Gigantic red eyes filled Merry’s vision as he slowly opened his eyelids.
“Whoa!” He started, tried to move away and found himself buried against his pillow.
“What are you talking about?” Merry winced as he turned his head so he could look squarely at Quinn. That was when he saw Quinn’s eyes. They weren’t their normal bright emerald green. Well, they were, but an emerald green iris circled a bright gold iris like Merry’s teal iris did his gold iris. “Your eyes changed, too,” he whispered with emphasis.
“Whoa!” He started, tried to move away and found himself buried against his pillow.
“He wake now, Ye Majesty,” Nolan said with a deep bow on the air.
Merry was on his bed. And, um, well, still naked except for the towel and blanket casually thrown over him. He pulled the blanket tighter around him before looking up at Quinn who sat next to him. “Y-you’re awake.”
“Aye, I be.”
“Are you okay? How do you feel?”
“The question be, how ye feel?”
Merry took a mental inventory of his body. Other than a mild headache, he seemed okay. “I’m okay. What happened?”
“Ye fainted from bleedin’ in ye skull and Nolan mend ye.”
Merry looked over at Nolan who floated on the air, alone. He looked around for the other demi-fae and found them huddled in a cloud of color across the room. Sadb looked like she’d swallowed a lemon as she floated, bound, gagged, and squirmy on the air as she made impolite screeching noises at Conlaoch.
“What happened to her?”
Conlaoch made a face. “She lose she temperament when I permit Nolan in ye home to heal ye. Riotous wench she be, she make a bobbery and wake we prince from he healin’ sleep. As so, I put an end to it.”
“Oh.” He looked back at Nolan. “Thanks.”
Nolan gave another deep bow. “Be me pleasure, Lord Merry. Though, ’twouldn’t be fair to take ye healin’ to me credit. I only provide a daub o’ me small magicks. We prince be providin’ the big magicks to heal ye head.”
Merry looked at Quinn. “Are you okay?”
Quinn smiled. “Other than a spate o’ worry for ye, I be well, me Merry. Thanks in no small part to ye.”
“I-I didn’t do anything.”
“Aye, ye did.” He looked at Conlaoch and something unspoken passed between them. The demi-fae suddenly cheered and faded away. Nolan’s big red eyes were the last to fade from Merry’s sight.
“What are they happy about and where’d they go?”
“I send ‘em away to prepare.”
Merry tried to sit up and decided against it when his head began to spin. He settled back into the comfort of the pillow. “Prepare for what?”
“Ye return to we.”
“What are you talking about?” Merry winced as he turned his head so he could look squarely at Quinn. That was when he saw Quinn’s eyes. They weren’t their normal bright emerald green. Well, they were, but an emerald green iris circled a bright gold iris like Merry’s teal iris did his gold iris. “Your eyes changed, too,” he whispered with emphasis.
Quinn shook his head. “Not be me eye that change, Merry. Be ye sight. Ye now see as we do.”
Merry’s lips parted in a small O. “You guys see this way normally? Like, all the time?”
Quinn nodded.
Understanding filled Merry. “My eyes were always like this and I just couldn’t see it?”
Quinn nodded again.
“No way,” he said softly.
“I speak true.”
Merry studied the contours of Quinn’s face. He looked even more beautiful than he did before... before the new sight. “I’m going to see this way forever?”
Quinn nodded again.
“Cool.”
“Ye be careful of ye sun. Be painful to ye if ye look direct at it.”
“’K.” He didn’t normally look at the sun, so no big deal. “Quinn?”
“Aye?”
“Why'd you say I wasn’t a fairy when you knew I was one?”
Quinn became serious. “Not be me place to tell ye that ye be half fae.”
“Quinn, we’re talking about my life here. I mean that kind of information is majorly crucial, you know?”
“Only we Fates may dictate when ye know.”
“Another fairy rule?”
“Aye.” Anger knitted his brow. “Though, me wish they be of a mind to permit me to tell ye.”
Stupid rules. Merry needed to know where the half fae part of him came from. After seeing his dad go all Freddy Krueger™ on him last night, he sure as heck hoped it wasn’t from his dad’s side of the family. “Where’d the half come from?”
“Ye know ye answer, Merry.”
“My dad?”
Quinn looked deep into his eyes and suddenly Merry knew. “My mom.”
Quinn nodded once.
Myriad thoughts and questions bounced off the walls of Merry’s mind, but one particular question jumped out at him. He had to know. He had to. “I-is that why s-she left?”
“After a fashion.”
“I hate when you say that! What’s it mean?”
“It mean in a manner of speakin’. Ye would say ‘sort of.’”
“So, it’s part of the reason she left?”
Quinn became grave. “Be nearly the whole of it.”
“Why else did she leave?”
Quinn ignored his question. “I hear ye have a donnybrook with ye da’.”
Merry touched his cheek. It was no longer sore. “He did all the donnybrooking.”
“Conlaoch tell me ye see ye da’ for what he truly be.”
Merry looked away. “Yeah. It was horrible. It was like he was possessed or something.”
“Must be terrifyin’ for ye.”
Merry turned back to Quinn. “Did you know he was like that?”
Quinn shook his head. “I know he be a dark one, but not so dark as to show he other self.”
