Page 3

Jasmine

I opened the letter waiting for me at my desk and let out a frustrated sigh as I read the message inside. The head night guard was retiring, meaning that his replacement needed to be chosen. The most logical choice was Sonja Porter, she'd followed her parents' footsteps and joined the guards, and while she was only my age, she had proved herself more than competent when it came to organising the night shift.

A knock broke through my thoughts and I put the letter onto the stack of things for me to deal with later. "Come in," I called.

My office door swung open and Katie Fields stuck her head around the door. "They're here."

I nodded, trying to ignore the instant bout of nerves that sprung up inside me. I got to my feet, accidentally knocking over a stack of papers. I resisted the urge to tidy because I couldn't make the delegation from Grower's Cove wait. We had to make a good impression, which meant welcoming them in person and making sure they have everything they need as our valued guests.

Katie and I made our way through the village, with her dog Banjo bouncing along beside her as if this was the most exciting day of his life. Maybe it was, I couldn't pretend to understand animals the same way wards like Katie could.

I smiled and nodded and the people we passed, wanting to keep things open and friendly with them. I might have a lot on my mind, but that didn't mean I could ignore the villagers, especially when most of them probably had no idea how important today was, or that the delegation from Grower's Cove could make a huge difference to our lives, so long as we could agree on the terms of an alliance between our settlements.

"Isn't it exciting that they've successfully grown their own tea?" Katie asked.

"I mean, they're dryads. If anyone can do it, it's them. But it's very promising and could be exactly what we need. If we can rely on them for tea, we would be in a much better position. Especially after winter, our reserves are always a bit bare." I grimaced just thinking about the state of our tea stores. Winter always took it out of them, but it had been made worse this year by the travelling merchants charging nearly double what they used to, and the quality and amount of tea they had went down too. I hoped it wasn't an omen of things to come.

"You always feel this way after winter," Katie said. "Brew told me last night that...nothing."

I snorted. "I know you're together."

She cleared her throat. "What?"

"You and Brew. I know, you don't have to hide it from me," I assured her.

"Did he tell you?"

I laughed. "Definitely not, but the two of you are the least subtle couple I've ever met. Don't worry, I haven't told anyone," I assured her.

"We don't really want it to be a secret," Katie mumbled.

I gave her what I hoped was a reassuring smile. I didn't envy them. They clearly cared a lot for one another and yet were being forced to keep it quiet because our elders wouldn't respond well to two members of the Four Families being together. It was an outdated rule in my opinion, and one that was foolish considering the fact we all spent so much time together, they were just asking for trouble in telling us that we couldn't date.

Our conversation was cut short when the town hall came into view. The doors were already open, and the staff had done a good job of making it look presentable and welcoming. Though the biggest relief to me was that the delegation from Grower's Cove weren't standing outside it. Someone must have invited them in and hopefully offered them refreshments after their journey, as per my instructions.

It was always good when a plan came together.

I took a deep breath and stepped through the doors with Katie right behind me. There was some reassurance that I didn't have to deal with this delegation on my own, especially because I knew Katie was just as dedicated to the well-being of the village.

The reception room had a fire burning in the grate, warming it well, and there was a pot of steaming tea alongside a plate of biscuits on the table for our four guests. One of whom had already helped themselves, which reassured me that they'd been welcomed properly.

"Hello," I said as I walked into the room, hoping that I wasn't about to make a bad impression.

The tallest of the group, a man with dark wavy hair and broad shoulders, turned to face me. He seemed about my age, as did the others in the room. Which was reasonable. As much as it would be good to deal with people who sat directly on their council, I knew they wouldn't be able to spare them from the day-to-day running of Grower's Cove. There was a reason it was me and Katie here and not my mother and her grandfather.

He held out his hand to me. "I'm Ryburn Silva," he said in a low, smooth voice that made me want to hear more of it. "Grower's Cove tasked me with heading this delegation."

"Jasmine Brewster, I belong to one of the Four Families that run Purple Oak Oasis." I introduced myself, taking his hand in my own. It was large, slightly callused, and pleasantly warm. A little tingle travelled along my skin, but I ignored it while I looked up at him. Or I tried to ignore it, there was something about him that was strangely captivating. I let go of his hand and coughed slightly in an attempt to regain my composure. "How was your journey?"

