Fatal Fairies (Renaissance Faire Mystery Book 8) (2 page)

King Harold had sent a page to fetch Chase. The teenager was waiting at the door. I re-directed him to find Canyon at the Good Luck Fountain where the fairy had died. The young man thanked me graciously with a bow and the removal of his huge feathered hat.

There were several visitors in the Dungeon looking at the tortured plastic figures. I ignored them and went quickly up the stairs to our apartment, locking the door behind me and taking a deep breath.

So far, so good. Now I just had to wait for Chase’s reaction to what I had set in motion.

* * *

I woke up after a pleasant dream where Chase and I were swimming naked in warm, blue water off the coast of Greece.

Not wanting to leave that wonderful place quickly, I closed my eyes and drifted in and out. This was definitely better than dealing with a fairy convention and a murder in the Village.

“Hey, beautiful,” a voice whispered near my ear. “Just stay right here. I’ve got some free time.”

I smiled as I rolled over from the middle of the bed. Already my strategy to help my wonderful husband was working. He was so relaxed that he didn’t even sound like himself.

He climbed into bed beside me. “I wasn’t expecting you for lunch today.”

I put my arms around him. Something wasn’t right. Chase was bigger—bulkier.

My bed partner licked my ear.

I opened my eyes and gasped. “You’re not Chase!”

Canyon grinned. “Thank goodness. I wouldn’t have you here if I was.”

It only took a moment to grab the blanket and get out of bed. As soon as I was on my feet with my eyes wide open, I knew something was very, very wrong.

Chapter Two

“What are you doing here? Where’s Chase?”

Canyon rolled over and smiled lazily at me. “I’m here because this is the Dungeon where the Village Bailiff lives. You’re here because you’re my wonderful, sexy lady. Are you talking about Chase Manhattan, that glory-seeking jouster? Maybe he’s with the queen. You never know with him.”

“What?” It was the only intelligible word I could get out of my mouth. “Chase is the Village Bailiff. He has been since Roger Trent retired.”

It was a joke—a prank. We all loved pranks at the Village. I’d done many of them myself. Some of them were quite good. This one wasn’t.

“Okay. I get it. It’s a prank, right?” I laughed. “This is a big, stupid prank. Now get out of my bed and find Chase.”

“Quit talking about Manhattan, Jessie, and get back in bed. I’ve only got a few minutes before that stupid Detective Almond gets to the Village to investigate the fairy murder.” He smiled and put his hands above his head. “Plenty of time for the good stuff, my fine lady.”

I started to say ‘what’ again and stopped myself. I couldn’t keep repeating that word. It wasn’t doing any good. None of this made any sense, except for the prank angle. I stuck to my first impression.

“Canyon, Chase will kick your butt if he finds you here. I know you think you’re tough, but Chase has a lot of experience dealing with bad pranks and employees who forget who they are.”

He finally sat up and stared hard at me. “Is something wrong with you? I heard you left your apprenticeship at
Rare Reads
early today. You look pale. You’re not sick, are you?”

I watched him as he ran into the bathroom to gargle and spray himself with Lysol. Canyon was terrified of getting sick. I’d kept that fact to myself when I advised the new director to hire him. How often would it come up when he was policing the Village?

That’s when I really looked around myself. This was totally a prank. It had to be, and yet the best prank in the world couldn’t make the Dungeon apartment look as it had before Chase and I were married.

A wandering sorcerer had magically made the apartment larger on the inside. It still looked exactly the same on the outside. It was difficult to explain. You had to see it.

When I’d moved in with Chase, years before we were married, the apartment had consisted of a single room that was a bedroom, tiny kitchen, and bathroom all rolled into one. It was all the two of us could do not to bump into one another as we walked around it.

When I’d come home from the museum that day, I’d come home to the large version of the apartment. Now it had gone back to being the small one again. I’d accomplished some pretty awesome pranks in my day, but this wasn’t possible. No prank could make this happen—unless it was a magic prank.

