Dragonswood (16 page)

Chapter Twenty-four

P
OPPY
. D
ANCING WITH
my father! I raced across the meadow toward the castle. Morralyn sent a fey lad chasing after me to escort me to my solar. The guest room was not unlike the huntsman’s quarters, with two beds, a small, round writing table, and a mirrored wardrobe, though this one was high off the ground with a balcony overlooking the meadow.

Alone with the fire lit, I paced bed to bed.
Saints! What is she doing here? She can’t possibly be half fey, yet here she is prettily gowned and dancing with my father!

My head swam. I kicked the rushes on the floor and tried to piece it all together. Poppy’s mother must have wed the wheelwright as soon as she knew she was with child. Beelzebub! Did my mother know? Had both girls slept with fey men and made a pact to keep the secret between them?

Poppy’s mother died in childbed. Her secret died with her. I felt cheated to have the information come at me unawares when my only thought had been for my father.

What fey power did she possess? Did she have fire-sight? Could she envision the future in the flames? I was sure she did not have my power. What then? Were there clues I’d missed? She did see the fey man riding on the dragon the night Tanya was snatched from the fire. And looking back, I remembered the time I’d found her walking in a trance through the snow. When I’d called, she did not hear me, and when I’d shaken her gently awake she’d cried, “North. Come north,” her eyes glassy, her lashes flecked with snow. So she’d heard the voices too, but powers?

I went out to the balcony. Across the river, folk still danced. I couldn’t make out if Poppy was still there. My friend had herbing sense and healing skills. That could hardly be called a fairy power. Aside from that she was startlingly beautiful even in comparison to the fey maidens I’d seen tonight.

Her beauty stunned men. We’d all witnessed her seductive allure, something fairy magic might explain. Even Garth had been drawn to her before we’d gone after Alice, though he’d seemed less taken with her once we returned. My heart softened a little. Perhaps Garth had only been enchanted like all the others. Could he have helped it if it was her fey power?

I’d stepped back inside and closed the glass balcony doors when Poppy burst into the room.

“Tess! Isn’t it wonderful?” She threw her arms around me. She was damp with sweat, and her breath smelled of sweet mead. “Aisling said you’re half fairy too, and that you might come to us here in DunGarrow soon. I didn’t believe her at first. I couldn’t imagine you a fairy’s child!” Hand over her mouth, she giggled.

“I was just as surprised to see you,” I said.

Two black paws poked out from under the bed. Tupkin slunk out. Rump up and front paws extended, he stretched, yawned, and jumped to Poppy. She swayed as she cuddled him. “There you are, my little soldier. Have you been good while I was out? How good, tell me, sir?” She’d drunk too much mead, I could see, and was babbling more than a little.

“What’s your fey power, Tess? Is it your gift for drawing?”

“What?” I’d never thought that a form of fey power, but it was a “gift,” as she’d put it, I supposed. Were there fine artists and craftsmen here? I glanced at the flowering vines painted around the wardrobe mirror.

“Maybe,” I said. I was still stunned over finding her dancing with my father. She’d spoiled the moment when we were meant to meet. I wiped a disappointed tear from my cheek before Poppy could notice.

Poppy put Tupkin on her pillow. “How many gowns has Morralyn made you?”

“One.”

“I have three.” She spread her arms wide. “Morralyn said I am the prettiest of all the fairies and the only one who can do her gorgeous gowns justice,” she said with a happy blush. Then out of concern for me: “You only just arrived, Tess. She will have the flits stitch you more gowns, I’m sure.”

“Why?”

“Sister, you’re a fairy princess.”

Sister? Could it be?
Dizzy, I sat on my bed.

“It’s wonderful, isn’t it? I didn’t guess I was half fairy, but I always knew or felt there was something… I mean,” she said deliriously, “but I never dreamed—”

“Poppy,” I blurted. “Who is your father? Tell me. Is it… Onadon?”

“No, my father is Elixis,” she whispered in wonderment. “King Elixis. Can you believe it? Not the wheelwright!”

I sighed, relieved. “Not the wheelwright. And not the blacksmith for me. Have you spoken with your father?”

“Oh, aye, a little. But he is busy being the fairy king.” Poppy flopped down onto the covers.
She’s terribly drunk. I should tuck her in her bed and talk with her in the morning.
I stood to do just that and had reached the writing table between our beds when she said, “I’m going to marry King Arden and be the next Wilde Island queen.”

