The Pearl Diver

by Jeffrey Quyle

  “Where are we? Why did you bring me here?” Silas sputtered the questions. “How did we get here?”

  “The sprite-friend does not perhaps know very much about sprites,” Odare whispered loudly to Dewberry, as she too busily undressed. Graicus and Inseat, one male and the other female, the other two sprites, made the move towards nudity universal among the various shades of blue bodies as they too busily shucked their formal outfits of clothing from the dancing ceremony.

  “We are in the land of the elves, though they do not know we are here of course,” Dewberry spoke slowly, as though speaking to a child. “This is the great spring, the wonderful water, the liquid that we so desire but cannot master.

  “We have brought you here because we know you are our friend,” the princess explained.

  “Because of the color of my eyes?” Silas clarified.

  “Yes, exactly!” Odare agreed.

  “Why are my eyes so special?” Silas asked. “I mean, I know why they’re special to me, but why are they special to you?”

  “The colors – our god, who is such a lazy god in so many ways – has always told us that from time to time, sprite-friends may appear among the other races, and they will be able to help us with great problems that arise,” Inseat spoke up as she sat on the grass and pulled her boots off her feet. “Although, my princess, I do not know that getting to dream in the wonderful spring was the problem he had in mind.”

  “Who’s to say? I cannot read the mind of a god, especially a lazy one,” Dewberry said airily. “But I would like for you to perform your duty now,” she had finished undressing and stood before Silas holding her arms up in the air. “You just be careful where you put your hands,” she said crossly. “Lord Kestrel was always a gentleman,” she added primly.

  “What are you talking about?” Silas asked crossly. Nothing made any sense, and the explanations only added to his confusion.

  “The waters of this spring are very special. It is the home of an elven goddess, you know. When humans and elves drink this water or bathe in it, they are healed of illness and wounds, even some of the most horrific injuries,” Inseat spoke again. The sprite seemed to be the most sensible of the four small beings who had kidnapped him.

  “So, are you saying you all are injured?” Silas asked for clarification.

  “No, with sprites and imps, the results are different. Although we too are also healed by the water, we receive other effects from it as well,” she paused, her voice muffled as she pulled her blouse over her head.

  Silas was disconcerted by the casual show of nudity that had broken out. Although he’d come to appreciate the delightful curves of Mata’s lithe and muscular body, he still was sure that to stare at the contours of the small blue bodies around him had to be inappropriate.

  “When we touch the water, we immediately fall into a slumber,” Inseat continued as she placed her blouse atop her pile of clothing. “And then we dream the most marvelous dreams!”

  “I can’t help myself for wanting the dreams of the spring water,” the sprite used a confessional voice. “And when we awaken, we feel refreshed as though we’d had the best night’s sleep ever known!”

  “So would you put me in the water please, now, sprite-friend in name, who hasn’t performed any friendly services yet?” Dewberry sounded slightly whiny. “And after we fall asleep, you can lay us in the water on that sandy bar over there,” she pointed to a shallow spot in the spring’s pool.

  “Like this?” Silas asked as he lifted the princess carefully, his hands pressed against her ribcage with careful attention paid to their placement. He waded out into the water as he held her, belatedly realizing that he was soaking his own clothing; he felt a shock of something as he touched the water, but didn’t know if it was something in the water’s alleged energy, or merely its cool temperature. His whole body seemed to vibrate and he felt a peculiar sensation rattle his brain momentarily before the sensation passed. Then he slowly dipped Princess Dewberry downward over the water, and when her toes touched the surface of the pool she started to squeal for a fraction of a second, then grew limp in his hands.

  “Now, go lay her majesty in the water over there,” Odare instructed. “Then come get me!”

  Silas proceeded as directed, laying Dewberry gently on the sand, then subsequently placing Odare and the others in the water. When he was done, he climbed back up onto the bank and removed his own clothing, which was at least partially still dry, then he re-entered the spring-fed pool and waded into the deeper portion, where the water grew warmer on one side. He floated and paddled on the water, then floated on his back and let the slight current carry him back towards his pile of clothes on one side of the idyllic spot.

