The Faerie Path (21 page)

Gabriel held out his hand toward her.

A gentle, female voice sounded in Tania’s mind, as if invisible lips had come up close to her head and whispered softly into her ear.

“
Remember the words of the rhyme.
…”

A shiver went up her spine. She knew the voice.

She didn’t know
how
she knew, but she did.

It was the voice of her mother, Queen Titania.

Remember the words of the rhyme
…?

One alone will walk both worlds, Daughter last of daughters seven, With her true love by her side, Honest hand in true love given.

Suddenly Tania wasn’t afraid anymore. She knew exactly what she had to do.

She put down the lantern and walked toward Gabriel with her head held high. Looking calmly into his face, she stepped into the glamorous amber light. The air quivered above the amber liquid as it seethed and roiled in the cauldron.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” she asked, her voice absolutely calm. “Are you really sure?”

Gabriel lifted the glass jug she had seen before and dipped it into the cauldron.

“It is the uttermost wish of my heart,” he said.

“Very well, then,” Tania said. “Let’s do it.”

A muted cry made her turn her head. Edric was on his knees, staring at her in horror. “Don’t.” He gasped. “Tania—no!”

“Don’t worry, everything will be fine,” she promised. “Rathina’s right. This is my destiny. I’ve avoided it for five hundred years, but that’s all over now. Trust me, it’s for the best.”

“You have made the wise choice, my lady,” Gabriel said smoothly.

Tania turned away from Edric’s look of horror. She couldn’t explain to him why she was doing this—not yet. She unpeeled the silken bandages from around her hands then held one arm out over the cauldron.

She bit back her disgust as Gabriel’s hand closed around hers. He lifted the jug above their hands. An expression of triumph and greed twisted his handsome face. She looked away.

She felt thick warm liquid flood down over their joined hands.

Her fingers tingled. A strange prickling sensation traveled rapidly up her arm and spread into her shoulder.

A heartbeat later, a powerful force blazed through her, searing her skin from the inside. It was as if she was becoming molten—her mind and body turning to liquid and flooding into the mind and body of Gabriel Drake. She gasped, staring into his face. But it wasn’t his face anymore. It was her own face that stared at her across the glowing heart of the cauldron. Her face and his face, her eyes and his eyes—intermingled, melting together, becoming one.

And at that moment, she saw the full extent of his ambition.

She saw it as clearly as she had seen the images in the hand mirror.

She saw Gabriel bring into Faerie a bright blade of Isenmort from the Mortal World, and she saw him stab the King with it. She saw Oberon fall and die at
his feet. She saw him seize the throne, blaming others for the King’s death.

She saw him become the eternal tyrant of all Faerie. And she saw him lead Faerie armies into the Mortal World to extend his wicked rule.

And as their bodies and their spirits mingled, she knew that it was by the power of her gift to walk both worlds that he would be able to do these terrible things.

With a cry of dismay, Tania tore her hand free of Gabriel’s grip and staggered back from the cauldron.

“At last!” Gabriel shouted. “At last!” He began to laugh wildly, his head thrown back and his arms spread wide as his evil mirth rang out through the Hall of Light. Tania watched him through narrowed eyes. She could still feel where his fingers had been tight around hers. She looked at her hand. The amber liquid seemed to have drawn in, leaving only a faint golden sheen on her skin.

Smiling, Gabriel leaned both hands on the rim of the cauldron and stared at her. “Now, my lady,” he said with velvet smoothness, his eyes glowing golden in the light, “let us put it to the test.”

“Yes,” she said, staring straight back at him. “Why not?”

Remember the words of the rhyme….

He had not won yet.

She reached out her arm toward him, her hand open, inviting him to take hold.

He circled the cauldron, his black cloak swirling around him.

She didn’t flinch as he grasped her hand.

“Are you ready for this?” she said.

His eyes glowed. “I have waited long for this moment,” he murmured.

“Come on, then,” she said. “Follow me.” She walked forward. Gabriel moved with her, step for step.

She concentrated hard, and stepped sideways.

The Hall of Light trembled and her ears were full of racing air. The amber light of Faerie dimmed and all around her a darker place began to emerge.

She felt Gabriel’s fingers slipping from her hand.

She turned and saw Gabriel falling away behind her, his form hazy as though she was seeing him through a coiling mist. He seemed to be caught in a rushing wind that sent his cloak streaming out behind him. His face was contorted with anger and frustration as his fingers clawed impotently at the air.

And then he was gone and she was standing alone in a darkened room in the Mortal World.

“Thank you, Titania,” she whispered. “You were right.”

…With her true love by her side, Honest hand in true love given.

That’s what the rhyme said. Only one who truly loved her could share her gift to walk both worlds.
Gabriel did not love her, and so, despite the Ritual of Hand-Fasting, he wasn’t able to move between the worlds with her.

She looked around. She was in some kind of office with a desk and a computer and filing cabinets. Venetian blinds hung at the window, and beyond them she saw a small paved courtyard lit up by a lamppost.

She was free of Faerie and of Gabriel. She could walk to the door and step out into the ordinary night of the Mortal World and never look back.

