Sophia's Song Read online

  Contents

  Copyright

  Newsletter

  Dedication

  Quote

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Thank you

  Copyright © 2015 Belinda M Gordon

  www.belinda-gordon.com

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof

  may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever

  without the express written permission of the publisher

  except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Printed in the United States of America

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses,

  places, events and incidents are either the products of the

  author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any

  resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual

  events is purely coincidental.

  Cover Design by Wesley Goulart

  Publisher:

  Shaggy Dog Productions

  221 Skyline Dr., ste 208-228

  East Stroudsburg, PA 18301

  Sign up to be on the author's VIP List to be the first

  to hear about new releases, specials and contests!

  Go to:

  www.belinda-gordon.com/newsletter/

  For Fran, Shiela, Terry, and Gerry

  My favorite siblings

  Come away, O human child!

  To the waters and the wild

  With a faery, hand in hand,

  For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

  W. B. Yeats-The Stolen Child

  Chapter 1

  TRESSA

  "I can't imagine what you plan to do with that," I said, eyeing the sledgehammer slung over Alexander's shoulder.

  "Nothing else has worked. Might as well try this," he said, shrugging.

  I raised an eyebrow, shaking my head at his vague response. He offered no further explanation.

  We hiked through the woods surrounding the estate my grandmother left me, Alexander leading the way with his long legs taking long strides. He seemed perfectly unencumbered by the weight of the heavy sledgehammer. Behind him skipped my step-daughter, Sophia, in her favorite pink sneakers, singing a silly song about a bear and a mountain. I brought up the rear, herding the five-year-old back toward her father whenever a squirrel, or bird, or butterfly distracted her.

  The last hints of spring had faded away and the trees were lush with the darker green leaves of summer. We had traveled this way so often in the past few weeks that we had worn a path through the dense forest undergrowth.

  An enormous boulder partially covered the opening of the threshold. In the past we had been strict about piling branches and brush to camouflage the rest of the entrance, but we had come here so often recently that we didn't bother to hide it anymore. The cave looked just the same as it had when Alexander first discovered it, yet a strong ward now blocked the entrance. Though invisible, the barrier prevented anyone in the human world from passing through to the other side. Identical wards had blocked all the thresholds into Faery for three weeks now, since the day the Unseelie Prince Deaglan Mór had captured Tír na nÓg and killed my uncle, King Lomán

  .

  The air around me felt heavy as we approached the cave. The sight of it brought to the forefront of my mind the crushing despair of losing my beloved uncle and his wife. I felt angry that we were stranded uselessly in the Human World.

  Pixies, the only creatures who didn't need thresholds to travel between the worlds, arrived daily with news of the latest atrocities Mór and his Unseelie army had inflicted on my Sidhe brethren. With each new day, the Seelie fae stuck here in the Human World worked to break the wards, return to the Otherworld, and join the resistance.

  When we reached the cave, Alexander extended his hand to test for the ward. Nothing visibly restricted the opening, yet his palm hit what amounted to an invisible wall. I had done the same on previous trips. The barrier blocked both humans and fae.

  Alexander grabbed the sledgehammer and swung it at the invisible barrier, putting all his weight behind it. My mouth fell open with surprise as the hammerhead met the ward with an explosive clang that reverberated through the air. He cursed and dropped the hammer, shaking the pain of the blow out of his hands. Sophia covered her ears and thrust out her lower lip.

  "Daddy! Why did you do that?" she shouted, her hands clamped over her ears.

  "Did you really think that would work, after everything else we've tried?" I asked, trying not to laugh. He shrugged.

  "I had planned on breaking the boulder to see if we could get access to the cave by going behind it, but since we were here…" he trailed off, a flicker of exhaustion crossing over his face. "It would have been quicker this way."

  He reached out his hand to his daughter. Sophia took it and scooted next to him for a hug.

  "Sorry, Sweetie. I should have warned you that I would be making a racket. I have a little more hammering to do. Why don't you pick some flowers while I work on this? We'll take them home with us when we're done."

  Sophia found a patch of wildflowers and busied herself creating a bouquet. I kept an eye on her as Alexander retrieved the sledgehammer and began to swing it methodically at the boulder. The sound of hammer on rock was loud, however it didn't have the earsplitting reverberation that hitting the ward had created.

  Several blows in, his forehead was already glistening with sweat. He clenched his jaw with each new swing, but his efforts got him nowhere. I was about to ask him to stop when he adjusted his footing and swung at the boulder, grunting with newfound energy. A watermelon-sized chunk split off, exposing a cluster of dark blue gemstones with silver speckles.

  Alexander picked up one of the smaller pieces. He was holding it up to the sun to better examine it when, with a whoosh of air, my cousin Keelin appeared behind him. Alexander, now accustomed to the way the Sidhe traveled on the wind, didn't so much as flinch at her brisk arrival.

  "Wow, look at that River Rock!" She bent and selected another piece of stone that had splintered off and landed a short distance from the boulder. "I thought you could only find this gem in the Otherworld."

