The Shadowed Path

5. Reine

5

Reine

"I'm afraid to ask how we get in. Do we have to?" Each word became more of an effort as my jaw wanted to clench against the repellent sensation.

"Yes, I'm afraid so, Princess. This is where your Shadowed Path has led. I am only your guide." Ellerin walked along the wall, and I followed him. The building on the other side of the street, a gray brick warehouse of some sort, huddled close enough that it served as more of a second wall. It also put us in a narrow alley that didn't allow me to satisfy my desire to put as much distance between me and the asylum wall as possible. I had been in the Earth realm for much of the period where the care of those who thought and behaved differently changed. They went from being respected to being feared as witches or possessed to being locked away as dangerous or inconvenient. The thought floated through my iron noise-fogged brain—had I been deemed inconvenient? Was Ellerin going to lock me up? But Fae didn't have asylums. Those who didn't want to comply with the edicts of the light Fae went to live with the dark Fae, where they would be absorbed into its lawless and chaotic society.

But what I had seen of the dark Fae city hadn't been lawless or chaotic. It still had its rules, even if not apparent at first. Had that changed? Or had I been taught wrong?

That latter question was coming up way too much for comfort on this journey.

A wall of iron energy, like stinging mist, made me stop, and I lifted my bowed head to see we'd reached a black-barred gate. I stepped backward, and Ellerin grabbed my right forearm.

"No you don't, Princess. I promise, you won't be stuck here. There's something you need to see." He lifted his staff, and the crystal atop it blazed white. The gates vanished, and although I still felt the iron spikes atop the walls, I sagged in relief.

Ellerin tugged on my arm. "They only disappear for a minute. Woe to any Fae who gets caught in them when they reappear."

The thought of being impaled by suddenly materializing iron drove me forward. Should I have turned and run? Perhaps, but then I would have been lost with the obfuscating spell, which I surmised had been placed to confuse those who would try to escape.

If Ellerin had trapped me, I had walked right into it, and so there was no choice but forward.

The gates reappeared, and I stumbled forward with the force of the iron’s energy. My wings reappeared to steady me and provided some cushion between me and the gates, which they shouldn't have.

Ellerin raised his eyebrows. "I thought that might happen. It's impossible to hide what one is in here."

I studied him, but he looked just the same—an older middle-aged Fae with gray at his temples and green eyes that matched my own, reinforcing my guess that we were related somehow. If anything, he looked more…him. Was that why his wings didn't appear—they didn't need to?

A broad lawn of blue grass stretched to either side of us, and our boots crunched along a gravel path leading up to the building. In the Earth realm, it would have looked like some venerable college building with its dark gray brick, light stone accents and many-paned windows. Bars of Fae iron, an alloy with the same strength but without the repellent properties of true iron, hung in front of the windows. The bars and the chiseled gold lettering in the white marble lintel over the door, which read, simply, "Asylum for Fae" gave it a sinister air. As we got closer, I could make out smaller writing painted beneath along the top of the frame: "Welcome to this place of respite for those who can or will not conform to Her Majesty's rule."

"Which Majesty?" I asked, aware that there was my grandmother, Tatiana, and the dark Fae queen Lilith. Both had ruled for over a millennium.

Ellerin turned and dropped his reply into the oppressive silence. "Both."

"But that's not…"

"…what you were told? No, I imagine not. Both queens rule their realms with wands of iron even if it's killing their subjects."

A memory bubbled to the surface of something whispered among the servants in my grandmother's palace. The gray Fae are rebels. They're the only ones who dare oppose the queens. That had been my first nurse, Olred. She had left soon after, supposedly because her daughter had had a child and needed her help. Never mind that it was highly unusual for lower Fae to reproduce, and if they did, they often hid the children away from the high Fae, sometimes leaving them with human families to raise and retrieve later. Rather than being changelings, the Fae babies were surprise twins left along with the human infant. I imagined that became more difficult after the advent of ultrasounds, but by that point, human construction involved more iron than most lower Fae could tolerate. I managed in modern cities since the steel support beams were typically wrapped up in enough stone.

Either way, I needed to remember that Ellerin had his own agenda, and I couldn't allow him to drag me into treason.

A voice came through an opening about an inch across to the left of the iron-studded double doors, which could've come straight from a medieval castle. Maybe they had. I couldn't imagine Fae artisans working with the stuff.

The squeaky voice sounded much like that of the creature who guarded the city gates, but more annoyed. "Ellerin, you're late."

"They know you?"

He waved for me to be quiet, which would have gotten his hand chopped off—and him exiled as a result of his mutilation—for his disrespect to a granddaughter of Tatiana in Lorien. I crossed my arms and scowled, but I didn't say anything.

"Your cousin decided to call forth the spike at the gate. The humans balked."

The sound of wheezing laughter came through the door. "Of course they did. He's an ass like that. Come in."

The door on the right opened to reveal another blue, gnome-like creature, this one dressed in saffron yellow. It straightened its stooped shoulders and bowed to Ellerin, who bowed back. I did so as well and wished Ellerin had taken some time on the way to let me know about the protocols of this place.

