by Isobel Bird
“You all look as if you need a little something,” the Oak King said from his place at the head of the table, as if reading her thoughts. “Eat. The night is fleeting, and there is much to come.”
All around the table, people piled their plates with food. Annie did the same, biting eagerly into a piece of chicken. It was delicious, and she ate steadily for some time before she felt satisfied enough to slow down. Then she turned to Maid Marian and Robin, who were sharing a sliced apple.
“This is some party,” she said. “Do you always do this on Midsummer?”
Robin nodded. “It’s our tradition,” he said. “Do you not do the same?”
“This is all new to me,” Annie told him. “I haven’t been practicing very long.”
“The people of the wood have gathered like this since time immemorial,” Maid Marian said.
“The king said that something was going to happen later,” said Annie. “What was he talking about?”
“The battle, of course,” answered Robin, draining his cup of mead and refilling it.
“With his brother?” Annie asked.
“Yes,” said Robin. “They fight on this night every year.”
“He mentioned that,” Annie responded. “I didn’t realize they had a party first.”
Marian glanced at Robin. “Perhaps, as she is new, she doesn’t know about the ritual,” she said.
Robin nodded. “Let me explain,” he said. “Tonight the Oak King will battle his brother, the Holly King. We are here to help him prepare.”
The Holly King, Annie thought. So that’s his name. It made sense that the Oak King’s brother was also a king, but she wondered what he was the king of. For that matter, what was the Oak King the king of? She didn’t know that either. “What are they fighting about?” she wondered aloud.
“The kingship of the wood,” said Marian.
“And of the year,” added Robin.
“Of the year?” repeated Annie, not understanding.
“Each Midsummer and Yule the brothers meet and fight to see who will rule for the next six months,” Robin explained. “They come together and fight to the death.”
“To the death!” said Annie, startled.
“Of course,” said Robin, as if it should be obvious to anyone. “The winner reigns for the next six months, and then they battle again.”
Annie was about to ask how they could possibly do battle again when one of them was dead. Then she remembered that it was all a game, an elaborate ritual that she had become caught up in. Of course, nobody really died. They just acted out the battle. It was like the Renaissance fair she had gone to the previous summer, where everyone had worn medieval costumes and pretended to be knights and ladies. Only this time the players were acting out some kind of pagan ritual she’d never heard of.
“I wonder who will win,” she said, getting into the spirit of things. “I hope it’s the Oak King.”
“Oh, no,” Marian said. “It will be the Holly King.”
“How do you know already?” said Annie.
“Because that’s the way it always is,” Robin told her.
Annie was puzzled. What fun was the mock battle if everyone already knew how it ended? It seemed to her that it should be left up to chance. If the Oak King always lost and the Holly King always won, why even bother?
“Maybe this time it will be different,” she said hopefully.
Marian and Robin looked at her kindly and didn’t say anything. At the other end of the table, the Oak King stood up and clapped his hands. “It’s time for the entertainment,” he called out. “What have you prepared for me this year?”
There was a lot of commotion as people jumped up and ran around. Annie sat, watching and waiting to see what was going to happen next. She was really enjoying the evening so far, and she was anxious to see more. Even the battle sounded like fun now that she sort of understood what it was about.
A man walked into the center of the clearing. He was dressed in white and green, and when he appeared everyone began to boo loudly. Annie wondered why they didn’t like the man, but then she realized that they were just pretending to dislike him. It was like the hissing people did when a villain appeared on stage. The man stood, tapping his foot impatiently, until the noise died down.
“I am Winter,” he said pompously, bringing more boos from the audience.
“I am Winter,” he said again, more loudly than the first time. “And this is my poem.” He cleared his throat and recited.
As the year begins to wither,
and the sun burns out his days,
I, the Holly King, grow stronger,
and await my time to reign.
On Midsummer eve I come
to best my brother in fair fight,
soon the wood will wear my mantle,
cold as ice and snowy white.
Are you ready, my dear brother?
Will you join me on the field?
We all know how it will end—
that to my mighty sword you’ll yield.
The man stopped, and the clearing filled with more boos and hisses. The speaker seemed to be waiting for something, looking around haughtily at the spectators.
Then someone else ran into the clearing. It was a man dressed all in bright yellow and orange. Long triangles of different warm colors spoked out from his back, and he resembled a huge shining sun. When the man in green saw him he jumped back as if frightened. The yellow man stopped in front of him and pointed a finger at him as he began to recite his own poem.
Fight I will, oh frozen creature!
Ice and snow I do not fear.
While your time may soon be coming,
I still have some hours here.
On this field we will battle,
and you may emerge the king.
But in six months I’ll return
to end your frigid reign with spring.
So do your best, my wintry brother.
Swing your sword and take your aim.
Your time, too, will soon be over,
and my light will shine again.
As he finished, the man in yellow lunged at the man in green, who began running wildly around the clearing with the yellow man in pursuit. The crowd around the table hooted and shrieked in merriment, watching their comical actions, and Annie found herself laughing so hard she could hardly breathe. When she looked up she saw that the Oak King, too, was laughing loudly.
