by Isobel Bird
“You mean, you came back to life tonight?” replied Annie. “I mean, metaphorically. I know you didn’t really come back to life.”
“Oh, but I did,” the king responded. “Just this evening I awoke from my sleep and was greeted by those who watch over me, just as my brother will be watched over during the long nights of winter when my spirits of the cold are flying across the land.”
The Holly King’s speech was very poetic, but it was also a little too much for Annie to take in. The man playing the king was certainly getting into his role, but she was pretty sure she’d had enough of kings and killing for one evening. She was anxious to get back to camp, to her friends, and to the rest of the Midsummer gathering.
“What was it you wanted to show me?” she asked the king.
“It is just up here,” the Holly King told her. “You should feel very honored. No mortal has been taken to this place since the days of Arthur. We hide it well from the eyes of the curious. But through your devotion to my brother, I believe you have earned the right to see it.”
The king stopped, reached into his pocket, and pulled out a blindfold. “But I must ask you to put this on,” he said.
Annie looked doubtfully at the blindfold. Why did she need to wear it, especially in the dark? Was this some kind of trick? She didn’t feel like she was in any danger, but she wasn’t sure that the king wouldn’t try to make a fool out of her as part of the Midsummer fun.
“I cannot take you where I wish to if you do not put this on,” he said. “But I assure you that I mean you no harm.”
“Okay,” Annie said unenthusiastically. She took the blindfold from the king and placed it over her eyes, tying it in a knot behind her head. Between its blinding effects and the surrounding darkness, she couldn’t see anything at all. Even the light from the Holly King’s torch was nothing but a vague blur.
The king took her hand and led her forward. “Don’t worry,” he said. “I won’t let you fall.”
Annie had no idea where they were going. They were walking upward, she knew that, but she didn’t have any sense of what direction they were heading in. All she felt was the ground beneath her feet every time she took a step and the brushing of the branches against her skin as they passed by the trees. Then, after about five minutes, the king stopped. She heard what sounded like a door being opened, and then they were moving forward again. This time they were going down. She reached out with her foot and felt empty air.
“You are on a stairway,” the Holly King informed her. “Wait one moment while I remove your blindfold.”
He reached behind Annie and worked the knot loose. When the blindfold came off, Annie saw that they were indeed on a stairway. It was roughly carved out of solid stone, and it went down in a spiral. Behind them was a stone door that was shut. She wondered what it looked like from the outside, and how the stairs had come to be in the woods. Probably they were in some kind of abandoned water station or even an old bomb shelter from the days when people actually worried about things like that. She’d read a little bit about the shelters built in the woods around Beecher Falls, but she’d never seen one. Maybe the organizers of the ritual had gotten permission to use one for their activities.
However it had come to be there, Annie found it interesting. There were torches set into brackets in the walls every couple of yards, so she was able to see clearly as they descended the stairs. But she had no idea what awaited her at the bottom. For all she knew, they were just going to end up in an empty room. But she was curious, so she walked quickly with the Holly King behind her. When they reached the bottom of the stairs they were in a long hallway with a door at the opposite end.
“In there,” said the Holly King, pointing to the door.
They walked to the small wooden door and the king pushed it open. Annie stepped through and found herself in a small vaulted chamber about the size of her bedroom. In the middle of the room was a raised stone platform, and on the platform lay the Oak King. He was resting on a bed of leaves and flowers, all of which looked as fresh and perfect as when they’d first been picked. His hands were still crossed over his chest, but his clothing had been changed and he was wearing clean robes of pale yellow.
The six attendants who had carried the king from the field stood around the platform, gazing down on their master attentively. When they heard the door open they turned and looked at the Holly King and Annie.
“She is permitted by my asking,” the king said, and the attendants turned back to their fallen lord.
Annie walked over to the platform and looked down on the Oak King. His face was handsome, and he appeared to be at rest, his chest rising and falling with his breathing.
So he isn’t really dead, she thought. Even though she knew the whole thing was a play, she’d still been a little worried. But now she felt better.
“Here he will lie for six months,” the Holly King said, standing beside her. “And when he awakes at Yule, his attendants will help him rise and prepare him to come bring about my death.”
“Why are you showing me this?” Annie asked. Apart from being sort of interesting to see, this part of the ritual didn’t really make a lot of sense to her.
“I sense that you fear death,” the Holly King said. “My brother chose you as his squire for a reason. I think he wanted you to see his death and to learn from it.”
“He didn’t choose me,” Annie said stubbornly. “It was an accident. I ran into this guy in a fox mask who gave me a letter you wrote telling the Oak King to come meet you.”
The Holly King laughed. “My brother needed no letter,” he said. “And your coming to him was no accident. Most likely the fox was one of his own. But no matter. Now you are here, and now you see that even in death there is life.”
That was the second time that night someone had said that to her. The Oak King had talked about death being part of life, too. It had irritated Annie then, and it irritated her now.
“Why do people keep saying that?” she said. “Is this some kind of get-Annie-to-deal-with-death day or something? Everywhere I go it’s death this and death that. What happened to having a good time on Midsummer?”
