Sprite

“Did you hear about the sprite sighting?” Roselle whispered to Norah during a break in their morning classes. “I heard it was down by the river last night. They almost caught it, too!”

Roselle’s eyes shone with excitement. Since Will had disappeared she had been obsessed with mutants, especially mutants who had escaped from Datro. Rumors about an elusive sprite who aided the mutants had increased as the weather got warmer.

That was Norah’s fault. She’d let herself be seen on at least two occasions, to her knowledge. One was when she was on her way home from escorting a fleeing changeling in late fall. She had cut it close to dawn, and unfortunately some early fishermen had spotted her fast-moving body cutting through the water just below the surface of Datro’s river. She blew right by them and emerged at her usual spot, quickly cutting away the evidence of her night activities and climbing up the small hill to her bedroom. She had thought nothing of it until days later, when she heard the first rumors about a water sprite, six feet long and green as a lizard, who had been prowling around the docks, looking for prey. Norah had laughed out loud then.

Winter had set in shortly after, and Norah gave up trying to aid escaping changelings. Winter was the worst time to attempt an escape. Trails were easy to follow in the deep snow, and if the hunters didn’t get them, the cold and the lack of food usually did.

Even though Norah stopped swimming in the dead of winter, when even Datro’s mighty river turned sluggish and clogged with ice, rumors about the sprite continued to abound. The changelings themselves helped spread them. The sprite had become almost a mystical creature in their eyes.

The second sighting came when Norah got wind of another escape attempt through Mack’s young friend, who hadn’t forgotten the connection between Norah and Mack’s final, successful escape. Lou, the little girl who had spoken up the night Norah came for Mack, had decided that Norah was one of them, despite her role as factory owner. She smiled at Norah whenever the older girl came into her section of the factory, and if no supervisors were close by, she would run up to Norah and give her a quick hug before running back to her post. Because Lou was so small, her main job was to act as liason between the various work stations, so it wasn’t unusual for her to be seen moving about the factory floor.

Lou thought Norah could do anything, and she brought other changelings who had problems to Norah so she could fix them. “I can’t!” Norah whispered one afternoon in early spring when Lou asked her to save a changeling boy from ‘being sent away’ to a different factory. It was a well-known euphemism for getting rid of the boy, who had grown too stubborn to be useful anymore.

“Take him to the river like you did Mack,” Lou whispered back. “To the sprite.”

Norah’s face flamed. “You didn’t tell him I would do that, did you? It’s not that simple. The sprite—“ Lou’s big eyes blinked up at her, and Norah shifted uncomfortably. “I’ll see what I can do,” she whispered. “Tell him to meet me by my school tonight.” Norah suggested the changeling wait at a specified spot by the river after dark. She figured she could coax him into the water as she had Mack, and tow him downriver to make his escape into the forest far past the city boundaries.

However, not only the youngster who was planning on escaping, but also Lou and two other changelings showed up at the rendezvous spot, much to Norah’s dismay. She was already in the water, and it was quite dark, but she was afraid one of them might put two and two together and realize that Norah herself was the sprite! “Stay back!” she had hissed, deepening her voice. “Send the changeling to me!” Norah had quickly submerged and waited until the boy, whose heart was beating fast in trepidation, waded into the chilly water. Powerful in her own element as the boy could never be, Norah flung him on her back and arrowed away.

The rumors seemed to multiply after that.

“I heard it’s not human, nor even a mutant!” Roselle continued. It was a warm spring, and classes were winding down for the summer. Norah wasn’t looking forward to school’s end, as it would mean she’d have to work full time at the factory.

“It’s got to be a mutant,” Norah argued as they began walking to their next class. “You shouldn’t believe everything you hear.”

“Then you do believe the stories about the sprite!” Roselle said triumphantly.

Norah didn’t answer.

“Do you think the sprite saved Will?” Roselle asked.

“No,” Norah replied without thinking. She watched Roselle’s face fall. “I mean, I hope he found the sprite he was looking for. I don’t think it was that one, though.”

“Datro’s Sprite? Do you think there’s more than one?”

