The Fairy Bride

By Tess Mallory

Dear Friends,
I am absolutely thrilled to be able to bring my novella, THE FAIRY BRIDE, back to all my readers now enjoying eBooks! This novella is near and dear to my heart, because I love fairies! When I was a child, my father made up fairy tales about dragons and fairies and knights in shining armor as my bedtime stories, which created in me a lifelong love for all things magical, wondrous, and, well, quirky.
In THE FAIRY BRIDE, the King of Tir Na Nog, Connal O’Tain, must leave his world and find a mortal bride, or else his kingdom will be destroyed. He takes along some help—an invisible dragon who sits on his shoulder blowing smoke and attracting attention when Connal least expects—or needs it. But finding Erin MacKay, his beautiful bride-to-be, makes all the strange travails in the human world worthwhile. Now there’s just one problem—convincing her to give up her life in the mortal world, marry him, and return to Tir Na Nog forever!

My dream has always been to write a full-length series based on this novella, and if I get the right response from this eBook, you can bet your dragonfly wings, that’s exactly what I’m going to do! I hope you love THE FAIRY BRIDE and please check out my other available eBooks, including TO TOUCH THE STARS.

Cheers,
Tess

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tess Mallory
• Release date: Oct 18, 2011
• ISBN: 9781466060371

Tess Mallory

Tess Mallory has been writing since she was in the seventh grade when she composed a ten-page poem called The Darling Little Princess in the Land of Ooky Og. Her teacher was impressed, her father was proud, and so she decided when she grew up, she would be a writer. Well, she never really grew up, but as she got older, she wrote short stories and poems and eventually sold stories to children’s magazines. But since there were a lot of really long stories piling up in her head, one day, while her children watched cartoons, she began to write novels. And one day, she sold one. And then some more.Having been raised to believe that all things are possible, Tess has a particular love for fairies, dragons, time travel, romance, history, and laughter. Because she has to do everything in a quirky, weird way, she’s always incorporated at least one of these loves into every one of her nine published fantasy romance novels. Tess and her husband Bill live in the Texas Hill Country near their three lovely children and one lovely granddaughter, and they all see fireflies and fairies in their backyards on a regular basis, and Tess dances in the rain whenever possible.

Book preview

The Fairy Bride

by

Tess Mallory

The Fairy Bride is published in eBook format

by Tess Mallory

at Smashwords

First published by Dorchester Publishing Co.

Copyright 1997 by Tess Mallory

eBook Copyright 2011 by Tess Mallory

eBook Format by A Thirsty Mind

Cover Design by Tess Mallory, copyright Tess Mallory 2011

Cover Photo copyrights:

Bride photo Alena Ozerova at Dreamstime.com

Background Unholyvault at Dreamstime.com

Dragonflywings Shannon L. Story at Artistwebsites.com

Smashwords Edition, 2011

All rights reserved. No part of this may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from Author.

DEDICATIONS

This novella is dedicated to the real Erin Brownlee, Heather Davis, Jordan (Ydroj) Mallory and Blake (Ekalb) Burns, as well as to my husband, Bill, who unfortunately didn’t get to play in this book with his children, but maybe next time, honey! Also I have to include James Brownlee and my darling Mackenzie, our own little fairy girl. Without all of my family’s love and support, my writing career would be a bigger fantasy than this tale of fairies and goblins and dragons. May the Lord bless you and keep you and make His face to shine upon you, always.

And a special remembrance must be given to my late father, Jerome T. Casler, because, after all, he was the one who taught me to believe in fairies and dragons ... and words.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Getting this book ready for publication as an eBook was quite an undertaking and would not have been possible without the help of some amazing people, and they deserve a special Acknowledgements Page all their own.

Thank you ...

To Julie Ortolon, for your kindness, for sharing your dreams and PR expertise, and most of all, for teaching me so much about this labyrinth called eBook publishing! Thank you, Julie, you rock!

To Pam Headrick, for turning old pages into new joy with your amazing scanning and formatting skills! Thank you too for your patience and kindness and your help in getting everything together to make this happen!

To my son, Jordan Mallory, for your patience and ability to overlook my asking the same questions a thousand times as you taught me how to use Photoshop and the finer points of cover design. You are the best son in the world!

