The Solstice Cup (11 page)

“You mean drink from the solstice cup,” said Mackenzie.

“There's nothing to be afraid of,” Nuala said with a hint of impatience. “I'll drink from the cup myself tonight if that's what it takes to convince you.”

She stood up, still holding one of Mackenzie's hands. “In the meantime, I'm taking you outside. We're joining the party.”

“I-I can't leave Breanne like this,” said Mackenzie. She braced herself, half expecting to be stung for her refusal.

“You have a bit of a stubborn streak yourself, don't you?” said Nuala, her silver eyes unblinking. “Fine,” she sighed. “Stay with your sister for now. But you still have to come to the banquet tonight.”

Mackenzie tried to rouse her sister again as soon as the faery was gone. Breanne's lips twitched when Mackenzie shook her shoulder, but her eyes remained closed.

“What have I done, what have I done?” said Mackenzie as she paced the room, clenching and unclenching her hands.

“You've let your sister bond herself to Nuala—that's what you've done,” said a voice behind her. Mackenzie spun around to find the hunchbacked piper standing in the doorway. “Seven years of service for that wee sip.”

Mackenzie's voice broke. “You have to help me. I don't know what to do!”

Finian entered the room and crossed over to the bed. “Seems it's your sister that needs help now.”

“Please,” said Mackenzie. “I didn't mean for anything to happen to her. Nuala said the solstice fire would heal her leg. She showed me: the bird's wing was broken and then it was fixed.”

The piper snorted. “Heal her leg, is that what she said? Her limp will be gone, aye, along with her memory, her will and everything else that makes her herself. The fire burns it all away. She'll be just like the rest of them for the next seven years.”

“The rest of them?”

“The gray-hoods, the other lads and lasses lured down below,” Finian said impatiently. He settled his misshapen frame in the chair closest to the bed and leaned forward. “I warned you, you can't say I didn't. There are a handful of selfish faeries like Nuala who entice young humans down below every solstice to serve them. Nuala herself has built up quite a collection.”

“No.” Mackenzie shook her head. “There has to be a way to get Breanne out of this.”

“Come back in seven years,” said the piper. “She'll be free as a bird then.”

“I can't leave my sister here for seven years!”

“Not much choice. Leave her here, or drink from the cup and join her.”

Tears had begun to leak down Mackenzie's face. She crouched beside the bed and took her sister's burning hand. “Please,” she begged, still looking at Finian. “This is my fault. If I'd given her the berries when she asked for them, she wouldn't be like this. I'll do whatever it takes. I have to save her!”

“Whatever it takes?” Finian shrugged. “Easy to say now.”

Mackenzie wiped her cheeks angrily. “I mean it! Whatever I have to do, I'll do it.”

“Mmm,” said the piper, one eyebrow raised. “'Tis a shame the pair of you didn't stay put with the old woman in the first place.” He caught the surprise on Mackenzie's face and nodded. “Aye, I know Maigret. And I know the distress you caused her when you left so ungratefully. Believe me, I wouldn't be here if she hadn't asked me to look out for you. I'm risking my neck just being in this room,” he said, rising to his feet.

Mackenzie stood up quickly. “Can Maigret help us? Will you take me to her?”

“Not at this hour,” said Finian as he moved toward the door. “I'll be back for you tonight, after the banquet, when it's safer.”

“Promise?” Mackenzie said anxiously.

There was no mirth in the piper's laugh. “Promises are tin coins in this world, lassie. But I'll be here.”

Mackenzie was the only human guest at the banquet that night. The faeries around her ate and drank with abandon. Their laughter seemed shriller and their arguments more intense than at the previous two feasts Mackenzie had attended. She kept her head down, trying not to draw attention to herself. She was relieved when Finian appeared at the center of the courtyard with his pipes. When no one was watching, she slipped a few bogberries into her mouth.

Everything after that was as it had been at the last banquet. Finian's music was muffled thanks to the sour berries, but Mackenzie could still hear it rising up into the night sky. The sky responded with the same spectacular display. Sheets of pale flame illuminated a procession of scarlet-robed faeries bearing the solstice cup to the flat stone in the center of the courtyard. Mackenzie was ready for the brilliant explosion this time.

When she opened her eyes again, Nuala was gliding toward her with the cup in her hands. Mackenzie held her breath as the faery stopped and raised the cup to her own mouth.

“See?” Nuala said softly when she'd lowered the cup again. Her lips were wet and they glowed faintly. “I told you it was safe. Now it's your turn.” She held the cup out for Mackenzie.

Mackenzie couldn't meet the faery's eyes. Her hands remained at her sides. “I still can't,” she whispered.

Nuala let out an angry hiss. “That's four times you've refused this cup. Why do you resist?
How
do you resist?”

Mackenzie didn't say anything. She swallowed, but the lump in her throat remained.

“It's very curious,” said the faery. She stared at Mackenzie for a long moment and then raised her fingers. One of her attendants stepped forward from the shadows to escort Mackenzie back underground.

C
HAPTER
T
EN

M
ackenzie had almost worn a path in the rugs underfoot before Finian finally showed up at the door of her chamber. “I was afraid you weren't coming,” she said, releasing her breath gratefully.

“I'm here,” said the piper. “Let's go. Quickly. Follow a few paces behind, and don't speak.”

