A Pinch of Moonlight

by A V Awenna

  ***

  Blackbird had been taken to a clean, bright washroom, where he was cleansed with warm, rose-scented suds. His wounds were tended and dressed, and he was fed sweet dainties whilst his hair was cut and his beard shaved. Tefyn’s tailor came to measure him for some clothes. Then he was taken to a bed – a healing bed, at waist height, not the sky-bed near the ceiling he was used to. One healer gently arranged bedding around him and placed a tent-like apparatus over him, to keep him warm but not to touch his wounded back, while another gave him a draft of dreamweed, numbing and narcotic…

  Hours later, he shifted in his sleep and woke up cursing as his wounds split open. His back, legs and shoulders throbbed, his feet ached, and head felt terrible. He tried opening his eyes, but the light made him dizzy. Snuggling his face into the bedding just made his shoulders throb again. And all the time that muffled pounding in his head, as if it was stuffed with kapok. So that was why they didn’t like you playing with dreamweed!

  He heard someone enter the room. Peering through slitted eyelids he saw a fairy carrying a goblet, which she placed on the table beside his bed. She removed the protective tent then commenced a brisk medical examination, which left his head spinning and his back throbbing even worse.

  ‘Healing well,’ she noted, ‘no raised temperature or other signs of infection. Cuts are scabbing over, although they’ll probably leave faint scars. That was a vicious whipping, one of the harshest I’ve treated. Drink this and I’ll flow some magic into you, to speed up the healing.’

  ‘Will Tefyn pay for that?’ Blackbird asked. It would be difficult and draining for the healer, he knew.

  ‘My gift to you. You’ve done so much for our people, you and Pefryn both, despite your recent disgrace. And you’ll need to be fit to support your Little Friend tomorrow. Oh!’

  ‘What? What is it? Is Demali in trouble?’ Blackbird asked.

  ‘I forgot. You were in the treatment room when she joined us. There’s some distressing news, I’m afraid. Your Little Friend has agreed to Walk the Walk,’ the healer said.

  ‘Oh, excrement!’ Blackbird tried to leap off the bed, but the pain flattened him. He sat up gingerly, and accepted the goblet the healer offered. He swallowed the bitter draught in gulps, pulling a face between each one, while the healer described what had happened between Hafren and Demi-Lee.

  ‘She’s so raw!’ Blackbird exclaimed. ‘She’s got potential but she’s had no real training. Surely there’s a way she can back out?’

  ‘We’ve looked into it,’ the healer replied. ‘She’s entitled to Walk the Walk, and become a Citizen if she succeeds. There would be many benefits.’

  ‘If she succeeds,’ Blackbird brooded. ‘Isn’t there a loophole?’

  ‘Sadly, no,’ the healer said. ‘She could ask the nixies to return her to Terra, but they’ll take all her magic, and it will be her last journey between realms – any realms. She’ll be trapped in Terra forever, and you’ll be trapped here.’

  ‘What!’ Blackbird exclaimed. ‘Why?’

  ‘We don’t know why, we only know the precedents,’ the healer said. ‘Our records date back centuries. Of the 14 humans who’ve agreed to Walk the Walk during recorded times, 3 didn’t return, 8 succeeded, and 3 returned to Terra leaving their fairies trapped here. Odds are that she’ll succeed, but then all those previous Terrans were fully trained. If you’re that concerned, you could make the sacrifice and commit to life in Annwn. ’

  Never return to Terra? Without even saying goodbye to Vicky? And as he thought of Vicky, he realised she would be worrying, having no idea when Demali would return. He sat bolt upright, cracking his wounds open once more, and hissing through his teeth with the pain.

  ‘Lie down,’ commanded the healer. ‘I’ll heal you now, before you do even more damage. Where shall I start? The wounds on your shoulders are deepest.’

  ‘My feet, please. I will have to walk far soon,’ he said, thinking of the long walk back to Pefryn’s portal.

  It was draining for both of them, but after a long session most of the healing work was done.

  ‘I can do no more now,’ the healer said, wiping her brow. ‘But you heal quickly – you should be able to walk with little pain, and the wounds on your back won’t open again. I had no power left for your face, I’m afraid. You could beg a glamour from someone.’