“What?” I gripped the chair back.

She sat up. “You know the troubadour’s song about a prince marrying a fairy child? Turns out it’s true, all of it. It’s an old fey prophecy foretelling an alliance between the humans and the fey, and the fairies turned it into a song and gave it to a troubadour who thought he wrote the song himself. He sang it all across Wilde Island to prepare the people for the day when a fey girl should marry the prince.” She paused. “A half fairy, anyway. And it wasn’t the fairy’s fault that the king’s regent hated the song and had the troubadour hanged,” she added.

“Hanged?” I was aware I’d been reduced to barking single words as Poppy went on, but it was all too much. My head pounded. I eased into the chair.

Poppy said, “When my father, King Elixis, told me the troubadour was hanged, he said it was a terrible crime and humans are cruel. I told him I wasn’t cruel, and he said he knew that.”

Hopping up, she studied her reflection in the oval mirror on the wardrobe door. “The fairies have been watching me all along,” she said, “gathering what news they might from the will-o’-the-wisps, or spying invisibly from Dragonswood, waiting for me to grow up and fulfill their wish for me, and here I am getting ready to marry King Arden.”

If this song was a prophecy as Poppy said, had the fey intended for Poppy to grow up to fulfill it? Why bring me into it then? Why bring Tanya? I’d also heard their voices calling me north. And the dragon had dropped a turtle into Miller’s Pond to save me.

Poppy talked on to her dim-lit reflection and mine, since she could see us both in the glass. “And since I’m going to marry him, you can marry his younger brother, Prince Bion, if you like, because you are half fey too, and we can all live together in the castle.”

“You don’t know what you’re saying, Poppy. You’ve had too much mead.”

“I know exactly what I’m saying, Tess. Mead has nothing to do with it. Didn’t anyone tell you the plans they have for me?”

“I just arrived.”

“Oh.” She whirled around and dropped back onto her bed. “That’s true.” Poppy leaned against her pillow and yawned. “Well, now you’re here, you can learn all the courtly dances with me before I’m presented at the castle.” She sighed. “I danced and danced tonight,” she added.

“I saw.”

“You were at the feast?”

“A short while.”

“You should have stayed and danced too, Tess.”

“I didn’t feel much like it.”

“Oh.” Poppy looked confused.

I walked out to the balcony, thought of her poor mother, who’d married the wheelwright, just as Mother married the blacksmith. They’d no choice but to marry straightaway, knowing they carried a half-fey child. Poppy’s mother died never getting the chance to know her daughter.

Back inside, I asked, “If this is all true, weren’t you even a little angry to learn that the fairies had a plan laid out for you from the beginning? A plan you didn’t ask for or want?”

Poppy turned onto her side. “Who says I don’t want it?”

“But did you ask for it? Were you consulted?”

“Don’t spoil it, Tess.”

“I don’t mean to spoil it. I’m happy you’re so content, only—”

“Only what?” Her blue eyes held the candlelight.

“It seems the fates have woven our futures without our knowing or asking. I don’t want to be a part of someone else’s plan. I want—” I choked up, unable to say what I wanted aloud or even to myself.

Wind blew in from the balcony, bringing in the forest scents and the clean wet smell of the waterfall. The candle guttered and went out. I knelt by Poppy’s bed, loving her and fearing for her. She was like a girl dancing on a cliff’s edge. I saw the fall she might take if the fey betrayed her, only she couldn’t see it herself.

At last the fairy’s mead caught up with her and my friend fell asleep. I covered her and sat on the edge of her bed with Tupkin. The fire was dead, the room dark. There were at least three half-fey girls, Poppy, Tanya, and me. Why so many? Was it insurance? One girl to replace another if she failed?

Chapter Twenty-five

I
N THE FLIT
room, Morralyn inspected my new red gown. Satisfied, she said, “You’re to meet Onadon by his fishing spot.”

“Where?” I asked anxiously.

She waved her hand. “The will-o’-the-wisps will show you. Go on.”

We walked a long way past the waterfall, the river trail bending this way and that following the Harrow. It amazed me to think this same water flowed south another fifty miles or so through Dragonswood before it left the sanctuary, wending through Harrowton on its way to the sea.

