Coal: A Novel

Chapter 6A: Elizabeth Has A Fit

Chapter Six

 Chalcedony sat in the sunlight, in the room adjacent to her bedroom. She halfway listened to Djamel's updates on the last batch of rogue fey they'd caught in the human realm.

Truthfully, she was waiting for Elizabeth to wake up. Bringing the child to Everleaf had felt right. Just as it had when she'd found Coal. Movement out of the corner of her eye caught Chalcedony's attention. Elizabeth entered with her hair disheveled on one side, rubbing her eyes and yawning.

“Good Afternoon, Lizzy. Welcome to Everleaf,”Chalcedony said with an eager smile.

“I made it?”Elizabeth asked, her weariness disappearing. “I'm really in fairyland?”

“Yes,”Chalcedony said, inwardly cringing at the term fairyland. Elizabeth ran to Chalcedony and leaped into her arms.

“Thank you for bringing me here. Thank you. Thank you,”she said, kissing Chalcedony's cheek repeatedly. After what seemed like the hundredth kiss, Elizabeth paused, finally realizing Djamel was in the room. “Is this your prince?”

“No. This is Djamel. He is one of my shadow guards,”Chalcedony said, remembering that the human term for a shadow was different.

“Hello, Elizabeth,”Djamel said. His voice was like ice cream, sweet and thick.

Elizabeth looked Djamel up and down, and then said, “He is much too princely to be a guard. Are you secretly in love?”Elizabeth wasn't half wrong. Madoc had been hinting for months that Chalcedony should take Djamel or Tetrick for a mate. Her own father had been her mother's shadow. But she hadn't let her mind go there. It was too early for her to choose a mate. She wasn't going to torture herself until she had to.

“No, we are not secretly in love,”Chalcedony said.

Elizabeth cut her deep brown eyes toward Chalcedony, looking as if she didn't believe her and then said, “I can't find my tiara.”

“Your what?”Chalcedony asked.

“My tiara.”Elizabeth jumped from Chalcedony's arms. “I cannot be a princess without my tiara. It's what makes me special.”

“I don't have a tiara but I'm still a princess.”

Elizabeth placed her hands on her hips and cocked an eyebrow. “Well, you're not doing it right.”

“I don't know where your tiara is,”Chalcedony said, losing patience.

“Please! Please!”Elizabeth screamed, her waist-length hair swaying back and forth as she stomped her feet. “I can’t be a princess without my tiara. Will you please help me look for it?”

Djamel stood and looked around the room as if he was searching for something to attack. “What's wrong with her?”

“I don't know.”When Coal had arrived from the human realm he never screamed or cried. “Mireya, Mireya,”Chalcedony shouted, almost as loud as Elizabeth.

Mireya ran into Chalcedony's room wide-eyed and gasping for breath. “Princess, what is it?”

“Mireya, this is Elizabeth, the child I was telling you about,”Chalcedony said, trying to speak over Elizabeth's cries.

“Well, you just about had my heart bursting out of my chest, Princess.”Mireya turned to Elizabeth. “Why are you crying, child?”

Elizabeth cut her eyes towards the big-busted elf and began to cry again.

“Lizzy has lost her tiara,”Chalcedony said, exasperated. “She can't be a proper princess without it. I think we left it in Coal's room. Please find it for her. It's a matter of life and death. Isn't it, Lizzy?”Chalcedony realized she would have to treat the child the way she treated an angry ambassador: pretend to care.