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"Perhaps," Queen Titania said, "we should consider pre-emptive replacement of the children?" She sounded as if it was an idle question, one of no importance, but the angle of her shoulders showed worry.
"Your Majesty--" Bertram sighed. "I've answered this question before, and really, you made the rules to begin with. The answer won't change through repetition."
"I know." Queen Titania looked into the crystal bowl resting on a pedestal in front of them. She shook her head minutely then stirred the water with her right index finger, disrupting the image within. "I simply... I think that this break will be ugly. Kirsty and Rachel are more powerful now than the children usually are, and we've stolen too much time from them to be able to cover it. We've also-- We're not going to see it coming because we've gotten lax."
"Nevertheless," Bertram replied. "Perhaps planets next? If we omit Earth and the dwarf planets, we'll have nice set of seven."
"Any possibility we can make them take longer for each artifact? We've told them no time passes in their world while they're in ours, so we could make the quests longer by removing them from their usual surroundings. At the worst, they realize something is off, and we can replace them. It's past time." Queen Titania tapped a finger on the side of the crystal bowl.
The sound rang true, echoing through the chamber, and the Queen smiled.
Bertram bowed.
After he'd gone, Queen Titania walked over to a wall and leaned her forehead against it. The marble was cool against her skin. "It will hold a little longer," she told herself. She gave herself a moment to think of her husband, kind and wise and generous and-- "Only half the man I married."
She knew. Bertram knew. When all of the glamors cracked, when the games ended, Jack Frost would know, too, and Oberon would be whole. Titania had defeated him once and could again, but it would be costly.
But not yet. Titania's realm was safe a little longer, happy a little longer.
She had always known how it would end; she just didn't know when.
****
Rachel's parents had taken her and Kirsty to London for a week of museums and wandering around to see the sights. The first day, the four of them had gotten lost while trying to find a specific used book store that Mr Walker was quite sure he remembered visiting last year or the year before.
Three times that day, Rachel was sure she'd spotted a fairy, and Kirsty admitted later that she felt cold a few times when she really ought not have, but no fairy approached them that day to ask for help in finding a lost treasure. That absence worried both girls. Neither of them could recall a week spent together without Jack Frost having stolen something, and those adventures sparkled in their memories, leaving all other events, all the time when they weren't together, as gray, flat, and unimportant.
"Have we gotten too old?" Kirsty whispered while Rachel's parents were trying to decipher a map. "That happens. In stories, I mean."
"I hope not!" Rachel replied. "They never said we might." She tried to think about time passing, about birthdays and holidays and counting them, but found the concepts slippery. She shook her head. It wasn't important. Time was the same for everybody. She could look at a calendar later. "It's only been a year."
That had to be right. Rainspell Island had been summer, and now was summer. There'd been things in between, exciting things, secret things.
Kirsty frowned and started to say something, but Mrs Walker turned back to them and said, "I'm sure we took a wrong turn three streets back." Mrs Walker didn't look certain, though, just determined. "It's a little closer to the tube, anyway." She smiled and urged them back the way they'd come.
Later, Rachel didn't remember that she'd even considered checking a calendar. Kirsty entirely forgot that she'd been sure there'd been more than one Christmas since she'd met Rachel and the fairies.
****
After dinner, Mr and Mrs Walker said good night to the girls. Rachel and Kirsty weren't really tired, so they spent some time pretending to watch a movie while actually watching the minutes tick by. Neither one of them wanted to admit that the day might end without a fairy asking for their help.
"I think we've seen this before," Kirsty said. "Or something a lot like it."
Rachel frowned. The dialogue did sound kind of familiar. "Dad says they remake the remakes, and it's all filmed in the same places." She wiggled her toes to stretch a worn spot on her sock. She tried to decide whether or not it was time to throw the sock out. “I don’t know why my socks always have holes. Mum just bought these.”
“Rachel,” Kirsty sounded serious, “she can’t have. Those are Christmas socks. It’s ages before they’ll be in stores again.”
“Huh,” Rachel replied. She couldn’t think of an explanation even though she was sure there must be one.
The bedside lamp buzzed. Then the bulb shattered.
Both girls jumped to their feet and stared at the lamp. They relaxed when they saw a tiny, fluttering figure.
“Sorry,” a small voice said. “I’m not very good at the transition. Are you both all right?”
