She reached Tavern on the Green, where Olivia and Will had mentioned catching a cab. They’d both developed that fuzzy, confused look at that point in their stories. It had to mean something.
The gateway wouldn’t be on the sidewalk, so she took the park entrance nearest the restaurant, followed the footpath for a while, then stepped off the path. Beau growled deep in his throat. “Yes, I feel it too,” she said to him. Her skin tingled, and she trembled in anticipation. It had been a very long time since she’d entered the fairy realm. Folding her fingers around the laminated four-leaf clover in her pocket, she focused her senses to find the gateway, held the shape in her mind, and stepped through it.
She knew right away that she’d gone someplace other, but it didn’t seem like the right place. Shivering as she pulled her sweater tighter about her, she studied the foreign landscape. Instead of the endless summer she recalled, this place seemed to be in late autumn—and late autumn during a severe drought, so the leaves were dead and dry rather than vividly hued. Her last experience in the Realm had overshadowed all her earlier memories, leaving her with the impression of darkness and danger. That wasn’t what it had really been like, but it was the way it seemed now. The nearly skeletal trees beckoned and scolded her with clawed fingers, and desiccated leaves crunched under her feet as she resumed walking.
One thing that hadn’t changed was the music wafting through the air. It brought back fond memories of nights spent dancing with teachers who were far more demanding, and yet far more encouraging, than the teachers at her hometown’s small dancing school. In her classes, she learned the positions and steps. At night among the fairies, she learned to dance.
It had been fourteen years, but still the music made her feet want to move in rhythm. She yearned to kick up her legs and leap through the air. But she wasn’t here for fun. She was on a mission. Unfortunately, she wasn’t sure of her next steps. Her experiences in the Realm hadn’t been broad. She’d always gone to the same place and done the same thing, and nothing about where she was now looked familiar. She decided to follow the music, since she’d never seen the fairy she sought when there wasn’t music around her.
She forced herself not to walk in rhythm with the music, not to throw in the occasional dance step or move her arms with a graceful flourish. That was what had gotten her into this mess in the first place. She had a feeling she’d have plenty of time for dancing later.
The music came from a small grove of trees. Hiding behind a tree, she observed the circle of fairies dancing there. The sight brought on another wave of nostalgia. Dancing in such a circle had been a huge part of her childhood. She didn’t recognize any of these fairies, though, and she didn’t see the one she needed most. There were probably dozens—hundreds, even—of groves like this in the Realm. Finding the right one might be more challenging than she expected.
She’d thought she was being perfectly silent, but one of the fairies still dropped out of the dance and turned to her. “Will you dance with us?” he asked, extending a hand.
Stepping out of her hiding place, she said, “Not now. I’m looking for someone.”
“You’ve found someone,” he said with a cheeky grin and a gesture encompassing the rest of the group. The others stopped dancing and turned to stare at her.
She wasn’t in the mood to play games. “I’m looking for a specific someone. Do you know Tallulah?”
“I might. And what would you trade for that information? Everything has its price, you know.”
“Believe me, I am well aware of that,” she said.
He came closer, moving in a graceful swagger. Beau growled a warning that he ignored. “Now, what might be a fitting price? Perhaps a kiss. I’ve heard that human lips are warm. I’d like to feel that. Or a dance—you are Tallulah’s little dancer, are you not?”
While he spoke, the others also gathered around Sophie and Beau. One regarded her with a frown, and then turned sharply at the speaker’s last sentence. Grinning, he backed away from the group and slipped off into the trees. The other fairies didn’t seem to notice, and Sophie didn’t know what to make of it. She doubted it was good, though. She knew fairies well enough to be fairly certain that he wasn’t running off to bring Tallulah to her as an act of charity.
That meant she needed to stop fiddling around and do something. With a deep sigh of reluctance, she eased her mini horseshoe out of her pocket and said, “You mentioned a kiss?”
The fairy moved even closer. “I hadn’t named my price yet, but I might consider a kiss. I’m not sure it would be enough, though. It sounds to me like this information is quite valuable to you.” When he got within range, she dropped Beau’s leash, gathered herself, bent her knees, and made a flying leap. She got an arm around his neck and brought him to the ground beneath her. Fairies were strong with magic, but they weren’t very substantial. This one may have been a foot taller than she was, but she probably outweighed him. With the horseshoe so close to him, he couldn’t use his magical strength against her, and at the sight of the iron, all the others backed away.
Leaning down to address her victim, she said sweetly into his ear, “Sorry about this, but I need some answers, I’ve already run up enough debts, and I do hope you’ll cooperate because I don’t want to have to get mean.”
Sixteen
The Realm—Maeve’s Lobby
Later
She laughed as the conga line wound its way through the lobby ballroom. This was the most fun she’d had in—well, she didn’t know how long. The conga line broke up, and everyone went back to dancing in pairs. She was momentarily lost without a partner until someone took her hand and she turned to face him. He was very attractive. She thought she could get lost in the swirling quicksilver colors of his eyes.
