Miles from the castle, we turn into a quaint village. The carriage jostles on the cobblestones, jarring me this way and that before coming to a sudden stop.
“We’re here,” Eurelody says.
Half-timbered houses line streets where faeries of all kinds hawk their wares to passersby. The smell of fresh bread and pastries fills the air from one merchant’s cart. Another merchant pours a sample of wine for a patron while others sell flowers, beautiful fabrics, and jewelry.
Fairscape has a market like this. When I was a child, my mother would take us along when she ran errands for the wealthy family who employed her. They would send her for candles and clothing, for art for the walls of their massive home. If we behaved, Mother would buy us a tiny candy each. I used to imagine that we were shopping for ourselves, that we were the ones who could afford such luxuries.
“What are those little faeries?” I ask Eurelody, nodding to the tiny airborne creatures with butterfly wings.
“Hush, girl.” She shakes her head and tugs me by the arm toward a narrow lane opposite the village market. Nearly identical houses line the road, and she leads me up the front steps of the third. The door creaks as it opens, and she drags me inside and throws herself against it to shut it. “Sprites,” she says, wagging a finger at me, “do not like being called little.”
“But they—”
“Are more powerful than they look and more spiteful than you can imagine,” she says. “In fact, some call them spites for just that reason, but that’s slang, and many sprites consider it derogatory. If you offend a sprite, you just might find yourself attacked by fire ants or with a swarm of bees charging at you.”
“They’re not all so spiteful,” a deep voice says. “Some are quite docile.”
I turn to my right and scramble backwards toward the door when I spot the male emerging from a dimly lit room. Kane. The red-eyed, horned faerie who carried me over his shoulder to meet Finn.
I spin away from Kane and smile at my tutor. I don’t know where we are, but I can’t let one of Queen Arya’s people think I’ve been associating with the enemy. “We should go.”
Eurelody smiles at me, and then the air around her shimmers and her skin glows. Suddenly she’s not Eurelody but Pretha. This faerie has many faces, it seems.
“Pretha . . . you—” I seethe.
She smiles in response and gives me a little curtsy. “So kind of you to remember me by name, Abriella.”
“Where’s Eurelody?”
“She left the queen’s service years ago, but I show up in her form now and again to maintain easy access to the castle. The queen has so many in her service that she doesn’t even notice that her old scholar is rarely researching.”
My eyes dart to the door. Did the carriage we arrived in belong to Pretha or the queen? If I run outside, I can’t assume that my driver will take me anywhere. “Give me one good reason I shouldn’t return to the castle and tell them who you really are.”
She rolls her eyes and turns to Kane. “Prince Ronan thinks she’s so smart and so special, but if she truly were those things, I think she’d want to know all the reasons she shouldn’t tell the queen, not just one.”
“The prince is young and blinded by her beauty,” Kane says. “The night she ran from the tavern, she proved how lacking she is in the intelligence department.”
I fold my arms. “Insulting me will get you nowhere but the queen’s oubliette.”
This threat doesn’t faze either of them. Instead, Pretha casually shrugs out of her robe and hangs it on the hook by the door. She adjusts her leather vest and the scabbard at her side. “I am not your enemy, Abriella.”
“And yet the last time I got away from you, a death dog nearly made me his dinner. Am I supposed to believe that was a coincidence?”
“You think I sent the Barghest after you?” The silver webbing on her forehead seems to pulse with outrage.
“You, Finn, Kane? Does it make a difference?”
Kane grunts. “Why would we do that?”
“Because I refused to work with you. I’m not clueless. I know the Unseelie sometimes take Barghests as animal companions.”
Kane barks out a laugh, then shakes his head and walks away. “I’ll tell Finn she’s here—and that she thinks we’re murderers who command vicious and powerful monsters. Awesome start to a new partnership, I think he’ll agree.”
“Where would you get such an idea?” Pretha asks, ignoring Kane. “Did your prince tell you we were behind the Barghest?”