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I read down the family tree, and immediately recognised Clíona’s daughter’s name, Rhia
‘Such a tragedy, wasn’t it, Libby?’ Sylvia said.
I peered at the family tree. ‘I take it you don’t mean Ana’s marriage to the wizard, but about her mother being attacked and killed by the vamps,’ I said drily, ‘and Ana herself being caught by them.’
Sylvia gave a choked laugh that sounded like leaves rustling. ‘Gosh, yes, Brigitta was killed by the suckers, wasn’t she? I’d forgotten that. That was a tragedy too. So sad, such a lot of heartbreak in that family, and all because of the curse.’
‘Clíona brought it on herssself,’ the Librarian grouched. ‘If ssshe had not castthe droche guidhe, it would never have happened.’
‘So, what did happen?’ I asked.
There was another chime, and a yellowed newspaper popped into the air to hover next to the family tree scroll. For a moment it fluttered in the breeze through the open bedroom window, then Sylvia snapped her fingers and it became as still as a board.
I stepped up to it and began to read:
FAERIE PRINCESS RESCUED FROM THE TOWER.
by ‘Thomas the Rhymer’
Our Man in the Fair Lands
A sidhe faerie princess and her child have finally been released after being kidnapped and held prisoner in the Tower of London.
The traumatised princess (age not specified) has been returned to the bosom of her family in the Fair Lands after the ordeal, while her baby daughter (5 months) is being cared for by extended members of the princess’ family in London—
A horrified chill crawled down my spine. I narrowed my eyes at Sylvia and her pink iPhone. ‘So who’s going to explain what that means?’
‘Well,’ Sylvia’s face squinched up like she was in pain, ‘you know what Algernon and his friends tried to do to you?’
Algernon had to be Bandana, the dryad. I hadn’t known his name, nor had I really wanted to. ‘You mean when they tried to kidnap and rape me?’ I said flatly, thinking that Sylvia hadn’t necessarily been blameless in that nasty incident.
‘Fiddlesticks, now I’ve made you cross.’ Her shoulders slumped. ‘They weren’t supposed to do that. If I’d known that’ swhat they pla
‘Go on,’ I said, giving her a hard stare as I crossed my arms.
‘Well, it all happened about forty years ago. The Old Do
Fuck, so I wasn’t the first! They’d already tried the ‘kidnap, rape and make the sidhe pregnant’ plan in an effort to break the curse with this Rhia
‘Rhia
Shit. That meant— ‘They abducted and raped a pregnant woman!’ I said, sickened.
Sylvia cringed. ‘Well, technically, yes.’
‘They either did, or they didn’t!’
‘They performed a fertility rite,’ the Librarian said. ‘Rhia
Rhia
Two more yellowed newspaper articles materialised in front of me with another chime. Their headlines proclaimed: BRUTAL SLAYING AT THE TOWER OF LONDON, and TRAFALGAR SQUARE’S FOUNTAINS TO BE EXORCISED.
I skimmed down the pieces. They detailed the killing spree that the fossegrim had gone on when he’d become unhinged at losing his lady love to the curse, and the fall-out that followed. Neither story carried any mention of Rhia
‘The fossssegrim exacted hisss revenge on the Old Do
‘Obviously not well enough,’ I muttered. Damn, poor Ana really was a victim of the curse, in more ways than one. Her grandmother Rhia
‘Gosh, yes.’ Sylvia shuddered. ‘I’d stay away from him, if I was you. He likes to drown folk—’
‘He hass never hurt a female or a child, Sssylvia,’ the Librarian’s voice interrupted firmly.
Ah, good to know, since I was going to be visiting his granddaughter.
Sylvia frowned at the phone. ‘But I thought that was why Rhia
‘No, Rhia
I snorted. Allowed home, my arse.Then something struck me. ‘So if Rhia
‘We are not as cruel as you sseem to think, ssidhe,’ the Librarian said in a conciliatory tone. ‘We had high hopess that Brigitta would break the curse, ssso like you, ssshe was given her choice of father. And ssshe chose one of the water fae, but when Ana, her daughter, was born, it was evident that the husband was not Ana’s father.’
I looked at the family tree again. Ana’s father was down as ‘unknown’, and Ana was a faeling.’ I laughed. It wasn’t a happy sound. ‘Brigitta stiffed you by getting pregnant by a human, didn’t she?’
‘Yes. Brigitta held usss all guilty for what happened with her mother and the Old Do