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A shocked gasp ran through the room as every Faerie felt a sharp stab in the heart. Their lord was dead. Robert wordlessly ran out to his motorcycle and took off as quickly as he could.
Gwendaline started to sway where she stood and Mistral was at her side in a moment, putting his arms around her and supporting her. She leaned on him a moment, her strength gone, and he silently picked her up off her feet and carried her to her chambers where she could mourn in private.
The other inhabitants of the Freehold also began their preparations for mourning. Not all the Fae who claimed this holding as home were there and they would have to be told. Messengers went this way and that and with a heavy heart, Pete opened up the diner part of the Freehold. Mourning would need a safe place, and a great many lives had been touched by the Liam Sidhe. The Freehold was the best place to sit and remember and talk about the good times.
Racing across town, Robert Sexton rode his motorcycle with a pain-filled silence. He did his best to blink back the tears that were threatening to blind him and his hands gripped the bars so hard that his knuckles turned white. He knew the way to the Countess' Freehold blindfolded, which was a good thing, since he doubted that he could see anything in his condition.
Andrew stifled a frustrated sigh. Something in his heart told him to be elsewhere, and he didn't know what to do. He was trapped in the Countess' court with Baroness Morgan, who he was coming to dislike more and more, and not the least because he knew she was responsible for the attack on his sister.
There was a noise in the back of the room and Andrew turned to see what it was. A satyr burst through the doors, his face white with grief and pain. Andrew knew Robert Sexton, he knew that the satyr was Messenger for Leonine's court. What was he doing here?
Robert staggered towards Estella and someone snickered at what was apparently a drunken goat, but the snickering stopped when Robert fell to his knee before Estella and announced his news in a voice that was plainly grief-stricken. "Your Excellency... Leonine is dead!"
There was a moment of shocked suprise in the court and Estella rose to her feet with the strength of her emotion. Andrew happened to be looking at his Liege when she heard the news and he thought he saw a flicker of triumph in her eyes. Suddenly he was sickened to his stomach with this woman and wanted nothing to do with her. He took a step forward.
"Gwynne, you will stay right where you are." came Morgan's hissed command.
Andrew turned on his heel to face her. "No I won't. My sister is in pain and I must go to her." He had no idea why he was saying this, except that it seemed right.
Morgan looked at him with utter shock and suprise. "What? I am your sworn liege, young knight, don't forget your duty to me."
That was more than Andrew could take and years of pain came rushing forth. "My duty, Lady Baroness? My duty is to my sister, my twin sister from whose side I was cruelly stolen, stolen by one who was allied with yourself, or have you forgotten that so quickly? My duty is with the mourning Heir to Castles-in-the-Air, and not to your petty feud. I would rather live forsworn than abandon my sister in her hour of need, and if that's what it takes, then the Dreaming can do its worst, because Chrysta needs me, and you disgust me." Then he turned his back to her and walked out of the room.
For a moment everyone waited for the backlash of Glamour of an oath forsworn, and they waited in vain, until Morgan finally realized what had been missing at his Swearing, the Dreaming had not backed the Oath.
Andrew walked up the steps into Castles-in-the-Air and saw Pete at the counter. Pete looked up at him in suprise. "Didn't expect to see you here." he said.
"Almost didn't expect to be here. Where's my sister? She and I have been apart too long."
"What about Morgan?" Pete had a way of getting to the point.
Andrew grimaced. "I left her, very loudly and very publicly, and I have no idea why I'm not Oathbroken, but somehow I'm not. Please, my twin sister needs me."
Pete motioned him through. "Third floor. She's in her rooms with young Mistral, probably sobbing her eyes out by now. Welcome to Castles-in-the Air, young noble."
In the corner two little children watched the exchange with happy smiles and clasped hands. Now Lady Gwendaline would have her brother, the same way they had each other. They mourned Leonine, and it hurt them that the kind, gentle-eyed man was gone, but children are the wisest souls and they took joy where they could find it.
In her room Kerrie cried quietly. She had served Leonine for nigh on ten years now, ten of the happiest years she could remember, barring the one year she had had with Michael so long ago. She'd seen more death and lost more friends than any in the Freehold, the Dreaming only knew she'd been losing people ever since her Chrysalis back when she was still only a child. A young, frightened child bearing a child in the darkest shame imaginable.
Andrew walked up to the door and knocked. After a moment the door swung open and he entered, and saw his sister, Chrysta, called Gwendaline as he was called Gwynne, sobbing with grief in her husband's arms. He exchanged glances with Mistral and then knealt next to Chrysta and put his hand on her arm. "Chrysta?" He didn't really know what to say. Words failed him now that he was where he felt he should be. "Oh, Chrysta, I'm so very sorry..." His voice broke and she looked up at him, tears still streaming down her face.
