That long? And all this time you havent once thought to
It has never been in my mind, Gossamyr. Until recently. There are none who can name the reason for the rift cleaved between Faery and the Otherside; only we know it exists. Such a tear in the fabric that separates our worlds allows the revenants to return with ease. I am sure I mentioned it when I explained the revenants to you.
You did not. Hand to her hip, she paced in short turns, pointing the floor with the tip of her staff. Shinn had explained the revenants two midsummers earlier when she had witnessed a natural fée death. Normally the fée essence leaves the body and experiences the final twinclian. But there are those féethose of darker natureswho do not twinclian to the Celestial. Instead, their essence merely pops, and the revenant follows, its destinationthe Infernal. It is a rarity.
The sudden appearance of revenants in Faerynot newly emerged from a natural fée deathhad given clue someone on the Otherside was stealing the essences. And so was discovered the Red Lady.
As frustrated as Gossamyr was to just now learn something she should have known about, she took it all in. Knowledge was required for a successful mission. Still, I do not understand why, or how, those skeleton creatures return to Faery. Are they not dead?
Did that creature look dead?
Actually, yes. However, not if death implied stillness. So it was alive, yetI dont understand.
That thing I killed
We killed.
Yes. We. A nod verified her participation in the event. But too brief, Shinns reassuring smile. The Red Lady stole its essence, leaving the revenant in limbo. Somehow she can feed off the essence of anotherthe essence holds the former bodys glamourdelaying her Disenchantment interminably. The revenant is a shade of the fée that cannot find final rest without the essence, so it returns to Faery in seek of a new essence.
But why Faery? Can it not locate a fée on the Otherside?
It is compelled back to Faery. The rift literally sucks them back home. I dont believe it could remain in the Otherside if it wished.
This essence Gossamyr leaned against a blue machicolation, tapping the cool marble with a thumb. When I witnessed the fée death something blue rose from the body. Is it something the Red Lady can draw out andpossess?
Yes and no. Inside the body it is our very being. Outside the body, well, it either twinclians or it pops. The elegant fée lord tilted his head to look upon his daughter. A sigh hung in the air between them, a resolute pause. The essence is akin toa mortal soul.
Ah.
There was so little Gossamyr understood about mortals. About that part of herself.
Her mother had been mortal, but Veridiennes sicknessthe mortal passionhad kept her focus from her family and eventually lured her home to the Otherside, leaving Gossamyr alone to comfort her heartbroken fée father. And to ever wonder. Why had not her mother taken her daughter with her? Surely she might have wished to raise her own child? Had it been so easy to leave her family behind for the mortal world? She had once begged to stay in Faerybut that desire hadnt lasted long.
Of course, in terms of emotional distance, Veridienne had much over Shinn. Likely, she had not seen beyond her own self-satisfying desires.
Following her mothers abrupt departure, Gossamyr had vowed not to become mired in her own selfish wants. And what better way to prove it than to track the Red Lady and protect Faery from further torment?
So this sought-after essence was like a mortal soul. What did it mean to have a soul? And mortal, at that. Gossamyr had known no other way but of the fée. Fathered by Shinn, would she possess both a soul and an essence?
There are things I would have liked to give you, Shinn said, looking off into the sky, avoiding her gaze. Truths.
I dont understand.
There is no time for confessions. The revenant is single-minded, Shinn said, focused on obtaining that which was stolen from it. So much so, it will kill to obtain the final twinclian. He focused briefly on her cut cheek, but gave her injury no verbal regard. The fée were not so emotionally delicate as mere mortals. They are becoming more frequent, the encounters. Streklwood was attacked last eve.
The cook?
Shinn nodded.
A lump the size of an uncooked goose egg formed in Gossamyrs throat at memory of this mornings still-shelled offering. Shed thought to complain, to send her maid, Mince, marching down to the kitchen
The revenant must be reduced to a fine glimmer, Shinn continued. For to leave a single bone intact will not defeat the creatures quest for wholeness. They are difficult to kill.
I noticed. But it felt good, the challenge.
Avoiding his daughters enthusiastic declaration Shinn strode the curve of the tower, hands akimbo, his raven-feather cape flitting gently above the length of his folded wings.
