Chapter Twenty-Two: Truth
My eyes travelled from Robin down to the ground he stood on, and I realized with a shock that he stood in the center of a ring of bodies that I couldn’t make out. They were clad mostly in green and gold, which meant Elves, but some of them looked to be wearing the pale off-white of Ilyn. How many had died? And all for what?
“Which of you is holding me?” he said, turning back and forth between them, his eyes wide and confused. I pitied him suddenly, something I’d never expected to feel for Robin. His entire world, his whole mind, had just been ripped apart. “Which one of you tried to bind me to you?”
“Robin,” Titania said, her voice calm but firm, “put the knife down. You belong with me – come back to me, and we can make sure you never have to leave my side again. You and I can bring this place into the light – we can purify it and –”
“We both did.”
Robin turned away from his mother and stared at Oberon, the one who had spoken.
“That’s a lie,” the Puck said. “You can’t have both –”
“Look at me,” Oberon said, stepping forward and using light from his silver crown to force back the pocket of sunlight, making himself clearly visible. “Look at me. Does it look like I am lying? Tell me – tell me if I’m lying. You would know – you always know.”
Robin paused for a second, watching his father’s face, and his certainty wavered.
“How?” he demanded of Oberon, then turning to glare at Titania: “How?”
“You were meant to be with me, Robin,” Titania said.
“Stop lying – I can see you lying!”
The shout rolled over all the gathered Fae and made many of us flinch back. His voice was raw and uncontrolled, so different from his normal composure that it was almost like watching him cry.
Robin turned back to Oberon, waiting for his response.
“We gave you a choice,” the Erlking said. “And you chose me.”
Titania took a step forward, her face burning with rage.
“You made him chose you – you manipulated him – you manipulate them all!”
“You are the one who stole him from me, Titania, don’t you dare pretend otherwise. You are the one who couldn’t live with his choice – you’re the one who couldn’t live with him being with both of us. You’re the one who made him chose in the first place.”
“You lie, Oberon! YOU LIE!”
“No, he doesn’t,” Robin said quietly, watching Oberon’s face with wide eyes that missed nothing. I watched Titania’s face go from shock to pain to fury in the space of a heartbeat. Robin turned back to her.
“He isn’t lying,” he said to her. “I can see it. You know I can see it – and you know he’s telling the truth. You made me choose.”
“He tricked me,” she spat out, her fair skin darkening with a flush. “He made me think you’d choose me –”
“But I didn’t,” Robin said. “Why did you tell me I did?”
“Because I’m your mother, you belong with me!”
Robin was watching her with unmasked revulsion, and as I watched he took a step back, moving toward Oberon. He turned and faced the Erlking.
“Why didn’t I know about any of this? Why couldn’t I remember?”
Oberon was watching him with a furrowed brow and clenched jaw that spoke of painful memories he couldn’t escape. He swallowed and spoke, all the Fae hanging on his words.
“Because when you chose me she cursed you to hate me. The only way to make you come with me was to make you swear fealty – to make you think you needed to come with me. It was the only way to get you away from her.”
“See? He forced you to stay with him!”
Titania’s triumphant cry rang out in near total silence and Robin didn’t respond to it. He was watching Oberon, golden eyes scanning the beautifully carved face of the Faerie King, looking for something I can only guess at.
He turned back to Titania.
“Would you retreat if I threatened to kill myself?”
“Robin,” Titania said at once, “don’t do anything foolish. You can’t –”
“No,” Oberon said.
Robin back, staring with a mix of emotions all so swirled around each other that I couldn’t distinguish one from the others. He was scanning his father’s face as if trying to memorize it, examining every detail, looking for the slightest hint of a lie.
“Why not?”
Oberon’s eyes were so grief-stricken that they broke my heart; all watching knew that even speaking the words that followed was like forcing him to cut out his heart.
“Because you are my pride and joy, my first and only blood – but they are my children too, and I swore to care for them as I would care for you.”
