Prologue:

        Splinter sat on her mother's lap.  This was a rare 
occasion, for Queen Teleute rarely had time to play with 
her children, or even touch them.  Such is the price of 
power.  Today, however, she had faked illness so she 
could put off the burdens of state and just once spend a 
little time with her youngest.  She was dressed fairly 
simply as queens go, only wearing a plain blue satin 
dress with white lace trim along the sleeves and the 
fringes of the light blue jacket she wore over her blouse.  
A simple silver coronet sat upon her brow, with only 
three sparkling diamonds.  Only one was the size of a 
hen's egg.  

        "Mommy, can I ask you a question?"  she asked.

        "Anything you like."

        "Mommy, where did faeries come from?  The first 
faerie, I mean.  Bran was saying God found us under a 
cabbage."

        Teleute laughed.  "Your brother has some very 
strange ideas.  You remember what Father Ambrosius 
taught you in Sunday School, right?"

        "Uhh...there was a garden and some fruit and 
someone was bad, so God sent them home without any 
supper.  And a snake.  But Eve stepped on its head."  
Splinter scratched her head.  "Or was this the story about 
Noah?"

        "Adam had two wives.  His first wife was an angel, 
named Lillith.  God sent her to be his companion, so she 
took on a fleshly form and lived with him.  But they 
didn't get along, because Angels are good and kind, but 
they're also fierce and scary, and she kept frightening 
Adam.  God saw this wasn't working out, so he made a 
woman, named Eve, to be Adam's companion.  Lillith 
tried to go back to Heaven, but then she discovered she 
was pregnant and couldn't cast off the fleshly form she 
had assumed."

        Splinter nodded and listened carefully, trying to 
remember.

        "So then Adam and Eve got thrown out of the 
Garden of Eden for disobeying God, but Lillith got to stay, 
because she hadn't been bad.  She gave birth to Sidhe, the 
first faerie, and to many other faeries.  She lived in the 
Garden with her children for many years.  Finally, they 
were ready to live on their own, and she kissed her 
eldest child, and blessed her with rule over the others, 
then she finally returned to Heaven."

         Splinter said, "So we live in the Garden of Eden?"

         Teleute sighed.  "Not anymore.  You see, when 
Lillith went back to Heaven, some of the other angels 
wanted to go down to the Earth and have children too, for 
angels normally do not marry or bear children.  And so 
the sons and daughters of God walked with the sons and 
daughters of Adam and Eve, and bore children by them.  
But God was not pleased, for he had not decreed this.  Yet, 
he would not destroy these new faerie children, for it was 
not their fault that they existed.  So he sent Lillith again, 
and she lead the children to a new land called 'Arcadia', 
and she led her children out of the garden of Eden that 
they might guide and lead their cousins.  But some of 
those cousins rebelled against their rightful leaders, the 
Unseelie, the children of Lillith, and called themselves the 
Seelie.  And since then, there has been a great war.  We, 
the fae, stand between angels and men, partaking of the 
essence of both.  We have the forms of men and animals, 
but we possess the powers of the angels and their 
immortality.  And that's where faeries come from."

        Splinter said, "I have another question."

        "What is it, dear?"

        "Which came first?  The chicken or the egg?"

        Even Queen Teleute couldn't answer that one.

*************

The Summer People

Chapter 13:  Consequences

By John Biles

***************

Splinter said:

        I held the mirror in my hand, back in my rooms at 
Kaltenberg.  It scared me.  Ariel was right; the truth can 
be scary.  Like what I saw in the mists.  If it was true, 
then I would...no, it couldn't be true.  I felt ill.  But the 
mists...maybe it was just my fears.  Maybe...

         Enough of cowardice.  I took the mirror and stared 
into it.  I expected my reflection, or perhaps that of my 
mortal form; I wasn't quite sure what 'true' form meant.  
Would a faerie appear in their mortal form or their faerie 
form?  I assumed she meant their faerie form, but their 
true one.  Perfect for revealing a Fetch.  

          I didn't see my faerie form OR my mortal form.  I 
saw the face I least expected to see.  Okay, that's not 
entirely true; I would have been more surprised if I had 
seen Elvis or Mel Gibson or Uma Thurman staring back at 
me.  It was that infernal mortal, Angela Bedos-Rezak.  For 
a moment, I thought it must have malfunctioned or 
picked up on some stray thought of mine.  Except that the 
reflection of her was making exactly the same funny 
expression as me.  

           This made no sense at all; it couldn't even be a 
sign that she was 'my mortal' in the same way that most 
changelings have a linked mortal; mine had died when I 
was only a year old in an accident.  Anyway, if she WAS 
my mortal, we'd look like each other.  About the only 
thing we have in common in appearance is our hair, 
which is light  brown.  

          For a moment, I thought the mirror was conning 
me.  That maybe Trella had tricked me somehow, that 
she hadn't really been Ariel.  So I asked it to show me my 
siblings.  They were in silver chains in a dank, dismal 
dungeon, dressed only in rags and sackcloth.  
Unfortunately, there was nothing to say WHERE that 
dungeon happened to be; One dungeon is much like 
another.  

        "Show the building my siblings are in."  It was a 
castle in a snow-covered wilderness.  I didn't recognize it; 
Unseelie Arcadia has more castles in snow-covered 
wildernesses than you can shake a stick at.  

         "Show me...Opal!"  I should have thought of this 
before, I thought.  He was sitting on a bed, reading a 
book, looking bored out of his skull.  He was okay; I gave 
a great sigh of relief.  I love him dearly, and I wanted 
him to be safe.  They seemed to be treating him well.  

          "Show me the Scythe of the Queen of the Fall."  It 
was a finely made scythe with a long black handle.  
Someone had stuck the blade into an anvil; I laughed and 
wondered if Merlin had been moonlighting.  The anvil 
stood in the ruins of what was clearly a throne room; why 
the room had an anvil of all things in the middle of it I 
couldn't tell.  "I don't suppose you can give me an 
address?"

           The view pulled back; I could see a ruins in the 
middle of a vast expanse of ripe wheatfields.  Why 
anyone would surround their palace with wheatfields, I 
have no clue.  Not to my taste; perhaps the queen liked to 
harvest wheat in her spare time.

           Hmm.  She should have been reincarnated.  "Show 
me the Queen of the Fall."

            My own reflection, the one I expected to have, my 
faerie form, appeared in the mirror.  "So this IS my true 
reflection?"  The mirror flickered and I saw Angela 
Bedos-Rezak again.  This was rather annoying.  "So she's 
the Queen of the Fall?"

           My faerie face appeared again.  This was making 
my brain hurt.  "Show me the King of the Fall."

          The mirror went back to showing Opal, who was 
still reading the book and still bored.  I wished he was 
here; he's good at puzzles.  I'm more a doer than a 
thinker.  He, on the other hand, thinks too much rather 
than acting.  

         I was gonna have to think about this; I couldn't see 
how I could be this mythical ruler.  Unless maybe when I 
got the artifact, I got the title, too.  At least I wouldn't 
have to fight someone for it; I'm a good fighter, but the 
idea of battling someone whose scythe could cut anything 
scared me a bit.  A lot.  

          I needed Opal.  Definitely.  "Show me whose help I 
need to free my siblings."

          At first, I thought the mirror had gotten confused 
and was showing me a porno movie.  Throbbing bodies 
filled the surface as three people had mad passionate sex.  
It was so embarrassing, I nearly dropped the mirror.  I 
recognized two of them; Harry and Angela.  The third was 
some tall woman with black hair that I was fairly certain 
I'd never seen in my life.  They were in some very nice 
bedroom.  I couldn't stand to watch it for long.  "Anyone 
else whose help I need?"

           I saw the third person from the menage-a-trois, 
only this time she was dressed in some nice riding clothes 
and riding on a white unicorn under a fool moon through 
a pleasant softwood forest.  "Isn't she having mad 
passionate sex right now, or are you embarrassed too?"

          Nothing changed.  Then I realized it; one of them 
was a faerie, but I was seeing both of them in their 
mortal form.  This was confusing me.  Did it only 
sometimes show people's true form?  Or was the faerie in 
her mortal seeming...ahh, that was it.  Maybe.  No wonder 
she said this would work better for Opal; he could figure 
it all out.  "So how can she help me?"  Nothing happened.  
Clearly, it was limited in its ability to answer questions; it 
could only show something currently happening.

           "Where should I go next?"

           It showed the woman riding the unicorn.  "Before 
I go and...and..."  I stared at the woman.  She looked so 
care-free.  I wished I was.  "I have to go try and warn 
them about their parents being kidnapped.  But I should 
go to her first?"

          The image of the unicorn riding woman persisted.  
"But why?"

          I saw a column of marching Unseelie troops 
heading through a forest.  A Seelie forest, clearly, from 
the warm weather and lack of snow.  But they flew 
Mother's banners.  Then I understood.  It was time to get 
a move on.

***************

Harry said:  

        As soon as I woke up, I knew it had been a mistake.  
Not entirely a mistake, but overall, a bad choice.  If I'd 
actually loved Alex instead of just liking her, it wouldn't 
have been a mistake, or at least a lesser one.  You 
shouldn't make love with someone you don't love.  Given 
a few weeks, I probably would have reached the point 
where I didn't feel guilty or at least not so guilty about it, 
or at least rationalized better, but as it was, I felt pretty 
crass.

        I felt like a total heel, even though they were both 
happy with it.  It just wasn't right.  The worst part was 
knowing I'd do it again unless I ran away and hid for a 
few months.  The guilt was almost reassuring...I wasn't 
completely lost as long as I still felt bad about it.  

        At least, I hoped that was the case.  I was somewhat 
more rational now.  In fact, the whole sense of pressure 
that had been slowly mounting for days had eased off a 
lot.  My thoughts were more clear.  Probably the urges 
would mount again in time, but for the moment, I was 
free.  

         Alex and Angel were wrapped around me and each 
other.  It was vastly gratifying and scary at the same 
time.  I'd never...well, I'd dreamed a few times of having 
two lovers at once, but never had thought for even a 
second it would ever happen.  I felt powerful, like I could 
do anything. 

        At the same time, it scared me.  Worries of losing 
Angel to Alex flitted through my mind.  They weren't 
strong worries, but then, I'd never envisaged what had 
happened last night happening in reality.  I was also 
scared of what Tanya would think.  Would she laugh?  Be 
jealous?  Seriously invite us to have an orgy?  Get mad 
we didn't invite her?  What Tanya thinks of me is 
important to me.  

        Alex stirred and muttered Angel's name, and she 
muttered mine.  It was reassuring to me.  Then Alex's 
eyes snapped open and she stared over at Angel, her face 
blank.  Then a smile washed over it, and her face lit up 
with quiet joy.  She kissed Angel's forehead, then wiggled 
over and kissed me on the nose.  She whispered, "Hello, 
Harry."

         I gulped.  "Hi, Alex."  I kissed her back, also on the 
nose.  I felt like I should say something, but didn't know 
what.

         She glanced down at Angel.  "You alive there?"

          Deep breathing was the reply.  I laughed a little.  
"Angel could sleep through the Apocalypse.  Like her Dad, 
her Mom told me."

         Alex laughed.  "I know.  It just amazes me 
sometimes.  I wish I could sleep that well."

         "Me too.  She looks so happy."  I looked around.  "So 
where ARE we?"

         "Irene loaned us this hunting lodge.  We're 
somewhere on the Silverwind estates."  

          Then the door flew open and thirty or so armed 
faeries, about half Sidhe and the rest Ogres, Trolls, and 
Blue Goblins.  The commander was a two-headed troll in 
finely made satin and silk Elizabethan garb.  He even had 
a ruffled and starched (and somewhat crumpled) collar.  
"I am Commander Green Fang.  You are under arrest by 
the order of Queen Teleute."

           Alex frowned.  "I think you're lost."

          "Well, you are Harold Crags, Angela Bedos-Rezak 
and Alexandra Cook, correct?"  He checked a scroll he was 
holding.

        I shook Angel.  "Wake up!  This is not a good time to 
sleep!"

        To my amazement, she slept through a good shaking.  

         Alex said, "And what if we aren't?"

         "Then we'll have to take you so you can't spread the 
alarm."

          I could see Alex counting them in her head from 
the way she looked around the room, and frowning more 
every second.  "There's too many of them to fight," she 
whispered.

          Especially with Angel asleep and none of us having 
a weapon.  Well, I can now say I know what it feels like 
to be hogtied.  It sucks.

***************

Angel said:

        I did wake up eventually.  I was tied to a horse, 
which is probably how I managed to stay on it.  Alex was 
tied onto another horse, and Harry was on a third, 
wearing a weird silver collar.  So were Alex and I.  We 
were riding through a thick pine forest on a cobblestone 
road.  "What's this weird collar you put on us?"  I asked.  

         There were some thirty or so men holding us 
captive.  I gathered that much.  About half were Sidhe, 
the rest a strange smattering of oddballs.  It looked like a 
two headed Troll was the leader.  He turned to me and 
smiled.  "I must admit I envy your ability to sleep 
through being tied to a horse.  It prevents you from using 
magic, mortal."

        "I'm not a mortal,"  I said.

        "I merely go by what I am told.  I'm not even sure 
why Teleute has any interest in you.  I think you 
offended her daughter or something?"

          Splinter.  Again.  I ground my teeth.  She hadn't 
even come to face us herself.  Coward.  "Splinter.  I hate 
her."

         "I'm not too fond of her myself, but she is a 
princess, even though it's likely she'll never rule.  
Although having two of her brothers die recently did 
improve her chances."  He shook his head.  "We'll stop for 
lunch soon; it will take until sunset to get back to 
Kaltenberg on this road. "

         Harry said, "How did you know where to find us?"

