I’m sorry you had such bad dreams. But as you see, I’m fine. Sit down and eat.
I wish the men would come back. Drake would drive the pecksies away. I wish you’d had more hedge-witch training. Then you could make a charm to keep rats from the well and pecksies from the house.
Mirrifen bowed her head to that comment, trying not to feel rebuked. I wish I knew how to make such charms. We’ll just have to think of another way to deal with rats and pecksies.
Jami suggested fearfully, Perhaps we could try my mother’s trick. Leave food and water out for them, then bind them and send them away. They’d probably come for water.
I don’t think we need to do that, dear. I’ll sleep beside you tonight, not out by the well.
Why?
Mirrifen gathered her courage. Yesterday, it had been hard to tell Jami that she must guard the well at night. It was even harder to tell her why she didn’t need to do it anymore. She divulged the whole truth, of the injured pecksie and the binding with milk and finally of her command to the pecksie. Jamie flushed and then grew pale with fury.
How could you? she demanded when Mirrifen paused. How could you bring a pecksie into this house after what I told you?
It was before you told me. I’ve made things right. I bound her not to do your baby any harm.
You should send her away! Jami’s voice shook. Withhold the water until they beg, then give it, bind them, and send them away! It’s the only safe thing to do.
I don’t think that’s right. Mirrifen tried to speak calmly. She and Jami seldom quarreled. The pecksie doesn’t seem dangerous to me. She seems, well, not that different from you and me, Jami. She’s pregnant. I think she may be a pecksie hedge-witch. She said—
You promised Drake you’d take care of me. You promised! And now you’re letting pecksies into the house. How could you be so false? She leaped to her feet and rushed from the room, leaving her food half-eaten on the table. The bedroom door slammed. As she sighed in resignation, she heard a piercing shriek. The door was flung open so hard it bounded off the wall. Jami burst into the kitchen. Pecksies! Pecksies were in my room last night! I didn’t dream it, I didn’t! Look, go and look!
Mirrifen hurried to the bedroom and peered in. The room was empty. But on the floor in the corner, there was a bloody smudge by the silvery outlines of small feet. It just killed a rat there, she said.
And that? There? Jami pointed accusingly at a smear of silvery tracks that ascended and crossed the bedclothes. Her finger swung again. And there? Silver smeared the windowsill. What was it doing here? What did it want? Jami’s voice rose to the edge of hysteria. Mirrifen suspected that a pecksie had pursued a rat across the bed. She tried to sound comforting.
I don’t know. But I’ll find out how they got in and block it off. And I won’t sleep tonight. I’ll keep watch over you.
The younger woman was torn between accepting her protection and displaying her anger at Mirrifen for bringing a pecksie into the house. Jami spent the rest of the day penduluming between the two reactions. Mirrifen devoted her hours to tightening the room against rats. In a corner, behind Jami’s hope chest, the floor had sagged away from the wall, leaving a gap wide enough for a rat to slither through. The pecksie had obviously come through the open window. She found an old plank in the barn to mend the gap. As she came back to the house, she saw a pecksie clinging to the windowsill, peering into the bedroom. When she walked toward it, the pecksie sidled away quickly into the tall dry grass. The grasses didn’t even sway after it.
That night, Mirrifen shut the door and the window tightly, and sat by the bed on a straight-backed chair. Long before midnight, her back and her head ached. She yawned and promised herself that tomorrow, after her chores, she’d take a long nap. A long nap, all by herself, stretched out in her own bed.
A tap on her knee woke her. She looked around at the darkness, momentarily bewildered. Pale moonlight cut between the thin curtains to slice the bed. Jami breathed evenly and deeply. Another tap on her knee brought her gaze down. The pecksie stood at her feet, looking up at her. Two more pecksies sat on the window sill. Three perched like birds on the footboard of the bed. All the pecksies stared at Jami intently. Mirrifen’s pecksie spoke. Mistress, may I have a bucket of water?
The door to the room was still shut. How did you get in here? Mirrifen’s voice shook slightly.
By a way no rat could come. You bound me. ‘Let no harm come to her child.' I must keep watch, to be sure it is so. These others serve me in that geas. Yours was the binding. How I fulfill it cannot concern you.
Mistress, may I have a bucket of water?
I can keep watch over her myself, Mirrifen asserted shakily.
The pecksie shook her head sadly. You spend your words in lies. You didn’t guard. You slept. I am bound. Guard her I must.
Mirrifen rose stiffly from the chair. She crept from the room, the pecksie following. She motioned frantically for the others to follow but they did not take their gazes from Jami. She glanced at her pecksie beseechingly. The little woman shook her head stubbornly. You spent the words, and this is what they bought you. Mirrifen felt like a traitor as she left Jami sleeping under the pecksies' watchful eyes. Her pecksie waited impatiently while she lit a lantern to give her courage.
Around the well, the silent slaughter of the night before had been repeated. The archers on the well cap were unstringing their bows as the butchers moved out to the skewered rats. It seemed to her that there were far more pecksies tonight. Don’t you fear that you’ll run out of rats? she asked.
Drought will bring rats here. The well and your stored grain draw them. The pecksie gave her a sideways look. But for us, rats would have eaten all grain. You should not be stingy if we take an egg sometimes.
Mirrifen bit back a retort and lifted the well hatch. The bucket’s rope played out longer than it ever had. She said quietly, If the drought lasts much longer, the well will go dry.
The pecksie didn’t look at her. You waste words on what you can’t change.
Mirrifen drew the bucket up slowly. Every bucket of water she gave to the pecksie was one less bucket for Jamie and her. Mirrifen braced her courage and asked the question. If I told you to leave our farm and take the other pecksies with you, you would have to do it.
The pecksie didn’t answer the question. Instead she said, You bound me to see that no harm comes to the child. To fulfill that, I must be where the child is. She stared off into the darkness. Or the child must be where I am.
A chill went up Mirrifen’s back. As she brought the brimming bucket to the surface, the pecksie said in a flat voice, Thank you for the water, mistress. I am bound.
In less than a heartbeat, pecksies surrounded the bucket. The pecksie’s fluting voice was stern, and they formed an orderly line. The water was rationed, each creature drinking for only a few seconds before another took his place. Nonetheless, Mirrifen drew four buckets of water before the horde was satisfied. The hatch thudded shut. The pecksie hunters dispersed. Her pecksie was the last to leave, walking not into the fields, but toward the house.
Slowly Mirrifen followed her. The house was silent. Inside the darkened bedroom, she sat down on the hard chair. She saw no pecksies, but knew they were there. The pecksie had said rats couldn’t get into the room but there seemed no way to keep pecksies out.
She awakened late the next morning to Jami shaking her shoulder. You slept! You promised to guard me, and then you slept!