Abruptly the queen stood. Beckoning to a servant, she whispered something to him, pointing to Vi as she did. The satyr bowed his head and returned to the girl, taking away the cake and motioning her to follow. As the human and the satyr left the party, I grinned to myself.
Stage one, complete. Guess Vi isn’t going to be entertaining us this evening, after all. Now, my Summer Queen. You’ve sent away your little pet; are you going to take the bait?
Titania stretched luxuriously, then stepped up and lightly touched Torin’s shoulder, bending down to whisper in his ear. Yes, she was. Trailing her fingers down his arm, the queen stepped away, gave him a sultry look and sauntered off into the hedge maze.
Torin waited a few heartbeats, then looked up at me. I nodded.
Casually the knight rose, glancing warily around. No one was paying attention to him, their focus riveted on me, or each other. Several nobles were dancing now, in groups of twos and threes, their expressions dreamy and dazed. No one saw the Summer knight step away from the table and wander into the hedge maze after the queen. I kept the song going for several stanzas after he disappeared, then finally brought it to a close.
And that’s stage two. I gazed around at my handiwork. Yep, you still have it, Goodfellow. Amazing what one teensy love song can do to weaker minds. Too bad we don’t have more time; it’s been a while since I’ve made anyone dance for three days straight.
Now, on to the last stage.
I bowed to my audience. “Everyone!” I called as Summer gentry looked around in dazed confusion. “You’ve been a fabulous audience! But I’m afraid I really must dash! When the screaming starts, try not to stampede all at once. You all have a wonderful rest of the evening!”
They blinked at me, not really hearing a word I’d said, still caught up in their swirling emotions. I bowed once more and hurried, unchallenged, into the maze.
I knew where Torin and the queen would be. I’d been through this maze countless times, usually to crash the queen’s party or spy on the queen’s guests. Sometimes it was at Oberon’s request, sometimes it was for my own amusement. But I knew where I would find the wayward couple: at the hidden spring in the northeast corner of the maze, where Titania took all her “prospects.”
I heard their voices as I approached, slipping past the countless lions, hounds and unicorn topiaries lining the paths. Peeking around a mermaid fountain, I spotted the queen and the Summer knight near the edge of the pool. Titania was very close to Torin and had a slender hand on the knight’s chest, leaning close.
“My lady,” the knight was saying. “I…I cannot do this…anymore. What of your husband? Lord Oberon—”
“Lord Oberon,” Titania murmured, putting a finger against his mouth, “is not here. And what Oberon does not know—” she leaned in closer, her lips parting “—will not hurt him.”
I took a deep breath. Well, here we go.
“You are so right, Queen Titania!” Dropping my disguise, I stepped out from behind the fountain. “What Oberon doesn’t know will not hurt him. Why, I tell myself that almost every single day. It’s so nice to know we have so much in common.”
Titania jumped, stepping back from Torin, her eyes going wide as she saw me. “Robin Goodfellow!” she spat, curling her lips into a grimace of hate. For just a moment, she hesitated, then rose up to her full height, glaring down her nose at me. “How dare you! How dare you come here uninvited, especially when my husband is away from court! Or…did he put you up to this?” She gave me a look of black contempt. “You’ve always been his little spy, his good little watchdog, always there for the tasks he finds too distasteful to do himself. Pathetic. You both are pathetic!” Lightning flickered overhead, streaking down to smash into a bush, setting it aflame. I resisted the urge to wince. In the flickering shadows, the Summer Queen’s eyes blazed blue-white. “Perhaps the great Robin Goodfellow will meet with an unfortunate accident,” the queen mused, the wind snapping at her hair as she raised a pale hand. “Something that will silence him completely for a few centuries.”
“Now, now.” I waggled a finger, giving her a fearsome smile. “I would think you’d want to reward me, my good queen. After all, I just stopped you from making a highly embarrassing mistake. You’ve been duped, my lady. Taken advantage of. You have an enemy right under your nose, and you didn’t even realize it.”
Torin glared stonily. I ignored him and faced Titania, who was watching me with wary, but curious, distrust. “What trickery are you playing at, Goodfellow?” she asked.
“Believe what you will,” I continued, staring her down. “Call me what you want, hate me if you will, but I’m still a faithful servant of the Summer Court. This is my home, and I would do anything to protect it. And when it comes to my attention that we’ve been invaded by an enemy, I can’t sit by and do nothing, even if it means warning you.”
“What are you—” The queen straightened abruptly. “Leanansidhe,” she hissed, narrowing her eyes. “She sent someone. Someone to steal my human pet. Where—”
“Right under your nose, my queen. Just like I told you.” And before either of them could react, I spun on Torin and stripped away glamour, shredding his Summer disguise and revealing the form of the Winter prince to the Summer Queen. “There’s your enemy, Queen Titania. Do with him what you will.”
Chapter Five
If We Shadows Have Offended
Betrayal.
That was the first look Ash turned on me, his silver eyes wide with shock and disbelief. I grinned at him, crossing my arms, as Titania’s outraged shriek rose above the howl of the wind. Before Ash could do anything, she swept her arm down, and a streak of lightning slammed into the prince’s chest, hurling him away. He smashed into the mermaid statue and crumpled at the base, dazed.
“Ouch.” I winced. “That looked painful. Hit him again, just to make sure he stays down.”
Titania spun on me. “You!” she raged, her eyes seriously scary now. I blinked at her innocently and took a step back. “I do not know how you did this, or why, but this is one of your pranks, I know it! What foul mischief do you have up your sleeve this time?”
“Me?” I grinned and laced my hands behind my head. “You give me too much credit, Queen Titania.”
“I am not a fool, Robin Goodfellow.” Titania loomed over me, lightning flashing threateningly overhead. “The Winter prince is cunning and strong, but he could not have acted alone. You snuck the prince into Arcadia—you are the only one whose glamour is strong enough to hide him from me. Before I make the son of Mab beg for mercy, I want to know why you did this! You were friends once, long ago. Why this sudden change of heart?”
I stuck my hands deep in my pockets, looked the Seelie Queen right in the eye and muttered, “Because. He fell in love with my princess.”
“That so?” I gave him a half-weary, half-challenging look. “And do you have anything to say about that, ice-boy?”
“No.” He shook his head solemnly. “You said what you had to. You did what was required to get the job done.”
“Oh? That’s awfully generous of you, Prince.”
“None of it was a lie, Goodfellow.” Ash gave me a hard stare. “Nothing you said or did was against your nature. That’s why Titania believed you so quickly. I would have believed it, too.”
I sighed. “Good to know where I stand,” I muttered, and scrubbed a hand over my eyes. “Well, come on then, ice-boy. Let’s get out of here before Titania catches your doppelganger and finds nothing is holding him together but twigs, string and a bit of your hair. With all the commotion going on, it should be easy to sneak out nice and quiet.”