and re-entered the chambers where she lay on the floor. There was blood running from her nose, and she wore a pair of skivvies, but there was not much else covering her skin.
“Hello the house!” Kestrel shouted loudly as he dropped the broom stick and strode over to her location, but he heard no response, no indication of assistance nearby. Kneeling, he looked at her closely, but saw no other signs of outward damage to her body. He held her limp wrist and found her pulse, which was strong and steady, while he considered what to do for her. He didn’t know the locations of doctors or clinics anywhere in the city, and the infirmary at the base was an hour away, if he could carry her that far, and if he could find his way back.
He needed something to magically heal her, something like the healing spring he had stopped at on his initial trip to Center Trunk, the one where he had met Dewberry. Those waters could surely cure her injuries, he was sure.
Could Dewberry help him, he asked himself speculatively. He’d not seen the sprite since he’d seen her with Lucretia, but she had once upon a time offered to give him assistance. And this situation was beyond his own ability to handle.
He recollected the instruction she had given him when they had spoken in his room in the village inn. He had to call her name with his heart and his voice and his mind, all together, three times, in order to summon the sprite to come to his aid. He’d never thought he’d really ever try to receive her assistance, but then he’d never thought she’d ever come to him again, until she had shown up and stolen the needed arrows for him at the archery contest.
“Dewberry!” he called aloud, softly, as he thought of the sprite’s name and image, and longed for her assistance with all his heart. “Dewberry,” he repeated again with the same effort, and then seconds later, he uttered and wished and thought for a third time, and was rewarded with a slight popping noise and the sudden appearance of the beautiful blue enchanted being.
“Dewberry! You came!” he said with disbelief and delight, despite the circumstances.
“You called, as required by the ancient rules, and I responded, elf-rescuer,” the sprite answered, hovering aloft in the air, and looking down at the unconscious elf maiden. “And it appears I’m just in time to prevent you from despoiling a sleeping beauty. Is this a habit of yours? I thought better of you, but I remember that you had me unconscious and unclothed at one time too.” She spoke in an idle and speculative tone as she approached Alicia to look at her.
“Look at me!” Kestrel said sharply. “Do I look like I’m trying to take advantage of her?” he asked as the sprite turned and approached him. “I found two ruffians attacking her, and I chased them off, then called you for help,” he explained.
There was the sound of a sudden gasp from Alicia, and both the sprite and the elf turned to look at her, but there was no evidence of any change in her state.
“What help do you think I can give? I’m not a doctor,” the sprite said pertly.
“The springs, the healing springs where we met,” Kestrel began.
“You want me to take the two of you to the springs?” Dewberry asked.
“Can you?” Kestrel replied. He had only expected to ask the sprite if she could deliver some of the water to him, wondering if a small dose of the water would be sufficient to heal the wounds Alicia had. If the two of them could be transported to the spring, so that his guide could be immersed in the water, he was sure she would heal.
“I’ll need help. Wait here just a moment; and don’t do anything to the girl while I’m gone. In fact, why don’t you get some clothes for her to wear when she awakens?” Dewberry said, resting her hand on his forearm for a moment, then disappearing.
Kestrel looked around and discovered the skirt and the blouse that Alicia had discarded. They were wadded up and thrown in a corner of the room. He fetched them, then stood uncertainly by Alicia, and wondered about his next problem.
Alicia was going to awaken, healed, in a strange spring far from Center Trunk, and would need assistance from sprites to travel back to the capital city. She would react, he was sure of that. The Alicia he had met in the office had seemed stolid and unimaginative, and he felt that that personality would not over-react to the extraordinary circumstances. Yet the Alicia who had removed her wig and stripped off her jacket in the street might be a different personality altogether, and might react differently.
Whichever reaction he had to deal with, he decided he would rely on the authority of Colonel Silvan to deal with the aftermath; the colonel knew of his encounter with sprites, and could order the girl to be quiet once she was healed and they returned to the base. As he sat and contemplated that, Dewberry returned, and then moments later the room was filled with the gently puffing sound of sprite arrivals as five other sprites appeared as well.
Kestrel stood, and studied the herd of small people intently. They were easily discernible as individuals, he noted. The shades of blue they displayed were spread across a wide spectrum, their sizes were noticeably different, and there were clearly males and females present.
“Kestrel elf, this is my affianced,” Dewberry, placed her hand on the shoulder of a sprite that was almost a greenish turquoise in color. Though no taller than Dewberry, her fiance had remarkably broad shoulders, and shoulder-length hair. His fingers were webbed, Kestrel saw, and as he turned his head, his hair moved momentarily away from his neck, allowing Kestrel to see gills. Dewberry had told him that she was engaged to a prince of the water imps, and he saw that there were differences between the two races.
“I am Jonson, and I thank you for the salvation you gave Dewberry. We are all in your debt,” Jonson said gracefully, bowing deeply at the waist.
“Her friendship has already more than repaid the debt, and I appreciate the assistance you are here to offer,” Kestrel replied.
“He’s so gracious. And you said he was a pig!” another sprite said mischievously, grinning wickedly.
“That is my brother, to whom you need paid no attention,” Dewberry said airily. “None of us listen to him!
“And these others are Jonson’s brother and sister,” Dewberry motioned to two others, whose hands were also webbed, Kestrel noticed in passing, “and my particular friend,” she motioned to the last, “Reasion.
“Reasion is the sweetest of all the sprites in the world,” Dewberry grinned at her smaller friend, who appeared to blush a deeper blue.
“Reasion is an unique name,” Kestrel commented.
“Thank you all for coming,” Kestrel said. “Now what are we going to do?”
“Three of us will form a ring about each of you, with hands held, and our bodies pressed against your bodies, and in that manner, you will be transported with us to the spring. Then when your friend is healed, we will bring you back here,” Dewberry answered. “Can you raise your friend, so that we can gather round her?”
With a sense of awkwardness, increased by the hovering audience of sprites, Kestrel carefully lifted Alicia’s limp body upright, then let three of the sprites surround her and wedge her into a small circle between their bodies, so that they held her upright. Kestrel gathered Alicia’s clothes up in a ball pressed against his chest, then felt the warmth of the sprite bodies snuggle against him, and before he knew it would happen, he felt a churning sensation within his stomach and inside his head, then there was blackness and cold and airlessness, and then he was standing in the small glade on the edge of the spring.
“Thank you,” Kestrel spoke gratefully, as his cluster of sprites moved away from him. He dropped Alicia’s clothes, then took the weight of her body as her sprites left her. She was a slender maiden, as most females elves were, a body that was easy for Kestrel to lift and move about, even as he was careful about where he let his hands rest upon her. He turned his head as he slipped her skivvies down her legs, then undressed himself, self- conscious of the sprites that were watching, and took Alicia’s body into the water with him. She floated behind him as he maneuvered over to the same comfortable spot he remembered sitting in before.
“Friend Kestrel?” Jonson came over near him and spoke.
“Yes, Jonson?” Kestrel looked inquisitively at the imp.
“We suffer when we touch this water you know,” the small being began. “Well, not suffer so much, but we lose consciousness.”
Kestrel nodded in agreement.
“But all of us would like to enjoy the restoration the water provides to our bodies. It feels so good to us — one of the best experiences a sprite or an imp can have,” Jonson said. “And it gives us wonderful dreams; so we