The girls exchanged glances.
“We’re fine,” Kirsty said. “It was just loud,”
Rachel took a step closer. “Did you come through the lamp?”
The fairy laughed. “Pretty much. That was the easiest point to exit.” The fairy landed on top of the lampshade. "I've been trying to get through all day. I'm really not meant to be this small." The fairy shook out her wings. "And the gravity's wrong."
The two girls watched the fairy expectantly.
"I don't suppose it matters what you call me," the fairy said. "I've come a long way, and I need to ask you to come back with me. Jack Frost's gone really big this time. He's scattered the pieces of the model that keeps the solar system in balance through various realms of Fairyland."
Kirsty and Rachel looked at each other.
"My parents will worry," Rachel said. She wanted to go. They'd only seen a little of Fairyland, and she'd always thought it must be larger and grander than the glimpses they'd been given.
"Queen Titania has promised that no time will pass here while you're gone." The fairy sounded coaxing.
"Do we need to bring anything?" Kirsty asked.
The fairy rose an inch into the air. "What could you bring? I don't know Earth very well or what humans need." After a moment, she added, "And I'm not sure my translation spell is right. Does it sound right to you?" She zipped closer to the girls then moved away again. "I think my name translates as Hermia. That's a name, right?"
****
Rachel tried to listen politely to King Oberon's speech of thanks, but her attention kept wandering.
Now that they weren't busy hiking through seven different worlds, she was worried about getting home on time. She trusted Queen Titania's abilities, but something might still go wrong, and she didn't know what she'd say to her parents then.
She and Kirsty hadn't done anything like this before. It had almost always just been them going about their ordinary lives and finding magic. This time, it had been a quest with camping and foraging and really weird landscapes. They'd met a lot of fairies that didn't speak English and that didn't look anything like the fairies they were used to.
Hermia had passed them to Aphra who passed them to Mairhe who passed them Juno who passed them to Ops who passed them to Nyx who passed them to Doris. They'd visited caves, climbed mountains, dived into ocean depths. They'd ridden windstorms. It had been spectacular and scary at the same time.
Rachel had enjoyed it, but she really needed to see how it ended in order to feel sure they hadn't made a mistake. She could have left a note. Maybe she should have. If they got back when they were supposed to, she could have destroyed it. If they didn't--
Queen Titania and King Oberon were the ones who were supposed to be protecting the fairies and their artifacts against Jack Frost.
Rachel wished she hadn't thought about that because she knew that Jack Frost really wasn't smart or powerful. He was just kind of persistent the way that ducks were when they thought someone might have food. He'd keep coming back, but he wouldn't change his strategy much, only his angle of attack. If he kept stealing things, it was either because the King and Queen weren't able to stop him or because they didn't want to.
Rachel felt cold, and she wished they were back with her parents already. Finding magic while she was in her own world was one thing. It never seemed dangerous there, not when they were surrounded by well-meaning adults who would help if matters got out of control.
When Queen Titania hugged her and waved her wand to send both girls home, Rachel was thinking about her parents and how much she missed them. She wanted to hug them. She wanted to eat breakfast with them. She wanted to hear her mother say, "Once begun is almost done!" and to hear her father's soft snort of laughter in response.
Kirsty and Rachel both stumbled as they stepped back into the real world. The air felt thicker than they expected it to, and they were in the hallway outside of their room rather than in the room itself. They both raised hands to shade their eyes because the light was brighter than they'd expected.
"Do we even still have the key?" Kirsty asked.
"I didn't pack it," Rachel admitted. She looked hopefully at her friend.
Kirsty put down her bag and started rummaging through the pockets. After a moment, she said, "No such luck. Maybe we just sit downstairs and wait for your parents? We could say we got up early and then 'discover' we've lost our keys later."
Rachel nodded, so they went down to the lobby.
"Weren't those chairs green yesterday?" Kirsty asked as she eyed the lobby furniture that was all upholstered in an ill-judged shade of red.
Rachel couldn't remember. "They can't have been." She wondered more about the flat screen on the wall to their left that displayed information on the day's weather. As she watched, the weather dissolved into a listing of nearby events that were not to be missed. Then it became a notice about turning in stray bags at the front desk and a reminder that the nearest tube station was under construction and closed for the entire month of August. Rachel tugged on Kirsty's hand and pointed.
