The Lost Queen (3 page)

“Tania?” her mother said at last, as if getting used to the feel of the name on her lips.

“Yes. Would it bother you?”

Her mother folded her arms and tilted her head to one side. “Tania's a nice enough name, I dare say,” she said. “Your dad and I could probably cope with calling you that if it's what you really want. But unless you get it changed officially, you can't sign yourself as Tania Palmer, you know.” She raised her eyebrows. “I
suppose
Palmer
is still okay, is it?”

Tania smiled, wishing she could tell her mum how much her agreeing meant to her. “Yes,” she said, meaning it. “Palmer is absolutely fine!”

 

As was usual for this time of day, the Pizza Bar was buzzing with young people stopping off for a snack and a chat with friends on their way home from school.

Tania and her girlfriends were occupying a corner table. They each had milkshakes and were picking from a large pizza in the middle of the table. Tania's end of the table was filled with birthday cards and newly opened presents from Jade, Natalie, Rosa, Susheela, and Lily.

Lying unwrapped on the table were lip balm, hand lotion and cotton balls in a chrome tin with
CHIK KIT
! embossed on it, a pink and white polka-dot notebook with matching pen, a brightly colored photo frame, a box of cosmetics called
PAMPERED PRINCESS
, which had made Tania smile, and from Jade, a very pretty silver bracelet with green stones set in it.

“Well, I think you're a total deadbeat for not having a birthday party,” Rosa said to Tania. “What kind of person is too busy to party?”

Tania shrugged. “The kind of person who has to learn the lines of a really tricky play that she has to perform at the end of next week? Besides, I didn't say I didn't want to have a party at all. I just said not right now.”

“Forget the party,” Jade said, giving Tania a piercing look. “I want to know what happened with you and Evan.”

“Sorry to disappoint you, guys,” Tania said as casually as she could manage. “But precisely nothing happened with me and Evan—if you mean what I think you mean.”

“Oh, come on!” Lily said with a snort of laughter. “You've got to be kidding. You two have been all over each other for weeks now.”

“And then you both vanish for three whole days,” Susheela added. “And three whole nights!”

“You can tell us,” urged Natalie. “We're your best friends.”

“I've already told you the whole story,” Tania said. “There's nothing more to tell. Except for the fact that my mum and dad have forbidden me to see him outside school, which is a total pain.”

Jade grinned. “Well, what did you expect? I'm surprised they haven't set the police on him for kidnapping you. And as for that curfew you were talking about—that's nothing! My folks would have locked me in my room and thrown away the key if I'd pulled a stunt like that. You were gone for three days, Anita! I can't believe you didn't call me or anything.”

“That's right,” said Lily. “You could have sent a Wish You Were Here card from wherever the two of you were hiding out.”

Tania sighed. “We weren't hiding out anywhere,”
she said. “And can you try to remember I'd like to be called Tania from now on?”

“Okay,
Tania
,” Jade said with comic emphasis. “We'll try,
Tania
.”

“Why Tania?” asked Natalie. “Apart from the fact that it's an anagram of Anita, what's so great about it?”

Tania frowned. An anagram of her mortal name? She'd never even thought about that. “I just like the name.”

“I bet it was Evan's idea,” said Lily. “Go on, admit it. Evan wanted you to change your name.”

“No he didn't,” Tania said.

“Kind of ironic, though, isn't it?” Jade said, gesturing with a floppy wedge of pizza. “You and Evan are playing Romeo and Juliet in a couple of weeks, and your folks have forbidden you to see him—kind of like what happens in the play, isn't it?”

“I hope not,” Tania said. “They both end up dead.”

Natalie grinned. “You don't want to die for love of him, then?”

“No thanks!”

“Hey, speaking of people dying of love,” Susheela said suddenly. “Did you guys see the last episode of
Spindrift
? I mean, is Coral Masters a total dork or what?”

Spindrift
was a daily soap that everyone at school watched, but somehow Tania couldn't summon up the enthusiasm to join in the conversation. As they chatted, it felt to her as if she was watching them from
behind a glass screen, as if she still had one foot and at least half of her brain in Faerie.

She pictured her Faerie sisters, wondering what Sancha or Hopie would make of pizza and milkshakes. And television and radio and movies—there was nothing like them in Faerie. If you wanted entertainment, you made it for yourself. She was certain that Cordelia would hate the crowds in London, although Zara might think the city was fun. Yes, she could almost imagine music-loving Zara going to a nightclub.

“When are you going?” Lily's voice pierced through Tania's thoughts.

“Tuesday week,” Jade said. “Florida, here we come!”

Tania realized her friend was talking about her upcoming family holiday. “Is Dan going with you?” she asked. Dan was Jade's older brother—he was away at university.

“There's a ticket booked for him,” Jade said. “But last time I spoke to him he was still trying to make up his mind. Some of his pals from uni are backpacking across India for the summer, and he was talking about tagging along with them.”

“Have you got a holiday planned, Anita?” Natalie asked. “Oops! Sorry. Tania, I mean.”

“Try Tanita,” Rosa suggested. “Or Anitania.”

