“Absolutely,” Maddie said. “Thing is, Nora sees him, and suddenly she’s, well, like, into him again. She drags him back to Helicon, and convinces Phoebe, somehow, that he should be given a second chance. That Phoebe should revoke his exile. And now Nora and Owen are making out all over the place.”
Roth rocked on his feet. “That doesn’t sound right. I never got the impression she really liked him. In fact, she seemed really terrified of him.”
“Exactly,” Sawyer said. “So, something’s wrong.”
Roth nodded. “Yeah, definitely.”
Agler spoke up. “We found out, from my friend Ridian—”
“Oh, I know Ridian,” Roth said.
“Well,” Agler said, “he said that Phoebe had been in the fairy dimension last fall, and she was asking questions about Owen.”
“That could be,” Roth said. “I don’t know everything that goes on with the elders.”
“Well, we want to know what it was that Phoebe was asking about,” Agler said. “Do you know anyone who might know?”
Roth considered. “Yeah, I know someone who would know. Come with me. I’ll take you to him.”
* * *
“So that’s my friend Cyprian,” Roth said, pointing. Sawyer looked where he was pointing to see a young man with black hair, clad in a sort of leafy loincloth. He was sprawled on several moss-covered, couch-like knobs in the ground.
He had a bow and arrow with long silver arrows, which he was using to puncture insects that flew overhead. He would squint, take aim, and then let an arrow fly.
The arrow would skewer a fly or a bee or a mosquito against the trunk of a nearby tree.
Every time he hit one, Cyprian smiled a thin-lipped smile of satisfaction.
“It’s probably better if you let me do the talking,” Roth said. “Cyprian’s got attitude about anyone who’s not, you know, a fairy. He barely tolerates me.”
Sawyer didn’t like the look on Cyprian’s face. It was haughty and arrogant. It reminded him of the look that Owen got on his face sometimes.
Roth brought them all forward. “Cyprian?”
Cyprian stopped what he was doing and set down his bow. “Roth? What’s that smell?” His lip curled.
Roth let out a dry laugh. “These are my friends from Helicon. They’re muses.”
“They smell like humans,” Cyprian said. “I hate humans.”
“Right,” Roth said. “Well, like I said, they’re muses.”
Cyprian picked up his bow again. “Whatever they are, I don’t see why they’re here.”
“You remember when their leader was here,” Roth said. “You pay attention to all the stuff that happens with the elders.”
Cyprian toyed with one of his arrows. “Maybe I remember that. It was a long time ago.”
“It was last fall,” Agler spoke up.
Cyprian turned to look at him, sneering. “Oh, it’s you. I remember you. You and your little friend were here years ago. Part of that awful exchange. I don’t hold with that. I know some of our number wish to mix with different species, but I think that it’s much better if we keep pure.”
Wow, Roth wasn’t kidding about the barely tolerating thing, was he? Roth was a half-blood, after all. It was amazing this guy was even talking to him. Sawyer decided right then and there that he didn’t particularly like Cyprian.
“All the more reason why you probably remember when the elders were talking to the leader of the muses,” Roth said. “Because we were… mixing.”
“Yes, yes, I remember. But I don’t see why you’re asking me about it.”
“She was asking the elders something about a person named Owen Asher,” Roth said. “Do you remember what she was asking about?”
“Maybe,” Cyprian said. He loaded another arrow into his bow and let it go with a twang. The arrow skewered a moth against the tree opposite them. Cyprian sighed. “She said that she sensed something. Wanted to know if the elders had sensed it as well. A power disturbance.”
“Power disturbance? Roth said.
“Something about the gods,” Cyprian said.
“The gods? Like the Greek gods? What’s that got to do with us?”
Cyprian leaned forward. “Not just the Greek gods. All the gods. They have a special power signature, and no one uses it anymore. They’re all dead, aren’t they? Sucked up and sucked dry?”
