Chapter 11

Nimue interrupted them, “If you don't stop this, I'm going to cry too, and Rowan, you know how upset my father gets when it rains in the dining room.”

“She's right,” Rowan said to Rhiannon, “Lugh doesn't like it when it rains at meals so cheer up.” He kissed her cheek. “We'll be together all day. I won't leave your side,” he told her.

“Do come,” Nimue smiled. “My father is very anxious to meet you. We'll go see him before we eat and our grandmother and Rowan's grandfather will be there. It will be nice, you'll see. Please do come,” she coaxed.

As they walked through the longhouse Rhiannon looked around at the carvings and decorations. Totem animals and trees surrounded by knot work. Stern copper suns, serene silver moons, and ravens soaring amongst the stars. Strange, beautiful, and mystical yet earthy and warm. The elemental nature of the Fay was evident in everything they passed, from greenery filled nooks that contained nothing but great earthenware bowls filled with water to the stained glass windows placed at intervals along the halls in golden bursts of flame that sparkled when the sun shone through. She wondered, as they walked, how the fairy population would differ from the human population in this part of the world, and then it occurred to her to make sure that she understood something correctly, “So, in both the Fay and Human kingdoms, the law states that the reign is passed to the oldest acknowledged offspring of the current king or queen regardless of who the other parent is, neither court make any specifications to rule out Fay or Human blood, or a child born of an unacknowledged relationship, and the letter that my mother left me is proof of acknowledgement, correct?”

“Yes and your father acknowledged you as soon as he knew who you were,” Rowan answered.

“But isn't my brother already the acknowledged king of the Human realm?” she asked trying to find a loophole to get out of this.

“No. He's not the rightful king,” Rowan sighed. “You're the rightful queen because you were your mother's oldest acknowledged child while she was alive. It's just that no one knew that you existed and I'm pretty sure that she had a choice between giving you up and seeing you die. Her parents weren't quite anti-Fay, but they weren't revolutionaries either. Her letter to you however, states that you are her child, and names you, which qualifies as acknowledgement. Your father and I both agree that your mother left you that letter in the hopes that she could somehow bring you back here some day, but she was killed before she had a chance to try.”

They came to a stop outside of a set of elegantly carved doors. Rhiannon couldn't move. “When I was in the other world with my parents, they used to tell me that I looked like my birth mother, but it never even occurred to me to wonder if I even had a father who was anything more than an ejaculation, and now he's a real person who loved my mother and he's on the other side of that door. It seems ironic somehow.”

Nimue opened the doors and Rowan pulled her through. She didn't stumble. She walked into her father's private sitting room like a lady, with grace and poise. When Rowan presented her to Lugh, her father, she suffered a massive bout of uncertainty and in her consternation, completely unsure of what to do and dizzy with it, she remembered that her father was a king, and rather than look into his eyes, rather than face, immediately, what she may or may not see there, and in part because her legs felt suddenly very weak, she sank into a low curtsy and bowed her head as she had with the unicorn.

“Child,” came his rich warm voice from above and he bent, took her hands and drew her back up to standing. She did look into his face then. He was tall and very handsome with sea green eyes and ash coloured hair, probably the only feature they had in common, and he was, as Gavin had been, very young to have a grown daughter by the standards of the world she had recently left. No more than thirty seven at her guess. She stood as he inspected her, and his stern face softened. “You do look like your mother a little. More so, now that you're awake, your mouth . . . you have her pretty feminine mouth, and the angle of her cheeks . . .”

She had known that he would say something like this, and say it with sadness and loss in his voice. “I know,” she answered softly.

“If I had known . . . I would have taken care of you. I would have never left you exiled in that world. I would have done anything that I had to. I've always wanted you Rhiannon. Can you ever forgive me?”

He put his hand on her shoulder and Rhiannon stepped into his embrace. She didn't worry about the tears that were staining the front of his blue silk tunic and after a few moments she stepped back and told him with sincerity, “I'm here now. There is nothing to forgive.”

“I'm going to go outside for a moment,” Nimue hurried from the room just as a few raindrops began to fall.

Lugh chuckled, “When she was a baby we were almost permanently damp. She had colic.” He smiled. It was a sad smile, but it was, at least, a smile. “We will have time to talk more later,” he said to Rhiannon. “But for now, just tell me if you are well. Are you feeling recovered?”

“Yes, largely . . . I think.” She smiled and tried not to blush thinking of that other thing that she knew was already sapping her energy and making it difficult for her to gauge whether or not she really was truly recovered.

