Sprite

“Um, excuse me?” Jordy stood in the doorway, twisting a knitted cap in his hands. “Pup said if you’re not busy, can you come to the kitchen?” Jordy looked down, nervous as Leane’s catlike gaze stabbed into him from across the room. He was afraid of Norah, too, but not as much.

Norah was busy. She was learning to knit along with the rest of the changeling girls, although the webbing between her fingers got snagged in the yarn more often than not. Leane didn’t even try. She curled up by the heat of the fire and kept herself occupied reading from Adam’s old storybooks, including the one Papa had kept about Sprites, among other legendary creatures. Jenny curled contentedly in her lap, pointing out different pictures and asking about them. The answers Leane gave made Norah shudder. She couldn’t tell if the sprite woman was just making things up to placate the little girl, or if some of the things she told her were actually true.

Since Neistah had returned, Lara spent most of her time with him, even at night. Leane had pouted a little over Lara’s good fortune, but she settled down easily enough, winning over Roselle’s reticence with questions about motherhood and babies. Norah and Roselle had made peace with each other, now that the ponds had frozen over again and winter had descended in earnest. The short reprieve of warmer weather had lasted only a few weeks, with the nights getting progressively cold after that until, with the last of the leaves barely fallen, another snowstorm had hit, then another, and still another.

Pup’s group came back right before the first winter snowfall, and Will took his place in the forest, traveling between the changeling patrol groups who still monitored Datro in case mutant children decided to brave the winter weather and escape into the forest. There were always some who were desperate enough to try, but truthfully, not many would dare the cold even for a chance at freedom.

What did Pup want with her now? Norah put aside her knitting and stood, very aware of the curious eyes upon her. Leane refrained from comment, her interest maliciously focused on Jordy, because she knew it bothered him. Jordy was only a little younger than Norah, but he seemed so much younger in many ways. Before he had been conscripted to become one of Datro’s hunters, he had been a boy on one of the outlying farms, a hard worker, but isolated from much of the world’s politics. His mind was filled with daydreams of having special powers, like mutants. He had never understood why he was supposed to hunt them. However, now that he had met Neistah, Leane and the rest, Jordy wasn’t sure he wanted to be a mutant any longer. He avoided the sprites as much as possible, and had attached himself to Pup’s band of changelings. They were safer, more—human, like him.

Padding softly, Norah followed Jordy down the hallway to the kitchen. Pup sat at the long table with an assortment of towels, boards and utensils in front of him. When he saw Norah, he grinned up at her. “Could you help me tie this thing?” He tugged at a corner of the towel with his teeth. Norah saw that one end was draped around his shoulder and the other end . . .

“What did you do?” she asked, quickly coming to kneel in front of him. His right arm hung limply in the loose sling. Norah’s stomach fluttered with imagined pain.

“Nothing much. I might have broken it. Would you?” He indicated with his eyes what he wanted her to do. Norah stood up to tie the ends together, raising his arm slightly. Pup winced, and Norah’s stomach winced right along with him. Why hadn’t he just let Jordy tie it for him?

“How did you break it?” she asked instead, starting to tidy up the table. He had out a knife and a fork, as well as several split pieces of wood. Why in the world? She looked across at Jordy, who waited anxiously by the doorway again, as if afraid to get too close.

Pup smiled ruefully. “It was stupid, and anyway I didn’t call you about the break in my arm. Jordy tried to help me but, well, as you can see, we just made it worse.”

“Made what worse?”

“The splinter.” He tapped his broken arm gently with his good hand. Norah looked closely, and sure enough, about halfway up the forearm, buried deep within the skin, was a good-sized splinter of wood, drenched in blood and not anywhere near closer to coming out. Norah eyed the fork and knife with shock. “We tried to get it out, and that’s when we found out it must be broken. Jordy doesn’t have a light touch. I’m hoping you do.”

Norah rolled her eyes, and skimmed her fingers carefully across the top of Pup’s arm, feeling for the splinter without jarring the rest of the arm. The fine layer of light brown hair covering his arm made it difficult to see. She tried to grasp the edge she felt sticking up with her fingernails, and almost managed to get it before Pup hissed in pain.

“Go ahead, don’t stop,” he bade her, giving her another cocky smile. “You’re a lot gentler than Jordy, believe me.”

The boy in the doorway gulped nervously when Norah flicked a curious glance at him.

“This would be easier if you could soak it in water,” Norah said in frustration when the splinter slipped out of her fingers again. “Jordy, come here and get these things out of the way.” She indicated the implements they had used to try to remove the splinter before calling her. “And get me a bucket.”

Jordy brought the bucket, filled with warm water from the kettle. Norah gently moved Pup’s arm out of its makeshift sling so she could place it in the water. She leaned back and propped her hands on Pup’s knees. “Now, tell me what happened.”

Pup hesitated, and Jordy burst out with, “He was climbing up when he slipped.” Pup shot him a glare that immediately stopped his mouth.

“Climbing? Where? I thought you weren’t going out on patrol again until Will comes back.”

“He was trying to get to your window,” Jordy volunteered, then clapped his hand over his own mouth.

“Go!” Pup pointed at the door with his good hand.

“My window? Why?” Norah didn’t even register Jordy’s leaving.

Pup chuckled softly. “You’ve got a captive audience, don’t you?” he remarked, glancing at his soaking arm. “I told you it was stupid. I wanted to see you and I didn’t want everybody else to know about it, all right?”

