Faerie Tale (23 page)

‘And the witches blood?’ said Denny.

‘What, so there can’t be magic and mysticism on other planets?’ said Tamar.  These guys practically invented a whole new mythology by themselves.’

‘That’s true,’ Denny conceded.

 ‘Besides, there’s probably some sensible explanation for it,’ she added uncertainly.  ‘Doesn’t blood contain iron?’

‘Yes.’

‘Well, there you are then,’ she said as if this explained everything instead of explaining nothing at all. 

‘But it’s not magic?’ he said. ‘It’s technology. 
Alien
technology.’ he sounded awed.

‘It’s … it’s a
kind
of magic,’ said Tamar uncertainly.  ‘I mean, you and I both know what magic really is, it’s just knowing something more than everyone else knows.  That’s quantum that is.  It’s just not the kind of magic that
we
know.  Like the mind control thing.  No wonder Faerie magic seemed so … so …’

‘Alien?’

‘Yes.’ she looked at the remains of the ship and thought about the Faerie realm that had existed and not existed at the same time inside it.  ‘The same but different,’ she said.

‘Well, that makes sense,’ said Denny.  ‘If all life in the universe began at the same point …’

‘They were here too long,’ said Tamar. ‘That’s all.  First they adapted and then they began to think like us.’

It occurred to Denny that Tamar was getting metaphysical.  And she really wasn’t any good at it.  She
was
good at making up explanations for things that she really did not understand.*

*
[
Which was not to say that she was not usually right.  Or at least wrong with more style than people usually are.
]

‘What time is it?’ he asked, deciding to change the subject before she dug herself in any deeper.

‘The present,’ said Tamar unhesitatingly. ‘The timelines have joined back up again now.  It’s like I told you, it’s as if nothing ever happened.’

‘So we’re back?’

‘Well, we’ve caught up with ourselves anyway.’

‘Funny, it didn’t seem to take all that long.’

‘Well. I may have moved us forward a week or so,’ admitted Tamar.

‘I never felt a thing,’ Denny rubbed his hands together.  ‘A good day’s work,’ he said. ‘The Faerie Queen is gone, and we’ve rescued all the kids and we did all that without causing a temporal paradox – right?’

‘It’s not over,’ said Tamar soberly.

‘I know that,’ snapped Denny coming back to reality.  ‘Er – what now then?’

‘We go home.  I want to find out what’s been going on.
This
time,’ she added.

* * *

‘Don’t make any sudden moves,’ said Stiles as they watched the dragon scrabbling on the tiles.  It seemed to be trying to stand up but the floor was too slippery and its legs kept sliding away from it.

‘It’s a dragon,’ said Cindy rather pointlessly.  She was trying to hide behind Finvarra, whose chivalry apparently had its limits, and would not let her.

‘Yes, stand back,’ said Stiles. ‘This bears investigating.’  And he walked slowly towards it.

‘
Investigating
?’ said Cindy incredulously.  ‘Just
kill
it.’

‘Do we really have time for this?’ snapped Finvarra.  You can see that he was getting used to the presence of his god already.

‘We may have. Where did it come from, and why?’ said Stiles.  ‘And why is it here, in our home, I mean?’

‘Why not just ask it?’ said Finvarra.  ‘Dragons
can
talk.’

‘I doubt it has anything to say,’ said Stiles.

The dragon raised its head and gave Stiles a malevolent look.  ‘Wanna go ho-ome,’ it whined.  ‘Ho-ome.’

‘Faerie land?’ asked Stiles.

‘There are no dragons in Faerie land,’ said Finvarra.  They are … were native to
this
world.’

 But the dragon replied. ‘Ye-es, ho –ome.  Etee, go ho-ome.’

‘How did you get here?’ demanded Stiles.

‘Accident.’

‘What happened?’ asked Stiles more urgently. ‘What accident?’

‘Two came, no Faeries, had to leave, make balance.  Wanna go Ho-ome.  Two left now.  Go ho-ome.’

‘So, go ho-ome, I mean home, then,’ said Stiles.

‘What’s it talking about?’ said Cindy.

‘Can’t find,’ said the dragon.  ‘Home gone.’  And then to everyone’s horror, the dragon began to cry.  Large hot tears splashed down its snout onto the tiles. Steam rose from the floor as each tear landed.  Everyone jumped back quickly.

