Page 5
Story: Ties of Bargains
Chapter Five
A s evening settled deeper around the seemingly endless fern forest, Val turned a spit over a crackling fire, roasting the carcass of the rodent Daisy had killed earlier that day. The pleasant spring warmth abated into a mild chill while a crisp breeze whispered through the ferns overhead.
The human—Harm—sat on a toadstool seat across the fire from her, the flames doing nothing to the cord that lay between them. His eyes were still slightly wide after watching her produce a tent, bedrolls, firewood, and miscellaneous camping supplies from her pocket.
Not the same pocket that held the dead rodent. One should never use the same pocket for dead things as one’s other supplies.
She had then started the fire with her bottled dragon fire in its small stone jar, which had earned her further wide-eyed astonishment.
As she turned the spit, Val kept a wary eye on the darkness surrounding their little camp. She’d picked a spot among a tight cluster of ferns, the moss beneath them dotted with yellow flowers. The ferns weren’t a circle, which would have been a cause for concern, yet they were close enough that they would provide some shelter for their camp.
Mischievous sprites roamed these wilds between the Court of Dreams and the Court of Revels, venturing out of their toadstool homes once the sun retreated below the horizon. They weren’t dangerous, exactly. But they weren’t not dangerous either.
Besides the sprites, there were also the faerie circles and the rifts where monsters could slip between the realms. Sure, Val lived in the Realm of Monsters and dealt with monsters all the time. But in the Realm of Monsters, she had the rest of her Wild Hunt backing her up. Grutte, with his massive muscles and even more massive great sword. Ignatius and Abelardo with their tricks. Chela and Jesenia, who always had Val’s back. The rest of the Wild Hunt who, though they were not part of her gang of acquaintances, would still ride at her side into battle.
Here, she was alone with just Daisy to help her guard the hapless human.
Well, he wasn’t as hapless as she had assumed. He’d bargained like a fae with Queen Mab.
But his soft hands and the bewildered look he got around weapons told her that he couldn’t handle that knife he had tucked in his boot. If it came to fighting monsters, he would be about as much help as a log chained to her arm.
Once the meat was done cooking, Val hacked off a hunk, stabbed it on a skewer, and held it out to Harm. “Eat.”
He took the skewer, staring at the hunk as if he wasn’t sure how to go about eating it. “No proper plate and utensils?”
“Are you volunteering to wash a whole stack of dishes once we’re done?” Val chopped off another chunk for herself, stabbing it on a stick as well.
“No, I guess not.” He shrugged but still eyed the meat warily.
“It’s safe for you to eat.” Val waved her spit at him, the swishing motion through the air helping to cool the meat.
Harm frowned at the meat, as if weighing his options. “I suppose it would be best to save my human food for my escape. Now that the journey is going to be longer than expected.” He finally took a tentative bite.
If that logic was what got him to stop being picky, then she wasn’t going to correct his assumption that escape was possible.
Daisy bounded into the firelight and skidded to a halt in front of Val. The dog plunked her butt down, her tail wagging, as she tilted her face up in a huge-eyed, begging posture.
Val bit into the meat and ripped off a chunk with her teeth. Then she juggled her own skewer while she sliced another chunk of meat from the carcass. She chopped it into smaller bites, making sure there weren’t any bones, so that Daisy wouldn’t choke. Then she set the pile of meat on a flat rock .
Daisy dove onto the meat, all three of her heads making an appearance as she snarfed the food down.
Val barely had time to take another bite before Daisy was back, begging for more.
She spent her meal alternating between eating and cutting up more meat for Daisy. Harm managed to finish his meat well before she finished hers, even with his persnickety, small bites. Such a mannerly human prince. Too bad for him that good table manners wouldn’t keep him alive here in the Fae Realm.
Not unless he used them to seduce Queen Titania. But he didn’t seem the type.
Harm glanced around before scrubbing his greasy fingers on the moss by his feet. “Will we arrive at the Court of Revels tomorrow?”
“No. The day after tomorrow. It will be a long walk.” Val held out her greasy hands to Daisy, who licked them clean. Once the grease was gone, Val wiped the dog slobber onto her trousers before she pushed to her feet. “We should head for bed. We have an early morning tomorrow.”