"Andrew?" She looked so pain-filled... It was almost more than he could take. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm your brother. I... I renounced Morgan... she wasn't going to let me come here, and it was too much. I'm sorry I wasn't there for you as a child..." He couldn't say more because she wrapped one arm around him and pulled him into an embrace.
"It wasn't your fault, my twin, it wasn't. I just wish we could tell our parents, but it would be more than they could understand..." Her voice broke. "Oh Leonine..." Husband and brother held the grieving Heir to Castles close and let her cry.
Lisa and Robbie found Kerrie in her room, after much looking. "Kerrie," Robbie asked, "why is everyone so terribly sad? Leonine's coming back, isn't he? Isn't that what happens when a faerie dies? They sleep a bit and then come back?"
Kerrie looked up at them and realized that the twins didn't understand. "Oh, little ones, Leonine isn't going to come back. He died a real death, not a chimerical one, and the Sidhe are not reborn..." Her voice cracked and she started to cry again, softly.
The twins stared at her for a moment, the words slowly sinking in, and then both of them started crying too, and fell into Kerrie's arms, seeking a mother's comfort. They hadn't known, hadn't realized.
Many hours later, after the children had fallen asleep, Kerrie crept from her bed, unable to find the rest she knew she needed. Without really being aware of it, she found she had opened up one of the large trunks in her chamber, one she hadn't opened it a very long time. She carefully pulled from the trunk an exquisite china doll, with painted black hair, and little black boots, and a painted white face. Also in the trunk were clothes for this precious doll, clothes of silk and other fine materials, sewn by a child's hand, and a little doll quilt. It had been a very long time since Kerrie had held this doll.
Memories came flooding back to her, memories she had tried to forget over the years. The soldiers, the fighting, the parties her father would hold, and the nights where she would hold the doll close and pray to whatever God there was that she would be safe for just one night. And the terrible day the soldiers came to the land her father held, and she had grabbed the doll, and the clothes, and her little sister, and taken off running, and had come upon a Freehold, and felt her Chrysalis. She was only eleven years old, and pregnant.
Kerrie forced back the memories with some effort. She heard a little gasp of suprise and looked up to see, in the doorway, Lisa standing, holding the blanket Kerrie had given her. Lisa looked up into Kerrie's face. "May I see the dolly?" There was a note of awe in her voice.
Kerrie nodded, slowly, and Lisa came closer to kneel next to the older Boggan and hesitantly reached out one hand to touch the hem of the doll's skirt with a fingertip. "She's beautiful." Lisa whispered.
Kerrie felt a wrench in her heart. Lisa was so like she had been. She gently put the doll in the child's arms. "Here, you can have her. She was mine when I was your age, and she helped me come through alot, maybe she'll help you." Kerrie paused. "I have clothes for her, but they are old, and they would fall apart easily. I'll help you make new clothes for her. But right now it's late, and you need to be asleep."
"She's so beautiful. Aren't you afraid I'll hurt her?"
"No, child, that doesn't frighten me. Guenna made it through a war with me, she can handle just about anything you throw at her, and I know you'll be careful. Dolls were made to be handed down."
Lisa smiled brightly through tears. "Oh, thank you, Mamma Kerrie, thank you so very much." The child reached up to hug Kerrie's neck and then stood and padded off to bed, holding Guenna carefully in her arms, already talking to her as Kerrie had, all those years ago.
Kerrie watched her go, and then set about putting things back to rights. A cough to her other side told her that someone else had seen the exchange. Pete stood leaning up against a wall, tears in his eyes. "That musta been difficult, love." he said, his voice thick.
She nodded, not trusting her own voice.
"I've seen dolls like that one, they're pretty old. Did you get it from your mother, or your grandmother?" He sounded merely curious, not prying.
Kerrie shook her head. "My mother died when I was very young. My aunt bought the doll for me, and helped me make the clothes for her. Aunt Caroline died a few years later and my father didn't have any other female relatives who could look after me." She was tearing up again, and fell silent.
Pete knealt down next to her and pulled her into his arms. "Come on, you need some rest." he murmured, and helped her up and together they walked out of the room.
Daniel walked slowly down the back street and knocked on the door to the garage that Brandon had indicated that he and his friends were using to practice. He didn't know what to expect, but he knew that he needed something to take his mind off Leonine's death, and the association with Brandon seemed to help him as much as it helped the younger teenager.
Daniel had learned that Brandon was an orphan, his parents had been killed when he was very small and now he lived with a maiden aunt. He'd been friends with Robbie and Lisa for almost a year, and the thought that they hadn't trusted him enough to come to him with the problems with their father was tormenting him greatly.
