Once upon a dreadful time

“Perhaps you need to clean out your ears.”

“Oh, Madam,” said Celeste, abashed, “I was just surprised.”

“Heh!” cackled Urd, grinning a toothless smile.

“Three heroic deeds?” asked Camille.

“Oui,” said Skuld. “Can you tell me what they were?” Camille thought back. “He did fly for aid during the battle with Olot at the castle on Troll Island.” Skuld nodded, and Verdandi said, “Now called L’Ile de Camille.”

“Too, he is the one who caused Te’efoon and her daughter Dre’ela to plummet to their deaths during that same battle.” Skuld and Verdandi nodded

“The third one, of course, is when he flew into the face of Hradian and somehow set us free.”

“Oui,” said Skuld. “He broke the link between Hradian and Orbane, and that set some of you free.”

“But, my lady,” said Liaze, “it has been six moons since he accomplished the third and last deed; why have you waited so long to come and remove the curse?”

“Heh!” snapped Urd. “Such daring, or mayhap impudence.

Question us, would ye?”

“Lady Urd, I meant no disrespect, but I do want to know.”

“Because it is now spring,” said Skuld, “and time for ‘Scruff,’

as you name him, to accomplish one more deed.”

“And that would be. .?” asked Alain.

“The whole family is impudent,” said Urd. “Heh! I like that.”

“Orbane’s Sickness left desolation in its wake,” said Verdandi. “It is an abomination, a scar on the world. ‘Scruff’ will heal that.”

“Scruff? My sparrow? Or rather, your sparrow, Lady Skuld,” said Camille. “How can a wee bird do such a thing?” Skuld said, “Take him up and cast him into the fire.” What? all blurted at once.

“They’re all impudent, and hard of hearing,” said Urd.

“You must cast him onto the fire,” repeated Skuld.

Camille broke into tears and said, “I cannot.”

“But you must, I have seen it.”

Camille stood and stepped to Scruff’s perch and, sobbing, managed to say, “Lady Skuld, you yourself told me the future is not fixed, that great deeds can change what you have seen. And Scruff has performed great deeds, hence his future must be changed.

Surely we do not need to burn this wee bird.” Camille’s tears then came without stopping, and Alain embraced her, and the family gathered ’round and grimly faced the Fates themselves.

Urd looked on, her own black eyes glistening, as of tears unshed.

“But you must,” said Skuld. “I have woven it into the Tapestry of Time.”

“And I will weave it into present events,” said Verdandi.

“But I will not bind it therein,” said Urd, a tear streaking down one withered cheek.

“Oh, Urd,” said Skuld, “if you do not, then-”

“Silence!” cried Verdandi. “We cannot reveal what will happen should an event remain unbound.”

In that moment, Scruff cocked his head and looked at Camille and quietly peeped. Then he hopped into her hand and peeped again.

Camille, weeping, stepped to the fire, but she could not bring herself to cast the wee bird into the flames. Instead she raised him to her lips and kissed him. Scruff pecked her on the cheek, and then swiftly took to wing and arrowed into the blaze. The fire caught at him and roared up, and Scruff burst into flames and blazed brightly and fell into the furious conflagration. Camille turned away, for she could not face the death of her companion of these many seasons.

Alain, Borel, Roel, and Luc all clenched fists and glared at the Three Sisters, and Valeray spat an oath.

Of a sudden the fire died, as if all fuel had been spent, and in that moment, up from the glowing coals, a splendid bird arose.

Large as an eagle it was, with scarlet and gold plumage, and it voiced a melodious cry. Saissa gasped, and Camille whirled around and there she saw a Phoenix.

“Oh, Scruff,” Camille cried, “is it you, is it truly you?” And the Phoenix bowed as if to say, Oui, Camille, I am truly your Scruff. Then the Phoenix stepped to Camille and permitted her to do what none other had been allowed: to touch him and stroke the velvety feathers upon his crown just as she had often stroked those of a wee sparrow.

“You will have to let him go,” said Verdandi, “for we have much for him to do.”

“Let him go?” said Camille. “Oh, Lady Verdandi, you misunderstand me. Scruff has always been free to go, for I would not imprison him whatsoever, in a cage or a manor or ought else. It has always been his choice as to stay or leave; he can come and go as he pleases.”

“I imagine you will see him again,” said Verdandi.

“I can guarantee it,” said Skuld, “for, as I have oft said, I have seen it in the currents of Time.”

Urd cackled and squinted at the men. “It seems you five were about to assail the three of us. Heh! I said you were impudent, but I didn’t think you foolish.” With Urd cackling, the sound of looms swelled, and the Three Sisters vanished, taking the Phoenix with them.

Their hearts yet pounding, their spirits soaring from the wonder of it all, the family once again settled, yet a look of puzzlement came upon Michelle’s face.

“What is it, cherie?” asked Borel.

“I was just wondering: what is it Scruff did, the Phoenix, I mean, that caused Gloriana to curse him?” They looked at one another and shrugged, for none knew the answer. And then Roel said, “I wonder if Coeur d’Acier would have done us any good had we indeed taken on the Fates.” Borel burst out laughing, and soon the entire family joined him. . that is, until Valeray asked, “Anyone for echecs?”

Renewal

Over the lands the Sickness had despoiled a wondrous bird flew and sang, and where he passed the world was healed, the scar being replaced by new growth and fertility. The animals who had succumbed he could not restore, yet others of their kind were fecund and soon offspring would once again run among the trees and undergrowth and fly through the air and fill the streams, for such is the character of nature.

One of the lands he flew over was a small desolate demesne, where lived a rock creature named Caillou, who was mayhap an entire mountain of stone. And when the Phoenix had sailed on, Caillou gave a great shout of joy, and rocks cascaded down, for at last the land Orbane and his five acolytes had destroyed in a dreadful experiment was once again whole and fertile.

And elsewhere in Faery and a season later, at a mound where sat a great dolmen, Regar and Lisane were wed, and in attendance were many, including Raseri the Dragon and Rondalo the Elf and Chemine, Rondalo’s mother, and many of the other Firsts, a tiny Twig Man among them. Too, in the number present were all the princes and princesses of the Forest of the Seasons, and King Valeray and Queen Saissa, and Duke Roulan, and Vicomte Chevell and his wife and newborn child, Avelaine and Amelie. Also, Sieur Emile and Lady Simone and their sons Sieurs Laurent and Blaise attended, as well as Flic and Fleurette and Buzzer.

Regar’s mother, Mirabelle, had come from the Wyldwood for the wedding, but Regar’s grandmother, Alisette, had stayed away, saying, “I am yet in love with Auberon, and perhaps he is yet in love with me. It would tear my heart out to see him again. What it might do to him, I cannot say. And Gloriana?

Well, ’tis better I stay away.”

As for Gloriana, she seemed softer, more placid, since the death of her only son. A gentle sadness had settled over her, as if a great burden had been lifted. And she had come to see that neither Regar nor Mirabelle could be held responsible for the straying of Auberon. Even so, she was merely cordial to Mirabelle, but she did