Then she turned to Chevell and cast down her eyes most modestly and said, “Oui, my lord, you may indeed woo me, though you have my heart even now.” Across the brine sped the Sea Eagle, and the lookout above called out, “Land ho!” And within a candlemark the Eagle rode at anchor in the harbor at Port Mizon.
Vicomte Chevell escorted Celeste and Roel, Borel and Alain and Luc, and Avelaine and Laurent and Blaise to stand before King Avelar. When he had heard the full of their tale, Avelar praised them highly for what they had done, especially Celeste and Roel for ridding Faery of the Changeling Lord.
There was great joy in Port Mizon that eve, and the next four nights as well, but on the fifth day, during a noontide meal at the palace, even as Celeste spoke of their plans to set out for the Springwood on the morrow, a page came in and whispered to the king. Avelar nodded and the page sped away, and moments later a man in robes strode in, a roll of cloth under his arm.
“What is it, Sage Gabon?”
“My king, the map, it is- Here. Let me show you.” He unrolled the cloth. It was blank on both sides.
Startled, Chevell said, “This is the treasured map?”
“Oui. . or perhaps I should say it was,” replied Gabon.
Celeste reached into the breast pocket of her leathers and pulled out the vellum chart she had borne so very many days. Spreading it out, she gasped, for it, too, was blank.
Now Borel did the same with his copy of the map, and it was blank as well.
Blaise and Laurent also drew forth their copies to find those vellums unmarked.
“What does this mean? I wonder,” asked Avelar.
“Hsst!” said Demoiselle Avelaine. “Listen. What is that?”
In the subsequent quietness, all heard a faint sound of looms weaving, which faded into silence.
“Huah!” exclaimed Roel and shook his head. “I ween we now know just who the cartographers were. Cryptic, a cipher in places, a chart that only they could see would be needed, first by you, my lord, then by my brothers, then by Celeste and me, and finally by the warbands who rescued us. And it is-or rather was-on woven cloth.”
Avelar looked at Roel in puzzlement, and Celeste said, “My lord, Roel deems, as do I, that the Ladies Wyrd, Lot, and Doom have reclaimed the patterns woven into that piece of fabric, as well as those we drew.”
“But why?”
“Mayhap, my lord, so that Faery itself-or, that is, a great portion of it-will now remain a mystery.” Avelar held up his hands in a modest gesture of surrender and said, “Who are we to question the Three Sisters?”
Chevell laughed and said, “ ’Tis better this way, forever would I rather sail off into the unknown than to follow the tried and true.”
Avelaine gazed at her vicomte, and there was nought but adoration in her eyes.
Just after dawn of the following day, siblings and siblings-to-be and the warbands and a pack of Wolves set out for the Springwood, Vicomte Chevell riding at Avelaine’s side, Celeste and Roel together, with Luc and Blaise and Laurent laughing at some bon mot as out through the gates they rode.
Some four days later they crossed into the Springwood, and with her silver horn, Celeste summoned a Sprite and asked the wee winged being to relay the message to the manor that she and the others were on their way.
Three days after, they rode onto the grounds of Springwood Manor, and waiting for them was the full staff of the estate, and elements of those from the manors of the Winterwood and Autumnwood and Summerwood. And a great cheer rose up as the cavalcade emerged from the forest and fared onto the lush green lawn.
There, too, were waiting King Valeray and Queen Saissa, and their hearts swelled and tears came into their eyes at the sight of their offspring unharmed.
As well awaited two princesses and a princess-to-be: Liaze and Camille and Lady Michelle. And as the riders came to a stop, Luc leapt from his horse and swept Liaze up in his arms, and Alain sprang down and embraced his Camille, and Borel alighted and passionately kissed Michelle.
And in that moment, Alain gave a great whoop and lifted Camille up and whirled ’round, but then gently set her down. When the others looked at him in startlement he said, “My Camille is indeed with child.” During the ball that night, in between dances and among those who stood to the side and sipped wine, stories flew and tales were exchanged, their fragments overheard in passing:
“. . and when Laurent and I came to, we were standing in a courtyard dripping wet from the raging storm above. We had been fooled by a Gorgon, you see, and had been turned to stone, and-”
“Stone?”
“Oui, but apparently when Celeste slew the Gorgon, our enchantment ended and. .”
“. . and, oh, my, you should have seen Luc battle the Red Knight, a huge man, if man he was, because when Luc defeated him, the Red Knight vanished, but his helm. .”
“. . horses were jammed together in Vicomte Chevell’s Sea Eagle, and we had to keep them calm and from bit-ing one another, and when we reached Port Cient, they were frisky upon leaving the. .”
“. . heard the sounds of conflict, and then a battle cry, and Blaise and I ran to aid whoever was in hard combat with the Changelings, only to find Roel in melee and. .”
“. . the worst part? Oh, it was the swamp. Never have I been bitten by so many. .”
“. . I think he broke it when an arrow took his horse out from under him. . ”
“. . oh, yes, but he is quite handsome, isn’t he, now? I deem Lady Avelaine is quite fortunate to have. .”
“. . and it seems we galloped all the way from Port Cient to the land of the Changelings, and when we passed through the bound, we heard the Springwood battle cry; it was the princess. .”
“. . and so, Valeray, Avelar made me a vicomte, with lands starwise of Port Mizon, though much of my time is spent aboard the Sea Eagle , escorting merchants across perilous waters and. .”
“. .ah, oui, there will be weddings, for kings have been notified-King Avelar in the case of Vicomte Chevell and Lady Avelaine, and King Valeray in the case of Princess Celeste and Roel. . oh, and of course for Liaze and Luc and Borel and Michelle-and there are banns to post and weddings to plan and a Hierophant to be acquired, and. .”
Thus did the tales and gossip and conversations go.
And dances were danced, and food and drink consumed, and lovers slipped out into the cool spring eve and embraced in the silver light of the argent full moon and kissed. . and more.
At the midnight mark, King Valeray called a halt to the music, and he took stance upon the ballroom dais, and as servants passed among the gathering and doled out goblets of wine, Valeray called for quiet, for he would make a toast to the successful quest and to those who rode thereon, and he would toast the brides- and grooms-to-be, and of course he would toast the child to be born to Alain and Camille.
But the moment that all had a goblet in hand, including the servants, of a sudden there came the sound of shuttles and looms, and before the gathering stood three women: Maiden, Mother, and Crone; the Ladies Skuld, Verdandi, and Urd; the Fates Wyrd, Lot, and Doom-one slender, her robe limned in silver; one matronly, her robe limned in gold; and one seemingly bent with age, her robe limned in black.
A gasp went up from the gathering, yet Valeray and Borel and Alain, and Luc and Roel and Chevell, all bowed, the other men in the gathering following suit; and Saissa and Liaze and Celeste and Camille and Michelle and Avelaine curtseyed, the other gathered women doing likewise.