Queen Mab (8 page)

"You thinks wrong," she replied.

He looked up at the house.  "Perhaps I should investigate... Tell me true, have you been spelled or taken by a fool's trick?"

"The only fool is standing before me, and the trick is so old it has grown rank.  Speak plainly, Faunus, or trouble not my sight."

"You have changed, Mab," Faunus replied, looking strangely at her face.  "You are not what you once were.  Whose touch causes the great queen to bend her knees and melt her heart of stone?"

"My old enemy, do I detect something akin to jealousy in your tone?"

Faunus tutted. "I know you visit this man, you favor him with visions and dreams.  Why?"

"Has the forbidden fruit caused your mouth to hunger for the meal you once set aside?  He needs these dreams, and I am happy to provide."

"This man shall die and what then?"

"Why do you care, Faunus?"

Faunus placed a lip to his finger.  "Tell me, do you long to leave the night, to walk within the day and light?”

She looked deep into her enemy's eyes and spoke, "Never.  Keep your light.  I prefer the dark."

"The dark can sometimes be quite cold for a woman by herself."

She laughed a piercing bell. "I visit the beds of every male in Verona.  I spend my nights with such beauty that if Venus herself carved me gods of marble, they would seem pale and forlorn beside these human men.  Empty beds and cold lonely nights do not trouble me.  But perhaps they do you, my love."

Faunus sneered, "I spend my days warm in the sun with my head resting upon the laps of dryads and nymphs.  I feast with the kings and give chase to the queens."

"But not this queen," Mab reminded.

He ascended his head. "Indeed, you were never wise enough to run.  Instead, you sit there in your self-righteousness, practically begging to be ripped from your roost like a loudly squawking fowl as a fox sniffs in the yard."

"And are you the fox?" she asked as she circled Faunus.

He replied by circling her in kind. "To tell you would not be fox-like."

"Then there must be far greater powers who are concerned about my ability to roost."

"Nay, sweet Mab.  It is only I that hunts you, but only because you were so foolish as to leave your scent around my den.  And when a fox smells an injured bird, instinct comes forth, and he cannot be held at fault for going in for the kill.  I remember how your heart is so easily won."

"It is, when won with magick tricks."

"Perhaps a mortal's love is better bait when trapping a queen."

Mab hated him for dangling the question like a carrot upon a string.  She replied with the coldness of winter to mask the summer in her heart, hoping to lure Faunus's interest away from Mercutio's door.  "Do you think I care about the lives of such lowly creatures who fornicate and feed as easily as they create and destroy?  I care not for the world of man.”

"They think us gods, mistaking long life for wisdom, strange shapes as things of beauty, the gift of different sight for power.  How strange they will think us when they learn of our true nature," he laughed.  "What foolish men these mortals be." Faunus rose from his spot and stepped closer.  Queen Mab felt his power rolling off him in waves.  "Stay away from this one, Mab.  You know not what fates you tempt by causing him to grow once more brave and strong."

His warning gave her pause.

She asked, "Do my attentions tempt the fall of Montague?  You would not feign such interest unless this man be the keystone which will cause your world to come tumbling down."

"This man is a friend of the House of Montague and I say leave him be."

"He is Prince Escales's kinsman and friend to all alike."

But Faunus smiled, seeing that his shot had struck true.  No longer dismissive, Mab was now answering his warnings with arguments of logic and law.  "You who know not the pleasures of earthly love and friendship do not see that there can be ties which bind a heart much stronger than the human bonds of blood."

Queen Mab raised her chin defiantly.  "Think you that I do not understand the human heart?"

"Most assuredly."

"Then I shall turn his eye to Capulet.  They shall welcome him to hearth and home, giving him forever an open door to their kindness."

"I know the relentless tumult of the machinations of man.  I shall place blinders upon his eyes so that he shall seek no other friendship but that Montague.  He shall spurn the outstretched hand of any Capulet."

"You play a poor game, Faunus, telling me of your next move.  It shall be your undoing."

"Do not think your fearsome looks frighten me," he laughed.  "You may be as ugly as the day is born, but do not think that you can set me trembling with your anger and your fits."

