And with that, they set out in silence, down the hill in the growing light of day.
Rodon poured the last of the morning's milk through the cheesecloth stretched across the crock with a very long face as he watched them come up the steps and into the kitchen. No one said a word. He retied his long green braid and went back out to draw water from the wells for the cattle and sheep.
Daniel heard a wood thrush calling. “Tess's bird,” he thought, and he went outside to listen to it on the step and raise his chin to the morning breeze. He could see Maxi up the hill, still shuffling in his circle. “Ay-ooo, aah-oh... ay-ooo, aah-oh... ay-ooo-a-ay-ooo...”
No one ate nor spoke for the rest of the agonizingly long day, nor did anyone sleep very well that night. The next morning, Meri led everyone back up the hill to offer pollen to the sunrise, as he did once again on the morning after that. And all the while, Maxi went on chanting: “Ay-ooo, aah-oh... ay-ooo, aah-oh... ay-ooo-a-ay-ooo... ay-ooo, aah-oh... ay-ooo, aah-oh... ay-ooo, ay-ooo...” as he shuffled in time in his endless circle, which was now altogether bare of grass. Now on the evening of the third day, his stones had long crumbled away, leaving angry sores on his fingers. He was terribly sunburnt everywhere on his gnarly body not protected by his plaid shorts or his sunglasses or his hopelessly snarled bush of red hair, and his heavy necklace of bones, teeth and toy cars banged painfully against his beet red belly. It was certainly a mercy that the light was beginning to fade.
“Who-aww...!” boomed a barred owl, not far away.
“Ay-ooo, aah-oh... ay-ooo, aah-oh... ay-ooo-a-ay-ooo... “ said Maxi.
“Awww!” cried the owl.
Tess was sitting in a bed of violets in the glorious sunshine, plaiting posies and bracelets of the flowers with her mother. It was wonderful. But the sky was dark as night. They were in the middle of a great circle of twenty-one tall stone posts.
“Who-aww...!” cried a barred owl from a nearby tree. He gave a long silent glide to settle onto the top of the furthest post. “Awww! Who cooks? Who cooks for you all?”
“Tess!” called someone.
Tess turned to her mother at once.
“No Tess,” said her mother. “You mustn't stay. They need you...”
“Cooks! Cooks!” cried the owl, turning about on his post. “Who cooks? Who cooks for you all?”
With a rustle, as if the gentlest of breezes had just arrived, Longbark suddenly lifted and opened each of the leaves in her great crown. The owl took flight into the evening. Teeuh let go of Longbark's trunk and fluttered down to Tess. Tess slowly realized that Teeuh and her grandmother Celeste were speaking to her, but her mother was gone. When she drew an urgent breath to call out to her, Longbark at once filled her with a great peace. It had indeed been wonderful to have one last hug and to sit with her in the violets. She opened her eyes.
“My derre soote child!” said Celeste with a gasp as Alvita and Nacea cried out in delight.
“Herte Suster!” cried Teeuh.
Drake shot to his feet and looked uphill. “Maxi!” he hollered. “She's alive!”
Maxi stopped short.
“Alive!” cried Drake over the distance.
“Aah!” cried Maxi, tumbling to his knees at his first attempt to run. He threw his arms to the sky and closed his eyes.
Alvita and Nacea managed to work a pillow under Tess's head in time for Kellen to squeeze her hand and give her a watery eyed kiss on the forehead and cheek. He gave her a grateful smile and made way for Daniel.
Daniel took her hand, kissed it, closed his eyes for a moment, then kissed her lips, her forehead, her cheek and whispered into her ear: “Promise you'll never leave me again!”
“I promise,” she squeaked.
Tess was far too weak to sit up, but she heard Rodon's whoops of jubilation as he came running from the well with a dipper and a fresh bucket of water.
“How do be baby girl?” said Maxi, looking closely at her before kneeling to lick her foot and to rock from side to side with his eyes squeezed tight, holding it to his cheek. At last he reverently placed it by her other foot and stood back to let the others lift her from the ground on her pallet.