         "The seer had a vision.  Or so I guess.  We must 
have left before you three arrived at the lodge.  So what's 
a menage-a-trois like, anyway?"

           I hadn't even thought about what we'd done last 
night until now.  I blushed horribly.  I had...with Alex.  
And Harry.  It all came back to me.  I wasn't even quite 
sure why I had done it.  Okay, that's not entirely true.  I 
was quite aware of why; I had been overcome by total 
flaming lust.  Before this all happened, I wouldn't have 
believed it.  It had receded now.  I didn't..umm...feel gay 
anymore, although I did get some pulses of pleasure 
thinking about what we'd done.  Okay, that's not an 
accurate statement.  I didn't...I wasn't...I don't know how 
to describe it.  I didn't feel particularly sexually attracted 
to Alex anymore, although I remembered what we had 
done with pleasure, and I had the feeling that when all 
the faerie impulses built back up, I'd likely be willing and 
desirous of doing it again.

         That made me feel guilty as hell.  I felt like I'd used 
her.  I wanted...I wanted to love her.  I mean, I do love 
her, but normally I didn't feel any kind of sexual desire 
as well.  I just...I should have waited, controlled myself, 
not jumped into bed with her just because the thought 
got into my head.  Alex deserved someone who could love 
her fully, not just when faerie impulses overwhelm me.  
And then there was the matter of her and Harry.  I shook 
my head, driving the thoughts away.  I could worry about 
this once we escaped.  At least someone had clothed me 
before tying me to the horse.

         I couldn't wiggle much info out of the captain, but 
he did tell us we were going to Castle Kaltenberg, the 
Unseelie capital.  I did my best to memorize the route, 
which wasn't hard since it never branched.  However, at 
one point, it abruptly turned into a Roman road, crossing 
a rolling plain.  I blinked.  "Was that supposed to 
happen?"

         The Captain looked worried.  "No.  That road goes all 
the way to..."  He turned to one of the Blue Goblins who 
was wearing much nicer clothing than the other Goblins, 
although he wore a goofy looking knit stocking hat like 
the others.  Also, he wore glasses.  "Where are we?"

         "The Salisbury Downs, north of Old Sarum," he said.  
"In one of the Lands of Legend.  It's going to take me a 
while to pin down which one."  He cocked his head and 
stared off at a tree.

          One of the other Blue Goblins said, "Brainy, how the 
smurgle did we get to the middle of the smurgling 
Salisbury Downs?  We stayed on the road like you told 
us!"

         "Smurgle your smurgler while I think, Whiner,"  
Brainy said.  "But five will get you ten that some 
smurgling wizard used Roadweaving on us."

          Alex gagged like someone had stuffed hot peppers 
down her throat and muttered something.  The Captain 
glanced at her.  "Did you do this?"

         Alex laughed.  "My talents are Strength and 
Earthmoulding.  Besides, I can't do anything while I wear 
this collar."

         "You acted like you knew something."

          "I'm hoping it's this two hundred foot tall giant I 
know who owes me a favor," she said.  She was lying.  
Alex is a lousy liar.  She always glances off to the right 
when she lies.  Luckily, the Captain didn't know this.  He 
looked worried.

          "Men, ready your weapons."

           It wasn't a two hundred foot giant we saw when 
we crested the next hill.  It was a lone woman at the crest 
of the next hill.  She was riding a white unicorn and 
carrying a long lance tipped with a glowing spearhead.  A 
mace and chain hung from her saddle and she was 
wearing a nice suit of plate armor; I wondered how she 
could mount her unicorn by herself.  She carried a shield, 
it was white with...the Methodist symbol on it?  It's not 
our only symbol (I'm a Methodist), but we often use this 
sort of flame encircled cross as a symbol, and she had 
that on her shield.  

           The captain laughed.  "Two hundred foot giant, eh?  
One person.  Goblins, fire!"

          They raised their bows and she bolted back over 
the crest of the hill.  He laughed more.  "Cavalry, follow 
me.  Gobboes, you guard the prisoners."  He spurred the 
Sidhe forward, along with the Ogres and Trolls.  I felt 
sorry for the woman, whoever she was.  I didn't know 
why she had summoned us here, but she was clearly 
outmatched.

           Brainy said, "Hmm.  We're in the legendary realm 
of New Camelot.  Well, one of them."

          "You have some kind of location talent?"  I asked.

          He nodded.  "I always know where I am, although 
in new places, it takes a while to get my bearings.  This 
sorceress may not be too bright, but she's VERY strong to 
pull us all this way."  He looked thoughtful.  
"Roadweaving is a rare talent."

          "What is it?"

          "Okay, Faerie Roads are normally the most fixed 
part of Arcadia.  They run to the same places and never 
ever change unless the places they go to change.  To 
make a road, you have to have the Roadweaving talent or 
a LOT of time to spend on it.  But if you have the talent, 
you can alter a road to go where you want it to go.  Or 
you can do what she did; you can bend some other road 
to come to you.  In order for her to do what she did, she 
had to know the road we were using and have a very 
strong knowledge of someone she was bringing to her.  I 
assume she knows one of you?"  He looked straight at 
Alex.  

          "I don't know any faeries with Roadweaving," she 
said.  She didn't do the glance thing.  "Not who have told 
me about it."

           Another Blue Goblin said, "You know, we could 
have a long wait."

         "Why?"  Whiner asked.  "I hate long waits."

         "Even a good cavalry horse can't catch a unicorn 
unless it wants to be caught," he said.  "Pa taught me 
that."

          Brainy frowned.  "Why didn't you tell the Captain, 
Homely?"

          "He thinks I'm an idiot and besides, I wanted a 
chance to sit and rest."

           Harry was mouthing something at me.  
Unfortunately, I don't read lips well.  All I could tell was 
that I wasn't getting the point.  

          Then I heard hoofbeats.  Everyone did.  They were 
coming back.  Or so we thought.  Then the wave of eight 
people in plate armor came into sight along the road.  Not 
the Unseelie, but a group of well-armored knights.  They 
each bore a shield with a heraldic sign upon it; they 
looked familiar, but I couldn't recognize any of them.

        One of them, who bore a shield of red and white 
diagonal stripes running down to the right, said, "Hand 
over your prisoners, and we will let you go."  I knew his 
voice, but couldn't quite place it.  Wherever we had met, 
he hadn't been wearing heavy armor.  He sounded old 
and had a deep voice.

         "But I want to thrash them," another male voice, 
much younger than him, perhaps about the same age as 
me and Harry, said.  His shield was a white lion rampant 
on a black background.

          A woman spoke now.  She was familiar, as were 
the first two.  "Oh stop whining, Dodinas."  She bore a blue 
shield with a red cross with a rose twined around it.  

          Harry laughed.  I knew that name from 
somewhere...wait, he had said we were in...

          Brainy said, "Sorry, but I'm afraid we can't do that.  
Goblins, FIRE!"

          The Goblins ran instead, as did Brainy when he saw 
the way the tide was turning.  I can't blame them; they 
only would have had time for one shot, and if any knights 
got through, they only had daggers and wimpy looking 
spears to try to fight armored knights.    
  
         A tall female knight, probably at least six feet tall, 
cut Harry loose.  A male knight even taller than her cut 
Alex loose and kissed her hand.  I could tell she wasn't 
sure whether to thank him or slap him.  Especially after 
he started praising her beauty.  

         The male whose voice I had recognized looked at 
me for a moment, then over at Harry, then muttered, "I 
told him he wouldn't be able to protect you."  He cut me 
loose, then removed his helmet.  It was Dodinas.  He was 
older now, a good four years older, taller than me or 
Harry, and apparently well muscled, assuming his armor 
wasn't full of air.  Hard to tell from just a head.  He had a 
thin blonde moustache; men with blonde hair should 
learn to avoid moustaches, they always look sick.  "Time 
has treated you well, Lady Angela."  He glanced off down 
the road, then over at Alex, and blinked.  "Strange, that 
woman, the Knight of the Unicorn, looks much like your 
companion."

        Alex threw her arms in the air and shouted, "I knew 
it!  Helena!!!!!  AAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!"  She jumped around, 
aggravated, although I had no idea why.  The knight who 
had cut her loose had to jump back to avoid getting 
accidentally slugged by her.  She looked utterly 
ridiculous.

         The woman by Harry laughed.  "Careful, brother.  I 
see you picked a wild one."  She turned to Harry.  "You 
look familiar to me, traveller.  Have we met?"

         "You could be Elvis in that armor," he pointed out, 
stretching and trying to get the collar off.  "Anyone got a 
crowbar?"

         "I know little of Falconry," the woman said, taking 
off her helmet.  She looked somewhat familiar, with short 
brown hair and glittering green eyes.  She was quite 
pretty, but on a human scale, not the faerie one.  "And 
my name is Serena."  She pointed to the man by Alex.  
"And that is my brother, Siegfried."

          "Fought any dragons lately?"  Harry asked, 
grinning.

          "Fought anything that didn't beat you up lately?"  
Dodinas asked Harry, a touch of venom in his voice.

          Harry started and stared at him.  His voice was 
cold when he spoke.  "Raped any peasants lately?  Or just 
fantasized about it?"

         That got everyone's attention.  Dodinas turned beet 
red, and his face darkened.  "I have NEVER raped 
anyone."  He threw down his gauntlet at Harry's feet.  "I 
challenge you."

          The leader took off his helmet now.  "You are BOTH 
idiots.  Have you perhaps forgotten that the Knight of the 
Unicorn is being chased by fifteen Unseelie Knights, and 
that we must ride to her aid, the faster the better?"

           Harry and Dodinas both looked embarrassed by 
that.  Alex glared at Dodinas with a look of pure hatred 
that made me shiver.  Alex makes up her mind about 
people too fast.  It would likely take years for Dodinas to 
get her to not hate him.  If he lived that long.  

          There was silence, then one of the other knights, 
who I later learned was named Mynnidog, son of Madog, 
said, "Galahad is right.  Let us ride at once!"

          "Umm...can anyone loan me a sword?  And get this 
stupid collar off?  I can't use any magic with it on."

          Dodinas struck it off with a blow that came way too 
close to my throat for comfort.  He made it look so casual, too.  
In fact, I didn't even feel the impact as a tug on the collar or
anything, but it broke apart.  

         "Wow.  How...did you cut it so easily?  Is your 
sword enchanted?"

         "I bear a blade of Cold Wrought Iron.  Things made 
of Glamour are easily shattered by it."  He sheathed it for 
the moment.  "One of only two things my father was able 
to leave me."

          "What was the other one?"

           "A collection of Juvenal's Satires.  I can just barely 
read it; I haven't had much time for studying, being busy 
perfecting my battle skills.  My father was Dodinan, and I 
have to admit he was more a jester than a warrior, at 
times."  

           The sword scared me.  Cold wrought iron.  The 
bane of faeries.  It had seemed quite normal.  And it had 
been within an inch of my neck.  I shivered more now.  

           The other knights had gotten the collars off of 
Alex and Harry, and scrounged up weapons for us.  Ayla 
was there, she loaned me a broadsword, and Mynnidog 
loaned Harry a sword as well.  Alex took an abandoned 
Goblin crossbow, some quarrels, and a spare lance.  
Unfortunately, knights don't carry spare suits of armor, 
but none of us would have even known how to put it on.  
Alex rode on one side of me, and Harry on the other.  It 
was flattering.  Dodinas rode as close to me as either of 
them would allow.  We were riding pretty quickly, and 
Alex and I could both just barely hang on.  Harry, on the 
other hand, rode as if he did this every day.  I was 
envious of him.  I was also learning that I get motion 
sickness on a galloping horse.  

          Serena was riding by Harry.  "I understand you are 
a student of magic."

           He nodded.  "I have a knack for plant magic.  
Haven't learned much else."

          "Perhaps you should take up gardening and leave 
heroics to those who know what they are doing,"  Dodinas 
observed.  "Unless you wish to be known as Sir Green 
Thumb."

          "Better than being known as Sir Big Mouth,"  Harry 
replied.  "Or the Loose Lipped Knight."  

           "Call me whatever you like, Sir Loser; We shall see 
who is the better knight."

          "The next time one of you speaks, I will personally 
insure you will be needing a funeral,"  Galahad said.  "Be 
quiet, or I'll ask Ayla to sew your mouths shut."  His face 
was calm, but his voice was rather cranky.

         Siegfried said to Alex, "Is this Unicorn Knight your 
sister?"

         "Yes, more or less.  Her name is Helena, and she has 
no grasp of reality whatsoever.  If she pulls something 
like this one more time where I have to bail her out..."

         "She came and found us and asked us to help rescue 
you,"  Siegfried said quietly with his gravelly voice.

         Alex blushed and shut up.

          We spotted them as we crested another hill.  The 
Unseelie Knights were chasing the Unicorn Knight, who 
had somehow gotten to where she was charging towards 
us, as were the Unseelie.  They were coming up the slope.  
Their horses were clearly starting to tire, and three of 
them were missing.  

          Harry laughed.  "This is about as perfect for a 
cavalry charge as it ever gets."  He paused.  "Oops."  
Galahad didn't kill him, luckily.  

          Alex grinned.  "Time to kick some ass."  She 
transformed to her faerie form, which startled several of 
the knights.  Clarissa nearly fell off her horse.

           Siegfried laughed loudly.  "I wish I was as 
fortunate as your friends to have an ogre for a 
companion."

           Alex got big eyes and blushed, mumbling 
something incoherent.