"But we took the tube yesterday," Kirsty said softly. "We'd have noticed if we had to walk farther."
"And the screen's new," Rachel said equally quietly. "We're--" She swallowed hard then made herself continue. "I don't think we're home."
*****
Titania's shoulders sagged a little as the girls stepped through the portal she'd opened. She and Bertram had a list of ideas for upcoming challenges, and they had more than enough power to be able to waste it on making everything more believable. Creativity was harder. She'd had to venture into the human realm in one of her greater forms in order to entice a mortal poet into following her home.
The poet had sulked and had told Titania that the project didn't merit the talent of an artiste. "You want someone who does commercial art. Ad copy. Jingles. Screenwriting." The last word was delivered as if the word described the lowest denizens of Hell.
Titania had locked the poet in an illusion and left the room as he started whining about wanting proper coffee and the WiFi password. She'd have to let him out later. She'd promised him patronage and access to her world. She suspected that he hadn't actually understood that she wasn't suggesting a one night stand.
She hadn't had time to go looking for someone else. She wasn't at all sure where to start, and she didn't really like the idea of having multiple humans attached to the court for seven years or forty nine years or whatever seven years cubed might be. She'd have to send an agent to investigate other options.
And maybe next time, Rachel and Kirsty would realize they were trapped, and Titania could finally replace them.
She was sufficiently wrapped up in her thoughts that she didn't notice the brief glint of sharpness in her consort's smile.
****
Two hours later, Rachel and Kirsty had watched Rachel's parents come downstairs and have breakfast with two women who had to be at least 20 and who might have been even older. Rachel and Kirsty had heard one of the strangers address Mrs Walker as 'Mum' and had heard Mr Walker say, "When we booked for Rainspell Island all those years ago, we never thought we'd end up with two daughters."
The girls spent a long time spying as they avoided putting their guesses into words. Finally, Kirsty tugged the hem of Rachel's t-shirt and pulled her away. They took the lift up a few floors and then sat in the nook that held that floor's ice machine.
"What year did we go to Rainspell?" Kirsty asked. "I can't remember that any more than I can count the Christmases."
"This isn't our world," Rachel insisted. "It can't be."
If it was their world, they had no place in it.
Kirsty didn't say anything, just looked at Rachel for several seconds. "We have the same choices, either way," she said at last. She raised two fingers. "We stay and try to figure things out, or we use our lockets to go back to Fairyland."
"We go back." Rachel put her hand on her locket. She opened it and dipped her fingers in to grab a pinch of fairy dust.
The locket was empty.
The girls stared at each other in horror for several seconds. Then Kirsty shrugged. "I guess we stay." She rummaged in her bag and pulled out a small wallet. She opened it and peered inside. "I've still got plenty of money, so we start by buying food."
Rachel wanted to argue, but Kirsty was right. Their recent quest had taught them both that, in new territory, figuring out a food supply was crucial. Fairies didn't necessarily eat the same things as human girls did, and it wasn't always obvious which foods were safe.
"After that," Kirsty said, "we go looking for the magic. There must be some sort of way home. A fairy ring. The roots of an ancient oak. A hollow hill."
"It's my fault," Rachel said. "Right when the Queen sent us home, I was doubting her. I... I couldn't see how she could be so wise and powerful and never once stop Jack Frost before he steals something."
Kirsty covered her mouth with one hand. She stayed like that for several seconds. "You're not wrong," she said at last, "and, when Jack Frost steals things, why do they always end up near us? Why not-- Why not Tibet? Or the middle of the Pacific Ocean?"
"The fairies are our friends," Rachel protested. "We've seen so much because of them. Things are always better with them around."
"Then they'll find us soon." Kirsty sounded more certain than Rachel felt. "We'll manage until then."
****
"I've had to send the Red Fairy out," Bertram told his Queen. "The bowl shattered. We have a replacement, but--" He glanced at the apparently oblivious King Oberon. "Shattered. It hasn't done that before."
Titania closed her eyes for a moment and took a centering breath. "I can hold if it comes to a fight." She could certainly stuff every bit of unpleasantness and boorishness back inside Jack Frost. She could seal him once. She might even manage three times in a human century. The point was not to have to. "If it does come to that, take the time to change the underlying spells."
Bertram bowed and hurried away.
