The Water Witch (6 page)

“The Hudson runs along a rift between worlds,” Liam said. “Often you are looking into Faerie when you look across the river—as those painters found. Come on. The undines are by the river. Their sisters have come to greet them.”

As we walked down the hill the honey-colored light seemed to roll down with us like a golden tide. The entire valley was drenched with it. I could almost
taste
it—a honeysuckle nectar.

“Aelvesgold,” Liam said. “The original substance of Faerie, the building block of all magic.”

“Elves?” I asked. “Are there elves, too? I don’t think I’ve met any yet …”

Liam looked alarmed. “Let’s hope it stays that way. The elves were banished long ago when they tried to take over Faerie and enslave humanity. Some say they were destroyed; others, that they changed into monsters.”

I was going to ask Liam to elaborate, but the undines had spotted us and several were running up the hill, a long-legged reddish-haired one in the lead, loping like a filly straight for me. Upon reaching us, she flung her arms around me in a bone-crunching hug. I smelled raspberry on her breath.

“You saved me!” she said out loud.

“We saved each other,” I said.

She gave me a smile so warm that I wasn’t even scared by
her sharp, pointy teeth. Then she twirled around, her long hair fanning out in a brilliant red-gold wave. Her green eyes flashed when she faced me again.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

She tilted her head and I could hear her thoughts flickering. Undines didn’t have names until they reached Faerie, I realized. Then she grinned, her sharp teeth glittering in the sunlight.

“Raspberry!” she announced, clearly proud of herself.

I laughed. “That’s the perfect name for you. I’m Callie. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

She giggled and twirled again, then started pulling me toward the crowd on the riverbank. I gave Liam a questioning look, but he was busy fending off the attentions of a pair of giggling undines. Liam might miss me after I was gone, I reflected as Raspberry pulled me toward her companions, but he’d hardly be lonely.

The undines were certainly vivacious. In just the short time they’d been in Faerie—although now that I thought about it, I really had no idea how long we’d all been here—they had changed. Not only did they have legs now, but also their flesh, which had been transparent back in the human world, had turned golden under the Faerie sun. Not that I could say where in the sky the sun was. No. It was more as if the golden light—Aelvesgold—had filled the transparent vessels of the undines. Their hair was now golden with sea green highlights, their eyes had changed from moss green to sparkling citrine. Clearly they were enjoying the change. They’d imagined sparkly green and gold dresses for themselves that showed off their new long legs and brought out the sea green highlights in their hair—except for Raspberry, who had given herself a pink dress and red highlights in her hair. They flipped their
gold hair over their shoulders and held out their tawny arms as if admiring fresh manicures. I could feel heat rising off them as they gathered around me and laid their hands on me.

As they almost all did. They plucked at my arms and stroked my hair—which wouldn’t lay as smooth as theirs—and wound their arms around my waist. They chattered in a tongue I couldn’t understand, but I got their meaning well enough. They were thanking me for bringing them safely through the Borderlands. They were letting me know they were glad they had come.

Recalling their primary concern about coming to Faerie, though, I looked around for male undines. There were a few—smooth-cheeked, lanky lads who were each surrounded by a bevy of young female undines. One young man, tall, with black ringlets and wearing a tartan kilt and a brooding look, stood off to the side. All the males looked alternately bored and terrified. I’d seen the look on many a young college boy. If they’d had on Ray-Bans and black jeans they would have fit right in at Fairwick College. Well, at least there were
some
boys, I observed, even if the female to male ratio looked worse than at a Sarah Lawrence mixer. I hoped they weren’t all gay …

“Gay?” Raspberry asked. “They don’t even seem happy to see us.”

“Maybe they’re just shy,” I answered. “They’ve only had their sisters’ company all these years.” I looked around for one of the older undines. At first I couldn’t see any difference between the young women on the bank, but then I noticed that some were more subdued and paler. One of these had just arrived on the riverbank. Although she looked hardly older than her teens, she held herself like an old woman and her hair was ashen white. She wore a long-sleeved, high-necked dress that hung loosely on her bony frame. Her eyes were a
sickly yellow-green. She was clearly ill. I hadn’t thought there
was
sickness in Faerie.

“Not sickness, but wasting.” Liam had come up beside me, having freed himself of his admiring throng.

