Sprite

Will blanched, but quickly moved forward to drape his jacket across the naked woman’s shoulders. To his relief, she accepted it. Everyone else seemed frozen in shock, except for Neistah, who stood with his arms folded, an amused smirk on his face. Will was left with the task of explaining Leane to their hostess.

“Miriam, this is Leane, Neistah’s—er—relative,” he said. “She’s come to—join us?” He risked a glance at Leane as he spoke, and she smiled tolerantly at him, and nodded.

Miriam couldn’t help comparing the exotic water creature in front of her to her own daughter, and her heart sank as she noticed the unmistakable resemblance between the two. Norah was just as beautiful, just as uncanny.

At the moment, Norah was sidling quietly over to stand by Neistah. It appeared that they were talking, but Miriam could hear no words. She could accept that Neistah was Norah’s father. They shared the same delicate webbing. Somehow, seeing this other Sprite woman made it all real to Miriam. Norah really was a Sprite. Did she have anything of Miriam in her?

The green-haired sprite looked directly into Miriam’s eyes. “She has your hair.”

Miriam snatched her attention back to the problem in front of her. Sprite or no, this poor woman deserved some hospitality. “Welcome,” she said, trying to smile. “You must be chilled. Please come inside and I’ll find you something to wear, perhaps a bite to eat.”

Will accompanied Leane up the short flight of steps to the front door. He never even glanced back at Roselle, who stood, appalled, on the shortened front lawn. They disappeared into the house. Roselle shook her head in disbelief. What had just happened?

Once everybody had gotten over the shock of a pond forming across from the house, and of a beautiful naked sprite arising out of it, they turned to Neistah for answers.

Neistah held up a hand. “This is Valin’s mess,” he said. “Let him deal with it.” With that, he tugged Norah’s hand and pulled her with him underneath the brand new pond. The water stilled without a ripple.

Pup walked over to the water’s edge and dipped his fingers in. “Cold,” he commented, turning back. The pond was deeper than it looked, for there was no trace of the two sprites. All the rumbling earlier must have ripped a hole in the earth where the meadow used to be. Pup shook his head. Still didn’t explain how Leane had ended up in there, though.

“Sprites, back to the bunkhouse,” he said. “His Sprites, along with Norah’s girls, milled about nervously, murmuring among themselves. It was all right when they believed Neistah and Norah were mutants like the rest of them, but stunts like Neistah had just pulled made it very hard to hold on to that belief. Pup guessed it was too late to undo the damage. Beneath it all, his lads and at least Roselle among the girls understood that Neistah and the sprites like him were nothing human at all.

Roselle waited forlornly on the porch, reluctant to go inside. The other girls had followed Cook, who carried little Jenny around to the kitchen entrance. Roselle’s eyes stayed focused on the unmoving waters of the pond. Pup joined her. “They’re all right,” he said, thinking she was worried for her friend.

“I know,” Roselle replied. “I just—it’s been a strange day. Thank you for bringing Will back.”

Pup fought a smile. “He would have come with or without me.” He didn’t say it had less to do with Roselle herself than with the entire situation. Things were coming to a head, and this is where the battle would be fought. Will was bound to show up sooner or later. Even Neistah and the other sprites had managed to find their way here.

Roselle smiled back, grateful. Pup left her there, waiting on the porch.

X x X x X x X x X

Norah’s gown wrapped around her legs, which would have been a hindrance had she used them to do anything except swim. The fins on her ankles were unhindered by the silky material, and her own long hair blended in with the hair her garment was made from, changing the color subtly to blood-red. Neistah arrowed ahead of her to the bottom of the pond, where jagged rocks jutted up at intervals. At the very center a small stream of colder water burbled up. This was the source of the pond.

‘The gate is gone,’ Neistah sent, spiraling up after inspecting the source. ‘I thought as much. The gates that Valin and I came through are gone now, too. Our entrances weren’t nearly so spectacular.’

This was the first Norah had heard about him coming through a gate. ‘You came from faerie?’ She felt slightly disappointed that they had gone there without her, even though she was the one who had asked to return to the mortal realm.

