Chapter 62: Midnight Flight of Fancy

Submitted by PeteMork on Sun, 04/21/2013 - 18:59

They carefully eased the kitchen door closed behind them, tiptoed down the steps and moved quietly across the lawn toward the pool. Oskar hesitated a moment, glanced back at Hannah’s porch steps, and despite his attempts to stop it, relived that moment when Adrian had tried his best to take Hannah from them forever. He had seen it himself through her eyes, despite her attempts to keep it from him and, at inopportune moments, it replayed itself without warning. He hurried to catch up with them, fully aware now that they were all following in Adrian’s footsteps as he had purposefully carried what he thought was her dead body across the lawn and tossed it into the pool like he was disposing of the garbage.

Eli stood beside the pool, arms folded across her chest, waiting for him. “Well, Oskar? This was your idea. What did you have in mind?”

“Absolutely nothing, Eli.” He grinned at her. “Remember when I told you that you’re my method of traveling?”

She grinned at him. “So. You’re saying you don’t care where we go then?”

“Nope!”

“Well, then!” She grew her wings and vaulted over the wall; however, just as quickly as she had left, she swooped back and knocked Oskar over, just as he was about to lift off himself.

“Oof! Eli, what…”

“Look, Oskar!” She leaped up on the wall and stood there waiting for them, impatiently. They both joined her, followed her gaze, and simultaneously spotted the bare footprints clearly visible in the dust on the top of the wall, moving away from the pool toward the north.

“Eli! It’s the same footprints as those by the cave!” Hannah walked along the top of the wall. “Why would she do that?” She scratched her head.

“I’d do it myself, Hannah. Nothing mysterious about it.”

Oskar stepped on the first print and reached for the second with his other foot, but fell far short. “She wasn’t walking, Hannah. She was running!”

“Wow! The wall is barely five inches wide at the top. I’m not sure that even I could run along it so sure footed.” Hannah shook her head.

“You could now, Hannah; especially after the Ejuice. You just don’t realize it yet. But a kid from the village…” Eli ran gracefully along the wall until she got to the corner. “She must have jumped down here, Oskar. Her ‘dainty’ footprints end at the corner.” She grinned at Hannah.

Oskar examined the corner of the wall carefully. “She didn’t even slow down, Eli. And the wall is 6 feet high! We just have to find this kid!” He peered into the darkness, but as good as his eyes were now, he could tell there was no discernible disturbance in the low grass that would indicate she had fallen. He stepped to the side along the north wall as Eli, who had backtracked about 20 feet, ran rapidly toward the edge and leaped off. She hit the ground running, then turned and examined the grass where she had first landed. “I just barely left a mark myself, Oskar. If she didn’t break her neck, she could have done the same. No big deal.”

“But…you’re not human, Eli.” He grinned.

She glared at him. “I could have done it when I was, Oskar. It might have hurt a bit, but not enough to stop me – especially if my brother had dared me to do it.” She gracefully hopped up on the wall, grabbed Oskar’s hand and kissed him on the cheek before he could get away.

This is more like it! Oskar was having the time of his life already. No one’s life was being threatened, and the mystery was getting more mysterious minute by minute.

“Just the same, we need to find her! We have to spend more time at the pool; especially on weekends. You, Eli and I will have to take turns until we find her!”

“Enough of this! If I’m Oskar’s ‘method of traveling,’ I have to make the trip more of a challenge.” Eli unfurled her wings, leaped off the fence and flew low across the rolling fields toward the western cliffs. Hannah and Oskar tried in vain to keep up with her. “How did you beat her so handily that first day you flew, Oskar? She has outrun you every single time since then!”

“I think it was more important to me that time.” He grinned at her. But he also knew it had been even more important after Jeff’s plane went down, but she had left him in the dust. He was beginning to wonder if Eli had deliberately thrown that first race.

Not a chance, Oskar. Believe me, I know.

I guess you’re right, Hannah. It’s a mystery to me why I haven’t been able to do it since then. He surged forward with new resolve, leaving Hannah to play catch up.

Suddenly a large, dark form swooped down from the south and intercepted Eli just as she was dipping down into Hannah’s valley. They heard her scream, then the two of them disappeared beneath the lip of the valley, but didn’t reemerge on the other side.