Titania plastered a smile on her face and went to join her husband. "The orchestra is especially fine tonight," she said as she put her hand on his arm.
He crumbled to dust under her touch.
Titania stared at the remains of the simulacrum for almost five seconds before she managed to pull herself together. She spun on her left foot and waved her wand to make an explosively bright circle in the air.
Around her, the music and dancing ceased. All eyes turned to her.
"Find Jack Frost!" The command snapped like a whip through her connections to her subjects.
Titania had never thought that Oberon would run. He hadn't the last time or the time before. She supposed he had to learn some time, and he was clever. She loved that part of him.
****
The girls sat on the edge of a fountain while they ate. Everything had cost more than they'd expected, so they'd been lucky that Rachel had found money in her bag, too. She didn't remember putting it there, but she'd hoped very hard that it would be there.
They thought they might have enough money left to get out of London if they could come up with a likely destination.
Rachel had had to stop herself from suggesting 'home' several times during the discussion. Her town and her house weren't going to be any more hers than those people who looked like her parents were. "We might just see what trip matches our money exactly," she said. She took a bite of her egg salad sandwich and watched the pigeons arguing over scraps. "If there's more than one, we can argue about that, but it won't be trying to pick one thing out of everything possible."
The impossibly tall blonde woman who had called Rachel's mother 'Mum' stepped into the park. Pigeons swirled into the air as she got close and then settled again once she'd passed. She stopped well outside of arm's reach and said, "I thought you munchkins might need some money. Probably some explanations, too." She hesitated noticeably and tapped her fingers on her thigh the way that Rachel sometimes did when she was nervous. "We're not supposed to interact with you, but all the rules went out the window years ago, so I think I'm okay." She smiled, and it only looked a little forced.
Rachel looked away and took another bite of her sandwich.
"Money for what?" Kirsty asked. There was a slight edge in her voice that hinted at other questions lurking under that one.
"Is it okay if I sit?"
Rachel shrugged, and Kirsty nodded.
The blonde woman sat. "Nobody's answering when we try to call Bertram, so we don't know when someone will be able to come and--" She shook her head. "I'm not sure how this gets sorted out. They've had years of knowing that the usual plan wouldn't work, but nobody's bothered to tell us what to do instead." Her voice broke a little, and she folded her hands in her lap.
Rachel found herself with egg in her lap because she'd squeezed her sandwich too hard. "No," she said. The word made a hard wall around her.
"Oh," Kirsty said. She sounded very sad. "Oh, that's... Fairy gold."
"Before today, you never once said no." The woman's voice had the sort of grown-up reprimand that came with 'look before you leap' warnings and with 'Well, what on Earth did you expect?' exasperation. "You gave your names and your consent willingly. You've been happy."
"Until now," Kirsty said.
Rachel focused on trying to clean the egg off her shorts.
The woman sighed. "Yes. Until now. We can try to figure out a place for you here, but it won't be the same."
"It can't be," Rachel said. She glanced sideways at the woman and then away. "Because you took our places." She hoped that she could use anger as a shield now that denial had cracked.
"Because you stayed away a very long time," the woman corrected. "Most children help through three or four sets of stolen items before they get bored or start wondering why it keeps happening. That's a stolen month, and it's small, easily repaid."
"How many years?" Kirsty asked.
"Fifteen," the woman replied. She looked up at the sky. "Long enough that you're not-- There's no way you're human any more. I am now, and so is K-- my partner. We can't be anything else, and that isn't anything we've done."
"You don't want anything else," Rachel said. She didn't try to keep the accusation out of her voice.
The woman didn't say anything for a while. Then, she said, "Only sometimes. We remember. We'll always remember. Some day, we'll die, and you two will go on in the lives that used to be ours. It goes both ways."
"But never back?" Kirsty asked.
"No. Never back." The woman pulled an envelope out of her purse. "We got you a room at a different place from where we're staying. There's cash in there, and a card for getting more. Two transit passes. You should have phones, too, but those will take a little longer. I'm hoping that Bertram will answer us soon, but we didn't want to leave you on the street while we're waiting."
"Why us?" It was the only thing Rachel really wanted to know, not just why her and Kirsty but why anyone at all.
