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[Memory 1]
[After the Tithe]
"Kaye," a voice rasped, and she spun around.
It was the Thistlewitch, sitting on a log. She patted the place beside her. "Things did not go well under the hill."
"No," Kaye said, sitting down. She wanted to put more anger in her voice, but she couldn't. "I almost died."
"Nicnevin's knight saved you, did he not?"
Kaye nodded, looking up to see him, half in shadows, hands in the pockets of his coat, glowering impressively. It made her want to grin at him, although she was afraid he might grin back and ruin his furious demeanor.
"Why have you brought him among us?"
"If it wasn't for him, I'd be dead."
The Thistlewitch looked in the direction of the knight and then back at Kaye. "Do you know of the things he has done?"
"Don't you understand? She made him do them!"
"I have no desire to be welcome among you, old mother," Roiben said, kneeling down on one knee in the soft earth. "I only wanted to know whether you were aware of the price of your freedom. There are trolls and worse that are delighted to be without any master but their own desires."
"And if there are, what of it?" Spike asked, coming up behind them. "Let the mortals suffer as we have suffered.
Kaye was astonished. She thought back to Lutie's disdain for mortal girls. They were only her friends because of what she was, and not for any better reason then that. Her fingers brushed over the purple plastic covering her legs, letting her nails cut little lines in the vinyl. She wanted them to be better then people, but they weren't, and she didn't know what they were anymore. She'd been flung back and forth through too many emotions over the past few days, she was hungover from adrenaline, she was worried about Corny and worried about Janet.
"So it's us against them now? I'm not talking about the Unseelie Court, here. Since when are mortals the enemies of the solitary fey?" Kaye said, anger bleeding into her voice, making it rough. She looked a Roiben again, drawing confidence from his proximity, and that worried her too. How had he gone from being someone she half despised to being the one person she was relying on, in the space of mere hours?
Roiben's hand touched her shoulder lightly, a comforting gesture. It amused her how wide Spike's eyes got. She wondered exactly what Spike imagined had passed between them.
"You think like a mortal," Spike said.
"Well, gosh, I did spend every week of my life except the last thinking I was one."
Spike's thick brows furrowed, and he tilted his head to the side, black eyes glittering. "You don't know anything about Faery. You don't know where your loyalties should be."
"If I don't understand it's because you didn't tell me. You kept me in the dark, and you used me."
"You agreed to help us. You saw the importance of what we were doing."
"We have to tell the solitary fey that Nicnevin was innocent of the sacrifice. This has to stop, Spike."
"I won't go back to being a slave. Not for any mortal. Not for anything."
"But the Unseelie Queen is dead."
"It doesn't matter. There's always another, worse then the last. Don't you dare try to undo this. Don't you dare go around telling tales."
"Or you'll what?" Roiben said softly.
"It's not her place," Spike protested, twisting the long hairs of one eyebrow nervously between his fingers.
"The Tithe was not completed. The reason matters little. The result is the same. For seven years the solitary few in Nicnevin's lands are free."
"Unless they enter into a new compact."
"Why would they do that?" Spike demanded. "Rumor has it that the Seelie Queen is coming down from the north, bringing practically the whole court, from what I hear."
Roiben froze at that. "Why is she coming?" he breathed.
Spike shrugged, "Probably to see what she can claim before the Unseelie Court gets back on its feet again. Bad time to be making deals with anyone."
"Do you think Nephamael'll bring Corny to the Seelie Court?" Kaye asked Roiben.
He nodded once. "He'll have to if he intends to keep him." The assumption that id Nephamael didn't intend to keep Corny, he was already dead, went unspoken.
"Do you know where they're going to camp?" Kaye asked Spike.
"It's an orchard," Spike said. "A place where people pick their own apples. They should be there by tomorrow's dawn."
Kaye knew where that was. She'd gone there on a school trip and a couple of times with her grandmother. Delicious Orchards.
"Wait, I want to come with you," Lutie said, flying to Kaye's shoulder. Kaye felt a sharp tug on her hair as Lutie caught a strand.
"Roiben, this is Lutie-loo. Lutie-loo, Roiben."