“Weo do neden the beste dampned fithel pleyer...” declared Rodon with a nod at Maxi as they carried her to the house.
“And weo do neden for to yive hir tyme,” said Grandpa Meri, and she felt the wonderful squeeze and pat of his hand. “But that wolde be Queene Mary, wolde hit nat Daniel?”
“O!” squealed Teeuh with a bounce Tess could feel through the pallet. “Herte Fader and Herte Mooder pleyen wondreful fithel.”
When they got to the house, they laid her out on the daybed Rodon had scooted over by the board, but she was asleep at once. When she awoke to the calls of her wood thrush to find sprouted beans in her hands, it was morning and she was in her bed upstairs.
* * *
The largest room in the potentate's residence atop Orbis Terrae was what Pandora referred to as “the parlour,” a broad and quietly carpeted gallery which could have served very well as a tasteful modern art display with a sweeping view of the rooftops of Atlantis through its curved glass wall. Nia found the light in here excellent for reading and so she had been for much of the morning, nestled on her bare foot in the snow white upholstery of a long davenport with a book on Fairies from the library.
Benjamin quietly appeared. “You've been here for a time,” he said. “Would you care for something?”
“Oh, no thank you,” she said with a thoughtful knit to her brow as she turned over her book. “But...”
“Yes?”
“Well I was wondering,” she said, nodding at the chair beyond the low table. “I mean I'd have a tea with you if you only drank it.”
Benjamin moved the chair around the end of the table. “And your question is?” he said, sitting carefully.
“Well Pandora... She...”
“Is this something which you're not comfortable asking her about?”
“Well I could ask her, but she runs the whole world and has her important affairs. And here I am, completely nothing, really...”
“I do not believe that she thinks you are any sort of nothing...”
“Well she just goes places. And she seldom has a word to say to me about it when she returns.”
“I'm sure she wouldn't object to any discrete query from you,” he said. “Or is it perhaps her method of departure and return? It can be unique.”
“She just disappears. How does she do it? What kind of device does she use?”
“Device? She uses magic. It's quite likely that she's the most endowed magical being on the planet...”
“But magic!” she said, picking up her book. “They refer to that in here. Fairies are supposed to have magic. I'm a Fairy. I didn't know it until I came here, but even Pandora's completely certain that I am one. And yes indeed, my dad and my sister and I have pointed ears and green hair and we heal from injuries overnight. And none of us have ever been ill with anything. But you know what? I've never seen magic in my life. No one in my whole family's ever used it.”
“But you have indeed. You just said that Pandora...”
“Oh go on! Surely she uses some sort of crazy quantum device or something.”
“My word!” he said, shifting on his seat. “The very idea of empirical science based upon mathematical fantasy instead of verifiable observation. They are still teaching that up top, aren't they? Well. I'm afraid that magic is one of the very forces of Nature and that Pandora does indeed use it. Are you at least acquainted with dowsing?”
“Dowsing?”
“Water witching is another name for it.”
“Oh yes! They say water witching is just folklore in school, but I really did see my dad find water with a pair of bent coat-hangers, once. I was little. It was just before the government resettled us.”
“Well there you are. Dowsing depends upon a force of nature which has been largely ignored by science, just as science has refused to recognize t
he several kinds of magic as forces of nature. And being a Fairy, you likely have the ability to use more than one sort of magic yourself, once you're shown...”
“The bell!” she said, turning over her book and starting to rise. “That's the only caller since I moved in.”
“I'm the customary one to get those,” said Benjamin, motioning for her to stay seated as he rose and started for the door.
Nia sat back into the puffy squab and waited. She could not make out the voices across the huge room.
Benjamin was back at once. “We have an Angel Manson here who says she has an urgent need to speak with you,” he said. “Shall I see her in?”
“Urgent? I have no idea at all who she is.”
“I know her. She works for the same service you were assigned to when you came here, but you're under no obligation to see her.”
“That would be rude. Tell her to come in.”
Benjamin gave a nod and turned on his heel. Again she heard voices across the room as he returned across the quiet carpet, leading a tall blonde in a brilliant sun dress.
