Larkspur (20 page)

“
What gives you the right
to stand here in my presence?” Fand screamed.

“
My line is cursed due to
your actions,” Jacob said. “My sister’s line cursed due to your
actions.”

When Fand didn’t respond, Jacob pressed
on.

“
I have to spend
my
precious life
resolving your problems,” Jacob said. “That gives me the right. I
need you to tell me how to break the curse.”

“
Oh,” Fand
said.

The wind stopped. The warm light returned to
the room. The screaming stopped.

A calm and regal Fand sat down in a
throne-like chair by the stone fireplace.

“
What do you need to
know?” Fand asked.

Chapter Two Hundred
and
Sixty
In a family
way

“
I want to know how to
break the curse.” Jacob gave a frustrated shake of his
head.

“
What curse?” Fand gave a
slight smile.

Jacob scowled. He knew that smile. Katy made
that smile every time she was trying to pull something over on
Jill. His eyes flicked to Valerie.

“
Queen Fand.” Valerie
kneeled before her. Using her skill to manipulate people with her
words, she continued, “Will you share your wisdom with
us?”

“
Of course, my dear.” Fand
held out her hand, and Valerie kissed it. “How can I
help?”

“
We’d like you to tell us
how your family line became cursed.” Valerie’s words echoed with
her power. “I’m sure it’s a story you’d long to share with
us.”

“
Anything for you.” Fand
gave her a placid smile.

“
Well, hallo,” James said
as he entered the room.

Surprised by his voice, Jacob turned to look
at him. Valerie gave him a sweet smile.

“
You’ve picked up one,”
James said. “Delphinium, the beekeeper. Nice to see you,
ma’am.”

“
Hi, Jimmy,” Delphie
said.

“
How did
you . . .?” Jacob asked.

“
I walked. It wasn’t far,”
James said. “Turns out the rat’s magic doesn’t work on Celts.
Something to keep in mind.”

James put his hands on his hips and looked
around the room.

“
What did I interrupt?”
James asked.

“
Fand was just going to
tell us about the curse,” Valerie purred.

“
That woman is not going
to tell you anything,” James said.

Fand hissed at him.

“
Jay-sus, she looks just
like Katy.” James looked at Jacob. Jacob gave a slight
nod.

“
You’re a liar,” James
said to the queen. “They came all this way to sort out
your
business, and you
can’t help them.”

“
How do you know?” Valerie
asked.

“
I know a lie and a liar
when I see them,” James said.

When Fand attempted to leave her seat, Jacob
forced her to remain sitting. She began to writhe against Jacob’s
hold. In protest, she let out a high-pitched screech. The sound
forced them all to their knees.

“
Cover your ears!” Delphie
screamed.

“
Don’t you dare let her
up!” James yelled.

“
Jake!” Valerie
squealed.

The castle began to rumble around them.

“
Oh good Lord.” Celia
became more solid. “You’d really bring the entire castle down
rather than answer a few questions? Some queen.”

“
How dare you speak to
Queen Fand?” Gilfand asked. “Away with you, spirit!”

In near-solid form, Celia walked toward the
writhing queen.

“
Really, what is wrong
with you?” Celia asked Fand. “Why are you so weak?”

A cold wind nearly blew them off their feet
as it whipped through the hall.

“
Parlor tricks,” Celia
said.

Queen Fand’s wrath turned on Celia, who
shook her head at the queen’s drama.

“
Do you know how many
women have lost their lives trying to give birth to your progeny?”
Celia asked. “My mother, my grandmother, her
mother . . . I barely survived. Jake barely
survived. And what did I get for it? Raging cancer that ripped me
from my loved ones when they needed me the most.

“
You and your petty
problems have wrought generations of suffering,” Celia said. “We
stand before you in an attempt to clean up
your
business, and you act like a
petulant child.”

“
Jacob,” Celia commanded.
“Let her up.”

“
No!” James yelled.
“She’ll kill us all.”