Kaye loved it when he grinned. She really id.
"It is my distinct pleasure to make your acquaintance," Roiben said, touching the tiny hand with two fingers.
[Memory 2]
[In the Unseelie Court before the Tithe]
She turned her gaze on Kaye. "Well, child, it seems that you pleased my knight after all. Answer a riddle, and the Unseelie Court will gift you to him."
There was a murmur in the crowd.
Kaye nodded her head, unsure of what constituted propriety in a faerie court.
There was true amusement in the Queen's voice as she spoke. "Cut me and I weep tears as red as my flesh, yet my heart is made of stone. Pray tell, mortal girl, what am I?"
[Memory 3]
[Janet's death]
Beside Janet danced a disturbingly familiar dark-skinned boy. Kaye pushed brutally through the crowd, knocking people aside with her elbows just in time to see Janet smile up at the kelpie and let him lead her off the edge of the pier.
"Janet!" Kaye screamed, pushing her way to the water.
But when she got there, there were only ribbons of red curls sinking below the waves. She stared for a moment, until desperation rose up in her and she jumped. Bone-cold black water closed over her head.
Her muscles clenched with shock as she went under once and then bobbed up. Teeth chattering. Spitting out briny water. Her flailing hands caught strands of hair and she pulled, cruelly, desperately. Her legs kicked automatically, treading water.
Her hand came up empty save for a clump of tangled red hair.
"Janet!" she cried as a wave broke almost on top of her, pushing her into the pilings beneath the pier. Taking a deep breath, she dove down, opening her eyes as she went, desperately hoping for a single flash of red hair, casting her hands like claws.
She bobbed up from the water again, out of breath and coughing. It had been too dark to see anything, and the reach of her arms had found nothing.
"Janet!" Kaye screamed, one hand slapping the top of the water, sending a spray of it showering down around her. She was treading water violently, raging at Janet, at herself, and especially at the frigid, black, unfeeling sea that swallowed Janet up.
[Memory 4]
[In the apple orchard]
She didn't make it to the car.
"Kaye, stop. Just stop." Roiben's voice came from close behind her.
She paused, looking through the trees at the minivans and the highway beyond. Anything not to look backward at the Seelie Court and the ageless children and Roiben.
"You're shaking."
"I'm angry. You're screwing around while we have stuff to do." His calm was only making her angrier.
"Well, I'm sorry for that." He didn't sound sorry exactly, his voice was hovering on the edge of sarcasm.
Her face was hot. "Why are you here?"
There was a pause. "Because you just wrested me from a conversation with a none-too-polite scolding."
"No ... why are you still here? Why are you here at all?"
His voice was quiet. She could not see his face unless she turned and she would not turn. "Shall I go, then?"
Her eyes burned with unshed tears. She simply felt overloaded.
"Everything I do ...," she started, and her voice hitched. "Shit, we don't have time for this."
"Kaye - "
"No." She started pacing. "We have to go. Right ow."
"If you cannot becalm yourself, you'll do Cornelius little good."
She stopped pacing and held up her hands, fingers splayed wide. "I can't! I'm not like you!"
He stopped her, placing his hand on her shoulder. She refused to meet his eyes, and abruptly he jerked her forward, pulling her body aainst his. Her muscles stiffened, but he tightened his hold wordlessly. After a moment, she subsided, her breath rushing from her in a long, shuddering sigh. Long fingers stroked her hair. He smelled of honey and sweat and the detergent her grandmother used.
She rubbed her cheek against his chest, closing her eyes against the thoughts that were gibbering in her head, whispering bids for attention.
"I'm here because you are kind and lovely and terribly, terribly brave," he said, voice pitched low. "And because I want to be."
She looked up at him through her lashes. He smiled and rested his chin on the top of her head, sliding his hand over her back.
"You want to be?"
He laughed. "Verily, I do. Do you doubt it?"
"Oh," she said, mind unable to catch up with the stunning joy that she felt. Joy, that was, for the moment, enough to push the other sorrows aside. Because it was true, somehow, he was here with her, and not with the Seelie Queen. "Oh."
