Authors: Lesley Livingston
Tags: #Juvenile Fiction, #Love & Romance, #Action & Adventure, #General, #Fairy Tales & Folklore
Darklight
Darklight
a novel
For my mom
TITANIA
[Awaking]: What angel wakes me from my flowery bed?
BOTTOM
[Sings]: The finch, the sparrow and the lark,
The plain-song cuckoo gray,
Whose note full many a man doth mark,
And dares not answer nay;--
for, indeed, who would set his wit to so foolish
a bird? who would give a bird the lie, though he cry
‘cuckoo’ never so?
TITANIA:
I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again:
Mine ear is much enamour’d of thy note;
So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape;
And thy fair virtue’s force perforce doth move me
On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee.
BOTTOM:
Methinks, mistress, you should have little reason
for that: and yet, to say the truth, reason and
love keep little company together now-a-days; the
more the pity that some honest neighbours will not
make them friends. Nay, I can gleek upon occassion.
TITANIA:
Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful.
BOTTOM:
Not so, neither: but if I had wit enough to get out
of this wood, I have enough to serve mine own turn.
TITANIA:
Out of this wood do not desire to go:
Thou shalt remain here, whether thou wilt or no.
I am a spirit of no common rate;
The summer still doth tend upon my state;
And I do love thee: therefore, go with me;
I’ll give thee fairies to attend on thee,
And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep,
And sing while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep;
And I will purge thy mortal grossness so
That thou shalt like an airy spirit go.
Peaseblossom! Cobweb! Moth! and Mustardseed!
T
he old man lay crumpled on the flagstones in front of a Park Avenue brownstone, his lifeblood oozing from five small holes in his neatly buttoned tweed vest like sap from a maple tree tapped in spring. Standing over him, pistol still smoking in his fist, was a man with glassy eyes—vacant of rational thought.
A
thrall,
thought the dying man, and he wondered briefly who among his kind had stooped so low to send the poor, mindless mortal slave to do their unpleasant bidding. The old man’s eyes rolled upward, gazing past the face of the thrall into a sky of blue so bright, it squeezed tears from the corners of his eyes. He remembered when he had first set foot in this world. And his
was
the first. Others from his realm had followed, but he had been the one to lead them there.
He had been the foremost of the Fair Folk, the most powerful, the one to discover a passageway between that other realm and this one. He had created the Four Gates, one for each Court in the Otherworld, for each turning point of the seasons; doorways through which his kind could pass freely to savor the delights of this fresh new world.
That was in the days before mankind had stretched out his hand, before the forests had given way to the ax, before meadows had been paved over and rivers dammed. The old man had learned to live with humanity. And so had the Faerie who’d followed him: finding ways to coexist, in the same way that green things push their way up through cracks in the pavement.
He had moved the Gates from place to place over time, for one reason or another—war, or progress, or plain old Faerie boredom. He could still remember when the mortal populace of this world had referred to the Beltane Gate as the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. That was before he had hidden it in the deep green forests of Ireland.
The Lúnasa Gate was still called Stonehenge—and most likely always would be. The Gate of Imbolc, now far in the north, had never had a human name, no matter where it had existed. Gwynn ap Nudd, the inscrutable king of the Court of Spring, had preferred it that way.
Now, with the relocation of the Samhain Gate, the old man had done his finest work. His creation would be marveled over by the mortals of the New World for centuries to come. And even still, they would never know its true purpose—that it housed a Faerie secret, a portal to the Otherworld. But they would flock to the Gate, and they would call it by its human name: Central Park.
“Andrew.”
The old man blinked up at a tall figure silhouetted against the sky.
“Andrew, old friend . . .”
“Ah,” the old man gasped, struggling to rise up on one elbow. A trickle of crimson flowed from the corner of his mouth. “You are here.”
“Be still, Andrew.” The tall man knelt on the sidewalk and put a gentle hand on the old man’s bleeding chest. “I will help you.”
“Yes.” Andrew Haswell Green, a philanthropist and a father of New York City, one of the driving forces behind the creation of Central Park, sighed contentedly. “It is well that you are here.”
“What can I do?”
“Carry a burden for me.”
“Anything.”
“Thank you, old friend.” Green put his hand on the other man’s sun-browned brow. For a moment the little gray courtyard in front of the brownstone lit up with warm, forest-dappled sunlight. The chilly November air filled with the heady scents of growth and harvest, fermentation and vegetal decay. The other man gasped and his eyes went wide, but he did not flinch or pull away.
The bestowing did not take long.
