Tig seems pleased with the fea’s reply, though the language is not of the sprites and the meaning of her words is lost to me. Tig lifts her weight off the poor creature, as Eon releases her hair. Shuffling toward me on her knees, the naiad reaches her hand up in supplication when she finds herself at my feet.
“Forgive me,” the fea says softly, a weak tremor in her voice, “I did not know.”
I don’t bother asking what she is talking about. I’ve come for one reason and won’t risk losing the submission the sisters have childishly tortured into her.
“What will you take in exchange for Xeyvian’s gift?” I ask flatly.
Tig begins to argue in her windy sprite tongue. She doesn’t want me giving her a thing, but I trust what Awri said about the fea and I can’t bring myself to force the creature if I can give her something in exchange.
“My spring was dying,” Niya says, “I needed the strength of his gift to make it strong again.”
“What if I find you another spring?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “This spring feeds life into the forest, it guards the borders of our lands and all the fea who reside within. I cannot abandon it,Tha’haynah.”
“There must be another way,” I insist.
“I—” she hesitates. “I can feel that which you’ve already given in part. A piece of the binding. Grant me a small piece as well, that is what I will exchange for the gift you seek.”
“Done.”
Just as it was years before, I don’t have to think about it. I’ve already made the bargain once and it hadn’t done a thing to me. Whatever these fea strip from me, it is a phantom. Nothing I’ve ever known.
The naiad offers me her hand and when I take it, darkness blooms between our palms, pulling at the light in the small clearing. It grows, twisting into a vortex that draws winds from afar and darkens the sky. And then, nothing. Nothing but the familiar feeling of the demon inside me. Only it’s more, and it feels like home.
“How do I return it to him?” I ask.
“The gift is bound to the life it was born into,” she answers, “and it will always seek to reunite with the one to whom it belongs. A simple touch will free the gift, that is all that is required.”
“Thank you,” I say, and her eyebrows raise in surprise.
“Anything fortha’haynah vathai,”she says,“If you need me, you knowwhere to find me.”
My blood runs cold when the title slips past her lips, and my stomach twists itself into a knot. It takes everything I have not to ask what she means. But I can’t. Not here. Not in the presence of the females who refuse to leave my side and who will surely report back to the general.
The sprites are gone when I rise to my feet. Awri and Riah look a little like they’ve seen the silly fairy horse in the children’s books with the magical horn. The naiad slinks back into the river as I mount my horse and turn for the palace, my companions following quickly after me.
“I take it we can all agree to keep this to ourselves?” I ask, utterly aware that there is no veil in Terr in which Awri will not tell the general the moment he returns.
I’m not sure why I care or even bother asking. Perhaps in part because I still feel protective of the sisters, and I never meant for them to reveal themselves to my companions.
“I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not entirely sure what just happened,” Riah chuckles. “What was it that she called you? Thay nah vaiti?”
“Tha’haynah vathai,” I correct.
“What does it mean?” she asks.
“I don’t know,” I lie.
I wish I didn’t. I will need to ask Tig what she meant by it, but I don’t care to speculate.
Tha’haynah vathai.The old blood of the fea.
CHAPTER 28
THE A’KORI PALACE
Present Day
