Once Upon an Autumn Eve Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Acknowledgements

  Foreword

  Chapter 1 - Autumnwood

  Chapter 2 - Conflict

  Chapter 3 - Chevalier

  Chapter 4 - Reflections

  Chapter 5 - Transformation

  Chapter 6 - Luc

  Chapter 7 - Heart

  Chapter 8 - Pyre

  Chapter 9 - Contemplations

  Chapter 10 - Fulfillment

  Chapter 11 - Idyll

  Chapter 12 - Shadow

  Chapter 13 - Desolation

  Chapter 14 - Riddles

  Chapter 15 - Outset

  Chapter 16 - Wing-to-Wing

  Chapter 17 - Pocks

  Chapter 18 - Caillou

  Chapter 19 - Free Rein

  Chapter 20 - Nixies

  Chapter 21 - Croft

  Chapter 22 - Lure

  Chapter 23 - Village

  Chapter 24 - Secrets

  Chapter 25 - Musings

  Chapter 26 - Castle

  Chapter 27 - Gwyd

  Chapter 28 - Troll Hole

  Chapter 29 - Moor

  Chapter 30 - The Wild Hunt

  Chapter 31 - Rede

  Chapter 32 - Vital Trek

  Chapter 33 - Inference

  Chapter 34 - Garden

  Chapter 35 - Desperate Journey

  Chapter 36 - Black Mountain

  Chapter 37 - Iniquí

  Chapter 38 - Recovery

  Chapter 39 - Château

  Chapter 40 - Birthright

  Chapter 41 - Homeward

  Epilogue Afterthoughts

  Afterword

  About the Author

  Praise for the Novels of Dennis L. McKiernan

  Once Upon an Autumn Eve

  “McKiernan’s latest entry in his four-part fairy tale cycle goes beyond the reworking of the classic fairy tale ‘The Glass Mountain’ to depict a world of magic and enchantment.”

  —Library Journal

  “McKiernan inverts the traditional fairy tale motif of ‘knight rescues damsel’ by having Liaze undertake the quest to rescue Luc. . . . She’s a terrific character. . . . As for the setting, McKiernan’s Faery draws heavily from the French fairy tradition . . . . Although it may seem a small flourish, this adds greatly to the setting’s otherworldly nature and demonstrates McKiernan’s mastery at evoking the tiniest details of such a dreamlike land. . . . Recommended.”

  —SFRevu

  “Delightful . . . fast-paced . . . with a terrific twist involving Luc and a fabulous female champion.”

  —Midwest Book Review

  “No one beats McKiernan at the traditionally styled adult fairy tale, with something for everyone: beautiful princess oblivious to all states of personal dishabille, handsome prince, impossible challenges, despicably evil creatures, and romance, romance, romance! Quite simply, enchanting.”

  —Booklist

  Once Upon a Summer Day

  “An interesting twist. . . . McKiernan’s writing is evocative. . . . He paints vivid landscapes and provides lots of good action sequences. The book is valuable as much for the journey as for the destination.”

  —The Davis Enterprise

  “Romantics rejoice! McKiernan’s retelling of ‘Sleeping Beauty’ is the way it should have been done the first time around. . . . The lines between good and evil are clear, and romance and chivalry and true love are alive and flourishing.”

  —Booklist (starred review)

  “McKiernan embellishes another classic fairy tale in this enjoyably frothy fantasy . . . keep[s] the reader turning the pages.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “McKiernan takes the tale in some unexpected directions. He also offers an engaging, clever, and resourceful hero in Borel, as well as entertaining sidekicks in Flic, Buzzer, and Chelle herself. Recommended.”

  —SFRevu

  “Steeped in tradition and timelessness, and should appeal to fairy tale lovers of all ages.”

  —Library Journal

  “McKiernan always manages to enchant his readers with his fabulous fantasy novels.”

  —Midwest Book Review

  Once Upon a Winter’s Night

  “Exuberant . . . never less than graceful . . . a solid, well-rounded fantasy that readers will enjoy as much on a summer beach as on a winter’s night.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “Engaging.”

  —Locus

  “Intelligently told, romantic . . . and filled with the qualities of the best of the traditional fairy stories.”

  —Chronicle

  “Prepare to be transported to the fairyland of childhood . . . enchanting.”

