Rippler by Cindy

upon his face and withdrawing it quickly as though burned.
    “I can have no child if I marry you.”
    “That is your reason?” he asked.
    “Yes. And if I produce no heir Louis receives our lands and all they contain. These things you know already.”
    He grunted, leaned to kiss her. She faded to air and returned to her flesh.
    She continued. “If we wed there would be no child unless I lay with another man. Is that what you are asking of me?”
    He turned from her, an angry look I knew well played across his face. “Come away with me,” he whispered.
    “Never,” she said.
    Both lay silent a long while.
    At last I saw a tear and then another upon his cheek. The weakling.
    She turned to him, wiping his face as I have seen her do for a brat who has spilled himself upon the Great Hall floor. But then she kissed him, and as he turned his body to her, she vanished. He groaned. She reappeared. This same manner of thing happened twice again.
    My anger burned as though it would consume the forest, but I could not look away.
    Again, they embraced, always she faded but then returned.
    “It is no use, heart of mine,” she said to him at last, pulling back from his kiss.
    And I knew.
    I knew.
    Her heart would never be mine. Though she wed me, though he should perish in battle, though all the world should change. She would love him still.
    I felt the presence of the great boar before I saw him. A fearsome tusked thing. Come here, I called. Come here.
    Lo, it approached. Snuffling, pawing, unheard by the lovers at the brook.
    Gouge them, crush them, spill their blood, said I to the great beast. The creature looked about him, lowered his potent head, and trotted forth to ruin my enemies.
    Who has done what I have done? Who is like me, that he can control the beasts of the forest? Alas, I did not bid the boar to be silent. He squealed a hideous sound which gave the pair time to disappear into air, mightily puzzling the creature.
    I have lost, thought I.
    But no. This day has seen me victorious.
    This evening, Helisabat de Rochefort pledged herself to be mine.
    -translation by G. Pfeffer

    Chapter Nine
    HITTING THE WALL
    “Sounds like one of us skipped breakfast,” Will said as my stomach growled noisily on our way to school the next day.
    I’d slept in late and skipped eating a real breakfast in order to bike to school with Will.
    Syl made me take a couple of cereal bars. I pulled one out, tore the wrapper with my teeth and pushed my breakfast up from the bottom of the plastic wrapper, remembering another of my questions about rippling.
    “How long does it take to get hungry or thirsty when you’re invisible?”
    Will’s brows contracted as he thought about it. “I went once for three days without food or water.”
    “Seriously?”
    “Two summers ago, Mickie had to leave for job training for four days. It wouldn’t have been a big deal except she forgot to leave me grocery money. So I ate my way through all the bread and cereal in the house the first morning and afternoon. For dinner it was peanut butter on an apple half, peanut butter on zucchini, and peanut butter on red bell peppers. That was nasty; take my word for it.
    “So I ripple for the next three days ‘til Mick gets back so that I won’t feel hungry. Then she comes back in the house and she’s all looking in the fridge, shouting at me about why didn’t I leave her some food ‘cause she’s starving after four days of cafeteria food,” he said, laughing. “It was pretty funny seeing her face when I told her why there wasn’t any food in the apartment.”
    “You should have grabbed food from next door, you know, a little something from
    everyone, not like a huge raid on any one person. I mean, you could walk through walls.”
    He frowned. “Nah, that’s too much like something my dad would do. I take a pop-tart from someone, it’s stealing.”
    I nodded, but I was pretty sure I’d have stolen the stupid pop-tart. My life was sheltered, easy. I’d