“Yes, we have, but I only escaped because of Him and Sir Gwydion, not because of anything I could have managed on my own.” Her mind spun with everything he told her. Memories of her life mingled with strange moments in a past that both was and was not her own, and yet somehow it all seemed to have led her straight to that moment.
Him brought her back to her senses. The sharp tone of his disapproval charging through her confusion. “It is all madness! Like some kind of game. Meredith surely you can’t wish to take part in it.”
“I have no choice,” she said. “I cannot go back Upland without my sister.”
“Kothar’s cruelty knows no mercy and his loneliness no bounds.” Sylvanus said. “He will stop at nothing to make you his. I do believe that you hold the power to reunite our broken kingdom, Meredith, but it is not a task I would ask you to take on lightly.”
"My sister needs me,” she told him.
“Us,” Him interjected. “I am coming with you.”
Meredith looked into him, his eyes begging her to understand. “Him,” she started. “I couldn’t ask…”
“You don’t have to ask,” he said. “Sylvanus said himself that we must do this together.”
She swallowed against her apprehension, but before she could say another word Sylvanus said, “There is time to discuss the journey later, little brother. Might I suggest that before you set out with fire on your heels, the three of you rest here for the night and begin your travels after sunrise tomorrow?”
"The three of us?" Sir Gwydion's eyes widened. "I don't recall volunteering for this fool's quest."
"I volunteered you," Him said.
Meredith hesitated, her desire to get on with the task ahead overpowering her reason. Then she looked to Him, his long face made even longer by unspoken sadness. She was exhausted, and her bones ached to the very marrow. Not to mention she was still feeling sticky and tainted.
“I will accept your offer of hospitality, though only on the condition that I may bathe and wash the filth from the Goblin Market from my skin.”
Sylvanus conceded. “That wish is easily accommodated. I will also have provisions for your journey packaged and made ready for the morrow.”
“Thank you.”
“It is the least I can do for you,” he said. “After all, though you may not remember your life here, or our old friendship, you are our lost queen.”
Queen.
That word hovered strangely over Meredith’s consciousness.
“Niliel,” Sylvanus called over his shoulder. Moments later the slender faerie woman appeared. “Please show our Lady Meredith to the bath house, and on the way request for her a new gown and clothes for traveling.”
“Of course, milord.” She bowed her head. “Come, Lady.”
Meredith rose from the chair, legs trembling underneath her. It was too much to digest. Her…a queen. It was laughable, preposterous, and yet there were the sparkling shimmers of memory that hung in the back of her mind. She was meant for that world, that place, and always had been.
Niliel linked her arm through Merry’s and led her out of Sylvanus’s house and into the silver night.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Just outside Sylvanus’s home, Niliel knelt down in front of Meredith and craned her neck upward for unspoken approval. Meredith nearly jerked her leg away when the other woman’s fingers wrapped gently around her ankle.
Niliel drew Meredith’s foot off the earth and explained, “We enter into the underground bath. It is a sacred place, and no animal skin is permitted.”
“Oh,” Meredith nodded. It made her instantly uncomfortable, the quickness with which a stranger had dropped to serve her.
Niliel slipped a pair of silken slippers onto Meredith’s bare feet and then she rose.
“Follow me, Lady,” she smiled.
The inhabitants of the village tried their best not to stare as the two of them passed by their homes. Niliel held her head high, signifying the importance of her charge, but Meredith’s head craned wildly as she glimpsed their surroundings with awe and a sense of lost familiarity.
Meredith took note of the clothing Niliel wore, a simple tunic woven from soft material and embroidered with gold and silver threads. The patterns which adorned her tunic were the same caricatures etched into the buildings and doorways, as well as the staffs and masks of the Dælicti. Oak, acorn, and patterned leaves decorated every archway and door above each earthen home. Her surprise grew when she noticed that these same designs appeared as faded tattoos on some of the villagers' faces, like the markings of an old warrior class she had once read about in one of her books.
“They are the elders,” Niliel explained, as though Meredith’s look alone gave away her blatant curiosity. “The last of our people who were old in the midst of the Great War. Day by day they fade, as do the symbols they wear on their skin.”
One wrinkled old woman narrowed her cobalt stare in challenge to the Uplander, as though she dared the girl to claim the rights Sylvanus had summarized as hers.
Meredith trembled at the very thought, and could scarcely even imagine herself in the role he’d assigned to her. The strange revelations of that past were still a mystery, guarded by paper-thin memories and separation of several lifetimes. Meredith looked away from the old woman’s stare, suddenly ashamed of the curious eyes upon her.
They passed by beings of all different ilk—satyrs and pixies like Sir Gwydion, recognizable by their knotted hair and small, leafy clothing. There were blue skinned and tattooed faces, some as grey and green as the trees that housed them, lithe sylphs and nimble nymphs, more of the Dælicti, and of course faeries of the winged variety, small and glittering like tiny flowers of light as they flitted about. Many more appeared as they traveled on, nameless, unrecognizable to her, but each as wondrous and beautiful as the next. Most of their audience, however, was made up of children, small replicas of the parents that gathered together and watched the small procession to the bathhouse, their eyes wide with such curiosity, mouths hidden behind their tiny fingers.
