Free Greenmantle by Charles De Lint Page A

twenty years younger than me. It makes a difference.”
    The slanted green eyes studied him for a moment, then looked away. “Maybe,” she said. Her gaze returned to him, a serious look in her eyes. “You shouldn’t have let him run so far last night, Lewis.”
    “He belongs to everyone, not just New Wolding. I couldn’t stop him anyway.”
    She nodded. “But there’s no room for him out there anymore. If he runs too far, he’ll be gone, too. A mystery like him wouldn’t last long out there.”
    “It’s Tommy’s music,” Lewis said. “He’s the one who pipes the tune.”
    “Tommy won’t listen to me.”
    “What makes you think he’d listen to me? Anyway, he’s not just Tommy when he’s piping. He’s part of the mystery then.”
    She sighed. “I know. There’s just not enough of you here anymore. If there were more of you, Tommy wouldn’t pipe so wild a tune. He’s calling, Lewis, because he knows you need more people, and he’s sending the mystery out farther and farther. One night the mystery won’t come back. You’ve got to bring some people in.”
    “They don’t listen anymore,” Lewis said. “I’ve been out there. People’ve got too much else going on in their heads to hear properly anymore. The music’s just not strong enough for them.”
    “But there’s some that would hear it the way it should be heard,” she said. “There has to be. If you could reach them… When’s the Gypsy due?”
    Lewis shrugged. “A week, maybe two. They keep time like you do—as it comes.”
    “Ask him,” she said. “There’s people out there who will listen. Ask him to find some for you. Otherwise things’ll change and the changes won’t be good. The music’s going out to the wrong people. When the echoes come back, they’re…they’re not always good. Maybe you should move again, Lewis—like you did when you came here.”
    Lewis shook his head. “Where would we go?”
    “Deeper.”
    “Deeper where ?”
    She shrugged. “I don’t know, Lewis. Nothing changes for me. I’ve got the moon and that’s all I need.” She smiled without humor. “Maybe that’s what you should do, Lewis. Drink down the moon and let him run free.”
    Before he could reply, she jumped down from the woodpile and moved behind him. He felt the light touch of her hand on his head as she tousled his thin hair. By the time he turned around, she was gone.
    Lewis sat there for a long time, thinking over what she’d said. Out there beyond this little pocket of the wild, they did hear the music differently, and whether they saw the mystery as a stag or a man or something in between, they understood even less about him than Lewis did. The mystery was their enemy. He was something you had to approach with your heart, but all they had in them was reason. The few folk that still searched for him—not even knowing what they were looking for—probably wouldn’t recognize him if they did find him.
    I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, he thought.
     
    * * *
     
    That evening wasn’t a gather-up night so only the youngsters went up to the stone when Tommy began to play. Lily was visiting Lewis and together they sat outside his cabin, listening to the soft piping that drifted down from Wold Hill. They sat without speaking, though earlier Lewis had repeated the warnings of his small morning visitor with her green eyes and narrow fox’s face.
    They both thought about the world losing another of its mysteries. It gave the night a bittersweet air. There were so few mysteries left. The world couldn’t spare the loss of even one of them now.

9
     
     
    On Saturday afternoon, Frankie sat down on the edge of her bed still wearing no more than her bra and panties. She’d spent a fruitless twenty minutes trying on various skirts, blouses and dresses, and was no closer to deciding on what to wear for the evening than she had been when she’d come upstairs to take a shower in the first place.
    You’d think I was Ali’s age, she