Faerie Path #6: The Charmed Return (9 page)

Chapter XV

Tania gripped Edric’s hand and held on with all her strength. She hooked her other arm around the princess’s waist as they were dragged by the Dark Arts from one century to another.

There was carpet under her feet and a blue light surrounded her.

Her mother’s voice rang out. “Edric! You found her! Oh, thank the lord!”

Tania gazed around. The five girls were in the Globus with her. They were holding hands and gazing at her and the princess with eyes full of gladness and calm understanding.

“We helped bring you back,” said Flora. “You would never have got back without us.”

“I know,” said Tania. “Thank you.”

“We
had
to rescue you,” added Georgina. “We have important things to do together.”

“We know everything,” said Marjorie. She frowned. “I feel like I should be scared and sad . . . but I’m not. Isn’t that peculiar?”

“There is great wisdom and strength in the Power of Seven,” said Edric. “The wisdom to see your own fates and the strength to face them with fortitude.”

Beyond the limpid ball of sapphire light Tania could see swimming faces.

The curtains had been drawn back from the windows of the Palmers’ living room, and the light of dawn was filtering into the room.

Jade’s voice. “Way to go, Edric! You’re
awesome
!”

And Rathina: “Praise the goodly spirits, she is found!”

Zara’s voice was calm. “Did I not say all was not lost?”

Edric walked Tania and the princess out of the ball of light. The five other girls followed, still holding hands. Tania felt dizzy and drained. But she had succeeded! She’d survived the challenge.

“By the rood!” murmured Rathina, gazing saucer-eyed from Tania to the princess. She reached out tentatively and touched the princess’s ragged clothes. “This was the very gown you wore when you . . . when you disappeared.” Her expression crumpled.

The princess put her arms around Rathina’s shoulders. “It was not your fault, Rathina, that I was lost to the Mortal World. Gabriel Drake had great and terrible power over you. Your mind was not your own.”

Rathina lifted her tear-streaked face. “I would die a thousand deaths to roll back time to the first moment I set my eyes upon Lord Drake,” she said grimly. “A crystal blade through the heart would be his payment for the evil he was to do!”

Tania’s father stepped forward. “Are you all right?” he asked. He turned his eyes to the princess. “Both of you?”

“Thank you, Master Clive,” said the princess. “My sickness abates for a while. The good spirits allow me the strength to do what must be done ere the end.”

“Unbelievable!” breathed Jade, looking from Tania to the princess. “Two of you! As if
one
wasn’t enough.” She took the princess’s hand. “Hi—I’m Jade.”

“Aye, I know you well, most loved friend of my friend.”

“Excuse me?”

“We both have the same memories now,” said Tania. “A thing happened when we touched. She knows everything I know, and I know everything she knows.” She looked from Edric to Zara and Rathina. “It’s all come back!” she said. “I remember everything!” She looked at Zara. “Like the time we were on the
Cloud Scudder
, on our way to visit Chalcedony for the Masquerade of the Wingèd Moon. You lost your flute overboard and Father—Oberon, I mean—he asked the sea creatures to search for it for you, and a dolphin found it!”

“I remember it well,” said Zara with a smile. “And I rejoice that you know it also.”

Tania turned to Rathina, full of excitement. “And you!” she said, emotions thick in her throat. “For weeks before your tenth birthday you were dropping huge hints about wanting a horse. And on your birthday the King and Queen gave you a wooden statuette of a horse, and you tried really hard to look pleased.”

“And ’twas not till eventide that they relented of their teasing ways and I was blindfolded and taken to the stables,” said Rathina, her eyes welling with tears. “And there I met for the first time my noble and beautiful Maddalena!”

“So?” asked her father. “How does it feel to remember everything?”

“It feels good, Dad,” Tania said, taking his hand. “It feels really good.”

Mrs. Palmer glanced over to where the five girls stood watching them. “Do they know what’s going on?” she asked in a low voice. “They seem so normal. As though nothing extraordinary has happened.”

“They are in a state of grace,” said Zara. “They know where they are, Mistress Mary—and they understand
everything
.”

“Can you not feel it?” said Rathina. “Their Faerie souls burn like suns. With my eyes closed I can feel the warmth of it.”

