Larkspur (48 page)

“
Jill?” Jacob said
again.

“
Jake! Watch
out!”

Valerie yelled a second before a crusader’s
blade swept toward his skull. Before Jacob could jump out of the
way, the sword clipped his chin. He wielded his sword with
unpracticed ease and dispatched the ghost crusader. He wiped the
blood from his chin and looked for Jill.

From his right, he saw Prince Finegal ride
directly toward Jill.

“
Kill her!” Prince Finegal
yelled. “She’s stolen the prince!”

“
Val! With me!” Jacob
yelled, and ran to catch up.

When he got to Jill, Prince Finegal pointed
his sword toward her throat. Jill gave the Prince a bored look and
kept walking.

“
Stand where you are!”
Prince Finegal yelled.

Jill took another step and Prince Fin’s
sword came at her. Jacob caught his sword with his own a second
before the blade pierced Jill. The gladiator Heather and Tanesha
moved between the prince and Jill.

“
What are you doing,
brother?” Prince Finegal yelled.

“
This is my wife!” Jacob
said. “This is Jill.”

“
The wench has stolen my
brother,” Prince Finegal yelled.

The armies came to a standstill. An
unnerving silence fell over the battlefield.

“
She will pay!” Prince
Finegal yelled.

The fairy army cheered. Jacob looked around
to find the fairy army staring at Jill, the girlfriends, and the
small child she held in her arms. He pushed past armored Tanesha to
Jill.

“
Jill,” Jacob
said.

Jill turned to look at him. Her face was
flushed red and marked with her anger.

“
What’s going on?” Jacob
asked.

“
I’m here to speak with
his mother,” Jill said. She shook her head at him. “You will rue
the day you helped to heal these evil creatures.”

“
What in the name of Hades
is she talking about?” Prince Finegal jumped from his horse and
tried to charge Jill. He ran into the girlfriends.

“
Jill, honey?” Jacob
asked. “What’s going on?”

“
Why don’t you ask them?”
Jill was so angry that she spat on him. “They threw away this son
and . . .”

“
How dare you?” Prince
Finegal said. “Who are you to accuse the queen?”

“
Jill doesn’t lie,”
Valerie put her hand on his shoulder. “If she says this happened,
then it did.”

“
What?” Prince Finegal
asked. “They did what?”

“
You don’t know?” Jill
asked. “They gave the boy to the Christians. The Christians have
tortured him for centuries and. . .”

“
They did what?” Prince
Fin’s face was so similar to Jacob’s that Jill knew he was getting
angry.

“
He’s just a little boy,”
Jill said.

“
Mother!” Prince Finegal
yelled. “We require your counsel. Here. Right now. Father. You too.
Now.”

Chapter Two Hundred and
Seventy-seven

Hawthorn thorn

“
Why do you get to demand
their presence?” Valerie asked.

“
My mother is a
fairy
queen,” Prince
Finegal said out of the side of his mouth. “My father
is . . . the Manannán. They aren’t
really . . . of the . . . world.
Someone has to deal with the real life details of a
queendom.”

Prince Finegal shrugged as if that was a
sufficient answer.

“
Now! Mother,” Prince
Finegal yelled.

He turned to call for his father and ran
into Queen Fand.

“
Mother,” Prince Finegal
said. He tried to hide the irritation in his voice.

“
Fin,” Queen Fand said.
She turned her eyes to Jill. “Who’s this?”

“
Jacob’s wife,” Prince
Finegal said. “The question is . . .”

“
Katy’s mother?” Queen
Fand looked intrigued. Prince Finegal scowled at his mother’s mild
voice.

“
Why?” Prince Finegal
asked.

“
Kill her.” Queen Fand
nodded to the soldiers around her.

At the words, Jill’s armored girlfriends
raised their swords to defend Jill. Fand’s army moved forward, but
Jacob and Valerie stepped between the army and Jill.

“
Hold!” Prince Finegal
said to the army.

“
Hey!” Tanesha yelled from
across the battlefield.

