Chapter 27

Sixteen Angels in total agreed to come down from the mountains with them and when they appeared through the mist on the barge late the following night after having travelled all day, the Fairies of Lugh's stronghold stared at them in the torch light, fascinated. After the journey into the mountains the familiarity of the stronghold was comforting and it was a homecoming of sorts. Rhiannon was very glad to see her father, sister, and grandmother, who greeted both herself and Rowan with hugs and the Fay community at large seemed to have accepted her as one of their own. Even Stone Keeper, who had seemed to Rhiannon so stern at first, greeted her with a merry wizened smile and a warm embrace. The stronghold thronged with talk of how their changeling princess had coaxed the Angels out of the mountains. There was a huge banquet held the evening after they returned in honour of the Angels, and it was then that the Angels shared their secret. It was a surreal evening that encapsulated so many different emotions, but after Raphael had finished telling his tale, Lugh stood and said to all of the sombre confused listeners, “Now let us relegate this tale to the past. It can have no power over us there. Let us welcome the future, and show these serious Angels how to have a good time as only the Fay know how.” He smiled his elegant smile and raised his glass high, “To unity, to peace, and to freedom!”

It seemed to Rhiannon that in a matter of seconds the entire hall had erupted into a wild Fay party with music, dancing and all manner of Fay antics, making her believe every strange story that she had ever heard about fairies in her entire life. There is nothing in the world quite like a drunk wood sprite in action.

After a long sleep and a bath, a day had been spent by Rowan, with Yuka, Lugh, Yori (the commander of the Fay army), and Raphael, poring over maps and reading correspondences from the city, writing letters and sending instructions to Gwydion that would be taken, with great speed and stealth, to let the old druid know that it was time. When she wasn't being held in place by Nimue, Morgana and two or three frantic seamstresses, trying on new dresses and being stuck with pins, Rhiannon hung over their shoulders intent on understanding what was going on. She tried not to drive them crazy but she felt obligated to understand. Then, in what felt like significantly less than two nights and a single day, what felt more like moments, it was time to leave for the King's City.

Rhiannon woke early in the morning and began dressing with the aid of Nimue, Morgana, and two attendants. After carefully placing the opal circlet on her brow they caught up the top half of her hair and secured the braided coils with a glittering net of cut quartz, dark amethyst, moonstone and seed pearl beads, so that while it was elegant, sparkling and sophisticated, it still showed off the decadent length as the ash waves draped over her shoulder. Her father had given her a new pair of earrings, opal teardrops, and she carefully clasped the sapphire and pearl necklace around her neck. Nothing had been spared when it came to the dress that she would wear into the city. It was the finest gossamer silk, so soft that it felt like the petals of a wild rose, in a delicate colour that was neither mauve, lavender, nor pink, but some elusive in between shade that drew the eye, made Rhiannon's pale skin glow and brought out the soft pink in her cheeks. The heavy damask underskirt and train of the dress, along with the princess neckline and tightly fitted bodice, were lavishly yet delicately embroidered with gold leaves and stitched with seed pearls. Over the dress went a morning glory blue velvet cloak lined with violet silk, and last of all, tiny blue embroidered slippers. Rhiannon looked down at her small hands. The fluttering cuffs of the dress had been cut in such a way that the fern pattern on her hand and arm, which at this point was more than just ferns, was exposed. It seemed that every time she used her magic in some significant way she acquired a new flower or plant on her skin. Forget-me-nots after that first night with Rowan, a couple of little violets from her afternoon in the woods with Morgana and Nimue, tiny little star-like chickweed blossoms after the full moon, a single wild sweet pea when she'd shown Rowan the image of their child on the beach, and blood red bitter uva ursi berries after she'd healed Malik. It told a story and they wanted the people of the city to see it. She continued looking at her hands. At the simple band that Rowan had given to her, and the heartsease ring that her father had given to her mother years before, then she looked up into the mirror in front of her. Faery Queen. Those were the only words for the young woman who looked back at Rhiannon. Made of mist and flowers, except for the cherry lips and glowing eyes. But deep inside she still didn't feel like a queen and she knew that she never would. She was doing what she had to, and she was terrified.

