Page 25 of Fairies Don't Fall

That explained so much about Max and the way he looked at me, someone he’d caught breaking into his caverns, so he was going to rehabilitate me. Why in the world would he do such a senseless thing? “And these fairies he rehabilitates, they get better?”

He shrugged. “That’s what they say, that they’re much happier, and we should all quit pixie dust. But who can when we’re cut off from Fairyland?”

“You can go back if you want. I’m not even there to be terrifying, if that’s what worries you.”

He frowned, then shook his head. “But there is no pixie dust there.”

“Ah, the catch twenty-two. I don’t know what that really means. I just picked it up somewhere. If only I could pick up reading as easily as spoken languages.”

“You can’t read?” He looked more fascinated than horrified, but that was in there.

I shrugged. “Take me to the gruel.”

He looked up at the sky. “It won’t be for hours yet, but that’s where all the fairies will be. You can ask your questions. I don’t socialize much. I’m far gone, just waiting for the final night totake me.” He touched his neck, his chest, frowning at me. “You healed me? Ah. You healed my mind as well. Good thing, or I’d be mostly incoherent.”

“You’re still mostly incoherent,” I said and patted his head.

He flinched away from me, but I found it more amusing than insulting.

“Since it’s not for hours, you can go to your hotel and rest until daylight.” He gave me a smile that was incredibly sketchy, and missing most of his teeth. He was officially in terrible shape. Happily, fairy teeth grew back, like wings.

I smiled brightly at him. “That does sound wonderful, but not nearly as exciting as spending the night here, with my new friend…What is your name, friend?”

He sighed heavily. “Berry. What are you going to do to me until sunrise?”

“I’m going to talk to you about terraforming, naturally.”

“But isn’t it faster for you to take the knowledge from my mind?”

“You make it sound as though I’m stealing.”

He shook his head rapidly. “No, Quee—princess! Not at all! You are all things just and virtuous and beautiful.”

I snorted. “You are clearly a smidge off the straight and narrow, Berry. If your name’s really Berry. I’m nothing close to beautiful and virtuous, but I am mostly just. That’s Vervain. He keeps me honest. Mostly.”

“Your consort is Vervain the Terrible, Lord of the House of the Rising Sun?”

I blinked at him. “The Terrible? That’s so true though! He’s really terrible, always being so virtuous and good, and telling you that you need to go to court functions and stop feeling sorry for yourself.” I patted his head again. “He’s not my consort, though. I’m not virtuous enough for him.”

He stared at me, his mouth opening and closing. I wished it would stay closed. Finally, he said, “You choose your consort. The Queen always chooses her consort. No one would dare refuse.”

“Yes, but I’m not the Queen, and only an idiot would choose someone who doesn’t like them. I might be sketchy, but I’m not a fool. So, tell me about planting trees in the fresh soil. Will I need to amend it with anything? I used blood, saliva, and a roach. There’s also so many owl droppings. The bugs here are so filthy and ugly. Nothing like Fairyland.” I now understood the café guy’s reaction when he heard I ate bugs. The black roaches weren’t cute at all.

“Yes,” he said absently, staring at me. “The bugs here are bad. You’re the Queen, so your power would be stronger, but the process takes time. At least a week with a whole crew of experienced workers, forming the spells, deepening the soil, expanding the field gradually.”

I frowned at him. “So, you’re saying that I’ll need to deepen the soil so the trees can get root? It took a few minutes, maybe hours, to transform the rock to soil in the cavern. I don’t know how wide it went because the ceiling came down on us, but we had to dig our way out through the soil, so that was at least, hm, six feet deep, and we were in there for a good long time. Although it may have seemed disproportionately long considering the circumstances. At least twenty feet, probably twice that, and it was loose soil all the way to the mouth of the cavern.”

His mouth fell open and stayed that way. “A few minutes? You terraformed rock into soil in a few minutes? Why do we do anything if the Queen can do it so easily and without any effort?”

I blinked at him. “I could only do it at all because you have the knowledge. And I’m not the Queen.”

He scowled at me, his disgust apparently outweighing his fear. “You’re only not the Queen because you’re in denial. And you don’t have pixie dust to blame it on. What are you doing here when you have Fairyland to fix? I’ve heard stories about it. You’ve let it go, and you could have…” He sputtered at the end, leaving me to nod.

“Sure, if I was the Queen, I could have done something, but I’m not the Queen, and I can’t fix something when I’m broken. It’s a reflection of me. Look at how Fairyland’s gone, and that’s me. I’ve been feeling better lately, so maybe being cut off from Fairyland helps, but the death sickness keeps me from doing much of anything useful there.”

“That’s why you left? You have to go back and fix it! You can’t abandon your people!”

I eyed him. “Really? Unlike you, who did what? The Princess or Queen isn’t any more essential than any other person. If you want to lecture someone, go with the person inside your own skin. Then again, you’ll be talking to yourself, and everyone will think you’re a crazy person, but if you do pixie dust, which does worse things to you than death sickness, of your own free will? That’s crazy.”

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