Page 126 of First Light
“One eye then.” Branwen pursed her lips. “Only one. Your eyes are blue like the sky in the Brightlands. I would like to keep one.”
“I am not giving you an eye.”
“Hmm.” Branwen seemed disappointed. “Honey is a pleasant gift, but what about the bees’ queen? Can you bring me the queen of all the bees?”
The queen ofallthe bees? Branwen was asking for the impossible. “I can bring more honey and ripe apples. I can bring you fresh milk. I can bring you a cow so you would have milk every day.”
Duncan would help her find a cow. Right?
She thought about offering one of Cadell’s dragon scales, but that wasn’t something of her own, and who knew what a fae could do with a dragon scale?
“Apples?” Branwen looked interested. “Your lover’s Brightkin has apple trees behind his house, does he not?”
Carys tried not to show her surprise at Branwen’s knowledge of Duncan. “Yes, my friend has apple trees.”
“Then I will take whatever little bird sits in the apple tree behind the Brightkin’s house.” Branwen smiled innocently. “Surely one little bird is a good exchange for a valuable journal that belonged to your Shadowkin.”
Carys remembered an old folk story of a promise made to a trickster, only instead of a bird in the tree, a farmer had lost his daughter, who had climbed into a tree to pick some apples. Who knew what was in Duncan’s tree right now? Whatever was in there, Carys was betting that it wasn’t a robin.
The fae wouldn’t take a cow. Honey wasn’t enough. She definitely wasn’t giving her a year of service, her firstborn child, or one of her eyes.
Do it. It’s the only thing of value you have.
Do it for Seren.
“You want to see the sun.” It was the one thing that Carys could offer, the one thing that belonged to her that a powerful fae might want.
Branwen’s eyes lit up. “I do want to see the sun.”
What could one fae do in the Brightlands? Even a powerful one wouldn’t be able to use magic. And Branwen would hardly be the only fae to cross the gates. The soldiers who had taken Lachlan were fae mercenaries, but they’d had to use force, not magic.
It was Carys’s single bargaining chip, and she was using it, but she knew she had to be specific.
“I am not looking for just anything that belonged to my sister,” Carys said clearly. “I am looking for the journal that Seren was writing at the time she died. Only that journal.”
“And if my crows found this journal, what would you give me in return?”
“If you bring me Seren’s last journal, I will take you through the fae gate to see the sun.”
There was an eager murmur from the shadows of the cottage, but Carys refused to look. She kept her eyes on Branwen, who met her gaze.
“Then we have a bargain.” The fae woman smiled. “You’re a clever human, Carys. And youdolook like your mother.”
Carys’s eyes went wide. “What did you say?”
Smoke from the fire billowed through the cottage, but it wasn’t smoke, and it wasn’t a cottage after all. She felt her stomach drop as the world dissolved around her. The fog unfurled, wrapping cold fingers around her throat and choking off any shout she might have made. It held her in its cold grip for a few seconds, and then it drifted away with a sharp breeze, leaving Carys at the summit of the hill, a crumbling stone castle on the other side of the clearing and a unicorn waiting near the trees.
A familiar voice whispered in her mind.I will see you soon.
She shookher legs loose from the chill of the fog and started walking toward Darius, who was still in unicorn form, just as Duncan ran panting to the top of the hill.
Carys’s heart leaped. “You’re alive!”
“What were you thinking?” He ran and gripped her by the shoulders. “What were you thinking, Carys?” His face was twisted in torment, and a deep claw mark scraped down the side of his face.
“I…” She frowned. “I talked to her. That’s what I came here to do. I didn’t want?—”
“You shouldn’t have faced her alone!” He shook her by the shoulders. “What did you promise her?”