This demesne of Faery was not so much ruled by Shinn as protected and guideda position Gossamyr knew she would one day fill. Descended from a long line of trooping fée, Shinn had once commanded the Glamoursiège musters. Hed become lord over Glamoursiège following his fathers death. And hed trained his only daughter to follow in his footsteps, should he cease to stand upon the Glamoursiège throne.
Much as she did not like to consider that fate, Gossamyr realized it would happen some day. And she was prepared to take Shinns place, physically. Mentally, she wondered if her lack of battle experience would make her a weaker ruler. She could sit council and talk politics with the best. But would they respect one without time spent in the musters?
Pressing her palms to a cool marble crenel cut into the tower, Gossamyr leaned forward. A swirl of white cottonwood kites billowed out from the dense forest spiraling the castle. Laughter smaller than a birds tweedle glittered in the air like sunshine upon purling watersa few skyclad piskies clung to the tails of the seed-kites, stealing a ride.
Despite the fées frustrating lack of regard for Time, she did know it governed the Otherside. Veridienne had been the one to explain to her how the mortal realm used Time to measure everything. During that conversation, shed told Gossamyr she was eight years in measurement, and that a year could be marked once every mortal midsummer. Which meant Gossamyr was twenty-one mortal years now. It filled her with pride to know that one mortal measurement, but she did not mention it to Shinn. The fée did not measure a lifetime with tangible numbers of years. Once on the Otherside, the fée struggled against Time, Veridienne had said. Time stole Enchantment.
To race against Time would afford a challenge.
Faery needed a champion to defeat this vicious succubus.
A thump to her chest thudded against the arachnagoss-stuffed pourpoint Gossamyr wore when practicingwhich was more often than not. You know I am fit for this mission, she said with conviction.
She had absorbed Shinns lessons on the martial arts until he had declared her more skilled than he. Since childhood her father had honed her skills to counter the true glamour birth had denied. (She had a bit; her blazon shimmered as bright as any other.) But she knew he would balk. Always Shinn had forbidden her from visiting the Otherside. (Forbid was a favorite word of Shinns.) Forbidden to journey beyond the marsh roots, forbidden to take the sinister curve to market, forbidden to court a Rougethorn, forbidden to even suggest a visit to the Otherside.
Mortals who left Faery could return, but their swift loss of Enchantmentand the fact they could never again regain such Enchantmentmade their return visit to Faery dangerous and unthinkably fleeting.
Time, Gossamyr thought, the true evil.
But Gossamyr was only half mortal. Might she risk a trip to the Otherside and then return without fear of never regaining her Enchantment? Shinn twinclianed there often.
And if you look beyond my skills, she said, there is the obviousmy mortal blood. The Red Lady is not interested in mortals, or females, for that matter.
But
I am not a man. I can easily
Gossamyr.
gain her lair and take her out!
Gossamyr twisted her neck to find the glint in Shinns vivid violet eyes. The trace of a grin bracketed his pale mouth. Always his emotion manifested in small measure.
Reaching for the applewood staffher vade mecumshe turned from Shinn, spun the weapon in her fingers, then swung it out before her, spanning a full circle before she snapped it back to rest against her shoulder. She may not be able to shape-change or twinclian at sign of danger, but Shinn had made sure his half-blood daughter could stand and fight. Much as he forbade her to participate in the Glamoursiège tournaments, she had managed a few on the sly.
Gossamyr had developed a penchant for adventure. Danger even. Unfortunately danger had eluded her. Until now.
The thought of this mission verily sizzled inside her. She wanted this! For many reasons. But fore, she wanted to protect her homeland from the threat of the revenants.
It is the mortal passion, be that so? Shinns quiet words made Gossamyr wince. It blinds you to the real danger.
But I crave danger!
He caught the end of her staff as she swung it in declaration. The tension strumming from end to end of the staffGossamyrs grip to Shinnsfelt palpable. Unwilling to concede, she lifted her chin defiantly.
You have not experienced real danger. Her fathers stern tone curtailed her swagger a bit. Bogies and hobs
And that core worm a few days earlier! The thing spat dirt balls the size of a spriggans head.
Shinn turned a wry smirk upon her. Gossamyr, core worms do not spit.
It was spitting at me.
Think about it, daughter. How is it a worm exudes dirt from its body?
