They avoided him after that and rode with dark scowls, whispering to each other and frequently casting covert looks at him, looks filled with hostility. They made their night’s encampment on the leeward side of a steep bluff where white, sand-scoured rocks protruded from an unwholesome, diseased-looking bank of leprous clay. Sparhawk cooked their meal, and his friends chose not to linger with him at the fire after the meal as was customary. He shook his head in disgust and went to his blankets.
‘Awaken, Sir Knight, an it please thee.’ The voice was soft and gentle, and it seemed filled with love. Sparhawk opened his eyes. He found himself in a gaily-coloured pavilion, and beyond the open tent flap was a broad green meadow, all aswirl with wild flowers. There were trees, ancient and vast, their branches heavy with fragrant blossoms, and beyond the trees lay a sparkling sea of deep, deep blue, bejewelled with the gleams of reflected sunlight. The sky was as no other sky had ever been. It was a rainbow that covered the entire dome of the heavens, blessing all the world beneath.
The speaker who had awakened him stood nudging at him with her nose and pawing impatiently at the carpeted floor of the pavilion with one forehoof. She was small for a deer, and her coat was of such dazzling whiteness as to be almost incandescent. Her eyes were large and meltingly brown, and they reflected a dodity, a trust and a sweet nature that tugged at the heart. Her manner, however, was insistent. She most definitely wanted him to get up.
“Have I slept overlong?’ he asked, a bit concerned that He might have offended her.
thou wert a-weary, Sir Knight,’ she replied, automatically, it seemed, coming to his defence even against himself “hasten. ‘Dress thyself with some care,’ the gentle animal instructed, cfor I am bidden to bring thee into the presence of my mistress, who doth rule this realm and whom all her subjects adore.’
Sparhawk fondly stroked her snowy neck, and her great eyes melted with love. He rose and looked to his armour.
It was as it should have been, jet black and embossed with silver. He was pleased to note as he drew it on that it had no more weight than gossamer silk. It was not steel, however. Though his great sword was imposing, it was, he knew, no more than ornamental in this fairy kingdom lapt by a jewelled sea and lying in happy contentment beneath its multicoloured sky. Here were no dangers, no kne, no discord, and all was abiding peace and love.
‘We must hasten,’ the white deer told him. ‘Our boat doth await us on yon strand where wavelets play in wanton abandon in the ever-changing light of our enchanted sky. ‘
She led him with precise and delicate steps into the flower-kissed meadow, a meadow so sweet-smelling as to make the senses swoon.
They passed a white tigress lolling indolently upon her back in the warm morning sunlight as her cubs, large-footed and awkward, wrestled in the grass nearby in mock ferocity. The white deer paused briefly to nuzzle at the face of the tigress, and she was rewarded by a broad, affectionate swipe of a huge pink tongue which dampened one side of her snowy face from chin to ear-tip.
The flower-tipped grasses bowed before the warm breeze as Sparhawk followed the white deer across the meadow to the blue-tinged shade beneath the ancient trees. Beyond the trees, an alabaster gravel strand sloped gently down to an amle sea, and there awaited them a craft more bird than ship. Slender was her prow, and graceful as neck of swan. two wings of snowy sail arose above her oaken deck, and she tugged at her moorings as if eager to be off.
Sparhawk considered the white doe, bent and, placing one arm beneath her breast and the other behind her haunch, he lifted her quite easily. She made no effort to struggle, but a momentary alarm showed in her huge eyes.
‘Calm thyself,’ he told her. “I do but bear thee unto our waiting ship that thou wilt encounter no sudden chill from the waters which do stand between us and our craft.’
‘Thou art kind, gentle knight,’ she said, trustingly resting her chin upon his shoulder as, with purposeful strides he waded out into the playful wavelets.
Once they had boarded, their eager craft leapt forward, bravely breasting the waves, and their destination soon emerged before them. It was a small, verdant eyot crowned with a sacred grove ancient beyond imagining, and Sparhawk could clearly see the gleaming marble columns of a temple beneath those spreading limbs.