‘It came through when Tamar and Denny entered the Faerie realm,’ translated Stiles.  ‘And now they’re back, “two came” “two left.”  Now he wants to go home but he can’t.  “Home gone”.  Which means … Tamar has done it, she’s destroyed the Faerie realm and the children are back.  It’s time to light the lamp.’

He looked at Cindy.  ‘It doesn’t need a wick.  It’s not an actual lamp, as such – it just looks like one.  Think of it as … as a digital storage device for coded genetic information.’

Cindy looked blank.

‘It’s magic okay?’ said Stiles. ‘Well, a
kind
of magic anyway.’

‘But there
are
no dragons in the Faerie realm,’ repeated Finvarra.

‘Look,’ said Hecaté, ‘as the only person currently present who has ever actually
met
a dragon, there is something wrong with this one.  Dragons are not like this.  All this “me wanna go home” stuff.  Dragons are cunning and wise and have a much better vocabulary than many humans have.  I actually met one once that wrote beautiful poetry’

‘Yes, said Stiles, ‘this may be one of the worst things the Faerie Queen did.  She took a noble intelligent creature to her realm and turned it into a – a
pet
.’

‘That sounds like her right enough,’ said Finvarra gloomily.  ‘A pet dragon – oh yes very stylish.’

‘Isn’t there anything we can do for it?’ asked Cindy looking with less fear now and more pity at the wretched creature sobbing on the floor.

‘I fear not,’ said Stiles. ‘She will have taken it as a baby and raised it this way, it’s too old now to be taught any different.’

‘Why is there a dragon on my floor?’ said a sharp voice from the door.

‘I say, I say, I say, why is there a dragon … sorry.’ said Denny coming into the room behind her.

‘Why
is
there a dragon on the floor?’ he said spotting the offending reptile.

‘What’s it doing there?’ snapped Tamar.

‘Crying,’ observed Denny.  ‘Why’s everyone staring at us?’

‘We’re just glad to see you,’ said Cindy.  ‘Um …’

‘Fine whatever,’ said Tamar dismissive of all unnecessary sentiment.  ‘What’s
he
doing here?’ she indicated Finvarra and eyed him with no very friendly gaze.

‘Er, he’s with me,’ said Cindy and took his arm to demonstrate.

Denny felt himself give an internal sigh of relief.  An unattached Cindy had been too dangerous a thing for his peace of mind. ‘I thought he was dead,’ he said then realised that this was not perhaps the most tactful remark.

‘Ha!  You did?’ snorted Finvarra.

Denny thought about it.  ‘No, I guess not.  Mere iron wouldn’t have worked on
you
would it – you aren’t like the others are you?  Any more than
she
was?’

‘I already
told
you he wasn’t dead,’ said Cindy.  ‘At least I thought … Didn’t I?  She seemed uncertain.

‘You might have,’ conceded Denny. ‘I’ve been a bit preoccupied lately.’

‘If it makes you feel any better,’ said Finvarra, ‘it bloody hurt.  I had to reconstitute myself – took me ages’

‘Well,’ said Tamar briskly, showing no sign that she had been surprised by
any
of this.  ‘Back to business.  We’ve got a lot of Faeries to round up.’

‘That,’ said Stiles triumphantly, ‘is the easy part.’

‘It is?’ Tamar was nonplussed.  And for once, she was unable to hide the fact.

‘Cindy, get the lamp,’ said Stiles.

Cindy did so with alacrity.

Tamar and Denny looked at each other in bewilderment.  Denny shrugged.  As much as anything, it was surprising to see Stiles retaining control of the group after Tamar had returned.  Being in charge while she was gone, well, as long as Denny was not there of course, was perfectly sensible.  But they were
back
now, what the hell was going on?

Stiles placed the lamp reverently on a table in front of him and closed his eyes.

‘Somebody had better explain all this to me when it’s over,’ hissed Tamar.

‘Shhh,’ said Cindy.  And Tamar gave her a look that would have melted steel.

‘Steady,’ muttered Denny taking her hand.

Suddenly there was a
whoosh
and the lamp lighted.  From its top, a bright white light streamed filling the room and printing itself on the back of the eyeballs.  Everyone closed their eyes and covered their faces and the light steadily got brighter and brighter.  Even Tamar felt like her eyelids were melting.  Only Stiles seemed unaffected.  He opened his eyes, although no one saw him.

Then the air was filled with shrieks, which lasted a few minutes then stopped abruptly as the light went out.

‘Cool!’ breathed Denny opening his eyes.