“Hannah! What was that?!” Oskar sped up, grew his claws in anticipation, and dropped into the darkness after them.

Hannah started laughing. “It’s Sava, Oskar!”

Afraid that Sava would see his feeble attempt at claws and fangs, Oskar quickly withdrew them and landed in the meadow next to Eli. Hannah dropped in just after him.

“You scared me to death, Sava!” Eli put her arms around him and squeezed. “Did you come to play with us?” she asked, an impish grin on her face.

He smiled. “No, I just wanted you to remember that I meant business. You’ll never be out of my reach on this island until I’m satisfied your demons have indeed left you.”

“Why didn’t you just ask me where she was going, Sava?” Hannah was just a bit annoyed. “I would have told you.”

“I thought I would make more of an impression this way.”

“Why couldn’t I read your thoughts then?” she folded her arms across her chest and tapped her foot.

“You weren’t paying attention, Hannah. I made no effort whatsoever to hide them from you.” He stretched out his magnificent wings, leaped into the air, winked at Oskar and disappeared over the narrow end of the valley to the south. I promise I won’t breathe a word of your…very small infraction to anyone, Oskar. But watch over them! I trust you to keep our beautiful jewels safe.

Oskar felt warm all over. Sava had for a long time been a dark force to him, a reminder of what Eli might have been. He remembered he had disliked him intently at first, mostly because he never quite trusted Gudmund’s motives or the dark methods he used to take care of Eli all those years. It wasn’t until Sava saved Dad and him from Adrian and the BbC that he had finally come to understand him. And his methods. Without Sava and Gudmund, he would never have known Eli. Or Dad. Or Mom. Or…He stopped thinking about it. It was all so improbable; it didn’t seem real when he examined it too closely. “Now! Where were we?” He leaped up over the lip of the valley and lifted off once again towards the western cliffs. Sava’s ‘jewels’ followed close behind him. Soon, Eli was far ahead once again.

§

The western limestone cliffs glowed bone white in the light of the moon. The three dark but mysteriously beautiful figures, as graceful as they were, stood out like black moths against a white wall – which Eli was quick to point out.

“We’re not chameleons, Eli. Besides we’re not hiding from anyone,” Oskar retorted, a bit irritated.

“But who knows what could be lurking out there, watching us; waiting for us to make just one small mistake, then pouncing on us,” Eli whispered in a ghostly voice.

“Stop it, Eli! You’re scaring me!” Hannah swung in between Oskar and Eli and looked back over her shoulder.

“If there were anyone there, you’d be able to hear them, Hannah. Stop worrying!” Eli reassured her.

“But…what if they’re…something else? Something different? Something terrible and strong that even Sava has never seen before?”

“Now you’re scaring me, Hannah!” Oskar grinned at her, then saw something in the corner of his eye against the whiteness; something…not quite right. He turned toward the cliffs suddenly and motioned for them to follow. Eli carefully examined the face of the cliff and immediately spotted the cave that Oskar was clearly headed for and surged forward. It was one she hadn’t noticed before—probably because the bright moon was in exactly the right position to contrast the white cliff against the exposed dark rock further inside the cave entrance—and she simply couldn’t let Oskar get there first.

Oskar accelerated quickly and in spite of her efforts, was able to beat her to the lip of the cave, on which he gracefully landed, then bowed and stepped back to make room for them. Eli was only a few feet behind him. Hannah fluttered about for a few seconds, held her breath and, determined not to look foolish – made a beautiful landing. The surprised look on her face made Oskar and Eli laugh.

“Bravo!” Eli shouted. She looked over the edge of the sheer cliff. It was a straight drop of over 100 feet to the ocean, and another 50 feet to the top of the cliff. It wouldn’t be a good idea to run out of Ejuice here, she thought to herself.

Oskar stepped into the cave and let his eyes adjust to the darkness. The moonlight illuminated the limestone cave floor for about 30 feet, at which point the cave walls and floor became the more familiar dark rock of the lighthouse cave. It was there the cave paintings began.

“Look, Eli!” Oskar hurried past her, pulled an Elilight out of his backpack and turned it on.

“What did you bring one of those for, Oskar?” Eli put her arm around him and, together, they examined the first of the paintings.

“To ward off Hannah’s ‘terrible and strong’ creatures of the night,” he chortled. He played the light over the first few figures, but was unimpressed. “They look like the ones in the other cave, Eli. But there aren’t any conga lines. Or pornography.”

