Sweet Nothings Read online

  The image that arose in the globe bore little resemblance to the black-clad wicked godmother he had seen in Lord Hornpew’s field. Mathilde’s eyes glittered, her hair done up in ribbons and sparkle. Nothing about her suggested she was about to become one of the greatest villains of all time.

  “Fairest one, you are too beautiful for words, the loveliest in all the realms.” A husky voice spoke these words.

  “Am I the most beautiful of all?” Mathilde rubbed her ruby necklace. A glint of darkness crept into her eyes, a frown to her lips. “And to think, the Lady has planned for me to attach myself to a mere elder fairy. Only I have no idea who he might be or when we will meet. Oh, I wish....”

  “Why should you not have what you wish for?”

  Mathilde’s eyebrows drew together. “But I do wish for true love.”

  “Do you?”

  Mathilde’s frown deepened. “Yes. Everybody does.”

  “Do they?”

  Mathilde’s eyes drifted to the side. “Don’t they?”

  “Some have explored other ways, other paths. Do you not wish to know what you are giving up before you decide what to carry in your heart?”

  The godmother’s lips twitched to one side of her face, then straightened. “It does seem wise to weigh all my options. How can I be sure what I want if I do not at least look into…No, I must not allow myself to think such thoughts.”

  “Are your thoughts not your own to do with as you please? Has the Lady taken away even that? My poor child, it sounds to me as if you are a slave.”

  “Some days I do feel rather burdened.”

  “Too many patrons, too little time for self-reflection?”

  Mathilde nodded. “I don’t think of myself very often.” She opened her mouth as if to add something.

  “Might you like to know the depths of your own heart? There are other aspirations besides true love, you know.”

  Mathilde shrugged. “What else might there be?”

  “Can’t know if you don’t look.”

  “Perhaps I’ll ask the Lady.”

  “Perhaps she can be trusted.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Nothing dreadful, fairest one. Only, would it not be to her advantage to keep you as you are, less aware than you might otherwise be of your own heart? I could give you only a glimpse of who you might become if you wished it. Would that suit you?”

  Mathilde’s face paled. She rubbed her ruby necklace again and nodded. The space around her darkened as she leaned forward and stared.

  “Who is she speaking to?” Tad asked.

  The image in the globe remained as it was, fixed on Mathilde’s face.

  “Another mirror?” Tad said to himself.

  Mathilde’s perplexed expression slowly morphed into a grin. “Why would I need true love?”

  “Why not make your own happily ever after, just as you wish it?” the husky voice said.

  “Yes, that’s what I’ll do.” A look of wonder spread over Mathilde’s face. “I’ll create my own happily ever after.”

  “That’s enough,” Nan’s said. “We’ve seen everything we need to.”

  “Enough,” Tad told the globe. The sand swirled over Mathilde’s image and settled. He looked at his glassy-eyed helper. “So fairy godmothers are promised true love, too?” he dared to ask after several moments of silence.

  Nan continued to stare into the dark orb. “So that’s what happened.” Her voice was eerily quiet. “I knew Rune had tempted her away from the Lady’s service, but I never knew how. It’s different for everybody, and yet the same.”

  Tad didn’t understand this statement at all or the burning sensation in his gut that felt a lot like pity. “It seems as if Mathilde was just trying to get her happily ever after.” Was that such a bad thing, taking one’s destiny in one’s own hands? “Does nobody have a choice in their future?”

  “Of course they do. Most people do exactly as they please, which is a great tragedy since what they please is mostly whim, no substance at all, nothing that endures. But the unsurmountable problem with making your own happily ever after is that invariably you’re the only one in it.”

  Tad frowned. “How’s that?”

  “To pursue a self-made future, you must look somewhere to determine what the future should look like. You look around you but don’t see what you truly desire, so you look inside the recesses of your own past experiences, your own knowledge, your own current self-image. This is very foolish, and yet it is the unavoidable outcome. In the end you’re cursed to spend all of eternity with nothing but you. Looking, searching—this is good. Casting off one’s fairy godmother robes in exchange for something Rune promised but has no ability to deliver. This is folly. It is madness.”

