Home From The Sea: The Elemental Masters, Book Seven (27 page)

Once, a band of three crows approached them, and there was something about the purposeful way they were moving that made Nan feel a moment of alarm. But then Neville swooped down to land between them and the girls. He puffed out his chest and uttered a harsh, warning
quork
, then, oddly, jerked his beak towards Nan. The crows all jumped, as if they had been startled, then fled away.

Neville flapped to Nan, and she held out her arm for him. “Thugs,” he croaked scornfully.

“Well thank you,” she replied. He beaked her hair, gently, and took off again. Clearly he was greatly enjoying his free-flying freedom in a place where, unlike Africa, he was the biggest, strongest bird around.

They were both used to walking for quite long distances in Africa—and besides, given that they weren’t closely counterfeiting the good daughters of a clergyman, neither of them were wearing the corsets they’d been forced to don in Criccieth. So it was quite the enjoyable walk to the beach, despite all the creatures that would appear and disappear again, making Nan, at least, feel as if she was some sort of spectacle.

“Do you think they know we can see them?” she finally said aloud—and as soon as the words were out of her mouth, the ones currently trailing them gave various sounds of alarm, and vanished.

“I think that answers your question,” Sarah said, dryly.

On reaching the shore, they continued their walk toward Clogwyn, and soon enough, the little cottage showed in the meadow
above the beach ahead of them. As they neared it, however, someone got up from the ground beside it, and began to move. A moment later, it was obvious that the person was moving toward them, quite deliberately.

Soon enough, it was equally obvious who it was. Mari Prothero, who took a stance between them and the direction in which they were going, and stood there, waiting, arms crossed over her chest.

They glanced at each other over the basket. Nan shrugged. “Well, either she knows, or she’s just seeing who it is that’s about to march past her. In either case, I suppose we get what we want, which is a closer look at her.”

Sarah bit her lip. “I just hope—if she knows, she isn’t too annoyed.”

“Oh, chances are, it was the Elementals that warned her that someone who could see them was coming, and that’s what she’s curious about,” Nan said. “In any case, there’s no point in retreating now.”

That was fairly obvious, as the girl waited, unmoving, eyes fixed on them. Nan decided to take the initiative, and was very glad that Robin had given them command of the Welsh language, for otherwise she’d have been at a great disadvantage even if Mari knew English. “Good morning!” she called cheerfully. “My sister and I are visitors here; we’re staying at Gower Cottage.”

“Are you, then?” Mari said, coolly. “Then perhaps you can tell me why you’ve been overlooking me these past several days.”

Ah, she knows. Well… tell part of the truth. And part of the story.
“Well… that’s a bit of a tale,” Nan replied. “And tales go better over luncheon, if you’d like to share ours.” She and Sarah together lifted the basket. “There’s ham,” she added temptingly. “And scones.”

Mari weakened visibly at the mention of ham, and more at the mention of scones. “Well…” she said, hesitantly.

“And jam and clotted cream,” Sarah added.

It was probably the clotted cream that did it. Wales was not far from Devon, and the making of that delicacy had managed to
percolate over the border, but not too many people on the shore made it or made it well. Nan loved it so much she’d
learned
how, and had made a batch a couple days ago. Now she was rather glad she had, and even gladder she’d brought it.

“Very well,” Mari replied. “But the tale had best be a good one.”

It appeared that she was alone, but for an ill-tempered cat who scampered away, hissing, when Neville came down out of the sky and quorked challenge at her. Nan took the rug off the top of the basket, and spread it, and Sarah unpacked the contents. They each took a corner of the rug, with Mari eyeing them suspiciously. Nan quickly passed her a scone and the pots of cream and jam before beginning.

“I don’t know if you’ve been over to Clogwyn since we came,” she said. “I expect Clogwyn is like our village, and the moment that anyone arrives, everyone knows everything there is to know about him.”

“Hmm,” Mari confirmed, around a mouthful of smothered scone.

