“To find my sister before your brother kills her.”
“Will? My brother couldn’t even kill one of your
moths.”
“Nonsense. I have seen it. In my dreams. In the lake water. He will kill her, and we will all die with her. Because you brought them the crossbow.”
Oh, she so wanted to kill him.
But she did not.
“Do you understand how desperate I have to be to have come here?” She pulled the veil over her face. “It is a terrible curse. Terrible and foolish. But we can’t undo it. Please. Find her.”
A dog barked in the distance. Magic and reality—the mix that made this world.
Will. Jacob didn’t want to see them, but the images came: his brother in a bloodstained uniform shielding Kami’en with his body, a dozen corpses at his feet. If his brother really had the crossbow, then he must’ve gotten it from Spieler. What had the Elf told him? Why should Will want to kill the Dark Fairy? It was she who had let him go.
“Jacob?”
Fox. She was coming down the road. He could see her through the leaves. The Red Fairy raised her six-fingered hand. Jacob grabbed her arm.
“You touch one hair on her,” he whispered, “and I myself will put that arrow through your sister’s heart.”
“Jacob!” Fox’s voice sounded worried. And too close.
“You will forget her like you’ve forgotten me!” Miranda whispered back. “And she will hate you for it as much as I do.”
But she did not drop her hand.
“Rumor has it my sister is on her way to Moskva,” she said. “She probably wants to offer her magic to the Tzar. She’ll never learn.” With that, she stepped through the willow’s veil of branches and approached the pond.
Jacob followed her. She looked around before wading into the water. There was much in her glance: regret, longing, anger. And maybe the plea not to forget her.
Fox saw the Red Fairy and stopped abruptly.
“Stay where you are!” Jacob shouted at her. Of course, she didn’t listen.
“Watch your heart, Fox-sister,” Miranda called to her. “I don’t have one, and he still managed to break it.”
Sylvain had followed Fox.
“Do not look at her!” Fox warned him, but it was too late. His eyes went as wide as a child’s. Miranda smiled at him. Her hands caressed the water. Her red dress floated around her like a blossom. It turned darker as the water soaked into the fabric.
“You’re afraid of them. Why?” she called out to Jacob as she waded deeper into the pond. “You brought them the crossbow. What else could they want from you? The usual price? You’ll have to pay it, should they manage to come back.”
The water closed over her shoulders, swallowed her dark hair, the red dress.
“Where did she go?” Sylvain’s face showed his longing, but at least he still had his voice. Some men were turned deaf and mute by the sight of a Fairy. Or they lost their minds. Fox looked quickly at Jacob and Sylvain, as though making sure they’d both survived the Fairy’s visit unscathed. She had good reason to be worried. The first time Jacob met the Red Fairy, Fox had waited a whole year for his return.
“You heard what she said about her sister?” Jacob asked.
Fox nodded. She’d heard everything.
“We’re traveling to Moskva, Sylvain,” she said. “L’Arcadie and Ontario will have to wait.”
City of Gold
A hundred golden domes and a Tzar who owned more magical objects than the Kings of Lotharaine and Albion combined.