“You will never know what a shock it was for me to find that unicorn on my doorstep with that ring, and then to find Rowan in the forest with you in his arms.” Lugh was silent and thoughtful for a moment, “Rowan has told me much about you. I admire you. I've missed everything. Your whole life. I do not wish to imply that I am giving you my approval in saying this to you, because you don't need my approval,” he smiled ruefully. “And I think that you may understand my perspective quite well on this, and perhaps it is not necessary for me to be quite so reserved and cautious in my expression of happiness on this subject, and I will get to the point and say it . . . But, is it not serendipitous and rather wonderful that of all the people in the world who could have been there for you at just the right moment, that it should be Rowan? It makes me very happy that you've settled with him.”

Rhiannon smiled, looked at her feet and only blushed a little bit.

Lugh smiled, “Rowan warned me. I am embarrassing you. I will stop before Nimue comes back in and says something truly embarrassing.”

Rhiannon laughed, “I am discovering that Nimue has a talent for it.”

“That, I think, is a very generous way of putting it,” Lugh chuckled, then said, “Come I would like to introduce you to your Grandmother.”

Rhiannon looked around, for the first time aware of more than her father's presence in the room and aware, suddenly, that Rowan was not right next to her but had stepped aside slightly to give her and her father space and was standing not far off with a man who she assumed, based on the resemblance, must be his grandfather. Lugh introduced her to her grandmother Morgana, a little woman who did indeed appear to be the source of both her own and Nimue's blue eyes and small stature. Dainty and ageless with silver streaked medium brown hair, she and Rhiannon were eye to eye with each other. “Oh, my love,” Morgana said softly putting her arms around Rhiannon.

She had never had a grandmother before and this was new. She felt a lump forming in her throat and a wave of that lost child feeling swept over her as she stood in the older woman's embrace and wondered what she would be like today if she had been brought up in this place, if Morgana had been there her whole life to care for her, and if Lugh had been the father who had raised her, which in turn brought on a wave of guilt, sadness and loss for the parents who had raised her, cared for her, and loved her. But now you're here, and life is changing so quickly, and you're not a child and . . . her mind hovered protectively around the little light deep inside her for the briefest of moments before she brought herself back to the people in the room. She pulled back and looked at Morgana who said, “I've always felt that I should have had more grandchildren.”

“What's the matter Gran,” Nimue came back in smiling. “Aren't I enough to keep you busy?”

“Nimue, you're enough to keep seven grandmother's busy,” Morgana said kissing the girl's rosy cheek. “But I think that I will enjoy having a tiny baby to love and coddle. Three granddaughters will suit me quite well.” The older woman smiled and gently patted Rhiannon's cheek.

Rhiannon had to take a deep breath to steady her pounding heart. These people were her family in a way that was more immediate than anything she had ever experienced before and she wasn't used to it. She turned to Rowan and smiled. He was grinning at her as he walked over to where she stood and said to her quietly, “See what I mean? No privacy around these people.” He slipped his hand around her waist, “But in a day or two you'll see that the Fairies love great stories, have no shame, and are obsessed with anything to do with fertility. So we may as well just give up now and admit to everything.”

Morgana's eyes twinkled with merriment, “I think she'll be a summer solstice baby, a very auspicious omen.” Rhiannon felt like she was blushing so hard it would be permanent.

“Mother please,” Lugh interceded. “The poor girl was raised by humans. She's been through much and she hasn't even eaten breakfast yet.”

“Ah well, a young woman in her condition must eat,” Morgana twinkled.

“You mustn't mind my cousin,” the older man said to her. “She has always been irrepressible. Nimue gets it from her.”

“It's alright. I really don't mind. I'll stop blushing some day,” Rhiannon said putting her hands to her hot cheeks.

“Rhiannon, this is my grandfather, Merlin's Shadow.”

Rhiannon looked at Rowan's grandfather. He was darker than Rowan with waist length braids. Most of his skin seemed to be covered with the fern-like patterns that now marked both herself and Rowan. He looked somehow wilder than the others.

“Merlin's Shadow spends most of his time in the forest, but he always seems to show up for a visit when I'm here,” Rowan commented.

“I had always hoped that Rowan would settle with a Fairy woman, but I think that this is more fitting. You will understand each other better as you, like him, are neither Fay nor Human, but both.”

“I think so too,” she said in agreement, liking the quiet steadiness of the older man. Rowan must have inherited it from his grandfather.

“Nimue tells me that breakfast is ready,” Lugh announced. “Let us go and eat.”

