Faire Eve Read online

  “Uncle Dain took me to Coney Island as I requested and he set off for the little Irish Pub. I ran to the boardwalk and was elated to see your father already waiting for me. He held a picnic basket in one hand and a large umbrella in the other. We ate by the ocean and spent the entire day together.”

  “In fact, we saw each other every day for the rest of my stay. My father teased me I would become a mermaid if I continued to spend all of my time at the beach, but I dared not tell him the real reason I went every chance I got. I feared he would not approve of our relationship and how quickly we were falling in love.”

  “After only nine days, your father and I knew we could never be apart. We were totally in love and we were ready to marry, if only my parents would agree. The night before I was to leave, your father came as a surprise dinner guest at the hotel. You should have seen your grandfather’s face when your dad strode over to our table and introduced himself.”

  “My father was livid at me, Dain, and your father. My mother wept as if I had committed high treason and my punishment would be death. Your grandfather swore I would never see your father again and we left the restaurant before our dinner came to the table. I cried and pleaded. I begged my father and grew angry when he denied my wishes, accusing him of being a monster. Your father, never one to be dissuaded, came to the hotel to continue our efforts but your grandfather had him thrown out immediately.”

  “Your father bribed a kind maid to slip a note inside a room service order I never placed. I was starving from not eating and didn’t care the food came without request. I shared a suite with my mother and father but luckily, a door separated our rooms. Hidden away, I pulled the silver dome off the entree to find the letter along with a red rose.”

  “I will not bore you with the lovely message I read. Your father wanted me to run away with him. We would meet at the Boardwalk at dawn. I considered the proposal with great enthusiasm because I was distraught over leaving my true love. I knew my parents would be sorry they denied me my soul mate. As the hours passed and it grew nearer to the time, I knew I couldn’t leave my family without saying goodbye. The next morning my parents whisked me back home and I was sure I would never see your father again.”

  A single teardrop coursed down her mother’s high cheekbone and Eve could only imagine how painful the retelling of the story must be. “Wait, surely your dad changed his mind. I mean, we are all here. Something good happened, right?”

  Her mother reached out and patted Eve’s hand. “Obviously, it worked out, but not in the way you might imagine.” A rueful smile played across her mother’s face as she continued the tale.

  “The next six months were the worst of my life. Every day I missed your father more and more, despite my mother’s assurance our love was a fleeting thing. She said I would mend and there were better suitors right there in Tiffin. Yet, every night I dreamed of your father waiting for me on the boardwalk near the ocean with the new rays of the sun lighting up the water behind him.”

  “I knew he was hurt when I didn’t show. People guarded my actions and communications closely and I could not send him a letter pledging my heart or to say how sorry I was. I suffered through a dark time. I both hoped and feared your father found someone else to make him happy. I didn’t want him to live in the same sadness I did, but if he forgot me easily, it would crush me. Each day grew worse. I knew I would never be happy until I saw your father again.”

  “I turned eighteen on a Saturday. My parents gave me everything a girl could want and they tried valiantly to lift my mood. I knew I was leaving them all soon and the day was bittersweet. I loved my parents but I was still angry with them for keeping me a prisoner. I would miss them very much. I pushed the anger, the sadness, and the pain away from me. I tried to be pleasant and enjoy the time I had left with my family.”

  “Just as I began to enjoy myself, another man proposed to me. He knelt in front of me, the ring in hand. A small crowd, including our parents, gathered around us. I stared at him for a long time as if he were an oddity from outer space. I was shocked and embarrassed. As kindly and quietly as I could, I refused him. I thanked him for his affections and apologized because I did not feel the same way. The poor man was mortified. He stood with as much dignity as he could muster and there were tears in his eyes as he walked away.”

  “I still believe he wept for himself and not for me. He never considered the thought that I might say no. We knew each other almost our entire lives. Alston was kind but boring. He was not highly regarded among the other men our age but his family was an old family. He could have provided me with a comfortable but completely dull life.”

