Foul is Fair (5 page)

“Not just. I want you in on this because it's important, and you deserve to know. But just because we're not affiliated with the Unseelie doesn't mean they're not important. If I've learned anything from Neil deGrasse Tyson, it's that without Autumn, we'd all freeze to death.”

“How are you trying to use science geek stuff to explain to me that… that we're faeries?”

“Well, we're only half. Anyway, my point is that there are sort of ... mystic-climate patterns and stuff, and they're all part of what keeps back the kinda-sorta Ice Age. Getting your dad back is important besides his being your dad.”

"Okay, so one more time, mystic climate patterns?"

Cassia sighed. "Riocard and Orlaith both take turns ruling things. The Seelie Queen in mostly Spring and Summer, your dad from Halloween to May Day. Lots of other faeries all over the world have their own things, but any one of them can screw things up. Your dad not taking over when he's supposed to is one of those screw-ups."

"So what do I have to do with it? Sure, he's my dad, but if it's that bad, there has to be plenty of people trying to find him with a lot more tricks and stuff than I'd have. I barely remember him."

“The Seelie Queen says there's a possible way to safely retrieve him, but that it needs someone of human blood,” Lani says. “And I've got Restrictions; I can help in stuff like that, but I can't do it alone.”

“Meanwhile, the Unseelie ain't exactly known for their teamwork,” Cassia said. “There's some folks looking for Ric, sure, but I suspect most don't have a clue, and the ones who do, I don't trust."

"So what are we supposed to do, exactly?"

"Well, first, Ashling and the Count know more than just about anyone, so we have a lead. Then we'll go to the courts, talk to the Queen. Ashling also says she was told to find you, so if you can believe her, your dad thinks there's something you can do."

"If you can believe her?"

“Pixies have a rep. She's more reliable than most."

"Well, that's comforting. I guess. So what do I need to do?"

"We're still waiting on a couple of people who should be here soon. We'll need Ashling's help in Faerie, and Kerr is on the way."

"So we're going to Faerie? Like, another world?"

"That's right."

"Uhm, I get that this is world-threatening stuff and all, but with going to another world—how long is this going to take?"

"Getting there doesn't take long at all." Cassia said. "Having Ashling along will speed things up too. But the trip is only half the trick. Figuring out what happened, where Ric is, and getting to him will probably take a few days, at least. If not longer."

“What? I can't stay the night. It's hard enough getting Mom to let me stay at Lani's house.”

“I know,” Lani said. “That's why I've called in the other friend I mentioned.” She looked to the door, and it opened. Someone came in, someone shorter than Lani, with a wide, ruddy face and tawny hair, dressed in baggy beige clothes and a knit cap. Lani smiled. “Right on cue, as usual. Thanks for making the trip on short notice, Kerr,” Lani said, raising her hand in the shape of the 'okay' sign, then tapping just above her eye and waving, like a little salute. The new arrival returned the gesture. It looked almost like a secret handshake. Lani had secret handshakes with other people, about whom her BFF knew nothing. Megan didn't know how to feel about that.

“Megan, I'd like you to meet Kerr.”

“Nice to meet you, Megan,” Kerr said in warm, friendly voice that was either tenor or alto, with an awkward little movement that was sort of a curtsey-ish bow. All of Kerr's features were a little hard to place as Megan smiled and managed an actual handshake. Why couldn't everyone come with little notes to identify what pronoun you were supposed to use for them, like on Tumblr?

“Nice to meet you, too. So, you're....?”

“A brownie.”

“Ah. Right. Strategic alliances and all.”

“Yep. I'm here to smooth things over at home for you. What's the plan?”

“Ms. O'Reilly needs to think Megan's home by supper,” Lani said. “She can be 'in her room' outside of meals. If we're not back by Monday, the math homework needs to be turned in at school. Megan needs to be seen so no one calls her mom, but 'she' can turn in mine while I'm sick.”

The brownie was nodding. Megan couldn't believe they were having this conversation, of course. Most high school students did not get a personal assistant. But if they were going to have it, best to go for the best. “And some of the equations might need checking.”

“Will do.” And there was that okay-salute again, and the bow-curtsey again, and Kerr was scurrying out.

Everything she was experiencing brought more questions to Megan's mind, so she continued just asking the first ones to spring to mind. "How did... Kerr... do that? Just sort of showing up when you mentioned... Kerr?" Megan asked, at a loss for pronouns.

"Brownies are very good at being right on time. Also very good with the little household magics and a few illusions. Your mom won't notice a thing, and we'll get you back as soon as we can."

"Survival permitting," Cassia muttered to the kittens, just before the one with the aviator helmet was pounced by his brother.

Megan didn't like the sound of that, including the thought there might be a lot more redcaps, or worse, where the one came from. She was interrupted from this reflection when the playful wrestling of kittens turned into something from a nature documentary, with two adult-sized leopards leaping and tussling. As Megan squeaked and dove from the sofa, she saw the light of dusk filtering in and shining on goat-like horns curving out of Cassia's thick black hair.

Suddenly, moments after the world went crazy, everything returned to the way it had seemed. Megan got back up and dusted herself off as Cassia grinned. “Told you.”

Megan sat down again in surreal normality, trying not to give Cassia anything to encourage her playful gloating. Instead, she turned to Lani, trying to go through which questions came to mind that didn't involve how, if the kittens were really leopards, they weren't knocking things over left and right. “Before anything more, where'd the word Seelie come from, anyway?"

“It's an old word for punctual,” piped a voice from out on the balcony. The crow was perched there, and the amber-skinned little Painted Lady was sitting atop him. “I'm Seelie myself,” she said. “Don't listen to anyone who says different.”

Chapter 8: Mazes of Words … and Ice

“Where did you come from?” Megan asked, immediately feeling stupid.

