Sprite

“Now!”

Inexplicably, Avery threw himself from his horse and tackled Norah to the ground, fumbling in his coat for chains he’d kept wrapped around his middle. He twisted with her until he had her hands pinned with the chains behind her back and his arm across her throat. “Don’t come any closer,” he warned the other sprites.

Breyan and Neistah blinked at him in surprise. He’d hidden his thoughts well behind a wall of nonsense—humans learned quickly when they had to. Neistah was impressed.

Pup glared at Avery. “She’s your granddaughter!” he hissed, moving closer. If Avery thought iron would affect him, too, then he was in for a rude awakening. Avery jerked the chains tighter and Norah winced as the metal links bit into her skin. Pup immediately halted, loath to cause Norah pain. He noticed that Breyan had clenched his fists at the sight, too, although Neistah just grinned smugly.

“You will regret it if she sheds blood,” Neistah said softly.

Avery glanced above their heads. “Marks!” he shouted. “I have them under control. Get your men over here and take these others prisoner. They won’t risk her. Marks!” He yelled again when the hunter commander did not move. “We talked about this!”

Marks galloped his horse forward a few yards. “You talked. I listened,” he said. “She holds our men. I’m going back to Datro as agreed.”

“But I have them!” Avery waved a fist in the air.

“Do you?” Neistah whispered, and Avery instinctively glanced up at him before he remembered not to look into his eyes. As soon as he did, Neistah caught him. “Let Norah go,” he suggested, and Avery mechanically complied.

Norah shrugged out of the chains with Pup’s help. Breyan stayed a prudent distance away from the hated metal, although his eyes mirrored his concern. She brushed the dirt from her gown and stood to face her grandfather. “Why?” she asked, breaking Neistah’s hold on him. “Why do you want this so badly?”

Avery edged away from her, but Breyan stepped behind him and grasped his shoulders lightly, keeping him turned towards Norah. “Answer the Lady.”

“I wouldn’t have hurt you,” Avery replied sullenly. He pointedly did not look at the other three. “But you’re too young, and you’re--.” He broke off. Norah was a mutant—or something else. The normals in Datro would not follow her. “If it had been different, you would have been my successor. I’m doing this for all of us—for Adam. Someday he’ll take over Datro and all the surrounding lands also.”

“Someday is now, old man,” Breyan breathed into Avery’s neck. “Look.”

Behind them people came out of the forest in a wide arc. They must have come from the southern gate after not having received any word from Avery or the sprites who had gone to confront the hunters. Marks had rejoined his own men and they waited, tense but unmoving, as reinforcements aligned behind the Sprites and Avery.

Avery spotted his own men whom he’d left behind with Jim’s men at the gate, and his spirits lifted. They still had their weapons. “Over here!” he called, wrenching away from Breyan’s light grasp. His men moved to make way for a slighter figure—Adam, who waved as he approached.

“Grandfather,” he acknowledged with a short nod. Avery’s men, who had parted to let Adam through, remained behind with the rest of the guards from the south gate. “When we got the word that the hunters were definitely approaching from the south, I left my post in good hands to come here and help. The west gate won’t be a problem.” He smiled at his sister. “Norah, what do you want me to do?”

Norah smiled proudly at her younger brother, who had matured so much these past few months. He carried himself with an air of authority despite his young age.

Avery purpled in outrage as Adam went over his head to acknowledge Norah as the leader instead of him. “Jenkins! Harrison! I need all of you over here!” He called out to his men again. Those hunters, who had stood loyally by him while Atwater had usurped his other employees, now moved slowly forward at a slight nod from Adam. Avery gritted his teeth.

“I’m in charge now. Take them prisoner,” he ordered his men. “Don’t look them in the eyes.” When nobody moved, he growled, “It’s for their own good.”

Jenkins hesitated. “Sorry, sir,” he said. “We’re Adam’s men now.”

“What!” Avery glanced at the line of men behind him, a mix of normals and mutants, or Sprites as some of them styled themselves. He knew they weren’t really sprites. The real ones were right in front of him here. Why couldn’t these people understand that? He was trying to protect them!

“From what?” Norah asked softly, eerily picking up on Avery’s thoughts. “These people have nothing to fear from me.” Norah was learning, also. She deliberately did not mention the other sprites. Neistah grinned at her. Not that he would hurt any of these particular people, anyway—but he could, oh he could!

“Adam would you please take your men and reassure Captain Marks that he has nothing to fear from me either as long as he keeps his end of our bargain? I will release the rest of his men on that condition.”

Adam saluted Norah and beckoned to Avery’s former hunters to join him as he trotted over to where Marks and his men waited. After a few minutes of low, earnest conversation, Marks turned and marched his men back the way they had come. Adam returned to Norah. “Done.”

“Do you trust him?” Avery asked bitterly. “I don’t.” He folded his arms across his chest and stared into space, caught in his own thoughts.

“He knows the factories are mine.” Adam glanced at Norah. “Now that the council is dissolved and Atwater is dead, it’s time for some new blood in Datro. I’ll be traveling up to the city after we decide what to do with you.”

“What to do with me? What do you mean?”

“I’d like your help, Grandfather. I don’t know anything about running the factories and that’s your strong point. We’ll be making some changes, but I would appreciate your guidance. I thought we could continue what we had started to do, before you kidnapped me. What you had originally intended Norah to do. I’ll come and live with you in Datro and you can teach me how to run the family business.”

