**
The moon was a sliver of silver and clouds covered the stars. Nimue woke with a start, as if icy water had splashed over her. She turned to look behind her. The Toad’s eyes were inches from her face. She couldn’t see the rest of him but she could smell it.
‘What do you want?’ Nimue said, in a soft voice. She didn’t want to wake the handmaidens. The Toad blinked its eyes and scraped its claws along the stone. It opened its mouth and blasted Nimue with fetid air. She crawled backwards. The Toad followed.
‘Get away!’ she hissed, motioning with her hands.
‘What is it?’ a sleepy voice asked.
Voices quickly joined in.
‘The Toad!’
‘Run! It’s coming for us!’
The nymphs shrieked and floundered in the dark. They banged into each other and splashed into the pools. Una sobbed. A low roar filled the pavilion, a grumbling, dry, groaning. The moon shone through a gap in the clouds. Moonlight etched the toad in silver and highlighted his slashing claws. A high scream shocked everyone into silence and they all saw Una crumple.
Mauve dawn bloomed and found the nymphs huddled in a teary, quivering mass. They held Una close and bathed her arm over and over, wringing water out of their hair and onto the livid scarlet lines that scored her soft skin. After a few hours, the scarlet turned to pink and the wounds healed.
‘We have to find a way out,’ Nereida said. ‘He’s tried to kill one of us. Stuff trying to purify the water if we’re going to be murdered for it.’
‘She doesn’t look dead to me,’ said Marella. ‘We’re healers aren’t we? We heal the water and we heal our selves.’
‘Healing this injury is one thing, but what if he cuts our throats or slashes our stomachs? We can’t fix ourselves up if our guts fall out,’ Nereida said. She was a little flushed and her voice was louder than usual.
‘Be quiet, Nereida!’ Nimue frowned and looked down at Una. Nereida had the grace to fall silent. ‘We have to trust in our task. The island needs us and Circe would not let us be killed.’
None of the nymphs replied, but their faces spoke for them. Who knew what Circe would do? Circe was capable of anything.
Things changed after the attack on Una. The nymphs lost their joy in the water and had to be pushed and cajoled into going near it. They spent less time together and their happy voices no longer rippled through the rooms. Una hid at night, climbing up the wrought iron arches and perching there. Others followed her example, thinking to get away from the Toad. Their skin dried out and blue shadows hollowed their eyes.
The Toad grew. The more fearful the nymphs, the bigger he became. His skin filled out as his body expanded and his yellow eyes were searingly bright. The Toad no longer flopped into the pools but hovered on the edges, his head darting from side to side as he listened. He followed the sound of their voices and there was something desperate about the way he moved. His claws clacked and he tried to rush the handmaidens from behind archways or make moaning noises when they were near. They stopped talking and laughing, spending their days in silence and whispers.
The sound of shattering crystal broke the quiet.
Nimue rushed into the source room and found Nereida on the floor, clutching her bloody arms.
'What have you done, Nereida?' she said, kneeling beside the pale handmaiden.
‘I’m sorry Nimue, but I have to find another place,’ Nereida said. Her hair hung in ropes and she chewed the ends between gasps of pain.
‘There is no other place. This is the source and if we don't care for it then the Toad will pollute it all!’ Nimue said.
‘Then I'll spend my last days in a place of safety, where I don’t have to fear that creature tearing me to pieces in the night. I can’t bear it anymore, I can’t sleep, I can’t live like this,’ a tear slid down Nereida’s once beautiful face.'
‘And what about Una? And the other nymphs?’
Nereida breathed deeply. ‘That's up to them but I think most of them will come with me.’
Nimue turned. The other nymphs had come rushing at the sound and by the look on their faces, Nimue knew they weren't staying. She couldn't blame them. She'd leave too if it wasn’t for the memory of Circe’s green and golden eyes staring into hers.
‘Protect the source. Protect the waters,’ Circe had said, and Nimue had promised.
The nymphs stepped through the shattered crystal panes and into the forest outside. Nimue watched her handmaidens, their pale hair glowing under the emerald leaves until they disappeared.