Rowan came for her. He was in uniform. Rhiannon balked for a moment seeing him like that and resisted the tide that was pulling her further into the strange and twisted tale that she was so inextricably tangled in. He read her look like a page from a story, took her face in his hands and looked deep into her eyes. “Love,” he said. “This isn't us. This isn't you and it isn't me either. I'm just a farmer and you're just a pretty girl who likes cabbages. We're just two halfbreed fairies who love each other and this will all be over someday . . . . Somehow, I'll always be with you, even if I'm not beside you. Alright?”

Did it make it more bearable to know that Rowan felt the same? No not really. But there was no way in hell that Rhiannon would let him be as brave as he was, and not try to be brave too . . . for him. “Alright,” she nodded and took a deep steadying breath. “I love you. I always will,” she told him. He kissed her and she wondered if his kisses would ever stop feeling like fireworks. She put her hands around his wrists to stop the world from spinning. “Let's go,” she whispered when the kiss ended and she looked into Rowan's dark eyes for a moment longer. “Forward is the only place we can go now.”

They walked through her Father's empty halls hand in hand and left through the great carved doors that lead to the main courtyard and out onto the open expanse of the cobble mosaic that was made from black and white stones and formed a tree of life. The entire stronghold was there to see them off and cheers from hundreds of voices went up around them as they walked across the courtyard. A sparkling host of two thousand Fay knights stood to attention in a formation that stretched down the broad path, further than Rhiannon could see. Lugh stood near the horses waiting to say goodbye to his oldest daughter. Morgana and Yuka were already mounted and waiting. Raphael, Malik, and six other armed angels stood ready. Nimue stood with Lugh and those of the Fay council members who were remaining behind. Rowan lead her to her father. “I don't dare embrace you for fear of disarranging you.”

But he didn't have the words more than half way out before she had thrown her arms around him. He put his arms around her and held on, for he had only just found her and now she was leaving, stepping out into a dangerous world that he had meant to make safe for her before he had lost the dream that was her. She stepped back and looked into Lugh's handsome, charming, elegant face. He smiled and there was a trace of the sardonic cool manner that Rhiannon was sure he used to cover up what he was really feeling. “You've completely destroyed my reputation as a self contained monarch,” he said and then sighed. “I've wanted you to know that Rhiannon was the name that I asked your mother to give you. You don't know what it meant to me when I found out that you existed and your mother hadn't hated me so much, after everything, that she wouldn't call you Rhiannon.”

Lugh reached out and ran a finger down her cheek and Rhiannon could see that it was time for her to turn away. She looked into Nimue's face, so like her own, and she knew instantly that her sister was up to something, but she pretended not to notice, said goodbye and kissed Nimue's soft cheek, then winked and gave her a barely perceptible smile.

“We shouldn't delay any longer my Love,” Rowan said softly.

They turned towards the waiting horses and as if on cue the unicorn, the very same unicorn who had helped Rhiannon in the forest the night she feared Rowan was dying, stepped out of the trees and, with a grace that was almost painful to watch, it walked to Rhiannon and gently nuzzled her cheek.

“My friend,” Rhiannon breathed in astonishment and curtsied low before the unicorn, then straightened and placed her hands on the unicorn's velvet neck. “Thank you. Oh, thank you.”

Rhiannon could hear whispers of astonishment from the crowd around her. She knew that the belief, in both the world she had come from and this one, was that a unicorn would only let a virgin touch it. Rhiannon closed her eyes for a moment and felt the unicorn’s warm hide as the awe struck whispers continued to ripple through the crowd. What was happening was unheard of and no one could be unmoved by this gesture on the part of the unicorn, but as if to outdo even itself, the unicorn stooped. It wished her to ride on its back. “You want to carry me?” Rhiannon asked with so much feeling in her voice. The unicorn bowed more deeply and Rowan knelt beside her and offered his hands to boost her up. She stepped lightly into his clasped hands and, without an awkward movement, arranged herself on the back of the unicorn. Cheers even louder than before erupted from the crowd and the cherry trees that surrounded the courtyard burst into bloom and showered them with white petals. Rhiannon laughed and looked at Rowan from where she sat on the back of the magnificent unicorn. It would become the symbol of her reign, both the unicorn that would carry her to the city, and the moon on her brow, and for years to come little girls would look at their mothers at bedtime and ask, “Mummy, tell me about the changeling princess and the unicorn?”

But in that moment there was hope. “I think that it's going to work,” Rhiannon said to Rowan smiling. “I think we're going to make it.”

He smiled back at her, “I think so too.”