Queen Mab (21 page)

"You shall rue the day that you let these mortals die!  Goddess Juno, the blood sacrifice of the Montagues is before thee, sinned by Romeo's own hand while Queen Mab stole a letter which would have prevented the deaths this day.  I swore to protect the House of Montague and Queen Mab kept secret the one thing which would have stayed these terrible acts."

Juno looked at Faunus as her peacock circled his feet.  "Sworn to protect the House of Montague?  Indeed, I saw you take actions to guarantee its ruin, even as this woman here fought for my followers' survival.  No, Faunus.  You shall not rule night or day.  From this moment forth, whenever man, woman, or child look upon your cloven hooves and horns, they shall see the true nature of your evil and know to run from your seduction.  And so I say to you, Faunus, run!  For I will set a host upon thee to chase thee to the ends of the earth.  Run!"

And so the demigod Faunus fell.  And he ran, ran as fast as he could, for Juno did not jest.

When the last sound of his hooves faded in the distance, Juno turned to Mab and whispered, "Continue."

The world became cold as Queen Mab closed her eyes, as she ended this dream and woke in the frozen truth of her prison, in her world that was not Verona.  The mausoleum with its carnage, with the blood that poured from dear Juliet's breast, faded and disappeared.  In its place, Juliet still rested within her slab of stone and Romeo slept quietly beside her casket.  All was icy and white.  Queen Mab fell, exhausted, to the floor as she released the last of the false dream she had created, a dream which had shielded them all.

Romeo's eyes fluttered and he murmured, " I dreamt my lady came and found me dead—Strange dream, that gives a dead man leave to think!—and breathed such life with kisses in my lips that I revived and was an emperor.  Ah me!  How sweet is love itself possessed, when but love's shadows are so rich in joy!"  He slowly took in his surroundings and then looked at Queen Mab with desperation and despair.  "Why did you wake me from my eternal sleep?  Why have you condemned me to a lifetime on this earth when my spirit wishes no more than to lift itself from this mortal form?  Are you an angel come to seek revenge for this hand which sinned against nature so?"

"Nay, gentle Romeo," Queen Mab replied.  "Indeed, I have brought you back from death and lifted the veil of dreams so that you may be united in love with your Juliet."

Romeo looked at Mab in confusion.  "But she lies here dead?"

"Nay, look closer."

Romeo stood and walked over to Juliet's uncovered tomb.  He brushed back her hair from her neck.  Slowly, ever so slowly, did her pulse beat in her throat.

"She lives," he whispered with tears in his eyes.

"She lives," replied Queen Mab.  "And her life is repayment for all the ill-gotten deeds I have done.  Rejoice, gentle Romeo."

He stroked Juliet's cheek and his face was the first sight that her eyes gazed upon, as the good Friar had promised.  Tearfully, they joined.

"You are here," Juliet replied.

"I should not be," spoke Romeo, "for if not for the intercession of this woman, I would not."  Romeo looked up from his love just long enough to try and find out who their savior was.  He turned to Mab.  "How did this all come about?"  Slowly, comprehension began to dawn as Romeo remembered where they had met before.  "You!  You were the hooded apothecary who gave me the poison."

"True, I was the apothecary, but the only draught I gave you was to sleep as true as your true love slept."

Mab walked over to Juliet's hand and removed the ring Friar Laurence had passed along. And with its removal, the air shimmered, and the mausoleum door opened to the warm Italian countryside laying outside in wait.

"You shall be safe," said Queen Mab to the young couple.  "If these things had not come to pass, your family would have split you asunder.  But now you are free to live your lives and grow old together.  Do so.  Live and be happy and be young until you are old, and when you are old, hold each other close and remember all that you have would have been lost on this fateful day.  Treasure every moment, for today it could have been gone."

But before Romeo and Juliet could go on to the happy destiny that lay in wait for them, a figure emerged from this doorway of light. 

Mab's heart pounded, disbelieving.  Her legs gave way and she could no longer stand.  A gasping sob wracked her chest.

Romeo paled as he recognized the man.  "You are a ghost!  A man I know to be dead!  And yet, you are here before me.  What magic brings you thus?"

Mercutio, whole and strong, shook his head.  "Dead I am, but alive still, brought back to tend the garden of the dreamer's mind.  Goddess Juno has explained to me."  He gripped Romeo's arm, his friend's face awash with grief and hope.  Mercutio promised him, "I leave you not again.  You shall see me as the consort to a queen when you sleep, and know me when inspiration strikes at day.  Together with my beloved, we have a great and blessed duty to share."

Mercutio walked over.  He knelt and gently gathered Mab up in his embrace.  He pushed the drenched tendrils from her face, and tenderly kissed her exhausted eyelids. 

"Who is this fair lady?" asked Romeo in wonder.

"She is the Queen of Dreams," said Mercutio, rocking her softly.  "My beautiful, beautiful queen."