And most of all, to Roberta Brown, for your patience, support and understanding, and so much more. The backlist of my out-of-print books, that will hopefully follow this one, wouldn’t be possible at all if it hadn’t been for your generosity. Thank you more than I can say.

Dear Friends,

I am absolutely thrilled to be able to bring my novella, THE FAIRY BRIDE, back to all my readers now enjoying eBooks! This novella is near and dear to my heart, because I love fairies! When I was a child, my father made up fairy tales about dragons and fairies and knights in shining armor as my bedtime stories, which created in me a lifelong love for all things magical, wondrous, and, well, quirky.

In THE FAIRY BRIDE, the King of Tir Na nOg, Connal O’Tain, must leave his world and find a mortal bride, or else his kingdom will be destroyed. He takes along some help—an invisible dragon who sits on his shoulder blowing smoke and attracting attention when Connal least expects—or needs it. But finding Erin MacKay, his beautiful bride-to-be, makes all the strange travails in the human world worthwhile. Now there’s just one problem—convincing her to give up her life in the mortal world, marry him, and return to Tir Na nOg forever!

My dream has always been to write a full-length series based on this novella, and if I get the right response from this eBook, you can bet your dragonfly wings, that’s exactly what I’m going to do! I hope you love THE FAIRY BRIDE and please check out the excerpt for TO TOUCH THE STARS, my futuristic romance, at the back of this book, now also available in eBook format.

TO TOUCH THE STARS was ahead of its time. Taking a dark hero, Eagle, and having him overpowered by Skyla, the powerful, telepathic leader of a rebel alliance, was a wild concept for a romance novel back in the nineties. Now the romance genre has exploded and romance can join up with vampires, werewolves, demons, zombies, shapeshifters—the sky is the limit! So what’s next? I personally believe there is only one way to go from here—UP! Romance among the stars—it’s the next step in the evolution of romance! And here you are, with me, at the forefront of a whole new romance revolution!

In the very near future, I’ll be publishing five more of my backlist of romances as eBooks, ALL THE TIME TRAVEL ROMANCES, so please stay in touch by:

Friending me on Facebook—just type in Tess Mallory and add me; follow me on twitter @tessmallory ; visit my new blog/website at http://www.tessmallory.com (under construction); and write me at [e-mail] . I love to hear from my readers . And hey—as soon as you download your copies, please tweet, RT, post, email and TELL YOUR FRIENDS!

Then please do me one last favor—remember that Love is Timeless—and all of you are Awesome!

Tess Mallory

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Epilogue

Glossary

Excerpt of To Touch The Stars

About the Author

Chapter One

You must travel to the Outerworld and find your mortal bride.

King Connal of the house of Tain considered the wizard’s words, then rose from the huge, ornate throne and walked to the edge of the crystal platform on which it sat. Slowly the platform lowered itself to the floor of the great hall below. Connal’s dark auburn hair brushed against the blue-green tunic covering his broad shoulders as he paced across the stone floor, his face a smooth mask of contemplation. The walls behind him were golden, studded with jewels. The windows were hung with gossamer curtains spun from spider’s webs.

Pausing in front of a high, arched window open to the cool breeze, his gaze fell on the pale lavender mist of early morning in the valley below. The castle sat perched upon one of the highest hills in Tir Na nOg. Built eons ago, the white stones were kept smooth and clean and strong by the magic within them.

Connal’s gaze shifted across the valley to another, distant hill, where a castle of equal proportions looked back at his own. The house of Dar. Prince Tynan lived there in seclusion, practicing his magic and harboring his jealousy toward Connal. The king sighed. Why the good Dagda had appointed two ruling houses to guide Tir Na nOg he would never understand. The house of Tain had ruled the land for countless thousands of years. The rule of Tir Na nOg could only be remanded to the house of Dar if the reigning king had no heir. As a result, the nobles of the house of Dar had no part, no function in the ruling of Tir Na nOg. Could he count on Prince Tynan to support them now, in their time of need? He wished he felt more certain.

You do not respond, Connal, the voice behind him said. Do you refuse the quest?

Iridescent gold wings, previously lying dormant upon the king’s back, now slowly unfurled, stretching to their full, magnificent length, shimmering in the predawn light, reaching well above his head.

I have resolved myself to do it,