The Seventh Daughter

Tania stared through the arched stone window at the vast blue skies of Faerie. She could hardly believe that her sisters; her mother, Titania; and her beloved Edric were alive, and that they had all managed to get back into the Immortal Realm. They were safe for the moment in the upper room of Bonwn Tyr—the brown tower that stood in the parklands between the deep, dense vastness of Esgarth Forest and the expanse of the Royal Palace.

Her joy at their miraculous escape did not last long—she saw immediately that something was badly wrong in Faerie.

Zara stood at her side. “Some great evil has befallen the land,” she said. “High summer should lie over Faerie. It is not yet the Solstice Day, and yet the trees are withering as if in the grip of a premature autumn.”

Tania had been in Faerie only a few days ago, and then the slender aspen trees surrounding the tower had been in full leaf and the grass had grown thick
and lush on the hill that sloped down to the palace. But now the aspens were dying and the ground was brown and yellow, the grasses shriveled as if from a whole season of drought. Farther away, the leaves of the forest were shrouded in dark, autumnal colors.

“What did this?” Tania asked in dismay.

“It is the influence of the Sorcerer King,” said Queen Titania, coming up behind her. “Sickness and death follow wherever he treads. Let us hope that the whole Realm is not so badly affected.” The Queen's eyes glinted. “But while the Royal House of Faerie survives, Faerie will never be completely ruined.”

Tania leaned from the window, peering through the bleak branches. Her heart quickened. “There are some Gray Knights down there!” she hissed in alarm. “Two of them. In the trees.”

Edric caught hold of her arm and drew her back. “Don't let them see you,” he said.

“Why should we not?” declared Cordelia. “It is time to take the battle to the Sorcerer King. Let us destroy the evil creatures and be done with it.”

“I'm not sure it's such a good idea to pick a fight right now,” Tania said. “They don't know we're in Faerie. We should try and keep it that way for as long as possible.”

“Tania is right,” said the Queen. “We'll make our way to the palace without being seen. If the Sorcerer King's forces are alerted to our presence, it will make our search for Oberon all the more difficult.” She looked at her daughters. “But we should take a few
moments to assess our injuries.” She frowned. “Cordelia, your arm is bleeding.”

“We have no time for licking our wounds!” Cordelia exclaimed.

“Yet it would avail us nothing were you to faint from blood loss,” said Sancha. She stooped and tore a strip off the hem of her skirt. Reluctantly, Cordelia allowed her sister to bind the cut on her left arm.

“And now let us be gone from here,” said Zara. “But there is only one way out of the tower. How are we to pass the guards unseen?”

“By giving them some other quarry to chase,” said Cordelia. “Come, I will show you how we may escape.” She walked to the winding stone stairway that led down to the ground floor and up to the flat roof. She stared upward for a moment, then looked uneasily back at them. “We must prepare ourselves for the worst,” she said. “It may be that we will find Eden's body on the roof.”

A terrible, horror-struck silence filled the tower at that dreadful thought. Titania put her hand over her mouth, her eyes hollow with anguish.

Eden had led Zara and Sancha and Cordelia here and had opened a hole between the worlds—but she had not followed them into the Mortal World. It seemed all too possible to Tania that the Gray Knights that had been pursuing them had killed her.

“If she is dead, then we must bear the pain of it,” Sancha said, her voice trembling. “But let us pray it is not so.”

Cordelia began to mount the stone steps. Titania followed, and Tania could see the dread in the Queen's eyes as she climbed toward the hatchway in the roof. Tania and Edric came next, and finally Sancha and Zara. The trapdoor had been forced open and smashed—damage that Tania guessed had been done when Eden and her sisters had fled here with the Gray Knights on their heels.

Tania's heart thumped sickeningly and a horrible pain grew in her stomach as she approached the broken trapdoor. But when her head came out into the open, she saw that the flat stone flags of the roof were bare, save for a ring of blackened markings like fire scorches on the stones.

“Eden did not die here,” Cordelia said.

They all came up onto the roof. “Was she captured, mayhap?” Sancha asked. “Could it be she is their prisoner?”

“She may have escaped them altogether,” Zara said. “She is very powerful.”

Edric touched Tania's arm. She turned to him and saw that he was staring southward with an appalled look on his face. Titania had moved to the southern side of the waist-high stone balustrade, her body stiff and tense, her hands tightened into white fists at her sides as she gazed at the Royal Palace.

Tania let out a gasp of shock. A scene of utter devastation met her eyes. The Privy Gardens that lay between the parklands and the palace had been laid waste. It was as if some hideous disease had passed
over the flower beds and lovingly tended groves of trees, leaving only bare bones and blasted earth. The fountains were dry and many of the statues that decorated the pathways had been broken or knocked down.

Beyond the blistered gardens, a haze of dirty gray smoke hung over the palace. Here and there from blackened windows and collapsed roofs, spirals of darker smoke curled into the sky. The palace was vast, and Tania could see that much of it was still undamaged—the high red-brick walls of countless towers and turrets and buildings and halls still standing proud along the river's winding course—but the Royal Apartments, the parts of the palace that Tania knew best, had been seared and scarred by fire.

“How has the Sorcerer King wrought such destruction is so short a time?” murmured Zara, coming up beside Tania. “In but a few brief days…”

“I knew that he was mighty in evil sorcery and that he would wish harm upon us,” said Sancha. “But not like this…not like
this
…”

“The menagerie is deserted,” Cordelia said, shading her eyes as she peered to that part of the gardens. “If he has harmed the animals, I swear I will cut the very heart out of him.”

“Perhaps they got away,” Tania said. “I can't see any bodies or anything.”

“I pray it is so.” Cordelia turned away. “There is work to be done.” She moved to the far side of the roof and let out a series of lilting high-pitched whistles.

