Tasting Gretel

by Lidiya Foxglove

  “We are coming to the Three Precious Groves,” he said. “This is the gateway to the Revels. Normally, the humans and the revelers are separated by barriers of magic. You can’t travel freely between the worlds unless you know your way around magic—or unless magic decides to have its way around you. But on this night, the walls are so thin that anyone can travel between them.”

  I watched them dancing by, girls in hats and dresses made of fluttering flower petals of silk, others wearing robes spangled with stars and the costumes of bygone queens. The men were knights and fearsome beasts in masks, with claws and fur. Others were tricksters and fools and beggars, and a few wore robes from foreign lands. One hunched figure wore a horned skeleton for a mask and carried a staff with a glass eye mounted on the top. Two dark knights rode black horses with red eyes. Their armor was black and red to match. I spotted a harpy that looked like an actual harpy and not a costume at all, although I had thought them extinct.

  I shivered.

  “Are you frightened, Gretel?” the Magus asked, with a hint of surprise.

  “Where are they going?”

  “To Pillna. They will knock at the doors of the humans and ask for food.”

  “I must admit…I’m not sure I would want to see them at my door.”

  “If the humans give the faeries food, they will have no trouble at all. If they refuse, well…just a bit of mischief. But that isn’t what we’re here for. I just want to keep an eye on things, and I’ll speak to Will when the revelers return home.”

  “I see.”

  I suppose I had not fully considered that the Magus was a faery. I had always been warned against faeries, but he seemed human to me. This lot, I wasn’t sure I trusted and I couldn’t help but feel sympathies for the town of Pillna who had to deal with this strange invasion.

  The king and queen were at the back of the procession, riding white horses. They wore cloaks of leaves and crowns of vines. We were still standing at a distance but even from here they had the serenity of royals who are in charge of a happy and prosperous kingdom. Tiny bells jingled on the saddles and bridles of their horses, over the pounding of the drums that had already passed by. They were followed by female attendants carrying their banners, dancing on light slipper-clad toes. I looked for Jeannie, but I didn’t see her. She must be at home with her husband by the fire, watching the royal children.

  The Magus was stiff as he watched them, and then he looked around the forest. Once the banners passed, there was a detail of guards and then the path was clear behind them. It started to feel quieter in the forest almost immediately.

  The Magus tore his gaze away from the trees and moistened his lips. He waved his hand toward the path. “Come on.”

  “Is something wrong?”

  “I don’t see Aramy nor any of his kin.”

  “You did speak to him, didn’t you?”

  “I don’t trust Aramy very much.”

  We walked slowly, so we wouldn’t catch up to the King and Queen. The forest started to grow thinner above us as we got closer to town, and I could feel in my bones that we had stepped out of the faery world. The air took on a strong smell of woodsmoke very suddenly and I saw the glow of torches ahead. The town was well lit on this night, and the faeries brought still more light into it, and a great deal of noise. By the time we were walking past the houses on the outer edges, the faeries were running all through the streets. I heard pounding and singing and shouting and footsteps racing down dark alleys.

  My pulse pounded. On this night, I couldn’t help but feel human, and wish it would end. I knew the townsfolk must be nervous.

  “I’m surprised King Will still lets this go on, if he’s a human,” I said.

  “He would be a fool to stop the ritual. This is how we burn off the tension of centuries between faeries and humans without anyone getting killed. It’s better to play tricks than go to war.”

  We walked down a street with shuttered windows. Ahead, two faery men in gargoyle masks pounded on a door. An old woman answered and dropped two paper-wrapped caramels into their waiting hands without a word. They ate them on the spot as she quickly shut the door. Then they ran to the next house.

  “That poor old woman!” I said, indignant. “She was terrified of them! This isn’t right. Maybe I do want you to be king just so you can find a way to—make this better.”