Were the gods dead? Sawyer was fairly sure that they were just missing. He knew that there hadn’t been any gods in Valhalla when they’d gone. Well, except Loki. And Hel, for that matter, but she was in Niflhel, the underworld, so maybe the rules were different there. The Greek gods didn’t show up in Helicon anymore, though, and they apparently used to come there all the time. There was Dionysus, of course, but he had only survived because his power was tied to Helicon. Phoebe had given him that gift back when she and Dionysus were dating. Sawyer and the others had found out all about this from Ned Willow several years back.
“I don’t know,” said Roth. “You’re the one who pays attention to these things, not me.”
“They are,” Cyprian said with an air of finality. “They’re sucked up and sucked dry. But… apparently, that muse leader was sensing that they were stirring.”
“The gods are coming back?” Lute piped up.
Cyprian gave him a disgusted look. “Did I do something that gave you the impression I wanted to hear you speak?”
“Ignore them,” said Roth. “Just talk to me. The gods are coming back?”
“No, they’re dead,” said Cyprian. “Didn’t you hear what I said? They’re sucked dry.”
“So, how could they be stirring?” said Roth.
“That’s the question, isn’t it?” said Cyprian.
“And what does that have to do with Owen Asher?” said Agler.
Cyprian gave him another annoyed look, but he answered the question. “Well, she seemed to suspect that he had something to do with it, that he was raising the gods or something.”
“You just said that the gods couldn’t be raised.”
“She was an idiot, that woman,” said Cyprian.
“Is that what the elders thought?”
“Oh, I don’t know.” Cyprian shrugged.
“Well, did they sense the power disturbance?”
“They did,” Cyprian admitted. “But they didn’t see what it had to do with that Owen person.”
* * *
“It’s all so weird,” Agler was muttering. They were standing in the fairy forest, having left Cole to his target practice with insects. “I don’t understand what it means.”
“What would Owen be doing with the gods?” Sawyer wanted to know.
“Is it a problem?” said Maddie. “If the gods are stirring, is that bad?”
“Well, they aren’t stirring, though,” said Roth. “At least, not if what Cole was saying is right.”
“Then how could there be a disturbance in their power?” said Lute.
Roth shook his head. “I gotta admit, I’ve got no clue, guys. I hope you figure it out. And I hope everything turns out okay with Nora.”
“Yeah,” said Agler. “We’ve got to help her if we can. We were hoping coming here would give us some answers, but it seems like it’s only raised more questions.”
“I wish I could come back with you,” Roth said. “Help out. I’d do anything I could. Not only because Nora’s my friend and all, but because it’s boring as all hell here.”
“Come, then,” said Maddie. “You can tag along. We’ve got the dimension device, and we can easily bring one more.”
“I can’t,” said Roth. “My mother would never let me.”
“Your mother?” said Lute.
“You don’t understand,” Roth said. “It’s not like it is in Helicon here. Mothers don’t let their fairy children all go live in some enclave by themselves and get drunk. Besides, my mother’s in denial about my actual maturity. Fairies age really slow, so nineteen-year-old fairies are children. She doesn’t understand that
I’m practically an adult.”
“Oh, too bad,” said Maddie.
“Yeah, she’d kill me,” said Roth. “I can’t risk it. You don’t want to see my mother when she’s mad.”
“Well, we’ll miss you,” Sawyer said. “I mean, we miss you now.”
“I wish there was some way you could keep me posted,” Roth said. “If you need help, I’m here. If Nora is really in danger, then come find me, my mother be damned.”
“I don’t know if we’ll be able to,” Agler said. “We had to sneak the dimension device out.”
Roth nodded, sighing. “Right. Well, I guess this is goodbye, then.”
Maddie gave Roth a hug. “Take care of yourself.”
Roth hugged her and then gave Sawyer a hug too. “The good thing is that I’ll be back next year,” he said.
“Hopefully will have this all sorted out by then,” Sawyer said.
