His brows bunch together. “Aline…”
“In any case,” I say with a huff, “Naida won’t let me work as a maid. I asked, you think I haven’t? Do you really think I’d rather live in uncertainty and get chased down dark alleys every day for stealing some bread or a rotten pie? I’d much rather be a maid, but she says she’d rather starve than have me at the mercy of some greedy, handsy lord.”
His frown deepens. “She never mentioned any of that. Father, either. Which I can understand, they are too damn proud… But why didn’tyoutell me anything?”
I shake my head and swallow hard. “What help would it be? You’re doing everything you can already, and so am I.”
He’s quiet after that as we walk down the streets I raced through yesterday, heading down to the small market square. I nod at our neighbor’s twins who are playing with a piece of rope, and then at the milkman’s sister who often shares the job with him.
Occasionally, I glance sideways at my brother, catching his pensive profile. My handsome brother. He has that fae beauty that, for us humans, can be as fatal as an arrow to the heart. Delicate, yet symmetrical and strong, pale yet golden. The fae are like the sleeping gods, like half-forgotten dreams walking among us, they?—
“Hey.” Eiras grabs my arm and saves me from colliding with a tall fae man wrapped in a dark mantle. “Careful, Aline.”
“Yeah, watch where you’re going, human.” The thin-faced fae shoots me a murderous look as I sidestep him and walk away. “Or you could get into trouble.”
Eiras snarls, starting after him. “I’ll beat him black and blue.”
“No, Eis.” I grab his arm and yank. “It’s fine.”
“He has no right to talk to you that way.”
“Your kind has always looked down on humans,” I whisper, “but right now things are quiet. Let’s not shake that peace.”
He grumbles under his breath but agrees to let it go and we resume our way toward the market square.
This area of the city is mixed, with both fae and humans living here, as well as the occasional finnfolk inhabitant in the river. Yeah, not many mermaids and sylkies in our river. Let’s be honest, who in their right mind would want to live in that water? It’s too damn filthy, full of shit and trash, and too many boats traverse it.
Lesser fae, small, capricious creatures, haunt the woods and caves in the hills around here, occasionally venturing into the city and playing cruel pranks on us.
As for the high fae, the Gentry, as I said, they aren’t feared anymore now that their magic has faded so much. Yet, two hundred years ago, we wouldn’t be living side by side in peace. Back then, we were enslaved to the fae and they killed us for sport.
I think about this as we approach the square. It’s been two hundred years since King Rouen of the Fae was dragged off his throne in an unexpected twist which left him transformed into a tree, played by his own magic, and burned to ashes.
Two hundred years since the powerful fae who followed him were hunted down and imprisoned by the humans he wronged. The fae who escaped punishment fled to the black mountains and beyond, to the rim of the world.
The fae who remained among us were those who hadn’t sided with him and whose magic is gentle and safe, and even that power has been diminishing, turning into a faint echo of its prior strength, mostly used to help crops and forests grow and winds circulate inside our hollow world… or occasionally resulting in curses and ailments, like the one that most likely struck Brogan.
Unless that had been a lesser fae, whose magic is wild and malicious. If he stepped by mistake on one of their dancing rings…
“I don’t remember you so quiet,” Eiras says.
“I’ve changed since you last saw me,” I quip.
“It’s only been a couple of weeks.”
“Exactly. So… are you going downtown to meet a girl?” I take a shot in the dark.
He starts. “How did you know?”
I tap the side of my head. “I have the brains in this family. It’s easy to see we’re not related.”
“Ouch.”
I elbow him. “Who is it?”
The blush returns to his cheeks. “The blacksmith’s daughter. The oldest.”
“Wait…” I wrack my brain for the name. “Are we talking about Leena?”
