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I swallowed their mocking. I deserved it for thinking it’d be that easy. Should I try again? Maybe persistence would be rewarded, and after enough tries, the magic would take pity on me.
I snorted. No, I didn’t think so either. “Any chance you’ll tell me how to get over?”
I couldn’t tell where her voice came from. “Why would we do that?”
“Because I’ll”—I cast about for an idea—“bring you an offering, goddesses of the forest.”
“What could you possibly offer us?” Her voice rasped like tree branches scraping together.
“Name it. Everyone wants something.”
“Hmm.”
“What say you?”
“Does she lie?”
Their whispers went back and forth over, beside, and all around me.
“Okay, human. We will tell you how to get over the fence. What you do from there will be amusing to watch.”
Meaning another barrier awaited me on the other side.
That wasn’t a surprise. But, if this worked, I could find another section of forest and bribe those nymphs to help me past the next obstacle. This might not be so impossible after all.
“You will bring us blankets and swaddling for our young one. The nights are too cold for the babe.”
I stilled. “Young one. What do you mean?”
“Just what we said.” The leaves rustled, and little gnarled faces glared through. “Blankets and swaddling now. Before we change our minds.”
“But you said babe,” I rasped, throat drying. “There are no baby nymphs. You grow from adolescence to adulthood like a sapling becomes a tree, but you are never babies.” I pushed up on shaky knees. “And you never get cold.”
“Why does this girl presume to tell us about ourselves?” a voice hissed. “Where is our offering? We demand our offering.”
“Tell me where the baby is.”
“Now she makes another request without fulfilling her promise of the first. Faithless human.”
“Trickster child.”
“Lying human.”
Their voices began to fade—the rustling sounding farther and farther away.
“No, wait! I— I have the swaddling here.” I tore off my coat and held it up, spinning to show the trees the soft, woolen lining. “This will keep your babe warm through the harshest winter. Take me to them, so I can show you how to wrap the child. The buttons are tricky.”
“Buttons on swaddling?” She sounded close. I tipped my head back and there she was, dangling off the highest branch. “Is this a new kind?”
“Oh yes. Humans have started using them recently, but they’re so much better. This way the baby can’t kick them off.”
“Oooh, wise.”
“Smart girl.”
“Good girl,” said a pleased voice on my left. “We will accept this better swaddling. You will show us how to do the buttons. Follow Mahaila. She will show you the way.”
Mahaila? Where—?
