Fairy Lies (14 page)

“It wasn’t anything like that,” said Jak. “Tamisin wanted to come back to the land of the fey and got mad at me when I didn’t tell her that the gate behind my house was open. I would have told her, but it never occurred to me that she could go through cat-goblin territory. It wasn’t somewhere I would have gone, so I didn’t think it was safe for her, either. She kept trying to go through the gate behind our school. You know the one—it opens into Titania’s forest. It was always closed, though, but because Titania had placed a compulsion on her . . .”

A snuffling snort from Tobi’s branch made Jak raise his head to look at his friend. The little goblin was asleep, lying on his back with his mouth open. Jak wondered how long he’d been talking to himself.

He turned over, trying to get comfortable on the branch. He could hear Lamia Lou and Herbert talking in lowered voices. When he closed his eyes, he pictured Tamisin’s face,
and wondered if she ever thought about him. He didn’t fall asleep until all of his companions were quiet and he had himself half convinced that Tamisin probably missed him as much as he missed her.

Chapter 11

It was morning when Tamisin woke to the sound of Dasras’s voice. She was disappointed to see that everything looked normal once again. Sighing, she leaned over the edge and said, “I’ll be right there.”

“I thought you might like to go for a walk,” he said.

“I’d love to,” Tamisin replied. When she landed beside him, he reached for her hand, but she didn’t take it. It wasn’t that she didn’t like holding hands, just that she was uncomfortable holding his.

“How was your visit with your father?” asked Dasras as they walked down the path.

“Fine,” she said with a shrug. “Although it was very short. He was more interested in something else than in me.”

“You can’t blame him for that,” said Dasras. “He’s a great king and he takes his rule seriously. It was good of him to make time to see you at all.”

Tamisin was surprised at the vehemence in his voice. “You really like him, don’t you?”

Dasras glanced at her, then looked away. “He’s the closest I’ve ever come to having a father. You should be happy that he’s yours.”

Tamisin was about to reply, but they had already reached the rock where Irinia and the nymphs were serving fruit and a fruit-flavored drink. Stepping away from Dasras, Tamisin included the nymphs in the friendly look she gave Irinia, then said to the two-faced woman, “Thank you for your suggestion. I’m glad I listened to you.”

“You’re welcome,” said Irinia.

The nymphs’ expressions softened, as if all it took were a few friendly words. Tamisin would have liked to stay and talk to them, but Dasras bumped her with his arm, gave her a pointed look, and handed her a peach. She was letting him herd her away when a voice behind them said in a loud whisper, “She’s nice! Are you sure she’s a fairy?”

“I’ve seen her wings,” someone replied.

Dasras scowled and glanced back over his shoulder. “It isn’t their place to talk about you like that.”

Tamisin laughed. “Why not? The fairies do. You heard Lily and Hawthorne the other day.”

“That’s different,” said Dasras.

“How is it different?”

Dasras stopped where he was and swung around to face her. “It just is! Fairies are better than everyone else, and everyone knows it! Do you think Lily would have ordered another fairy to deliver her flowers to an ogress?
Not in a million years! But I’m not a fairy, and even though Oberon treats me better than most, everyone knows that he does it on a whim. When he changes his mind, I’ll be sent to live on the other side of the briars and made to work like
them
,” he said, jerking his head at the group behind them.

“If it’s so awful, why do you stay?”

“Because I have nowhere else to go,” he said, suddenly looking deflated. “I’ve lived in one fairy court or the other since the day I was born. It’s the only life I’ve ever known. Look, there’s one of Oberon’s messengers.” A tiny fairy was flying their way, zipping over and around branches and other fairies. “Oberon must want me again. Not that I contribute anything useful to our conversations, but he likes to use me as a sounding board when he has something to mull over. There’s no telling how long I’ll be gone. You might as well go for a walk without me.”

Tamisin opened her mouth to reply, but he was already walking away. Aside from the feeling that she was supposed to love him, shouldn’t she feel something more when he was around?

Feeling lost, Tamisin started down the path. As she walked, she saw flower fairies using their magic to freshen wilting flowers and straighten crooked stems. Others were directing plants to grow around obstacles to reach the little bit of sun filtering through the overhead leaves.

She was rounding a curve in the path when she came upon a group of human-sized fairies standing in a circle, watching something on the ground. Someone swore and
someone else growled. A fairy moved to the side, and suddenly Tamisin could see two male ogres, rolling on the ground, wrestling. They looked much like very big men with broad, coarse features and thick, heavy builds. When one opened his mouth to snarl at the other, she saw that he had sharp, pointed teeth like a wolf’s. Blood trickled from a cut running across the blond ogre’s forehead. Raw-looking patches on the other’s head showed where his opponent had pulled out clumps of gray-streaked brown hair. They grunted as they fought, seemingly oblivious to the crowd of fairies surrounding them.

Something soft brushed Tamisin’s cheek and she turned her head. A messenger fairy was hovering beside her. The air sparkled, and a full-sized male fairy dressed all in lavender handed her a purse woven from an odd, dark green plant. “Here, Princess. This is for you,” he said. “The mermaids sent it.” Then the fairy shrank and flew away before Tamisin could ask any questions.

Tamisin slipped into the sheltering trees to open the purse. She gasped when a necklace tumbled into her hand. Made of enormous pearls and large coral beads, it was the prettiest piece of jewelry she’d ever held.

“Oh!” she cried. “This is gorgeous! And Dasras said the mermaids weren’t nice!”