“But there is much joy in Midsummer,” the king said. “Even the death of the Oak King is cause for celebration because it means that the Wheel of the Year has turned yet again. Why must that bring sadness?”
“Because death sucks!” Annie shouted, suddenly overcome with anger. “Do you even know what a real death is like? You’re just playing at this, putting on costumes and pretending to kill one another because you think it’s really cool. But dying isn’t cool. It’s scary, and it hurts, and no one should have to do it.”
She was breathing hard, glaring at the Holly King. Then she turned her attention to the sleeping Oak King. “Get up!” she yelled. “Open your eyes! The game is over. I got it, all right? Death is this great big sacrifice that we’re all supposed to be happy about. You can stop pretending to be dead now. I got your point.”
The Oak King continued to remain motionless. Enraged, Annie ran over and began to beat on his chest. “Get up!” she shouted. “Get up, get up, get up!”
When the king still refused to move, she began to cry. Tears fell from her eyes onto his yellow robes, staining the silk. Why wouldn’t he open his eyes and end the horrible game? Why were they making her do this? It was cruel. Whoever had devised this little “surprise” for her was going to get an earful when she found out who it was.
“I want you to wake up!” she said, grabbing the Oak King by the collar of his robe and trying to shake him. The attendants ran over and began to pull her away, but she fought against them, pushing their hands off and venting her fury and sadness on the unresponsive figure on the stone platform.
“Let her be,” the Holly King ordered, and the Oak King’s watchers released her. She ran back to him and threw herself across his body.
“Please,” she said, her screams of rage becoming softer. “Please don’t do this anymore. I don’t wan
t to go through this again. I don’t want to lose you again. Please, Daddy, wake up.”
She had become a little girl of six, calling for the father who had left her. In her heart she knew that the Oak King wasn’t her father. But he had reminded her so much of him. She hadn’t realized that until now, hadn’t realized how watching him die had been like reliving that long-ago night over again as if it was all being played out in horrible, vivid detail.
Now that she did, she cried even more. She had never really cried for her father and her mother. She’d been told to be brave, and she thought that meant keeping all of the hurt she felt inside. That’s why she didn’t talk about it very much. She didn’t want to bring it back to life, to risk opening up the wounds that had scarred over during years of being brave.
“Daddy,” she said again, the word sounding unfamiliar to her after not saying it for so long. “Daddy.” She wanted to say something—anything—else, but it was as if now that she’d started she couldn’t stop, couldn’t say anything but that one word. She was afraid that the man playing the Oak King must think she had gone crazy, but she couldn’t help it. The experiences of the evening had brought up all kinds of emotions in her, and they were all trying to come out at once.
Suddenly she felt someone grab her hand. She looked down and saw that one of the Oak King’s hands was holding hers tightly. His fingers clasped hers gently but firmly. Surprised, she looked at his face. His eyes were open, and he was smiling.
“Little hedgehog,” he said. “You have stirred me from my sleep. I have come only to tell you that the waning year holds much for you. Do not be afraid of what you will see and experience. This night has prepared you for it.”
The Oak King opened his arms. He pulled Annie to him and held her. As he did, she felt something inside her break open and she began to sob uncontrollably.
“There, there, little hedgehog,” the Oak King said. “It was just a game. Now it’s over. There’s no need to weep.”
“I thought you might really be dead,” Annie said, feeling very foolish but unable to stop herself. “I thought you were dead just like they are.”
“You mean your parents?” the king said.
Annie nodded. The king released her, and she stepped away from him, rubbing the tears from her face. She looked at the Holly King and then back at the Oak King, who looked at her kindly.
“Would you like to tell me what happened?” the Oak King said.
Annie nodded. For the first time since the accident she was ready to talk. It was time.
CHAPTER 14
“Where are we going?” Kate asked the two children. They seemed to be leading her away from the main ritual area, and that bothered her. Maybe they were part of whatever game she was playing, but maybe they were just as lost as she was. After all, how old could they be? Eight? Nine? And she still thought it was odd that they were running around in the woods alone so late at night. It had to be after eleven.
“Hey, do you two even know where you’re going?” she tried again. “I hope your parents are around here somewhere.”
The children laughed, but they didn’t say anything to her. It was as if they were teasing her, drawing her deeper and deeper into the forest. But she kept following them, hoping that eventually they would take her somewhere close to where she wanted to be.
Just as she was tiring of being pulled through branches in the dark, the woods opened up and she found that they were standing on the shores of the lake. The children stopped at the edge of the water and waited for Kate to catch up with them.
“There,” they said, pointing into the middle of the water.
Kate looked and saw that they were indicating the island that sat in the middle of the lake. The moon hung directly above it, bathing it in silver light, and it looked almost like a spaceship had landed and was floating on the water.
“What’s going on here?” she asked the little girl and boy.
“Come,” they said, walking toward the water.
Then Kate saw that there was a boat pulled up onto the beach. It was a rowboat, painted white, and its bow was decorated with a wreath of roses. The children pushed against it, shoving it into the water. The little girl turned and beckoned to Kate with one finger.
