The illness lasted a few days and left me feeling completed exhausted, but more determined than ever to find out who my tormentor was and what I could do to get him out of my life. As soon as I felt up to the task I got out the books and started reading again. I began by writing a list of every name in the field guide, in the order they appeared, so I could work my way through them systematically and discard any that were obviously wrong. With no page numbers my search had been a haphazard task so far and I made up my mind this time to take it logically. The completed list had literally hundreds of possibilities, but I made a big pot of tea and settled down on the sofa, wrapped in a blanket, to continue my work. I didn’t feel up to working at the table yet. The virus had been awful and I still felt more than a little fragile.
I worked my way steadily through the list, surprised at how many of the options I could dismiss immediately. All of the light elves could go straight away, and a few I ruled out because their habitat didn’t fit. But even after several hours passed I still had a list of almost fifty possible contenders. It was a start, but rather less productive than I had hoped. All the way through I kept an eye out for any mention of starlings, but sadly could find no hint about Ami’s kind, and I really wanted to know more. Eventually I turned to Professor Sturnus’s amulets book. It had a small section at the back about different ‘lesser familiar threttes’ and my best hope now was if my threat was a less common one.
Having gone through the field guide descriptions of my shortlist of fifty I was now quite familiar with their habits and appearance. I could easily cross reference a few with the Professor, even though he used wildly different names for them, and that helped me to cross off about thirty more, but I still faced an uphill task in whittling them down to just one. I also couldn’t be sure that the field guide included my nemesis, so I added the remaining names from the amulets book to my candidates on the list and stared disconsolately at it.
“Is this ever going to get better?” I muttered to myself. “Am I stuck with this scourge forever?” Then something took over and my determination hardened. “I refuse to give in to a nasty, narrow-minded, evil little pimple of a creature. All this needs is fresh tea.” So I got up to make a new pot, though I still couldn’t face food.
Back at the sofa I started again. This time I paired off the names on the list that had come from different sources. So far I had used the overlap just to delete non-starters. Now I checked whether I had the same creature on the list under different names. It took a while, but eventually I found myself down to seventeen possible runners, always assuming my Elf appeared in either book. “Third time’s the charm,” I said out loud, though I don’t know why, or how I thought I’d reached the third time of anything, but it seemed to help, and I settled in for a final haul. I studied each entry in detail, realising I had actually skimmed over most of the words before, hunting for key points to help dismiss the different species, rather than taking in much detail. Then suddenly there it was. I don’t know how I’d missed it so often. I blame the ancient writing, although why I didn’t recognise ‘teethe’ more readily I haven’t a clue.
There in front of me in the pages of Professor Sturnus’s book I found ‘Ye Artimis’.
A member of ye leaden
group of ye fae. Infestations are common and difficulte to remove withoute
grate patience and tyme. Inn appearance they are deceptive, being able to
change their bodies into any kinde of shape both living and inanimate. Yet thou
shalt know them by their pointing teethe, which they find impossible to hyde in
completeness.
Ye Artimisia attach
themselves to objects of metalle, and especially pretty trinkets such as lady’s
favours. The unwarie become infested by
means of handlinge such objects and are oft tymes offered incentive by way of
wishes to encourage ye bond. If ye sufferer is notte carefulle to make immediate
refusal the infection canne be devilish difficult to overcome. On no accounte
should any wishe be accepted, at riske of great pain. When ye source of ye
infestation is identifyed further contact with ye object muste be bye waye of
gloves. Avoid further directe contacte.
Ye leaden fae are
susceptible to names and iff their true identitie is discovered their powere is
much diminished. Yet they protect their names strongly and do not offer them to
anybodie by choice, be they Fae or worldlie. However, their names are written
upon their bodies in some form, if the sufferer can but reveal the place.
Ye afflictede maye
also suffer vizions and hallucinations if remayning in close proximitie to ye
sprite. Ye assistance of ye Silver Elves is invaluable in their treatemente if
a bodie is to be fullye saved from their mischievousness.
I sat dumbfounded for what seemed
like an age, wondering whether I had finally pinned down my Elf’s identity, but
the description was flawless. Everything fitted him exactly, so now I could
plan my defence. The book had hints about what worked against ‘Ye Artimisia’
but how best to go about it? What was it Ami had said? He wasn’t permitted to
help until I’d identified my ‘quarry’. Well I was pretty certain I’d done
that, which called for a celebratory pot of tea. As I brewed up I wondered
whether, if I went back to the library would Ami be there this time? The last
time I’d seem him, he found me. In fact, come to think of it, he’d found me
both times. I just needed to be patient – not one of my strong points. There was a knock at the door and I wondered who on earth would visit me. It couldn’t be anyone from work, I’d told everyone to stay away because I didn’t know if my sickness was infectious. I checked the spy hole in the door but saw no-one on the other side, so I put the chain across and opened the door slightly. “Who is it?”