Norah shrugged, and wished she hadn’t said anything. As far as she knew, she was the only sprite who could swim underwater like the ones in Papa’s old legends. The sprite she’d met in the forest wasn’t the same as her at all. A small grin tugged at her lips. So she was ‘Datro’s Sprite’ now, was she?

After classes, Roselle walked with her to her afternoon job at the factory. Grandfather had put Norah in charge of Factory 5 to give her experience in running the business. So far, Norah enjoyed the business end of it, keeping track of shipments and orders, and the supervisors really took care of the day to day activities.

“Who’s that girl who keeps staring at you?” Roselle asked. She had pinched her nose shut with her fingers as they walked through the bottom floor to the stairway. Norah just breathed as shallowly as she could and tried to ignore her churning stomach. It didn’t smell that bad. Roselle was just exaggerating, as usual. Her father was a city merchant, and most days Roselle spent her afternoons in a dress shop, waiting on the more affluent customers of Datro. Today, she had given herself the afternoon off in favor of accompanying Norah to her much more mundane job.

Lou waited, just at the bottom of the stairs, with an armful of papers. With her pale blonde hair and big blue eyes, she could have been Roselle’s little sister in another world. The two extra fingers on her hands made that impossible.

“I’m Lou—Louise, Miss,” Lou replied, bashfully lowering her gaze.

“Well, aren’t you just precious?” Roselle said. “What do you do at the factory? Norah, don’t tell me you let this little girl work all day in that stench!” Even if she is a mutant went unsaid.

“Are those for me?” Norah asked, bending down to take the stack of papers from Lou. Her name was actually Louise? Norah had never thought to ask. In some ways, Roselle was a more sensitive person than she was. “Lou is our runner,” she explained to Roselle. “She doesn’t stay in one place all day long.”

“Oh, and that makes it better, I suppose,” Roselle said.

Norah gave her friend an incredulous look. “Roselle! You know I can’t do anything about their situation.”

Roselle sighed, but it was a put-upon sigh, not one that she really meant. “Well, let’s take her upstairs with us today, at least. I can comb her hair, or something. You can give her some more papers to take down—somewhere. All right.”

“Sure.” Norah smiled at Lou. “Would you like to come upstairs and visit with us for a little while?”

Lou nodded, and skipped happily up the stairs behind the two older girls. Norah wondered what the whole thing had been about. Lou—Louise—usually didn’t bring her paperwork. She shuffled quickly through the pile, and found the reason for Lou’s interception. It was scrawled in childish, but legible letters: We need the sprite. Norah’s heart sank. She couldn’t very well talk to the girl with Roselle right there. Or wait, maybe she could! Having Lou alone up in her office was the perfect opportunity to speak to her without anybody else overhearing them. Of course, there was Roselle.

“Sit over here,” Roselle ordered Lou. The young girl obediently hopped up to perch on the corner of Norah’s desk. Roselle scooted around behind her and began undoing the tangled braid that hung down Lou’s back. “Ugh, don’t you ever comb this out?” she asked.

“I comb it,” Lou protested softly. Her eyes sought out Norah’s and she mouthed, ‘We need to meet the sprite.’

“That’s not possible,” Norah answered, and Roselle nodded her head in agreement. Norah almost giggled. This could work. “When?”

“Tonight?” Lou caught on quickly.

“Where? The usual place?” Norah asked.

Behind Lou, Roselle paused the brush in mid-stroke. “Are we still talking about hair?”

“Yes,” Norah said, as Lou tried to nod. Roselle rapped her lightly with the brush to keep her still. Both girls giggled.

“There. You’re presentable,” Roselle said, stepping back. “You’d better get back to work so you can comb your hair tonight at the usual place.” She watched as the little girl hopped down from the desk and ran out of the room, still giggling. “She didn’t seem so bad,” Roselle remarked to Norah. “What was her mutation, just her hands?”

“It’s enough,” Norah said. “Her own family turned her over to the factory as soon as she was old enough to work.”

