Lumina and the Goblin King by Cari Lyn Jones

Author:Cari Lyn Jones
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction/Romance/Fantasy, Fiction/Fantasy/Epic, Fiction/Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology
Publisher: Lapis Moon Publishing
Published: 2020-11-02T00:00:00+00:00

Exactly one fortnight from their last visit, the Fairy Queen brought the boy back to Lumina’s glade, as promised.

They arrived the same way as they had before, walking hand in hand through the sea of bluebells, the Fairy Queen in her guise of a sweet-cheeked little girl, and the boy, beautiful, golden and more than a little mad.

Lumina greeted them excitedly, telling the Fairy Queen that she wished to show the boy all around. Taking the boy’s hand, she urged him to follow her. He seemed to glow with health, but his finger felt skeletal, giving truth to the lie. And she now better understood what the Goblin King had meant when he said that the food of faerie held little substance for a mortal.

Skipping from grass top to grass top, she was able to keep hold of the boy’s finger while she led him along, the queen trailing behind them. Lumina led them from the glade, to the meadow, to the lake where the waters shimmered bright in the morning light, in the hopes that the queen might grow bored of their wandering. And so she did, leaving Lumina and the boy to continue on while she stayed on the lake’s sandy shore, trailing her fingers in the water so that little silvery fish could nibble at them.

Lumina led the boy back to the glade, to a blackberry bramble where she fed him the choicest fruits. Further into the wood where the hazel grew; there she gave him nuts that she had imbued with peace and vitality, while Meg brought him fresh milk in clever little birch bark cups. He ate them dutifully but with little enthusiasm, his eyes still staring through her to a world that only he could see. But at least he stopped breaking out into mad laughter, which gave Lumina hope.

They ended their ramble at the wild rose, where she bade him pick a rosehip, ripe and red, from deep in the tangle of stems. As he did so the rose reached out and pricked the boy’s finger as Lumina had asked it to do, drinking the drops of blood in and holding them for her.

The boy’s eyes cleared then, looking straight at her for the first time. A crystal tear welled up, falling down his smooth cheek.

“There, there sweetling, don’t cry,” Lumina said, reaching out from her perch on the rose to pat his cheek. “It will only be a little longer, then all will be well,” she promised.

Taking his hand, she led him away, back towards the meadow where the queen joined them once more. As soon as the Fairy Queen took the boy’s hand, the dreamy smile returned.

They stayed the rest of the afternoon, but if the queen noticed the scratches on the boy’s arms she never mentioned it.

The sky was purple with the coming twilight when the Fairy Queen finally made as if to leave. Taking up the boy’s hand, she turned to Lumina. Her child’s eyes were strangely lucent in the deepening dusk.

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