“Oh no, no, no, child, none of that.” Her voice was like wind chimes caught in a breeze. I felt her coming closer to me and I looked up to watch her move, suddenly realizing what Queen of the Shattered Light meant. As she moved and her wings drifted lazily behind her, the very air around her shimmered and I watched as prisms appeared around her. Her wings, when they moved, seemed to have rainbows trapped in the feathers themselves. She reached a hand out to me and I took it, slowly, realizing my own hand was shaking. She lifted me off of the ground to stand back up. “I am not the High Queen and you recognize us all for what we are. You need not bow to us.”
“Um, okay, I didn’t…” I trailed off, not really knowing what to say and suddenly I was very much missing being that ten-year-old girl who knew exactly how to act and behave around so many faerie folk.
“Calmly now,” Iris said gently, pulling me a little closer to her. She kept my hand in hers and I could feel a warmth that not even blood could create coming from her. She reached with her other hand and brushed it through my auburn locks, pushing them away from my face. She gazed into my eyes and I couldn’t decide if she looked at me like a lover would or a proud mother; there was simply some happy appreciation in her face when she looked at me. I tried to be uncomfortable, as is the natural reaction for a human, but under her soothing touch I just couldn’t be. “I have come to warn you, child.”
“Against what?” I asked and was mortified to hear my voice come out in a breathy whisper but knew there was no dignified way to clear my throat.
“You are already searching for answers, and it is well that you continue the search, but you must tread carefully.” She let her hand fall free of my hair and I saw as the strands dropped away from her fingers the bright red and copper highlights gleamed as if struck by sunlight but the storm clouds still raced overhead. I shook my head to clear my mind, trying to focus on what she was saying; I didn’t want to become bespelled accidentally.
“You’re talking about Jeremy,” I said and didn’t make it a question; there was nothing else she could have been referring to. She didn’t nod but kept staring at me, as if she would memorize the very pattern of the iris’ of my eyes. “Does he mean me harm?”
“Perhaps, perhaps not.” Faerie word games. Not one of the things I was best at; I lacked the patience required to play those games. “He does, however, mean others harm, although I doubt he means as much harm as he will cause. And because he means others harm, you will not stand idly by and allow it to happen and then he may mean you harm.” She was talking about my natural instinct to rail against those who would use magic for what I, and most, would consider evil.
“Who does he mean to harm?” I asked, a cold clammy feeling in my stomach. But she just smiled at me and raised her hand once more to caress my cheek and just as my skin began to tingle under her touch, she began to fade. I didn’t realize she and all her entourage were fading; my eyes were still watching the display of prisms and rainbows glittering and shimmering over her skin, in her hair and feathers. The sun broke through the clouds overhead, blinding me momentarily and finally making me blink to clear my vision. I was standing alone in the orange trees. I looked up and watched as the gray and black rolling clouds faded to white and soft blue as the sky peeked out where they began to break apart and drift over the crest of the mountains. A bright rainbow arced across the sky in deep red, soft pink, orange, yellow, green, and that ever-elusive blue that a rainbow never seems to manage.
Not one fairy stayed behind to see me home through the orchard or explain the cryptic messages Iris had given me. “Tegan?” I called out, not really expecting to get a response. I spun around on the spot, looking between the rows of trees and fallen oranges, but he was nowhere to be found. “Tegan,” I called out again, “Tegan, if you answer me, I have sweet cream at my home!” I raised my voice as if I expected him to be flying out over the tops of the trees.
“Sweet cream, the earth mother says?” I heard the tinkling voice answer me, just a few feet away.
“Yes, and I’ll bring you a whole bowl full…” I let my voice take on a tempting quality.
“Well now, is the only part of my bargain to simply come home with you?” I watched as Tegan slowly began to take shape again, fluttering in the air before me, a Cheshire cat smile on his pink and brown face. His wings beat slowly enough that I could finally make out a shape to them; they looked like fall leaves, tarnished orange and deep earthy brown, rough edges whistling through the air.