‘Nimue?’
Nimue turned. Una stood behind her.
‘You’re not going with the others, Una?’
‘No. We have to look after the waters. If we don’t do that, then we don’t deserve to have this place, or any place. Do we?’
Nimue drew the young nymph into her arms and kissed her forehead. She looked across Una’s shoulder as she did so and saw the Toad dragging himself through one of the arches. His body had swelled so much that it was a tight fit. He panted and scrabbled at the floor, drooling great gobs of slime as he heaved towards them. There was nowhere to go, except through the broken glass and away from their home.
‘Stand behind me, Una,’ Nimue said, pushing the young nymph against the wrought iron. The Toad came closer. His breath was warm on Nimue’s skin and it reeked of rot and disease. More groaning, grating sounds wrenched themselves out of the Toad’s slobbering jaws. Nimue looked away and glimpsed dirty claws and scabbed feet. She straightened up and lifted her chin.
‘Do what you must,’ Nimue said. ‘But without us you will only end up dying in your own waste and poison. ‘
She stared into the Toad’s sulphurous eyes and stopped. She sensed something sad there, something hopeless.
‘Are you sick?’ Nimue put her hand out to the bumpy, sticky skin and pulled it back. The Toad was silent, its eyes riveted onto Nimue’s.
‘Is that why you pollute the water? You’re ill and...’ she paused, wondering, ‘lonely?’
The Toad did nothing. Nimue took a hesitant step forward, then a more decisive one. Her fingers trembled as she extended her hand. Her palm touched the Toad and she recoiled.
‘Your skin burns! You are ill!’
This time she was confident as she touched the Toad. She rested her hands on him and made soothing noises. The Toad hung his head, sagged as if in relief.
Nimue looked at her fingers. They were slimy and a filmy substance clung to them. She heard a slurping noise. The Toad’s skin was sloughing away and hitting the floor with a wet splatter.
‘Una! Quickly!’
Una came to Nimue’s side and together they began to peel the Toad, ripping off its skin in long, sticky shreds. The skin underneath glowed green and golden highlights glimmered within it. The body it covered was sleek and muscled. The toad’s claws fell off and its scabby feet fell away, leaving fine boned toes with round, sticky pads on them.
‘It’s a frog!’ Una exclaimed. ‘Such a beautiful frog. And look!’ She pointed to the pool beside them. Everywhere a piece of toad skin had fallen, a waterlily bloomed. They marvelled at the waterlilies, at the richness of their pink petals and the green of their soft leaves. When they turned back to the frog it had shrunk and was now small enough to fit on their palm. It leapt and landed in the centre of a waterlily, nestled into it and disappeared.
Nimue and Una looked at the waterlily and back at each other.
‘Do you think this was a Circe thing?’ Una asked.
‘I’m sure of it. She likes giving lessons. I’m just not sure what she meant to tell us.’ Nimue said.
‘I think I know.’ Una looked a bit shy.
‘Tell me.’
'Maybe it was about taking caring of things. If you want things to be healthy, like that frog, then you have to look after them. Or things get out of control and turn into toads.'
Nimue smiled. ‘That sounds true,' she said. 'And maybe it was also about fear. The more we gave into
fear, the bigger the Toad got.'
‘We made him big, in our minds,’ Una said. ‘I know I did, after he hurt me. But he just wanted to be looked after.’
Nimue nodded. Una continued.
‘And I think you saw past the fear because you were sorry for him. It was compassion that gave you the strength to touch him.’
Nimue smiled. ‘I think you are much wiser than your age.’ She tucked a waterlily behind Una’s ear. ‘Now we should go and join the others. The source is safe and right now, I need to get out of here.’
‘I hope Circe hasn’t turned the others into toads,’ Una said.
‘Then we’d better turn them into frogs,’ Nimue said. They held hands and slipped into the water, their pale hair streaming behind them.
###
About the author:
Pen Clements loves exploring the fantasy genre. Sometimes her stories are based on myths and legends, sometimes they are post-apocalyptic and now and then steampunk creeps in.
Thank you for reading books on BookFrom.Net Share this book with friends