When she reached the shore, Kate stepped gently into the rowboat, feeling it rock beneath her weight. The floor was strewn with rose petals, and she was surrounded by a wonderful smell as she took her seat and faced the island. The little girl and boy gave one final push, and Kate found herself floating out into the lake as they remained onshore.
“Hey!” she called out. “What’s going on?”
Then she saw the oars resting in the boat’s oarlocks. Grabbing them, she began trying to turn the boat around. Then she looked at the island and decided that maybe she should see what was waiting out there. After all, everything had led her here. She might as well see the game out to the end.
Slowly but steadily, the boat made for the island. The closer she got, Kate saw that the entire island was covered in different colored lights. They twinkled merrily, blinking on and off like faeries flitting from one branch to the next. But before she had time to wonder how it had all been done, the boat was scraping the shore. Kate climbed out and pulled the little craft up to the beach.
But what was she supposed to do now? There was no one on the shore, and Kate didn’t know where to go. Then she noticed that to her right the lights formed a sort of doorway leading into the trees. Was she supposed to go through it? It seemed the likeliest choice. She walked to the doorway and stepped through.
She found herself on a path that wound in and out of the trees as she followed it. The branches around her were filled with the same blinking lights she’d seen from the shore, and she tried to see what was making the beautiful glow. But none of the lights stayed lit long enough for her to discern the source. As soon as she moved in for a closer look they went out and reappeared somewhere else.
It must be fireflies again, she thought. But do they flash in color? She didn’t think they did.
The path ended abruptly as the trees opened up into a large clearing. Kate ran into it and stopped. The moon hung right overhead, filling it with light that seemed brighter than it could possibly be. It was almost like twilight in the circle, and what the light illuminated was stranger than anything Kate had ever seen.
A group of people ringed the clearing, a group unlike anything Kate had set her eyes on before. Some were definitely human, or at least human-looking. But they were unnaturally beautiful. Their eyes sparkled even in the darkness. Their faces looked as if they’d been formed by the most skilled craftsmen. And their clothes were gorgeous, made of material that sparkled and shimmered like water when they moved.
Others were definitely not human, at least not entirely. There were creatures with the bodies of women and men but the heads of stags or bears or rabbits. They stood talking to one another in quiet voices and looking at the newcomer. And all around them flew the peculiar lights, bathing them in a kaleidoscope of ever-changing color.
What amazing costumes, Kate thought. She looked down at her own dress. It was dirty and torn from her night in the woods. The wings at her back hung forlornly to one side. She knew she looked terrible. This wasn’t how she’d wanted to make her entrance at the big Midsummer dance. She assumed that that’s where she was. It was a clever trick, telling them that the dance would be in the main clearing and then moving it to this place. How many other people had been fooled?
She looked around for familiar faces. Were Annie and Cooper there? Was Tyler? She was anxious to see them and find out what had been happening to them all night. Well, except maybe for Tyler. She’d started off the evening being happy to be with him. Now she wasn’t sure how she felt about anything.
“I see you’ve come,” a voice said, making her look up.
It was Maeve. As she entered the circle, the people around her stood back. Kate could see why. She looked even more beautiful than she had the other time
s Kate had seen her. She was dressed in a pink-and-white gown that sparkled with tiny lights. Her black hair fell around her face in curls. She looked magnificent.
“Yes,” Kate said. “I made it. Although my costume could use some help.”
“That doesn’t matter,” the queen told her. “What matters is that you followed your heart here. Do you remember what I asked you earlier tonight?”
“About my greatest desire?” Kate said. “I told you it was true love. But I think I should have said something else. The whole love thing didn’t really work out.”
“The night is not yet over,” Maeve told her.
“I think maybe I should stick with dancing,” Kate told her. “It’s easier.”
“There will be dancing soon,” said the Faerie Queen. “But first you must finish your quest.”
Kate didn’t understand. Hadn’t Maeve been listening? She’d lost Tyler in the woods somewhere. She’d run away from Scott. And most of the time she’d been walking around with a guy dressed as a faun. As far as romance went, this was about the least romantic evening she’d ever spent in her life.
“Very few are invited to my island,” said Maeve, sounding annoyed. “Are you refusing my challenge?”
There was murmuring among the crowd as the queen stared at Kate. Kate didn’t know what to say. Why was she being singled out like this? Why weren’t the others being put in the spotlight? Was someone trying to make her look like a fool? She looked around the circle, trying to figure out who would do such a thing. But all the faces were either unrecognizable or hidden behind masks.
“What do I have to do?” she asked impatiently. She just wanted to get the thing over with so the dance could start.
“You must choose,” Maeve said.
“Choose?” Kate repeated, not understanding.
“Your lover,” Maeve told her. “It is time to choose your lover.”
Kate was confused. What was the queen talking about? How could she choose her lover? Before she could ask, Maeve lifted a hand. The crowd behind her parted and Kate saw some figures being led into the ring. The first person she saw was Tyler. He was still wearing the raven mask, and he was being led by a man with a bear head. The sight of Tyler was unnerving, but not nearly as unnerving as what Kate saw next. Behind Tyler came a woman whose long blond hair hung in three braids down her back. And walking behind her was Scott.
