Sprite
Chapter 21

Norah accidentally fell into the river a week after school started. The weather had been hot all week, as her new roommate was quick to point out, over and over again. Roselle, who was more or less Norah’s age but had been coming to the school since she was five years old, knew all the tricks. She was as stuck-up as the rest of the Datro students, which meant all of them, but she assumed Norah’s unfamiliarity with the school was because Norah was from another boarding school rather than this one. She made it her mission to take Norah under her wing, showing her where to sit in the dining hall, who to talk to, and who to avoid.

“I know where they keep the boats,” Roselle said, pulling Norah by the hand under the wide back porch of the main building. “We can go rowing. It’s okay, I do it all the time,” she added, when Norah hesitated.

They pushed the rowboat down the small grassy bank where it landed with a splash into the water. Everyone was in the main hall for dinner, but Roselle had announced it was much too hot to eat right before she showed Norah the stash of worn rowboats turned upside down underneath the porch, where cold weather and bugs had done their work. Norah’s hands itched just from touching the filthy thing. “Are you sure you know how to do this?” she asked skeptically, wiping her palms on the side of her new uniform skirt.

Roselle looked up from where she was steadying the boat in the choppy water, and her eyes softened in sympathy. “Don’t worry if you can’t swim. You’ll be perfectly safe in the boat with me.” She glanced up the small hill. “Hurry up, get in before someone sees us.”

Norah clambered in, rocking the boat violently. She quickly sat down, and Roselle pushed the little rowboat out into the river, hopping expertly inside without even getting her feet wet. She took the middle seat with the two oars, but let the river current catch them and sweep them past the main school building before she picked them up to row. They were moving fast, and Norah gripped the sides of the rowboat anxiously. Roselle was right, however. There was a steady breeze out here on the river which made it all worthwhile.

A gust of wind pulled the boat hard to one side, and Roselle lost her grip on one of the oars. Norah leaned over to grab it before it drifted away and suddenly toppled over the side into the churning water.

Instinctively, Norah twisted her body about, gliding effortlessly under the little boat. Even her soggy uniform skirt which clung stubbornly to her legs didn’t hinder her metamorphosis from schoolgirl to sea urchin. She sliced through the water, reveling in the feel of it against her skin. For an instant, she considered just swimming away, following the course along the river and never coming back. An instant later, she discarded the idea. Where would she go? Diving deep, just for the sensation one last time, Norah resurfaced on the side where she’d fallen in, grasping the errant oar triumphantly. She flashed Roselle a smile and climbed back into the rocking boat.

Small waves now buffeted the rowboat from all sides as the wind picked up and the first big droplets of rain spattered down on them. In the distance, rumbles of thunder precursed the storm that was about to overtake them.

“Here,” said Norah, holding out the oar. “We’d better get back.”

Roselle gaped at her. She hadn’t even had time to scream when Norah fell from the boat. “I thought you couldn’t swim,” she said finally, relieved when she realized her new friend was alive and well and back in the boat as if nothing had happened.

Norah squeezed water from her braids, which had come unwound from her head. One of them was partially undone. With her fingers, Norah unbraided the rest of it and shook her head to spread the loose curls over her neck and ears. Little red tendrils sprang out from the main mass of her hair giving her a halo effect in the rapidly diminishing light. She glanced at her hands, which had begun a telltale tingle signaling the rapid reemergence of her webbing. Luckily, her uniform socks, sopping wet but still clinging to her knees, hid the most obvious webbing. She folded her hands in her lap. “I think it’s going to rain,” she said, just as the skies opened up.

Roselle squealed, and swiftly turned the boat around. She strained against the current, cutting in close to shore to avoid the worst of it. By that time, she was as wet as Norah. Somehow, they got the rowboat back to the school before it completely disintegrated. They dragged it under the big porch again just as the other students began to emerge from the dining hall. Seeing how bedraggled they each looked, both Roselle and Norah burst into laughter and, running through the rain with the other students, made it back to the room they shared without being caught for their unauthorized adventure.