“Hello there, handsome,” she said. Rising to her toes, she put her hand behind his head and pulled him to her for a deep kiss. His lips were cool and dry against hers, and at first he resisted the kiss, but then with a soft sigh he gave in and kissed her in return. It only lasted for a second before he jerked away.
“Emily Drake!” he said, sounding shocked.
Emily? That name sounded familiar. Emily must be someone she knew. She looked around for this Emily person, sure she’d recognize her if she saw her, but she didn’t see anyone who looked like an Emily. She did, however, see a tall, handsome man with silvery eyes and hair. “Dance with me,” she said to him, taking his hand.
He pulled his hand out of hers, grabbed her by both shoulders and gave her a quick shake. “Emily! Please! You didn’t eat or drink anything, did you?”
Wait, she was Emily? Oh, yes, that did sound right. “I’m Emily!”
“Yes, you’re Emily. Did you eat or drink anything?”
“No, I’ve been too busy dancing.” She plucked one of his hands off her shoulder and tried to lead him to the dance floor. “Let’s dance.”
He refused to budge, and although he was terribly skinny, she couldn’t move him. “Now is not the time for dancing.”
“You’re Eamon,” she said, coming gradually to her senses. “You let them take me away.” She felt like she was waking up the morning after taking a double dose of allergy medicine. It took awhile for anything to make sense, and her tongue was so thick and heavy in her mouth that she couldn’t express herself. She swayed and leaned against Eamon for support. “What happened to me?”
“You must have fallen into the enchantment.”
“All I did was dance.”
“You quit fighting. That is enough. Even I have to fight to maintain my independence in this court.”
“They said it would be easier if I quit fighting.”
“Who did?”
“The other human girls. I was acting like I was giving in so I wouldn’t be turned into a slave.”
“Perhaps you should act without immersing yourself so thoroughly in your role.”
“Yeah, I’ll keep that in mind. Oh, and sorry about the kiss.”
“There is no need to
apologize for that,” he said solemnly, but when she looked up at him, his lips twitched ever so slightly.
“Don’t laugh at me!” she warned. She wasn’t sure if it was because of the enchantment, but it had felt like a really good kiss. Her body grew warm and tingly all over, just thinking about it. And then she remembered what had happened before she started dancing. “Sophie! She’s what this is all about!”
He glanced around surreptitiously, then pulled her under the staircase where they were out of Maeve’s view. “What do you mean?”
“Maeve announced that she’s going to take some lost throne, and I think she needs Sophie to do that, possibly because of some information she needs to take the throne. I was just the bait so she could catch Sophie.”
His reaction was violent enough to scare her. His eyes went dark, almost black, and his skin lost some of its luster. “She can not be allowed to succeed,” he said in a low hiss.
“How do you lose a throne? That’s not something that can just fall behind a bookcase.”
“You may have noticed that the geography of the Realm shifts?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s how an entire palace could be lost. When the last queen left, those of us in the palace were cast out, and we couldn’t find our way back.”
“You said ‘us.’”
“I was a scribe in the court.”
“So you know about the queen and the palace and the throne, and all that?”
“I barely remember it.”
“You worked for a queen in a palace, and you don’t remember it?”
“It was hundreds of years ago, and we prefer to live in the present.”
“Maybe it’s like some Sleeping Beauty thing where a spell was put on the palace, and you have to find it to take the throne, and then throw in a little King Arthur, so there’s some test you have to pass, like pulling a sword from a stone.”
Before he could comment on her theory, the front door flew open and one of the wild fairies rushed inside. He was breathing heavily from a combination of exertion and excitement. “It worked!” he panted. “She’s here! In the woods nearby.”
Maeve bounced to her feet. Gesturing toward the door, she shouted, “Go! Bring her to me!” An army of guards rushed for the door.
Emily turned to Eamon and clutched the lapels of his tweed jacket. “See? She wants my sister. I just don’t know exactly why.”
“I may have an idea.” He looked uncomfortable, twitching his shoulders like he had an itch. “After you were taken from the library—”
“No thanks to you,” she interrupted.
“—I went into the human world and encountered your sister.”
“And you survived? I’m impressed.”
“I think …” he trailed off, then tried again, “You may not be a changeling.” He leaned very close to her, his nose almost touching hers. “But your sister is.”
Seventeen
The Realm—The Woods
About the Same Time
Sophie’s victim grunted, then stammered, “Y–you were looking for Tallulah?”
“You’ll cooperate?” she asked, keeping her iron horseshoe near his neck.
“Yes.”
She eased herself off him, allowing him to sit up while she still kept him in her grasp. “Do you know Tallulah?”
“I do,” he said with an eager nod.
“Ah, so she’s around here now,” she said.
“Here?”
“Not in Louisiana,” she clarified.
“Where?”
Giving up that line of questioning as fruitless and instead focusing on the fact that he at least knew of Tallulah, she asked, “Can you take me to her?”
Although he still eyed her warily, he regained a little poise. “What is your intention with Tallulah?” he asked stiffly.
“I have unfinished business with her that doesn’t concern you.” She raised the horseshoe again with a hint of threat.
“Very well,” he said with a sigh. “I will take you to Tallulah.”