Daniel wasn't quite an orphan himself, but his father had walked out of his life rather early and his mother had been into all sorts of nasty stuff and so he was taken away from her and placed in his grandparent's care, and it was with them that he had learned about, and accepted their religion. He was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- Day Saints at ten, and was probably stronger in his faith since becoming Fae than he would have been otherwise.
He heard a voice calling to him to enter and did so, noticing Brandon and three other young men, and a young woman, arranging themselves with various instruments and sheets of music paper. Brandon was discussing something with the young woman and she was nodding in agreement. He looked up at Daniel. "We'll get started shortly, Dan. You can sit on the stool over there, if you want to. Thanks for coming."
Daniel grinned at the artist and sat himself on the aforementioned stool to wait, and listen.
Soon enough the group began playing the songs that Brandon had been working so carefully on lately, various laments about child abuse, and one song in particular that he had written especially for Robbie and Lisa, and as they played through that one, Daniel found himself wishing for the time when they would perform it, and imagining how he was going to sneak the twins in to hear it.
They were good, Daniel thought. They were very good. Maybe they'd manage to keep themselves going, so few managed to survive on dreams, and those who made it to the big- time more often than not lost the magic of the music in the process. Daniel prayed that Brandon's group wouldn't suffer either fate, losing the dream to sucess or to lack thereof.
Morgan was absolutely livid with anger. How dare Gwynne abandon her like that?! And how dare the Dreaming not slap him so hard he'd never get up again?! She was infuriated, and her anger drove all thought from her mind. She paced back and forth in her room, shouting at the walls, as if they were the inhabitants of Castles-in-the-Air. She'd get them all. So help her, she'd get them all.
Tabby wandered around the park just thinking and enjoying the trees, even though they were almost bare of leaves, and it wasn't even particularly warm out. It was actually almost cold, cold enough that she needed a slightly thicker jacket than she usually wore to keep out the slight sea breeze that was always blowing in Mountainview.
"I don't know what she'll do next." Tabby heard a voice off to the side of her and felt the familiar tingle at the back of her neck that signalled the approach of another Fae. Tabby's senses were stronger than most in that regard and she quickly hid herself far enough away so the speaker wouldn't hear her, but close enough to hear the rest of the conversation.
"Yeah, she's like a madwoman sometimes. First that feud with Leonine... Now, I can understand a woman getting all bent out of shape over a man, but killing him? That's too far. Even for an Eiluned. Though Fuddling that drunk driver was quite a move. I'll have to remember that one."
"Hush, there may be prying ears about. We don't want *her* to hear about this, do we?"
"No way."
The voices continued for some time, but they had moved too far away for her to hear, and Tabby knew that she had heard enough already, more than enough. Plans bubbled around in her head, fighting with the rage that boiled up from her heart.
Daniel walked through the park on his way back to Castles before going home for the evening. It had been a good practice, Brandon and the others were doing just fine, and he enjoyed being around them, but Daniel still had homework to complete, or his grandparents would have a fit, and he didn't have time to deal with that right now.
He heard a snarl off to the side and turned to see Tabby, a look of absolute hatred on her normally lighthearted face. "What is it, Tabby?" He didn't know if he really wanted to know, but he just had to ask.
Tabby spit and snarled for a few moments, fighting to get the words out. "I didn't just hear two goons from Skyfire Circle gabbing away for all the world to hear. I didn't just hear them say that Morgan..." Words failed her for a moment and she degenerated into nonsensical growling. "...that Morgan had Leonine killed." The words fought their way through her gritted teeth. "I will swear before any Court in the land, I know what they said, and I know how it was accomplished. The... bitch Fuddled the drunk driver so he'd hit Leonine." Tabby stopped speaking alltogether, her whole body tense and furious.
Daniel felt his own mind shut down and a terrible anger arise in his breast. "She... did... what?" He forced the words out and looked at Tabby in incredulous rage.
Castles-in-the-Air prepared excitedly for the investiture of Gwendaline as Lady Baroness. Grief-stricken as the Freehold was, they pulled together to accomplish this joyous celebration. But even in the joy, there was sorrow. Pete continued to run the coffeeshop twenty- four/seven so those who wished to commemorate Leonine might do so in a safe atmosphere. Leonine had a great many friends, and the majority of them didn't know about his Faerie nature, and the business he had given so much to was a comforting place for them, as if his spirit was still there, watching over everything.
The investiture and the accompanying celebration passed with relative calmness, though it must be noted that no one from Morgan's Holding was invited. Well, almost no one, Andrew was at his sister's side, but many considered him to be of Castles-in-the-Air after his renunciation of Morgan and her actions.
In mixed joy and sorrow, the Fiona noble woman took her place among the Faeries she had grown to love, her brother on one side, and her husband on the other.
