Page 54 of The Guardians of Dreamdark
Bellatrix gave a short laugh. “Bedtime stories. For the past thousand years I’ve been telling Fade faerie stories and hoping...”
It finally dawned on Magpie. “Hoping the Magruwen would share his dreams and weave them into the Tapestry!”
Bellatrix nodded. “It took centuries of trying, and the only way to know if it worked was for the imps and creatures to watch for you in the world.”
As Magpie’s mind wrapped itself around this notion, it began to trouble her. “So...” she began, her brow furrowed. “You’re saying I was one of those stories?”
“Child, youwerethose stories.”
Magpie didn’t know what to think or feel. A silence stretched out between them as she waited for the words to sink in. They didn’t, quite. It seemed so absurd. “Me? Then, am Ireal?” she asked.
Bellatrix reached her arms out and drew Magpie to her. “As real as anyone. More real! You’re the first faerie in a long, long time who washandmadeby the Djinn King! I only fed the idea of you into his mind. Left to himself, he would never have dreamed of a faerie as powerful as you.”
“Powerful?”
“Oh.” Bellatrix laughed and took Magpie by the shoulders, holding her back so she could look her in the eyes. “Magpie...you have no idea. The world has never seen anything like you.”
Magpie stared at her, trying to take it in. Despite what Bellatrix said, she couldn’t shake the sense of unreality that began to overwhelm her. She was someone else’s dream! Well, she reminded herself, didn’t everything come from the Djinns’ dreams in some way or other? But this dream had been a trick. Her life was a trick.
“Magpie,” said Bellatrix. “Listen. I know this is hard to understand. I’d thought to wait until you were grown, but the Tapestry is failing faster than I ever imagined. I just couldn’t wait any longer.”
Magpie stared at her hands and turned them over slowly, thinking how her very skin and bones were spun from a dragon’s bedtime story.
“Just know you’rereal, and you’reyourself, and no one—no one, not me and not even the Magruwen—holds any kind of puppet strings. What you do now will be your choice, but you have more choice than anyone, because you—alone of all faeries, Magpie—you can weave the Tapestry. Like the Djinn.”
Magpie shook her head, laughing a high thin laugh. “That’s blither! How could I...I’m just—”
Bellatrix took one of Magpie’s hands, opened it, and traced her fingertips over Magpie’s palm. “There’s power in you, child, and I know you feel it. I know it’s begun to find its own way out. You’ll see, you’ll learn. And I’m sorry to say, you’ll need to learn fast if you’re going to stop the Blackbringer.”
That jolted Magpie out of thoughts of her own reality. “I can stop it? The Magruwen said it couldn’t be caught.”
“He thinks the strength of faeries is gone from the world. Four thousand years’ worth of dreams have sifted through his long sleep, Magpie. It’s likely he doesn’t realize yet who you are or how he’s been deceived.”
“Won’t he be angry?”
“Aye, I imagine he will be. I only hope there is in him still the fiery spirit that drove him to create, that won’t be able to watch a devil destroy his world!”
“Could he destroy the world? What is he, Lady? The stories of the Blackbringer are just nursery tales now. No one even thinks he was real!”
“He was real,” said Bellatrix in a hard voice. Then she gently touched Magpie’s wings. “He did this to you?”
“Aye. But my friends weren’t so lucky...Lady Bellatrix, please, what is he? He’s not like any devil I ever saw.”
“Nay, he was like no other. He was the worst of them all. He was a plague. All through the wars he eluded us, like a phantom, a shadow. How do you capture the dark? He hunted and fed, even in Dreamdark, and night became a horror. All the faeries and imps kept to Never Nigh. Even he couldn’t breach it. It was like a siege town.”
“Was it you who captured him?”
“Aye, at last, with the Magruwen and the Vritra at our side. It took all the Djinns’ champions, and not all survived.” Her voice dropped to a husky whisper. “Kipay...”
“Kipepeo?” asked Magpie. “The Ithuriel’s champion?”
“You’ve heard of him?” Bellatrix’s eyes lit up.
“I know his name from the ballads of the wars,” said Magpie.
“I’m glad he is not forgotten.”
“Did...did the Blackbringer get him?”