"An illusion spell that needs belief to keep spinning." The woman shoved the envelope into Kirsty's hands. "Jack Frost is more dangerous and Oberon less kind than what you've seen. The Hosts of Air and Darkness haven't come forth in this world for hundreds of years. Better that it never happen again." She stood and brushed off her slacks. "Take some time to think. See what magics you can manifest and what doors those open. I think you'll surprise yourselves. We don't have any troubles with money, so call if you need more. Or anything else."
"Fairy gold?" Kirsty asked gently.
"Not that. Not for this." The woman walked away without looking back.
****
The new hotel was considerably posher than the old one. Their room had a jacuzzi and a tub and a shower, all big enough to hold both of them at once. There were six different kinds of shampoo and at least that many kinds of bubble bath. It had plush carpet that tried to swallow their feet. Adjusting the thermostat actually changed the temperature in the room. They had a kitchenette, and the women who'd stolen their lives left a note saying that the front desk would have groceries and other things delivered if the girls wanted.
It was, the note said, only money.
Kirsty showered first while Rachel tried to get the egg salad stains out of her shorts. She couldn't remember if this was one of those things that needed hot water or cold water or something that wasn't water at all.
Mum would know. Rachel was sure of that.
Rachel was also sure that Mum and Dad wouldn't believe her if she went and knocked on their door now. They'd think that the resemblance was remarkable, and they'd play along until they could hand her over to some agency that took care of lost children, but they wouldn't believe her. They had a Rachel already.
Rachel swiped the back of her hand across her eyes. She wasn't going to cry. She didn't dare. She was pretty sure that, if she did, she'd never stop. After three or four minutes of absolutely not crying, she sat down at the room's desk and started writing down all of the fairies and their specializations. Sometimes, she remembered one and not the other but recorded what she had anyway.
When Kirsty came out of the bathroom, Rachel gave her the pad and pen. "Write down everything you remember," she said. "We'll compare lists later."
Kirsty opened her mouth as if to speak then closed it and shook her head.
Rachel took her turn in the shower and didn't let herself think about parents or fairies or anything but how wonderful it felt to wash her hair. The shampoo smelled sharp and citrusy. The tiny bottle said lemon and coconut, and Rachel thought she could smell the coconut, too, underneath. It wasn't anything like the shampoo her parents bought.
It was probably better not to have her hair smell like home.
She wondered if the not-Rachel woman had deliberately sent them somewhere nothing like anywhere they'd been with their parents. She hoped that the decision had been based more on the luxury and expense because she didn't want that woman and the not-Kirsty to be that sort of kind.
It would be easier to be really angry if she could believe that they were trying to buy her forgiveness.
The King and Queen had both seemed very kind, too, and they'd been lying. Unless she and Kirsty really were in the wrong world. Rachel tried to hold onto that as a possibility, but she knew that the less welcome explanation fit better.
She also knew that Kirsty had already accepted that explanation as real.
When Rachel emerged from the bathroom, she found Kirsty sitting on the bed, surrounded by crumpled balls of paper.
Kirsty looked at her and said, "The fairies may have been lying, but the goblins were real." She took a deep breath then went on. "And we went to Jack Frost's castle more than once. None of it makes sense as a prank. He was bitter and mean, and the frost goblins were, too."
"I don't care." Rachel didn't want to talk about it.
Kirsty looked at Rachel for several seconds then pointed at three of the balls of paper in turn. Each one rose, wobbling, into the air and hovered. The one on the left changed places with the one in the middle. Then the one on the right changed places with the one that had been on the left. The wobbling got steadily worse until all three balls dropped to the bed. "I practiced the whole time you were in the shower," she said. "I'm getting better at it, and I shouldn't be able to do it at all."
"We should order food," Rachel said. "I bet it takes time, and we'll be hungry again by the time it gets here."
"Rachel--"
"Let me be angry!" Rachel just managed not to shout.
Kirsty shrugged. "It won't help." She reached behind her, pulled a pillow loose, and hurled it at Rachel. "Hit things with that."
Rachel caught the pillow and sank her fingers deep into it. "No." She twisted and tore at the cloth. "No," she repeated. The pillowcase shredded under her hands. A moment later, the pillow itself burst, spewing feathers all over the room. Rachel dropped what was left and held up her hands so that she could stare at them.
They looked like her hands, the same as they always did.
Kirsty sneezed then said, "Wow." She sneezed again. "I'd try that, too, on one of the other pillows, but we have to sleep in here tonight."
