Rope of stars across the floor

Who could dare to ask for more?

Seren felt awful.

Tomos looked devastated and the Crow, who had flapped round and perched on the lamp, was glaring at her.

Beyond the circle of strange faces, the Ball was going on, but it seemed oddly distant.

Denzil struggled in his chair. ‘You are not going with Them, Seren bach, be sure of that. Whatever happens…’

‘But I made a promise, Denzil.’

‘It should be me.’ Tomos sounded bitterly unhappy. ‘I brought the pen in.’

The Tylwyth Teg murmured. They put out their silvery fingers and touched his hair and sleeves.

‘NO!’ Seren pulled him away.

‘Then come, Seren.’

‘Now, Seren.’

‘The Moon is full.’

‘The nights are shortest.’

‘The roses are in bloom.’

She felt so scared she was breathless. All her friends were here, but who could help her? She would have to be snatched away with the Fair Family, into their country of snow and strangeness, to that icy palace she had been in once before. And there was no time there, so she would live forever in a whirl of dancing and hunting and cold beauty, and there would be no one to talk to and no lessons and no books and no Sam the cat to play with and no Plas-y-Fran. Unless she visited it at night like a ghost, and watched everyone else growing older.

She shivered.

Above all, there would be no one to love her. But did she even have that now?

‘I’m not having this!’ Tomos folded his arms. ‘If they want a human child, they can have me. I’m not scared and I’ve been there before…’

‘Close your mouth, you foolish infant!’ the Crow snapped. It drew itself up. ‘Clearly I am the one who should be sacrificed. All I have been is a source of trouble to my friends. I quite see that now. I will go and live in Their cage and amuse Them and…’

‘No!’ Enoch said earnestly. ‘I haven’t traipsed around the world for a hundred years trying to find a cure just for everything to fail now. I will go with Them and then you can all sort everything out without me and…’

‘Nonsense!’ Denzil snapped. ‘This is my fight. I have warred against these beings for years. They will not have anything or anyone from Plas-y-Fran while I am alive. So if anyone has to go it will be me…’

‘We need you here,’ Gwyn gasped, scared but determined. ‘I could take your place, Seren, if you like. I don’t mind, really. You’ve always been very kind to me.’

Seren had tears in her eyes.

She sniffed them back.

This was no time to be silly.

‘Thank you all,’ she said, ‘but I couldn’t let any of you take my place.’