The Enchanted Quest Read Online Free

that Titania’s hand rose to meet hers. They touched, palm to palm, finger to finger. The reassuring touch of her mother’s flesh was startlingly real. Titania’s hand felt warm and alive in the cool water, and Tania was profoundly comforted.
    “May I enter your thoughts, Tania?” the Queen asked.
    “Yes . . . of course . . .”
    A moment later Tania had the sensation of something gentle and soothing moving through her mind. She had always known there were strong emotional bonds between the members of the Royal Family, but she had not realized that they ran quite so deep as to allow for such intimacy as this. She felt no pain or concern as her Faerie mother probed her memories. Quite the opposite. She sensed her mother’s love stirring deep within her, vibrant and vital as the air in her lungs and the blood in her veins.
    But suddenly she saw her mother’s face grow concerned and then deeply alarmed.
    “No!” Titania snatched her hand away, and the surface of the water shattered into racing furrows that crossed and recrossed one another.
    “What happened?” asked Rathina.
    “She saw everything I’ve seen since we left the palace,” said Tania breathlessly, leaning heavily on the granite rim of the bowl to try to see Titania in the agitated water.
    Gradually the water calmed and the Queen’s anxious face reappeared. “Daughter, I had not expected to encounter such things in your mind,” came Titania’s voice. “But I understand now all that has happened.” There was a pause and her look of alarm faded. “You have come, then, to the town of Hymnal,” she continued. “That is good, I hope. Even in these dark times you should not be harmed by the folk who dwell there. They keep a strong allegiance to the House of Aurealis, and in all of Weir only they share loyalty between the earl and the Royal Family.”
    “We need a boat,” said Tania. “We have to sail to Tirnanog.”
    “Yes, I saw this in your mind,” said the Queen. “But you need not depart these shores in the black of night. Go to the Inn of the Blessèd Queen. You will be welcomed there by the landlord, Elias Fulk. He will give you food and beds—and unless the plague has entirely corrupted his nature, he will find for you a ship come the dawn.”
    “I saw the inn,” said Rathina, pointing back the way they had come. “I am sure of it! It is not far.”
    “Go find it,” said Tania. She looked at Connor. “Go with her, please. I won’t be long—I want to talk to my mother alone.”
    Connor frowned. “Talk about what?” he asked. “If it’s anything to do with the quest, I want in on it, too.”
    “It’s personal, Connor,” Tania said. “Please? Go with Rathina.”
    “Come,” said Rathina, taking Connor by the arm. “I would warm myself by a fire. Tania will follow in good time.”
    Reluctantly Connor allowed himself to be led back across the courtyard and between two leaning buildings.
    “You are distressed, Tania,” said the Queen. “I felt it in you. Speak to me of it and perhaps I can give you comfort and ease.”
    Tania had hardly realized how the anguish had been building in her till this moment. She had been keeping her emotions under control—she didn’t want to let Connor and Rathina know what was brewing in her mind.
    “Why didn’t the King tell me the truth about the plague?” she demanded fiercely. “Why did he pretend he couldn’t remember about the Divine Harper and the covenant and everything?”
    The Queen’s face clouded. “Tania, your father the King remembered nothing of these things. Nothing!”
    “Are you sure ?” insisted Tania. “Are you absolutely sure he didn’t know?”
    “Tania, listen to me,” came her Faerie mother’s voice. “There are no secrets between the King and me—there can be none. All artifice and pretense are swept away in the Hand-Fasting Ceremony.” Tania knew what that was: a mystic amber fluid was poured over the linked hands of a betrothed couple, and in that