“Yeah, things tend to come to a head towards the Harvest Ball each year,” Agler said.
Roth turned to Agler. “Do we hug?”
Agler hugged Roth. “Of course we hug.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
When Owen found out that he’d been signed up to do backstage work at the play, he was furious with Nora. She was the one who had signed him up, after all. And he knew that she was doing this as payback for the fact that he had forced her to do the play without him.
It had barely been a week since practices started, and he hadn’t even had any time to get situated, or get anything done. He figured he’d have entire month of freedom. He hadn’t been able to meet with his group of loyals since earlier in the year. It was harder and harder, as time went on, to get away from Nora. This was supposed to be his chance. This was supposed to be the time when he could start working on his plan.
He knew from some of the others that the number of people who wanted to help out had increased. From the three that had met him in the forest in January, the numbers had swelled to at least fifteen or twenty. And they weren’t all muse police. They came from many different enclaves. All of them were concerned about the safety of Helicon, and all of them thought that Owen could help.
He could, damn it.
But now he had been signed up to do back stage work for the play, and he couldn’t get out of it.
Oh, he’d tried. When the muse came to collect him, he’d said, “Actually, I’m not sure I really want to do this.”
“Oh, Nora said you’d say that,” said the muse, winking at him. “But she assured us that you really do want to do this, and that we shouldn’t take no for an answer. She said you were worried that people wouldn’t accept you, that they’d give you trouble. But everyone will be fine, we promise. Don’t worry about that.”
He could have pressed the point, could have made it clear that he didn’t want to be part of it, but it would have looked bad. It would have made him look as if he wasn’t a joiner or a team player. And his ability to stay in Helicon counted on everyone thinking those two things about him.
So, now, instead of spending his time meeting with the loyals and working on getting the first steps of his plan in place, Owen was spending his time building sets for the play.
When he confronted Nora about it, she only smirked at him. She said, “I just want us to do things together.” And then she kissed him on the cheek.
He had never wanted to punch her so badly in his entire life. He didn’t do it, of course. Hitting Nora would have accomplished no purpose whatsoever. But he thought it might have been very, very satisfying.
Of course, afterward, he would have regretted it. Not only because it would have made him look bad in Nora’s eyes, but because it would have hurt her. And he’d come to terms with the fact that he didn’t like her hurt.
So, the weeks slipped away. He worked on the play, Nora worked on the play, and nothing else happened.
* * *
By the time the Summer Solstice arrived, Lute had decided that there was no reason to try to get Sawyer to change. Things between them had been tense following May Day, and Lute had expected that they would sit down and have a talk about it at some point. But there hadn’t been time.
First, there had been the whole trying-to-figure-out-how-to-steal-the-dimension-device bit. Then, they’d had to go to the fairy dimension. Then once they got back, they spent all their time discussing what they learned, trying to figure out what it meant. And they had to sneak the dimension device back into the engineering enclave. That had taken an immense amount of planning. Instead of providing a distraction, they ended up deciding to just drug the guard.
So Maddie had gone out and harvested some herbs that she knew about that put people to sleep. She was aware of this kind of stuff because she had grown up in the food enclave. Anyway, they had brewed those into a tea and then given the tea to the guard, and then waited for him to fall asleep.
By that time, weeks had passed, and it seemed ridiculous to try to bring up something that happened so long ago.
So, Lute figured he was just going to have to accept the fact that this was the way Sawyer was.
Sawyer claimed that he wasn’t in love with Nora. He claimed that he was distracted because he was worried about his friend. Lute needed to go with the flow and believe him.
Lute thought that perhaps this was a short phase in their relationship that would resolve soon. Maybe what Lute needed to do was to distract himself and get involved in his own thing.
With this in mind, Lute threw himself into preparations for the Solstice with gusto. He hadn’t done much at May Day in regards to music, because he claimed that he didn’t really feel up to it. And that was the truth. He’d been far too concerned with Sawyer and his own worries to get involved.