“There, now, was that so hard?” Keeping her grip on his arm to force him to his feet, she stood and brushed the leaves off her skirt with her free hand, then picked up Beau’s leash. “Come on, Beau, let’s go get Emily.”
The fairy didn’t move, though. He was busy staring at the ground where they’d been sitting. It was the one green patch in the area. The other fairies standing nearby also stared at it. Sophie was surprised she hadn’t noticed it earlier, but then she had been preoccupied with tackling and threatening her victim. The condition of the local plant life had been a very low priority. And it still was. She had a deal to make. “Lead on,” she said, giving him a nudge.
He moved his arm, forcing her to shift her grip so that it was more like he was escorting her than like she was holding him prisoner. “This way, my lady.”
The others fell in behind them in a procession as he led her across the grove. Sophie got the feeling that something important had changed, but she couldn’t think of what that might be. He’d known who she was from the start, so why was his attitude toward her so different now? She doubted they were acting this way out of fear. Perhaps she’d passed some sort of test.
A shout nearby startled both her and her guide, and Beau barked. The fairies formed a circle around Sophie. A group of fairy men in Rat Pack-era retro suits emerged menacingly from behind trees. They were like nothing Sophie had ever seen in the Realm. “What’s happening?” she asked her guide.
“These are Maeve’s people,” he said, his voice tightening.
“Maeve?” she asked. The last time she’d seen Maeve, she’d been nothing more than Tallulah’s errand girl. “She has people?”
“My lady, you should flee,” her guide urged, and she had to agree with his suggestion. The suited men were nearly upon them. She whirled to run, but one of the attackers grabbed her, wrenching her away from her guide. She still had her horseshoe in her hand, and she ran it across the attacker’s face. He released her instantly, screaming. Beau clamped down on a second attacker’s leg. Sophie spun and ran at the third man before he could come after her. A swift kick in the knee brought his face to horseshoe range, and that was another one out of the fight. There were still two more, and if they teamed up, she’d be in trouble.
Unfortunately, they were clever, and both of them came after her at once. One grasped her wrist and knocked the horseshoe out of her hand. The other grabbed her around the waist. She struggled toward the fallen horseshoe, hoping that just being near it would even the odds somewhat. She heard a snarl and a snort, and soon Beau had another ankle in his jaws. His ancestors who’d fought bulls would have been proud, Sophie thought.
Even with Beau’s help, Sophie couldn’t shake off her attackers. It would have been nice if her former prisoner and his friends had helped, but she could hardly expect them to aid a stranger who’d threatened one of them. She noticed her attackers faltering and knew she was over the horseshoe, so she abruptly shifted her weight downward, but they didn’t release her.
A sound like the war cry of an alien animal rent the air, and a whole army of fairies led by her guide and his friends joined the fray. They swung at the still-mobile Rat Pack members with branches and sticks. Taking advantage of the distraction, Sophie broke free and hit the ground hard. She rolled over to find her horseshoe before springing back to her feet. Her former captive was immediately at her side. “You must run now, my lady,” he said.
She hated to run from a fight, but she felt that this was one time when a strategic retreat was in order. She whistled for Beau, who reluctantly released his victim and trotted over to her. “Good dog,” she said, grabbing his leash and running after her former captive.
The sounds of battle followed as they raced through the park-like land. A glance over her shoulder told her that the battle was now mobile. The fairy Rat Pack kept chasing and the other fairies did everything they could to get in their way. “Faster!” her guide called.
She
could run, but Beau was built for tenacity, not speed, and he was wheezing like a badly maintained engine. She stopped to scoop him up in her arms, resting him against her shoulder like a baby. Carrying a fifty-pound bulldog slowed her, but she was still faster than his pace.
She was starting to run out of steam when she felt the shiver and tingle of a nearby gateway. Setting Beau down, she reached into her pocket to clutch her clover. Before entering the gateway, she said to her guide, “Tell Tallulah Sophie needs to see her.”
“I will pass on your message, and she may be able to arrange a safer meeting. Is there anything else you wish of me, my lady?”
“No, that should do it for now,” she said, and then the fact that he’d been calling her “my lady” registered. He hadn’t sounded sarcastic. She chanced one glance behind her and saw that Maeve’s people were closing in. There was no time to ask for an explanation.
Just as one of Maeve’s men reached for her, she and Beau ran through the gateway and came out into the gray light of early morning. They were in a park, and it was far from deserted, with a number of people jogging or walking their dogs. Sophie got more than a few odd looks as she and Beau materialized from the mists. She slowed to a more sedate walk and kept going like this was her morning routine. Her pursuers didn’t seem to have come after her, but she didn’t relax until she reached the sidewalk and crossed the street.
Then she didn’t so much relax as nearly faint. That had not gone according to plan, to put it mildly. She had expected to walk in, offer to trade herself for the human captives, and be done with it. Now, though, she had no idea what was going on. The fairies she’d known back home were here in New York, Maeve had dangerous flunkies who’d tried to abduct her, and she didn’t know where her debt to Tallulah played into any of this. And that meant she also didn’t know where Emily and Mrs. Murray were or how she could rescue them.
A Fairy Tale Page 10
