Larkspur (43 page)

“
What?” Heather
asked.

“
It’s just something I
know,” Katy said. “It’ll start soon.”

“
Are we safe here?”
Tanesha asked.

“
I don’t know,” Katy
said.

Sam picked up Katy to ease his worry. They
all looked out into the darkening fog.

~~~~~~~~

Queen Fand returned to the present the
moment Manannán hugged Jill. She scowled at Liban and Valerie, and
looked at Manannán.

“
What is this?” Queen Fand
asked. “Why are you touching my Manannán?”

Queen Fand’s brow furrowed. It didn’t take a
great Oracle to know that Jill was in trouble. Delphie tried to
grab Queen Fand’s arm, but she slipped out of Delphie’s grip.
Valerie tried to stop the queen as she advanced toward Jill, but
Queen Fand knocked Valerie into the surf. Jacob ran to help her
up.

“
Sister,” Liban said and
put her hand on Queen Fand’s arm.

“
I’ll deal with you and
your betrayal in a moment,” Queen Fand said.

She walked to where Manannán had let go of
Jill.

“
Leave her,” Prince
Finegal said when Jacob moved to block the queen’s
motion.

Queen Fand knocked Jacob out of the way. He
landed in the surf nearby. Gilfand went to help him up. Queen Fand
towered over Jill.

“
I know you,” Queen Fand
said.

“
That’s good, because I
know you,” Jill said.

“
You know
me . . .” Queen Fand imitated Jill. “How dare you
speak to me?”

“
This is what you do,”
Jill said. “This is why you struggle.”

Queen Fand dismissed Jill with a swipe of
her hand intended to knock Jill over. When Jill didn’t fall, Queen
Fand tried again.

“
I left you with this,”
Jill said. “So that you could make the choice — not your sister or
your child, but you must choose to be rid of this compulsion to
demean and control.”

The queen gasped and leaned away from
Jill.

“
You were not this way
before you were split apart,” Jill said. “Before your children
rejected you, before you were heartbroken, were you?”

“
I . . .
I . . .” Queen Fand’s eyes went vague for a moment
before the anger returned. “Who are you to question me as your
familiar?”

“
I am your daughter, your
sister, your aunt. I am you,” Jill said. “As you, I ask, ‘Have I
always been so angry? So cruel?’”

Queen Fand tipped her head to the side.
Prince Finegal moved toward to his mother, but was stopped by
Manannán.

“
Do not let other people’s
cruelty and confusion become you and your legacy,” Jill
whispered.

Queen Fand’s head went up and down in a slow
nod. Jill smiled. She stood on her tiptoes and kissed Queen Fand’s
forehead. The queen fell backward. Manannán and Prince Finegal ran
forward, but Queen Fand was caught by her sister. Queen Fand’s
momentum knocked them both backward, and they fell into the water.
They came up laughing. On their knees, the sisters held each other.
Manannán and Prince Finegal went to them. Queen Fand and Liban
pulled the prince and his father down into the surf. The men went
down.

Jacob went to Jill’s side and kissed her
cheek. Jill smiled.

“
I hate to break this up,”
Delphie said. “But we need to find Maughold and his
grandfather.”

“
His grandfather, my
brother, is gone,” Prince Finegal said. “My sons and I spent years
looking for him.”

“
Where is Maughold?”
Valerie asked.

“
Who cares where he is?”
Queen Fand smiled. Gilfand helped her to her feet. She snapped her
fingers.

An elderly man wearing a heavy grey wool
robe appeared on the shore in front of them.

“
Maughold?” Queen Fand
asked.

“
Who wants to know?” the
man asked.

“
That’s not him,” Jill
said. “Katy said he’s a boy, not much older than she is, maybe six
or seven. They killed his mother and tried to kill him because he
was half-fairy.”

Queen Fand turned to look at Jill.

“
That’s not him,” Jill
said. “You must call to him as his grandmother, his
family.”

“
I will,” Manannán said.
“This is my confusion, my struggle to choose, though choosing
wasn’t actually necessary.”

He gave Jill a wink and a grin. Jill
smiled.

“
And now?” Delphie
scowled.

“
