Chapter Eighty Seven

As Elenie did her homework she turned her meeting with Ieaun over and over in her mind.  What had he meant about having dreams about her?  Would he come back again and if he did, how would she keep Nik from finding out?

As she went on to do her chores, other thoughts occurred to her, what if he wasn't what he seemed?  What did he really want from her?    All these thoughts kept chasing each other around her mind until she decided to try and just wait and see.  If he turned up again then she'd be able to get to know him, and if he didn't then she had enough to worry about already.

She need not have worried however, the next time her mother and Nik were out of the house, Ieaun turned up again, and they spent time together talking and getting to know each other.  

Her fears as to his motives were eased when she realised that Taliesen had no objections to his presence and even more so when Ieaun admitted that Coryn had been helping out by texting him whenever Nik and Dory left the house.

Eventually, Elenie trusted Ieaun enough to tell him what she knew about her birth, what had happened to her father, and how Nik had come to take such control of her family's lives.

When she had finished, Ieaun was silent for a while 

"I believe your stepfather is one of the Gwyllon, the evil fae.  I don't know what he is doing here, but when their sort turn up in mortal realms then it always means trouble and the fact he has stayed here for so long makes me suspect there is something within your family he wants.  Mam's already told me she thinks his presence here is to do with you and that he wants you for some reason...  

"She says I need to get you away from this house and we've come up with a plan.  This weekend it's the Spring Ball at school and the festival will be open over on the beach all day, Coryn's agreed to get your mam and his dad over there the afternoon of the ball and he's going to find some way of keeping them there as late into the evening as possible.  If you'll agree, I'll bring some clothes over which Mam's been making, and we'll go to the ball together.  Mam says she can cast a spell to make people believe we've got a family friend my age from the old country staying with us, to help around the house as Mam's pregnant again.  When it comes to the ball we'll pretend that's who you are so no-one knows who you really are and then Taliesen will meet us outside the school afterwards and take you to this place I found - it's a secret hidden place and no-one will be able to find you there."

After some thought, Elenie tentatively agreed to Ieaun's plan.

All the pets in the family knew about the plan, and Jewel cornered Miralys in her room to warn her about it.  Although Mira couldn't understand the cats in words, they had developed the ability to communicate via mental pictures.

Mira was worried at first, having mental images that Ieaun would turn out to be as much of a monster as Nik was, but Jewel managed to reassure her - beaming mental images of Taliesen blessing Ieaun and his plan.

The weekend dawned fine and bright and Coryn pestered his parents until they agreed to take him down to the spring festival for a family day out.

The festival was all set out but not many people were there, and no-one was manning the kissing booths.  Still, it was a glorious day and the family were determined to enjoy themselves (even if Nik did regret the lack of people to torment with pranks).

There were lots of eggs scattered about the beach in celebration of Spring and Coryn declared excitedly that he was going to try and find all of them.

While Coryn ran around the festival looking for eggs, Dory persuaded Nik to have a go on the love machine, and then the two of them enjoyed themselves on the dance floor which had been placed in the middle of the lot - they danced so well they were crowned Spring King & Queen!

While his parents were dancing, Coryn broke off from his egg hunt to get some special festival food from the stall set up in one corner.

As he finished his snack, he noticed a small tent advertising face painting and decided to get himself painted with a rainbow before going back to collecting the remaining eggs.

Back at home, Elenie was getting nervous about the plan for this evening.  What would happen if Coryn wasn't able to keep Nik away until late evening?  Or if he did, what if Nik guessed that was what he'd been up to afterwards?

She went out to find Taliesen and, hugging his neck poured her worries out to him.

"Don't worry about your brother, I'll protect him and your evil stepfather has no idea what I am so has no defences against me.  You go to the ball, enjoy yourself and I'll see you at the end to get you away to safety."

With those words, Taliesen lowered his horn and Elenie saw it shine with glowing lights which then shot out to surround her, leaving her feeling calm and happy.

The afternoon seemed to drag on, although she kept busy with chores (not wanting to leave any more clues that she had left than she could possibly help) but eventually Ieaun turned up at the door.

"Bore da, are you ready for the ball cariad?  I've got both our clothes here to change into.  The most important thing about your outfit is the mask - Mam's put all sorts of magic into it to disguise who you are - no-one but us will be able to see your wings and they'll all beleive you're our family friend from back in Cymru.  It'll also stop the gwyllon stepfather of yours from tracking you (or his nasty little goblin for that matter)."

After some reassurances asked and given, and a last goodbye to the cats, Elenie and Ieaun got changed and headed out to the ball...