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We came upon the human village—a fair deviation from the road into the Glass Mountains—by early evening. As much as I’d longed to find a settlement of my kind when I first arrived here, now the miasma of purely human thoughts condensed into one place threw me off-kilter. More than I was already.
We rode down the simple main street, nowhere nearly as neatly kept as the Brownie towns. Many of the houses seemed ready to tumble in a heap of timber, and the people who looked out of unglassed windows, or emptied basins into the common sewer running down the center of the road, eyed us with suspicion.
This, then, was the third world of Faerie. And it belonged to my own kind.
The inn Larch had arranged looked similarly decrepit but at least glowed with the warmth of firelight—very welcome to me as the first fingers of the night wind slithered down my neck and the hoots of The Hunt drew near. An older man greeted us civilly enough, handing our horses over to a stable lad. He, too, cast a wary eye to the sky.
“Good night to be indoors, lady,” he grunted. “Not fittin’ for humans to be out, with that lot preying through the skies. My niece took ill with childbirth night before last and the Hunt took her. Left a wee bairn behind that Odin will likely take too, before the week is out.” He looked Starling over and, seeing the high arch of her cheekbones and large eyes, dismissed her as one of us. Athena made a concerted effort to skip into the inn with an appropriately vacant expression and he looked right past her, instead focusing on Darling Hercules. “That one a good mouser?”
Darling Hercules stopped in his tracks, tail on high alert.
“An excellent one,” I agreed, relieved by the change of subject. “And he’d love to.”
“I got a corn bin infested with the critters. I’ll give you all free lodging and board if we can borrow him overnight.”
Darling Hercules pictured a heap of fat corn-fed mice in happy anticipation. The journey had been boring for him, riding along on his pillow, and I sent him off with good wishes. Up in our rooms, Starling set about getting a bath ordered for me while Athena sprawled on the bed, cleaning her nails with the dagger.
“Remind me why we’re doing this?” Starling grumbled, pulling a hopelessly wrinkled party dress out of my bags. It had likely been in there since we left Falcon’s camp. “And can’t you use just a little magic to fix this up?”
“I’m saving up for my special friend in the Ice Palace. Maybe there’s something less wrinkled? Or I can mess with it when I get out of the tub.”
“Oh here,” Athena snatched it from Starling’s hand, “I can do this. Titania knows I was good for little else most of my life so far.” She put a kettle on the fire to start steaming.
“Thanks—it’s probably the sexiest one, so that’s a big help.”
“Which brings me back to my original question. Why are we being sexy tonight?”
“Weare not doing anything. You can have dinner up here and crash if you like. I’ll be fine on my own.”
“Doing what?” Starling wrinkled her nose in suspicion.
Athena heaved a sigh and glared at her. “Don’t you get it?”
“What? What don’t I get?”
“She has to go get her flirt on to pump up the magic. Hanging out with a bunch of girls and Brownies isn’t doing it for her. She needs all the juice she can get and she’s not getting it from us.”
Starling came over to shampoo my hair for me, chagrin graying her thoughts. “Sorry, Gwynn. I didn’t realize.”
Actually, it surprised me that Athena had. “No reason why you would. It’s not something I’m really comfortable discussing. I feel like a damn succubus or some such.”
“Oh no.” Starling shuddered. “You’re nothing like those harpies.”
An interesting mental image drifted through her mind and I wanted to pursue it. But it also felt so nice to relax in the hot water with her deft fingers massaging my scalp. I must have dozed off, because I awoke to them whispering.
“Should she be this tired?” Athena’s voice.
“Well,Iam tired too!” Starling snapped back. “It’s not easy going all day, sleeping in terrible beds. Not all of us are magic-fueled—some of us are human.”
Athena made a derogatory sound. “Some more than others.”
“Hey! That’s just rude, you snotty little—”
“Girls, do I have to put you in separate rooms?” I dunked my head under the water to rinse out the soap and silence any petulant answers.
Starling stood ready to dry me off when I emerged. “Sorry,” she muttered. She had dark circles under her eyes and I winced, remembering my promise to look after her.
I patted her arm. “Stay in the rooms. Rest.”