“Then you know our father’s a clergyman and Sarah’s here to get over a bit of a—shock,” Nan continued. “Actually…
they
don’t think it’s a shock. They’re hoping it was just being suntouched, because… well… she’s been seeing things.”

Mari swallowed. “Things?”

“Both of us, have, actually,” Sarah put in, and made a face. “I was just unwary enough to say something about it, when one jumped up in my face and tried to frighten me.”

“Little wretch,” Nan grumbled. “Nasty little thing, like a wizened old man made out of a gorse-stump. Jumped right at her and then ran away laughing. Poor Sarah went over backwards and said something and then had to pretend that the sun had made her faint. And even so, that was enough for father to decide we needed to have some time at the seaside, and our friend Lord Alderscroft said he’d pay for it.” She hesitated. “And truth to tell, since no one else ever saw them… we were rather beginning to doubt if we were in our right minds.”

“People already thought we were a bit odd because of the birds,
and my blurting out about that gnome just made it worse. But that’s why we were watching you,” Sarah continued. “Because we happened to see you out on one of our walks, and we saw some of the same sort of creatures with you.”

“And since
you
were talking to them, obviously they weren’t something we were seeing out of our own heads, and we weren’t actually going mad.” Nan let out a huge sigh of relief, although it was because Mari had suddenly relaxed, rather than a bit of acting. “So we’ve been watching you, just to be sure, you know, and when we were sure we decided to come down here and see if we could talk to you.” She held out her hand. “I’m Nan Lyon-White,” she said. “This is my sister Sarah.”

Mari leaned over the cloth, and took it, shaking it firmly. “Mari Prothero,” she replied. “But that’s an English name, and you speak Welsh as good as anyone.”

“We’re from over near the border, as you can probably tell from our horrid accents,” Sarah said, also shaking Mari’s hand.

Mari looked from one to the other of them and back. The girl was, as Nan now knew, as typical a specimen of a Welsh female as could be; she was tiny, dark, with dark hair and eyes, and wearing the usual working-day outfit of scarlet flannel petticoat (just showing under her skirt), brown flannel gown, woolen skirt striped in black and brown, apron, woolen shawl, and a handkerchief folded and tucked into the top of her gown. She wasn’t wearing the frilly cap or the stovepipe hat that you saw in prints and photographs of Welsh women, though, nor the jacket that would have matched the skirt, and her feet were bare. But Nan and Sarah had found that there were not too many of those odd hats to be seen on ordinary days, only on Sundays, and then most often by much older women. So they had decided that since they were supposed to be from near the border, their own simple walking gowns would pass muster without going out and drawing attention to themselves by trying to buy Welsh dress.

“Well then,” Mari said, as Sarah passed her ham and bread and butter. “I can tell you that you’re not mad, at least.”

“But what
are
they?” Nan persisted. “We just started seeing them the last year or so, and there’s no one to ask!”

Mari rolled her eyes. “There’s as many names for them as there are kinds,” she said. “Some are the
Tylwyth Teg
, and some are something called Elementals, and I haven’t sorted them all out myself. Some are good and some are bad, and some just like to make as much trouble for a body as they can, like that gnome.” She tilted her head to the side. “But for some reason, you’ve got a mark on you that says to leave you be, and it’s the mark of one of the High Ones of the
Tylwyth Teg
, and perhaps you can be telling how you got that?”

Nan and Sarah exchanged a look, and Nan turned back to Mari to shrug. “It might be that boy we did a kindness for, right after we started seeing them,” she said, with hesitation in her voice. “I can’t think of any other reason.”

“It was the strangest thing,” Sarah continued. “We found him standing in the middle of a meadow, acting like he wanted to leave and couldn’t. He didn’t speak to us—I don’t think he knew we could see him—but he was acting as if he was getting frantic. I thought—I thought I saw something like a line, a circle in the turf, all around him. Glowing. And I don’t know why I did this, but I knew I had to break it, so I scuffed my shoes in it until I kicked up some sort of powder under the grass, and that did it.”