When it was over, the other man laid his oldest friend down gently on the stones and stood. Then he turned and walked north past the ornate edifice of Grand Central Terminal, in the direction of the park. To where the trees now whispered
his
name.
The shiny black carriage rolled to a stop on the other side of the street. Its occupant drew back the heavy velvet window curtain, hissing in frustration at the sight of Andrew Green’s body, already emptied of life . . . and power. The passenger knocked on the roof of the carriage. The street was still empty, but that wouldn’t last long. In the distance could be heard the faint sounds of voices raised in alarm.
The carriage driver stepped down from his perch into the street. The heels of his polished, silver-buckled boots rang on the pavement as he walked over to kneel beside the body on the sidewalk. After a moment, the carriage driver stood and returned, bearing four silver hairs plucked from the dead man’s beard. They were stained with bright blood, twisted into four loops, and knotted together.
The shouting was closer now. Without another glance back, the lone occupant of the black carriage pulled the curtain closed and signaled the driver to move on.
O
, now be gone; more light and light it grows.”
“More light and light; more dark and dark our woes!”
The lovers shared a brief, poignant embrace.
“And . . .
scene
!” the director called in a precise English accent. “I want to cut the rest of the lines up to Lady Capulet’s entrance—Mindi, make a note in the cue script. Juliet,
upstage
hand, please. Romeo, watch your
diction
.” He checked his watch. “It’s ten o’clock, so we’re done. We’ll pick it up here next rehearsal, people. Check the call time on the notice board, and don’t be late. I’ll have notes for you all before we start, so
don’t
think you’ve gotten off easy. Now go home and
look
at your
scripts
.”
Kelley Winslow packed up her gear and hung up her rehearsal skirt on the back of her dressing-room door. “Good night, everybody!” she called out as she slung her purse across her body and headed toward the stage door of the Avalon Grande Theatre.
“Night, kiddo.” Gentleman Jack Savage smiled at her from the doorway to the greenroom. The veteran actor raised his cup of coffee in salute. “Hell of a job tonight. Your balcony scene is gonna knock their socks off, Juliet.”
“Shoes,
maybe,
” Quentin, the director, said dryly as he rounded the corner from the backstage area. “I’ll reserve judgment on any sock-knocking until
such
occasion as you remember that quarter turn
up
stage when your nurse calls. And put a little
passion
into the snogging, hmm? He’s
Romeo,
for heaven’s sake. Not some distant relation your great-auntie forced you to kiss at a wedding.”
“I’ll work on that, Q.” Kelley stifled a laugh as Alec Oakland—Romeo—made kissy-faces at her just out of the director’s line of sight. He disappeared into his dressing room before Quentin could find him to berate his performance.
“Yes, well, you’ve only got three weeks.” Quentin sniffed. “I
suppose
miracles could happen . . .”
From anyone else the criticism might have stung, but coming from Quentin St. John Smyth, that comment was pretty much the equivalent of a four-star review in the
Times
.
“You need me to get one of the boys to walk you home?” Jack asked, smiling at Kelley with fatherly affection. “I’m sure Alec wouldn’t mind. . . .”
“Nope. I’m good.” Kelley gave the older actor a hug and shouldered the heavy oak door open. “See you.”
“Be careful out there, Kelley.”
“Don’t worry about me, Jack.” She waved as she stepped outside. “I can take care of myself.” She could—maybe more than the average almost-eighteen-year-old. Kelley had toughened up a lot in the last few months.
As the stage door closed behind her, Kelley stood for a moment on the stone steps, staring up at the darkened silhouette of the old church that had been converted into the Avalon Grande Theatre.
What to do with the rest of the evening?
she wondered.
She’d planned to avoid going near the park, just as usual.
But the April evening was intoxicating. A perfect night to take in the delights of early spring flowers—and besides, she still had some of her longer Juliet speeches to get down cold. She’d done her best line work in the park during the last show. It couldn’t hurt to take a brief stroll.
And maybe . . . just maybe . . .
Kelley sighed.
Sonny had been gone for almost half a year.
An eternity,
thought Kelley. And on such a beautiful night, when the air itself seemed almost brimming with its own subtle magic, it wasn’t beyond the realm of possibility that he might find his way back to her that very night, was it?
Before she’d really decided one way or another, Kelley’s sneakers seemed to make up her mind for her, and she turned and headed up Eighth Avenue, toward Columbus Circle—the nearest entrance to Central Park.