“It doesn’t seem fair,” Roselle murmured. “Are there lots of mutants like Louise?”

“Most of them,” Norah replied. “Their flaws aren’t bad enough that they can’t work, but enough to mark them as different. They call themselves changelings, you know, not mutants.”

“So what is going on tonight at the usual place? And what do you have to do with it?”

Norah hesitated. Roselle had changed her opinions about mutants ever since Will left, but she was still one of Datro’s normals. “Nothing, really. I try to help the changelings when I can, that’s all. Make their lives easier. Lou is so little, no one pays much attention to her, so she acts as our go-between. Since I’m Avery’s granddaughter, I can’t very well be seen in public aiding our changelings.”

Roselle gave Norah a stern look. “You’ve been keeping secrets from me.” Suddenly she smiled. “But I understand. I want to help. What can I do?”

“Well, the changelings could use new bedding and some basic toiletries,” Norah said thoughtfully, trying to get Roselle off the track. “You haven’t seen the apartments where they live when they’re not working, have you? I’ll show you some time.”

“How did you get to know so much about mutants—I mean changelings?” Roselle asked. “Was it because of Will?”

Norah nodded. “Will had a lot to do with it.”

Roselle smiled, and gave Norah a hug. “We’ve all changed, lately, haven’t we? All right, I’ll see what I can do about getting hair brushes—and soap—for your mutants. See you at dinner tonight?”

“Sure, see you then.”

When Roselle had finally gone, Norah got to work on the latest batch of orders sitting on her desk. Roselle had forgotten about her cryptic conversation with Lou for the moment. Norah pondered what, if anything, she could do about Lou’s request. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to help—of course she did. But how could she show them the sprite?

Late that night, Norah checked to make sure Roselle was sleeping soundly before climbing out her window to meet with Lou and the changelings.

“Where’s the sprite?” A tall young man, a stranger to Norah, asked gruffly. In the clearing by the river, about twenty changelings had gathered. “We asked to meet with the sprite.”

“He’s not coming,” Norah said, stepping forward. Closer to the river, the moon cast a silver glow over the group. She realized she didn’t recognize any of them except for Lou and another, older boy from her own factory. “Who are all you people? Lou, what have you been telling them?”

“She said you could contact the sprite,” the same boy said. “We want to meet him, see for ourselves where he’s taking our people.”

“I don’t think that’s possible. He doesn’t, ah, come on land,” Norah said, thinking fast. “If you need to get away, I can try to get hold of him for you. That’s the best I can do.”

“How do you contact him?” the boy asked belligerently. “Why would he talk to a normal and not to us?”

“I—,” Norah glanced at Lou, who looked at her expectantly. What had she gotten herself into?

“The sprite talks to Norah because she saved one of them, once,” came a voice from beyond the clearing. Roselle pushed through the bushes and stood next to Norah. “I thought you might come here,” she murmured quietly. “Now, if you want our help, you’ll talk to Norah and she’ll talk to the sprite. Any questions?”

In light of Roselle’s calm assurance, the tall changeling boy backed down. “We just wanted to find out more about the sprite,” he admitted. “All the factory changelings have heard the stories. Factory 5 says two of their people were rescued by the sprite. We didn’t want to be left out.”

Norah felt bad. She only knew the changelings from her own factory. “Well, if there’s one of you in danger at one of the other factories, and you need the sprite’s help to get away, leave a message for Lou or one of the other changelings in 5, and they’ll get it to me. I’ll see what I can do.”

Next to her, Roselle nodded vigorously.

The group broke up after they had worked out a chain of communication between the other factories and Norah’s. “How come you normals are helping us?” one of the changelings asked.

Roselle snapped, “Because we’re good people, and it’s the right thing to do.”

The boy who had spoken stared at Roselle in something close to fear. His companions grabbed his arms and led him away, leaving Roselle, with her hands on her hips, and Norah alone in the clearing. “Well?” she asked Norah, once everybody was gone. “Did you think you were going to have an adventure without me? No more secrets, I said. Now,” her eyes gleamed. “Tell me—who is the sprite?”