He gestured behind himself, to the broken and bleeding creatures that had taken refuge behind him in the giant tree; to the Caelyr, the Urden, the Paecsies, the Ilyn, and all the other creatures of darkness and moonlight that fought for the Bower. With a shock I realized there were changelings there too, the ones that had yet to become full Ilyn – I saw Brandel’s face and Gwenel’s, both bloody and wide-eyed, and behind them Igrin and Celin and all the others – I saw Ai’Ilyn with Zal’Ilyn, holding Ite’Ilyn between them, his green skin far too pale – I saw the older changelings who were Ilyn now, those like Kyre that I had watched disappear and who had now come full circle to serve the Bower and the Erlking.
I saw Oberon’s children.
“You see!” Titania said suddenly, her beautiful soprano overtopping Oberon’s vibrating bass. “He doesn’t care for you – I do. You are my son – you belong with me!”
Robin turned back to her, still holding the iron dagger to his neck.
I wasn’t able to hold myself back any longer. I pushed forward into the space that had cleared between them. Every eye turned to me. Bows were suddenly taut again, and I felt the weight of mountains heaped on my shoulders as the gaze of both King and Queen fell on me.
“If you care for him, then why did you make him try to kill the Erlking?”
Silence followed my question and I realized my whole body was shaking with fury. I took another step forward, the anger burning up my self-consciousness, and I came slowly to Oberon’s side. The Puck watched me all the way.
“What do you mean?” he said, his eyes burning into mine.
“Don’t listen to her,” Titania said quickly.
“She tried to do it to me, too!” I said, shouting over her. “She tried to do it to me when I followed you through the forest – she tried to make me one of hers!”
“Silence!”
I was rocked back a step by the force of the command issuing from the Queen’s mouth, and, just as had happened with Oberon in the Bower, all sounds seemed to momentarily dim. The command settled over me and tried to worm its way through my mind, the way it had when I was in the forest at her mercy.
“NO!”
I shouted through the madness, my voice coming out in more than simple sound. Her word broke like a rotted string, and sound roared back to life. Everyone in the vicinity rocked back, all except for me. I took a step forward, letting the madness inside me roll out, undiluted. Robin was right – the madness wasn’t something to be controlled, it was something to be embraced. It was a part of me – it wanted to come out, it wanted to attack this source of sunlight.
“NO!” I shouted again. “I will not be silent! You have no right over me – you cannot control my mind!”
Shock was written over the face of the Queen, and the Sunlight Fae flanking her were looking to her for commands, but were receiving none.
“I am one of Oberon’s Children,” I snarled at her. “I am of the moonlight. This is my home, this is where I belong, and I will lay down my life to keep it from you!”
A sudden chorus of roars echoed from behind me, the Children and the Hunters shouting their solidarity with me.
“And Robin belongs with us!”
I looked at him, straight in the
eye.
“Think about it – think about what she can do – think about what she tried to do to me. She made you hate him even more – she made you come back and find a way to let her in. She doesn’t care about you – she wants the Bower! She wants all of us, too!”
I saw the smallest flicker of comprehension dawn on his face, a tiny crack in his composure –
The blow came out of nowhere. One second I was standing where I was, the next I was sent flying backward through the air, my vision shaking and rolling. Someone caught me, a solid body, and then there was shouting. I caught a glimpse of someone tackling Robin, bearing him to the ground and knocking aside the hand holding the iron dagger. The Sunlight Fae pulled their bows and aimed in one smooth movement, while the Queen threw out her arm toward the King’s force. Oberon saw the move and lifted the corners of his cloak, twisting where he stood –
“ATTACK!”
A dozen arrows shot from the Elves and buried themselves in Oberon’s chest – and passed through. The King of Shadows disappeared and reappeared several feet away, almost directly on top of Robin. He reached for his son, but Titania arrived first and struck him with a clawed hand, grabbing him by the throat and throwing him aside.
