Excerpt: Minstrel of the Water Willow - Marking Time

 

To step from shadows is to know light

 

 

Storms came andwent.

A fire swept through the valleyand annihilated great swathes of land. Many of the trees on the fringes of theforests all around succumbed, although the deep regions remained untouched. Droughtwas supreme for two summer seasons. The coldest winter in all memory followed.

Erin remained despite everytribulation. She had chosen to remove herself from her society. After the deathof her daughter she lost all interest. He no longer cared much for his socialcircle either. The unhappier she became, the more he withdrew from others closeto him, including his parents. Most days he hunkered, watching Erin. It was a senselessobsession, but truth was there was no Fay woman who drew him as much as shedid.

While he was older than she wasin years, he appeared far younger, and thus kept his distance. She would seehim as a youth and would not understand the years already in his mind.

How utterly unfair. He wished hewas human.

His music suffered. Morecorrectly, his reputation as a minstrel suffered, for he rarely took to thecircuit to play for others.

He played for Erin, softly, onthe edge of hearing.

Kell watched her gradually regainher physical strength and her purpose for life. He saw how she tended hervegetables in the fields in view to him and noticed fat and healthy chickensroaming freely. She was successful at both growing and rearing and soon hadexcess with which to trade for other goods. Twice a month she loaded her smallcart, and set off to market.

Often he would then head into thesmaller villages and make music for his own keep.

When Erin turned forty, with finelines at her eyes, he noticed how she gazed across the river as if sensing hispresence when he merely watched her, when he made no lyrical sound. Was she asaware of him as he was of her? If she was, never did she say a word, althoughonce or twice she did smile secretly.

His heart set up an uneven rhythmwhen she did so.

Many of the Fay moved into thehighlands in those years, for more humans had entered the valley. His parentstoo chose to relocate, but he was determined to stay and thus took possessionof his childhood home as his own. His mother was sad, reading in him the signsof unrequited love, knowing also the choice was his. He was considered adultamong his kind.

Humans, however, would regard himas a youth.

On the banks of a river, a boy sees and hears a girllaughing, the most glorious music, and falls in love. Time, however, is not thesame for them. Erin is human; Kell is something other.

 

Kell watches her from the shadows under the willow at thewater’s edge, refusing to surrender to their differences. For Erin he plays themost beautiful music, for he may never speak to her and she cannot ever seehim. Music becomes their words.

 

Love, however, cannot measure time. The minstrel maintainshis vigil; his muse listens for his song, and both move through the yearsalone, until the day something changes …

MINSTRELMINSTREL