee bending until her toe passed her knee, then her leg extending until her knee practically brushed her shoulder. At the same time, she rose onto the toe of her supporting leg.
She balanced in what looked like an impossible position for a long moment before whipping her body around so that her leg was now extended behind her, her back arched and her arms held in front of her. She made it look easy, but Michael had the feeling that doing those moves required the kind of muscles most people didn’t begin to possess.
“Wow,” Jen breathed. “That’s impressive. I’m sore just looking at her doing that.”
“That’s nothing,” Emily said, grinning.
The music picked up, and Sophie’s feet moved with blinding speed as she did quick little turns around the perimeter of the wooden floor. Back in the middle, she did a jig-style step that ended with her jumping back and forth sideways, one leg raised to the side in the air, but coming down so that she landed on both feet. She bent her knees, then rose to one toe, raised her other toe to her knee, and spun around several times. When she lost momentum, she kicked out her leg and whipped it around, amping up the spin. Michael lost count of how many times she spun around. Her hair, hanging loose around her shoulders, flew wildly around her.
She came out of the spin, took a few steps, then jumped, both legs in front her body. She scissored her legs as her body flipped around so that she landed facing the other direction. From there she ran a few steps before leaping, her legs in a full split. She seemed to hang in the air for an impossibly long time before she finally landed, light as a feather.
The crowd roared in approval, and she gave a graceful curtsy. Emily whistled and cheered as she clapped, and Jen was almost as enthusiastic. Michael shook himself out of the spell to clap.
When the applause had died a little, Tallulah gestured for silence. “All for Niall?” she cried out. The response was tepid. “All for the queen?” The roar was nearly deafening. “This contest goes to her majesty.”
“Okay, we’ve won one,” Emily said, clasping her hands together.
“By a very large margin,” Eamon said. “That was an impressive demonstration.”
“Your next contest, your majesty?” Tallulah asked Sophie.
Barely breathing hard, but still a bit red-faced and sweaty, Sophie frowned, like she wasn’t quite sure. Before she could speak, Leonie stepped forward. “I call for a game of chance.”
Forty-one
By the Throne Stone
Next
Sophie could barely believe her ears. Her grandmother had never so much as allowed playing cards in the house because cards were used in games of chance. “I thought you didn’t believe in gambling,” she hissed at Nana when she made her way over to her.
“I don’t,” Nana replied calmly.
“Then what—” Sophie broke off when Tallulah came over to consult on the form of the challenge. She decided to leave this one to Nana. Presumably, she knew what she was doing. While they talked, she took off her pointe shoes and rubbed her feet, then stretched a bit while she cooled off. She decided to wait until the faint breeze dried her sweat before she put her dress back on.
Nana suggested a game of dice, which was a real shock. She hadn’t even been crazy about the family playing Monopoly, even though the money had been fake, because she thought dice made it into a game of chance.
Each contestant threw the dice, and Tallulah declared a winner before they played another round. Nana won every single time. By the fourth round, Sophie started studying what she did. She thought she detected a trace of magic. After the seventh round, Nana was declared the definitive winner. When Nana rejoined her, Sophie accused, “You were using magic to cheat!”
“I told you, I don’t believe in gambling. If you know the outcome, it’s not gambling.”
“But you believe in cheating?”
“In a contest against the fae, there’s no such thing. There’s only being clever and being more clever. He was also cheating. My cheating was simply more effective.”
“Okay, then,” Sophie said, barely fighting back a smile. She’d almost forgotten how feisty her grandmother could be, it had been so long since she was really herself. Now she felt fairly certain that bringing her here had been the right idea.
While Niall consulted with Orla about the next challenge, Sophie put her dress back on and tied the belt at her waist, then put on her shoes. Her hair was probably a lost cause after all the spinning about she’d done, but she tried to smooth it back away from her face.
Niall returned to face Tallulah. “I propose a contest of puzzles,” he said, smiling so smugly that Sophie was sure he had something nasty up his sleeve. That meant she needed to come up with something equally nasty for him. What was his biggest weakness, and how could she exploit it?
