The Watchtower

golden branch was gone but, he reassured himself by patting his secret pants pocket, his wad of francs was still with him. The fiends had only been interested in the branch, which after all could be of massive value simply for being solid gold, let alone for being a portal to immortality.
    Will breathed a sigh of relief that they hadn’t found his bounty in francs, with which he was going to travel to Paimpont. The branch might be gone, he told himself with fierce determination, but Sylvianne had still let the secret out! If he could get to the Paimpont pond at sunset and summon rays with a mirror, or a jewel, or a sword, that might get Morgane’s attention just as well. Or even just being in proximity to the pond, day or night, might do the trick. After all, Sylvianne had as much as guaranteed Morgane’s solicitousness in the matter. Why, he might as well be in the Summer Country already!
    In minutes, Will, waving just a couple of his francs in the air like a banner, flagged down a horse rider, who took him on board for just five francs to the town of Piermont, where he caught the next coach to the walled town of Paimpont. There, he located the pool quickly after his arrival—right after renting a second-floor room in one of the inns that lined the dusty main street—seeing it on his first exploratory walk beyond Paimpont’s east wall, and sitting down on a grassy bank to observe it.
    The pool was an irregular oval with the stillness of a stone on this windless morning, shimmering green in the sun as if some spirit of the earth lurked within it. Will felt fascinated by it as he gazed and gazed. To his left was the town, across from him the abbey, and to the right deep woods that seemed to grow denser and blacker the more he looked at them. Will swiveled his gaze back to the abbey and fantasized for a moment that he saw Lightning Hands and Dr. Russwurin emerging from the chapel into the sunshine. Their heads were down with shame—they were chastened, reformed—they were bringing him the golden branch in apologetic penitence, testing the water with their feet to see if they could walk across it to him. The Summer Country was near! They took a few steps, ankle deep, knee deep, waist deep, and then the vision of them burned off as if the sun itself had gotten tired of it. He went back to staring at the empty pool, and the empty footpath that circled it. Then he heard the faintest of rustling noises, behind him and to his left, up the bank. He turned around with an irrepressible hope, though the sound was likely from a bird that had fluttered to the ground.
    Marguerite stood in a silver dress, offering him a tentative smile. The smile lit Will up as if a lightning bolt in liquid form had been poured into his veins. In two strides he was next to her and embracing her, then pulling himself back to more fully take in her beauty: the deep blue pools of her eyes, and the expressive tenderness with which she gazed at him.
    Will kissed Marguerite softly on the lips and whispered, “I thought I would never lay eyes on you again. I have been in such despair as no one might believe. Where have you been?”
    Marguerite stepped back from him and glanced away into the pool, and though the water was only a few yards below them, the look in her eyes was further away than any Will had seen there before. Not of this world. Exalted as he felt, it made him tremble.
    “What’s wrong?” he asked.
    Marguerite took Will’s hand and together they sat down on the bank. “I had to go away,” she said, still looking at the water. “But I did it for us, not just for me. I left you signs because in the world I was in I couldn’t communicate with you any other way. I hoped you would follow, and I’m thrilled you have. But I cannot say more of where I’ve gone, or exactly why. Perhaps someday, but not now. Let’s just say that I’ve been in touch with a part of my past I’d lost connection with, that there I realized how incredibly much I love you, and now I may turn my full attention to you.” She turned her gaze from the pool to Will, though not before casting one lingering glance upon the water. She kissed him and put her arms around him.
    Golden branch gone, John Dee’s promise again in mind, Will could not help glancing down at her hand, and saw that her ring finger was bare. He winced, but no doubt she had the ring with her personal property, wherever she stayed. He had neither the desire nor a plan to once again directly