Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales

Though the meadow on which the battle took place is deserted, it bears clear traces of violence, such as an occasional rumble from the ground and a tree cleft in two. While Wendell goes off to inspect a nearby hill—the epicenter of the fight—Emily tends to Shadow, who is exhausted from the long trek. Armed with a sword, Lord Taran materializes on the scene (Emily met the Queen’s haughty half-brother in the last book), surprising Emily. When Taran mocks Emily—a lowly mortal—for trying to be queen, Emily asks the lord why he does he not simply seize the throne himself. Taran counters that he has no desire to be a ruler, as rulers of the Faerie realm often end up dead.

As Taran and Emily trade words, Wendell returns from his foray. Taran challenges Wendell to a duel: He is bound to do so, as his father made him swear not to allow anyone to claim the throne unless the claimant proved stronger than the prince. Wendell accepts the challenge, and a fierce fight breaks out. Wendell fights admirably, but Lord Taran is clearly the better at swordplay and gains ground on Wendell. As Taran is about to strike Wendell, Orga twines herself around Taran’s feet and makes him trip. Seizing the momentary advantage, Wendell asks Emily to throw him her cloak (which Wendell magicked in the first book). He draws the cloak as a shield between him and Taran, the cloak’s hem rippling out like a shadow. Taran realizes Wendell has sewn a piece of the Veil—the most horrifying, interdimensional realm of Faerie—in the cloak. Taran has no option but to surrender to the cloak’s power. Though Wendell did not technically defeat Taran at swordplay, he did prove stronger in magic, satisfying Taran’s oath. Taran accepts Wendell as king.

Taran tells Emily and Wendell that the queen is presumed dead from poisoning, though she was taken away by her guards before Taran could confirm her death. Because of the uncertainty around the queen’s death, Wendell’s path to the throne will be tricky. To ensure a safe passage for Wendell into the castle, Taran goes on ahead to clear the path of hostile courtiers.

Based on Emily’s idea that their group must make a grand entrance to quell dissent, Wendell sews magnificent black and silver cloaks for himself, Emily, and Shadow. Emily, who knows a few Words of Power, or magical words whose utterance manifests objects, repeats a Word till exquisite buttons come flying out. Emily gathers as many as she can, and Wendell sows them in his own coat. Emily and Shadow’s coats are made from magical materials, such as reflected starlight gathered from a pool. Wendell’s cloak is alive and hungry and even eats small animals until Wendell bids it stop.

An audience of common fairies and Courtly Fae gathers about Wendell’s party as they approach the castle. To Emily, the fairy folk appear blurred and indistinguishable, as if their strange beauty is too much for her mortal mind to absorb at once. Lord Taran and Callum Thomas—Taran’s beloved life-partner—come out to greet Emily and Wendell by laying their swords at their feet. The gathered Folk take the cue and kneel before the couple. Mirrors are brought out for Wendell to smash, as this is customary when power passes from one monarch to another. Wendell raises a mirror and asks the gathered Folk if they will celebrate his homecoming. The Faeries hesitate at first, then jostle to grab the mirrors.

Emily wakes up in Wendell’s quarters with Orga on her chest, the cat’s claws dangerously close to Emily’s throat. Emily removes Orga from her person and reflects that it is New Year’s Day. However, she doubts the Faeries would know this, as they don’t follow calendars or even believe in the concept of linear time. Though Emily can’t remember much from last night’s celebrations, she recalls sounds of violence in the distance. She decides to let Wendell sleep in, especially since they already woke up once before to have sex, and she steps out through a door to explore the castle.

One room is a grand Roman bath, while another is a room full of Folk. When the courtiers fawn over Emily, she beats a retreat and winds up in a dining room with only one person in it: a tall, pretty woman with dark brown skin and short black hair. Emily immediately recognizes her as a mortal. The woman, nearly sightless, greets Emily. As the two talk, Emily discovers that the woman is none other than the dryadologist Niamh Proudfit, believed to be lost for nearly three decades. Niamh still looks in her thirties, as humans age very slowly in Faerie. Niamh has survived all these years by working as a royal scribe who stays out of court politics. Wendell enters the dining room, joined by Callum and Taran. As the group talk about Faerie, Callum and Niamh share how the realm—enchanting as it may be—is always filled with dangers for mortals. Wendell’s father and stepmother both routinely rounded up mortals they did not like and set them in the boglands for nobility to hunt. Wendell assures the mortals he has no plan to carry out the tradition.

Wendell asks Callum about a strangeness he has perceived in Faerie: He can sense a curse on the land, seeping into the very trees. Callum confirms that the trees are dying from a mysterious illness and that the infection persists in their twisted shapes even after the trees are dead. Taran has tried arresting the illness by burning diseased groves to the ground, but the sickness pops up elsewhere. Moreover, last night, Taran learned that the queen is hiding in the realm, transferring the poison in her blood to the land itself. Emily suggests Wendell visit the King’s Grove to address the Folk and establish his authority before scouting out his stepmother.