But she didn’t have time to come up with her test for him because he was already outlining the rules with Tallulah. Each contestant would pose a puzzle for the other. Tallulah would decide when time was up. Before today, Sophie would have been sure Tallulah was on her side. Now, it was hard to tell. She’d made one questionable ruling against her so far. Either that was part of a greater plan or the fairy didn’t care who won.
Niall was practically grinning and rubbing his hands together like a movie super-villain when he approached Sophie. “My test for you is one of character, will, skill, and ingenuity,” he said. “That said, I’m sure you’ll win, one way or another, because my puzzle offers you two ways to win. Even if you can’t solve the puzzle, you may still get what you want—though you must decide what you want most.”
“Is this part of the puzzle, or is this just the introductory paragraph?” Sophie asked, fighting to sound calm even as she tried to parse what he’d just said.
“Oh, you’re a plain-spoken lady, I see,” he said with a patronizing smile that made her want to introduce his teeth to her toes. Too bad she’d already taken off her pointe shoes.
“And you’re clearly an aspiring politician.”
“You’re right, my lady. Enough wasting time.” He waved his hand at Amelia and Athena, and suddenly the two elderly enchantresses were bound in silvery chains tied in a complicated knot. “Once the challenge begins,” Niall said, still sounding unnervingly pleasant, “the chains will slowly tighten. You must find a way to free your friends.” His grin grew wider. “But never fear! They don’t have to die, even if you fail. You have a second chance. You can decide if there’s something you’re willing to trade for their lives.”
“Like, say, a crown?” Sophie asked.
“That’s up to you. But whether I’ll accept your offering is up to me.” He glanced at Tallulah and added, “You won’t have to time this puzzle. It times itself. And it begins now.”
Instantly, Amelia and Athena were pulled closer together by the tightening chain. Sophie darted straight to them, Nana at her side, to inspect the knot. It looked impossibly complicated.
“Hmm, rather Gordian, isn’t it?” Nana remarked.
“So you think we can just break it?” Sophie asked. “I doubt there’s a blade that would cut through this.”
“Not a physical one,” Amelia said. The chain went around her middle, and she was doing an excellent job of remaining calm. The much-shorter Athena was in more distress, as the chain pinned her arms to her sides.
“You know, he didn’t specify dealing with the knot itself,” Sophie mused out loud. “The knot isn’t the weak point. What if we all focus on one particular link in the chain?” She reached out and touched a tiny link that, so far, wasn’t in physical contact with the two women.
Sophie focused all her magical energy on that link. She sensed the flow of power coming from Nana and the two enchantresses. Her fae magic did little good, but enchantress magic was designed to fight fae magic.
Athena cried out as the chain tightened. It was slipping upward as it constricted and was very close to her neck. The targeted chain began to glow. Risking a burn, Sophie grabbed and twisted it. It broke apart in her hand, and she flung the ends of the chain apart, freeing the enchantresses.
Sophie’s fingers didn’t start stinging until a moment later. There were blisters on the tips of her thumb and first two fingers. Nana noticed this, as well, and grabbed her wrist before Sophie could follow the instinct to put her fingers in her mouth. “Cold water’s what you need,” she said.
Athena ran to retrieve her bag and came back with a bottle of water, which she poured over Sophie’s hand.
“I believe it’s time for your puzzle for me,” Niall called out. His voice was as smug as ever, but when Sophie glanced his way, she thought he looked a little alarmed. “Or are you going to forfeit?”
Sophie looked at Nana to see if she’d come up with anything, but Nana shook her head. It was probably unfair to expect much of her, since she’d come out of the fog of advanced Alzheimer’s not too long ago, but Sophie was also drawing a blank.
She needed to prey on his weakness, or, if not his personal weakness, then a weakness common to his kind. Looking out at the spectators, where her sister, Michael, and Jen were watching her, gave her an idea. “Jen, Em, can you come over here for a moment?” Turning to her grandmother, she added, “And I’ll need you, too, Nana.”
She ended up with a row of redheads. No one would get them mixed up because they were all of different heights, had different facial features, different eyes, and different shades of hair color. No human, that was. To the fae, they all looked more or less alike, which was why Maeve’s people had grabbed Jen while looking for Emily and why Niall’s attempt to put Jen on the throne might have worked, even with fairies who’d seen Sophie as queen.
To Catch a Queen Page 23