          Galahad looked up and down our row.  "Ayla, 
Clarissa, make sure you give room for the Knight of the 
Unicorn to pass between us.  I will take the leader.  Lady 
Alex, the Ogre is yours.  Angela, take the second troll.  
Keep in mind that they can eat anything; don't let him 
grab your weapon.  Ayla, Mynnidog, Siegfried, enage the 
Sidhe on the left.  Dodinas, Serena, Clarissa, take the ones 
on the right.  Harold, try to use your plant magic to snare 
as many of them as you can."

          Dodinas snorted, and then we charged.  I could see 
Harry hanging back and concentrating.  I tried simply to 
not vomit and charged forward, sword in hand.  I wished 
I had a lance like the knights.  We struck their line and 
Unseelie knights went flying.  

         In seconds, the battle became a surging melee.  I 
was toe to toe with a huge troll, with mottled orange and 
green skin, scraggly blue hair, and a mouth the size of 
Hoboken.  He had a huge axe, which I struggled to fend 
off.  I had more skill; he had strength and more 
importantly, wasn't always three seconds from falling off 
his horse.  

         I could have beat him quickly on foot, but on 
horseback, it was too much for me.  Finally, he got in a 
lucky blow and I fell off.  Then my horse trampled me, 
nearly breaking my arm.  I gave a great scream and 
blacked out.

*************

Harry said:

       We were outnumbered nearly two to one.  However, 
most of our people had better armor.  I set out to even 
the odds; it was easy for me to hear the plants here, easy 
to call the energies, easy to make them move, although 
there was only so much I could do with grass.  I managed 
to pull down two horses and pin their riders.  I could see 
Alex had leaped onto the ogre's horse and was wrestling 
with him.  I could hear the Knight of the Unicorn circling 
around, preparing to charge.  I could sense her unicorn, 
which was kinda weird.  It was like...I just KNEW it was 
there.  

         Galahad was fighting the leader, a two headed troll.  
He was damn good.  Not good enough.  He would have 
crushed me or Angel, but Galahad made him look like a 
piker.  However, he had managed to bite off the tip of 
Galahad's sword, and ate half of Galahad's shield.  The 
rest of the knights were locked in battle.  Ayla was down, 
and Serena looked fairly mangled.  Siegfried, on the other 
hand, while he had been knocked off his horse, was 
standing over three knocked out, possibly dead Sidhe.  

          Then Angel screamed.  I saw her go down and the 
horse trample on her.  For a moment, all I could do was 
stare.  I felt the Knight of the Unicorn charge past me.  I 
screamed with rage and charged down the hill, magic 
forgotten.  Alex screamed as well and tried to disengage 
and rush to Angel; all this got her was a good beating by 
the ogre she had been fighting.  Dodinas, on the other 
hand, leaped off his horse onto a horse whose master had 
fallen off it, and then right at the troll Angel had been 
fighting.  It tried to eat his sword as he lunged sword 
first at it.

          Big, big mistake.  Its jaws closed on the blade and 
then it gave the most piteous howl of abject terror and 
agony I had ever heard in my life.  The force of the 
impact drove the blade right out the back of its head, 
which went flying off.  It took a few seconds but seemed 
like hours.  Then the troll burst into flames.  

         A wave of nausea took me; I felt like the time I had 
a virus and couldn't hold down food for nearly two days.  
I had even puked up water a few times.  I fell off my 
horse and dry heaved on the ground.  I could hear Alex 
vomiting, though how she had anything in her system to 
vomit...anyway, the battle ceased as every faerie in the 
place stared at Dodinas.  

          I could feel the troll dying; it was horrible.  The 
plants were screaming as he burned, for his flames slew 
the plants he had fallen on.  His horse was screaming as 
well; it almost seemed to be calling his name, Torrinax.  
Dodinas watched him burn, then turned to the next 
nearest Unseelie fae.  "Next."

          That was enough.  They fled at high speed, 
scattering in all directions, if they could.  About half of 
them were down on the ground, vomiting, and thus 
unable to get away.  Even one of the unconscious ones 
threw up, thus waking himself.  Bleah.

          I pulled myself to my knees.  What the hell had 
happened?  Did that happen every time a faerie died by 
cold iron?  It scared me.  A lot.  What if Dodinas had 
taken a whack at me?  I had been provoking him 
and...urgle.

         Dodinas knelt down by Angel and gently woke her.  
She was crying.  "Someone...someone died.  I dreamed it.  
It was..."  She buried her face on his shoulder, probably 
instinctively.  "Awful!"

         I was jealous as hell.  I tried to get up and run 
down there, but I had trouble standing, although my 
horse was at least kind enough to come back to me.  

         Alex was over there much faster.  "LET go of her!" 
she snarled.

      Dodinas frowned as he stood up with Angel.  "Unless 
you are blind, you can see she grabbed me.  And what 
business of yours is this?  This lies between me and 
Harold, if anyone."

       "We can all kill each other later, once this mess is 
dealt with,"  Galahad said.  "We have wounded 
companions to tend to and prisoners to deal with."

        It took a little while to put everything back 
together.  The Knight of the Unicorn dismounted and took 
off her helmet.  She looked much like Alex, except for 
wearing makeup and being a lot cheerier looking.  She 
wore two small unicorn earrings of silver and a scarf 
wrapped around her hair to make it a long black pony-
tail.  "I have some affinity for healing."

        This was an understatement.  Every wounded 
person on the field was in perfect health, although all the 
faeries were still kinda wobbly and nervous, once she 
was done with us.  She looked a bit wobbly herself.  She 
came back over to Alex.  "Are you okay, sister?  You don't 
look so good.  I thought I healed you...did I miss 
something?"  Her voice was soft, gentle, and concerned.

         "I'd never seen someone die by cold iron before,"  
Alex said quietly, looking at the ashes of the dead troll.  
"He's gone forever."

        "Until we see him in Heaven,"  Helena said.  "Well, 
assuming he makes it."

         "You could have been killed!"  Alex said to Helena.  
"Your mom and dad would FREAK!  And they'd chew my 
head off!"

         "They're your mom and dad, too, Wildbriar," she 
said, then grinned.  "Or is Countess Wildbriar too good for 
us commoners now?"

          Alex blushed.  "You know I wouldn't go lording it 
over y'all.  So why didn't you bring your parents?"

          "OUR parents.  They did give birth to you, you 
know."  She sighed.  "Mother was called up by Lord Claw 
for some battle, and Father went to go see his relatives in 
the Heart of the Flames."  She turned to me and Angela.  
"You must be Harry and Angela.  Nice to meet you.  I'm 
Helena, Wildbriar's mortal twin."  She walked over and 
hugged us both.  "Alex talks about you all the time, 
Angela.  You'd almost think she was in love with you or 
something."

         Alex blushed beet red, while Angel and I laughed a 
little nervously.  "So what kind of lies has she been telling 
about us?"  I asked, trying to be funny.

         Alex turned more red, and Helena launched into 
some long elaborate tale that I never did quite get the 
point of.

************

Splinter said:

        Once I set Helena, the Unicorn Knight, on the path of 
rescuing her sister and her sister's friends, along with the 
message I gave her to pass on to them, I set out to do 
some saving of parents myself.  I could not approach 
Aquamarine and Flamehair directly; they had known me 
and distrusted me for too long, and I had no handy go-
between.  More importantly, Flamehair's parents could 
take care of themselves once I warned them.  It was 
Aquamarine's father in the asylum, and her mother that 
would be the tricky ones to protect, since they were over 
a thousand miles from each other.

        A little investigation revealed he was in an asylum 
run by faeries; he would be safe.  It was Olivia Cromwell 
who would be the hard to deal with one.  Especially since 
she didn't know that faeries existed, as far as I knew.  
However, that also meant she didn't know me, so I had no 
bad reputation to overcome.

         I tried to think of a clever plan, but failed, and 
decided to go for the blunt approach.  Leaving Bluey as a 
bluebird in the front lawn of her house, I walked up to 
the front door and knocked on it.  It had been easy to 
find with the help of the mirror.  Tyler, Texas is the back 
of beyond, but still easier to get to than any place in 
Arcadia you've never visited.  

          Olivia Cromwell was an attractive woman who 
looked to be in her late thirties, though how she could 
have a twenty year old daughter, I wasn't sure.  Maybe 
she had married very young.  She was dressed like a 
gypsy, with a short skirt and her hair swathed in scarves, 
rings on her fingers and one of those 'peasant' shirts.  As 
if a real peasant could have afforded cotton in the middle 
ages.  I'm no historian, but I'm not stupid, either.  "Hello?"

          Ever have one of those moments where you have a 
brilliant plan, and then when you have to carry it out, 
you forget every last bit of it and it runs through your 
fingers like sands in an hourglass and spills on your feet?  
This was one of those times.  "Hi, I'm...hey, there's a horse 
in your yard."  I had just noticed it.  It was a nice horse, 
but I was fairly sure it wasn't normal to have a horse in 
your yard, even in a backwater like Tyler.  Not inside a 
city, anyway.

         "Oh, that belongs to my friend who is visiting me," 
she said, smiling,  then blinked.  "Hmm.  You look 
somewhat familiar."

          That surprised me and my plan finished dribbling 
into the ground, which it quickly soaked into, vanishing 
from my sight.  "All right, I was going to be subtle, but 
I've never been good at subtle.  The Queen of the 
Unseelie Faeries is sending people to kidnap you and they 
might show up at any moment."  Now she will tell me I'm 
nuts, I thought, but I did the honest thing.  She's been 
warned.

          Her eyes widened.  "Did my daughter send you?"

         "I know her; I was given a quest of trying to warn 
all the potential kidnap victims."  I tried to be evasively 
honest.  "I'm sure your daughter is fine.  We've got to get 
you to safety, though."

          Then Tanya, or someone I at least THOUGHT was 
Tanya, walked out.  You may wonder how I knew about 
Aquamarine's mortal identity.  I'm not totally stupid.  I 
did some spying after my second defeat, trying to 
prepare for round three, which never happened.  
Aquamarine was sloppy about making sure no one was 
scrying when she transformed.  "Hey, Mom, what's..."

          I blinked.  "How did you get here so fast?"

         "I've been here all day, visiting Mom."

          "Tanya, you need to get your Mom to safety.  The 
Unseelie are after her."

          She blinked.  "I'm..um...Right."

          Strange, I thought.  She had been off at school with 
her boyfriend when I checked.  Not my problem.  
"Anyway, when you see Harry, tell him Maid Marian says 
hello."  I laughed a bit.  "I have more warnings to 
distribute."  I turned to go.

         "Your name is Marian?"

         "He'll understand."  I decided to go find Thomas and 
just tell him.  The thought of him owing me a favor was 
VERY appealing.  Maybe I could finally get an apology 
from him for the time he covered my car with baloney in 
high school and left it to dry in the sun for eight hours.

****************

Harry said:

        We had a wonderful dinner at Old Sarum, which had 
a nice castle with a well decorated Great Hall, ruled by 
Earl Robert II of Salisbury.  The man should weigh three 
thousand pounds if they always had big feasts, so I 
assumed we were just lucky.  We ate and ate and ate and 
I was still hungry.  

         I tried to not get drunk; but unfortunately, just 
about everything safe to drink in this land is alcoholic.  I 
was only a little fuzzy when the trouble started.  Dodinas 
came stomping over.  "Ready to settle our dispute?"

         Normally, I'm not a macho idiot.  I never got into 
stupid fights over who was gonna be top dog.  This was 
special, however.  He wanted my woman, and I was just 
sick and tired of him harrassing me.  "Any time."

          We stomped out to the courtyard.  No one noticed 
as far as I could tell; they were busy stuffing themselves.  
He beat the crap out of me.  I half deserved it.  Being 
stupid enough to fight someone who has had four years 
to get better while you've only had a little over a month 
is just plain stupid.  I was a fool.  He didn't chop me up, 
just beat me with the flat of the sword and left me 
moaning.  He didn't bother gloating, he just turned and 
went inside, laughing just a tiny bit.

           I lay quietly and moaned, alone with the stars.  A 
lot of faerie realms have weird stars, but New Camelot 
has all the normal ones.  I soon found Orion.  I like him, 
even though I'm no hunter.  I like animals too much, 
even though I eat them.  Also, I think most animals 
would kick my butt.

         Helena found me first.  Her eyes widened and she 
ran over to me.  "What happened?"  Within seconds, her 
magic was soothing away my pain and bruises.

          "I wish I had your affinity.  Healing would be cool,"  
I said.  "Dodinas and I had a duel.  Or to be more 
precise, he thrashed me soundly and I fell down a lot."

           She sighed.  "Why do men get in these stupid 
fights?"

          "He's after my girlfriend."

           "You didn't have to fight about it!  She loves you, 
not him, right?"

         "He just...I..."  All my good reasons crumbled away.  
She helped me up, and I sighed.  "Okay, I was an idiot."

          She smiled at me, a peaceful smile I'd only seen on 
Alex after we...anyway.  You look just like her, but you're 
so...so happy.  Why?  I was curious.  "So you're Alex's 
mortal twin?"

          She nodded.  "Mom and Dad named me after an 
Empress of Byzantium.  Dad was a historian in his last 
mortal incarnation.  He's an Efreet named Flashfire."  I 
laughed a bit at that.  "And Mom is an Ogre named 
Trevallia."
           
     We headed back into the feast.  "Does Alex look like 
her Mom?"

      "She's about a foot shorter.  They're really NICE 
parents."  She sighed.  "I've been lucky; my faerie parents 
are WAY better off than my birth parents.  I've been 
thinking about going to see my father, but I'm afraid of 
going into a prison; I've heard bad stories."  She 
shuddered, and I wondered how she could be scared of a 
prison, but could let fifteen Unseelie Knights chase her.  

        "How did you get a unicorn mount?"

         She smiled.  "Xavier has been my friend since I was 
tiny.  So what are your...AAARGH!"

