Sarah Zettel - Dust girl

“Now, granddaughter.” The queen, my grandmother, turned toward Jack. “Make this young man known to us.”

“This is Jack Holland, ma’am.” I grabbed Jack’s hand and pulled him forward. He looked next to panicking, but I had no idea why. My anger was all gone. Nothing that had happened outside the gates seemed to matter now that I had been welcomed home. “He’s the reason I was able to make it this far. He saved my life a bunch of times.”

“Did he?” boomed Grandfather from his throne. “Then we are deeply in your debt, Jack Holland.” He inclined his head regally.

“Yes, indeed.” Grandmother grasped Jack’s hand and smiled down straight into his eyes. Immediately, a change came over Jack. The panic bled away, and he stood up straighter. He bowed low over my grandmother’s hand, and even clicked his heels like a foreign count in a dime novel. It should have looked dopey, but it didn’t. It looked… debonair. The swaying dancers applauded again. Grandmother’s smile went a little tight, and her eyes slid sideways to Grandfather. He nodded.

“We had help from Shimmy too,” I told them, and for a moment my rising happiness faltered. “She never let us down.”

“Shimmy?” repeated my grandmother.

“She means Shiraz,” said the thin man beside the throne. He trotted down the steps, coming close enough that I could see him clearly. Shock knocked my jaw loose.

“Shake!”

Shake bowed. Now I knew why my grandmother’s silver and gold eyes looked so familiar. I’d seen eyes like hers when Shake first looked at me, a thousand miles and a thousand years ago.

“Hello, Calliope. Welcome home.” Shake smiled his big white smile. “Perhaps I should introduce myself properly. I am Lorcan deMinuit, and I am your father’s brother.”

“You… you’re my uncle?”

Shake-Lorcan deMinuit-bowed again.

Anger tried to elbow its way past shock. “Why didn’t you say so?”

“I apologize for that. But it is dangerous for our kind to go wearing our names openly in the world beyond. They can be turned against us, which is something you have yet to learn.” He said those last words as pleasant and polite as Sunday morning, but there was something in them that didn’t sit quite right.

“She… Shimmy told me you went on ahead…”

“I did, to make sure all was prepared for your arrival. Where is Shiraz… Shimmy?” Lorcan craned his neck to see between the dancers, as if Shimmy might have gotten lost on the way from the door.

Now I had proper hold of my anger, and it was fresh and piping hot. Why hadn’t he stayed with her, with us? We could have used his help. Maybe Shimmy would still be alive if we’d had some full-bore fairy magic when Bull Morgan set us in front of that rabbit drive.

“She’s dead,” I told him.

The music faltered, and the whole crowd gasped. Grandmother’s smile faded. Up on the throne, Grandfather said, “Tell us what happened.”

So I told them about how Shimmy had come to save us from the Trixies and Bull Morgan in the Bijoux, and about the long car ride and the motel, and about the rabbit drive. While I talked, I felt the anger rising in the room. It made the kind of heaviness in the air you feel when the weather’s changing. I glossed over Jack’s running out on us as best I could. This might have been my home and family, but there was danger here. I could feel it all across my skin, and despite everything, I didn’t want it aimed at Jack.

When I finished my story, Grandfather bowed his head. “Shiraz was truly one of the Midnight People. She shall be rewarded for the service she has rendered in bringing you home.”

I almost opened my mouth to ask how she could be rewarded for anything when she was dead. Then I remembered I was in a magic country now. Dead didn’t mean the same thing to these people… to my family. Hope rose up in my heart. Maybe Shimmy wasn’t gone after all.

“Now, I know you have a thousand questions.” Grandmother squeezed my arm. “And they will all be answered, I promise. But tomorrow. Tonight we dance. When tomorrow comes, we will talk about your future.”

“Play on!” Grandfather raised his hand to the musicians. “We will dance! For Princess Calliope is returned to us!”

A cheer rang around the room, and a single high note rose above the band. It sounded almost like a siren, but the music swept that warning note away and the dancers swarmed to the center of the floor, swirling around, swinging to the hot new tune.

“Come on with me, Jack,” said my uncle, Lorcan. “Let me introduce you to some people. We’ll let Callie talk with her grandmother for a bit.”

Jack hesitated, but Lorcan had a hand on his back and was already steering him toward a group of young women and men, who I was pretty sure were all fairies. Some of those girls were awfully pretty too. Something made me uncomfortable about letting Jack go away like that, but I was having a hard time concentrating. The music swept over me too, sinking into my skin, making me feel all light and easy. Was it possible to get music-logged like you could get waterlogged from lying in the bathtub too long?

“Aren’t they magnificent?” Grandmother said, her gold-and-midnight eyes sparkling as she looked toward the bandstand. “Mr. Basie is but lately come to our court. I expect he will be invited back again soon.”

“But… why did you bring them here?” Because it wasn’t just the musicians who were humans. Most of the dancers were too. There were some fairy couples scattered among them, but mostly it was humans out there. I could see the difference now. It showed up in Jack as he stood talking and laughing with the pretty girls on the edge of the dance floor. There was something missing from him, and them, or maybe there was something extra with him. I couldn’t make up my mind. But he felt different, and so did the dancers, and so did the band. “And why so many?”

“Bring them?” Grandmother laughed. “We do not bring them. They come to us, my dear.” She beamed proudly across the dance floor. “The makers, the beautiful, the ones cast out because their light was too brilliant for the world beyond. The ones who wish true and deep with their whole hearts for more than they have. They come here, and we love them.”

“We do?”

“Oh, my dear, of course we do, and they need our love. They are so lonely, so unsure, so hungry for the success of the daylight world. They come here and bring that hope and those wishes to us, and we accept all they have to give.”

All . That one word was heavier than the others. It made the music falter. Except it couldn’t have, could it? I rubbed my temple. I couldn’t sort out my feelings. All the music and happiness were like the wind around my ears. They pushed and pulled at me. But there was something else too. Something tugged at my mind, trying to tell me that I shouldn’t relax too much, but I couldn’t hear it plainly.

“Is something wrong, dear?” asked Grandmother.

“I, um… I was wondering… about the music. On the way here, I was listening to the music out on the street and it made me feel kinda funny.”

“Oh, my dear.” She laughed, but nicely. “Yes. Music is strong drink for our kind. It’s so full of feeling and unmet wishes that when you’re not used to it, it can go straight to your head. But you’re home now, dear. You’ll take no harm from the entertainment we have for you. In fact, I think you’ll find it quite… liberating.”

Uncle Lorcan was coming back across the room alone. He bowed to me. “My dear niece, may I have this dance?”

“I can’t dance.” That wasn’t strictly true. I’d danced with Mama in the parlor just for fun. She’d taught me a little swing and how to jitterbug, and every kid at school had to learn how to waltz. But I’d never actually danced in front of, well, people.