CHAPTER FOUR
t was closer to supper than lunch by the time I finally crossed the stream and started up the hill to Aunt Lillian’s house.
“Oh, girl,” Aunt Lillian said as I pushed the kitchen door open with my hip and came in. “What have you got us mixed up in now?”
Root lunged up from the floor but I blocked him with my leg and laid the little man down on the kitchen table.
“It’s not like I did it on purpose,” I said.
Aunt Lillian took charge like I’d been hoping she would. She got a swallow or two of her tonic in between his lips and rubbed his throat to make sure it went down, then wrapped the little man in a blanket and put him in a basket near the stove. Root was exiled outside the second time he came sniffing up to the basket, hoping to get him a decent look at the rootman.
“Tell me what happened,” Aunt Lillian said.
We sat on either side of the basket while I explained how I’d come to be bringing the little man to her house in the first place.
“I didn’t know what else to do,” I said, finishing up. “I couldn’t just leave him there.”
Aunt Lillian had been studying the little man while I spoke. She looked up now.
“You did the right thing,” she said. Her lips twitched with a smile. “Do you know what you’ve got here, girl?”
I shook my head.
“A ’sangman.”
“You mean he’s made of ’sang?”
“No. I mean he’s one of the spirits we’ve been paying our respects to whenever we go harvesting. Looks like you finally got your wish and stepped into your own fairy story.”
“I never wanted anybody to get hurt,” I said.
Aunt Lillian nodded. “Guess there’s always got to be some hurt to get the story started. In my own case, I got snakebit.”
I knew that one by heart, how the snake bite led to her finally meeting the Apple Tree Man and all.
“Let’s have a look at those arrows,” Aunt Lillian said.
I fetched the makeshift envelope from my knapsack and carefully spilled the arrows onto the top of the kitchen table. Aunt Lillian lit a lantern and brought it over. It wasn’t dusk yet, but the sun was on the other side of the house, so it was dark enough to need it here. With a pair of tweezers, she picked up one of the arrows and studied it in the light.
“Lord knows I’m no expert,” she said, “but I’m guessing these are bee stings.”
I gave her a blank look.
“They’re also called fairy shots,” she explained. “These ones here are what the bee fairies use on their enemies. They don’t have stingers, so they can’t exactly sting the way their bees do.”
“He… the ’sangman said they were poison.”
Aunt Lillian nodded. “I’m sure they are. And a lot more dangerous for the likes of me or you than to another fairy.”
“Do you think he’s going to die?”
“I don’t ’spect so. If he’s still breathing after—how many of those arrows did you take out of him?”
“A hundred and thirty-seven.”
“I think he’ll pull through. I’m more worried about you.”
I gave her a startled look. “Why me?”
“Because you’ve done the one thing we’re never supposed to do with the fairies, girl. You’ve gone and stepped smack into the middle of one of their differences of opinion.”
“Was I supposed to leave him to die?”
“Not according to the ’sangmen, I’d say. But the bee fairies’ll have a whole other take on the situation. They’re the ones we’ve got to worry about now.”
I didn’t want to think about that. I stood up.
“I’ve got to go,” I said. “Can I leave the ’sangman with you?”
“You can’t go now,” Aunt Lillian said.
“But I never told Mama I was staying overnight and she’ll be worried.”
“Which do you ’spect would trouble her more? To have you stay here tonight—which I’m guessing she’ll figure out pretty quick, even if she does feel like giving you a licking when you do get back home—or to have you dead?”
“De-dead…?”
“Think about it, girl.”
“But bees don’t come out at night.”
“No, I don’t suppose they do. But we don’t know that bee fairies don’t. ’Sides, I need you here for when we talk to the Apple Tree Man. We need advice from someone who’s got himself an inside track on such things.”
My eyes went big.
“We’re going to talk to the Apple Tree Man?”
Aunt Lillian smiled. “Well, we’re going to try.”