"Ah, Princess Reine, it is an honor to have you."

"Thank you, um…?"

"I am Healer Wilfrin, and I am glad you're here."

Thankful he didn't follow that up with, "Your room is right through here," I said, "Thank you. To be honest, I'm not sure why I'm here. Not to stay, I hope."

Wilfrin and Ellerin laughed. Wilfrin replied, much too cheerfully, "Probably not. The high Fae get the courtesy of exile, where eager dragon-hunters or mobs will finish you off for witchcraft."

I smiled as a courtesy, recognizing the gallows humor of a healer who's seen too much and was down to their last mental resources before they either quit or went mad themselves. Also, I hoped his probably meant definitely, considering how Fae spoke.

"Is she ready?" Ellerin asked.

"Yes, you're lucky. She didn't want a nap this afternoon. Of course that makes her scream more, but…" Wilfrin shrugged his thin shoulders under his robe. "It keeps things interesting."

His disregard for a patient's distress reminded me of some of the things I'd heard about in Victorian asylums, and I shivered. At least I was now pretty sure they weren't referring to me.

He led us through a large hall that in a castle would have been the banquet hall, but no long tables or tapestries broke up the expanse of gray stone. I couldn't see, but definitely felt, the iron bands around the windows and between the panes, which would have been admired in the Earth realm for the delicate diamond rainbow pattern the beveled glass created across the plain floor.

A winding staircase brought us to an upper floor, where a long hallway stretched in both directions. Glowing crystals illuminated closed wooden doors, spaced apart like they would be in a hotel. But this wasn't a hotel. A series of thumps rattled one of the doors to my left.

Wilfrin huffed and walked to the door, which he knocked on. "Settle down there, Larry. This visitor isn't for you."

For a second, I feared that Larry was Lawrence, but that couldn't be. Still, I asked, "Do you have creatures in here that aren't Fae?"

Ellerin turned away, but not before I caught the smile on his face. Dammit, he probably knew what I was thinking.

Wilfrin tapped his lower lip with one claw. "What sort of creatures?"

I tried to sound nonchalant. "Oh, you know, former Fae allies, like gargoyles."

Wilfrin's eyes grew wide. "Never those, Princess. They're too strong, and iron only increases their ability to cause damage, whereas it weakens our usual residents. These walls are built to resist magic, not brute force."

"Good to know."

"This way, please."

Wilfrin led us to the right, and I sent some soothing magic toward Larry, whoever or whatever he was. Fae hated being trapped, and wasn't this the worst trap of all—a place where our legendary cleverness and ability to deceive would be conflated, and there would be no release?

"Through here, Princess." He led us down another hallway, which I hadn't noticed. When I looked back the way we came, I saw two corridors, likely due to another confusion spell. It disturbed me how well the magic of the place and area surrounding it worked on me.

I squinted against the sudden presence of natural light, which streamed through a stained-glass window at the end. Once my eyes adjusted, I smiled at the scene portrayed—a beautiful woman with streaming blond hair conveying a blessing on a young knight, who knelt at her feet. My grandmother had always been fond of that type of painting, which was one reason she had been so liberal with me and Rhys going into the human realm. She wanted to know what was going on, both historically and with regard to human arts.

A plush, red couch faced the window. I couldn't tell whether anyone sat on it. I glanced at Ellerin, who didn't appear nearly as charmed as I felt. Another case of me being susceptible to the magic of the place, whereas he wasn't?

Ellerin turned toward me, and his disgust disappeared from his face, but not his voice. "Look familiar?"

"Yes. Tatiana loves those images."

"Ah, so you remember. Yes, this is the hall where those who were special to your grandmother are housed. Their rooms are nicer, and they are sometimes allowed to sit beneath the window."

Wilfrin appeared from one of the rooms. He must have slipped away while I was entranced by the window. "She's ready."

"After you, Princess."

I hesitantly approached the open wooden door. Inside the room, a tall, stately woman turned from the window, where the black bars on the outside obscured the scene below, of a lawn with a pond. Were we at the back of the building? When I tried to figure it out from the twists and turns we'd been through, I couldn't, and I found it impossible to sense the location of the sun, which would have given me a clue. Frustration built in my chest, but it evaporated when the woman's face lit with a delighted expression.

"Oh, Ellerin, is this her?"

Hearing the beloved voice my memory had just evoked made a sob rise through me. I'd forgotten how much I’d cried when Olred left, how much I’d mourned. That had been before I had learned that Fae don't do grief or regret.

But we did. "Ol-Olred?"

"Come here, my little Reine. Not so little now, are we?"

She enveloped me in her embrace, and my aura and hers met in a spiritual hug. But it had thorns, as her multiple shards of grief poked me in the heart. I tried to stop my tears but could only manage a shuddering sniffle before starting again. She still smelled like I remembered, of sunshine and fresh-baked bread, but something sour now joined her familiar scent.

