Tag: the garden

The Faerie Thief: The Ruby Queen’s Garden 013

The Ruby Queen's Garden (Episode One)“What are you thinking of when you find a door?” Lyra asked, her voice heavy with sleep.

Gwyn stared at the sky some more. A star-man contemplated three rosebushes before reaching out an plucking a rose from the middle bush. The rose melted away into a beautiful princess, and the other two bushes turned into her sisters. They cheered and danced as the ancient curse had been broken. At long last, they were free.

Free.

“I don’t know. Being able to visit with you. Doors to your realm are the only ones I’ve ever been able to find.”

“Hmmm. Well, what are you thinking when you try to summon a door?”

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The Faerie Thief: The Ruby Queen’s Garden 012

TFTcoverGwyn’s first try resulted in a small purple toad.

It blinked up at them with mournful eyes, its shoulders humped over.

“That was a good beginning,” Lyra said, patting her arm. “Most people don’t get anything on their first try. I know I didn’t.”

“What did I do wrong?” Gwyn frowned down at the toad. It was nothing like a door.

“I’ve never conjured a toad like that, so I don’t know.” Lyra leaned over and brushed her fingers across the toad’s brow. Its face relaxed right before it puffed into a golden cloud of magic. “Try again.”

After summoning a pink hatbox, a shoe, five pieces of silver, and an old coat that was mostly patches, Gwyn slumped down. “I’m never going to get this.”

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The Faerie Thief: The Ruby Queen’s Garden 010

TFTcoverHer lips pursed into a tight rosebud, Lyra reached into Gwyn’s apron pocket and pulled out a pair of disgruntled gloves. She didn’t say anything. She didn’t have to.

“All this time . . .” All this time she’d been fearful of the Ruby Queen because she knew she couldn’t fight back. She hadn’t the magic for it.

Or so she’d thought.

Lyra held out the gloves and Gwyn took them. She felt numb all over, as though she were nothing more than one of the queen’s tiny marionette dolls. She had a wooden head that was too solid for thought. Strings she didn’t control lifted one hand while her other slid the glove onto it.

The change was instantaneous.

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The Faerie Thief: The Ruby Queen’s Garden 004

TFTcover“A rebel, Your Majesty?” Gwyn winced. Her voice was at least an octave too high and a shade too weak.

The queen didn’t say anything; she just looked at Gwyn, her eyes the color of night and twice as unforgiving. Auburn curls fell in soft waves against her face, the only part of her that was gentle. The queen’s poppy-red skirts unfurled about her legs like petals that had bloomed to their fullest.

And she smiled with scarlet lips that hid hungry teeth.

The yellow rose twisted in Gwyn’s hand, and she wished she’d thought to hide it away the moment her cousin had given it to her. Hope and beauty didn’t last long in the Garden, not without the Ruby Queen’s permission.

Permission she never gave to anyone but herself.

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The Faerie Thief: The Ruby Queen’s Garden 003

TFTcoverThe pebble was, on its own, quite unremarkable. It was a smooth, anonymous dun color. The same shade the soil went when the sun and wind and rain had bleached the color from it. It was soft and smooth as sand, but for the tiny markings she’d carved into its surface.

Silence.

A beautiful word. A quiet word. A word the flowers feared more than anything else. More than the gardner with his silver-bright shears. More than winter with her frost and chills. But not quite as much as they feared a queen with poppy-red skirts and a temper to match.

“Indeed?” The head daisy raised a brow, politely incredulous. “All in the Garden may speak their minds—”

Robin stepped forward, “I’ve a mind—”

Gwyn put a hand on his arm, her eyes on the daisy who was the grand duchess of this particular flower bed.

“—And when laws are broken,” the queen’s pet gave them a look so full of disdain that Gwyn could almost taste it, “the right authorities must be alerted.”

She shook her head. The stone burned cold and hot in her hand, aching to be used. That was the way of runes—invoke a power, even if only by scratching out the name of it, and it’s going to want to do what it was made to do.

A lesson she’d learned early on.

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