La Nocturne

The Lady had connections. She could set up the exchange but there were no guarantees it would work. That was good enough for Elaine – it had to be.

“We shall need to go to the sea,” announced the Lady. In her hands she held a pair of very battered, dusty boots, the leather worn almost paper-thin. “Seven-league boots,” she explained. “The last remaining pair in the world. The second-to-last pair were burnt on the feet of a convicted witch in the 1600’s, and the third-to-last pair were destroyed in the Crusades.”

Her attention seemed increasingly focused on Joseph until he realized she was speaking directly in front of him. In an unnaturally quick move the Lady was behind him, holding a handkerchief over his mouth and nose until he fell limp in her arms.

“The boots can only practically accommodate two, however.”

Elaine was taken aback. “Was that really necessary?”

“Probably.” The Lady shrugged. “He makes me nervous, suspicious, is all. Shall we go?”

Elaine nodded numbly. “Yes…will he be alright?”

“He’ll be fine and completely himself when he wakes up.”

The Lady donned one of the boots on her left foot and gave the other to Elaine to wear on her right. They slipped their arms about the other’s waist, and Elaine felt a strange unnameable sensation at the Lady’s touch, doubled when she touched the Lady. She didn’t dwell on it long, however, for the next moment the Lady cautioned her to hold on tight, and took the first step.

A rushing vault through space and a roaring in Elaine’s ears; then suddenly they came to a standstill in a field of sleeping cattle. She gasped for breath as if she’d run the entire way, but soon managed to gather her wits about her and take the next step. A few more such strides and they were at the sea. The pair took off their boots and the Lady folded them up neatly into a pocket of her flowing green dress.

Salt wind whipped at Elaine’s hair and she almost reeled at the gargantuan breathings of the great elemental body – the waves were so much louder than she remembered. Fear stirred in her as she witnessed the waves splintering into innumerable silver droplets upon sharp rocks as if the motion were agonizing, then slipping away down the sand to surge upward and harm itself again. The image was likened to her as a giant tearing at its own flesh.

“You are frightened of the ocean,” the Lady observed. “I see how you flinch when the water rushes toward you. It is understandable, though, given the circumstances. I promise you this shall not take long.”

The Lady had over time become dulled to the sorrow of her customers, developing a routine of smiling into anguished faces and saying the same soothing words to everyone, but this girl – she was something different. Not only was her case unusual, her determination to salvage her sister no matter the cost was notable as well. In a mere second, she had offered up the rest of her life to Faerie slavedom. It was almost as if she had a suicide wish of sorts. The girl was also eccentric in that she had come to her, the Lady of Elsinore Hill, for help; that she believed the tales and myths, that she did not spit on magic as blasphemous or childish. Even the Lady’s Faerie half, condescending and disdainful of humans, grudgingly admitted the child was interesting. Her human half had begun to sympathize with her.

Without wasting time, the Lady walked toward the ocean until she was thigh-deep in it, the silver waves almost burying her head at their crest, and raised her arms. She began to chant, the syllables echoing the hissing of the water. Soon the sea calmed; the waves that once raged were now caressing her form, and Elaine began to see concentric ripples appear in the water around the Lady. From the center of the ripples appeared delicate watery figures with skins of the palest green. Elaine watched in wonderment as the ocean receded, revealing their plainly naked forms and the supple, translucent fins along their arms and legs. The tallest of them, who seemed to be the leader, said in a reedy, watery voice, “You called?”

The Lady clasped Elaine by the wrist and pulled her closer forward. “This human girl wishes to offer herself to your kind in return for one of her own to this world.”

“Is that so?” asked the Undine, turning her eyes on Elaine and raising her thin green eyebrows.

“Yes,” she replied simply. “Perfectly so.”

“Well, I’ll have you know we won’t just take any human,” she snapped.

Elaine kept her composure. “I am aware of that. But I am not just any human.” She hoped the Undine couldn’t detect her bluff.

“Really, now? How is that?”

Elaine fixed a look of reverence on her face. “I want to serve the Faerie. I shall do anything you ask of me. You’ll never find a more wiling or faithful human.”

The two Undines standing behind the leader started clamoring in their reedy voices to take Elaine. “Spira, just think how useful she’ll be! And see how she’s handing herself right over to you!” “And the one we have right now is so difficult – what fits she goes into! First refusing to teach us to sing, even after we offered so many fine gifts, and then refusing to be our servant – the impudence! She’s utterly useless. If only we hadn’t caused that minor upset at the Queen’s gala, then she would listen to us and steal the wretch’s voice for us – “

“Will the two of you shut it?” Spira snarled. “Your imbecilic chatter never ends, does it? Rhodesia, don’t speak to me of usefulness when you’re the one who botched the capture-enchantment on the human in the first place and let her get away. And Potamia, you’re the reason why we are no longer in the Queen’s favor.”

She turned back to Elaine. “Just to be completely accurate about things, this is the human whose place you wish to take, yes?” She waved her hand in a circle over the water and a vision of Aria appeared within. The sight of her alive made Elaine’s heart flicker like a candle flame in the wind and she felt on the verge of fainting. But she held onto consciousness by focusing on her sister’s image: the fierce gold-flecked brown eyes underlined by gray but still flashing with life, the shape of her nose, the curve of her lips, her wild dark hair grown now to her waist. The water-screen showed her pounding on a gnarled wooden door, appearing to be confined in a narrow space.

“Really, the best place you could think to contain her while we were gone was a closet?” complained Spira.

“Well, begging your pardon, but where would you have put her?” replied Rhodesia, the boniest of the three. Spira ignored the question.

“That’s her,” Elaine breathed. “That’s my sister.” Tears blurred her vision, and she wanted nothing more in that moment than to reach out and touch Aria’s likeness; yet she had to restrain herself, knowing that all she’d feel was water.

“She’s your sister, eh?” Spira seemed interested. “That’s something you never mentioned. Very interesting to see the family dynamic there. Anyway, we’ve spent enough time talking. I’m in accord with the exchange – you seem like a pliant, docile enough type. Come then, girl. Farewell, Mairead.” This last part was addressed to the Lady. Spira grabbed Elaine by the wrist and pulled her under the water.