Magic had come to Renaissance Faire Village last year at about the same time that Chase and I got married. It had changed everything for those of us who lived here as well as for those who visited. No one could ever be certain what they would see or experience. It had started with a ghost but had escalated to a witch and a sorcerer—and maybe a man who made magic shoes.

Could this prank be the work of one of the magic users that now called the Village their home? Or was it the sorcerer who had visited us and changed it in the first place? Maybe he’d returned.

Canyon pulled on his clothes and shoved his feet into thick sandals. He pushed his shaggy blond hair out of his eyes and kept his distance.

“You should pay a visit to the first aid station, Jessie” he suggested. “Wanda should be able to tell if you’re sick.”

“Wanda? Blue ghost Wanda?” I laughed, but I was beginning to panic. “I don’t think there’s anything she can do for me. I’m sorry. You might not be able to see her. Not everyone can.”

“There’s something really bad wrong with you, my beautiful lady. I’ll tell
Rare Reads
that you won’t be back today. You go see Wanda or go to the hospital. You might be having a breakdown or something.”

He left the apartment, and I hurriedly dressed. I didn’t want to be caught with my pants down again, so to speak. But even my clothes were different.

When I’d done apprenticeships around the Village to write my thesis for my doctorate,
Proliferation of Medieval Crafts in Modern Times
, I’d had to dress to suit each position. Usually long, coarse-knit skirts with pockets and blouses. Sometimes I wore britches and shirts, dressing like a man.

Canyon had said I was working as an apprentice at
Rare Reads
where they printed and bound books as well as selling new ones. My dress was rough linen covered by an ink-stained white blouse and apron. I looked at my hands. They were covered in ink. My face had ink blotches on it too.

As Director of the
Art and Craft Museum
, I dressed as I pleased—usually as a high-born lady with better quality skirts and boots. I would never have walked around the Village dressed in these clothes.

It was as though I’d gone back in time, which I sincerely hoped was impossible even with magic in the Village. What was going on?

 I reassured myself again that this had to be a prank. I had to find the prankster and let him or her know that this was over. I knew what was going on. They couldn’t fool me. Then life would go back to normal.

The first thing I had to do was find Chase. I knew he wouldn’t be in on it. He wasn’t like that. Despite Canyon’s opinion of him, Chase wasn’t a prankster. He was serious, diligent, and hardworking. He never appreciated my pranks and had passed on many great opportunities to accomplish his own.

Since Canyon had said Chase was working as a jouster again, I headed toward the Field of Honor. Somehow, he and I would make sense of this. Even if we didn’t know exactly what was going on, we’d figure it out. It was the way it worked between us.

I ignored everyone who spoke to me on the way to the field. I needed answers more than casual companionship. Some of them could even be in on it. I kept my eyes open for Wanda —the dead, blue version of the woman. She could pull off something like this since she was a ghost. I’d seen her do some crazy things.

The Queen’s Joust was just finishing up as I trudged up the hill to the outdoor arena. The bleachers were completely full with screaming fans, many of which were holding signs with Chase’s name on them.

Just like the old days when he was everyone’s favorite jouster.

And there he was on the field in his shiny silver armor. His face shield was raised as he held his lance high showing his victory over his opponent, a smaller knight on a brown horse.

I smiled when I saw him, tears starting to my eyes. I lifted my skirts and ran the rest of the way to reach him, despite the heat of the day. Chase would know what to do. He’d have some answers or know where to get them. He always knew what to do.

By the time I reached him, he was leaving the
Field of Honor
. He’d received his accolades from the crowds who were still chanting his name. Queen Olivia was smiling and waving a rose at him.

Dozens of jousting groupies were standing so close to him that his horse couldn’t move. Finally his squire grabbed the horse’s reins to get him back to the area behind the viewing stands. Chase needed to get cleaned up and out of jousting gear so he could rest before the next contest. So did his horse.

I knew where they were going and skirted the crowd to head that way. Surely the stables and the dressing rooms for the jousters couldn’t have changed that much from when I was a squire a few years before.

Chase’s name was above the door to his dressing room. There was a big gold star with it that had never been there when he was a jouster. I stared at it curiously before going inside to wait for him.