Mab leaned against the might of his heart.  The heat and power of his life seemed never to have left him.  Death never seemed to have touched him with its chill.  Mercutio was here.  Her Mercutio was here.

"Will you have me, lady?" he asked, his eyes of sea green searching hers for her reply.  "What dreams we shall have..." 

She gave her answer in her kiss.

Their lips finally parted, but neither let go.  Mercutio whispered, "You are no longer cold, my queen."

Juno laughed.  "Never more, Queen Mab, shall children scream in fright when you come to visit them half awake and half in dreams.  No more shall those around you recoil from your hideous nature.  As I said that day so many years ago, this was a prison of your own making.  And now it is a prison no more."

The cold and ice of Mab's world swiftly began to turn.  It melted and disappeared like nightly visions as the sleeper wakes. Romeo and Juliet faded, with tender smiles upon their lips as they made their final bow.  The walls of the tomb opened to blue skies, to soft drifting clouds.  The stone replaced with rolling hills and sparkling grapes, of bird song and babbling brooks.  The prison that had held her for one hundred years, exploded, replaced with a world of golden light.  She looked at Mercutio, and she was warmed to her very bones.

Yes, the House of Capulet fell, along with the House of Montague, and with their destruction, they rose again, forever being as one.  It was just what her basin had foretold.  But she did not know that this fall and rebirth was also meant for her. 

She took her true love's hand and stepped forward into that place she had thought forever barred.  She was trapped in the darkness and cold no more, a prison that she had thought true was nothing more than but a dream.

As Mercutio looked down softly at her, holding his place at her side, she realized the dreams she once thought the sweetest tasted nothing in compare to the life that was about to begin.

For Mab was finally awake.

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Thank you!

O
ne  of my earliest memories is sitting with my mom as she read A Midsummer Night's Dream aloud to me.  You read a million books to your children, and isn't funny the ones that will later go on to shape their life?  My mom was a Shakespearean scholar, a feat which, to this day, fills me with awe and admiration.

This book, Queen Mab, led me on an amazing journey.  From the Folger to Stratford to The Globe in London as I hunted down productions, old shows on VHS, and obscure printings of Romeo & Juliet.  My great-grandparents were from Verona and it was a delight to pour through the research and learn more about my own roots.  Eventually, though, I realized I needed to expand my Shakespearean knowledge so that the scholars wouldn't set me on fire for blasphemy.  To this, I owe a debt of gratitude to the William Geer Theatricum Botanicum and their Shakespeare Intensive, taught by (in alphabetical order) Susan Angelo, Madeleine Dahm, Sandi Massie, Ellen Geer, Willow Geer, Armin Shimerman, Kristof Konrad, Melora Marshall, and Lori Anne Ferrell, and the Impro Theater Shakespeare Improvisation class (yes, I can now improvise an apostrophe for you any time you'd like, and sometimes even in iambic pentameter) taught by Brian Lohman. 

But most of all, thank you to the Bard for the eternity found in his words.

Support your local theater.

K
ate Danley is a twenty year veteran of stage and screen with 300+ credits to her name and a B.S. in theatre from Towson University. She was one of four students to be named a Maryland Distinguished Scholar in the Arts.

Her debut novel, The Woodcutter (published by 47North), was honored with the Garcia Award for the Best Fiction Book of the Year, the 1st Place Fantasy Book in the Reader Views Literary Awards, and the winner of the Sci-Fi/Fantasy category in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards. 

Her plays have been produced in New York, Los Angeles, and Maryland. Her screenplay Fairy Blood won 1st Place in the Breckenridge Festival of Film Screenwriting Competition in the Action/Adventure Category and her screenplay American Privateer was a 2nd Round Choice in the Carl Sautter Memorial Screenwriting Competition.

Her projects The Playhouse, Dog Days, Sock Zombie, SuperPout, and Sports Scents can be seen in festivals and on the internet. She trained in on-camera puppetry with Mr. Snuffleupagus and played the head of a 20-foot dinosaur on an NBC pilot.

She lost on Hollywood Squares.

Sign up for her newsletter at

www.katedanley.com

D
eep within the Wood, a young woman lies dead. No mark on her body. No trace of her murderer. Only her chipped glass slippers hint at her identity.

The Woodcutter, keeper of the peace between the Twelve Kingdoms of Man and the Realm of the Faerie, must find the maiden’s killer before others share her fate.

But quickly he finds that one murdered maiden is not the only nefarious mystery afoot: one of Odin’s hellhounds has escaped, a sinister mansion appears where it shouldn’t, a pixie dust drug trade runs rampant, and more young girls go missing. Looming in the shadows is the malevolent, power-hungry queen, and she will stop at nothing to destroy the Twelve Kingdoms and annihilate the Royal Fae...unless the Woodcutter can outmaneuver her and save the gentle souls of the Wood.

Blending magic, heart-pounding suspense, and a dash of folklore, The Woodcutter is an extraordinary retelling of the realm of fairy tales.

Available from 47North.