Daisy? They were going to take Daisy away? I held my little sister close to my bosom, her blonde hair tickling my chin.
“You—” Mother sputtered. “You are mistaken. My daughter cannot be a craftsman. She is not four years old.”
A wide smile touched the elf’s pink lips even as her eyes flashed. “I do not refer to your youngest daughter, but to your eldest. She is the baker of these confections, is she not?”
“She is n—I don’t understand.” Mother’s face blotched with red. “I have a son. You may see for yourself.”
“You do not have a son, but a daughter,” the female clipped. “Congratulations. Your family will be compensated well for your generosity. You shall want for nothing.”
My mother’s stubborn pride kindled. She raised her chin and narrowed her eyes in defiance. “You may not have him.”
My stomach dropped. No one refused the call. The elves possessed dark magic. They could curse us all in unthinkable ways. But in the end, it was never fear, but greed that made refusal impossible. The families who stayed behind were given enough gemstones to remain wealthy for generations.
A smirk lit upon the elf servant’s lips for only a blink. “You may not refuse our fine offer. You and your younger daughter will receive one hundred diamond chips a year for five years for your sacrifice. Your eldest daughter?—”
“My son!”
Another smirk, this one more forced. “Your daughter will receive a life of riches and comforts in The Undying Lands of Ravensong. You have my word.”
“I know what you will do.” Mother spat. “You will take my child and do with them what you will, then you will discard them as soon as your lusts are sated.”
“That is not the way of the elves.” The servant’s smile fell, her golden eyes growing brighter. “Our way is the old way.Your daughter will have comfort and riches. Purpose. This is my bonded word.”
“You cannot have my child!” Mother growled like a cornered wolf. “I would not give her to you, even if you were the Elf King himself.”
Mother spoke blasphemy. She would be punished. Killed. One did not speak to the fair folk with such disrespect. Would the female turn mother into a toad? Burn down our home, taking the bakery with it? I held on to Daisy, perhaps a little too tightly, as she buried her shaking head into me. What must I do?
“Perhaps you desire I take your younger daughter instead?” The elf servant said, eyes like cold gold shards. “The king will have what he desires.”
No.I could cower in fear no longer. I pushed Daisy behind the large sack of flour. “Stay here,” I commanded, then ran into the bakery before another word could be said.
I fell to the floor before the servant and bowed my head in quiet submission, though my cheeks flushed and my heart pounded wildly. Several long brown curls tumbled from underneath my hat. “Please speak no more, Mother. I will go. Willingly. Please leave my sister out of this.”
“Do you see?” Mother was only bolstered. “This is my son. I do not have an older daughter. I lost a husband. I will not lose a son. Now go and tell your master, the cursed Elf King, there is no way he will take my child from me.”
I kept my eyes on the floor, not daring to raise my face when a bright lightning flash speared through the room followed by a cold, deep voice. It rumbled in the small bakery causing the very glass windows to tremble. “Tell me yourself, woman.”
I scrambled back from the large brown boots before me. Where the female had stood so stoic and cold now loomed a tall, deadly bright, and unnaturally beautiful male. He wore a forest-green cloak about his shoulders that cascaded to thefloor. Clasped about his throat was a golden antler charm. His cream tunic and pants were embroidered with a brilliant gold filigree. Snow white hair stretched from his crowned head down the middle of his back. His lips were full and beautiful, even stretched as they were in a snarl. Thick white eyebrows rimmed his startlingly golden gemstone eyes. Eyes like molten fire. Like the elf servant’s and someone else I’d seen recently…
“You cannot have my daughter as some kind of maiden for you to satisfy your lusts.” Mother growled angrily.
The Elf King sneered at my mother as I cowered before him.
“As if I were interested in her beauty?” The Elf King’s cruel laugh cut through the thick air like a hot knife through butter. “No, your daughter fed me a rich pastry this morning.” He grasped my chin, his fingers surprisingly warm, sending a shiver down my spine. He forced my face up to meet his hateful eyes as I somehow managed to stand. The Elf King stood well over a head taller than I. I had to throw my head back in order to look him in the eyes. “It was rather good. I desire more.”
“I—” I sputtered as I stood on wobbly legs.
I would have remembered serving the Elf King a cinnamon roll. But as I stared into the king’s brilliant gold eyes, I knew without a doubt where I’d seen those gems before. The king must be a shapeshifter, for that young boy I fed this morning? He was undoubtedly the Elf King in disguise. I’d heard of the elves’ dark magic. Their stories were woven into the fairytales mothers told us at night to frighten us away from going into the forest alone.
I ripped my chin from the Elf King’s grasp and met his eyes, narrowing my own. “You trashed my kitchen.”
A smile touched the king’s mouth, one that did not reach his molten eyes. “Your mother will be able to afford a servant to clean it properly from now on. We leave at the top of the hour. Be at the square, or I shall take your sister as punishment.”
And with that the Elf King turned and stalked from the bakery, leaving mother and me gaping after.
3
MAGIC SPOON