        I blinked.  "My Aaargh?"

         "I was supposed to warn you and Angela and I 
forgot!"  She started banging her head on the feast table.  

         Alex, who had been dancing with some knight, the 
Siegfried guy, I think, ran over.  "Helena, you're gonna 
bruise if you do that all the time!"

          "It helps me not do things twice.  Harry, you and 
Angel have to..."

         She was cut off by the sound of laughter.  Several of 
the knights were talking to Dodinas, who was pointing at 
me.  I frowned, but restrained myself.  "Have to?"

          "Your parents are in danger!  The Unseelie Queen 
has sent agents to kidnap them!"

         Alex blinked.  "And how did you find this out?"

         "A Sidhe riding an Ice Drake told me.  She said she 
met Harry at a Riddle Contest."

          I laughed.  "Ahh, her.  She's the one who saved me 
from the Wild Hunt."  

          Alex frowned.  "I thought only the Unseelie rode 
Ice Drakes."

         "It was a nice Ice Drake.  She let me feed her a 
sugar cube."  Helena smiled.  "She said your friends 
Firehair and Aquawoman... um...Aquamarine might be in 
danger too.  Their parents, that is."

         I turned to Alex, but she was already on the way to 
get Angel.  Enough worrying about that moron, Dodinas.  I 
could have a reckoning with him later.  We had to make 
plans.

****************

Angel said:  

       We split into two pairs because it was the only way 
to act fast enough.  Alex went with me and Harry took 
Helena.  None of us have any good long distance magical 
communication methods, so getting ahold of Tanya and 
Thomas wasn't going to be easy.  We tried mirror hopping 
into my dorm room, but they weren't there and didn't 
answer the phone, so we hopped to my house in Plano.  
My old bedroom had a big mirror in it.  Naturally, the 
mirror was now up in the attic.

         Getting down wasn't easy; the attic had only one 
exit, a trapdoor into the garage.  There is no built in 
ladder and it's a good ten foot drop.  It's really hard to 
open the trapdoor from the inside, too.  It's not hinged, 
just a board resting on other boards, and it tends to fit 
snugly.  We had to pry it open with my borrowed sword 
as a crowbar.  

          Jumping down wasn't easy; I don't like heights.  
Helena, on the other hand, had no fear.  She jumped down 
without even hardly looking, while I had to psych myself 
up first.  I landed without any major injuries and we ran 
into the house.  "MOM!"  I shouted.

        Mom was in the sewing room, creating another of 
her disasters, I mean, projects.  She tries to sew, because 
Grandma is a sewing wiz, so Mom feels like she has to be 
one, but she has no aptitude for it.  She stinks, badly.  She 
looked up and blinked.  "Angel?  What are you doing 
here?  Hello, Alex."

          Alex said, "Umm, Mrs. Bedos-Rezak...we...uhh..."

          "Frank, our daughter dropped in for a surprise 
visit!"  Mom shouted, getting up.  She hugged me.  "I wish 
you'd come earlier; we could have gone to church 
together."  She thought a moment.  "Don't you have school 
tomorrow?"

          I closed my eyes a moment, hugging Mom tightly, 
trying to figure out what to say.  I'd carefully planned out 
my entire speech on the way here.  Unfortunately, I 
hadn't taken into account being asked something else 
first.  "This...umm...visit...was more important."

          Dad came lumbering in.  He'd probably been 
snoozing; I could see the newsprint on his cheek.  "Hello, 
Angel."  He hugged me as well.  "Good to see you, Alex," 
he said to Alex, then turned back to me.  "What brings 
you home on a Sunday afternoon?"

         Blunt was best, I decided.  "Remember how Tanya's 
dad was ranting about faeries taking people's children?"

          Dad frowned.  "Did he escape from the asylum or 
something?  Thomas' parents assured us it was 
reputable."

          "He was right.  There are faeries out there trading 
children.  You see..."  I gulped.  "I'm one of them."  I 
concentrated and assumed my faerie form.  Alex took the 
cue and transformed as well.  

          All was silent for a moment, then Mom and Dad 
stared at me in shock in more silence.  Finally, Mom said, 
"You're very pretty like that, Angel."  Her voice was rising 
in tone towards hysteria.

          Dad said, "So Charles wasn't insane."  Just like Dad.  
Someone could tie a nuke to his head and he'd stay calm.

          "Not entirely,"  I said.  "He had good reason to go 
crazy.  I've got to get you to safety; there's people coming 
to kidnap you."

           Mom said, "No, this can't be real!  It can't!"  She 
started shaking me.  "You're my daughter, not some 
faerie!  They're not real!"  She was starting to cry.  I 
hugged her clumsily.  

          "I'm the girl you raised, Momma, but...not the one 
you...The Unseelie have... the girl you gave birth to.  And 
now they're coming for you.  We have to go.  We have 
to...I love you, Momma."  I was crying now.  "Whatever 
happens, I love you.  I didn't know, until just a few 
weeks ago...Please don't cry."

           "This can't be real, it can't...what's going on?"  Mom 
cried and babbled incoherently.

         Dad just sighed.  "Can you explain this all in short 
simple sentences, Alex?  Should I be calling you that 
when you're green?"

         Alex laughed.  "Well, my faerie name is Wildbriar.  
Countess Wildbriar now.  Your daughter is the daughter 
of the Queen of the Faeries."

          "Who no doubt is related to Louis XI," he said.  I 
couldn't be sure if he was being sarcastic, or just trying to 
cheer Mom up.  

          Alex launched into the whole story while I tried to 
calm Mom down.

*************

Splinter said:

        Finding Thomas was easier than I thought.  I 
recognized the place the mirror showed me.  He was in 
one of the 'art labs' at the Fine Arts Center on campus, 
working on a sculpture.  Clay sculpture; Thornton doesn't 
teach stonecarving.  It was a very nice tree; I have to 
admit that Thomas does have a lot of artistic skill.  

         I mirror jumped to my dorm room, then swiftly ran 
across campus.  My roommate blinked and tried to ask 
me something, but I just ignored her.  I've been 
neglecting my classes for my quest, but I wasn't taking 
this school very seriously anyway.  I had to enchant the 
registrar to get in.  I do want to finish college; I just don't 
have time.  

         I approached Thomas in my mortal form; best to 
not arouse suspicion with illusions, and he wouldn't see I 
was Splinter in this form.  "Thomas."

         He looked up, blinked, then frowned.  "What?"

         "The Unseelie have sent agents to kidnap Harry and 
Angela's parents, and possibly yours and Tanya's.  I 
suggest you warn your parents, then try to help Harry 
and Angel."  I turned to go before I could say something 
stupid.  

          Thomas leaped to his feet.  "Wait!  How did..."

          "You really need to be more careful about 
transforming where you can be seen or scried, Thomas.  
Or should I say...Flamehair?"  I felt a small twinge of 
triumph.  Just once, I'd gotten the jump on HIM.  It felt 
good.

          He looked around.  "Harry had mentioned you were 
a faerie...how did you learn of this?"

          "I can't reveal my sources; they would be 
endangered."  I'm endangering myself by telling you this, 
but I'm not ready to reveal my true self...even if I do 
need your help.  I just...I shouldn't deceive them, but 
they won't trust me otherwise, and I need them to act, 
not worry about if I'm telling the truth.  "I already told 
Tanya; luckily, she was visiting her mother."

         He blinked.  "She what?  Half an hour ago, she was 
in her dorm room."

         "..."

         Thomas ran over to me.  "Are you sure it was her?"

         "Oh great.  It was probably a fetch!  I didn't even 
think of that!  What a really great way to kidnap 
someone...aargh!"  I felt like a moron.

          "Hmm.  Actually, it might have been Irene."  
Thomas said.  "Let's go find Tanya."

          I started to follow him out.  "Who is Irene?"

          "Tanya's mortal twin.  She had been talking about 
going to meet her birth mother."  We headed down the 
hallway.  Thomas still had clay on his hands.

         "Going to clean your hands?"

          He acked and ducked into the bathroom, soon 
emerging with clean hands.  "Have you told Harry and 
Angel yet?"

          "I sent the Unicorn Knight to tell them; apparently 
her faerie sister is a friend of theirs."  I jogged along as 
we sped up.

           "Thank you, Jennifer.  I know we've always gotten 
along poorly, and I really am grateful you were willing to 
tell us about this anyway.  I owe you."  We sped out the 
front doors and across the intermural fields.  The Picasso 
Fine Arts Building is on the far southwestern corner of 
campus, and Muggleton, their dorm, is on the far 
northeastern corner.  I live in Ruth and Sidney Webb 
Dorm, which is even farther northeast, but not by much.   
Like Muggleton, it's Coed.  Opal lives in the suite next to 
mine, in his mortal identity, Mark Robinson.  

           "You're welcome,"  I said graciously.  Being 
thanked for once felt VERY good.  I wasn't sure what I 
should do next.  Stay and help?  I hadn't quite planned 
this far.  I couldn't directly commit myself; I couldn't risk 
any of the kidnappers recognizing me.  "I have to go 
deliver warnings to a few more people,"  I said.  "It is a 
dangerous time for all those of the Seelie Court."

          He nodded.  "See you later, Jennifer."

          I watched him sprint away.  I had just finished 
committing treason.  Mother would likely crucify me if 
she found out.  How am I going to explain how I rescued 
my siblings if I'm going to need Seelie help to do it?  And 
what do I do now?  I can't just sit and wait for them to 
finish, but if I really do need their help...

          I decided to go find a quiet spot and think REALLY 
hard.  I ended up under a tree on the south side of 
'Muggleton Beach', the slope between the Quad and the 
upperclassmen dorms.  There's some nice flower beds 
and a few trees behind Spray and Sam Houston (the 
Humanities Building.  Spray has English and Foreign 
Languages and a BIG lecture hall).  

          One of the gardeners was hard at work, which 
surprised me; it was Sunday.  I suddenly realized I'd 
forgotten to go to church.  I'm sort of Lutheran, though 
not very active.  He looked over at me; he was a bulky 
old man, probably in his late sixties or early seventies, 
but in fairly good shape.  His hair was gray and thinning 
out, but was mostly hidden by a battered Astros cap.  
"Life not treating you well?"

          I started; the staff here usually ignores the 
students completely unless we get in their way.  "I have 
conflicting duties to my family that I can't reconcile."

          He cocked his head.  "Conflicting duties to your 
family?  As in one duty to your family interfering with 
another one?"

         I nodded.  "It's rather difficult to explain.  I...I may 
have to disobey my mother to fulfill my duties to my 
siblings."  Idly, I plucked a blade of grass and began 
turning it over and over.  "They...They're in a lot of 
danger."

          "Would disobeying your mother put her in 
danger?" he asked, returning to the weeding he was 
doing.

           "I don't think so.  I just...Mother has always been 
very kind to me, and I want...I love my mother.  I don't 
like disobeying her."  Why am I telling a gardener about 
this?  He could never understand.

         "I never got along well with my mother.  She 
neglected her children, then didn't understand why we 
didn't like her."  He sighed.  "You're lucky to have a 
mother who loves you.  Still, I wish my mother was still 
alive."  He finished weeding one bed and moved to the 
next one.  

        "How did she die?"

         "She was poisoned," he said, then sighed.  "By my 
brother, who got impatient waiting for her to die."

          My eyes widened.  I had heard a story like that 
from my old faerie tutor, but I couldn't remember how it 
worked out or when it happened.  "That's awful!"

          He nodded and got his spade, digging up one 
persistent weed.  "My family was never the same after 
that."

          "I can imagine."

         "Good luck dealing with your mother," he said.

          I was going to need it.

*************

Harry said:  

        I can now say I've ridden on a unicorn.  His name 
was Xavier, and he is a very pleasant, gentle soul.  I can 
now tell you that the old story about Unicorns and virgins 
isn't entirely true; white unicorns are drawn to moral 
purity rather than virginity.  A maiden Unicorn hunter 
wouldn't find one; a married person could quite easily if 
they were pure enough.  It is the job of White Unicorns to 
defend the innocent; I had met a Blue Unicorn, they make 
it their task to comfort the troubled.  Green ones defend 
forests and Black unicorns are driven by the quest for 
vengeance.  Unicorns sometimes change color due to some 
event in their life, but most stay the same forever, or at 
least longer than they can remember.  

         Helena had gained Hope's alliance by travelling to 
the realm of the Unicorns in one of the far corners of 
Terrestial Arcadia (which is the earth-like part of it) and 
passing several tests set her by a Unicorn king.  While we 
rode through a series of faerie roads, she told me all 
about it.  Since neither of us knew enough about mirror 
travel to use that shortcut, we had to go the somewhat 
longer route of travelling faerie roads.  Luckily, Helena is 
a Roadweaver, and thus can make the roads go where she 
wants them to.  

          In a few hours, we rode into the faerieland 
equivalent of Tyler.  The faeries don't have a really good 
name for the regions that directly parallel the Earth;  
Helena calls it the borderlands or the shadowlands, since 
it's a shadow of the Earth.  Or possibly vice versa, some 
faeries would claim.  But that's not important right now.

        Hope had to stay in Arcadia; unicorns die swiftly in 
the mortal world; not enough magic.  We stepped through 
into the mortal world in my backyard.  There were eight 
horses parked there; we were too late, I could tell.  The 
back door gaped open.  I ran in the backdoor with Helena 
clanking along after me in her armor.  

        The house was a mess; there was furniture tossed all 
over, a sword stuck in the wall, and this awful ringing 
noise, like someone was sounding dozens of bells inside 
our house.  I heard voices; one of them was begging 
someone to stop the bells.  While I was certain it had to 
be one of the Unseelie, I agreed with them.  