I don’t have to choose
between being a man and being a fairy,” Manannán said. “I can be
everything I am.”

“
Of course,” Queen Fand
laughed. He smiled and hugged her.

Jill felt a contraction rip through her.

“
We need to hurry,”
Manannán said. “Our daughter will have her sons soon.”

Manannán nodded to Prince Finegal, and the
prince got the army’s attention.

“
I call to my side the
boy, Kirk Maughold, also known as Machaoi,” Manannán said. “By
grandfather’s rights, I call thee here.”

Chapter Two Hundred and
Seventy-four

Same old war

At the sound of Manannán’s voice, the group
arrived in the meadow next to the white quartz cross that led to
the underground entrance of the church. The host of spirit-soldiers
surrounded them as they woke from Jacob’s time freeze. The soldiers
steadied themselves and looked around.

“
Kirk Maughold, by
grandfather’s rights, I call thee here,” Manannán called
again.

“
Steady men,” Prince
Finegal said. “Steady. We’ve seen this before.”

A cold wind blew through the meadow. The
rain turned cold and bitter.

“
Brother!” Prince Finegal
yelled to Jacob. “You must gird yourself to join us. And you too,
Valerie!”

“
What?” Jacob
asked.

Prince Finegal snapped his fingers, and
Jacob was wearing shining metal armor. Jacob pulled out the sword
on his belt.

“
Now, there’s a sword!”
Jacob said. “Val?”

Valerie was wearing a full suit of armor.
She tied her long hair in a knot and pulled on a metal helmet. She
raised her sword and nodded to Jacob.

“
Get your people to
safety!” Prince Finegal yelled to Jacob.

Jacob and Valerie walked Jill and Delphie to
a quiet corner next to the trees. Edie built a power field around
them to make them unnoticeable and to protect them from the
battle.

“
Gilfand!” Prince Finegal
yelled.

“
We are ready, my lord,”
Gilfand said.

More than a thousand gargoyles appeared in
the clearing. They were wearing a kind of scaly battle armor and
each carried a spear and a long, thin blade.

“
Aunt!” Prince Finegal
yelled.

“
We are here!” Liban
replied.

Led by Liban, a host of female fairy
warriors carrying bows and arrows joined the army. Edie shrank to
her tiny size when the fairy corps appeared among the spirit-army
and fairy army.

“
We are ready,” Queen Fand
said. As she turned, her wet formal gown turned to armor and a
muslin tunic. A leather cap appeared on her head, and a long bow
appeared in her hand.

“
Father!” Prince Finegal
yelled over the increasing wind. “You must suit up!”

“
What?” Manannán turned to
look at Prince Fin.

Jacob and Prince Finegal raised their hands
at the same time, and armor covered the great Manannán. He gave
them a nod in thanks.

The Army of Maughold appeared without
warning. The Maughold cavalry crashed into the spirit-army. Ten
times louder than a car crash, the noise was unbearable. Men and
horse screamed with rage and the sheer joy of battle. Jacob and
Prince Finegal fought on foot near Manannán. The gargoyles fought
from the sky while the fairy archers shot countless arrows.

The Army of Maughold continued to appear.
Driven by the fervor of their beliefs, the Army of Maughold was
fearsome and horrifying. Jill and Delphie stood in their protective
bubble as war raged around them. They lost track of Jacob, only to
occasionally spot him wielding the sword like a hockey stick next
to Prince Finegal.

The spirit-army fought against an unholy
foe. The immortal fairies battled on against the magic and faith
that protected the Army of Maughold. An arrow would pierce the
heart and armor of a soldier from Maughold. He would fall to the
ground, jerk the arrow out, and clamber to his feet. The
spirit-army didn’t bother with pretense. As if they were badges of
honor, they let the arrows collect on their bodies.

Neither army could falter because neither
army could die.

Jill sat down among the roots of a tree and
leaned against the trunk. They were going to be there a while.

