To Catch a Queen (22 page)

In the bed lay a figure that looked frail, but that Michael suspected held more strength than anyone would guess, based on what he knew of Sophie. In fact, the sleeping woman reminded him of Sophie. She had a similar build and bone structure, and he’d have guessed that her white hair had once been red.

Sophie bent over her and whispered, “Nana? It’s Sophie. I need to talk to you.”

Sophie may have called him a genius for planting the seed of this plan, but Michael was starting to doubt that any good could come of this. The old woman looked far too frail to be of much help, and when she opened her eyes, they were so blank and confused that he wasn’t sure she knew who Sophie was.

Sophie gently squeezed one bony hand. “Nana, I need your help in the Realm. I’m hoping you know something. You may have told me somewhere along the way, but I don’t remember.”

Nana blinked, looked momentarily distressed, then suddenly her eyes cleared and she said, “It’s about time you remembered you’re not the only one in the lineage.”

Sophie flinched, but it only took her a second to recover her poise. “I’m sorry, but you must admit, you haven’t been that forthcoming for a while. Now, do you remember anything about how the crown works? I won it with the trials, like in the song, but is that the only way for someone to take the crown?”

“Oh, honey, do you really expect me to remember anything useful in my state? You know what you’re going to have to do.”

“Will taking you to the Realm help?”

She gestured at her ravaged body. “Could it possibly hurt? Now, let’s get moving before your mother wakes up.” For someone supposedly in the last stages of Alzheimer’s disease, she sounded surprisingly lucid, but then Michael guessed that this kind of conversation might have been taken as a sign of dementia by someone who didn’t know what was going on. “You, with the log, bring it over here, young man.”

Michael set the log down on the bed, against the railing. As gently as he could, he gathered Nana into his arms, carrying her like she was a child. She weighed hardly anything, but he still felt some muscle around her slight bones.

Once Nana was out of her bed, Sophie took a nightgown out of a nearby dresser and slid it onto the log, then rolled it into place where Nana had been lying. The next thing Michael knew, the woman he held in his arms was also in her bed, lying so peacefully and so still that she might have been dead. If he hadn’t been holding the real woman, he’d never have guessed that the body in bed was fake.

“Very nice work. You’ve obviously learned a lot,” Nana commented. “I’d love to see your mother when she finds my body.”

“Nana!” Sophie scolded. “Besides, I made it so you just look like you’re sleeping. That way I can get you back here before Mama even notices.”

“You seem to have forgotten to consult me about my wishes,” the old woman said frostily.

“We’ll discuss this later. But first, we need all the royal help we can get.” She waved Michael back the way they’d come in. Nana fell asleep in Michael’s arms, and he wondered if her momentary lucidity had been genuine or if it was just wishful thinking on their part that made sense out of what she’d said.

They reached the woods, and Sophie put her hand against his back to guide him through the gateway she opened. When they arrived in the Realm, Nana said to Michael, “You can put me down now.”

He set her on her feet, keeping his arm around her shoulders to steady her. Already, he was fairly certain that she was taller than she’d been while lying in the bed. She turned back to him. “Thank you kindly for the assistance.” He had to blink in surprise when he saw her face. He’d thought she resembled a much older version of Sophie, but now she might almost have passed for Sophie’s mother rather than her grandmother. Her posture was straighter, her eyes were brighter, and her hair was darker, no longer stark white, but a faded red color. “That’s better,” Nana said with great satisfaction.

She took in the Realm, a smile spreading across her face. “So, this is the fairy realm. Lovely, isn’t it? I spent my whole life hoping to see this day.”

“You knew it was real all along?” Sophie asked. “It wasn’t just a legend to you?”

“I figured it out somewhere along the way, but I wasn’t sure what I could do about it. I never saw any fairies, never found a way into the Realm. I knew it would be you when you were a child and told me about dancing with the fairies.”

“It would have saved me a lot of trouble if you’d told me then. I might even have been able to save Emily.”

Nana gasped. “What happened to Emily?”

“They took her last summer while trying to get to me. Remember, I told you about it? I learned everything about the crown and throne when I was saving her. She’s okay now. I hope.”