        I found Mom in the living room.  It was a mess with 
furniture everywhere.  Six frustrated looking faeries (two 
Sidhe, two Ogres, a Green Goblin, and a Boggart), were 
standing inside a circle of salt, pushing at the air as if the 
salt had a wall on it.  I could hear shouting coming down 
the hallway from the laundry room.  Mom was standing 
near the circle of salt, watching them and periodically 
looking into the kitchen.  Her hair was a frazzled mess 
and her clothing was inside-out, which looked really 
weird.  She was wearing the usual green blouse and 
green kulats combo that she usually wears when she is 
writing; they're hideous, but they relax her for some 
reason.  

         The bells were coming from the living room stereo; 
it sounded like the same track being played over and 
over.  Several of the trapped faeries were wincing, while 
the goblin had his fingers in his ears.  One of them 
spotted us and started making 'save me!' gestures.  Mom 
didn't notice us.  She said, "So how many of you are 
there?"

        One of the Sidhe sighed.  "There were eight, but 
Dorcas got hit by a car and I think you put Launceston in 
your ...um, whatever that machine was."

         "Washing machine."

          Helena laughed at that, which got Mom's attention.  
She stared at Helena, then saw me.  "Harry?"

           I ran over to Mom.  "Mom!  Are you okay?"

          She hugged me tightly.  "Harry, these...have these 
things been bothering you too?  Charles...I think he 
wasn't so crazy as we thought."  She shook, and I could 
tell that she'd been keeping all her fear deep inside, and 
now it was starting to come out.  "I'd been thinking I'd 
heard weird noises at night and people watching our 
house, but I never thought...I'd find...I'm glad Grandma 
told me all those old stories about Ireland, or you'd be 
wondering what happened to me."

          I said, "Oh, mom, this is my friend Helena."  I 
pointed to Helena, who took off her helmet.  "She's one of 
Alex's relatives."

          "Nice to meet you, Mrs. Crags,"  Helena said, 
walking over to the circle of salt and looking down at it.  
"Hmm."

          "Your old woman's scary,"  one of the ogres said.  
"This would have been a lot easier if Sir Dimwit had told 
us that she was a sorceror."

           Mom blinked.  "I'm not a sorceror.  I just know 
how to deal with faeries.  Hmm.  The iron should be 
ready."  She ran into the kitchen.

          One of the Sidhe said, "I am sir Dimiwar, not sir 
DIMWIT!"

          "You just got your ass kicked by a housewife," the 
other ogre said.  "So did I, but I never pretended I knew 
what I was doing.  Oh, ignore the salt line, he says.  It 
can't really hold us, he says.  We'll just step out and scare 
her, he says.  Feh."

          "Well, if she didn't have enchanted clothing so our 
spells didn't work on her,"  Sir Dimiwar began.

          "I don't know where Mom would have gotten 
enchanted clothing,"  I said.  Or why she's wearing it 
inside out.

           Mom ran back in with her iron, which was in a 
bucket of ice.  "Do you have any idea how cold the iron 
has to be to work on them, Harry?"  she asked.  

          Helena fell down laughing.  So did the Green Goblin 
and the other Sidhe.  I laughed some.  "It has to be cold-
wrought iron, not an iron that you put on ice, Mom."

         "Harry...have you run into faeries before?"

          I decided this wasn't the best time for the whole 
truth.  "Ever since early this semester.  Mr. Cromwell was 
right, Mom.  Tanya IS a faerie."

           "And so are you," she said quietly.  "After they 
showed up, I remembered...they took you away and 
replaced you with a doll when you were little.  Then 
another faerie brought you back.  Is that when they...Are 
you...I mean..."  Her voice was trembling.

          "The Unseelie have...the boy you gave birth to.  But 
you're the Mom I love, Mom.  There's a dryad who gave 
birth to me, but it's you that I care about.  You're my real 
Mom."  I hugged her and prayed she wouldn't freak out.

          "What...what have they done with him?"  She was 
trembling worse, now.

          "We don't know."  I thought a moment.  "Where's 
Dad?"

          Her eyes widened.  "At his office...but what 
if...GEORGE!"  She ran to the phone and dialed it.  I 
watched and waited as it rang.

          The screaming from the laundryroom continued.  I 
said to Helena and Mom.  "I think we'd better take that 
faerie out of the washing machine."

          Mom nodded absently and I went and got a 
bedraggled boggart out of the washing machine.  Why he 
hadn't drowned, I wasn't sure.  He was only a foot tall 
with dark blue-brown skin, huge pointed ears, and deep 
violet eyes.  I put him in the circle with the other faeries, 
who looked rather frustrated.  

          Mom gave a cry and hung up.  "No one is 
answering the phone at his office, not even the secretary!  
Something...what if they've grabbed him?"

           Helena said, "I'll stay and watch them and try to 
contact some faeries who can take these prisoners.  You 
go save your father; I can't go wandering around the city 
in armor."

          We took Mom's car.  Dad's building was on fire.  
Students, cops, firefighters, and professors were milling 
around outside.  I found Dr. Brega, who is in Dad's 
department and went over to her.  "What happened?"

         "There was some kind of fight in the lab between 
some kind of crazed gang in medieval clothing and the 
Physics 345 class.  Something caught fire, and then the 
Chem lab went up.  Now the whole building is burning."  
She shook her head.  "Just about everyone is out, but no 
one in the Physics class has made it out, and the gang's 
still in there too."

          Mom screamed.  My father teaches Physics 345.  
"No one at all?"

         "Yeah.  The cops can't go in until the firefighters get 
it all under control."  She sighed, staring at Mom with her 
grey eyes.  "I'm sorry, Cathy.  I'm sure George will be 
fine."  She sounded like she was lying.  I wanted to go in 
and look for Dad, but I was too afraid to go into a burning 
building.  I wish Thomas was here, I thought.  He could 
control the flames.  Where is he, anyway?

****************

Angel said:

         I finally got Mom to where she was calm, sort of, or 
at least she wasn't crying too much.  Alex finished 
explaining everything to Dad.  "So we have to take you to 
safety as soon as we can; I don't know how soon the 
Unseelie are gonna show up, but we can't take any 
chances."

         "Good thing we both have vacation time saved up."  
He sighed.  "Any idea how long we're gonna have to 
hide?"

         "Not too long, I hope.  Queen Glorianna can probably 
get you some bodyguards so you don't have to hide in 
Arcadia forever, but we haven't had time to try to contact 
her."  Alex did her best to smile, then turned back to 
normal, probably to look less scary.  I did the same thing.  
"The Palace of the Stars is really nice.  You'll like it."  She 
smiled a bit.  "And you'd be the first insurance agent ever 
to visit, I'm pretty sure.  Maybe you could sell the queen 
life insurance."

         "Hmm.  Now there's an idea.  I bet you'd have a lot 
of fires, liability insurance for chariots..."  He trailed off 
and I could hear the dollar signs ringing in his head, so to 
speak.  I laughed a little.  Pop adapts to just about 
anything pretty quickly.  He'll probably really try to sell 
the Queen insurance, I thought.  And he might just talk 
her into it.

          "Alex, can you help Dad pack?  I'm gonna stay here 
with Mom."  I gave her a meaningful look.  This usually 
doesn't work, but for once, someone actually got the 
point.  She left with Dad.

          "I'm sorry to spring this on you so suddenly, Mom."  
We were both kneeling on the floor, holding each other.  
She wasn't shaking anymore, but I could feel her 
confusion and pain.  "I'm really sorry.  I just...I didn't 
know until a few weeks ago and..."

           "Are all...are..."

            I guessed what she meant.  "I'm the only faerie in 
the family, Mom.  Although it would explain a few 
things."  I laughed a little.  "Don't feel bad; you're 
descended from royalty too.  Louis XI is watching you."  I 
hoped she would laugh.

          "This has to just be a nightmare.  It has to be."  
Mom started crying again.

           I felt awful.  I had no clue whatsoever what to 
say.  "I love you, Mom.  I love you.  You...still love me, 
don't you?"  Now I was crying.

           "Of course I love you, I just...I just...This just can't 
be real.  It can't...I just...where is she?"  Mom was starting 
to shake again.

          "I don't know, Mom.  The Unseelie took her.  Queen 
Glorianna, my...birth mother, hasn't been able to get her 
back.  She wants to meet you, Mom."

           "M...Me...meet a queen?"

           "Yep.  And Shakespeare."

            Mom stopped crying and said, "You're joking."

            "Yeah.  He's...um...the Queen's Lover."

            "She's cheating on her husband?"  Mom sounded 
shocked.  

            "She isn't married."  I realized, with a sudden 
start, that I was therefore illegitimate.  This was 
disturbing.  "The Queen can't marry a mortal."

            "Is Harry a faerie too?"  she asked, sounding 
concerned.

            "Yep."  I said.  "He's off trying to save his folks 
right now."

            Mom stood up shakily.  "We'd best...get packing.  
And I'll need to call work.  I'll tell them it's a family 
emergency."

           As she went to the phone, I heard the front door 
break down and hoofbeats echo through the entry 
hallway.  Trouble.

**************

Splinter said:

       I still wasn't sure what to do, but I did think of one 
thing.  "Show me Irene, Tanya's sister," I told the mirror.  
It showed me a room in some sort of palace, which could 
have been any of hundreds I knew of.  The room was 
nicely furnished with a reddish-gold theme and I could 
see the girl who looked like Tanya was there, along with 
Mrs. Cromwell.  She was helping Mrs. Cromwell change 
into a rather nice green dress, although I thought the 
silver embroidered clouds didn't quite work right with 
the color.  

        Enough fashion commentary.  The image winked out 
a second later, replaced by fuzzy static like a TV on a 
dead channel.  I was used to this; wards versus scrying 
often produce similar effects.  It only bothered me when 
I realized this had NOT happened with my effort to view 
my siblings.  I called them up on the mirror again, and 
after watching them for about four minutes, no wards 
had kicked in.  I couldn't believe that Martius had no 
wards against scrying; what he had done to me during 
my effort to trace that phone call had proved that to me.  
But why could I observe my siblings at will but not the 
room where this Irene was?  

          This disturbed me.  I decided to experiment.  
"Show me Martius."  He was standing in front of a prison, 
laughing.  It was a mortal prison, although where it was, I 
had no clue.  It looked like it was inside a town; there 
was a Dairy Queen and stores across the street from its 
high red stone walls.  I could see smoke rising from 
inside it and someone was firing a gun down inside it 
from the top of the wall.  I was confused; why would 
Martius want to provoke a prison riot?  He started to look 
around with a paranoid look and I quickly told the mirror 
to scry the nearest copy of Time magazine.  

          After a few more seconds thought, I told it to scry 
Queen Glorianna.  I got a brief image of her sitting on a 
throne talking to someone, then it fuzzed out.  Ahh, I 
thought.  I bet that the Faerie Queens are powerful 
enough to shield their palaces against scrying; even this 
artifact.  It must be able to pierce some shields, but not 
all.  I decided to test this.  "Show me the kitchens of the 
Palace of Stars."  An image of a kitchen with hard 
working cooks making a huge meal soon fuzzed out.  
"Show me the kitchens of Kaltenberg," I said.  The 
kitchens of Kaltenberg, my mother's capital, winked into 
sight for a few seconds, then became snow.  

         "Show me...my brother's hunting lodge."  I knew my 
brother Bran had put up powerful wards against scrying 
there; it's where he conducts all of his trysts.  Nothing 
happened at all.  I thought for a minute, then realized 
that all of my brothers had hunting lodges.  The mirror 
could only go by my words, not my intent.  "Show me 
Bran's hunting lodge."  Nothing.  He must have more than 
one, I thought.  "Show me...umm...White Aspen Lodge?"  I 
was pretty sure that was the right one.  The image of the 
lodge winked in and did not vanish into static.

         Having figured this out, I still had no clue what to 
do next.  "Mirror, show me something useful."  It showed 
me a picture of a cellular phone sitting in some Radio 
Shack.  Not an endless barrel of clues.  

           My fundamental problem was that I was caught 
between unpalatable alternatives.  I did not want to 
directly oppose my mother's actions.  Even though I'd 
already committed treason, effectively, by what I had 
done, I did not want to go farther.  I had to do it, in order 
to save my siblings.  They were more important to me 
than the political intrigue that Mother wanted the little 
pseudo-faeries and their friends for.  And Mother HAD 
commanded me to save them.  But what if warning them 
wasn't enough?  If Mother did capture them, I'd have to 
step VERY carefully to avoid my intervention being 
betrayed.  

          I wished again that I could talk to Opal.  He always 
knew what to do.  But I let people tell me what to do too 
much.  Except for riddles, I've never been good at 
thinking things through.  By what I'd already done, I'd 
likely compromised my position too much.  But then, I'd 
started down that road when I'd let Harry go instead of 
taking him back to Mother.  That was why she'd sent out 
the Wild Hunt in the first place. 

           I decided to see how my intervention had gone; 
maybe I wouldn't need to further intervene.  Thomas' 
parents were okay, busily packing their suitcases while 
one of them talked on the phone to someone.  I'd already 
checked Tanya's mother.  Harry's mother was okay; Harry 
was with her.  Harry's father, on the other hand, was tied 
to the back of a horse, heading through a forest I 
recognized.  He was most of the way to Kaltenberg.  There 
was only a few hours before he would be inside its walls.  

          I quickly checked on Angela's parents.  A group of 
faeries on horseback, most of whom I recognized, were 
kicking her butt and her ogre friends' butt too.  Unless 
they got help fast, they were doomed.  It was time to 
make a decision.

