a flash of azure and jewelled paint.

“And I, O Sorceress! I dreamed of night, and a love song under the million stars. And of a great stag standing in the water.”

“Had the stag no antlers, little daughter?”

“None, for it was spring time.”

“You dreamed of night. It shall be night for a long while — for ages and ages, ere the stag’s wide antlers crown his head again. For the antlers were lying upon a new made grave. And the million stars were the lights of camp-fires. And the love-song was the Karenna. And the water you beheld was the river culled Chemung.”

The girl seemed stunned, standing there plucking at her fingers,