Niliel was like Sylvanus and Him, only her skin was a pale shade of lavender. She had large, wondrous eyes the color of rich earth, and her plaited, silver-green hair was interwoven with leaves and wisteria vine that circled around and crowned her head.
"Most of us have never seen an Uplander before.” Niliel passed a grin over her shoulder. “You are a rare and mysterious wonder to us.”
Meredith almost laughed, as she'd always thought of herself as ordinary and plain.
“It is different for the old ones, though. They know firsthand the legend Sylvanus passed on to you this evening. Some were younger then than you are now, but many were older than the trees—even then. They have waited several lifetimes for her to return, but few believe the princess we once lost will return to be our queen, and even fewer believe she will just walk through the gates.” This admission was almost a challenge, Meredith realized. Niliel herself had doubts about the stories Sylvanus told, but as she served him, she did his bidding without question.
She glanced back over her shoulder into a pair of long, curious brown eyes. She waited for some spark of recognition, some knowing like the one she had experienced momentarily with Sylvanus, but nothing came.
“How will she return then, if not by the route she left?”
“Some believe she will be born again into our world,” Niliel said. “Others say she will not return, but her child will, and it is he who will reunite the two kingdoms again.”
Meredith said nothing, but continued on, her mind heavy with everything that had taken place. It was all too much to think about, and it was difficult to maintain her focus because the wonder of everything around them overwhelmed her. She tried to hide her eyes, but was drawn to each and every being they passed, as though they willed her with magic to look at them so they could judge whether she was their lost princess, or not. The further they traveled, the more impossible it was, as there were so many unique and wonderful creatures.
While their stares were both curious and doubting, she felt a hint of acceptance, which was far more than she’d ever felt in her own town, among her own people, which she realized, weren’t really her people after all, if the things Sylvanus said could be believed.
The bathhouse was a wide, open knot at the base of a tree, which was wider than the cottage she shared with her sister. It was guarded by an ornately carved portal, the edges marked by strange symbols, and upon seeing them a peculiar feeling warmed her center.
She had been to this place before.
The doors opened and moist humidity from deep within the cavern rushed out to fill her with familiar scents and emotions. She knew that awaiting them was a dark pathway which descended deep into the belly of the earth where water from a nearby, natural hot spring pooled. Fragrant earth and herbs and flower smells wafted out of the darkness, enticing her to follow behind Niliel as she slipped inside the opening. Meredith paused, and then took a tentative step forward. The portal groaned closed behind them, and a series of magical blue lights burst into existence.
They descended downward, the stairs spiraling around the thick roots of the old tree. Those eerie blue lights flickered just enough to guide them, and a heavy awareness came over Meredith. Yes, she had been inside that place before, and in her mind she envisioned the door that guarded the sacred pool. She saw herself, only she was not herself, standing outside that doorway with her hands clasped at her waist and an anxious, rigidness about her body.
“This place changes people,” she murmured. It was meant to remain silent, but even the smallest whisper seemed to echo in the earth-mother’s womb.
“Only if you let it,” Niliel replied, reaching back then and grasping Meredith’s hand.
Moment’s later they arrived at the door she’d foreseen. The same oak and leaf patterns decorated the frame, but on it were more of those extraordinary carvings she knew to be words.
Niliel let go of Meredith’s hand and stepped forward. She stood silent before the door, and Meredith could feel the magic and energy emanating from the silent ceremony Niliel performed. At last, the door shifted and moaned on its tired hinges, allowing them entrance into the sacred pool.
Niliel gestured for her to follow, and then slipped into the opening.
Meredith drew in a breath of the thick, vaporous mist that rushed outward to meet them in swirls. The combination of scents relaxed her at once, as did the blue lights hovering in each corner. Steam danced in delicate patterns across the light so that a calming, yet mystical atmosphere was created, and then she saw them. A host of maidens stood in the water waiting for her. The slightest hint of self-consciousness arose in her when Niliel slid in behind her and reached around to unfasten her cloak. A trail of goose-flesh rippled across her skin as she realized she had never undressed before anyone but her sister, and even then it was discretely.
The heavy cloak fell around her, lifting a tremendous weight from her shoulders, and then the other woman circled around her to unfasten the buttons in the front of her dress. Meredith trembled, suddenly unsure of this entire experience, and then the most delightful sound filled the chamber. No longer preoccupied with Niliel’s careful fingers unfastening the buttons, she peered around the other woman’s shoulder to see that the four maidens in the water had begun to circle around one another in a playful, water dance.
Moment’s later a magical song echoed through the bathhouse; its resounding beauty entranced the mind, and washed her worries away. Meredith felt drawn into the water.
Niliel leaned in close and whispered, “The Lellitieu are Siren born, the daughters of men who fell in love with the sea and sacrificed themselves for that love.”