“I think we're going to Cornwall,” Tania said, ignoring Rosa.

“Wow!” Jade said with mock awe. “Cornwall again! That's just so exotic.” She raised an eyebrow. “How
come your folks never go abroad,
Tania
? How come you've never been anywhere exciting in your whole life, ever?”

Tania smiled but said nothing.

Try Faerie for exciting.

School on Friday morning was a strange experience. Tania found it embarrassing to be driven to the teachers' parking lot by her dad, and to have to sit with him in the principal's waiting room while people walked past giving her peculiar looks.

The interview with Mr. Cox wasn't so bad; she got the expected lecture on responsible behavior and thinking before acting, but it was tempered by the fact that everyone seemed happy to believe that her apparent brainstorm had been due to the trauma of the accident.

With a final comment that she should report any after-effects—headaches and suchlike—she was let out of the principal's office and, after seeing her father off, she steeled herself to endure the curiosity of her classmates.

It wasn't as bad as she had feared, and as soon as it became clear that she had nothing to say about the
lost three days beyond what she had already told Jade and the others, people soon got bored and left her alone.

At morning break she managed to slip away and see Edric. He was waiting for her around the dogleg bend of a staircase that led down to disused storerooms.

He had a similar tale to tell: His interview with the principal had focused on the dangers of overconfidence, especially when his mistakes could lead others into potential danger—a very obvious reference to the boat crash. He was also officially warned to watch his step so far as “Anita” was concerned; the principal told him that Mr. and Mrs. Palmer had forbidden her to have anything to do with him outside school, and asked him to respect their wishes and not make things more difficult than they already were.

As had happened with Tania, questions from his classmates had quickly dried up when he made it clear that there were no secrets to tell.

Tania drew back her sleeve and showed him the ribbon bracelet with the black amber stone on it.

“Snap!” he said, smiling as he pulled up his sleeve and revealed his own stone, threaded on a slender strip of black cord.

“Do you think I'll be permanently sensitive to metal?” she asked. “Or might it wear off now that I'm back?”

“I don't know,” Edric said, taking her hand. “But I wouldn't risk it, if I were you. Not unless you like pain.”

“No, you're probably right.” She squeezed his hand and rested her head on his shoulder. It was good to have him close again, even if only for a few stolen minutes.

“Your parents not wanting us to see each other is going to be tricky,” he said thoughtfully.

“Tell me about it.” Tania sighed. “You wouldn't think I was a Faerie Princess, would you? They said that if I behave, they'll think about it again in a month or so.”

“I'd hoped we could start the search for Queen Titania sooner than that,” Edric said.

“So did I, but I don't see how we can,” Tania said. “They're going to be watching me like hawks for a while. I'm not going to be able to sneak off without them noticing, and I don't want to have to start telling lies about where I'm going and what I'm doing.”

“Of course not,” Edric said, lifting his hand to stroke her hair. “It must be really difficult for you. But the trail will go cold if we leave it too long. The only clue we have so far is that your Soul Book was sent from Richmond. I don't think a package of that size could have been put into a postbox, so I'm hoping it had to be mailed from a post office.”

Tania nodded, closing her eyes, enjoying the sensation of his hand gently stroking her hair. “Good thinking,” she murmured.

“I went into the computer room this morning and
got on to the Internet,” Edric continued. “There are only two post offices in Richmond: one north of the Thames, and the other south.”

“That narrows it down.”

“Exactly. I thought that if we could go there as soon as possible, there's a chance of someone remembering the Queen—after all, she's pretty striking to look at, isn't she?”

Tania lifted her head and looked at him. “She looks exactly the same as me,” she said. “Just older, I suppose.”

Edric nodded. “And look at you, with your incredible hair and that face and those stunning eyes. No one who saw you would forget you in a hurry.”

Tania stifled a self-conscious giggle. “I don't know if I'm that special to look at.”

“Yes you are,” Edric said. “And I'm not just saying that because of how I feel about you. You're amazing looking!”

“But Titania has been here for five hundred years,” Tania said. “I know Faeries live forever, but surely she'd look a bit…well,
old
. You know, gray-haired and wrinkly and so on.”

Edric smiled and took both her hands. “You don't get it yet, do you? We don't get old—not the way mortals do. There's no reason why the Queen shouldn't still look exactly the same as she did when she first came here.” A distant gaze came into his eyes. “I remember the last time I saw her,” he said. “At the
Feast of the White Hart—a week before you vanished and everything went wrong.” He held Tania's face between his hands. “She was almost as beautiful as you,” he said. “Not quite—but almost.”

A wave of emotion swept over Tania and she rested her forehead against his. “Oh, Edric,” she said. “What am I going to do without you for a whole month?”

“You won't be without me,” he said, giving her a quick kiss on the forehead. “I'll be right here, and even if we can't see each other as much as we'd like we can speak on the phone and text and so on. It won't be so bad. Besides, I'm used to being patient—we all had to learn patience in Faerie over the last five hundred years.”

She sighed. “I wonder what I've been doing over the last five hundred years? It's very weird, knowing I've been alive for all that time but not having any clue who I was or what I did.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “How I died. Or even how
often
I died.”

