The Gossamer Gate by Wendy L. Callahan Page A

are not necessarily fragile; they were simply not made to procreate as extensively as mortals, because faeries are longer-lived. This is a problem, as our numbers have been decimated by war and illness rather than time.”
    “War?” Khiara asked. “It doesn’t seem like war has ever touched this land.”
    “Here in the faerie realm, we have not had such wars as the humans do, but the mortal realm’s conflicts affect us deeply. There are many full and half-blood faeries who maintain lives in both worlds. As a result, we have lost many of our men to your world’s wars. The other problem is that it is only natural that contact with the mortal world results in some faeries that bring back illness or disease that we would not normally have in the Otherworld.”
    Titania looked forlorn and Khiara felt her throat close up. If this had been one of her friends, Khiara would have reached out to hold her hand to convey her sympathy and support. However, she knew such a gesture would have been out of place in the Otherworld, particularly with a royal, so she kept her compassionate sentiment to words alone.
    “I cannot even begin to appreciate or understand the difficulties you have been through, but I am very sorry for them.”
    “Even though our realms have drifted apart, what happens in yours still affects us. The Otherworld was once one and the same as the mortal realm. Then people came from different places – not just the Mother Earth – and pushed us further and further beyond the veil. Really, that veil was of our own making. It was a way to defend ourselves against the mortal race.” Titania raised her chin a fraction.
    Although the situation in the Otherworld was difficult, Khiara could see that the Queen retained her dignity and her determination.
    “Soon that veil became substantial enough to physically disengage our world from yours, so much so that it became known as the Otherworld. Yet the slender threads of material and numinous connections do remain between both worlds. I fear that mortals will not become conscious of their actions until it is too late; before we can completely sever the connection.”
    Khiara considered this in silence; the Queen’s words were heartbreaking and her sentiments about the concerns she had for her world were familiar. Khiara felt the same way about her own world and its many troubles. Here she had considered the Otherworld a completely different and foreign realm when, in truth, it was parallel to the mortal world. The denizens of both had their fears and worries, which weren’t so different at all.
    As Khiara thought about how she should respond, the carriage clambered onto a harder surface, jarring her into finally paying attention to the landscape. She realized they were in a stone-paved courtyard surrounded by a delicate white, wrought-iron fence that rose higher from the ground with each prancing step the horses took toward their destination. Everything seemed to be awash in a shimmering, silvery glow. Khiara realized the radiance emanated from every piece of faerie-made architecture around them: the road, the fence, and the structure that stood before them. She gazed in awe at the luminous, crystalline castle. The gray-lavender mist that enclosed the capitol city reflected the incandescence back.
    Towers rose skyward, their spires appearing to touch the clouds. The material of the palace itself was a shimmering, rough rock that reminded Khiara of many densely packed quartz crystals. On the foremost tower was an enormous clock with a sepia-toned face, and three large black hands. Their movement was completely imperceptible, and she remembered what Liam had said about time running differently in the Otherworld.
    There were several windows along the palace and towers, the glass curving elegantly upward to peak at the top, with silver-gilded molding framing them. The entire palace almost seemed frosted and glittering. In any other landscape, it would have been out of place,