Larkspur (41 page)

“
Who are you talking to?”
Auntie Sandy asked Paddie.

“
We’re talking to Kirk,”
Paddie said. “He’s confused.”

“
He thinks you have to be
either a fairy or a person,” Katy giggled. “Just silly.”

“
You don’t see him?”
Paddie asked.

Auntie Sandy shook her head. She gave Katy a
worried look, which Katy couldn’t see because she couldn’t see
non-fairy people. Mrs. Valerie kneeled down.

“
What’s going on?” Valerie
asked Sandy.

“
They’re talking to Kirk,”
Sandy said. “You know . . .”

Auntie Sandy wiggled her eyebrows like this
kid was important. Auntie Valerie nodded. Just then, there was a
big knock on a door someplace in the distance.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

“
That’s the guy,” Kirk
said to Paddie.

“
What guy?” Paddie
asked.

“
The one who gave up being
a man.” Kirk nodded. “He gave up his rightful place in heaven.
He’ll spend eternity in hell with you devil-handed
people.”

“
That’s just dumb,” Katy
said. “Paddie’s not going to hell because he writes with one hand
or another. Who told you that?”

“
Your great-grandfather
isn’t going there either,” Paddie said. “You only go
there
if you do
something really mean or break a commandment or
something.”

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Kirk scowled at Paddie and stomped off.

“
Jill,” Sandy said.
“Maughold is here. He’s talking to Katy and Paddie.”

“
Katy-baby?” Jill
asked.

“
Mommy, he thinks Paddie
is going to hell because he writes with his left hand!” Katy
laughed. “Just silly.”

Jill gave Sandy a worried look.

“
Paddie? Are you okay?”
Jill asked.

Paddie gave her a confident nod, but then
looked sad.

“
You won’t let anyone take
Katy, will you?” Paddie asked.

“
Never,” Jill said to
Edie, who was hovering nearby. “Katy is my daughter, my child, and
you have no more authority over her than that.”

“
Prove that you have more
authority than a mother over her child,” Tanesha said, “and we’ll
talk.”

“
Until then,” Heather
said, “shut up. We have babies to birth, and we don’t need you
nattering in our ears about stupid stuff.”

“
I was just trying to
help,” Edie said. “The queen told
me . . .”

“
She’s not our queen,”
Tanesha said. “So stuff it.”