It wasn’t long before he came in from the heat. His squire was a tall, thin boy with badly cut hair. He began immediately helping him remove his armor. Chase unfastened his gloves and dropped them to the floor.

“Will that be all, sir?” the boy asked in an eager voice.

“That’s all, Emerson. Next joust isn’t until four. Get some rest and don’t forget.”

The boy nodded and left the dressing room. Chase sat in a chair, shirtless, as he drained a bottle of water in one gulp. He was covered in sweat, but there were no showers here. He’d have to wait until he got home.

He sounded like Chase. He looked like Chase. That gave me the courage to come out of hiding.

“Jessie?” He frowned. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m so glad to see you.” I jumped in his lap and wrapped my arms around him, big sobs coming from my chest. “I was so worried something had happened to you.”

He didn’t put his arms around me, patting my back in a careful manner. “Does Canyon know you’re here?”

“Canyon?” I wiped the tears away. “Why are you asking about him? You can’t be in on this prank. You hate pranks. You wouldn’t do this to me.”

His wonderful brown eyes were filled with compassion. “So you and Canyon broke up?”

I stood and stamped my foot. I hadn’t done that in a long time. I’d been trying to learn to control my temper.

“What’s going on? Is this a sick joke, or are you trying to tell me you don’t love me anymore?”

“Jessie, we’ve always been good friends. I don’t recall ever talking about love. Are you okay?”

“This can’t be happening.” I paced the small floor. “I finally have everything I ever wanted, and now it’s gone.”

“Would you like some water? Maybe you should sit down for a few minutes. Were you out in the sun a lot today?”

“No! I don’t want to sit down. I wasn’t in the sun, and I’m not sick. I’m also not sleeping with Canyon. You and I have been married for almost a year. Don’t you remember?”

“I think I should get Wanda for you,” he volunteered. “Or I could look for Canyon if that’s better.”

“Quit trying to be so helpful. You’re just making it worse.”

I paced for another few minutes while he watched me.

Wanda.
Wanda had to be the key to all this. She didn’t have magic, but she was a ghost. She’d set all this up to get even with me for dyeing her blue before she was killed. I should have realized that she’d want revenge for that at some time. What she’d done, ruining our wedding, wasn’t enough. It wasn’t like I’d killed her. It was just a series of unfortunate events.

“Chase. You have to believe me. Look at the wedding ring that you made for me.” I held out my hand, but my ring was gone.

He took my hand and smiled at me. “Don’t worry, Jessie. We’ll find someone who can help you. You wait right here, okay? I’ll get help.”

I was too dumbfounded to speak. He kissed my sweaty forehead and left the dressing room.

There was no time to waste. I needed to marshal my forces and figure out what I should do next.  I had to find Wanda and get the truth out of her before something happened and things couldn’t go back the way they were before.

Looking both ways before I went out, I left the dressing room and ran along the edge of the fence that led from the
Field of Honor
back down into the Village. I thought Chase might be headed toward Wanda’s first aid clinic near the castle, but instead, he’d been stopped by Merlin, the Village magician, on the other side of the blacksmith’s shop. He couldn’t see me. That was probably for the best.

I kept running past the Lady Fountain as King Arthur tried to pull his sword from the stone, uttering vivid, colorful oaths that impressed the visitors watching him. Mary waved to me from
Wicked Weaves
, her basket-weaving shop. Roger was talking to a customer about a large glass statue of a dragon near his shop, the
Glass Gryphon
.

Music came from the
Hawk Stage
, where Lady Lindsey was doing her twice-daily show with her pretty song birds. The Lovely Laundry Ladies were calling out to men as they passed, asking them for help with their wet bundles of clothes. I ran past
Baron’s Beer and Brats
and
Polo’s Pasta
.

I was pretty much out of breath by the time I reached the first aid station. I had to stand outside panting. It gave me a minute to think about what I should say and do.

Wanda was cunning, no doubt about it. She’d had to manipulate so many things to get me to this point. She had to have help, I realized. Maybe the new witch who’d moved into the
Lady of the Lake Tavern
.