Door Into Faerie

by Edward Willett

  “Melina,” Merlin said, his tone pleading, and Ariane blinked. So that’s the Lady’s real name? “Please.” The last word was a whisper.

  “Goodbye, Merlin,” the Lady said. She put her hand on his forehead and closed her eyes.

  “Noooooo!” Merlin shouted, a long, drawn-out howl that dwindled to nothing as his body began to glow, like the bodies of the knights. Unlike theirs, his body did not vanish. Instead, it transformed. Wally and Flish stumbled back as it lengthened, and twisted. It grew upright, but not like a man getting to his feet. Rather, it was as though his body were made of wax that melted and flowed into a new shape. The glow grew brighter and brighter until Ariane had to fling a hand over her eyes. For one brief moment it flared bright as the sun.

  Then it went out.

  Merlin had vanished. In his place stood a tree that had not been there moment before – an ancient, gnarled oak, taller than any other tree at Cannington Manor. In its twisted bole, if you looked at it just right, you could almost swear you saw the face of a man.

  A very, very angry man.

  “I have done as you asked,” the Lady of the Lake said. She held out her hand to Wally. “Now, Excalibur.”

  “Wally,” Ariane said. “Give me the sword.”

  The Lady’s eyes narrowed dangerously as Wally, holding the sword flat in both hands, held it out to Ariane.

  Ariane took it. The joy that filled its song, and her as her fingers closed around the spiraling gold wire of its hilt, took her breath away. She closed her eyes, and concentrated, letting that song rush through her, bearing with it all the magic of the sword, the magic keeping open the door into Faerie. She could feel, too, the strain on that door, Earth itself fighting to close it, like a human body trying to heal a wound, to seal it before infection could spread. It would be easy to slam that door shut, with so much pressure on it. All she had to do was withdraw the power keeping it open.

  “You know,” she said conversationally, holding up the sword and looking down its wet, shining length, “when you offered me your power, the main reason I accepted was because I thought there was a chance it might help me find my mother. Which it did. So thank you for that.”

  “Give me the sword,” the Lady said. She sounded as though she were talking through clenched teeth.

  “You played on that, of course,” Ariane went on. “You talked about my mother when you ‘recruited’ me. You knew that would make me more likely to do what you wanted.

  “And I did do what you wanted. I took the power. I set off on the quest. I thought I had to do it because, well, you’re the Lady of the Lake and clearly you must be wise and good and wonderful and all-knowing. It was like when I was little, and I thought Mom was perfect in every way, and I should do what she told me because I wanted to be a good little girl.

  “But Mom wasn’t perfect. She ran off and left me. She thought she was doing it for me, but it was the wrong thing to do. It hurt me terribly. Then you came along, and I thought maybe you would be perfect in every way and I should do what you wanted me to because I wanted to be a good little girl.

  “But you know what?” And now Ariane pointed the sword directly at the Lady. “You’re not perfect, or wise, or good. You’re an alien, an invader from another world. You and your brother came here a thousand years ago to try to set up Earth as your own private little kingdom, to make yourselves rich and powerful, like the Spaniards plundering South American gold. And so when you say you’re going to close the door into Faerie forever, I don’t believe you. I believe you’ll be back, or others of your kind will. Earth isn’t safe from you.

  “So here’s the thing.” She lowered the sword. “I’m keeping Excalibur. Wally and I are keeping Excalibur. I’m keeping the power you gave me. And if anyone…anyone…from Faerie tries to come back to Earth and meddle in our affairs again, Wally and I will be waiting for them. And if we’re dead and gone, then our heirs will be waiting for them. From now on, Earth is protected – by the power of Arthur and power of the Lady of the Lake – the new Arthur, and the new Lady of the Lake – and Excalibur.”

  The Lady’s face had gone white while Ariane spoke, ice-white except for two red spots burning on her cheeks. “How dare you? I am the Lady of the Lake.” She raised her hands, and the rain swirled and coalesced behind her, forming a water-woman twice her height. “Give me the sword or…”

  Ariane and the sword laughed together. She reached out with her Excalibur-augmented power, and the Lady’s water-woman dissolved into spray and fog. The Lady staggered as her own magic backlashed into her, like a snapping rubber band.

