Page 5 of A Thief Among Fae

She senses my trepidation and squeezes my arm. “What is it?”

“Nothing,” I quickly reply. It would be perilous. Life-threatening levels of it.

“Tell me! I want to help.” The sweetest beseeching smile dimples her cheeks. “Please?”

It’s hard to say no to that face, even with how dangerous my idea is. Yet I’ll be there to protect her. I won’t let her out of my sight.

If she agrees, I won’t just have enough loot to replace the silver marks, but enough to buy our family a season’s worth of supplies. Or I’d be one raid closer to building a dowry large enough that Evie could marry whomever she chooses. Then I could leave Nettlerock behind without a grain of guilt.

“There is something,” I tell her. “Promise not to tell anyone else.”

She hesitates and then nods. “I promise.”

As we walk, I daydream that I’ve traded places with the woman in the adventurers’ guild. I’d slay cave-dwelling dragons and trek from Avedor’s forests to Torok’s mountains instead of being a hapless farmer bound to the fields. All dreams must end, but this one. . . I’ll risk my life as many times as it takes to bring it to reality.

Chapter 2

It’s been three days since Evie agreed to help me. She blanched when I told her my plans, but didn’t change her mind. We told our parents we were foraging for berries and set out after our morning chores and a light meal of sliced head cheese on bread.

Sunlight warms my skin as it weaves between the tree boughs. It’s been a mild autumn so far, the trees still clinging to their brilliant colors.

“This is a bad idea,” Evie whines.

“Don’t worry. I won’t let any draugr eat you,” I reassure her. She huffs, so I grab her shoulders. “It’s not too late to go back home. But I promise you, as long as we’re quiet, the draugr won’t notice us. They’re slow and stupid, and there might not be any.”

Draugr are hideous revenants that necromancers have bound to their decaying mortal bodies. They persist long after their makers are gone. Centuries ago, when Avedorans were buried in barrows instead of graveyards, necromancers were employed to create draugr to guard the tombs. Then the mother goddess, Elowyn, punished Avedor’s desecration with a decade-long plague. After that, necromancy was outlawed.

There hasn’t been a necromancer in Avedor in over a century. Like most Gifts, it’s hereditary, and they’re executed upon discovery. Part of me understands, considering that necromancers can turn the tide of battles by reanimating the fallen. Yet I’ve never felt it’s fair. No one can control what Gift the gods bless us with. Or curse us with, in the case of necromancers.

Evie’s nose scrunches in unease. “And how many times have you done this?”

“A few times a year since I was sixteen.”

“The year we almost starved to death,” she says sourly.

None of us likes remembering it. Especially our parents. There’s a reason that Evie and I have small dowries. We spent every coin on food, and even that wasn’t enough to keep us fed. I had to take matters into my own hands.

“I always wondered how you paid for that jerky,” Evie continues. “Mom feared you sold your body for it.”

I scoff, but even Mom’s assumption isn’t enough to ruin my excitement. “This barrow could pay for a lot more than jerky. I’ll be with you the whole time. I brought my sword, a lantern, rope⁠—”

“What about the fae?” she blurts. She looks around at the trees, like she’s nervous a pooka may be hiding in the dappled shadows. “The village elders told us that tombs are gateways to the Hollowlands.”

My hands fall from her shoulders. I wasn’t expecting her to ask that. “The only fae I’ve seen have been in Mythos, not in the tombs. Besides, they’re not dangerous now that Avedor controls the Hollowlands. The stories the elders tell to scare us are centuries old.”

Evie releases a shaky breath. “Alright. I’ll do it. I told you I’d help earn the marks back.”

Smiling, I lead the way. The trees grow sparse until we’re before a grassy mound, a single towering beech atop it. A stone slab is set into the hillside, partially obstructing the entrance. My Gift helped me budge it during my initial visit, but I was rewarded with a ferocious headache and the discovery that I couldn’t raid this tomb alone. It’s impossible to pass through the forecourt without Evie’s Gift.

My family calls mine ‘untethering’. I can untether any nonliving object from gravity and move it with my mind. My magic isn’t strong enough to move something heavy on its own, but I can supplement my physical strength.

Evie fidgets, bunching her skirt, pulling on her hair. “Maybe we should return home.”

“Hmm. . .” I think of an offer she can’t refuse. “I’ll drown the rats our cellar traps catch for a week.”

She stills, considering. Submerging the rats while they squeal and thrash is her least favorite chore. Tears always prickle her eyes, because even though they eat our grains, she still feels sorry for them. Our gazes connect. “You promise there won’t be many draugr?”

“I can’t. But I can promise I’ll take care of them. They won’t touch a hair on your head.”