Norah went right to the bathroom to take care of her own little problem, which the rain and the dark had hidden up to now. Not only had the webbing reappeared between her fingers and toes, but delicate, nearly transparent webbing fanned out behind her ears and ankles as well. Norah was used to the sting of the razor, but tonight, viewing her fully formed webbing in the bathroom mirror, she felt a twinge of guilt in cutting it away. It was a part of her.

When she came out of the bathroom, Roselle was sitting cross-legged on her bed with a towel wrapped around her hair. She had something in her lap. “Snacks,” she explained, beckoning for Norah to join her. The two girls sat on the bed and shared cookies and apples.

School wasn’t so bad. The rain had cooled the last gasp of summer, and as autumn approached, the days remained pleasant and crisp. Norah learned history and decorum and literature, although not fanciful stories like Papa used to read to her. No one here told stories of magical places and creatures beyond imagination. It was too close to the truth for them.

Norah learned that Roselle exaggerated occasionally. Their escapade with the rowboat had not gone completely unnoticed, and both girls were confined to their rooms for the next weekend for breaking school rules. The punishment did not deter Roselle in the least. As soon as the campus was clear of students and teachers both, she pushed open her window and coaxed Norah into climbing out. “I do this all the time,” she assured her.

Against her own better judgment, Norah followed. It was easier than Norah thought to sneak around campus without anyone in authority catching on. They spent the first day of their punishment throwing rocks into the river about a half-mile from the campus. Roselle led her to the kitchens in the small hours of the morning, and they stuffed their pockets full of snacks to take back to their room for later. “Wait until we have a weekend trip into Datro,” Roselle promised her, eyes sparkling.

It was so easy to sneak out of their room at night that Norah tried it on her own a week later after Roselle was safely asleep. She made her way down to the river and followed the bank until it was hidden by a thick stand of bushes. There, she carefully folded her pajamas and, clad only in her underwear, slid quietly into the cold water. The cold didn’t bother her; the night didn’t bother her, either. She swam unerringly in the dark, sensing without needing to see where she wanted to go. She swam downriver until Datro was a blot on her subconscious. It had taken her hardly any time at all. Reluctantly, she twisted in the water to make the return journey and climbed out in the same spot where she’d first entered the water. This time, Norah had brought her razor with her, and in the thin moonlight she cut away her webbing, letting the night air dry her before donning her pajamas and making the trek back to the room she shared with Roselle.

Pleased with herself, Norah sank into bed for a few hour’s sleep until morning.

A few weeks later, as the weather turned cold in earnest, Will showed up again, dressed in a thin brown shirt and trousers that matched. He waited outside the dining hall until he had caught Norah’s attention, and then he mouthed, “I’ll come to your room later.”

No, don’t! Norah wanted to say but couldn’t, not with Roselle next to her. It was a wonder the other girl hadn’t already noticed Will. Norah had glanced across the lawn just by chance and seen him standing there, staring right at her.

When she looked again, he was gone. Norah’s heart fluttered at every noise all evening long, and she resolved to sneak out again as soon as Roselle was asleep. Why had Will taken such a chance? If anyone saw him, he could lose his life! Just as she crept over to the window, it opened from the outside and Will popped his head in. “Come on,” he whispered, holding the window open for her. Norah glanced at the other bed, but Roselle appeared soundly asleep.

Norah climbed down next to Will, grateful for Roselle’s lessons on sneaking about. “What are you doing here?” she whispered when they were far enough away. Then, as her eyes took in his inadequate clothes, “Aren’t you cold?”

Will grinned, and pushed up his sleeve. “I brought my own winter coat,” he joked. A fine layer of hair covered his entire arm except for the hand. Will saw her notice the sharp delineation between his wrist and hand, and added, “They let me shave it because it’s easier for work. My face, too. Easier for them to look at.” He said it with a light laugh, as if it didn’t matter. Norah shuddered. It was a crime in Datro to hide one’s mutations.

They walked to the river’s edge and sat, watching the rushing water catch and throw the moonlight back at them. Norah didn’t feel the cold, either. She stared at the river, wishing she could go swimming. “I’m glad you came,” she said softly.