Afterwards, Lisa was wandering through the halls and found Sarah and Tabby talking. The two wilders motioned for her to join them, and she quickly climbed up into Tabby's lap, holding the doll Kerrie had given her. Lisa carried Guenna everywhere now.
"What is it?" Lisa asked.
"Oh, nothing at all happened just before all the havoc with Leonine." Tabby whispered. Sarah just rolled her eyes.
"What happened?" Lisa asked.
"I finally made the move with Keith." Sarah told her.
Lisa squeeled in delight, and had to be shushed. "Sorry. I'm so happy for you."
"Well, that isn't the only happy news around here. I got a doozie that you'll just love to hear." Tabby's face was grave, and that worried her friends.
"What is it, my friend?" Sarah asked.
Tabby sighed. "Well, Daniel doesn't already know, and he hasn't gone ballistic already, but I didn't hear two goons in the park. I didn't hear them talking about Morgan. And I definitely didn't hear them say that Morgan caused that drunk driver to run into Leonine."
Sarah and Lisa gasped in suprise and Lisa burrowed into Tabby's arms in sorrow. "Oh, how terrible." the child said.
Sarah's face hardened. "How dare she?! This is unforgivable."
It didn't take long after that for the information to make the rounds through the Freehold. No few of the inhabitants went to bed sharpening knives and thinking of revenge. No one noticed that Daniel had gone missing. No one had seen him after he had finished his duties in the investiture.
In Skycourt, Morgan retired to her library early. She had some reading to catch up on, and about half a dozen plots and plans she had to work on as well.
A few hours later a scream was heard in the library, followed by a tremor throughout the Holding, and a group of Knights sworn to her service came running.
They opened the door, about five minutes after the scream was heard, to find Morgan's bloody body lying on the floor, stab wounds in her chest, and a look of fear frozen on her face. Standing above the body with a bloody Iron Knife in his hand, was Sir Daniel of Castles-in-the-Air.
The whole County was up in arms, and the nobles are out for blood, preferrably that of Sir Daniel, who was unfortunate enough to be caught with the bloody dagger in hand. Admittedly, Morgan was not the most well-liked of nobles, particularly by her own people, but the notion that a commoner would kill her, with an Iron Knife no less, was repugnant to the gentry.
Gwendaline heard the news rather quickly, a messenger from Skyfire Circle came running for her after he had gone for the Countess. The Skyfire Knights were more in favor of summary execution, but one of the grumps, a titled commoner, managed to keep his head enough to know that everyone else had lost theirs and called in the real authorities, in the intrests of justice.
Sir Daniel kept insisting he didn't do it.
Unfortunately, there weren't any Gwydion Sidhe in Skyfire Circle, not that they'd have been able to read his voice correctly in the heat of their own anger.
Estella and Gwendaline arrived in moments of each other, along with a good number of local Sidhe, most of whom were villifying Sir Daniel pretty enthousiastically. With Gwendaline came Sarah, Tabby, and Keith. With Estella was a strange woman, not Kithain, but not exactly mundane either. She had the glow of enchantment, but Estella seemed to treat her as an equal, which was strange.
Rather quickly, Sir Daniel was brought foward to Estella, once she had settled into Morgan's Courtroom. This had to be settled, and settled quickly. It didn't help that the Knights who brought him in, who were mostly Sidhe and traditionalist commoners, had clapped him in chains. Things did not look good for Castles resident Trollish Knight.
"I didn't kill Morgan." Daniel kept repeating like some sort of mantra.
Tabby tried to explain to the Court what Morgan had done, but that only caused the blood-thirsty nobles to claim motive for Daniel to kill her, and those were the ones who believed her.
Sarah, a Gwydion Sidhe, tried to support Daniel's claims to innocence. "He speaks truth." she declared, but those who would listen to her claimed that she was too close to the problem to read his voice accurately. Of course that meant that all Gwydion Sidhe were too close to the problem to read accurately, so that wasn't going to help.
It wasn't until Estella's companion stood to speak that Daniel felt any hope at all.
"I am known to the Countess Estella, but so that those who know me not will understand why I speak, I will introduce myself. I am Allison Sees-Unclouded, Children of Gaia Philodox of the Garou. I am a Judge of my people and I am a Truthcatcher. Gaia gives to the Judges of her people the ability to discern truth from lies, and I declare that this man speaks the truth. Whatever he has done, his was not the hand that slew the Lady Baroness Morgan of Skyfire Circle."
This of course, caused a whole new round of shouting with the most virulent nobles declaring that a Prodigal couldn't read the guilt in a Faerie's heart. More were convinced by Allison's words than by anything else that had been said though, and most importantly, Estella accepted Allison's words.