  Tad scratched his eyebrow. The wicked godmother’s behavior did seem to earn that label—madness. It was as if she was not in control of her own destiny at all, just like George Thirteen and Princess Arabella after they were cursed. “Did Mathilde use the mirror to cast a spell over Princess Arabella, then?”

  “If only.”

  Tad waited for Nan to elaborate but her eyes showed that her mind had wandered off again. He decided to conjure up something clever to say to get her attention. “And to think, Claire was worried that a pirate would be too beastly for a princess.”

  Nan opened her mouth as if to speak, but shut it again. “What we just witnessed happening to Mathilde was not a spell Rune cast over her. It was a spell Mathilde cast over herself.”

  Tad shook his head. “This is me not understanding.”

  “It is the same trick Mathilde used with Princess Arabella, no doubt. Inside every one of us is the beast we will come to loathe and fear the most—ourselves without love. The mirror simply turned the princess’s eyes inward so that she regarded her empty self day after day, not a reflection of her outside, but of her inner being without what her heart yearned for most. Just as Rune did with her, Mathilde must have taken Princess Arabella’s desire for true love, left unfulfilled, and used it to entice her by small steps until she stood on the edge of a precipice. It wasn’t a great leap to go over the edge, just one more step to plunge into oblivion.”

  “And for the princess the next step meant consuming the apple? Just one bite?”

  Nan nodded. It was a strange gesture for a bird, and one that stirred his imagination as to what sort of person she might have been before becoming Lady Love’s servant.

  “Eating the apple sealed the agreement. Thus, a siren was born, the very image of insatiable hunger and ability to consume without ever being filled—a beast that would entice her true love with the treasure scattered around the island, only to devour him when he arrived. That would have fulfilled Mathilde’s end of the agreement. Princess Arabela’s true love would come for her, but Mathilde never said he’d live through the experience.”

  “But why does Mathilde go around ruining peoples’ happily ever afters? Did she hate being a godmother so much she decided to undo all Lady Love’s schemes to get back at her?”

  “Nothing so trifling. It’s jealousy, dear, infernal desire for true love that is left unfulfilled because she turned to Rune’s side. Only she cannot see it. Mathilde fully believes whatever lie he told her, and continues to tell her. And he’s using her jealousy to get her to help him carry out his own schemes. You see, unlike Lady Love, Rune has no power except what people give him. But he does have great ambition to, shall we say, express himself? Unlike Mathilde, he truly is blighted and black to the core.”

  “Mathilde seems very wicked to me.”

  “Her behavior is atrocious. Only this time it’s royalty she went after, and I believe Rune’s plans involve infiltrating the monarchies in all the realms. Very likely he has already managed to do so to some extent.”

  Tad didn’t want to talk about Rune, not now or ever. “So the mirror is how Mathilde spoke to the princess. Well, that solves the riddle, I suppose. Mathilde magicked the princess and the pirates to the island. But why did th
e pirates have to carry her if Mathilde transported everybody with magic?”

  “She did not wink everyone away using magic. That would have been a great feat, even for her. I’ll wager she used the mirror as a portal.”

  “But that doesn’t make any sense at all. If Mathilde worked with the pirates and had them carry Arabella knowing she was going to turn into a siren, then that means…”

  “Yes.” Nan gave him one of her wise old owl looks. “It seems Mathilde intended for the pirates to get eaten.”

  Chapter 14

  Tad bounced on his toes. The gesture wasn’t very noble but nobody was around to see he was behaving like a child. Except Nan. Birds didn’t count.

  “Now I understand.” He tapped his skull. “Arabella’s words to Mathilde indicated she was trying to solve the kingdom’s problem as much as her own. She agreed to let Mathilde do whatever she would in exchange for getting Prince Henry to rescue her and getting rid of the pirates all at once. Getting the siren to eat the pirates was Mathilde keeping her end of the bargain. And the princess had no suspicion that her real true love was a pirate as well.”

