A Pinch of Moonlight

  ***

  Demi was also sitting in the dark, torn between just giving up forever, and finding the will to deal with this latest crappy situation. Even in the faint light from Pefryn’s orbs, the dark shards of the box were impossible to see among the carpet of pine needles.

  After a few minutes of indecision she heard something moving clumsily along the path behind her. She half-hoped it was a wild animal coming to eat her – at least if she was eaten she wouldn’t have to make any more decisions. She was amazed when she turned round and saw it was Blackbird, limping slightly.

  ‘I heard your pain,’ he said, simply, sitting down beside her.

  Demi threw herself into his arms, but after a brief hug he untangled himself.

  ‘You need to get back to Annwn quick,’ Blackbird said. ‘Will be dark soon. Are you hurt?’

  ‘No. I mean, yes, I’m bruised all over, but not injured. I just broke the Prize, and I can’t see where all the bits went. How did you find me anyway?’

  ‘Pefryn asked the nixies to bring you to that portal – she put lots of magic in there for them. We were waiting there for you, hiding, in case you needed a little help or a little hurrying at the end.’

  As he spoke he collected the pieces of the prize from the ground, grunting slightly with pain as he bent over. Soon he had a handful of pieces.

  ‘Is this all?’ he asked.

  ‘I think so. You can see better in here than I can.’ Demi replied.

  Blackbird reassembled all the pieces quicker than Demi would have thought possible, then, fuelled by her magic, he traced his finger over the joins until they sealed, muttering,

  ‘Twist and tangle, stay unbroken

  Til these three words next are spoken

  Revert, release, reveal’ as he did so.

  Demi was reluctant to let go of his hand when he’d finished. And wasn’t the spell spoken in Fairy? It seemed that although the Gadget was destroyed, the translation spell still worked.

  ‘Come,’ said Blackbird, ‘I’ll lead you through the dark, then you must hurry back to Annwn. The sun will set soon; you don’t have long.’

  He took her hand again and led her through the trees. She was still tingling all over.

  As they emerged into daylight – and Demi noticed the sun was dangerously low – Blackbird dropped Demi’s hand, and they turned to face each other.

  ‘Go swift and sure-footed,’ Blackbird said in blessing.

  ‘Aren’t you coming with me?’ Demi asked.

  ‘Pefryn will fly us both back under a cloak,’ Blackbird said. ‘You’ll have to walk or it will look like cheating.’

  ‘Didn’t we just cheat then, anyway? Hafren said nobody was allowed to help me.’

  ‘And aren’t I Nobody?’ Blackbird flashed Demi a cheeky smile as he turned back to the woodland. She’d never seen him look so beautiful. She’d never seen anyone look so beautiful – he was even fitter than Dean Evans.

  But she had to turn away herself, and ask her tired, aching body to carry her down the mountainside to Annwn. At least it was all downhill from here.