“Where are you from?” Aliena asked, pulling the lute off her back and hanging it on a peg beside the door. A fire crackled in the grate, heating a large, copper pot, which she went over to check.
“Nottingham,” I answered automatically, politely. “I was raised by the Sisters at Locksley Abbey.”
“An orphan.”
It was a statement, not a question, but I replied anyway. “Yes.”
“You’re the one he gave a healing gift to, aren’t you? The little girl?”
“I suppose so,” I said with a shrug. “The stories say he makes lots of bargains.”
Aliena laughed, and it struck me how beautiful the sound was—like a high, strong note from a harp.
“If he made a habit of giving away powerful magyk gifts, I think the Arden would be much more popular amongst humans.”
“Oh…” I muttered, unsure of what to say and wondering why he had made such a bargain with me.
“It might not be my place to ask, but what did you promise him in return?” Aliena shuffled some of the papers off the table, then pulled a large metal box from the cupboard. She waved at one of the stump stools, indicating that I should sit. I did, and leaned forward to examine the box, which was divided into smaller sections containing herbs, mushrooms, or nuts. She took a pinch of dried thyme and sprinkled it into her pot. The smell wafting around the cottage made me almost delirious with hunger, but I was anxious. Every story I’d ever been told said not to eat anything the Fair Folk offered, lest you be trapped in their world. When she set a rough-hewn wooden bowl and a tarnished spoon in front of me, however, I decided I’d rather stay in the Arden for an eternity than turn down the delicious-looking stew. I was several bites in—with a mouthful of white carrots, pearl onions, and meat whose origins I did not wish to know—when I remembered that Aliena had asked me a question.
“Oh, uhh—” I stopped to swallow, then told her, “I promised him a single use of my gift. To heal ‘someone of great importance’.”
She sat opposite me at the table and just hummed in reply.
“You don’t…know who it is, do you?” I asked, trying to gauge her reaction.
“I can’t say for certain, but I’m sure he’ll tell you soon.”
My desire to keep eating was at odds with the overwhelming number of questions I wanted to ask, and I ended up speaking through another mouthful. “What bargain didyoumake…with the faerie queen?”
Aliena grinned and jerked her chin at the lute hanging on the wall. “The only thing I ever wanted to do was play music, sing, and make people happy. But uh…I wasn’t very good, and the way I look put people off anyway, and my father was convinced no man would ever have me as a wife, so he told me to join the Sisterhood. I ran away just a few weeks before I turned fourteen, so he couldn’t force me to take the vows. I never even planned to end up in the Arden, but I did and my playing was so terrible, it attracted the wrong kind of attention. Titania herself appeared and commanded me to stop, but I offered her a bargain instead.”
“Youoffered the Faerie Queen of the Arden a deal?” I choked on my stew and Aliena laughed again, long and loud.
“Oh, what an arrogant child I was,” she sighed. “I told her if she hated my playing so much, then she should give me the gift of music, to save her poor ears from their torment. I suppose it amused her enough that she agreed, but in exchange, I belonged to her.”
I swallowed hard. “A…a slave?”
“Goodness, no! An honored member of her court! I was happy to make the deal, happy to spend all those years by her side, but then—”
“The war came,” said a somber voice from the little window over the bed. I turned to see the Devil leaning on the sill, his wings tucked neatly behind him and an uncharacteristically serious look on his face.
“I suppose she ought to know the story.” Aliena sighed, and he nodded in agreement. “For years, the Arden managed to stay out of the war between your two princes. It was none of our concern anyway. Soldiers sometimes passed through on the edges of the forest, but the Fair Folk merely hid themselves away and did not trouble anyone.”
“Youdid not trouble anyone?” I asked the Devil with a wry smile. “Foryears?”
“Oh, I certainly would have,” he replied, “had I been born yet.”
I could not hide my surprise, for I’d imagined him to be decades older than me, at least. But I put away my burning questions for another time, and listened as Aliena continued the tale.
“The Arden kept to herself, but war is always inevitable, even if you haven’t invited it.”
“The Battle of Nottingham…” I murmured, and she nodded.
“At first, Rykard’s men were only fleeing through the forest,” the Devil picked up, “trying to get to the safety of the mountains, perhaps all the way to Messina. Some of the Fair Folk tried to offer help, but the men lashed out because they were afraid. Then, Johar’s soldiers came after them, and they brought fire. It became…a slaughter, and Titania rallied her army to defend our home. The humans were driven out, but we sustained many losses, including a loss of trust.”
“I was told that…before the war, humans were more or less welcome in the Arden,” I murmured.
“Yes. They came to hunt, or to travel, or to seek out bargains and magyk. Some stayed. Some even had families here. But Titania…she lost more than most in that final battle. Afterwards, she banished humans from the Arden.”