  “You are not the Lady of the Lake,” Ariane said. “I am. You are Melina of Avalon, and it’s time you went back there.”

  She raised the sword again, as she had when the door into Faerie had opened – when she had opened the door, for it had come to her that that was exactly what she had done, that the Lady – Melina – had not opened the door from the other side, but had called to her to use the power of Excalibur to open it for her.

  This time, she closed it.

  Like water swirling down the drain, the clouds and rain surrounding them rushed into the sky. Twirling and spinning, black tatters of fog were sucked into the hole that had opened in the firmament above. Blue sky appeared all around the horizon, and swept upwards as the clouds departed, until all that was left was a small hole, an eye-hurting circle of ebony blackness at the zenith.

  Melina reached out talon-like hands at Ariane, screaming, “I’ll kill you for this, you little –”

  Then she, too, vanished, her body flaring white before it was pulled up into the hole in a flash of lightning, lightning that leaped from where she had stood to that black hole high overhead…

  …a hole that vanished as though it had never been.

  A final deafening thunder-crack slammed down onto the prairie.

  The late-afternoon sun shone down once more on Cannington Manor; on the smouldering, shattered remains of the historic buildings; on the litter of fallen trees and broken branches and scattered leaves; on the massive pit that had opened at the edge of the small lake, reducing it to a muddy depression; on the giant oak that had sprouted at the corner of the flour mill basement; and on All Saints Anglican Church, which alone shone as calm and undamaged as it had before the storm.

  Ariane took a deep breath. “It’s over,” she said.

  •••

  Wally stared at Ariane as if he’d never seen her before. “Wow,” he said. “That was…wow.”

  Ariane gave him a smile – just a small one, but definitely a smile. “Are you all right?”

  He took his own deep breath. His side ached where Merlin had kicked him, and he thought he’d pulled a muscle fighting the knights, since the sword hadn’t seemed to care that he wasn’t a battle-hardened warrior and had made him perform moves his body had never even considered performing before and really hadn’t appreciated having to perform now. But…

  “Yeah,” he said. “I’m all right.”

  He looked at Felicia, who had sat down on the ground, arms around her knees. “Flish…um, Felicia?” he said softly. “How are you doing?”

  “I think I’ve got a loose tooth,” Felicia said. “And I really could use some mouthwash. Merlin tasted terrible.” She looked down at herself. “Also, what was I thinking, wearing this stupid outfit? Wet leather is the worst.”

  Wally stared at her, and then laughed. “I couldn’t believe it when you did that,” he said. “I mean…that was hard-core, Sis.”

  Felicia shrugged. “He would have killed you. I couldn’t let that happen.”

  “Thank you,” Ariane said.

  Felicia looked up at her, studied her face for a moment, then looked down again. “You’re welcome,” she said. She didn’t say anything else, but it was a start, Wally thought.

  He looked around at the badly damaged park. “How are we going to explain all this?”

  “We don’t have to,” Ariane said. “How about instead we all go ho
me before anyone else shows up?”

  “Go home?” Wally blinked at her. “You mean…I thought, I know what you said to the Lady, but I thought you must be bluffing. I thought with the door into Faerie closed, you’d lose your power.” He studied her face. “In fact, I thought that was what you wanted,” he added softly.

  “That’s what the Lady – Melina – wanted,” Ariane said. “She wanted to use me to get the sword, then take it away and close the door and leave me here – us here – helpless, with her brother as rich and powerful as ever. She didn’t care what happened to us after she had the sword. But you know what?” Ariane lifted Excalibur. It shone in the sun, and Wally was suddenly struck by its beauty. Its reforging had not only joined the pieces together, it had rejuvenated them – the blade looked brand-new. “The Lady’s power over water never came from Faerie. It’s from right here on Earth. And Excalibur is the key to accessing it.” She lowered the sword and grinned at him again. “I have more power than I’ve ever had.”

