Queen Mab (15 page)

Benvolio stood and walked to the window.

Mab stepped closer, the shadows adding such a little strength to her footsteps, but every ounce of power she gobbled up as a prisoner with stolen rations.

"I see you much clearer, Mab," he smiled.

"Do not speak this way!" said Benvolio with wetness upon his cheeks.

Mab knelt beside Mercutio and stroked his face, her fingers hungry for the warmth of his skin, of his human imperfections.  Of the hair that grew upon his face each day.  The scars and bumps and lines, whose marrings made him extraordinary and more exquisitely beautiful than all the perfection of the faerie.

"How cold I grow," Mercutio spoke.

"Do not leave!" said Benvolio, kneeling at Mercutio's other side.  But Mercutio did not turn his head.

"You shall grow colder still, my love," she said.

Mercutio smiled.  "I shall welcome the darkness's embrace like your arms, greet the black as much as the night when lovers might murmur secrets that cannot bear the light."

"You may come with me," Queen Mab whispered.  "You may come, but it shall cost you a terrible price."

His eyes became clear for just a moment as he looked at her, listening to the words she had to say.

"But if you come, never shall you rest in the fields of heaven.  Indeed," she confessed, "if I had to choose again, I would allow myself to slip quietly into the netherworld and leave this Earth far behind.  But my heart makes me selfish.  My heart betrays both you and I and urges me to speak and convince you to choose this unwise path.  I cannot stop my heart!  If you wish to stay, you may come with me, and together, we shall watch o'er the dreamworld, guiding those who slumber to the morning light.  You may choose.  But know that whatever you choose, my love, for you is forever," she wept.

Mercutio reached up and touched her cheek.  "Of course I will stay with you, my love."

And then he breathed his last.

"He is dead!" cried Benvolio.

Queen Mab watched as Benvolio raced out of doors and heard him cry, "Romeo, Romeo, brave Mercutio's dead!"

She buried her face against Mercutio's chest.

"Here comes the furious Tybalt back again," Benvolio continued.

"Come, my love," she whispered to Mercutio.  "We cannot dally here with the blood lust of these foolish young men about."

The sound of swords crashed withal, the grunts and thrashing of a man whose heart had been destroyed by the fall of his friend.  She felt Romeo's blade plunge into the heart of Tybalt, for as it struck true, so it struck the keystone that kept the House of Montague together. 

As Tybalt gasped, each breath becoming weaker, the House of Montague fell. Romeo's murderous shame dashed its glory upon the flagstones in crimson red.  And with each crumbling stone, the strength of Mab returned.  Though Tybalt died, the House of Capulet rose, and contract between she and Tybalt held, banishing the curse which barred Mab from the day. No longer bound, she stood whole and healthy though the sun was in the sky, and laid claim to the power which had been stolen from her.

T
he room was dark and cold.  She wished it could be as warm as the summer sun, but alas.  Mercutio lay in her bed, the bearskin rug he might once have needed to stay warm draped across his body.  He would never again feel the need for wraps or coats.  Indeed, he would never have need for warmth inside a lover's arms.  Cold would be his eternal tomb, just as it was for her.

His eyes fluttered, his dark pupils wide as they adjusted to the light in her snowy chamber.  She knelt beside him and clasped his hand to her heart.

"You are awake, my love."

He turned to her slowly, as if his body was not used to the sensation of movement.  He blinked again and whet his lips, a strangely human movement for one who had left that world.

"What place am I?" he asked, his hand running over his side where the sword had pierced him, puncturing his mortality and allowing his life to flood away.  The skin was smooth as a newborn, no scar or wound to mar his perfect skin.

Queen Mab smoothed back his hair, her pale hand so white against his black curls.  "Such dreams we shall have... did you not say that my love?"

Mercutio nodded slowly, as if thought was being filtered through a veil of remembrance.

"It was your choice, not mine," the Queen whispered.  "I despise myself for taking you, knowing what life I offer.  You are in my winter, in my waking days.  There is no more life than here, but hopefully it will be life enough for you." 

Mercutio reached up and stroked her cheek.  "I would rather be here with you than in any fields of heaven.  Such a heaven would seem a hell without you.  Do not look at me with such sadness, for I live thanks to your touch.  Indeed, I believe I never truly lived before.  This strangeness will fade, for you and I are together.  Do not weep, my Queen."