“Nia Greenwood?” said the blonde. “Angel Manson.”
“I am...” said Nia, taking her hand.
Angel dropped Nia's hand at once and reached into her handbag. “Then you're the bitch who replaced me,” she said with a click of the safety as she pulled out a pistol.
Instantly Benjamin clamped onto Angel's wrist, flinging the pistol to the floor to go off with a deafening pop. She gave a grating squeal, kicking and jerking against his grasp with all her might. As he planted his feet again and again to brace himself, Pandora appeared out of nowhere and clapped her hands.
Angel went rigid and silent immediately. Seeing that she would not stay upright, Benjamin laid her onto the floor like a broken garden statue.
“My poor precious Fairy!” said Pandora, sitting beside Nia and easing her hands away from her ears. “Are you all right?”
“My ears!” said Nia.
“Give me a moment,” said Pandora, giving her a pat. “Anthony?” she called out. “Fetch me a ball and take our fallen angel outside and hold her for the constabulary.”
He appeared at once, handed over a skinweler to Pandora, heaved Angel onto his shoulder and walked out.
“Ah! There you are,” said Pandora into the glowing skinweler. “There's a Miss Manson out front. Have someone come get her. I want Neuro to do a complete catalogue work up of everything in her head. And I do not want her terminated nor compromised in any way until I've had a chance to see her.”
A shudder ran through Nia at the sound of this.
“We're on our way,” said the skinweler.
Pandora set it onto the tea table as its glow went out and turned at once to Nia. “Poor thing!” she cooed, gently pressing her fingertips to Nia's temples. “Let's see to your pretty ears.” She closed her eyes for a moment, silently mouthing a verse of something before letting go and drawing back to look at her. “How's that?”
“Wow! You're amazing. The ringing's stopped and the pain's gone.”
“And you're precious,” said Pandora, giving her a squeeze across the shoulders as she kissed her cheek. “I'm so sorry! This was simply an oversight. It'll never happen again.” She stopped short to look at her. “Something's troubling you, isn't it?”
“Not really. I just never knew that anyone had ever been close enough to you to want to... No. That's not my business. I'm sorry. Really.”
“Benjamin,” said Pandora. “Could you leave us for a moment?”
“Do you need anything?” he said, turning to Nia.
“I'll let you know.”
He gave them each a nod and stepped out to wait with Anthony.
“Sweetness,” said Pandora, sorting through the strands of Nia's hair. “You were so open and forthcoming about Drake, I'd never keep anything like that from you. You are truly my first real friend. You're my partner. I mean you're my very first... Well Angel has indeed been here more than once, but she was nobody. She was just a plaything.”
“I believe you, but...”
“But how could just a plaything risk her life, trying to shoot you with a pistol?”
“No kidding! Not to put too fine a point on it.”
Pandora heaved a sigh. “Remember that your being my partner puts you in peril,” she said. “One of the factions got to her. She'd been here before, so she was a way in. All they had to do was come up with her price. They made her a dazzling offer and here she came in her splashy outfit, though I'm not sure what I thought of her handbag and shoes...”
“Factions? It sounds like you already knew about them.”
“Certainly.”
“And you allow them?”
“Because of various benefits...”
“Benefits!”
“Power gets complicated. And I'm overwhelming you. Aren't I?”
“Maybe...”
“Well I have pressing business up top for a few days, but I'm not about to leave you in any kind of danger,” she said, playing with Nia's hair. “Benjamin will be here. And so will Anthony for that matter. And Security will no longer be casual about screening visitors.”
“But what if Sam and Jill should come?”
“Their retinas will be scanned and identified before they're half way up the escalator. Faces aren't enough...”
“People would alter their faces just to get to me?”
“I would!” she squealed with a bounce where she sat. “And guess what? I've invited your friends to morning tea tomorrow. And after that they'll be staying here for a few days to keep you company while I'm away…”
Suddenly Nia found herself giving Pandora the first real hug she had ever given her.
Pandora's eyes ignited with pleasure. “So you like my surprise?” she giggled. And with that, she stood and held out her hand.