Tamar opened her eyes cautiously. ‘What the hell was
that
?’ she demanded.

‘It’s over,’ said Stiles and collapsed impressively as the gauntlet unwound itself from his central nervous system and fell with a clatter on the floor.

~ Chapter Twenty Six ~

‘A
re you sure you want to do this?’ asked Denny.

She had already wished him free, in the normal way, making him human again, and his power now came, as before, from the Athame.  Stiles was convalescing, as a person will need to do after a close encounter with a god.  The gauntlet was on his bedside table, ready to be used again in an emergency.  Stiles did not think that anything would ever be
that
much of an emergency. It was now coded to his genetic information now, however, and could not be used by anyone else until he died.  Not that anyone else
wanted
to use it though.  Even
he
did not want to use it.

Cindy had apparently gone back to her attitude of good natured contempt toward Denny. She had settled Finvarra in, and he had returned her son. The boys were to be brought up together in what was, in the circumstances, as close to an ideal situation as they were going to get.  And Hecaté now had two little “nephews” (both identical) to lavish attention on.  No kids anywhere had as much stuff to play with – and I do mean anywhere.  They even had their very own pet dragon to ride.

Everything was more or less back to normal.  Except for Tamar (and the dragon in the garage).

‘It’s too much power for one person to have,’ she said.  ‘Even
I
think so,’ 

‘You can handle it.’ said Denny playing Devil’s advocate. 

‘Maybe,’ said Tamar.  ‘But it’s not right.  I can’t explain it.  I don’t want to end up like Askphrit.’

‘God forbid,’ said Denny with feeling.  ‘But surely the very fact that you feel like that … he trailed off.  ‘No,’ he said.  ‘It doesn’t work like that, does it?’

Tamar smiled enigmatically.  She took the Djinn bottle and threw it dramatically into the fireplace where it smashed.

This time it did not come back.*

*[
Being omnipotent means that you can do
anything
. Even give up being omnipotent.
]

* * *

Tamar had been somewhat mollified to discover, that although technically Stiles had saved the world this time, it had been her actions in the Faerie realm that had made this possible. A joint effort she could live with. And she
had
rescued the children.

Outside, the world was rebuilding. The scars of the recent occupation were already healing over, and soon no one would really believe it had happened at all – except them. Well, with a dragon in the garage and a spaceship in the cellar, how could they forget?

Denny was fascinated by the spaceship and spent hours in the cellar just looking at it.

It made Tamar nervous.  Were there not enough maniacs on this planet without there being (possibly) a whole galaxy more of them out there?

‘They weren’t maniacs to begin with,’ Denny pointed out.

‘That’s supposed to make me feel better is it?’ she said.  ‘Oh, they were okay, until they came here.  Must be the water eh?’

‘Something in the air,’ said Denny waving his arms vaguely.

‘Well, we beat them in the end,’ said Tamar with satisfaction.

‘And no one will ever know,’ said Denny despondently.

‘That’s Faerie thinking that is,’ said Tamar. ‘And it’s not like you.’

‘I wasn’t thinking of me,’ said Denny.

‘There’s a big celebration going on next week,’ said Tamar changing the subject.

Denny shrugged.  ‘I don’t do parties,’ he said.  Tamar’s face fell.

Denny looked sideways at her.  ‘You really want to go?’ he asked, hiding a smile.

‘N-oo, not if you don’t.  I suppose it …’

‘Look, if you
really
want to go,’ he gave a theatrical sigh.  ‘We can go.  I’ll even buy you a dress.’

She looked worried.

‘You can choose it,’ he added hurriedly.

She smiled.

‘That’s settled then,’ said Denny.

‘It’ll do us
all
good,’ said Tamar happily.

* * *

‘Well, did you ask him?’ said Stiles.

‘In a manner of speaking,’ said Tamar. ‘He’s coming anyway.’

‘Good, we all need some fun, it’ll do us good.’

‘That’s what I said.’

* * *

‘How are you feeling mate?’

Stiles sat up in bed.  ‘Better than I look,’ he said, ‘which is par for the course these days.’  He sighed.

‘I hear Tamar “persuaded” you to go to the party.’

‘Yeah,’ said Denny with a grin.

‘Should be a good night.’

‘It’s about time, that’s all I can say,’ said Denny.

‘Yeah.’ They both looked thoughtful.*

*
[
Men do this when they cannot think of anything to say to each other.
]