Courts of the Fey by Martin H. Greenberg

Author:Martin H. Greenberg
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2011-09-07T21:00:00+00:00

MUSHROOM CLOUDS AND FAIRY RINGS

J. A. Pitts

Molly woke repeating some of the words the Hound Master used when one of the young pups got a little too nippy. She stretched, raised her head off the toadstool she’d been sleeping against, and looked to see who was knocking at her door.

Only there wasn’t a door. She was sleeping in a ring of toadstools, The knocking wasn’t the Matron of Switches to remind her she was late for breakfast with the fairy princesses. Nope, the mushroom clouds that dotted the skyline were most definitely not on the agenda, as far as she recalled. As she watched, two more bloomed close at hand, and the world shook with a pair of great, fiery thumps.

Molly wasn’t scared, despite the booming and cracking that had woken her up. She’d had plenty of years practicing to be brave. She was the terror of all the little princess fairies who roamed the White Queen’s palace. But Molly wasn’t a fairy. She’d been snatched at birth, swapped for a doppelganger, and her parents, with seven other children, were none the wiser.

Once Molly realized she was growing to be bigger than the rest of the wee ones she played with, things began to unravel for the Matron of Switches, the ornery old brownie who was responsible for keeping order amongst the nursery brood.

Twice Molly had to be bespelled to stop her temper, and once, though it was only whispered about, it was reported that the White Queen herself had come down to the nursery to quiet young Molly and set her to right. Molly still had the mark where the White Queen had touched her with the ice wand she waved around. The scar kept her temper in check most days and reminded her just how angry the White Queen had been.

She looked down at her pack. Inside was the seedling she was to swap for another child. The half empty bottle of moonshine she’d snitched from those nine-pin crazy dwarves set nestled against her hip as secure as could be.

Mushrooms were not new to her, nor toadstools, though they had a whole different magic to them. These mushrooms that dotted the horizon were made of fire and ash, she could tell even from here. A nasty wind blew around her as well. The trees and bushes erupted into flames, but she stood unscathed in her fairy ring.

“I’m not sure what the big’uns have gotten themselves up to,” she said to no one particular. “But there is no way I’m taking responsibility for this with the Matron of Switches.”

All the young’uns in the nursery feared the Matron of Switches. She loved nothing better than to march one of the fairy princesses out into the garden and laugh at her tears as she picked their own switch for one transgression or another.

It wasn’t until Molly was big that the other fey began to find an advantage to her height and strength. That was the winter when wolves broke into the garden where the princesses were having their tea party.

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