Merlin's Harp Read Online Free Page B

he saw me. Human eyes are weak in the dark, and many oldsters cannot see well even by daylight.
      He gathered himself to rise, and looked up into my face. A long moment he sat, eyes meeting mine. Then he folded his hands, bowed his head, and watched me from under lowered brows.
      He saw me. He saw me, but he would do nothing. He would not yell and wake the sleepers, or scramble up and grab me, or even hold on to his cloak. He thought I could point at him, intone a word, and turn him into a toad.
      Joyous power surged through me. I drew the dark cloak up, away, and over me. For him, I vanished into darkness. Then I touched Elana's shoulder. We tiptoed out the door.
      We ran lightly away. That is, I ran lightly. Elana bounded like a fat hare, heels thumping earth. Safe in the shadow of the Fey forest, we burst out laughing.
      Later we murmured together under the old man's smelly bedcloak about boys, men, and sex. We had to murmur. We could not sign in the dark. I said, "I don't want to."
      "You mean, you aren't ready."
      "What about you?"
      "Hshh!" groaned a companion across the small fire. "Are you two going to talk all night?"
      "I'm ready!" Elana whispered.
      "But you don't."
      "It's…hard to explain."
      "Hushshshshs!" from across the fire.
      "Try. Explain."
      Elana squirmed further under the cloak and I followed. It smelled, down there, of Human and age, dust, sweat, meat, soup, sickness. Someone had vomited on this cloak, long ago. Elana's breath on my cheek smelled of thyme and trout. Her whispered words tickled first my ear, then my thought.
      "It's…There is one."
      "One what?"
      "One man, silly. Or boy, rather."
      "So why don't you?"
      "See, there's only one. One only. And he doesn't want me."
      "That's funny," I giggled.
      Across the fire our sleepless companion sighed, gathered up his cloak and wandered off in search of peace.
      "It is not funny! It feels bad. In here." Elana took my fingers and pressed them where her heart beat, under her soft-sprouting breast.
      Repentant, I kissed her cheek. "Why don't you try someone else, then? At the next Flowering Moon dance. There's lots of boys, Elana."
      "Not for me. There's only one for me." Elana wept.
      I lay astonished, feeling her heart beat under my fingers, feeling her tears warm on my face. I remembered something.
      "Elana, my mother has a friend called Merlin."
    "The mage. I know."
      "He used to sing Human songs to us—old stories about heroes and princesses."
      "So?"
      "Elana, in those stories the Humans used to feel like you do."
      Elana stiffened. "They did?"
      "Yes. There would be only one for them, and if they couldn't have that one they would go meet a dragon or something…they didn't want to live."
      "I thought…I thought it was just me!" The warm tears still flowed, but the beating heart quieted like a bird that you hold still in the dark between your palms.
      "No, it's something Humans feel. But most times those Humans were bewitched."
      "Bewitched!"
      "They had a spell on them. That's why they felt that way."
      "Gods!"
      "Maybe you are bewitched."
      "How do you get over being bewitched?"
      "I don't know. In the stories, they never do." I dried Elana's closing eyes with a cloak-corner.
      "So what do they do, in the stories?"
      "Either they meet and love, or they let a dragon eat them. Something like that."
      "Hah! I've never seen a dragon, have you?"
      "Elana, let's sleep now."
      "In this stink?"
      Half-laughing now, we wiggled our heads out from under the cloak and gasped clean night air.

    * * *

    Merlin said, "I dreamt a summer storm."
    "Not serious," the Lady said.
      "Not serious for Arthur. As you well know, I take no store in the woman."
      They knew about Mellias's captive, and about her Arthur. They knelt together at the courtyard fireplace where Lugh's trout cooked on the hot stones. Lugh crouched with