“Very good!” he cried. “Very good indeed! Much improved upon last year. My blessings on you both.”
The two men paused in their chase to bow briefly to the Oak King. Then the man in green darted into the trees with the man in yellow on his heels. When they were gone a group of people with instruments replaced them and immediately began to play a song. A woman stepped forward and began to sing.
Summer fades like dreams unwinding,
days grow shorter, nights grow long.
Now the Oak King passes over,
goes to sleep to be made strong.
When the sun is born again we’ll
greet him on the darkest night.
Then he comes with blazing glory,
bringing back the warmth and light.
Unlike the comic poems of the first two performers, the woman’s song made Annie feel sad. She was singing about the beauty of summer fading, when it seemed as if summer had just begun. Why was everyone talking about such depressing things? She thought that Midsummer was supposed to be a happy time, a time of magic and fun. They were making it into something else. She didn’t want to think about death. It made her think of her parents, and she’d done enough of that for one night. Now she wanted to dance and sing. She hoped the midnight dance with her friends was going to be more like that.
Everyone else seemed to like the song, though. When the players started to play it again, everyone joined in, their voices filled with sadness as they sang about the death of the Oak King. But as Annie listened she realized that there was hopefulness in the
song, too. They talked of his coming back and bringing the light with him. That was a nice image. But it still made her sad to think about his dying, so she was glad when the song ended and the Oak King stood up.
“It is almost time,” he said. “Now I must go prepare myself for battle. Will those helping me please attend?”
Robin Hood stood up. He tapped Annie on the shoulder. “We must go help him,” he said to her.
“Me?” Annie said.
Robin nodded. “Of course,” he said. “You have been his squire all evening. You’re expected to continue to be so now.”
CHAPTER 8
“So you’re here with Annie and Cooper?” Scott asked Kate. They’d been walking for almost ten minutes in silence, neither knowing what to say.
“Yeah,” Kate replied. “And some other friends, too. It’s kind of a party. A costume party.”
“I didn’t think that was your usual camping gear,” Scott joked.
The flashlight cast a long, thin beam of light out ahead of them. That light, added to the moonlight that slipped through the arms of the trees, meant that it really wasn’t terribly dark in the woods. Kate was surprised at how well she could actually see. The moon was only about halfway to fullness, but the strength of its light was unusual. The moonshine almost seemed to glow, covering the trees and the forest floor in an unearthly silver skin. It had a magical quality to it that made her both excited and a little nervous. It was as if someone had spilled faerie dust over the whole forest.
Thinking of that reminded her of the Faerie Queen. Kate wondered where she was now. Was she back in the main clearing, preparing for the dance? Was she in another part of the woods, giving someone else a challenge for the night? Whoever had organized things had gone to a lot of trouble to make the experience a fun one. Kate hoped Annie and Cooper were having a good time, wherever they were.
“I’ve been meaning to call you,” Scott said, interrupting her thoughts.
Kate didn’t respond. She was beginning to think that letting Scott escort her back had been a bad idea. There were a lot of things between them that hadn’t been resolved, and she wasn’t sure she was really up for talking about any of them.
“About what happened at Skip Day—” Scott began.
“I’m sorry about that,” said Kate quickly, cutting him off and hoping he would let the subject drop.
“I’m not,” Scott told her. “Why are you?”
Kate sighed. “It just shouldn’t have happened,” she replied. “We’re not together anymore, remember?”
“That wasn’t my idea,” said Scott in a wounded tone. “It was yours. And you never really told me why you were breaking up with me anyway.”
Now Kate was sure that walking back with him had been one of her stupider decisions. Had she really expected him not to say anything about the kiss or about their breakup?
“It just wasn’t going to work out,” she tried.
“How do you know?” asked Scott, sounding a little angry. “You didn’t even give it a chance. I turned down a full scholarship so that we could find out, but you just gave up without even trying.”
“I didn’t just give up,” Kate answered defensively.
“But you can’t tell me why you think it wouldn’t work,” said Scott.
It wasn’t that Kate couldn’t tell him because she didn’t know. It was that she couldn’t tell him because she wasn’t ready for him to know the truth. When it came down to it, she’d gotten Scott in the first place because she’d put a spell on him. Even though he’d stuck around after she and her friends had taken the spell back, the fact was that she could never be entirely sure why he wanted to be with her. There was always that little doubt in her mind that if she hadn’t worked magic on the doll that resembled him he would never have asked her to the Valentine’s Day dance and they would never have gotten together.
More important, there was no way she could ever tell him about her interest in witchcraft. He just wouldn’t understand that. But Tyler could understand it. He did understand it, because he was a witch himself. She didn’t have to hide who she was from him like she did from Scott. She didn’t have to worry that Tyler would make fun of her or think that she was weird because she liked to do rituals and work magic.
But you never gave Scott a chance to find out how he would react, a voice in her head reminded her. You just assumed he wouldn’t be able to handle it.
