Strange Devices of the Sun and Moon (39 page)

Reconciliation, she thought. Margery had indeed been right; she, and everyone she knew, had attempted to put everything about this strange business into one box or the other. But here in front of her was the truth, this multibranching tree that would carry first the sun and then the moon as fruit among its leaves, this intricate thing growing and changing and dying. All divisions disappeared before her, and she knew then what Margery had tried to teach her.

She turned to Walter, wanting to tell him what she had learned, and found that she could not manage to put it into words. The vision, if that was what it was, began to fade; she wondered if she had realized anything at all. And yet the tree still stood before her, dense, solid, a real thing.

Walter must have seen something in her eyes, because he moved closer and put his arms around her. He asked her a question. The transport of the moment had not yet left her, and so he was forced to ask again.

“Aye,” she said, whispering. “Oh, aye.”

All the stationers came to St. Faith's for their wedding. Art sat near them, smiling at everything and everyone, and her surly printer took up a spot a little apart from the body of people. Margery was there, and Agnes, both looking a little out of place in the sanctity of the chapel. And Tom Nashe had made it too; she felt glad to see him.

In the middle of the ceremony she became aware that other guests had entered the chapel. Once or twice she thought she saw a light in the air of the church, and when she closed her right eye the light grew stronger. Not all the Fair Folk had returned when the roads had closed, she guessed.

Afterward the stationers came up to congratulate her, and several of them took her aside for talks in which they could not seem to come to the point. “You know that I—well, I never trusted George—and even when—you understand—” She had watched them go from feeling distrust of her to treating her almost with awe, but it was the idea of her doing something as normal as marrying that made them think of her as one of their own. She found, strangely, that she could not hate them for it, that she could only accept as she had been accepted. Perhaps that made her weak-willed, but if that was true she could not seem to bring herself to care.

When she and Walter opened their gifts, she found that her guess in the chapel had been correct. For someone had given them a knife and spoon made of golden filigree, with glowing jewels set where the strands of gold met. None of her friends could afford such a fine present; it must have been the Fair Folk, thanking her at last.

The next year Art got married, to a strong sensible woman who took him to her family's farm. He proved to have an aptitude for growing things, and the farm prospered. Alice gave them the faeries' gift when they married. They passed it in their turn to their daughter, and their descendants have it to this very day.

Acknowledgments

Tempting as it may be to have the reader think I did it all myself, I have to admit that this book would not exist without the help of the following people and institutions: the Main, Moffitt and Bancroft Libraries at the University of California, Berkeley, and their wonderfully helpful staffs; Dave Hartwell, editor extraordinaire; and my agent, Lynn Seligman. My husband, Doug Asherman, went with me to plays and lectures, played madrigals for me on the guitar, cheered me up when things got rough, and listened patiently and with good humor to what must have seemed like an endless series of tedious Elizabethan facts. It is to him, with love and gratitude, that this book is dedicated.

About the Author

Lisa Goldstein has published ten novels and dozens of short stories under her own name and two fantasy novels under the pseudonym Isabel Glass. Her most recent novel is
The Uncertain Places
, which won the Mythopoeic Award. Goldstein received the National Book Award for
The Red Magician
and the Sidewise Award for her short story “Paradise Is a Walled Garden.” Her work has been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards. Some of her stories appear in the collection
Travellers in Magic
.

Goldstein has worked as a proofreader, library aide, bookseller, and reviewer. She lives with her husband and their overexuberant Labrador retriever, Bonnie, in Oakland, California. Her website is
www.brazenhussies.net/goldstein.

All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 1993 by Lisa Goldstein

Cover design by Mauricio Diaz

ISBN: 978-1-4976-7360-1

This edition published in 2014 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

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