Norah wondered if he and Will had been talking, and that’s how he knew about their history of climbing in and out of windows. “But how did you fall?” Pup was one of Neistah’s Sprites. He had practically been raised in the forest. It seemed unlikely that he would have lost his balance doing something as simple as climbing up to a window.

“I didn’t fall, exactly.” Pup experimentally swished his arm in the rapidly cooling water and winced as pain shot through it. “Jordy warned me someone was coming and I—jumped. I forgot about what might be lying under the snow,” he added as an excuse. “I fell bad, thought it was just a couple of scrapes and one nasty splinter until Jordy started digging at it and my arm suddenly hurt.”

He grinned again, and Norah couldn’t help smiling back. “It was stupid,” she agreed. “You should have just come inside and asked for me. I don’t bite, you know.” She gently moved his arm out of the water, placing a towel under it to dry it.

Pup stopped grinning. “Would you have come with me if I asked?” His serious tone, so unlike the usual carefree Pup, made Norah pause in her ministrations.

“Of course,” she said, wondering what she was agreeing to. She and Pup had kissed, once. Then he went away, and she had met Breyan again, and perhaps, without really deciding to, Norah had been avoiding Pup ever since he came back.

She used her nails to pinch the very end of the splinter and, grinning in triumph, pulled the entire thing loose. “There, it’s out.” Working efficiently, she bound up the arm, using two narrow strips of board to hold it steady, and re-tied the towel around his neck. “Now, no more climbing for a while, and you should be good as new.”

Before she could move back, Pup quickly kissed her lips, grinning afterward, his serious expression gone. “Thank you,” he said, his eyes dancing. “Now, will you walk with me to the sitting room? I feel faint.” He put the back of his good hand on his forehead and leaned dramatically against her, making her laugh.

X x X x X x X x X x X

‘Show me this world of yours.’ Lara linked her arm through Neistah’s and walked with him in the pristine woods.

Neistah’s memories of these woods was bittersweet. He’d been lost then, an exile from his homeland, or so he had believed when he could no longer find the pathway back to faerie. He had thought he was alone when none of his people answered his call. He hadn’t known about blood-gates then, or that his people had been unable to hear his call. The memories were not all dismal. Neistah led Lara to Black Pond, now bleak and frozen over like the rest of this mortal world. Black Pond had been his salvation and his escape. He smiled, remembering Miriam. No, the memories were not all bad. He shared them with Lara, the sweet days with not-so-innocent Miriam, the fun of tricking Jim, which Neistah had almost forgotten. He laughed as the memories flowed.

‘Imagine this place in summer,’ he sent. ‘Wild blooms and black water, deeper than it looks. Sweetness and unpredictability.’ He glanced at Lara. ’It kept me occupied until I found my way back to you.’

‘You love this world, don’t you?’ Lara smiled, trying to imagine what Neistah saw. ‘That’s why you keep coming back.’

Neistah shrugged. ‘It’s interesting, that’s all.’

Lara hid her smile. “Show me more,” she said out loud, letting go of Neistah’s arm and dancing across the snow until she stood in the center of the pond. There was water far beneath her, but she could not reach it. She couldn’t imagine living in a world where she could not swim.

‘Me, either,’ Neistah admitted. He let her feel his frustration when he thought he could not find his way home. But this world had its share of water, except for this season of ice and snow which had its own sharp beauty. Neistah showed her the new ponds that he and Valin had wished into existence, just beyond the metal fence of Hanan lands. Once winter was over, there would be plenty of places to swim and to play.

But there was more to the mortal world than that.

‘Will you be content to leave this place one day and come home?’

Neistah followed Lara to the center of the pond and rolled with her in the snow in an approximation of swimming. He stopped when they were both covered in snow, she beneath him on the unyielding surface of the pond. He gazed for a long time at her calm face. ‘Why are you really here? Did Anais send you?’

‘She did, but I asked to come. These worlds are tied, and the Lady’s hold on our own remains only as long as this one flourishes. You’ve seen what happens when the gates remain closed.’

‘I’ve seen what happens when blood forces them open, too,’ Neistah replied, thinking of the gaping holes which allowed mortals access to places they should never go. Faerie blood might force open the gates, but mortal blood destroyed faerie with its very presence.

‘Faerie would wither away without it,’ Lara sent softly. Not the gates of blood, but the human contact between their worlds. ‘We need that touch of corruption to remind us that we live.’ She gestured vaguely, then let her hand rest on the curve of Neistah’s cheek where he loomed above her. ‘Like winter,’ she said.

‘Like Norah,’ he thought, and Lara agreed.

Neistah had already decided he would remain, with Valin, to ensure the humans did not destroy themselves utterly and thus ruin his playground. Lara reminded him that the stakes might just be higher than his personal pleasure. ‘You don’t have to stay,’ he said. ‘I promise I will return.’

Lara took his face in both her hands and kissed him softly. ‘I want to see what you see in this place. I want to stay.’

Neistah took a lock of her hair and twirled it around his hand. To call it brown would be an injustice. It glowed with a dark golden light as if it were somehow alive. ‘There’s not a lot to do in the winter months,’ he sent teasingly. ‘If you saw fit to weave me a garment, I would wear it. That is, if you still want to.’

Lara squealed aloud, pushing him off her so that she could lay against his body in the snow. Her hair spread across them both like a shining cloak. ‘Finally!’ It was a long time before she let him up.