"What were you doing in Skyfire Circle, then, Sir Knight?" Estella asked. There were boos and hisses from the crowd at her choice of addresses.
"I'm not sure anymore." Daniel's voice was broken. "I got a message that I needed to meet someone in the park, so I went. I was hit from behind and when I woke up, I was in the room, and she was dead. I don't know why I picked the knife up, I was in shock, I suppose. I didn't do it. I wanted to, but I didn't do it."
Allison nodded in agreement with his words.
"Peace, good Knight, your words are believed." Estella's voice was kind and understanding, and gentle. "As a noble of these lands, and as Countess, I declare that you are found to be innocent of this ghastly crime, I pray that you will assist us in finding the true criminal, wherever the person may be."
There were gasps and shouts of disbelief, and Daniel sagged with relief. Tabby broke loose of Sarah and Keith and ran out to him, hugging him in happiness and relief. In suprise, he held her close for a moment. He hadn't realized that she cared that much for him.
Unfortunately, the judgement that day didn't end all the grumblings, and there were still a great many nobles who distrusted Daniel, and by extention all Trolls, and a great many commoners who distrusted the nobles for not believing Daniel at the first. Things didn't look good for the County, things didn't look good at all.
It didn't take Estella long to realize that the County wasn't ready yet to deal with the decision of who was to Hold Skyfire Circle, so she called up to her the Commoner noble who had managed to keep his head in all of the hullabaloo.
"I am Marbles, your Excellency, Marbles O'Riordan, Eshu Grump."
Upon Marbles Estella placed responsibility for the Holding, until such time as other arrangements could be made.
Back at Castles-in-the-Air, Robbie and Lisa wait in breathless concern over the outcome of a trial they couldn't attend. Daniel was their friend. He was big and strong and kind, and he was teaching them something about how to fight.
They were waiting at the door that separated the diner from the Freehold when Gwendaline returned with Daniel and the others. The twins pushed through the door and ran over to hug the Troll Knight's waist, squeeling in delight that he is still with them.
The Giant knealt down to embrace the enchanted twins, holding them close to him as if trying to convince himself that they were really real. Gwendaline and Tabby hustled them into the Freehold and Robbie and Lisa were able to talk to Daniel at length about everything they had seen, and felt, and said since they'd last seen him.
As the children talked the others in the group gradually left them to go to their own several tasks, until the only ones left in the study room where they had sat down were Daniel, the twins, one on each knee, and Tabby, sitting off to one side, and watching Daniel with the twins, just watching him, as if her eyes could not see enough of him.
Of course it would be Lisa who noticed the way Tabby looked at Daniel. Lisa had a way of knowing, and she happened to look at Tabby's face as Robbie was talking, and she knew what the Pooka had hidden in her heart, and couldn't say. She reached over to touch her twin's arm.
"I think Daniel's tired now, Robbie." She said in her artless way. "We gotta go and let him rest."
Robbie didn't understand what Lisa was getting at, and Daniel protested that he wasn't tired at all. But the little girl was adamant. "We gotta go now. Tabby can take care of you for a while. We'll be back." Then she pulled her brother by the hand out the door and closed it behind them.
"What was that about?" Robbie asked her.
"Tabby's gotta be alone with him. Tabby's in love with him."
"Ewwww. Gross."
Lisa slapped his arm, then promptly grew shame-faced. "Sorry 'bout that. It's not gross, it's grown up."
"Whatever you say." Robbie wasn't convinced.
"Come on, let's explore the underground caverns."
That got Robbie's intrest. "Yeah, that sounds like fun." The two children linked hands and capered off down the hall.
In the study, Daniel looked at Tabby for a long while after the children left, and she looked at him, the silence growing between them until it was unbearable.
Finally, as if unable to not do anything anymore, Tabby walked over to where Daniel sat, and sat on a stool near him, and hesitantly reached a hand out to touch his.
Daniel slid off his chair to pull Tabby into his arms. "I want to thank you for standing with me." he said, trying to fight through his emotions, to find out just what was going on inside his heart.
Tabby looked up into his face. "I didn't want to take on all those arrogant Sidhe myself. I didn't want to pound them into mush for hurting you. I didn't want to hold you and make it all better..." Her voice broke near the end of the sentence, and tears welled up in her eyes.
"Thank you, Tabitha Katt. Thank you so very much." He held her face in his hands and somehow his words said so much more than they were supposed to say.
She reached her arms around his neck and rested her head against his heart, listening to the steady rhythm of its beating. She didn't need to say anything, because he already understood.
Robbie and Lisa were crawling through a tunnel, both of them wonderously dirty by now, when the came upon the workshop.
