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“Because he’s not a fae noble?”
“Well, not exactly. But it makes no never mind. I’m happy to live a quiet life.”
Starling had her head tipped back on the back of the seat, staring up at the sky. “And it’s not like you can marry me off to gain status, either.”
Blackbird patted her hand. “Not that you’d want that anyway. You wouldn’t be happy with that life.”
“How do you know?”
“I know my own daughter, don’t I? And I see myself when I look at you.”
Thumbelina looked back and forth between them, envy in her wide lilac eyes. If the dragonfly girls did grow as fruit, then she’d have no mother, no family to speak of. More and more I wondered if the intelligence we’d capriciously dumped on her wasn’t more of a curse. Self-awareness could be painful.
“If you were a princess, though,” I persisted, “does that mean your mother was the queen?”
If Blackbird were another woman—me, for instance—she would have rolled her eyes. Instead she gave me alook.“It doesn’t work like that.”
“How does it work?”
“It’s more like a kind of special status, being a princess. It has nothing to do with ruling.”
“That makes no sense to me.”
“Then perhaps you ought to examine what the concept of princess means to you—you’re the one hearing what we’re saying that way.”
Oh.
“What is that?” Starling pointed at the sky beyond the glass ceiling.
A vivid spot of scarlet winged through the sky, glittering with jeweled light, growing larger as it swooped toward us. I’d seen that exact sight before, back in battle. “That’s a dragon. Coming this way too.”
“Titania save us.” Blackbird paled.
“Somehow I doubt she’s inclined to do that.” I grabbed hold of a decorative curlicue as the dragon dropped over us, a stained-glass bomber, great talons outstretched. “Hang tight. This might get ugly.”
The carriage halted with a jolt that threw Darling off Thumbelina’s lap as the horses reared, neighing in terror, their thrashing sending us tumbling, sea monkeys in a goldfish bowl. A cacophony of shouts rang out and our company came running, the human soldiers firing arrows that bounced harmlessly off the dragon’s hide. With a swift wish, I cut the horses loose just before the magic-blocking claws the height of a house wrapped around the glass coach, shutting out daylight and our guards’ terrified faces.
We lifted into the air, the enormous wings creating a tornado of sound while the dragon labored, lungs working with steam-engine noise.
It carried us away, trapped in our glass cage, while our helpless retainers scurried like ants below.
Chapter 16
In Which I Meet the Enemy and He IsWalter
‡
Barbarism is in the eye of thebeholder.
~Big Book of Fairyland, “Falcon’sWar”
“Do something!” Thumbelina’srounded little nails dug into my arm with surprising sharpness. “Aren’t you supposed to be all powerful or something? Get us out of here!”
“Leave her alone,” Starling snarled, dragging the little fairy girl off me and dumping her on the floor, then braced herself against the swaying wall and blanched at the drop beneath the glass she stood on.
“Don’t look down,” I advised, practicing what I preached. Darling had crawled up my shoulder and buried himself between me and the bench seat, shivering in terror—and shredding my skin with his claws where he could find purchase. “And I can’t do more than any of you right now. That dragon’s magic-dampening field is canceling everything out. Look at Starling’s hair.”
The shining blond color had reverted to her natural brown. I put a hand up to my own hair, to find it barely grown out from the shearing I’d been given. The lily earrings fell from my ears and dropped into my lap. Now I knew one way to remove them. With a pang, I folded them in my palm. The grimoire had reverted to the wooden box it had started out as, sliding across the floor and banging into things until Thumbelina grabbed it.