She didn’t want him asking too many questions about the Court of Revels. Not that she was feeling guilty about handing him over to Queen Titania or anything like that. He was a package, and this was her job. No reason to get a conscience over it just because this particular package had the wide-eyed innocence of a friendly puppy.
“There’s…only one tent.” Harm eased to his feet, eyeing her, then the tent. “Will I be sleeping outside?”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Val rolled her eyes as she used a stick to scatter the remaining logs and coals so that the fire would burn itself out during the night. “I’m not letting you that far out of my sight even with the tether. A monster would get you in your sleep before you’d wake up to so much as scream.”
Not that the flimsy canvas of the tent would do much to stop monsters. But Val would need to keep the human close enough that she and Daisy could defend him if they were attacked by monsters or sprites or whatever might stumble across them here in the Fae Realm.
Harm swallowed and glanced at the tent again. “But…last night…you said…” He trailed off, as if he couldn’t think of a delicate way to phrase his question, as a red flush rose up his neck. “It’s hardly proper.”
Val huffed and ducked to crawl into the tent. “Just get in here.”
She crawled inside, sitting on the end of the bedroll she’d laid out on the right side of the tent. She started unlacing her boots.
After a moment, Harm pushed aside the flap at the end and tentatively peeked his head inside. His shoulders relaxed beneath his stiff coat. “You could have mentioned there’s a divider down the center.”
It wasn’t much of a nod to privacy. The divider was more a curtain, and it wasn’t attached to the floor. With the tent so small, their bedrolls were only inches apart regardless.
“If you roll onto my side of the tent, I will stab you.” Val didn’t even bother to glare at him but continued taking off her boots and setting them at the end of her bedroll.
“Understood.” The word scratched out, as if his throat were tight.
Good. She made him nervous. She preferred it when her packages feared her. It made things simple. The ones who wanted to be her friend were far worse.
“Stop dawdling in the door. You’re letting in a draft.” She unbuckled her knife and set it next to her pillow where she could easily reach it in the night.
Harm hurriedly tumbled the rest of the way inside, and the flap swung shut, plunging the inside of the tent into darkness.
For several minutes, she could hear Harm shuffling around as he tried to set up his bedroll in the dark. She hadn’t set it up for him, of course. Why would she?
Once Harm had finally settled, Val gave a whistle.
With a leggy bound, Daisy burst into the tent. She trampled over first Harm’s, then Val’s legs, nearly getting herself tangled in the dividing curtain.
“No.” Val kept her voice stern, even as she shoved Daisy back. “Stay at the end of the bed.”
Finally, Daisy settled down and curled up at the end of Val’s bedroll. Val wouldn’t be able to stretch out all the way, but she was willing to give up space for Daisy. After all, the dog was their best defense if a monster came sniffing around during the night.
Harm tried to keep his mouth shut as he all but gawked at the forest surrounding them. His coat hung over his arm, leaving him in just his shirtsleeves.
Partway through the day before, they had crossed a stone bridge over a gurgling creek—after Val had bargained with the troll who guarded the bridge. The fern forest had given way to towering deciduous trees, though the mossy ground remained the same. Across the distinct line, the forest was noticeably warmer, as if they’d stepped from a balmy spring day to a glorious summer one.
He’d kept his coat on for a while, but when sweat had slicked down his back and beaded at his hairline, he’d finally given in and taken it off.
There was no one here to care if he dispensed with the proper layers of clothing. He would still have more clothing on than many of the fee?n he had seen two nights ago.
The only way he was going to survive was if he adapted rather than clung to things that would hinder him. No, he wouldn’t discard his virtues. But ditching his coat to go around in his shirtsleeves was hardly the start of a slippery slope into immorality.
Now dusk settled around them, but even then the air remained so warm that he wasn’t even tempted to put his coat back on. Lights danced in the distance among the trees while the ever-present floral scent on the air grew even heavier.
A music so lilting and chaotic that it was almost savage sawed on the breeze, ringing louder with each step they took .