  "That's what they tell me," Alexander said. "I'll have to come back here later with Matt to collect them. They're valuable; they should be useful to barter with in Faery, if we ever break this ward."

  I glanced around to check on Sophia as they chatted about the stones. My chest tightened with panic—she wasn't where I'd last seen her. The wildflowers she had so lovingly gathered lay in a messy heap on the ground. I scanned the area without finding her.

  "Where's Sophia?" I asked. Keelin and Alexander broke off their conversation as they glanced around.

  "Sophia!" Alexander yelled, his tone sharp with worry. "Sophia! Where are you?"

  "Here I am, Daddy," she answered, her tiny muffled voice sounding as if it came from a great distance. We rounded the boulder, following her voice. My breath caught in my throat. Sophia was standing inside the
cave, holding up a splinter of River Rock and examining it, just as her father had done. But how had she passed through the ward?

  I hurried toward her, hoping to find that the ward had somehow been lifted. My heart raced with fright as I slammed into the barrier. I began to take deep breaths to hold my panic at bay while I ran my hands along its invisible surface, wondering if the sledgehammer could have created a crack that she had squeezed through. The surface of the barrier was as smooth as glass. However, the ward was solid and intact.

  "Sophia, how did you get in there?" Keelin asked, her forehead crinkled.

  "I walked. This stone flew in here and I wanted to give it to Daddy." She looked back and forth between us, her eyes wide with confusion. "There's another one," she said, taking a few small steps deeper into the cave.

  Fear engulfed me. If she kept going, we wouldn't be able to go after her. Worse still—what if she couldn't get back through the barrier? After all, we had no idea how she had gotten through it when the rest of us could not.

  "A leanbh, come give the stone to Daddy," I said encouragingly, using my Sidhe voice to coax her out. She didn't answer. I couldn't remember anyone resisting my call when I put effort into it, and this only added to my anxiety. "Sophia, come here!

  The sun hid behind some clouds, reducing to light going into the cave. Sophia disappeared in the gloom. Visions of my daughter crossing through the threshold into war-torn Faery undid me.

  "Sophia!" I yelled, banging on the barrier in desperation.

  Alexander's panic mirrored my own. His sword was in his hand in an instant, aimed directly at the ward. Without so much as a second thought, I shoved Keelin to the side as Alexander ran at the threshold. He swung the sword overhead and, with the might of an army, brought it crashing down full force against the barrier.

  Alexander was the bearer of Nuada's sword, the Sword of Light. One of the four treasures of the Tuatha Dé Danann, the sword was undefeatable in battle. Yet despite this, the blow had no more effect on the barrier than the ordinary sledgehammer had. Alexander punched the invisible wall and swore in frustration.

  Just then, Sophia walked out of the darkness, her small hands protecting her ears from the reverberating din of the sword.

  "I'm right here. Why is everyone yelling?"

  "A leanbh, come. Let me give you a hug. Everything is okay," I said. Although the ward remained strong, my child ran to me as if nothing stood between us. I crouched and gathered her into my arms, sighing in relief.

  Alexander slid his sword into its sheath, where it faded back to invisibility. He carried the weapon in a holster on his back, hidden behind glamour. Once unsheathed, the glamour faded and the sword became visible to everyone.

  He began to pace back and forth to release his built-up adrenaline. Keelin ran her hand over the top of Sophia's head while staring, befuddled, at the entrance to the cave.

  "How did she do that when none of us have been able to get through?" she asked, voicing the question we had all been thinking.

  Alexander gave up his idea of breaking into the cave using brute force and decided we should head back home. He picked up his sledgehammer, his worry-filled eyes catching mine for a few seconds before we started back through the woods. An awkward silence hovered in the air; none of us wanted to discuss the questions spinning in our minds in front of Sophia. In the time since she'd come to live on the estate, we had continually discovered her doing things that normal humans couldn't, like flitting on the wind or hearing the Dragons. However, this was the first time she had done something that not even the Sidhe could do.

  "Is everyone mad at me?" she asked, her voice sheepish and small.

  "No one is angry," Alexander said, forcing a smile. "But you have to promise that you won't go into that cave again without your mommy or me, or even one of your aunts, holding your hand."

  "I won't, Daddy." She lifted her pinky finger and he looped his around it. "I promise."

  Alexander set the sledgehammer down and crouched to pull her close to him. He wrapped his arms around her, cocooning her against his chest and hugging her for several long seconds before he kissed her cheek and let her go. He slung the sledgehammer over his shoulder again and held her hand as we resumed our walk.

  "Why don't you sing for me?" Alexander asked her. "That song you were singing earlier," he requested.

  Sophia complied with enthusiasm, belting out the story of the bear going up the mountain. With my daughter so thoroughly distracted, I felt free to ask Keelin what had caused her to return.

  "You came to give us some kind of update, I assume?"

  "Not the news you're waiting for, unfortunately. Shamus hasn't been able to break the wards at any of the other thresholds." This didn't surprise me. If he had succeeded elsewhere, she would have mentioned it right away. "But he did send me with an update."

