Page 64 of Lost

16

Other Kevin

As soon as he was outside the wall Kevin tried to calm himself. “Okay, think. First, check the sky again.” Kevin searched the night’s sky, but if the raven was up there somewhere he was impossible to see against the blackness. Kevin remembered that Anastasia had said her Tatsuwa had amazing eyesight, so he stepped a little away from the wall and waved his arms around over his head.

Still no damn bird.

“All right. Plan B. What the hell do I have left that they’d want?” He searched through the almost empty satchel. All the blood was gone, but there were two cookies left. There was also the jar of disgusting blood goo. “Well, let’s hope they want one of these two things.” He moved over closer to the wall so that he could hide in the shadows again, and then made the call. “Old Magick sprites of air, I am Kevin Redbird, and with the power in my blood, and the power Nyx has gifted me with, I call you to me! Again!”

With little popping sounds, the air sprites materialized hovering in the air around him.

“Redbird Boy! What payment do you bring us for which task you would ask of us?”

Kevin thought, but couldn’t be sure, that he was speaking to the same sprite who had come when he’d called the night before. He smiled and tried to act more enthusiastic than nervous. “Hi there! Thank you for coming again. I really appreciate it.”

“What is the task and what is our payment?”

“Okay, well, I don’t have much time for small talk anyway. What I need is for you to find a raven named Tatsuwa. He belongs to the vampyre priestess from the ridge where you first came to me. Can you do that?”

“There is much we can do

If we get payment from you.”

Kevin relaxed a little when the sprite’s voice slipped into the singsong rhythm that marked the beginning of making a deal.

“Okay, well, I can give you some of my blood. Or I do have a couple more of those cookies you liked so much yesterday.”

“If you want us to do this thing

Your payment must not bore us

It must make our hearts sing!”

“All righty.” He reached into the satchel and pulled out the jar of stinking blood goop. “How about this? It’s red vampyre blood.”

The sprite’s reaction was instantaneous. She grew in size. Her eyes bulged and she bared her teeth, showing disturbingly pointed fangs.

“That is abomination, not payment!”

Kevin hastily put the jar back in his satchel. “Hey, okay, okay, I get it. I think it’s disgusting too. I’m sorry. I really don’t know much about air sprites. Um, why don’t you tell me what you’d like for payment?”

That calmed the sprite, and she went back to being about hummingbird-sized and looking like a cross between a big bug and a very small, winged woman. The other sprites circled around her, whispering in that strange, almost birdlike language of theirs. When they were done speaking, the entire group approached him, hovering and pointing.

Kevin looked down at himself, trying to figure out what they were pointing at.

“We will take those threads of gold

Then no more payment from you will be owed.”

Baffled, Kevin looked down at himself again. “Gold thread? I’m sorry, I don’t know what you mean.”

The lead sprite flew to him, reached out one delicate hand with impossibly long fingers, and gently touched a long strand of hair that had caught on his shirt.

“Aphrodite’s hair! Damn, Iwaspulling her hair, even though I didn’t mean to. No wonder she yelled at me.” Once he knew what he was looking for, he quickly found three other long strands. He pulled them from his shirt and held them up. Even in the darkness, they glistened. “You’re right. They do look like gold, but you should know that they’re not really. They’re just strands of blond hair.”

“From a Prophetess filled with power.”

She licked her lips and Kevin got another glimpse of needlelike teeth.