  “When it’s over,” the Magus said, “the humans who gave to the faeries will find that their gardens are abundant next year, and their cows give more milk. Not a bad trade for two caramels. You must think more like a faery now, my dear. It’s a game we play. No need to feel real fear. You know how that is, don’t you?”

  “Well…I guess I do.”

  He smiled and pulled his wand out of his cloak, and my whole body shivered with anticipation of something being done to it, out of pure reflex. Instead, he turned to the old woman’s door and knocked.

  “Please don’t bother her!” I cried.

  The door creaked open and she looked up at his height, then held up a caramel with a faltering hand. He took it in the palm of his glove and tossed a coin into her hands in its place. “I apologize on behalf of my kin for keeping you awake and giving you a fright,” he said. “A blessing on your house.” He tapped his wand against her door.

  “Oh… that’s very kind of you,” she said, with relief. “Have a good night, sir.”

  When the door shut, he shot a look at me. “Is that better, Gretel?”

  “Well, yes.” I felt more relief than I should. “Can we just get a drink at the inn while we wait? I’d like to see if Anna’s all right.”

  “Of course she’s all right.” He started walking that way, humoring me.

  We came to the town square. Fires were burning, and some of the faeries were dancing around them. King Will stood in the shadows on his horse, keeping watch. I spotted the inn from here, and I saw several wiry little faeries pounding on the front door. No one answered, although there were lights inside. The faeries jeered and pitched eggs at the windows.

  The Magus glanced around again, clearly not wanting to attract Will’s attention. “We’ll wait for that crowd to leave, then skirt around the back to the alley beside the inn,” he said.

  We ran down the streets and slipped around the rear of the buildings, sticking close to the shadows. I tried the door and was surprised when it opened.

  The interior was crowded with men, dozens of them—almost as many in number as the revelers. They held swords and axes and other menacing blades and tools, and they stood up when I walked in the door. I tried to step back and a man was waiting to shut the door behind us, cutting the Magus and me off from the faeries outside.

  At the forefront of the crowd was Hansel, and he had Peter at his side.

  “Gretel,” Hansel said. “I’m sorry, but I’m taking you home.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Gretel

  “I got your letter.” He grabbed my arm and I tried to pull away. The Magus flicked out his wand, but didn’t make a move. A hundred eyes were on him.

  “Then you would know I’m perfectly happy and I don’t need you meddling in my life!”

  “I just can’t let you do this,” he said. “I can’t let you spend your life with a man like this. He’s bewitched you. I knew I should never have left you behind. Let’s start over. I have a better job working at the cloth markets. I was always good with sums, as you know, and it’s a much better fit for me. I can support you. And Peter’s working as a tailor’s apprentice. We have an apartment right by the sea, with a spare room.”

  “Well, good for you,” I said sharply. “Good for you both, going to do what you want, living happily ever after. But of course you still have to order me around.”

  “Listen to your brother,” said a gruff older man in the crowd, holding a machete. “The faeries are menacing our town and we’ve had enough of it. Stay safe with your brother. You don’t want to be a faery bride.”

  “Who says I don’t?” I was qui
te tired of being told what I ought to do.

  The men started moving to the door, nodding to one another. A couple picked up shields or helmets or medical kits, battered relics from old wars.

  “Wait! What are you doing? Don’t hurt them!” I cried.

  The human men were pouring out the door in a wave of glinting steel and glowing torches, bellowing war cries. I could do nothing to stop them but only moments after they ventured out in the night, I heard screams.

  “Hansel, this isn’t right.” I was begging him and he didn’t pay any attention. He was looking at the Magus with pure hatred.

  “Gretel, just stay out of the way,” he grunted. “It’s between me and him.”

  “No, it’s not. It’s between me and you. This was my choice, Hans. I told you in the letter.”

  “So I’m just supposed to sit back while my sister dishonors herself?” His eyes raked me up and down, like he saw beneath my modest garb.