“What do you mean, show his other self?”
“Each of us have two self, Merry. Ye see me ugly side afore.”
“Only once, and that was ’cause you got seriously pissed off at Rick, which was totally fine with me.”
“Aye, but we all have an ability to show we ugly side.”
“Nothing like that ever happens to me when I get mad. I usually just yell.” Long beat. “Or cry.”
Quinn bent and hugged him. “I know it of ye, me Merry, I know.”
Merry melted into the comfort of Quinn’s hug. He felt more peaceful than he had in years and wanted to stay in Quinn’s arms forever. “What are the demi-fae doing?”
“They make a rade.”
“What’s a rah-yay?”
“A procession. Ye call it a parade.”
Merry sat up, his eyes wide with surprise, and his head didn’t spin this time. “Why?”
“By the cause we wish to celebrate. Nary a fae allow a celebration come to pass without participation. Be a way of life for we.”
Merry couldn’t help it. He suddenly snorted and began to laugh.
“What be humorous to ye?”
“I put sugar on your wing to help you get better and, when your wing healed, the demi-fae got drunk and passed out all over you!”
“Over me?”
“On you! They were all over your wing!”
Quinn’s expression turned angry. “Be unforgivable.”
Merry’s laughter died away. “Don’t be mad at them. They helped mend you and helped me a lot.”
A shrieking and babbling Sadb suddenly appeared. Within seconds, Conlaoch and Nolan followed. Sparks flew from Sadb’s now yellow and orange wings as she shrieked at Conlaoch.
Ho-ly cow! She’s on fire!
She hurled tiny fireballs at Nolan, which he silently, expertly dodged.
“Sadb!” Quinn shouted.
Sadb abruptly ceased her tirade.
“Stop ye shitefire!”
“Oh, me apologies, me prince.”
“What in the name o’ Goddess and Consort be the matter?”
“I come to ask ye say-so. Conlaoch say I must ride Nolan’s back to lead we rade.”
“What of it? He be dragon and we oft ride ‘em.”
“Nay, nay! He be unclean! I not do it!”
“Then ye not lead we rade.”
“Be what I tell she, Ye Majesty,” Conlaoch said evenly.
Merry had had enough of this unclean business. “Lady Sadb?”
“What?”
“What exactly is unclean about being part dragonfly?”
She paused in thought, a tiny finger tapping her chin. “Everyone say it be.”
Merry gaped at her. “You think he’s unclean just because everyone says so? Because of rumors?”
“Aye,” she nodded emphatically.
Unbelievable! Merry rubbed his forehead. “Lady Sadb?”
“What?”
“What if I told you that Nolan is not only perfectly clean, but he’s totally cool?”
“Ye mean to say he not be hot?”
“I mean to say I think he’s the finest looking out of all of you and the nicest. If you took five minutes to talk to him instead of yelling at him and trying to... to fireball him, you might find that out.”
Her face scrunched in thought. “Nay. I not believe so.”
“Just talk to him!”
Sadb shuddered on the air. “Ye not raise ye voice to a Lady of we High Court!”
How dare I forget. “Okay.” Merry took a calming breath. “Lady Sadb, would you please indulge me and simply take a little time to talk to Nolan and get to know him before you decide not to ride him.”
Her eyes brightened, and her little pointed teeth showed bright in her grin. “Ye mean to ask a favor of me?”
“No! No trixie! It’s a simple request.”
Her face fell. “Why ye never fall for me trixie?”
“I have no idea! Will you please take a little time to talk to Nolan and get to know him?”
“How much be little?”
Merry groaned inwardly. “Five minutes.”
“Three,” she countered.
“Six,” Merry shot back.
“Four,” she growled.
“Five,” Merry insisted.
“Done!” she shouted her triumph on the air.
Merry smiled. “Cool.”
The three of them disappeared.
Quinn was lying on the bed dying in laughter. “Ye be learnin’ we ways all too well, me Merry.”
Merry couldn’t help but laugh along with him. “The first time my mom did that to me, it took me weeks to figure out where I went wrong.”
Quinn’s laughter died away and he looked up at Merry. “Ye be a right fine young man, me Merry.”
Quinn’s adoration flowed over Merry, a soothing balm on his once lonely and beleaguered soul, and Merry knew he was home at last, where he belonged.
Seemingly from nowhere, the essence of Quinn’s agonizing sadness imbued Merry. Filled with unbearable shame, anguished regret, and a feeling of tormented isolation, it nearly tore Merry’s heart in two. After all Quinn did for Merry, he never once allowed Merry to see his pain and loneliness. Quinn had been alone for... centuries.
I’m here, Quinn. I’ll never leave you. I promise, Merry thought hard.
Aye, me wee dote, ye be.
Merry looked at Quinn, and Quinn’s eyes twinkled for real. Merry gasped. “Your eyes! They, they just sparkled. What’s that mean?”
Quinn’s smile was suddenly shy, his cheeks flushed rose, and he bit his lower lip and turned away.
Merry turned Quinn’s face back with gentle fingertips.
“I show ye exactly what it mean, mo chroi.”
©Cody Kennedy. All Rights Reserved.
v.10.7.20
v.10.7.20
No comments:
Post a Comment