Semper Fidelis

Chapter 22

We fled the lands of Summer as rapidly as our feet could carry us in our exhausted state. It was my hope that Honey would reach Queen Tatania and explain what had taken place and then that the Queen would be wise enough to investigate our claims before launching a full out war. With a little bit of luck she would discover her hidden army composed of her missing forces, and they would support Honey's story that Winter was not in fact usurping their loyalty to their Queen. With only a slightly greater bit of luck both the Summer Lady and Summer Knight would awaken soon as well and the hostilities between eh courts could ease back down to merely the general mistrust level that we all have grown accustomed to.

We fled though because without this luck Queen Tatania would soon undoubtedly understand one of her supposedly most powerful advisors had just disappeared as well and it was more than a little likely she would decide to attack Winter before her forces lost any more of their strength. None of us wanted to be around if that happened, especially those of us, meaning me, who were wearing a Winter token at the moment.

So with this to spur us on we raced, okay we stumbled and hobbled as quickly as we could, to reach the gate back to Chicago. It did not escape my thoughts that my clothing was also again going to disappear in the next few hours at also that someone else would likely show up at the museum in the morning and find the mess Rumplestiltskin and our group had left behind. So we had lots of reasons to hurry. Yeah, in the end, as fast as we were it was not quite fast enough.

Queen Tatania stood at the gate awaiting our arrival but without her usual retinue and only Honey the unicorn at her side. I had mentioned before what it was like to sense the power of the Faerie Queen, and likely because of the near war I sensed that if anything Tatania was even more powerful now. In the event of conflict, on our side of the equation were two exhausted wizards, a battered raksasha, a two inch troll, and an apprentice smith all out of handy tricks. As I looked to the left and the right there were not even a convenient family of sirens available for causing a distraction. If a fight was what the Queen wanted I doubted it would last a full minute.

We approached and the Queen said nothing but merely stared at us and took accounting of our injuries. Likely she was sizing up how big of a threat we were to her and from the way she did not immediately blast us I had to assume we did not seem to register as all that large a threat. At least she did not break out into laughter.

"Emissary, provide your report." Queen Tatania ordered Elaine when we stopped before her and in doing so literally ignored the rest of us. I can't say I was disappointed by this.

I noticed an odd sensation of determination building up in Elaine as her hands clenched at her sides and she squared her shoulders to look directly at the Queen. Daniel saw this as well and stepped closer lending moral support to Elaine through his mere presence and physical support if that were going to be necessary.

"Queen of Summer there is no need for war. The message the unicorn carried of the actual threat to your power was true, but because of the actions and bravery of the Winter Emissary and her brother, that threat to your rule no longer exists. Furthermore it is our hope that the Lady and the Knight shall soon awaken and be restored to you. The traitor's quest for power ended with the loss of her own though we left her alive as it is not an emissary's prerogative to exact justice for the court. I will provide you with the remaining details that require action on the Court's part to set right; mortal and immortal remains that need to be disposed of before they draw unwanted attention and such." Wow that was some speech and it even was delivered without an overabundance of fear in her voice.

Elaine looked at the Queen, then reached up, took off her Summer token, and tossed it at Tatania's feet. "And with the completion of this report fulfilling my contract, I declare I am not bound to you or acting as your emissary any longer." Obviously Daniel had talked to Elaine on our walk here and knew her mind in this for he tensed for action at these words in case the Queen were to take this as an insult.

Queen Tatania's eyes flashed dangerously at Elaine, but a comforting hand from Daniel on her shoulder allowed her to weather the Fae Queen's storm. And at the end of this moment of challenge Tatania's face broke into a smile tinged with sadness.

"Wizard Elaine Mallory you have indeed been a most loyal member of my court. I fear now I realize too late just how valuable. I only wish you were not mortal for I seem to have a new opening in among my closest advisors that requires someone both loyal and resourceful and your resume certainly fits these needs." The Faerie Queen seemed to be genuinely saddened as she picked up the Summer token laying down at her feet. "I accept the completion of your service and therefore the removal of any obligation you have had with the Summer Court."

"Thank you Queen." That was all Elaine said though this was because the conflicting emotions of surprise and pride; the latter something new for her to experience.

The Queen then held the Summer token out to her. "I ask you to accept this not out of subjugation but out of friendship." She explained. "It would please me greatly if you would come to visit now and then. I am certain Cheiron would appreciate this as well." She said naming the giant centaur whom Elaine had befriended. A tear broke through the dam and Elaine nodded her head as she took the magical pendant once more. No longer did it symbolize a slave collar, now it was a gift between friends.

There were some more pleasantries expressed, the Queen thanking all of us for our efforts on behalf of her court as she also called up and dispatched an army of some loyal pixies and the such to go take care of the remaining cleanup in the mortal world before dawn. I cannot say I was unhappy to depart at long last when we were finally granted leave to do so.

Back on the mortal side, once we had distanced ourselves from the museum, it was also time for our group to go their separate ways. Hisha was the first, saying that he had to get little Lord Kline back to his home and feed him so he could grow up one day to be a big, strong troll. I was surprised to see the little troll did not respond to this jibe but Hisha explained it would be more than a year before the troll's memories would begin to regenerate and grow back like his body did. Hisha planned to use that time to play as much chess with the little fellow as possible and try to restore the balance to their win and loss ratio the two of them shared.