It was a single cavern, big to a child, but it wouldn't be to an adult, and filled with odds and ends of what seemed like millions of different gadgets. In one corner sat a very dirty little boy with tangled light brown hair, or maybe dirty blond hair, and he seemed to be working on something. He was also muttering invectives creative and vulgar enough to cause Robbie to redden in shame that his sister should have to hear such language.
Lisa didn't seem to mind. "Hello, what're you doin'?"
He looked up. "How'd you find me? You can't take me back there. I won't go back there. Never."
"Go back where?" Lisa asked.
"Skyfire Circle. I hate it there."
"You don't have to go back then." Robbie said. "This is Castles-in-the-Air, and the Lady Gwendaline won't make you go anywhere you don't want to go."
"What're you making?" Lisa asked again.
"It's a Transmogriphyer. It's supposed to change things into other things. Don't touch it."
Robbie was about to challenge the strange boy when Lisa spoke again. "Oh, I wouldn't dream of touching it unless you told me to. It wouldn't be right to touch another person's stuff. I might break something and I'd hate for that to happen. My name's Lisa, what's yours?"
Snickersnack. and your hotheaded friend here?" He seemed to notice Robbie's growing anger.
"He's my twin brother, Robbie. I like your name. Did you choose it yourself?"
Snickersnack nodded. "Yeah. Listen, are you sure that this Lady of yours isn't going to make me go back to Skyfire Circle?"
Both Robbie and Lisa nodded. "She's really nice, and she'd never make you go there." Lisa said. "If you want to, we can take you to meet her and you can ask her yourself."
"Come on," Snickersnack said, disbelieving, "two kids like you can't get in to see the high-n-mighty Lady, now can you? They don't even let Faerie kids near the Lady Morgan, and you two aren't even Faerie."
Lisa stood tall. "I can too get you in to see Lady Gwendaline. She likes Robbie 'n' me and she's really nice. She's nothin' like Morgan. 'Sides, Morgan's dead."
That got Snickersnack's attention. "Really? She's gone? Who done bumped the ol' witch off?"
Lisa faltered. "We don't know. They were gonna blame Sir Daniel, but he didn't do it, even if they did find him holding the Iron dagger that killed her..."
"Morgan got killed by Iron???" Snickersnack was almost yelling. "I gotta hear the whole of this story."
Robbie nodded slowly. "Lady Gwendaline can tell you anything you want to know, do you want to come with us to see her?"
"You betcha, and hey, you got a cool sister. Wish I had one like her."
Lisa flushed with pleasure.
The three children scurried through the tunnels up to the Freehold proper and went looking for Gwendaline, and found her in the Garden on the roof.
Gwendaline was sitting on a bench talking with Andrew. "That's Lady Gwendaline," Lisa pointed out, "and the guy with her is her twin brother, Andrew. She thought he was dead until just really recent."
A chill crept through the Garden, and the children shivered.
"I don't like the feel of that..." Snickersnack muttered.
"Me either." the twins murmured in unison.
Gwendaline and Andrew must have felt the chill as well, because they shivered slightly in the sunlight. It didn't take long for them to find out the source for a dark form emerged from the shadows near them. He was a tall Sidhe, with pale blond hair and creamy skin. He was astonishingly handsome, but the most startling quality was the chill that surrounded him, and the feeling of absolute darkness around him. Gwendaline gasped in suprise and lept to her feet from where she sat on a bench. Andrew also stood quickly, and took up a protective postition in front of Gwendaline, between her and the man.
"Rhydian!"
The children watching were horrified. This was the Sidhe who had stolen Gwendaline, and had tried to kill Mistral. Snickersnack stifled a growl. "The bastard's a Dauntain!" Robbie and Lisa were too terrified to say anything.
Gwendaline must have heard something where the children hid, for she quickly moved in front of them and started talking. "What are you doing here, Rhydian?"
"I've come to get you, my dear." His voice was as cultured as ever, but there was something slightly chilly about it. "You belong to me and you always have. I always retrieve what's mine."
Andrew growled. "Not if I have anything to say about it."
"Ah, so the young cub has grown up. How delightful. You wouldn't believe how angry Morgan was when you regained your memories. She blamed me for that little event. She was even talking about telling Estella that I was still in town, and I couldn't have that, now could I?"
Gwendaline's eyes narrowed. "You killed Morgan." she said flatly.
"Yes, my dear, I did. And I was the one who sent the note to Daniel and I was the one who left him in her study. The damage is done. The nobles and the commoners don't trust each other anymore, and sooner or later it will explode into war, even if Daniel didn't run away as I had hoped he would. A fugitive Troll would have been so useful." Rhydian drew a dagger from his belt, and it pulsed with the icy feel of Cold Iron. "Now, I'm going to have to kill young Andrew, and you and I have someplace to be."
