Juliet Marillier - Wildwood Dancing

I did not like this turn of the conversation at all. “Your Majesty, I have come to you for help. I don’t think I can bargain with Cezar. I don’t think I have anything I’m prepared to give him. But if Father doesn’t come back, if he doesn’t get better, I need some way to stop my cousin from carrying out his threat.”

All of them just looked at me. I had expected fear, anger, a 118

shared purpose. I had hoped for solutions. This blank acceptance seemed almost like indifference. “This is your whole future!” I burst out, against my better judgment. “Don’t you care ?”

There was a little silence. Gogu twitched. Uh-oh.

“What would you have us do?” Ileana seemed eerily calm.

“Wage war on this cousin, frighten him from his home? Set fire to his crops, strike his animals dead? Take such a course of action, and we would spark the kind of retribution that comes on the keen edge of a scythe, the piercing tines of a pitchfork. It is not our way. Your Cezar makes his own path. Whether it leads to good or ill, only time will tell.”

“So you would just sit back and watch as your kingdom is destroyed?”

“We will not interfere. This will flow as it must; it is not for us to stem the tide. Have you considered that the solution may be no farther away than your fingertips?”

“I don’t know what you mean.” I could not keep hurt and annoyance from my voice. “I can’t even get workers to come up and mend the fences for me—how am I meant to solve a problem as big as this? Cezar’s a landholder now. He’s got power.”

“You must solve your own puzzle,” Ileana said. She rose to her feet and picked up a fold of her gold-embroidered gown, ready for another round of dancing. “You can do it. Music!

Come, strike up a reel!”

In a trice they were gone, heading onto the sward for more revelry. I was stunned. Not only had the forest queen made no offer of assistance, she’d treated my pressing problems—and her own—as almost inconsequential.

“She does care,” Grigori said. He was the only one who had 119

stayed behind. “It’s our way to let things take their course, that’s all. What was that you were saying about fences?

Sten and I could attend to your heavy work. You should have asked us.”

Sudden tears pricked my eyes. “Thank you,” I said, “but it’s best if you don’t. When you come across to our world, especially if you stay awhile, you put yourselves at huge risk. I won’t have you doing that for us. Cezar’s enough of a threat to you—we mustn’t make it worse by giving other folk the chance to see you on the farm. But I value your offer. Now I’d better go and find Tati.”

“If I may.” A tall, dark form appeared by my side. It seemed that one other had lingered after Ileana’s audience. The pallid Tadeusz reached to cup my elbow without a by-your-leave. His eyes met Grigori’s and, to my surprise, Dr˘agu¸ta’s kinsman backed away.

“You have troubles,” Tadeusz murmured, drawing my arm through his and starting to walk along the sward so I had no choice but to go with him. “I could help you. This cousin is nothing.” He snapped his fingers in illustration. “He can be stopped from interfering in your affairs. That would be an easy matter, Jenica. It would give me pleasure to be of assistance to you. He could simply be . . . removed.” I felt long, bony fingers close around mine; he lifted my hand to his lips. The chill touch of his mouth gave my skin goose bumps. In my pocket Gogu was cringing and silent. “Of course, I would require something in return. Nothing comes without a price.”

I felt sick. “Thank you, but I will find some other solution 120

to my problems,” I said, my heart pounding. “I’m sure I can work something out.”

He looked down at me, his dark eyes assessing. “Really?” he asked me, and lifted a hand to toy with my hair, twisting a brown curl around his finger.

“Really. Now I must go—”

“You should not be afraid, Jenica. My kind are not entirely what you believe of us. The tales your villagers tell give one picture of the truth, a picture distorted by superstitious fear.

But there are many truths in the Other Kingdom. It is a matter of perception. The eyes of each viewer see a different reality.

You would not judge so quickly, would you?”

I swallowed. His voice was a subtle instrument, soft and beguiling. The sound of it seemed to resonate deep within me.

“I don’t trust easily,” I said. “I don’t like violent solutions to problems. And I prefer to know exactly what I’m getting into.”

“Ah. But you come to the Other Kingdom every Full Moon, trusting that you will be safe, that your friends will be here to welcome you, that your night will be spent in innocent enjoyment.”

I stared up at him, wanting to be anywhere but here, yet held by his voice. Despite myself, I was intrigued by what he said. “I’m careful,” I told him. “I look out for my sisters. Anyway, it always has been like that. We’ve always been safe here.”

Tadeusz smiled, and I tried not to look at his teeth. “So young and so ignorant,” he said. “Yet maybe not so young. You watch your sisters, yes—one in particular you watched two 121

Full Moons ago, as she danced with one partner and then another. You made her go home before the dancing was over.

Why was that, I wonder? And again, at last Full Moon—was there perhaps a touch of jealousy in you, Jenica? A desire to be a little older, and to feel a man’s arms around your own waist in intimate embrace?”

I felt myself flush scarlet. “I’m not listening to this,” I said.

“I must go now—”

“Go,” he said airily, but his hand still held mine. “Go—and remain in ignorance, if that is your preference.”

“Ignorance of what?” Perhaps he had something to tell me about Sorrow, something that would help me persuade Tati to let him go.

“All these years you’ve limited yourselves to one visit a month—to one way of entering the Other Kingdom. There is another way. At Dark of the Moon, there is another portal.

With my help it can be opened to you. It will unveil a world of knowledge to you, Jena. At Dark of the Moon, you may look into Dr˘agu¸ta’s mirror. If you wish to discover the true nature of your sister’s lover, you will do so there. If you can summon the courage for it, you may see your own future and that of those you love.” His thumb moved against my palm.

“What do you mean?” I croaked, not liking the way his words made me feel, as if I had glimpsed something I wanted badly and knew I should not have. “That if we passed through this portal of yours, we wouldn’t be in Dancing Glade, but somewhere else? In your own realm? I was told you come from the forests of the east.”

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“There are many paths in the Other Kingdom.” He lifted his brows, and his mouth formed a derisive grimace. “I’ll wager you are not brave enough to try this one.”

I knew I should turn my back and walk away. “What if I did want to?” I whispered. “Where is this portal? How can I find it?”

Tadeusz’s teeth gleamed in the moonlight. “There is a price,” he said. “Do not forget that.”

“What price?”

“A price no greater than you can afford, Jena. I will ensure that.”

“You mean you won’t tell me what it is? That is asking me to take a foolish risk. I am no fool.”

“Ah, well. I am unsurprised that you lack the courage for this.”

I swallowed. “If I—if I did decide to try it,” I said, hating myself for asking, “how would I get over? Where would I go?”

“If you would cross over, call to me and I will take you there.” His voice wrapped about me like a soft cloak.