A Knight Of The Word

They stared at each other, neither saying anything. She could see the indecision mirrored in his green eyes. “You believe what she’s saying about me, don’t you?” he asked finally. “What the Lady’s saying?”


“I don’t know that I do,” she answered him. “I don’t know what I believe. It’s difficult to decide. But I think you have to look carefully at the possibility that she might be telling you the truth. I think you have to protect yourself.”

He reached for his staff and levered himself to his feet. The waitress saw them rise, and she came over to give them the check. Ross took it, thanking her. When she was gone, he held out his hand to Nest.

“I’m glad you came, Nest. Whether or not it turns out there was a good reason for it, I’m glad you came. I’ve wondered about you often.”

She nodded, brushing back her curly hair. “I’ve wondered about you, too.”

“I didn’t like leaving things with you in Hopewell the way I did. I’ve always felt bad about that.”

She smiled. “It’s over with, John.”

“Sometimes it doesn’t feel as if any of it will ever be over, as if the past will ever really be the past.” He stepped around the table and bent to kiss her cheek. “I’ll think about what you’ve told me, I promise. I’ll think about it carefully. And I’ll talk with you before you leave.”

“All right,” she said, content to leave it at that.

They left together, walking out into the brilliant afternoon sunshine and coolish fall air, and he left her standing on the sidewalk in front of the harbour tours ticket booth, then limped across the street for the trolley. He looked older to her then, as if he had aged all at once, his movements more studied, his stoop more pronounced. She wished she could do more to help him with this, but she had done everything she could think to do.

Even so, she could nor shake the feeling that it wasn’t enough.





* * *





Chapter Thirteen


Nest was debating what to do with the rest of her day when Ariel unexpectedly reappeared. The tatterdemalion was gossamer thin and spectral in the sunlight, and she floated close against Nest, as if human contact had become suddenly necessary. Nest glanced around quickly to see if passersby were looking, but no one was. It was clear they couldn’t see Ariel. Only Nest could.

“Where have you-’she began” but the tatterdemalion cut her short with a sudden rush of movement.

“Did you say everything to John Ross that you came to say?” the forest creature hissed in her soft, childlike voice.

Nest stared in surprise. “Yes, I guess so, pretty much.”

Ariel was hunched close against her, and Nest could feel her small, transparent body vibrating as if it were a cord pulled taut in a high wind.

“Then stay away from him.” The tatterdemalion’s dark eyes were wide and staring as she watched John Ross depart. “Stay faraway. Nest followed Ariel’s gaze amass the roadway to where Ross was boarding the trolley. “What do you mean, stay away?”

The tatterdemalion darted behind her as the trolley moved down the tracks, and Nest realised that she was trying to conceal herself. Lest didn’t think Ariel was even conscious of the movement, that she was reacting to something instinctually. The vibrating had increased, turned to a violent trembling, and Ariel was pressed so closely against her that parts of them were beginning to blend together. Nest shuddered at the feeling of invasion, intimated by a wave of dark emotions and terrifying memories. She realized that she was reliving with Ariel snippets of the lives of the children the magic had assimilated to create the tatterdemalion, caught in their overpowering flow. She tried to close her mind against them, to seal herself away, but Ariel’s closeness made it impossible. Nest recoiled with the impact of their assault and stepped back in revulsion. She tried to move away from Ariel, to free herself of the other’s— presence, and she nearly collided with an elderly couple passing behind her.

“Sorry, I’m sorry,” she said hastily, then turned away and walked to the railing overlooking the slips where the tour boats docked. She took several deep gulps of air, staring down at the choppy waters, waiting for her mind to clear, for the dizziness to pass.

Ariel reappeared at her side, but did not try to touch her. “I didn’t mean to do that,” she said.

Nest nodded — “I know. But it was, so...”

“Sometimes, I forget myself. Sometimes, all the children inside me come together in a knot and claim me. They want to be alive again. They want to be who they were. Their memories are so strong that they overwhelm me. I can feel everything they feel. I can remember everything they knew. They fight to get out of me, to become free. They need to touch another human being. They want to be inside a human body, to feel it warm and alive around them, to be real children again.”

Her small voice faded away in a whisper, and her dark eyes seemed to lace their focus. “It scares me when that happens. I think that if they succeed. there will be nothing left of me.”