“Thom sat amidst the frigid beauty, barefooted and without a coat, singing to the wind and laughing at jokes only he could hear.” – excerpt from The Broken Court, Chapter 5 – The Lost Ones
Changlings, Kilmeny, Rhys ap Morgan, True Thomas, Tamlin – many a tale has been told about those who were spirited away by fairies; of the beauties and delights they saw while in fairyland and the often sad fates that awaited them upon their return to the mortal world.
“They walked through a land where there were no shadows. Where slender boles of crystalline trees rose up like pillars from a floor of malachite. Their spreading branches held aloft a sky made of lapis. The trees opened up to a great circle where the Fairy Queen’s round danced. Two rings of dancers there were, one within the other. The inner ring spun widdershins as sunwise spun the outer. In its center, rising above all, was a dais. Upon it was a throne, where sat the Fairy Queen.
She was dressed in mist and sunlight with hair like a golden waterfall, and eyes the deep blue of a winter sky. At her feet sat a boy who was as beautifully golden as she, save that he was mortal. A very strange thing indeed.” – excerpt from Lumina and the Goblin King, Chapter 5 – The Fairy Queen’s Round
When you first meet Thom in Lumina and the Goblin King, he is sitting at the feet of the Fairy Queen. A beautiful mortal boy whom she had stolen away to use as a pawn against the Goblin King. By the time The Broken Court begins, he has been returned to the mortal world and is being cared for by the eld woman. But then I asked myself, now what? What was his fate to be? How would he see the mortal world? Not as others do, for sure.
It was actually my daughter who helped me the most when it came to writing about Thom. Being on the spectrum, she also sees the world in very unique ways, and though it was never my intention, there is much of her in him. Just as the inspiration for many of the eld woman’s fears and trials come from my own concerns and experiences. (I guess that means my husband is to blame for the phooka’s incorrigible nature :D)
Idyll Dreams & Nonsensical Things 