The Immortal Realm Read Online Free

to admit, that’s a lot for any dad to assimilate. Most fathers freak out when their daughter brings her first boyfriend home—but in yourcase Edric wasn’t the half of it!”
    â€œI think maybe I should go and talk to him.”
    â€œHe’d like that. Just don’t get impatient with him if he doesn’t seem to be warming to the whole princess thing.”
    Tania looked anxiously at her mother. “Why? Doesn’t he like it here? What’s he said?”
    â€œNot so very much,” her mother replied gently. “You know him: He likes things to be just so , and this is all a bit too unpredictable for him. But don’t worry. He loves you to bits. He’ll come to terms with it all in the end.”
    â€œWill you be okay on your own for a while?” Tania asked.
    â€œYes, I’ll be fine. I wanted to go and visit the crèche tent, anyway.” Her face clouded. “There was a baby—he seemed a bit hot and feverish when your dad and I were in there earlier this afternoon.”
    Tania smiled. “You worry too much, Mum. You know people don’t get sick in Faerie. There’s a reason why it’s called the Immortal Realm.”
    â€œYes, well, if you say so, sweetheart,” her mother replied. “But even in Faerie, you’ll find that babies need a good deal of care and attention.”
    They kissed a quick good-bye, and Tania watched as her mother weaved through the crowds toward the great white pavilion that was being used during the wedding as a nursery and play area for the smallest of the Faerie children.
    Tania made her way to where rows of small tentshad been set up at the western end of the valley. According to what her mother had said, that’s where she’d find her dad. Edric would be fine with the earl marshal’s stepsons for the time being. Still, she did wonder what it was that Edric had been meaning to ask her earlier up on the hill.
    Maybe he wants to take me on a grand tour of Faerie, she thought. That would be really cool! She had traveled the length of the land a few weeks ago, but her journey had been an urgent one and danger had dogged her footsteps. It would be nice to wander without any pressure.
    And she also harbored the hope that memories of her Faerie childhood might return if she was shown places that she had visited in her life as a princess. She could remember nothing of the life she had led before that fateful night when she and her sister Rathina had made the mistake of experimenting with Tania’s “gift” and she had walked between the worlds and become lost for five hundred years in the Mortal World.
    Even among all the glories and delights of Faerie, she still felt achingly distanced from her royal mother and father and from her sisters—Some newfound Faerie memories would mean so much to her!
    Tania pushed her head through the closed flaps of the small lilac-colored tent, which was oblong and just large enough to accommodate two bunk beds and a deep oak chest for clothing and other possessions. A lantern hung from the roof pole, filling the tent with soft yellow light.
    â€œRoom service, sir,” she said. “Here at the LeiderdaleHotel, if there’s anything you need, you only have to ask.” She stepped into the stuffy interior of the tent. “Just don’t expect a minibar; they don’t do alcohol in Faerie.”
    Tania’s father was lying on one of the beds, propped on pillows, reading a book. He had kicked off his shoes, but apart from that he was fully clothed in the Faerie garments that she and her mother had chosen for him.
    Although she would never have told him so, she thought his face looked a little comical poking out from the white linen Faerie shirt with its pleated neck ruffles and fine embroidered needlework. He was also wearing the traditional puffed and slashed breeches, olive green with a lining of lime silk, and an embroidered doublet, clasped