Emily and Wendell sit on grand but uncomfortable thrones in the King’s Grove as Wendell meets supplicants. To Emily’s approval, Wendell patiently listens to the suits of the common faeries too. After a while, a beautiful Fae with hair like raven’s feathers approaches Wendell and challenges him to a duel, which Wendell accepts. The Fae fights Wendell furiously till he disarms her, and much to Emily’s horror, stabs her through the chest. The Fae transforms into a raven and flies away. Wendell tells Emily the Fae’s death was unavoidable as his father cursed her to challenge each of his descendants if she wanted to retain her humanoid form. Only when the Fae kills the claimant to the throne will she be permanently restored.

Exhausted by the proceedings, Emily asks Wendell if they can leave the grove. Wendell senses Emily’s discomfort as they walk to the castle and tells her that if she wishes to return to Cambridge, he will give up the realm for her. Emily quells his doubts with a kiss and says being in Faerie is her own choice.

In the castle, Taran has rounded up a council for the new king. Emily finds the council faeries strange, especially a woman who wears a crimson cloak that leaks blood, and another called the Lady East Wind, who vanishes in a blast of air. After everyone leaves, Wendell shows Emily the surprise he has prepared for her: dozens of beautiful journals she can fill. He has also magicked one of the doors in his quarters so it leads directly to Corbann in Ireland. Whenever Emily wants a break from Faerie, she can visit Corbann through the door. Moved and delighted, Emily enters the door while Wendell goes off to meet the councilors. The door leads to a countryside with a stone pathway to a cottage. Inside the cottage are Emily’s dear friends Lilja and Margret. The couple tells Emily that Wendell recently invited them to the cottage for a holiday. Last night, he arrived here and tidied the cottage, but the women suspect he magicked it so Emily could visit.

After spending a pleasant evening chatting with her old friends, Emily goes to bed. The next morning, she works on her academic thesis on the courtly politics of the fairy realm. By taking a throne in Silva Lupi, she has taken a step further than most scholars in her field. Though Emily convinces herself that marrying Wendell and becoming queen is meant to further her studies, her heart knows this is untrue. She is in love with Wendell and Faerie. Later, she bids goodbye to Lilja and Margret, who caution her against wedding Wendell. The women like Wendell but mistrust the Faerie Folk in general.

On her return to Faerie, Emily meets the head housekeeper, one of the oiche sidhe, a kind of common fairy. The housekeeper is grey, like most of his kind. Emily asks the housekeeper for information about assassination plots against Wendell. Since the oiche sidhe keep the castle running, they’re bound to hear gossip. The housekeeper readily complies, as Wendell is one of his people. Wendell’s grandmother was an oiche sidhe. Satisfied with the information, Emily seeks out Wendell, holding court in a garden atop a hill. Emily tells Wendell that her study at the cottage and her talk with the head housekeeper have been fruitful: Wendell must remove the Lady East Wind from his council, as she is his enemy. Further, they must immediately proceed to an infected grove to see the nature of his stepmother’s curse. They should take along Deilah, Wendell’s half-sister, whom he has imprisoned. Wendell groans theatrically at the long list of tasks Emily has set them.

Emily and Wendell set out for the cursed grove on gigantic faerie horses the next morning, accompanied by Taran, Lord Wherry, and Deilah. Appearing to be in her mid-teens, Deilah is the picture of unhappiness at being forced on the trip and has torn her dress in protest. When Emily tries to make conversation with Deilah, Deilah calls her a “plain little mouse” (123) pretending to be a faerie and plants centipedes in Emily’s hair. Wendell scolds Deilah for behaving badly, and an angry Deilah tells him to return to the world of mortals, where he belongs. Her mother—his stepmother—is not really dead and will be back to seek her revenge against Wendell.

When the group arrives at the corrupted grove, they see that a sticky mist has engulfed the trees and their inhabitants, killing them. While Wendell and the guards proceed to the center of the grove so it can be burned from the inside, a horrified Emily notes that the faeries killed by the curse have been transformed into wraiths. As the corrupted faeries attack Emily and Deilah, Taran and Wherry push them back and ask the women to return to their horses. Taran suddenly turns against Wherry, breaking his legs and pushing him into the mist. He tells Emily that this is necessary, as he wants to test whether the curse can turn even courtly Fae into wraiths.

As the fire spreads, Wendell returns to Emily and Deilah. Lord Wherry rises from the mist and attacks Wendell. Wendell kills him for the final time. To Emily’s disgust, Taran remarks that his curiosity has been satisfied. As Deilah cries, Emily comforts her, feeling guilty for bringing her on the trip. The ghosts and wraiths of various faeries and some of Wendell’s dead guards rise from the mist and attack the group. Wendell begins to strike them, his movements so rapid and efficient that he appears transformed into a killing machine. Emily notes that when one of the wraiths knicks Wendell’s side, the blood that drips to the ground transforms the dead earth, making grass and flowers bloom instantly. The grove and the mist are finally overwhelmed by the fire.