Well, it Throws up casts. Oh. She hadnt thought of that. So the thing had beenAh. Dont you trust Ive the ability? You have trained me for this opportunity.
Her father released the end of her staff with a gentle shove. You are skilled, this I know.
Then I am ready. I will return to you
Will you? So much unspoken in those two words. And the sigh that followed.
Yes. Ofof course I will return.
Did he worry that her mortal blood would prevent her safe return? Gossamyr had ever coached herself to resist the mortal passion. If it had seduced her mother, she, as well, risked such temptation, for Veridiennes blood coursed through her veins instead of Shinns ichor.
Or was it that he could not abide her to leave him? The pain of losing Veridienne had changed Shinn, closed his heart. Emotion was difficult to mine from the stalwart fée. Gossamyr would not bring further heartache to her father.
And yet, Shinn had bruised her heart with his own cruel indifference. The memory of a Rougethorns kiss would for ever live in Gossamyrs being, and for evermore close her heart to the mutable love faeries feared.
But it was all for naught. Love was not to be hers. Shinn had already announced her engagement to a most frustrating man, his marshal at arms, Desideriel Raine. Frustrating to Gossamyrs heart, but certainly deserving where skill and knowledge of the Glamoursiège musters were concerned. When Shinn had first suggested such over a meal the diffident fée had suppressed a sneer as hed looked across the table to Gossamyr. She had read the young warriors lookshe is not true fée. The humiliation had prompted her to excuse herself before the final flower course.
She was perfectly capable of ruling Glamoursiège on her own, but tradition required marriagemarriage being reserved for royalty and the upper-caste lords and ladies. And, Gossamyr suspected, Desideriel would represent true fée blood when all in Glamoursiège merely tolerated Gossamyrs half blood.
Truth, Shinn said.
Drawn from her troubling thoughts, Gossamyr approached Shinn.
Truth? Studying the sun-laced tower floor, the blue veins purling through the marble like cold blood, Gossamyr vacillated on admitting the truth. A truth that sat in her heart like the pulses of mortal Time that fascinated her so. How to do it gently?
Truth, she murmured. An exhale released reluctance. I do long to visit the Otherside. You know that. She met Shinns gaze, half-concealed by a fall of his long raven hair. He sought the truth of her, and yet he would hide behind his own hard emotions. I want to understand that part of my heritage most alien to me. I want toexperience.
She followed Shinns pace to the towers edge. The evening primrose that grew in the roots attracted night moths, which then attracted frogs. He nodded. And find.
Frustration, muted and held back far too long, oozed throughout her. He would not close out her desires. Not this time. Even more, Gossamyr would have her father know her heart. She whispered, Love never dies, Shinn.
You think to know love?
Iyes. And not the fickle love faeries know. I know the fée cannot truly
Too fragile, the memory of Veridienne, to speak of it. And so Gossamyr would not. But what of her lover? The one her father had banished from her very arms? Then, he had claimed she could not begin to know love. Did they both fool the other with their secret longings for fulfillment?
To continue would gain her no ground.
Here is my home, Shinn.
Yes, because you believe.
Yes, yes. Always he repeated the mantra to her: Believe and you Belong. She believed. She belonged! Nothing could change that.
Faery is your home, he said. Should you venture awayyou must then return.
To marry Desideriel was the unspoken part.
Indeed. And my home is no longer safe unless someone stops the Red Lady. I want to help Faery. How will I ever stand in your place if there is naught a place to stand?
The summer breeze lifted Shinns jet hair over his shoulders and twisted fine strands around the horns at his temples. Gossamyr read the pain in his tightened jaw. His own memories haunted. It had been much simpler for her to place aside the memories of an always-distant mother.
Grant me this opportunity, Shinn. I will return to you.
You vow to me?
A fathers fear: violet eyes unwilling to focus upon hers; hyacinth, heady and oozing with an expectant pulse.
You wont lose me, Shinn. I vow it upon my fée essence.
Gossamyr noted the twitch at the corner of her fathers mouth. Suppression always tightened his features. This mission is deadly. Time cannot be tricked or defeated.
A stab of her staff rang against the marble. I am skilled.
A Shinn looked to the summer-pale sky champion is needed.
A champion. Oh. Her bravado mellowed, Gossamyr bowed her head.
Indeed, a champion.