The handsomest lady Meg had ever seen gave her a look of confusion.
She opened her mouth to speak, and nothing came out.
"What's the matter?" said Meg. "Cat got your
tongue?"
The handsomest lady Meg had ever seen nodded. She looked like she
was about to make a gesture to Meg, but then she glanced at the harried old
woman in fear, and lowered her hands.
"Hey," said the little girl. "Did you ever tell Meg
the price?"
The old woman shook her head. "I figured there was no point
in telling her beforehand, if she was just going to forget anyway.
Ah, but I should have told her the other price! Anyone who is brought
to life by the cauldron cannot speak nor sing. Can't have anyone
revealing the secrets of Annwn, can we? Why, even I'm not allowed to
know most of what goes on down there! But you have each other now, so. Small
price to pay."
The handsomest woman Meg had ever seen took her hands and lifted
them to her face. She peered at Meg's fingers, then looked thoroughly
dismayed. She glanced at the harried old woman suspiciously.
"Hey," said the harried old woman. "If I hadn't
tossed the ring in you wouldn't have any bones. Nice hair by the
way."
The handsomest lady Meg had ever seen grabbed a lock of her hangs
and held it before her eyes. Her eyes flew wide. It was then that Meg
noticed the lady’s fingernails were also gleaming gold.
She looked down. The lady's toenails were also golden. "Um,"
said Meg. "Before you ask, your eyes are also gold."
The lady shook her head rapidly and wrapped Meg in a fierce
embrace. Far from being warm, she felt like the cool breeze of early
spring. Between that and her appearance, Meg found herself fairly
unsettled – clearly this woman was one of the Good Neighbors. What
Meg could possibly have done to get in her good graces when she’d
just stepped out of a cauldron, Meg had no idea, but clearly the
attraction was mutual. "What’s your name, cutie?"
"Deirdre!" said the little man named Tally. "Good
to have you back!"
The woman named Deirdre let go of Meg and picked up Tally,
wrapping him in another fierce embrace.
"And you look like you're glad to be alive," said the
little man. "I guess you can work out the details of that when
you're settled at home with Meg again."
"Now hang on a second," said Meg. "What do you
mean, settled at home? Why do you think this woman is going to live
in my house? I'm not that lucky, am I?"
Deirdre's eyes sparkled as she regarded Meg with a wry grin.
"Apparently you are," said the little girl. "Which
is a real shame. You're going to settle down and you're not going to
be any fun. I wanted you to come on adventures with me. You had an
adventure all on your own that took an entire – hey!" For
Deirdre had seized both the girl and Meg by the hand, and was
dragging them towards the door.
"A capital idea," said the harried old woman. "And
hopefully I won't see any of you again."
"I should hope not," said the little man.
As they all stumbled out into the snow, the harried old woman
said, "Remember, Meg. She can't speak. She can't sing. That's
the price." And she slammed the door.
When Meg turned around, the door in the hillock was gone, and the
hillock was gone, along with all of the others.
And more than that – much of the snow had gone. It was only half
deep as when Meg had stepped through the door. "Did I miss
something?" said Meg. "Seems like the world's changed all
of a sudden. Was there a great storm that blew everything away away –
"
But the golden-eyed woman would not let her continue, for she
seized Meg and the little girl by the hand, and dragged them away
from the place where the hillocks had been. She would not stop at the
lonely little lake, but continued up the mountainside, all the way to
the peak, and over it, not stopping even to look behind her, nor to
acknowledge Meg's protests.
"Mercy's sake!" said Meg, when the golden-eyed woman finally
stopped. "Did we need to go so fast? I wouldn't mind dawdling
with you for a while, wherever we were."
The golden-eyed woman grinned at Meg.
"Yeah," said the little girl, "I bet you wouldn't."
"I should think you would," said the little man, as he
came up behind Meg. "You were in such haste to find Deirdre. I
should think you would be in haste to bring her home. Oh, but you
don't remember her. But then, she's pretty enough that you might want
to get her home anyway, if you know what I mean."
The golden-haired woman scowled at the little man.
"I vaguely recall," said Meg, "a friend who thought
such a topic was too much to embarrassing to discuss among anyone but
the most intimate company."
The golden-haired woman nodded. There was an eager gleam in her
eyes. But when she turned to regard the mountainside they had just
descended, fear came to her face again, and she took Meg by the hand,
and led her and the little girl and the little man away, toward the
long lake down the valley.
As they made their way down, there were times when the
golden-eyed woman opened her mouth as if to speak. But she could
say nothing. In those moments she would look thoroughly dejected.
"No singing either," said the little man. "That's
the rules. Also my job, not yours. Though I do remember when you
could rival me for song."
"Somehow," said the little girl, "I think that does
not help."
For the golden-eyed woman was scowling at the little man, as if
she was fit to call down lightning upon him.
After a long time where tense silence reigned, the little girl
said, "How about I tell you what I've seen in these mountains."
"How about you don't?" said Meg.
"You don't have a choice," said the little man.
So Meg had to be content with the little girl rambling on about
the mountains, and how they were full of barrows and ghosts and
dragons. That was all nonsense, surely, for surely this little girl
had not actually seen anything she was describing. If she had, then
surely the little man would not be chuckling at her stories. Meg was
only half-listening anyway, for she was more interested in the pretty
golden-eyed woman. She couldn't shake the feeling that they had met
somewhere else.