Tamisin wanted to thank the mermaids, but climbing to the top of the rocks was harder than she remembered. Finally she was standing on the beach looking out to sea
and listening to the water hiss as it ran up the clean white sand. Taking off her shoes, she stepped into the advancing foam. The cool water felt good on her feet, so she began to walk along the curving beach while searching the waves for some sign of mermaids. When she nearly tripped over a large stack of seashells at the water’s edge, she knew that someone had been there. A little farther on she found a pool cut off from the rest of the water, and saw a crab scuttling across the bottom. Taking a seat beside the pool, she was bending over to see what else lived there when she heard splashing and a voice called, “Hello!”

Tamisin looked up. A young woman was bobbing in the water just past the point where the waves broke. She waved, and suddenly something angled and dripping rose out of the water behind her. Tamisin was about to shout a warning when she realized that the object was a tail and it belonged to the girl.

“I’ll be right there!” the mermaid called, and dove into the water with a flip of her tail.

Tamisin watched as a blue-green shape streaked just below the breaking waves. When the mermaid reached the shallows, a tongue of water rose up, carrying her above the grating pebbles at the water’s edge onto the beach itself, depositing her only feet from where Tamisin was standing. Her hair, which had looked black from a distance, now looked like the deepest green. Her eyes were green as well, but a lighter shade that spoke of seaweed and kelp.

The mermaid flipped her wet hair over her shoulder
and smiled. Tamisin held up the necklace. “Are you the mermaid who sent me this?” she asked.

“I am if you’re the princess, Tamisin.”

“I am,” said Tamisin.

“And I’m Kryllus. My friends and I just wanted to welcome you to our part of the world.” The mermaid gestured toward the deep water where two more heads were bobbing.

“That’s very kind of you,” said Tamisin. “The necklace is lovely. Did you get the pearls around here?”

“About a hundred miles east of here, actually,” said Kryllus. “Would you like to see the spot? I can take you there if you’re interested. I’m a fast swimmer. It wouldn’t take too long.”

“I’m not sure . . . ,” Tamisin began. Even though she could swim, she wasn’t sure she should go into deep water with a mermaid she’d just met.

Kryllus sighed. “It would be a real shame if you didn’t go. I could show you some very pretty places that you’d never get to see from the land. However, if you’re afraid of the water . . .”

“I’m not afraid!” said Tamisin.

“Or would rather not socialize with mermaids like us, I’ll understand.”

“It isn’t that! It’s just . . . Never mind. I’d love to see where you found the pearls.”

Kryllus clapped her hands. “That’s wonderful! We’ll have so much fun! I can’t wait to introduce you to my friends.”

“Maybe I should tell someone before we . . . ,” Tamisin began.

The water rose up, lapping around her knees, rising until it was high enough to lift her off her feet. Kryllus chuckled at the expression on Tamisin’s face as the water carried them past the shallows to the drop-off where the other mermaids waited. Suddenly Tamisin was left treading water, face-to-face with three mermaids.

“These are my friends, Squall and Pacifica.”

The mermaid named Squall pushed her dripping silver hair off her forehead and gave Tamisin an intent look through startlingly silver eyes. When Tamisin said, “Hello,” the mermaid just nodded and looked away.

The other mermaid, Pacifica, had seashell combs holding her dark blue hair back from her face. Her blue eyes sparkled when she looked at Tamisin and said, “Hi!”

“Wrap your arms around my neck and I’ll carry you,” said Kryllus.

Tamisin shook her head. “Oh, I couldn’t. I don’t want to hurt you.”

“That’s funny!” Kryllus said, and giggled. “You won’t hurt me! Mermaids are as strong as porpoises and . . . Oh, sorry, Squall.”

The silver-haired mermaid looked distressed now; Tamisin thought she saw tears in her eyes.

“Don’t worry,” said Pacifica, patting Squall’s back. “Everything will be all right.”

“Just grab hold, will you?” Kryllus told Tamisin. “She’ll be fine once we start moving.”

Kryllus turned around and Tamisin swam up behind her, wrapping her arms around the mermaid’s neck. With one powerful thrust of her tail, the mermaid took off.

Tamisin’s hands slipped and she had to fight to stay on. “Slow down!” she yelled, clutching wildly at the mermaid.

Kryllus slowed long enough for Tamisin to tighten her grip, and then they were off again, racing to deeper water, cutting across the swells so that they hit them with a
whump! whump!
Feeling the mermaid’s tail undulating just below her own legs, Tamisin fought to keep her body and legs as high in the water as possible. Water smacked her in the face every time she looked up, so she kept her head down, making it difficult to see anything but Kryllus’s back and long, streaming hair.

The three mermaids turned to swim side by side, moving parallel to the shore. Kryllus angled along the tops of the swells now, and Tamisin was finally able to look around. On one side the blue water stretched all the way to the horizon, where it met the sky in a long, straight line. The shoreline lay on the other side, close enough that Tamisin could see the land change from beach to rocks to cliff.

Even as they shot through the waves, Kryllus tried to tell Tamisin what they were passing. “The griffins sun themselves on those rocks,” she shouted at one point. “That’s the River Spleen where ogre captains come down to the sea in their ships,” she shouted a short time later.

Tamisin opened her mouth to speak, and got a mouthful of salt water. She turned her head to spit it out before asking, “The ogres have ships?”

The mermaid nodded. “A long time ago, they used them for raiding expeditions, but ever since Titania and Oberon conquered all the fey, the ogres have taken up more honest pursuits. Now the captains act as middlemen between the farmers and miners and the ones who buy their goods.”