Larkspur (47 page)

“
We used the pictures,”
Sam said. “Jake and I. That’s how we knew that the queen was torn
into pieces. The pictures in the book helped us find the burial
locations.”

“
The pictures in the
book?” Rodney asked. “Goodness, I don’t know if I ever looked at
them.”

Sam nodded.

“
Doesn’t the story include
some bit about a prince defiling someone from the other kingdom?”
Rodney asked.

“
Right,” Tanesha
said.

“
The fairies out there are
fighting Christian crusaders.” Rodney looked at the fairies. “Is
that right?”

The fairies nodded.

“
And the Celts are
involved in some way,” Rodney said.

“
That’s right,” Mari
said.

“
What are you getting at,
Dad?” Tanesha asked.

“
I can’t figure out the
timeline,” Rodney said. “According to everything you told me, we
are dealing with THE Queen Fand and THE Manannán.
Correct?”

“
That’s right,” Delphie
said.

“
Manannán is believed to
be the original ruler of the Isle of Man,” Rodney said. “That put
him at something like 6000 BC. But the Celts, they weren’t around
until much later. Patrick and this Kirk Maughold came around 300 AD
and 600 AD.”

“
The boy on Jill’s lap is
Manannán’s grandson or great grandson, Kirk Maughold,” Sandy said.
“The man who defiled the neighboring kingdom’s daughter hanged
himself after killing his son. And the queen of
Marle . . .

“
In the book,” Rodney
nodded.

Sandy nodded.

“
There’s a picture of
people who look . . .” Abi nodded.

“
They look like us,”
Rodney said.

“
Like her,” Mari said and
pointed to Jill.

“
And her daughter, Katy,”
Abi said. “The queen is very fond of Katy.”

“
Do you know anything more
than what’s in the book?” Rodney asked Abi and Mari.

Abi and Mari shook their heads.

“
How is that possible?”
Tanesha asked.

“
They are the fairy
corps,” James said. “Like your Marine Corps. They do what they’re
told to do.”

“
You know this story too?”
Rodney asked.

James nodded.

“
Don’t you find it strange
that we would all know this book?” Rodney asked.

“
I thought so too.” Sam
nodded.

“
It’s got to be a clue to
what’s going on,” Rodney asked. “Jill has a bunch of siblings,
right?”

“
Four,” Sandy
said.

“
They’re a couple of years
apart?” Rodney asked.

“
Sure,” Tanesha said.
“Why?”

Rodney raised his index finger to her and
turned to the fairies.

“
Can fairies have children
every couple of years?” Rodney asked.

Abi shook her head.

“
And Queen Fand? What do
you know about Queen Fand’s children?” Rodney asked.

“
Queen Fand and Manannán
have five children,” Mari said.

“
Their youngest child was
born in the time you’re talking about,” Abi said. “Around 200 or
300 AD.”

"And the second son?" Sandy asked.

"The book says he was the second son,"
Tanesha said.

"He's the youngest," Mari said, and Abi
nodded.

“
Fairies live on a
different timeline than humans,” James said. “It’s in my mother’s
books. They can’t have children until they’re some three hundred
years old, and they can’t have children back to back like humans.
It takes a hundred years or more.”

“
Edie just reached the age
to pick a mate,” Mari said. She and Abi looked at James and
giggled.

James blushed.

“
So we have Celts,
Christians, fairies, a war . . .” Delphie looked at Rodney for a
moment before turning to the fairies. “What do you know about King
Arthur and his advisor Merlin?”

“
The Celtic king?” Mari
asked.

“
Merlin, the last of the
druids?” Abi asked.

“
Yes,” Rodney nodded.
“That’s exactly it. Yes”

“
We only know what we were
told,” Abi said.

“
Which was?” Tanesha
pressed.

Abi looked at Tanesha and then looked
down.