A pair of fee?n —a male and a female dressed in so little that Harm quickly averted his eyes—stumbled through the forest, holding goblets that sloshed something red. The two fee?n clung to each other, so wrapped up in their drunken tryst that they didn’t even glance at Val and Harm.
The breeze drifted past the two, carrying with it a scent so strong and sweet that Harm stumbled, his mouth instantly watering, his eyes going blurry for a moment.
Val gave a tug on the rope, as if to hurry him away. “Wine made from faerie fruit. It’s the only thing that makes fae intoxicated. For humans, it makes you lose control of yourself and become fully susceptible to commands.”
Harm swallowed, not sure how to brace himself against the shudder coursing through him. Just a whiff of the faerie fruit wine had been enough to mess with his senses. What would happen if he ate or drank some of it? “I appreciate the warning.”
“That wasn’t a warning.” Val faced the lights in the forest ahead of them, the gleam reflecting in her dark eyes. “I was stating your reality. A warning won’t do you any good. If Queen Titania wishes to make a plaything of you, you’ll be forced to consume faerie fruit whether or not you wish to do so.”
That knot in the pit of his stomach tightened. This Queen Titania sounded far worse than Mab.
Harm forced himself to take a deep breath and straighten his shoulders. He didn’t regret the fact that he was here. After all, this was the price of his brother’s life.
A price some fee had set for an unknown reason. Once Harm was turned over to Queen Titania, he could finally escape and warn his father and brother about the danger they were still in.
Val strode forward with the same iron-edged determination she’d shown before when trying to hand him over to Queen Mab. Apparently she was just as eager to hand him over and complete her mission as he was to finally escape this place.
They stepped into a broad space formed of trees arching overhead like the beams of a castle’s hall. At the far end, a jagged cliff rose toward the starry sky, its ledges dripping with vines and moss.
As Val and Harm strode down the promenade, Daisy trotting at Val’s side, they passed figures sprawled among the foliage, emitting giggles and whispers and other sounds Harm didn’t want to dwell on. The fee?n he could see wore everything from draping folds of silk to dresses formed of flowers to some outfits that could barely be termed clothing as they were nothing but a strategically placed leaf or two.
He’d thought Queen Mab’s court was underdressed, but this court made them appear downright modest. The back of his neck burned with the utter embarrassment of standing in such a debauched place. He’d never so much as wandered the dock district of Tulpenwerf after dark.
At the far end near the cliff, a fee?n woman with a glittering, gem-studded crown resting in her golden hair lounged on what appeared to be some kind of moss-covered rock doubling as a bed or a couch. Her pink lips pursed almost too full while her cheekbones were too sharply defined.
Her clothes—a generous word for what she was wearing—were a bizarre seductive armor. Her well-endowed bosom was barely contained in a scanty covering of what seemed to be chain mail while another little bit of chain mail draped over her white loincloth. Two golden pauldrons rested artfully on her shoulders, but other than that her arms were bare. Perhaps she wanted to appear the warrior queen, but she paled compared to the true warrior woman marching at Harm’s side.
Now Harm’s whole face flushed with embarrassment, and he kept his eyes firmly locked well above the queen’s head. He was going to die of mortification before he managed to escape this tawdry court.
Val halted, a hand on her knife as she faced the fee?n queen. “Queen Titania, I have brought the human that Queen Mab gave you to pay her debt.”
Queen Titania slunk to her feet, her overly plump lips twisting into something that might have been a salacious smirk, if her cheeks could have moved that much. She stalked toward Harm, and he barely managed to stand his ground when everything in his mind was blaring with the instinct to run.
“Queen Mab knows exactly what I like.” Queen Titania purred the words in a husky voice as she slinked closer. “I don’t know how she let a handsome delicacy like this go. ”
Harm stumbled back as a chill swept through him. He understood all too much. About what it meant to be Queen Titania’s plaything. About what his father’s bargain would cost. About his chances of escape.
Then Val was there, tugging him behind her. A wall of prickly, reluctant safety between him and the fee?n queen.
At least until she opened her mouth, her hand on her knife. “Until he’s yours, no touching the merchandise.”
