In this chapter Mirta gets a pony! Only it's a winged flesh-eating pony, because that's cooler. Willow started as a sketch labeled "evil horse," originally she was Mirta's fairy animal but then I changed my mind about what would happen in season 7 so now Willow's just an ordinary pet

52 Midwinter

The Midwinter season was supposed to be a happy time, and for Mirta now, it suddenly was. She had friends and a mission again.

Her main worry was that Queen Ravenna would… do something when she realized Mirta wasn't under her spell anymore. But she didn't realize. The queen was delighted that Keith was staying and didn't mind that Mirta didn't choose more than one consort. Ravenna did mention that when she was twenty-one she'd had four consorts. Mirta didn't say it but her first thought was that four boyfriends would be a scheduling issue.

Mirta was still thinking about that, the vanished consorts, as she let Keith and Amanda into the Queen's Library. There weren't even pictures of Ravenna's consorts, and no hint of who Miranda's father had been…

"Look at this place." Keith lit up at the sight of the crowded shelves jammed with old books. He went right to the spellbooks. "I've heard of this… Professor Balthazar told me about this one…"

Mirta left him to it and beckoned Amanda towards what she'd actually wanted to show them. "Look at this, these are all handwritten histories and they don't match what I've read anywhere else. Like this one…" She pulled out a leatherbound folio and opened it on the table. "It's about the fighting for Oppositus, when it was first discovered. Witches and fairies fighting over who'd colonize the realm, right? But read this part."

Amanda bent over the page and read the crabbed writing. "They tried to negotiate? We tried to negotiate? Why was there a whole stupid war then?"

"Queen Cressida thinks the Ancestors attacked the meeting. Most of the envoys were never found."

Amanda had found that entry and was reading avidly. She held out her hand and summoned a notebook and pen and started taking notes.

Mirta wanted another look at the histories too, but she had another chore. Chime was now sort of motherish and wanted something to read to the little princesses. There were books of stories in the secret library, really old ones left behind by ancient queens who'd read them to their children. Mirta picked up Legends of Coventry and paged through it. Witch stories were scary. Most of them were about hideous monsters. Banshees that carried off the dead, water ghosts who waited near lakes to drown people, and skulkers, creatures that could sniff out magic and devour it. Giant magic-eating weasels. Charming.

None of these stories were likely to be a hit with two eight-year-old future fairies. Mirta kept looking and, to her amusement, found a shelf of decidedly unwitchy fiction. The covers were new enough that it must have been Ravenna's mother reading The Three Fairies of Love, Wings of Friendship and The Magic Cap. Mirta grabbed the last one. Tabby had liked it so Eili and Eimi probably would too.

"Fairy tales?" Keith asked.

"I guess some of the royals weren't so bad."

"Some were. Did you see what kind of magic they were researching? Heart stealing, bone golems, stuff Miss Rasputin told us about just so we could avoid it."

"This is the secret library, maybe that stuff's here for safety, like the room of forbidden books at Cloud Tower." Mirta said.

Amanda gave her a look dripping with skepticism. "Your Highness has a trusting nature." It was not a compliment.

Mirta sighed. Amanda was probably right. "Not so trusting I don't realize the textbooks have been editing history. It almost looks like…"

"Like someone is making sure witches and fairies keep fighting. It's not just bad blood, it's a conspiracy." Amanda scowled. "The queen knows. She must."

"I told her I wanted to start telling people about this. Or at least investigating, make sure people know what really happened."

Amanda gaped.

"Well what good is being a princess if you can't make things better? Seriously, you guys."

Amanda was still looking like she thought Mirta was completely out of touch with reality, but Keith was smiling. Proudly, Mirta thought. Amanda apparently decided to give up on that whole subject. "Your Highness, are you any good at psychometry?"

"Touch-reading? Not great. I know how, sort of."

"You might want to study up on it, for Midwinter."

Mirta didn't see the connection, but she looked up a spell 'to assist with touch-reading' and copied it down. Night was falling and they had to leave the library so Mirta could deliver the storybook to Chime.

Chime was looking decidedly nervous. She'd been watching the little princesses since they'd arrived, but bedtime stories and a possible serious relationship with their father was a different matter. Princesses Eimi and Eili were about Tabby's age, but neat and adorable in matching pink nightgowns. They were wriggly with excitement and Eimi was sprawled half on Chime's lap.

