The Sinners of Erspia

After a while the overseer returned and kicked the fairies awake. It was time for their shift. They dragged themselves to their feet and staggered out, clinging to the walls for support. Never, Laedo reflected, had they known the pleasure of soaring through the air, of passing through leafy glades or settling on giant boughs with the poise of butterflies. He considered what he might do about it. On Fairyland, crippled though they were, they would be looked after—or so he assumed, provided the fairies did not have some unsuspected hard attitude towards deformity.

Another de-winged girl fairy entered, also naked. She thrust a bowl of slops at him, leaving without meeting his eye.

Raising the greenish mess to his nostrils, Laedo laid it aside after sampling its vile aroma.

There was nothing to do but wait. He laid his head against the rock and tried to doze, ignoring the comings and goings in the tunnel outside the chamber.

Eventually he was roused by the return of the four fairies whose sleeping chamber this was. They scarcely seemed able to stand, flinging themselves to the floor as soon as they entered.

They were unwilling to answer questions, but Laedo persisted. “Have you ever thought of escaping?” he asked.

“Escaping to where?” one of the fairies replied wearily. “The gnomes are everywhere."

“What if you could go to Fairyland, where there are no gnomes, only people like yourselves?"

“Is there such a place? It is only a fable our parents liked to tell."

They all closed their eyes and soon were snoring. Laedo waited a little longer. He noticed that there was less activity in the tunnel lately. It seemed the gnomes scaled down their work at night.

He shook the fairies awake, ignoring their fatigue. “There really is a fairy world,” he said. “I can take you there. Come with me."

“You are a fool,” said the male who had spoken earlier. He looked at Laedo in puzzlement. “You cannot defy the gnomes."

“Watch this,” Laedo said. He unhitched his gun from its holster, adjusted the setting, and directed a beam at the side of the chamber.

They stared in disbelief as melted rock trickled down the wall.

“See? This is a better weapon than the gnomes have. And I know a way to get to Fairyland."

One of the females shook her head hysterically. “No! We must stay here! The gnomes will kill us if we try to leave!"

Her reasoning was probably correct. Laedo's plan, simple as it was, had every chance of going wrong.

But in his view the chance was worth taking, and it was the only chance they would ever have. So he was making the decision for them.

“If you insist on staying here, I will kill you,” he promised.

That seemed to frighten them into compliance. They had probably seen slaves killed for disobedience.

The only light the chamber had came from the nearest cresset in the tunnel. Laedo edged himself through the entrance, peering this way and that and listening intently.

No gnomes were in sight. And there was no sound of movement, not even the distant chinking of pickaxes he had earlier heard echoing through the tunnels.

“Come with me."

“But it is our time to sleep!"

“Sleep later.” Laedo waved his gun. "Come with me!"

They obeyed. Proceeding down the tunnel, Laedo found he could extinguish the cressets by throwing a handful of dust on them. He created darkness behind them as they went. They turned into the main tunnel, which was also deserted, and sidled close to one wall until gaining the surface.

As on Fairyland, the structure of the split world, with its moonless, almost starless night, was an advantage. Overhead loomed the blank darkness of the opposite landscape, unenlivened by the light of fires. Only a few stars glinted through the gap between the two horizons, forming an embracing ring of distant points.

Otherwise the night was relieved by uneven glares from the blast furnaces. Laedo realized that he and the fairies would have good cover from the sight of any gnomes tending those furnaces, if they made their way round the other side of the big mound of tailings which separated the mine entrance from the open space where his ship was parked—if the ship was still there and had not been flown away by the determined Mezzen. The wingless fairies huddled with fright and unfamiliar cold as they came into the open. He herded them forward, anxious to get into the mound's shadow.

Blackness engulfed them as the furnaces disappeared behind the bulk of the pile. The fairies moaned in bewilderment as they stumbled in complete darkness, until Laedo took the risk of bringing out his flashlight, tuning it to a diffuse, dull glimmer.

Treading crushed ore, they crept round the mound until emerging on its further side. Laedo smiled as, by the faint light washing across from the furnaces and filtering through the angular shapes of the catapult machines, he saw his cargo ship.

It lay on its side. Mezzen's efforts had been rewarded with some success, evidently, but not enough. He had managed to turn on the manoeuvring engine, but had been unable to control it.