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“If you can cry or pretend to be in pain, that would be helpful,” he said.

He dragged me forward, and I stumbled before I lost my balance, falling down as he stepped back out of the way.

He lifted my head to his hip with a single fist buried at the roots of my hair, forcing me up to the back of my toes. The pressure pinched my scalp; heat prickled behind my eyes. Then he began to move, dragging me along beside him. My toes skimmed the dirt between the rows of mushrooms as he marched.

My arms burned, but my scalp didn’t hurt.

Even so, the fact that he could lift me like that and drag me, one-handed, was impressive. I hadn’t ever been a small woman, even before my day-to-day existence turned into endless physical labor. Muscle weighed more than fat, and I was dense.

He was strong despite his fancy pants appearance.

His white robes billowed, gold-edged seams catching the harsh light. The gilt feathers of his wings almost glimmered in the sun as he moved, soft feathers brushing against me as he dragged me down the row as if I were as light as one of his feathers. My weight hung from his grip, shoulder sockets stretching. He kept the pace unbroken, wings half-flared for balance. Copper spores dotted his immaculate robe where disrupted stalks had puffed into the air at our passing.

That would ruin my quota.

Good thing I wasn’t ever coming back here.

Loam and eggshell gave way to hardpack. The road’s gray grit rasped my bare knees as they touched down. He halted at the edge, wings folding like silent doors behind his shoulders. My shoulder muscles still burned from supporting myself, but he didn’t let go, and so neither did I.

Then he let me go, and I fell forward to my hands and knees again.

“Was there a problem with the inspection?” a cold, cruel voice asked.

Danger. Zeph hissed.Remain small.

I didn’t look up.

Zeph was my ally. He had just as much of an incentive to want me to be free. The only way they were able to force him to work at this school was to use me. So when he gave me advice, I listened.

I kept my eyes down and tried to make myself invisible.

I stared at the embroidered boots that belonged to Seelie Ard Ri Lacnevioda Terithni’i Unlar Stormchaser. I had missed themost recent assembly where he spoke to the school, as my quota came before anything else, classes and assemblies included, but there had been an announcement posted in the dorms with his image all over it, his name and titles plastered across in gaudy, gilded gold.

“The crops are robust,” Rí Túath Crystallo said. “The spell is holding.”

I stayed where I was, still and motionless on the ground by his feet.

“I’m sure you’re aware that the Goddess has awakened,” the Seelie Ard Ri said. “Your people’s unique spell will not be needed once she sees fit to create a proper Order spell to serve the purpose.”

There was a threat hanging in the words, heavy and overt. In my investigations to find out who Crystallo was, I found out more about the outside world. There was an uneasy truce between the forces of Order and the Aetheriani, one brokered over the many years the Order Goddess had slumbered.

Everyone knew war was coming.

I didn’t want to be here to be caught in it.

Whatever the truth of the situation at the school, it was a problem for gods, imaginary or real, to work out. My problem was how I was gonna get away.

“I look forward to her creation,” Rí Túath Crystallo said, even though the mushrooms that fed the school with an abundance were due to the spell that only his family could cast. “It will be a great day when she steps free from her prison.”

“Watch what you say,” Seelie Ard Rí snapped.

“Whatever do you mean?” Rí Túath Crystallo said, an edge of a smile in his voice. I risked a glance up at him to see his eyes glinting like daggers in the sunlight as he stared down his enemy. “Surely you are not implying you wish your Goddess to remain imprisoned?”

“She protects us all with her sacrifice,” Seelie Ard Rí said. “Your people included.”

“Indeed, she is a gracious and proper Goddess,” Rí Túath Crystallo said. “Now, it is high time you show me the fruits of the fields. I have heard that having mundanes working in the kitchens has resulted in some unusual dishes?”

He took a few steps forward as the two of them began to head up the road, towards the fort that blocked the single entrance to the Caldera. I looked up again to see two fairy hive workers floating nearby, one with green feathery hair and the other with brown, their insect wings catching the sunlight as they hovered, ready to run any errand. I'd learned over the years here that part of the fort that blocked the entrance to the caldera was a fairy hive. The 'proper students' referred to it as a captive hive.