"You do not understand, but the Earth Mother Herself . . . She is slain."
After some time, a look of tired realisation crossed her features. Finally able to look upon him, she said in a dry, bitter voice, "Anest . . . I understand now how I came to be in Belloc's garden.
"Before our birth, we water-nymphs live as spirit-children in the depths of the earth, far beneath the Marsh. We ride the currents of the springs, and occasionally, a spring answers its call, and arises on the surface of the earth somewhere. We too answer this call, borne up by the rising spring. We become transformed. We become mortal. The spring, while it lasts, nurtures us with the Earth Mother's magic that lies deep within the earth. When it fades, so do we fade, like the leaves
of autumn.
"On that fateful day, my spirit-child sensed danger and bore me to Belloc's garden. But some other magic was at work, an evil magic, that attempted to break my bond with the spring, to bind my life to itself.
"At the very moment you sent my spring back into the earth, I was waiting nearby, afraid to draw near to the source of my own life, which had become a trap. When you intervened, my own unwillingness separated me from the spring and the evil that lay in wait there. Had I been full-willing to remain with my spring, I would have been sent back to the Marshes as you intended. In that same instant, my bond went to you through your magical talisman, because the spring was