Page 105 of The Changeling

It was a whole village hidden within a hill.

Full of amazement, I crept back to the great hall, where the musicians played their wild irresistible music, and Robbie spun and whirled and leapt. He left a blotch of blood on the stone floor with every step he took. He would surely die if he was forced to keep dancing like this, night after night.

I had to save him.

I took a deep breath, squared my shoulders. I would go to the faery queen and I would offer myself to her. Do what you will to me, but let Robbie go, let Sorcha be, I would say. They have done you no harm. Kill me if you must, but let the ones I love go free. Please.

Step by slow step, I walked towards the throne. I was tired, so I leaned heavily on my stick. To my surprise, my mother rose too, with the help of her staff, and she limped away from me. Her dress was grey as ashes and ragged as a beggar’s.

A little girl sat at the foot of the throne. She was dressed in rough, patched clothing, and her black hair was stiff with knots. She sat whittling a hazel branch into a wooden spoon, using a curved flint. I watched for a moment, remembering how Sorcha made baby animals out of bits of old wood. She had made my long-handled wooden spoon too, when she was just a child.

A faery maiden came to crouch beside the little girl, saying gently, ‘It’s beautiful. I like how you’ve shaped the handle. You’ll make strong magic with it one day.’

The little girl smiled, showing an endearing gap in her teeth.

The faery maiden rose to her feet and said to another of much the same age, ‘I heard the queen’s daughter is utterly heartbroken at the glamourie her mother cast on that fair mortal, the one she wanted to take. What a fool! Does the princess not know she has the power to break the spell anytime she pleases?’

‘The queen should never have given her to mortals to raise,’ the other said. ‘How is she meant to come into her powers? She’s the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter! She could lift the spell anytime she chose.’

‘With a simple stir of her wooden spoon! After all, the mortal girl made it for her with love. If you can call a mortal’s flimsy feelings love.’

‘All the princess needs to do is make something for her sister with as much love as the gift was made for her.’

‘And chant an incantation.’

‘With true intent.’

‘And heartfelt belief.’

‘And make sure the mortal girl knows and believes with all her heart too.’

‘How is she ever going to break the curse on us, if she cannot even break a simple glamour?’

‘It’s hopeless.’

‘All our poor queen has worked for will be doomed to failure, and all because her senseless daughter will not listen or learn. All those deaths, all that grief and suffering, all for nothing.’

‘Perhaps it is for the best. Who wants a queen so lacking in strength and courage and selflessness? Not I!’

‘Nor I!’

‘Let us go and dance again. Tomorrow night the price must be paid. If the princess has not yet learned how to break the spell on her beloved, it will be his blood that will drench the throne. We may as well enjoy him for one last night.’

‘It’s a shame! How can she be so blind?’

‘Who knows when another seventh daughter of a seventh daughter will be born?’

‘Perhaps never.’

‘Enough doom and gloom! Let us dance!’

The two faery maidens ran back into the centre of the hall, caught Robbie’s hands and spun with him, their long dark hair swirling.

I sat, my arms wrapped about my knees, shivering with cold and misery. They meant to kill Robbie! Tomorrow night! I was so afraid. What if it was my blood that would be spilt instead of his? A willing sacrifice, the old prophecy said. Did I love Robbie enough to die for him?

But the queen had said that I was her heir. That I would inherit her crown and rule the faery realm. Surely she did not mean to murder me?

The little girl had finished whittling her spoon, and now sat playing with it, pretending to have a supper party with a ragdoll. She scooped up air, lifted the empty spoon to her mouth, and pretended to chew and swallow. Then she repeated the action for the doll. After a few moments, she laid down her spoon and hugged her stomach. She was so thin. She looked hungry.