Eli giggled. “Are you disappointed?”

“Yeah…No! I mean…” he blushed. “I mean, there doesn’t seem to be anything new…” he directed the Elilight farther back along the wall.

Hannah gasped. “Look! How incredibly beautiful!”

Suddenly, the nature of the cave painting changed. From crude, earth-toned caricatures of ancient beasts, they became brightly-colored, highly-detailed and delicate paintings of the same beasts and many more modern-looking animals and insects, surrounded by multitudes of flowers and vines.

“Look at the detail, Hannah! We’ve got to show this to Mama!” She reached out and lightly touched a delicate leaf, but jerked her hand back as a small flake of paint fell away.

“They’re old, Eli. But the vivid colors make them look almost like they were painted yesterday.” Oskar examined them more closely and realized that there were many areas where tiny flakes had dropped away and formed a delicately thin, rainbow-hued line at the base of the wall.

“How awful! They’re so beautiful, but they’re crumbling to dust.” It made Hannah very sad. Old, crude cave paintings were one thing; their value came from their ancient origins, not their artistic content. It was difficult for her to work up any real emotion over their deterioration. But these! They were so perfect; so three-dimensional, so absolutely beautiful. She could easily imagine some ancient artist ascending the even more ancient cliffs at great personal peril, carrying all his paint and brushes with him and painting these beautiful paintings, despite the trials and tribulations his ancient life probably foisted on him. She imagined how tortured his artistic soul must have been to motivate him to do this. Each painting must have taken days, which meant he either fasted while he painted, or carried food up with him also, on top of everything else. Did he have a wife and children? Would they have approved of what he was doing; the comparatively large chunk of time he ‘wasted’ on non-productive work? Or was there some sort of religious aspect to it all; perhaps a tomb at the back of the cave where his loved ones were buried? She shook it off. “Look at this lizard, Eli. I’ve seen ones just like it near the lighthouse. And these vines!”

“And these little yellow flowers! They grow up against the compound fence, on the outside.” Eli added. “Jonathan’s gardener wouldn’t allow them on the inside. He thinks they’d take over our beautiful lawn.”

“But look at these huge rats! I certainly haven’t seen any of them on the island. I’d remember.” Hannah shuddered.

“Maybe they’re not here anymore, Hannah. After all, these are ancient pictures,” Eli reminded her.

“Yeah, I forgot. They just…don’t look that old.”

Oskar slowly moved deeper into the cave, examining both walls carefully. “I recognize a lot of these, Eli. That spider looks sort of like the one I made for Hannah that night I scared her. I modeled it after one I found under her bed.”

“You did not!” she swatted him on the arm.

“Well…it actually wasn’t under your bed. It was outside my window. But I see them around all the time. Especially in our little forest.”

“So it looks like our artist painted things on the island, doesn’t it? I guess that makes sense. I suspect that back then, a trip to the mainland would be a major deal for them. Some of them probably never left the island in their entire lives.” Eli turned suddenly and took a cautious step deeper into the cave. “What’s that smell?”

Oskar and Hannah sniffed the air. “It smells like…paint! Fresh paint! Oskar! What…”

“Not only paint, Hannah, but oil paint. Just like Eli and Mom use. I’d recognize it anywhere!”

They moved slowly along the wall, examining the paintings even more carefully. “These are oil paintings too, Oskar. But they’re really old.” Eli was surprised. It hadn’t even occurred to her that they might actually be oil-based paintings. But they were so vivid in spite of their obvious age…

“But there’s no more flaking paint, Eli.” He looked down at the base of the wall, then reached out and touched a particularly delicate-looking butterfly. “This one looks like it was painted yesterday.” He sniffed it carefully. “Nope! Nothing.”

“It doesn’t mean anything, Oskar. These are farther inside the cave; farther from the weather, sun, and temperature changes.” Eli moved deeper into the cave, waiting impatiently for Oskar to swing the light in her direction. She had a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach.

“I saw these pink flowers in the ravine next to the bend in White Road. You know, Eli. Where you almost…”

“I didn’t almost die, Oskar. I keep telling you…”

He put his arms around her and rested his head on her shoulder. “Shut up, Eli.” He couldn’t stop staring at the flowers. That foggy day in Eli’s ‘almost’ future was indelibly stamped in his mind. He still remembered looking down into the ravine at Eli’s body lying, open-eyed in death, among these very flowers.