She pointed to Jill. Sandy and Heather took
off toward them. Within moments, Jill was surrounded by Tanesha,
Heather, and Sandy, plus her duplicate girlfriend army.

“
I am your commander. I
command you to hold!” Prince Finegal yelled.

The army jostled in place. Jacob saw Rodney
and James move among the Christian crusader army.

“
Why are you ordering me
killed
this time
?” Jill asked. “Because I hugged your husband or because I
know that you gave your child away?”

“
Who are you to dare speak
to me?” Queen Fand flipped her battle skirt and tried to walk away.
She ran into Manannán. Her husband gave her a long look and then
looked at Jill.

“
Why do you hold our
child?” Manannán asked. He glanced at Prince Finegal and back at
Jill. He asked Prince Finegal, “This is your brother?”

“
It looks like him,”
Prince Finegal said. “But he’s older than when he
disappeared.”

“
Yes, I recall that as
well. He was . . . Fand?” Manannán asked Queen Fand.
Her back was to him and she didn’t bother to turn around. “How old
was Kirk when he was taken?”

“
He was just walking,”
Queen Fand said in a low tone.

“
Why did you give him to
the Christians?” Jill asked.

“
Where did you hear this
story?” Prince Finegal asked. “My father and I were there. We
didn’t give the child away. He was taken! These
two . . .” Prince Finegal shook his head. “But me?
He is my brother, my flesh, I would never give him
away.”

“
She did it,” the boy said
with his face pressed against Jill’s neck.

“
What did he say?” Prince
Finegal asked.

“
He said Queen Fand gave
him away,” Jill said.

The girlfriend army and Tanesha, Heather,
and Sandy gawked at Queen Fand. The army turned to look at her.

“
Mother?” Prince Finegal
asked. “Did you give my brother to the Christians?”

Manannán put his hand on her shoulder. Queen
Fand turned slightly. She looked at Prince Finegal and then at
Jill. She shook her head. They stared at her as she walked off.
When she reached Gilfand, she touched his shoulder and walked past.
Gilfand walked to Prince Finegal.

“
She made a deal for
Guinevere,” Gilfand said. “Merlin the druid wanted the luck of a
fairy. Guinevere is from our luckiest family of fairies. The king
needed to win over a country, create an army, and join the tribes
of England. He needed fairy luck. He needed our help. Without us,
the world would have fallen into chaos and despair.”

“
Who are you?” Jill asked.
“Why are you trying to explain that evil woman’s action? This is
a
child
, not a
car. She threw him away for political gain.”

Gilfand shook his head. Before he could
respond, Prince Finegal stepped forward.

“
Political gain?” Prince
Finegal pointed his sword at Jill. Jacob batted it away. “No, they
stole my brother. I spent a hundred years trying to find him and
bring him back.”

At his words, the child in Jill’s arms
turned to look at Prince Finegal. The prince smiled at the boy.

“
The prince was always
fond of his brother,” Gilfand said.

“
Before we get crazy,”
Tanesha stepped up to Gilfand, “what are we talking
about?”

Gilfand gave a sad shake of his head.

“
You’re not going to tell
us?” Tanesha nodded. “That only means my girl is right. This bitch
threw her own child away and every male child born to any of her
ancestors after him died. Sure sounds evil to me.”

“
You were trying not to
swear,” Heather said to Tanesha.

“
I’m angry,” Tanesha
said.

Gilfand turned and started walking away.

“
Let’s get out of here,”
Tanesha said. “This is bull . . .”

“
Not thrown
away . . .” A soft feminine voice came on the wind.
Everyone stopped talking. They looked around to see if they could
determine where the sound was coming from. “The druid tricked me.
He said he wanted a woman for luck. I told him she’d never bear
children. He said it mattered not. Children were easy to find.
Then . . . they took my son.”

They continued to look around for the source
of the voice.

“
He was playing in the
surf with his nanny, and then . . .”

“
The men took him away,”
Jill said to the voice on the wind.

