Sprite

Will cursed himself for all kinds of fool, but he couldn’t let Roselle scream and reveal his presence. He scrambled through the window and covered her mouth with his hand. “It’s all right. I’m not going to hurt you. Please be quiet.”

To his astonishment, Roselle pulled him tighter and buried her face in his chest—his furry chest! “I thought I’d never see you again,” she mumbled brokenly. After a minute, she placed her hands against him and pushed. “You’re alive,” she said accusingly.

Will allowed himself a small smile. She was worried? Before he could reply, Roselle threw herself at him and kissed him desperately. He kissed her back, not quite trusting his good fortune. What had changed?

“I’m so glad you came back.” Tears started in Roselle’s eyes, and she dashed them impatiently away. “I’ve been so alone!”

“Roselle, I can’t stay,” Will began, before her words registered and he glanced at the stripped bed across the room. “Where’s Norah? Did you two have a fight?”

“N-no,” Roselle sobbed, succumbing to tears at last. “Her grandfather took her out of school. She’s going to work in the factory all the time now. She’s not allowed to s-see me anymore!”

“But why?” Will asked, bewildered.

“It’s a mess. He thinks I got her into trouble. He blames me for everything that happened!”

“What happened?” Will tried to be patient, but Roselle was scaring him. Roselle never cried.

Roselle sniffed, and wiped her face on the corner of her bedspread. “Norah and I helped some changelings from Factory 3, and the stupid jerk got caught and told on us! Now Lou is missing, and the jerk, too, good riddance. Norah’s grandfather thought it was all my idea, so he won’t let Norah associate with me anymore!” Roselle’s rising temper chased away her tears.

“Who is Lou?” Will had a suspicion of whom this Lou might be, and his stomach lurched at the thought.

“Lou—Louise. A changeling from 5. She helped us bring the ones that were escaping down to the river.”

Will was shocked. Roselle and Norah had no business getting involved in changeling affairs. Didn’t they know how dangerous it was? No wonder Norah’s grandfather had removed her from the situation.

“It’s not your fault,” he murmured to Roselle. She snuggled against Will’s side, not even flinching as her bare arm touched fur rather than skin. Changelings! Roselle had called the mutants in the factories changelings! Will stared at the top of her head where it lay against his chest. When he had confessed his deepest secret to her, she had fled from him in disgust.

A nagging in his brain reminded Will that he had come to Datro for a reason. “Where did they take Lou? Do you know?”

“Lou?” Roselle had been drowsing in the heat from Will’s body. Now she blinked up at him in surprise. “They sent her away from 5, away from Norah. I don’t know where, exactly.”

“Then I’ll have to go to 5 and find out,” Will said, surprising himself. “Forget I ever was here.”

Roselle snorted indelicately. “Oh, no. I’m coming with you.”

From the river, Neistah listened in on the two humans. So Datro’s Sprite was a changeling named Lou. Obviously, this one could swim. It would be interesting to see what mutation allowed her to imitate his people. He caught vague images from Will’s mind of the blonde girl he was with, of another, taller girl with reddish hair who must be the friend they spoke of, and this ‘Lou,’ whom Will had never seen. Neistah tried to look into Roselle’s mind and saw conflicting images—a sleek shape hurtling under the water, a child with solemn eyes and too many fingers, the red-haired girl falling out of a rowboat. He couldn’t make sense of any of it.

Neistah sprinted up the short hill and followed Will’s path to Roselle’s room. He paused for a moment in the window. The girl was pretty, for a human. Neistah grinned lecherously and climbed in. “Sleep,” he said nonchalantly to the girl. Roselle’s eyelids fluttered shut and she slumped against Will’s side. “We can go now,” he said to Will, grinning at the astonishment on the young changeling’s face. “Hurry, before she wakes up.”

Scowling, Will followed Neistah, casting a final glance back at the sleeping Roselle. “What did you do to her?” he asked sullenly, but Neistah only laughed. Will swallowed what else he was tempted to say. It was probably better this way. Will couldn’t stay, and Roselle couldn’t come with him. She shouldn’t be involved in changeling affairs, anyway. Up ahead, Neistah gave another low laugh and ran faster.

Neistah dragged Will down back alleys and in between buildings, leaving Will to wonder how many times he had done such things in the past. Neistah didn’t look any different from that night eight years ago when Will had first met the sprite. If anything, he looked younger now than Will did. They stopped outside Factory 5, careful to keep to the shadows. Nothing about this adventure had been Will’s idea. “What are we supposed to do in there?” he asked. “They’ll see us the minute we walk in!”

Neistah smiled. “Find that other girl of yours, the red-haired one.” He plucked the image from Will’s mind.

Will did not want to involve Norah. “We should talk to the changelings,” he said, moving around to the side entrance. Changelings used this entrance during the day rather than the more formal front door. With any luck, no supervisors would be around and they could talk to a few of the changelings unobserved. Neistah stopped suddenly just inside the doorway, his face going pale like in the warehouse by the docks. “Are you all right?” Will asked.

Nodding, Neistah pushed forward. Will pulled a young changeling boy aside as he moved past their corridor. The boy’s arms bulged with muscles from all the heavy lifting he did, but his eyes rounded in fright as he beheld the two mutants who now had hold of him. “Quiet. We won’t hurt you. Where did they take Lou?” Will whispered urgently.

“I don’t know!” the boy whispered back, staring apprehensively at the two strange mutants, both shirtless, one with webbing on his neck and hands! “Are you here to avenge her?”

Neistah and Will exchanged glances. “We just want to find out where she is,” Will said. “Can you help us?”