This was no rescue but a mere reprieve. As soon as Queen Titania said the proper words and the cord around their wrists released, Val would happily turn him over to this queen and walk away without so much as a backward glance.
Harm gripped his coat in front of him, barely stopping himself from reaching for the iron knife. Not yet. As soon as Val was gone, he’d have to draw the knife and attempt his escape. He didn’t have a plan. He had no idea how to get back to the Human Realm. But he couldn’t risk staying here a moment once he was free of the cord and the bargain. If he waited, Queen Titania would have him drugged on faerie wine and doing whatever she wished, and then he’d never escape.
“Can’t I at least have a little fun?” Queen Titania’s wheedling whine grated along Harm’s spine.
Daisy eased between them, all three of her heads out and her hackles raised. She even appeared bigger than she’d been a few moments ago.
Val’s scowl deepened. “No. Claim him first. Unless he isn’t yours?”
Queen Titania’s blue eyes shifted away from Val, her whole stance changing in a way that fluttered the first bit of hope in Harm’s chest.
With an elaborate sigh, Queen Titania draped herself on her moss-covered rock once again. “Most tragically, he is not. There was this gem I just had to have, so I traded him sight unseen to Golbet of Flight Talonstorm.”
Her fingers dropped—involuntarily drawing Harm’s gaze—to an obnoxiously large white diamond nestled in her bosom. He hadn’t noticed it before, given that he had been decidedly not looking in that direction. He quickly snapped his gaze back up to the crown in her golden hair.
He didn’t belong to Queen Titania. The relief of that pounded through his skull.
Sure, this Golbet of Flight Talonstorm might be even worse—hard as that was to imagine—but that reckoning would wait for another day. Today, it was the reprieve he needed.
Val backed up a step, one hand gripping all the slack in the cord between them so that Harm was on a mere foot of tether. “If he isn’t yours, then—”
“Titania!” The enraged baritone voice boomed off the cliffs with such force that Harm ducked behind Val again before he’d even realized what he’d done.
Queen Titania bolted partially upright, her eyes going as wide as they could in her strangely stiff face, before she seemed to gather herself to return to her languid sprawl. “Oberon, darling.”
Harm turned to get a look over his shoulder while not fully putting his back to Queen Titania .
A fee?n man stalked down the promenade between the trees, his face twisted in such a state of fury that his eyes were nearly invisible. His brown curls were so waxy that they didn’t even move with the force of his march, and even his golden crown seemed to be glued to his head with whatever he used on his hair. Beneath the thin, decorative chest plate he wore, his pectorals puffed out almost grotesquely above his jiggling paunch. Besides the chest plate, the only other bit of clothing he wore was a leather belt with a little bit of chain mail hanging down in the front and back. A short sword hung from his belt, and it banged against his bare leg with each step he took.
“Who is that?” Harm leaned closer as he whispered to Val. At their feet, Daisy had turned to face the fee?n man, her growl growing louder.
Val’s hand was now gripping her knife’s hilt, though she didn’t draw it. She, too, spoke at a whisper. “King Oberon. Queen Titania’s husband.”
“She has a husband ?” Harm glanced back at the approaching wrathful fee?n king. This was not good. “Their marriage isn’t…happy, is it?”
“Not at all.” Val’s mouth barely moved as she tugged on the cord, easing the two of them toward the edge of the outdoor hall. “It’s the unhappiest relationship in the entire Fae Realm.”
Really not good. Was this the moment Harm should pull out that iron knife to defend himself?
“Titania! What is the meaning of this?” King Oberon halted and jabbed his hand at Val and Harm.
A green-skinned fee —boy? Man? Harm couldn’t tell— halted just behind King Oberon, dressed in a similar chain mail loincloth, though he didn’t have the chest plate.
“We need to get out of here.” Val hurried them faster toward the trees. Daisy planted herself between them and the fee?n royal couple, her snarl flashing lots of white teeth.
“Right behind you.” Harm plunged into the trees at Val’s heels, not needing the tugging on the cord around his wrist to hurry him along. The rising shouts of the fighting fee?n couple chased him as he and Val disappeared into the surrounding forest.