The Rise of the Fairy Queen (The Fairy Queen Trilogy Book 1) Page 12

  Ajo nods his understanding and Ool leaves them to it. Elsie watches him walk away. “Does that mean the elders won’t fight?”

  “They might. I reckon Ool will. But I have hundreds of men who will join this fight.”

  “Excellent. Any fairy who wants to fight, may fight. Is that it?”

  “I think so. Come with us. We’ll go to the cave and I’ll show you the setup. You can tell me what you think.”

  “And maybe someone can show me how to fight,” Elsie says, moving away from Meg and closer to Hardy and Ajo, still imagining being more like Dayle.

  “You could learn to fight,” Hardy says. “Lots of the girls do. But not for this rebellion. This rebellion isn’t a game.”

  Ajo looks her up and down, an appreciative expression on his face. “I reckon you could fight if you had to.”

  Meg humphs. “This is a princess you’re talking about. She couldn’t fight if she had to. Despite being locked up for the last six years, she’s still got more decorum than most.”

  “Meg!” Elsie glares at her handmaiden and only friend in the world.

  Meg shrugs. “Elsie, I can’t have you talking with these two men as though you’re getting ready to be involved in some sort of underground fighting club. You’re a princess. If this rebellion goes well, you’ll be on the throne. These men will kneel before you, and they ought to remember that. I’m sorry if I’m not saying what you want to hear, but that’s the truth of it.”

  13

  ELSIE’S EXPRESSION brokers no further word on the subject, and on the flight back to the cave, Meg is shoved firmly to the back of the entourage. Elsie and Hardy fly ahead, together, and Ajo and his sister Anya fly straight behind them.

  Determined to get her way, Elsie asks Hardy who the best female fighter he knows is. He hesitates slightly and then grimaces. “It’s Bella.”

  Elsie’s heart sinks, but she raises her chin, her expression fierce. “Then I shall ask her to help me.”

  “She might say no.”

  “She might say yes.”

  “Does it really matter? You have all the time in the world to learn how to play with a dagger, once you are queen.”

  Elsie is ready to convince Bella to help her but when they fly into the cave and the first thing she sees is Bella glaring at her with her hands on her hips, a furious expression on her face, she’s willing to wait awhile.

  Hardy flies over to placate his girlfriend and Elsie, Meg, Ajo and Anya hover together.

  “The weapons are over there,” Elsie says, pointing over to where Hardy had introduced her to the two men in charge. Ajo and Anya fly over. Elsie stays with Meg, wondering if she should clear the air.

  “I’m sorry, Elsie. I have to speak up for you. It’s my job.”

  “It doesn’t have to be your job anymore, Meg.”

  “What do you mean? Are you asking me to go?”

  Elsie shakes her head, tears springing to her eyes. “Oh, no, Meg. I never want you to leave. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

  “What do you mean then?”

  Elsie sits on a crag of rock and pats the space beside her.

  “I mean, that I shouldn’t be a job for you, not anymore. I want us to be friends, equals I suppose. It’s time I learned to dress myself, don’t you think?”

  Meg chokes on a sob. “Oh, Elsie, you’re more than a job anyway, you’re my family. I can understand you wanting to feel useful and not just watch this battle for the throne going on, but please... remember who you are and what you’ve spent your life doing. You’re brave and courageous, but you’re no Dayle.”

  Elsie rests her head on Meg’s shoulder. “I think there’s only one Dayle.”

  “Thank goodness. I don’t think the men in the Kingdom could cope with two of them.”

  “Or some of the women.”

  “Elsie!”

  Elsie laughs. “Meg, you’re so funny. I know about love.”

  Meg smooths her hair. “I know. And I’m sure Dayle could take her pick. So was that the girlfriend? The one who was mean to you?”

  Elsie nods. “Yes. She was sarcastic when I asked Hardy if they could get a message to you-”

  “You tried to get word to me?”

  “Of course. Meg, I haven’t been without you my entire life that I can remember. I was scared without you, and I knew you’d be worried about me. But you were already here with your sister. But Bella was mean.”