“Originally? Evolved from baby's laughter, obviously. Just now? We've been leading a merry chase that wasn't very merry.”

“Right. Thanks. So … what happened to my father? They said you know more.”

"He went hunting..." Ashling started. There followed a long stretch of explanations of hunting in Faerie, fantastic beasts that Megan had to admit might be possible in Faerie, or might be Ashling exaggeration. Most likely, she figured, there was some combination of all of the above.

She listened to the meandering as best she could manage, until Ashling mentioned her father again. "...he does this a lot, when he's in Faerie. My cousin Nessa calls it his safari streak. There's a big dance that follows The Dance, and then a feast. The King likes to provide a new trophy every year as the centerpiece-slash-entree for the feast. Well, except some years, like the years with your mom, or the year he did a tour of all the castles of Scotland for nostalgia's sake, or the year he tried to invade Sweden..."

Somewhere in the list of Riocard's adventures, Megan found herself staring at the torn sections of each of Ashling's wings, then trying to analyze what exact shade of pink was on their underside, before the story cycled back around. "...there was plenty of time. So he had me guide him out into the mountains. He knows them pretty well, but the Count and I fly all over the place and had scouted it out for him. I—I guess I missed something. We thought we'd found a cave where he could get his Ellén Trechend—”

“Wait,” Megan interrupted. “He was hunting
who
?”

“Not who. What. Your dad doesn't hunt people.”

Megan's shoulders relaxed.

“He doesn't have the palate for it. This was for a feast, after all. An Ellén Trechend is a giant three-headed scaly-red bird-monster.”'

“Oh.” Megan paused. “So you thought you'd found it ...”

“Yes! We thought we'd found it. So he went in to explore. He had the Count and me cycle around to make sure there was no back way out. Then suddenly the wind carries a message from him. Something about being ambushed and trapped, telling me to run and hide, then nothing. I go back later, really sneaky, to explore. When we first found it, it hadn't looked that deep. Now, there was all sorts of passages, and even though the handover in power hadn't happened yet, it was all like an ice cave. Mirrored surfaces everywhere, and all twisty like a maze. I didn't go in very deep, so I didn't get lost. Besides, I figured there was something worse in there, since Riocard normally wouldn't have any problems with ice and cold things. That's his favorite magic."

Megan followed the last bits. "Okay, so we need to go to the caves and figure out how to find him. And figure out who ambushed him? If he's even alive. I mean, if he just stopped there."

"No, no. That wasn't the last I heard from him. There I was, turning the Count out of the cave because I didn't know the depths, didn't have a special knack for ice, and didn't see a thing except that one will o' wisp—”

“A what?" Megan had heard the term, but wasn't exactly sure how it applied here.

"Sort of like faeries, since they were also spawned from the sparks from the fire of the first storyteller..."

"I thought you said faeries came from baby's laughter."

"That's silly. Faeries were around way before there were babies."

"So the first storyteller was never a baby?"

"See, now you're asking the important questions. And that's a very good story, actually. Want to hear it?"

"Later, maybe. We're talking about my da—what's a will o' wisp again?"

"Okay, so will o' wisps are sort of like really minor faerie things, or lights that like to hang around faeries, because they eat emotions, and faeries are a constant buffet that won't wear down easy. Now and then, one or two wander through the portals and get hungry. That's where you get stories of people seeing lights in the woods and getting scared and stuff. Poor will o' wisps, they're just lost and hungry. I try to lead them back when I can." Ashling wiped a non-existent tear from her cheek, before getting back on topic. “...Where was I?”

“The cave shouldn't have scared my dad, so something more awful must have been there.”

“Right! So there I was, ready to go for help, when I hear just a whisper on the wind—it's a very distinctive whisper, you see. He tells me he was betrayed and trapped, and don't trust anyone. I guess someone knew he wouldn't worry about the ice and would just get curious, and then they trapped him somewhere in the mountains. He assured me he was still alive, but faerie magic wouldn't free him. And I was supposed to go find you and bring you to Faerie."

Megan took that all in, the comments on very distinctive whispers reminding her of that voice, the one she just knew belonged to the man in the photo. The trip was obviously dangerous, but if there was any chance of it being true, she resolved to try. "You mentioned something about a dance?"

"Not so much a dance as The Dance," Lani said, before Ashling could get going on a new tale. The pixie harumphed again, but let Lani continue. "Riocard and Queen Orlaith meet and do an old, formal dance twice each year, Halloween and May Day. It rekeys all the pathways, helps keep the seasons in order—for part of the world, anyway—and helps keep some really important things in order in Faerie, too."

"Okay, so now that brings up more questions. Pathways? Who benefits from this not happening? If a faerie lord's magic can't free him, what are we supposed to do?"

Lani continued talking over Ashling, with the pixie eventually ceasing to try, and just sticking her tongue out at Lani instead. "There's various paths and shortcuts, some obvious, some hidden, between Earth and Faerie, and a lot of the different fae realms. Pixies are especially good at finding them, knowing which one leads where, and navigating them."

The compliment seemed to mollify Ashling a bit, while Lani continued. "When The Dance happens, a lot of them close, others just get more treacherous. But it's sort of a rest for the Faerie realm, though it still lets some of the nasty things wander unchecked. So there's one question."

Megan nodded, restraining herself from asking any more before Lani caught up. "Okay, so next," Lani said, "There's too many people who might benefit. Some of the Unseelie would do things just for the chaos. Some of them would also love to take Riocard's position, no matter the cost. There's plenty of intelligent and powerful creatures out there that would love to see the pathways stay open all the time, and all of the magic protecting them start to break down. We need more information."

Megan sighed. This wasn't getting any easier or any clearer, even with the explanations. Mostly, they just raised more questions.