The Book of Dreams (55 page)

“You’re
gorgeous
!” she breathed at last.

A ripple ran through the group. They looked happy, pleased, proud. As if eased by her tone, they diminished to human height, some shrinking even smaller still.

One of the pine women stepped forward to speak. A daisy chain crowned her long green hair. Her skin was a silvery hue.

“I’m Daisy Greenleaf of the Clan Creemore. Pleased to meet you, Light-Bearer’s Daughter.”

More came forward to greet her, some bowing, some shaking her hand. Others timidly stated their names and then scurried off. Those too shy for even that, slipped away into the woods like bright shadows. But soon a little band of the brave were seated in the grass around her. Tall and lithe, Stanley Moon had eyes that flashed with mischief. He looked like Pan with his pointed ears and evergreen skin. His arm was draped lazily around Daisy’s shoulders.

Fern Moon, Stanley’s sister, was the same green color with a head of bushy dark hair. She was quiet where her brother was brazen. Brown as an oak, Big James Tweed was robust and kindly. Flora Bird was blue, tiny and quick-witted, flitting here and there. Honeywood was a beauty with long yellow hair and dreamy eyes. Her voice was mellifluous, her movements languid like boughs in a warm breeze. Lavender was pale mauve, the size of a flower petal. She was the only one who had chosen to wear wings, and she fluttered around Dana like a lilac butterfly.

The more at ease they became, the more the fairies shape-shifted at will, from creatures of light to earthly guise to various animal forms. The divisions of nature were nothing to them.

The
loup-garou
remained at Dana’s side as the fairies settled around her. Flora Bird brushed his coat with a golden comb. A family of ravens, ever friend to the wolf, nestled against him as they preened their feathers.

“I’ve been here for over a year,” Dana said, astonishment ringing in her voice. “Were you hiding? Why didn’t I see you?”

They looked at each other, then at her.

“You know the rules,” Daisy said. “You can’t see what you don’t believe.”

“I believe in fairies!” she said indignantly.

“Canadian fairies?” they chimed.

Dana’s huff deflated. A thousand questions buzzed in her mind like bees, but before she could ask them, Lavender called out in a chirp.

“Eat as we talk! Where’s the feast?”

“Yeah! Bring it on!” the others clamored while the animals hooted, barked, and cawed.

Daisy, evidently the leader, clapped her hands. In the blink of an eye, they were surrounded by a cornucopia of treats. Baskets of birch bark spilled over with every kind of fruit: rosy apples, blueberries, fat gooseberries, cranberries, wild cherries, and currants. There were hot dishes of roasted corn on the cob and yams. These were followed by cold desserts of sugar cakes dripping with dark molasses and every kind of maple confection.

Dana and the wolf joined in the feast while keeping a watchful eye on the forest. Big James Tweed noticed their wariness.

“You needn’t worry. These woods are safe. This is Dun Croí Mor, our fairy fort. No minions of evil can come here. It is well protected.”

As the picnic got under way, they told her about themselves.

“We emigrated with the Irish,” Daisy said. “We couldn’t bear to see our good neighbors leave without us.”

“We’re scattered across North America,” Stanley Moon declared. “Wherever the Irish went, we went too.”

“At first we were homesick,” said Honeywood in her sweet golden voice. “Like the settlers themselves, we pined for the hills and woods of Ireland. And then, just like them, we grew to love it here. That’s when we took on the colors and shapes of the new land.”

“The clans in British Columbia are huge!” Lavender piped up. “Rain-forest fairies!”

“They went west with the Guinness family,” Fern added.

“In time, many of us forgot about the Old Country,” Daisy said. “By that I mean Faerie. Some ran off into the bush or into the Far North, never to be seen again. None of us has gone back in over a century. We’ve all gone native. This is our home now.”

“I guess that’s why I never heard of you,” Dana murmured. She let out a sigh. “But then, there’s so much about Faerie that I don’t know. I was really surprised to hear about the queen who brought summer to Canada. Did she come through the portal in Creemore?”

“Oh no,” said Daisy. “She came through the oldest one here. It stood in Newfoundland at the heart of the Rock. There were gateways in every corner of the world before they got destroyed. But they’re all gone now.”

“Except for ours,” Stanley stated with pride.

