The Power of the Mighty Sidhe
Chapter 1
The town of Camelot is dark and silent at the hour just before midnight as Beann moves quickly through the streets following the Elder's lead. Only the occasional lighted window illuminates the night as they pass by. They make their way over the drawbridge and through the gate silently, unseen. Two guards, lulled by the quiet night and warming their hands on a brazier, do not see them as they pass.
There is more light from the torches in sconces that flicker in the courtyard in front of the citadel, but no one is stirring. Here they separate, the Elder to find the physician's quarters where he's been told that the serving boy, Merlin, resides. "That is," Beann thinks, "if we can trust the pixie." Pixies are known for misleading others.
But the pixie has apparently served faithfully all these years, watching over Beann's sister Leanan, who is trapped in the body of the human, keeping her safe and well with the golden dust. When the human marries the prince, Leanan will be free and will ultimately become queen of Camelot. But earlier tonight, the pixie had come to the lake to speak to the Elder and warned him of the problem: Arthur's serving boy Merlin knows that the princess is a changeling. With the wedding set for the next day, they needed to move quickly to ensure that nothing prevented the union from taking place.
The Elder has gone to take care of the troublesome serving boy Merlin, while Beann enters the citadel to find the pixie, and find her sister. She flits quickly from room to room until she finds the chambers where the princess sleeps. All appears to be well, and Beann relaxes. She stills her movements, and perches on the edge of a chair near the window to sleep.
The sun the next morning is dazzling, and it lights up the princess's chambers. Beann is startled awake by sound of the human girl pacing back and forth in her room. "I can't walk in these shoes," the girl whines, unheard by the pixie who is standing at the open door talking to someone out in the corridor. Beann hides herself in the sunbeam streaming through the open window. In a few more hours her sister Leanan will wed Prince Arthur of Camelot, although the prince believes his marriage is with Princess Elena, the human in whom Leanan now dwells. How easily these foolish humans have been deceived. They seem to think they can make their own destiny.
Beann waits and watches as the human princess fretfully moves about her chambers. The pixie excuses herself and leaves the rooms on an ill-defined errand, but the girl is so distracted that she doesn't notice. Beann glances out the window and she can see the courtiers, knights and ladies starting to converge on the citadel heading to the throne room for the ceremony. The marriage of the crown prince is a joyful event that all will celebrate. There is an air of festivity in the people as they gather, all dressed in their best.
Her attention is drawn from the window by a disturbance in the hallway outside the princess's chambers. She hears the pixie's voice call out, "you'd better be ready for me, first!" A loud crash and a shout follow.
Just then, an elderly man in a dark red robe rushes into the room. "I've brought you a tonic to calm your nerves," he says to the princess, who sits on the end of bed.
"Oh no!" Beann thinks. She recognizes the ruby red potion in the small vial the old man gives to the girl; it's the potion that the witches of Marador perfected to drive out a fairy residing within a changeling. Beann realizes that the old man intends to force her sister out of the girl. He hands the vial to the princess. Silently, Beann conveys her thoughts to her sister to compel the girl to resist. And the girl stops as she lifts the vial to her mouth.
"I wish my mother were here." She says.
At the sound of another crash in the hallway, Beann skirts around the side of the room to make her way to the door unseen. She slips out into the corridor through the gap between the bottom of the door and the floor. The humans in the room don't notice her light as she flits by.
In the corridor she sees a gangly young man with dark hair wielding a Sidhe staff, its blue stone glowing. He holds it out and with a shout forces its magic toward the pixie. Beann wails as the pixie crumbles into a pile of golden dust with small black particles on the floor of the corridor.
The young man grabs the door handle wrenching open the door to the princess's room. The girl and the old man are seated next to each other at the foot the bed; she still hasn't downed the potion. Before Beann can react, the young man hands off the staff to the older man, grabs the vial of potion and, tilting up the girl's head holding her nose, empties the vial into her mouth. "Elena," he says, "this is going to make you feel a whole lot better."
"NO!" Beann screams in her head, as the girl tumbles back on the bed and the fairy is driven from her body. Beann, keening with grief and pain, sees Leanan's light rise into the air above the bed, only to be killed by a blast of power thrown from the staff by the young man. He's killed the pixie; and now he's killed Leanan. He is a murderer. He has destroyed her sister and the future of a Sidhe Queen of Camelot.
She follows the murderer as he races out of the room with the staff in his hand, keeping her distance, but keeping him in sight. He makes his way through the corridor and down the stairs to the doors leading to the grand staircase above the courtyard. Once in the courtyard he turns to the right to enter the castle through a side door. 'Court Physician' she reads on a sign posted on the wall near a steep staircase. She slips inside the main chamber unnoticed and sees him coming down a short flight of steps without the staff and quickly leaving the room. But what captures her attention is the silvery dust motes floating in the air and settling on the floor. All at once she knows: the murderer has also killed the Sidhe Elder. He must be brought back to the lake and face Sidhe justice for his crimes. She stills her wings, slows her movements and assumes a human form, knowing that this is how she must appear to capture the killer.
Beann leaves the physician's chambers in her human shape, that of a beautiful young woman with silvery blond hair in a white and silver gown, holding a staff with a pale blue stone at the top. She heads outside into the courtyard and follows the crowd to the throne room.
After the Prince's confession that he does not love the Princess and after the wedding guests depart, Beann follows the serving boy, the murderer Merlin. She doesn't want to lose sight of him before she can bring him back to Avalon with her to face the anger of the Sidhe. She's returned to her natural state. She will watch and wait.