He wiped away her tears.

She stared at the wetness as it sat upon his finger.  "It shall freeze, as it always does, so cold within this chamber."

"But look," he smiled, showing her his hand, "it stays warm."

She gripped his hand.  "It shall freeze."

Mercutio sat up.  "You may have existed for a thousand years, my Queen, but I say you, too, have not lived until this moment.  I say that you, too, shall discover an adventure that is far beyond your understanding, all based upon the touch of a forgotten drop of sadness."  He kissed her palm and gripped it tight.  "Now, my queen, you must tell me what happened after I remember no more."

"I brought you here."

"Yes, but what of my kinsmen?  Of Romeo and Benvolio?"

She shook her head.  "I am afraid that in his anger, Romeo sought revenge.  His heart was cleft in twain, grieving for your loss."

Mercutio struggled to rise.  "Then we must tell him that I live!"

"No," she said, placing her hand upon his chest and gently lowering him back to his pillow.  She missed the way his heart used to beat.  "No, my love."

"But why not?  Bloodshed for blood shed makes mourners of us all.  There is no joy in revenge, no taste of honeyed happiness found in the goblet of rogue justice served."

"These are mysteries the world still struggles with.  These are lessons that they have been taught since the dawn of time and, yet, they still fight and die, as if without care, as if relishing the release from their mortal coil."

"I am coiled to spring, to save those I love.  They should not die for me."

"Do you not understand the choice that you have made?" Queen Mab asked, the pain unable to stay behind its quiet mask of ice.  "Do you not understand that when you chose to live by my side, you left behind the cares and worries of that world?  We cannot become involved in the politics of man, for they are now nothing more than a dream."

"There will be a way," he continued.  He placed a finger to her lips and silenced her with his touch. It seemed to still hold the final drops of warm mortal life, and she would not let her words chase such warmth away. Mercutio pulled her down and placed a kiss upon her forehead.  "Worry that heavy brow of yours no more.  If this is reality and the other a dream, I am content to never close my eyes again.  Indeed, with you in my arms, everything beyond this bed could fall and fade and I would not know the difference.  We shall sort the dealings of the weary world when you and I have wearied ourselves of one another and not a moment before.  This I promise, my Mab."

He sealed his words with a comforting kiss, which deepened and lengthened as the promises gave way to the actions of truth.

But a sound rumbled outside as if coming thunder, though the sky was clear.  Mab rose from Mercutio, not remembering the sound of a storm in all her years in this prison.  She stepped out onto her balcony and the coldness descended as an ice storm.  It bit at her skin, reminding her of who she was and what she stood for.

Though the unending night still surrounded her palace, standing in a beam of sun, sweating and panting stood her rival, Faunus.  The look upon his eyes was one of bitter hatred, as if he might be able to burn her to ashes with his ire.

Queen Mab wrapped her arms around herself, shivering, and stared up at the sky.

"This is my realm!" she shouted.  "Who dares disturb my borders?"

A sparkling beam of sunlight fell between the two demigods.  And when the sun stuck, they found themselves in the presence of a real god.

"Juno," whispered Queen Mab.

"Juno," wheezed Faunus, scraping a bow upon the ground.

"SILENCE!" the goddess boomed.

Both Mab and Faunus held their tongues.

Juno stepped forward, her peacock trailing at her side.  "Did you say that these were your borders, Mab?" she asked.  "Did you pretend that in a place in which your eyes were open fell under your control?"

Her peacock let out a loud cry and flung his tail open to display his feathers.

Queen Mab bowed her head, her heart pounding.  "It was my mistake, goddess."

"Indeed, a grave mistake," Juno said, regarding her with disdain.  "I have word from Faunus that this is a repeat offense.  He tells me you dabble in realms that are quite outside your borders, faerie."

Mab protested, "I abide by my duties to the humans I protect."

With a flick of her wrist, Juno opened a fan made by the cast off feathers of her bird.  She glanced back knowingly at Faunus. "This duty includes destroying the House of Montague?"

