‘Mother, look!’ whispered Rani excitedly.
‘I see them,’ replied Theuli distantly.
In the dim light, Deborah noticed Malina, watching the lights with an odd expression.
Malina?
Moving to sit beside her, Deborah asked, ‘Is it something the matter? Are you all right? What are they?’
Her face half in shadow as she watched the tiny forms, Malina said, her voice barely above a whisper, ‘Please . . . don’t ask me . . . not yet. I’ll tell you later . . . when they aren’t so near.’ Malina’s mien was suffused with suppressed emotion.
Deborah looked to Theuli for help, but the Elf-woman shook her head, a gentle warning in her eyes.
Ralph and Pran had a much closer look at the lights. They came very near to Pran, and some seemed to speak to him.
He smiled.
Looking closely at one of the lights that hovered some four feet away, Ralph thought he saw a tiny golden woman with wings, surrounded by a golden ball of light. She was lingering near Pran’s shoulder.
‘Pran, what are they?’
Giving Ralph a measuring look, Pran replied, ‘Some are Nymphs. Most are Sprites. A few are Pixies.’ To Ralph’s sudden sharp scrutiny of the tiny beings, which appeared almost as dread, he added, ‘Like Malina.’