“
They killed the nanny,”
the voice said. “Burned her alive.”

The wind shifted and the voice echoed.

“
Burned her
alive.”

The girlfriends felt an overwhelming sense
of sadness. Heather glanced at Valerie as a tear slid down her
cheek.

“
Burned her alive.” The
words echoed around them.

“
You should have known!”
Jill said.

“
Yes.” Queen Fand appeared
in front of Jill. “I should have known he had tricked me. I should
have known he meant to take my son so that his king would have a
fairy son to carry his bloodline.”

The women stood face to face. Jill could
feel the queen’s breath on her face. The queen’s hands moved as if
they wanted to hold the boy, but Jill did not let him go.

“
You
would have known,” Queen Fand said.

“
Yes, I would have known.”
Jill nodded.

“
May I?”

Queen Fand held her arms out for the child.
Jill said soft, encouraging things to the boy and he turned to his
mother.

“
No,” the boy said. “You
will kill her like you have the others.”

Jacob moved like lightning. Using his
jujitsu skills, he shifted the queen away from Jill. The girlfriend
army as well as Tanesha, Heather, and Sandy moved closer to protect
them. Jacob’s eyes met Prince Finegal’s, and then Gilfand’s. He
gave a slight shake of his head.

“
Mother,” Prince Finegal
said.

He put his hand on her shoulder. The queen
turned to look at him. When she did, the boy nudged Jill. He
pointed to something on his mother. Jill looked at the boy. She
shifted her chin as if to ask if he could fix it. He shook his
head. Jill nodded.

“
I see it,” Jill
said.

“
What is it?” Jacob
asked.

“
She has a thorn in the
back of her . . .” Jill gestured to the top of her
spine.

Jacob peered at the Queen. Prince Finegal
scowled at Jill.

“
I noticed the thorn when
I was getting my head hacked off,” Jill said. “The men who took the
boy all have a thorn in their neck.”

The boy pointed to his mother’s neck. Prince
Fin’s hand went around his mother’s head.

“
Hawthorn,” Prince Finegal
said under his breath.

“
The monk did it,” the boy
said. “He did it to me to keep me in submission. I had one
until . . .”

The boy looked up at Jill, and she
smiled.

“
What’s this nonsense?”
Queen Fand asked.

“
Let me,” Jill
said.

Prince Finegal held his mother in place.
Jill walked over to her. When she set the boy down, he wrapped
himself around her waist. Jill’s fingers stroked the queen’s neck.
With a flick of her thumb, an ancient thorn from the hawthorn tree
popped out of the queen’s neck. The queen’s knees gave out. She
would have fallen to the ground if Prince Finegal hadn’t held her
up. Manannán caught her in his firm embrace.

A wind swirled around them. The great armies
dimmed. Their bodies became wisps of fog and blew in the wind. The
girlfriend army disappeared, leaving Tanesha, Heather, and Sandy
standing around Jill. The protective bubble blew away. Sam ran
across the field to them. Jill and the boy disappeared from the
battlefield, remaining in the stream with Blane and Delphie caring
for them. As if to protect Jill, Liban and Gilfand appeared nearby.
Jill opened her eyes and hugged the boy. He laughed.

With the Christian army gone, Rodney and
James walked to where Jacob, Sam, Tanesha, Heather, and Sandy
stood.

“
Mommy?” Katy asked as she
woke up beside her mother.

“
Yes, Katy-baby,” Jill
said.

“
Can we go home now?” Katy
asked. “Paddie’s mommy is really worried and
I . . .”

Jill held out her hand to Katy.

“
I want to see my brothers
now.” Katy nodded.

“
Let’s go home,” Jill
said. “Jake? Val? Are you coming?”

She smiled at him for a moment, and they
disappeared. Blane slipped away with them.

“
What the hell?” Tanesha
yelled.

“
Blane!” Heather
yelled.

Heather and Tanesha started across the
battlefield toward Jill. They’d gone about a hundred yards when
they disappeared.