Underwater, Neistah’s teasing laugh released bubbles which made their way to the surface and popped gently. ‘Not faerie, no,’ he sent. ‘It’s a long story, one which I’ll let Valin explain when he gets back. He is responsible, after all.’ Neistah made a complete circuit of the entire pond. ‘Shall we see what trouble our lovely Leane has gotten into? I promised Jordy I would keep him safe from her wiles.’ He laughed again, following the bubbles up this time. Norah circled for speed and followed him out of the water.

She was startled to see Roselle waiting for her on the porch. Quickly, she squeezed the excess water out of her hair, turning her gown back into darkened gold with only a hint of red. She shivered, even though she wasn’t really freezing. It would feel good to take a hot bath.

Roselle went upstairs with her, unusually subdued for Roselle, considering all the excitement. When they got to the room they both shared, they stopped dead in the doorway. Leane sat demurely braiding her grass-green hair on a small cot by the window. She looked up at the girls. “Your mother said I should sleep here tonight,” she said, looking Norah up and down. Norah was still wet from the pond. Leane smiled. ‘She said we have a lot in common. That Neistah. And he reprimanded me for taking up with mortal boys.’

“Where’s Will?” Roselle asked, a little sharply.

“Will?” Leane’s eyebrows rose and she shifted her glance to the other girl. “He couldn’t stay with me. I asked. Miriam sent him back to stay with the other boys. Poor Will.”

Roselle gasped at what the sprite woman was implying. Without saying anything else, she wheeled about and ran back downstairs.

‘That’s an interesting dress you have on,’ Leane commented silently, choosing to ignore Roselle’s abrupt departure.

Norah smiled tightly. ‘Anais gave it to me as a parting gift,’ she replied in kind.

’Yes, I see your own hair is not quite long enough,’ Leane commented. ‘It will be a long time before you can cover yourself properly or have enough to weave a garment for your intended. Although,’ her subvocal tone became thoughtful, ‘perhaps you plan to remain in the mortal lands and take a mortal lover. You could, you know. You are not yet completely one of us.’

Norah wasn’t sure if that was supposed to be an insult.

X x X x X x X x X

Miriam carried an empty tray back into the kitchen and nearly bumped into Neistah, who was helping himself to peach preserves right out of the jar. She stiffened, then visibly made herself relax. “I see you still like fruit,” she said, getting him a plate and a spoon. She watched him eat for a few minutes. “You look just the same,” she whispered, horribly self-conscious of how much she had aged.

Neistah grinned and swept her up, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek, making her blush furiously. “You smell good,” he told her, laughing with his eyes. Miriam pushed him away, but she couldn’t help smiling.

Neistah disappeared again when Cook bustled in to start supper. Miriam set tables in the big kitchen as well as in the adjoining dining room. The patrols who were not on overnight duty came back for the night, and they mixed with Will and Pup’s group in the warm kitchen, blowing on their hands and stamping their feet to get the chill out of them. Lou happily dragged Mack to sit by her side at the long kitchen table so she could tell him about her day. Some of the nearer patrols had felt the earthquake, and were astonished to find that a pond had formed seemingly out of the blue right by the main house.

Leane was the center of attention in her abbreviated dress, hastily borrowed from Miriam, who was a good deal shorter, for the duration of her stay. The Hanan guards, both human and changeling, were as fascinated by Leane as the other boys. Norah sat with her girls near Mack and Lou, and wasn’t surprised when Pup joined her group.

The only ones missing were Roselle, who had gone to lie down as soon as Leane left their bedroom, and Neistah. Jim and Valin, who had taken Adam along on their survey of the boundary lines, had not yet returned. Miriam saved their dinner in case they wanted it when they got in.

Laughter erupted from the other room, and Leane’s feminine voice drifted over the rest, followed by Will’s deeper murmur. Pup leaned over and helped himself to another serving of potatoes mixed with green herbs from Miriam’s garden. Jordy, who had chosen to eat in the kitchen as well, kept stealing glances at Norah. Pup frowned at him. “Eat your food,” he ordered.

Jordy blushed at being caught. He couldn’t help looking at Norah. It was like looking at Leane, but without the danger. But he clearly heard the warning in Pup’s tone. Norah belonged to him. Maybe that’s why she felt safer to Jordy. He relaxed, and helped himself to another serving also.

Shortly after, Jim returned, followed closely by Valin, who was dressed once again in human garb. “Where’s Neistah?” he asked, coming into the kitchen .

“I’ll go get him,” Jordy volunteered, sprinting out the back door towards the bunkhouse.

