Chapter 28
Lark
We gather in the snowy clearing just after midday to begin rehearsals. This time, instead of wyverns and dragon-slayers, it’s love and mischief on the menu. Snow crunches beneath boots, and Hellion hums a concerningly cheerful tune as she lays out props on the frozen ground.
The set is simple. A few cut tree rounds stand in for thrones.
Small stones outline a fairy circle. The magic will come later, when the whole town is watching and the queen herself is in attendance.
Then, I’ll have to use all my powers of illusion to craft the perfect throne room, make the fairy circle glitter just right, and entice our audience to join us in our shared delusion for a night.
Theatre is truly an art to be experienced with the whole body, mind, and soul.
“How are we doing with preparations for the dreaming tea, Doc?”
Katja flutters in front of me, wings catching the weak sunlight in shifting pastels.
“Nearly there. We’ve dried enough Valerian root now.
With the Pyramus mushrooms you gathered the other day, all we need is extract of arguta and some hillaberries for taste, and we can get those from Daria’s glasshouse. ”
The dreaming tea will help the audience sink into my illusions as they watch, opening their perceptions, widening their senses, and hopefully opening certain hearts.
“And the love potion?”
“Also almost there.” She waves me off. “Trust me, Lark. I’ve got this.”
Trust her. She says it like she’s not the same girl who vanished one of Frederik’s toes instead of healing it when she was seven. This trust thing is hard.
“Places!” I call out. “Helkki, Juho, we’re starting with your scene.”
Katja and Johannes take their places as well. They start with the opening lines, plotting to marry Helkki’s character off to a rich aristocrat.
Helkki races in from stage left to stop them, Juani a step behind her. “?ti, no. I will not marry him, for my heart is already pledged to Sander!”
Juani steps resolutely to her side. “And mine to Mia.”
“Cut, cut.” I wave a hand, stepping forward. “Juani, you can’t sneer when you say that. You need to look besotted. Like you’re in love with her.”
He curls his upper lip like he’s about to spit a bad berry. “Ew.”
“Ew,” Helkki echoes.
“Acting, little beasties. Acting.”
“Ugh, fine, I’ll try,” Juani says with a yawn. “I much prefer our usual comedies though. This emotional nonsense is hard.”
I choke a laugh. “Yes, my favorite sleepyhead, emotional nonsense is hard.” I glance at the girl perched on a log behind me—the one whose smile I’m definitely not rehearsing lines for.
Val can’t stifle her laughter, letting the bright notes out. My heart skips a beat.
Hard, indeed.
“Oho! I’m your favorite today?” Juani grins.
I send a glittering dragonet spinning toward him, showering him with rainbow sparks before it vanishes. “You might say, every day, even.”
“Hey,” Johannes protests, hands on hips.
“Never fear, Joha. You’re my favorite on odd days.”
He frowns, counting silently on his fingers.
Then, a small tug on my trouser leg draws my attention down. Aili stares up at me with shining eyes. “What about me?”
I conjure a bouquet of butterflies to delight her. “Proclamation! Everyone, listen up. Grumpy is now my favorite. The rest of you have been usurped.”
“Oh, nooooooo...” groans Juani.
“So sad...” sighs Johannes.
“However will we survive?” Katja deadpans.
Helkki twirls off, her arms above her head. “I’ll be over here, sobbing.”
Aili beams for a change. “I win!” Then she chases after one of my fading butterflies.
“Alright, alright.” I clap my hands. “Let’s take it from the lovers’ entrance.”
“Ew.”
“Ew.”
Sigh. This is why we don’t do romantic plays.
Behind me, Val laughs again. But Juani and Helkki troop off to retake their places, shoving each other as they go. This time, the lines are somewhat more believable. I’ll just have to fix their faces along with their costume illusions.
The scene wraps up with the suitor, Demetri, coming to claim his new bride with sedate reluctance. The over-the-top tears from the other two leave me shaking my head.
“Ready for your big debut?” I ask Val.
She rises from the log and brushes snow from her skirt.
There’s no need to be nervous, but I doubt it would help to tell her that.
Her part is just to stand in for the queen during rehearsals.
No acting necessary, although her nerves are probably about more than this.
After all, it is her stepmother who might freeze us all to death if this goes wrong.
Aili plays her part perfectly, guiding Val onto the stage and over to the fairy circle. “Behold the Fairy Queen, the fairest of them all.”
For a moment, Val stands so straight and regal, gliding across the clearing like moonlight come to life, that I forget to breathe. Not only is she beautiful, she’s queen-like—which should chill me with fear, not stir heat through my belly.
Someone coughs.
“That’s your cue, Lark,” reminds Katja.
“What? I mean, yes! Got it.”
“Do you?” That from Val. Her unimpressed queen look is disturbingly convincing.
“Yes, my one true love, I do.”
She blinks. “As the kids say, Ew. I’m pretending to be Queen Taynia.”
“And I am playing the role of Beron. You’re the one who told us he’s secretly in love with her. If not, then this might all backfire.”
“No, I’m positive on that front. What I’m not sure of is whether she ever cared for him in return.”
“Let’s hope,” I say. “This’ll be a lot more potent if there’s something real for the potion to latch onto.”
“Fairies, make haste,” Aili cries, getting us back on track.
Wings aflutter, Katja swoops down with the love potion vials, taking on a new role in the fairy glen where she’ll unite our unsuspecting guests. Today, nothing more than snowmelt fills the vials, but the instant love potion should do its job during the actual performance.
