From the other directions, Bogles emerged, as they do, making that sideways sidle which brings them into one world or another.
During what followed, I stood with my hand on Israfel’s arm, his kindred arrayed behind us, watching them come. Puck came up to us, quite unselfconsciously, nodding to Israfel as though he knew him well. While he watched his fellow Bogles assemble, he whispered to us both, taking an inventory, as it were, jigging from foot to foot with the rhythm of his voice.
“When the silver trumpets sound to every puck and peri,
From the clustered hills around, come the folk of Faery,
Brownies, brags, bugbears, hags,
big black dogs and banshees,
Boggy-boes, hobby-thrusts,
imps and lianhanshees,
Kitty-witches, hinky-punks,
clabber-naps and swaithes,
Fachans, follets, fays, fiends,
gallytrots and wraithes,
Selkies, scrats, spunks, spurns,
ciuthaches and cowies,
Nickies, nacks, gholes, grants,
tutgots and tod-lowries,
Melch-dicks and come-quicks,
cors and mares and pixies,
Pad-fooits and leprechauns,
chittifaces, nixies,
Sprets, trows, gnomes, kowes,
goblins and Peg-powlers,
Ouphs, brags, nickers, nags,
nisses and night-prowlers,
Lubbers, lobs, tantarrabobs,
cluricans and correds,
Tangies, trolls, tatterfoals,
hobbits and hob-horrids,
Mawkins, tints, gringes, squints,
shellycoats and sprites,
Roanes and ratchets, pinkets, patches,
grindylows and wights.
When they hear the summons sound, every puck and peri
from the clustered hills around gathers into Faery.”
He grinned at me, cocking his eyebrows, and I knew he’d been trying to amuse me. I suppose I must have been amused, or at least interested, for I’d paid enough attention to note that he had not mentioned the Fenoderee in this inventory, which was not inclusive in any case. Puck had ignored thurses, knockers, kobolds, and a dozen other beings that Fenoderee had spoken of.
When all the Bogles had ranged themselves on the seaside in a vast half circle, the Sidhe began to arrive, gathering on the upland side and leaving a lane clear to the Copse of the Covenant, which stood toward the mountains.
I did not see Mama anywhere.
Israfel put his hand on my shoulder and said, “She’ll be here.”
And at last she came, from her own castle, which stood to the south of the upland. She came walking with one or two of her people, Joyeause and another aunt, I think it was. There were tears in my eyes. I was grieving and didn’t know why. When she came close enough, I saw how very beautiful she is. She looked at me, shaking her head a little from side to side, tears running down her cheeks. Oberon looked at her, then away, flushing angrily. He had sent her away when they gave me as the teind to hell! She hadn’t known he was going to do it.
And it was all right. No matter that I was a hundred and three and all my remaining years had been used up in hell. It was all right. She hadn’t known. She hadn’t wished me ill. Oh, didn’t I know it’s the best we can do, sometimes, simply not to wish our children ill.
“Get on with it,” said Oberon, impatiently.
Gabriel answered him. “There’s nothing to get on with, brother. We are not here to make judgements.”
“A little late to call me ‘brother,’ ” said Oberon.
“Not at all,” Gabriel said. “We were made at one birth, you and I. We were both children of the Covenant. You and your people chose your way and I and my people chose ours. You have done as you have done, and we have done as we have done. Now we will be judged, both, but neither you nor I will do the judging.”
As though that had been an introduction, the seraph came out of the tent and moved down the lane between the Bogles and Oberon’s kindred. I couldn’t tell what the seraph looked like. All I could see was light, not too bright to look at but much too bright to see whatever was inside. Maybe it was all light and nothing else. It was not made for earth, as man and Faery were. “Earth is all we were given,” Puck had told me. “Both Faery and mortal man. Earth is all we were given.”
“Oberon,” said the seraph. The word was really a word, but there was no sound. We all apprehended the word, but we didn’t hear it. It seemed to hang within us, somehow, like a sensation. Like a pain.
Oberon didn’t speak. He stood, head up, staring at the light, refusing to blink.
“You have broken the Covenant between Faery and the Holy One, Blessed be He.”
“Not true,” said Oberon in a harsh whisper. “No human has come to harm through me.”
“She stands before you. Beauty, daughter of Elladine. Half human in birth. Wholly human in life.”
“She’s here! She isn’t hurt! She isn’t dead!”
I felt the glamour around me thick as salve. I could tell from the expressions on all their faces that I was beautiful, lovely as the dawn, lovelier than Mama, even. They were all set on making me so. Their eyes were on me, strengthening me, making me glow. I wish I could have seen me at that moment. Just to remember. I felt myself shining like a star.
Israfel’s hands touched the top of my head, came down my head to the shoulders, down my arms, on down my body. I felt the glamour stripped away. Oberon refused to look. The others could not take their eyes away. I saw Mama weeping as though she could not stop. I was so weak, I wanted to lie down. So old. So fragile. So very tired.
And still, I wanted to defend them. I wanted to cry out, “No! They’ve given more than the pain cost! There’s beauty here. There’s enchantment here. They’ve let me have that. I’ve had a life that’s worth more than the lost years. Don’t hurt them. Don’t hurt my mama.…”
I tried to say that. Israfel’s hands rested on my thighs, my old, quivering thighs, barely able to hold me up. I gasped for air. I tried to shout and couldn’t, tried to intervene and couldn’t. I raised one hand, and it trembled.
“Shhh,” said Israfel.
I bowed my
