gold—if I can win it! —would help me, my grandfather, and others.
This is strange good luck beyond my dreams.”
“It’s good luck, and bad.”
“How is it bad?”
“The king is untrustworthy,” said the serpent. “He must risk the
gold, having burdened himself with a grievous debt. Long ago, a mortal
knight’s courage and kindness enraged him, his own nature being so
opposite. One terrible day, he made himself look like the knight, rode
into your world, and ruined his victim’s reputation. Laws of magic that
preserve order between the faerie realm and yours forced him to make
amends. His actions caused lasting sorrow, though. Balancing things
again has required centuries.”
The serpent took a polite sip of saltwater—drinking a rain barrel
full, by Pegeen’s reckoning—and continued. “This is the tail end of a
string of spells, a last ripple of a reminder to the king. He had to hire
a master wizard to waft the parchment here to find the knight’s
nearest relation.”
“I can’t be his kin,” said Pegeen. “We’ve no knight in our family
line. Sad as this story is, Granda wouldn’t have
kept it from me.”
“He didn’t know the tale
to tell it. The knight for-
sook his own country
and even his true name.
Pegeen, the wizard’s
wind-tossed spell has
chosen rightly. The
parchment drew you
here today. When
you touched it, magic
summoned me.”
“You are enslaved?”
Pegeen felt horrified.
“I’m as free as mer-
rows and minnows.
Thespellaskedmeto
AMERROW IS
A MERMAID OR
MERMAN IN IRISH
FOLKLORE.GOING FOR
A SWIM,
8 MARTY?