They both turned when Hannah screamed. “Look, Eli! Look, look, look!” Hannah, ten feet farther into the cave, was jumping up and down. The smell of fresh oil paint was strong now.

And there, on the wall before them, revealed in all its splendor by Oskar’s Elilight, was a perfect life-sized rendition of Hannah’s English Lavender bouquet, in Eli’s Mama’s beautiful crystal vase.

§

The three of them sat on the lip of the cave, legs dangling 100 feet above the rocky shoreline.

It just doesn’t get any better than this, Oskar thought to himself. What a perfect adventure!

“Oskar, stop being goofy and help us figure this out!” Eli poked him in the ribs. “On the one hand, these paintings, or at least some of them, are plainly hundreds, maybe thousands of years old. And others, probably much younger,” she mused. “And, as near as I can tell, they were all painted by the same person. The detail on the leaves and vines are exactly the same. We’ll get Mama up here to look at them, but I’m sure I’m right.”

“And one of them is no more than a couple of weeks old. Oskar? Wipe that stupid grin off your face and help us!” Hannah was clearly annoyed with him too, but he simply didn’t care.

He cleared his throat. “And, if we are to believe Eli, they were all painted by the same immortal artist, who couldn’t be a vampire or Hannah would have read him by now.” Oskar, sandwiched between them as usual, put his arms on their shoulders. “There now! Does that help?”

Hannah rolled her eyes. “No it doesn’t Oskar! We already knew that! Now, as much as I adore you and your more…poetic side, could you please stop being ‘poetic’ and help us?”

Okay, okay.” He scratched his head. “Where did you keep your bouquet, Hannah?”

“In my room, Oskar.” She shuddered as she suddenly realized that whoever painted this may have been as close to her as her bedroom window. On the second floor.

“Had it ever been…outside?”

She sighed with relief. “Of course! That’s it! I put it on the table on our back porch for a couple of nights right after Jack gave it to me, because it was cool outside and I wanted it to last!”

“Mystery solved!” Oskar said smugly. “Our mysterious artist saw it there and painted it on the cave wall from memory.”

“You’ve solved a minor mystery, and left us an even bigger one, Oskar,” Hannah complained. “He’s immortal, spies on us, and has a photographic memory. The painting is exactly right; I don’t have a photographic memory, but I remember the details well enough to know he got it right. You’ll have to do better than that!”

“And whoever it was, trespassed on our property and got at least as close as your porch, Hannah. No one, except someone up to no good, would do something like that. We should be worried. We need to tell Mama and Papa about this! He can’t be from the island. We know everyone here who’s immortal. Maybe Sava is right and the BbC isn’t telling us the truth.”

“That’s crazy, Eli. Why would the BbC waste time with cave painting? For hundreds of years? And he hasn’t done anything to hurt us; in fact we wouldn’t even know he existed if we hadn’t accidentally found this cave. He just painted a picture of flowers he hadn’t seen on the island before. He must live here, and has probably lived here for a very long time.” Oskar shined his Elilight into the cave past the last of the paintings, where it faded away in the darkness. “In fact, maybe he lives…here.”

Eli and Hannah turned and peered into the suddenly ominous black hole. “I…I think we should leave, Eli. I think we should go home and tell your mom and dad.”

“Absolutely not! This is our mystery, and we should solve it ourselves!”

“Why Eli! I didn’t know you had it in you.” Oskar grinned at her. “Let’s take a vote!”

“Anyone who votes yes has to go all the way into the cave.” Hannah folded her arms across her chest. “And since it was your idea, you have to go first, Oskar.”

“Are you saying I wouldn’t?! That I don’t have the guts?”

“You said it, Oskar. Not me.” She glared at him.

“Well…you didn’t say when, Hannah. I think I’ll do it tomorrow at noon – with Sava.” He grinned at her.

“Humph! I thought so! Now let’s go tell your mom and dad. And Jack.”

“Why don’t we compromise? If we can’t figure this out by tomorrow morning, we’ll tell Mama and Papa. And Jack. I promise.” Eli squeezed her hand.

“Okay, Eli.” She glanced over her shoulder. “But could we please go…anywhere but here?”