Surprisingly close I heard a voice say, “It is I.”
“Ami!” I hurriedly took off the chain and flung open the door. He stood immediately outside and I could not understand how I failed to see him through the spy hole. “What…. How….. When……” I couldn’t form a simple question.
He came to my aid. “Angela. May I enter?”
“Yes, yes, of course you can. Come in! Where did you spring from? How did you know?” I stopped and took a deep breath. It’s so good to see you!”
“You are ill,” he said, and reached towards me, palm open by the side of my head. I immediately felt better. The sickly feeling that had affected me for days dissipated and my stomach felt more settled. Suddenly I really believed there might be an end to the trouble I was in.
“I assume you know that I’ve discovered what he is,” I asked Ami.
“And what is that?”
“He’s an Artimis.”
“Indeed. You have correctly identified your affliction. I am now permitted to aid you in your battle. My first help is to instruct you to cease calling the pest ‘he’ for it is not in any way a person despite appearance.”
“OK. That won’t be easy. Even the first view I had of him, when I thought he was an animal....... Oh dear, it’s not going to be easy but I’ll try. And what else?”
“Try as oft times as you are able to keep your thoughts away from it totally. Unless I am present. I have powers that will protect you but they are restricted by distance.”
What I couldn’t understand was why Ami could not offer this kind of help before. What was different from when he gave me the books to study, I asked him.
“You carried our sign, and therefore we were able to help you.”
“Your sign? You mean the pebble.”
“Before the pebble you carried a portrait of one of my brothers. On your scribing pad.”
“My scribing pad? You mean my notebook? Oh, the picture of the starling? You really are a starling!”
“Starling is the earthly word for us. I am an Asterling – one of the people of the stars. We are of the Fae. In the heavens we appear to you as bright lights, but when we fly to earth we must appear more corporeal. Often we choose to be birds and in that form we can flock together in huge numbers to perform our rites and dances. We are overlooked by many because at first we appear dark and drab, but our hearts shine and our light forces its way to the edge of our earthly bodies and sparkles, just as you have seen.”
I smiled to think of how I’d noticed the highlights in his hair the first time we met. Then I had a worrying thought. “The book says if I knew hi......its name its power will be reduced. So does that apply to all the Fae? Do I assume I don’t know your real name?”
“I do not withhold my name from you through malice, but because you would be unable to understand or repeat it.” And with that he gave a peculiar, high pitched squeal that seemed to contain many different sounds. It was at once like a bird call, but also sounded scientific, as if a piece of equipment had picked up a signal from far into space. He smiled. “You see? Your voice is not designed to make such sounds. But in your language my name means ‘Friend’ and so to you I am Ami.”
That reassured me, but I had many more questions. “Why couldn’t I see you when I looked through the spy hole in the door? You must have been right in front of it.”
“I can not be seen through a lens. It is a protective device we have developed in response to human science. We do not wish to have our images recorded by your cameras and so we made ourselves invisible to them.”
“So you do still hide from humans?”
“We avoid contact as much as possible. The Fae live among you, but our powers can be a temptation to some.”
“You live among us? Why don’t we see you more often?”
“You do, but you may not recognise us. For example, you have met one of my sisters.”
“Your sisters? You mean another starling?”
He laughed. “Asterling! Yes. It was my sister who gave you your blue pebble.”
“The woman at Madame Rosa’s! She was kind. I should have realised she was someone special.”
“Indeed. She works there to protect the unwary from the deceiver woman. She ensures that those who need true help receive it. And so she gave you the pebble after recognising your affliction. The pebble offered a more direct link to my people than your scribing book. It enabled us to be present for many of your greater challenges from the Artimis. I regret we could not be present for them all.”
“Never mind. I’ve coped so far, although I’m upset about the people who have been hurt in hi....its fights against me. If there was anything we could do to put things right for them I wish we could.” I suddenly realised I’d used the ‘w word’ and bit my lip in fear.
“Fear not. There will be no ill happenings from wishing in my presence. Now let us begin to draw up your battle plans.”
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