Rhydian reached out to strike Andrew, and stabbed him in the chest. Andrew fell to the ground, blood running everywhere. Gwendaline screamed and dropped something on the ground, but Rhydian didn't notice. She moved quickly to the other side of the Garden, and he followed her, while Lisa took the opportunity to reach out and snatch what Gwendaline had dropped.
Rhydian heard her and turned to see the terrified child. "Run, Lisa!" Gwendaline cried out, but Rhydian was already moving towards her. Robbie and Snickersnack burst from their hiding place and Gwendaline, in desperation, cast a Cantrip.
The warm, comforting Glamour surrounded the Nocker childling and the enchanted children, and carried them far away.
Then Rhydian grabbed Gwendaline and they disappeared.
Across town, the children reappear in an alleyway, and for a moment they simply hold each other, waiting for the fear to subside.
"What are we gonna do?" Snickersnack said.
"We gotta tell Estella what we heard." Robbie told him.
"But no one believes childlings." Snickersnack was sorrowful.
"They'll believe us." Lisa uncurled her fingers to show the two boys what it was that she had risked all to retrieve. It was Gwendaline's signet ring. "With this, they'll believe us. We gotta tell Estella. Before war breaks out or something worse."
"Where is she?" Mistral demanded in a harsh whisper.
Kerrie pushed him out of the sickroom, or at least, did her best to push him out, the heart-stricken Sluagh refused to move.
Young Andrew Richmond, called by the Faerie folk Gwynne, lay on the bed, white as the sheets he lay on, dying from a Cold Iron wound. Lady Baroness Gwendaline, Andrew's twin sister Chrysta, was missing. And Mistral was livid.
"You must leave." Kerrie said, trying once again to push him out of the room. "He needs rest, and Glamour, and you are disturbing him." Andrew had been found on the roof-garden, unconcious, and he had not regained conciousness.
Pete sat next to Andrew's bed, checking bandages and taking care of other details. "He'll not heal up faster with you watchin' him, an' ye're not gonna find yer lady stayin' here. Someone's gotta tell Estella."
Mistral sagged with pain and weariness, and Kerrie absently patted his arm in comfort. "Oh my Gwendaline..." he murmured, "Oh my precious love." This was too like the time Rhydian had stolen the then-Fledgeling Chrysta from her bed in Castles-in-the-Air.
With some effort Kerrie pushed and pulled Mistral Wind from the Infirmary and into his own chambers. She had just shut the door when a childling pulled at her shirtsleeve. "Mistress Kerrie?" Kerrie looked down at the young one. "Dame Sarah told me to tell you that she can't find Robbie or Lisa. She's still looking, but there's no sign of them."
Kerrie felt her heart shatter. "Oh no..." She took a deep breath. "Take me to Dame Sarah, now."
Across town three young children looked at each other, trying to decide what to do. They knew what had happened to Lady Baroness Gwendaline, but they were lost.
Robbie looked at Lisa for a moment. "We went to Countess Estella's Freehold only once."
Lisa nodded. "Yeah. An' I don't know if we can find it on our own, but we have to."
Robbie and Snickersnack nodded. "Maybe if we asked the Dreaming to help us?" Snickersnack offered.
Lisa exchanged looks with Robbie. Then they nodded. "Should we kneel?" Lisa asked.
Snickersnack shrugged. "Don't know. Never done this before."
Robbie thought for a moment. "Why don't we hold hands?" The other two agreed. "Do you want to ask, Snickersnack?"
Snickersnack shook his head. "Let yer sister. Girls are better talkers than guys any road."
Lisa blushed and the three children linked hands, Robbie and Lisa each holding one of Guenna's china hands. There was silence for a moment as Lisa thought about what she wanted to say. "Dreaming?" she began, unsure of how to adress the power. "D'an? Danaa? Whoever you are, we need help. We're lost, an' we gotta find Countess Estella, 'cause we have a message we need to deliver, or Lady Gwendaline's gonna be in worse trouble than she already is. Please, will ya guide us to the Countess? Please?" Lisa fell silent, looking at her brother and their friend.
Just then there was a burst of Glamour and a small ball of light appeared above their heads. Snickersnack whistled in suprise. "It's a Will-o'-the-Wisp. Never seen a Glamour- struck call one o' them."
The Wisp bounced impatiently and Lisa grinned. "First time for anything. Come on, before it disappears on us." The trio broke grasp and ran off, following the tiny ball of light. Lisa hugged Guenna to her chest. They had to save Lady Gwendaline.
Brandon sighed as he pulled himself out of his meditative trance. He still couldn't shake the feeling that there was something not quite finished about Robbie and Lisa. He tried to tell himself it was only his own grief at a pair of lives struck down so cruelly, but he couldn't convince himself. He still felt that they weren't dead.