“Ours stood strong,” Daisy agreed. “For the portal of
Magh Croí Mor
, the Plain of the Great Heart, was sealed long ago.”

“Thanks to the Old Ones,” Flora Bird chirped up.

A solemn air fell over them all, including Dana.

“You know the Old Ones,” she said at last.

“How could we not?” said Daisy. “All of Turtle Island—what you call North America—belongs to them. They are the spirits known to the First Peoples of this land.”

Dana saw the looks that passed between the fairies. Their features were difficult to read.

“They’ve been helping me,” Dana told them.

Daisy nodded. “Since long before you were born. They were the ones who sealed our portal, though we didn’t know why at the time. It was all a big secret. But we were happy to do their bidding. At their request, we called your ancestor to meet with the Chief Druid—”

“You mean Grandfather?”

“He has many names,” Daisy said. “He is not an Old One, but they speak through him. He has great power.”

“He could see us,” said Stanley Moon, “from the time we got here. That’s how we knew he was a Druid. He said he was going to die soon but that his soul would migrate to another body. We brought your great-great-grandfather to meet him, here in our rath.”

“We drummed till Thomas followed us!” Lavender said. “He was a man with a big heart.”

“We liked him for that,” said Big James Tweed.

“We sang at his shivaree,” chirped Flora Bird, “and we blessed his children and their children and their children …”

Dana had to smile to herself. No wonder her father ended up marrying a fairy queen.

“We are the guardians of Magh Croí Mor,” Daisy explained. “We have always kept watch on the Plain of the Great Heart.”

“We’re the ones who got Edward Webster to donate the site for a graveyard,” Stanley Moon explained with a little grin. “He had a dream that the land should be secluded and peaceful.”

“A good neighbor he was,” Fern said with a sigh. “I cried buckets when he went away to California. It was so sad that he lost all his money and had to sell everything.”

“We tried to help as best we could,” Flora added, “but in the end mortals got to live their own lives.”

Though they were talking about something that happened long ago, it was obvious the matter still upset the fairies. Dana was trying to get them back to the subject of the portal when a small group broke from the trees.

“Ms. Woods!” she cried. “Laurel!”

The two young women rushed over to hug her. They looked like forest-dwellers, twin Maid Marians in mottled clothing of green and brown, with leaves caught in their hair. They were escorted by more of the Creemore troop. Alf Branch was like Daisy, a natural leader, short and stocky with an air of command. Weatherup was fat and jolly, while Gaelyn Tree-Top was tall and dignified. Christy Pines looked half-girl, half-hedgehog with a mane of spiny bristles. Like the other fairies, they wore clothes of fern, bark, and wildflowers.

Joining the circle, they helped themselves to the feast.

“Isn’t it wonderful?” Gwen said to Dana. “Fairies over here and we didn’t even know!”

“How could we?” Laurel pointed out. “They’ve been in hiding for years!”

“Some of them are so shy they still won’t come near us,” Gwen added.

“It’s our nature to be elusive,” said Alf Branch. “And modern people don’t believe in fairies.”

“That’s not true!” Gwen argued. “I keep telling you. More and more of us believe. If you showed yourselves from time to time that would help the cause.”

“How did you find them?” Dana asked Gwen.

“Actually they found me.”

Alf Branch told the story of how the Creemore fairies saved Gwen.

“The day the portals went down, we all got a shock. Though we hadn’t gone home in a hundred years we felt the cutting of the cord, and it hurt, I can tell you. In that terrible moment we understood why our gateway was sealed so long ago. It was the only one left standing. We were slow to act, I’ll admit that now. In our defense, we knew nothing about what happened between Thomas and the Chief. All we knew was that they shut the door between them.

“I guess we were waiting for someone or something to come to us. Then rumors and strange tidings started to drift in. Dark things creeping through the countryside. Bad things happening in the city. By the time we got wind of your quest, you were already on the move. Once we heard you were a Gowan of Creemore, we put two and two together. It was time to end our isolation, not to mention our procrastination. We knew we had to go into the city to find you.”

Alf Branch stopped and shuddered visibly.

“We’d rather go into battle than into Toronto!” Big James Tweed stated with conviction.

The others echoed his sentiment.