Oskar stood up and paced back and forth. “In a minute Hannah. But it suddenly occurred to me that we’ve overlooked something about our mysterious painter that might be important.”

“What, Oskar?”

“Whoever she is, she’s either really strong or really agile.” He leaned over the cliff and looked down, just to make sure they got it. “Or both.” He grinned at Hannah.

“What do you mean, ‘she’ Oskar? What makes you think he’s a ‘she’?”

“Her paintings are so dainty, Hannah. Only a girl paints such ‘dainty’ paintings.”

Eli laughed hysterically. Hannah slugged him on the arm. “I’ll get you for that, Oskar!” she gasped as Oskar, without saying a word, leaped off the cliff into the darkness.

“Oskar! What…”

“Catch me if you can, Hannah!” Oskar unfurled his wings, rose up rapidly, banked to the left and disappeared around the cliff toward the lighthouse.

Eli and Hannah grinned at each other, then leaped off the cliff after him. “I’ll get him and wait for you Hannah. Then you can…do whatever you want to him for revenge.” She surged ahead, confident that she would easily overtake him.

The dark shape clinging to the cliff face growled with disappointment, then, with an unearthly agility, scurried up over the lip of the cave and disappeared into the darkness.

Oskar was happier than he had been since Eli had talked to Sava. The love of his life and his best friend in the world were, together, plotting revenge against him. No peeking! That wouldn’t be fair, you know.

We don’t need to peek to find you, Oskar. Our combined superior intellects will do just fine. They grinned at each other.

“He’s probably going to hide in the big cave, Hannah. You go around the lighthouse to the north, and I’ll go in from this side.

Oskar crouched down behind the stone railing around the lighthouse lamp and chuckled as the two of them circled the huge rock knob below him and approached the cave. He knew they wouldn’t look this way because the light, just above him, was so bright it would be uncomfortable for them – and he was sure it simply wouldn’t occur to them. As soon as they were out of sight, he leaped off the deck, dropped down past the elevator towers and flew alongside the road no more than three feet off the ground. They still hadn’t re-emerged by the time he crested the ridge, so he made an abrupt right turn, dipped just below the north edge of the ridge and flew toward the forest as fast as he could, certain he would still be out of their line of sight even if they were heading his direction. He knew he was just postponing the inevitable, but he still thought he could end up ahead in points if he picked a clever place for them to catch him. Morning was still a long way away, and he still wanted to fly over to Arrowhead island so he could talk to Eli a bit more about her interrupted flight – and tell her again how much he loved her.

He circled the forest once, then landed in the meadow exactly where he had seen the lights of their home in Hannah’s vision of the future. He took a few steps down the steep hill, lay back on the damp grass, hands behind his head, and waited. And listened for the sounds of their wings.

§

He didn’t have to wait long; in fact he was surprised they could have made it there so fast. The sound of wings approached from the ridge side of the forest to the west, stopped completely for a few seconds, then resumed, as though one of them had landed in the top of a tree for a moment. Whoever it was, was now flying across the meadow back toward the Phoenix. But it was clearly only one of them; he realized that now. He listened carefully, then raised his head up and peeked over the tall grass toward the meadow. The sound stopped instantly. He ducked down, pulled a bottle of Ejuice out of his small backpack, resumed his position, and waited. He needed all the help he could get now, he thought to himself. He could feel his heart pounding. He knew the two of them were very inventive. He had no idea when or how they would find him, but find him they would. He drank about half the bottle before he realized it would be a bit unfair of him to drink it all, then shrugged his shoulders and finished it anyway. After all it was two against one…

§

“What now, Eli? If he really wants to hide, there’s no way we’ll find him without cheating.” Hannah followed Eli through the needle’s eye and together they headed up the central hills toward the ridge.

“He wants to be found, Hannah. He’ll hide somewhere he knows we’ll look for him. All we have to do is figure out where. With that in mind, where would you hide if you were Oskar?”

“I know, Eli! The Phoenix! That’s where he found me in my dream. It’s the perfect spot!”

Eli quickly veered to the left and headed toward Phoenix Park. “Cross the ridge just east of the road and circle around the park, Hannah. I’ll fly low and surprise him from this side.” She dropped down and quickly blended into the rocky landscape in the shadow of the ridge.