I also realized to my disappointment that this meant it would be at least a year before the troll would be able to provide the name of his White Council wizard acquaintance who had instigated this mess. Harry would be disappointed that I had been unable to get this name so I decided that what I needed to do instead was stick close to him when he had dealings with the White Council and see if I could recognize the voice, or better yet the emotions of whoever had been behind this. I also owed him for the lump on the back of my head and that was a debt that I planned to pay in full!

I thanked Hisha and gave the monk disguised raksasha a hug for all the help he had provided me and especially what he had taught me over the past few days. He waved this off in modesty.

"I merely taught you a few magical tricks Molly." He said. "You on the other hand showed me that human kind is not nearly so self absorbed these days as they appear to be; and that they can still find faith, in God, in others, but especially in themselves, when they are faced with the need to." He politely turned away before I began to cry, though I could have sworn as he walked away he wiped his own eyes as well.

I turned to find Elaine and Daniel exchanging addresses and phone numbers before hugging as well. It was a chaste action, but I did note that the touch did not instill in Elaine the same level of discomfort of her personal space being violated as it had just a day or so before. I did not take that as a good sign but I was not going to get into it with Daniel about who he was allowed to be friends with; though I reserve the right to put my foot down if they decided to date. Hey that is what big sisters are for.

"Molly." Elaine said turning and walking over to me. "I guess this is time for us to say goodbye, at least for the moment." She sort of pulled me aside. "About Harry…" She began to say stumbling over her words.

"Don't worry." I tried to calm her. "I will not be telling him about how you still feel." I said trying to remove her concerns about this. I had only promised to speak about it if I thought it had any relevance on what had taken place. It did not so there was no reason, except for my own occasional devious nature that I'm supposed to tap down anyway, to break this confidence.

"Thank you." She said awkwardly. "But that is not what I was talking about." She paused. "You need to tell Harry how you feel about him." She said to me while I felt my mouth drop. "Don't make the same mistakes I have made throughout my life. They have come at far too high of a price." I looked at her quizzically to explain. "Just don't be afraid." She said clearly to make sure I understood.

I merely nodded because I did not know what to say in response to that. I was less than pleased that she understood me so well, perhaps better than I did myself. My feelings for Harry were complicated certainly, but I did in fact love him. Maybe Elaine was right, maybe I needed to not be afraid to tell him just how I felt.

"You sure you do not want to share a cab?" I asked as we flagged one down to pick us up and another was coming up the street behind it already beginning to slow.

"No." She replied. "I have to get back home and check on things." It was a politely lie that people tell each other so that they do not have to tell the truth that it was time to separate. "But you can do me a favor and give this to Harry. He will know what to do with it." She said handing me the magical flail she had been given. I understood and we said goodbyes, no hugs, no handshakes, but at least a smattering of shared respect for the two people changed by these last few days of shared adventure.

Daniel and I headed home and I could not prevent myself from playing the big sister. "So you and Elaine are going to keep in contact?" I asked trying not to allow my catty side into my voice.

"Yeah." He said. "It was my idea. Sort of a two person Phobias Anonymous outreach group since we are both getting over the same sorts of things." He said staring out the window. That made sense to me and I had to admit I actually liked the idea of Daniel having someone, a wizard no less, who he could talk to about his trauma and resulting fears that had come about due to the result of magic. I figure this was a good step down the road to fully healing his spirit.

"Besides I am getting bored with Jenny." Daniel said making sure to catch my eye. "I was thinking of attending a metal trade school in St. Louis and Elaine said she would put me up for a time until I could find a place of my own." The smile he wore was one of shock and attack, but the more common one of my annoying brother that liked to get my goat, not from the guy who had hated me. But still that meant I could play as well. Yeah when he leaves for college I am so going to put that spell of skunk smell on all his underwear as a magical ward and set it to activate only at the touch of a female. I smiled back even tauntingly larger than he was making him uncomfortable.

The cab dropped us off at Harry's place and I told Daniel to keep the guy here while I ran inside quick to feed, water, and walk Mouse and Mister. I stepped through the door to find Harry coming out of his room shirtless and holding his blasting rod.

"Oh Molly it's you." He said upon seeing me and letting the weapon point in a less hostile direction. I was totally shocked at seeing him here at home and it took me a moment for the rest of my mind to catch up since there was a lot I needed to say before I talked myself out of it.

"Cool you are home." I said with a smile realizing how much I had missed just seeing him and spending time together. "I needed to talk to you about something."

"Um…right now?" He asked rather awkwardly setting off my other senses that there was something not right.

And then I caught a whiff of it, a perfume that smelled both expensive and like lilac. I also knew it was Italian and had a pretty good idea where it had originated from and where the wearer of it was currently located even though she was being perfectly quiet. "Yeah it will only take a minute." I said muffling the breaking sounds my emotions were making inside of me. "Someone left this thing on your steps a couple days ago with a note saying please return it to the White Council for them." I said holding forth the flail for him to see and glad I had it as an excuse. "I could see it was old and it felt magical so I kept it around until I could give it to you."