The boy hesitated. “Wait here,” he said. “I’ll bring back somebody who might be able to help.”

“No.” Neistah’s eyes narrowed, and he smiled, showing sharp teeth. The boy blanched. “We’ll come with you.”

Peering first left, then right, the boy led them cautiously further into the factory. Will kept hold of one arm, and Neistah held onto the other arm a little too firmly to be comfortable. He stumbled once, and Will glanced at him in concern. Neistah grimaced, and shook his head. At one point, they stopped and waited while a supervisor made his rounds ahead of them. When it was clear, the boy continued on. They entered a smoky central room where three mutants worked at glowing vats of molten metal. Neistah swayed and would have fallen if he had not had such a tight grip on the young changeling’s arm.

“What’s this?” An older changeling looked up and wiped the sweat from his face with a filthy rag. He slowly set down his tongs and straightened, staring at the two mutants who flanked the young changeling. “Who are you?”

“They came to find out about Lou,” the younger boy said.

“And you brought them here?” The older changeling glanced upwards, and Will realized that the supervisor probably was on the floor above, where it wasn’t so hot. It would only be a matter of minutes before the supervisor realized something was going on below him. They were running out of time. “They’ll do the same thing to us as they did to Lou!” the changeling continued. “I’m sorry.” Neistah’s eyes widened and he lunged forward just as the older changeling bellowed, “Help! It’s the sprite! Datro’s Sprite!”

Neistah fell, and Will rushed to help him to his feet, supporting his weight as the two backed slowly away. Faces appeared at the railing above, and echoes of “Sprite!” reverberated around the factory floor. Far above, on the third level, Will saw a face haloed in red appear at the big glass window which overlooked the entire factory. Norah. She wouldn’t be able to see exactly what was happening from that level, but it was only a matter of time before she was summoned. It was her factory, after all. Norah, Norah, he thought sadly. I never wanted you to see me like this. He pushed through the gathering crowd, supporting Neistah with one hand. For some reason, the factory workers hesitated to come too close, casting them both, and especially Neistah, fearful looks. Will used that to his advantage, kicking out and shoving with his free arm to open up a path.

They weren’t going to make it. From the upper levels, supervisors pounded down the stairs, and a gunshot echoed deafeningly throughout the factory. Neistah grunted, and dropped to the floor. One webbed hand clutched his shoulder. Blood trickled onto the factory floor. “Help me up,” Neistah whispered. Will grabbed him under the arms and lifted him upright. The air around them blurred, and Neistah laughed weakly. His left hand still staunched the blood that seeped from his wounded shoulder, but the bullet had only creased it, passing through the flesh. “I never thought I would take this way home,” he said. With Will’s help, Neistah walked slowly forward, as the air shimmered around them. Will rubbed his eyes, but the blurriness remained. Amazingly, none of the factory people followed them.

“A little further,” Neistah murmured. Will glanced behind him, and could no longer see or hear the factory. It was as if they were in a formless cocoon, which slowly coalesced into muted brightness, a green meadow which shimmered with its own soft light, and a pool, azure blue, a little to the left. “Help me there.” Will walked Neistah over to the pool, still marveling at the beauty they now found themselves in.

“Where are we?” he asked, gazing around him. He should be scared, but he wasn’t. It was too beautiful here. Neistah sank into the deep blue water with a sigh, letting it cover him completely. Tiny blue bubbles made their way to the surface and popped, and a ribbon of red dissipated in the water as Will watched in fascination. Neistah did not come up for a very long time. Will sat on the green grass and waited patiently. Not even Neistah’s prolonged disappearance disconcerted him. He felt drunk, happy, on the very air of this place. Slowly he realized that the grass beneath him had turned brown and dry. The brightness in the sky had faded. Even the pool where Neistah slept had turned a dull black. As he watched, the circle of brown beneath him spread, corrupting the meadow at a growing rate of speed. Alarmed, Will stood, and tentatively approached the water. “Neistah? Neistah!”

The water erupted, and Neistah flew straight up, glistening wet and healed. He flinched when he saw Will, and smiled a little sheepishly. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought you here,” he said. “But I had no other choice.”

“What is this place?”

“My home,” Neistah replied. “You don’t belong here. Come, I’ll take you back.”

Will didn’t want to go back. He wanted to stay, but even as he hesitated, the meadow died all around him. “What are you?” he asked Neistah. “What’s happening?”

Neistah shrugged. “I am a sprite, just as you said. And you are human. Your blood taints this place. Mine,” he took a silver edged knife from a pocket in his strange swimming trunks and pricked the palm of his hand. “Mine opens the way.” His blood fell, a few drops, onto the dead grass. Immediately, a circle of green appeared, and with it, the blurring that Will associated with traveling in between two worlds.

Neistah could control the gateway enough so that they emerged outside Datro, in a farmer’s field not that dissimilar to the meadow they had just vacated. It was night now. “It’s a long journey back to Earl’s place,” Neistah remarked, glancing sideways at Will, who appeared a little unsteady. “Unless you’d prefer to go by the river again.”

Will shook his head, smiling. They started off through the fields. The forest was on the far side. There were such things as sprites and other worlds beyond a veil of magic. It made Will wonder what else might be out there. He opened his mouth to ask, when Neistah spoke. “This is your world. Only this.” His unspoken words hung heavy between them. Will could never go back to that other place. “That’s not it,” Neistah remarked, startling a gasp out of Will. “You need to cherish your world and all that is in it. Don’t let it slip away from you again.”

Will wondered at the ‘again,’ but Neistah did not elaborate.