Hannah cautiously crossed the ridge and circled back toward the sculpture. She picked up speed as soon as she saw movement near the right wing of the Phoenix. We’ve got him now! She rose up over 100 feet, then dove down toward him, hoping she’d scare him to death. For a brief moment, she considered growing fangs and claws, but thought better of it when she remembered his reaction the last time she did it.

She was only 30 feet away when she realized it was Eli, sitting on the wing with a disappointed look on her face. Hannah pulled up fast and sat down beside her.

“I was so sure you were right, Hannah. But he isn’t here, and hasn’t been here recently either.” She sniffed the air again just to be sure.

Hannah grinned. “I never thought about it, but I guess you know what he smells like by now.” She remembered that night that Oskar and Eli had switched pajamas, and chuckled to herself. It was then she absolutely knew where he was. “He’s at your house, Eli! I just know it!”

“Why would he go home, Hannah? He’s the one who wanted to go flying in the first place.”

“Not home, Eli. To your house in the meadow! The one in your future.” She stood up, spread her wings out and spun around and around. “This is going to be really fun!”

Eli smiled. “You can circle around through the valley and come up the hill after him Hannah. But be careful! He could spot you in the moonlight. Maybe you should work your way up on foot from the base of the hill. I’ll drop down through the trees just south of the meadow. Let me know when you’re in position and we’ll rush him at the same time.”

“Wouldn’t that be cheating? We’re not supposed to talk to each other.”

“No, No. The rules we agreed to were that we just aren’t supposed to find Oskar that way.”

“Well…okay then, but it still seems a bit unfair.”

“Just think about what we’re going to do to him, Hannah. It’ll all be worth it.” They both leaped off the wing and split up when they reached White Road. Hannah disappeared into the darkness at the high end of the valley, and Eli flew east, hugging the top of the ridge and only rising up as she approached the edge of the forest. She turned abruptly north though the thickest stand of trees just to make sure Oskar couldn’t see her in the moonlight. If he was waiting in the tall grass, she was certain he was scanning the night sky for them. He obviously knew they would find him, but he certainly was going to be ready for them; she was sure of it. She rose up just a bit, and…there he was! She could see his blond hair just beneath the edge of his wool cap, and dropped down quickly. He was lying on his back and probably hadn’t seen her, but she couldn’t take any chances.

And that’s when the tallest pine in the forest reached up and snagged the waistband of her pants.

Everything after that instant happened in slow-motion. She felt the sharp branch rake her skin as it got an even firmer grip on her pants. Her waistband stretched to the breaking point and her legs bent back over her head, when suddenly with a sharp wooden crack, she was released as quickly as she had been snagged. She spun head-over-heels through the air, felt a sharp pain in her back as she caromed off the second-tallest pine and, as she gained speed in a tight arc toward the center of the earth, she bounced, rolled and spun off succeedingly larger branches as she fell; each one doing its best to destroy her already damaged pants. Finally, with a sudden snap, an especially vengeful one sent one of her shoes slingshotting out of sight over her head.

After a short pinwheel spin, she hit the ground hard, flat on her back, wings outstretched and legs apart, on the south edge of the meadow. The breath was completely knocked out of her.

She lay there in a daze as time came suddenly to a halt, but she could feel the coarse grass, already dewy damp, pressing against her wings and legs. For what seemed like forever, she couldn’t take in a breath to save her life. In spite of her odd state of limbo, her quick mental inventory reassured her that the damage to her body was minimal and her cuts and scratches were already healing nicely.

Suddenly, she felt thin, delicate fingers – four; no five of them – lightly touch, then more firmly explore her now shoeless foot and ankle; then they were gone. She tried to move, but it was as though she was frozen to the ground. Memories of soulless deep blue eyes staring into hers, a table with a hole in it and straps holding her down tightly, flashed through her mind for an instant, then faded quickly as the reality of her present situation hit her hard. A faint rustling sound in the damp grass told her someone or something was moving closer to her; nearer her head. She felt the same fingers softly touch her right hand, then wrap firmly around her wrist for a moment. Still, try as she might, she couldn’t move a muscle. She heard what sounded like a soft sigh, then felt the fingers move cautiously from her wrist to her elbow, then down along her wing spars, moving slowly back and forth in small, aimless spirals as though exploring their structure and, she was certain, their velvety softness.

