The Sinners of Erspia

“Oh, that was go-o-o-od," she growled softly. Then she suddenly became angry and accusing. “But you spoiled it! You caught her!"

Arching her fingers like a cat, she struck out to scratch his face. The gravpack dangling by its straps from one hand, he fended her off with the other and slapped her hard.

“What did I tell you?” he bellowed. “And what do you expect the fairies to do about this?"

She nursed her reddened cheek. “They can't do anything. They've only got bows and arrows and spears.

We've got your gun."

"I've

got my gun.” He snatched it from its holster and pointed the beamer at her. “Maybe I should use it on you. Now get back in the station and stay there."

Sullenly she obeyed, glancing back at him with resentment. Laedo waited until she had disappeared into the station, then went into the cargo ship.

The wingless fairies came sleepily awake as he entered, looking at him half from curiosity, half from fear.

He fed them, then took them outside to gawp at the scenery.

“This is the world where you belong,” he told them. “This is what the gnomes took your ancestors away from and made them slaves. Here there are other fairies like yourselves who will help you. There's just one thing wrong."

He paused. “The other fairies have wings and can fly in the air. The gnomes cut yours off when you were young. Do you know that?"

They nodded. The male replied. “The story is passed down that what the gnomes remove is for flying.

But we never really believed it. It's just that they would get in the way when working in the tunnels."

“It's true. Here, fairies fly. Unfortunately your wings cannot be restored to you. But with these devices on your backs you can still fly, as if you had wings.” He indicated the gravpacks. “Then you can take your proper place here."

He had feared that the two would be too crushed by their life experiences to be able to learn anything new. He was proved wrong. They had, after all, been raised in an atmosphere of engineering, and the gravpacks were simple to use.

His second fear, that they would be frightened and bewildered by height, was also wrong. Their instinct to fly asserted itself almost immediately. He started with the man fairy, taking him into the air and showing how to use the single control, then he showed the girl. In less than an hour they had both mastered the whole thing.

Back on the ground, he solemnly made presents of the packs. “Go in that direction,” he said, pointing.

“Keep looking until you find people like yourselves. Explain your story to them and they will help you."

They took to the air, circling one another and laughing with incredulous delight. Then they set off, low over the forest canopy.

Now there was nothing to do but wait.

The five-men commission came late in the day, spiralling down into the clearing to settle themselves cross-legged on the grass, where they confronted Laedo grim-faced.

Among them Laedo recognised Highbreeze, the air marshal he had met on the day of his arrival. But he was not at the head of the commission. This was a somewhat elderly figure announcing himself as Wafting Leaf. “The young woman whom your companion crippled has received the attentions of the healers,” he said, “but it will be a hundred days before she can take to the air again, if she ever does."

He raised his eyes to the cargo ship and projector station before continuing. “By our laws your companion's act is punishable by death. Also, we deduce that it was you who released the gnome prisoner and that you took him back to Gnomeland. This also is punishable by death. Against these crimes we are obliged to balance the fact that you saved the crippled young woman Red Petal's life, and that you rescued two mutilated fairies from Gnomeland. We have questioned these two. There are legends that gnomes kidnapped babies long ago, but frankly we are shocked to learn that members of our race are kept by them as slaves, and in such horrible conditions.

“Before pronouncing judgment, I must ask why you went to Gnomeland in the first place."

Laedo decided to tell something close to the truth.

“My only aim is to return home,” he said. “I had hoped the gnomes would help me repair my ship, and I took the prisoner with me to try to earn their good will. Instead they took me prisoner. Luckily I managed to escape."

Wafting Leaf nodded and appeared to accept the account. “I can only observe that you badly misjudged the gnome character. Such ignorance supports your claim to belong to neither of our worlds. We now come to judgment. In your case, one act cancels out the other. But not in the case of your companion.

There is still the matter of poor Red Petal's broken wings."

“I can only apologise for my companion,” Laedo said. “She suffers from a mental illness. This causes her to act badly. I hope to have her condition treated by experts when I return to my own world."

Wafting Leaf considered this. “If what you say is true, you should not have left her at liberty."