“
Merlin, the druid monk,
came to the island to find a queen for his king,” Abi said in a
singsong voice, as if she was repeating something she’d memorized
as a child. “He asked Queen Fand for a fairy to bring his king
luck. Queen Fand chose a young woman, fair in face and personality.
She went with the druid to marry the king.”

“
But when it came time for
a child . . .” Mari said.

“
She was too young.”
Delphie nodded. “They must have been furious.”

“
They stole Queen Fand’s
son because they said she betrayed them.” Abi nodded.

“
The ‘daughter of the
other kingdom,’ the one who was defiled, was a fairy named
Guinevere?” Rodney said.

“
How did you know?” Mari
asked.

“
She’s ‘defiled’ because
she can’t have a child,” Delphie nodded.

“
But really she was just
too young,” Abi said. “She had children long after Arthur was
gone.”

“
Arthur’s son was actually
Queen Fand’s child,” Rodney said.

“
Stolen,” Abi
said.

Rodney shook his head.

“
What is it?” Delphie
asked.

“
It’s crazy
but . . .” Rodney said. “It’s got to be
true.”

“
What has to be true,
Dad?” Tanesha asked.

“
The child on Jill’s lap
is Queen Fand’s son,” Rodney said.

“
And the son of Arthur by
way of Merlin,” Delphie said. “Yes, that’s the truth.”

They turned to gawk at the boy.

“
Is that possible?” James
asked.

“
I don’t see why not,”
Rodney said.

“
This boy is the missing
prince they are fighting over?” James asked.

“
Not the grandson?” Sandy
asked.

“
It makes sense,” Rodney
said. “Those armies out there, they don’t know that time has
passed. Neither does the boy.”

“
But he’s just a boy,”
Heather said. “Just a kid.”

“
He’s the son of the queen
of the fairies,” James said. “Even as a half-human, he’d be
powerful. And who knows? Maybe he’s a lot more fairy than
human.”

“
We’re caught in some kind
of spell,” Rodney said. “We read the book.”

“
That’s our incantation.”
Delphie nodded.

“
The child is creating all
of this,” Rodney said. “He is stuck at seven-years-old, even though
his body went on to live a full life with Arthur and Guinevere and
later became a monk here on the Isle of Man.”

“
His stuck-ness is killing
him,” Blane said.

“
Exactly,” Rodney
said.

“
We have to let Jake and
Val know that the boy is here,” Sam said.

“
How do we stop the war?”
Heather asked.

Sam went to the edge of the safe bubble and
looked out at the battle.

“
I know just the thing,”
Honey said. “I need some help, maybe Mari’s help, but I bet I can
get their attention.”

“
Do it,” Delphie
said.

“
Ok. Honey wheeled to the
edge of the white quartz stairwell leading into the catacombs.
“Rodney?”

Rodney got up to help her down the
stairs.

“
You can go too,” Sam said
to Tanesha. “Mari? James?”

Tanesha, James, and the fairy got up and
followed them into the catacombs. Sam settled back.

“
In the meantime, we help
Jill,” Sandy said with determination in her voice.

“
She needs our help,”
Blane said. “She’s very weak.”

They became quiet and started praying for
Jill and the boy in her lap. After a while, Tanesha came to get
Heather and Sandy. They gave Paddie and Katy to Sam and Delphie and
went with her. They returned in full metal armor. Rodney, James,
and Mari came behind them.

“
Time to go,” Rodney
said.

Heather gave Blane a tight hug and followed
Sandy to another edge of the bubble.

“
Abi?” Rodney
asked.

