Sarah Hoyt - Crawling Between Heaven and Earth

He whispered, “Go then. Go, and be yourself.”

Edmund hesitated but one moment. The space of a breath, he looked up at his brother, as if asking if he had indeed his consent.

And then he was gone, running nimble past most of the fairy court, to hold the flower-decked reins of the queen’s horse and smile, warmly, at him.

King Boadag laughed.

On the bed stayed something—who knows what? It looked like Edmund. Waxen, pale Edmund, dead as clay.

It must be a stock, Will thought, an enchantment left behind to prefigure the person taken by fairyland.

It must be a stock, for had Will not seen his brother run forward and, happy, join the fairy troop?

But the light was gone from the room, and the smell of lilac.

The walls had, once more, become solid.

From outside came the rustle of wind. A dog howled in the distance.

Will collapsed on his chair and covered his face with his hands, and found the accustomed words of confession coming to his lips in a trembling whisper, “for all we’ve done, and all we’ve failed to do…” And yet he knew not which had been the sin, and which the redemption.

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

Copyright© 2002 by Sarah A. Hoyt

“Elvis Died for Your Sins” first appeared in Weird Tales , Spring 2000. “Like Dreams of Waking” first appeared in Dark Regions Magazine , Summer 1999. “Ariadne’s Skein” first appeared in ??? “ Thirst” first appeared in Dreams of Decadence , Summer 1997. “Dear John” first appeared in Absolute Magnitude , Summer, 2001. “Trafalgar Square” first appeared in Analog . “Another George” first appeared in Dark Regions Magazine , Winter/Spring 2001. “Songs” first appeared in Weird Tales . “The Green Bay Tree,” “Thy Vain Worlds,” and “Crawling Between Heaven and Earth” appear here for the first time.

Baen Publishing Enterprises

P.O. Box 1403

Riverdale, NY 10471

www.baen.com

ISBN 10: 1-888993-29-4

ISBN 13: 978-1-888993-29-5

Cover Art Copyright © 2002 by A. B. Word

http://www.epilogue.net/cgi/database/art/list.pl?gallery=9457

First printing, September 2002

Printed in the United States of America