Mackenzie took her sister's hand before leaving the room. Breanne's skin was still warm, but nowhere near the temperature it had been. Finian was already halfway down the corridor when Mackenzie slipped through the door after him.

The piper moved swiftly, turning one way and then the other without hesitation. They were traveling in the opposite direction to the route that led up to the courtyard. Finian stopped abruptly at one corner and motioned with his hand for Mackenzie to stay back. Mackenzie held her breath, her heart hammering in her chest, until Finian signaled that it was safe again. A few minutes later, Mackenzie followed the piper up a set of shallow stairs. She could smell the tang of marsh air as she climbed the last few steps. Then they were outside.

“Can you see well enough to walk?” the piper said softly. He had stopped to let Mackenzie catch up.

“I think so,” Mackenzie whispered. There were no torches to illuminate their path, and the stars were hidden behind clouds. But there was a faint smudge of light all around the lower edge of the sky. “Is it safe to talk now?”

“Not if you value your pretty skin,” said Finian. “You never know what's lurking in the shadows.”

As if to prove his point, small rustling noises accompanied them all the way down to the tree-lined avenues where Mackenzie had had her first glimpse of faery revelry. The avenues were deserted now. Finian led her across one road and down another, and then they descended a steep staircase to the stony beach.

“Do we have to wade across?” Mackenzie asked as her eyes found the silhouette of a small building on stilts a short distance offshore.

Finian snorted. “You can wade if you want to, lass. I'd prefer to row.”

He motioned for Mackenzie to follow. A few yards farther down the shore, there was a narrow inlet that Mackenzie hadn't noticed when she'd arrived on the island with Breanne. Half a dozen boats of various shapes and sizes were moored along a low wharf. Finian liberated a small wooden rowboat and steadied Mackenzie while she climbed in.

Mackenzie turned her head away as the piper began to pull the oars. His strokes might have looked awkward, but they were efficient. The crossing took only a few minutes. Mackenzie waited by the ladder that led up to Maigret's shack while Finian tied up the boat.

“Go on then,” said the piper gruffly. “She won't bite. She'll be relieved to see that you're all right.”

Halfway up the ladder, Mackenzie heard the trapdoor above her head creak open an inch.

“Strange time to be visiting an old woman,” came Maigret's voice. “Who is it, and what do you want?”

Mackenzie's grip tightened on the ladder rung. “It's me, Mackenzie—one of the girls you pulled out of the water a few days ago. Finian brought me back.”

The trapdoor swung open all the way. “Well come up then! What are you waiting for?” said Maigret.

The interior of the shack was pitch black. Mackenzie felt callused hands take her wrists as she neared the top of the ladder. The old woman guided her through the opening in the floor and helped her to her feet.

“Are you still yourself then?” said Maigret. “What about your sister—where is she?”

“That's why I brought this one here,” Mackenzie heard Finian say as he came up through the trapdoor behind her. “I warned them, I slipped them enough bogberries to last the week and then some. But the other one drank from the cup anyway.”

Mackenzie felt Maigret's grip tighten as she said something in a language Mackenzie didn't understand. She sounded cross.

“Aye, I know what you asked me to do,” said the piper. “I did my part.”

“It was my fault,” Mackenzie said quickly. “I had the berries. I was waiting for her to apologize. I mean—I didn't give them to my sister when she asked for them.”

The old woman sighed heavily and released Mackenzie's arms. “Well. There's no use cursing the path that brought you here. What's done is done. Wait, I'll light a lamp.”

Mackenzie heard Maigret move away. There was the sound of friction, as if two rocks were being rubbed together, and a tiny flame appeared inside a lamp on the other side of the room. The flame grew brighter as Maigret adjusted it. Mackenzie's eyes went instinctively to the window that faced the faery island, but it was shuttered, as was the one across from it.

“You can breathe easy, lass,” Maigret said. “None of the fair folk has ever bothered me here. You're safe.”

“But my sister—”

“Aye, your sister.” Maigret frowned. “Now that's another matter.”

“There must be something you can give her,” Mackenzie said hopefully, eyeing the dried herbs that hung in bunches from the rafters in a corner of the room. “When Breanne was unconscious in the marsh, you woke her up with some kind of ‘birthing' herb.”

“Aye, I did.”

“Well, can you wake her up now?” Mackenzie asked.

Maigret shook her head, her thin lips pursed. “There's naught I can give her for this. The solstice cup is too powerful—the bond too strong. That's why I tried to keep you here, out of harm's way.”

Mackenzie looked down at the floorboards. “I'm sorry. I didn't want to go. I tried to talk her out of it…”

The old woman waved her hand. “'Tis over and done. You're here now, and you're after a way to save your sister.”

“Yes,” said Mackenzie.

“Come, sit down.” Maigret motioned Mackenzie over to the pile of wool blankets in the corner of the room.

Mackenzie sat against the wall, her arms around her knees. The old woman remained standing a few feet away. Finian had already seated himself on the one stool in the room.

“There might be a way to free your sister,” Maigret said after a moment of reflection. “The magic that holds your sister is very old and very powerful. Naught but the strongest bond could ever hope to stand against it. But you are twins, womb-sisters, and there is no stronger bond than that. It might be enough, if you have the will and the courage.”