“However will we survive?” Katja deadpans.
Helkki twirls off, her arms above her head. “I’ll be over here, sobbing.”
Aili beams for a change. “I win!” Then she chases after one of my fading butterflies.
“Alright, alright.” I clap my hands. “Let’s take it from the lovers’ entrance.”
“Ew.”
“Ew.”
Sigh. This is why we don’t do romantic plays.
Behind me, Val laughs again. But Juani and Helkki troop off to retake their places, shoving each other as they go. This time,the lines are somewhat more believable. I’ll just have to fix their faces along with their costume illusions.
The scene wraps up with the suitor, Demetri, coming to claim his new bride with sedate reluctance. The over-the-top tears from the other two leave me shaking my head.
“Ready for your big debut?” I ask Val.
She rises from the log and brushes snow from her skirt. There’s no need to be nervous, but I doubt it would help to tell her that. Her part is just to stand in for the queen during rehearsals. No acting necessary, although her nerves are probably about more than this. After all, it is her stepmother who might freeze us all to death if this goes wrong.
Aili plays her part perfectly, guiding Val onto the stage and over to the fairy circle. “Behold the Fairy Queen, the fairest of them all.”
For a moment, Val stands so straight and regal, gliding across the clearing like moonlight come to life, that I forget to breathe. Not only is she beautiful, she’s queen-like—which should chill me with fear, not stir heat through my belly.
Someone coughs.
“That’s your cue, Lark,” reminds Katja.
“What? I mean, yes! Got it.”
“Do you?” That from Val. Her unimpressed queen look is disturbingly convincing.
“Yes, my one true love, I do.”
She blinks. “As the kids say,Ew. I’m pretending to be Queen Taynia.”
“And I am playing the role of Beron. You’re the one who told us he’s secretly in love with her. If not, then this might all backfire.”
“No, I’m positive on that front. What I’m not sure of is whether she ever cared for him in return.”
“Let’s hope,” I say. “This’ll be a lot more potent if there’s something real for the potion to latch onto.”
“Fairies, make haste,” Aili cries, getting us back on track.
Wings aflutter, Katja swoops down with the love potion vials, taking on a new role in the fairy glen where she’ll unite our unsuspecting guests. Today, nothing more than snowmelt fills the vials, but the instant love potion should do its job during the actual performance.
Mikael (as Demetri) reenters the stage, with Johannes trailing behind him, his face as long as that of the steed I’ll illusion into the scene for him on the day. “I do not love thee, Lena. Get thee gone. Now where is my fair Mia? The fairies bade me she would be here in these woods.”
Taking his turn to grimace, Joha whines, “Why do I have to play the girl again?”
“Because your ears are small enough to fit under the wig,” Helkki cackles.
“No,” I sigh. “Because Doc is busy with the potions, Aili is busy guiding the queen to the fairy glen, and Hellion is already playing Mia. Unless Eevi started walking and talking since this morning, that leaves you.”
“Val could do it,” he complains.
“She’s playing the queen.”