"Must you fall back on insults?" Mab asked.

"Merely the truth."

She looked at him strangely.  "I appear as I have always for thousands of years.  Do not think your attacks upon my vanity cut more than a blade of grass upon a dull stone."

"Then you were born foul and will die foul," he looked at her.  "Though I say your appearance has grown markedly better, though still as foul as the air in a dung heap."

"I shall be sure to grow wooly legs and a horn to please you, Faunus."

"It would not harm your cause."

"You once thought me the fairest face in all of Christendom," Mab pointed out. 

"Those were the days far before Christendom and it is clear that you have felt each passing year."

Mab shook her head.  "Faunus, if you wish to raise my ire, the hollow words of a foolish goat are far below the task."

"Then I would point out it is not some foolish goat but an immortal beloved who stands before you, one whom you loved, horns and all."

"Nay, Faunus, I loved only the one horn of yours at the time."

"But now I have three to please you, although it would take triple the toil to raise your favorite point."

Mab yawned.  "Begone.  The night is waning fast and my solitary bed awaits."

"You need only beg, and I might deign to warm it for you."

"You have your duties before you, Faunus, and I am not one."

He shrugged.  "Then suit yourself.  But mark my words, you might be in need of friends if you do not change your ways, Queen Mab."

She fixed him with an icy stare.  "I have eaten of the fruits of your friendship long ago, friend Faunus, and found them rotten and foul."

"A beggar will find the blackest fruit delicious when the pangs of hunger strike."

"I will never be that hungry, Faunus."

Faunus gave her a wink and then made for the road.

Though he made pretence of leaving, Faunus watched from the corner of his eye until Queen Mab flew away.  As soon as she was gone, he trotted into the shadowy space between two houses.  He peered into the darkness.  "Hear you this, Juno?  Why, even warned she will not stay away!  She seeks to undo the love match that you so wisely orchestrated."

The alley was at once filled with spreading peacock feathers and the goddess with the terra cotta curls delicately stepped out of hiding.  Her anger was painted on her face as exquisitely as any masterpiece, but she did not reply.

Faunus pressed, insisting she respond.  "Need you more proof?  From her own hands, you hear her plotting the Capulets against the Montagues while using a mortal man for this destruction."

Juno turned and paced the narrow cobblestone path.  Finally, she turned and gave her decision.  "I shall wait to see how this game plays out, Faunus, for plotting is a far stretch from action, and wisdom might yet sway her from this path.  The dreams of night are powerful and I must have proof for my own preservation, else I find myself under the scrutiny of eyes who would bore a hole even in my soul.  Patience, Faunus.  Let us see how the pieces fall.  If they fall out of favor, well... it is not the first time a queen shall be taken by a pawn."

With a swirl once more of feathers, Juno was then gone.

Faunus looked where she left and promised, "I shall make sure it is so." 

F
aunus's words troubled Mab with a disquiet she could not shake through the remaining night and even into the day when she faded to nothing.  It stayed with her when she opened her eyes and found herself awake in her world of ice.  Indeed, as the sun set once more and woke again in Verona, the sense of foreboding was enough to make her fear.  Would life be so cruel?  Could life be so unkind?  After so many years alone to give her one who knew her heart and then to take him from her?

As she drove her hazelnut across the nighttime sky and the silent sleepers below, she knew that even if it meant losing her world to Faunus, she could not allow Mercutio to be her champion.  She would keep him far from these games of the gods.  She would hide him from the fates and let him live as if never knowing her touch. 

But she thought back to his nightmares of stone and horror.  She knew this would be where his dreams would live without her there to shift their forms.  Could she abandon her love?  Was it any less cruel to leave him unarmed to fend against the darkness of his mind?  She did not know the difference between selfish want and selfless longings anymore.  She did not know how to give him the happiest days when choosing between two such terrible paths.

She rested her chariot on Mercutio's windowsill knowing that the choice would soon no longer be hers to give.  And so, bravely, she stepped into his room knowing she must say goodbye.

