Hollowed Ground

Into the Feywild

We arrived back at the carnival. Candlefoot made his way directly to the river that wasn't a part of Ravensguard at the back of the carnival. We followed after him, uncertain where to go now that we had the scroll of Identify. We were still dazed from the fight with Griswold. My sleeve was still torn and stained with blood. Conna's hair and ears were tousled and windblown and Thynol's clothes were rumpled.

As we drew closer to the water we could hear the sweet melancholy trills of a soprano wafting over a rapt audience. On the river was a lovely mermaid performing from inside a fish bowl as fish leapt and danced around her. Candlefoot gazed at her as she finished her song, entranced. He stopped shaking. His eyes went still and bright like glow worms. His floppy black and white hat and big mime sleeves turned gold and purple. His face that I had thought was covered in make up faded into a warm flesh color, rosy with excitement. His hair changed from black to red. He waited for the mermaid to finish her song then jumped into the water. The mermaid dived out of her fish bowl and swam towards him. When she reached him he tripped as he knelt. She caught him before he could tumble into the water. Candlefoot steadied himself, then knelt carefully on the left knee.

"Perfect form," Thynol muttered beside me.

Candlefoot asked a question only the mermaid could hear. She answered, nodding and the two of them embraced.

The crowd cheered. The sound was deafening like nails being hammered into a coffin.

Was this happiness? I wondered, watching the soft peaceful look in the couple's eyes as they embraced. It wasn't quite the same as the frantic frivolity of the crowd during the pie eating contest but there was the same sense of abandon in it, the same loss of control.

And yet . . .

There had been something else too. Something sweet and warm that reminded me of creeping out of the dormitories to play with Maggot on the rooftop even though it meant I would be exhausted the next day while I scrubbed floors. It reminded me of listening to Lisbeth prattle on about her ghost stories and memories and mixing them up. It even reminded me of Conna finding my hand inside the hall of Illusions when I felt lost inside the past and future reflected in the mirrors.

I don't think it was happiness at all. I think it was something else. Something deeper and even more frightening. It felt more dangerous than frivolity and more unpredictable than wickedness.

Flashes of Griswold lying bleeding on the ground flashed through my mind along with his refusal to negotiate for the scroll of Identify. Whatever I was seeing in Candlefoot and the mermaid right now had it's opposite and they were so often tangled up together. Peace and softness with chaos and cruelty hidden inside it.

Friendship with the taint of loss and betrayal.

Happiness was a truly dangerous thing.

The crowd dispersed and we made our way slowly to the Big Top tent for the closing ceremony. We needed to give the scroll of Identify to Cythral the card reader and see if Thynol had spread enough happiness to be crowned the Witchlight Monarch.

A crowd had already begun gathering inside the Big Top tent. I glanced around to see if I could find Cythral, but there was no sign of him. We took our seats on the long wooden benches. I caught sight of Mary Callaway glaring at me from across the crowd. I was used to her dark looks, but knowing I still had blood on my sleeve made me self conscious. Would the folk of Ravensguard come at me with torches and pitchforks instead of just dirt clods when daylight returned and they were no longer under the enchantment of the carnival? Griswold was a criminal and we had left him alive, but any rumor of me being violent only confirm their beliefs that I was a zombie, a necromancer, a witch, or whatever other monster they feared.