  “She’ll get over it.”

  “I hope so. She reckons I’m completely spoiled.”

  “Well, Elsie, you can’t even dress yourself, so...” Meg cannot stop laughing and Elsie gives her a playful shove.

  “Not squabbling are we, ladies?” Hardy joins them, an amused smile on his face as he watches them.

  “Of course not. Princesses don’t squabble.”

  “Well girlfriends do,” Hardy says, glancing balefully in Bella’s direction. She is refusing to look his way. “Where’s Ajo and Anya?”

  “Over there.”

  “Let’s go. I want to show you all something.”

  Meg hesitates, not sure if she’s part of this war game.

  Hardy nods at her. “You too. Elsie needs you.”

  Elsie grins at him and follows behind him, along with Meg.

  “Ajo!” Hardy greets him as though he hasn’t seen him for years and Ajo high fives him.

  “Quite the setup you’ve got here, Hardy. I’m impressed. These two certainly know their stuff.”

  The two burly fairies beam and Hardy claps them on the back.

  “That they do. Keep at it, boys. We will need ten times the weapons we have.”

  He gestures for Ajo and Anya to follow him and they fly to the other end of the cavern where Elsie didn’t go last time.

  Down a small flight of steps, hewn into the rock, they stop in front of a heavy metal door.

  Hardy turns to them, a serious expression on his face. “Nobody outside of my closest allies in this rebellion, or hopeful rebellion, or possible rebellion, have ever been inside this room. I don’t even let Bella in here.”

  Meg raises an eyebrow at Elsie but says nothing.

  He opens the door and gestures inside with a flourish. “This is the war room.”

  “The war room,” Ajo repeats, walking inside, eyes wide.

  Elsie takes in the maps of Allaire, the surrounding seas, the floor plans of various buildings pinned up along the walls. There’s an enormous table in the middle of the room, piled with papers, surrounded by heavy wooden chairs.

  She recognises one of the floor plans. It’s meticulously drawn out and would have taken someone ages, but it’s the castle. She runs her fingers over the paper, tracing the walls of her prison with her fingertip, feeling suddenly sick and overwhelmed. Why didn’t she just run away when she had the chance? Right now, she’d be enjoying Mark’s cooking, listening to the crew’s stories about mermaids and pirates and falling in love with Tom.

  Instead, those same feelings she felt for him – feelings so unknown to her they don’t even have a name – are creeping over her again, but this time for Hardy. Her stomach flips when she looks at him, but she cringes under his gaze. She cannot bear for him to look at her; the attention feels too intense and personal and intimate, but when he’s not looking at her, she wishes he would. When he touches her, her entire body tingles and a heat spreads through her, to parts of her that until now hadn’t been wakened.

  But what would her life have been if she had left? Full of regret that she abandoned Allaire and her sister? Full of shame that she kept herself safe and didn’t care enough about anybody else to help them. And what would her marriage have been like. Would these feelings, these new and uncomfortable feelings, have crept in about her husband? She’ll never know what might have been.

  She closes her eyes. Just because she’s scared doesn’t mean she’s done the wrong thing. And the fact that she’s in a war room, for crying out loud, means she got what she wanted. She wanted to come back to Al
laire to fix things, and she could never have done it on her own.

  “What do you think?” Hardy slips an arm around her waist, a move so affectionate that she squirms a little bit under his touch and cannot think of a single thing to say.

  Meg comes to her side and rescues her. “It’s a great setup. I’d say you’re more than ready to go.”

  “We need numbers.”

  “We have numbers,” Anya says, touching Hardy on his arm.

  “I worry it won’t be enough. I have always wanted to attack, spring something on them and surprise them. They’ll never be expecting it. So we need numbers.”

  “There are many of us in the troupe who have felt constrained by the line we’ve taken. We would have fought back years ago. But we are safe, and to risk the safety of ourselves and our families for something which seemed impossible, seemed the height of stupidity. With you, and us, working together, it feels possible.”

  “With Elsie it feels possible,” Hardy says.