  “We had attended many dances and festivals together but never romantically. I could always ask Alston to escort me and never have to worry about him wanting more than friendship. His social awkwardness prevented him from being a cad and the status of being my friend curbed the torture dealt to him by the other boys. What I saw as a solid friendship, he saw as an opportunity to gain status by marrying me.”

  “My father was angry and my mother cried. I went to my bedroom and she followed. She pleaded with me to reconsider. She tried to convince me Alston was my perfect match. She said many things to me in the hour we talked. I argued each point she made effectively.”

  “At last, she grew frustrated with me and she said the ugliest thing I could imagine. She asked if your father was the reason I wouldn’t marry Alston and when I answered yes, I learned the true meaning of discrimination. The awfulness of her reaction nearly broke my heart.”

  “My mother lost all of her gentleness. She turned to me and said, ‘You cannot marry that boy! He is common street trash. You will never see him again! Get over it and move on. Alston is one of us, Clarisse. You should be grateful he wants you after the way you have behaved the last few months. The boy in New York is not fit to be your husband, just as you are not fit to be Alston’s wife’.”

  “My mother left me in a flourish of anger. I cried harder than I ever cried before. Of course, I knew your father was not street trash. He was in college and came from a decent family. He wasn’t wealthy but he wasn’t poor. He was a handsome, well-spoken, and well-mannered young man who happened to not be of our circle.”

  “My mother was being cruel because my family and our circle of friends were something special in Tiffin and she didn’t understand why I would want to separate from them. She was born under a wing of safety and stayed tucked in it all her life. She wanted the same for me but I wanted to live a very different life.”

  The pain of repeating those words almost crippled her mother’s voice and her father bore the look of someone who never quite healed from the wound the words had caused. Eve cried for the girl her mother had once been and the brutality of love denied. The story made her glad she had never met her mother’s parents. How horrible they must have been.

  Her voice raw with emotion, Eve’s mother gave her a weak smile and finished her story. “I ran away that night. I traveled the entire distance on my own. I was stupid. The whole thing was reckless, dangerous, and very scary. I cried almost the whole time. When at last I reached New York City, I went to the Boardwalk because I realized I didn’t know where your father lived. I waited there almost all day. I was tired, cold, and hungry. I didn’t bring much with me and my clothes were not suited for the chilly northern air.”

  “I began to worry that I had come all the way alone and wouldn’t find him. I worried he found someone else and he would laugh at me for coming. I almost went home but I couldn’t bring myself to face my family. Finally, I saw him. He looked even more handsome than I remembered. When he saw me, I thought his face would crack from his large smile. He yelled out my name and ran to me. I found myself paralyzed with happiness. Before I could blink, I was in his arms. It felt wonderful and I knew I did the right thing. We were married a week later.”

  Eve’s mother stood up and went to her father’s side. He wrapped his arm around her thin waist and she leaned down to place
a kiss on his cheek. “Now you know how I met your father. The story is bittersweet. I hated what I did to my parents but I wouldn’t change a thing.”

  Eve’s mind swirled with the romantic story. She couldn’t wait to walk the same boardwalk where her parents fell in love. She wanted to see them relive the beautiful moment again in their minds as they strolled hand and hand. The image seemed magical to Eve, like a fairytale.

  “Did you ever see your parents again?” Eve knew both her grandparents had passed away when she was very small but her mother never really spoke about them. She never thought much about her mother’s parents. Her paternal grandparents lived an hour away and they were always enough for her.

  “Yes. Once, when you were a little baby, I took you to Tiffin. They were happy to see you. Your grandfather was overjoyed in fact. Unfortunately, they never forgave me for marrying your father. The only way they would accept us was if I took you away from him and moved back to Tiffin. Enough of these old stories. Time for you to go to bed. We have a lot of packing to do tomorrow.”