  But Blackbird knew he couldn’t ask for anything that wasn’t freely offered. The door opened and another fairy entered, a parcel tucked under one arm and a goblet in her free hand. She placed the goblet on the table, and opened the parcel.

  ‘First Citizen Tefyn sent these for you,’ the new healer said, holding up a pair of trousers, in a beautiful shade of green, then a turquoise tunic. They were gorgeous, good quality and well made, but he wasn’t sure about that tunic. Fairies didn’t wear shirts, anyway, they didn’t work with wings. Women wore halter neck dresses with leggings underneath; men wore multiple pendants and necklets to ornament and cover themselves; wings kept you warm.

  But Blackbird no longer had wings, and Tefyn had provided him with the clothes of an elf-child. He revised his opinion of the trousers once the healer had helped him into them and buttoned them up. They were soft and figure-hugging; snug over the hips and wide on the legs. Not children’s clothing at all. He declined the tunic and looked for some neckpieces in the bag, but there was nothing there. Maybe he could improvise.

  ‘You should rest,’ the new healer urged. ‘It’s night; all is quiet.’

  ‘I need to return to Terra,’ Blackbird replied. ‘Demali has friends who will be worrying about her – and maybe they can give me good advice. I’ll have to walk up to a portal in the hills.’

  ‘Your Little Friend requested a meal from her world,’ the healer said, ‘so one of Hafren’s elves will be leaving soon through the city portal to quest for it. Knowing Hafren he’ll open the portal at midnight, just for effect. So you’ve about 30 minutes,’

  She offered him the goblet, but he gestured to the first healer, who was still drained from the intensive treatment she’d given. The first healer drank deep and soon began to revive.

  ‘We can loan you a crystal to pay the nixies,’ she said.

  Blackbird raised an eyebrow at that.

  ‘We’re outside the city walls,’ the healer reminded him, ‘so we’re free of Hafren’s petty rules. Besides, unless you’re really careless, they’ll never know.’

  It didn’t take Blackbird long to reach the town portal, although he was still stiff and tender. The portal itself was locked, as was the new sentry box beside it, but there was a little shelter with a seat beside the gates, and he waited in its darkness, shivering despite his new clothes.

  Soon the postern in the city gates opened, and three figures emerged. Fairy night-vision meant he could see them clearly in the moonlight. A male fairy carrying a lantern was followed by a teenage elf-girl, her fancy hairdo announcing her high place. The male elf bringing up the rear yawned as he jangled the keys in his hand – an off-duty portal guard trying to maintain a semblance of authority. But the elf-girl was too busy chivvying and chiding the lantern-bearer to pay attention to anyone else.

  ‘…and don’t think of leaving until I’m back,’ he heard her say, ‘unless it’s full daylight, which isn’t likely, but if you’re not waiting here for me, you won’t get the rest of the payment, understand? Don’t think of bringing in labour rights – you’re being paid well enough for this.’ Blackbird smiled in the darkness. He had been worried the lantern bearer would spot and report him, but no fairy would feel loyal to an elf like that.

  In fact, when the other fairy did spot Blackbird, he moved subtly so that his lantern would dazzle the elves if they looked in Blackbird’s direction. As the group approached the portal, the lantern-bearer stood so that the elves had to step back as they opened the gate, then the fairy stepped back too, allowing Blackbird to slip behind him through the daz
zle and into the darkness of the cave, unnoticed by the elves who were too busy scolding the lantern-bearer for getting in the way.

  It meant Blackbird himself was dazzled, but he felt his way down the steps to the nixie pool. They were slippery, and he lost his balance as he hurried stiffly through the dark, knocking his shin on the rock. He muffled his cry of pain, but lost his grasp on the crystal as he stumbled.

  Before he could despair, he heard a splash, and realised it had landed in the pool. The water brightened, and a nixie appeared, circling the crystal in the water. She glowed brighter, as if absorbing energy from the crystal, then fixed her gaze on Blackbird and held out her hand.

  Just in time – the elves had stopped chiding the fairy, and lantern light filled the cave as Blackbird was taken into the portal.