  A horrific roar, frightened him. He started and jumped and turned to see a creature of indescribably evil appearance burst out of the bushes close to where the sprites lay asleep in the water. It stood still, rose up on its hind legs, and roared again.

  Silas had never seen anything so intimidating in his life, other than the evil red skull that had resided in the tower cell in Amenozume. But in its own way, the creature he faced was just as frightening. It was larger than a man and was shaped somewhere between a man and a dog, looking comfortable on either four legs or two. It was covered with a shiny iridescent layer of large scales. And when it roared it revealed a mouthful of sharp teeth, accentuated by two long fangs.

  The creature stared balefully at Silas, then spotted the sprites in the water, and turned its attention to the easy prey.

  Silas scrambled up out of the water and flopped towards the pile of his clothing, drawing the creature’s attention for a moment, before it dismissed him and stepped closer to the sprites.

  It was Silas’s duty to protect the small people, he knew. They counted on him, even – and especially – when they were helplessly asleep in the water, where he had laid them.

  The creature interpreted Silas’s scramble as an effort to escape and began to reach down into the spring to pick up Dewberry, who was closest to it.

  That’s when Silas grabbed his knife and threw it at the monster. His knife was the answer, the way to save the sprites. It’s wonderful magical qualities had gone unneeded and untried for many weeks of Silas’s relatively peaceful life, but he had confidence in its still potent magical abilities.

  Silas saw the blur of the knife spin through the air above the spring, and then he watched it strike the monster in the chest.

  It hit the shimmering scales, and dropped to the ground, to Silas’s horror.

  The monster roared, then glared at Silas.

  “Knife, return!” Silas reached out his hand and shouted the command as panic began to rise in his soul.

  The magical blade shimmied, then rose in the air, but before it could start to fly back to Silas the monster reached out and grabbed it, then wrapped its claws around the quivering blade in a steel cage grip.

  Silas felt greater horror at the sight of his unstoppable weapon being held against its will.

  The monster began to pace along the side of the spring, moving rapidly around the bank of the pond on its way to deal with him.

  Silas wasn’t ready to surrender.

  “Rise into the air!” he commanded, drawing upon his Voice to exercise his Mover’s power, the telekinesis that he had used so effectively in Faralag.

  The monster shook violently, and started to lift from the ground.

  And then it gave a roar, and its feet dropped back to the ground.

  Silas stood by his pile of clothes, stunned. The monster was immune to his magical knife, and immune to his telekinesis.

  He had no defense against the creature, which began to move quickly around the end of the pool and then approach him. In a matter of moments, it had gone all the way around the spring-fed pool to avoid the magical water on its way to quickly combatting him.

  The creature had avoided the water, Silas realized.

  It might defeat his magical knife and his magical power, but it
couldn’t defeat the defenses of the magical water. Silas splashed back into the water as the monster closed to within paces of his location, and he plunged towards the center of the pool.

  The monster stood on the bank and gave a plaintive howl of frustration. It stared at him, then narrowed its eyes in a look of cunning calculation, and began to run back around the pool towards its original spot.

  Silas realized the sprites were still vulnerably close to the shore, within the monster’s easy reach, and he splashed through the water, then grabbed the feet of all four sprites and hurriedly pulled them all out into the center of the pool with him.

  As soon as he had them in a safe place, he juggled them around so that he could hold all their heads above water, while the terrifying creature reached its destination, then sat down on the turf and glared at Silas.

  “What is all this drama about, Kere?” a familiar female voice suddenly spoke from no visible source.

  Silas moaned in terror, as he saw the monster suddenly shimmer, and become a plump old lady, an unusual one with high, arched eyebrows and ears that were sharply pointed.

  “I might ask what is the meaning of finding a human and a gaggle of sprites at the holy spring of an elven deity without an elf or my permission,” the monster-turned-person replied.