"Nay," said Queen Mab, who did not raise her eyes from their fixed point on the ground.  "That was a challenge posed by Faunus.  He proposed a settlement to our feud.  Any harm I gave to Montague was a mirror to the danger he posed to the House of Capulet, to those who come to me demanding my protection and care."

"She lies!  Look at events!  See how selflessness has guided my actions, placing the House of Montague at risk to try and preserve the peace!  Her man slew the prince's kinsman, making Romeo hunger for revenge.  And now the House of Montague falls, just as she always planned."

Mab's heart caught in her throat, thinking of Mercutio who lay within, seeing Faunus as if for the very first time.  She shook her head slowly.  "No.  Faunus caused the death of those I had sworn to protect."

"Lies!" cried Faunus.  "Lies she speaks! Though always the Montagues' keeper, I also took upon a boy from the House of Capulet when Mab's jealousies and rages placed him without a protector.  Young Tybalt came to me when he was just a boy, remembering the old ways and bringing sacrifices to us gods.  He prayed for long life and power.  Alas, this man, this Mercutio that Mab has adopted for a pet, caused his death and downfall.  She protects not the House of Capulet.  She protects not the House of Montague.  If not for Mab's interference, all would be alive today."

Juno looked at her two quarreling underlings, weighing out their truth and their life in measure against a feather weight scale.

"Look at how she flaunts the laws of mortals!  Look within her bedchamber.  You will find that she has even snatched this Mercutio from his natural end.  And for what end?  To be her immortal plaything?  To bestow upon him the rights and privileges which are reserved for the gods?"

Juno looked upon Mab.  "Is this true?"

"My heart could not let him die."

Juno paused, as if surprised by some strangeness in Mab's words.  "Your heart?"

"Aye," replied Mab, the sigh of this simple word carrying the weight of a thousand speeches.  "Please give me a chance to right these wrongs."

Juno looked at her closer.  "Your face has changed, Queen Mab." 

Mab had no idea why such a change would cause such a goddess to change her mind.  But it did.

Juno proclaimed, "I shall give you until the third day to return the House of Montague to glory.  If the words you speak are true, not just your life, but the eternal life of this man you love, shall be forfeit."

"Thank you," Queen Mab whispered.

"Do not trouble me with your thanks!" Juno snapped back.  "But as escrow to your goodwill, I take your love, Mercutio, and keep him for myself!"

"No!" Mab cried, even as Juno stretched out her arm and sent forth a calling into Mab's bedchambers.  "No!"  Mab cried once again, running in to where Mercutio lay and watching as he faded as sure as she herself faded whenever she walked in the sun.

"Set these things to right, Mab, or else never see his return," Juno spoke and with that, she stepped behind her peacock who fanned out his mighty tail.  Like a trickster magician, Juno was gone.

Faunus's anguish disappeared and he fixed Mab with a knowing grin.  He leered at her, rubbing his hands in delight.  "Let the games begin again," said Faunus.  "You played so well before."

Then he, too, disappeared.

Queen Mab sat down upon the cold bed, lost in the despair of her task.  She stroked the pillow where the man she loved had just moments before softly laid his head.  "I must cease the stones even as they tumble from the turrets.  I must stop the foundations from their shaking though the earth beneath them trembles.  I foolishly became my own champion, injured by kindness and weakened by these feelings of love."  She looked into the mirror.  "The House of Montague must not fall, else my Mercutio disappears forever.  Such cruelty, such twists of fate which I could not see within my basin.  My doom is of my own sentence.  My heart breaking for the actions I must take, for I see clearly the path before me, the weight and terrible price of what I must engage in if he and I are to live.  Oh, gentle Mercutio, the wounds I must bring to bear against thy friends and kinsmen hurt twice as much as the wounds I bring against myself, but for you, I must bear them both."

She lay down upon the bedclothes which still smelled of him, and clung to the knowledge she would do anything for his return.  She closed her eyes in one world so that she might wake in another.

L
ord Capulet stood outside Prince Escales's palace and quietly hung his head so that, despite the day, none might see his sadness.  The pain in his heart was for his nephew Tybalt, a hot-headed boy, but one who strived, one who would have indeed brought the House of Capulet to great heights and preserved the greatness of a long and powerful lineage.