***************

Harry said:  

         I didn't know what to do next.  Mom was beyond 
incoherency.  It would be hours before we could go into 
the building, but Mom wouldn't leave.  Dr. Brega tried to 
help me, but she didn't know how to calm Mom down 
either.  

          It seemed like I'd been there forever when finally 
Helena showed up.  "They've been taken care of, Harry," 
she told me, then noticed Dr. Brega.  "Hello."

         "This is a friend of mine from college," I told Dr. 
Brega, who smiled.  

         "The famous Angela?"  she asked.

         "This is a friend of hers, who was kind enough to 
give me a ride home for the weekend.  Angela was going 
to come, but she felt sick."  I lied like a dog.  

         "I'm Helena Cook.  Nice to meet you," she said, 
smiling in her childlike way.  Helena often seems to look 
like a five year old in a twenty year old body.  

          I explained the situation to Helena, who frowned.  
"Best we go home and wait for news," she said.  "If they 
haven't found him by now..."

          I went to go bug a policeman.  The fire was out and 
they were clearly searching the building.  He explained 
that they hadn't found any corpses, but the entire physics 
class, including my father, and the 'gang', whatever it 
was, were gone.  

          Mother went into more hysterics at this news, and 
finally, we took her home, which wasn't easy.  Helena had 
to restrain her while I drove.  A man I didn't know was 
waiting in the front yard.  He was short and well dressed, 
looking like a businessman or possibly a government 
agent, in his mid thirties.  I glanced at Helena.  "Anyone 
you know?"

          She stared at him.  "Maybe.  If you know any good 
places in Arcadia to take your Mom, I suggest we get 
moving.  We can go to my house if you can't think of 
any."

         "Can you take us to Duke Ironwood's house?"  I 
asked.  

         "Yeah.  You think you can get this car into Arcadia?"

          I hoped so.  I knew the basic principle, but I hadn't 
done it while driving.  It wasn't as easy as Alex and 
Thomas had made it look.  Moving yourself doesn't take 
much energy; moving a car was hard and I felt drained.  I 
wondered if it had tired them as much as it tired me; 
they had made it seem casual.

         The trip to Duke Ironwood's castle was quick; 
Helena's talent is VERY useful for zipping about Arcadia.  
At least if a road goes where you want to go.  We were at 
Duke Ironwood's home in about five minutes.  Mom had 
fallen asleep.  

           Driving mom's beat up old Toyota got a few stares, 
but I didn't care.  I parked it in the courtyard and Helena 
and I carried her inside.  Duke Ironwood, who I still 
found it hard to think of as my father, was gone on a trip, 
but the servants quickly contacted Lady Rowanford, who 
was off at her estates, but wasn't actually doing anything 
too pressing, and she swiftly arrived.  She arranged a 
room for Mom, then ushered us to the hallway.  "What 
happened?"

         "The Unseelie are after my parents.  I think they 
must have my Dad.  And...do you have some way I could 
try to contact Angel?  Her parents are in danger too."

           "I don't have any good ways to contact her," she 
said, sighing.  "Unless she's in Arcadia already."

           "If you know where her house is, I can get us 
there quickly, I think,"  Helena said.

           "Do you know a good way to find where they have 
my Dad?"  I asked Lady Rowanford.  

           She cocked her head for a moment.  "We have 
someone with a talent for scrying; I'll put him to work."  
She sighed.  "I wish I could send help with you, but since 
this is the Unseelie Season, very few of us can cross over; 
I have no changelings in my employ."

          "We'll have to make do.  Come on, Helena, we have 
to hurry!"

***********

Angel said:

        Sometimes it's good to have your ass kicked in order 
to remind you that you're not omnipotent.  However, 
when you're fighting to rescue your parents is not one of 
those times.  Alex and I were simply outmatched.  It 
didn't help that our opponents forgot to obey the 
Hollywood rule of only coming one at a time; we probably 
would have won.  They were armed, on horseback, and 
highly competent.  

          I probably couldn't have beaten the leader in a fair 
fight.  I certainly couldn't do it with three other faeries 
taking whacks at me.  Only the fact that a living room 
jumbled with furniture is a lousy place to ride a horse 
had enabled me to hold them off at all.  Alex went down 
when the three ogres all attacked her at once, although 
she broke the arm of one of them.  A weird faery who 
looked like a giant blue scaled smurf had grabbed Mom, 
hoisting her onto his horse, which was huge; I couldn't 
figure out how he'd even gotten it in the front door.  For 
that matter, I couldn't figure out how any of them had 
gotten in through any of the doors while riding on 
horseback.  

          The leader was a green haired Sidhe with a neatly 
trimmed moustache and a beard.  Normally, I hate facial 
hair, but he actually made it look good.  On the other 
hand, faeries seem to be able to make ANYTHING look 
good.  His voice was deep and sonorous; it sounded like 
the voice you'd imagine God speaking with.  He probably 
could have stomped me flat by himself.  I could tell.  
Having four helpers meant I had no chance, and he knew 
it.  "Surrender now.  You can't hold us off forever, 
especially if I actually make a real effort."  He was right.

          I was about to surrender, when I heard Dad say, 
"All right, you faerie bastards, get down on the ground, or 
I'll blow you all to hell."

           Everyone turned and looked, even the ogres down 
on the ground pinning Alex.  Dad was standing in the 
doorway with an assault rifle.  I couldn't tell you what 
kind; what I know about guns, other than basic gun 
safety, would fit on my fingernails.  Dad made sure we all 
knew how to handle guns safely, but I never liked them 
like he and Brigette do.  I could see extra ammo clips 
sticking out of his pockets.  I knew Dad had a lot of guns, 
but I didn't realize he had one of THESE.

          The Unseelie faerie boss guy, whose name I still 
didn't know, turned to Dad.  "Do you think I am a fool?  
After being shot by three muskets and a cannon at the 
battle of Jena, I spent several decades perfecting wards 
against bullets.   And I made QUITE sure to use them 
before coming into the mortal realm.  I may not have had 
a mortal life in this century, but I am quite aware that 
you still use guns, although I've never seen one exactly 
like that."  He paused.  "That is a gun, right?"

          Dad smiled.  "Yes, this is a gun.  A bit more 
powerful than what you got shot with during the 
Napoleonic Wars."

          The faerie blinked.  "How did you know I served in 
the Napoleonic wars?"  He peered intently at Dad.  "You 
don't look familiar."

         "You mentioned Jena; hasn't been a battle there 
since the Napoleonic wars, except maybe during World 
War II, and you would have seen guns like this then.  I 
was stationed in Germany for two years, back when I was 
in the army.  Got to see quite a few old battle sites.  A 
hobby of mine."  He shrugged.  "Anyway, I'm willing to 
gamble my gun versus your magic."

          The faerie smiled.  "A wager?  I shall ride at you.  
If you can injure me before I reach you, I will depart.  If 
I reach you unhurt, you will come quietly."

           Dad thought a moment, then smiled.  "Fair enough.  
Keep in mind I'm going to blow your men to hell if I win 
this bet with you."

         "If you actually can injure me, at this range, I likely 
wouldn't last long enough to hurt you unless you are the 
worst shot on Earth or your gun blows up," he said.  
"Ready?"

         "I suggest everyone else get down, then,"  Dad said.

         We all got down.  It was entirely surreal, like some 
kind of showdown in a western movie.  The man raised 
his sword.  "Begin!"  He urged his horse forward.

          It was over in about three seconds.  First Dad blew 
the horse to hell.  The bullets that came near the faerie's 
legs skidded away, imbedding themselves in the walls; 
I'm glad they made us get down, or likely half the people 
in the room, quite likely including me, would have died.  

          The faerie went flying past Dad as his horse died, 
crashing into the hallway and losing his sword.  Dad just 
barely jumped out of the way, then spun and reloaded; 
those clips go fast on full auto.  By the time the faerie got 
up, Dad had emptied another clip at him.  The faerie 
leader's wards had been good, but they had their limits, 
in part because they were in the mortal realm, I 
suspected.  Likely, in Arcadia, Dad could have shot at him 
all day and never hurt him, but magic is simply weaker 
here.  Dad was shooting low, so he simply shredded the 
leader's legs.  Blood splattered everywhere; it made me 
want to throw up just watching.  All he said was 
"Damnation," before he passed out.

         Dad stared at him for a moment; he looked as sick 
as I felt, then turned around back to the room.  "Anyone 
else want what he got?"

         Most of them didn't.  One of them tried to cast some 
kind of telekinesis spell, but it took too long.  Dad blew 
him to bits.  There were troll chunks all over the living 
room; his torso just came apart.  The two trolls by him 
were badly hurt, but not killed; Dad had a lot more 
control over where he was shooting than I would have 
with an assault rifle; everyone would have been dead by 
now if I'd tried to fire one, likely including myself.  I 
threw up when I saw this.  Several of the other faeries 
threw up as well, which was somewhat reassuring.  

         They all ran and cowered in the corner after that.  I 
eventually stopped puking and went to get Mom, but 
Alex had finished throwing up before I did, and hauled 
Mom over to Dad.  The faerie leader in the hallway was 
moaning in pain.  Then Helena and Harry arrived right as 
my phone began ringing.  Helena looked around in shock.  
"What in...".  She jumped back a few inches when she saw 
Dad with the assault rifle.  "..."

        Harry ran over to me.  "Are you okay?"

         Nope.  I hadn't realized that I had multiple cuts all 
over me until that point; too much adrenaline and fear.  
Suddenly, I was in agony, my clothing soaked with my 
own blood.  "Not at all."

         "We'd best take you into Arcadia,"  Helena said.  "I 
can't do too much without exhausting myself here.  And I 
need to take those other faeries if I'm going to heal 
them."

          "Let 'em die,"  Alex said.  "Unseelie bastards."

          "I can't do that!"

          The faeries who Dad had his gun on all looked at 
each other and one of them said, "Well, I feel like a 
dimwit."  Suddenly, they all vanished.  Only the injured 
ones were left behind.  Well, and the corpse.

           "What the hell?"  Dad said.  

           Alex screamed.  "Dammit!  They just fled into 
Arcadia!"

           "So must we, if I'm to tend your wounds,"  Helena 
said, examining Alex.  "Mom will stomp on me if I take 
you home hurt."

           Dad looked at the blood and gore scattered about 
the living room, then came over to Mom, who was just 
staring at him with huge eyes.  "Don't look at me like that.  
I was a soldier.  Soldiers do have to shoot people 
sometimes, you know."

            "You...he...What are we going to tell the carpet 
cleaners?"  Mom was about to go into hysterics again.  I 
wanted to go into hysterics myself, but I hurt too much.  

           "Luckily, these bodies don't just dissolve away like 
cheesy aliens," he said.  "And my own company provides 
our insurance, so that shouldn't be a problem, but..."  He 
looked around.  "Explaining this to the police is going to 
be fun."  

         Smoke began to drift into the room.  Every smoke 
alarm in the house went off at once; given Mom put one 
in every room, it was really loud and really annoying.  
"We have to get out of here!"  Alex said.  "They've set the 
house on fire!"

         Checking quickly, we discovered that all of the 
ground level exits were on fire, and in fact, had the 
largest fires.  They also had nasty fire-controlling faeries, 
well concealed behind furniture, who quickly sent us 
running.  Dad only had one clip left for the assault rifle 
handy, and there were likely faeries hidden all over the 
house by now.  Alex, however, had an idea.

         "We can use the bathroom mirror!  Flee back to 
campus or somewhere!"

          Dad looked surprised by that, but followed our 
lead.  That's when I realized that Helena had grabbed the 
Unseelie leader and was carrying him.  He was 
unconscious, but he looked a lot better, and she looked 
fairly tired.  Alex said, "You healed that goddamn bastard, 
didn't you!"

          "I couldn't just let him die!  And...um...he'll have 
valuable information,"  Helena said.  

          "Angel needs it more than that monkey!"

           We headed into the mirror realm, which clearly 
creeped Dad out.  Mom had fainted, but I'm sure she 
would have liked it even less.  Helena put down the 
faerie leader and healed me and Alex next.  She looked 
pretty drained by it.  Alex was able to guide us to the 
Palace of Stars; I hadn't gotten the knack of how to 
navigate around Mirrorland.  Everyone just seemed to 
know where to go, but I never did.

          We ended up in my suite there, laying Mom down 
on the bed.  Dad sat down by her, putting his hand on her 
arm.  He looked worried; I couldn't blame him.  The faerie 
guy woke up soon, with Alex holding him in an armlock.  
"Hello, Mr. Unseelie.  You're going to tell us everything we 
want to know, or I'm going to rip off your arms and make 
you eat them."  I could tell she was pretty close to doing 
that anyway, whatever he said.

          He blinked.  "Hmm.  I was fairly certain I should be 
dead by now."

         "My incredibly stupid sister healed you,"  Alex said.  
"So thank her for saving your worthless life."

         He smiled at Helena.  "Thank you, lady.  I owe you 
quite a debt; I wouldn't have died permanently, but the 
idea of being a baby again doesn't appeal to me."

         "What's your name?  I'm Helena."

         "I am Count Northwind.  Kidnapping is not my 
normal job, but my reputation for being invulnerable to 
bullets got me this assignment, as far as I can tell."  He 
sighed.  "It always worked before.  Those weren't...no, I 
would have died instantly."  He frowned.

         "Who sent you?  That Teleute bitch?"  Alex asked.

         "Yes, I was sent by the Queen.  Who is NOT a bitch."  
He frowned.  "I would not call Glorianna such; she is a 
Queen and deserves some respect."

         "Yeah, yeah, I'll show my respect by using her title 
when I kill her if I ever meet her,"  Alex said.  "So who all 
were you sent to kidnap?"