  A woman suddenly appeared standing beside her. She was a woman of unparalleled beauty – Silas recognized the goddess Kai.

  “Oh, it’s just the sprites,” Kai waved her hand carelessly in the air. “You know how they are; they found a sucker and brought him here to let them taste the bounty of your gift. No harm done.”

  “No harm at all, and a bit of good for your manling,” Kere replied.

  “What good? Not that he’s my manling. He’s actually my husband’s project. Krusima says that L’Anvien is trying to plant his horrors on our quiet continent; he’s found that Silas is his best weapon to fight the coming battle,” Kai spoke in a matter-of-fact manner about the great evil Silas had witnessed once, and then about Silas himself.

  “Well, if he was his best weapon before, he’s a better one now,” Kere waved negligently towards Silas. “And you’re welcome for the help. Consider it my contribution to a worthy cause. Anything that weakens L’Anvien is a blessing.”

  “What do you mean – your contribution?” Kai asked skeptically.

  “Have you looked at the boy – really looked at him?” Kere was suddenly thirty feet tall, making Silas gasp, just before her great hand reached down and plucked him up by a leg, making him lose his grasp on the sprites as he found himself dangling in the air, giving a startled shout.

  “My goddess! Help me!” Silas screamed in fear.

  Kai was suddenly just as large. One hand gently scooped the floating sprites out of the water and deposited them on land, then reached over and plucked Silas from Kere. The goddess dangled Silas in front of her own face, and closely examined him, her large eyes leaving nothing of him unchecked.

  “That’s outrageous!” she exclaimed. “How can it have been?”

  “It’s fixed now, thanks to my spring water,” Kere replied. “I’d say L’Anvien had the advantage of a dark prophecy and tried to subtly sabotage your hero. It was done long ago, perhaps in his mother’s womb even.”

  Kai placed Silas down on the ground next to the still unconscious sprites. A moment later, she and Kere were normal-sized, and standing next to him as he lay in a state of stunned incomprehension.

  “Rise to your feet and then bow to the elven goddess, Silas,” Kai directed.

  “She was a monster!” Silas pointed out as he rolled over to his hands and knees, then only rose to his knees as he faced the two goddesses.

  “That was amusing!” Kere smiled. “And you really did quite well. I thought your loyalty to your small blue companions was commendable, trying to use your knife and your powers against me as you did, then figuring out to use the water and to still try to protect them. You could have run to save yourself; you have the heart of a hero.”

  “I believe Krusima chose well with this one,” Kai agreed.

  “Almost as well as you and I choose with Kestrel,” Kere nodded.

  “But this is still an elven place,” the elven goddess lost her smile as she looked down at Silas. “Either get my permission, or come accompanied by an elf, or at the very least, say some very sincere prayers of gratitude to me, before you come here again. Don’t let the sprites draft you into trouble.”

  “Yes, your ladyship,” Silas fervently promised. He bowed his head.

  One of the sprites on the ground beside him began to murmur.

  “Your charges are awakening. When they’re ready, have them take you home. You can take one skin of my water with you as a parting gift,” Kere addressed him. “You’re not a bad sort; if you think you want to put points on those ears, say a prayer to me and perhaps we can make you feel at home here in the Eastern Forest.”

  She disappeared from view, leaving Silas kneeling in front of only one deity, the human goddess Kai.

  “Here you are Silas,” she had suddenly held an empty wineskin on a strap that hung from her fingers. “Don’t pass up Kere’s generosity. A skinful of this water could come in very handy,” the goddess said.

  “I’ll go talk to that husband of mine about you. He’ll have to keep a better eye out for you, I can see, especially if L’Anvien is trying to distort your being,” she spoke in a tentative manner.

  “What did that conversation mean?” Silas asked, made bold by his extreme confusion. He had overheard a great deal, while only understanding a small portion of it.

