He opened his eyes, and it was just as it had been back then.
Everything had vanished. The Goyl, the Unicorns, the misty valley. Instead, a lake glistened under the evening sky. On it floated the lilies for which he had ventured here three years earlier. The leaves on the willows by the shore were as fresh and green as newly emerged shoots. And in the distance, drifting on the waves, lay the island from which there was no return. Except for you, Jacob.
The warm air caressed his skin, and the pain in his shoulder ebbed away like the water on the reed-lined shore.
He slid off the exhausted gelding.
Clara and Fox rushed toward him. Will, however, was standing by the shore, staring across at the island. He seemed unhurt, but when he turned to face Jacob, his eyes were still on fire, and the jade was speckled with just a few last remnants of his human skin.
"Here we are. Happy?" Valiant stood between the willows. He was plucking Unicorn hairs from his sleeve.
"Who took off your chain?" Jacob tried to grab the Dwarf, but Valiant dodged him nimbly.
"Luckily a female heart is much more compassionate than the piece of rock that's rumbling around in your chest," he purred while Clara sheepishly returned Jacob's glance. "And? What are you getting all huffy about? We're even! Except for the fact that the Unicorns trampled my hat!" Valiant accusingly patted his graying curls. "You could at least pay for that!"
"Us? Even? Shall I show you the scars on my back?" Jacob rubbed his shoulder. It felt as if he had never fought against the Tailor. "Just get out of here," he said to the Dwarf. "Before I shoot you after all."
"Really?" Valiant cast a contemptuous look at the island drifting in the distance. "I'm quite sure I'll live to see your name chiseled onto a gravestone long before mine. M’lady," he said, turning to Clara, "you should come with me. This will not end well. Have you ever heard of Snow-White, the human girl who lived with some Dwarf brothers before falling for one of the Empress's ancestors? She ended up very miserable and finally ran away from him — with a Dwarf!"
"Really?" murmured Clara, but she didn't seem to have been listening. She stepped toward the shore of the blossom-covered lake as if she had forgotten everything around her, even Will, who was standing just a few yards away. Bluebells grew between the willows, their petals mirroring the dark blue of the evening sky. She picked one, and it chimed softly, wiping all the fear and sadness from her face. Valiant uttered an exasperated groan.
"Fairy magic!' he muttered scornfully. "I think I'd better take my leave."
"Wait!" said Jacob. "There used to be a boat by the shore. Where is it?"
But when he turned around, the Dwarf had already disappeared between the trees.
Will was staring at his own reflection in the water. Jacob skimmed a stone across the dark surface, but his brother's reflection quickly returned, distorted and even more threatening.
"I nearly killed you back there, in the gorge." Will's voice sounded barely distinct from that of a Goyl now. Look at me. No matter what you're hoping to find here, it's too late. You need to face it."
Clara was gazing at them. The Fairy magic clung to her like pollen. Only Will seemed immune. "Where's your brother, Jacob? Where did you leave him?" The rustling leaves sounded like their mother's voice.
Will backed away from Jacob, as though afraid he might strike him again.
"Let me go to them."
The sun was setting behind the trees, and its dying light spilled onto the lake like molten gold. The Fairy lilies opened their pale blossoms, welcoming the night.
Jacob pulled Will away from the water.
"You wait here, by the shore," he said. "Stay right here. I promise I'll be back soon."
The vixen pressed against his legs, her fur bristling as she looked at the island.
"What are you waiting for, Fox?" said Jacob. "Find me that boat."
26
The Red Fairy
Fox found the boat. And this time she didn't ask Jacob to take her along. However, just as he climbed in, she bit his hand so hard that the blood trickled down his fingers.
"That's so you won't forget me!" she snapped, and her eyes brimmed with the fear that she might lose him again.
Three years ago the Fairies had chased Fox away after they'd found Jacob, half-dead, in their forest, and she had nearly drowned trying to follow them to the island. And yet she had waited for him, a whole year, while he forgot all about her and everything else. Now she sat here again, her fur blackened by the approaching night, even after he'd already rowed far out into the lake. Clara, too, stood among the willows, and this time even Will watched him go.
"It's too late for me." The waves lapping against the narrow boat seemed to echo Will's words, but who better to break the spell of the Dark Fairy than her sister? Jacob reached for the medallion on his chest. He had picked the petal inside on the day he'd left Miranda. It made him invisible to her, as if he'd cast off not only his love but also the body that had loved her. A petal, nothing more. She herself had told him that he could hide himself from her this way. When Fairies were in love, they revealed all their secrets in their sleep; you just had to ask the right questions.
Fortunately, the petal also made him invisible to the other Fairies. As he hid the boat in the reeds on the island's shore, Jacob saw four of them standing in the water. Their long hair floated on the surface as if the night itself had spun it. But Miranda was not among them. One of them looked his way, and Jacob was grateful for the thick carpet of flowers that made his steps as silent as Fox's paws. He had seen how they turned men into thistles or fish. The flowers were blue, like the bluebell Clara had picked, and not even the medallion could shield Jacob from the memories their scent evoked. Careful, Jacob! He dug his fingers into the bloody imprint Fox's teeth had left on his hand.
Soon he saw the first of the dark nets the moths of the Fairies spun between the trees. Tents as delicate as lacewing skin, that even in daytime stayed so dark they appeared to have trapped the night in their mesh. The Fairies only slept there when the sun was in the sky, but Jacob could think of no better place to wait for Miranda.
The Red Fairy. It was by that name that he had first heard mention of her. A drunk mercenary had told him about a friend she had lured to the island and who, after his return, had been so sick with yearning for her he had drowned himself. Everyone had heard such stories about the Fairies, though few ever got to see one. Some thought their island was actually the Realm of the Dead, but the Fairies knew nothing of human time or death. Miranda called the Dark Fairy her sister only because both of them had emerged from the lake on the same day. So how could she truly understand the despair he felt as his brother grew a skin of stone?
The tent, which for almost a year had been the beginning and the end of his world, clung to Jacob's clothes as he felt his way through its gauzy walls. His eyes adapted slowly to the darkness, and he was startled by the sight of a sleeping figure on the bed of moss where he himself had lain so often.
She hadn't changed. Of course not. Fairies didn't age. Her skin was as pale as the night she so loved. At night her eyes turned black, though by day they were as blue as the sky or as green as the water of the lake, mirroring the leaves of the willows. Too beautiful. Too beautiful for human eyes. Untouched by time and the decay it wrought. But in the end a man wants to sense the same mortality that dwells in his own flesh also in the skin he caresses.