[After the Tithe]
"Kaye," a voice rasped, and she spun around.
It was the Thistlewitch, sitting on a log. She patted the place beside her. "Things did not go well under the hill."
"No," Kaye said, sitting down. She wanted to put more anger in her voice, but she couldn't. "I almost died."
"Nicnevin's knight saved you, did he not?"
Kaye nodded, looking up to see him, half in shadows, hands in the pockets of his coat, glowering impressively. It made her want to grin at him, although she was afraid he might grin back and ruin his furious demeanor.
"Why have you brought him among us?"
"If it wasn't for him, I'd be dead."
The Thistlewitch looked in the direction of the knight and then back at Kaye. "Do you know of the things he has done?"
"Don't you understand? She made him do them!"
"I have no desire to be welcome among you, old mother," Roiben said, kneeling down on one knee in the soft earth. "I only wanted to know whether you were aware of the price of your freedom. There are trolls and worse that are delighted to be without any master but their own desires."
"And if there are, what of it?" Spike asked, coming up behind them. "Let the mortals suffer as we have suffered.
Kaye was astonished. She thought back to Lutie's disdain for mortal girls. They were only her friends because of what she was, and not for any better reason then that. Her fingers brushed over the purple plastic covering her legs, letting her nails cut little lines in the vinyl. She wanted them to be better then people, but they weren't, and she didn't know what they were anymore. She'd been flung back and forth through too many emotions over the past few days, she was hungover from adrenaline, she was worried about Corny and worried about Janet.
"So it's us against them now? I'm not talking about the Unseelie Court, here. Since when are mortals the enemies of the solitary fey?" Kaye said, anger bleeding into her voice, making it rough. She looked a Roiben again, drawing confidence from his proximity, and that worried her too. How had he gone from being someone she half despised to being the one person she was relying on, in the space of mere hours?
Roiben's hand touched her shoulder lightly, a comforting gesture. It amused her how wide Spike's eyes got. She wondered exactly what Spike imagined had passed between them.
"You think like a mortal," Spike said.
"Well, gosh, I did spend every week of my life except the last thinking I was one."
Spike's thick brows furrowed, and he tilted his head to the side, black eyes glittering. "You don't know anything about Faery. You don't know where your loyalties should be."
"If I don't understand it's because you didn't tell me. You kept me in the dark, and you used me."
"You agreed to help us. You saw the importance of what we were doing."
"We have to tell the solitary fey that Nicnevin was innocent of the sacrifice. This has to stop, Spike."
"I won't go back to being a slave. Not for any mortal. Not for anything."
"But the Unseelie Queen is dead."
"It doesn't matter. There's always another, worse then the last. Don't you dare try to undo this. Don't you dare go around telling tales."
"Or you'll what?" Roiben said softly.
"It's not her place," Spike protested, twisting the long hairs of one eyebrow nervously between his fingers.
"The Tithe was not completed. The reason matters little. The result is the same. For seven years the solitary few in Nicnevin's lands are free."
"Unless they enter into a new compact."
"Why would they do that?" Spike demanded. "Rumor has it that the Seelie Queen is coming down from the north, bringing practically the whole court, from what I hear."
Roiben froze at that. "Why is she coming?" he breathed.
Spike shrugged, "Probably to see what she can claim before the Unseelie Court gets back on its feet again. Bad time to be making deals with anyone."
"Do you think Nephamael'll bring Corny to the Seelie Court?" Kaye asked Roiben.
He nodded once. "He'll have to if he intends to keep him." The assumption that id Nephamael didn't intend to keep Corny, he was already dead, went unspoken.
"Do you know where they're going to camp?" Kaye asked Spike.
"It's an orchard," Spike said. "A place where people pick their own apples. They should be there by tomorrow's dawn."
Kaye knew where that was. She'd gone there on a school trip and a couple of times with her grandmother. Delicious Orchards.
"Wait, I want to come with you," Lutie said, flying to Kaye's shoulder. Kaye felt a sharp tug on her hair as Lutie caught a strand.
"Roiben, this is Lutie-loo. Lutie-loo, Roiben."