A few moments later a pair of crows came flapping up from the trees and landed on Cordelia's outstretched arm. She spoke briefly to them in a low voice. They each gave a single caw in response and flew away.

“It is done,” said Cordelia. “The birds will create a diversion so that we may escape this place. Let us go down to the doorway and wait.”

Tania was glad to get away from the sight of the palace. As she descended the spiral stairs she saw in her mind the glorious halls and chambers of the Royal Apartments; it was hard to believe that all the beauty and splendor of the place that she had only just accepted as her second home had been destroyed in just a few days.

They gathered in the lower level of the tower. Cordelia opened the door a fraction. Tania stood at her shoulder, peering out through the trees to where two Gray Knights sat astride their skeletal steeds. Edric was close beside her. Their eyes met and she knew he was thinking of their recent encounters with the undead Knights of Lyonesse.

The sudden screeching of birds and the sound of beating wings took her attention and she looked back at the Gray Knights. Scores of different birds were attacking the silent watchers; Tania recognized ravens and starlings and crows and magpies rising and falling and whirling about the heads of the knights and their horses. A frantic neighing came from the animals as they were attacked by beak and claw. The knights
drew their swords, shouting and howling in their half-human voices as they fought. The gray horses reared and bucked. White swords slashed this way and that. Black feathers flew and birds fell.

“Now is the time,” Cordelia said, throwing the door wide. “Follow close!” She ran through the doorway, Tania and the others on her heels, following her through the leafless trees toward the palace.

Cordelia's eyes blazed with anger. “I curse the Sorcerer King that he has made me ask such a sacrifice from living creatures!”

She halted where the trees ended. Tania and the others gathered behind her, staring out from behind the slender trunks. The great northern gatehouse of the palace stood about a mile away from them, a crudely painted version of the banner of Lyonesse billowing from its high turret: a black serpent on a bloodred background. Two mounted knights guarded the gate.

“We can't cross all this open space,” Edric said. “We'll be seen.”

“We should keep to the edge of the forest,” Titania said. “Head east to the orchards and vineyards. We can use the trees and vines as cover to get to the palace from there.” Her voice hardened. “And once Oberon is free, I swear we will have such revenge that the damnable island of Lyonesse will tremble to its deepest foundations!”

Tania looked in surprise at her Faerie mother—at that breathtakingly familiar face, the face that was a
mirror to her own, with the green eyes and the high slanted cheekbones, and the frame of tumbling red hair. A change had come over Titania; already Tania could hear the formal elegance of Faerie speech in her mother's voice, as though the five hundred years of her exile were melting away. In the Mortal World, Titania had established herself as a powerful business woman specializing in human rights law, but now it was brought starkly home to Tania that this woman was the Immortal Queen of Faerie, prepared to do whatever it took to save her husband and her kingdom.

“And once in the Palace, what then?” asked Sancha. “Where do we begin the search?”

“We must go by stealth to the Royal Apartments,” said Cordelia. “And down to the dungeons below, for it is there that our father will have been imprisoned, be most sure of that.”

“And Eden also, pray it be so,” added Sancha.

“Then let's go,” said Titania. “Follow me, and keep to cover.”

“Hang on,” Tania said. “Wouldn't it make more sense for just a few of us to go down there, at least till we know what we're up against?” She looked at her mother. “It's crazy for us
all
to go—and it's especially crazy for
you
to risk it. If something bad happens to you, how do we get Oberon free once we find him?”

“You're wrong, Tania, if you think I have any special powers to help liberate the King from the Sorcerer King's enchantments,” Titania said grimly. “The strength that we have between us
may
be enough to
defeat Lyonesse, but it cannot be used until after Oberon has been set free. So long as he is imprisoned in amber the bond between us is severed and the power of the Sun King and the Moon Queen is broken.”

“Then it makes even more sense for you to stay clear of the Palace,” Tania urged. “We
think
he'll be in the dungeons, but what if he isn't? What if it takes us a while to find him? We could run into all kinds of trouble.”

“A smaller group would be less likely to be seen, Your Grace,” Edric said. “If the King is too heavily guarded, we may need to make our way up into Anvis, to Caer Ravensare, to fetch reinforcements.”

“Let us hope that is not the case,” said Titania. “Every hour we lose only helps the Sorcerer King to tighten his grip on the land.” She looked thoughtfully at Tania. “You have a good head on your shoulders.” She sighed heavily. “It burns my heart to send my children into danger, but I will do as you say and remain in the forest.”

“Not alone,” said Cordelia. “I will remain with our mother lest the enemy come upon her by stealth.” She drew her crystal sword. “They shall not harm her while I stand at her side.”

Sancha swung the backpack she had been carrying off her shoulder and held it out to Cordelia. “Guard our mother's crown till we return.”

Cordelia took the bag. “I will.”

“Then it is agreed,” said Titania. “Edric, Sancha, Tania, and Zara will go to the Palace, and Cordelia
and I will wait here and pray that you find the King and return safely.”

“A party of four, with but two swords,” said Zara. “Who of us will go unarmed into such peril?”

“I'll do without a weapon for the time being,” said Edric, holding out his sword for Tania. “I'd rather know that you'd be able to defend yourself.”

“I also will forbear a weapon,” said Sancha. “Let Tania and Zara be our warrior maidens.”

Tania took the sword from Edric's hand and stared out toward the smoke-hazed palace. What harm had the Sorcerer King done in that sad, defiled place? She tightened her grip on the sword hilt, pushing away her fear as she prepared to confront the horrors that she knew must be lurking in the palace.

“Ready?” Edric asked her.

She nodded, her lips pressed tightly together. She had to be ready.

The Realm of Faerie needed her—what other choice was there?