*****
“Look!” Casey cried. “They are coming out of the woods now.”
“There’s that nasty nymph too,” said Gob. “It looks like Gabriel is talking to her.”
“I wonder what’s happening,” Nob mused. “Why doesn’t Ben just open another pathway and come back?”
“I’m sure he has his reasons,” Gob answered. “However, whatever is taking place over there can’t be good; Arinya looks really angry.”
“She just left them,” Casey cried. “Open the pathway, Ben, hurry!”
Gob and Nob held their breath, waiting anxiously to see what Ben would do. He did not re-open the pathway and, much to their horror, Arinya suddenly materialized in the water before them. Gob grabbed Casey and pulled her back, while Nob promptly fainted.
Arinya hovered in the water, leering at them. She was obviously delighted with the fear she instilled in the trembling dwarf. However, Gob finally mustered his courage. Taking a deep breath and swallowing the lump that was rising in his throat, the fearful dwarf stepped forward and addressed the nymph. “Why are our friends not returning? What have you done?”
“I have done nothing, yet. I cannot reach them where they stand, but I can easily reach the doorway through which they came. I will not let them leave. Not just yet. You two dwarves broke your deal with me. You brought the child, but you had no intentions of giving him to me; you only brought him along to rescue your friend.”
“Let them go,” said Casey. “They haven’t done anything to you.”
“Ah, you must be the boy’s sister. I will allow the sunlighter and the dwarf to return, but the boy shall remain behind. This is the deal I have made with the sunlighter.”
“Gabriel would not make that deal with you!”
“Oh, but he has! He thinks to return with boats to rescue the boy, but this is my lake and no one may travel upon it without my leave. I will crash their boats into one another and destroy them. I will flip them over and then I will pull every last sunlighter to the bottom of the lake. I can hardly wait.”
“Then let them pass,” said Gob.
“Not yet. The sunlighter has asked for a trinket to comfort the child until he returns. His plans to rescue the boy amuse me, but his arrogance angers me to no end. I will humor him this once and only so that he may return and attempt a rescue. That bracelet you are wearing,” Arinya pointed. “Is there a snowflake on it?”
Casey didn’t have to look to know that there was indeed a snowflake charm on her bracelet. Although she only knew what one of the charms actually did, she had spent long hours looking at the other charms, often wondering what secret powers they might hold. She also knew that Ben would not ask for a charm from her bracelet to comfort him. That was so lame. They knew something and they had a plan. Maybe Gabriel knew how to use the charm?
“Yes, there is a snowflake on my bracelet.”
“Give it to me. Give it to me and I will deliver it to the boy and then I shall allow the sunlighter and the dwarf to leave the island.”
Casey grasped the tiny delicate flake between her thumb and finger and the charm instantly fell away from the bracelet. She held the shiny flake up for Arinya to see. “I will not come to the water,” she told the nymph. You will have to catch it.”
The tiny silver flake sparkled and glistened in the sunlight as it flipped end over end, straight into Arinya’s outstretched palm.