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“What are they?” I asked.
“This one’s a phouka,” she said, pointing to a dog-man. “They’re related to the Puck of William Shakespeare. This one”—she pointed to a horse with a fish’s tail—“is a kelpie. They like to wait in streams and drag down unsuspecting maidens.Foolish thing. I don’t know why it thought it could cross at this time of year when the streams are all frozen. We’re probably better off without him. Your incubus raised a storm in both worlds. Generally only one or two creatures cross at a time, but the storm must have driven many into the Borderlands; then, when the ice came, it froze them in the passage.”
“Are they all…dead?”
Elizabeth stepped close to one—a woman whose slim body ended in a fish’s tail. “This one’s an undine,” she said as if she hadn’t heard my question. “Creatures of the water. We’ve heard that the male undines are dying out, which might be why this one risked coming over in the middle of the winter, although I don’t know why she’d come outside of breeding season. Poor thing. She must have been confused. She’ll never survive.”
She was careful not to touch it, but when her warm breath reached it, the ice cracked and rained down onto the ground in a tinkling cascade. The rupture in the web spread and soon all the faces were cracking and dissolving.
“Isn’t there anything we can do to save them?” I cried.
Elizabeth turned to me, her face so strained it looked like it too might crack and break. “Perhaps. You opened the door for another creature—that bird you let free. It was our first hint that you had some touch of fey blood. Perhaps you can bring one through.”
“How? I don’t know how to do that…Don’t I need some sort of instruction?”
“No one knows how the doorkeeper does what she does. Just choose one…and pull!”
“Choose! How can I choose?” All around me faces were shattering into glittering shards of ice. Soon there wouldn’t be any to choose from. I found the first face that was still whole—a tiny creature with a foxlike face, enormous ears, and pointy teeth. I reached out and gingerly touched one finger to its forehead. Instead of ice I felt fur. Quickly I pushed my handinto…something that felt like quicksand…grabbed it by its furry nape and pulled. The creature came out of the ice snarling, teeth bared, but then instead of biting me, licked my wrist with a long sandpaper tongue. Then it ran into the woods on its two hoofed feet.
“What the hell…”
“A satyr!” Elizabeth laughed. “I haven’t seen one of those in years. I thought they were extinct in Faerie. Don’t worry, he’ll find his way to the college and then we’ll either offer him a job or relocate him to West Thalia where there’s a lovely Greek community.” She wiped her eyes and then, much to my surprise, hugged me. “I knew there was a reason you came to us. Now come on. We’ve got work to do.”
