Simon Green - A Hard Day's Knight

“And risk this?” said Arthur, gesturing around him. “What point could there be in winning if all you inherit is this?”

“I will do what I will do,” said Queen Mab. “Nothing else matters.”

“There was a time when something else mattered,” said a cheerful, bright, and jaunty voice. “When someone else mattered, sweetest Mab.”

We all looked round sharply at the new voice, and there, striding towards us, was a tall well-built young man, wrapped in a heavy bearskin cloak and simple cloth leggings. He had a broad, open face and an infectious smile, and a shock of red hair under a traditional Scottish cap. He came forward to join us, grinning widely, and Mab ... let out a single low, shocked sound. Arthur started forward, and Kae stopped him with a hand on his arm.

“Is this your doing?” Suzie whispered in my ear. I shook my head.

“Dear sweet God,” said Arthur. “How can this be? Tam ... Tam O’Shanter, as ever was. You died even before I did. Has some dear magic brought you back, too?”

Tam O’Shanter laughed happily, his eyes fixed on Queen Mab. He stopped before her, cocked his head slightly to one side, and planted both fists on his hips. He looked so alive, so full of life, ready to take on the whole world and bend it to his wishes, for the fun of it.

“Why, this is the land of the dead. Where else should I be? I was needed, so here I am, to see my sweet Mab again. Ah, my bonny lass, how fine you look. Even if I did have to stand on a stool to kiss you, in the old days. It is your need that brings me here, sweet lass, to this dark place. Are you still so mad at all who live because I died, and left you alone? Poor Mab, we could never have had long together, no matter how things worked out. Because it is the fate of every man to grow old and die, and you are an elf. That’s why our love was forbidden, among Men and elves.”

“I would have found a way,” said Mab. “I would have kept you with me forever. I will never stop hating and hurting the world that took you from me.”

“Then hold me, my love,” said Tam O’Shanter. “Hold me as you once did, when the world was young, and so were we.”

He stepped forward and opened his arms, and Mab stepped into them without hesitation, and hugged him fiercely to her. For the first time, she looked happy. She kept on smiling, even when Tam’s hand came up with a long knife in it, slid it smoothly between her ribs, and twisted it. Golden blood ran down her side, but she never made a sound. She hung on to him, her eyes closed. He pulled the blade out, and golden blood coursed down her side and spattered on the ground. And then, as though only the blade had been holding her up, she fell suddenly to her knees. Still clinging to her dead love. Her head fell forward on his chest, and he patted her hair fondly before pushing her away from him. Queen Mab fell awkwardly to the ground and lay still. Tam O’Shanter looked down at her, the bloody knife still in his hand. And then he put aside the glamour he’d worn and was himself again.

“Sorry, Mother,” said Puck. “But I did owe you that, for making me the way I am. And what better glamour to deceive you than the father I never knew? You should have died when he did and saved us all so much suffering.”

He looked up and smiled into our shocked faces.

“It’s what she would have wanted. She could never give up. She didn’t know how. So I have put her out of her misery, and ours. Now she’s gone, all the elves must bow down to King Oberon and Queen Titania, by right of succession. The elves are one people again, with no need of civil war. I must thank you, John Taylor, for making this possible. No-one else could have brought us all together.”

“This isn’t the ending I wanted,” I said.

The Puck shrugged again. “You never did understand elven humour.” He looked at Oberon and Titania. “Well, Your Majesties, have I done right in your eyes?”

“Of course,” said Oberon. “A most elegant solution. We shall now oversee the passing of our people, from Shadows Fall and the Sundered Lands, to the new Earth that has been promised. But Titania and I ... will not be going with them. To be a new people, they must leave the past behind. And Titania and I ... have too much past in us. We are the old way, and the old way must be forgotten. So we shall remain in Shadows Fall, where all things of the past belong.”

“Some others will no doubt wish to remain with us,” said Titania. “The future is not for everyone. But the race will continue, elsewhere, and that is all that matters.”

“I will stay with you,” said Puck. “Because there’s still far too much mischief to get into in our world to ever give it up.”

“Dear sweet mischievous Puck,” said Queen Titania. But she was looking at Queen Mab’s dead body when she said it.

Sometime later, Suzie and I and Arthur and Kae stood watching through the Door, looking out over the empty Earth, as the Fae came through an endless series of dimensional gateways to claim their new home. Thousands of them, on foot and on horseback, or on other magical creatures, some of which I couldn’t even put a name to. The elves came proudly, singing and laughing, and for the first time I thought I saw in them something of what Arthur had always seen. They had their pride back, and their grandeur. They had been Humanity’s enemies for so long, we had forgotten their magic and their glory. And perhaps they had, too. Seeing them now, it almost made me sad that I’d never see them again. Almost.

The crossing took a long time, but when it was finally over, Oberon appeared out of nowhere to join us at the Door. He waited patiently for us to recover our self-possession, then he ceremoniously closed the Door, spun the brass combination lock, and said a simple but very binding spell over it. No-one would ever be able to access that particular alternate Earth again. He said nothing, merely bowed briefly to King Arthur, and vanished before Arthur could bow in return. Back to Shadows Fall, leaving history behind, to become legend.

The Doormouse crept up to join us, his whiskers twitching anxiously. “Well, this has all been very interesting, and perhaps even moving, but now that it is all quite definitely over; do you think you could all please get the hell out of my life? You’re all too weird, even for me.”

Outside in the street, Arthur looked round him, suddenly seeming a bit lost. “What do I do now, Mr. Taylor? It would seem I have done what I was brought back to do, though I can’t help feeling you did more than me.”

“Couldn’t have done it without you,” I said, and I meant it.

“Do I have to go back to sleep now? I’ve seen so little of this brave new world that has such wonders in it. I dreamed centuries of history, but I was never a part of it.”

“You must come back to Castle Inconnu, with me,” said Kae. “Let me show you what I’ve built, tell you all the amazing things the London Knights have done, all the marvellous victories we won, in your name and in defence of your dream.”

“All these years, and still so desperate for my approval?” said Arthur. He put both hands on Kae’s shoulders and shook him slightly. “You’ve always had my approval, brother. I have always been so very proud of you.”

“But you can’t stay, Arthur, and you know it,” said a familiar voice. “This isn’t your time—in oh-so-many ways—and it isn’t the Final Battle. That is yet to come.”

We all looked round, and there was Gayle, or Gaea, Mother Earth herself, standing in a powder-blue business suit, looking very elegant and very efficient. King Arthur bowed to her.

“Greetings to you, my Lady of the Lake. I should have known you’d turn up. Must I go back to my grave again?”

“No,” said Gaea. “The word is out, and already far too many people know about it. I suspect a certain bartender of planning guided tours. Come with me, Arthur, and I will find you a new resting place, with a little more dignity, where you can sleep peacefully until you are needed. And no, Kae, this time you don’t get to know where.”