Richard Tuttle - Sapphire of the Fairies

“You mean you are not afraidof calling down the Dark One on your family?” askedTedi.

Arik combed backed his shoulder lengthbrown hair with his fingers and sat on the back stoop. “How are wesupposed to believe that story about the Dark One if nobody is evenwilling to talk about him?” he quizzed. “You know, Tanya laughedabout the Sordoans believing in that story. She called us Sordoans.She knows an awful lot about what I want to know. I’ve got to gether to open up and tell me.”

“You have a better chance ofher opening up a cut on your lip,” laughed Tedi. “Why don’t we goout in the forest and see what game we can find. I doubt thebandits are still around if the peddler got through, but we can goout the south end just in case.”

The boys headed along the shore towardsthe south end of Lorgo. When they reached the quay, the woman inthe green dress stepped out in front of them. Tedi grabbed Arik’ssleeve and the boys ran out to the end of one of the docks. Thewoman slowly marched after them and paused not ten feet from theend of the dock where Arik and Tedi stood with no escape. The womanstood staring at them, her long black hair twisted into a singlebraid as thick as an oar shaft. “Who are you?” shedemanded.

For several moments, the boys ponderedtheir position. Certainly they could leap into the sea and shewouldn’t follow or maybe they could just run past her. When theyrefused to answer and the woman realized that they still planned toevade her, she moved her hands and the boys were frozen in placefrom the neck down. Arik tried to move his arms and legs andfailed. His body refused to listen to his commands and it tingledlike he was just doused with a bucket of ice-cold water. Only hishead moved and he realized that it was sweating. Looking at Tedi,he realized that his friend was experiencing the same thing withsweat pouring down his face.

“I’m sorry if we’ve offendedyou, Mistress,” Arik croaked. “Whatever it is you think we’ve done,I apologize for it. If you could just see it in your good grace torelease us, I promise we won’t bother you anymore.”

“Shut up!” she shouted.Lowering her voice as she came closer, she stared Arik in the eyes.“What is your name, youngling?” she demanded.

“Arik Clava, Mistress,” Arikwhispered, “and my friend is Tedi Markel.”

“Tell me how old you are,”commanded the witch as she came toe-to-toe with Arik, her breathsmelling strongly of onions.

“Fourteen years,” wheezed Ariktrying unsuccessfully to lean back away from the strong odor. “Andso is Tedi,” he quickly appended.

“You look much older thanfourteen,” she scowled. “Perhaps you need a lesson in truthtelling. How old are your parents and where do theylive?”

Sweat was dripping into Arik’s eyes andhis nose was starting to twitch. Arik was focusing on the woman’sface when all of a sudden, she literally rose up and was tossedinto the sea. The moment she hit the water, the spell binding thetwo boys broke and they took off running down the dock. They didn’tstop running until they entered the woods at the south end of town.They both collapsed into a gully and turned to watch the path fromtown. Long minutes of silence passed before either onetalked.

“What was all that about?”asked Tedi. “And why did you lie about our ages?”

“I don’t know,” answered Arik.“Nothing about today makes much sense. When she trapped us, Ithought she was after you because of the incident at the inn thismorning, but she seemed to be more interested in me. I guess Ifigured if she thought we were younger, the punishment for whateverit was that I was supposed to have done would be less because wewere younger. I don’t know why, but I don’t mind telling you that Iwas scared like I’ve never been scared before.”

Tedi nodded in agreement and wiped thesweat from his short black hair. “Why is everyone interested in ourage all of a sudden? First the merchant asks me three times and nowthis . . . witch. This witch uses magic on us in broad daylight anddemands to know how old we are. How did you manage to trip heranyway? I was frozen solid except for my head.”

“I didn’t do anything,” Arikquivered. “Somebody else tossed her into the sea.”

“What do you mean someoneelse?” quizzed Tedi. “There wasn’t anyone else around. Nobody insight anywhere.”

“I know,” Arik grimaced, “butI was looking at her face when it happened. She was more surprisedthan we were. Someone used magic on her like she was using on us.She may even think it was one of us. One thing I know for certain.I am not going to be anywhere where she can get a hold of us again.That woman would kill us as soon as talk to us again.”

“But you gave her our realnames,” Tedi objected. “Even if we can stay safely hidden, whatabout our fathers? She’ll have no trouble finding out where theClava and Markel homes are.”

Arik pondered for a while as hisbreathing simmered down and his heart started beating regularlyagain. He reached into his pouch and extracted some coins andpressed them into Tedi’s hand. “Get to your father as quickly asyou can. Tell him that the innkeeper at one of the inns owes you afavor and he can drink for free all day if he hurries. Pick any innbut the Fisherman’s Inn. Give the coins to the innkeeper. It shouldbe enough to cover his drink and a room for the night. I’m sureyour father will need the room before he’s done.”

“You know I don’t like himdrinking,” spat Tedi.

“I know, Tedi, but you won’tlike him any better dead. Let him drink today. Tomorrow we can comeup with a better plan. That woman will be soaked and she’ll have toreturn to the Fisherman’s Inn to get changed, so we don’t have muchtime. When you get done, meet me back here.”

“Okay,” Tedi agreed, “but whatabout your father?”

“I’m going to send a messageout to him by one of the old fishermen who repair nets now. I’llhave my father bring his boat in down here away from thedocks.”

“What if he ignores themessage?” asked Tedi.

“He won’t,” stated Arik.“After my mother was taken, I was pretty upset and frightened aboutthe bandits coming back. I refused to acknowledge that she wasreally gone and my father had some harsh words for me about lying.Then I was afraid they would come back for my father or me and thatmy father wouldn’t believe me if I told him I was in trouble. Hepromised me that if I ever swore on my mother’s life that I was introuble, he would believe me without question. If anything can besaid of Konic Clava, it is that he is a man of hisword.”

The boys split up to see to theirfathers and returned an hour later. Tedi was frowning when hearrived. “The green witch is on the prowl again,” Tedi scowled. “Iheard her asking Master Tern about our fathers and mothers andwhere they lived. He asked her if she had a problem with either ofus and when she didn’t answer he told her to get out and let himget his work done. That put her in a right nasty mood as if shewasn’t in one already. Incidentally, she’s wearing a blue dressnow. Then she started going down the street towards the quay andstopped in each building. I didn’t see any smiles crossing herface, so I guess nobody was willing to talk to astranger.”

“Sooner or later somebody willanswer her,” Arik sighed. “Who is she and what does she want withus?”

“I don’t know, but I suspectthat she won’t leave town until we answer her questions,” musedTedi.

Arik sat drawing pictures in the dirtwith a stick and finally jumped to his feet. “I’ve got it!” heexclaimed. “Let me sneak back into town and tell everybody thatwe’ve decided to go seek our fortune up north somewhere and lefttown. Whatever she wants, she’ll have to head north to findus.”