  “Within your body, a portion of your destiny is printed on every tiny bit of your flesh and bone, a plan for how you’ll grow and heal and sustain. That is true of every human ever born. But something reached inside you and made a few very small, barely-noticeable breaks in the planning for you. It has had an impact on a number of elements in your growth and life – the inability to track, your problems with using Mover powers, etc.,” Kai told him. “And now Kai’s wonderful water has set your body on the track to heal itself of those breaks in your body’s plan.

  “Fill your skin, wake the sprites, get dressed, and return to your life. There are adventure aplenty awaiting you in Ellan Sheeant!” the goddess firmly directed him, and then was gone.

  Chapter 24

  A half an hour later, all the sprites were awake and getting dressed, while the skinful of healing water was strapped over Silas’s shoulder.

  “Okay, I have to say, I had a serious dream, and I remember it,” Odare spoke up.

  “I had one too,” Inseat agreed.

  “So did I,” mentioned Graicus.

  “And I did as well,” Dewberry even acknowledged. “All the other dreams were so good and fun. And then his worshipfulness spoke to me.”

  “He spoke to me too!” Odare confirmed. “About Silas, our sprite-friend.”

  “That was my very dream!” Inseat concurred.

  “Silas sprite-friend, our god spoke to us, about you,” Inseat pulled her shirt over his head, then spoke.

  “We seldom hear from our god,” Odare interjected.

  “Very seldom,” Inseat agreed.

  “He is a very lazy god,” Dewberry was adjusting her collar, but paused to express her opinion. “I think he mostly wants to rest and relax and dream in a great god pool of healing spring water in heaven. He doesn’t usually want us to bother him with prayers or offerings.”

  Silas cocked an eyebrow at the notion of a lazy god.

  “He said that he had to interfere with your life and he apologizes,” Inseat moved the conversation forward.

  Graicus clicked his tongue disapprovingly.

  “Our god knew that only you could build the platform that was needed for the ceremony in Faralag. The others of that city did not have the ability to accomplish the task,” Inseat explained. “So, our god made sure that you stayed in Faralag long enough to finish the job. He threw enchantments at your paramour to develop affec
tion for a man who was in the city, and at you, and at another human woman to be attracted to you, so that you would want to stay in the city and find it inviting.”

  “I cannot see why our god might have thought he needed to ensorcell the woman to like you. With those sprite-color eyes you are clearly the most desirable of all the human men in the city, despite your other flaws,” Dewberry spoke up. “Which are many,” she added in a softer voice.

  “What flaws?” Silas asked sharply.

  “The point of the story,” Inseat seemed able to remain focused on the story, “is that now that the platform was built so well, and we danced so well.”

  “Supremely well,” Odare agreed.

  “The mission has been accomplished. That is why our god dropped the enchantments on all of you and will let you follow your own hearts and fates. And he apologies,” Inseat finished.

  “It’s an apology in a lazy kind of way, delivered secondhand through dreams, but it’s all you’ll get from him,” Dewberry told him.

  “It’s very forthright for our god,” Graicus added. “You should feel honored.”

  “But,” Silas tried to digest the convoluted story, “but what if someone’s heart would have been broken, or some mistake made, or passions had run too deep? That wasn’t right!” he protested.

  “He’s a god, Silas sprite-friend,” Odare shrugged. “What are you going to do?”

  “I’m sure my god would never do such a thing!” Silas was aghast at the manipulative work of the sprites’ god.

  “Maybe, maybe not,” Dewberry shrugged off the matter. “But other than the serious dream, this was a delightful, uneventful little journey today. You should thank us,” she said off handedly.

  “Uneventful!” Silas exploded. “I tried to fight an invincible monster, who turned out to be the goddess of the elves, while all of you were sleeping! My goddess came and talked to the elven goddess about the whole thing,” he slashed at the notion of an uneventful visit.

  “Oh there he goes!” Dewberry protested. “The sprite friend is jealous; we get dreams from our gods, so he makes up a story about being visited by two goddesses! These humans are so predictable. But I like this one nonetheless. His eyes are still the true colors of a sprite-friend.