         "I'm only aware of two other groups, although there 
could be more.  One group to deal with his parents,"  he 
pointed at Harry, "and some group to deal with the 
parents of someone named Wildbriar, whoever that is."

           Helena coughed and Alex's eyes got really big.  I 
could see her tightening her grip.  "Wildbriar?"

          He shrugged.  "I've never heard of her.  I think the 
Queen may have sent out some other groups as well.  I 
only remember this Wildbriar because as I arrived for 
my audience, I overheard her telling them to be careful 
because this Wildbriar's father was in some kind of 
prison."

         Harry and I had to restrain Alex from ripping off 
the poor Count's arms.  It took both of us, plus Helena to 
finally pull her off him, and his arms nearly broke in the 
process.  Alex finally calmed down, but it wasn't easy.  
"YOU BASTARDS!"

         "Calm down, lady," he said.  "I'm sure they weren't 
sent to kill him.  I take it you are Lady Wildbriar?"

          "You got that right, you piece of shit!"  She broke 
loose and lunged for him.

         Helena said, "You want to waste time on him, or do 
you want to go save your parents?"

         Alex stopped.  "They're your parents too!"

         "Then let's go save them."

          Harry went to go find someone we could hand the 
Count over to and inform the Queen of what was going on 
while we got ready to go try to save Alex's parents.

***************

Splinter said:

        By the time I got to Angela's house, it was a burnt 
out shell with cops and firefighters everywhere.  I had 
been afraid of that; Faeries can cheat with magic to get 
places quickly, but we can only cheat so much.  Mirror 
travel is often the fastest way, but it only works well if 
you've already been to both locations; otherwise you 
have to very slowly feel your way through Mirrorspace 
to an appropriate mirror, which may or may not even 
exist.  I simply went to Arcadia and rode Bluey, with the 
help of a tracking spell to find my destination.  This still 
took about an hour, but it was the best I could do.  I've 
never been very good at magical tracking anyway, like 
my fiasco of following one that was supposed to lead me 
to Aquamarine and I ended up finding Angela (our first 
meeting).  

          It didn't help that I didn't think to check the 
mirror on my way; I kept thinking I was almost there.  I 
checked it and got a brief image of them in a room at a 
palace, then it fuzzed out.  Getting into the Palace of Stars 
would take hours, and likely they would move before 
then.  I spotted Thomas and Tanya at another castle, but 
this one didn't make the Mirror fuzz out.  There was a 
lady; I recognized her vaguely.  Lady Rowantree or some 
such thing.  Wife of Duke...um, Duke something or 
another.  Ironford.  Yes, that was it.  

         Bluey had no clue where either of them lived; I 
didn't have time to go home to Kaltenberg and look for a 
map.  Maps of Arcadia tend to either be rare magical 
artifacts or useless anyway.    It's like trying to map the 
arrangement of the thoughts inside someone's head.  

          Time was running out.  Soon, Harry's father would 
be trapped in Kaltenberg.  I couldn't rescue him myself; 
not unless they were dumb enough to just hand him over 
to me, as even with Bluey, I didn't think I could fight all 
of them.  Maybe a bold dive in and rescue...I spent a few 
minutes trying to think of a plan that wouldn't probably 
go blort.  

          I stepped back into Arcadia as I fretted, then sat 
down with my back against Bluey's neck.  "I wish they'd 
all sit still long enough for me to find them,"  I said to 
Bluey.

         "If wishes were horses, beggars would ride,"  a male 
voice said nearby.  He had a pleasant voice, although it 
had a bit of a sarcastic tone to it.

       He was short, but he reminded me of Mother, regal 
and commanding in demeanour.  Short, white hair topped 
his head, and he stared at me with deep blue eyes.  He 
was Sidhe, but he wore a simple green tunic and brown 
trousers, making him look rather low-class, although he 
had a nice sword hanging from his belt.  I was fairly 
certain I'd never met him, although his face looked 
familiar.  "Hello, Princess Splinter.  I am Tacitus."

        Given that I was still in my mortal form, which even 
most of my brothers and sisters likely wouldn't recognize, 
I nearly fainted, except that I don't do silly things like 
that.  "..."

         Bluey snaked her head about.  "Don't try anything 
funny, whoever you are."

         He smiled faintly.  Not too many people can laugh 
off a threat from an Icedrake.  Now I was really worried.  
"I have come to offer my assistance.  My patron has a 
certain interest in the success of your quest, and while 
she cannot interfere, I certainly can."  After a brief pause, 
he continued.  "And to answer your wondering how I 
know who you are, Thomas and Tanya are not the only 
people who need to practice wards against scrying."

          I was quite embarrassed.  "Are you Seelie or 
Unseelie?  I've never heard of you."

          "I am quite Seelie."  He laughed a little.  "But 
Martius is an old enemy of mine, although there was one 
occasion where I now know he was in the right and I 
was in the wrong."  He sighed.  "But that's ancient history.  
Martius is well down the road to damnation; it is part of 
my atonement to insure he doesn't drag us all down the 
road with him.  I will help you recover your siblings."

           "Who is he?  What does he WANT?  Why is he 
doing this?"

           Tacitus sat down.  "He used to be married to your 
mother.  Twice, actually.  Once as a  faerie, once as a 
mortal."

         "But Mother has only been married to one faerie, 
my father!"

          He sighed and shook his head.  "You've studied the 
Great Disaster, haven't you?"

           "What does that have to do with this?"  

          "Queen Teleute was NOT an infant when it 
happened.  She was already the Queen of the Unseelie 
Fae.  And married to Martius.  When they tried to stop it 
from happening, they both died.  I've no idea why 
Glorianna and Teleute both pretended to be their own 
children after the disaster, but given that almost no one 
remembers what happened before it clearly...they might 
even actually believe it.  I can't read their minds."

           I laughed.  "You expect me to believe that BOTH 
my mother and Glorianna are telling the same lie about 
themselves?  Why bother?"

        He shrugged.  "In Glorianna's case, likely because the 
Great Disaster was her fault, and that of her husband, 
Oberon."

        I knew both sides blamed the other for the Great 
Disaster, but if he was Seelie and blaming his own 
side...maybe this was all some sort of great trick, but who 
would make up such a cockamanie story if it wasn't true?  
Dammit, Opal, I wish you were here.  Treat it as a riddle, 
I thought.  Just think through it clearly.  "And how do you 
know all this?"

          "I witnessed it.  Ariel saved me from destruction."  
He looked a bit uncomfortable.  

           "If Martius and Bialla and Titania are all alive, 
then where's Oberon?"  I asked him.

           He had the look of a man who has said too much.  
For a moment, he stared at the ground, losing his entire 
aura of command, but then it came back and he looked at 
me.  "That is me, though I do not use that name 
anymore."

          I pulled out the mirror.  "Show me Oberon the 
husband of Titania."  The man before me appeared in the 
mirror.  Assuming I could trust it, he was Oberon.  Easy 
way to test his words.  "Show me Bialla."  An image of 
Mother briefly flickered on the mirror, then snow 
consumed it.  

          For a minute or two, I simply stared at it.  
"Why...why aren't you with your wife?  Why have you 
been hiding?"

          "Titania and I made a very foolish mistake.  We 
tried to perform the Rite of Enlightenment and nearly 
destroyed all of Arcadia."

         "The Rite of Englightenment is just a fae..."  I trailed 
off.  It would have been a silly thing for a faerie to say.  

          "And legends have power.  It was a trap.  As it 
was, Queen Bialla and King Martius saved us all by 
disrupting it," he said.  "I understand now that it was a 
mistake, but she doesn't.  She won't listen to Ariel's 
warnings."  He sighed.

         "Why doesn't she believe Ariel?"

         "She thinks the ritual only went bad because of 
Bialla and Martius interfering.  I suspect Martius has the 
same opinion.  But they don't know the truth about it.  It 
was created as a trap by a demon."

          "And how do you know THAT?"  I asked.  None of 
the legends said anything like that.  

         "I spent fifty years in the Great Library, searching 
for the original and comparing handwritings and 
performing certain tests.  I wouldn't believe Ariel at first 
when she told me."

         I cocked my head.  "Fifty years?"  That sounded 
ridiculous to me.

          "It wasn't all I was doing; I had a lot of other 
research and preperation to do."  He sighed.  "Anyway, 
this is important, but not so relevant right now.  What we 
have to do is save as many of their relatives as we can, 
before it's too late.  I would have come sooner, but I've 
been running here, there, and everywhere trying to find 
you once you left Thornton.  How long do you think we 
will have before they get to Kaltenberg with Harry's 
father?"

          I stood up.  "Why don't you tell me, oh omniscient 
one?" I said, sarcastically.

         "You know the Unseelie lands far better than I.  I 
know some things virtually no one knows, but if I set foot 
inside Kaltenberg, I wouldn't even know where to find a 
privy."  He walked over to Bluey.  "While I am quite 
strong in magic, if we have time, I think it would be 
wiser to recruit help from the most interested parties.  I 
would not match blades and power with Count Hussen too 
eagerly, especially when he has fifteen or so men with 
him."

        I checked on their progress.  He was riding into the 
gates of Kaltenberg.  "Unless we get there in about three 
seconds..."

        He cursed and stomped on a weed.  "Fire and ashes!  
What about Wildbriar's parents?"

        "Who?"

        "Angela's ogre ally."

        "Show me Wildbriar's father."  He was hogtied to a 
horse, being escorted across rolling plains by a squad of 
faerie knights.  It would take hours for them to get to 
Kaltenberg, if I recognized their approach route, and I 
was fairly certain I did.

         "Show me Wildbriar's mother."  I couldn't be sure 
which of several people was her.  Three women, all 
middle-aged, in a grocery store, any of them potentially 
her.  One looked like a manager, one was a clerk, and one 
was an angry customer.  The manager looked somewhat 
like the ogre girl.  "Her father is already captured.  Her 
mother seems to be at a...HEB."

           He blinked.  "A...what an odd name.  A store?"

        I nodded.  "Not much in the way of identifying 
marks...it could be almost anywhere."

         "It's here in Plano.  That's where her family lives.  
We'd best get help; she won't know us."

         "But...but I..they..."  

         "Just keep to your mortal form.  You will need their 
help and not just mine; I have other duties as well, and 
cannot stay and help you through all of this.  Though I 
wish I could."  He sighed and clambered up onto Bluey's 
back.  "Let's go."

***************

Harry said: 

        It took a while to try and get our act together, 
though we tried to get out as fast as we could.  Finally, we 
got the Count stowed in the dungeons and then Alex, 
Helena, Angel, and I headed to go try and save Mrs. Cook.  
The problem was that HEB isn't noted for having mirrors, 
so the best we could do was to go to Alex's house and run 
ten blocks, which isn't fun in Texas, even in early 
November.  We ran and ran and ran and ran until finally 
we came around a corner and saw HEB.  Which was on 
fire with cops and firefighters everywhere.

         We had been too late.  I wonder if anyone ever 
taught any of these people about subtlety, I thought.  The 
magic pie trick was subtle compared to this.  

        Alex was ranting and raving and nearly tried to kill 
a cop who wouldn't let her go inside.  We were all still 
trying to calm her down when Jennifer showed up.  She 
looked at the building and sighed.  "Damnit.  This town 
has too many of these things."

        "What?"  I asked.

        "I might have been able to stop this if I hadn't had 
to check three of them."  She sighed.  "Where the hell has 
Tacitus run off to?"  She looked around.

         Angel blinked.  "What's he doing here?"

         "You know him?"  Jennifer asked nervously.

         "He showed up one day, made some odd ominous 
statements, told me to be more careful about using my 
powers, then ran off,"  Angel said.  She stared at the 
building.  "If only we had some way to find where they 
went!"

          "I do," Jennifer said quietly, holding up an ornate 
handmirror I now realized she had been clutching tightly 
as she approached.  "Show me Lady Wildbriar's mother."  

         An image appeared of a dogsled crossing a snowy 
wilderness.  There were several men riding huge lizards 
through the snow as well, accompanying the group.  
Everyone was bundled up; I couldn't tell which one was 
Alex's mom.  "Can you do sound?"

        "I have no idea how, if it's even possible."  She 
stared intently at it.  "There's way too many snow 
covered wildernesses for me to identify this.  But...Show 
us Alex's father."  This time, we saw man tied to the back 
of a trotting courser, accompanied by fifteen or so faerie 
knights, some of them looking rather battered, along a 
road through open hills.  "We've maybe three or four 
hours before they reach Kaltenberg," she said.  "If we get 
some mounts for everyone, we might be able to reach 
them in time."

         Helena grinned.  "All roads lead to me.  Unless they 
have a roadweaver, I can bend that road to go wherever 
we like.  The Palace of the Stars, maybe."  She laughed.  
"I'll probably finish myself off; I don't have infinite 
strength and I'm getting tired, but I think I can do it."

         "But what about my DAD?"  Alex shouted.

         Helena sagged.  "If they're not on a road, I can't do 
much."

         "Know anyone good at location magic?"  Jennifer 
asked.  "The Unseelie lands are riddled with way too 
many snowy wildernesses for me to do anything but 
guess entirely vaguely."

          "Maybe Lady Rowanford knows someone,"  I said.  
"Or the Queen."

          Jennifer shuddered slightly.  "By the time we get 
an audience with the Queen, Wildbriar's parents will 
likely be sharing a cell in Kaltenberg."

          "Well, I do have a bit of an edge in that regard,"  
Angel said, smiling a little.  "Being the Queen's daughter."

          I can now say I've seen someone hold back a snort.  
I'm pretty sure that's what Jennifer stopped herself from 
doing.  "Even a Queen's daughter can have trouble getting 
to see the Queen," she said.  "Assuming she's even home."

          A thought struck me.  "What about my father?  We 
think the Unseelie got him too."