Once my crying stopped, she held me away from her like she had when I'd been a little Fae. "There, all cried out?"

I nodded. "Yes, thank you, Olred."

"Good. You don't want your mother to see you with tears on your face, do you?" She wiped them from my face with her thumbs, another familiar gesture that almost re-started them. "Oh! What's happened to your wings? Look how pretty they are!"

Her words shocked me out of my nostalgic haze, and I looked around. Her room resembled the one she'd had in the palace, with the same humble bed against the wall, the in-room shower and toilet glamoured to look like a chamber pot.

"My mother isn't here, Olred."

"No?" She frowned, and lucidity appeared in her eyes.

Wilfrin started forward with a syringe he must've conjured from his robes, but I erected an invisible wall so fast he bumped into it.

"Bad idea, Princess. That kind of magic isn't tolerated here."

"What did you do to her?" Now my physician mind recognized evidence of the presence of certain substances known to dilute understanding and presence. "How often are those being administered to her?" In a place like this, they could be counted as a mercy, but with grave risk.

Wilfrin rubbed his nose. "Not too often, don't worry." He scowled up at Ellerin, who shrugged.

"I warned you she was a healer here and is a doctor in the Earth realm."

"You didn't tell me about her power."

"She's a granddaughter of Tatiana. What did you expect?"

I decided to leave them to their argument and turned back to Olred, who had released me and now rubbed her hands together.

"How did you end up here?"

She narrowed her eyes at Wilfrin. "I spoke of treason, of the gray Fae. I was warned they didn't exist, but…" She gestured to Ellerin. "I knew what he was. Is. I kept his secret, but it wasn't enough, was it, was it, Ellerin?" Ellerin's name turned into a primal scream, and her formerly placid features distorted into a monster parody of her face. I leaped back and pressed a hand to my chest, where my heart pounded. Shock at her change rooted me to the spot.

She lunged at Ellerin, but the invisible wall held, and she staggered back and fell. On the floor, she looked weak and frail, and only the rage that twisted her face kept me from approaching her to see if she was okay.

I did ask, "What is he?"

"He's one of them. He's a gray Fae. And—"

Ellerin held up the hand that wasn't gripping his staff, and Olred put her own gnarled hands to her throat.

"There will be time enough for those secrets to come out later."

Olred staggered to her feet, and I searched her face for any sign of my beloved nurse, but only hatred showed now. Then, when she looked at me, she took a deep breath.

"You can look all high and mighty over there, Maeve, but eventually they'll know what you did. I see it in your wings."

The shock at being called my mother's name made my hold on my magic slip—or maybe the iron around me and lack of practice weakened me so I couldn't hold it as well—and Wilfrin darted through and stabbed her in the thigh with his needle.

"What did you do that for?" I almost incinerated him on the spot, but I kept my anger in check.

"You don't know how dangerous she is, Princess. Especially if she thinks you're Maeve."

Olred swayed, and Ellerin and I rushed to her and guided her to fall on her bed. Her eyelids fluttered, and I took one of her hands between mine. Ellerin moved to the other side of the room.

"Give them some space, won't you, Wilfrin?"

"Yes, she should be sedated now." The little creature left the room. Ellerin stayed. I didn't have the energy to argue with him, and I knew Olred would only have a few more conscious moments.

"I'm sorry, Olred. I'm not Maeve. I'm Reine."

"Reine, the queen." She put her other hand to my cheek. "My beautiful little queen."

She'd call me that when I was a child, and tears burned in my eyes again. "I'm not the queen, Olred. I would never have done this to you."

"I know you wouldn't. That's why you're here." She nodded, and she went limp. I placed her hands along her sides and rose.

Ellerin started forward, his hand outstretched, but then stepped back and clenched it into a fist.

I wish I could say I left her side with reluctance, but I had to keep myself from running from the whole disturbing scene. "Let's go. She's going to sleep for a while after all that excitement and the ambrosia cocktail Wilfrin gave her."

"Yes. You could tell what's in it?"

I crossed the room in two angry strides. "She practically reeks of it. Do they know what that is? What it can do? She may be deprived of her death rest, sent to a final sleep, if they use it too much."

"They claim everything is perfectly calibrated to each guest."

I turned back from the door and allowed the ridge on the handle to bite into my hand. "Guest? Is that what they're calling the poor Fae stuck here?"

"That's what your grandmother calls them." He knocked on the door. "Wilfrin, please let us out now."

The sound of a lock being turned preceded the door being opened. "You locked us in?"

"It's for safety, in case she overpowers you and tries to escape."

I shook my head. "In this place? She wouldn't get very far."

Wilfrin scowled at Ellerin. "You'd be surprised."

He led us out the way we came…I think. I fumed until we'd gotten out past the iron gates and walked up the alley that had led us to the asylum. When I got far enough away that the iron no longer felt like it stung in my bones, I wheeled around and put a hand on Ellerin's chest.

"What was the point of that? Why did you bring me to see her? You've ruined my memories!"

"That was the point. Come along, Princess. I'll explain."