  “And what will you do with it?” Felicia said unexpectedly. She stood up. “Become a superhero? Wear a cape? Get your own comic book?”

  “Flish,” Wally said warningly, but Ariane just laughed.

  “Maybe that’s not a bad idea,” she said. “The superhero part. And maybe the comic book. Not the cape.”

  Wally blinked at her, and she laughed again.

  “I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t know what I’ll do in the long term. But in the short term, I can tell you exactly what I’ll do. This!” And then she strode forward and, to his complete and utter delight, kissed him, long and hard.

  Felicia made a gagging noise, but he waved his hand at her to tell her to shut up.

  Ariane pulled back, but then took his hand and squeezed. “And now,” she said, “if you’ll take your brother’s other hand, Felicia…”

  Felicia made a face, but she reached out and grasped it.

  “Please keep your arms and legs inside the magic at all times,” Ariane said, and Cannington Manor vanished from around them.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Full Circle

  On an early morning in late summer, Ariane and Wally stood on the shore of Wascana Lake, looking out through the golden mist at the shadowy form of Willow Island, the very place where they had first encountered the Lady of the Lake ten months before.

  Ariane carried a long case that had once held a fishing rod, with Excalibur hidden inside it. She could hear its song clearly – it purred like a kitten, contented to be whole, contented to be in the service of the Lady and the Heir of Arthur, though always wishing, just a little, that they would kill someone with it, just for old time’s sake.

  Not going to happen, Ariane thought.

  They had passed a glorious summer. Ariane had taken them back to Barringer Farm, where her Mom and Emma and Aunt Phyllis had fussed over all three of them, bandaging what needed bandaging, listening to their stories of what had happened, and feeding them until they’d almost popped. Flish – Felicia, Ariane reminded herself again; she’d been trying very, very hard not to call Felicia by her hated nickname since their new rapprochement had begun so tentatively at Cannington Manor – had been quiet and withdrawn to begin with, but had thawed as the days went by, and by the time the real owners of Barringer Farm had returned she had seemed almost human.

  They’d all watched the news coverage of the “freak storm” that had devastated Cannington Manor, the strange “pothole” that had swallowed the lake, and the mystery of the tree that had certainly never been there before but was there now, complete with a root system that delved half a dozen metres into the Earth. Nobody had come up with anything close to a believable explanation for that, but it was already bidding fair to become Cannington Manor’s top attraction, and despite the damage to the old buildings, all now undergoing extensive restoration, the park had had more visitors that summer than ever before in its history.

  Deepening the mystery was the fact that Cannington Manor had also been the last known whereabouts, just before the storm, of computer magnate Rex Major. Two employees of Excalibur Computer Systems had come forward to say they had driven him there, but that they had left him at his order and returned to Regina. They seemed confused about the details, but although they’d been questioned closely, in the end there was no evidence of foul play and they’d been released.

  Authorities had eventually concluded that Rex Major had somehow perished in the storm, his body perhaps carried away by what was widely assumed to have been a tornado. A search of the area, however, had turned up nothing.

  An alternative theory was that Rex Major had been involved in shady underworld dealings and had been murdered by the mob. A Toronto writer had gotten a quickie bestselling book out of that, and a TV movie, Downfall of a King, was already in the works.

  With the return of Sam and Nancy Barringer to the farm, they’d had to vacate, of course, but since Rex Major was no longer pursuing them, that had suited everyone just fine. Emma had returned to Estevan, and Aunt Phyllis, Ariane, Ariane’s mom and Wally had all returned to Regina – where Pendragon the cat had shown remarkable indifference to their renewed presence in his life. Ariane, Wally and Felicia hadn’t stayed long. Wally had phoned his mom and all three of them had headed off to Scotland to sightsee while Jessica Knight continued to shoot her “deeply personal” film about the strange history of her family. Alexander MacPhaiden had told her the family legend associated with the painting over his fireplace, and it seemed possible her film might actually come close to revealing the truth. Wally, Ariane, and Flish nodded wide-eyed as she told them her theories, but didn’t offer any additional information. Fortunately, Rex Major’s disappearance had not meant the disappearance of the funding he had arranged for the film.