  I flushed with shame. I was happy with the Magus, but seeing Hansel’s disapproval, I couldn’t help but see myself in the church at Aupenburg again, wrestling with my feelings, wondering why I seemed to feel differently from everyone else.

  “I wish you would understand me,” I said, but the words felt feeble. Who didn’t wish to be understood? It was too late for that.

  The Magus flicked his wand at Hansel and knocked him back, so he had to release my hand. Hansel pulled out a long knife that had belonged to my father, and lunged at the Magus. I grabbed a tin plate off one of the tables and smacked him with it. It was a very ineffective smack, I’m afraid. Hansel was still much stronger than me and the plate was flimsy.

  “Hansel, please! Don’t fight!”

  Hansel swung the knife and almost got the Magus, but my love was as graceful as he appeared, and stepped back just in time. He struck Hansel with another spell, knocking him into the counter.

  Hansel ignored my pleas and attempted to kick the Magus, a move which was easily dodged—but I didn’t notice Peter had snuck behind the counter and crept up behind the Magus. He struck the Magus in the head with a club.

  The Magus’ long legs staggered. He caught himself from falling, gripping the edge of a table. Peter swung again, and I tried to scream as the club barely missed the Magus’ skull this time. A blow to the head was serious. When I was a child, a man had died from a single kick to the head from his horse. I was so panicked that a strangled sound came out of me, instead of a proper scream.

  The Magus drew himself up again. His face was in shadow, candles flickering behind him. All the energy in the room seemed to gather around him. “Hansel, I would rather you work things out with your sister without my interference, but clearly, you would rather deal with me. And so you should realize just what you are dealing with.”

  The Magus whipped his wand furiously and Peter’s body flew backward, unconscious and crumpled. Hansel screamed and flew to his side.

  “You fiend!” he spat at the Magus. “Peter?” Hansel clutched the sunburnt, freckled face. “He’s alive…but he needs help.”

  “I am a mage. You are a boy,” the Magus said. “Tell me, Hansel, did you have a hand in all this? Encouraging the human men to fight my people with swords and clubs? Because you were angry at me for capturing the attention of your sister?”

  Hansel’s mouth opened and shut. He looked too scared to speak, but also somewhat defiant. I imagined the Magus saw a strong resemblance between us.

  “I have never laid a hand on your sister, but tonight I will ask her to be my bride,” the Magus said. “If she says yes, and you try to stand in her way, we will be enemies then. Come on, Gretel,” he said gruffly, urging me to the door.

  I really didn’t know what to do. I let the Magus pull me away but once we were out the door I started sniffling. He shot a sideways glance at me as he led the way to an empty alley that seemed safe enough.

  “I’m sorry,” I said.

  “Hansel is never going to accept your choices. You’ve explained it to him, you’ve written him letters, and he should be able to see that you’re looking well, but none of that matters to him. For some people, it is simply easier to decide how things should be early on, and never change one’s mind.”

  “So I should never see him again?”

  “Would you like me to tell you a lie?” the Magus said. “That he will ever accept you as you are?”

  I didn’t know what to say, and it was just as well, because the town was chaos around us and I could hardly ignore it. Human men were grabbing faeries and beating them, while the faeries fought back with magic. Sparkles and glimmers of colored light lit up side roads and shot through the square. The town had erupted into shouting, screaming and sounds of destruction. King Will was galloping around the fountain, bellowing out something over the din, while Queen Evaline tried to get to safety. Human men with axes blocked her exit. I saw their blades flash as they lunged at her. Her horse wheeled around as she tried to flee the other way.

  The Magus looked around. “Gretel, I need to get you to safety.”

  “Don’t worry about me. I can hide somewhere.” The scene was overwhelming my senses. It had all happened so fast.

  Hansel had something to do with this attack. He hadn’t denied it. I could imagine him riding into town with my letter clutched in one glove, asking after me. The townsfolk, already suspicious of faeries, were happy to listen to his complaints. Maybe they have some reason to be suspicious of faeries, but Hansel is so blinded by wanting to rescue me that he was willing to stir up a mob.

