Ralph and the Pixie

Pran was unable not to laugh quietly. ‘Gannet tells me you are improving. Coming from him, that is praise indeed!’

Ralph was surprised. ‘He always tells me that I’m a lost cause. I was beginning to believe it myself.’

Pran laughed at this. ‘That is Gannet’s way. You only have to worry about him when he is being polite.’

Malina woke Deborah and Éha gently. ‘Come on, sleepyheads. Theuli says you can go back to bed after you eat something.’

Mumbling or moaning incoherently, Deborah sat up, half-awake and bleary-eyed. Éha was in no better shape. When they stumbled into the dining-room, they were met with smiles of relief and affection, which was well because they had been apprehensive since the Joining.

Theuli, sizing them up, said, ‘It is true, then. The poison is gone. There is no longer a shadow behind your eyes.’

Deborah managed a wan smile and yawned. ‘Only under them. At least the bad dreams are gone.’

Éha was unusually quiet. She sat close to Deborah, as though afraid to be out of contact with her. Both girls ate ravenously, as though they had been starved.

Picking up a glass of water, Deborah was about to take a drink, when she gasped in surprise, nearly dropping it.