Except that she couldn’t, not without Edric.

She sidestepped back into Faerie.

She had been half hoping that Gabriel might have gotten lost somewhere between the worlds, but he was there in the Hall of Light, crouched on one knee, gasping for breath and looking as though he had been caught in a hurricane.

Rathina was pressed against the door, her face white and her eyes huge and troubled. Tania ignored her. She ran to where Edric lay.

She came down beside him, smiling into his puzzled eyes. “You see?” she said. “I told you it would be all right.”

His hand slid into hers. “But are you all right?”

“I’m fine.” She turned to look at Gabriel. He was on his feet again, his face in torment. He had plotted for this moment for five hundred years, and it had all come to nothing.

Tania looked at him in quiet fury, and for the first
time she felt the power and the authority of the royal family of Faerie rise inside her. “You will regret what you have tried to do here, Gabriel,” she said. “When my father the King returns, you will be dealt with.”

Gabriel’s eyes seemed to ignite with deadly white flame. “At the very least, you shall not live to witness my downfall,” he snarled. He came swooping toward her with a murderous look on his face, his black cloak lifting above him like menacing wings.

Edric stumbled to his feet and forced himself in front of Tania.

“No!” she shouted.

It was too late. Gabriel sent Edric crashing to the floor with a single blow from the back of his hand. He towered over Tania, his face contorted with madness. He drew a small amber globe from his clothes and held it above her.

“Drink deep of the sleepless nightmare, my lady!” he spat. “Think of it as a gift from your cheated groom—an eternity of ceaseless suffering.”

Tania screamed and threw her arms up as he flung the amber ball spinning through the air toward her.

A deep, echoing boom shook the hall to its foundations.

Tania opened her eyes to bright white light. The amber ball was hovering in the air above her, revolving slowly and shedding yellow steam. And then, while she was still wondering what had happened, the ball shriveled and vanished in a puff of smoke.

She stared around. The whole of the vast space
was lit up with an unearthly radiance that came from the far end of the hall. Gabriel was still standing above her, but he was staring at something in the heart of the brilliant light.

Lifting herself up on her elbows, Tania followed his gaze. The double doors at the end of the hall had been thrown open, and two figures stood in the doorway, sheathed in white light.

Oberon swept into the room, trailing light like a comet in the night sky, and Tania saw that the slender, dark-cloaked figure at his side was her sister Eden.

The King gestured toward Gabriel, and he was sent hurtling across the floor like a rag doll.

A warm, embracing force lifted Tania to her feet as her father approached her.

“Are you hurt?” Oberon asked, his eyes anxious.

“No, not at all,” Tania breathed.

“’Tis well!” He turned to where Gabriel lay on the floor. Oberon lifted his hand and Gabriel was drawn up off the flagstones until he hung in the air, his feet clear of the ground, as if he was suspended from a hook.

“My daughter Eden has told me of your infamy,” Oberon thundered. “Base and treacherous schemer. Your villainous intrigues will come to nought. You are a lord of Faerie no more. You are nothing! Be gone from my palace and from my Realm! The sight of you offends the very stars!”

A shrill voice screamed from behind Tania. “No!”

Rathina sped across the floor to where Gabriel was
hanging. She threw her arms around him, clinging onto him and staring back at the King.

“What madness is this?” Oberon demanded. “Rathina, stand away!”

“Never!” she shouted. “Do your worst, I care not.” She looked imploringly up into Gabriel’s face. “Wherever you are sent, whatever your fate, I will go with you!” she cried. “I shall never leave your side. All that I have done was done for love of you, and I will never abandon you, not even if dark eternity awaits!”

Tania reeled. All the time, her closest sister had been secretly in love with Gabriel Drake. Rathina had betrayed her in the hope of winning his affection. It was almost too much to take in.

Gabriel stared down at Rathina, his face full of scorn. “Spend an eternity of exile with you, my lady?” he snarled. “I would rather rot in an Amber Prison.”

Rathina’s face went ashen and she staggered as though she had been slapped. She stared up at him with horrified eyes. “You told me that you loved me,” she shouted, spittle foaming at her lips. “You gave me your oath. You promised that if I helped you to win Tania’s power, we would be together for all time.”

“Did you truly believe that I could ever love you?” Gabriel spat. “It was but deception, my lady. I never loved you.”

Rathina gave a despairing wail and fell to her knees.

Gabriel looked at Tania and a cruel smile twisted his lips. “It is a pity indeed that my hopes and plans
have come to nothing, my lady,” he said. “But I am comforted in the knowledge that you will never be content in Faerie. Your spirit is split between the worlds; you shall never find peace!”

Tania shuddered. His words sounded like a curse.

Gabriel spread his arms wide and looked at Oberon. “And now,” he said. “I am at Your Grace’s command.”

The King’s voice rumbled like an earthquake as he reached out a hand toward him. “Ill fortune devour you, Gabriel Drake. Thou art banished. Get you hence!”

Gabriel’s eyes widened for a moment in terror, and then, without sound or movement, he was gone, as if he had simply winked out of existence. Wisps of black smoke hung in the air, holding the shape of the young lord for a few seconds, and then they too were gone.