Nor could she remember why on earth she was here in the first
place, in this valley, amidst mountains taller than she had ever
seen. This wasn't her home. It was worth the journey, surely, just to
find this pretty golden-eyed woman, and she remembered the journey –
but not why she had set out in the first place. Seemed like a lot of
effort to go through for a stranger. Not excessive, perhaps, she'd
done worse, but it would have been nice to know what her goal had
actually been.
The golden-eyed woman had let go of her hand and was racing ahead,
towards the trees in the distance, halfway between them and the long
lake that stretched out beyond the village at the bottom of the
valley.
"What on earth is she doing?" said Meg.
"Trying to get you to go faster?" said the little girl.
"Trying something that won't work," said the little man.
The golden-eyed woman came racing back with a long stick in her
hand. She stopped in front of Meg, put up her hand for everyone to
halt, then with the stick she made a series of connected lines in the
snow. She stood up straight and waited for everyone's reaction.
"I'm not sure what all those lines are supposed to be,"
said the little girl.
"Likewise," said Meg. "They don't look like
pictures, but if not pictures then I'm not sure what they are."
The little man shook his head. "Deirdre, you can't expect
anyone in this time and place to know how to read. Unless perhaps Meg
has travelled far over sea to distant dry lands where people can make
letters?"
The golden-eyed woman put her palm over her face.
"I don't get it," said Meg. "What are you trying to
do?"
The little man cleared his throat. "Well fist of all, she's wasting absolutely no time in trying to get around Annwn's ban on communication. Secondly, she's trying to say she loves you.
The golden-eyed woman hid her face with both hands.
"She…what? I've only known her for less than a day."
"Have you?" said the little man.
"Stop being cryptic," said Meg. "What do you know?"
"Was Cerridwen not clear enough?" said the little man.
"The price of having her was losing your memories of her. But if
you don't remember her, that wouldn't make any sense to you, so, what
am I supposed to keep telling you while you don't believe me? It 's
something you have to figure out for yourself."
Meg peered at the golden-eyed woman, still not fully comprehending the situation. "Sure this isn't some kind of elaborate prank?"
The golden-eyed woman looked exasperated. She walked away
down the slope.
"Hang on," said Meg. She ran to catch up with her
erstwhile lover, and, taking her by the shoulder, she spun her
around.
The woman looked vexed.
"Sorry," said Meg, drawing her hand back. "Getting
a bit carried away. This is a really weird situation for me. Somehow
you know me and I don't know you, and you love me and I…I can't do
things as fast as you want me to. I can try to catch up if you want
but…I mean I really want to catch up. So that I don't keep
frustrating you. So that we can stick together. Look, can we start
over? I mean can we start over again? What's your name?"
The golden-eyed woman gave her a blank stare.
"Oh," said Meg, rolling her eyes. "Right. You're
tongue-tied. Well my name is Meg. Maybe you can figure out how to
tell me your own name in time."
The golden-eyed woman cast her gaze up the valley, and pondered
for a few seconds. Then she raised her left hand, and shaped her
fingers into a series of curious configurations, nearly too fast for
Meg to distinguish.
"For heaven's sake," said the Little Man, "take
easy on a novice! And if you want to keep bending the rules like
that, let's get farther away from the mountain. But just so you know,
Meg, your lady-love's name is Deirdre. That's what she was trying to
tell you."
"And yours?" said Meg.
"Tally," said the little man.
"And I'm Fia," said the little girl. "Why didn’t
you ask anyone's name before?"
"That is a blank spot in my memory," said Meg. "Fia,
Tally, Deirdre. Let's be getting on."
And so they made their way down into the valley towards the little
village.
As they approached, Meg could see some of the people in it from
far off, and the people could see her little band. They were shouting
something Meg couldn't hear, and then as they stomped towards her,
Meg could hear that they were shouting in a language she did not
know.
"I'll translate," said Tally. "They're mad at you
for blowing the roofs from their houses and the boats from their
moorings a year ago."
Meg stopped in her tracks. "What do you mean, a year ago?"
"I didn't know how to break it to you," said Tally.
"I was gonna break it to you," said Fia. "But then Cerridewenn looked mad at me. And then I figured it was funnier to wait to
see your face when you realized."
"I told you I wanted to stop you from jumping into that
ring," said Tally. "There's some forces even you can't
defeat, Meg. Getting close to Cerridwen is always dangerous. She's
way too close to the Good Neighbors. Get it? I made one tiny mistake
years from – I mean years ago. She nearly killed me and not for
lack of trying."
"One year ago," said Meg. "I’ve been neglecting
Fia for an entire year. That’s where all those adventures in the
mountains came from…were they all true?"
"It would be more fun for you to go and see for yourself,"
said Fia.
"And I have been gone from my people an entire year."
"Yeah," said Tally. "That will be...fun...when you
get back. Worth singing about at any rate."
Deirdre had likewise been standing stock-still at this revelation.
She caught Meg's eye. Then she took Fia by the hand, nodded to Meg
once, and the two of them were gone in a blur.
"I thought Deirdre didn't know that trick," said Tally.
"Well clearly you do," said Meg. "So keep up with
me."
And then she was away.