  “I won’t argue with that,” Ajo says, giving her a slightly leering glance.

  Anya swats at her brother. “Ajo. She’s a baby.”

  “I’m not a baby.” Elsie feels affronted and knows she looks it too.

  Anya smiles at her. “It wasn’t an insult. I was just trying to stop Ajo from being disgusting.”

  “I wasn’t being disgusting.” Ajo looks insulted and Elsie laughs. Hardy gives him a friendly ish punch on his arm.

  “Time to be serious, Ajo. Come and look at these. These are plans...” Hardy leads Ajo away, evidently not bothered to show the girls the plans.

  Anya rolls her eyes. “I wish they’d let us females get involved. See how he shows the boy the plans but not us?”

  Meg nods, but Elsie frowns. She doesn’t like to hear criticism of Hardy. He feels like a saviour to her, and she doesn’t want to question his methods. Or his motives.

  She changes the subject instead. “Anya, do you know Bella?”

  “Hardy’s Bella? Yes.”

  “Hardy said she’s the best fighter, the best female fighter he has.”

  Anya nods, contemplating her words. “He’s right. She’s feisty. And mean. Why? You’re not looking to fight for Hardy, are you?”

  Elsie blushes. “I don’t want Hardy.” She shakes her head at Anya’s sceptical expression. “I don’t! But I want to help with this rebellion, if I can.”

  “Take my advice and stay out of it. Hardy knows how many of us can fight; but he’s not interested. He’s so old fashioned. He says only the men can fight; he’s preaching to us all about our responsibility and this vision he has for Allaire, but when we offer help, he scoffs. It’s worse for Bella. He knows how good she is, better than some of the men, but it honestly doesn’t occur to him. If we fought, he’d have had the numbers years ago.”

  She gestures to the table, and Hardy and Ajo, heads bent over some grand plan or other. “If they get their way, if we get rid of your step parents, you need to be safe and well, ready to rule. Even if it occurred to him to let some of the girls fight, he wouldn’t risk you.” She shrugs. “I’m just glad you came back. I’d much rather have a queen than a king.” She stares pointedly at Hardy.

  Elsie glances at Hardy, watching the way his tongue is poking out in concentration, the hunger in his eyes. Does Anya mean what she says, does she know what she’s saying is true, or is she repeating gossip.

  Meg gasps. “He couldn’t have thought he would rule?”

  Anya shrugs. “Just be careful. They have planned this rebellion for a long time, before you came back, Elsie, before you even went. And before anyone even thought about you being part of it. There have been people in Hardy’s circle pushing for it, and people in the troupe being rallied along by my brother. The plan was always to stop the clipping. Great. The plan was always to overthrow your step parents. Great. But nobody could ever say what would happen next. If the rulers are dead, who rules?”

  Elsie opens her mouth, but Anya holds up her hand. “I can tell you that your name was never mentioned, not once. And if they assumed you’d be away over the seas, happily married and oblivious, then I’ll tell you that nobody mentioned your sister either. I know that when they storm the castle, the plan is that nobody gets out alive.”

  A sick churning fills Elsie’s insides until she’s worried she’ll be sick.

  She knows that Hardy’s been planning the rebellion for a long time; he said so. Does that mean that he planned to rule? That he would have killed her and Isla? White noise is filling her head until she feels dizzy with it.

  “I am the rightful heir...” Elsie says, almost to herself.

  “You are,” Anya says, giving her arm a reassuring squeeze. “And it might be you’re the spark that made this entire thing a reality instead of just a dream. Maybe we needed you. An heir, someone to offer hope to the fairies. We can overthrow the royal family and their clippers, and we have someone better to put in their place. Maybe it’s what Hardy wants.” She shrugs. “Just be careful.”

  It feels strange for Elsie to hear such an ominous warning from a stranger. Apart from Meg, everyone she meets now is a stranger.

  Hardy hadn’t felt like one, though. That’s why she’s feeling so on edge. He had felt like an ally almost immediately. She had felt like he wanted the best for her. That he would watch her take her throne and cheer along with everybody else in the Kingdom.

