The sound of the water was overlaid by distant street noise from the city: the rumble of carts, the occasional call from a merchant. The city came alive at night in ways it never did during the day. Henry was sitting with Blue on a bench beside the river, half hidden by a mimosa bush. They were holding hands.
‘What was the important announcement you mentioned?’ he asked her. ‘The one you said you might make later?’
‘I don’t know,’ Blue said. ‘Why don’t you tell me?’
Henry looked at her blankly and Blue looked away.
After a while, Henry said, ‘It seemed staged somehow.’
He was thinking of their adventure with the dragon and Blue seemed instinctively to know this, ‘It was staged,’ she said. ‘By one of the Old Gods.’
‘Why?’ asked Henry mildly. He looked out across the river, aware they were talking about this because he still was not quite ready to talk about what was really on his mind.
‘I think to help heal our reality,’ Blue said. She hesitated, then added, ‘And to make sure our stories followed the proper form.’
‘Whose stories?’
‘Ours,’ Blue said. ‘Yours and mine.’
There was a wading bird in the shallows of the river. At first Henry didn’t recognise it – then the curve of the beak brought to mind a picture he’d once seen in a book on Egypt and he realised it was an ibis.
‘I didn’t understand that,’ he said to Blue.
‘A priest once told me the Old Gods believe that mortal lives are lived to act out certain stories. Sometimes they intervene to make sure the stories turn out the way they should – they way they were fated to, I suppose.’
‘So we weren’t really in danger from the dragon?’ Henry said, ‘It was just a story – like a play on stage?’
‘The dragon could have killed you,’ Blue said soberly. ‘I don’t know what it would have done to me. The stories are real, they’re the patterns of the ways we lead our lives. Some of them end in tragedy. Like you being eaten by a dragon.’ She smiled slightly. ‘But you were brave, so it didn’t happen.’
They sat in silence for a long time after that. Then Henry said, ‘Blue?’
‘Yes, Henry?’
‘Do you remember the last time we walked here by the river?’
Blue nodded. ‘Yes, I do.’
‘Do you remember what you said to me?’
Blue nodded again. ‘Yes, I do.’
Henry licked his lips. He was aware of the sudden pounding of his heart and hoped it wasn’t noticeable to Blue. He took a deep breath. ‘You asked me to marry you.’
‘I was very young then,’ Blue said without inflection.
He felt something deflate inside him. But he’d gone too far to stop now. Besides, what was he afraid of? He’d faced a dragon, hadn’t he? He licked his lips again. ‘Do you still want to?’ he asked.
There was silence broken by the lapping of the water. After a long time Blue said, ‘It doesn’t matter what I want, does it. Not really. You have a life in the Analogue World.’
‘I don’t like it very much,’ said Henry, ‘I don’t want to be a teacher.’
‘What about your parents?’ Blue asked mildly. She was staring out across the water and had let go of his hand.
‘Mum has Anais,’ Henry said. ‘Dad’s gone – I don’t even see that much of him. He’s living with his girlfriend and making a whole new life for himself and he’s happy. At least I think he is. At least he doesn’t have Mum telling him what to do all the time.’ Henry tried to reach for her hand again, but she drew it away gently. All the same, he went on earnestly. ‘But that isn’t the point, is it? I’m going to be gone myself soon I mean, even if I stay in the Analogue World, I’m going to be gone soon. I’d go to university or teacher training and there’s not one nearby, so I’d have to board. I’d hardly see them, either of them. Then after that, I’d have my own life as a teacher or whatever. You grow up, you leave home: that’s the way it is. If I stayed here it would be just the same as if I married an Analogue girl and bought a semi-detached somewhere.’
She still wasn’t looking at him, but he thought he caught the ghost of a smile on her lips. ‘Not quite the same,’ she said. ‘Where would you tell them you’d gone?’
Henry blinked. ‘How do you mean?’
‘Fairyland?’ Blue said, one eyebrow raised. She’d obviously picked up the term somewhere and knew its connotations.
‘I thought I might do what Mr Fogarty did and pretend I planned to emigrate – New Zealand or Australia or somewhere. Somewhere far.’ He drew a deep breath. ‘I thought there might be some sort of spell cone I could use to help them accept it.’
‘My,’ said Blue, ‘you have been working things out.’ She gave him a quick, sidelong glance. ‘What about your education?’
‘I could finish that off here,’ Henry said, ‘It would be a lot more interesting.’ He waited, staring at her. When she said nothing more, he asked, ‘Well, do you?’
‘Do I what?’
‘Still want to marry me?’
Blue turned to look at him directly. ‘Are you asking me to marry you, Henry Atherton?’
‘Yes,’ Henry said impatiently. ‘Yes, I am.’
‘Why?’ Blue asked.
‘Because I love you,’ Henry said.
Blue looked away again, ‘I can’t marry a commoner.’
‘What?’
‘I can’t marry a commoner,’ Blue said again, ‘I’m Queen of Faerie, Queen of Hael. I can’t marry a commoner.’ She turned back to him and now she was smiling broadly. ‘I’ll have to make you a Faerie Lord.’
Henry was staring at her in disbelief. ‘You mean you will marry me?’
‘In a heartbeat, Henry,’ Blue said softly.
He kissed her after that.