"It was good. We ran into no trouble and had no rain," Ryburn said. His eyes were slightly creased and a saturated brown that matched well with his dark hair and darker complexion. He looked like someone reliable and trustworthy, even if I couldn't explain why.

He wasn't looking away from me, which only increased the strange feeling of tension within me. Things weren't going to go well with the delegation if I was this distracted just by being in his presence.

Except that this wasn't just my role. Maybe I could get my friend to deal with the captivating dryad in front of me, that would save me from making any mistakes.

I stepped back, breaking through some of my haze in the process, and gestured to Katie. "Katie Fields," I introduced my friend. "She's also from one of the Four Families."

Ryburn nodded and gestured to the three other people who were with him. "These are my companions and advisors. Ford, Mallory, and Aster."

I gave them a nod in acknowledgement, but mostly kept my attention on Ryburn since he was clearly in charge. And he was very handsome. It was definitely because of the former reason and not the latter.

"We've prepared a room for us to talk in," I said, finally managing to tear my gaze away from him. This was not the time to be distracted by a pretty face, there was far too much riding on these negotiations.

I led them through into the next room where a large table was waiting for us. Katie brought the tray of tea and biscuits through with her, setting them in the middle of the table. Both were the best Purple Oak had to offer, with the biscuits coming from the most celebrated baker in town. I had to hope that the delegation from Grower's Cove appreciated the manner in which we were welcoming them.

Ryburn mouthed something to the man he called Ford earlier. The other man produced a box and held them out to Katie.

"Winter pears," Ford said without looking at me.

"Thank you," she said, opening the box to inspect them. She was around produce and food more than me, so she had a much better eye and idea of whether this was a nice gift. She looked impressed and nodded slightly, which I took as an indication that she approved. Not that I thought the dryads would send a poor gift to us. They wanted things from us too.

We all settled at the table, and I topped up each of their teacups while pouring fresh ones for me and Katie. My hands shook slightly as I did it, which I hoped they wouldn't notice. I liked to think of myself as cool and collected, but I wasn't feeling that right now.

"I don't want to waste your time with lots of pleasantries," I said, knowing from the correspondence I'd already had with Grower's Cove that it was better to get straight to the point. "I'm going to dive right into it. We need a steady supply of tea and we have a lot to offer in return. Wool, leather, flour, other types of goods, and healing." I glanced at Katie, just to make sure that she and her family were still happy with this part of the deal. It would put a lot of extra work on their shoulders as one of the biggest farms in the village, but it was worth it for the overall well-being of the town.

At least, in my opinion. The impressive healers in our medical bay kept injury and disease to a bare minimum, which meant everyone could function at their very best. It was what made Purple Oak so prosperous.

"We could use all of those," Ryburn said with a nod.

Plenty of offers had been sent back and forth so far, establishing that we were open to negotiations with each other and had something the other wanted. In our case, we wanted tea. Though there were other resources from Grower's Cove that wouldn't go amiss too.

"We propose an exchange every month at a rate slightly below what the merchant caravans are currently operating," Ryburn continued.

"We'd need to test the quality of the tea first," I said. "And have assurances that deliveries would be consistent." There was no point setting up a monthly trade if we weren't able to guarantee that we'd get the tea we needed.

"Understandable. We brought a box with us," Ryburn said, setting it on the table.

"We'd also like your expertise for our own tea garden," I said, trying to rein in my nerves. My family discussed whether we thought bringing that up would be a good idea over the dinner table last night, but it was still hard to put it into words. "We will compensate you for that too."

A thoughtful expression crossed the dryad's face. "If you wish for our help, we'll need to see it to know what we're working with. We won't be able to tell you what we want in exchange until we know what it'll require of us."

"That's fair." I exchanged a glance with Katie who nodded for me to continue. "I believe this is a good start to our negotiation. I'm sure you're tired from your journey, so we'll let you rest. Rooms have been prepared for you all upstairs. Tomorrow, we can show you around the village, and I'll take you on a tour of the tea garden." Though if I was honest, tour sounded a little too grand considering the size of what we had, but I couldn't exactly say that out loud.

Hopefully, it wouldn't put them off working with us when they saw it.