Sprite

Norah slid off her gown and handed it to Neistah before slipping into the river with Breyan. They had moved a little away from the others so only Pup was witness. Neistah glanced at him and proffered the gown. “Do you want to keep it for her?” he asked, a little too perceptively.

Pup shook his head. “It’s better if I don’t,” he replied with a rueful grin. “Let’s get moving. We have a long way to go.”

Avery and his men grudgingly assembled where the abandoned road ended. Interestingly, Avery and several of his men had mutant children up on the backs of their horses, which they would lead through the thick underbrush. That solved one of their problems. The children were small enough that their presence did not prove as much of an obstacle as a larger rider would.

Pup let Avery lead the way, as much to see how much the Datro man really knew as to bring up the rear of their strange party. He sent his own scouts, each paired with an older mutant, to flank the main group and watch for signs of danger—or betrayal, as the case might be, although it was in Avery’s best interests to work together with them, regardless of his own personal opinion of mutants.

Pup himself took off to backtrack to where they had last spotted Atwater’s band of hunters, leaving Neistah to guard the rear. It gave him time to think without the distraction of other people, especially Neistah, who had an uncanny knack for knowing just what he was thinking.

X x X x X x X x X x X

Norah led Breyan through the underground passage, following its twists and turns with Breyan so close behind her it was as if they were one creature.

-How did you ever find this?- Breyan sent, amazed. Pup would surely have drowned; until this moment, Breyan had thought Norah only said that to discourage the young changeling from following her into the water. He knew it bothered her when Pup saw how different she became in her own element. She should have known that Pup loved her in all her forms, even if he could not enjoy her as easily in some of them—or at all in this one!

With a sharp twist, Norah veered upward as the underground tunnel opened into a larger body of water, a pond, as it turned out, quite near to Hanan’s estate. -Come on,- she bade him, shaking water out of her hair as she ran lightly down a woodland path which Breyan soon came to recognize.

-Don’t you think I should go ahead?- Breyan asked, slowing down when the dirt road’s final turn revealed Hanan’s mansion as well as Leane’s pond. -Wait for me at the pond.-

-Why?- Norah waited impatiently for Breyan, whose grin widened as he slowly let his eyes travel up and down her body. Their swift jog through the woods had left Norah’s hair dry and tangled, and made her state of undress very obvious. -Oh all right. Just go get my father—and Will.-

With a wry salute, Breyan left Norah at Leane’s pond and sprinted the few yards to the house. Leane and Lara circled around her in welcome, broadcasting their concern. Norah gladly met them, welcoming young Andy also, who wriggled in between the women, dressed like all the changeling Sprites in nothing but shorts. Andy would be devastated once winter set in and he could no longer swim. -Later,- Norah sent, not wanting to alarm the boy with news of the hunters. She quickly explained that Breyan was her with her to meet with her parents, which she should be doing also, except . . .

-Say no more,- Lara sent in a burst of affection. She angled out of the water and ran across the grass to the wide porch, as comfortable in her nakedness as Norah was anywhere else but here in her childhood home. Lara came back with a robe for Norah, who accepted it gratefully. Lara inclined her head and smiled. -You have important work to do. I’m glad I could be of assistance.-

Norah wasn’t sure how important her role was, but the news certainly was important. As she squeezed the last drops of water out of her hair and quickly braided the damp strands over her shoulder, Jim strode purposefully towards the pond, followed by Breyan. At her silent query, Breyan replied, -He sent a runner for Will. He should be here in a few minutes.-

After a brief hug, Jim motioned for Norah to come up to the house. Breyan remained in silent communication with the two sprites in the pond before catching up to them. They met in Papa’s old study where Miriam joined them, followed shortly by Adam, Mack, and a short time later by Will.

Will gave Breyan a suspicious glance, which disappeared quickly enough once the two sprites explained the situation. “Roselle is not going to be happy about this,” he muttered, drumming his fingers on the arms of the chair he was sitting in. “Every time I promise her we’ll work on the house, something happens. I’ll bring her and the baby back here tonight. Will you be staying in your old room, Norah?” Will looked up to catch Norah’s gaze. “If it’s all right, Roselle and the baby can stay with you until this is settled.”

“Oh, uh, I—“ Norah faltered. She hadn’t thought of what she would do after they relayed the news of the approaching hunters, but she did not want to sit idly by while the others fought off the attack.

“She stays with me.” Breyan stepped forward and put an arm around Norah’s waist just as Lara and Leane came in, properly dressed, and took their places on either side of the sprite couple. “It is my place to protect the Lady.”

Norah frowned at him. Jim also frowned, but not for the same reason. “I’m sorry—er—Breyan, was it?—but Norah will not be sleeping in the same room with any boy. You can protect her from out in the hallway if you must.”