“
She wants you to think
that,” Celia said. “She is too weak to do anything more than
pedestrian magic tricks. She is not worth our time.”

Celia turned her back on Queen Fand, and the
queen stopped screeching. Sam got to his feet and helped Valerie
and Delphie up. Jacob and James stood. Celia nodded to Delphie.
Valerie and Delphie turned their backs to the queen.

“
It’s got to be you,
Jake.” Jacob heard Delphie’s voice in his mind. “You must be the
king of Marle.”

“
On my signal,” his
mother’s voice whispered in his head.

Sam turned away from the queen. James looked
at Sam and Valerie. He tipped his head to the side, and turned away
from Queen Fand.

“
How dare you treat my
queen with such contempt?” Gilfand yelled.

Fand’s eyes flicked from person to person.
She locked eyes with Jacob. He took a deep breath and let it out.
He cast psychic roots deep within the earth and found the Isle of
Man reaching up to him. He stood a little straighter.

“
You can do it, son,” Sam
said. Jacob’s eyes flicked to his father. Sam gave him a proud
smile.

“
When you’re ready,” Celia
whispered in Jacob’s mind. “Remember, she can withstand any force,
but . . .”

“
Love.” Jacob’s eyes
flicked to Celia.

Celia gave him a broad smile, and he
released Queen Fand. The queen didn’t move from her seat. Jacob
walked toward her.

“
I am an invader of your
land,” Jacob said.

Fand’s head tipped to the side.

“
You have no reason to
help me,” Jacob smiled.

Fand lowered her chin.

“
In the name of my
grandfather, Manannán, your love, and your life,” Jacob’s voice
boomed throughout the hall. “I demand that Queen Fand share her
secrets.”

Jacob felt power surge through him from the
island itself. He felt the entire land echo in his words.

“
I don’t know,” Fand said
in a small voice.

“
Truth,” James said in a
low voice.

“
You don’t know what?”
Jacob’s voice boomed.

“
I don’t know why we’re
cursed.” Fand gave a self-conscious nod. “I wish I did. I do.
But . . .”

She lifted a shoulder in a shrug.

“
Tell me how this came to
be,” Jacob demanded.

Queen Fand raised her head to look at him.
Her eyes scanned his face.

“
Now,” Jacob
demanded.

“
The whole thing?” Fand
asked. “You want to hear the whole thing?”

“
Yes,” Delphie’s voice
said in Jacob’s head. “We need to hear the whole thing?”

“
Tell us the entire
story,” Jacob said.

Fand glanced at Gilfand. He gave a regal
bow.

“
May I first see this
child? The one who looks like me?” Fand asked. “My fairies tell me
she is the first female child of Man.”

“
When you have told us the
entire story,” Jacob said. “But be warned, she is a powerful
combination of Manannán and Fand. She’s a young child, but she will
not hesitate to send you on if you bring your mischief into her
life, and I will bend heaven and earth if you harm her in
anyway.”

“
Deal.”

For the first time, Fand gave him a real
smile. Her dress changed from a dowdy, black mourning dress to a
regal, deep burgundy velvet. The small East Tower room transformed
into a luxurious queen’s greeting hall. Fand’s wooden chair became
a high-backed throne befitting a queen. Comfortable furniture
appeared before the throne. Fand stood.

“
Please,” Fand said. “Make
yourselves comfortable.”

Jacob was sure that if he moved, he would
break the spell. He stood rooted in place while Sam, Valerie, and
James sat down on the plush furnishings. Delphie touched his arm
and sat next to where Celia was standing.

“
I’ll stand,” Jacob
said.

“
Suit yourself,” Fand
said. “Where shall I begin?”

She looked at Gilfand.

“
At the beginning,” Jacob
demanded.

“
Too long ago,” Fand
said.

“
We have lived in this
place since time began,” Gilfand the gargoyle said.

“
You’re stalling,” Jacob
said.