Meals were a communal affair in the Fairy stronghold and there were three long tables in the large dining hall that, although she was rather turned around and couldn't be sure, Rhiannon got the distinct impression was at the centre of the longhouse. There were stained glass skylights and tall carved pillars all in the same themes as the rest of the building. The hall was filled with Fairies who were as varied in elemental type, cultural heritage, and ethnicity—Rhiannon was, she decided, going to apply the word ethnicity to them—as the human population was unvaried. She passed by a beautiful seemingly normal Japanese woman with long blue back hair and flowing silk robes that were tied with a wide blood red silk sash, but as she drew near and the woman smiled, Rhiannon noticed the not unattractively pronounced canines and the glossy black fur that grew, close and short, over the woman's hands and small slightly animal looking bare feet. A Kitsune, Rhiannon thought awestruck, looking for and seeing the red fox's tail peeking out from the folds of her lilac robes. The woman winked at her and Rhiannon smiled, too delighted to do otherwise. But her eye was caught, then, by an exotic blue man dressed in bright Indian prints. Indian, as in from India. Is it the Fay from the orient that the majority of the trade is done with? She wondered and continued to let her eyes scan the room. Approximately a third of the Fay in the room had a more local look to them. Lots of Dryads but, go figure, they were in the middle of a temperate rain forest. There seemed to be somewhat distinct types even within the Dryad population though. Some had chestnut hair, golden skin, freckles and hazel eyes. These were more European looking and dressed in green and wore crowns of leaves, but the others, the ones like Merlin's Shadow, looked like they had been a part of these forests since antiquity. There were others still, not Dryads but birdlike, delicate creatures with sharp eyes, easy smiles, and raucous laughter. They were feathered on their shoulders and had short cropped black hair of the same inky shade. There was a pair of them sitting together and Rhiannon couldn't tell, so androgynously charming were they, if they were two girls, two boys, or one of each, but whatever they were, they were obviously besotted with one another as they repeatedly landed soft little kisses on the other's cheeks and head and gazed longingly at one another. Her eyes continued their tour. There were Phookas with adularescent shining eyes—and who had left random parts of their bodies in animal form, disdaining to look fully humanoid even for meals— and Gnomes and petite red haired Sprites that reminded her of Mr. Flanagan, and many green and blue tinged, shimmering, watery looking Fay. There were Goblins too, although they were neither frightening nor unattractive but lithe, quick and slim, with greenish skin, slightly hooked noses and a look of mischief in their amber eyes. There was a Green Man, and a few little Boggles, three feet tall with round tummies, but for every distinctly identifiable Fairy present, there were as many who were, like Rhiannon, considerably less distinct and more human looking, and many too who had the look of Old country Nymphs, Sylphs, Rhine Maidens and their male counterparts. Suddenly a small pack of river otters ran through the hall, tripping people as they went, then turning into black haired children. They were scolded for being late by a woman decked out in black and red wool and abalone jewellery who looked First Nations. Rhiannon wished the kids would turn back into otters and then run around some more, they were so cute.

Lugh lead them through the room and to the head of the centre table. They sat and the meal commenced. Fairy food was very much to Rhiannon's liking. Little cakes of nuts, seeds and honey, fruits, cheese, eggs, and best of all, no meat, although some at the tables were enjoying smoked salmon. She tried to concentrate on eating and ignore all of the curious glances and thoughts that she could hear coming her way. She was quite impressed with herself for maintaining her composure throughout the meal as she found herself in a position that was unexpected and uncomfortable, both from the perspective of someone who had been raised in the world that she had been raised in, and from the perspective of a human of this world. In her former life, if she had acquired a boyfriend, she wouldn't have hesitated at having sex with him, if she had been in love. She wouldn't have wanted to wait for marriage, but she was willing to bet that she would not have been in any rush to get pregnant either. Birth control would have been a definite. But that wasn't the life that she was living anymore and she could, for the most part, let go of those ideas. Except, that she would have had time to get used to being sexually active privately. Even if they had been able to stay longer at Rowan's home and she and Rowan had indeed consummated their relationship there, she would have had at least a couple of weeks before everybody else knew that she was pregnant. She would have had time to adjust to that idea privately. But here everyone knew, what were to Rhiannon, very personal events. It shouldn't even have been possible for her to get pregnant last night let alone know about it so soon, and she knew that it had something to do with being Fay, but other than that she was in the dark. She was going to have to ask Nimue about it when she had a chance, but for now every blasted Fairy in the room was whispering about her and broadcasting thoughts so that even the ones who wouldn't have been able to sense that she had been recently deflowered and was now pregnant to boot, knew. It wasn't immaturity or squeamishness, she simply wasn't accustomed to having her private business be . . . well . . . public. Between her not-so-very private business and the fact that she was their new heir, they were avidly curious about her.

Their thoughts popped randomly into her head. Many were aimless and silly, “How romantic.” and a bunch of gossipy thoughts along the lines of, “She's pregnant already! She was a virgin when she got here.” Those made her want to sink under the table, but others were more thoughtful.

“She looks more like Lugh than Nimue does.”

“She's with child. A good omen.”

“Human mother . . . Not too sure about that.”

“Mated to the Captain of the King's army? Could mean trouble . . . even if he does have Fay blood.”

“Where does her allegiance lie?”

Rhiannon tried to think of an answer to that question as she ate, because she suspected that sometime soon, she would be expected to answer it.