They heard a lot of shouting and the foggy
place began to shake. Paddie grabbed onto Katy and squeezed his
eyes shut.

~~~~~~~~

“
My queen,” Manannán said,
and ran into Queen Fand’s arms.

Manannán stepped into Fand’s arms, and there
was an explosion of white and pink light. Jacob had to shade his
eyes from the brightness. The two spirits spun into the air,
shooting crystalline white light in a brilliant spiral. The fairies
in the boats and the gargoyles began to sing:

Deep peace of the running wave to you,

Deep peace of the flowing air to you,

Deep peace of the quiet earth to you,

Deep peace of the shining stars to you,

Deep peace of the infinite peace to you

Jacob had never seen
anything so beautiful. He fell to his knees, overwhelmed with the
song and beauty. Prince Finegal fell at his side. The men in the
ghost army stood guard over Jacob and Prince Finegal. The fairies
continued to sing as King Manannán and Queen Fand spun back to
earth. Their feet were almost on the ground where there was a
magnificent
pop
as the energy that kept them apart was broken in their
reunion.

“
It’s a fairy blessing,”
Gilfand said. He held out his hands to help Prince Finegal and
Jacob up. “The Celts took it for their own by carving it on stone,
but it was ours first. If you need peace, you now have the words to
call it to you.”

“
What was
the . . .
pop
and . . .” Jacob couldn’t find the
words to express what he’d seen.

“
Returning our land to
love,” Prince Finegal said. His eyes never left his
parents.

“
It was broken by the
Celts, and . . .,” Gilfand said.

“
My brother,” Prince
Finegal added.

Jacob looked at the man and nodded.

“
Love has been restored.”
Prince Finegal smiled. He leaned into Jacob. “It doesn’t seem quite
manly, but I’ll tell you, it’s powerful stuff. I’ll not lead an
army without its power.”

“
Are they like this every
time . . .?” Jacob asked.

Nodding, Prince Finegal grinned and Gilfand
laughed.

“
Surely,
you’ve . . .” Prince Finegal gestured to King
Manannán and Queen Fand.

Jacob flushed at the memory of the hotel in
Santa Monica with Jill. Prince Finegal clapped Jacob on the back
and laughed. He made his way to his parents.

“
Father!” Prince Finegal
hugged his father and mother. “We have business to attend
to.”

Prince Finegal gestured to Jacob. King
Manannán looked at Prince Finegal and then at Jacob.

“
Your grandson has cursed
our family, my family,” Jacob said. “Leading to the death of all
males.”

“
He is the first male to
survive since Maughold was born,” Gilfand said.

“
How
long . . .?” King Manannán asked.

“
Almost two thousand
years,” Gilfand said. “He’s here because his woman is birthing two
boys. Without our help, they are doomed.”

“
How did
you . . .?” Prince Finegal asked.

“
I was helped by a
powerful Oracle,” Jacob said. “My fairy-human mother and human
father protected me.”

Celia’s ghost appeared when he mentioned
her.

“
Daughter,” Queen Fand
said to Celia. “What must be done?”

“
You must resolve with
your grandson what you could not with his father or grandfather,”
Celia said.

“
He doomed us to thousands
of years of unnatural rest!” Prince Finegal said. “I say we destroy
him.”

The army cheered.

“
No,” King Manannán said.
“No.”

“
Father!” Prince Finegal
started.

“
I’ve spent a long, long
time circling my island, my problems,” King Manannán said. “Our
daughter speaks the truth. We must address what we could not
before.”

King Manannán looked at Queen Fand.

“
We believed they would
come around,” King Manannán said. “Without your beauty and grace,
the forces of doubt and cynicism formed a wedge between our
children and the magic of peace, love, and hope. Love was replaced
with judgment and ego, hope with powerlessness, peace with the
chaotic mind.”

“
How awful,” Queen Fand
said.

“
When they brought me the
chains, I gladly took them,” King Manannán said. “Rather than live
in a world where human women and children were burned alive in
fire, human men were tortured, and cruelty had replaced all beauty
and grace. I preferred the torment of the surf and sand to seeing
the world fall into darkness.”

Queen Fand hugged him tight. She kissed his
lips, and sparks flew around them. He smiled.

“
I missed the world coming
out into the light,” King Manannán said. “It is time to resolve
this matter once and for all.”

“
Lead on my king,” Queen
Fand said.

“
Son?” King Manannán asked
Prince Finegal. “Will you lead the way?”

Prince Finegal gave King Manannán a slight
bow, and they all disappeared. Jacob stood on the hilltop by
himself.

Prince Finegal appeared again right in front
