“Demoiselle, why do you cry?” asked Borel, sitting down beside her.
Snuffling and snubbing, the girl looked at the prince, great teardrops welling in her light brown, almost golden, eyes, and she looked at the Sprite, and brightened only slightly, and looked at the bee, and cried, “ Eee! Don’t let it sting me.”
“Hmph!” snorted Flic, but he said no more, for having been once burned, he was now twice shy.
But Borel said, “ ’Tis a very tame bee, my lady, and she would not harm even a fly or a flea.”
“Well, she can sting all the flies and fleas she wants,” said the little girl, “just as long as she doesn’t sting me.” Then the child began to wail again, and gestured at the river.
“What is it, my wee demoiselle?” asked the prince, “And by the bye, I am Borel. Could I have your name?”
“M-my n-name is D-Dandi,” snubbed the girl.
“And what is grieving you, my lady?” asked Borel.
Yet snuck ing a bit, the child got her sobs somewhat under control, and she said, “I came across when the river was low, but now, with the rain, it is quite high and swift and entirely too deep for me to wade, and- snkk — I do not know how to swim, and even if I did, it would- hnk — sweep me out to sea, and then I’d be lost and all aloneuuu — and probably end up on an island with monsters that eat young and tender things like little girls-oh poor me-and I’m hungry and my mother probably thinks I’m dead-poor Momma-or carried off by tigers and bears and Trolls and- wahhh! ”
Borel put his arm about her. “Hush, hush, child. I will feed you and then carry you across, and you can then run swiftly home to your mother, and she will sweep you up in her arms and hug you and kiss you and no longer worry.”
Borel fished about in his rucksack, and he gave her some jerky and a hardtack biscuit, and as she chewed, he poured some honey into the jar lid for Buzzer and Flic. He saw Dandi’s pale brown eyes light up, and he motioned for her to hold out her biscuit and he dribbled a bit of honey thereon.
She gobbled it right up, and looked at Borel soulfully and said, “More, please?”
Borel grinned and set out another hardtack biscuit and drizzled honey atop.
They spent long moments sitting on the bank and speaking about this and that and the rain and the storm and the river and the drifting of the clouds leaving blue skies behind. But at last the meal was done, and Borel said, “Well, now, my girl, it’s time to take you across.” He turned his back and said, “Hop on, Dandi, and I’ll give you a ride.”
“The river is awfully deep,” she said timidly.
“But I am tall,” said Borel.
“The water is quite swift,” she said.
“But I am strong and sturdy,” replied Borel. He looked about and found a hefty stick to act as a stave. “And I’ll use this to steady me.-Come, come, girl, hop on.”
She climbed on his back and whispered in his ear, “I am quite afraid.”
“I’ll be brave enough for both of us, Dandi,” said Borel. And grasping her under one knee with one hand, and with the stave in the other, he waded into the stream.
“Eeeee!” Dandi screamed.
Borel waded on.
Buzzer and Flic flew across, but then flew back and whirled and twirled in the air, trying to take Dandi’s mind off the water.
But Dandi paid them no heed, and she cried, “Oh, oh, I told you it was too high and swift and entirely too deep to wade.”
Now up to his waist, Borel sloshed on, and Dandi began to thrash. Borel tightened his grip under her knee, but her other leg was loose and kicking frantically.
“Oh, oh,” wailed Dandi, flailing about, “I do not know how to swim; we’ll drown.”
Borel clasped her even tighter.
“We’ll fall in and be swept out to sea! Wahhh! ”
It was all Borel could do to hold on to her, thrashing about as she was.
“We’ll be captured by pirates,” wailed Dandi, sobbing and floundering ’round, “and they’ll throw us onto an island and we’ll be eaten by monsters and then chased by tigers and bears and Trolls and-”
Struggling to maintain his grip on her, Borel finally made it to the opposite shore, and Dandi had entirely collapsed into tears. He abandoned the stave and swung her around and set her down at the foot of an oak tree. “D-dry m-my eyes,” she blubbered. And Borel fished about in the rucksack and pulled out a cotton bandanna he had purchased in Riverbend. He knelt and reached forth with the kerchief.
At the very first touch, she grew tall and stood before him as a matronly mademoiselle with yellow hair and golden eyes. Somewhere nearby there sounded the clack of shuttle and the thud of batten of a loom.
“Told you,” shouted Flic, sitting on a branch nearby, Buzzer at his side.
Yet kneeling, “Lady Lot,” said Borel.
She nodded her head in acknowledgement.
“She Who Fixes the Present and Seals Men’s Fate,” he said.
Once again she nodded in agreement.
“Lady Verdandi,” he added.
“Yes, Prince Borel, those are names I am known by, and by many others as well.”
Borel stood and bowed deeply, and as he did so he reached out and took her hand and kissed her fingers.
“Ah, Skuld said you were quite the bold one, and now I see why. You would dare flirt with Destiny, eh?”
“If that’s what it takes to free my beloved,” said Borel, not a sign of guilt or fear in his eyes.
Verdandi laughed, and then sobered. “I want to thank you for freeing the lady in white at the ruined tower, for she has been throwing herself from that cliff during storms for summers beyond count. Yet the letter was left behind, and it kept drawing her back, would not let her leave this plane. Your burning it while saying a blessing was just the right thing to do.”
Borel smiled. “I am pleased that I did something right, yet I seem no closer to finding Chelle. Would you help me, my lady, as did your sister Skuld?”
Verdandi sighed. “List, Prince Borel, you have already missed one chance to find the Endless Sands, but you yet have-”
“I what?” said Borel.
“I said, you have missed one chance to find the Endless Sands,” replied Verdandi.
“Lady Lot, when did I-?”
“That is neither here nor there,” snapped Verdandi, “for it is already woven into the tapestry of time.” Then her voice softened, and she said, “Heed, you have one more chance, and I can give some small assistance, for you did aid me across the river and did not let me fall.”
“He fed you, too,” cried Flic from the branches above. “Just like he did Skuld.”
Verdandi smiled and looked up. “Indeed he did, and with honey, too.” She turned to Borel. “Even so, I cannot aid you unless you answer a riddle.” She frowned in thought a moment, then glanced at the Sprite above. “You are quite the flier, I hear, swift beyond many.”
“Yes, I am,” said Flic, thrusting out his wee chest. “There is none among the Sprites who is better.” Then quicksilverswift his face fell in dismay and he groaned. “Oh, my, this is not another riddle concerning my abilities, is it?”
Now Verdandi laughed and said, “Indeed it is, for my elder sister said that she put you in the riddle she posed, and I would do likewise.”
“Your elder sister, you say?” asked Flic. “Oh, no, we’ve not met Urd at all. ’Twas Demoiselle Skuld instead.”
“Skuld is my elder sister,” said Verdandi.
Flic shook his head. “Oh, no, my lady, for, as I said, she is but a demoiselle, whereas you are, um, er”-Flic searched for a polite way to say “older,” and he finally said-“more ripe.”
A smile flashed o’er Verdandi’s face, and she said, “Nevertheless, Skuld is my elder sister, whereas Urd is my younger.”
“Flic,” said Borel, “it is all in how one looks at time. I will explain it later. Yet for now I have a riddle with which to contend.” He turned to Verdandi. “Madame, I must warn you, I know the answer to the riddle of the Sphinx, and the riddles you and your sisters posed to Camille, as well as Lady Skuld’s most recent riddle.”
Verdandi smiled. “Skuld said you were honorable, and I see she is right, but none of those things will I ask you. Instead, here is my riddle: “If Flic were in a Spritely contest