“See, it worked out,” her grandmother said, patting her on the arm. “You needed to learn it for yourself.” She glanced down at her nightgown. “If it’s not too much trouble, can you do something about the outfit? I feel underdressed. I can’t bear to be out in public in my nightclothes.”

“Do you have anything in mind?” Sophie asked.

“Surprise me.” A moment later, Nana was dressed in a pale blue suit, a hat worthy of Queen Elizabeth perched atop her now-styled hair. Nana glanced down at herself and gave an approving nod. She now looked even younger and stronger than when they’d first entered the Realm. It was like the years were falling away from her. “Now that I’m decent, I don’t believe we’ve been properly introduced.” Her glance at Sophie may as well have been a direct order.

“Nana, this is my friend, Detective Michael Murray. He’s Emily’s upstairs neighbor, and he helped us earlier when Emily was taken. His wife is currently a captive somewhere in the Realm. Michael, I’d like you to meet my grandmother, Leonie Drake.”

Leonie held out her hand to him, and he shook it. “Pleased to meet you, ma’am.”

“Likewise,” she replied, sizing him up with steely gray eyes that he had a feeling didn’t miss much. Turning to Sophie, she said, “Now, what seems to be the problem?”

“There’s someone trying to take over the Realm, claiming to be the queen who won the throne, and I think whoever’s behind the impostor has the crown. I don’t know how this works. They haven’t gone through the trials, so I don’t know if the impostor could be considered to have won it properly.”

Leonie shook her head sadly and made little “tsk-tsk” sounds. “Oh, honey, I thought you were the responsible one. You lost the crown?”

“I had it ripped away in an all-out fight,” Sophie snapped defensively. “But does that count as them really winning the crown? Would the impostor be able to wear the crown and become the true queen?”

Leonie frowned in deep thought. Her lips moved slightly, like she was reciting lyrics of old songs. Finally, she shook her head. “There’s a slight possibility, depending on how involved this impostor was in the scheme that took the crown from you. I wouldn’t chance it. I’d say our best bet is to get the crown back before it goes on anyone else’s head. That would be for the best for both you and this impostor.”

“That’s what I was afraid of,” Sophie said with a sigh. “Now, we need to get to the palace before the impostor can be crowned.”

“You mean go near the palace,” Michael pointed out.

He thought Sophie might have blushed slightly. “Yes, that. And maybe without the crown, I won’t have so much of a target on my back.”

She took his and Leonie’s hands. They took three steps together and ended up in a familiar setting: the hill overlooking the fake palace. However, they weren’t alone. An army of fairies was gathered there, but they were far more focused on the field below than on any newcomers.

“This must be Emily’s army,” Sophie whispered.

“What on earth is Emily doing with an army?” Leonie asked. “I’m not sure I’d trust that child with a Boy Scout troop, bless her heart.”

“Emily’s grown up a lot since you saw her last,” Sophie said without taking her eyes off the soldiers. “And I believe this is merely an army she raised. She isn’t the one leading it.”

“They’re on our side?” Michael replied, fighting back the grin at Leonie’s remark.

“I hope so. I’m really tired of running.” Sophie raised her voice and said, “Excuse me, but are you the free fae working with my sister, Emily?” Some of them turned to regard her, and she added, “She looks like me, but taller, and she’s with a fairy named Eamon, who has silver hair. She sings a lot. If you’ve met her, you’ll know just who I mean.” She sounded like she was encountering an acquaintance at the supermarket, not addressing an army of otherworldly beings.

“You are Emily’s sister?” one of the fae asked.

“Yes. She’s down in that crowd, checking things out. I take it you’re waiting for her signal to act. Well, I think I’m what you’re waiting for.”

Unlike most people encountering Sophie, he didn’t just surrender to the inevitable and give in to whatever she wanted. “How do I know what you’re saying is true?”

With a slight roll of her eyes, she moved her hands fluidly in front of her body, and then she began to glow. No bride was ever as radiant as this. She might not be wearing a physical crown, but she was crowned with a kind of light. The fae moved slightly away from her, though they didn’t kneel.

“We want no queen,” one of them said, and many of the others nodded agreement.

“Here we go again,” Sophie muttered before saying out loud, “You need someone sitting on that throne and wearing the crown if you want to keep the Realm alive, and you’re better off with me because I don’t want to be there. As far as I’m concerned, you can all rule yourselves, just so long as I don’t have to deal with you. Whoever it is down there probably won’t be so lenient. She’s already kicking the humans out.”