Rachel kept staring at her hands. "They can have the magic back," she whispered, "if we get our mums and dads." She started to cry.
Kirsty came over and tugged Rachel to the bed. The girls held each other until they were both done with tears for a while. Then they slept.
Nothing was likely to get worse while they rested.
****
Titania remained in her solarium and waited for news. She had no idea where Oberon was hiding, but everyone who answered to her was looking. They would find him eventually. Titania was staying put so that they all knew where to find her once they'd found him.
Jack Frost's castle had been empty when her forces arrived. It had even already started to melt. Not even a single goblin remained.
Hiding was new. Oberon usually preferred meeting his foes head on, and Titania had assumed that that was a thing that wouldn't-- couldn't-- change.
Having new children to hold the illusions wouldn't help if the parts of Oberon that were Jack Frost weren't bound within those illusions.
To pass the time and because she was afraid of what other surprises Oberon might have in store, Titania worked on making weapons. They weren't things that Oberon would recognize as weapons, at least not the first time she used them. After that, if they fought again, she'd have to assume he'd try to use them himself. He'd take a time or three to get them right, but he would eventually manage it.
All of this would be much easier if, by killing Oberon, Titania wouldn't also kill herself. Among the fae, the marriage of royalty was a serious union.
****
When they heard the knock, both girls assumed it was their groceries. Kirsty went to the door because she wasn't sure that Rachel wouldn't say something they might regret.
Rachel sat on the bed and played a game on one of the phones that not-Kirsty and not-Rachel had sent them. Those phones could do more than the desktop computers that both girls remembered as the most recent thing.
Kirsty opened the door and gasped.
"May I come in?" The man at the door wasn't exactly Jack Frost or King Oberon, but Kirsty could see both in his features. "I thought it would be rude not to ask." He was wearing a gray suit and didn't look nearly as out of place in the corridor as Rachel and Kirsty had when they'd first arrived. "No one else has thought to look for you yet, but you'll be easy to find if they do."
Kirsty hesitated.
"My so dear wife won't ask first," he said. He studied her face. "We could meet somewhere else. We might be able to help each other." He smiled, and the expression was more King Oberon than Jack Frost.
Kirsty didn't trust it in the least.
Rachel came up behind her and said, "Might as well."
Kirsty glanced back.
"Less chance of being overheard," Rachel added.
Kirsty sighed and nodded at Oberon. "There's a chair by the desk." She and Rachel sat cross-legged on the bed the height of which put their eyes level with Oberon's.
Oberon turned the chair so that it faced the girls. Then he sat down. "I don't know how much you know," he said, "but you must know by now that Titania lied to you, that all of them did."
Kirsty grabbed Rachel's hand and squeezed it. Kirsty hoped that that would be enough to make Rachel think before answering. "We know."
"I can teach you. I've felt your power growing. All of them did, too, and you might want to ask why they didn't teach you." There was no threat in his words but no sweetness either. "I couldn't before, and I want to remedy that."
"Don't," Kirsty said. She was addressing Rachel rather than Oberon. "Them all lying doesn't mean he's not."
"I know," Rachel said in a tone that meant that she did and that she didn't like it at all. "But I think we might need somebody."
Kirsty shook her head then looked at Oberon. "Do we get our parents back?" She knew he couldn't promise them that, and she thought-- hoped-- that Rachel knew it too.
He hesitated. "It's possible but not... I can't return them as they were, not without harming them, but I will promise them safety and let them be with you after this world is mine."
Rachel's hand tightened on Kirsty's, and Kirsty knew that Oberon had made a mistake. He might have snagged Rachel by promising their parents, but he'd reminded her-- both of them really-- that he meant to conquer.
They'd both wondered whether or not that part was true.
"We're only kids." Kirsty widened her eyes at him and stopped trying to keep her lips from trembling. "I don't see what we could do for you in return." She did her best to make it sound like a question.
"I can't give my goblins back what Titania took from them." Oberon managed to look stern and sad. "She is not kind to those who oppose her, so I'll find few allies in our shared realm. You--" He hesitated again, and Kirsty guessed that he was trying to measure their reactions. He sighed as if he was accepting a heavy burden. "Titania can't kill me because she would die herself, but she can do considerable harm to me. You two-- She can't touch you. Her debt to you is too great. Even if you had no power-- and you do have power-- she'd have to give way if you confronted her. All of them would have to."