But the Solstice was completely different. May Day was freeform. There wasn’t any practice for music for May Day. The whole thing just kind of came together. All of the musicians played at once, and they were all part of a big throng of crazy celebration. The whole thing was improvisational, off-the-cuff, and directly inspired in the moment. He liked that kind of thing. He knew that most of the musicians did.
But it was far from the only way to play music. And it wasn’t even necessarily Lute’s preferred way to play music. He thought that there was something to be said for arrangements, practice, and direction. So one of the things about the Summer Solstice was that it allowed musicians to highlight their individual skills. Instead of being a big free-for-all, musicians would play in small groups throughout the festival. Some would wander through, a stringed instrument strung over their back, playing whenever the mood struck them. Others would set up and play a specific piece or in a specific style all afternoon.
When Lute was a child, he had loved it, because it was like attending as many different concerts as he wanted all day. He could start at one end of the Solstice celebration and listen to some polka. When he got tired of that, he could move on and listen to a full orchestral arrangement. And then after that, he could change gears yet again and be listening to some stripped-down bluesy guitars and drums. By the end of the day, he would’ve toured all different styles of music, spanning variant flavors.
Now that he was older, Lute didn’t have to only observe. He could participate. So, he went to the music enclave a few weeks before the Solstice celebration and asked around to see who was looking for an extra musician. He ended up being part of a little four-piece group, playing an upright bass.
Lute liked upright bass. It was fun to play. And it worked to get him out of his funk. Instead of being worried about Sawyer all the time, Lute suddenly felt excited again. He got up in the morning and looked forward to having his practice sessions with his band mates. He was looking forward to the Solstice celebration as well. And he fell a little bit less concerned with whatever Sawyer was doing.
He wasn’t even sure what Sawyer was doing. It seemed to him that Sawyer was just taking all of the watch-Owen shifts and muttering to himself a lot about the gods. But it was mostly pointless anyway. As Roth had p
ointed out, the gods were gone. They disappeared hundreds—thousands—of years ago. Lute didn’t think that Sawyer was going to figure out something that people had been wondering about for ages, just because he thought about it really, really hard. Lute tried to say something of this sort to Sawyer, but that didn’t go over very well. Sawyer wasn’t pleased with Lute’s attempts to discourage him.
But Lute wasn’t paying attention to that.
The weeks wore on, and the Solstice celebration happened. Lute spent most of his day playing with little four-piece in a pavilion in the south of Helicon, next to the stream, but he did get some time towards the evening to wander around and look at everything before the play.
The Solstice celebration was set up like a big long street that wound its way through Helicon. On either side of the street were small pavilions where creative muses either performed or displayed their wares. There were pavilions with clothing, pavilions with sculptures, pavilions with food. None of these things were for sale per se, but they were all available for trade.
During the day, a few muses had stopped to listen to music and had offered to read a few poems in trade. And afterward, when Lute was wandering around with Sawyer, Sawyer gave a muse a new silk skirt he had made in order to taste her delicious cherries jubilee. Sometimes, the trades were intangible. Sometimes tangible. Overall it was a jubilant celebration of sharing and creativity.
And the final event of the Summer Solstice celebration was the play. Lute, Sawyer, Maddie, and Agler all sat together to watch it. The play was the story of a prince who’s father had been killed by his uncle, who had then married the prince’s mother and taken over the throne. The prince wanted revenge, but he wanted to be sure that it was actually his uncle who had killed the king, so he pretended to be crazy while gathering intel. In the end, everyone died.
After the play, they settled together around the main fire pit with some drinks to talk about it.
“It was kind of strange,” Maddie said. “I mean it was dark.”
“Yeah, a bit hopeless,” Sawyer said. “Not the celebratory thing you would expect for the Summer Solstice.”
“The plays never really are that celebratory, though, are they?” Lute said. “That one year they did the Merlin play, and it was all tragic.”
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