“You don't need to think about that now,” Edric said. “Let's think about the future—about finding Titania.”

Tania snapped out of her dark thoughts. “Okay,” she said. “So, we hope someone in a Richmond post office will remember her, but even if they do, where does that get us, precisely?”

“It gives us an idea of where in Richmond to start searching,” Edric said. “If we assume she'd go to the post office nearest to where she lives or works then we
can start asking around in local shops and offices. But if we wait too long before starting the search there'll be less chance of someone remembering her, and then we'll have twice as much work to do.”

“Yes, I see that,” Tania said. “Tell you what—I'll do my best to get away on Saturday. If I can convince my parents there's a rehearsal without having to tell too many lies, we can meet up and go over there for a few hours.”

The bell sounded for the end of morning break.

“See you at rehearsal this afternoon,” he said.

She nodded. As she started up the stairs, his voice spoke softly behind her.

“
Good-night, good-night! Parting is such sweet sorrow
…”

She turned and smiled at him. “That's Juliet's line,” she said.

“I know. I couldn't resist it.”

“You know what you are, don't you?” she said as she climbed the stairs.

“Edric Chanticleer, a courtier of the Royal Palace of Faerie, once servant of the traitor Gabriel Drake, now loyal to the Royal Family of Oberon before all others?”

“No, you're just a crazy romantic fool.”

 

The after-school rehearsal in the assembly hall went well.

Tania sat with the play script on her lap, reminding herself of her lines between watching the stage as
Mrs. Wiseman guided Edric and another boy through the tricky actions of one of the big sword fights.

“The important thing is to make it look real,” Mrs. Wiseman said, brandishing Romeo's sword. “But without anyone getting their eye poked out! Okay, Evan, you take over now, and remember what I told you about posture and balance.”

“I'll try,” Edric said, taking the sword.

He practiced a few fencing stances, thrusting the plastic-tipped rapier out at arm's length, then made a swiveling motion of his wrist that sent the blade spinning in a circle. The boy playing Tybalt stared at the whipping blade, his own sword trailing on the floor.

“Oh! Very good, Evan!” Mrs. Wiseman said. “You've had lessons, haven't you?”

Edric gave an apologetic grin. “A while ago. Just a few.”

Tania smiled. A few? Like five hundred years' worth. Learning how to use a sword was a perfectly normal part of Faerie education for both boys and girls.

His eyes met Tania's and he winked.

 

An hour or so later their rehearsal time was up and everyone got ready to leave.

“Next rehearsal is on Monday after school,” Mrs. Wiseman called. “That gives you all weekend to polish up those lines. I expect the lot of you to be word perfect when I see you next.”

There was no time for Tania and Edric to be alone, and after a brief and frustratingly public good-bye, Edric slipped out of a side entrance to avoid Tania's father, who was parked out front waiting for her.

“How did it go?” her father asked. “Any problems?”

“None at all,” Tania said as her father started the car.

He didn't ask about Edric as they drove home, and she didn't offer any comment, either.
Best to let sleeping dogs lie,
she thought.

“Everyone involved with the play is going on a field trip to the Globe Theatre next week,” she told him.

“Oh, yes?” he said. “That's the place on the Thames, isn't it?”

“That's right. It's supposed to be an exact replica of the theatre that stood there in Elizabethan times, when Shakespeare's plays were first being performed. Mrs. Wiseman thinks it'll inspire us to perform better if we have a look at the real thing.”

“Sounds like fun,” her father said. “And speaking of fun, your mum telephoned the owners of that cottage in Tintagel that we went to last summer. We've booked it from Monday week for a fortnight. What do you think?”

“Sounds great,” Tania said, carefully hiding her dismay at this suggestion; a family holiday was going to be yet another barrier between her and the search for Titania.

“So Mrs. Wiseman wasn't annoyed with you for
going awol, then?” her father asked.

“No, she just made a few pointed remarks about working with prima donnas and then got on with the rehearsal.”

“I suppose you'll need to do some extra sessions to catch up, though?”

“I expect so.”

“Does she want you to go in tomorrow?”

Tomorrow was Saturday, the day she and Edric hoped to slip away to Richmond.

Tania looked apologetically at her father. He had given her the perfect opportunity to avoid a direct lie. “There is some stuff that needs doing,” she said. “Would you mind driving me over here about ten o'clock in the morning?”

“No problem,” he said. “And when you're done, just give me a call and I'll come and pick you up again.”

“There's no need. I can find my own way home.”

“I don't think so,” her father said firmly. “I'll pick you up from the school, okay?”

Tania nodded.

“By the way,” her father said, changing the subject in a very obvious way. “What happened to that book? You know, that nice old leather-bound book that we took into the hospital for your birthday, the one sent by your mysterious benefactor.”

Tania knew exactly where the book was. It had been put back in its proper place in the Great Library
in the Faerie palace—standing on a shelf between the Soul Books of her sister Rathina and of her uncle, the Earl Marshal Cornelius.

“Don't worry,” Tania said, gazing out of the car window. “I put it somewhere safe.”