"It's a flail." He said looking at it oddly but accepting it from me.

"Is that what you call it?" I asked. "Well anyway since you are home no need for me to walk Mouse. I'll see you in a couple of days." I turned to go hoping he could not sense my turmoil.

"Molly?" He said to me before I made it completely out the door.

"Yes?" I braced myself.

"Did you eat all the bologna in the fridge?" He asked. "We had like three packs less than a week ago and now there is none in there." I could not decide at that moment whether the fact that Harry is the most oblivious man in the world when it comes to women was a good thing or not. I guess I just had to have faith everything would work out like it was supposed to.

"Not a clue boss." I said. "Gotta go got a cab running on the meter and dad came home from the hospital last night." I said as I pulled the door shut behind me.

"Tell him I will be by to see him." Were the last words I heard Harry say and then I headed back to the cab. Daniel noticed the change in my mood, I guess you do not have to be a sensitive mage to recognize a broken heart, and he wrapped his arm comfortingly around me and let me weep in silence for the drive home.

Over the next few days I pulled myself together emotionally. I called Butters and after listening to a tickle fight between him and Crystal to get the phone he informed me that the city had closed the desiccated corpses cases since Jimmy Marteen had been buried and the other bodies had all mysteriously disappeared from the morgue. Whoever had done so had left behind pizza boxes but the police were not actively pursuing this case and were instead happy to let the whole thing drop.

I was still feeling a little down when Lily and Fix came to see me and offer their thanks for saving their lives. I was asked not to talk any further about the leeches by Lily who still shuddered when she mentioned them. The pair tried to offer me a Summer token proof that they owed me a favor but since I now had firsthand knowledge that people got killed for carrying those things I told them I'd rather we just keep it off the books and if I ever needed any help I would reach out to them.

I did let them take me out for a night of partying. Yeah I was still just a little too young to get into a bar legally, but it seems the Summer Court was holding a party that night, well every night actually, at a five star hotel and I was made guest of honor. I had to say the attention I was attracting from some of the male guests went a long way toward healing my emotional depression; not completely, but hey when you are a famous, perky, and beautiful apprentice wizard it is important to act the part.

Shockingly Maeve even showed up for this event unannounced, and more shockingly was invited in to attend the festivities. In her fine tradition she was not only decked out in a T-shirt that said 'Cold Hearted Wench' but had four chipper and athletic young men on her arms who did not speak a lick of English; they were I learned the Swedish bobsled team who rumor had it was the shoe in for the gold at the next winter games. Personally I would not bet against them based upon the way the Lady of Winter smiled at them.

I tried to get time to tell her that Jimmy's killer had been dealt with but she brushed that off as Hans, Fritz, and Zola each fed her white, milk, and dark chocolate respectively. She did take a moment though and say I was released from Winter's service now that these events were finished and as a bonus because of a comment by Lily that I did not hear even arranged for my spider mandibles to be converted into two shiny wands of spider ivory and sent back to me FedEx. Maeve it seemed, knew the same Eskimo scrimshaw expert that Lord Kline had mentioned.

Finally, after that wild night of music, dancing, and drinking rather potent fruity drinks that I was assured contained no alcohol, Lily and Fix dropped me off at home just as my mother was hustling everyone out the door to make it to the buses to get to school. Thankfully she was too busy at the moment to do more than give me a disapproving look for the time of my arrival and my dress and I used this opportunity to head for the shelter of my own third floor room so I would not face any more.

On the way up though I saw little Harry diligently scribbling on another of his coloring books and chose to stop in for a hug. I retrospect I found it was freaky how the pictures he had drawn for me were rather prophetic now that this was all over. He had given me a picture of Snow White after she had eaten the poison apple, a dark haired young woman confronting the evil queen, and finally one of Rumplestiltskin. With each of these he had said he knew I would make it all better because I was his hero. In the magic world there are no such things as these types of coincidences.

I figured it was good to see what he was working on now just in case it was another of these coloring book prophecies so I knew what to prepare for. Instead though when I got close I found little Harry was not even looking at the paper in front of him. Instead his eyes were rolled back in his head showing only the whites as in a very precise script that no toddler was capable of performing, especially with crayons, his hand was writing words over the top of Mickey Mouse. Worse still the words were in Latin.

I was reaching out to touch him when he finished and his eyes returned to normal. He turned to see me and smiled in that wonderfully innocent way that only children can and gave me a hug that held all the love in the world. "I told you that you would make it all better." He said hugging me fiercely while behind him I carefully tore the page with the writing on it from his coloring book and hid it in my sleeve.

Up in my room I took out the Latin dictionary Harry had given me so that I could learn how to speak before the White Council when the time came. I used it now to translate as best I could what Little Harry had written. My translation was imperfect, but it still left me cold to my very soul…

"In accordance with the Seelie Accords

Let the Wizard Molly Carpenter be (informed/take notice)

That by the (crimes/offenses) her (group/people) did to (me/mine)

A Blood Feud (War of Blood) now exists between us"

The End…