  Tad didn’t feel pity for the wayward fairy godmother anymore. She was just as nasty as that Dame Muriel character.

  Nan contemplated his words for several moments. “And the treasure scattered along the island’s shoreline was to attract the rest of the pirates from far and wide. No doubt Mathilde spread a rumor of where the treasure lay to bait them all. I think we have solved this mystery, at least in part.”

  “The princess must have had no idea Mathilde planned to turn her into a siren.” No dainty lady could stomach such a thought.

  “Yes, Mathilde usually keeps her true intentions in the shadows and relies on the victim’s excessive desire for something to overcome their reasoning. With this purposefully corrupted desire in place she can get them to agree to a vague plan that turns out to be a living nightmare.”

  “Then I was right.” Tad whirled around and danced a little jig. He was going to solve this case and not Claire. His happy dance fizzled to a stop as Nan’s eyes accused him of being a lunatic. He turned up his palms and shrugged in response. “The princess is merely asleep while the siren has taken over her body.” That must be why her eyes were hazy. “I wonder if she knows she’s eating people?”

  “Likely not, or she would have tried to stop the madness. The apple must have bid the siren to emerge. That’s one of Mathilde’s newest tricks, getting what is inside to come outside. It worked very well on George Thirteen. But how has she been keeping the princess in a sleep-like state? Possibly it is via the apple?” Nan huffed to herself. “No, that’s not it.”

  “Sure it is. She ate the apple and fell asleep. We all saw her collapse onto the floor.”

  “That’s when she began to transform into a siren on the outside, unknown to the pirates who bore her through the mirror portal to the island. However long that process took, the pirates were trapped once they emerged on the island.”

  “And they thought they’d be holding her hostage,” Tad said with a snort.

  “And yet the siren’s appetite persists despite the fact that the mirror is still in the princess’s room.”

  “You think there’s another mirror?”

  “I truly don’t know.” Nan’s eyes worried. “But there is something holding the curse in place. The consumption of forbidden fruit, while very useful for administering a curse, has never been able to thwart true love if the victim desired it in their heart.”

  Why couldn’t things ever be simple? “Why couldn’t it just be the apple keeping the princess asleep?”

  “Desire follows attention and not the other way around. The princess desires true love. The siren’s desire is to consume. It is where we are focusing our attention that creates and then shapes our desires. There must be something on the island, very near the siren’s lair, that is functioning as the mirror did, keeping the princess’s vision turned on the creature she has become. This artifact is preventing the princess from doing as she pleases, which is not devouring pirates and certainly not eating her true love.”

  Tad sucked in a smug breath. He would be very pleased to inform Claire how useless her science was compared to matters of the heart. But she would be devastated. He’d have to console her. The thought brought with it a twinge of glee.

  “Where is Claire, I wonder?” he said as if he had no interest in the answer whatsoever. And to be sure Nan understood just how little he cared what the girl was up to he added, “Probably she has made off with Sev, Pip and Wigamus as well.”

  “I sent them to watch the pirates to ensure none of them wander toward the siren’s lair in some foolish attempt to kiss her again,” Nan said.

  Tad poked out his lip at the bird.

  Nan was unmoved. “You weren’t around to give orders so I did what any long-time servant of Lady Love would do…I delegated for you.”

  He raised his eyebrows at her. “I suppose you might do as you please now and then.”

  “You were much more agreeable when you were dancing a jig.”

  “Don’t tell Pip.” Tad gave Nan an imploring look.

  “Of course not, dear.”

  Tad inspected her soul for sincerity and met with a blank expression. He spun around to the globe. “Show me what Sev, Wigamus and Pip are up to.”

  The globe showed the pirates shouting hooray’s as Pip’s inexplicably slender form scampered around on the ground, catching and gulping down tidbits of food they were tossing at him. Sev watched from a branch overhead. Alongside him sat a creature that appeared to be a sprite swinging its spindly legs and observing the goings-on below with interest. Wigamus must have gotten bored with the kitten disguise.