“Your wings…” I said, my voice gone soft as my eyes had gone wide. “You’re an earth faerie, aren’t you?”
“Of course. Why do you think they sent me to speak to you?” He tsked at me as if I should have picked up on these facts immediately.
“I guess it’s been too long since I’ve spoken to the fae folk,” I said, hearing my voice sound sad and guilty.
“It is never too late to right a wrong, Terra,” Tegan said in a comforting voice, drifting closer to my face, his sneaky smile melting at the edges to look more consoling. “Now, about our bargain?”
“I will give you sweet cream to come home with me, and if you answer my questions,” I said.
“Hmmm, but your questions could be ones I do not have the answers to, so if I cannot answer them you can refuse to uphold your end of the bargain,” Tegan said, tilting his head to the side.
“I will promise that if you answer any questions that you know the answers to, and do so truthfully, I will not punish you for not answering the questions that you don’t know the answers to.” I was careful to word my request just right. Had I not added that he must be truthful, he could have danced around answers he may not want to give me. Tegan studied my face for a few moments before he finally nodded
“Alright Terra, we have an accord.”
***
We made our way back through the orchard, Tegan being of little help getting me through the maze by playing in my hair, flitting in and out of the trees, and singing his tiny little lungs out. I tried very hard not to lose my patience, but it was times like these when I hated being as short as I was. Five foot four inches is not conducive to seeing over the tops of row after row of trees to figure out where my backyard fence was. I couldn’t even see my tree house.
“Okay look, I’m lost, and since you were the one to lead me out here and got me all confused with your games when we first came out here, I think it would only be gentlemanly of you to show me the way back.” I had balled up my fists, digging my nails into my palms to distract myself enough to keep my voice even.
“As my lady commands,” Tegan said with a smile and bowed in the air in front of me. “All you had to do was ask,” he added with a laugh and took off like a shot in the opposite direction I had been going. I followed him with a groan. Ten minutes later I was climbing over my fence and dropping down into my backyard.
“Thank you,” I said a little less than graciously as I dusted my hands off on my pajama bottoms. I looked around and realized that dawn was just breaking over the horizon in the East, the entire adventure had lasted less than a half hour. “I will never get used to that,” I whispered to myself, shaking my head and making my way to the back door. Faeries had the ability to alter time to their convenience. If they needed a little extra time, it was like they could slow the very rotation of the Earth. “Tegan?” I looked around and didn’t see my little faerie guide anywhere.
“I will await you in your room,” I heard his melodic voice and turned towards it; he was hovering by my window, alighting on the ledge and nodded towards me. I smiled and couldn’t help myself; it had been far too long since I spoke to the fae folk. I made it to the back door and opened it slowly and as quietly as possible and stepped inside. Luckily my parents weren’t up yet, which was surprising in and of itself. Both my parents tended to be early risers.
I darted into the kitchen and grabbed a shallow bowl out of the cabinet and filled it with cream that we used in coffee and hurried back to my room, careful not to
spill any of the liquid. I shut my door quietly behind me and walked over to my desk where I saw Tegan, glowing by his own light in the dimness of my room, playing with my paperclips and pens. He fluttered over to my computer keyboard and started dancing over the keys, tapping to his heart’s content. I heard an echo of chimes when he laughed and looked out my window to see my wind chimes caught in a light breeze.
“Here you go,” I said, setting the bowl down, away from the keyboard in case, in his exuberance, he spilled any of the cream. Tegan stopped laughing abruptly and darted over to the bowl. I had a moment to realize the wind chimes outside stopped as well before he dove head first into the bowl. I laughed, sudden and loudly, startling myself before I covered my mouth with my hand and cringed, waiting to hear my parents come down the hall. After a few tense, but silent moments I moved my hand from my mouth and breathed again. Tegan dipped his face into the cream and took long, grateful gulps.