  And yet it’s a throne she never wanted, never even imagined as being hers.

  This change in her ambitions and her ideas for what’s possible for her future are very new. The idea of ruling has been thrust upon her, really. But there can be no alternative. Not now.

  She glances at Hardy again, who looks up and grins at her, nodding, checking she’s all right. She nods back, smiles, and then closes her eyes briefly, takes a deep breath.

  Anya is Bella’s friend. Maybe she’s just saying mean things about Hardy to drive a wedge between them. Her newfound friendship with Hardy, and the way they will need to rely on each other and work together, is something Bella hates, so maybe Anya is muddying the waters and trying to put doubt in her mind.

  She will listen, but she will make her own choices and decisions based upon only what she knows, not what someone tells her. When she gets a chance, she will ask Hardy what the plan is regarding Isla, and what would have happened if they had started this rebellion while she was still locked up.

  She will ask him and see what he says. She doesn’t want to play games.

  “Thank you, Anya. It’s good to know I’ve got support in Allaire.”

  Anya beams and tucks her arms around Elsie’s shoulder. “Absolutely. And I’ll talk to Bella for you. I’ll tell her you’d like to learn how to fight and I know she’ll help. She can be mean, but she can also be a good friend.”

  “That would be good. Thanks.”

  Hardy tucks himself between Elsie and Meg. “What do you think then?” He holds his arms open, encompassing his war room.

  “I think it’s bloody marvellous,” Ajo says.

  “I didn’t ask you,” Hardy says.

  “I think it is too,” Elsie says smiling, still worrying about what Anya said, but trying to push it out of her mind.

  “And now I want you to meet the other rebels, Elsie. They’re so excited to meet you.”

  “Really?”

  “Of course. You’re the spark.”

  “The spark,” she repeats his words and they all follow him out of the room.

  Anya kisses Ajo on the cheek and then hugs Hardy for a little longer than necessary, Elsie thinks. “I have to go. I’ll let Ajo fill me in on everything later. And if I see Bella, I’ll talk to her for you.”

  She flits off and Hardy frowns at Elsie. “What was that about Bella?”

  “I want her to train me, remember?”

  He shakes his head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.” He holds his hands up at her disgruntled expression. “But it’s your call. I’m sure you’ll need additional things
to do once you’re queen. Anyway, do you know Elwin’s Peak?”

  They all nod. It’s the largest mountain in the Kingdom. Hardy grins. “We’ve set up our base there. It’s even more secret than this place. Bella’s never been there.”

  Elsie frowns. Why should that matter? And why is he worrying about Bella helping her? Would she try to hurt her? Or would she tell her something Hardy wouldn’t want her knowing?

  “Let’s go.”

  Once again Hardy leads the way out of the caves. Elsie can feel someone watching her, but when she looks around, assuming it’s Bella, there’s nobody there. It’s a lengthy flight to Elwin’s Peak and when they get there Elsie feels exhausted. She’s not used to flying such long distances.

  “Are you all right?” Meg asks her, worrying as always.

  Elsie nods. “A little overwhelmed and tired.”

  “I can imagine.”

  They have stopped outside an enormous building, cleverly disguised with foliage. Few fairies visit the top of the peak – why would they? All that’s up there is a view. And this cabin; but the cabin is tucked so cleverly into the landscape you’d never find it, if you didn’t know it was there.

  The guard outside stands to attention when he sees Hardy and salutes. Elsie shivers. There’s something so official about it all, something a little unsettling.

  She shrugs. It’s highly likely just nerves, and she knows that. She has been so nervous since coming back, the sick churning in her stomach intensifying, the burden of being the ‘spark’, the sudden pressure.

  She’s so used to whiling her days away with stories and naps, bland food and early nights that all she has seen and done since leaving the castle is becoming a blur of over stimulation.

  She’s glad she’s here. She’s ready to help. And if being the spark that helps really get this uprising going is what they all needed to feel ready to do it, then she’s glad she’s here to do it. Glad she turned around and came back to Allaire.