Like a child might.

She realized she had at least partially regained her mobility when she was finally able to move her fingers slightly, but for some reason she lay still, not able to muster up the will to leap up and flee for her life, or to even open her eyes. It was as though she were paralyzed by her own thoughts. As the fingers moved along her rib cage, exploring the seam between her wing and her side, she could feel their owner’s breath on her cheek—and suddenly she could smell oil paint and old leather. Still, she couldn’t move a muscle. Something was in the way, intercepting her thoughts, keeping her mind from reaching her muscles. She was convinced that, if this creature desired it, she would never be able to breathe again without its permission.

Codladh sámh,” it whispered softly, as the fingers of both its hands now gently caressed her cheeks; and at that instant, her paralysis suddenly vanished as though an invisible weight had been lifted from her chest. She sucked in a lungful of air, scrambled to her feet, spun around quickly and as her vision cleared, it came into focus...

Wiry thin, light blue eyes, flaming curly red hair. A boy, wearing a green beret tilted jauntily on his fiery red head, face covered with freckles; brown, weathered leather trousers that tied just below his knees; emerald green, paint-spattered vest, bare-armed, barefooted and smelling of oil paint. His gossamer wings caught the moonlight, sprinkling pastel rainbow-hued jewels of light across the forest floor. He jumped back in response to her sudden movement, stumbled and fell over a tree root, but was back on his feet in an instant.

“You just surprised me, Love; you didn’t scare me one bit.” He brushed himself off and adjusted his beret. His Irish brogue was so thick, she had a hard time understanding him. But his story-book, almost Dickensian appearance, together with his high-pitched lilting voice made her smile in spite of herself.

“Who are you?”

“A boy, más é do thoil é. I expect the three of you to get it right next time.” He wiggled his toes and grinned at her.

“What are you?!”

“Wee lassies like yourself have been asking me that question for ages, Love. I wouldn’t want to spoil all the fun by giving you the answer now, would I?” His eyes got big as Hannah glided silently down beside Eli and took her hand. “Another of you has come to your rescue, then.” He put his hands on his hips and eyed her defiantly.

“I just love your accent!” Hannah just couldn’t help herself. “And you’re the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.”

“Well, I love your accent too, Love. The Queen’s English is it? From the North of London, I’d guess.” He stroked his chin. “And, if I might say so, the two of you are the prettiest young things I’ve seen in ages. Not quite pretty enough to inspire a portrait, but still…” He winked at them.

“And I just love your paintings,” Eli said softly. “Mama will love them even more.”

She impulsively reached out her hand, but he stepped back quickly and wagged his finger at her. “Na dean sin!

“Where’s Oskar, Hannah? I can’t hear him.”

“Your pale friend is napping in the tall grass. It seems he was tired of waiting for you to catch him.” He winked at her. “Not that I blame him. You were taking your own sweet time at it.”

Oskar! Wake up! Hannah let him have it with her best shot ever. Oskar jerked as though he had been shot, sat bolt upright, and rubbed his eyes.

Hannah, what…

Come now, Oskar! She dragged him into her mind and showed him everything. He leaped to his feet, grew his wings and…

“Two pretty young lasses I can handle, but an overprotective strapping lad in love… Is fearr rith maith ná drochsheasamh!” He turned, and with a soft rustle, unfurled his wings and disappeared like a ghost into the forest.

Oskar was there mere seconds later. He skidded to a halt, pulled his Elilight out of his backpack and…

“Don’t!” Hannah knocked it out of his hand. “You might hurt him!”

§

The three of them sat together on the edge of the hill in the exact spot where Hannah had told them the front porch of their new home would stand.

“I tell you, I wasn’t asleep, Hannah. I wasn’t even sleepy. I don’t know what happened to me.”

He did it, Oskar. He did it to me too.” Eli put her arm around him.

“Did he hurt you, Eli?”

She thought about it for a moment. “No. He didn’t. I couldn’t breathe for a few minutes, but in thinking about it, I didn’t need to – until he let go of me.”

“What do you suppose he wanted, Eli?”

“I think he was just curious about us – and his curiosity got the better of his judgment. Just like a little boy.”

“He didn’t talk like he was a little boy,” Hannah muttered. “‘Two pretty young lasses I can handle…’ doesn’t sound like a little boy to me.”

