Gone With The Harp's Echo by Narya

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Chapter 5

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He did not remember driving back to Taunton, or climbing the steps to his front door. He came back to himself as he stood in the kitchen, blinking, while Laurie and May sat at the table and stared.

“Robin...” May's voice shook. “Robin, your head...”

Laurie laid a hand on her arm. “It's alright, May.”

“Can't you see it? The star...and it's shining...”

“I know. I see it.”

Gingerly, Robin lifted a hand to his forehead. He felt nothing, and it no longer burned. “What day is it?”

“Saturday the twenty-first of June,” Laurie replied, utterly calm. “You've been gone for two days.”

“Oh.” Robin took a step forward, but his legs folded under him like wet straw. In an instant Laurie was at his side, one arm around his waist, helping him to a chair.

“I hope you didn't drive in that state,” he said sharply.

“I don't know what I did.” Robin blinked again. He felt as though he had got stuck while waking up from a dream. “I suppose I must have done.”

Laurie uttered an exasperated exclamation. “You're bloody lucky you made it back here.”

“I know. But it's never been like that before, it's never hurt...” He paused, realising that neither Laurie nor May knew about what Alf had called his gift.

Neither of them, though, seemed entirely surprised – though May's eyes were red, and she kept looking at his forehead.

Laurie squeezed his shoulder. “Tell me what happened.”

“There was a woman. A fairy, I think. She was dancing...and she had a message...”

May pushed a glass of water into his hands.

“She called me Robin-Wanderer, and she told me to come home.”

Laurie's lips parted. “Did she tell you how?”

“No...” He touched his forehead again. “What did she do to me?”

“In a moment.”

A ringing rose in his ears and mind, like he'd had too much wine and forgotten the way back from the pub. “I have to get back to her...”

“What did she say?”

Robin looked up. He had never heard Laurie sound quite like that before. “She told me to go where the worlds lean together, where Avalon and Avallónë meet.” Laurie paled. “She said “tell him, he will know” - but I don't know who she meant.”

“Me.” Laurie exhaled, and rubbed his temples. “She meant me.”

For a moment there was silence, and then May drew a shuddering breath. “You?” Her voice was still tearful. “Why?”

“Because I am not quite what I seem. And neither is Robin.”

“Oh, I've known that for a long time. He used to vanish from school sometimes; nobody ever knew where he went.” May smiled shakily. “But I was watching the first time it happened. He crawled through a hedge, and he just disappeared.”

Robin gaped. “So you did know.”

“Oh, yes.”

“You never said!”

She shrugged. “If you'd wanted me to know, you'd have told me.”

“May...”

“It's alright.” She laughed, a little self-consciously. “Actually I tried to follow you once, but I just ended up in the churchyard.”

Robin smiled and squeezed her hand, and looked up at Laurie, and tried hard to put the ringing call from his mind. “I think I knew about you too, at least a little. Mostly when you sang, or played. What are you?”

“An Elf. My name – my true name – is Makalaurë Kanafinwë Fëanárion.”

“I see.” It was no stranger, he supposed, than anything else he had seen or heard in his lifetime. Even May did not seem shocked. “And...is that what you'd like us to call you now?”

He laughed. “No. Laurie will do nicely. In a way I've grown quite fond of it.” He got to his feet and went to the bathroom, and when he came back he was carrying the small shaving mirror from the windowsill. “Now – take a look.”

Robin lifted the mirror up to his face. Where the fairy had touched between his brows, a star-shaped light shone from his skin. “Oh.”

“I'm going to tell you what I think I know of you, Robin, and from there we can decide what to do.” Laurie leaned back in his chair. “You've been able to move between worlds since you were a boy, is that right?”

“Yes, although not by choice. It just...seemed to sort of happen. Less and less as I got older, though.”

“But it was still happening when we were at Oxford?”

“Yes. The last time was on my twenty-first birthday. I met...” He closed his eyes, and the cool, fragrant air of the birch avenue seemed to curl through the kitchen as he remembered. “A man who said his name was Alf, although I'm not sure that's who he really was, or at least not all of it. We talked by a lake, and we ate together, and he asked me if I was unhappy. I said no – which was true.” He curled his fingers around the glass May had given him. “And then he walked me back through the woods, and kissed my forehead, and told me farewell. And I never went back.”

Laurie nodded. “Robin, I've known since I met you that you were not born in this world.”

Robin swallowed, and dropped his gaze. “No. I think I knew that too.”

“To fall through worlds by accident is rare, these days. I suspect that you were sent, perhaps for your own safety, and I suspect that you were meant to go back.” Gently, Laurie's fingers brushed his forehead. “This might have only begun to show when you met your fairy-woman at the hillfort, but it has been there for a long time – certainly as long as I've known you, and probably well before that. I think it was meant to lead you home.”

“Then why have I never got there? I've moved between worlds so many times...”

“I know.” Laurie gripped his shoulder, and looked at May. “But, Robin...home isn't always the place you were born.”

Robin raised his head. A river of old grief ran through his friend's voice. “Where's your home?”

“Never mind me.” Laurie leaned back. “We're talking about you.”

Outside a mournful cry echoed – a seagull, a long way from home. The gulls of Balar, they fly very far...

Robin thought again of the strange dancing woman. Heat flooded his face as a yearning ache rose through his body, and his head felt giddy and light at the memory of the kiss. “Should I go back to the hillfort?”

“No. No, I don't think that would do any good.”

“Where, then?”

“If you wish to find her, then you must do as she says.”

“And go where Avalon and Avallónë meet?”

“Precisely.”

“I don't know where that is.”

“I do.” Laurie sat up straight. “Robin, this is very important – when you last saw Alf, did he give you anything to bring back to this world?”