  —Booklist

  Red Slippers: More Tales of Mithgar

  “Alternating between high tragedy and earthy humor, the twelve stories in this fantasy collection from bestseller McKiernan entertain while touching on complex moral and philosophical issues . . . appealing.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “Elaborates on old themes and introduces new motifs in the richly developed world of Mithgar. . . . Filled with likable protagonists, this volume is an excellent choice.”

  —Library Journal

  “Those who seek long, absorbing yarns in the classic mode will honor and enjoy [Red Slippers].”

  —Booklist

  “Terrific . . . a powerful anthology that will leave a grateful audience wanting to share more pints with the crew of the Eroean.”

  —Midwest Book Review

  Silver Wolf, Black Falcon

  “McKiernan brings his Mithgar series to a triumphant conclusion.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “In the tradition of Tolkien, the author blends lore and prophecy with vivid battle scenes and emotional drama. A tale of high fantasy that should appeal to most fans of epic fiction.”

  —Library Journal

  . . . and His Other Novels

  “Once McKiernan’s got you, he never lets go.”

  —Jennifer Roberson

  “Some of the finest imaginative action. . . . There are no lulls in McKiernan’s story.”

  —The Columbus Dispatch

  “McKiernan brews magic with an insightful blend of laughter, tears, and high courage.”

  —Janny Wurts, author of Traitor’s Knot: Alliance of Light

  By Dennis L. McKiernan

  Caverns of Socrates

  BOOKS IN THE FAERY SERIES

  Once Upon a Winter’s Night

  Once Upon a Summer Day

  Once Upon a Spring Morn

  BOOKS IN THE MITHGAR SERIES

  The Dragonstone

  Voyage of the Fox Rider

  Hél’s Crucible:

  Book 1: Into the Forge

  Book 2: Into the Fire

  Dragondoom

  The Iron Tower (omnibus edition)

  The Silver Call (omnibus edition)

  Tales of Mithgar (a story collection)

  The Vulgmaster (the graphic novel)

  The Eye of the Hunter

  Silver Wolf, Black Falcon

  Red Slippers: More Tales of Mithgar

  (a story collection)

  ROC

  Published by New American Library, a division of

  Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street,

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  Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  Published by Roc, an imprint of New American Library, a division of Penguin

  First Roc Mass Market Printing, May 2007

  Copyright © Dennis L. McKiernan, 2006

  All rights reserved

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  Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  PUBLISHER’S NOTE

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.

  eISBN : 978-1-101-04374-5

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  Once again to all lovers,

  As well as to lovers of fairy tales . . .

  And to the Roses

  Acknowledgments

  My dear Martha Lee, my heart, once more I am most grateful for your enduring support, careful reading, patience, and love. I know I have said this many times before, but it most surely bears repeating, ma chérie.

  And again I thank the members of the Tanque Wordies Writers’ Group—Diane, Katherine, John—for your encouragement throughout the writing of this Faery tale.

  And thank you, Christine J. McDowell, for your help with the French language. (I would add, though, that any errors in usage are entirely mine. Of course, the errors in English are mine as well.)

  Foreword

  If you have read the forewords of the first two tales of my Faery series—Once Upon a Winter’s Night and Once Upon a Summer Day—you will know my thesis is that once upon a time many (if not most) fairy tales were epics of love and seduction and copious sex and bloody fights and knights and witches and dragons and ogres and giants and other fantastic beings all scattered throughout the scope of the tale as the hero or heroine struggled on.

  Bardic sagas were these, but as the minstrels and troubadours and sonneteers and tale-spinners and bards and other such dwindled, and common folks took up the task of entertaining one another with these well-loved sagas, I believe bits were omitted—fell by the wayside—and the stories grew shorter, or fragmented into several stories, or changed to fit the current culture or religion or whatever other agendas the tale-tellers might have had.

  And so, if I’m right, the grand and sweeping tales bards used to keep their royal audiences enthralled for hours on end became less and less as the tales were spread from mouth to mouth.

  As the years went on, the stories continued to dwindle, until they became what the collectors of those tales—Andrew Lang, the Grimm brothers, and others—finally recorded and produced for others to read . . . or so it is I contend—

  —pale reflections of what they once were—

  —mere fragments—

  —holding a small portion of the essence—

  —and so on.

  But guess what: they still hold audiences rapt.

  They still charm.

  They still are much admired by many, and certainly I am among those.