That was when Michael noticed something about the gathered army: There were humans among them. They had that slightly off look of longtime human residents of the Realm, like his wife, Jen, had the last time he’d seen her, but they were still clearly human. “She’s here with me, isn’t she?” he said to the army. “She’s helping me, not kicking me out. Speaking as a resident of the human world, I’d prefer her on the throne. The impostor has called out the Hunt. I want to stop her before she unleashes them on my world.”

Sophie turned to look at him with surprise, like she’d forgotten he was there. She nodded. “Yes, that’s what I want, to stop this. I don’t want you to kneel to me or serve me. I just want to keep the Realm as free and alive as possible while keeping the human world safe. Are you with me?”

The leaders huddled, and Michael caught only wisps of conversation. The occasional voice was raised, then quickly hushed. “What do you intend to do with an army?” Leonie asked her granddaughter.

“March in at the head of it and conquer my enemies?” Sophie said, as though it was painfully obvious.

“It would be awfully conspicuous,” Michael pointed out. “And likely bloody.” That won him a look of something that might have been approval from Leonie.

Sophie winced. “Oh. You’re right. Once you get out the army, it’s kind of hard to put it away.” With a wry smile, she added, “I know choreography, not military strategy. Something tells me this isn’t going to work quite like
Swan Lake,
with everyone going exactly where they’re supposed to go, in perfect unison. What would you suggest?”

“Me? I’m no military strategist.”

“You’re a cop, though, and that’s closer than a ballerina is.”

“There aren’t enough people here to take on the Hunt and everyone else down there,” he said after thinking about it for a while. “They could work as backup, but you’ll do better at sneaking in on your own.”

“He’s right,” Leonie said. “If you come in with an army, you’ll never get into the palace. They’ll make a point of stopping you.”

“Okay, then we’ll sneak in and leave the army here for backup, assuming they agree,” Sophie said with a nod. “Or even if they disagree, except then I won’t have them as backup.”

The free fae finished their huddle and turned to face Sophie. “We will support you. What will you have us do?” the leader said.

“Stay here and wait for my signal. I want to avoid bloodshed if at all possible.”

With a smile, the leader said, “We are in agreement with that view. How will we know your signal?”

“Trust me, if I need to signal you, it’ll be hard to miss. Now, I’m going to try to sneak in and disrupt the proceedings. Wish me luck!”

She, Leonie, and Michael made their way down the steep path. She held them back just before they reached the plain. “Do you see the Hunt?” she asked.

He looked for the telltale dust cloud, but it wasn’t circling the palace. “Over there!” he said, pointing. He didn’t see the riders themselves, merely a dark cloud with glowing red points in it. “It looks like they’re gearing up to ride out.”

“Then we’d best be moving,” Leonie said, striding forward.

Sophie followed her grandmother. “I want to be in charge before they take off.”

Michael had to hurry to catch up with both women. They slipped into the crowd, presumably hidden in some way, Michael hoped, and moved toward the palace.

The sound of trumpets rang out, seemingly coming from inside, but as loud and clear as if the trumpeters were standing on the outside balcony.

“Sounds like something’s about to happen,” Michael said.

“We need to get in there,
now,
” Sophie said.

The Throne Room

Meanwhile

The crowd in the throne room went quiet at the sound of the fanfare, and they all turned to face the dais in anticipation. The main event was apparently about to happen. Emily clutched Eamon’s hand, and he made a path through the throng toward where the sisters stood, Beau sleeping at Athena’s feet.

“I’d guess someone’s about to get crowned,” Emily said.

“But with what? The crown is in Sophie’s palace,” Athena said.

“So is the real throne,” Amelia said dryly. “That doesn’t seem to be stopping them. Very few people have seen the authentic item in centuries. How much will it matter?”

A set of doors beside the dais opened, and the fanfare rang out again as a group of richly dressed fae processed onto the dais to stand on the steps. Emily stood on her toes to try to see over the crowd. “Wait a second, it’s the rulers, the ones Sophie went to see,” she said. “I recognize Fiontan and Niamh, Niall and Orla, and that woman who knew Sophie.”