~~~~~~~~

Somewhere below them, there was a mighty
crash of metal and flesh. The sound of men screaming in rage
drifted on the wind through the fog. Katy grabbed onto Paddie and
started to cry. The adults instinctively peered into the fog and
moved closer to each other.

The fog had grown dark and as still as death
while a terrible battle waged just below the surface. They heard a
man’s voice scream something.

“
Daddy!” Katy yelled at
the same time Sam said exhaled, “Jake.”

Sam felt like he had been punched in the
gut. His son was fighting for his life while he lingered in this
foggy prison. He would have screamed with rage, but he was afraid
of upsetting Katy and Paddie. James was moving along the edge of
the circle like a pent-up animal. Sam looked at Jill’s friends.
Sandy was biting her lip while Heather was staring at the children.
Tanesha seemed to be making a plan.

“
What?” he said to
Tanesha.

“
Just
something . . .” Tanesha’s voice was vague. “My mom
loves weird stories. I always thought she was crazy, but she told
me . . .”

Tanesha looked at James’s back and said,
“ . . .about the spirit army. James?”

He turned around to look at her.

“
Spirit army?” he
asked.

“
Something about long
unresolved problems are like . . .”

“
Spirit armies fighting in
the fog.” James nodded. “Yes, I know this one too. They can never
die, never be injured in any way . . .”

“
So they fight on
forever.” Tanesha glanced at her friends.

“
Never resolving
anything,” James said. “They fight for the sport of it, the joy of
the contest, but should a human get involved,
they . . .”

“
Will surely die,” Tanesha
said. “‘Choose the battles you engage in, Tannie,’ my mother would
always say. ‘Make sure the people fighting aren’t just playing war
for fun or profit. You will be the one who loses.’”

“
As long as they can
fight, as long as they can vent their rage, they have no real
reason to resolve anything,” James nodded. “Worlds will rise and
fall, and they will continue fighting.”

“
Make sure you don’t die
fighting in someone else’s war.” Tanesha bent down to Katy and
Paddie. “Katy?”

Not letting go of Paddie, Katy turned her
head to look at Tanesha.

“
Do you think you could
call that little kid to you?” Tanesha said. “You know,
uh . . .”

She looked up to see if anyone remembered
the kid’s name.

“
Kirk,” James said. “Can
you call Kirk to you?”

“
I don’t know,” Katy said.
“Why?”

“
Because your father and
Auntie Valerie are down there fighting.” Sandy dropped to her knees
to be Katy’s height. “They can get hurt, but the other guys
won’t.”

“
That’s not fair!” Paddie
said, and Katy scowled. She stepped away from Paddie and wrapped
her arms around herself in a protective hug.

“
No. It’s not,” Sam
said.

“
I was thinking
. . .” Tanesha said. Katy looked at her. “I was thinking
that we could help by talking to Kirk.”

“
Kirk needs Mommy’s
cuddles.” Katy nodded. “That’s why people want to steal them. They
don’t want the wars to end.”

As if in thought, Paddie tilted his head.
Sam groaned internally. He knew that when they made it back, Paddie
was going to talk to his army medic father and army general
grandfather about this war. He already knew that Katy had convinced
General Hargreaves that Paddie would not be a soldier. He knew that
he was going to have another conversation with General Hargreaves
about Katy’s influence on Paddie.

“
Everybody needs your
mommy’s cuddles,” Paddie said. “I do.”

“
How do we get Kirk to go
to my mommy?” Katy scowled.

“
Maybe you can tell your
mommy to look for him,” Heather suggested.

“
I think I have to go to
Mommy.” Katy nodded.

“
Don’t go without me,”
Paddie said.

“
NO!” Sam said.
“Don’t . . .”

Katy and Paddie disappeared.

“ 
. . .go,”
Sam said.

Sandy, Tanesha, and Heather all gasped.

“
Agh!” James
screamed.

“
No, no.” Sam put his
hands on James’s shoulders. “Don’t give up, son. We are here for a
reason. Jake, Valerie, Jill, Katy, and Paddie need our help in some
way, or we would . . .”