Edric was standing a little apart from them, his brow creased. A glow like trapped moonlight seeped from between his eyelids.

Tania went to him and kissed him gently. “You found me,” she whispered.

“You found
me
,” he replied, his voice a little strained.

“We found each other.”

He opened his eyes and the silvery light flared. “Always!” he said.

Tania bit her lip.
Don’t be scared by the light! It’s Edric. It’s not Drake. Edric will never harm you.

Edric turned his face away. “I cannot maintain the Globus Heim for much longer. We need to try and get into Faerie soon, or I won’t have enough power left.”

“Indeed, it is most imperative you act swiftly,” agreed Zara.

Tania nodded. “What do I need to do?”

“The Seven must step together into the blue Globus,” said Zara. “Stand you with your other selves, and with Edric at your back.” She glanced at him. “You know what to do, Master Chanticleer?”

“I do,” said Edric.

Tania looked at the princess. She had moved to be with the five other girls, and she was speaking softly to them.

“Is there really no time for . . .” Tania had been intending to say,
“time for them to enjoy being alive for a little longer
.” But she knew it wasn’t possible.

Zara had said they knew
everything
.

They know they’re going to die.

The princess took Marjorie by one hand and Flora by the other. The other girls linked hands again.

“We are ready,” said the princess.

Tania turned to her mother and father. “I’ll find a way back here,” she said earnestly. “I don’t care what gets in the way—I will find a way back to you.”

“I’m sure you will,” said her mother, hugging her. “Take care of yourself, please.” She smiled. “You’re the only Faerie princess daughter we’ve got!”

“I will.” Tania gave her father a fierce hug.

“That’s my girl,” he said. His mouth came close to her ear. “I’m more proud of you than I can ever say,” he murmured. “Come back soon, okay?”

“Absolutely!” said Tania, breaking free. She looked at Jade.

“Thanks for everything,” she said.

“No problem.” Jade grinned. “Kick some bad-guy butt for me!”

“I will.” She turned to Zara. “Are you coming with us?”

“Alas, I cannot.” Zara sighed. “The realm of Faerie is closed to me.” She smiled ruefully. “Indeed, I have also fulfilled my task in this place—it is time for me to step over the Eternal Threshold.”

Mrs. Palmer came forward and put her arms around Zara, pressing her close. “Your own mother was never able to say good-bye to you,” she said, her voice full of tears. “Let me do it for her.”

They hugged, and Mary Palmer whispered something into Zara’s ear that Tania didn’t catch. They parted and Zara lifted her hand to touch Mrs. Palmer’s cheek. “Thank you.”

Wordlessly Mary Palmer walked back to stand beside her husband. His arm came up to circle her shoulders.

Rathina stared at Zara. “No!” She caught hold of her sister’s hands. “You cannot go! I will not allow it!”

“There is naught you can do to prevent it, Rathina, my love,” said Zara. An odd echo had come into her sister’s voice, as though it was already sounding from far away. She leaned forward and kissed Rathina on the forehead. “I do not say you will ever be entirely free of pain, Rathina, but I tell you this—someone will come. Someone to soothe your agonies, someone with a healing heart . . .” She began to fade. Rathina’s hand fell through Zara’s fingers. Rathina stumbled, trying to catch hold of her, but her smiling sister was gone.

A trill of laughter sounded out of nowhere, followed by a series of rising notes on a flute, playing a melody more achingly beautiful than anything Tania had ever heard. Then . . . silence.

Princess Zara Aurealis, fifth daughter of Oberon and Titania had passed from the Mortal World and had entered forever the hallowed land of Albion.

“We should go,” said Edric, taking Tania’s hand.

She reached for Rathina’s hand, and together the three of them stepped through into the blue globe. The princess was close behind, leading the five girls.

Tania could see her mother and father and Jade as wavery images through the blue haze.

“Stand in front of me,” Edric told her. “All of you—link hands now.”

Tania stood staring into the blue shimmer, Rathina on one side, the princess on the other. The other girls stood with them in the globe—hand in hand in hand in hand.

“Ready?” asked Edric from close behind.

“Yes.”

