Herbie Brennan - Faerie Lord

Madame Cardui watched her admiringly. The girl was learning some real political skills at last.

Blue stood up abruptly. ‘There may be another important announcement later,’ she said firmly, ‘but for the moment I think that’s all I have to tell you.’

The sound of the water was overlaid by distant street noise from the city: the rumble of carts, the occasional call from a merchant. The city came alive at night in ways it never did during the day. Henry was sitting with Blue on a bench beside the river, half hidden by a mimosa bush. They were holding hands.

‘What was the important announcement you mentioned?’ he asked her. ‘The one you said you might make later?’

‘I don’t know,’ Blue said. ‘Why don’t you tell me?’

Henry looked at her blankly and Blue looked away.

After a while, Henry said, ‘It seemed staged somehow.’

He was thinking of their adventure with the dragon and Blue seemed instinctively to know this, ‘It was staged,’ she said. ‘By one of the Old Gods.’

‘Why?’ asked Henry mildly. He looked out across the river, aware they were talking about this because he still was not quite ready to talk about what was really on his mind.

‘I think to help heal our reality,’ Blue said. She hesitated, then added, ‘And to make sure our stories followed the proper form.’

‘Whose stories?’

‘Ours,’ Blue said. ‘Yours and mine.’

There was a wading bird in the shallows of the river. At first Henry didn’t recognise it – then the curve of the beak brought to mind a picture he’d once seen in a book on Egypt and he realised it was an ibis.

‘I didn’t understand that,’ he said to Blue.

‘A priest once told me the Old Gods believe that mortal lives are lived to act out certain stories. Sometimes they intervene to make sure the stories turn out the way they should – they way they were fated to, I suppose.’

‘So we weren’t really in danger from the dragon?’ Henry said, ‘It was just a story – like a play on stage?’

‘The dragon could have killed you,’ Blue said soberly. ‘I don’t know what it would have done to me. The stories are real, they’re the patterns of the ways we lead our lives. Some of them end in tragedy. Like you being eaten by a dragon.’ She smiled slightly. ‘But you were brave, so it didn’t happen.’

They sat in silence for a long time after that. Then Henry said, ‘Blue?’

‘Yes, Henry?’

‘Do you remember the last time we walked here by the river?’

Blue nodded. ‘Yes, I do.’

‘Do you remember what you said to me?’

Blue nodded again. ‘Yes, I do.’

Henry licked his lips. He was aware of the sudden pounding of his heart and hoped it wasn’t noticeable to Blue. He took a deep breath. ‘You asked me to marry you.’

‘I was very young then,’ Blue said without inflection.

He felt something deflate inside him. But he’d gone too far to stop now. Besides, what was he afraid of? He’d faced a dragon, hadn’t he? He licked his lips again. ‘Do you still want to?’ he asked.

There was silence broken by the lapping of the water. After a long time Blue said, ‘It doesn’t matter what I want, does it. Not really. You have a life in the Analogue World.’

‘I don’t like it very much,’ said Henry, ‘I don’t want to be a teacher.’

‘What about your parents?’ Blue asked mildly. She was staring out across the water and had let go of his hand.

‘Mum has Anais,’ Henry said. ‘Dad’s gone – I don’t even see that much of him. He’s living with his girlfriend and making a whole new life for himself and he’s happy. At least I think he is. At least he doesn’t have Mum telling him what to do all the time.’ Henry tried to reach for her hand again, but she drew it away gently. All the same, he went on earnestly. ‘But that isn’t the point, is it? I’m going to be gone myself soon I mean, even if I stay in the Analogue World, I’m going to be gone soon. I’d go to university or teacher training and there’s not one nearby, so I’d have to board. I’d hardly see them, either of them. Then after that, I’d have my own life as a teacher or whatever. You grow up, you leave home: that’s the way it is. If I stayed here it would be just the same as if I married an Analogue girl and bought a semi-detached somewhere.’

She still wasn’t looking at him, but he thought he caught the ghost of a smile on her lips. ‘Not quite the same,’ she said. ‘Where would you tell them you’d gone?’

Henry blinked. ‘How do you mean?’

‘Fairyland?’ Blue said, one eyebrow raised. She’d obviously picked up the term somewhere and knew its connotations.

‘I thought I might do what Mr Fogarty did and pretend I planned to emigrate – New Zealand or Australia or somewhere. Somewhere far.’ He drew a deep breath. ‘I thought there might be some sort of spell cone I could use to help them accept it.’

‘My,’ said Blue, ‘you have been working things out.’ She gave him a quick, sidelong glance. ‘What about your education?’

‘I could finish that off here,’ Henry said, ‘It would be a lot more interesting.’ He waited, staring at her. When she said nothing more, he asked, ‘Well, do you?’

‘Do I what?’

‘Still want to marry me?’

Blue turned to look at him directly. ‘Are you asking me to marry you, Henry Atherton?’

‘Yes,’ Henry said impatiently. ‘Yes, I am.’

‘Why?’ Blue asked.

‘Because I love you,’ Henry said.

Blue looked away again, ‘I can’t marry a commoner.’

‘What?’

‘I can’t marry a commoner,’ Blue said again, ‘I’m Queen of Faerie, Queen of Hael. I can’t marry a commoner.’ She turned back to him and now she was smiling broadly. ‘I’ll have to make you a Faerie Lord.’

Henry was staring at her in disbelief. ‘You mean you will marry me?’

‘In a heartbeat, Henry,’ Blue said softly.

He kissed her after that.

There was fresh gravel on the streets and banners hung from every house. Henry couldn’t believe the crowds that lined the streets. He waved through the window of the ouklo, the way the Queen did in London on a State occasion. The cheering never stopped, not for an instant, as the carriage carried him towards the great cathedral. His heart was thumping so hard he wondered if it would survive the ceremony.

The carriage sank down slowly onto the cathedral courtyard, a footman opened the door with a flourish and Henry stepped out. He’d been here once before, for Pyrgus’s coronation, and the scene wasn’t all that different. The cathedral itself towered above the soldiers on parade, the courtiers, the waiting crowds. It was a gigantic building, much larger than anything he’d ever seen at home, yet the architecture was a lacelike filigree that could be supported only by magic. Or perhaps divine intervention. Henry thought in passing. Now he’d seen an angel with his own two eyes, he was prepared to believe anything was possible.

Pyrgus was walking towards him, grinning broadly. He was dressed in some elaborate naval uniform that presumably went with one of his titles. He shook Henry’s hand, then hugged him, patting his back furiously. ‘You dog,’ Pyrgus murmured. ‘You old dog.’

‘Is she here?’ Henry whispered. There was a part of him that knew this simply wasn’t happening, or if it was, it was too good to be true. He wished Lorquin was with him for moral support, but Lorquin was back with his tribe now and would have been totally bewildered by what was happening here anyway. So Henry had to face this all alone, afraid Blue wouldn’t turn up, or she’d turn out to be already married, or something else would go wrong. There was no way Henry would actually get married, not to a Faerie Princess, not to Blue.