AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I know who she is.”
I laughed, handing her the grimoire and she walked toward the carriage, flipping through the pages.
“She should show you more respect,” Starling fumed.
“Oh, she’s fine.”
“I hope she’s sitting on your side,” Starling muttered. “I don’t think I should have to share.”
“Jealous?”
“No. I just don’t see why you need her when you have me. Plus she’s impertinent.”
“Because she can tell me what all is in the tribute wagons and you can’t.”
“I don’t see why you need to know that.”
“I’m chasing a clue.”
“Oh!” Starling seized my arm. “That’s so exciting!” Thumbelina glanced over her shoulder at us in startlement at the squeal. “What is it?”
I didn’t really want to tell her about Rogue’s message. Why had he left it with Liam, of all people? Starling would have told me immediately.
Maybe that was the point.
“Gwynn—you said I could help and here you are thinking up how to put me off.”
She was right.
“That’s the thing. I don’t know yet. So I want Thumbelina to tell me what all tributes I’ve received and from whom, and maybe something will jump out at me.”
“You want something that jumps?” Starling shook her head, blond hair shimmering in the sun, the same color as the leaves in the grove nearby. Fall colors.
“Sorry. Bad phrasing. I want to listen for something significant. You listen too.”
“Ah.” Starling nodded, assuming a wise expression. Then yawned.
Sure enough, once she sprawled on her bench in the carriage—since I asked Thumbelina to sit next to me—Starling started nodding off again. I didn’t blame her really. The recitation of bizarre items and even odder names became a monotonous drone. Mainly I hoped the little fairy would mention the dragon’s eggs, since I suspected that was what Rogue had referenced.
After fifty-three items on my list, Thumbelina stopped. “That’s all so far. I can look more when we stop tonight.”
No dragon’s eggs. Dammit.
I considered showing her the one in my pocket, but that would bias the experiment. So we rode on from then in silence. I busied myself with transferring names to the Flora and Fauna section. Some of them were people I’d met, if only glancingly. On those I added notes of what I could remember about them and my guess as to their position in fae society. Most I had no idea who they were. The light-up pillows I’d invented continued to sell like hotcakes, providing me with a tidy income. If one liked having seventeen vials of crushed alabaster shell.
“If you don’t mind, that would be great.”
“No. It’s good to have…something to do.”
When I asked Thumbelina who some of the people were, she said she didn’t know necessarily—the names just came to her. Starling wasn’t much more help. When she snuffled awake, I grilled her, but she claimed ignorance on most.
“My mother’s the one who knows all that. Besides that’s her job as your seneschal anyway. Not mine.”
“Just what is your job, Starling?” I teased her.
“Stalwart companion and best friend,” she replied, prim, giving Thumbelina the hairy eyeball. The blue-haired fairy didn’t notice, entranced as she was in studying the characters I’d written on the pages. She ran her fingers over them, as if they might grow out of the page they were written on.
We camped that night, with me on my own in my travel tent on the futon bed I’d made, which Rogue so disdained. Anxiety for him plagued me like a tooth with a cavity. Sometimes the ache faded into the background, but then flared with unexpected pain when I carelessly bit down. It didn’t help that I missed him more than ever. The earrings swinging in my lobes reminded me of his touch on my skin, part comfort, part torment.