“We’re woodland fairies,” Alf Branch explained. “The Big City is just too big. The crowded streets and the traffic and the noise …”

He shuddered again.

“You should’ve seen us cringing round the corners of those skyscrapers.” Honeywood breathed with soft horror.

“And unfortunately we don’t know any urban fairies,” Al Branch went on. “They hide even better than we do. But thanks to the city pigeons and squirrels we finally got our bearings. They told us there was an evil thing squatting in an empty building on once-holy ground. And when we discovered it was near to a house protected by a Sacred One, we knew we were on the right trail. And not a moment too soon! We were in the area when we heard the cry. Gwen’s spell of succor brought us to her in an instant.”

It was Gwen’s turn to shudder, and it was obvious she preferred not to speak of it.

“Poor girl, she was near dead,” Daisy said gently, squeezing Gwen’s hand.

“He was about to deal the fatal blow.” Alf’s look was grim. “Good thing there were so many of us. We got right in there and lathered him good-oh, till he fled the scene. Then we took her back here as fast as we could.”

“We thought she was you,” Daisy explained to Dana. “Her wounds were terrible and she was close to death. It took all our healing skills and many long days before she was conscious. Only then did we discover the full story.”

“We hurried back to the city,” Alf Branch said, “but we couldn’t find hide nor hair of either you or Laurel.”

“I thought you were both dead for sure,” Gwen said, eyes dark as she recalled the nightmare of that time.

“I would have been,” Laurel put in, “if one of the Old Ones hadn’t acted to save me. I didn’t know who he was then, but I realized it later. The amulet he gave me protected me from death, but then Crowley flung me into the burnt place.”

“The Brule,” Dana said, nodding, “where I met you when I was with the Old Ones.”

“We were over the moon to find you both there,” said Gwen. “Messengers had been looking everywhere for you. Laurel’s body was found on a deserted beach where Crowley had abandoned it. That was a bad moment. I thought she was dead, but the fairies could see that her spirit had been stolen. We had to find it.”

“That was some search,” Daisy Greenleaf said softly. “With the doorways closed, he couldn’t hide her in some dark part of Faerie; but he had made a lair in the shadows between time and space.”

“And that’s where you found me,” Laurel said.

Now Daisy turned to Dana with a look of deep regret. “We saw you were with the Old Ones and that you had fairy powers. Alas, we assumed you were safe and didn’t need us. We were caught off guard when we heard you were in Creemore and under attack.”

“What!” said Gwen and Laurel together.

It was Dana’s turn to tell her story. When she came to the part where Jean had lost his humanity, Gwen wept openly while Laurel looked stricken. Up till now, neither of them had known anything about the wolf in the circle.

Dana didn’t cry. She had no tears left. As she spoke in a calm and quiet voice, her hand rested on the wolf’s head. The golden eyes gazed back at her without blinking.

“Faerie is the Land of Dreams and Promise,” she stated with sudden fierceness. “Once I open the door, I will bring Jean there where I believe he can be cured. I’ve found the portal. It’s at my great-great-grandfather’s grave. But for some reason it was beyond my reach.”

“It’s out of alignment,” Gwen explained. “As I mentioned in my note to you, the worlds have been drifting apart without the gateways to bridge them. When they cross again on Halloween, the portal will appear. That’s your chance to open it.”

Gwen hesitated, though it seemed she had more to say.

Laurel finished for her. “It’s your one and only chance. If the door isn’t opened on Halloween and the worlds drift again, they will stay apart forever.”

Dana felt the weight of the truth on her shoulders, but she preferred to know it. She nodded gratefully to Laurel.

“The Book of Dreams described how my ancestor sealed the gateway with a drop of his blood. Only the blood of his family can open it again. I’ll do what he did. That’s easy enough, I think.”

They all looked at her. There was a gravity to their silence that made her catch her breath. She knew that she was missing something.

“It won’t be easy at all,” Daisy said to her. “As you discovered today, your enemy has called many dark things to the Plain of the Great Heart.”

“By the time the portal appears,” Alf Branch finished, “a great army will stand between you and the door.”

The wolf growled low in his throat.

Dana looked back at them, stunned. She had expected a battle of some kind, chiefly between herself and Crowley, but she hadn’t imagined something this huge.