She didn’t want to think about that. It was true, she never had given Scott a chance to react to the news that she was studying Wicca. But she didn’t think she had to. He just wasn’t the kind of guy who would understand what it was all about. He understood football strategy and cars and stuff like that. He didn’t really think about things a lot the way she did—and the way Tyler did.
“I thought we had something really special, Kate,” Scott said softly, interrupting her thoughts. “I don’t know what I did wrong. Was it because I broke up with you first? Was that it? I told you why I did that.”
“No,” Kate said. “It had nothing to do with that.”
“Then why won’t you tell me what it was?” he said, sounding more and more frustrated. “Was it that other guy?”
Kate’s heart jumped in her chest. “What other guy?” she asked.
“I don’t know his name,” Scott said. “Some tall guy with black hair. Kind of thin. I saw you walking downtown with him one night. I was going to say hello, but you looked like you were having a good time so I didn’t.”
Tyler. Scott had seen her with Tyler. Kate didn’t know why that made her feel bad, but it did. She’d been careful not to go places where too many people could see them. But they did go out to movies occasionally, and sometimes for dinner, so it wasn’t really a shock that Scott had seen them together.
“Is he your boyfriend?” asked Scott. “Is he the reason you broke up with me?”
Kate found herself unable to speak. Yes, Tyler was the reason she’d broken up with Scott. Yes, he was her boyfriend. But hearing Scott say it that way—as if the very thought that it might be true wounded him deeply—made it sound as if she’d been having an affair or something. It wasn’t like that at all. Or was it? After all, she had kissed Tyler only minutes after telling him that she had another boyfriend. Now she was all confused. She’d wanted the break between her and Scott to be a clean one, but now it was turning into something complicated.
“Tyler is a nice guy,” she said, knowing it was the wrong thing to say.
“So you are dating him?” Scott said, sounding both sad and angry.
“I guess so,” Kate answered, immediately feeling guilty about not being entirely truthful, both to Scott and to Tyler. “I mean yes, we’re going out.”
“Why couldn’t you just tell me that?” said Scott.
“It wasn’t that simple,” Kate responded. “I didn’t break up with you because of Tyler. He was just the thing that made me see that I had to.”
“That makes a lot of sense,” said Scott sarcastically. “He’s not the reason you dumped me, but he made you see that you had to, and now you’re dating him. It sure sounds to me like he’s the reason.”
Kate wanted to be angry at Scott, but she couldn’t. He was right. She wasn’t making any sense. She tried to see things from his perspective, and when she did she saw how ridiculous what she was saying must sound. She searched for words that would help him understand, but she couldn’t find them.
Scott stopped walking. Kate kept going, but Scott grabbed her hand and pulled her back. She refused to look at him.
“Kate, I really want to be with you,” he said. “You’re not like any girl I’ve ever been out with. You’re smart, and funny, and really beautiful.”
Kate could feel herself starting to cry. She didn’t want Scott to be nice to her. She wanted him to be angry. That would make things so much easier. This way he was forcing her to think about things she didn’t want to think about.
“Don’t you remember how much fun we had?” he continued. “D
on’t you miss that?”
“Scott, I have to go,” Kate said.
“Why?” said Scott. “Do you have to meet Tyler?”
Part of Kate wanted to defend her boyfriend, but another part of her didn’t want to hurt Scott any more than she already had. She stood there, feeling his hand in hers, and she didn’t say anything.
“When we kissed on the beach, I felt something there,” Scott said gently. “I know you did, too.”
Kate couldn’t deny what he said. She had felt something that day. Standing there with Scott’s arms around her and his mouth on hers, she’d felt the way she’d felt the first time he’d kissed her. It had been a dangerous feeling, and that’s why she’d pulled away and returned to her friends before anything else could happen.
“That was a mistake, Scott,” she said. “It shouldn’t have happened.”
“But it did happen,” Scott replied. “And I think you wanted it to happen. Can you really tell me that you didn’t?”
Kate started to speak, then stopped. No, she couldn’t really say that she hadn’t wanted it to happen. Afterward she’d wished that it hadn’t, but right up until the moment their lips had parted she’d been thinking about how nice it felt to be with Scott again. That had been the worst part—not knowing what her true feelings were.
“You don’t do things you don’t want to, Kate. That’s one thing I know about you.”
“I didn’t say I didn’t want to do it at the time,” Kate responded. “But that doesn’t make it right.”
Scott turned her around so that she was facing him. He dropped the flashlight, the beam of light shooting into the trees beyond them. In the moonlight, the glitter Kate had put on her face sparkled faintly. She saw the outline of Scott’s body, felt his hands slide around her waist and pulled her close.
“Maybe you’re not sure about it, but I am,” he said. “I still feel that way, Kate. I still love you.”
He kissed her. Kate shut her eyes as Scott’s mouth closed over hers. The warmth of him surrounded her, pressing through the thin fabric of her costume. She felt his fingers on her back and smelled the scent of him. It was a familiar smell, and it brought back a lot of memories.