Soon after Sonny had returned to the Otherworld—the Faerie realm—Kelley had discovered that anytime she entered the park, the temptation to play around with her power was just too strong. Maybe it was because that was where she had first met Sonny . . . or maybe it was because the park wasn’t just a park. It was also the Samhain Gate: a doorway to the Otherworld. Most people didn’t know it existed, but Kelley Winslow wasn’t “most people.”
Neither was Sonny Flannery. Sonny was a member of an elite fighting force known as the Janus Guard. The Janus were all changelings—humans, taken as children from different times and different places to live among the Faerie in the Otherworld. These particular changelings had been appointed guardians of the Samhain Gate by Auberon, the Winter King of Faerie. Kelley’s father.
When the Gate had opened last fall, the Janus had been significantly busier than they had been in other years, all because Kelley’s presence in New York City had caused something of a ruckus. A deadly Faerie war band—the Wild Hunt—had been freed from enchanted slumber, Sonny had been transformed into their terrifying leader, and Kelley had been forced to bargain away one half of her Faerie birthright—the power she had inherited from her father—in order to save both Sonny and, pretty much, the entire mortal realm.
In the aftermath, Auberon had required Sonny to return to the Faerie realm in order to deal with the remnants of the Hunt, still rampaging through the Otherworld.
After Sonny’s departure, Kelley had found herself occasionally spending time with the other members of the Janus Guard. They knew her secret, and that meant she could be herself with them. It also made her feel somehow closer to Sonny when she was around them. She knew that what he had gone to do—what he had been forced to go and do—was important. Kelley had experienced firsthand the devastation the Wild Hunt was capable of. Still, all she wanted was for Sonny to come back to her. Kelley knew in her heart that, once his task was accomplished, Sonny would make his way back to the mortal realm. He’d promised her that.
Strolling these familiar paths, Kelley fought the urge to reach up under her hair and unfasten the clasp on the silver chain that held a charm around her neck. The charm was made of green amber and shaped like a four-leaf clover; she’d worn it all her life. It was the only thing holding in check the power that still ran through Kelley’s Faerie blood.
Her mother’s power. Dangerous power.
The last time Kelley had been wandering alone in Central Park, she’d been careless—when a cop on horseback had come trotting into view and surprised her, she’d been hovering about six inches above the grassy surface of the Sheep Meadow. Fortunately it had been a moonless night, so the officer hadn’t noticed her slightly elevated state. Although she could have sworn the horse looked at her sideways. . . .
It wasn’t an experience she was anxious to repeat. So in recent months she’d begun to avoid the park altogether—and, in doing so, managed to mostly ignore the seductive call of her Faerie heritage. It helped that she’d been so busy with the new play lately. The company’s last show,
A Midsummer Night’s Dream,
had been a smash hit—thanks in large part to her performance as (ironically enough) Titania, the Fairy Queen. And this production of
Romeo and Juliet
aimed to top that. It would be a breakout role for Kelley if she could pull it off.
Kelley reached the Ladies Pavilion on the shores of Central Park Lake and mounted the steps. Her four-leaf clover firmly fastened around her neck, she leaned on the railing, gazing out over the still water.
“This bud of love, by summer’s ripening breath . . .”
She murmured her lines and pictured Sonny climbing a trellis to her balcony.
“. . . May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet.
Good night, good night! As sweet repose and rest
Come to thy heart as that within my breast!”
“O, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?” asked a voice in the darkness.
Kelley glanced up, startled. “Uh . . . ,” she stammered, flustered at being taken off guard.
The moonlight pouring down onto the pavilion steps illuminated her like a spotlight.
“Sonny?” Kelley peered hopefully into the darkness of the surrounding woods, trying to make out where the voice had come from. No . . . not Sonny. Sonny wouldn’t joke with her like that. It had to have been one of her fellow actors from the theater screwing around. “Alec?” There was still no answer. To cover her momentary unease, Kelley laughed a little. “Fine, I’ll play your silly game,” she said, and answered back with her next Juliet line: “What satisfaction canst thou have tonight?”
“Well,” the voice answered, “I’ll take that pretty necklace, for starters.”
Kelley put a hand to her throat as a stranger stepped out of the shadows and into the light. It wasn’t Alec Oakland.
“And I’ll take any other jewelry you got. I’ll take your wallet, too, just for the hell of it. And your watch, if it ain’t a knockoff.” The man radiated casual menace as he ambled toward her. He was lean and tattooed and wore a dirty denim jacket and motorcycle boots.
Great,
Kelley thought, a knot of fear tightening her stomach.
A mugger with a taste for Shakespeare. This could only happen in Central Park.