“Wasting?” I recalled that Soheila had said that the fey had to return to Faerie periodically or they would fade, but she hadn’t said that the reverse was true, only that some creatures couldn’t procreate in Faerie any longer. “Is there anything that can be done for her?”

“Oh yes. Watch.”

The sick—or
wasting
—undine approached a group of new undines. They looked a little startled at her appearance, but in their enthusiasm and trustfulness, they welcomed her into their circle, winding their arms around her thin waist and stroking her long white hair. She smiled wanly and touched their hair and skin, as if remembering when she was young like them. I was just about to remark to Liam on how sad the scene was when I noticed that the wasting undine was changing. Her skin was brightening and her hair was turning gold. She stood straighter—she even seemed to gain an inch in height—and her arms looked rounder. To accommodate her new looks she changed her dress to one of the clingy green and gold ones worn by the younger undines. Within minutes she was indistinguishable from the juveniles.

“Did she just … 
feed
off them?” I asked, appalled.

“Yes. After a few years here in Faerie, the undines become unable to absorb the Aelvesgold. It’s kind of like a vitamin deficiency in your world. No one knows exactly why some of the creatures in Faerie have it—undines, sprites, brownies, goblins—and some do not. The newly arrived undines can still absorb the Aelvesgold
and
they can pass it on to the older ones. But the effect won’t last long. The older undines have to go back to the human world or they’ll die.”

“But if they go back now, they might have to leave in just a few days. The Grove wants to close the door forever.” As soon as the words were out I knew I shouldn’t have said anything. All the happy chatter and laughter stopped. The undines turned their faces to me in a synchronous wave, like a herd of cattle turning to watch an interloper crossing their field, but their eyes had none of the docility of cows. Instead I felt pinned by a hundred sharp green spears.

“What do you mean,” one of the undines asked, stepping forward out of the crowd, “close the door forever?”

I recognized that she was one of the older undines. Although her hair and skin were golden there was a waxy pallor just below the surface.

“No final decision has been made,” I said quickly. “There’s going to be a meeting to decide the matter. Perhaps they’ll decide to keep the door open. I don’t really know. In fact I’m pretty new to the whole … 
fairy thing
.”

“But you have fey blood …” She stepped closer and sniffed at me as if smelling sour milk. “… mixed with human.” She took another step closer, but Liam inserted himself between us.

“Feed off your own kind, Lorelei,” he snapped.

Lorelei? He knew her?

Lorelei bared sharp, pointy teeth and hissed. “Like you do, incubus? I can smell her on you. Are you protecting her so you can drain her dry yourself?”

“I will see her to the door safely, just as she has brought these undines here safely. You should thank her for bringing them.”

“Why? She’s only brought them to a barren land where they’ll fade away. They’ll never have the joy of love or bearing children …”

“But there are a few male undines among you,” I interjected. “I saw some.”

Lorelei snickered meanly. “Did you? Well, let’s give you a closer look. Hans!” She snapped her fingers and one of the wan boys lifted his head and tried to melt back into the crowd. But she turned and pinned him with her hard, glittering eyes. Hans skulked forward, head down and shoulders stooped. When he was a few feet away Lorelei caught him by a hank of his hair and pulled him forward.

“Take off your clothes for the nice lady, Hans.”

“Please,” I said, seeing the look of dread in Hans’s eyes. “I think I get your point …”

“My
point
?” Lorelei laughed, baring a mouth full of tiny sharp teeth. “But do you get Hans’s?” She snapped her fingers and Hans’s clothes disappeared. He clutched his hands to his groin, but unfortunately the motion of his hands drew my eyes there and I saw what Lorelei meant by her cruel joke. His groin was as bare as a Ken doll’s. I looked away, but not before I glimpsed the pain in his eyes.

“All the males born in the last spawning were eunuchs,” Lorelei said.

“Eunuchs?” The juvenile undines echoed. “Does that mean …”

“It means no fun for you and no babies,” Lorelei hissed. “It means that if we can’t go back to the human world and stay for a season there won’t be another spawn. It means we’ll all fade away. Open the door for us, doorkeeper, or sign our death warrant.”

“But the door might close in a few days and then you would have to come back,” I said.