Kaye loved it when he grinned. She really id.
"It is my distinct pleasure to make your acquaintance," Roiben said, touching the tiny hand with two fingers.
[Memory 2]
[In the Unseelie Court before the Tithe]
She turned her gaze on Kaye. "Well, child, it seems that you pleased my knight after all. Answer a riddle, and the Unseelie Court will gift you to him."
There was a murmur in the crowd.
Kaye nodded her head, unsure of what constituted propriety in a faerie court.
There was true amusement in the Queen's voice as she spoke. "Cut me and I weep tears as red as my flesh, yet my heart is made of stone. Pray tell, mortal girl, what am I?"
[Memory 3]
[Janet's death]
Beside Janet danced a disturbingly familiar dark-skinned boy. Kaye pushed brutally through the crowd, knocking people aside with her elbows just in time to see Janet smile up at the kelpie and let him lead her off the edge of the pier.
"Janet!" Kaye screamed, pushing her way to the water.
But when she got there, there were only ribbons of red curls sinking below the waves. She stared for a moment, until desperation rose up in her and she jumped. Bone-cold black water closed over her head.
Her muscles clenched with shock as she went under once and then bobbed up. Teeth chattering. Spitting out briny water. Her flailing hands caught strands of hair and she pulled, cruelly, desperately. Her legs kicked automatically, treading water.
Her hand came up empty save for a clump of tangled red hair.
"Janet!" she cried as a wave broke almost on top of her, pushing her into the pilings beneath the pier. Taking a deep breath, she dove down, opening her eyes as she went, desperately hoping for a single flash of red hair, casting her hands like claws.
She bobbed up from the water again, out of breath and coughing. It had been too dark to see anything, and the reach of her arms had found nothing.
"Janet!" Kaye screamed, one hand slapping the top of the water, sending a spray of it showering down around her. She was treading water violently, raging at Janet, at herself, and especially at the frigid, black, unfeeling sea that swallowed Janet up.
[Memory 4]
[In the apple orchard]
She didn't make it to the car.
"Kaye, stop. Just stop." Roiben's voice came from close behind her.
She paused, looking through the trees at the minivans and the highway beyond. Anything not to look backward at the Seelie Court and the ageless children and Roiben.
"You're shaking."
"I'm angry. You're screwing around while we have stuff to do." His calm was only making her angrier.
"Well, I'm sorry for that." He didn't sound sorry exactly, his voice was hovering on the edge of sarcasm.
Her face was hot. "Why are you here?"
There was a pause. "Because you just wrested me from a conversation with a none-too-polite scolding."
"No ... why are you still here? Why are you here at all?"
His voice was quiet. She could not see his face unless she turned and she would not turn. "Shall I go, then?"
Her eyes burned with unshed tears. She simply felt overloaded.
"Everything I do ...," she started, and her voice hitched. "Shit, we don't have time for this."
"Kaye - "
"No." She started pacing. "We have to go. Right ow."
"If you cannot becalm yourself, you'll do Cornelius little good."
She stopped pacing and held up her hands, fingers splayed wide. "I can't! I'm not like you!"
He stopped her, placing his hand on her shoulder. She refused to meet his eyes, and abruptly he jerked her forward, pulling her body aainst his. Her muscles stiffened, but he tightened his hold wordlessly. After a moment, she subsided, her breath rushing from her in a long, shuddering sigh. Long fingers stroked her hair. He smelled of honey and sweat and the detergent her grandmother used.
She rubbed her cheek against his chest, closing her eyes against the thoughts that were gibbering in her head, whispering bids for attention.
"I'm here because you are kind and lovely and terribly, terribly brave," he said, voice pitched low. "And because I want to be."
She looked up at him through her lashes. He smiled and rested his chin on the top of her head, sliding his hand over her back.
"You want to be?"
He laughed. "Verily, I do. Do you doubt it?"
"Oh," she said, mind unable to catch up with the stunning joy that she felt. Joy, that was, for the moment, enough to push the other sorrows aside. Because it was true, somehow, he was here with her, and not with the Seelie Queen. "Oh."