After a moment he picked up his guitar and headed out for the park. Perhaps the outdoors would help him where the meditations his elders taught him did not.
The children stuck together and made their way through the city following the tiny pote of light. Lisa held Guenna close to her heart, not wanting to risk dropping the doll and slowing them down.
They were rushing through a park when they were surrounded by a gang of kids, all years older than the five-year-olds. Robbie tried to put himself between the older kids and Lisa, but there were so many. For his part, Snickersnack was trading insults with the leader with a finesse far above his years.
After one particularly nasty insult the gang closed in and the three children rushed for freedom, barely making it out of the circle and then taking off running, with Lisa in the lead.
Soon the gang stopped chasing them and the children were following the light as quickly as they could. The city was a strange place to them, strange and frightening without a friendly adult to help them.
They were running through another park when an adult stopped them. He was a tall man, in a dark suit, and he tried to look friendly, but something in his eyes seemed so dead and lifeless. Well, dead and lifeless until he saw Guenna.
"What's your name, little girl?" he asked. Robbie and Snickersnack stood beside Lisa, trying without much success to look threatening and protective.
"Lisa." she replied softly.
"Well, Lisa, may I see your dolly? I'm very interested in dollies."
Lisa turned Guenna around in her arms so the man could see her face. "Her name is Guenna."
"Where did you get Guenna?"
"From my mommy. Guenna was her dolly when she was little. Guenna survived a war."
"I have no doubt," the man said, "and I've seen alot of dollies. I study dolls. May I hold your dolly?"
Robbie moved forward. "You leave my sister alone." Lisa took an involuntary step back. Snickersnack started growling.
"I'm not going to hurt your sister. I only want to take a closer look at Guenna."
Lisa reluctantly took a step forward and slowly placed Guenna in his hands. Snickersnack's distrust grew almost tangible. The man looked Guenna over carefully, looking at her feet and her body and her clothing. "Did you make the dress yourself?"
Lisa nodded. "Mama helped me. She said the clothes she had made for her were too old for me to play with."
The man nodded. "She's probably right. I wonder if she has any of the acoutrements..." He was murmuring to himself. "This is a very valuable doll, Lisa. Do you know how old she is?"
Lisa shook her head no.
"This doll is as old as the Civil War. And she was an expensive doll then. This doll is much to valuable to be carted around like this." He stood up and the children were frozen in horror for a moment. "Where do you live? I'd like to speak with your mother about this doll."
Suddenly Lisa understood and started pulling on his jacket. "Please, Mister, give me back my dolly. Give me back my dolly."
"I'm sorry. You are too young to understand the value of a piece like this."
"I knew it!" Snickersnack said. "You jerk! You bastard!" He rushed forward and started pounding on the man with his fists and Robbie joined him. "Give her back her doll. You have no right. . .!"
Across the playground from the children a young musician sat at a park bench, putting the final touches on a song for two children he cared a great deal for. Brandon heard the commotion and looked up. What he saw didn't please him one bit. Three children were surrounding a man in a three piece suit who was holding a doll above their heads. The children's shouts soon explained what had happened. He set his guitar down on the bench and walked over, his anger growing with every step.
"What is going on here?" he asked very carefully when he approached the group. The suit tried to stammer some explanation, he must have sensed the beast Brandon was trying so hard to control. "I believe the doll belongs to the child. Give it back!" The suit, terrified, handed the doll to the little girl Brandon dared not look to closely at. "Now leave!" The suit turned tail and ran.
Brandon watched him leave for a moment and then knelt down and looked carefully at the children, almost afraid to believe what he saw.
Lisa reached out to touch Brandon's face. "What did you do to him?"
"I frightened him away," he said. "Lisa, is it really you?" His voice was hushed. "You aren't a ghost?"
Lisa nodded. "The Faeries came. They took us away. . ." Snickersnack jabbed her in the ribs to silence her.
Brandon gave the strange blonde boy a look. "Didn't your mother ever tell you that it isn't right to hit girls?"
"Why shouldn't I? Girls are just like anyone else. 'Sides. You wouldn't believe a story like that, would you? Faeries and all that?"
Brandon felt his eyes fill with tears. "I would believe in faeries as easily as I would believe finding, alive, two children I thought killed by their father, and buried. I believe in Faeries."
Robbie stepped forward. "I'm sorry we didn't tell you. We didn't know if you could help. Mrs. Story-Lady said she'd try to find some faeries, to steal us away so no one could hurt us ever again. And she did. We gotta help the faeries though. We're tryin' to find a faerie place. We gotta get there soon. One of the faerie ladies is in trouble. An' we can help her."
Brandon pulled both children into an embrace, and then pulled the reluctant Snickersnack in with them. "I'll help you find that place. I'll help you."
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