Kirsty supposed that was a clever plan.
"And what would you do to her and her fairies?" Rachel demanded.
"To her?" Oberon shrugged. "No more than she did to me."
I wonder, Kirsty thought, if he'll die if he kills Titania. Maybe it goes both ways.
"As to the fairies, it depends on whether or not they'll swear to my service instead of hers. Some won't; some can't. I'll forgive anyone who sincerely bends their knee and promises me loyalty."
Kirsty thought of the fairies they'd known and of how, even if it had all been lies, it had been careful and gentle lies-- love and candy floss and rainbows and kittens-- rather than frightening ones. She and Rachel would have been as willing to help if the risks had been greater. Titania could have persuaded them to play at spies or soldiers. She could have put them in a zombie movie or asked them to fight aliens that tortured people.
"I want to hurt Titania," Rachel said. There was a flat viciousness in the sentence that made Kirsty uncomfortable.
Oberon wanted Kirsty and Rachel to become something darker and crueler. He needed them to want to hurt anyone who stood in his way, and Rachel was already halfway there.
So, if she was honest, was Kirsty. She just didn't think she'd like herself if they let Oberon carry them the rest of the way.
Kirsty shifted toward Rachel so that their shoulders pressed against each other. "We've heard you," she said as firmly as she could. "Now go away so that we can talk. Come back--" She hesitated. She wasn't sure how much time she could ask for without angering him.
Oberon had to know where to find their parents.
"Tomorrow," Rachel said. "We need time to eat, and our groceries aren't here yet. We'll tell you what we want tomorrow. We'll have a list."
Kirsty thought she saw just the briefest flicker of anger on Oberon's face, but he smiled at them and said, "I suppose we've all had too much of making promises without knowing what we were promising." He stood and inclined his head very slightly. "Tomorrow. Shall I bring lunch?"
"Please," Rachel said. "I'm not sure how well we'll do with cooking."
Oberon let himself out of the room.
Neither girl said anything at all for several minutes.
"He could be spying," Rachel said at last.
"Yeah," Kirsty said, "but I don't think he is. He's got to have all sorts of people looking for him, and he doesn't want them to find us, so--" She shrugged.
"I hate all of them."
"Yeah." Kirsty didn't say anything else for several seconds while she tried to figure out the right words. "I think he's worse," she said at last, "and he'll make us worse, too."
Kirsty expect Rachel to argue or to say that it didn't matter, but Rachel said, "Do we have a choice?"
"I think so," Kirsty told her. "At least... The changeling version of you said we might be able to open doors. If we're not here tomorrow, really, really not here, I don't think he'll be able to find us." She sighed and leaned her head against Rachel's shoulder. "I don't think he can win without us, so he won't have a lot of time to look."
"Oh." Rachel sounded as if she was surprised by Kirsty's words. "I suppose... We could come back later? To check on our parents, I mean, and..." She swallowed audibly. "I want Titania to lose something. She didn't just steal time."
"I know." Kirsty closed her eyes. "We don't know what we can do yet. We'll find that out; then, we'll decide."
"He'll be back tomorrow. What if we can't leave?"
Kirsty wasn't going to admit that they might not manage it. "I thought we'd aim for that purple cave, the one with the gooey, glowing walls that smelled like grape soda."
"Ugh. That was terrible."
Kirsty nodded. "Yeah, but we both remember it. I think that might help. If we're really sure we're thinking about the same place, I mean." She pulled away from Rachel and slid to the floor. She pointed to a bit of air just past the foot of the bed. "See if you can rip something apart right there."
Rachel stared at Kirsty for a moment. "That's just air."
"If you aim at a wall, you'll break that rather than what we actually need."
Rachel nodded then squinted at a point in midair. She frowned. "This might take a while."
"That's okay," Kirsty told her. "I need to figure out how we can carry everything. We're going to want the blankets and the food and all that."
The knock on the door ten minutes later actually was the groceries.
****
When Oberon arrived the next morning, he found the door open and the room empty but for things the girls had abandoned. There was a note on the desk that said:
Our List:
1. We want to do it all ourselves.
He could taste the portal magic in the air, but he could only track it through the first two layers. He hurled his carry out at the television, making both explode. Then he stalked out of the room to go and fight his war.