Breyan grinned at the ‘boy’ comment. “As you wish,” he conceded. “If Norah, indeed, sleeps beneath this roof.” He raised his eyebrows as he glanced down at the girl in question. “Do you agree, my lovely Lady?”

“I—?” Flustered, Norah turned to Lara for advice, but it was Leane who answered for them all.

“The Lady gives her favors where she wills,” Leane said, dimpling prettily. “Breyan will not let anything happen to her. Can you say the same for all the rest of you?” She turned her vivid green gaze on Will. “Roselle and sweet Clarice can stay with Lara and me.”

Will gave up, lost in Leane’s eyes. Breyan’s twinkled, but he stopped short of compelling Jim with his gaze, preferring to let the mortal make up his own mind about his adopted daughter, whom he obviously loved. After a few short matters were discussed, including the one about Avery and his men coming to their aid along with Neistah and an entire village of mutants, Will left to organize the men at the compound, collect his wife and daughter from their new home, and send out scouts to rendezvous with Pup’s scouts. He sent Jordy back to old Earl’s village to apprise the mutant of the current situation and once again offer sanctuary at the Hanan compound. Whether the stubborn fool would take it or not was another matter.

X x X x X x X x X x X

The iron-bearing fence that surrounded Hanan lands served more of a deterrent to Neistah’s kind than to the mortals. After hours of slow-going through the tangled brush, Avery’s men emerged upon the main trade road by the easternmost gate. A patrol of Jim’s mutant and normal soldiers guarded it. They came to attention as the ragged group clattered up the road, disconcerted to see children atop the horses. “Hold,” the guard said.

Avery made his way to the front. “I am Alan Avery, Miriam’s father. These are my men and . . . some others. Let us pass. We have urgent news for Jim and Miriam.”

The guard shook his head. “I’m sorry, but I can’t do that. If your group will wait there, I’ll send someone up to the house.”

“There’s no time.” Avery grabbed the lead horse and swung up behind the little girl who sat, wide-eyed, upon the creature. The girl’s mutation was a common one—she had six fingers instead of the usual five, but she was also very pale, with white-blonde hair and unusual eyes. Avery was not sure if that was part of her mutation or just her family inheritance. It made her look ethereal, almost like the sprites. He clicked his tongue, and the horse moved inexorably forward.

“Stop!” The guard shouted. But he made no move to shoot. Perhaps the presence of the small girl stopped him. Avery shouldered right through the gate, followed by his men, then the mutants, and finally by Neistah, who walked a wide path around the twisted metal, and winked at the stunned guard.

X x X x X x X x X x X x X

Pup crept around the back of the advancing hunters. There were perhaps a hundred of them, all better armed than the usual class of hunters who roamed the forests looking for bounty in the form of escaped mutants. Datro’s council had equipped them well, and all despite Avery’s objections, although Pup had noticed Avery’s own men, a much smaller group of men, were similarly equipped. That stood to reason, since Avery owned most of the factories that produced the metal for the guns they all carried. Avery still insisted that these were ‘his’ men, who Atwater and the council had appropriated. That remained to be seen.

Pup kept one eye out for signs of their own changeling scouts, and settled in to observe this organized force. His mind kept drifting to Norah as she looked just before she entered the river with Breyan. Slim, alluring, utterly otherworldly with her deep red hair encasing her slim curves, with just the hint of delicate webbing peeping out from behind her ears. She had smiled at him just before she went under, a promise she meant to keep when all of this was over. Pup smiled, too, at the memory. He loved Norah more than he ever thought he would love someone, but she was not for him. He knew that now.

Norah belonged to that other world, even if she didn’t believe it herself yet. How could Pup keep her from it—and how could he continue to share her with Breyan, who could give her all the things Pup could not? Norah thought Breyan would have to return to faerie while she remained here in her birth world, but that was no longer true. Something had subtly changed, even though Pup could not put his finger on what, exactly. Breyan would never leave Norah now, whether she remained here or returned with him to faerie. And once Norah realized that fact, she would return to faerie with Breyan because that’s where Breyan belonged. And so did she, whether she knew it yet or not. Pup knew. It made him a little sad, for what he would miss, but deep down he always knew she would someday leave him.

Feeling a little bit better about his decision, which until this very moment he had not realized he had been making, Pup picked up his pace, creeping to the front of the line, trying to figure out who was the leader of this group. They had slammed through the location where they had set up their own decoy mutants, finding the bodies of two of the advance scouts but not the third. It was interesting to Pup that they did not choose to send anybody after the fleeing mutants. Pup had made allowances for such a pursuit by splitting them all up into smaller groups and sending them off in various directions to make their way to the rendezvous point. But these hunters hadn’t even attempted to track any of them. Avery was right; from their current path it was clear they were headed for Hanan’s lands.