          Jennifer sighed.  "Too late.  I checked."

          Damnation, I thought.  Mom's going to freak more.  
"We need to get Thomas and Tanya, wherever the hell 
they are,"  I said.  

          "They're with some dryad.  Or they were a few...a 
while ago."  Jennifer checked the mirror.  I saw them 
with my Mom and Lady Rowanford.  

           "Let's go get them, then I want to kick some ass,"  
Alex said.

           "We can ride my dragon,"  Jennifer said, "But I'm 
not sure where the castle is."

          "I think I can help you find a way through Celestial 
Arcadia,"  Helena said.  "I would use my power, but if 
we're going to intercept the group on the road..."

          Jennifer nodded.  "Save your strength.  Bluey is 
quite fast."  She looked over at me and Angel.  "I suppose 
you've probably never ridden a dragon...well, you have 
Harry, but Angela hasn't."

          "Let's just get moving!"  Alex shouted.  

          Jennifer looked around.  "Where the hell is...oh 
forget it."  She muttered something to herself, and then 
we all stepped into Arcadia.

          Bluey, Jennifer's huge ice drake was there, along 
with a short old Sidhe dressed like a peasant, and a tall 
brown haired female mortal who I didn't know.  Angel 
did, though.  "Ms. Ashton?"  She boggled.

         The old Sidhe said, "Sorry, Jennifer.  I got lost, so I 
decided to stop and get us some help.  Unfortunately, 
Plano isn't noted for its changeling population."

         Ms. Ashton smiled at Angel.  "Shalrisa is my faerie 
name.  I am a Fetch."

         "A what?"  Angel asked.

         "Everyone up on Bluey,"  Jennifer said.

         Bluey twitched.  "I'm not an airplane, you know.  
There's only so much space unless you glue yourself on."

         Ms. Ashton smiled.  "Leave it to me."  She 
shimmered and transformed, growing larger, larger, 
larger, becoming a huge gleaming red dragon.  Her voice 
became much deeper, though still recognizable.  We all 
got shoved back by her expanding body.  "Jennifer, 
Helena, and Tacitus can ride on Bluey, I'll carry Alex and 
Harry and Angel."

         Bluey frowned.  "Three people on my neck is going 
to hurt."

         Jennifer patted Bluey on the head.  "I know, but 
we're desperate."

         Soon, we were airborne.  It was exhilarating and 
terrifying.  We soared ever higher, soon rising up into the 
clouds and beyond them into the endless skies of Celestial 
Arcadia.  Terrestial Arcadia is the 'ground' of Arcadia, a 
patchwork of lands; Celestial Arcadia is a patchwork of 
skies with no ground beneath them, only clouds and 
rivers of wind.  Some realms are hurricanes or huge 
tornadoes, while others are nearly empty space.  None 
are totally empty; every one of them is sustained by 
some faery's will.  We passed through a series of realms, 
hard for me to distinguish, but Jennifer and Helena 
seemed to have no problem navigating, nor did Bluey or 
Ms. Ashton.  I asked Ms. Ashton, "How many kinds of 
dragons are there?"

         "Most dragons either breathe fire and are 
associated with the Seelie court, or breathe ice and serve 
the Unseelie.  Although there are some that spit lightning 
or hallucinogenic gasses.  And Sea Dragons usually don't 
have any kind of fancy breath weapon.  Still, it's not 
always the case that Ice Drakes serve the Unseelie or 
Flame Drakes serve the Seelie.  Renegade Flame Drakes 
gave their whole kin a bad reputation in Europe.  The 
only really uniformly dangerous ones are the Thunder 
Drakes."

         "What are they like?"  I asked.  

         "They usually have a white underbelly, grey sides 
and a black back with black wings.  They control weather, 
and they like storms.  A lot.  They tend to devastate areas 
with torrential winds, hurricanes, tornadoes, etc, just 
because they enjoy watching devastation."  She sighed.  
"They usually don't directly kill people, but they don't 
care who gets hurt as long as the storm is good enough.  
However, they are the only breed of dragon with no 
hoarding instinct, so they won't rob you afterwards."

          "Hey!  We do NOT rob people!"  Bluey said.  

          "I'm not saying you do, I just...oh never mind,"  Ms. 
Ashton said.  

         We plunged into a cloudbank.  It was pitchblack, a 
nasty storm cloud.  In seconds, I was soaked and so was 
everyone else.  We plunged out of the clouds.  It was 
downpouring on Castle Ironwind.  A lightning bolt struck 
down into the river a few miles away.  The water boiled 
and I could see fish rising.  Ms. Ashton said, "Hold on 
tight!  This is gonna be a lousy landing!"

          I held on tight, but it didn't matter when the 
lightning bolt hit us.  My last thought was that I really 
wished I had a water affinity, or that I could turn into 
fish.  Well, I was also learning that if you knock a fetch 
out, they turn into their mortal form, apparently.  No 
more dragon.  Then darkness.

*****************

Epilogue:

         Opal was bored out of his skull.  While the Palace of 
the Stars had nearly infinite books, and normally he quite 
enjoyed reading, even he couldn't sit in a cell all day for 
weeks at a time and read without starting to go stir crazy.  

         The dreams of ill omen didn't help.  He and Splinter 
being played as puppets on strings by unseen hands.  One 
rather bizarre one of Glorianna and Teleute hiding behind 
their thrones and addressing their followers with little 
sock puppets of themselves.  A man with an assault rifle 
full of cold iron bullets.  That one really made him shiver; 
the man killed every single person Opal knew, 
culminating with Splinter, and her head fell at his feet, 
then he simply walked away.

         Some of the dreams were more whimisical.  A red 
haired woman his own age talking to a strange living 
human sized patchwork doll.  A bunch of Sidhe singing 
"My way" very, very badly.  Something that suspiciously 
resembled a Menthos commercial.  A teddy bear beating 
up some mortal with a crossbow.  Splinter dancing with a 
ring of smurfs.  Himself winning Jeopardy.  He hoped that 
last one was true.

         The door opened.  A huge muscular Nightwalker 
tossed in a rather hapless Sidhe who had been shaved 
bald and didn't look too happy about it.  A second 
Nightwalker shoved in an extra bed.  As is usual with 
Nightwalkers, only their bright green eyes were easily 
visible, along with the outline of their features, for the 
skin of a Nightwalker is pure black with no variation in 
skintone whatsoever.  For a few seconds, Opal assumed 
this was some sort of odd Nightwalker joke; Nightwalkers 
are renowned for their skill at illusions.  

         They left, and he could think of no purpose to them 
tricking him.  "Hello, I'm Opal.  Welcome to the Palace of 
Stars Dungeon of Champions."

          The man laughed.  "I'm Count Northwind.  I had 
heard you got locked up.  Have you been here so long 
your hair grew back?"

          Opal smiled and helped Count Northwind to his 
feet.  "They didn't shave my head, thank heavens."

         "Well, I'm sure the Ogre lady wanted to do more 
than that, but they wouldn't let her.  That Wildbriar is a 
fierce one."  He shoved his bed over to one wall.  "How do 
we get books?"

         "The librarian, this cute little brownie, comes by 
every morning."  He smiled a little.  "I think she likes me.  
Don't tell Splinter that."

         "I wonder how she's doing on her quest to find her 
missing siblings.  I'm rather surprised the Queen didn't 
send us to find them instead of sending us after those 
stupid mortals."  He shrugged and laid down on the bed.

         "Who did the Queen send with Splinter?"

         "Just Splinter," he said.  "She must trust her last 
daughter a lot.  Seems foolhardy to me."

         Opal frowned.  Either Queen Teleute wanted 
Splinter to fail, or she was using Splinter as a diversion 
while someone else did the real work.  Either way, he 
wasn't pleased.  I HAVE to get out of here.  I have to.  "No 
one else?"

         "I'm not that high in the Queen counsels.  I only did 
this because I wanted to test my spell to stop bullets."  He 
sighed.  "If not for a kindly mortal, I would be a corpse.  
Quite a fetching lass, really.  If her sister wasn't an ogre 
and I wasn't locked in the dungeon...but then, if goblins 
had wings, we'd have to put grills over upper story 
windows."  He paused.  "That's not right."

        "So who all did the Queen want kidnapped?"

         "A lot of mortal parents of various changelings.  I 
was sent to go kidnap some French people living in some 
city called Plano.  It didn't look at all like I remember 
France looking."

          Opal laughed.  "That's because Plano is in the 
United States."

          "Hmm.  The father had been to Germany, though."  
He shrugged.  "Any idea when Teleute will arrange a 
prisoner exchange?"

          The door opened.  Another Nightwalker was at the 
door.  "Opal, come with me."

          "Maybe this is my ticket out of here."  Opal said.

          "Tell the Queen I'm going to need a decent wig!"  
Northwind said as the Nightwalker took Opal away.

         Opal followed quietly.  He probably could have 
overpowered the Nightwalker, but he knew he'd never 
get out of the palace alive.  Especially since he had no 
idea which way to go.  He was ushered to a very nice 
plush reception room with a gold and black color scheme, 
with huge upholstered plush furniture and very nice 
hand knit rugs.  Queen Glorianna was seated, quietly 
reading a letter.  The Nightwalker ushered him in, 
stepped out, and closed the door.

         The Queen looked up.  "Sit down, Opal."

         He found a chair and sat.  "You're quite trusting, 
meeting me like this."

         "I could snuff you without even having to get out of 
this chair.  There is more danger that I will trip and 
injure myself than that you could hurt me.  And your 
affinities of spatial awareness and time are useful, but 
not exactly good for hurting people."  She gestured to a 
nearby platter of cookies and cups.  "Tea?"

          He resisted the urge to say 'Yes, it is.', and instead 
he got up and got himself a glass of tea and a cookie.  
"Am I here to have my head shaved?"

         "I'm trying to decide what to do with you.  You're 
too dangerous to turn loose, yet I dislike killing anyone 
unless I must.  Almost every time I've done that, I've 
ended up wishing they were still alive, even Mary.  
Keeping you locked up forever would be a waste."  She 
sipped her tea and ate a cookie.  

         "I'm so safe that I can have tea with you alone, yet 
I'm too dangerous to turn loose?"  Opal sounded rightfully 
skeptical.  "How can I be both at once?"

          "You are no physical threat, but while you live, 
Teleute can make rather wild and inaccurate claims about 
you.  You are aware that both of us can turn mortals into 
faeries?"  Glorianna's voice was casual, but Opal could see 
her watching him intently.

          "Like you did with the Crags fellow and his 
girlfriend you now claim is your daughter?"

          "Like Teleute did with you."  Glorianna said.  "And 
with Splinter as well."

         Opal laughed.  "Begging your pardon, your majesty, 
but I don't believe you.  Why would Queen Teleute 
possibly want to adopt some mortal to pass off as her 
daughter when she already has enough children for any 
three women?"

           "Not just any mortal.  Splinter is my daughter's 
mortal twin.  After the trade was made, Queen Teleute's 
agents captured you and Splinter and embued you with a 
faerie nature, then kept you for the future, planning to 
produce the 'missing children' later on for political 
advantage.  However, I had already been watching over 
the families that you and Splinter came from and I was 
able to make sure she did not find them or my daughter 
and Duke Ironwood's son."  The Queen smiled pleasantly 
at Opal.  "Haven't you ever noticed that Splinter looks 
virtually nothing like Queen Teleute?"

          Opal had noticed it, but he was also quite certain 
that Queen Glorianna was trying to trick him.  "Then why 
does my mortal form look very little like Harold Crags?"

          "Small children are much more malleable to 
shapechanging magic than adults.  It's child's play to 
make a baby grow up to look like whatever you want if 
you act in the first few months.  And have talented magi 
on staff."

           "Well, if Queen Teleute hadn't told me the same 
thing about your little protegees, I would be more 
inclined to believe this.  What actual PROOF can you offer 
me?"  Opal drank more tea and munched on a cookie.  
Does Glorianna think I am a fool?  Surely if Queen Teleute 
intended to produce Splinter and I as Titania and 
Strongheart, she wouldn't have kept us in the dark about 
it or told us she had the real ones salted away.  Not if we 
were expected to fulfill those roles.  Right?  Then again, 
she is a rather tricksy sort.  Opal tried to stop his brain 
from going in circles as it was about to.

        "What would you consider proof?"  Glorianna asked, 
leaning over and resting her chin on one hand.

         Opal hated being put on the spot.  "Umm...Witnesses 
I trust.  Queen Teleute confessing to me.  A revelation 
from God.  An answer from Mimr's well, if anyone knew 
where it was."

         Queen Glorianna laughed.  "Perhaps I shall have Sir 
Strongheart take you there when all this mess is done 
with."

          Opal's eyes widened.  "He FOUND it?"  He sounded 
like a crack addict who had just been told there was a 
five pound bag hidden in the room.

          "Along with some girl we've been unable to 
identify.  She rides an Ice Drake.  Do you know her?"  
Glorianna asked.  

          Opal would have almost given his left foot to have 
a shot at Mimr's Well.  "I would be happy to go to the 
well whenever you like.  So what mess are you referring 
to?"

         "Queen Teleute sent agents to kidnap the mortal 
guardians of my daughter and her friends.  I believe one 
of the kidnappers is now your roommate."

          Opal had some more tea and cookies.  "I shall look 
forward to my trip with Sir Harold.  We shall see which of 
us is real."

         "Indeed."  Glorianna smiled very broadly.


           


          


Ayla, daughter of Ayla Spencer
Clarissa, daughter of Bedevere
Dodinas, son of Sir Dinadan
Siegfried, Son of Scargrom
Mynnidog, son of Madog
Serena, Daughter of Scargrom