“I told him, ‘Try leaving now,’” Nan put in, “And that was when he realized we
could
see him, and he jumped over the break in the line as quick as quick. And then he said ‘My mark on you as thanks, pretty maids,’ and he just disappeared.”

Mari’s eyes were big and round at this point. “Well! You made the right choice!” she said. “They don’t like to be beholden to anyone, and him wanting to discharge the debt right straight away probably made him give you that mark instead of something smaller, which he’d have bargained for if he hadn’t been in such a hurry.” She nodded. “Aye, I reckon that’s the case. And I think you two had better start studying the tales so you can watch for the things that would harm you but for that mark—because one day, one of them might decide to try anyway.”

They both shivered, and it wasn’t feigned, because they knew very well that there were plenty of things out there that were deadly dangerous. They
still
didn’t know what it was that had haunted that abandoned house in Berkeley Square; it might have been the most powerful ghost they had ever encountered, or an inimical Elemental, or something old as Puck but wicked beyond belief. All they knew for certain was that it had tried to kill them
and
Memsa’b,
and
Sahib and Karamjit and Selim, and it had very nearly managed. “Sarah sees and talks to ghosts,” Nan said, after a moment. “She’s always been able to do that, but they—the ghosts—warned her not to talk about it a long time ago. Sometimes I can see them too. We wondered if being able to see ghosts was making us go mad and see things, or that maybe the ghosts were doing it to us so no one would ever believe us.”

“Really?” Mari looked impressed. “I can’t do that.” Her face darkened. “I wouldn’t be surprised, though, if one of them decided to make you see the Elementals and all, just to get you out of the way. Idwal says that ghosts are rarely nice. Most of them want to hurt people.”

Sarah nodded solemnly. “I haven’t seen very many that wanted to stay because they needed to help someone or they need to do something. Most of them either stay because they don’t know how to go on, or they are angry or bitter or vindictive. I don’t mind the ones that don’t know how to go on, because I can help with that. But the others…” She shuddered “The others are horrid.”

“I’m glad I don’t see them,” Mari said decidedly. And suddenly, she smiled. “Thank you for the lunch. Would you like to stay? Idwal should be here soon, and he can probably help you more than I can.”

“Oh
could
we?” Sarah said, gratefully. “That would be wonderful! We don’t know anyone here, and I miss my friends.”

Grey chose that moment to climb down off Sarah’s shoulder and walk ponderously over to Mari. She looked Mari in the face, and said, imperiously, “Up!”

“She wants you to pick her up,” Sarah explained, as Mari looked startled. With a wary look, Mari offered her hand.

Grey stepped up onto it. “Shoulder!” she ordered. Hesitantly, and with a care for that beak, Mari let the bird transfer to her shoulder.

Grey leaned down and began whispering in Mari’s ear. Mari’s eyes grew big.

“Lord love you!” she exclaimed, looking at Grey. “I never!” She turned to look at Sarah. “You didn’t teach this bird to say all that, did you?”

Sarah shook her head. “Grey is… special,” she said, finally. “Whatever she told you is in her own head. She’s helped protect me from ghosts, and other things, before. Neville is special too.”

Mari turned again to look at the parrot. “Lord love you!” she said again.

Grey just laughed in Sarah’s voice. “Down!” she ordered, and Mari transferred her to Sarah’s outstretched hand.

Mari looked over at Neville, who was preening himself industriously. “I don’t suppose you have any advice,” she said, in tones that indicated she half expected that he did.

Neville looked at her and yawned. “Lovey stuff and nonsense is for girls,” he said dismissively.

Mari stuck her tongue out at him. “Just wait till you decide you want a mate, boyo,” she told him. “Then it won’t all be
for girls.
”

Neville went back to preening. Clearly he had his own opinion on the subject.

When the four Water creatures arrived, Mari introduced them as Rhodri, Trefor, Niarl and Idwal, her teacher. All of them were surprised to see strangers with her, and shocked when she introduced them openly as Selch. Not that Nan and Sarah had any idea what a
Selch
was until Grey and Neville whispered the information in their ears.