Turn Back, O Time

Chapter Three: Return

Now Pumpkin hated death above all things, hated it more than loneliness. Her heart aching, Pumpkin tugged at the fae's woven cloak. "Return now!" she begged. "And warn the prince. Tell him never to rise up against his brother. Why should he destroy himself? Why should he die and he and all the land mourn?"

Wink laughed. "And what if I do warn him?" he asked. "Aleeth is now convinced that he will never rise up against his brother. He will be convinced of this for several years. But his wife's words are like hammers that can crumble a stone wall. So, then, should I linger beside your prince day by day to resist her and to warn him?" He stroked Bithula's forehead. "And have I not told you? I am not to interfere with human events. The Good Lord already knows by now that I walk with you. And that already I have told you about the life you should have had. He has been merciful so far. But now you wish me to interfere with the lives of kings?"

So Pumpkin went silent. Even if the prince had not been her destined one, she had grown to like him and she did not want him to die. But what could she do?

They continued walking until they walked out of the city until night fell. The temple of the Good Lord of Light was still far away. But they had to rest. They found a field of lentils beside a lake. There, water fae and mermaid swam, laughing and chattering together, frivolous and indifferent to human sorrow.

To protect them from ketak attacks, Wink prepared an ice circle, hedging them around and above. He gathered wood and from his hand produced fire to warm them. Then he sat down in its warmth, though he surely did not need it.

As they sat to rest, Wink said, "How tenderly they cared for Bithula today! And how kind the prince was, seeking to find a husband for you!" He looked through her as if again reading a book. "And yes, truly, if you had married that prince, your mother still be here even now. For she would not have died from the robbers' attack if she had not lived alone. And she would not have lived alone if your husband had built a larger cottage for you all to live in."

"Are you fae always so cruel?" Pumpkin asked. "Why remind me of my loss? Are you one who loves to look on as humans struggle in pain?"

"I am merely curious," Wink answered. "Does my curiosity bother you?"

"Yes," Pumpkin answered. "And it unsettles me that you are not on my side."

"Why should I be on your side?" Wink asked.

His words cut deep into Pumpkin because they were spoken without malice and showed only a fae's indifferent curiosity. So there was no more spirit left in her and she crumbled to the dirt, kneeling and crying. "No more! No more!" she pleaded. "Your words batter me. I can bear no more."

"Indeed?" he said, amused. Then he lay down in the meadow and went to sleep.

Pumpkin watched him for a while as he slept. Faes who have been wounded have kinder hearts, she told herself. For a while she could not sleep because she kept thinking of all the good that had been due to her. She wished only to die and to be unmade. But at last, she fell asleep with Bithula in her arms.

But as they slept before the fire, the ketak in Bithula's head awoke and led the boy toward the fire and threw the boy into the flames. The boy's screams woke Pumpkin and Wink who when he saw how the left side of Bithula's body was burned said, "I will heal him." He touched Bithula's head and before Pumpkin's eyes, Bithula's skin became healed and cured. Then Wink's hand became semi-transparent and reached into the boy's head. "I will remove the ketak as well," he said.

A moment later, he withdrew his hand. A sound like a bone cracking echoed across the meadow. "I've broken the ketaks back," Wink said. "It is dead. It will not return again to burrow into your son's brain."