Valin turned in a slow circle as if questing for something. His head came up, and he locked eyes with Norah. ‘Leane is here?’ he sent in surprise.

‘In the dining room,’ Norah affirmed. Of course Valin would have sensed her. ‘Neistah said you would explain. Something about a gate.’

‘Ah.’ Valin left it at that.

He and Jim hastily swallowed the supper Miriam had saved for them, while Adam took his plate into the dining room, just as fascinated by the sprite woman as the other males. Neistah nodded to Jim, and slid on the bench next to Norah. He raised his eyebrows at Valin, who grimaced.

‘I felt the iron in the fence at every turn. This might pose a problem for us. Leane will not be able to touch it at all.’ Valin passed a hand over his face wearily. ‘We may have to get beyond it to be effective. The human doesn’t know. It is important that we do not let them find out our weakness.’

‘That fence is their protection against intruders,’ Neistah agreed. ‘Their family’s heritage. I wonder if they were aware at some level just what sort of intruders they were protecting themselves against.’

Norah ‘listened’ with interest. She hadn’t realized the sprites from faerie had an aversion to iron until Neistah pointed it out, and ever since, she had become sensitive to its presence, although it truly didn’t bother her. She had always felt sickened by the fumes in her family’s factory, but she had just thought it was because of the smell, not because of the iron itself. Was Leane more sensitive to iron because she had no human blood whatsoever?

Neistah nodded, answering her silent question. ‘We are protected by the drop of human blood we carry. You, on the other hand, show almost no weakness to iron.’ He smiled. ‘That’s good. Especially if we have to leave in a hurry. You can let us out.’

Norah almost objected. There was an opening under Black Pond. Neistah must know about it. She had found it the first time she visited the pond, and from her mother’s reaction, Black Pond had been where she and Neistah had spent most of their time together. It was impossible that Neistah would have missed it.

Neistah caught her eye and shook his head, not trusting himself to mental speech. Valin, thankfully, wasn’t paying attention. Neistah did not want Valin to know about their alternate escape route. Interesting.

X x X x X x X x X

Right after Leane arrived, the weather turned bitterly cold. The pond she had brought with her froze overnight, and a fine layer of frost covered everything. To make matters worse, the sky turned ominous with heavy dark clouds piling up all day. By the evening of the second day, snow began to fall.

Currently, Leane was ensconced in the big, formal parlor in front of a roaring fireplace. She had a blanket Miriam had given her wrapped around her shoulders, and her green hair pooled in her lap. Will’s Sprites, allowed in the house because of the weather, sat at her feet, except for Jordy, who hovered by the doorway, as if trying to decide to come in or stay out. Will himself perched on the arm of Leane’s chair.

Adam had brought out the book on Sprites that he had told Valin about, and the changelings gathered around him, comparing the pictures in the book to the real thing. Norah received her share of speculative glances.

“You kept that book?” she asked her mother in surprise. There had been a time, when Norah was little, when Miriam had rid the house of anything fanciful, insisting that her daughter be raised on good literature and no nonsense. If it hadn’t been for Papa, Norah might never have known about Sprites as magical creatures and wished, in her heart of hearts, that they were real.

Miriam smiled. “I couldn’t destroy it after all,” she said, thinking of the pond across the road, which her grandfather had had built, and which she had had filled in when it was clear Neistah was never coming back. She had tried to protect Norah from her heritage. It hurt too much to do otherwise. But what would be, would be, as evidenced by that very same pond reappearing. Norah was a Sprite, like the one in the storybook. As much as she wanted to keep her daughter, one day Norah would leave just like Neistah had. Miriam supposed it was inevitable, being what they were.

Uncannily, all four of the sprites, her daughter included, stopped what they were doing and looked at Miriam. She quickly looked away. Outside, sharp cracks told when tree limbs, still covered with autumn leaves, snapped in half. The storm would be a bad one, so early in the year.

X x X x X x X x X

Roselle refused to come out of the room she shared with Norah—and now Leane as well. When Miriam had made up a separate bed for the sprite woman, Roselle had been indignant. How dare she put that woman in the same room with them! It wasn’t just that Leane had hung all over Will when she emerged from the mysterious pond, it was that Will hadn’t seemed to mind!