Mikael (as Demetri) reenters the stage, with Johannes trailing behind him, his face as long as that of the steed I’ll illusion into the scene for him on the day. “I do not love thee, Lena. Get thee gone. Now where is my fair Mia? The fairies bade me she would be here in these woods.”
Taking his turn to grimace, Joha whines, “Why do I have to play the girl again?”
“Because your ears are small enough to fit under the wig,” Helkki cackles.
“No,” I sigh. “Because Doc is busy with the potions, Aili is busy guiding the queen to the fairy glen, and Hellion is already playing Mia. Unless Eevi started walking and talking since this morning, that leaves you.”
“Val could do it,” he complains.
“She’s playing the queen.”
“But for the real thing, the real queen will be there. So Val could play Lena and be in love with Demetri.” Johannes makes another face like he sucked on a lemon.
I look to the princess, sure she’ll immediately decline. She won’t want to share a stage with her stepmother and Beron, no matter how good her disguise. To my surprise, she looks thoughtful. “I could…you’ll disguise me, right?”
“Of course,” I promise. “Strongest illusions around.”
Her hand goes to her moonstone, where Lumi is in hiding once more. Illusions on top of illusions. “Okay.”
“There, happy now?” I ask Joha.
He nods.
“You’re her understudy though, and right now, you’re in.” That brings a groan and a sneeze. “Oy. Save a few of your new pills for the day of the play. There’s no sneezing in acting! Now where were we?”
“The love potions,” Katja reminds us.
“Fairies, gather round,” Aili resumes.
Kat flutters into place and addresses Val and me, or rather, the queen and Beron.
“Our fairest queen, our king of shadows, won’t thou help these lovers find their ever after?
For Sander and Mia wish to wed, but she is promised to Demetri.
If only he returned the love of dearest Lena, all could, by gentle day, find their love most true. ”
“But how?” Aili prompts.
“With this.” Kat lifts the vials in each hand.
We lean in for a better look, just as I hope the real queen and Beron will.
“A drop upon his eyes, and the next thing he looks upon, he shall pursue with the soul of love. Take these vials, and toss the juice upon Demetri and Lena, that their love might bloom from its sweet nectar. And if you need a demonstration, toss them thus!”
With great flourish, Kat tosses the snowmelt into both our faces and quickly flies away. I don’t want her staying near the Ice Queen after tossing potion in her face.
I wipe water from my eyes. Why did I stand in for this part again? That was cold!
In front of me, Val blinks slowly. To everyone’s surprise, she steps close and takes my face in her hands.
She tilts her head. “Oh, what perfect man is this? This striking prince, a god, divine!”
My face goes hot. “Uh, you don’t have to—”
“To what should I compare thine eyes, my love? I thought I knew my heart, but have I ever known such a dream?” Her hand buries in my hair.
My mouth drops open. Nothing comes out.
From the other side of the clearing, Katja squints at us, then peers into the vials.
“Um…cut? Doc, what did you put in that vial?”
“Nothing, I swear! Pure snowmelt.”
Sapphire eyes bore into mine, captivating my gaze when Val speaks. “You are my home, returned. My heart made whole. You have my love, my life, my soul.”
It’s a bolt to the chest, a spell I have no defence against. My breath catches. My chest aches. Her words stake her claim on my heart, and storms…how I want them to be hers. Her words, meant for me, not for a role she’s playing or a potion she took.
I’ve never wanted anything so badly.
These aren’t the real love potions. So what’s making her gaze so soft, her smile so enticing, and her hands so sweet on my skin? Even I’m not this good of an actor.
“Someone bring Val some water, please.”
But she blinks, takes a step back, and goes back to normal. “How was that?”
I’m stunned.
My knees are weak.
“You’re not—?”
“Just practicing. Was it okay?”
“Yeah, no, yes. Good.” I try not to sound like I just forgot my own name. “That was…super.”
For a moment there, it felt so real. Not just because I’ve been head over heels for her for ages. But it felt like she meant some of that, a bit of the heat beneath the flowery words. As if she could actually return the depth of my feelings, the love I have for her.
Because I do love her.
And it’s a love I fear I’ll never find again.
This time we’ve had at the cottage has been perfect, all of us together. Since Mikael told me he wants to stay, warmth has cocooned my heart. I want the world for the kids, but is it so bad that I’m not ready for any of them to leave me just yet, either?
Is it so terrible that I wish I could have this forever? For real?
No one I dated before ever felt like a partner the way she does. Someone who sees me, understands my desire to keep the kids, fills needs I didn’t even know I had.
Is it awful and selfish of me to want this brilliant, funny, warm, and generous princess to choose me…to stay with me?
Of course it is. I shake my head to clear the folly. Her place is bigger than a life with me. She belongs where she can share those gifts with all the Hinterlands, Point and Wilder Fae alike. But in this moment, I just want her to stay.
A couple of kids come to swoon over Val’s acting debut. Acting.
It drags me from the deep tendrils of my daydream and up into the harsh, cold reality.
Katja flutters past me with a smirk and a whisper, “You’re doomed.”
In my pocket, Hugo snorts.
Enough of that. I clap my hands. “Right. Then Queen Taynia and Beron will be in love, and we’ll roll with whatever happens through the ending scene.
The potions will wear off by morning, but hopefully by then, the queen will remember what love feels like, and maybe crack the ice around her heart. Now, let’s take it from the top.”
My impending doom will have to wait.