  Even so, I would really like to hear some of these stories such as I have imagined them once to have been: long, gripping, romantic, perilous epics of love and hatred and loss and redemption and revenge and forgiveness and life and death and other such grand themes.

  But told as a fairy tale.

  Especially a favorite fairy tale.

  Expanded to include all the above.

  With Once Upon an Autumn Eve again I take a favorite of mine (in fact several favorites of mine woven together) to tell the tale as it once might have been told—as an epic, a saga, a story of length.

  As with my other stories, since it is a romance in addition to being an adventure, once more you will find French words sprinkled throughout, for French is well suited to tales of love.

  By the bye, the best-known version of the central story is but a few pages long. Once again, I thought that much too brief, and, as is apparent, I did lengthen it a bit. But then again, I claim that I am telling the “real” story, and who is to say I am not?

  I hope it holds you enthralled.

  Dennis L. McKiernan

  Tucson, Arizona, 2004

  Nothin be certain, m’lady

  1

  Autumnwood

  Separated from the mortal world by looming walls of twilight is a wondrous place called Faery. It is now quite difficult a to find, though once upon a time is it wasn’t. Faery is a place of marvel and adventure and magic and peril, populated by mythical and mystical creatures and uncommon beings . . . along with ordinary folks—if anyone who lives in Faery can be said to be ordinary. Yet the creatures and beings of Faery aren’t the only things of enchantment, for there are items of magic within—grimoires, amulets, swords, rings, cloaks, helms, and the like, most of them quite rare. Even the lands of Faery are numinous, for Faery itself is composed of many mystical realms, rather like an enormous and strange jigsaw puzzle, the individual domains all separated from one another by great tenebrous walls of twilight. And like a mystifying riddle, some of the realms touch upon many others, while some touch upon but few. Caution must be taken when stepping through these dusky walls in going from one place to another, else one might end up somewhere altogether different from where one intended. Too, directions in Faery do not seem to be constant; there may be no true east, south, west, and north, though occasionally those compass points are ascribed by some therein, for when one goes from realm to realm, bearings seem to shift. Instead it may be more accurate to say that east, south, west, and north respectively align with sunup or dawnwise, sunwise, sundown or duskwise, and starwise. Whether or not this jigsaw puzzle makes an overall coherent picture is questionable, for each of the pieces, each of the domains, seems unique; after all, ’tis Faery, an endless place, with uncounted realms all separated from one another by looming walls of shadowlight, and with Faery itself separated from the common world by twilight as well.

  Among the many remarkable domains within this mystical place are the Forests of the Seasons. In one of these four woodlands eternal autumn lies upon the land; here it is that crops afield remain ever for the reaping, and vines are overburdened with their largesse, and trees bear an abundance ripe for the plucking, and the ground holds rootstock and tubers for the taking. Yet no matter how often a harvest is gathered, when one isn’t looking the bounty somehow replaces itself. How such a place can be—endless autumn—is quite mysterious; nevertheless it is so.

  On one side of this magical realm and separated from it by a great wall of twilight is another equally enigmatic
province, a domain graced by eternal summer, and it is a region of forests and fields, of vales and clearings, of streams and rivers and other such ’scapes, where soft summer breezes flow across the weald, though occasionally towering thunderstorms fill the afternoon skies and rain sweeps o’er all.

  Likewise, on a different side of the autumnal realm, beyond another great wall of half-light, there stands a land of eternal winter, where snow ever lies on the ground, and ice clads the sleeping trees and covers the still meres or, in thin sheets, encroaches upon the edges of swift-running streams, and the stars at night glimmer in crystalline skies.

  And farther on and past yet another twilight border lies a place of eternal springtime, where everlasting meltwater trickles across the soil, and trees are abud and blossoms abloom, where birds call for mates and beetles crawl through decaying leaves and mushrooms push up through soft loam, and where other such signs of a world coming awake manifest themselves in the gentle, cool breezes and delicate rains.

  These four provinces are the Autumnwood and Summerwood and Winterwood and Springwood, four of the many magical domains in the twilit world of Faery.

  And as to these four regions, a prince or a princess rules each—Liaze, Alain, Borel, and Celeste—siblings all: the sisters Liaze and Celeste, respectively having reign o’er the Autumn- and Springwoods; their brothers Alain and Borel respectively the Summer- and Winterwoods.