Running a hand through the long, shaggy hair that curtained his sharp face, the man said, “Didn’t anyone ever tell you this is a dangerous place after dark, little girl?”
“I’m not a little girl.” Kelley snapped. A flare of anger nudged her apprehension aside.
“Ooh. Touchy.” The man grinned unpleasantly.
Kelley felt the uneasy thrill of something dangerously close to excitement tingling along her spine. The sensation washed away the rest of her fear, even as it left her anger untouched.
Do it,
a voice whispered in her head, sounding like her mother’s.
Let loose. It’ll be worth it just to teach this jackass a painful lesson.
“Look,” Kelley said, holding up a hand. “I don’t want any trouble. And—believe me—neither do you.”
“Oh, I live for trouble, little girl.”
Kelley almost laughed at that. “Not this kind,” she said.
Of course he just sneered at her warning.
She felt a kind of heat blooming deep in her chest. “Trust me,” she said. “You should go now.”
“Let me guess.” He continued walking toward her in a predatory fashion, one hand disappearing behind his back. “You know kung fu?”
“I don’t need kung fu.”
“Stop screwing around now and you won’t get hurt,” the mugger snarled, suddenly brandishing a knife. “Hand over the lucky charm! No tricks.”
“Silly rabbit,” Kelley said coldly, going with the breakfast-cereal theme, “tricks are for kids!” She reached up and yanked hard on the silver chain around her neck. The catch came loose, and brilliant purple light flooded the pavilion, spilling out onto shores of the Lake. From within the heart of the flaring nimbus, Kelley watched the man’s expression shift suddenly in the dark blaze of her Faerie wings. He dropped the knife and took off running as if the hounds of hell were at his heels. Having once been chased by
actual
hellhounds, she understood the reaction. She almost felt sorry for him.
Shoving the charm into her pocket, Kelley stepped down onto the grass and bent to retrieve the weapon—a polished iron blade with a carved black ebony-wood handle. Grimacing with distaste and holding the thing between two fingers by the hilt, she stuffed it in the side pocket of her shoulder bag. It wouldn’t be a good idea to just leave the thing lying around in the park.
When she straightened, her mugger was nowhere to be seen. Kelley smiled to herself and inhaled deeply. The spring air was sharp in her nostrils, and everything took on a diamond-bright clarity to her eyes. Opening her arms wide, Kelley felt her Faerie strength surge. She leaped off the ground and soared up into the sky. High above the Lake, she paused.
Her assailant had fled north and was hidden from her sight by the densely forested terrain of the Ramble. Kelley hovered on the night wind for a moment, enjoying the rush of excitement and power she had been denying herself, and then a flash of movement caught her eye. She folded her wings like a hunting hawk and plummeted toward the ground in a steep, arcing dive. She navigated a twisting path with reckless abandon, narrowly avoiding slamming into trees as she tried to chase the creep down, but he was nowhere to be found. Caught up in the thrill of the hunt, Kelley snarled in frustration at the loss of her quarry and beat the air with her wings. When she found herself in the narrow ravine of the Gill, she paused, hovering, listening.
Then something hit her from behind, square between her wings, and drove the breath from her lungs. The light from her wings flickered and dimmed, and she fell from the air, landing painfully on the rocky streambed of the cold, tumbling waters of the Gill.
Her concentration shattered by the fall, Kelley thrashed around wildly, trying to right herself and figure out what had hit her. Suddenly she realized that she was not alone in the water. She tried to scream but her throat filled with water as dozens of slimy, taloned hands grasped at her, dragging her down.
Nyxx!
Kelley thought, panicking.
She knew that there were scattered Fae living in the mortal realm, and the Janus had warned her about which ones to avoid—and nyxx neared the top of that list.
Their scaly limbs wound around her arms and legs. Her brain screamed, telling her how stupid she was. Her mugger had been more right than he’d known when he’d said the park was dangerous after nightfall. Kelley had arrogantly thought to teach him a lesson and instead had flown straight into danger of another kind.
She kicked violently, dislodging the nyxxie that tore at her pant leg, and scrambled toward the stream bank. But then Kelley realized that the water-dwelling fae were not her only problem. Shadowy shapes moved in the trees and among the steep rocky outcroppings. There were eyes everywhere, staring at her with inhuman hunger. Kelley froze, paralyzed with fear.
Just then the moon cleared a bank of clouds and shone on a bluff in the near distance behind the menacing beings. The silver light perfectly silhouetted twelve figures, standing like statues on the ridge.