“
I am,” Fand smiled and
nodded in acquiescence.

When she sat on her throne, the room began
to fill with fairy-kind from every corner of the world. A younger
gargoyle appeared on the top left of the chair. Gilfand took off to
land on the top right of Queen Fand’s chair. A host of tiny fairy
like creatures appeared around the room. They gave the room a
sparkling light blue and pink cast. A chorus of long-legged,
dark-skinned goddesses wrapped in pale muslin dresses appeared
behind the queen. Three sisters with long dreadlocks skipped and
laughed their way into the hall. Wood nymphs dressed in the leaves
and bark of trees appeared along the walls as if they’d been
growing there all along.

Tan-skinned women, wrapped in gorgeous silk
scarves that covered all but their large, dark eyes, took cushions
near the end of the hall. Five or six sturdy women dressed entirely
in thick fur arrived to stand guard at the door. A few
pale-skinned, red-haired women dressed in tartan joined a group of
women wrapped in flowing green dresses and carrying bagpipes, as
they floated near the center of the hall. As if they’d arrived from
work in a Disney movie, five large-breasted, long-legged fairies
flew over Jacob’s head before landing just behind the
gargoyles.

“
We have assembled,” a
fairy who looked like Cleopatra said.

She gave Queen Fand a low bow. Queen Fand
nodded to release her.

“
There was a time when
this world was fire and stone,” Queen Fand said. “We were few and
the world was dark. I will not speak of that time. We came from the
great oceans.”

Fand’s eyes held the vague look of memory.
She smiled.

“
I don’t have a mother,”
Queen Fand said. “So I don’t know your sorrow and loss for your
mother, Celia. I have always been Fand, just Fand.”

“
The queen of the
fairies,” Gilfand said. “You have always been our
queen.”

Fairies big and small clapped or cheered in
agreement. Queen Fand glanced at Gilfand and smiled.

“
We moved from ocean to
land,” Queen Fand said. “We lived on every land, in every bush, and
in the deep grass, and . . . The fire came, and we
rebuilt. Fairy nations coincided with the towering lizards. And the
fire came again. We watched the continents move, the skies change,
and the fire come and go. Until humans arrived.
Humans . . . they
are . . .”

She gave a soft smile.

“ 
. . .
destructive,” Queen Fand said. “We moved ahead of them, across the
continent of Asia and Europe, until we lived only in the British
Isles.”

“
Not in the Americas?”
Jacob asked.

“
The Irish brought fairies
with them on their journey across the water,” a fair-skinned fairy
wrapped in flowing green said. She gestured to the Disney fairies,
who giggled.

“
That’s correct,” Queen
Fand said. “We moved across the British Isles to make this place
our home. When the water came, we were separated from the human
horde. We thrived in peace and safety until . . .
Until . . .”

Queen Fand dropped her head into her hands
and sobbed.

~~~~~~~~

Friday night — 9:15 p.m. MST

Construction site near airport

“
How is it?” Aden yelled
over the wind.

Standing on a mound of dirt, Rodney looked
across the earthquake-torn construction site and shrugged. Bone
tired, he could only manage the most minimal of gestures. He
glanced at Aden’s worn face before pointing to a Lipson employee
hanging by a wire over a crevice. For a moment, they watched the
young man grab the wet, cold arms of a young woman. She hopped, and
they hung over the empty space. The wench whined at her weight but
held. Slowly, the young man and his catch rose from the cold
muck.

“
Ready for a break?” Aden
yelled.

“
People are still trapped
down there,” Rodney yelled. “Temperature’s dropping. They won’t
last the night.”

“
The National Guard is
here.” Aden pointed to the personnel trucks.

“
You think those creatures
are gonna talk to them?” Rodney pointed to a gargoyle flying over
the young woman on her flight to safety. The young man whistled and
a medic ran across the muck to them.

Aden lifted his chin in a kind of nod.

“
We have an hour, maybe
two, before . . .” Rodney nodded.