Rathina let out a tortured scream and fell forward, sprawling on the floor. She glared at Tania, her face twisted with hatred and rage.

“This is your fault!” she hissed, pulling herself to her feet. “You should have been killed in the Mortal World—killed never to be born again.” Her eyes blazed. “Did you think I urged you to use your powers all those years ago out of childish curiosity? No, sister, it was in the hope that you would die and leave me free to gain Gabriel’s love.”

Tania stared at her, too stunned to speak.

“I hate you!” Rathina spat. “I wish you were dead!” She gathered her skirts and ran from the room.

Eden shook her head. “Alas for poor Rathina.” She sighed. “We should pity her, for she was more fooled by Gabriel than any of us. But there is nothing that we can do for her. She must bear her dishonor alone.”

Sick at heart, Tania turned to Oberon. He was stooping over, his hand resting on Edric’s golden hair. “Rise and be healed,” the King said.

Edric’s eyelids fluttered, then he stirred and stretched as if he was waking from a long sleep. He opened his eyes and met Tania’s worried gaze, then a slow smile spread across his lips.

But soft, what light is this…?

Oberon turned to Tania and held out his arms.

Tania put her arms around him as far as they would go, hugging him back. “How did you get back here so quickly?” she asked.

“Eden used the Mystic Arts to call to me,” he said. “I rode swift upon the horse of air to be at your side. And it is good that it were so, for had I not been so fleet, much mischief would have been wrought this night.”

A muffled sob made them break apart and look around. Eden was standing a little distance away, tears pouring down her face. Suddenly she dropped to her knees and grasped Oberon’s hand.

“Forgive me, Father,” she wept. “Forgive me for being the cause of the Queen’s death. Forgive me for my deceit. Forgive me for my weakness.”

Oberon reached down and drew his eldest daughter to her feet. He looked into her eyes for a moment
then kissed her forehead. “You have borne a great burden down the long years,” he said gently. “I cannot find it in my heart to blame you. You sought only to aid your mother and to find your lost sister. You would never have opened the Oriole Glass had you known your mother would not return. There is nothing to forgive.”

Eden gazed up at him, her face filled with gratitude and happiness.

“I should be the one apologizing,” Tania said. “If I hadn’t let Rathina talk me into trying to walk between the worlds in the first place, none of this would have happened. All you did was to try and put things right.”

“And in doing so, I disobeyed our father and caused the death of our mother,” Eden said. “It is a hard thing to bear, even though it was love of you that brought me to it.”

“I don’t believe she is dead,” Tania said. “I think she’s still alive in the Mortal World. It’s just that she can’t get back here.”

“That is not possible,” Eden said forlornly. “She would have been vulnerable to the sicknesses and dangers of the Mortal World, just as you were. I do not believe that she can still be alive after so long in exile.”

“Someone sent me my Soul Book on my sixteenth birthday,” Tania insisted. “It must have been sent by someone who is in the mortal world but who comes from Faerie.” She squeezed Eden’s hand. “Don’t you see? Who else could it be other than Titania? I’m sure
she’s still alive.” Her eyes lit up. “And I’m going to prove it. I’m going back to find her.”

A glimmer of hope appeared in Eden’s eyes.

Tania looked at Oberon. His face was troubled. “I would not lose you again,” he said. “The passage into the Mortal World is perilous.”

“Not for me it isn’t,” she said. “I’m the seventh daughter, remember?” She smiled. “Don’t worry,” she said. “I can do this. I won’t get lost this time. And when I come back, I’ll have Titania with me.”

Oberon put his arms around her, his voice a low murmur in her ear. “Never has a father been more proud of his daughter’s courage, Tania,” he said. “I understand the hold that the Mortal World has over you, but you must promise to return. I could not bear it if you did not come back to me again.”

“I will come back,” Tania promised.

“Then go with my uttermost blessings upon you,” Oberon said. “But you will be vulnerable to the touch of Isenmort now.” He held out his closed hand between them. A light flashed for an instant between his fingers, and when he opened his hand, two black jewels lay on his palm.

“They are black amber from my crown,” he said. “The rarest jewels in all of Faerie. Take them, for they will protect you from the bite of Isenmort.”

“Thank you,” she said, picking the small black stones out of his hand.

“’Tis but a father’s gift,” he said. “May fortune go with you, Tania, and may you bring our beloved
Titania back to her home.”

Eden put her arms around Tania. “I will watch for you every day until you return,” she said. “A constant light will burn in the Oriole Window to guide your way home.”

Tania hugged her tightly. “Say good-bye to the others for me, will you?” she asked. “Tell them I’ll be back soon.”

“I will.”

Tania turned to Edric.

“I have to do this,” she said. “There are other things that are just as important to me, but this is something I have to do first. Do you understand?”

“I understand,” he said, his eyes filled with unspoken sadness. “I’ll be waiting for you to come back.”

“Thank you.” She reached up and touched his cheek with her fingertips. “I needed to hear you say that.”

She turned and gave her Faerie father and her sister a final loving look. She lifted her hand in farewell and made the side step that would take her into the Mortal World.