For a moment there was nothing. Then Tania felt a lightning sharp pain strike the back of her head. It bore through her skull and burst in her brain. A blue light filled her mind, like water rushing through her, sending her senses tumbling and rolling on its flood. But deep inside her head, the blue light was met by a blaze of purest white that burst upward like seafoam on rocks.

She felt a sparking, streaming power pulsing in her body, passing along her arms, entering Rathina and the princess, moving through them and into the other girls. Into little Flora and Gracie, Georgina and Marjorie and Ann—until they all blazed with the scintillating white energy.

Tania felt it building within her—like a slow explosion until, at last, she had to let out a shout.

The others cried out with her, and from their mouths came shafts of brilliant white light. Spears of dazzling white light darted from their eyes.

“Take the step!” Tania could only just hear Edric’s voice.

She gripped Rathina and the princess hard and made the impossible side step that would take her between the worlds.

Everything was white. It was a white so incandescent that Tania felt as though she had become the light, that she had shed her body and melded with something eternal.

She heard a voice.

“Wait for me!”

There was a curious tugging to one side as she stepped through the skin of light and found herself standing in a grove of aspen trees, in a glowing Faerie dawn.

“Oh, wow!” said a shaking voice. “That was totally amazing!”

Chapter XVI

Jade was clinging on to Georgina’s hand and looking like someone who had just been dragged into another realm.

“Jade! You idiot!” yelled Tania. “Have you any idea what you’ve done?”

“Chide her not, sister,” came Rathina’s voice. “Does the rhyme not say that only those who love you and whom you love may pass between the worlds with you?” She smiled. “Be glad, then, for the love of your friend, and give her good welcome into the Realm of Faerie.” She took a deep breath. “I have longed for pure Faerie air in my lungs. It is nigh on twenty days since last we were here!”

Jade was gazing around with her mouth half open. The light of a fresh dawn was washing over the rolling green hills, sweeping down to the gardens and walls of the Royal Palace. Halls and battlements, spires and towers wound away into the hazy distance under a clear blue sky, the rising sun glinting on a thousand windows.

But Tania had no eyes for the beauties of Faerie. “No! We have to take her back—it’s too dangerous!”

A weak voice gasped at her back. “No time . . .” She spun around. It was Edric; he was on his knees, panting for breath.

She dropped to his side. He lifted his exhausted face to her. The effort of forcing them through the barriers between the worlds had cost him.

She reached a hand toward his cheek, but he swatted it away, his lips tightening. The silver in his eyes had changed to a sickly off-white, cold and lifeless as stone.

“Leave me!” he snarled. “Go! Get out of here!”

Fear tugged her. “Edric . . . ?”

“Get away from me!” he howled, his whole body shaking. “Go and do what you came here to do! Otherwise it’s all been pointless.” He reared up on his knees, throwing his hands over his ears. “No! Be silent! I won’t listen!”

Tania guessed that he was hearing the voices—the evil voices that swarmed in the Dark Arts. But what were they saying to him?
Come to us. Be one with us. Surrender yourself to us.

“I won’t leave you like this!” Tania shouted.

Edric dropped onto his hands, gasping for breath. He looked up at her, his eyes shadowed by his hair. “The journey exhausted me, but I will be all right.” He gulped in more breath, his fingers clawing at the ground. “Go and confront Lear while . . . while the light is strong within you. It will not last long; it burns too fiercely.” He grimaced. “Please, Tania—go!”

Hands drew her to her feet, Rathina on one side and the princess on the other.

“Trust he will survive,” said the princess. “We have other matters to attend.” She stared into Tania’s eyes. “Look at the children, my friend. See how they shine!”

She was right. The five girls had formed a circle around them—and they were blazing with a pure white light that seemed to flow through them like quicksilver and to pour like sunbeams from their eyes and fingertips.

The princess was burning with the same heavenly light. Tania lifted her hand and saw the white beams shooting from her own fingertips.

She turned to Jade, who was on the outskirts of the blazing group, looking awestruck. “Stay with Edric,” Tania called to her. “Make sure he’s all right.”

Jade nodded.

Tania turned to Rathina. “You should stay back as well,” she said. “If we fail, you have to get away from here! Hide from Lear. Keep yourself secret. Build an army to fight him.”