Avery narrowed his eyes. “What sort of changes?”

“Well, for one, we will not be using any more changeling—excuse me, mutant children—as slave labor. No children. They will go back to their families, attend school, have a normal life.”

“But that’s impossible! The factories will not be able to function! And do you really think normal parents will accept having mutant children?”

“Yes, I do,” Adam replied. As they talked, Adam began walking back towards the rest of his men, with Avery’s former hunter guards trailing behind them. Avery didn’t seem to notice. “Let me tell you about my experience at the west gate,” Adam said as they slowly walked down the road. He raised his hand in a salute to Norah as they left.

The crisis was over for the moment. Pup arranged with Tom and a few other Sprites to go back with him to Neistah’s Pond to divest the comatose hunters there of their iron weapons. It would be a few days before Marks and his men reached Datro, as they had to travel the long way around.

“Are you sure you’re up to it?” Norah asked Pup in concern. He still was not at full strength after his injury.

Pup pulled her forward and kissed the top of her head. “I’ll be fine. You go back with Breyan and Neistah and keep your grandfather out of trouble.”

“You’ll stay with them until we have word Marks has kept his part of the bargain?”

Pup nodded. “We’ll keep them safe while they sleep, which is more than they would have done for me. Can you waken them without returning?”

“I don’t know,” Norah replied frankly.

“Send some of Adam’s new recruits when you are ready,” Pup said, referring to the hunters who had formerly formed Avery’s elite guard. “They can help explain the situation to the sleepers.”

Norah nodded, and hugged Pup. “All right.”

Breyan waited with the other changeling Sprites from Hanan’s compound. He nodded to Pup as he put an arm around Norah’s waist. Neistah led Avery’s horse, as Avery walked beside Adam. The two were still talking, Avery somewhat subdued, but still vehement in his opinions. Adam had given him a way out that his pride would accept. Avery hadn’t lost. He was relinquishing his role in favor of his grandson, but he would still be a valued member of society. And an accepted part of the Hanan family. That was all he had really wanted.

“It’s over?” Roselle came out of the house with the baby on her hip.

Slowly, groups of guards and changelings had been returning to report in, with Norah and Adam’s group being the last. Avery went directly to the room he used whenever he stayed at the house, closing the door firmly. He would be returning to Datro with Adam in a few days, but for now he wanted some time to be alone. Adam had told him why the west gate was in good hands. His own farmers, people from Datro, had sided with the mutants. Apparently this change of heart was nothing recent. The farmers had never had the same intolerance of mutants that the city dwellers had had, perhaps because they were more practical. They needed all their sons and daughters, mutated or not, and they were far enough away from the restrictions of Datro society that they could get away with it. Hanan’s people had been busy these last few months cultivating friendships with these farmers right under Datro’s nose.

Perhaps if Norah had never left Datro—if she had been the normal Avery had believed her to be—perhaps if he had not reacted so strongly to the Sprite rumors and clamped down so heavily on escaping mutants from that point forward, perhaps none of this would have ever happened. Or perhaps it was inevitable, given time. The mutant Will had married a normal and they’d had a child, something long believed impossible, not that it had ever been tried. Now that it had, would other mutants and normals attempt to procreate? Would their offspring be normal as Will and Roselle’s child appeared to be? Had society been wrong all along?

It gave Avery a headache. So many regrets—his wife, his child. He hadn’t thought of himself as a particularly harsh factory-owner, but he had not thought it wrong to use up mutant children to do the jobs no one else wanted. After all, what sort of life could they have other than the one he gave them? But what if he had been wrong—if they all had been wrong? It was too much to accept all at once. In a way, Avery was grateful to Adam for stepping up and taking over. He would not have accepted it from Jim—no true Hanan, that one, just like he himself was not a Hanan, as much as he pretended otherwise. Avery closed his eyes. A nap—a nap, and he would awake refreshed and everything would fall into perspective.

X x X x X x X x X x X

Norah sighed, loosing a tiny stream of bubbles as she slipped under Leane’s pond. It was over. The changelings would be safe. Adam would take over from her grandfather in Datro. She was especially grateful for that, because it had to be done and Norah shuddered at the thought of returning to that dirty place to live. Even Roselle had no desire to return there.

-You belong beneath the water,- Breyan sent, circling her gracefully. -With me.-

Norah’s heart yearned for just that, but she was the Lady. She had a duty to both lands. And then there was Pup. What was she going to do about Pup?

-I’m here now,- Breyan reminded her, circling closer so that he brushed her body, tangling them both in her dark red hair. It was the sprite way—live for the moment. Enjoy the moment. -Is that so terrible?- he teased. -Pup would not begrudge us.-

Pup wouldn’t. Pup’s heart was enormous, but he was only human. He couldn’t understand.

-He is a changeling,- Breyan sent. -Human, but with a touch more. Pup understands. You love him, but you also love me. I’m here. He’s not.- Darting swiftly to catch her around the middle, Breyan sent a jolt of pure laughter into Norah’s mind. -And now I’ve got you!-

Giggling bubbles, Norah wriggled but Breyan held fast. He had caught her fair and square. It was easy to let go and be a sprite, if only for a few hours. She kissed Breyan and twirled them both down to the bottom of the pond.

-Forever, my love,- Breyan corrected, and Norah chose to believe him.