Swan on the Moor

Chapter 20

Aine watched Jessie's face flood with surprise, and then a wry self-amusement.

"I shouldn't be surprised at anything any more, right?" she grinned self-deprecatingly, and Aine laughed. They had half-floated, half-slid through the light onto the island Aine had picked out, and pushed on the door. Like before, it glided easily open at just a touch and they had made to step inside, and stopped, propping the doors open with their heels, as they focussed on the contents.

It was...well, 'ocean' was the word that sprung to mind; it reminded Aine of the sea she could see from standing on the very top of Haytor, on a clear morning. It

was nothing but endless blue. Occasionally they could see ripples and splashes, too far out to identify. There was no shore, no skyline apart from the light; they had just opened the door and there was ocean, immediately and infinitely depthless from the frame of the door just below their feet to beyond what the eye could see.

What had really stunned them, however, was the beginning of vaguely Grecian towers and coral sculptures that could almost be seen through the depths of blue...the tops of an ancient city. They could just about make out indistinct, dark shadows of people twining and weaving through the bright architecture.

"Going in?" said Aine mischievously, and Jessie shook her head.

"I can't swim," she grinned. "Isn't that ridiculous?"

Aine stared. "I thought everyone could swim! I thought you just kind of...were born knowing." She remembered splashing about in the rivers since she was a child, and her mother's laughter as she raced along aside the river birds, trying to chase them, get them to chase her. Water just seemed to flow off of her body, and she felt quite at home there.

"Let's try somewhere else," suggested Jessie, dragging her eyes from the distant marble castle below. "They might notice us sooner or later if we just stand here." Even as she said it, the dark shadows seemed to be growing in number, twisting and turning in circles as if deciding whether or not to rise up and greet them.

Aine nodded, and they retreated carefully back out, letting the doors slide to a silent close behind them.

"OK, so if the way out is through there..." Jessie's mouth turned into a moue of concern.

"It won't be," said Aine. "The Sithen is a thing of earth, not water. Can't you feel it? The way out will be through rock and soil." She couldn't explain how she even knew that, but it was the same feeling as when she had danced around the menhir in the Upperworld or walked past what she knew had been a faerie's old haunt. She could sense the magic and understand it, more or less. Something in her could speak that language.

"You know best," Jessie shrugged. She turned another quick grin on Aine. "You know, I can't help but wish I'd brought my camera, or a notebook, or something...I left them all in your bracken place back home." She sighed. "I know it's the wrong thing to think, but...eh, I just wish I could..." She tossed a stray hair out of her eyes. "Old habits die hard. I see something unique and I want to know more about it..."

"But you don't mean any harm, like some people do," said Aine, gently, sensing her friend felt a little guilty about the wish.

"No, never," Jessie assured her. "It's just..." she gave a wistful little sigh. "I like to know the wonderful, I suppose. There's a part of me that wants to understand it. I guess I should be grateful I got to see it at all." She paused, then added, quietly, "You know what they say about faeries, that they leave you 'struck', that you can't ever think of anything else once you've seen them. And I thought, that's nonsense. You see something wonderful, you work with it, you find the next wonderful thing. There's so many wonders. Why obsess about one? But now I think I know what they mean. Some things are so very..." she trailed off.