Rathina’s eyes narrowed. “You have a power far beyond my ken,” she said. “I will do as you say, but if you cannot defeat Lear with the light that burns within you, then I fear his rule shall never be broken.”

Tania took the princess’s hand. “We won’t fail,” she said, feeling even more potency flowing into her as their fingers linked.

“He is in the Throne Room,” said Georgina, taking Tania’s other hand. “I see him in my mind.”

“I think he knows we’re here,” added Marjorie, taking Georgina’s hand. “He’s sitting there waiting for us. He’s not scared of us at all.”

“Then let’s make him scared,” said Tania as the other girls also joined hands.

Linked by their hands, the seven girls began to run down the long grassy hillside toward the endless battlements and rooftops of the Royal Palace. As they ran, the light washed around them, strange as starshine, wild as the moon, potent as the noonday sun.

Sad sights met Tania as they came closer to the palace. The beautiful gardens that lay before the Royal Apartments had a stain upon them that made her heart ache. All along the yellow pathways the grass was dug-over and seeded with graves. The plague had claimed many lives here. Bereavement and despair hung in the air.

The dead of Faerie shouldn’t be under the earth. They should fly to Albion.

The fact that the survivors had no time for the proper funeral rites was shocking. Would those taken by the plague
never
get to the Blessèd Realm? And how were the people faring now that the Gildensleep shield was no more? What terrible toll of life had Lear’s sickness taken on Faerie?

There’s no time to think about things like that! Maybe this can all be put right later. If we live through the next few minutes . . .

Together the Seven who were One came in under the tall redbrick walls of the Palace. Wide brown steps led them to a gatehouse with double doors locked against them. But as they came to the top step, the locks burst on the arched doors and they swung smoothly open.

They came into an entrance hall, the light they gave off splashing high on the sculpted walls. There were green and white tiles beneath their feet. Tall candelabrum lined the way to a staircase of carved wood.

Where were the merry courtiers who had gladdened this place? Where were the music and the laughter and the chatter of winged children? The rich gowns of the Faerie ladies and the flashing crystal swords of their gallant lords?

Tania shivered and felt that same shiver run through the other Six.

“Don’t be scared,” she said, and at the same moment from the mouths of all the other girls came the same words.

“Don’t be scared.”

It’s like we’re blending—become more and more a single person.
A single being with seven minds and seven hearts and seven souls.

The Power of Seven.

They swept up the stairs and made their way through empty galleries and hallways toward the Throne Room.

As they came closer, Tania became aware that their light was fading—as though some premature night was being conjured within the Palace—a wicked, vile night filled with ghosts and terrors.

They stood at the tall closed doors of the Throne Room, their pure white light beset all around by the dark. In the gloomy corridor Tania could see half-formed shapes moving. There were hideous, leering faces with long forked tongues and hungry eyes. Hands and claws tried to reach into the light. But the glow burned them, and the hands were snatched away with howls of frustration and pain.

Monstrous, humped shapes lurched around them with fiendish yellow eyes. Laughter gurgled from gaping throats. Eyes watched.

Fearlessly the Seven moved forward together. The doors trembled but remained closed.

Tania felt an intense hostility pushing against her from within the Throne Room. She concentrated her mind and pushed back. The doors quivered and opened a crack, revealing a thread of lurid red light.

A voice rang out from behind the doors. “Tania—help!” It was her Mortal mother, her words echoing and re-echoing.

And then Clive Palmer’s voice sounded. “Please, Tania. We need you—help us. The light you’re giving off is hurting our eyes!”

Edric’s voice called. “Let go of the others, Tania—that’s the only way to stop our pain! We’ll be killed otherwise. And it will be your fault!”

“No!” Seven voices rang out in chorus. “It isn’t
you
!”

“It is us, Tania,” called Mary Palmer’s voice. “He came through to the Mortal World—he trapped us and brought us here. He says he will kill us unless you surrender yourself to him.”

“He means it!” Jade’s voice. “He’ll kill us, Tania—he’s not kidding around. Give up, Tania—otherwise we’re all dead.”

“If you love us, let the others go,” called Tania’s father. “Let go of their hands. You know they’re all going to die anyway. What does it matter when?”