While that should have been a startling notion, it seemed more wonderful than the stories she had occupied herself with by the fire at home. The enchanted echo of their magical song circled through the bathhouse in hypnotic beauty. Water droplets plunked into the pool from the root-braided ceiling of the bathhouse, a natural accompaniment to their lovely incantation.
Hardly aware then of her own nakedness, Meredith was led to the edge of the water by Niliel. The Lellitieu reached out for her, and she for them, gliding into the water with them. Their song remained unbroken even as it seemed their faces lit up with laughter and merriment. They drew her deep into the pool so that the mulberry hued water came up over her breasts and lapped tenderly at her neckline. Again they led her forward until she realized she was being lifted into a stone sitting station where one maid began to work long, nimble fingers over the knots of tension in her body. Another started on her hair, tilting Meredith’s head back while she unwound the loose braids she’d been wearing since the day before. Once unbound, her hair fell over her neck and shoulders, down her back in rippling waves the color of ripe of wheat.
It all seemed so far away now, as though it had taken place years earlier, not hours.
She wasn’t sure if it was the peaceful song that carried her away, or the relaxing blend of smells. Her mind knew only peace and calm, and while she started on her journey with little more than fear and anger to guide her, she felt in her heart that she was on the right path for the first time in her life. There was no urgency which rushed her toward the quest that lay ahead of her. Wherever Christina was, she was safe until Meredith either perished in the Darknjan Wald, or she arrived on the castle doorstep ready to challenge her enemy.
And there was no doubt in her mind now that Kothar was the enemy. No stories of the love he once held for her could water the fire of her anger now that she was fully aware of his elaborate plan. Awakening with the hint of those memories there had been another feeling about Kothar she had only come to terms with right there in the quiet sanctuary of her mind. His love for her even then had been a sort of madness, the type of love that leads men to possession, and no matter what sacrifices he made for her, she would not simply lie down and be possessed.
A shimmer of apprehension attempted to break through the bubble of calm that surrounded her, but she pushed it aside. Swirling steam whispered calmly to her that no matter what lay ahead in the world, everything would work out as it was meant to.
It always did.
As her body was washed clean, all traces of the goblin poison rinsed away, so was her hair. Clarity of mind was restored at last, and as they poured pitcher after pitcher of that steaming, fragrant water over her, she tilted her head back and stared into the intricate weave of the rooted ceiling. Layers and tangles, knots and woven tendrils snaked in and out of the earth, but every one of them was connected to it. It was an awakening revelation: along side her resolution that everything would work out as it was meant to, it was already written somewhere, and that notion put everything she’d ever known into perspective. She was connected to this place, to everything in it, just as it was all connected to her, and again she felt as if every moment of her life had been leading her to this task.
The Lellitieu splashed and played around her, and when finished with their task, they drew her back into the pool. Circling around her all the way to the shore, they finished the last ringing refrain of their wondrous song, and then bid her farewell, each one planting a tender kiss on Meredith’s cheek before they dove back into the pool. Niliel waited on the shore with another, this faerie with sky-blue skin and round-green eyes. She smiled as Meredith approached and unraveled a soft new gown made of raw, green silk. Golden threaded patterns of oak branches, leaves and acorn decorated the sleeves and hemline.
The blue woman and Niliel helped Meredith into the gown, and Niliel finally tied it with a gold cord around the waist before stepping back to admire the fit. The other woman looked to Niliel and said something Meredith didn’t quite understand, though it sounded familiar in her mind.
Niliel translated, “She says that your eyes are all that is left of the girl she once knew.”
Meredith swallowed, her heart aching with a familiarity she couldn't escape, nor completely grab onto. She felt like she suffered from some mind sickness, o
nly most times she wasn’t sure what the affliction was, and what was real. Everything that had happened was amazing, and for Sylvanus to tell her she was the lost heiress to their realm overwhelmed her.
The two women remained silent then as they plaited and wound Meredith’s hair, weaving a ring of delicate lavender and yellow flowers through the braids. Finally, Niliel stepped back to glimpse her with round, earthen eyes, and admiration dawned on her mouth. “No one will disbelieve you come from this realm now that they see you,” she said.
Led toward the door she had come through, Meredith glanced longingly back to the pool, and then she followed Niliel through the dark spiral upward. Even as the heavy door closed behind them she could hear the soulful song of the Lellitieu calling after her, and she knew she’d never be the same again.
Somehow, the tunnels that wound and spiraled upward seemed to take forever to climb, but at last they arrived at the doorway to the outside. It opened slowly; moonlight peeking through the widening crack with such brilliance Meredith felt the need to shield her eyes. It was amazing, she thought, as she stepped out of the bathhouse entrance, just how bright the moon was in the village, how brightly it had shone through the treetops during their journey even.
She lowered her gaze and was surprised to see an entire procession had gathered around the base of the bathhouse entrance to wait for her. The first face her eyes flashed across was Him’s. The tousled curls of his wild hair hung just over his eyes, and when he saw her he reached up to brush them away revealing an anxious, yet bewildered gaze. The exchanging of their stares seemed to last a lifetime, and then Sylvanus stepped forward and held out an arm to receive her.
The Goblin Market (Into the Green) Page 9