GET YOUR COPY!
APPENDIX
General Dramatis Personae
Alexander - an androform robot (android) with red eyes, butler to Pandora after Benjamin.
Bart (Baxter) - pet crow of Mort and Maud Baxter, sometimes called Rainbow Bart, who is really
Morrigan, a skinwalker also known as Changing Woman, whose other forms include Rainbow Morrigan, Bart the rainbow crow and an Orin white face cow amongst many others.
Baxter, Maud - Human (here, Human is a race and therefore capitalized) Adjustment Aide for Children and Family Assistance.
Baxter, Mort - Human (here, Human is a race and therefore capitalized), husband of Maud.
Benjamin - an androform robot (android) with blue-green eyes, butler to Pandora whom Pandora gives to Nia.
Bixley, Mort - mistaken name used for Mort Baxter by the indifferent nurse's aide in Critical Care.
Bloodstraw, Dr. - the doctor Pandora incinerates when she revives Jill Macintyre.
Burgess, Josh - the student sitting behind Tess in World History.
Coel, Alex - a direct descendant of Colonel Coel, brother of King Coel, making him a distant cousin (nineteen times removed) of Pandora, the potentate.
Coel, Colonel - a Gwaelian mercinary, brother of General Mor Coel.
Coel, King Mor - general of the Gwaelian mercenaries and later, Spitemorta's Northern Continent forces. Sired a daughter, Pandora, by Spitemorta. Sat on the throne of Gwael after the death of Spitemorta. Was succeeded by Pandora upon his death.
Coel, Potentate Pandora - daughter of King Mor Coel of Gwael and Spitemorta, empress of the world in Minuet's day. She ascended to the throne of Gwael after the death of King Coel, where she stayed for six hundred years before vanishing to take over the world from the shadows and to set up Atlantis, the capitol of World Alliance, under the Orin Ocean between the Eastern and Northern continents.
Daniel - twin of Ariel and child of Soraya and Lukus. Daniel and Ariel were the Elf- Human hybrid twins of the Prophesy who were raised, trained and protected so that they some day might slay Spitemorta. After the deaths of Demonica and Spitemorta, Daniel became court magicia
n to Abaddon and Ariel, king and queen of Loxmere. In Wham!, he is sent to the future with the Fairy Teeuh by the Green Man, Meri Greenwood to rescue Meri's son, Kellen Greenwood. Daniel falls in love with Kellen's daughter, Tess Greenwood.
Demonica - Ugleeuh's mother, Spitemorta's grandmother, sorceress and behind the scenes power figure on the Dark Continent before she was slain by Ariel. Demonica is Pandora's great-grandmother.
Dyrney - name used by trolls to refer to themselves.
Evans, Drake - Elf, fiance of Nia Greenwood.
Fnadirr-vanna - troll-dame (troll is a different species and therefore not capitalized) with a big rear end who is always pursuing Maxi.
Glenys, Gwen - nurse who takes Maud to Dr. Wells's office.
Greenwood, Cait - a Human (here, Human is a race and therefore capitalized), wife of Kellen Greenwood, mother of Nia and Tess.
Greenwood, Kellen - Fairy, husband of Cait, father of Nia and Tess. He is the son of Meri Greenwood, king of the Fairies, the Green Man.
Greenwood, Meri - (Dyn Gwyrdd in Old Niarg Standard) husband of Celeste, the Fairy who knew the whereabouts of Calon Fforydd, the Heart of the Forests, which the First Wizard chiseled out and stole to turn into the Heart of the Staff. He is the king of the Fairies, the Green Man, Talking Father in the beginning.
Greenwood, Nia - half Fairy, half Human (here, Human is a race and therefore capitalized), daughter of Kellen and Cait Greenwood, sister of Tess.
Greenwood, Tess - half Fairy, half Human (here, Human is a race and therefore capitalized), daughter of Kellen and Cait Greenwood, sister of Nia.
Honey Voice - reference to Amy Prentiss, one of three varsity cheerleaders who were antagonistic toward Tess.
Wham! Page 27