“They’re all going to die, Tania,” came Edric’s voice. “You’re damaged goods, Tania; you’re a half-thing. You never should have been born.”

The voices beat at Tania’s mind like hammer blows.
They’re not real! They’re not real!
These were tricks and deceits sent out to keep the Seven from entering the Throne Room beyond the closed doors.

Lear must fear them!

Tania took a deep breath. “Shut! Up!” she howled, and the others howled with her. The light blazed out from them, and the doors of the Throne Room burst inward in shattered splinters.

The long room was lit by a macabre red glow, the color of blood. A host of candles flickered across the floor, like a thousand ghost lights writhing over a tormented graveyard. A slender path of darkness threaded through the candles, leading to the King’s throne.

The throne itself was shrouded in gloom. A figure sat there in deep darkness. Tania felt malicious eyes on her. She sensed a mind brimming with hatred.

“Welcome, niece,” said a deep, husky voice. “I have been expecting you.” There was a low laugh. “Come, would you embrace your uncle, child? Would’st thou nestle in the arms of one who has longed for this moment for more years than you can imagine?”

Tania felt the pressure of the darkness all around her—all around the Seven.

“It hurts!” came Ann’s gasping voice. “It hurts in my chest!” Her voice rose to a wail. “Bess! Help me! I can’t breathe!”

And Flora’s voice cried out, “Burning! Burning! Burning! Daddy! Dadd-ee-ee!”

Tania felt their power dwindling as the dark pounded away at them.

She heard Gracie choking and turned to see the girl bent over, coughing up water.

With a cry Georgina began to twitch and contort—writhing and screaming as invisible hooves beat at her.

“All is lost,” groaned the princess, and suddenly her hand was weak in Tania’s grip. All the strength and purpose were gone from her eyes, and her face was pale and withered again, plague-wracked and close to death.

The light was fading. The Power of Seven was breaking apart.

She could hear Marjorie moaning softly, her breath bubbling as though her throat were filling with blood.

They had not struck a single blow against him. Lear was ripping them to pieces.

No! Not like this! I won’t let it end like this!

Gripping the hands of Georgina and the princess, Tania ran forward down the path of darkness. The others came with them, brought along in their wake, crying and groaning.

Tania focused her mind on their light, seeing it in her mind like a spring coiling and coiling—tighter and tighter—straining to burst.

They were almost at the throne now. Lear was leaning back, watching her with dark, impassive eyes.

The sight of his face was shocking. So much of Oberon was there! But oh—how warped, how deformed and twisted! His hair and beard were grizzled, and his features were webbed with fine lines, like veins under the parchment skin.

The simple white crown of Faerie lay on his head at a careless angle, as though he mocked the very thing he had so long desired. His eyes were dark and deep-set, like storm clouds, and his lips seemed to be caught in a permanent sneer.

“It seems that you have some powers, niece,” he said. “Some
little
powers.”

“Yes! We do!” Tania shouted, six other voices calling out in chorus with hers. Tania let loose the coiled spring of light.

It blasted out of her, roaring and rushing as it beat against Oberon’s evil brother like a tidal wave.

“No!” shouted Lear.

Tania gasped for breath as the flood of white light hammered into the throne.

They had the power. They could defeat him!

The cascade of white light began to diminish, to dim and fade away.

She felt weak and drained.

There was mocking laughter. Lear sat at his ease in the great Throne of Faerie, smiling a little. He was unharmed—unaffected by their attack.

“And did you think ’twould be so easy to thwart me, niece?” he said. “A fool, and seven times the fool, you are!” He lifted his right arm, and a red fire flowed upward from it. “Give greetings to your kinfolk, Tania Aurealis—for you are about to join them!”

Red light spewed out above the throne and Tania saw a sight that stopped her heart.

Suspended in the air over Lear’s head were five amber globes—five amber prisons. And trapped inside were the King and the Queen, Eden, Hopie, and Sancha.

“And now, seventh child of my loving brother, you shall join your family in the sleepless death!” A ball of amber light ignited in Lear’s fist. “A sweet good night, my child—may demons gnaw at thee until the end of the world!”

Lear flung the amber ball toward her. She was thrown backward off her feet by the impact and an avalanche of yellow flame engulfed her.