Elkhana
He was not in his dreams last night. I’m not even sure how I knew when most of this existence is floating, but I know, oh I know, and I wake with a start of terror.
It is May Day.
I rise in my cage, the same as every day, but no cloud of ethereal wings descends on me. No supplicants wait. There is only the pale glimmer of dawn on the horizon and the cold waves ever lapping at my black shores.
Perhaps it is not May Day at all, and I have been awoken somehow from my slumber out of time and out of cycle. I twist the snake around my wrist again and again, trying to find comfort that he is with me in this.
A single mayfly crawls down from the crown of my head to the tip of my nose and rests there. I do not brush him aside. He’s the only normal thing about this morning. Has the world broken? Have I?
Fear floods me, inky as the water surrounding my cage and I stumble to the bars, clinging to them. Change is fearful in this changeless place and I do not know what to think, but I fear the worse. He has not heeded my warning. He has taken the path that leads to his death, even though I warned him, even though I fought so hard to show him that he must not take that path.
But why would that wake me before my time?
I pace the rim of my cage in quick, anxious strides – and it’s then that I see them – my mayflies. They are in a cloud surrounding a sodden mass half in and half out of the water behind my cage. But what are they doing? They swirl up in a cloud as I walk toward them, and I gasp – shocked even further when nothing comes out of my mouth. I can speak.
“Hello?” I call and my voice feels raw with disuse.
The cloud parts and my heart melts.
He lies on the black slate shore, exactly as I envisioned, his hand stretched out to me and his eyes flicker open for just a breath. The fae are hard to kill. Even with bleeding heart wounds like the one I see in his delicate flesh where his shirt has been parted, they can be healed if they find help.
I cross the last pace of distance and sink to my knees.
“Oh, Vidar, lord of fae, and friend of mayflies. What have you done?” I ask and his fluttering eyes meet mine and his smile curves upward.
“I knew …” he pauses for a rattling breath. “I knew your voice would be sweet and that my name on your lips would bring me joy. Now take this last gift from my hand, daughter of mortals and string it within the snowy locks of your hair and claim me for your husband and with my last breath I will steal you from this cage and grant to you the days of my life and my parent’s lives and the lives of those who share my heart’s blood.”
My mouth falls open as pain sears through me and I see what he has done. In one fell swoop, he grants me freedom and immortality. At the cost of his own life.
“What have you done, my sweet prince of ice?” I ask, blinking away the tears that fill my eyes.
“I’ve offered you my hand in marriage. Will you not take it?” The gentleness in his eyes is too much. It carries me away like a tidal wave and I am overcome.
With all the gentleness I can muster, I reach through the bars of my cage to stroke his face. He is so pale, his color leaking away. So beautiful.
His hand catches mine and he puts the little heart into my hand.
“Please, sweet tamer of dreams and futures, put my heart in your hair.”
I take it with a shuddering sob and tie it into my hair, my eyes so blind with tears that his widening smile stretches and shifts in the blurring of my eyes.
If I were to choose a husband for myself of all the men of this world, it would be him. I want nothing more. Except that he would live. The price for this is too high.
The moment the knot is tied, the bars fall into the earth and the ground begins to tremble, but I care for none of that. It’s the stuff of magic and geases, curses and bargains and that is my husband’s realm.
I rush to my love and put my body over his so I can catch up his empty palm in mine and press the back of his hand to my cheek and I lean down until my forehead rests on his and I whisper, “If all your days are mine then I give half of them back to you.”
“The fae,” he says, gasping, his words so weak now. “Neither give nor receive gifts.”
“And yet you’ve given me everything,” I protest, my heart breaking, but I must think fast. I must be faster than this. “Then a bargain I offer you, Vidar, husband of my heart. Take half the days you gave to me and in return, you must tie your heart to mine and never will we two be parted in body or soul, in life or in death, from now until forever.”
I don’t wait to hear his answer. I dip down and kiss him hard and fierce and his free hand reaches up to tangle in my hair and his hot breath is between my lips and when I hear his moan, my heart shudders with fierce desire.
I pull away in time to hear him say.
“I agree to your terms, hard bargainer. May it be so.”