“It was all bluster, Hannah. He was a young boy. I’m certain of it. No more than 12, I’m sure. No matter how old he really is.” She knew no one would challenge her assessment. It was something she thoroughly understood; she had lived it for over 200 years.

“What did he say at the end, Eli? Did you understand it?”

“Yeah. Mama taught it to me. It’s Irish for ‘A good run is better than a bad stand.’ He was afraid of Oskar. Because he’s in love with me.” She glanced at Oskar, then blushed.

Oskar smiled and squeezed her a bit tighter. “But he really wasn’t was he? Afraid of me, I mean.”

“No, Oskar. I don’t think he was at all. You’re not the least bit scary!” She leaned gently against him and put her head on his shoulder.

Oskar wasn’t the least bit offended.

They sat there quietly for a while, staring at the moon. For some reason, it seemed much larger than normal to Eli, and shone unnaturally bright.

“What are we going to do now, Eli?”

“We have to find him again, Hannah. We simply have to! We have to find out everything about him; who he is, where he’s from, and what he is.”

“And how old he is, Eli.”

“And why he’s such an incredible artist.”

And whether or not he’s … like you and Mom were so long ago.” Oskar shuddered.

“He’s not, Oskar. I know he’s not!”

He sighed. “Okay, Hannah. But how do you know?”

“When I was alone in the tomb with my hair caught under the slab, I remember hearing noises beneath it. And I became quite frightened – because, thanks to Eli, I knew that some of the monsters in my nightmares really existed.”

Eli was puzzled. “What does that even mean, Hannah?”

“Don’t you see, Eli? If vampires exist, what else may be out there? How much other folklore is rooted in fact?”

“Like werewolves and banshees? Zombies, and selkies?”

“No Oskar. Like fairies and leprechauns, like the characters in fairy stories. The good guys! Maybe our mysterious boy is a leprechaun!”

“He didn’t look like a leprechaun, Hannah.” Eli, normally able to stretch her own imagination to accommodate Hannah’s overactive one, was skeptical.

“You didn’t look like a vampire either, Eli. But you were one. Maybe the description is wrong, but there he was, as big as life. And those beautiful wings! Just like my first ones! Just wait until I tell Jack!”

“Which is it, Hannah? Are you going to tell Jack you saw a fairy? Or a leprechaun!”

“It doesn’t matter, Eli, whether he’s one or the other – or neither.” She smiled gently and put her hand on Eli’s cheek. She had a faraway look in her eyes. “The important thing is that he’s real, he’s magical, and he flies…” She giggled, “And, he’s funny, he’s sooo cute…”

“And he’s full of Blarney,” Oskar finished for her. “You’ve convinced me, Hannah.”

“And he worried about you when you fell, Eli. I could feel it in him. He has a gentle soul,” she whispered.

They sat quietly together, thoughts intertwining, until the sun slowly rose in the east. Eli was completely content for the first time in her life. They had made an astonishing discovery that night, and she was still only a couple of centuries old. What did the future hold for them now? Her beautiful soulmate had helped open a whole new world for her; a world in which the darkness she had become so used to was now balanced again – balanced against Oskar’s love, and the light Hannah brought into their lives, personified by the thin, delicate, flaming-haired, freckle-faced, fairy-like child who had chosen to reveal himself to them for some mysterious reason known only to himself. But she knew the reason had to have something to do with Hannah, whose winged portrait adorned the Archaeogenetics Building, and all its aircraft and letterhead. Perhaps that was what had fascinated their new acquaintance. After all, hadn’t he deliberately exposed himself to them by painting a picture of Hannah’s beautiful flowers on the wall of his cave? And mysteriously directing Oskar straight to it? How many others were there like him in their new unexplored world? And how many unlike him?

“Let’s go home now. We just have to tell Mama and Papa what we’ve discovered, Oskar.” And we have to tell Jack! And Sava! And Jason, Ryan and Janice! She could hardly wait.

Hand in hand, sunlight warming their faces, they walked slowly down the hill into the valley and even more slowly along White Road to the compound. Einstein rushed them as soon as they opened the gate, took a quick inventory, and licked the faces of each of them in turn. The smell of bangers and Earl Gray tea floated lightly on the crisp, clean morning air, and greeted them as they stepped up on the porch.