Pup climbed a tree and watched as the troops paced beneath him in orderly fashion, except for a few at the very back, who slogged after the rest making no attempt to keep pace with the main body. These had the dangerous look of independent bounty hunters. A tired-looking old hunter led the pack, his face grim and determined as he marched his men through the forest. A returning scout drew up to the leader and made his report in whispers too low for Pup to hear. A few of the men nearby guffawed, only to stop when the leader gave them a leaden glare. How much control would he maintain once his men found out that their backers were dead? Would Avery really be able to step in and take over? And did the changelings really want him to? Pup didn’t trust Avery not to take command of his former men and continue right on with their original plan to destroy the changelings and take over the Hanan lands for himself.

Pup carefully slid down the tree once the last soldiers had passed him by. A hunter at the end stopped and turned, bringing his gun up to his chest, but when nothing else moved, the hunter continued on, muttering to his comrades and casting disparaging looks towards the front of the line, where their leader marched on, oblivious to the possible threat at their rear. Pup wasn’t surprised that the hunter had sensed him; those hunters, unlike the majority of these hastily assembled soldiers, practically lived their entire lives in the forest. Those hunters would be the ones Pup would have to watch out for.

X x X x X x X x X x X

Andy’s father Tom was among the Sprites forming to defend the boundaries. He asked to be assigned there; as a former hunter, he knew what to look for. He trusted Leane to take care of his son while he was gone. Jim sent him with a group to the southernmost gate, which is where Breyan and Norah had said an attack would likely come. Will would take a group to the eastern gate which abutted the trade road to Datro. Neistah and Miriam’s father would be coming up that road. Adam had responsibility for the west gate, along with Mack and the rest of that group. He sent Patrick to the north.

The changeling Sprites would spread out along the borders as much as possible in case these hunters ignored the gates completely and went right over the fence. Since the storm of a year or so ago, the fence was still littered with broken tree limbs in many places, making it easy for people to climb over. It was more of a symbolic boundary, anyway, one that until recently had been respected by hunters and mutants alike. If the current Hanans had had any inkling that it had been built to keep out a very different type of enemy, they would have been amazed, although after all that had happened recently, they would have probably believed it.

Norah paced up and down the little hallway that ran outside her room. The sprites had decided to stay to guard the house and the children, much to Jim and Miriam’s relief. “I feel useless!” Norah complained.

Breyan, who sprawled across Norah’s bed like a cat, watched her through the doorway. -You let them know what’s coming,- he pointed out.

-And here I am, with the women and babies. I can’t even protect my own home!-

Breyan sprang off the bed and stopped her frantic pacing with two hands on her shoulders. He peered into her eyes. -You are protecting it,- he sent, as serious as Norah had ever seen him. -It doesn’t matter where you are. You hold the land.-

-That again!-

Lara and Leane stood in the doorway across the hall, a sleepy Andy in between them. Roselle’s voice floated up from somewhere inside the room. “What’s going on? Has it started?”

“Everything is fine. Norah couldn’t sleep, that’s all,” replied Lara. “Andy, go back to bed.”

The little boy rubbed his eyes and drifted back into the room. Lara and Leane turned their attention back to the two sprites in the hallway.

-Norah, we don’t have to stay here if you don’t want to. We can return to faerie or go back to the sweet pond that takes us beneath the metal boundary. You have relayed the message to these mortals; they won’t be caught unprepared.-

Norah glared at Breyan. -That’s not the point!- she argued. -I want to help and I don’t know how. I wish the Lady was here. Couldn’t she do something to stop this?-

Breyan laughed silently while the other two sprites looked at Norah with widening eyes. -Norah, don’t you understand? You are the Lady! Anais is gone. She left these lands, all the lands, both mortal and faerie, to you.-

Norah gasped. A wave of sadness engulfed her as she mourned for the lovely Lady. Why weren’t the sprites upset? Surely they must mourn her too.

-Valin is with her,- Lara sent gently. -As Breyan remains with you.-

Noise and lights from outside interrupted them. Jordy pounded on the door, breathless from running. “Jim told me to get you,” he said to Breyan when the door opened. “Neistah is here—with Avery! And so is Earl! He brought his whole village here! Jim is settling them behind the barn. He wants you to come help deal with Avery.”

“I’m coming too!” Norah grabbed a light jacket against the early morning chill. It wasn’t quite dawn yet.

-As you wish, my Lady.- Breyan grinned as she winced at the phrase, and followed her down the stairs.