The current slowed where the river grew wider. In this quieter spot where the glassy surface mirrored the blue sky, I saw him. The will-o’-the-wisps flew off when I did.

My father stood with his back to me, shin-deep in the river, a net dangling from his left hand. He pointed at the sparkling surface and wriggled his finger. A trout jumped in an arc and fell with a splash. More movements, more jumping, till Onadon chose one he liked, pointed to his net, and the fish leaped in. I leaned on a willow, watching him, a fey man, strong and trim and merry (or so he seemed when he danced), and nothing like the oily blacksmith.

Speak. Say something
. I did not move. I lingered by the willow tree, watching him use his fairy power to fish. The river’s current wedged around his legs making
clork, clork
sounds. Midges buzzed about his curly head. He swatted a little.

I stepped away from my tree, opened my mouth, closed it again, my voice caught like a rabbit in a trap. Still, he turned and saw me. Wading to shore, Onadon stood barefoot on the strand while I peered at him from the grassy riverbank. Sand stuck to his wet feet like sparkling boots. I need only jump down and run to him. A sudden shyness held me.

“Tess.” His voice was deeper and smoother than I’d imagined and filled my cupped ear like cream. More than this, he’d said my name.

“You are my father, I think?”

Instead of responding, Onadon clicked his fingers. A boy sprang from the air, startling me.

The fairies have been watching me all along,
Poppy had said,
gathering what news they might from the will-o’-the-wisps, or spying invisibly from Dragonswood, waiting for me to grow up and fulfill their wish for me
…

A second child appeared in the shallows. How many more fey folk skulked by the river where my father fished? I whipped my head around, peering through the greenery.

Onadon spun the net and knotted it above the trout. “Take this to the kitchens, Branki. Hurry on now and earn your due.” Branki fled up the bank and vanished mid-leap, boy, net, fish, and all.

“You too, Susha. To the kitchens now. Go on.”

She vanished.

Father brushed sand from his legs and called his boots. They walked over to him, black and wrinkled from use, the tops waiting, openmouthed. Fingering the sand out from between his toes, he slid them on and climbed the riverbank. “Shall we walk?”

“Are we alone now?”

He laughed. “A former fairy king is rarely alone, but you can speak freely.”

I saw more footprints on the sandbar. How many would follow us?

Father took the grassy trail along the bank, walking in long, even strides. I matched his pace in my full skirt. The grass blew where the wind tugged. Trees let go their leaves in red and yellow swirls.

Onadon asked, “How is your mother?”

My cheeks burned. He could have known the answer to that anytime he wished to, couldn’t he? Why had he stayed away from her, from
me,
seventeen years?

“She is well.”

He glanced at me with a wary look, or was it mocking? “Good for her.”

I won’t be angry. I don’t want to be. He’ll tell me why he had to stay away so long if I ask him.
We turned at the river bend, keeping to the narrow trail along the edge. I cleared my throat. “Is it true fairies do not marry?”

“Who told you this?”

“Mistress Morralyn said so last night. I came to the feast. Did you know?”

“I learned so, but you were gone by then.”

“I saw you dance with Poppy,” I added bitterly.

Onadon ran his hand through his hair. The bangs pulled back showed a receding hairline that bespoke his age, though he had no gray. Fey folk live longer than humans. I could not guess his age.

“Poppy is a lovely girl,” he said.

“All men think so.”

He laughed at that, and clapped his hand against a trunk as we passed. “It’s true we do not marry, Tess,” he said, returning to my earlier question.

“Is that why you abandoned my mother?”

“Listen to yourself, Tess. ‘My mother,’ you humans say. ‘My father.’ ‘My child.’ Do you own her? Does she own you?”

“No. But we…” A lump caught in my throat. “We belong together.”

“Still, you left her.”

“You left her, Father! I didn’t.” I took a long breath, eyed the river loping and curling below, and tried again. “I had to run.”

“I know.”

“How is it you know?”

“We know much of the goings-on in the human world. I kept an eye on you.”

“Kept an eye on me? You saw me running from the witch hunter. Then why didn’t you intervene?”

“I couldn’t intervene. You had to be drawn to us by your fey blood, by your longing. We could not make you come.”

“I heard voices.”

“Still, it was up to you to decide to follow them and try to find us.”

