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Atesh followed me outside where the rain had finally stopped.
“Listen, go with the girl or don’t, but take a few days off either way. You need them, and, honestly, so do I. Besides, we can still hope that last mission was the final one fromher…” His voice trailed off, and I wondered, not for the first time, if he was regretting taking the queen’s deal all those months ago as much as I did.
But for better or worse, we were a team, and the man had never actually admitted he wanted to take time away. The least I could do was make it easy on him.
“All right, sure.”
He smiled then, white teeth flashing against deep, brown skin. It was more than I could manage. I just gave him a nod before turning back toward my horse. I whistled before I mounted Hobgoblin, waiting a few minutes for the answering screech from my gyrfalcon, Pepper.
Once I knew she could find me, I climbed onto my warhorse and headed toward the last place I felt like being right now.
Home.
It was harder and harder to face my family after every job, and this last one had been worse than most. More than that, though, I knew what they would say about Lina.
You have to stop her.
Or, worse,You have to go with her.
And I didn’t particularly want to do either. It would be nice if something in my life could be about… not her. Anything but her, really.
But as I rode up to the quiet cottage where I had spent most of my life to find my parents sitting on the front porch in their wooden rocking chairs, healthy and alive and happy, I knew I wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Your father is dying.” The small man had come out of nowhere, stopping me on my walk to check the fences.
Well,manwas a stretch. He looked more like a garden gnome, with green skin and eyes the color of burnished gold.
“I know,” I said back, proud of the way my voice didn’t shake.
“I can save him.” The man pulled a clear vial out of his pocket, full of a swirling, oily substance. “It’s not a cure, but it will keep the sickness at bay for as long as he takes it.”
I couldn't take my eyes off the first thing that had felt like hope in months. But…
“We don’t have much money.”
“That’s all right. I don’t deal in coin.”
“Then what do you deal in?” I scrunched up my face in confusion.
He splayed his hands out to the side. “Favors.”
“Anything,” I breathed, too desperate for wariness. Too desperate to ask what he could possibly need from a poor village boy, when there were countless people in the world who owed him favors.
“There’s a girl on the small farm next to you. A very special girl. I want you to make it your mission in life to keep her safe.”
Whatever I had been expecting, it wasn’t that. If anything, it seemed a relatively mild favor to give in exchange for a life.
“Why would you care about Lina?” Of course, I knew her name.
Everyone in town knew about the thumb-sized girl, but I had also spent time at her farm with her. She was funny, and not half as strange as people thought, once you got to know her.
“That’s not important. All that matters to you is, as long as she’s safe and healthy, so is your father.” The man smiled to reveal teeth the same color as his eyes. “So, do we have a deal?”
I couldn’t say yes fast enough back then. I didn’t think to ask how long this would go on—how long my father’s life would be held over our heads—even with Lina well into adulthood. He didn’t give me time, really. He handed me the cure, then instructed me to tell no one outside my family what we had spoken about.
Though I suppose even if I had been given time for all of those questions, it hardly would have mattered. Not to my ten year-old self, and not now.My father’s life is more than worth it.
My family was confused when I told them what I had done, but grateful. After all, how hard could it be to keep one tiny girl safe? And maybe it wouldn’t have been if Lina had been a different sort.
