Its naked skin was an angry red, as if it had been scalded, and was covered in warts. As for the face, with its bulging eyes and pointed ears, it was a fanged grimace.
The gnome clambered to his feet on seeing the two, and shook the bars of his cage with a defiant snarl, while along the line his fellows did the same.
Laedo hoped the cage was strong enough to withstand the creature’s frustration. He stood pensively, thinking of what had been wrought to produce such a travesty of a human being. To think that human stock had been intentionally modified to produce this result displeased him.
Evidently Klystar had delved into human mythology to produce both fairies and gnomes. Traditionally the latter were miners and skilled metal-workers. For all their ugliness and ferocity, the gnomes could perhaps prove useful to him.
Politely he asked, “Do you have a name?”
The gnome replied in a thick, rasping voice.
“KILL ALL FAIRIES! THIS LAND WILL BE OURS!”
“Hmm,” said Laedo.
Admittedly, it was not a promising start. He studied the leering face in front of him, and found that it was actually possible to discern a family resemblance with the fairies and with the other Erspians such as Histrina, despite the grotesqueness of that resemblance. It strengthened his belief that the Erspia worlds had been stocked from a relatively small number of original settlers.
Flit responded to the gnome’s taunt with a superior smile, and wandered away to join his fellows.
Such innocence was touching. How could he be sure that Laedo was not, after all, in league with his enemies?
Laedo edged closer to the cage and caught a whiff of the creature, a smell like rotten potatoes. He spoke quietly. “Look at me. You will see that I am not a fairy. My face is different. I am taller. I have no wings.”
The gnome pulled a face and looked puzzled.
“If you’re not a gnome you’re a fairy,” he grunted flatly.
Laedo let it pass. “Is it true you have good metal-workers in Gnomeland?” he asked. That was what the fairies called the upper world. “Can you make any shape in metal?”
Once again the gnome seemed to be puzzled by what Laedo was saying. “Yes!” he boasted finally. “We can make anything! We are not like those useless fairies who cannot make anything at all, except in wood, and do not deserve their world. There are metal ores here! They rightly belong to us!”
Despite their belligerence, Laedo began to sense a workmanlike intelligence in these squat, solid beings.
Metal-work seemed to be an obsession with them.
It could be just what he needed.
He lowered his voice yet further, ducking his head.
“Don’t repeat what I’m saying. Do you want to go back home?”
Suspicion and incomprehension glared from the gnome’s bulbous eyes. “Uh?”
“Do your people know how to make steel?”
The gnome nodded.
“There’s something I want made. I have nothing to do with the fairy folk. I come from a different world altogether—one you know nothing about. If I free you and return you to Gnomeland, can you get this thing made for me?”
The squat creature made no response to the talk of other worlds, if the idea penetrated his brain at all.
He thought for a moment, then made a gesture to one side, swivelling his eyes.
“My comrades, too.”
“I can’t manage that,” Laedo said. “I’m not even sure I can get you away.”
“The fairies are returning,” the gnome muttered, coming close to the bars of his cage. “If you do what you promise, then we shall see.”
“Have you had enough of the ruffian?” Flit asked as he rejoined Laedo.
“I think so.”
“I imagined it would take little to satisfy your curiosity. They are nothing but brutes.”
Laedo had to admit his plan had dangers. He was basing his optimism on his experiences with Hoggora and his horde on Erspia-1. While a caricature of evil—no, not altogether a caricature, he and his followers committed real evil—Hoggora had treated Laedo hospitably, intrigued to have such an exotic visitor. Laedo was hoping he would fare similarly among the gnomes, if they didn’t try to seize his spaceship.
It would, of course, be a great advantage to have someone along who could introduce him. Laedo was really here to see if a rescue attempt was practicable. On the way in he had looked for a nearby clearing where he could put the spaceship down. There was one a mile or so away. Then there was the question of guards. If the prisoners were heavily guarded, he would have to abandon the idea.
It didn’t seem that they were. The fairies had only a loose social structure and disliked routine. After all, if the gnomes managed to break their cages and escape, they would simply be captured again. There was nowhere for them to go.
“Would you like us to escort you back to your flying house?” Flit enquired politely.
“Just back to where we entered the forest, thanks.”
He took careful note of his surroundings as they walked beside the stream. He recalled how Histrina had described the childlike innocents of Erspia-2 as ‘like fairies’. Perhaps there was something to that. The winged people of Erspia-3 were far too trusting.
None of the tree villages which usually were scattered about the forest seemed to be anywhere nearby.
The prisoners were placed from distance from any habitation. Which, too, was convenient.
Abducting the gnome would undoubtedly sour his relations with the fairies. They had accepted his tale of coming from some unknown world, and seemed content to leave him and Histrina to their own devices.
But before long he would be questioned as to his future intentions.
He and Flit soared up through the vent in the forest and went separate ways, Laedo back to the projector station. He wanted to check out his cargo carrier before nightfall.
It was not very often that he saw flying folk over the forest canopy. The population of Fairyland was not large, and the fairies did not spend their time flitting about in the upper air. Their economy was simple.
They gathered fruit, nuts and vegetables from their copious environment, and seemed never to have heard of agriculture.
There was one occasion when they did soar far above the forest. That was when courting or lovemaking.
Flight seemed to be inextricably linked with sex. Couples would hurtle, swoop and pirouette, then mate on the wing, membranes thrumming.
Laedo thought he saw some such display as he approached the projector station, but he received a surprise on coming closer. Not two, but several figures were involved. And one of them was Histrina.
She had shown her usual enterprise during his short absence. She had found the spare gravpack and had learned how to use it. Now she was disporting in the air with three female fairies, laughing wildly.
The fairies clearly found her playfulness infectious. They too were laughing, darting and dodging, as Histrina tried to catch them.
Then Histrina suddenly succeeded in seizing hold of one of them. Histrina’s expression changed. She clamped her arms around the other girl’s thorax, preventing her wings from beating, so that she was like a transfixed insect. Alarm came to the fairy’s face as she realized she was helpless.
Histrina was looking evilly at the fairy girl’s wings.
“Histrina!”
She looked round furtively on hearing Laedo’s voice.
“Let her go!” Laedo ordered in a stentorian voice.
Histrina obeyed. The fairy girl fell a few feet, then fluttered away, glancing back before fleeing into the distance.
The others, too, were holding back, hovering, puzzled by events. Laedo pointed. “Back into the station, Histrina.”
“You lied to me,” Histrina accused as she adjusted the knob on the strap of her gravpack. “You said there wasn’t another one of these.”