V. The Queen

When she had reached for the flower, Nino heard Lloyd's voice in the opposite direction of the tree she'd left him at. Hills blocked the way, when she turned to look the for the tree. Nino assumed that he had gone around, through the evergreens, since that's where he was standing.

"Nino!" she heard him call. "Nino, lass! Get over here, I've found something!"

Nino waved back and nodded, running to him. She didn't noticed a bleeding heart slip from her hands.

"Coming!"

Nino broke out into a run. She'd only covered a little more distance when her foot caught on something. She stood up, dusting off. She could hear Lloyd laughing good-naturedly at her clumsiness. She supposed she would've done the same, if Lloyd ever tripped. A columbine fell to the ground unnoticed.

Nino's grip on the flowers slackened some as she approached her stepbrother. Several fell out, and when he pointed this out, she realized that she only had half. Nino sighed.

"I guess I'll just give up on the flower idea," she said, drooping. As they walked Nino pulled the flowers apart slowly one by one and tossed them to the side. They stood out on the needle floor, bright oddly shaped petals and stems.

She still had the waxy red one, though.

"Hey, Lloyd?" Nino asked, lifting the flower to her face. She didn't look at him, but knew he was listening intently anyway. "What do you think of Ursula?"

"What?" Lloyd asked, genuinely curious. "Who?"

"Ursula," Nino prompted, amused and tittering. "C'mon, quit playing dumb. You know her."

"What do you mean?" he smiled, and then the ground opened underneath her. Arms made of golden strings reached and bound her ankles and arms, dragging her into the earth. A thick rope twisted around her neck, choking her. Lloyd wasn't smiling anymore. In his place, though, was the grin of shadowy, beautifully translucent person.

Nino reached out to touch a stray rope before it bound her further. The golden-bright threads ground and splayed across her fingers. Looking back up, the deep shadows and brilliance, her breath tightened in her chest.

i Hair. /i

When Nino awoke again, she wasn't alone. The translucent person made of light and dark sat at her side on a wide, silk-covered bed. She coughed immediately, to shake the constricted feeling in her throat and then gasped at her surroundings. Across the walls and furniture were ornate, delicately woven tapestries depicting both horrific and beautiful scenes. A brutal man-hunt, the burning of three staked women, a mother singing her children to sleep, the extravagant feast hall of a king during Hartmastide--anything she could imagine.

The person, now clearly a woman decked in pure white and flowers twisted around her arms and hair, stared down at her. Nino shrunk back violently, scrunching the sheets. The woman blinked, her wide and unnaturally blue eyes stuck in shock. Her hair was bright and long, trailing across the Caledonian carpet like a golden fan for a good six feet. She reached out for Nino, which just made things worse; this woman's hands were deformed with a fourth joint and her nails were long and green with paint.

"Lass!" she said in Lloyd's voice. The woman coughed, as if she had forgotten she'd been using it. Her voice changed, lighter and higher, cloying like milky chocolate from Etruria. "Lass, why are you afraid of me?"

"Y-you're not my brother!" Nino stammered, still crawling away. The weight of her Elfire tome was heavy in her cloak.

"Of course not," said the impossibly shining woman. She leaned even closer. Nino panicked, staring into her unblinking, terrifying blue eyes. Her face was perfectly shaped and each feature was proportionally made and set. She still wasn't beautiful. This inhuman woman was i trying /i too hard.

"You tricked me!" Nino argued further. Her Elfire tome was there, in reach! She could put her hand there and just chant . . . "You pretended to be my brother!"

The unnatural woman smiled so softly and kindly, Nino almost forgave her. "I am the Fae Queen, the lady of forest and field, lake and stream. Please, accept my humblest apologies, Nino of the Fang."

"I . . ." Nino stuttered, relaxing her guard long enough for the Fae Queen to reach for her arm lovingly. It took only a moment realize where she'd remembered that tone, that expression. Uncle Jan used it on her when he was trying to make her eat vegetables. She slapped the elongated hand away, shuddering at the touch. "Don't come near me!"

The goblin queen shrunk back, angry. Her face distorted, turning green-grey, mottled with age. Nino's clothing and hair shuffled with the force of her fury; it exploded around her.

i "WHAT?!" /i her Ladyship shrieked. Streams of gold dug into the bed, the floor, wrapping around her arms Nino screamed. "How . . . dare you! You will be punished!"

Frozen in fear, she forgot about her tome, about Linus and Lloyd, about Ursula and her mother. The world faded around her. She was going to die. No one knew she was here. Her brothers wouldn't save her, no matter how loudly she called out.

Tiny creatures emerged from the cracks in the floor, black like soot. They crawled on her skin and cloak, giving off a searing stench, and smothering her with an uncomfortably hot, scratching of feet. Their eyes were hard black chips, set into the faces of demons.

And for a moment, Nino thought she had died.