Chime gratefully accepted the book, then admitted, "I've never read anyone a story. How do you do it?"

"You do the voices!" Eimi said.

Mirta offered, "I guess I could demonstrate. Just this once." And got three dubious looks. "What? Just because I'm royalty I can't know how to read stories?"

Chime passed the book over.

Mirta pulled up a chair as King Evard came to tuck the girls in and sit with Chime.

Feeling weirdly nostalgic Mirta began, "Lyrica's dream was to be a healer like her family and have the handsomest boy in school notice her. She was just a normal girl until the birthday when she received a mysterious box…"

Mirta always loved Midwinter, but this one was strange. She couldn't shop for any of her friends, but she and Keith snuck out of the palace to shop for her servants. She bought Chime a gift certificate to her favorite fabric shop and Amanda one for the bookstore. She knew Queen Ravenna would be expecting a gift, but couldn't think of anything. Eventually Keith suggested flowers and Mirta got a royal bouquet of black roses.

Keith said being the royal consort was present enough, but Mirta bought him chocolate anyway. Wandering the shops of Coventry under a sky heavy with clouds, the lights in the shops twinkling in the evening Mirta remembered the last Midwinter they'd been together, in Magix in the snow. Then, Keith hadn't had a family to shop for; now he was buying more gifts than Mirta, for four sisters, parents and friends. He did offer to deliver presents for Mirta and in the end she couldn't resist sending Lucy a poster signed by the Hex Girls. Lucy would love it, and with magic delivery she'd never know where it had come from.

Thanks to a little magic nobody recognized the princess, and they walked unnoticed through the holiday crowds. With the rain, most of the shoppers were bundled up under cloaks, with the currently fashionable umbrellas that looked like blkack lace. They were just normal witches, the teenagers in wild leather and fishnets, the adults and children in traditional robes or more sedate modern clothes, carrying packages, some with pet rats or toads, or bats peeking out from their hoods.

Keith commented, "Nobody looks worried. There haven't been any slime monsters all month."

"Maybe whoever's summoning them stopped for Midwinter. Pretty much every witch celebrates Longest Night."

"What are you… we, I guess, going to do on the night?"

"Dancing… we sing the songs and eat special food, and exchange gifts."

"I've already got yours."

Mirta blushed and smiled, touched. "Thank you…"

They paused to listen to a pair of witches with violins serenading the shoppers from under a street lamp. It was a lively, cheerful tune and if Lucy had been with them she could've danced. Mirta threw some coins into the musicians' bowl and she and Keith headed for home.

There were still a few days before Longest Night, but Princess Miranda had received so many gifts she had to start opening them early. Mirta sat on her throne and palace servants brought her gifts while a news crew filmed the event.

This was nothing like a normal Midwinter gifting and it was pretty uncomfortable. People had sent her so many things, lovely things, expensive things and handmade things, jewels and clothes and artwork. Entire elementary school classes had sent her paintings. Would-be fashion designers had sent dresses and hats. Mirta used that touch-reading spell to tell which of the gifts had been sent with real care and those were the ones she exclaimed over the most.

Some of the gift-givers had just wanted to look good or make a statement or curry favor with the queen, but so many of them really loved… Princess Miranda. Or the idea of her, anyway. Mirta felt a bit like an impostor.

It was exhausting. Then the queen escorted her outside for her biggest gift—a horse. And not even a normal horse. Amanda was holding the bridle of a night-black creature with leathery wings, short stubby horns, and cloven hooves that hooked forward into points. It stretched forward a long, elegant head to sniff Mirta's hands.

Ravenna introduced her gift, "She's a night mare. They're very rare; Willow may be the last of her kind. She's certainly the only one in captivity."

"Oh you beauty." Mirta murmured to the horse, gingerly scratching around her horns. Willow's teeth were sharp; up close she looked more like a large dog than a horse. Mirta had never heard of night mares but clearly they were hunters. "Mother, she's lovely. How did you find her?"

"Bought her from an interrealm trader. She's been trained to take a saddle. Amanda has been taking care of her for you."