  Suddenly, the sprite leapt from the branch and dashed a twinkle of magic at a worm headed for Pip’s open beak. The worm landed on Pip’s face and crawled all over him.

  Pip shook his head violently, sending the worm splatting into the dirt. He stared at the worm as it inched away. “Oh, my sweet pearl, I am sorry. Where have you been all my life?”

  Tad grinned as Pip then began romancing the worm.

  “That Wigamus is incorrigible,” Nan said, though she, too, watched the spectacle.

  “I take it the worm’s slimy body has Wiggy’s love essence on it?” Tad asked.

  “Undoubtedly.”

  Tad watched for several minutes while the pirates and Sev laughed at Pip’s attempts to woo the worm. “Enough of Pip’s nonsense.” He would certainly watch it again later, though. And show everybody. “Where is Claire?”

  The image in the globe shifted.

  “Oh no.” Tad slid his palm down his face as he saw what his newest helper was up to.

  Moments later he had jammed his earplugs into place and was standing on the siren’s beach watching a mad scientist being lured to her death. The siren had Claire nearly in her clutches with her song and Claire wasn’t even trying to resist.

  “Claire, get away from her,” he shouted.

  The siren’s mouth opened wider. Her song ceased as she reached for Claire with her clawed hands.

  Tad didn’t think. He magicked himself between Claire and the siren, pulled his little helper into his arms and whirled them to safety. His feet touched down in the trees behind the siren’s lair and he pushed Claire back to get a look at her.

  She blinked away a haze and rubbed her eyes. “What happened?”

  “You tell me.” Tad looked her over with some concern. She would certainly be unhappy with the state of her hair. He decided not to mention it.

  “I remember administering an antitoxin and then there was the most wonderful sound I had ever heard. And then there was your voice and rows of teeth coming at me.” A look of distress stamped itself on her face. She rubbed her arms.

  “Well, you’re all right now.” Tad wasn’t sure what to do so he patted her disheveled head. “How did you administer your little potion?”

  “Orally, of course.”

 
Tad raised his eyebrows at her.

  “It’s the fastest way. She was sitting on her rock staring out into the waters, so I came up behind her with my eyedropper.” Claire put both hands in her dress pockets and frowned.

  “Never mind your trinket. We’ll retrieve it after we uncurse the princess. What happened after that?”

  “She turned suddenly and was staring right at me. When she opened her mouth I reached out and squirted the antitoxin inside. I backed away. It seemed to be working. She sat there holding her throat. And then she gave me a nasty look and started to sing. All I remember after that is your voice telling me to get away and her claws and teeth coming after me.” Claire chewed on her lower lip. “I thought females were immune to their call.”

  Tad shook his head at her. “Congratulations. Your scientific endeavors have now given the siren the ability to devour womankind instead of just mankind.”

  Claire’s eyes grew misty.

  Tad gave her a shoulder bump. “Don’t take it too hard. I’m sure all scientists have…er…setbacks. On my first case I let my hunger get the best of me and I accidentally ate a magic cursed biscuit.”

  Claire turned away from his attempts to console her with his own missteps and marched over to a bush. Tad followed. She was certainly not as unmoved by almost being eaten as she was trying to appear as she busied herself yanking off leaves and shoving them into her pockets.

  The girl was clearly traumatized by the event and any good captain had to fix whatever went wrong under his command. Even if it was the crew’s own fault.

  Tad lay his hand on Claire’s shoulder as she reached for more leaves. “You may not know this, but I have a lot of sisters.” He looked her straight in the eye. Though she continued to avoid his gaze, she stopped plucking the bush bald. “A lot of sisters.”

  Claire almost smiled.

  “Yes, and they used to feed me, play with me, tuck me in to bed, rub my tummy when it hurt. Kiss my boo boos.” A warm sensation filled him up at these memories of his childhood. “Working for Lady Love is the first time a female creature ever tried to eat me. It was my very first case and…”