She rested beneath the bower of the tree, a weeping willow which kissed the earth.  And there drew Mercutio.  He wiped the heat of the day from his brow and stepped into the blessed cool of the shadows.  He knelt at her feet, throwing himself upon the spongy ground.

"You vanquished the night, my Mab.  Look upon this glorious sun!" he laughed.  "Upon this summer's day, I am so warm."

"And by these shadows that I live within, I am so cold," she replied.

"Cold from the heat?" he said reaching for her, "My love, let me warm you through and through."

A flock of ravens crossed the sky.

"No arms can chase away this chill," she replied, knowing what she must do, all the while praying for some sort of heavenly intercession to prevent her from doing it.

"But what of the arms of he who is more than man?  Who has tasted the fruits of the other realms and sipped from the nectar of the gods?  What of he who is man but is more so, too?  Does he perhaps hold the heat to warm you?"  He wrapped himself around her now, his heart beating in fast rhythm against her skill. 

The taste of life, of human life, was intoxicating, of resting here with another instead of trapped alone. 

No, she thought.  She must leave this one to bear out his days in joy without her, and in doing so, save him.  She gently rested her hand upon his eyes, no longer willing to tempt this fate.  This battle had gone on too long.  She would choose another champion and give this one the only gift she had—the gift of her protection. 

And perhaps a single dream to stay with him and comfort him in the years to come.

As he closed his eyes, she whispered one word: "Forget."

Q
ueen Mab looked over her shoulder at Prince Escales's palace as she flew on her nightly ride.  It had been many months since the parting and, though her mind knew that it was the rightful course of action, her heart wished that it was untrue.  Mercutio lived in safety there and would until the end of his days.  She continued on into eternity without him, but still... her glance always fell upon the prince's palace whenever she passed by and that high tower where the keeper of her soul slept.  His warmth, his laughter, his purpose, and his divine self...  She had been drawn to him like a moth to flame, unaware that she was dangerously close to setting her wings on fire.  Indeed, they might already have been ablaze. 

She turned her chariot towards her home, the evening's dreams planted throughout Verona with a gentler touch than she normally was wont to do.  A few more dreams of love's embrace, a few more visions of reunion and joy.  She let her memories of Mercutio take hold in other minds, so that when she went to visit there, she would find the essence of him.  Perhaps it would make her exile more bearable.  Perhaps it would make the exile of mortality easier for the humans to bear, too.

She was surprised when she returned that though the hour was two o'clock, waiting outside her front door was a grand carriage drawn by a sleek matched pair of Neapolitan horses from southern Italy.

Mab rode her hazelnut to her bedchambers.  Surely, something must have occurred to bring a visitor at such a late hour and with the game afoot, most likely Faunus was to blame.  Only those who sought her out by name could find their way to her palace in the hidden Verona countryside.  Her mind went first to trouble in the House of Capulet.  Her shadow servants greeted her, tidied her hair and brushed her clothes, keeping pace with her even as she strode towards her audience hall.

The door opened before her, and standing in wait was a young man of style and foppish grace.  His dark hair was slicked back against his head, his dark green tunic tailored to the height of the latest courtly fashion.  At his side was a silver rapier, etched and engraved to hide the sharpness of the blade. He stretched out his leg and bowed deeply before her.

"Queen Mab," he said.  "It is a pleasure."

"We have not had the pleasure of being acquainted," said Queen Mab, though she recognized him. 

"I am Tybalt, nephew of Lord Capulet."

"I know," she replied.

Tybalt seemed taken aback for just a moment before recovering.  "Upon my becoming a man, my uncle told me of you and the debt that you owe our House."

She bit her tongue and made her way to her throne.  Sitting down, she smiled tightly.  "The House of Capulet is always welcome here.  To what do I owe the honor?"

He threw back his cape and advanced towards her.  "My uncle told me that you swore us protection, and it is that protection that I come to speak to you about this evening."

She thought of Faunus and wondered if perhaps this Tybalt might be her champion.  "It is strange your timing in coming to seek me out.  Indeed, I was just thinking that I should see what bonds of friendship I might strengthen in service to your House's...loyalty."