19
A swirling mist surrounded Faye, and she had the sensation of falling. Flashes of green, yellow and brown surrounded her, as if she flew in a storm of earth and pollen. All the while, she felt Lyr’s hand in hers.
In the next moment, she felt her feet touch earth, and she held out her other arm to steady herself, shaking her head to clear it and look around.
She stood on a bridge of rock between two mountains that stretched high into the clouds. Lyr stood next to her and caught the wonder in her eyes as she surveyed her new surroundings.
‘Welcome to the entrance to Falias. Is it not the most wondrous of the realms?’ he boomed, and pointed with their clasped hands to a golden gateway at one end of the bridge which led into the mountain. Faye leaned forward just a little; the chasm under the bridge loomed up to greet her. She couldn’t see the bottom; it was wreathed in mist. She swallowed nervously and leaned back.
‘It is beautiful,’ she agreed. Clearly, in Falias, danger was woven with beauty just like Murias. The bridge itself was carved from rock, and intricate patterns twisted below her feetand at the edges of it where a waist-high barrier sat between them and the vertiginous drop. Looking down, she could see the swirling mists through the twists and loops of the pattern; Faye wondered how many years it had taken to carve. She thought suddenly of Levantiana and froze. This wasn’t Murias, so Levantiana should have no power over her here. But the way that she’d been able to reach through into the ordinary world and manipulate Faye into keeping quiet about the curse made her wary.
‘Am I safe here?’ she called out to Lyr.
‘Of course. No being will harm you here,’ he replied, but Faye kept her hands at her sides.
‘Not even…other faerie queens? Kings?’ She wanted to be sure; perhaps her being in the faerie realms at all would alert or anger Levantiana or Finn Beatha.
‘This is my realm. Not theirs. You are free from them here,’ he repeated, and she nodded and followed him.
‘You called me Father before. Was that just for the summoning, or did you mean it?’ he asked suddenly as he walked in front of her, his cloak flowing out behind him. He didn’t look at her, and his question hung in the air between them, words made in mist that she didn’t know how to answer.
Faye concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other over the thin stone bridge, but unease enveloped her, and she was very aware of the drop that fell away under her feet.
‘No.’ Faye took a deep breath and focused on her feet as much as she could. ‘You abandoned us. You hurt Moddie. I’m here because I need you, yes. But don’t think we can start playing happy families just yet.’ She was sarcastic, but she couldn’t help it.What did he think was going to happen?
Lyr stopped dead ahead of her.
‘Your rudeness will not help you,’ Lyr snapped, turning to her. The bridge was very narrow; Faye tried not to look down.She wanted to get to the other side, to get away from the precipice, but he grabbed her by the shoulders. ‘You wanted me. You called to me. Do not refuse me now.’
He shook her, not hard, but it was enough to make her grab at him in panic.
‘Don’t shake me. Not on this bridge,’ she panted.
He released her shoulders and gave her an analytical stare.
‘Threatening my life won’t help me trust you.’ She repeated his words back to him in the same tone and was relieved to see regret in his eyes.
‘You’re right.’ He turned away and walked on.
Faye knew so little about him that it was hard to tell if he was sincere, but for now she just wanted to get off the bridge. But she’d genuinely detected a regretful sadness in his eyes.
Be sad, then, she thought.A little sadness won’t do you any harm. You’ve inflicted enough sadness on other people.
‘This way.’ Lyr led her towards the golden gate. Looking over her shoulder, Faye saw a black gate at the other end of the bridge, carved in the shape of two women kissing. She remembered seeing it before in her vision. The gate was closed.
‘What’s that way?’ she asked.
‘Nothing.’ He dismissed it with a flick of his hand.
‘Tell me what that is. The black gates at the other side of the bridge,’ Faye repeated, pointing behind her. ‘If you want us to have a relationship, you can at least talk to me. Answer my questions.’
Lyr turned to look behind them and frowned, shaking his head.
‘That way leads to my sister’s quarters, the Queendom of Moronoe, as she insists on calling it. We are not on speaking terms,’ he said huffily, and led Faye into the dark recess of the mountain beyond the golden gate. ‘But this is my realm; thekingdomof Falias.’ His tone inferred that his realm wasthe correct one, though Faye could detect an irritation in his voice and wondered why Falias was divided in this way. She remembered, the night of the Mabon ritual, that she had heard laughing faerie voices beckoning her to Moronoe. But, that time, the gates had been made of two golden female figures, locked in an embrace.
‘My aunt, then?’ Faye stared back at the black gates and wondered what lay beyond them.
‘She is your blood kin, yes. But I doubt you would see much of yourself in her.’ His tone was flat.