“Lovely, just lovely,” Tegan breathed heavily, falling back from the bowl to land with a bump on the desktop. He reclined on his back; his stomach full and swollen and the air around him glowed in a warm amber color. “All right… all right,” he said slowly, rolling himself on to his side and propping himself up on one elbow. “I will answer your questions, Terra, ask away.”
“I’m not really sure where to start,” I said finally, walking away from the desk and back over to my bed. I was finally aware how chilly the morning had been and wanted my covers. I crawled back under the covers and snuggled against my pillows. Tegan watched my every move.
“Well,” he said, staying where he was, “start with an easy question and maybe the rest will follow.”
“Okay, well, I guess I was a little surprised by the kind of wings that Iris had,” I said and, as soon as I said it, I realized it wasn’t a question. I suddenly felt like a contestant on Jeopardy. “So I guess my question is, why did she have angel wings?”
“Why do you assume they were angel wings?” he countered with his own question.
“I don’t know…” I said, feeling my brow wrinkle as I thought about that. “I guess it’s just that she looked human, like angels do, and then her wings looked a lot like the angel wings I’ve seen.” I shrugged against my pillows.
“Did you notice all of the creatures that joined her in the orchard?” Tegan asked.
“Yes, I did,” I tried to remember all of the creatures, but there had been too many to take in all of them. “Well, a lot of them at any rate.”
“What did you see?” he asked.
“Um, well, I saw the frog faeries, and some that looked a lot like you and some gnomes.” I stopped, realizing there were probably quite a few more that I had missed once Iris had started speaking.
“I did not mean what kinds of fae folk you saw. I meant the creatures, animals with her,” Tegan said, sitting up and swinging his legs over the edge, letting his feet dangle in the air. I gave him a confused look for a moment but he didn’t elaborate. I looked away from him and tried to think back to the grove and the beautiful Iris. I searched my memory and looked around her rather that at her in my mind and I saw the toads that were in fact frog faeries and the gnomes sitting in and around the trees and the winged faeries drifting in and out of the branches. Birds were in the trees; owls, blue jays, sparrows, and a few others hidden in the shadow of the leaves.
“Birds…” I whispered, opening my eyes and looking at Tegan who was nodding at me. “Her wings are like bird wings?”
“We often reflect that which we relate to,” Tegan explained.
“But her name was Iris. That’s a flower and she casts rainbows, that’s water and light. I don’t get it?”
“She also communes with the elements of air, therefore…” he left the sentence hanging for me to finish.
“Birds,” I said softly.
“Did you know that people used to confuse us with your angels?” Tegan asked, reaching for a paperclip to play with. “Yes, because so many of us enjoy the company of humans and have the wings of birds and you find us beautiful your people think us angels.”
“I can see that,” I sat up in my bed, propping pillows up behind me to recline on.
“We don’t actually need wings to fly,” Tegan fluttered his wings behind him for emphasis. “We just enjoy them. We actually have the ability to fly just because we know we can.”
“Another faerie riddle,” I said with a sigh.
“No, that is the truth. We can fly because we know how. We do it with thought.” His voice was earnest, as if he were desperate for me to believe.
“Maybe I don’t get it because I don’t know how to fly?” I offered and watched as his whole body relaxed. He thought about my comment and he smiled with a nod.
“Well put, Terra.”
“So you just have wings because you like them?” I asked, looking past his face to the wings he was showing off.
“Yes.” He smiled and twirled where he was, showing them off even more. “We really like bird wings so many use those, but others, like me who are of the earth, prefer other kinds. I have used leaves because I have always enjoyed watching them fall to earth in autumn and how they glide on the breezes. Most of my element enjoy butterfly, moth, and dragonfly wings.” He folded his wings down carefully against his back, settling them into place. “Now, that is not what you really wanted to ask me. Please, ask your question.”
“Okay, well then, I guess my real question is, why did Iris come to warn me?” I asked, pulling my bottom lip in to chew on.