The Moonlight Fae let out a roar and charged, and the Sunlight Fae rushed to meet them. I ran for Robin, trying to see him through the crowd, but something caught me and threw me through the air.
In the few seconds that I was airborne, I realized I might be about to die.
I crashed into the ground and felt the wind rush from my lungs. I gasped and began to choke, unable to take a full breath. I rolled over, looking up into the warring sky, split down the middle in a jagged line like something from a child’s nightmare.
There was a rock beneath my palm, and my hand closed over it convulsively.
Light bloomed from nowhere, slicing through my squinted eyes. My ears were ringing and I couldn’t understand what was happening. I rolled to my chest and pushed myself to my knees, coughing uncontrollably as I wheezed useless breaths in and out of my deflated lungs. I could hear shouting all around me, and dimly I recognized the voices. I staggered to my feet and was spun around by an Urden running past me. I ground my teeth together and rubbed a hand across my face, trying to pull the sweat from my eyes.
I blinked and the world came into focus. I looked down at my hand, still clutching the stone, and couldn’t understand at first what I was seeing.
It was my moonstone, thrown from my pocket when I’d landed.
I looked around, desperately trying to make sense of the sea of writhing bodies all before me. Ilyn were clashing with Elves; Paecsies were screeching and attacking the taller Fae I couldn’t recognize; Urden were laying about left and right with mauls and enormous slabs of wood in an attempt to fell what I could only describe as dragons. I ducked beneath a white-and-gray Sylph that shot from the sky toward me, and rushed through a press of Urden, before the last bit of air I had in my lungs was gone completely. I was forced to the ground as stars winked at the edges of my vision.
I looked up again, trying to lift a head that suddenly felt several pounds too heavy, and realized I was looking toward Robin, who was on the ground. He had lost his feet but retained hold of his dagger, and Titania was standing over him, trying to wrest it from his hands. The path between them and me had cleared in one of the strange eddies of battle that push and then contract like a ripple in a pond.
Silvery light flickered fitfully at the corner of my eyes and I looked down dumbly at the stone I was still holding.
Everything slowed as the image of Tristan floated across my vision.
Iron and fire.
Energy rushed down my spine like a bolt of lightning, and I forced myself to my feet with a determination that defied the signals of my failing body. I stumbled toward Titania and Robin, my mind working too slowly. My lips and tongue felt numb, and I knew that I hadn’t yet been able to take a full breath of air. I pushed ahead regardless.
An Urden fell across my path, and I saw arrows sticking from its green-gray skin like newly sprouted branches. I glanced to my left and saw two Elves run forward, bows in hand, drawing arrows to shoot at me.
I dove forward, just clearing the side of the Urden, once again compressing my lungs and making them burn. Coughing and hacking, I stumbled to my feet and ducked forward, hearing the sound and feeling the wind of two arrows slice through the air above my head, only to embed themselves in two sunlight creatures fighting a group of Ilyn, knocking them off-balance.
My fist was clutched desperately around the moonstone. I continued forward, closing the distance, just managing to take full breath. They were directly before me, barely a dozen feet away. Titania was still on top, holding down her son, holding his hand up and away from him at the perfect height. I walked forward as if in a dream, right up to where they were. I caught the sight of something to my left, and turned to see Oberon rushing toward us, rounding a group of Fae that had held him back; he was looking at the stone in my hand. I looked away, knowing I didn’t have much time.
I grabbed the dagger from Robin’s hand, feeling the smooth horn-handle protect me against the overpowering nausea caused by the iron blade; this close it almost obliterated all thought, but somehow I hung on to my intention. Robin, completely taken by surprise, let the dagger go, but Titania lunged after it.
A flash of swirling darkness interposed itself between us, and I saw the silver leaves of the moonlight crown. Titania fell back as she was pushed aside, and Oberon threw himself on Robin, seeing what I was about to do. I calmly pierced the moonstone with the iron blade of the dagger.
The world exploded around me.