“But the will-o’-the-wisps flew me in.”

“We could help once you’d made it to the border of DunGarrow. Until then it was up to you.”

“Some kind of test of strength?”

“You could call it that. You took a while, but you got here, didn’t you?”

“What about Poppy?”

“She reached here before you.”

“And Tanya?”

“Inquisitive, aren’t you,” he said with a sidelong glance.

“Some think so.” The blacksmith slapped my mouth for my outspokenness, but I’d learned to speak more freely with Garth.

“Tanya would have died if Lord Kahlil hadn’t flown in and rescued her. She stays here, Tess, but she’s of no use to us now.”

No use to us now? Bitter words. I tried to calm myself, listing to the river talk, the birds calling from the trees as I followed Onadon’s steps. We nearly died on the road. It still hurt to know the fey had watched us and done nothing to help us.
Think of something else to say.
“Why is it you’re no longer king?”

“My throne was challenged. Elixis won.”

“Is a fairy kingship so easily lost?”

“Easily?” Father gave a little whistle. “There was some danger in it.”

“So there was a battle?”

“Not with swords, if that’s what you imagine, Tess, but with magic. Still, one of us could have died.”

Men and their battles. I thought of the elks I’d seen in Dragonswood clashing horns in mating season. I had to ask, “Could you challenge him again and win back your crown?”

There were excited sounds behind us, fey folk whispering over my question, I supposed.

Onadon flipped a stick up with his foot and snapped it. “I could challenge Elixis if I wished.”

Louder whispering behind us and above us in the trees.

“I don’t want to,” he added, tossing the broken stick in an arc toward the river. It landed with a gentle splash. The voices fell silent.

I turned about. By the saints! Couldn’t a girl speak alone with her father? “Who follows us?” I challenged. “Come out. Show yourselves.”

“Let them be, Tess. Would you leave me unguarded?”

“Who would harm you?” I felt my waist for my knife, but it wasn’t in its usual place. I’d forgotten I was in my new red gown, not my old black kirtle. My hand dropped empty to my side again, but Father had seen me reaching for a blade.

“You’re a strong lass, Tess.” He flashed me a smile. Glory! If I could hold such a thing and keep it, I would.

Onadon went on, “I think now Aisling might have judged wrongly by choosing Poppy for the next Pendragon queen.”

So their plans for Poppy were true.

“Aisling didn’t know I was also half fairy,” I suggested confidently.

“She knew,” he corrected.

I sped up. My red gown caught in the thorn bushes. Beelzebub! In my urgency to free it, I tore the hem. “Aisling… knew?”

“She was fairly sure when she met the two of you. But she bided awhile, healing the man, Tom, and waiting to see.”

“See what, Father?” I liked saying the word
father
walking here with him. I’d let all the poison go out of the word now I was free forever from the blacksmith.

“Aisling knew the half-fey maidens would be drawn to us. That each must follow their yearning and come. She is half fey herself, though more than twice your age.”

Half fey too? I’d sensed something different about her from the first. Now I knew why.

Onadon continued, “Aisling was not surprised when Poppy told her how she longed to go north.”

How his words hurt. “I was drawn to DunGarrow. I’d longed to go deeper into the wood. Only I couldn’t come until my friends were safe and settled.” And because I’d wanted to be with Garth, only I couldn’t say that.

“You took much on yourself, Tess, looking after them.”

“Would you have had me abandon them?”

He didn’t answer that but noted, “You say you were drawn to us, but Aisling saw you willingly ride south, away from us, not toward us.”

“To fetch Alice! That’s why I went.” I’d heard the voices whispering,
Turn around, Tess. You are going the wrong way
, but I’d ignored my urges.

Onadon paused and turned. “Shall we try, then, Tess? It would be interesting if you should win.”

I looked up, torn hem in hand. “Win what?”

“What have you been told thus far about why you were drawn here?”

“I was drawn here—” I could not say the rest. Because I sought you, because I wanted to find my true father once I knew I was fey, to find a place where I might belong.

He tipped his head in the slanting light. “Do you know anything of our plan?”

“Only what Poppy said last night.”

“Very little, then.”

“Because you are holding back from us.”

“Because the girl’s head has been full of dance steps and pretty gowns since she came here.”

I had to smile at that.

“Tell me what you’ve learned from your friend thus far, Tess.”