  Now, what had been an evening of mischief was turning into a battle, and people might die on both sides.

  “I want to talk to Hansel alone,” I told the Magus. “Just once. Please. I love you, but I love Hansel too, and I have to believe you’re wrong. People can change.”

  “I can’t let anything happen to you. Aramy will be here any moment.”

  “Hansel won’t hurt me. But this is bad for the poor faeries.” I saw the king storming his horse into the midst of some human men grabbing a faery girl. He ordered them away from her, only for them to try to pull him off his horse. He was forced to strike one of them with the blunt edge of his blade and then trample past the others, off to intervene on behalf of two faery boys who were back to back holding tree branches as feeble weapons. “You used to be the king. Isn’t there something you can do?”

  Chapter Sixteen

  The Magus

  Gretel had a way of looking at me that seemed to reflect my own soul back. She saw the good in me, where many would not—but she also understood my flaws. My pride. She looked at the struggling king, and she looked at me, and then she flew back to the door of the inn.

  I let her go, although I wanted to follow her.

  When I was the king, I knew the magic of the Revels, the trees and forests. If Will had proper instruction, he would immediately grasp the situation. He could have put up a fog and all his people could have fled into it, back to the faery realm. The humans might have followed since it was Samhain night, but at least we would be on our own turf. They might not dare.

  But no, Will was a human. A former soldier. He defaulted to the human ways of fighting. He had no one to show him the ways of faery magic. He didn’t have the old king to guide him, as I had. Marte was unlikely to be helpful. This was how I had kept Gretel undetected, after all, even when she broke the rule of my sentence. Will could hardly enforce his own rules. But he was right in the fray, fighting for the faeries as fiercely as anyone.

  “Curse it all,” I muttered. “The things a woman can do to a man.” I strode toward Will and used my wand to knock aside the men surrounding his horse.

  Will saw me, and he edged back a little, still keeping his sword ready to strike. “Magus? Is that you?”

  So much for a costume disguising me. My height and form must have been recognizable.

  “You’re not supposed to be here with the Revels,” Will said. “Did you organize this attack?”

  “No, I’m tryi
ng to save you from it. And believe me, I’d rather not, but these are still my people. They’re dancers and musicians, not warriors. We need to get them out of here quickly.”

  “I would love to, but how?”

  “Summon a deep fog.”

  “Summon a deep fog?” Will repeated. “And just how do I manage that?”

  “You’re the king. You feel a connection to the forest. The conditions are right. Reach down inside of that feeling and draw it up. The land will create the mist for you and send it out to rescue you. I would do it if I could.”

  “But we’re not in the faery forest.” Will looked at me in his damned human way, like he didn’t quite believe me. We didn’t have time for this. The air smelled faintly of smoke as one of the houses had caught fire—probably in an attempt to burn the faeries—and a man was shooting arrows at the harpy girl as she tried to take flight.

  “The magic follows you. Just try it,” I snapped. “Or would you like me to take the time to explain it from top to bottom?”

  “Fine,” he snapped back. Will, no doubt, didn’t like the suggestion because it had come from me. I couldn’t blame him. I would feel the same.

  Will led his horse a few steps away from me and his eyes briefly shut. I used my wand to fend off a few humans who tried to get close to him, giving him room to concentrate. I hoped he could manage it, because I could deflect with the wand, but I didn’t have much in the way of offensive magic or weapons. That had never been my role. As King of the Revels, I had guards to fight for me, and a baker certainly had no time to learn to fight either. I kept watching the front door of the inn, waiting for Gretel, but she was still with Hansel.

  The magic obeyed its king, impostor though he was. The fog started to roll in, obscuring my view of the inn. A thick layer of mist seemed to seep into the town from every direction, and soon no one could see much of anything.

  “Fall back!” Will called. He drew up beside me. “Thank you.”