  3

  Disappointed he was unable to bring Eve back with him, Eldon’s heart barely fluttered as he approached Trig Na nOg. For any of the fey, crossing back into Evalon was a heart lifting experience. Even dark fairies like the hobgoblins and the dybbuk felt the homecoming in a special way. When fey entered Trig Na nOg, the most sacred place of all the fairies, the homecoming was even more of an emotional experience. Instead of feeling Trig Na nOg’s blessing, Eldon felt the weight of his failure.

  Hundreds of magical creatures of different breeds and races, ranging from the Abatwa to the Zips, lived in Evalon. They lived in places rarely seen by humans. They chose to stay separated from the rest of the worlds by magical gates. Evalon cradled the fey in her loving lands and kept their magic pure. Their royal city, Trig Na nOg, stood at the heart of all the magic running through their lands and their veins. The fairy kings and queens, known as the Sidhe, ruled from the city since the beginning of time.

  Eldon approached the castle slowly. He did not want to deliver the news that Eve, the Sidhe’s last blood link, remained a prisoner of her human shell. The fairies had always known about Eve but none would have thought their fate would depend on the child. Her mother, Clarisse, was the first Sidhe princess to bear a child outside of Evalon.

  Many fairy princes and kings fathered half-fey children in the upper worlds. Common fey creatures did it all the time. The difference was that Clarisse was a woman. For a Sidhe princess to forsake her family and her people, marry a human, and raise their daughter without knowledge of the fey was a great insult.

  Sixteen years had passed after Eve’s birth and all seemed well. The Sidhe continued to grow and produce many heirs to the throne. The one child, who was not even full-blooded, would not matter to them. They thought of her as only a nuisance, until the night of the Winter Solstice.

  All across Evalon, the fey celebrated the holiday with music, feasts, and festivities. The Sidhe came from near and far to gather in the halls of Trig Na nOg castle. The magic flowed freely and the only fear was that one or two of the fey people would become engorged in the entertainment.

  The fairies’ fondness for art, music, and dancing bordered on dangerous obsession. An eternal people, they experienced beauty like no other. Their deep appreciation made many of them become foolishly involved in the sound of a song, the colors of a painting, or other such things and it cost them their life.

  When something truly captivated a fairy, they put their heart and mind completely into it and easily fell into a trance. Not being able to rouse from the sleep, some starved to death or were captured by predators. The fairies called the trance Krásny Večný, the beautiful sleep. The only natural cause of death known in Evalon until the Sidhe began to fall ill during the Winter Solstice celebration.

  A strange disease ran rampant through the Sidhe bloodline after the Solstice. No one knew how to cure the evil fever that drove the royal family to hallucinations and great weakness. Others ran away from the castle and only the very loyal remained to try to save the Sidhe. After months of suffering and pain, the entire Sidhe family, from youngest to oldest, fell into a quiet stupor as cold and frozen as if in death. They all lay in silence though their hearts still beat.

  The fey began to live in fear that the Nádcha Večný, the cold sleep, would take them as well. They no longer danced or sang and they could no longer look into mirrors or clear pools. The fear the trance would come upon them clouded all beautiful things. Worst of all, Beltane, the most treasured holiday of the fey, was upon them. If the fey could not celebrate the day, their magic would begin to deplete. With no one of Sidhe blood sitting on the throne of Trig Na nOg, the celebration could not begin. The fairy people believed they would all die or fall into the cold sleep and all the magic in the world would end.

  Eldon carried the great responsibility on his shoulder to find the one Sidhe descendent who could help them and return her to Evalon. He was one of the few to remain with the Sidhe throughout their illness. After the Sidhe fell into the cold sleep, Eldon suggested they move them to a place where they could remain together, be watched and cared for, and be guarded until a cure could be found. Eldon had carried Queen Mave in his own arms and wept with manly grace as he had lain her on a bower of lilies.

