The River's Gift Read Online Free Page A

anything more than that, but she didn't need him to elaborate.
She had heard enough tales, both from traveling musicians and horn the people
of the Manor, to know what he was talking about. The worst that Merod's kind
ever indulged in was a bit of mischief, throwing a bit of a fright into
someone who deserved it. But there were others—the Kelpies who did drown
wayfarers, the Night Hags, the Willowisps that lured the lost into bogs to
perish, a hundred and one other nasty creatures who seemed to live only to
cause misery and death. If Merod was to be believed—and he'd been truthful with
her up to now—the presence of these creatures was due as much to the ill-doing
of humans as it was to their own will and desires.
    That
was certainly cause for some uneasy thoughts. Were
mortals as much the cause of their own misfortune as all that? It made her feel
obscurely guilty.
    "Have
you ever seen any of the Great Ones?" she asked, to turn her mind
elsewhere.
    He laughed. : Of course! I have been here far longer
than your kind. Long before sheep ever grazed on the Downs, the Great Ones came
to this river to bathe and hold revels. I would take them for rides beneath the
waves—they cannot drown, of course, and they thought it fine sport. And one
day, one of them even gave me a gift. Shall I show it to you ?:
    She
flushed with excitement. "Oh yes! Please!"
    He
plunged into the water and soon returned bearing a green silk pouch in his
teeth. :Open it,: he urged, placing it in her hand.
She obeyed, and three transparent spheres, filled with a rainbow mist, as
fragile as bubbles, rolled into her hand.
    She
gazed at them, half afraid to touch them with her fingers.
    :You can't hurt them, they won't break, not until I want them to,: Merod told her,
and emboldened, she rolled them in her hand and held them up to the light,
entranced by the opalescent colors that played inside.
    "What
are they?" she asked.
    :Wishes —of a kind,: Merod told her. :The Great Faerie never give anything without conditions attached, and they are
inclined to twist everything into a riddle. I haven't the faintest idea why I
was given these in the first place. The Great One told me that I might want
them one day—but that the first one would make me mortal, and the other two had
to be shared.: He tossed his head and snickered. :Ive never seen a reason to want to be mortal, and I doubt I ever will, so they're
really rather useless. I have magic enough for everything I need !:
    "That's
certainly true," Ariella agreed, rolling the spheres back into their pouch
and handing it back to him. "I'm sure I wouldn't know what to do with
them. But they're lovely to look at."
    :That's why I keep them, instead of giving them to one of the nixies to play with,: he told her, and
he plunged back into the river to replace his treasures in their hiding-place.
    She
continued to walk slowly along the bank, knowing that he would come out of the
water beside her wherever she went.
    :By the way,: Merod said, emerging again from the river and resuming the conversation as if
it had never been interupted, :W hy
were you so late today?:
    Ariella
made a face. "Lady Magda got it into her head that if she worked on that
stupid altar-cloth with me, I'd probably make more progress, so I had to sit
there sewing until she began to yawn and couldn't keep her eyes open
anymore."
    Merod stopped, and she turned to look at him. : You know, I've never understood why you waste
your time with that nonsense when you're needed elsewhere. The other mortals
here need your healing, too—why do you spend hours making patterns in thread ?:
    "Because
Lady Magda says—" she began. :ls it wrong to help others?: Merod asked. "Well—no." Ariella fidgeted uneasily, for Merod had put
his finger—well, hoof—on exactly what bothered her the most about Lady Magda's decrees. For some time now, she had wanted to offer her
healing skills to the folk of the Manor, but Lady Magda absolutely forbade her
to "mingle" with