“Who will make me?” she said, baring her teeth.

She had a point. But suddenly I didn’t like the idea of letting
Lorelei loose on my world. She was mean and her teeth were scary …

A gust of wind suddenly tore Liam from my side and Lorelei was at my throat, teeth bared. “Mean? Scary? You haven’t seen mean or scary yet, doorkeeper. Let me through or I’ll rip your throat out.” Her teeth grazed my throat and I smelled her rotting fish breath. I could also hear the juvenile undines’ fluttering thoughts.

She helped us, don’t hurt her
.

Then I smelled the scent of raspberry and saw my new friend plucking at Lorelei’s arm. “Let go of Callie. She’s my friend.”

Lorelei swatted Raspberry away as if she were a gnat. I heard Raspberry’s cry of pain and felt her anguished surprise that one of her own kind would hurt her. But the years in Faerie had drained Lorelei of any kindness she might have once had. No way was I letting her loose on Fairwick.

“No,” I said. “I’m not taking you through the door.” I turned to face Raspberry and the other undines. “I will, however, try to keep the door open in the future for undines who promise not to hurt humans.”

Lorelei laughed and the wind roared around us. The honey light of Faerie was gone, replaced by dark scudding clouds. The undines were clustered together, clutching one another. Where had Liam gone?

“Not hurt humans?” Lorelei hissed in my ear, her spit spraying against my cheek just as a needle-sharp rain began lashing at my face. “How dare you dictate terms to our breeding! You have no idea what
hurt
humans have done us. Maybe I should just eat you.” Her rough tongue flicked against my face. “Maybe I’ll gain your doorkeeper’s power. These undines heard the spell you used to open the door. Only a very stupid doorkeeper allows her spell to be overheard.”

I was pretty sure she was bluffing, but just in case I drove my elbow into her ribs and uttered a spell I’d learned a few months ago. It was to ward off an attack from above and right now the storm Lorelei was raising was coming from above. I was halfway through it when Liam came up from behind me, grabbed me out of Lorelei’s grasp, and clamped his hand over my mouth.

“You can’t use spells in Faerie,” he yelled over the raging storm. “They do the opposite.”

“Shit,” I swore, looking up into a green funnel cloud. The tornado picked Lorelei up. She spread her arms and caught the wind in her dress. She snapped her teeth at me but she was too far away to reach me. Which wouldn’t do me any good if the storm killed me. “How can I stop it?”

“You can’t. The only thing to do is get you through the door. The storm will die out after you go. Quick, before Lorelei gets back down. It’s still her storm—she’ll use it to rip you to pieces.”

The undines were running for cover. The wind tore at their new flesh and ripped the skin from their bones. Then I looked at Liam. The wind was gnawing at him, scratching long red streaks down his face.

“I don’t know how to open the door from this side,” I shouted, “if I can’t use the opening spell.”

“You have only to need it to open,” he said pressing his lips to my ear so I could hear him over the roar of the storm.

I looked around and saw the destruction I’d caused. My first trip to Faerie and I’d pretty much wrecked the place. I closed my eyes and pictured the door as I saw it the first time—an archway in a moonlit, snow-covered grove, Liam by my side telling me he’d brought me there so we could remember how perfect our first week together had been.

The roar of the storm was suddenly muffled. I opened my
eyes and Liam and I stood together in that moonlit grove. Above us the storm raged, but we were in a protected bubble. Like being inside a snow globe.

I took Liam’s hand and stepped toward the door. “Come with me,” I said, turning to him.

His eyes widened. “Do you love me, then?” he asked.

Did I? I looked into his eyes for the answer. I could practically feel my heart swelling. Surely
that
was love! But then a cold and barbed coil squeezed my heart and the words died in my throat. I could see the look of disappointment in Liam’s eyes and then, as if I’d broken the bubble we were in as well as his heart, the snow globe shattered into a million pieces. Lorelei rode the shattered glass, teeth bared, claws aimed at my throat.

“Go!” Liam screamed. He flung himself on Lorelei just before she struck me. I tried to grab on to Liam’s shirt but the impact had sent me sprawling backward. The storm picked me up and carried me through the door—along with something else that seemed to be flying beside me—and then I was sucked into the storm’s black maw and swallowed whole.