of him.

“
Seriously? You don’t know
how to move through time and space?” Prince Finegal laughed at
Jacob.

“
I
can do that?” Jacob asked.

“
You are fairly pathetic,”
Prince Finegal laughed. “I may need to leave you here.”

He disappeared again. Jacob shook his head
and looked around. Gilfand had taken him to this shore. He didn’t
even have a car. He started walking toward the road. He’d gone
about a half a mile when Prince Finegal appeared before him.

“
Actually, you’d better
come.” Prince Finegal grabbed the front of his shirt.

They appeared in the clearing where he’d
left James, Valerie, and Delphie. Jacob kneeled down to touch the
small sledgehammer. He walked to the entrance.

“
They are here and not
here,” Queen Fand said.

“
What does that mean?”
Jacob turned to look at her.

“
I’m not sure,” Queen Fand
said.

Prince Finegal picked up Delphie’s
sledgehammer and pounded it three times on the ground.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

“
Come out, come out,
wherever you are!” Prince Finegal yelled. “I know you’re in there,
you stupid bastard! Show yourself!”

Bang! Bang! Bang!

“
Stop!” Jacob yelled. He
went to Prince Finegal and put his hand on his shoulder. “Just
stop!”

“
Why?” Prince Finegal
asked.

“
He’s not here,” Jacob
said. “They aren’t here.”

“
And you know
this . . .?” Prince Finegal started.

Jacob pointed. Delphie appeared by a tree on
the edge of the clearing.

“
Delphie!” Jacob ran to
her.

“
How did
I . . .?” Delphie asked.

“
I brought you here.”
Jacob gave Prince Finegal a smug look and the prince smiled. “I
knew that you would know what’s going on.”

Queen Fand and King Manannán walked over to
Delphie. She took one look at them and fell to her knees.

“
Not to us,” King Manannán
said. “No sister, never to us.”

Jacob kneeled down and helped Delphie to her
feet.

“
I
was . . . overcome by . . .” Delphie
cleared her throat. She lowered her head. “How can I be of
service?”

“
Where is our Katy?” Queen
Fand asked.

“
Where is Jill?” Jacob
asked.

“
This Maughold has drawn
us into his white fog of confusion,” Delphie said. “We are all
there — Sam, Jill, Sandy, Tanesha, Heather, of course, Katy,
Paddie, James, and Edie.”

“
My fairy is still with
them.” Queen Fand put her hand to her chest.

Queen Fand looked at Gilfand, and he
disappeared. He reappeared a moment later with Edie. The fairy
swallowed hard and transformed into her tiny size and work
uniform.

“
What is it?” Queen Fand
asked.

“
Katherine’s mother won’t
let me bring her,” Edie said.

“
What?” Jacob asked. “What
are you talking about?”

“
Why not?” Queen Fand
asked.

“
She says the child is a
child first,” Edie said. “A fairy second.”

“
What are you talking
about?” Jacob repeated. His voice rose with anxiety. He glanced at
Gilfand and found the man staring at him with an intensity that
made Jacob look away.

“
They want Katy,” Delphie
said in a low tone. “Jill and the fairy have been arguing. The
fairy says Katy is a fairy queen and needs to train.
Jill . . . well, you know.”

“
You can’t take my
daughter!” Jacob said.

“
Be still, child,” Queen
Fand said to Jacob.

“
I cannot take the child
over the mother’s wishes,” Edie said. “There’s no stronger magic
than a mother’s love. Most people don’t know it, but her friends
do. I can’t take her.”

“
This is what I meant by
fairies having their own agenda,” Delphie whispered to
Jacob.

“
We’ll just have to
destroy the mother,” Queen Fand said.

“
YOU WILL NOT TAKE MY
DAUGHTER!” Jacob screamed. “ENOUGH!”

Everything came to a stop. It was as if
Jacob had hit the pause button on the action. Even Queen Fand and
her fairies were locked in time. The army stopped moving. The great
King Manannán had been in the middle of taking a step when Jacob
stopped everything. Prince Fin’s mouth was open as if he was going
to say something.

“
I said enough,” Jacob
said under his breath.

Chapter Two Hundred and
Seventy-three

It’s time

“
It’s time,” said Liban,
Queen Fand’s twin sister. She appeared in the small air gap in the
fog at the precise moment Jacob stopped everything in the
meadow.

“
What do you mean, it’s
time?” Tanesha asked. “What the hell are you talking
about?”

Jill nodded and started to get up. Heather
pushed Jill back to lying down.

“
I’m sorry,” Sandy said.
“Who are you?”

“
It’s okay,” Jill said.
“I’m going to go with her for a while.”

“
What?” Tanesha asked.
“Babies wait for no one! They . . .”

Liban leaned over Jill and put her hand on
her belly .

“
There, there, little
ones,” Liban said. She gave Tanesha a strong look and said to Jill,
“Feel better.”