changed our daily routines for the better, I thought. Atara had a talent for finding good clear water and so set herself the task of filling our canteens and pots and bearing them back and forth from a nearby stream to our camp. I took charge of tending the horses: tethering and combing them down, and feeding them the oats that the packhorses carried. It gave me some moments to be alone with Altaru beneath the tree-shrouded stars. Maram, of course, gathered wood for his fires, while Kane worked furiously to fortify our camp, sometimes cutting brush or thornwood to place around it sometimes hiding dry twigs among the bracken so that whoever stood watch might be warned of approaching enemies by hearing a sudden snap. Master Juwain took to helping Liljana prepare our meals. Although he had acquired some skill with the cookware since Mesh and could turn out a good plate of hotcakes, he had much to learn from Liljana, who immediately commandeered the food supply and practically turned him into her servant. But we were all grateful that she did. That night she conjured up a fish stew out of the ugly planks of salt cod and some roots, herbs, mushrooms and wild onions that she found in the forest. It was delicious. For dessert we had raspberries, accompanied by a little brandy. And then, while Master Juwain washed the dishes, Alphanderry played his mandolet and sang to us before we slept
He really did little other work. To be sure, he might wander about the camp, joining me to brush the horses or helping Kane cut sharpened stakes to be driven into the earth – until Kane grew exasperated with his desultory axework and growled at him to be left alone. He flitted from one task to another, sometimes completing it, sometimes not, but always having a good time talking with whomever he chose to help. And we took great delight in his company, for he was always outgoing and cheerful, and always responsive to others' moods or remarks. If he saw it as his charge to keep our spirits uplifted, no one disputed that. In the end, despite whatever fine foods we found to put into our bellies, sharpened stakes or no, it would only be by strengthening our spirits that we would ever find the Lightstone.
That night, as we sat on top of our furs sipping our brandy, while Alphanderry's beautiful voice flowed out into the night, Flick appeared and spun about to the music. This lifted my spirits, and those of Master Juwain, Maram and Atara, for we hadn't seen much of him since we entered Tria. But since leaving the city, he had become ever more active and visible, and now the darkness between the trees filled with tiny, twinkling stars. I laughed to see him dancing among the flowers as he had in the Lokilani's wood. Even Kane smiled when Flick pulsed with little bursts of light to the rhythms of Alphandeny's song. He pointed off into the trees and said to me,
'Your little friend is back.'
Alphanderry, sitting toward the fire, suddenly put down his mandolet and turned to look into the woods. Then he looked around the fire at Atara, Maram, Master juwain and me, and asked, 'What are you all staring at?'
Strangely, although Flick had been with us since the night of the fireworks, we hadn't yet remarked his presence. Does one make mention of the stars that come out every night? Sometimes, though, when the great Swan constellation and others are particularly bright, it is very hard not to look up in wonder. As it was now with Flick.
'It's one of the Timpimpiri,' Kane told Alphanderry. 'He's followed us through most of Alonia.'
Now Alphanderry blinked his eyes and stared hard toward the trees. Liljana did too.
But neither of them saw anything other than shadows.
'You're having a joke with me, aren't you?' Alphanderry said as he smiled at Kane.
'A joke, is it?' Kane called out. 'Do I look like one to joke?'
'No, you don't,' Alphanderry admitted. 'And we'll have to change that before this journey is through.'
'You might as well try changing the face of the moon,' Maram put in.
Again, Alphanderry smiled as he studied the woods and suddenly said, 'Hoy, yes, I do see him now! He's got ears as long as a rabbit and a face as green as the leaves we can't see.'
'Ha – foolish minstrel,' Kane muttered as he took a sip of brandy. But his raising of his glass couldn't quite hide the smile that touched his lips.
'Here, Flick!' Alphanderry suddenly called to the trees. 'Why don't you come here and say hello?'
Alphanderry began whistling then, and this high-pitched sound was as sweet as any music that ever flowed from a panpipe. To our astonishment, and Kane's most of all, Flick came whirling out of the trees and took up position in front of Alphanderry's face.
'Oh, Flick,' Alphanderry said to the air in front of him, 'you're a fine little fellow, aren't you? But it's too bad we've eaten all of Liljana's good stew and have only bread to share with you.'
So saying, he found a crust of bread and held it out as he might to feed a squirrel.
'You really can't see him, can you?' Maram said to him.
'How could he,' Master Juwain asked, 'if he never ate the timana?
'Of course I can see him,' Alphanderry said. 'He's a shy little one, isn't he? Come, Flick, this bread won't hurt you.'
To prove this, he ate most of it and left a large crumb between his lips. And then he held out his hand as if beckoning Flick to hop onto it and take the crumb from his mouth.
Once again, it astonished us when Flick moved onto the palm of his hand. The spiral swirls of his form flared with sparks and little purple flames.
'Ha!' Kane said, 'he must understand more than we thought. It would seem that there's more to the Timpimpiri than anyone thought'
'Of course there is,' Alphanderry said, after swallowing the breadcrumb. 'They are magical beings, known to live in the deeper woods everywhere. If they've taken food from you, they must grant three wishes.'
'But Flick can't take food at all,' Maram said.
'Of course he can!' Alphanderry said. 'Of course he did! Didn't you see him?'
'Ah, I suppose I must have been looking away,' Maram said, grinning. 'What are your three wishes, then?'
'My first wish, of course, is that Flick grant all my future wishes.'
That's cheating!' Atara called out.
'And my second wish,' he said, ignoring her, 'is that we accomplish the impossible and find the Lightstone.'
'That's better,' Atara said, smiling.
'And my third wish,' he continued, 'is that we accomplish the truly impossible and make our grim Kane laugh.'
Kane sat by the fire staring at Alphanderry with his hard eyes, and a stone statue couldn't have been more still.
'Now, then,' Alphanderry said, rising to his feet, 'the, ah, Timpimpiri are capable of many feats, magical and otherwise. Please watch closely, or you'll miss this.'
Alphanderry, it turned out, was skilled not only in music and singing but in the art of pantomime. He stood looking at his open hand and talking to Flick as if trying to persuade his invisible friend to entertain us. And all the while, his face took on different moods and expressions, and seemed as easily molded as a ball of Liljana's bread dough. The extreme mobility of his face, no less the sudden and comical deepening of his voice, made us laugh a little – all of us except Kane.
'Now, Flick,' Alphanderry said in a voice all arrogant and stern like King Kiritan's,
'you've eaten our food and now must obey us. At my command, you'll jump into my other han.'/
Alphanderry now held his left hand out and away from his body. He looked down toward Flick in his right hand, and said, 'Are you ready?
Just then his face underwent a sudden transfiguration and fell softer. His voice softened, too, becoming fully feminine, and when he spoke, its tone was unmistakably that of Queen Daryana. As if speaking to himself, this new voice called out, 'Is he a Timpimpiri or a slave? Why don't you set him free?'
Again, Alphanderry's face and voice took on the manner of King Kiritan. And he called out in response, 'Who rules here, you or I?'
Now he looked down at his hand and continued, 'When the King says jump, you jump.'
But before he, as King Kiritan, could get another word out, his face fell through yet another change. And speaking with Queen Daryana's voice, he said, 'The King has said you must jump, Flick. All right then, jump!'
All at once, Flick shot up off Alphanderry's hand and streaked up in a fiery arc to land on the other. And Alphanderry, who had yet again returned to his King Kiritan persona, pretended to watch this feat with outrage coloring his face. His eyes opened wide at his Queen's defiance and bounced like balls as they turned toward his