“Oh, so this is where you run off to when you sneak away by yourself!” Roselle’s voice was amused. She pushed aside a branch and looked down on them as they sat beside each other on a fallen log close enough to the water that any little push would send them right in. “Who’s this?” she asked, eying Will curiously. “Is he your boyfriend?”

Norah’s face flamed red, and Will laughed easily, not at all put off by her roommate’s arrival. “I’m Will,” he said, holding out his hand to shake hers. “A friend.”

With a quick smile, Roselle clambered down the remaining few steps. “Roselle,” she introduced herself. “You must be from Norah’s old school.”

Will didn’t disagree, letting Roselle believe what she wanted. “I came to see how Norah was doing,” he said. “I—know her grandfather.”

Norah recovered enough to add, “He’s not my boyfriend! He’s four years older than me, Roselle!”

Both her roommate and Will looked at her with amusement, then looked at each other appraisingly. Roselle blushed, then giggled to cover her embarrassment. “I’m going back to bed,” she said. “It was nice to meet you, Will. Don’t keep our Norah out too late—I wouldn’t want her to get in trouble.”

“All right, I’ll see that she gets back safely in a little while,” Will replied. “We’re just catching up on family news. It was nice to meet you too, Roselle.” Will watched until Roselle had climbed back up the steep bank and disappeared behind the bushes.

“Family news? What family news?” Norah demanded, her stomach knotting up. So Will hadn’t come just to visit her.

“Norah, you told me your family lives in the forest. Have you ever, ever seen any signs of the mutant villages?”

“What? No, I didn’t even know they existed until you told me about them.”

“So there couldn’t be any near your home in the forest?”

“I don’t think so. My Papa had a big metal fence which runs all along the edges of his land. Nobody can get in or out without permission. Why?”

“Norah, I overheard your grandfather talking to some businessmen the other day. He told them about land he owned in the middle of the forest, miles and miles of land. He told them how he was going to develop it, strip all the trees and build factories right in the middle of the forest. I thought, when I heard him, that he was going to destroy the hidden mutant villages and then we’d have no place left.”

Norah didn’t hear all of what Will said. Cut down the trees? He couldn’t! Norah could bear living in Datro and going to school with only Roselle—and Will—as her close friends because she knew when it was over, she could finally go home. Grandfather couldn’t destroy her home! Then she would truly have nothing left! “No, Mama wouldn’t allow it—it’s her land, not Grandfather’s,” she said. “He can’t cut down the trees.” She scrambled up. “I have to see Mama.”

Will caught her arm. “Norah, you can’t leave. It’s nearly winter. I didn’t know your grandfather was not the one who owned the land. He sounded so confident. I was worried, for the changelings. It gives them hope thinking that, one day, they might escape to the forest and replace one of the hidden mutant villages where we—“ He caught himself. “—they can finally be themselves. I jumped to the wrong conclusion when I heard your grandfather boasting.”

“But—“ Norah stared at Will in confusion. “What if Grandfather really is planning on destroying Papa’s land? I have to replace out for sure.”

“I’ll keep listening, and I’ll let you know if it sounds serious. As I said, it’s nearly winter, and nothing can be done until spring anyway. You keep on with your schooling, Norah. I’ll come to see you again in a few weeks. Roselle, too. I really like her. She seems like someone who can be trusted.”

“Are you going to tell her you’re a changeling?” Norah asked.

Will chuckled. “No, not yet. I don’t think she’s ready for that. You’re the only normal person I’ve met who hasn’t treated me differently because of my mutation. And that’s because you’re from the forest and don’t know any better.”

Norah had been seriously considering telling Will about her own mutation, and possibly Roselle, too, if Will thought she could be trusted. Now she changed her mind. “Just because I grew up in a place that didn’t have mutants doesn’t mean I’m stupid! I wish—I wish I hadn’t met any of you!” She really wished she could just dive into the nearby river and swim away. That would leave Will’s mouth hanging open! But she stomped up the hill towards her room instead, ignoring Will as he trailed behind her, apologizing in between gasps of laughter.