  "Can we talk about it now?" I asked, jerking my head toward the songstress to clarify my meaning. Was it ok to speak in front of Sophia? She might be young, but she wasn't totally oblivious. Keelin nodded.

  "Rosheen and I got frustrated hanging around the threshold at Niagara Falls while Shamus tried to break the barrier, so we flitted over to one in Switzerland. Don't ask me what we were thinking. As if we could bring down that ward when Shamus, the ward master, couldn't!"

  I smiled at her characterization of Shamus, a Brounie who had served my grandmother for centuries. He had stayed on after her death as the butler at Pine Ridge, the estate I had inherited from her.

  "When is Shamus coming home?" Sophia interrupted her song to ask. "He's been gone sooo long." Keelin pouted, imitating her disgruntled expression.

  "He'll be back soon. You know he can't stay away from you," she said, ruffling Sophia's hair before returning to our conversation.

  "Anyway, when we got to Switzerland we found a handful of Unseelie already there at the threshold."

  "They didn't hurt you, did they?" I grabbed her arm, worried by the idea of my young cousins encountering the enemy. She patted my hand like I was a fussy old aunt.

  "Come on, we're smarter than that. They didn't even see us. And I can tell you for certain: the ward blocked them from getting through to the Otherworld too."

  My eyebrows flew up in surprise. This was interesting news.

  "We watched them for over an hour—or rather listened to them. Apparently the only fae going back and forth to the Otherworld are the Pixies because they don't need a threshold. Since the Unseelie don't bond with them, they're even more in the dark about what's happening at home than we are."

  I pondered this for a moment as we stepped out of the forest into the bright sunlight, but I couldn't see how this information helped our situation at all.

  As we started across the grassy meadow, a swarm of Pixies flew at us as if we had conjured them up by speaking about them. I didn't recognize any of them, but that was hardly unexpected with so many new visitors arriving daily. The pixies hovering around us now were wearing the suspenders and soft pointy shoes common among Pixies from the High Region of Faery.

  They buzzed around us, a few of them landing on our shoulders.

  Alexander, never a fan of having Pixies use him as furniture, spun on the spot to thwart a fair-haired boy from settling on him. His quick movement caused the sledgehammer to smack into another Pixie, sending her spinning to the ground. The tiny fae let out a collective gasp as they stared at her motionless body.

  Alexander's eyes grew wide with shock and remorse. The ringleader, a boy with brown hair and a hook nose, flew up in front of his face and shook an accusatory finger at him.

  "You KILLED her!"

  "I'm sorry! It was an accident. I didn't mean to hurt her." Alexander's complexion paled as he turned to me, silently begging for help.

  "Don't you yell at my daddy," Sophia said, shaking her finger to mimic the angry Pixie's gesture.

  I ran toward the fallen girl, but Sophia got to her first. She crouched over the Pixie, blocking my view. When she stood again, the dazed
but otherwise unharmed Pixie was sitting in her cupped hands.

  "Look, she's just fine," Sophia said.

  "How did you do that?" The ringleader fluttered over to Sophia, examining her up and down. "What are you? Are you a fae?"

  "No, I'm a little girl." Sophia looked at her father, uncomfortable with the boy's sharp questioning. "That's my daddy."

  "Not a changeling? My lady lost baby, not long ago. Looking for a changeling." He circled her again, inspecting her from all sides before nodding. "Changeling. But too old to be My Lady's."

  He made a sucking noise on his teeth before flying away, followed by the rest of his group. We watched them leave with a sigh of relief.

  "What was that about?" Keelin asked.

  I shook my head. "Sure and I have no idea."

  I picked up the pace as we continued walking, wanting to get home before anything else could happen that would add more stress to this awful morning. Eventually, my thoughts returned to the conversation Keelin and I were having before the Pixies interrupted.

  "So Shamus wanted you to tell us about the stranded Unseelie. Did he say why?"

  "Oh yeah, I forgot that part." She smacked herself in the head. "They also mentioned that 'the Great Prince Deaglan' (don't make me sick) has been using ancient Fomorian wards. Shamus doesn't know much about them. Before his time, he says. He wants you to research them in his books in the Manor House library."

  Chapter 2

  Holly's blue Camry drove up the driveway with Matt at the wheel as we approached the Manor House. Our friends laughed together as they came into view, their faces bright and carefree, a stark contrast to the turmoil roiling inside me. As they were both human, the only stake they had in the atrocities happening in Faery was the sympathy they felt for me and my family.

  "Boss, good news," Matt called out as he jumped out of the car. "The new flooring for the guesthouse is being delivered today. A day or two of hard work and I'll be out of your hair."

  The Pine Ridge Estate was home to a number of buildings in addition to the Manor House where I lived with Alexander and Sophia. Floodwaters had damaged the other houses on Pine Ridge a few weeks earlier, including the Guest House where Matt, the head of our estate security, had been living. He'd been staying with us in the Manor House until he and Alexander finished repairing the Guest House.