  Ariane had enjoyed seeing Wally and Felicia and Jessica Knight re-bonding as a family, and Wally’s mom had been so happy to meet her and had made her feel so welcome that she hadn’t felt like a third wheel – well, fourth wheel – at all. And during their four weeks in Scotland a few more things had been worked out, too.

  Jessica Knight had taken the Knight house on Harrington Mews off the market, and had the furniture moved back into it from storage. She and Felicia and Wally would be living there, except when Jessica was away on long shoots. Felicia would be accompanying her – Jessica had officially hired her daughter as her assistant – and seemed thrilled by the opportunity.

  Whenever they were away, it had been decided, Wally would stay with Aunt Phyllis and Emily Forsythe and Ariane, so that he and Ariane could continue their schooling. They were in the same grade now; Emma had determined that Ariane had, not surprisingly, made insufficient progress during the past year to advance to Grade 11, and so she was repeating Grade 10 as a classmate of Wally’s.

  She didn’t mind.

  In fact, she found she didn’t mind much of anything. She’d never been happier.

  The quest was over, the bad guy defeated, the sword of Excalibur whole once more…

  …and she still had the power of the Lady of the Lake.

  At first she’d thought she’d need to have the sword with her for her to draw on those powers, but in truth she could feel the sword wherever it was – which was what now brought them here to Wascana Lake.

  “Are you sure about this?’ Wally said. He glanced at her, his face shining in the morning light. He’d grown another two inches over the summer and he even had the beginnings of a mustache on his upper lip. He’d be shaving any week now.

  Well, maybe any month.

  She grinned, but only inside her head. “I’m sure,” she said.

  “There are more exotic hiding places. All those lochs and castles we saw in Scotland…”

  Ariane laughed. “Too cliché.”

  Wally grinned. “I guess you’re right.”

  Ariane looked back out over the lake, the mist rising from it in long tendrils that drifted lazily across the grey surface of the water in the light breeze. “As long as it’s in
fresh water, I’ll feel it,” she said. “And no one else can find it. It will be here, but hidden – just like it has been for centuries. Until it’s needed.”

  “Like Arthur, returning in Britain’s hour of need,” Wally said.

  Ariane shot him a smile. “Which he did. Or at least in my hour of need.” She knelt down then, and put the old fishing-rod case on the muddy ground at her feet. She opened it, and drew out the sword. It glinted pale gold in the morning light. She stood up, and looked around at the parking lot.

  It was silent and deserted. In fact, the whole city seemed to be holding its breath. Even the traffic noise had faded away, as though a bubble of silence surrounded them.

  Maybe it does, Ariane thought. It would hardly be the strangest thing that’s happened.

  The sword didn’t seem concerned about what she had planned. It was still hers, and knew it, and it didn’t matter where it was, as long as it was whole and tied to her magic.

  She grinned then, as she thought of something. ‘Watch this,” she said to Wally.

  She reached back, and threw the sword toward the lake.

  If she’d had to rely solely on her own muscles, it wouldn’t have travelled more than a couple of metres. But Ariane wasn’t throwing with her strength alone, but with that of the sword. It flew impossibly far out into the lake, halfway to Willow Island, glinting and glittering as it spun through the misty air. Then Ariane exerted just a little more of her power, and a watery arm, sheathed in white ice, reached up from the lake and caught the sword neatly in its transparent fingers.

  For a moment the arm held the sword triumphantly above the glassy surface, and then it withdrew, drawing Excalibur smoothly down into the lake.

  From the spot where it had vanished, concentric ripples spread out, smoothed, and then were gone as though they had never been.

  Ariane took a deep breath, as though she’d just been relieved of an enormous burden. She picked up the now-empty case with her left hand and offered her right to Wally. He took it.