“Couldn’t it be that my bedside manner just offers some degree of comfort? Nothing unnatural, just a temporary reprieve or distraction from suffering.”
“It could,” he admitted. He stroked the hair on his jaw, a dark beard beginning to form after a few days away from the razor. “But there are other things.”
“Like what?” asked Alison. “When were you going to mention it to me?”
Keir had some ideas about keeping things from Alison for her protection that she did not like. Especially since it was a flaw that she shared, having done the same to him and having suffered the consequences.
“I was not trying to conceal something from you,” he said, reaching for her hand. She allowed him to take it. “I’m still not certain of it myself. But I’ll tell you everything I’ve noticed. Starting with the garden.”
They had reached Alison’s gate. Beyond it, a large section had been cleared in front of the white cottage for a vegetable garden, which Alison had planted with the help of Gwenla and the farm boy Brytak, a young orc whose family managed the largest farm in Herot’s Hollow.
Keir led her into the rows of vegetables. Most of the cool weather crops—lettuce, cabbage, spinach, arugula, and radishes—had been cleared after a very short first season, but there were still some kale, carrots, and garlic growing behind the newly planted summer fruits and vegetables.
“You see this row? This is a section Brytak planted.”
It was an ordinary row of carrots. Alison did not see his point. “Those carrots are doing just fine. See, you can see a bit of their tops. Brytak said that means they’ll be ready soon.”
“They will be. But look at them in comparison to this row.”
“I planted that row,” said Alison.
Keir knelt to the ground and gently wiggled a carrot loose from the soil. It was fully grown. “I know you did,” he said. “I watched you. You planted them a week after Brytak, just as he told you to, to allow you to stagger your harvest. And yet they produced before the ones he planted, and far more as well.”
Alison didn’t know much about gardening aside from what the locals had told her, but she didn’t see anything sinister in the situation. “I imagine there could be one hundred explanations for that. Differences in the soil or water. Differences in the seed. The heat, the light. There are so many things that go into growing plants. Perhaps the vine was particularly thick here, and the ground contains more ash as a result.”
“All plausible,” he said. “Again, maybe I’m making a fuss out of nothing. Can you see why I didn’t think it was worth mentioning before?”
“What else?” asked Alison. “You said there were other things.”
Keir led Alison from the garden into the cottage. The living room had been brightened considerably over the past several weeks through the addition of a number of decorative touches: new curtains in a bright yellow and green check pattern; new pillows on the sofa, hand-embroidered by Lydiach, the fairy tailor; a number of books added to the bookshelves along with Alison’s pictures, including a particularly beloved portrait of Alison as a child with her mother and late father taken with what had then been an exciting new piece of dwarven technology, the picture-taker; and finally, a number of plants which thrivedindoors, although Alison had to be careful of which ones to include as Dinah liked to eat the ones that made her sick. (“The trouble with city cats,” Willow had said ruefully.)
Keir took his usual seat on the sofa, and Alison joined him in her usual spot as well, though she declined to recline against him as was her habit. “That plant over there, for one. It’s particularly fussy. I’ve never kept it alive for long.”
“It sounds as though most of your evidence relates to my green thumb. Are you truly concerned, or are you perhaps just a little jealous?” There was a teasing tone in her voice. Any anger she had felt at him keeping things from her had passed.
“Maybe that’s it,” he said, not quite returning her smile. “Although there’s also the dust that seems to vanish when you sweep, even though I’ve never seen you use a dustpan.”
“My repair work on the flooring was, how did you say it? ‘Inadequate, and possibly incredibly dangerous’?” Keir had insisted on redoing most of the repairs she had made to the cottage, which she had been quite proud of. The comments about “life-threatening infections resulting from rusty nails piercing the flesh” and “broken limbs resulting from falling through the floor and into the cellar” had seemed frankly unnecessary, and rather insulting besides. But she had allowed him to do it nonetheless, although he had only finished the flooring only recently. “There was ample space for the dust to fall through before you removed the excellent time-saving option of sweeping it into the little gaps.”
This time, Keir laughed. “I don’t know why I’m surprised. Very well. You’ve convinced me. I won’t drag you to see the fairies to see if they can help you after all.”
“I do want to see the fairies though,” said Alison. “They may be able to help us with the dam situation.”
“Gwenla must be so grateful to have you around to get involved in her schemes,” Keir said lightly. There was no malicein his mockery. Alison knew Keir thought as highly of Gwenla and her schemes as Alison did herself. Gwenla truly loved the town, and they were both only too happy to help her preserve it.
“Of course she is. And I’ll admit that I just want to meet the wild fairies for myself. My father read me so many fairy stories when I was a child, but he told me they were from long ago. I never imagined I might have a chance to meet them. Although, it’s a pity what Aras said about the food. The city fairies of Arcas Dyrne make the finest meals of all. Or so I’ve heard. I never managed to try them for myself.”
“Something we can bear in mind for future travels,” said Keir. Alison liked to hear him talk about the future. It comforted her to imagine having him in her life for a long time. Maybe forever, though she wasn’t ready to say that to him quite yet.
Keir continued, sensing Alison’s hesitation. “It sounds like the fairies won’t be easy to find, though. Maybe we can look for them while we’re out with the korrigans.”
“And the spriggan,” said Alison.
“And the spriggan,” said Keir. “Though I’m not in a hurry to meet him again. He did try to kill me."
“Only because of the old magic. Hey, there’s our answer.” Alison didn’t know why she hadn’t thought of it before. “If I do have the old magic affecting me, the spriggan will surely know.”
“He’ll know, and he’ll try to kill you. Maybe I should go see him alone then.” Keir sat upright, his brow furrowed in worry.