Other craft, no less graceful than his own and heedless of the vagaries of the wanton breeze, also made their way across that sapphire sea towards the eyot which beckoned to them. And as they stepped out upon a golden strand, Sir Sparhawk recognized the dearly-loved faces of his companions. Sir Kalten, steadfast and true, Sir Ulath, bull-strong and lion-brave, Sir Sparhawk
half-woke, shaking his head to clear the cobwebs of cloying image and extravagant expression from his mind.
Somewhere a tiny foot stamped in exasperation. ‘That really makes me cross, Sparhawk!’ a familiar voice scolded him. ‘Now go back to sleep’at once!’
Slowly the valiant knights climbed the gentle slope leading to the eyot’s grove-crested top, recounting to each other their morning’s adventures. Sir Kalten was guided by a white badger, Sir Tynian by a white lion, Sir Ulath by a great white bear and Sir Bevier by a snowy dove. The young knight-to-be, Berit, was led by a white lamb, Kurik by a faithful white hound and Talen by a mink in ermine coat.
Sephrenia, clad in white and with her brow encircled by a garland of flowers, awaited them on the marble steps of the temple, and, seated quite calmly on the branch of an oak that predated every other living thing, was the queen of this fairy relm, the ChildGoddess Aphrael. She wore a gown instead of that rude smock, and her head was crowned with light. The playful subterfuge of the pipes was no longer necessary, and she raised her voice in a clear, pure song of greeting. Then she rose and walked down through the empty air as calmly as she might have descended a stair, and when she reached the cool, lush grass of the sacred grove, she danced, whirling and laughing among them, bestowing kisses by the score with her bow-like little mouth. Her tiny feet but lightly crushed the soft grass, but Sparhawk immediately saw the source of those greenish stains which had always perplexed him. She even kissed those snowy creatures which had guided the heroes into her exalted presence. The flowery descriptions came into Sparhawk’s mind despite his best efforts to keep them out, and he groaned inwardly. Aphrael imperiously motioned for him to kneel, encircled his neck with her small arms and kissed him several times. ‘If you don’t stop making fun of me, Sparhawk,’ she murmured for his ears alone, ‘I’ll strip you of your armour and turn you out to graze with the sheep.’
‘Forgive mine error, Divine One,’ he grinned at her.
She laughed and kissed him again. Sephrenia had once mentioned the fact that Aphrael enjoyed kisses. That did not appear to have changed very much.
They breakfasted on things unknown to man, then lounged at their ease on the soft grass as birds carolled to them from the limbs of the sacred grove. Then Aphrael rose to her feet and, after circling through the group once more for kisses, she spoke to them quite gravely. ‘Though I have been desolate to have been absent from your midst for the past lonely months,’ she began, “I have not summoned ye here solely for this joyful reunion, glad though it makes my heart. Ye have gathered at my request and with my dear sister’s aid -‘ she gave Sephrenia a smile of radiant love – ‘so that I may impart unto ye certain truths.
Forgive me that I must touch these truths but lightly, for they are the truths of the Gods, and are far beyond your grasp, I do fear, for much as I melt with love for each of ye, I must tell ye, not unkindly, that even as I have appeared as a child to ye, so ye now appear to me. Thus I will not assault the outer bounds of your understanding with matters beyond your reach.’ She looked around at their uncomprehending expressions. ‘What is the matter with you all?’ she said in exasperation.
Sparhawk rose to his feet, crooked one finger at the little Goddess and led her off to one side.
‘What?’ she demanded crossly.
‘Are you in the mood for some advice?’ he asked her.
‘I’ll listen.’ Her tone made no promises.
“You’re stupefying them with eloquence, Aphrael.
Kalten looks like a pole-axed ox at the moment. We’re plain men, little Goddess. You’ll have to speak to us plainly if you want us to understand.’