“Because you needed to be warned about what you endeavor to do,” Tegan said, his light and airy voice growing serious and more mature.
“I understand that, but why her? Why Iris the Queen of Shattered Light?” I asked, realizing my stomach had clenched tight once Tegan’s voice had changed.
“One of the things that Iris can do, as you saw this morning, is to bring beauty in the face of fear and darkness,” Tegan said, his voice keeping that serious tone.
“The rainbow,” I said, not embarrassed to state the obvious because he nodded encouragingly at me.
“Iris reminds us that, even in the darkest times, there is hope and beauty,” Tegan said softly. He rose off of my desk with the furious beat of his leaf-like wings and flew to me, alighting on the pillow by my hand. “And she can do it in a way that no lesser fae can do. You work to keep the balance and deserved the audience.”
“Jeremy’s gotten himself into something bad, hasn’t he?” I whispered the question, afraid of the answer.
“No, he did not cause his predicament,” Tegan said, cryptic again.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“Sometimes, it is not our fault when we find ourselves at the mercy of our emotions.”
“Are you being elusive on purpose?”
“I answer you in the only way I know how,” Tegan said with a shrug.
“Okay, well, whether or not it’s Jeremy’s fault that he’s where he’s at now, he really is into something bad, isn’t he?” I asked, trying to word it just right.
“Not yet he’s not, but we do fear that will soon change.”
“Why does it have to be me?” I asked the question out loud, but it was more for myself than for an answer from anyone.
“You know that answer, Terra.” Tegan’s voice invaded my mind and I opened my eyes to see that he hovered just above my face. Though his eyes were small, they held the depths of any ocean. “You are not alone, but sometimes the burden falls on us and we cannot wait for someone else to carry it for us.”
Chapter 6
I allowed myself to go back to sleep for a few more hours since it was Saturday and dawn had just broken through the morning fog. Tegan promised to stay with me in case I had more questions on the stipulation that I had more sweet cream and perhaps some nuts or candy hidden away. When Tegan curled up on one of my pillows, I told him I was a little nervous about rolling over and crushing him, but he just laughed that melodic wind-chime laugh of his and dared
me to take him in my hand and squeeze him with all my strength. It took a little convincing on his part for me to finally try it, but when I did I was shocked to feel how strong he was. The tiny, delicate bones I expected to feel under his forest-floor tinged skin felt like steel bars under my grip.
When I woke I saw that it was just before nine o’clock. I got dressed and pulled my hair up into a loose ponytail. Tegan fluttered up to my head and settled himself around the base of the ponytail, laying his wings flat and imitating a decorative hair-tie. In case, by some chance, one of my parents could see him. I was on my way to the Oak, Ash and Thorn to see how things were going and if I could do anything to help with the clean up since I felt like it was mostly my fault that they had sustained so much damage. I would have brought the store down, brick by brick, to save Deb from that bullet, though.
Tegan had spent the entire car ride perched on the driver’s side view mirror because being inside the “metal cage” was intolerable to him. My good humor was washed away in a rush when I saw the inside of the store. Even from the parking lot I could see Deb and Nancy worrying over the mess inside. Apparently Nancy hadn’t gotten anyone out to start the clean up yet.
I got out of the car and went inside with Tegan clinging to my hair, hiding his face from the other women. “It’s going to be okay, Nancy. We really haven’t lost very much inventory,” I heard Deb saying, one hand patting Nancy on the shoulder.
“Yes, but the cost to clean this up… that alone…” Nancy’s usually brisk voice sounded far away, like she couldn’t let herself finish any thoughts.
“We will find a way. Spirit moves around us, don’t forget that.” Deb’s voice was rich with magic. I heard the familiar tone that I often used when comforting a friend. I had always suspected Deb of being an empath as well, but she always insisted that it was just love that she used when comforting others. I saw Nancy’s shoulders shake and knew she was crying.
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