Leane, who ignored the small bed by the window for Norah’s larger, more comfortable bed and was now draped across the middle of it, barely covered in the dress Miriam had lent her, arched her eyebrows. Trees continued to crack outside, and the wind howled mercilessly. Miriam and Jim had brought blankets for the boys so they could bunk down by the fireplace, and even the night patrols remained indoors because of the weather. When Leane appropriated Norah’s bed, Roselle moved over to the smaller cot instead, leaving Norah to share with the sprite woman. ‘I’m not going to keep him,’ Leane sent to Norah, who sat uneasily on the other side of the big bed. ‘I’m just borrowing him for a little while.’

Norah sighed. It was nothing personal, she knew that. Sprites just—did what came natural. She had seen such behavior over and over again while she was in faerie. But how to explain that to Roselle, whose heart was broken at Will’s perceived abandonment. Norah felt guilty enough as it was for harboring lingering feelings for Will herself.

Leane picked right up on that. ‘You want him too?’ she sent, amused. ‘I’m surprised he hasn’t come chasing you already. He’s attracted to us. They all are.’

‘No!’ Norah sent back, horrified. Will was Roselle’s. She had come to terms with that long ago. It wasn’t as if Norah didn’t have other boys who were interested in her—Pup was, and Breyan. She’d noticed what Leane said, too. The changeling boys kept casting her quick glances when they thought she wasn’t looking, and she had a feeling it wasn’t because they were intimidated by her.

Leane’s pealing laugh rang out across the room. Roselle looked up, glaring.

‘You are one of us,’ Leane relented. ‘Of course they will be attracted to us. Even Breyan desires you. Ah, Breyan, I remember him well.’ She practically smacked her lips with satisfaction.

Somehow it had never occurred to Norah that Breyan might have known Leane intimately, might still again, if they chanced to meet. Norah didn’t like it. Not at all. ‘I’m also human,’ she reminded Leane, although she wasn’t sure if that admission hurt or helped her with Breyan.

“Will you two stop that?” Roselle muttered irritably. “I can’t hear you, but it’s obvious you’re talking about me. If you have something to say, say it out loud.”

Leane’s eyebrows arched again as Roselle rose in her estimation. She smiled, and moved off the bed to approach Roselle. “I told Norah I was only playing,” she said, still smiling softly as her arms came around the smaller girl to embrace her gently. “Where I come from, it helps to pass the time. If it bothers you, I’ll leave him alone. There are plenty of others--,” Leane’s eyes widened. She broke off, sitting down next to her on the little bed. “Does he know?”

Roselle shook her head miserably. “Not yet.”

Norah felt like she’d missed a key part of the conversation. She tried to ‘listen’ with her inner senses, but she still wasn’t good at it yet. She could ‘speak’ and ‘hear’ when Neistah and the other sprites ‘talked’ in their minds, and occasionally she could pick up heavy emotions from the humans, but nothing specific. She already knew Roselle was upset. She’d thought it was because of Leane. “Know what?” she asked.

Leane was patting Roselle’s wavy blond hair, cradling the other girl against her sympathetically. “Will is yours. Of course Will is yours. I’ll stay away. He will forget about me. Norah, you stay away from him, too. He is too susceptible to our charms, whether we will it or no.” She had added that last as Norah took a breath to deny that she had ever used her charms on Will.

Leane patted Roselle’s belly and finally Norah understood. “You’re having a baby?” she cried out.

“Shh!” Roselle’s eyes met hers in a panic. “Nobody knows, except your mother. I wanted to tell Will first, but there never seemed to be a good time.”

Miriam knew? Roselle told Miriam but not her best friend? That hurt, but maybe no more than she deserved. She had not been a good friend to Roselle. Norah closed her eyes briefly, then opened them and smiled brightly. “That’s wonderful! I can’t believe you’re old enough to have a baby! Will is going to be thrilled!”

“You think so?” Roselle sounded hopeful. “Your mama said it was a miracle I got pregnant at all, considering most mutants are sterile.” Her voice faltered. “I think that’s what Will thought, too.”

Norah realized her mother must have been remembering her unexpected pregnancy which had resulted in Norah’s birth.

Leane smiled, tears in her eyes. “You don’t know how much I envy you,” she said quietly. And this time Norah was able to catch the unspoken thought. It wasn’t only Roselle that Leane envied.