Indeed, Willow was happy to be saddled. Amanda fed her scraps of ham as treats. Mirta waited to mount, part of her mind thrilled to own such a beautiful pet, another part wondering how hard it would be to care for a night mare. A horse-sized animal that ate meat would produce stinky dung and lots of it, and Mirta didn't really have time to muck out stalls…

` And she couldn't ride a flying mount in a gown. Still, she mounted sidesaddle and let Willow trot around the courtyard for the TV crew. Someone was making a show about the princess' Midwinter. Feeling overwhelmed and unable to really get to know her new pet, Mirta dismounted and handed the reins back to Amanda. She leaned close and whispered, "Please say you'll help me write the thank-you cards."

"Of course, Your Highness."

Mirta gave her friend a look of gratitude as Willow nuzzled Amanda affectionately. Well, pet ownership was different for royalty. Someone else took care of Bloom's horse Peg, back on Domino…

They shed the reporters at last and Mirta hoped to sneak off to the Queen's Library, but Queen Ravenna drew her upstairs for a last Midwinter prediction from her oracle. The queen was happy, full of holiday cheer.

The chamber where Delpha was imprisoned felt warmer than it had before, like the air was lighter. The ghost didn't show herself, but Mirta wondered if she was there, invisibly.

And something was missing from the room. "Mother! Pixies celebrate Midwinter too, you know." Mirta said reproachfully. She reached downstairs with her magic and summoned enough evergreen garlands to circle the small tower room, attaching them up near the ceiling with another spell.

"My oracle is a possession, not a guest." Ravenna chided, but she wasn't really angry. "Oracle, earn my daughter's indulgence by giving her a prediction for the year ahead."

Behind the filigree bars of her cage, Delpha summoned her crystal ball. "My pleasure, youngster. You will usher in a golden age for Coventry under the best queen this realm has had in ages, but before then a disaster will befall the realm, one that can only be averted by the princess and her other self."

"But there's only one of me."

"And you will both get your heart's desires." Delpha finished. She was looking straight at Mirta, her gold eyes intense, and Mirta remembered the oracle had made that prediction before. But her heart's desire was… well, the only thing she could think of was that she wanted was to see Nerys again, and that could never happen.

"Oh Miranda, I'm so happy for you." Ravenna hugged Mirta, who tried not to flinch.

"It's… I'm glad. I don't know how I can create a golden age, but I'll try."

"Believe in yourself, daughter."

Mirta imagined it in her own mother's voice and smiled.

The sun hovered just over the western mountains. The Longest Night was about to begin. Chime helped Mirta into another of her amazing gowns, black velvet with ombracite beads around the neckline, matching her amethyst and witchstone necklace. Chime curled Mirta's long hair into ringlets that hung down her back, did her makeup, and dashed off to spend the holiday with her new family.

Mirta glanced from the mirror to Amanda, who was doing paperwork. "You can borrow a dress."

Amanda looked at her.

"If you're not working, come to the ritual. Ambassador Tyndal will be there…"

Amanda's face went through several expressions then slowly she put down her work and drifted towards the dresses. With more encouragement she picked out something long and ruffly, the opposite of her servant's uniform trousers, and threw a short cloak over her shoulders.

There was a knock on the suite's door and Keith looked in, "Are you here?"

"In here." Mirta called.

Keith bowed to them, "Your Highness, Lady Amanda, I'm here to play Father Winter."

"Lady?" Amanda repeated.

Keith handed her a gift, which turned out to be an enchanted pen that could be directed to write by thought and an inkwell that would never empty. It was a lavish gift, the magic would have cost a pile of money, and Amanda sputtered in embarrassed delight.

"There seems to be a lot of note-taking involved in helping run a country." Keith explained as he offered Hexen a furry fake mouse that was enchanted to dance around. Hex's eyes went huge and he pounced on his new toy with enthusiasm.

"Is this what you do, enchant things?"

"Mmhm. If I need money I make something. Here's yours, your Highness, open it."

Mirta's gift was a bundle of silver-gray silk. When she shook it out it proved to be a long cloak, enchanted to look like slowly shifting stormclouds. The clasp was a metal spiral that split apart to open.

Mirta made a wordless squeak of delight. "It's beautiful!" She put it on with a flourish and marveled at the way the fabric swirled behind her almost weightlessly. "How much magic is in it?"

"I did it like mine—it'll keep you warm or cool, it has invisible pockets, and it'll make you hard to see if you're standing still."

Mirta threw her arms around him. "I love it! Thank you!"

Keith laughed and hugged her back, face alight, then stepped back and offered his arm. "Then may I escort you to the celebration, Your Highness?"