Jet, who had had more than enough of storytelling, shouted, "Maman!" and flung himself at her, snuggling ferociously before settling contentedly into her arms. Maman, murmuring over his head, said, "When the house burned and you proposed we retreat to this lodge, I was lost, Jacob. Terrified. I knew what the forest held, and I became instantly convinced that Nell had not retreated to the Border Kingdom at all. I felt in my bones that she'd come here, and I couldn't help but feel that she was drawing me back to her, determined to bring her curse to fruition at last. The forest has treated us well, but it would; it's mine. And then you found the palace, Amber, or it found you, and you chose to stay." Maman bent her head over Jet's a moment. "I dared hope that Nell had lost her strength at last, and that the curse might finally be broken, not completed.
"But then eleven nights ago I felt a terrible triumph from the wood. You've told us now what happened, Amber, but I didn't know then. All I knew was that the palace was coming under attack, and in the end, I have not lived this long to let my firstborn son go without a fight. I am sorry," she said to the rest of the family. "I know that you worry for my health, and that it's worse when I take to bed as I've done. But in many ways, this forest is me, and I have been fighting Nell in it these past ten days."
A long silence met Maman's final confession, until I broke it with the truth of what I'd seen: "If you hadn't, Maman, I think the Beast and I would be dead already." I described for them again the encroaching roses, and the fierce tangles of forest where the Beast had gone to stand his ground and the woods had helped him.
"'The Beast'," she murmured. "His name was Timmet, once."
A strange little pang, unexpectedly possessive, ran through me. "That was a long time ago."
She smiled at me before the smile turned to a soft laugh. "Yes, it was. And I was Irindala once, but not so long ago."
"Iri," Father said again, with the satisfaction of a man who had been waiting to say it aloud for years. Maman's laughter grew and she kissed him as Jet, squished between them, let out a sleepy protest. For a moment we were together and contented, before I said, "I have to go back."
"Amber!" Opal protested, and Maman's gaze grew serious.
"It might cost you dearly, Amber."
"Maman, already, wherever I go, he is with me in spirit. Nothing can cost me as dearly as losing my Beast will."
"He's your stepbrother," Pearl said, suddenly mischievous. I gawked at her, then blushed furiously, enraged but unable to argue the fact. Maman came to my rescue, saying, "He is no blood relation to you, Amber. Pearl, be kind."
Pearl, who did not default to kindness, said, "Hnh!" and settled back, still smirking. "I'll go with you."
I shaped the word, soundless with surprise: what?
"At least I'm a witch, Amber. I have the pearl. And she's as much my mother as yours. More. I remember her, and you don't. There must be something I'll be able to do, but mostly I'm not letting my little sister go into battle against a faery all on her own."
"Neither," Opal said softly, "am I." She rose, smiling at our collective astonishment, and fetched the opal the Beast had sent. "I wondered, Pearl," she said as she did so. "I wondered why—if—the Beast would send you alone a gift with magical properties only you could unlock."
"They're all enchanted," I said. "Protection charms."
Opal nodded, crossing the room to the rose window, where a few small herb plants grew, and broke a leaf off a bay bush. "But a protection charm isn't the same as magic within, and he sent no instructions for Pearl. I thought perhaps I might unlock some power, if I experimented. I read the book of stones, the one the Beast replaced our lost copy of." She smiled at Father, whose eyebrows drew down in recognition, if not understanding. "Opals are reputed to have a cunning gift, if wrapped in a bay leaf and held in the hand." She held up the leaf, wrapped it around the stone, and, palming the two items together, disappeared.
Glover jolted to his feet with an anguished, "Opal!" while the rest of us shrieked in various levels of surprise. Poor little Jet began crying again, and Opal reappeared with the leaf and stone held separately again. She displayed them a second time, put them back together into her palm, and disappeared. Her laughing voice said, "I'm still here. But surely an invisible sister might be of use in your battle, Amber," before returning to our view.
Father said, "No," weakly, as if he knew he'd lost the argument before it even began. Glover said it more strongly, but with greater despair; and Pearl said, "At least Lucinda isn't here to try to talk me out of it."
"Lucinda," I echoed, far more able to grasp that than Opal's sudden resolve and magical talent. "Lucy? From the village? The one you were always sneaking off to read the cards for? When did that happen?" I considered what I'd just said, and smiled. "I suppose while you were sneaking off to read the cards."
Pearl actually smiled, and I realized once again how beautiful my oldest sister was. "Reading the cards is as nice a phrase as any."
I laughed, then extended my hands toward both my sisters. "I don't know what you can do, but I won't turn away your help. Eleanor is disembodied, but I'm not sure that doesn't make her stronger. And the longer I'm gone the more danger my Beast is in. I must go. Maman, can you send us back, through the forest?"
"I'll go with you." Maman spoke with resolve, then startled as every adult voice said, "No," firmly. "It is my battle," she said, suddenly fierce, as she had never been in all the time I'd known her. For the first time I truly saw a queen in my fragile mother, and yet I denied her with a shake of my head.
"I don't think it is, anymore. Eleanor sees me as her avatar, and the Beast has always been the piece over whom this battle is fought. This is a war for the next generation, Maman, and you have three sons to raise to princedom. Our country has no leader but you, and none of the boys are old enough to take the throne without your guidance."
"I don't want the throne!" Flint wailed. "I want to breed the finest line of horses this land has ever seen, with Beauty as its strong stock backbone!"
"That's all right," Jasper said. "We have an older brother who might want it anyway."
"Timmet has been long apart from the world," Maman said. "I don't know what he might want, when the curse is broken." She held my gaze a few hard seconds, studying me before nodding. "You may be right. My duty may be to my younger children, not to the oldest. But if I don't go with you, Amber, I cannot guide all of you through the forest."
"The moon rose this afternoon," Pearl said thoughtfully. "I think the pearl might make me a moonlight path. So that's one of us you don't have to send."
"A moonlight path," I said, half incredulously.
Pearl gave me a flat look. "Asks the woman who has just come from an enchanted castle housing a beastly prince?"
I breathed, "Fair point," and looked at the roses beyond the rose window. My hands began to itch. More than itch: a sting grew worse as I rubbed at my hands, and spilled into the scratches and scrapes all over my body. I reached out, and the roses visible at the window bent toward me, as if eager to feel my touch. I took a deep breath and stood. "Send Opal, Maman. I think I can get there myself."