A door appeared and Rodney, James, Sandy,
Heather, and Tanesha entered the battle.

~~~~~~~~

Jill’s heart pounded with indignant rage.
She touched the boy’s shoulder and he threw himself at her. She
held him tight while he sobbed in her arms. While he cried, she
stroked his hair and tried to send him her healing capacity. She
was glad he couldn’t see her face, because she was too angry to
hide her feelings.

She had no idea how to fix this. She didn’t
have a clue as to how to make this better for him or for anyone
involved. She just knew that this little boy needed her love.

She cursed herself for healing his
mother.

She cursed herself for helping his
father.

She should have let them rot.

She bit her lip and tried to repeat what
Delphie always told her when she was angry — “Everything happens
for a reason.”

Reason had nothing to do with this.

She tried to calm herself by thinking of her
friends. What would they say?

Tanesha would say something sassy like
“That’s some real bull-shit.” and she’d plot some revenge.

Sandy would comfort the child and tell
everyone that she was sure “They were doing their best.” In
private, she would cry for the child and a world who would let him
suffer so very much.

And Heather. Oh, Heather would sigh. She’d
nod and ask Jill what she wanted to do.

But Jill didn’t know what to do. She
remembered the last time she’d felt this kind of indignant rage.
She’d just heard that Trevor was telling everyone that her beloved
Katy was an “oops baby” and Jill was a “baby momma.” Jill scowled.
Megan had told her to let it go; there was nothing she could do.
But going to Trevor’s stupid engagement party had led her to this
moment. If she hadn’t gone, she wouldn’t have started dating Jacob
and . . .

Jill shook her head.

If she hadn’t gone to that engagement party,
everything would have stayed the same. She would have pined for
Trevor, felt helpless and abused.

But because she went to the engagement
party, she’d had this amazing life with Jacob. It hadn’t been easy,
that’s for sure. But everything was really good.

If she’d never gone to Trevor’s stupid
engagement party . . .

Jill knew what she had to do. She heard
someone moving behind her. She turned to look up the hill. A woman
who looked just like Tanesha walked toward them. The woman wore
metal armor and carried a heavy sword. Jill was so surprised to see
her that she almost didn’t notice another woman had appeared.

“
Sandy?” Jill
exhaled.

Her best friend was standing next to her.
Sandy was also wearing metal armor. Her eyes sparkled and she
winked. But Jill’s best friend Sandy couldn’t wink. When she tried,
she blinked both eyes at the same time instead of just one. The
Tanesha look-alike took out her sword and raised it to her forehead
in a kind of bow to Jill. She sheathed the sword and nodded to
someone on Jill’s left side. Jill looked over to see Heather. As if
to say, we are with you, the Heather-look-alike nodded to Jill.

“
How . . .”
Jill started. “Did you . . .?”

“
You needed your own
army,” the boy said.

Jill smiled and the boy blushed.

“
Are you ready?” Jill
asked.

The boy nodded.

“
Take us to the war,” Jill
said. “We’re going to sort this out once and for all.”

~~~~~~~~

Jacob pushed a man away from him and stepped
forward. Fighting next to Valerie, he felt oddly exhilarated and
alive. They were fighting near the center of the battlefield, next
to Prince Finegal, and in front of Queen Fand and Manannán. He’d
never admit it, but they were having a great time slashing their
way through the attacking army. He didn’t think of them as people
with families and lives. They were just “the attackers.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw
Heather, Sandy, Tanesha, Rodney, and James, all wearing full armor,
slip out of the protective bubble. They stood to the side for a
moment before lighting what looked like a giant sparkler. The
soldiers around them stopped fighting to watch. Once they had one
lit, they moved to another area to light another.

He felt more than saw movement in a corner
of the battlefield. He turned to see armored copies of Heather,
Tanesha, and Sandy. He looked back at the people lighting the
sparklers and then back at the slow-moving group of women coming
onto the battlefield.

And then he saw Jill.

“
Jill?” Jacob said in a
low tone.

He closed and opened his eyes to make sure
he wasn’t dreaming. Jill was right there. She was wearing a rough,
thin wool dress that dragged along the battlefield. Her dark hair
was up in a simple bun. She carried a young boy in her arms. Her
head was high as she walked toward the queen. Heather and Sandy
walked beside Jill and Tanesha walked behind her. When anyone got
too close, the girlfriends dispatched them with great ease.