  Eldon’s dedication, strength, intelligence, and heart earned him the task of bringing Eve back to Evalon to claim the Trig Na nOg throne. The Sidhe banned her mother, Clarisse, from the kingdom for her traitorous ways but the ban did not extended to the child. Rumors circulated that King Midir tried to appear to the child on several occasions and wake the fairy blood within her. Her ever-vigilant mother, despite the king’s best efforts, had always thwarted his attempts.

  Eldon took the only volunteer who came forward, a young Valkyrie named Aibell, with him to the upper world. Aibell was the bubbliest, happiest Valkyrie that Eldon had ever met and he inwardly groaned when she stepped forward in answer to his call for a volunteer.

  The fey questioned the purity of Aibell’s blood. Because of her cheerful countenance, people gossiped that Aibell’s stolid and reserved mother had a tryst with a Sprite. Aibell was constantly fighting to prove herself as a true Valkyrie and dispel the nasty rumors.

  Corrigan, the wisest of all the fey, prepared Eldon and Aibell for their journey to Upper World. Along with supplies, she administered warnings. She told them it would be better for the half-human girl if she discovered her own magic before they approached her. Allowing Eve to do so turned out to be much more difficult than expected. Clarisse had trained the child to avoid and ignore all things magical with a fierce dedication that had become habit over the years.

  Eldon and Aibell lived in the bough of an oak tree in Eve’s yard for over a week. They used their magic to lift the veil between the human world and Evalon in Eve’s presence to no avail. When Eve walked to school, they let the pansies’ sweet song hum through the air. They enchanted the pools of water to reflect scenes from Evalon and all manner of other tricks. Other than confusing a few humans who seemed to be bless with the sight to see fairy things and aggravating a few of the neighborhood pets, they did not manage to get Eve’s attention at all.

  On the last night, they watched Eve through her bedroom window. When she almost made a wish, Aibell wanted to take drastic steps and simply appear to the young girl. Appearing to humans was an extremely dangerous tactic. They were often violent when frightened or mentally damaged by their inability to accept the magical.

  If the girl would have made a wish, Eldon would have used his magic to open a window into Evalon and the girl’s power could have surfaced. When Aibell tried to storm in, Eldon stopped her. The words “I wish”, would have been an acknowledgement of magic and a step forward. Without them, the girl remained more human than not.

  Distracted by Aibell, Eldon spoke louder than he meant to. Only when Eve fell backward, did he realize they almost revealed themselves to her by accident. Disappearing into the le
aves of the tree as fast as possible, Eldon hoped the incident would not render the girl mentally disabled and therefore useless to the Sidhe.

  Eldon, in his aggravation, sent Aibell back to Evalon without him. He spent the rest of the night assuring the girl was unharmed and watching for another chance to approach her. He wouldn’t admit it, but he wondered if Aibell might have been right. He should have let the spoiled little child see him. Eve was only a year younger than he was, but living in the human world had corrupted her into something little better than a regular human. He would have risked frightening her but he knew a blathering nut case could not save Evalon.

  The girl didn’t give him another chance and he would have to tell Corrigan and the others he failed. Failure, to a Daoine, was worse than death. With his feet dragging from both exhaustion and regret, Eldon entered the lower level of the castle. He could hear voices echoing down the hall and he knew Corrigan had already gathered the council. Another stab of self-disappointment surged as he opened the door and tried to hold his head high.

  He greeted Corrigan and the council before coming right to the point. “I have failed on my quest. Eve has not been awakened and has not come to Evalon at my side.”

  Eldon almost wanted to cry but a warrior did not cry, a hard lesson his father had taught him long ago. A warrior accepted his failure and the consequences with his head high and sorrow in his heart, not in his eyes.

  “Come Eldon, sit and tell us of your mission and if any hope remains.” Corrigan’s voice, as always, was ageless and kind. In fact, everything about Corrigan was ageless. No matter how long she lived, she never changed.

  Eldon told them of his efforts. He retold the entire story from beginning to end. His eyes did not waver from the councils’ faces when he told them Eve almost saw him and Aibell. The most shocking part was when he told them about the girl’s ability to block out all things magical from her mind.